Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Love this chart..


But no where to be found..
perhaps someone knows where I can find it?
I have searched the internet, and cannot seem to find it. I believe it is OOP.
I don't know why I cannot stop thinking about it. I just love it!

It is a Blackbird Design (Loose Feather's) #24
It is called "Their Song"

Not like a really need another chart in my stash...I need another 100 years to live to be able to accomplish stitching all that I want to do.
I really do think I have enough, but then, you never know. I just may be that one person that will live to 200.

Isn't it a pretty chart?

:)

Hope you are all having a wonderful Stitchy day :)

RaggedyStitches,
Louise

Monday, August 30, 2010

Andy and Misty

Andy and Misty enjoy spending time together. I took some video of them. Andy was whistling a bit. He likes to whistle the tune from the Andy Griffith show! :)
Sometimes he whistles it very well, sometimes not.
I know the video might be a little noisy, the television was playing.
I know I have a better video to post soon :)

Older and Louder!

What a start to my morning!
I have just come to realize the older I get, the more outspoken I am becoming. :)
I have really surprised myself this morning!
You will probably be surprised when you hear what I did early this morning before 7:30am.

I drove my daughter to school. After I dropped her off and as I begun my drive back home I was thinking of all the things I had to get done today.
I was approaching a major intersection, but before that major intersection there is a railroad crossing.
There was a bit of traffic being that it was early morning, school time, people going to work, etc..

The light up ahead was red, and I noticed ahead of me some people were stuck sitting in their cars on the railroad tracks. I was thinking, "gee, I wouldn't want to be in that position if the train all of a sudden was starting to come down the tracks"!

The traffic started to creep forward a bit.
I then decided to stay back (any normal person would wait till the light turned green to go over the tracks and for room to be clear of the tracks on the other side!)
There was not enough room ahead of me for me to go forward yet with my car to be fully over the railroad tracks.

Then, all of a sudden, the car behind me started beeping their horn at me to go!
Where was I going I thought? Did my car have wings?
Was I Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?
Was I a magician? Believe me, if I was Harry Houdini, I would make myself slip out of that line of traffic and be home already! :P

I wouldn't budge! Then, the light turned green, but not long enough for too many cars ahead to go through..I was able to move forward past the train tracks and then sit at the light...as I sat there I thought to myself and started to steam...
I thought to myself..
"Does this person actually think they themselves would sit on a train track, just so the person behind them could inch up a little bit with their car?"
What would be the gain?

I couldn't stand it no longer...I opened up my car door (the light was still red)
and I jumped out! The lady behind me looked a little surprised.
I started to approach her car. She was dressed in her nursing uniform, lighting up a cigarette. (interesting)..
I kindly (even though I was so upset!) spoke to her.
This is what I said..

"There was no need for you to beep your horn at me, first of all the light ahead of us was RED. I did not want to get stuck on the train tracks sitting there"

She replied..
"The bars would come down if a train was coming"!!

I replied...
"Yes, they would, that is EXACTLY why I would not want to move forward with cars stopped in front of me and I would be sitting on the tracks..do you understand what I am saying?"

She replied...
"yes, I understand"..as she smoked her cigarette and just stared at me!

I replied again..
"There was no need to beep your horn at me"!

Then I walked away.

She did not apologize, nothing.

Sad.

Well, at least I felt better , and I did my thing!

lol


I came home, made myself an egg sandwich and having my diet pepsi and now I feel better!

Wishing you all blessings today,
Raggedystitches,
Louise

Sunday, August 29, 2010

EEeeek!!

I am thinking it will be a long time before I unpack all the boxes we have piled to the ceiling in our garage from moving back to Florida.
I finally found more of my baking dishes. YAY!
(not that I haven't been baking!) Nothing stops this baker from doing her thing...
I have already baked sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, a vanilla cake and lemon cake. :)
When I realized I couldn't find the proper baking dishes or pans..I took a trip to the store and purchased what I needed for now.
With the mounds of boxes, and most of them not labeled properly (who did that anyways?!) It is just easier to pick up what I needed till I can find my old things again.

We have been so busy! Our daughter started high school. She is absolutely loving it!
She is back with her old friends again, and making lots of new friends too. It is such a joy to see her so happy. We took a trip to the mall yesterday. What a delight to have Mother/Daughter bonding time together. Made my heart smile when she grabbed my hand to hold it as we walked in the mall. I nearly cried!
We went to all the shops she loves, and then we picked up some dinner, just the two of us, what fun!
This was the best decision we have ever made moving back to Florida.
We really should have never left. Sometimes though, you don't realize till you leave how much you will miss something till it is gone. So glad we have it back.
Nothing feels as good as HOME does!

As I was going through some boxes, my DH Patrick is outside doing yard work..he called me outside. He told me the cutest animal was on the bush out there sunning itself. I couldn't wait to see what it was!
I thought..hmmm..."a lizard?, a bird?"..
No....I could NOT believe what he asked me to come outside to see...

it ..
was...
a....

SNAKE!!!!!
EEEeeekk!!!

Here is a picture of the animal he called a "cutie" LOL
As long as it stays far away from me, I am ok with it.
I looked, I saw, I snapped a picture, then I ran back inside!

Have a nice day everyone!
Raggedystitches,
Louise

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Surprise Mail Today!



I received a wonderful package in the mail today!
I recently entered a milestone giveaway contest from Belinda of Blue Ribbon Designs
I was so surprised when I won!
What BEAUTIFUL gifts I received in the mail today!
When I opened up the box, I couldn't believe my eyes! The gifts were so wonderfully tied with raffia and ribbons.
She had sewn up the most gorgeous tool pouch out of the very sought after Blackbird design fabric. The pouch is softly padded and even serged inside. A beautiful red zipper compliments the pouch perfectly.
I want to just put it out to admire it! :)
She also let me choose a chart as an added bonus to my winning. If you take a look at all the beautiful Blue Ribbon Designs, I am sure you will agree, you will love them all!
I chose "Pointsettias And Pines", such a pretty design!
If you look at the picture you will see, Belinda even autographed the front of the chart for me. I am super delighted, and feel so honored!
What a talented designer Belinda is, with such pretty designs.

Belinda, thank you for being so good to me. Thank you for your kindness, and for all your beautiful designs.

I am so glad I won your contest! :)

Raggedystitches,

Saturday, August 21, 2010

This and That


I have decided I would like to make an attempt at doing the Raggedy Ann block of the month that the Painted Quilt is offering. (See button on the right side bar if interested!). It really is an adorable quilt..and everyone knows how much I love Ann and Andy. :)
I do not have a light box big enough for tracing, so made do with what I do have access to, and that is a nice bright window! It works! I used packing tape to hold the pattern to the window while I trace the design onto the fabric I purchased. I decided to go with a Kona cotton in place of muslin.
I have yet to pick out my quilt type fabrics for the blocks that will be placed around the design.
I have picked out the DMC cotton thread to backstitch the pattern and decided I like the darker red number 815 best! :)I am considering making the quilt all red and white..but we shall see...
I found out about this BOM (block of the month) a little late, so I am behind now, but that's ok. I just hope I can stick with it!
My husband is going to build me a sewing room, and I cannot wait! I haven't had a sewing room for many years now, and I know it is going to be worth the wait. Finally a place to organize all my stash again. We still have so many things to unpack, but it is so good to be back home again.


Our new Parakeet "Misty" has settled in nicely. Our cockatiel "Andy" is not lonely anymore! They really hit it off very well. Misty loves snuggling up to Andy. It is quite a sight to see! They really adore each other. Misty preens Andy, and he just loves it. We were surprised how well they took to each other, as they are different breeds of birds.



Yesterday we attended a reception line that was many miles long down a major road in our city. It was to welcome home a HERO! Corporal Tyler Southern, a wounded marine returned home from duty in Afghanistan. It brought tears to all of our eyes. He had lost both of his legs and one arm by an IED explosion.
He returned home for his 21st birthday this weekend.
Many people lined the streets, with flags, balloons, and wore red, white and blue.
I think all of our military should be welcomed home in this manner. We are so blessed to have our freedom here in America, and they help fight for our freedom.
Thank you to all our military!






I wish you all a weekend full of Blessings,

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Special day and a Vintage find!

I had the most wonderful day today!
I met with a girlfriend today. She surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and cute little daisy solar flower. Sweet housewarming gifts! :)
We decided to head on over to Bono's for lunch. If you live in Florida, you will know this is one of the best Barbeque restaurants to dine in. It is my favorite!
We laughed about old times and really enjoyed ourselves.



Our next stop was the Avonlea Antique Mall .
I absolutely could spend hours, upon many hours browsing all the wonderful Items and amazing trinkets in this store!
I have never seen so many vintage items jam packed into one place. It is an antique treasure trove.

A while back while visiting Florida I had spotted something that I really wanted to purchase, but at the time, I didn't. You know how that goes!
Well, I couldn't stop thinking about this item..and now that we have moved back to Florida, I decided to see if that item was still in the same spot I left it.
Surely enough, it was!

The vintage item I had fell in love with was an antique, 1920's cast iron Corn Bread Mold! It is so neat looking, I just had to get it!
Here it is:




As you can see by the imprint on the back, it is an authentic "Wagner Ware" Mold.
It is very heavy in weight, and well seasoned. It just needs some TLC with some cleaning up and it will be ready to use!
So excited about this find! :)
I have researched this item on the internet and very happy to say that I purchased it for half the price that it is worth. What a deal! ;)


Yes, this was a good day indeed :)
It is so wonderful to be living back in the state of Florida,
Have I told you how much I love it here?!
:)

Raggedystitches,
Louise

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Raggedy Ann Block Of The Month!

If you are interested in a block of the month quilt with a Raggedy Ann theme (Love it!!), click on the button on my sidebar.
There is a wonderful block of the month quilt with Raggedy Ann and Andy that just started up at the Painted Quilt Blog.
It is absolutely wonderful!

If you love Raggedy Ann and Andy as much as I do, I am sure you will love it. :)
I have already gathered up my floss...
I have no idea when I will find the time to start doing the embroidery..but I hope to do this one day really soon!

Raggedystitches,
Louise

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Milestone Giveaway from Blue Ribbon Designs!

WOW! You must go check out this WONDERFUL giveaway I just found out about.
How very kind of Belinda to do something so wonderful like this.
I absolutely love all her beautiful Blue Ribbon Designs.
Please, if you have a moment, check out her blog :)

Milestone Giveaway

Raggedystitches,
Louise

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

New Home, New Baby!


So much excitement has happened in our lives in the past couple of months. I have been one busy lady, with one very busy life! This will explain why I have not posted much as of late.
We have decided to relocate back home to the sunny state of Florida. We had a family meeting and decided it was the right choice for us. We missed Florida so much. We have so many family ties in Florida, so many friends here, and so many fond memories. Our children were raised in Florida, and the memories are so dear to our heart. We just couldn't stand to be away one more day. We have family here, and more of our family has also just relocated to Florida to be near us.
We are very excited! We found a beautiful home and are busy settling in. It is so exciting unpacking and decorating our new home.
The generosity upon our arrival back to Florida was overwhelming! Friends had meals for us, took care of our animals, and even unloaded two full trucks with us.
We continue to receive offers of help from everyone, even new neighbors.
We are very thankful for all of the goodness everyone has shown us, and we can see the work of our Lord in everyone surrounding us here in Florida.
We know for sure we made the right decision the minute we crossed that line into Florida!

There are so many craft stores in my town. This makes living here that much better!
A new quilt shop is opening up soon. I cannot wait! I will be visiting that shop weekly I am sure. I have already visited Michaels craft store and a Hobby Lobby, right down the block from our new home! I also visited the local stitching shop.
Yes, living here is pretty much heaven on earth.
I am one lucky woman! :)

As they say, New home, New baby , right? Well, yes, in a way, sort of!
We did acquire a new baby today! But not the human type...the feathered type. :)
We know Andy has been lonely since Sunny had passed on, so we decided to purchase another bird.
I took our daughter to the pet shop today and she picked out the prettiest parakeet. Blue and white, and oh so sweet! She decided to name her "Misty".
Andy and Misty get along really well, and they are very happy together.
:)

We are all very glad things worked out so well for us, and know that it was all in God's plan for us to come back home to Florida.
We are truly Blessed, and so very HAPPY!! :)


RaggedyStitches,
Louise

Every Opening Flower

A new start! Every Opening Flower designed by Brenda Gervais. I am stitching this on 32 count cream Belfast Linen with called for overdyed a...