Long time no post..again..

I am so sorry.. thanks to all of you who still check in with me from time to time.. I am still here, just a lot going on..

Here is my progress on The Alamo- I have gotten a little bit more done since I took this.

I have since finished the left side and the bottom of the section and started on the next section to the right. :)

The azaleas are in bloom here- or were- a lot of them are already losing their petals.. but here is a photo of a butterfly in some that my mom took when she was here.

They are so beautiful and some of the bushes get so huge!

and of course I have to share some Ginger with you-

She is still cute and silly as ever.

 

Will post more soon- thanks for stopping by!

 

Sorry it has been awhile..

Yet again!!  Life carries me away sometimes..my stitching has been suffering!! Trying to get back into the swing of things.  We are house hunting again- I got my credit score where it needed to be and hopefully I can keep it there. :) I am so looking forward to us having a place of our own.

I have been getting a few stitches in here and there on The Alamo.  My 7-year-old has decided he wants to learn how to stitch- so in the mornings when I stitch I am trying to help him also. :) Here is my progress as of late-

I have also picked up my LK Mystery Sampler again- not much progress on that yet but I am hoping to remedy that soon. :)

Book winner!

Well, we only had three entries so the odds were pretty good for those involved. :)  The winner is Pat Matejcek! Congrats Pat! I will send you an email to get your address. I hope you enjoy the book. :)

Not much else to post - it was a busy but non-stitchy week- what little time I did have I was engrossed in a book- Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult.  It is so good!

Will post more soon!

I didn't forget!

Today was to be the last day of my book giveaway- but there are only a couple of entries- so I thought I'd post about it one more time.. if you want to enter please comment on this post. (click it! :) ) I will give it til Sunday the 3rd.

I have been working on the Alamo quite regularly-I took Hanna to her judo class tonight and had some time to stitch on it.  This is my progress as of tonight.

I have also been working on a freebie- from Grilles by Maryse- still just stitching green but I thought I'd post a pic. I took it the sam way I took the Alamo pic but it wouldn't turn out as good-

 

We had a bit of ice the other day - I heard there was a moment of snow but I didn't see it. :(

Here are some pictures I took around the house-

 

This is our rosemary plant-

and I think this was basil-

And this is a bush in the front of our house that's mostly dead. Looks prettier this way. :)

 

It only lasted a day or so then melted.  I am still hoping for one snow before winter is over. We didn't have any last year and I want to see how Ginger reacts to it. :)

 

 

Love this pic-she looks like she's posing!

 

 

Hello.. wondering I should eliminate the LK Sampler page since all the parts are out now- any thoughts?

I forgot to mention in my last post that I have added several things to my stash for sale page- more to come..

I just found these on my camera card and don't remember if I ever posted them.. so I thought I would because the sky was so pretty that night!

I thought I had a recent picture of the Alamo and I can't find it.. will try to remember to take one tomorrow.

Rob and I went to look at some open houses today- one house was really cute but too small.. it was not much bigger than our current place. It was a bit too far out from town anyway.  There was another open house nearby that was way out of our price range but we thought we would look for fun.  It was a beautiful home, but even if we got approved for that much, we wouldn't be able to afford the payment! We had a helpful conversation with the realtor there though- we met her at an open house we went to a few weeks ago and she remembered us.  We talked to her for a while- so long that we missed the last open house we were going to go to. lol

I have actually done a bit of stitching this weekend, on the LK Halloween sampler- for now I will keep posting the pics on it's page but may do away with it.  When I created that page I had planned to have it done a lot sooner! ha!

Well that's about it here- hope everyone has a great week. God bless!

Back again! And a book giveaway..

Hello friends,

The
 holidays are over and hopefully I can start posting more often!  I have gotten quite a bit in on The Alamo since the kids have gone back to school, since I work on it in the mornings while David and I wait for school to start.  I will post a more recent one soon but here is one I took fairly recently.  I have also been working on a free pattern from Grilles by Maryse (I think that's the site).  I really need to take a pic of that one as well but it's just a bunch of green right now.

The house hunting is on hold, unfortunately.. I got the corrections made on  my credit report and got the rapid re-score done.. and it did not help as much as we thought it would. My credit score is still a bit shy of where it needs to be to qualify.  The loan officer talked to someone at the credit bureau and gave us some suggestions of what might bring it up some more, but it will take some time. :(  I am not going to give up until we are in our own home though!

OK, now for the giveaway- my mom gave me this book because she knows I love Jane Austen and the occasional paranormal romance- and this had both. Normally I am pretty picky about my Jane Austen "fanfiction" but these were actually pretty good, fun little short stories. I especially liked Blood and Prejudice (of course ;) ) and Little To Hex Her, which was the version of Emma.  I'd like to pass this on to one of my lovely blog readers! I will keep the drawing open until the end of the month.. and.. I don't usually do this but if you get someone else to enter you will get an entry for each person you send over! :) Oh, and here is a picture of the book-

and of course, I can't end without a picture of Ginger.  I don't know if she put her blanket here or the kids did, but she kind of reminded me of when kids make "forts" with blankets and whatever else they can find- chairs, etc.. 

I caught her in mid-blink but the other photo I took she had green-eye - and red-eye fix won't get rid of it. :p

Thanks for sticking with me- I will post again soon!

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It's been awhile...

So, so sorry...I have let myself get swept up in other things lately and my blogging, stitching, and even reading have suffered.. I know I keep saying it but I really need to set a timer when I get online. I think there is a timer on my cell phone; I need to start using it!  I'm hoping to do some stitching when I get done with this post- just have to do a bit more cleaning in the living room and I'll be ready. 

I have been stitching on "The Alamo" at least a bit each week.  I will post a pic at the end of this post, as it is on my phone.

The fall leaves are nearly gone now, but here are a few photos of them while they were here-

 

The week before Thanksgiving was kind of crazy. One night Rob and I were getting ready to go to bed and Rob's heart started beating very fast, and he started having chest and arm pain.  We took him to the ER and they tried to get his heart rate slowed down and stabilized.. it slowed down a little but was still beating fast, so they admitted him to run some more tests.  He was in for 3 days and they found out he has atrial fibrillation.. so he will have to stay on medicine now to regulate his heartbeat as well as medicine for cholesterol and high blood pressure.  He is doing well since. He is back to work and feeling better, thank the Lord.

 

Every year our town has a little celebration downtown to officially turn on all the Christmas lights on the downtown streets.  I took David(Hanna had judo) and we went for a little while. It's always so neat to see all the lights turn on at the same time. I have videotaped it before but I forgot to this year.  Here are a few pics though. Ok, well, more than a few.

The quilt shoppe in their new location- see all the fabric inside?

The magnolia tree in the traffic circle/roundabout

This gives you an idea of how big the tree is!

City Hall

 

a downtown view

 

As you can tell by my son's hat, Krispy Kreme was there. We were a little disappointed because they usually give out a doughnut to each person who wants one but this year they only gave a donut hole to each person. Sign of the economy I guess. But they did hand out coupons for $2 off a dozen doughnuts.  Which reminds me, I have to use that before it expires.

 

I had been wanting to get Ginger a "Mr. Bill" toy for quite some time.. I hit the jackpot when I found one on clearance at Target for $2.  She loved him, but as always he didn't last long.. he was made pretty sturdy overall but she still managed to get the stuffing out of a foot. And the foot was not sewn off from the rest of his body so I couldn't just take the stuffing out of the foot and let her keep playing with him.  :( But here she is with him while she had him.

 

 

We got our Christmas tree up, not as early as usual but up nonetheless.. the kids helped me decorate it. In fact they ended up doing most of it cause Rob and I ended up going grocery shopping. :/

 

 

There is an angel on top of it now, her wings were broken and I had to glue them back on.

 

I have some other big news (no I am not pregnant. lol) .We are trying to get pre-qualified to buy a house.  I had a couple of errors on my credit report that we are trying to get fixed.. I am really so impatient to get moving (no pun intended). Now that I have house fever I just can't stand waiting to get out there and find one.  We have rented our current place for probably about 15 or 16 years. It is entirely too small for our family  now and I am so anxious for some more space, and to do some of the things with our living space I have not been able to do here due to lack of room.  So please say prayers for us, that we will get approved for enough to get our family a nice home and find the perfect one for us.  It has been a long time coming.  Thank you. ♥  And that is one of the more recent reasons I have not blogged.. lunch breaks are spent making phone calls trying to get this credit issue worked out, and when I am online I am scouring realty websites looking for that perfect place. 

 

And last but not least, here is the Alamo - I think I have done a bit more since I took this, I can't remember.

 

I really appreciate you all sticking with me even though I am so sporadic in posting sometimes!! I will try (again) to post more often!

 

 

 

 

Sandy, stitching, and other stuff..

Hello everyone!  First of all, I am praying for all those in the path of Hurricane Sandy, and those who have evacuated but whose homes are still in the path.   We have been fortunate, just had a little wind and very little  rain. I heard from a friend in CT on facebook- she had to stay at her house for some reason and a window blew in and her roof was starting to leak, last I heard.   I can't even imagine. We have stayed at home during hurricanes but none that bad- back in '99 when Floyd(I think it was) came and it flooded near our home we got out in time.. but I remember being at a friend's house who lived on higher ground and wondering what I was going to come home to. Again we were blessed as our townhouse has a crawlspace underneath, and the   flooding did not even reach to our top step.

On to happier things- I celebrated my 40th birthday this past weekend! My husband and I went out the night before without the kids. We are planning another celebration when my parents visit next weekend as my dad's birthday is the 2nd of November. I am just hoping they are able to make it as they drive through the mountains of WV and right now there are blizzards there. I am hoping they will be able to find another route that is safer, and still make it out.

For my birthday my father-in-law and his wife sent me some beautiful flowers. After I trimmed the stems and put the plant food in the water they started opening up- here are a couple of close-ups.

I finished my little prim ornament I was working on this past weekend. There was a border around it, just a one-row border, but I decided to leave it as is.  This is a Sheepish Designs ornament from the Nov/Dec 88 issue of Just Cross Stitch, stitched with GAST Old Red Paint.

I was so glad the year worked out at the bottom, since I had to change it from 1988 to 2012.

I'm going to start my "stash for sale" page on here(see tabs above). Please check back often as it will probably be slow going adding everything. 

I did get a few pictures of the fall colors that are starting to show here and there- these were taken at our park and library.

Well, that's about it here- praying for all of you dealing with Sandy !

Tracey

I fell off the "stash diet" wagon...

But only slightly and for a minute!  I saw this pattern by The Primitive Hare and I had to have it .  I doubt I will have stitched for this Christmas but maybe next.  Now it's back on the diet. :)

I had hoped to finish my ornament last weekend, but didn't quite make it.  I think I am going to finish it sometime this week.  I thought about working on it tonight but I need to get working on the LK sampler. Not that I can finish it by Halloween or anything...sigh... It's my own fault.

I have been moving along on The Alamo bit by bit. I didn't have a chance to work on it this morning but hopefully tomorrow.  Here is my progress as of yesterday.

Ginger turned one year old on the 18th! I can hardly believe it.  We didn't do much for her birthday but we tried to make her feel extra special all day. :) The day before an order from Petco came in with  antlers and a new Kong for her, so at least she got presents. :)

Getting old is hard!( hee hee..)