Spring is blooming into summer!

This year I decided to put in a butterfly garden and so far am very pleased.  I still have a few things to get and plant.  I will be adding a few landscaping rocks for the butterflies to sun themselves and have a few more plants to get.

Included in this garden is Butterfly Bush, Elijah Blue Fescue, Russian Sage, lavender, Bee Balm, Stonecrop, flat leaf parsley, Red Fox, Lobelia, Purple Coneflower, Loosestrife, and Coreopsis.

This photo really doesn't show the beautiful blooms, but to look out the windows and see the butterflies fluttering through the plants is very calming during stressful moments for me.  

This is the first real garden I have even attempted and have to say I can see why people love to garden.

February finished!

I finished up the February ornament for the Bride's Tree. I wasn't sure about adding the beads but felt it needed more...

Now on to April's ornament to be all caught up. Still trying to decide between designs but hopefully by the end of the week I will be totally caught up on this SAL.

Stitching Progress

This is my January ornament for The Bride's Tree SAL. I put the last stitches into it today while enjoying a beautiful afternoon watching my granddaughter and two charming neighbor girls playing.

The house represents shelter and protection in the Bride's Tree. And what a charming house this depicts with the trees and shrubs framing it. I can almost picture the white picket fence around it.

I have had to stitch a new design for the February ornament as I cannot find the candlewicking heart I made many years ago (1984?). I had wanted to use it tying in the something old, but I know once I complete this new design (which I love by Kirsten Schmidt 2007) I will locate the candlewicking one. That is the way things go and I can save it for another set. The new one is about half way finished already this evening and will be finished tomorrow.

Two Birds.......

Last night and today I stitched this small motif from a wonderful pattern which is a competition piece through wiehenburg-samplers@yahoogroups.com and BushMountainStitchery. I was wanting to sample a couple flosses I was thinking about using on the design and have fallen in love with the combination.

They are Raspberry Parfait by The Gentle Art and Sage by Weeks Dye Works.

The thought caught hold of me as I was almost finished that this small motif will be wonderful as my March ornament for The Bride's Tree SAL....definitely fitting the bill of the "Two Birds" title.

This will also make me one step closer to getting my SAL completed and of course the biggest bonus is I love this design!

After Easter Projects

Since Easter I have been working to finish a few things; okay somethings I did manage to finish the stitching but others well I did get closer.

This little frog is one I finished on Monday, he is already finished with his Christmas shopping and is ready to hand out the gifts.  (He is doing so much better than I am or probably even will be when November rolls around).

4 more frog ornaments to go til the set is complete and I will finish them all into ornaments at that time.

This is my progress on the 2010 OHD Monthly SAL finished just tonight.  I'm so happy I'm able to keep caught up on these two SALs as I haven't been extremely lucky on most of them.  I do look forward to the next month being added and seeing it grow!  Such a clean, simple but elegant design; perfect in my mind for a bell pull or quilted wall hanging.

I have also been working on my January ornament for The Bride's Tree SAL and have it almost finished.  I know I'm behind; I did start late and hope to catch up this month.  The whole idea behind the SAL is from a German tradition of a set of 12 ornaments given to a Bride.  Each of these ornaments represent a specific thing to bring happiness into the newly establishment home.  January's ornament is a house to represent shelter and or protection; February is a heart to represent true love or love of family; March's ornament is flowers or a flower basket representing good wishes, beauty in the home.  April's is a rabbit representing hope and/or faith, peace with nature. May's is birds or bird in a nest representing happiness and/or joy, confidence in the shelter (if the bird is in the nest).  June's is Fruit or Fruit Basket - generosity, plenty. July's is Fish - Christ's blessing, fertility.  August's is Rose - beauty and/or affection, Virgin Mary. September Teapot or Coffeepot - hospitality, October Pinecone - motherhood and/or fruitfulness, eternity.  November Angels or Churches - God's guidance in the home, spiritual guidance; while December St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) - giving and sharing, unselfishness and/or goodwill. 

This tradition was something I first learned about while my daughter was a Senior in High School and was taking German (the 2nd of 3 of the kids to take German in School) and she and my youngest son was helping to decorate the classroom door for Christmas.  They of course told me a little about it and I had to research it online as I'm a sucker for traditions.  We soon cut out shapes and such to decorate the door with and label each as to the meaning behind the ornament.  It was a wonderful learning experience for us all; so I was extremely excited when I learned of the SAL for this tradition and had to join. 

I will share photos as I finish the ornaments.

What a Fairy Tale!

For Jaiden's second Birthday, Daya and I decorated this Castle cake. We did most of it after dinner on Saturday night and finally finished at midnight!

We had a lot of fun and her girls loved running into the kitchen checking on our progress. Emma has now decided she wants a Castle Cake also, so I left the kit with Daya for the happy event and process of making another....lol.

Jaiden just loved getting all the attention while being sung to and getting gifts. It was precious to see her face just light up and hear her squealing with delight. I don't think I will ever forget her excitement.

Woo hoo a finish already this week!

I am amazed myself, but here it is Monday and I have a finish already for the week! This is the last of Tiny tidings II by Lizzie Kate. These were a lot of fun to stitch and I look forward to displaying them all at Christmas time. This one I think will go in my kitchen along with my gingerbread/sweets theme.

Other than this bit of stitching, yesterday we planted two strawberry pots with the hope of getting lots of fresh strawberries. We also will be planting blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and concord grapes (2 vines each), along with tomatoes and a butterfly garden to be able to look out on and see the beautiful colors.

This week will be a fairly busy one with St Patrick's Day on Wednesday (which means Irish Soda Bread, and corned beef and cabbage for dinner - yum!) and then decorating for Easter and the delivery of an armoire ( long overdue). There is also planning and invites to get made for Jaiden's birthday party which I think will turn out wonderfully from what we are picturing in our minds.