More Rebecca, around the house

I let out a huge sigh of relief when I finally finished the fill in on that big house in the middle of Rebecca Robinson. But then it was hard to switch from the fill in frame of mind to the actual stitching frame of mind! I did it though, got over the hump, and here is where I am with Rebecca now. The motifs to the left of the big house are done and I've actually started on the right side of the big house now! Yay! I love how Rebecca is looking.




In my last post, someone asked about showing where my samplers are hanging in my house. Here is where Charlotte Clayton and Lois Minshall are hanging -- in my bedroom. (Sorry for the flash -- it's dark and raining outside.) I plan to hang some more samplers there as well.




You might notice a small hole in the wall along with Charlotte and Lois. Well, that's from my Advent Sampler. It was hanging there until a few weeks ago when I was rudely woken during the night by a very very loud crashing sound. Yup, Advent had fallen from the wall (DH wasn't home at the time). Amazingly, Advent escaped with just a splinter of wood missing from the bottom of the frame. And nothing on my desk was broken -- which was lucky since I keep my laptop, my Kindle, and my speakers there! I haven't recovered from the experience. Both Advent and Dutch Beauty are not hanging up yet for fear of them falling from the walls again! Here's a picture of Advent in case you haven't seen it. The design is by Mary Beale.




Next up is my Hawk Run Hollow wall, designs by Kathy Barrick Dieter of Carriage House Samplings. From left to right, there is the Houses of HRH, the Village of HRH, and the Shores of HRH. I assume everyone knows that Kathy is coming out with a new Hawk Run Hollow design that is about Christmas at market the end of September. I can't wait to see it! The framing is by Jill Rensel -- I love what she did with the mats! If you want to see more detail on the matting, look in my photobucket album -- there's a link on my sidebar.




And finally, my Quaker wall. I was hoping to add more Quakers, but that hasn't happened yet. :D I can only stitch so many Quaker motifs, I find. The top left design is Hannah Beeby, the top right is Mary Busby, and the bottom (in the black frame) is Maria Spence.




I do have one or two other samplers hanging as well, plus even some oldies hanging from my first stitching life. (I still haven't told you about my first versus my second stitching life, have I?) But that will have to wait for another time.

In other news, the boy child is going to be saying goodbye to his last friend from the neighborhood who is leaving for college today. He had a tough time saying goodbye to his other good friend last Friday. Poor kid -- his luck that his closest friends are a few years older than he is and are off to college when he still has 3 years of high school left to go. He's going to be lonely without them. (Both of his friends are in the photo of the girl child's babyhood-and-up friends in this post.) Oh, he does have other friends, both in the neighborhood and out. But his habits are going to have to change. School is also starting a week earlier than usual, the week before Labor Day. And his sister will be ragging him because he'll be in school and she won't have gone back to college yet. Ah well. The girl child will also be lonely. Seems like all the colleges except maybe one start much much earlier than hers. So all her friends are gone back to school or going back this week, except for her. My poor children.

US Open (tennis) starts next week! I'm excited. I've also discovered that one can watch some of the smaller ATP events online, so I've become interested in what goes on between Grand Slams now too. Not good! lol!

Well, have a good weekend, everyone! And thanks for stopping by.

Some framing (finally!), WIPs, and birthday pic

Well, I'm way behind on my framing. I have so many pieces to frame and no money! But I did manage to get 3 done at my LNS and I picked them up on Monday. I'm so happy with them! First off, here's Charlotte Clayton, the sampler in my heading.




The frame is a really pretty green color with a bit of the rusty color on the inner edge.


Next is Lois Minshall, which I dedicated to my mother. (Sorry for the poor pictures.)




I love the frame! It looks sort of green and sort of blue. So pretty!



And finally, Dutch Beauty.




I still haven't decided where to hang it, but I sure do love it! I'm not sure why I decided to go for the frame I did, but I'm happy with it!



Stitching was reduced to a minimum over the weekend with the girl child's birthday, but I finally got some stitching in come Tuesday. I neglected Rebecca Robinson to work on the Sail Away SAL. I'm loving how it's looking! And thank you Terri, for my scissor fob! (Terri made everyone in the SAL a fob -- unbelievable!) I forgot to take a picture of it, but I love it! It's so funny -- I didn't open the package for a long time just so I could admire the wrapping. :D




Finally, I did manage to make a bit of progress on Rebecca. As you can see, I'm still mired in the fill in on the big house in the middle. But I'm getting there!



This is such a pretty piece. I'm looking forward to stitching something other than the house! lol!



In other news, the girl child wanted to go into the city for her birthday and do some shopping. So that's what we did, despite its being one of the hottest and most humid days of the summer. I think the girl child was pleased with her purchases. And I enjoyed the people watching -- along with a tiny bit of shopping of my own. Here's the only picture that got taken -- at an open pizza joint. I have no clue what the name of the place was, but the pizza was wonderful! New York pizza is the best!



(Yes, my poor father type is usually the one behind the camera. I need to change that -- I hate being in pictures.)

I hope everyone has a great TGIF Friday and an even better weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Our girl

Our girl child has always known how to shine.



From the time she was a tiny person, she has always known how to surprise us. (Where's the ceiling fan?" asks the father type. He is trying to see if the girl child, too small to walk or talk or crawl yet, really knows where her toes are or if it was just a coincidence that she looked at her toes when they were mentioned. He doesn't expect the girl child to know what a ceiling fan is, and so thinks it's the perfect test. What does the girl child do? She looks at the ceiling fan hanging overhead.)



She grew up surrounded by friends from a young age. (She's the third from the left.) And she's still friends with them too.




She's always been willing to try new things. Even if they don't turn out to be her thing. (Paintball is her brother's thing.)



And she tends to charge ahead with lots of commitments even when we warn her she doesn't have the time for them. I'm often glad she does. (She would never have been happy if she hadn't joined the high school theater group. She played the witch in Into the Woods here.)




She was my little ballerina.



Who blossomed into a real one.




She made it through high school, despite the all nighters, as the valedictorian of her class. We were so proud.




And who would have thought, back when we took her to reunions for the first time




That we would attend my 25th reunion with my daughter proudly marching in the p-rade as a member of the future class of 2012.



She survived her first year at college with flying colors, doing the usual thing -- way too many commitments -- but managing it all with flair. At the end of the school year, she flew off for a month of study abroad in Spain.





She's grown from a wonderful, precocious, photogenic child




To a beautiful, intelligent, and talented woman.



Happy birthday, Bunny. I love you.



And your boyfriend's ok too.

More Rebecca

So this is where I'm at with Rebecca now. She's slow going, but is soooo pretty! I forgot to mention that Rebecca Robinson is by the Scarlet Letter.



The big house in the middle is going to take a lot of work -- it is totally filled in, of course.

Summer is slowly coming to a close here. The boy child went to NYC with friends on the train by himself (without parents) for the first time yesterday evening. Sounds like he had a good time. He's constantly out with his friends, trying to get the last hurrah in. One friend will be off to his first year of college the 21st, and another will be off the 28th or 29th to his first year of college as well. So they're all trying to get as much time together before school starts. Poor boy child will be lonely without his neighborhood friends come the fall.

The boy child's school starts on September 2, but the girl child doesn't have to get back to college till September 12 or 13 with classes starting the 17th. So late! The girl child is squeezing in time with the boyfriend and time with friends as well.

TGIF! Enjoy your weekend! And thanks for stopping by and saying hi.

Stitching galore

It's been a while since my last post. But I have been stitching in the meantime. I was inspired by Tanya of The Scarlett House blog to start Rebecca Robinson. If you go to her blog, you'll see Rebecca almost completed. Isn't it gorgeous? Well, I'm stitching her now too. It's funny, cause Tanya starts stitching in the middle and I always start at the top left hand corner. So I get to see my border before anything else, and Tanya is almost finished but is working on the border last.




I'm also using the AVAS called for and 40ct. Heritage linen by PTP. I think -- but I may be wrong -- that Tanya is using an NPI conversion and 40ct Buttercream linen from Lakeside.



I love the angel or whatever it is at the top. I'm going to think of her as an angel since angels are my thing.




Because of my enthusiasm for Rebecca, I neglected to start the Sail Away SAL in which I'm participating on the start day. I even forgot that it was the 5th when it was the 5th! :D Anyway, the SAL was organized by Terri of Chocolates for Breakfast, Stitching for Lunch and Loraine 0f Sew Be It. But I finally pulled everything out Saturday morning and got going on our first assignment. And I finished it just now.



I'm a rebel -- I'm ignoring the fact that I should be using the 32ct fabric included in the kit and am using 40ct PTP Legacy linen instead. This, of course, means that I won't be able to use the charm, button or sheep button that came in the kit. But I'll worry about that later. :D I just couldn't face the larger count linen and so I decided that if 40ct linen was what I needed to get going, that was what I would use.



Finally, I wanted to mention that Patti of Tapestry of Dreams is having a fantastic giveaway to celebrate the birth of her grandson Oliver. Patti, huge congratulations to you! Click on Tapestry of Dreams and it'll take you to her blog and the giveaway. I think if you click on the above picture, you should be taken to her giveaway as well, but I may be wrong. The prize is a kit to make the beautiful Lauren Sauer piece shown in the picture above. Which, of course, I covet. I believe it's one of Lauren's teaching pieces.

Well, vacation is done, and school starts in -- gasp -- about 3 1/2 weeks. It starts early this year. I would actually like the summer to be a bit longer. Oh well. The girl child doesn't have to go back to college till around September 12, and her classes don't start till September 17. Lucky her.

Well, enjoy your Sunday evening and the start of the week! Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.