Celebrating 60 Years!

I am celebrating 60 years of me! How blessed am I that God gave me all these years. This is One Stitch at a Time by La D Da. Stitched 2/2 on 36 count vintage country mocha linen with called for overdyed, and a few color changes. Info for inquiring minds... The flowers along the bottom are The Gentle Art Shaker Antique Rose and Weeks Red Rocks. I've added two bunnies from a Prairie Schooler chart "Woodland Sampling". Bunnies are stitched with DMC 829 and 738. The Large script alphabet is from "Needle Book" by La D Da, the small script alphabet is from "A Two Rabbit Sampler by La D Da. Letters and name stitched with DMC #3799. I changed the color on the house to overdyed Blue Heron. I added shutters to the windows in DMC #3799. 🩷🩷 (I removed my last name to post this photo). I laced and framed this piece myself with a Hobby Lobby frame.

It was a wonderful celebration with all those i love!

So many happy and wonderful things!

Well, it happened before my eyes... I turned another year older! Yes, I celebrated another birthday, and it was wonderful!

My dear husband took me out on a special date to a local antique mall. The weather was absolutely fantastic that day, and we enjoyed looking around the shop. I spotted some pieces of Johnson Brothers China that match the set I found at Goodwill years ago. The set is called "Hearts and Flowers". I just love this design. It's country, with a touch of Folk Art to it. My husband said I should have these pieces, as it was my special day, and they were priced just right. Aren't they lovely?!

We stopped and had a nice lunch, then it was off to a home and garden center. 

We picked up pretty bird pillows for our front wicker bench on the porch, along with two new big brown chairs to sit in out back near the pond my husband made in our yard.

Yes, he put a beautiful pond in, which already has tadpoles in it! It didn't take those frogs long to jump right in!

Here are some photos...

We were pretty fortunate that there were lots of rocks on our property in the woods... So we just hauled them over with the riding mower. Saved us a bunch of money!

Here are the baby wren birds in their nest, just before they fledged. It was so much fun watching them grow. It was hard to see them leave!

Here is another picture, if you look closely, you can see one of the babies on the cross, and another on the porch railing. I feel blessed I was their to witness them leaving the nest!

We also started our first garden since living here in this house in NC. We planted some tomato plants, pepper plants, green bean seeds, sunflowers, and wildflowers. Everything is looking good and everything is growing so far! 

Seeds are popping up everywhere! It's so exciting to me!

Here are my  flower plants, from seed!! ..

Some wildflower seeds I planted in a basket....

Remember my porch railing planters?! Well.... They have come a long way since my previous post! The morning glory seeds have sprouted and really have taken off! Look! :)

So pretty right?!! :)  oh and the honeysuckle in our yard smells heavenly...

A pretty ladybug cross our paths... It even had a heart shaped spot on it's back. It must have known I have a thing for hearts!

Haven't stitched too much more on our anniversary sampler... But have done half of my husband (hee hee ) :)

Been busy working on granny squares for donation blankets for veterans through the ministry at our church...

Red , white and blue of course!

Something wonderful my husband surprised me with!! He custom built me a table for my Janome sewing machine!!

He knows I have been struggling for years because it sits too high on the table I was using for sewing. 

He made me a table out of pine where the machine drops down into the table. He even cut the hole so I can use the lift bar for the presser foot! I have never been able to use that before! 

Yes we could have purchased a ready made table for my machine, but they are extremely expensive. This saved us tons!

My husband is so talented, he amazes me day after day the things he can do.

I love him so very much. He is so good to me! Here are some pictures of my new table. It is still unfinished, my husband will be painting it for me in the near future. Probably in the color white. 

Now I can sew sitting at the proper height! No more sitting on a bunch of pillows to reach the machine!

My birthday cake! :)

I love celebrating my birthdays, perhaps for some as they get older that may sound strange. To me I feel each year is a blessing. Every year I get to be here is another year to learn, love, live, and give. I feel blessed to be the age I am.

Speaking of birthdays... A very special bird turns 12 years old today!!

Happy Birthday to our Andy the Bird!! 

Cake to follow... As I am putting this post at almost 3am! 

Blessings!

Louise xx

50!

I recently celebrated a wonderful milestone in my life. I turned 50 years old! How blessed I am! What an amazing journey my life has been so far and I know God had planned everything from the beginning. I look forward to another 50 years, I am truly blessed indeed!!

I decided to stitch a special sampler to commemorate this special milestone. This is a bonus pattern by Blackbird Designs, loose Feathers, Anniverseries of the heart, Pattern 12. The leaflet is titled Elizabeth Jane, but I did not stitch the cover pattern, I stitched the bonus pattern included in this leaflet, it is titled "for those recorded here". I used my own colors of choosing and personalized it to mark my milestone. I love it! 

I did blur my last name and town for safety measures. I just loved using colors of purples, greens, and yellows!

My birthday was a wonderful celebration. My husband made me a special gift. I had asked for a special display quilt ladder to put my quilts on. He made a gorgeous 7 foot tall ladder with 6 round dowel rungs. He stained and sealed it. It is beautiful!! 

I was so surprised to receive the most beautiful flowers from our wonderful Son!!! 

What a special delivery! I miss him so much. 

We went out for a wonderful birthday meal! 

We almost had to call the fire department in... I insisted on 50 candles!! Hehe :)

It took three of us to light the cake!

We needed two cakes with so many candles!!

I received so many phone calls, texts, cards, gifts, packages, it was amazing!!

I even was given a new beta fish!! Thank you Suzan! 

So many wonderful gifts!

Some new charts from my dear friend Suzan! Country Cottage Sampler by Moira Blackburn

Stars and Stripes by Brenda Gervais

A gift card from sweet Jane to stitches N Things, a gift card from my neighbor Judy for Brighton, along with an embroidered towel. My friend Denise sent me the most wonderful devotional book, jewelry, candy and notepad.... Family sent me a Brighton watch, necklace, earrings, Volland reproduction raggedy Andy doll and book, light up turtle, Marianna sent an amazing Alex and Ani bracelet , Suzan, is always so sweet to me, so many wonderful things, even a birthday cake! Most things are pictured but not everything. 

The most wonderful surprise was a gift from my husband. He presented me with the most beautiful stand of pearls and earrings to match. I love him so much. He is always so good to me. He made sure my birthday was extra special even though he had to work so hard all day. He is such a wonderful man, I love him so!!!❤️

It truly was a most wonderful celebration of 50 years of my life. I know how richly God has blessed me over these past fifty years. I look forward to seeing where he leads me in the next fifty years to come. Although I wish our little family could have been together for my milestone, and I do miss our Son terribly, not a day goes by that I don't think of him, but in my heart I am so very proud of him for serving our country. I look forward to the day we can be together as a family again. 

Happy 50th birthday to me! :)

Louise xx

My Birthday!! :)

I celebrated my birthday this week! Although my husband was away with work, I had a very nice day. My son took me out to lunch on my birthday, My Sister in Law also took me to dinner another night, then I went out with friends two more days after that! It was wonderful..it was as if the celebrating was never going to end! :)
I didn't have a birthday cake...I chose not to have one. I am still eating so healthy and am trying to stick with it. Our Son Patrick's birthday is the end of May, and I want to be able to celebrate his birthday early before he leaves for the military in the couple of days. I thought it would be much better if we bought him a cake for his special day...this way we won't be left with too much cake in the house!
I can't believe how fast the days are flying now...the hours are just passing so quickly. I wish I could make time stand still!
I enjoyed lunch with my son. He is such a wonderful young man. I love him so much! We took family photos for Mother's day with his camera and we got a really nice shot of the two of us together. I am happy for this photo.

I had a great time having dinner with my Sis in Law, and lunch with my friends. It is once again hard to say goodbye. I was so surprised when I was given such beautiful cards and gifts! Gifts from family....I also found gifts at my front door, and in my mailbox for a couple of days too. It warms my heart so much to realize how very much I am loved.
Amazing gifts and goodies!: 

I think this was the most perfect time to have a birthday :)
I am truly blessed indeed!
I am so grateful for all the wonderful family and friends in my life.

Happy Birthday to Me! :)
 

~Sweet Sixteen!~

Our daughter turned Sweet Sixteen! I wonder where the years have gone...
I remember what feels like yesterday sewing her Raggedy Ann dress...

Our little "Annie" is growing up so fast..I really did try hard to keep her little..but the years slipped through my fingers and she is now a beautiful young lady!
Her cake turned out perfect. Her party theme was "polka dots"..so, we saw to it that her special cake would be adorned with many dots too!

She also had a special "Cookie Cake"..I love these! They are so pretty, the kids loved it, and the shop did a great job at decorating:

The house was jam packed with many guests, family and friends. I prepared trays of many goodies to munch on, and also prepared all the food a day ahead of time:

I filled glass hurricanes with Skittles candy and placed a small tealight candle in a small glass holder inside the hurricane for a beautiful glow with candy "dots" around!
Dinner was delicious with baked ziti, sausage and peppers, cuban sandwiches, potato salad, garden salad, spanish rice, cocktail meatballs and many other things.
I dipped strawberries in chocolate and wrote in white chocolate on them for decoration:

Some guests traveled from other areas, as far as New York!
Our daughter received many lovely gifts..
An adorable stuffed Owl was one of her favorites!

 A pretty figurine...This was given to me when I was 16! I had forgotten about this until a relative gave it to our daughter for her special day....

 Special favors for the special guests...
Hershey chocolate bars wrapped in personalized wrappers:

Homemade lollies that I made ahead of time out of chocolate. Chocolate and vanilla pops wrapped with polka dot ribbons and personalized ribbons that say "Sweet 16"!

I had purchased polka dot fabric (2 yards) at Hobby Lobby to use as a table cloth..I will now cut it up to make some throw pillows for my daughter's bed, for a remembrance from her Special day!

So much fun with Friends!

Time for Cake!

We Love You Annie!

Happy Sweet 16 ~ Our Angel from Heaven!

Momma, Dad, and Big Brother :)