Christmas Stocking Update ... Week 5

O.k. So here is another week's worth of work. It's coming along slowly, though I haven't started to freak about it not being done in time for the holidays. Hubby will complete the class he's been taking three nights a week this Saturday, so I'm hoping that he will be willing to watch Jamie a little more so I can work on the stocking.

Five weeks isn't bad for the progress I've made ... or at least looking at everything I'm juggling, I don't think so. I'm actually further now in 5 weeks on this one than I was in the nearly 3 monthsI spent on the first attempt, but then again I didn't have the looming holiday!

Week 5 (Oct. 3, 2010)

I actually haven't done ANYTHING on it this week, so this is exactly what it looks like right now. I am about to head up to bed and stitch a little while hubby does some homework.

Until our next cup of tea ...

Christmas Stocking Update ... Week 4

Here is the update on Jamie's Christmas stocking as of Saturday night. I take photos every Sunday morning, before starting to stitch.

Week 4 (Sept.26, 2010)

I'm really enjoying stitching this and watching it come together as long as I don't think of how much time I have left before Christmas (84 days if you're wondering!)George is pretty excited about Jamie's first Christmas as well, even though Halloween is his favorite holiday.

Today, I loaded Jamie up and after running some errands, headed over to Jo-Ann's Fabrics. I really love craft shopping. It so exhilerating starting a new project ... and I am a perpetual starter. I have to force myslef to finish, especially the larger projects, because something new is always catching my eye and I get excited.

Anyway, today I went looking specifically for fabric to decorate a tote for Jamie for Halloween and tricker-or-treating. While I was there I picked up two more fat quarters for a "vintage" quilt that I was making for me and some fabric for the stocking. This is the Christmas fabric I picked.



It was by sheer chance that I found this. The green matches almost exactly the Santa's suit on the stocking (you'll see part of that in the next update photo.) I was worries that everything would be "Chistmas" reds and greens, and that finding something that more of olives and burgandies would be something that I had to search for. I really like not only the colors, but the pattern as well.

Well, I'm off to get some stitching done before bed, I'll post more follow up photos as well as some updates on other projects.

Until our next cup of tea ...

Creating Christmas Memories!

Anyone who knows me, would not be surprised to hear that Christmas is my favorite time of the year. Growing up with my dad and step-mother who had 12 children between the two of them, left little time or energy to put much effort into Chistmas and as a little girl, even into my teen years, I vowed that when I had chicldren that Christmas would be what it was meant to be ... a magical time of year.

Well, during my whole pregnancy I searched through my cross stitch magazine and book collection, looking for the perfect stocking for our little angel. I finally had it picked out and when he was 3-months-old I started stitching. I spent any free time I had on it, which wasn't much with a newborn. 3 months into it, I realized that despite my hard work, I had managed to miscount when crossing from one page of the pattern to another, leaving a 12-stitch gap. UGH! I had to start over! I was nearly halfway done and the mistake was right in the middle of the whole thing. Rather than cry over it, I started collected what I needed and decided that I would stitch it on 14-count Aida, instead of 28-count, over 2. I prefer the softer look of the smaller count, but it definately harder when working on a larger project and I only had from Septemeber until Novemeber to stitch it and sew it, so we could take his Christmas photos with it.

Well, I'm making progress. I work on it for a few hours each day and am only ehind about a week from where I'd planned to be. So far here is the weekly progress pictures.

Week 1 (Sept. 5, 2010)

Week 2 (Sept. 12, 2010)

Week 3 (Sept. 19, 2010)

I feel like I'm making progress this week, despite Jamie's teething issues. I'll post updates as I go along.



The stocking I chose was "Opening His Pack" by Nancy Rossiin the book, "The Stockings Were Hung." (Sorry for the glare!)

Well, off to get a little stitching done before bedtime!

Until our next cup of tea ...

Monkey's Favorite Spot

So this past summer we went home (Texas) for a month while my husband was out of the country on an assignment. Many of the family members had yet to meet this little guy since the Army deemed it vital to move us to the OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE U.S. when I was 8-months pregnant, but that's Army life!

While we were there, our little Monkey, as we like to call this happy and active little gift of our, spent a lot of time being spoiled. As the first grandchild/great grandchild on both sides, he was quite a commodity, though my brother quickly followed up with the second grandchild, first grand-daughter, 3 months after Monkey was born.

So went a day on Pa Frank and Ma Joyce's ranch (my grandparents). While we were there lil man recieved his first "made with love" quilt ... his response was to promptly fall alseep on it ... in nothing but a diaper! (How's that for breaking it in!?!)




Over the past few months he has become quite attached to it ... to the point I have to make sure he doesn't fall out of the recliner in his room when I pull it out. Let me explain ...

Monkey is very good at sitting in the recliner with a toy while I fold his laundry or change his sheets, however, every day after his lunchtime nap, I lay the quilt on the floor, throw some toys on it and we practice sitting, crawling, and other age appropriate activities. Now he's got a small room and with the quilt on the floor nearly the whole room is covered in furniture or something, so as soon as I pull it off the toy box (beside the recliner) and open it up, he flips over on his tummy and pushes off the back of the chair and slides down the front to get to the quilt. Luckily I am there to catch him as his feet hit the floor ... much to his amusement. It is a fun game for him, but mommy still gets nervous. Maybe this game is why he was standing on his own, long before the crawl or sitting were attempted (on his part.)

He is content to play on the quilt for quite a while, unless the puppy walks by and he tries to follow. He's just happy as can be, playing on his quilt ... and mommy is happy becasue she gets to sit doen and relax for a minute!







Until our next cup of tea ...

Bitten by the bug again!

OMG! I can't believe it has been 4 months since I last posted! In all honesty though, it has been about that long since I've been able to do any significant crafts. A lot has been going on. In October the Army moved us again ... not that I'm complaining, we're in Miami now, but I was more than 7-months pregnant! After a week here at the new house, we headed to Houston for almost 3 weeks for the baby shower and to visit family. After returning we learned that my grandfather had been in a serious car crash and a week later despite all of the doctors efforts he passed away and we drove to Louisiana to attend the funeral. Then we arrived back in Miami at the beginning of December and George started his new command position and I attempted to unpack as much of the house as possible.

So now it's January and things are settling down, which is good because I'm about 6-weeks away from my due date and it's time to start concentrating on baby preparations.

When we went to Louisiana for the funeral my grandmother gave me the baby blanket she had finished a month or so earlier. Since she has so many grandchildren (16) much less the great-grandchildren (4) she is making one blanket for each grandchild's family. She had started making blankets for each of the grandkids in the last year and that was enough to keep her crocheting into the late hours, but then both my (biological) brother and I found out we were expecting at the same time! Boy is her plate full now! (She says God did that to help her keep busy now that my grandfather has passed.) So she asked if making one with blue, pink and yellow was o.k. so that if we have a girl later on we can use if for her too! I think it turned out beautiful!!!




It's bittersweet to have such a beautiful blanket that she worked on while caring for my grandfather even before the accident and G'Pa will certainly be missed.

It will be the first two (biological) great-grandchild for our paternal family and first great-grandchildren for out maternal.

My mother is also crocheting him a blanket and I have some things on my list as well. For a baby in South Florida, he's sure going to have a lot of blankets!

I've got more posts coming soon, so please stop back by. I've got some projects that I am h=finishing now that I am suppose to be resting more.

Until our next cup of tea ...

A New Beginning and A Obsession

Now, Pink Depressionware is not so new to me, as you may recall an earlier post featuring my great grandmother's pieces I acquired a few years ago.


I'd decided that these would be the inspiration for my kitchen decor. They are so delicate. So I've been looking around for other pieces ... glass knobs, candleholds, goblets. Soft touches of pink everywhere.

I've learned from senior spouses, that in military life deployments and moves are inevitable, but the best way to make it feel "normal" amidst so much change is to make sure there are common "comforts" or "constants" that remain. So as we make plans to start a family, these things have become more important to me. Until now, my constants have been work and school, but both of those are coming to an end and I am excited to now focus on creating a beautiful home.

What are some of the "comforts" in your life? You don't have to live the life of a nomad to have a "happy place" or items that sooth you.

Until our next visit ...

Rosy Family Treasures

Today I want to show you a "rosy" treat that was passed on to me about 5 years ago.



This pink Depression Glass roster and chicken belonged to my great-grandmother. My mom got them years ago. I don't remember when she got them, but I do remember when they were buildingn their house that she had them. I recall them siting on the kitchen windowsills once the house was built. I implored with my mom to clean them and put them in a better place. They were speckled with paint from when we painted the inside. Eventually she gave them to me and I cleaned them up.

Now they sit on the counter in my kitchen. I see them everyday and remember my great-grandmother who passed away the month after George and I were married. They were the inspiration for the pink glass heme in my kitchen. I am always looking for pieces that I think she would appreciate.

She was a tiny, delicate woman with skin as soft as satin. She smelled of cookies and powder. She was quite, but not timid. When you spoke, she listened as if you were the only person who mattered. I remember she used to hold and pat my hand when we talked.

The lace that the pieces are sitting on was something that my mother got in a bag of scraps. It was tattered and torn and has holes in it. She was going to throw it out, but I begged her for it. I have yet to figure out what to do with it, but as you can see it has some holes in it.



Any ideas? It is about 4x6 feet. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but it was too beautiful to throw out.

Until our next visit ...

Join me for a cup of tea ... part 9

Welcome to another Saturday tea. I enjoy then so much as I relive the treasured memories of each tea cup on my colletion. Last time I told you about the Mexican Teacup and Saucer that I got when my husband and and I went to a resort after his last deployment.

Today, I want to tell you about my maternal grandmother. She can be tough as nails when needed (and when my brother and I were young we needed it a lot I'm sure), but she is also the most poised, well-mannered and elegant lady. Even when she is elbow deep in her garden after a rain storm, she still seems to have the elegance of a grand lady. I must say she has probably been the largest influence on my life even though as a child we saw her only twice a year when my mother had visitation.



For my pending birthday (Jan. 22, 2006) she gave me five tea cups and saucers to add to my collection.

I asked her about her collection and she said that she started collecting them when she was my age. She had no preferences or requirements, just choosing those she was drawn too. She has given some away over the years, but I think secretly she was happy that I was starting my own collection and she could pass her collection along to me.

I told her about how when I was a little girl I would sit at the coffee table in the den and pretend I was a Spanish Queen pouring tea for her visitors. I loved playing with her silver set.

Growing up I loved to look at my Granny's tea cup collection, from afar of course. She kept them on top of the china cabinet, but there was a silver tea set that sat out on the coffee table, probably because it was unbreakable (trust me I dropped them a few times.)

My grandmother wasn't a "high class socialite" but she is a firm believer in perfect manners, being polite and getting the most from your education. I think that's why manners and style are inmportant to me today.

These the individual tea cups are from her personal collection that she passed to me that January for my 29th birthday. They are elegant and beautiful – just like her.











Every time I look at them, a new favorite emerges. Which do you like best?

Until our next visit ...

Join me for a cup of tea ... part 7

Thank you for joining me for today's tea party ... pull you chair to the table and pour yourself a cup of tea or fill your plates with sweets - today, I will tell you about a group of people who inspire me.

Their dedication and devotion are immeasurable. Despite criticism and disrespect they endure, some even to their faces. I am talking about America's service members. It must be so hard to defend the rights of people who picket the funeral of their fallen comrades and welcome home ceremonies. I can't imagine what it must be like to deal with that kind of hate and continue to fight for their freedom of speech.

They leave their families behind while they fight to help others achieve the freedoms that many take for granted here. They fight for what they believe in, regardless of what others think or say. As Lt. Col. Hal Moore said in the movie We Were Soldiers …, “American soldiers in battle don't fight for what some president says on T.V., they don't fight for mom, apple pie, the American flag... they fight for one another.”

They are honorable men and women who ask for nothing in return.

This week I debut (on this site) a special treasure. My husband brought this marble tea set back from Afghanistan.

When his bags arrived in January 2006, a month after he came home, he said he had a surprise that he had been carrying around for a few months. When I opened it up, I was stunned. It was breathe-taking and beautiful. I was like a kid at Christmas. I cleared off the glass table in the kitchen and put it on the top. Not satified, I moust have moved it three or four more times before returning it to that table.

I love haw the little cups and the decanter sit on a little serving plate. All snug and perfectly. George said they drank a lot of tea over there when visiting with elders, Chi specifically, but like a true Texan went back to his coffee shortly after coming home. My drink of choice depends on my mood and the weather.

There were two places that pieces broke off during shipping, but you can’t even tell.

Until our next visit ...

A Celebration of Life

This week I wanted to take time to celebrate the roses that my recently passed father-in-law brought into my life.


These are the roses on the bush in the back yard. It was planted by my husband's grandmother and cared for by his dad long after she passed away. I love the variations of pink against the yellow house. He had a yellow rose bush in the front of the house too. But I missed the blooms this year since we were at the hospital so much the past few months.



This was a beautiful painting of roses that we found when packing the house. I fell in love ith it the minute I saw it. George thinks it was something his grandmother had in her house, before she passed away. It was tucked back in a closet at the back of his dad's house.



When I was cleaning the kitchen and diningroom, George and I found a variety of beautiful glass serving pieces and such. It took me about 4 days just to go through those two rooms, but towards to end of it I found this single plate with a beautiful pink rose on it. I'm not sure what to do with it, but it will be a pretty serving plate or something.



Until our next visit ...

Join me for a cup of tea ... part 3

Welcome to Saturday tea ... sorry I am late, I guess it'll be an afternoon tea this week. Please a enjoy a crumpet, scone or whatever treat you'd like as you join me in the sunroom and we continue to talk tea. Let me tell you about my third piece in my collection ...

Now where were we? Oh, yes, I had just gotten my first teaset in North Carolina ....

At the end of the summer I packaged everything up for the 19-plus hour trip back to Houston. There is the front seat of my purple Fort Ranger sat the carefully boxed tea set and the two original matching tea cup and saucers. I breathed a sigh of relief when I made it to my new college apartment and unpacked my "collection." I placed them on the only counter in that small efficiency apartment. I had my stepfather's gold fabric "college" couch, a day bed and no room for a kitchen table, but my collection was proudly displayed.

Following graduation in May 2003, I again packaged my treasures and headed off to my first "home." I was renting a beautiful four-bedroom house that my grandparents had bought to renovate and I promised to help when I moved in.

First things first, out came the collection. Now that I had room, I saved my pennies (literally) and bought a brass table with three glass shelves to display my growing collection. It was actually a towel rack for the bathroom, but it was all I could afford and it worked. Its the table which the teaset was on in last week's tea.

Helping my grandmother go through her "Christmas closet" that year, we found a pretty blue tea-for-one set that included the teapot that steeped on top of the tea cup and had a pretty dessert plate with it. She offered it to me, probably after seeing my humble collection when she visited.



So I took my newfound treasure home, thinking about all of Christmases I had helped her go through that closet and placed it on the counter. There it sat for nearly 8 months until my next adventure came ... marraige ... but more about the next peice at tea next week!

Until our next visit ...

Childhood Treasures Found

I was cleaning the laundry room today and found a stack of old picture frames at the top of the cabinet and I found two very exciting treasures.

The first (left) is a framed cross stitch piece that my great greatgrandmother stitched, I wish I knew the year.

My mom had it stuff in some box for a while and when I was just beginning college (and defining my stitching and decorating style) I found it and convinced her to give it to me. I framed it in some cheap Wal-Mart frame to prevent it from getting any further damage.

I loved the colors. It reads, When St. Peter announces "It's time to go," I say "Please let me finish, just one more row."

I was very lucky in the fact that my great grandmother was alive until I was 26 years old. So got to spend a lot of years with her. She was a large part of my love of crafts and stitching. She made us all sorts of things when we were young, from stuffed animals to children's purse to doll clothes. Her main projects were crocheting and sewing, though she did some stitching. She only made one quilt that we know of, it was a child sized one made for me from my baby clothes and favorite clothing pieces of my mother and grandmother's. I brought it to her funeral 5 years ago and my mom took it home. I'm still trying to get it back, but I digress.



The second was a framed collage of pictures of my brother Mark and I (he's the only one who shares both of the same parents in my group of 12 siblings, the rest are half-siblings or step.) I absolutely loved it! We were so young.

My plan is to take both the the Arts and Crafts Center on post and have then re-framed in archival matts and frames to protect them more. I'm thinking I may look for some more pics and do one for my brother and sister-in-law as a Christmas present. I'll be sure to post pictures when I get them completed.