Another Year gone!

What a year it has been! In 2020 I had frozen shoulder, was bit by a tick and had gotten very sick with rocky mountain spotted fever, then I had vitreous detachment of both eyes!...and thats not all...last year was a very very bad year... All this craziness with this virus, and my husband and I wound up with it at Christmas time. It was dreadful! I had it worse than him, and I have to say, I was never that sick in my entire life. I actually felt like I was going to die. I wound up going to the hospital and getting a covid "cocktail". (Regeneron) I wasn't afraid of getting it...as our President Trump had gotten it. If its good enough for him, its good enough for me! :P I wound up with covid induced pneumonia, and it was absolutely miserable. My poor husband being sick at the same time, we were both helpless, not being able to help each other. I lost my sense of taste and smell..which I still don't have, this will be going onto the 5th month! Now to top it all off..I am losing all my hair on my head. Talk about misery. I am not quite sure why I am going through these trials,I know God is with me, and I will perservere. I am still here, and thats a blessing! I cut my hair super short for now to try and ease the pain of it all falling out. Now onto other things! I decided to freshen up my blog a bit! A new layout with new colors. Ive decided its time to go lighter and brighter! I have been working on some things, and have some finishes to show you..so I shall get to that right now. There won't be any particular order of things, as I am tryiing to navigate a new layout. My sweet husband surprised me a little while back with a beautiful new Juki TL-18Qvp sewing machine! It sews like a dream!!! I highly recommend Juki. It is an amazing quilting machine! I decorated mine with stickers I found at Hobby Lobby :)

A sweet kit Ive ordered for myself, and hope to start in the near future! I cannot locate where I put it at the moment, when I do, I will update with details.

I finished stitching "Needleworker" by Little House Needleworks

A Friend Loveth by Plum Street Samplers. Stitched for a very dear friend of mine. This was stitched on 32 count desert sand linen using sulky threads

A granny rectangle blanket I crocheted for my sweet daughter in the colors of her pet bird "Andy"

Some new pillowcases I sewed using the burrito method. Love those french seams inside! Love the fresh new look for our bedroom.

My husband and I recently celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary! Here's to us! I stitched Forever Love by Silver Creek Samplers on 32 count linen from Hobby Lobby using called for overdyed threads.

A small piece I stitched for us...because we do make a perfect pair! :)

Ive been working on All Creatures Great and Small by Barbara Ana Designs. Im stitching this on 36 count vintage country mocha linen with one DMC thread over two.

My days are full of joy with my chickens,Harriet and Clarice and our wonderful cattle dog Ginger. We have recently added a sweet little Khaki Campbell baby duckling!

What a blessing to have a pair of bluebirds make a nest in our new bluebird house! It was so much fun watching the babies hatch and fledge right in our own backyard. Bluebirds bring happiness :)

My sweet husband put up a new clothesline for me! How blessed I am.

Thank you for stopping by, Last year was hard, but this year will be better, I just feel it! Grow old along with me, The best is yet to be, Louise xx

Farmstead Christmas

I recently finished stitching Farmstead Christmas by Plum Street Samplers. Stitched on 32 count "cauldron" linen by picture this plus with DMC threads.

I just love this design! 

I started stitching a small thread fold  kit by Mary Garry's Sewing Cabin called Milkpaint Sampler. This is a kit offered by Kreinik. This was so generously gifted to me by another stitcher. 

I have framed our Anniversary sampler, not sure if I had previously posted a picture of it framed, so here it is! Looks so pretty above our fireplace ❤️

To my surprise I recently inherited a sterling silver thimble that belonged to my great Aunt Catherine. You can imagine how thrilled I was! I never met her in person, but I feel honored to now own her thimble and to know she was a needleworker too. It is engraved, and very, very old... Vintage! 

I also inherited one of her Duchess wood embroidery hoops!

I stitched a small scissor fob for another friend going through breast cancer. I keep her in my prayers for healing and health.

I crocheted a red lap blanket for my daughter in love for Christmas. She loved it! ❤️

Our church crochet ministry made many blankets for veterans. I felt so honored to be a part of this project! I was happy I was able to make some of the blankets too. Here are some pictures of all our blankets for the veterans displayed on the pews in our Catholic Church.

Here is one of the blankets I had made:

All the many blankets!

We have some news! We have added to our family. We headed down to the shelter and adopted a cattle dog mix. We named her Ginger and she is a very sweet dog. We have been adjusting to having a dog in our home, as well as she has been adjusting, she gets lots of love!

Here is our sweet Ginger:

We had a wonderful Fall season, and a great winter season so far! We have been quite busy. We celebrated our daughters 21st birthday, took many walks on our Trail Of Blessings on our property, lots of visits with our backyard neighbor's horse "Cherry"!,  took a mountain trip, a beach trip, day trips to antique shops, picked out some great pumpkins at a local Farmstand, took a trip to the stitch shop in SC with friends, our Son and his wife came home for Thanksgiving, we are truly blessed indeed!!

Here are just some of the many pictures I took all through the season!

Cherry with "our tree"!

Home❤️

I'm at the Stitch N Frame shop in SC... Can you just see the happiness on my face?! lol 😀

A collage of the inside of the stitch shop. Can you see why I'm so happy to visit?! Glad it's not too far from home, about an hour. I have plenty of friends that way, so always a wonderful trip!

Me and my daughter had so much fun picking out our pumpkins!

Andy our bird:

Our Son came back from a long deployment. We missed him so much. I made sure our time together for Thanksgiving was just wonderful! It was so good to have him and his wife home with us. We had a big feast! I prepared lots of delicious food too.

Our little family, we are blessed!

Our beautiful Christmas tree...

Of course I made all my special cookies!

I baked some other goodies recently too...

Andy was happy that Santa brought him millet!

Andy weighing in on things and saying it's been a pretty good year! ....

I've already started my list of to-do's for the coming year. I would love to stitch The Lord's Prayer. 

For today though as I type this, I lay in bed with another severe headache.

It's so difficult to plan things when my headaches take over.

Tomorrow is another day. 

I wish you all a New Year filled with all good things and many Blessings!

Louise xx