My Walk About

Pluck not the wayside flower;

It is the travelers dower.

William Allingham

Today we decided to take the sea side trail that takes you into Bellingham. It is a 3 mile walk that takes you part way by the water and into a wooded area. Along the our walk about I keep stopping to take pictures of the beautiful wild flowers that grow along the way. It was a lovey walk and when we reached the end we had a delicious lunch, the only problem was it was a 3 mile walk back. I hope you will enjoy some of the sights I saw.

Everything is so green and lush here in Washington not like my dry sunny California.

Always keep love in your stitches,
Teresa

Fabulous Fun Finds

After a couple of days of yard and estate sales I think I have found some fun stuff that I just couldn't live without. First let me go back to our travels up here. Our friends pre-booked the hotel in Jackson not really knowing anything about it. The hotel was just fine but they kept apologizing for it. They had some free magazines in the lobby. I told our friends how bad could the hotel be with these freebies.

                                                      Who cares that they are from 1995.

In a antique shop in town I found my first frog. The couple we were staying with said she had one also and gave me my second frog. On Friday and Saturday here in Bellingham we hit the sales.

I found my third frog and these two white dishes. I think the edge would be great for scissors and then make a fun pin cushion for the inside. All the fabrics in the pictures was in a bag for $2.00.

These two cute baskets were 25 cents each. I have always wanted a nice pair of  pinking shears, these  were the bargain price of $3.00. They look brand new and were in their original package. 



At our last stop at a church sale I found my favorite finds of the day. They were closing and everything was half off. The Sudberry clock was $7.00 and the Sudberry box was $6.00 before the half off so I got both for $6.50. The two Framecrft dishes new in the box were $3.00 each so I got both for that price.

Even with the rain on Saturday I think it was a very productive day. Not sure where my next adventure on this trip will be.

Always keep love in your stitches,
Teresa

On The Road

Hi from my road trip. Let me start with a fun story. Our traveling friends read on line 10 fun things to do on a road trip. Well our first fun thing didn't quite come out right. As we ate lunch at our first stop we were told "don't eat too much we have a fun snack for later".  Well in the heat of the afternoon and the boring drive up highway 5 thru California our friend read for hot cookies on the road you could cook cookies in a pie tin on the dashboard in about 10 minutes. Well after about a hour on a hot black dashboard this is what we had.

Do I need to say don't try this yourself. Well maybe if you are traveling thru Death Valley in the summer time.

On the way up we stayed a couple of days in the small town of Jackson right out of Sacramento to visit with some friends. While there we visited a few antique shops and a couple of wineries. I did  find a glass frog.

                                         This made me want to go watch "Walk in the Clouds".

On the 1200 mile trip I did manage some stitching in the car. I am going to make this Lizzy Kate into a fob for a gift.

I got this LHN done and I am not sure yet what I will be doing with it,



I was lucky enough that when the men stopped at this small little town to go in a Radio Shack there was this cute fabric shop next door that specialized in quilting. If you bought 12 quarters you got one free, yes I just had to buy 12. I could have stayed in the store forever.

We are off tomorrow to do some yard sales. I will let you all know what fun finds I  discovered.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

PS - Sorry I have not had time to catch up on your blogs. I hope to get a chance this week

Embarking on a Journey

"The longest journey a man must take is the

 eighteen inches from his head to his heart."

    My bags are packed, new projects are put together and I am ready to set off on a journey. Tomorrow we leave for a two week much needed vacation. Every year we go with another couple who has a condo in Bellingham, Washington. It is about a 1,100 mile trip so I always have a car ride project to keep me busy. Since I seem to be the only morning person in the group I always wake to a quiet house and first do my devotion and then my stitching. I have 3 LHN projects to work on. There are no needlework shops in the area but there is a nice bead shop that has fun charms. I hope they are still there, many times shops close up from one year to the next.

    I love holidays, do you? I decorate the house for every occasion. When my husband and I were dating he said "I think this family celebrates every holiday including groundhog day". Well ever since I make sure he gets a groundhog gift. I hoped to have two new pillows made to place on the couch for my Memorial Day to 4th of July decorations. With all the packing I did manage to buy the matching fabric but will have to sew them up when I get home.

                              Liberty Lane will have the blue front and this fun star pattern on the back.

 

I love the backing material for Bless our Home, the material says Home Sweet American Home.

    I will be taking my small notebook computer and will try and keep up with blogland. Being that I am hooked I don't want to go through ugly withdrawals. I hope to come home with several new finishes. I have to close saying I joined my first exchange. I am so excited, can't wait to see who I am stitching for. Maybe it's you!

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

Did you guess?

Taking joy in life

is a woman's best cosmetic.

Rosalind Russell

    I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. Ours was a two day event. Having both my parents and my in-laws near by means sometimes we have to double up or skip one side. On Saturday we headed off to Pasadena to share a lunch with my husband's family and celebrate with his mom. On Sunday after church we had lunch with my parents. It was a cool cloudy day here and my real celebration came on Sunday afternoon just sipping tea and stitching. Now that's a wonderful Mother's Day.

    A few posts back I posted this picture. I had my niece for the week and this was all I managed to stitch. I asked if you could guess what it was.

    Well I finally found the time to put it together. This is where I am lacking experience. This is only the 3rd item I have mounted and glued together. I did get to use my new oval cutter to make the pattern with.

     If you guessed a ladybug you were right. It is a ladybug needle/scissor holder. Of course I had to change it from the original pattern. It called for a red head with black eyes. I gave it a black head and when I sewed on the button eyes I put a black seed bead with it. The back was supposed to be solid red, too boring for me.

     After I purchased the pattern I found this wonderful set to match, I knew I just needed it to complete my Ladybug. It came with scissors, tweezers and a ladybug thread cutter.

    I was so excited when I finally got it together I showed it to my husband. His warm and caring response was "Don't you already have something for your needles and scissors".  He being the collector of stuff I could have come back with a good response but only said "Yes, but not one that is a ladybug". I will keep him anyway. Too hard to break in another one at my age.

Always keep love in your stitches,
Teresa

My visit to a ranch

You have made known to me the path of life;

You will fill me with joy in Your presence,

with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

Psalm 16:11

    This weekend I was fortunate to spend it with my daughter at our church women's retreat. I didn't know until we got there that it was a ranch. Now I am a city girl,  a real girlly girl, no sports, no big pets just a cat and a box turtle. Besides having a wonderful time in fellowship with the Lord they had  fun activities for us to enjoy. First up was archery. OK I did archery in high school, back in the early 70's. I took that class because you only had to change your shoes and didn't have to wear those awful PE outfits. Remember I am not into sports. A group of us headed up the road to play bows and arrows.  After getting our instructions and rules we got to shot our first set of arrows. Here is where my first set of 8 arrows went.

    I was so excited I got a bulls eye on my first set. I think I finally found my sport. After archery we looked around the ranch to see the many animals there. The place was full of peacocks. It is mating season so you could here those males all day and into night. Here is one that was really showing off.

    They had a couple of cows with a baby calf, lots of goats, several chickens and a rooster. This little goat only had one ear. It was the cutest little thing.

    My daughter talked me into the horse back riding later in the afternoon. Talk about stepping out of my comfort zone. I was never  one of those little girls who dreamed of owning a horse. We got to the stables and he put me on the biggest horse (17 hands tall, so he said), Sir Remington. After watching the Royal Wedding the day before I thought the name was fitting. He was a horse who didn't like any other horse to get behind him so that meant I had to bring up the rear. Those first few moments on our ride was terrifying but slowly it became sorta fun (no I still don't want to go out and get a horse). This is me bringing up the rear following my daughter ( yes I got comfortable enough to take a picture while riding).

    I did manage in the free time to work on my cross stitching and this is all that I managed to get done. This is Country Cottage, "Bless Our Home".



   At our retreat the main focus was not on working and doing for the Lord, but talking and mostly sitting in quiet listening to the Lord.  Just listening is sometimes hard for busy women who think they need to do it all. Now that I am back in the real world doing all the usual stuff I am trying to stop and just listen.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa