Birthday Gifts, 1st Communion and Exchanges

These lovely gifts are from Angela for the Hop Into Spring exchange on the Stitched with Love Exchange blog.  I love these exchanges. She send me Lizzie Kate Spring String Snippet with the fabric, 2 overdyed threads, beautiful white eyelet fabric, spring color trimming and fat quarters, and gladiolas bulbs. I passed the bulbs to my aunt because she will grow them. I don't even have room for a plant container to grow them myself.  I am not sure what to call the finished item.  I never seen a stitched item finished this way. The only way I could describe it, it's in a shape of a light gift box with sides about an inch wide, and the back is covered with fabric. It is very beautiful and is displaying on my bureau.  Thank you Angela for these beautiful gifts.

Egg Hunt by Barbara Ana

16 count aida, DMC threads

Since my partner didn't have a preference of Spring or Easter, I made two items, representing both Spring and Easter.  The picture above is Egg Hunt from Barbara Ana Designs, done on 16 ct pink aida.  I finish it off in a wall hanging but I think I put too much batting on.

 Lizzie Kate Easter Sampler 

28 count cream lugana

DMC threads

I added threads, fabric, Easter candy, a new pattern from VeeandCo. and a notepad for C.J. She said she liked everything.  I really don't have anything new or updates to show that is worth while.  However, I do have birthday gifts to show. Plus my nephew made his First Communion and he had a speaking part during the mass too.  I am so proud of him.  The following pictures are not in the order I want them in , so I just label them in their order.  

Anthony with his proud parents.




Anthony and his godparents.

Anthony is a chocoholic so his mom got him a chocolate pizza. It was a cool idea.  There was cake too.

Anthony

Anthony reading his cards out loud with a little help with his dad when it was needed.

Here is some birthday floss arriving after my day.

This exchange was the Theme exchange In Stitcherhood group. My partner send me a patriotic theme.  It ws awesome package. Thank you Tonya!

These gifts are from Shelley in the ILCS Birthday Club (ILCSBC). The gift is CCN Red, White and Bloom with the threads, fabric, highlightrs, and Victorian purple scissors. Thank you Shelley!

This gift is from Penny in Stitcherhood group.
Little House Believe kit. Thank you Penny!

These gifts are from Graceann in the ILCSBC.  She send me LHN Sheep Virtues Peace and Love, and huge piece linen in a cream color. It looks it may fit all 12 sheep, but I have to do the measurements still. Thank you Graceann!

 

Tonya from Stitcherhood send me Mirabilia April Blue Diamond Fairy. Thank you Tonya.

Mark from ILCSBC send me Lizzie Kate Our House kit plus the fabric. I can not wait to start this one. Thank you Mark!

Val from ILCSBC send me August Cat pattern plus the floss. Isn't this pattern so adorable!?  After I finish my Spring exchanges, I will be stitching this one too.  Thank you Val!

Cards and floss from the ILCSing group.

More cards and floss from the other ILCS group.

From Debbie Jo in ILCSBC, I got LHN Virtue Sheep Love with the floss and material. It would make a lovely ornament. Thank you Debbie Jo!

 From Shaunterria, she gave me Mirabilia Sweet Pea Prixie with the beads.  I just got the perfect fabric for her. Thank you Shaunterria!

 From Heidi I got 3 Mill Hill kits, Cool Cat, Willow Wings and Black Swallowtail. Plus she included a cord maket to make cords. I will be using it very shortly. Thank you Heidi!

My brother brought me The Bomb for my birthday. It is a 3 layer chocolate cake with chocolate pudding in the bottom layer and chocolate mousse on the top layer. The whole cake is covered with chocolate ganache. It was so good!

I went to my aunt's for a birthday dinner. She made chicken parmigna, mashed potatoes and green beans. My aunt made me a cake. It was a coconut cake with strawberry sauce between the layers and cover with cream cheese frosting.  It sounds good but the flavors didn't really go together very well.

This bookmark was stitched by Mab from ILCS group. She added some tea with the exchange . Thank you Mab!

The final gift is from Ann in Stitcherhood.  She send me LHN Autumn Sampler and Mill Hill Victorian Christmas House. Thank you Ann!

I also received $50 worth of gift certificates at 123 Stitch. I already placed my order and will show you what I bought next time. I should have a stitching update too.  Thank you everyone for the birthday gifts and wishes.   It sure made my day special due to my wonderful stitching friends.

Hugs, Vicky 

I Got Mail and update

Hi!  Parsley from Seasons of My Mind,  put a challenge for her readers to show a picture of ourselves.  So I figure,  what the heck, why not? I rarely put pictures of myself because majority of the time I am the one taking the pictures, even at family gatherings. This is my recent picture of me when I was at Sandwich, Cape Cod, taken by my aunt this past August.

I did some more fabric dyeing a couple weekends ago. It has been gorgeous lately on the weekends.  I went with a blue theme.  The fabric on the left  was dyed with Rit Evening Blue, the middle one was brush painted with Mediterranean Blue acrylic paint and the right fabric was Rit Aquamarine Blue with a dash of Evening Blue.  I wanted more of  a bluish color, instead of a blue-green color. I love how they came out.

 On October 15, my nephew, Anthony, turned 7 years old. My sister hired a magician for Anthony and his friends.  The magician put Anthony in this get-up. Doesn't he look ridiculous? Of course, I had to take a picture. I think its my favorite one.  I going to get a 4x6 picture for this one to  put in my room.

 There was cupcakes instead of a cake this year.  Dawne made the cupcakes, Amy frosted them and I decorated them.  There was a pinata,too, a SpongeBob Squarepants.  There was one last year and they weren't going do another one but the night before, Anthony started bawling because he wanted a pinata again.  So his dad went out to  get one. When it came time to hit Sponge Bob, Anthony went first and then the next kid went and gave it a big whack, and BOOM!, candy went flying out.  No other kid got a chance to whack it,but they did get candy!

Here is Anthony right before we sang Happy Birthday to him.   The balloon next to him also sings and Anthony kept hitting it.  He loved it.  When I got home, there was a package waiting for me.

Meet Carver the Pumpkin!  He is adorable!  My Secret Pen Pal send it to me.  He is now sitting in my basket with my other stuffed toys.  Thank you so much!  Than Monday came along, and I had went to the store and came back, and there were 5 packages waiting for me. It was Christmas in October for me.  One was a small order for a couple gifts, and another was a secret exchange which I can't show until I get the word its okay to do so. However, here is the other 3 packages.

This  lovely package came from Carissa of the i-love-cross-stitch Yahoo group for the 10th Anniversary exchange.  The group  has been  around for 10 years and I have been a member since 2003.  It was the first group I ever joined and I had met so many friends in  this group.  Carissa send me DMC satin threads(which I never used before), 2 Carrie's threads, Stitchy Kitty "The Hamster Did It" pattern, Angel Stitchin  "Long May She Wave" pattern, a Silkweaver solo piece with a needle, a card she made and a bookmark, which is in a book I am reading and didn't made in the picture.  Thank you Carissa!

 This package came from Mary from The Stitcherhood group.  The exchange was a Halloween Treasure hunt which we had to find items to represent Halloween from a list we were given.  For the pumpkin, it was the Pez candy which cracked me up, plus it glows in the dark.  For the witch was a Mill Hill needleminder,   candy corn  was a dish shape as a candy corn and a bag of candy corn, cats was a pair of cat earrings.  (Sorry Mary I have to give them to someone else.  I am allergic to earrings),  And for Happy Halloween saying was a spool of ribbon. I love everything and it was so creative.  Thank you Mary!

 This package came from Cindy B.  for the Fall Exchange from the ILCSing Yahoo group.   She send 2 patterns, Lizzie Kate Flip-Its October and November and a package of needles.  She had 123Stitch send them to me directly and when I opened it, I was thinking it was my order.  I am looking at the items and thinking "This is not what I ordered", then I looked at the slip and saw Cindy's name and I went "Duh!"   Just a senior moment for me,  lol!  Thank you Cindy! 

Last night I got my Halloween ornament from Viv of UK from the ILCSing group. She stitched me a Mill Hill Spooking ornament and included a Mill Hill Kitty Treats with some candy and a card filled with Halloween confetti.  I have the ornament hanging from my bookshelfs.  Viv knows I love Mill Hill kits and  I love it.  I can't wait to start on the Kittys.  Thank you Viv!

I can show you a finish. I stitched this for Mary from KraftersKorners group.  We had to stitched a freebie, finish it off and add 3 specialty threads. I found this SanMan Autumn freebie in my stash and I finished it as an ornament.  I  uses Carrie's threads Autumn for the wording and gold beads for the hanger. 

This finish is Sandy's RR, the Snowbaby from Ellen Maurer-Stroh.  I had this done awhile ago, but I forgot to post it.  I used the beads instead of confetti stitches for the snowflakes.  I think it came out wonderful.  I sure hope Sandy likes it.

I want to thank all of you for your good thoughts on my upcoming surgery.  I appreciate all of them.  I saw the surgeon on Oct 6th.  The surgery has been delayed for 6 months, but for a good reason.  The doctor, also,  does the gastric bypass but won't be taking my insurance for another 6 months to do the procedure.  I do want to  have the gastric bypass done and trying to avoid to put me under twice, it will be better to wait.  However,if my gallbladder does act up too bad before than, he will do the surgeries separately.  It makes sense to me.  I do need this gastric bypass done because I know it will change my life for the good of  things.  I have told my family  and I have their support and love.  I know I can do this, just playing the waiting game for now. 

I will be going to Virginia after Christmas. My friends are going to Florida in January and they want to house and pet sit for them.  They said I could come  even if they do not go, so my trip has been delayed for another 2 months. That means I could save up more money.

I have reached 200 followers, so I will be doing a Christmas giveaway in a couple weeks.  It will be so much fun!

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Labor Day and a Find!

Topsy-Turvy Mason

Our family had a BBQ on Labor Day. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and a slight breeze. My father had forgot to check the propane tank for the grill. We had the tank for almost 2 years, and even though it was used on and off, more off than on, it will run out of gas eventually and it did! My uncle went back to his house to get his tank. Dad didn't start grilling after 2:30. My mom was not too happy but we told her we will just pack the food for her. She had to go back to the home and her ride was suppose to pick her up at 4. It was cutting it real close for her. But they end up being late and didn't pick her up after 5. We got an extra hour with her which was nice.

I love baking and I know I am good at, so I like to show off my baking skill with my family. I made a strawberry shortcake from memory. I made this cake once about 5 years ago and it was so easy to remember. I loved how the final results came out after I put the cake together that I had to take a picture of my strawberry shortcake. It was very yummy. I was so happy it came out great.

Dad and Jayden, 7 mos.

I got some pictures of my family. My cousin finally came over with his new baby girl. It only took them 7 months to get her. The little one is named Jayden Amaya and she is the cutest little baby. My cousins were outside and Dad brought Jayden inside so mom could see her. Jayden's mom said she won't cry and likes strangers. A couple minutes after Dad brought her in, Jayden made her mother a liar and gave this huge wail! I got some more pictures of Mason. He is going to be 1 years old at the end ofthis month. Where does the time fly? He is not walking yet but looks like he is ready to take that first step anyday. Of course I got a picture of Anthony. He started kindergarten. It just seems like yesterday he was a baby. Again, its this time keeps going. Dont you just wish you can stopped for a minute or two just to take it all in without time slipping by?

Now for my stitching news. I started a new project, Glory Bee Coffee for Gossip. I dont have pics for it but next time I should be finish with it and you will get a pic. It is a quick stitch for me. I did a little more of LHN Snowflake but not enough yet to show a progress. I am using hand dyed threads so I am making my stitches as I go along so it is a slow progress. As I was cleaning and putting away some stash, I came across Prairie Scholer When Witches Go Flying. One of my friends just started this piece and I knew I had it somewhere. I am going to try to finish it. I took a picture how it looks when I found it. I did add a few stitches since than, again not enough to take a picture of it. Next post I will tell you of a new project I will be starting. I talked enough for now.
I almost forgot to mention my find. I had to go to the post office the other day. On the way back, I decided to go into Goodwill. Sometimes I find something but most times I don't. This time I found a oak frame which is the exact size for The Bookshelf I just finished stitching a couple weeks ago. I only paid $4 for the frame. I was so happy. I do need to clean it it up first. There is a painted picture in the frame but I will do something else with it. I know if I had brought the original frame I wanted for it, it will cost close to $50, if not more. Now I have to do research on frame cleaning and putting needlework into the frame. It will take time but I just know the end results will be gorgeous.

Happy Stitching!