Here's a great giveaway!

At Willow Tree Pond: My 100th Post Giveaway!: "This year has flown by! I can't thank you all enough for the nice comments and suggestions that my followers post. But wait! I will try :..."

Fall is Here...

It's hard to believe Fall is here again! It seems like the years are flying by. My boys are in full swing of school this year and doing really well. Both boys recieved scholarships for 1 year of Karate lessons! The school gave out 5 scholarships and both my boys recieved one! Yep, I'm a proud mom! They had their first lesson on Friday and both love it!

About a month ago I was contacted by an old high school friend through facebook. She had heard through the grapevine that I had been making quilts for charity so she asked if I'd be willing to make one for her. She is involved with a womans group that makes care packages for our soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afganistan. They are having a chili feed and auction next weekend to raise money for the care packages and she asked if I'd make one for the auction. I felt it was a good cause and those care packages will mean alot to a soldier away from home and missing his or her family, so off I went to dig through my stash and this is what I came up with...

I haven't worked on my LK Living with Charm series for a while so I recently pulled it back out and did a couple more words. I hope to have it done by the end of the year. I'm at the halfway mark now so I should make it.

This next pic is a new start for me. My friend Jennifer did these charts a while back and decided she would 'PIF' them on to me. In turn I have to send them on to Tina when I am done. I've had them sitting here forever and thought I better get stitching before Tina gives up on me ever getting them done, LOL This is my progress so far... not much but it'll get there!

That about wraps up my little world for now. Not alot of excitement in my world but I am blessed with a wonderful husband and great kids...and all of you amazing stitching friends. I love each and every one of you! Keep those needles moving!

Busy Busy Busy Times....

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've been here! Time sure flies! I've been stitching and sewing alot lately. Last week I finished this little letter "N" for one of the charity quilts. Not sure what the little critters are suppose to be, but I think they turned out kinda cute.

Since we are so close to Halloween and I needed a quick finish to get my groove back, I thought I'd stitch up this little cutie. I think it's a freebie from Primitive Betty's but I can't remember for sure. I'm thinking it would make a cute little pin pillow.

Last weekend Mom invited me to go shopping. I picked up a few things.....

There's more but I forgot to take a pic of the other bag of goodies.

We recently did a couple of exchanges in KraftersKorner and I recieved this little ornament and goodies from Vicky. Love the snowman! He will look absolutely adorable hanging on my tree. Thank you Vicky, he is fabulous!

Another exchange we did recently is a Halloween Pin. I recieved this adorable little witch from my dear friend Ethel, along with a fat quarter of purple fabric and some Mill Hill beads. I love the witch and I can't wait to wear it for Halloween! Ethel, thank you for the goodies, I will wear the pin proudly!

That's it for the crafty part of life. Hubby had surgery yesterday to remove his teeth and get dentures. He was in for an hour and a half and came out with the dentures in his mouth. I felt so darn bad for the guy, he was a mess. I can honestly say I have never seen my husband drool until yesterday, and let me tell you.....it was FUNNY! I've never laughed so hard in my life. He's doing better today and taking his pain meds like a good boy. I'm thinking he'll probably sleep most of the day today because whatever they gave him makes him loopy or high or something....maybe happy would be a better word...LOL

Anyway, that's it for my boring update. Hope everyone is keeping those needles busy and enjoying the fall weather. Hugs to all my stitchy friends, you really are the best and I love you all dearly!

A busy week for me!

What a busy week it's been for me! On Monday & Tuesday I finally got around to putting one of the charity quilts together. Carein had sent me some cute little diaper pin alphabet blocks months ago and with the move I just didn't have time to get things together the way I had intended. I figured I better get on the ball and start doing some things before I fall so far behind I can't catch up. Here is the first project of the week.......
The picture just doesn't do it justice. The little blocks are absolutely adorable! The 'white' part of the edge has little bitty pastel alphabet letters scattered all over it.
Next is a little train for another charity quilt that will have a "toy box" theme. I've got 10 more of these little blocks to do so it will be a bit before you get to see that one.

Yesterday I started cutting the fabric for this next piece. I got it all cut and the red part sewed on thinking I'd finish the rest today. Woke up this morning and got the blue border on, sandwiched it together, sewed it all up and realized I had it inside out! I could not for the life of me find a darned seam ripper anywhere! Three hours later after using my teeny gingher embroidery scissors, it was ripped apart and ready to re-sew. This is the final product......

It will also be going to charity. I hope the child that recieves it enjoys the cute animals and finds some comfort in it.

After all the darned irritation over the quilt fiasco, I finally got the mail. I recieved a wonderful much needed RAK from Carein! She sent a few candies with a little note explaining the meaning behind each piece she chose. It was a wonderful surprise this afternoon after all the tears over the quilt. Thank you so much Carein for brightening my day!

That's it for this week. I'm hoping next week I can stay on this kick and get more done. Hugs to all my stitchy friends, you all make my heart sing! :)

It's been a long time.....

Wow! I can't believe how long it's been since I've been here, I've been a slacker! I'm not going to go into much personal stuff right now but thought I would show off a few recent finishes. This first one is a little pin for an exchange. I don't believe my partner reads my blog so it should be safe to go ahead and post it here. It's done on 14ct plastic canvas, not so sure I like stitching on that stuff but I thought it turned out cute.
This next piece is for one of the charity quilts. It's for the "girly" themed one and I'm hoping it'll be cute with the rest of the blocks everyone is doing. It was an easy and quick stitch to do. The chart is a Lizzie Kate and it's done on 14 ct aida.

The final piece for today is the letter "O". We are doing all the letters of the Margaret Sherry Alphabet and they will be turned into a charity quilt. I've got one more letter to do for this one and I'm waiting for 3 more to arrive in the mail and then these will be ready to piece together.

I know this isn't much of an update but I've got so much personal "stuff" going on in my life right now I just can't think clearly enough to want to put it on here. Hope you all understand. Hugs to all my stitching friends, you all mean the world to me.

Life and a finish and exchanges....

It's been a while since I've updated this poor blog. We've had lots of major changes in our life the last few months and finally moved back to Idaho and we are staying with my mother. I can honestly say I will be so glad to have a place of my own again. I wish I would have known how difficult it would be, I NEVER would have done it! Live and learn I guess...but that's for my other blog.

I've participated in a few exchanges the last month or two. Jennifer B sent me this cute little "Easter Surprise" pattern from Bent Creek for a Spring exchange. Thank you Jennifer! I love it and plan to make it for next Easter.

We recently did a patriotic exchange in KraftersKorner and Carein sent me this great collection of goodies. I can finally say I have my first ATC for a collection...LOL! I loved it, thanks Carein!

I haven't had a whole bunch of time, space and peace to stitch lately but I was able to finish a block for the quilt group. I believe we only have a few more letters to get stitched and then we can make a quilt! I love seeing all the blocks as the ladies stitch them and seeing how these quilts come together. It gives me a sense of peace...or something, I dunno, just feels good inside if that makes sense.

Anyway that about wraps up my world at the moment, not too exciting. Hope everyone is having a better summer than my family and I. Hugs to all!

Little stitching Going on Here...

So much has been going on in my life lately I haven't had much time to stitch. My 10 year old son had been bullied at school so much that he was going through a bad bout of depression and talking about suicide. After numerous trips to the school and talking with the teachers, counselors and prinicipal, nothing was being done about it. For those that don't know, my son has Aspergers Syndrome. It's a form of autism. He's very smart, but lacks the social skills that most of us come by naturally. Anyway, the bullying had gotten to the point of my son finally fighting back and he ended up punching someone (in the arm). His teacher told him that he was going to end up in jail since he can't control himself...well, I basically lost it. I've been fighting with this particular teacher all year long and this was the final straw. At this point I had taken my son to a Dr to see what we could do for his depression and the Dr suggested he stop going to school for the rest of the year. So I pulled him out and am now homeschooling him for the remainder of the year. Best decision I ever made! He's coming out of his depression and actually went outside to play with the neighbor kids a few times.....this is something he hasn't done in over a year! (Aspies are known for not being social) He's doing fine with school work...except for math and we are working on that part. But so far so good! :)

My 8 year old has ADHD and we have chosen not to medicate him up to this point. Finally took him to the DR and put him on a low dose medication to help him concentrate at school and it seems to be working fairly well. The first few days were rocky while trying to give him the right dose, but we now have him on an extremely low dose that wears off after about 4 hours. Just enough time to get him through the school day and not have the nasty side effects. I don't know how long we'll continue with it, but we finally decided to give it a chance. I think I have more issues with this than hubby or the kids...I just don't like the idea of medicating kids like this. It really bothers me but I'll do it if it's the best thing for him right now.

Ok, on to stitching.....I pulled out my Lizzie Kate "living with charm" piece and have done another word. I love the way this one is turning out! I haven't put any charms on it yet, not quite sure if I will. I like it just fine without the charms and mom wants the charts when I finish so I may just leave it like this and let her have the charms. I'm still not sure how I want to finish it. I think a nice white 'antique-ish' frame would be pretty...but then I think it might be cute as a little wall quilt. Just can't seem to make up my mind. Any ideas???

Next is another EMS freebie. This is from the "toy book" series. I'll be doing all 12 of these ones for another quilt. We are hoping to have 8 quilts done for the girls home by November...I think we are going to make our goal or at least get pretty close.

Next is a magnet I received from Marie for a magnet exchange we did in KraftersKorner. I love it! She also sent me some candy but the kids and I ate it..hee hee.

And this is two more magnets I recieved from Vicky. ( I had 2 partners this time) She also sent me some adorable little note cards and some chocolate. Yep, you guessed it, the chocolate is gone..... :)

That's it for my little bit of stitching...not much but like I said it's been busy around here lately. We are finally moving back to Idaho! The Uhaul is reserved for June 21 and we should be out of Oregon no later than the 23rd. I'm going to miss this area a lot, it's become home over the last 9 years. I'm kind of dreading it though, we will be staying with mom for about a year so we can get our finances in order and take care of things that we just can't seem to catch up on. While mom and I have a lot in common with our love of stitching and quilting, they aren't used to having 2 rambunctious boys around all the time. It's going to be a huge adjustment for all of us and I know how tempers can flare in stressful situations so I'm a little spooked.

The good parts to it are: the boys will be going to the same elementary school that my daughter went to so at least I'll already be familiar with the school district. I was born and raised there so I know places to take the kids for outings. We have friends & family that still live in the area so we will have some kind of support system. Mom has a huge back yard with a garden so lots of room to play and tinker with growing vegetables. And it'll give the boys a chance to really get to know their Grandparents. The boys were just babies when we moved here so they haven't had the chance to spend alot of time with them. And the best part is there is lots more places to go and people to meet that have autistic kids. I'm hoping to meet a few parents and join a few support groups. There just isn't anything in this area for families like ours and hubby and I have been winging it on our own for the most part. Hopefully being around people that understand the disabilities and the things we go through on a daily basis with the boys will help us to be better parents. Anyway, I've made this short little stitching entry into a personal book..oops! Hope all of my stitchy friends are keeping those needles smoking! Hugs to all!