Have a Happy

Happy July 4th

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Happy New Year!

This is the same post I make at the end of each year with a few changes here and there to suit the time of my life. It may get old to some but it works for me.

A New Year is right around the corner! A brand new clean calendar! It's up to each one of us what we do with it. Each year I make the same goals with a possible extra or two tossed in for good measure. I prefer to use "goals" instead of "resolutions" because I feel that I am taking already important things in my life and putting my focus on strengthening them.

1. To make an effort to learn something new every day. The joy of knowledge is indeed a blessing no matter what you choose to learn.

2. To make time for myself. It's amazing what 15 minutes sitting on the deck with a hot cup of coffee and watching the birds can do for my soul. A little time each day to refresh my spirit is all it takes.

3. To take time to appreciate each day. Too often we forget to see the beauty around us and take the simple things in life for granted. My continued goal is to look with my eyes but to see with my heart. To simply enjoy life and all that is a part of it.

4. To enjoy my family and friends. I am lucky to have each and every one of them in my life. I have been blessed with so many online friends and each day I am grateful for each one of you! My online stitching and blogging friends are a very important part of my life!

5. Organize and Simplify! Two key words I always yearn to make a part of my everyday routine but often lose focus on. Organize doesn't mean I have to go on a cleaning rampage each day. It just means I need to get my life and things that are a part of my life in some of manageable order so that I feel comfortable instead of constantly overwhelmed. Not putting things off until the last minute can contribute greatly to this cause! Simplify! Just what it means - plain and simple! Stop making a mountain out of a mole hill, do what I can and leave the rest, don't volunteer for more than I feel I can handle or feel will stress me out!

6. To Remember. So many people have come and gone from my life over the recent years and I want to keep their memory alive.

7. To keep my faith alive and strong.

8. The past several years have been horrible for us and have only continued to get worse. Changing things will be hard and will not happen immediately but I am determined to get our lives on track again.

9. To Forgive. Things happen that cause hurt, anger and resentment but often the people who cause these emotions don't care. We are the ones left with bitter feelings that only mount up and make us more and more miserable. I will let the past remain in the past and let go of these feelings so that I can move on with my life.

10. To use kind words and practice patience more often. I will try to live by the good old standard saying "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

And of course the New Year just wouldn't be complete without a few just plain fun goals!

1. Take more trips. Even day trips can be fun.

2. No pressure. Keep the fun and joy in stitching. This is why I started in the first place! I actually have several special projects planned for this year but will keep them a secret until I start.

3. Work on some WIPs I have been neglectful of. Each stitch on them brings me a little closer to a finish!

4. I also have a lot of freebies, smalls and magazine patterns I have been wanting to stitch.

5. Take more pictures.

Have a safe New Year's Eve! Thanks for stopping by! Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

Surprises!

Seems that I am posting later than usual today and will probably be so the rest of the week. Finals week for DS so he is using the main computer a lot more than usual.

When I posted yesterday I thought it was going to be just another ho hum day of trying to get these computer programs straightened out again. When DH got up, he asked if I found the package he brought in. Package? What package? After I saw the return address, I tore into the cardboard delight! It was just what I needed! A tin of Edgar's yummy Christmas candy! I don't who was more thrilled - me, DH or our two bottomless pits! Thank you again Edgar! If you have never visited his blog, you must stroll on over and see his beautiful stitching!



While going through some Christmas ornaments, I came across several special ones. The gold Elvis. Tacky in it's own way but it was a joke gift from my Dad one year. I have always loved Elvis and my dad liked to tell a story of when I was about 4 years old. I was so terribly in love with The King back then that when I heard his music, I would run through the house screaming his name then in a fit of exhaustion I would throw myself on the floor and just sob. lol. A little dramatic but hey, I was in love! lol. No picture of it because the camera refused to focus on it properly. I guess Elvis was wiggling his hips too much! lol.

The second ornament was another gift from my dad. It's a Hallmark ornament that looks like a radio. When you press a button, my dad's recorded voice sends us his Christmas greeting. I tried to hear his voice but the batteries were dead. I remember his voice. Strong and vibrant but I wanted to actually hear it again! DH went out and picked up some batteries after I had expressed my dismay. Now I have a part of my dad with me for the holidays again!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and finds their own suprises that will bring a smile!

First Monday of the Month

Here it is December 5th and my 5th day blogging in a row. That's a big deal for me! I used to do it but as time went on the posts got fewer and farther between. I realize that some posts are not interesting and just jibber jabber but I am taking baby steps! Don't give up on me! Please! lol.

The holiday season is full of traditions. Some new, some old. Some lost but remembered, some carried on through out the years. We have a few that have survived but I have one just for myself. Each season, I buy myself a new holiday coffee mug. It's an expensive tradition but one that I enjoy. My special mugs go into a separate cabinet. Over the years some have been broken, cracked or the design has worn off after so many washings but I always enjoy looking over them, using them and picking another new mug each year!

After Saturday's post, I realized that I left out two very big holiday favorites! The movie, It's A Wonderful Life! My family could care less about the movie but they all gather around to watch it with it with me mainly because they want to see me cry like a baby at the end and get their annual holiday laugh! Meanies! lol. And the Christmas carol, O Holy Night. Each time I hear it, my heart gets full and I get tears in my eyes.

After my side feels better, I will pull out the camera and take a few pictures to post. Thank you for stopping by again! Your visits and comments always mean so much!

Tomorrow is December!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Did anyone brave the crowds of shoppers on Thanksgiving weekend? Not me! I have not participated in Black Friday in years and really don't miss it at all! lol. To those of you brave souls who ventured out, I hope you found some wonderful buys! I just can't get over how fast the year has passed by and that tomorrow marks the beginning of the final month of this year!

Our weather was chilly before Thanksgiving then it warmed back up for holiday. The temps have dropped back down again so it was time to turn the heat back on. No Heat! We have no idea what happened within several days time but until the fix it man comes out, we are relying on the fireplace!

Since my last post, I began a new start. Like I said before, I am sticking with the Winter theme for awhile so I pulled Parson Brown by NFF from my stash. I have changed a couple of colors around to show up better on the fabric I'm using. I also put a few more stitches into The Mother's Tree. The letters are beautiful but tedious to stitch. I want to keep at it though so it doesn't become a UFO. I am taking my time with these for the remainder of the year.

I joined a few challenges for the upcoming year as well. TUSAL just for fun. WIPocalypse because it may be the incentive I need to get several of these WIPs finally finished off and The Oldest UFO seemed to be a fitting challenge to help me finally get And A Forest Grew by Rosewood Manor finished or close to it. That piece has been in my basket for close to six years now! I totally bombed out on last year's challenge but life happens. My intentions are good though! Fingers crossed for 2012! All links can be found in my side bar to the right.

While cleaning out a forgotten drawer, I found some hidden away freebie ornament patterns! It was like bringing home a load of new stash! I would love a basket filled with these smalls. Like I really need another project or theme going on but I do have the charts. Who knows how well this will pan out but I went ahead and put it on the list! Wow. That list is getting loooong! Nothing definite. Just the wheels of my mind kicking into gear again! lol.

With everything that seems to have been going on around here, I just haven't felt like pulling out my camera. Hopefully next time I will have some pictures to share! Thank you for dropping by! Your visits and comments always brighten my day!

Get Ready to Get Stuffed!

What a week it was since I last posted! The kind of "thank goodness that's over" type of week. It all began with our phone and internet service. Losing connection in the middle of a telephone call, soooooo sloooooow internet and just a major annoyance. They came out in a jiffy and it took a little while longer than I had anticipated but both are working 110% now. That should have been enough. Right? Nope. We were without any water for more than 30 hours. That was a real annoyance with dishes piling up in the sink, the dirty clothes hamper seemed to fill up faster than usual, no showers to be had and something as simple as washing your hands was unavailable!

DH is home on vacation again for the Turkey holiday. I do like having him around. During the evening we sit in the living area while he reads his astronomy magazines or works on his hobby and I stitch. It just reminds me of our earlier pre-kids days and has a cozy feel to it.

Did I mention that Poor Maidens was a gift from a lovely someone? I was so thrilled and couldn't stop dancing around the room. DH thought I was totally crazy! lol. I finished off AWWR - sort of. DH likes it better without the border. Yes, I usually show him my stitching and get his input. I still haven't decided whether to add the border or not so for now it remains a sort of finish.

While going through my stash I saw all those wonderful bird designs that are waiting to be done and remembered I also want a bird wall! Do I have enough walls? For now I am loving stitching on these pieces for my Winter wall and will probably concentrate on them for awhile. Now to go through my stash and find my next new start!

I have been keeping some candy on hand lately and I am beginning to gain some weight back. All my tests came back normal so I have another appointment with the doctor to discuss other possibilities. He thinks it could be something as simple as nerves. He said that's pretty common when you get older. Gee, thanks doc! Maybe I should tell him that he's no spring chicken either! lol.

Mr. Turkey is in the fridge getting thawed out for the big day. I always make my standard dressing that everyone loves for Thanksgiving dinner but I like play around with an extra dressing recipe looking for that perfect one with that special umph. This year I have come up with, what I think, will be THE one! Actually I am basing it on a salad that I love from a local restaurant (minus the lettuce)! Just sort of making it up as I go type thing. I'll let you know if turns out as good as I am hoping. What all do you fix for Thanksgiving? Any traditional dishes? Any new experimental ones?

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for dropping by! I wish you all a wonderful holiday!

Long Busy Weekend

I can't believe that it is September! Once this month arrives, the remainder of the year seems to fly by before you know it! This month I will start stocking up on my holiday baking supplies. A few items each trip makes it lot less hectic and doesn't pinch the ol' wallet quite as much.

I hope that everyone on the east coast is safe and sound today after Hurricane Irene. We are far enough inland that we were not touched by her. The winds did kick up a few times during the day. Otherwise it was mild weather in our part of the state. We had our share of damaging storms earlier in the Spring so everyone around here breathed a big sigh of relief. My heart does goes out to the people on the coastline and those close enough to the coast to feel her effects and have to deal with her damaging wrath.

I had every intention of making a post earlier in the week but troubles with our internet connection kept me from doing very much online. Luckily it was just due for an update and not because of Irene. After that was fixed and running good, we had a whopper thunderstorm that knocked our power out for the better part of blogging time.

DH is taking several extra days off making it a nice long weekend. It's nice to have him around for more than just a couple of days. In the evenings, he works on his telescopes while I stitch.

Over the long holiday weekend we will celebrate our 35th anniversary! Wow, does time fly! It doesn't seem like yesterday but certainly not that long! I still remember...

For dinner one night last week I made Brenda's mac and cheese! Scroll down to post on 8/16/2011 on her blog for recipe. Yum! It did not sit around very long as everyone was going back for more! It was a big hit of the meal and I'm sure I will be asked to make it again very soon! I borrowed the picture from her blog but mine looked just as good!

I finished up page 3 on Marianne and was doing some major happy dancing. I still have about 9 pages left to go but the good news is that the last 4 pages are not full pages so that may help. I decided to treat myself to a new start and began my Mother's Tree. It looks really simple but once I realized how long some of our family names are compared to the picture on the chart, uhh, this may be a little more detailed than I had first thought! To quote Ricky Ricardo (remember "I Love Lucy"?) Ei, Yi, Yi. Oh well, it will still be a special piece! Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to just start on everything in my stash! Now that would really be a MIP (mess in progress)! LOL.

DH has a birthday coming up! He loves German Chocolate Cake and his mother used to make it for him every year on his special day. After we married, I begged her for the recipe for years to no avail. She would not share it with me (or anyone else). I was sure I could find a recipe else where but this was the one DH loved so I wanted to stick with it. When she got older and tired of the yearly ritual, she gave in and passed the recipe on to me. Now I make two each year for the birthday boy! One for home and one for him to share with guys at work. After my MIL passed away, I got her cookbook that she had put together over the years. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw that many of her prized and secret dishes were in there as clippings cut out from the local newspaper!

I am low on pictures this time around because DH borrowed my camera and didn't put it back in it's proper spot so I have to interrogate him later to find out it's current location! I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! Thanks so much for stopping by!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I hope all mothers have a wonderful Mother's Day and I hope everyone else enjoys the day being with their mother on her special day.

Be sure to check out the wonderful giveaway at http://greyhousesamplers.blogspot.com for some lovely primitives.

It's In the Air

It's been fairly dull around here since my last post which as you all know is just fine with me! Drama and disasters don't fit well into the scheme of things for me so I treasure the moments that it stays at a distance.

We had our usual weekend of errands and grocery shopping. Not one of my favorite things to do because as soon as all the bags are brought in, we are pushed aside as two grown bottom pits that we call our sons scour through each one for something to immediately devour as if they haven't eaten in weeks! I have learned to just step aside and let them do their thing before attempting to put everything where it belongs. Otherwise, it could be life threatening!

Our weather has been simply gorgeous! Warmer days, clear skies and sunshine! I call this our Spring teaser because it seldom fails that we get all excited about the nicer days and the trees begin to bud then Winter hits again. I can just hear Mother Nature laughing when this happens and saying "Silly people. Haven't you learned by now that I'm not finished with you".

I have been waking up to the sweet sounds of the birds courting songs. The bluebirds are busy starting on their nests. They often make decoy nests in one of the bird houses as well as the one they plan to use in another house. Time to get the feeders ready and stock up on food to help them out a bit during nesting season. The business of Spring has begun.

My rotation isn't coming along very well at the moment. I keep working on Marianne and saying "when I finish this section I will set it down" but I just can't seem to part with her so I keep on stitching. Whether it is Marianne or another piece, I am just thankful to be stitching since I had to leave her all alone for several days due to an arthritis flare up in my hands and an allergy attack that kept me sneezing constantly. That's never fun!

I am planning to take in several pieces for framing next month and I can't wait to see them hanging on my wall! Along with this, I have gotten the all clear sign to make an order around the same time! Yea! I can't wait to see what kind of goodies I find to toss in my basket but I know that fabrics will be a priority! I really don't need to order any patterns but I'm sure a couple of designs will pop up from Market that I will make an excuse to justify tossing them in as well.

Surprises are always fun and over the weekend, the mailman brought the Guarding Eden pattern I had ordered. It was backordered and I felt like I waited forever for it to arrive but it is here all safe and sound now! I have tucked it safely away for now while I work on Marianne so I am not too distracted by it!

I am not much of a Valentine's person so we never do much for it. Even as a child, all I really cared about was the abundant amounts of candy in the stores. My Grandfather (who I never knew) was born on Halloween and died on Valentine Day. I could always sense my father's sadness around this time. My mother's birthday was just several days off from Valentine's Day and since she passed away, I don't feel much like any celebration around this time of month. When the boys were little, I made a special effort for them but they are past that now. She has been gone over 41 years and it never seems to get any easier for me. There are 4 very hard days for me during the year. My parents birthdays and the dates of their death. I am always a little bit relieved if I can get through these days without remembering what day it is because I remember all year anyway. These days just sting more.

Thank you for stopping by again! I always enjoy your visits and comments. Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

A Hidden Treasure

While going through some tote bags, I found a CHS design I had been working on and obviously set down and forgot about. I know I wasn't really thrilled with the count size I used for it (Aida 14ct) but look at how much I have done on it! I thought about re-starting on a smaller count but I have way to much done to worry about that now! Now I need to go through and get the threads pulled out again for it so that I can resume working on it and hopefully have another CHS finish very soon!

While I am writing about CHS works in progress, Independent Mind is starting to coming along nicely! I no longer feel like I am stuck in first gear on it. I am almost finished with the divider which will make me very very very happy! I will share a picture as soon as the divider is finished up!

The rest of the week will be spent with stitching, appointments and if the weather permits, Harold and I will probably get busy with some of these projects we need to to take care of.

If I happen to disappear for the remainder of the week, I hope you all have a lovely Easter filled with jelly beans and marshmellow chicks! Thanks for stopping by. Your visits always brighten my day.

The Day After

Once again, I want to say thank you to all my blogging, stitching and scrapping friends. This has been a rough year for me and to know that all of you have been there to support me has meant more than I can possibly put into words. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. You are definitely special people in my book!

The Hospice House where my Dad passed away is planning to start a memorial walkway. They have asked families of those who have passed away here to make a donation and in return a brick will be placed with the loved one's name in the walkway. I am thrilled to announce that my Dad will have a brick in this special memorial. It means a lot to me because my Dad loved this area. He lived here for over 50 years. Worked here, raised a family here and had a life. He is not buried here though and I have wanted to do something to say "yes, he was here and he placed his mark on this city". Now there will be.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It was raining all day here so we all stayed indoors playing with our gifts and watching movies all day. I got up early Christmas morning to make sure that Harold's stocking got filled nice and full! He seemed to like everything he got whether it was wrapped or pulled from his stocking.

As for me, I got some of the gifts I had asked for then Santa surprised me with the Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow pattern! Oh my gosh! I know I said I wouldn't buy any more and I didn't! Santa got it for me! Maybe I need to get busy on these HRH designs I have sitting around because I know I will want Autumn when it is released!

Not much planned for today. I may venture out later today to pick up some floss. Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

Have a Merry Christmas

My turkey is in the fridge thawing out. I usually get a great big tray of BBQ from my favorite place to last from Christmas Eve all through Christmas Day. For several days, everyone can make a BBQ sandwich or have a nice BBQ plate with fixings. It gives me a time out from all the holiday cooking too but to my surprise this year when I went to place my order, the one really good BBQ place (in my opinion) around here that I enjoy had closed down! AGH! No BBQ this Christmas because I just don't like the other places that much. I'll cook.



Here is a progress picture of my stitching. I only have several flowers left on this section before I can move on to the last section of the design and then I will finished! Also, I got a wonderful tin of goodies from Edgar! How sweet of him to do this and they were delicious! I say "were" because what the boys didn't finish off, I did! I called dibs on the wonderful white chocolate bark with nuts and dried cranberries! Yum!



This will probably be my last post of the week. Tomorrow I will be getting an early start on some things for Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas Eve, I will be cooking and Christmas Day I plan to rest up and let everyone eat left overs.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. Until next time may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart. I am already working on several more challenge scrapbooking layouts for the holidays. I am so glad I got back into this! I love the inspiration! Be on the look out soon for another giveaway, too!

Christmas Week Begins

The ice was gone early in the weekend. The temps didn't warm up much but the sun did it's job getting rid of it. Yea. I love snow but ice is totally different story. No thanks, I'll pass on that.

I read a wonderful article from about grieving during the holidays and how to keep Christmas alive during this sad time for so many. I even shared it with DH since he has lost both parents within the past 5 years and now both my parents are gone as well. The article first stated that often you have re-route Christmas traditions after the loss of a loved one and many people even feel this type of lose when moving away from family or experiencing the empty nest syndrome. The article suggested that you and your spouse (or a good friend) start a new holiday tradition. A day trip, a day with a movie and dinner. It could be something silly or something traditional but let it become a tradition and it will be meaningful. You could also start a new tradition all by your little ol' lonesome such as taking a class of some kind, a quite lunch out, a new project. The traditions you had with your missing loved ones can never be replaced but starting a new one can often help ease the hurt you feel from their loss. Harold and I discussed it and we both like the idea. We are going to start with one new tradition this year and add several more to the list next year.

For more than several years I have been thinking that I would really like to get new Christmas stockings for me and Harold. I have always looked while out shopping during the season but never found what I wanted until this year! I just love them! They are smaller than our old ones but look how fun they are compared to our old plain and boring ones! These are up and ready for Santa to fill.

Back and Cold!

I am back. I have been in a bad funk since the summer months with all that has been happening. I really haven't even been in much of Christmasy mood so far. This past week was pretty quite. I spent time reflecting on a lot of things and people. I took time to visit the blogs I enjoy reading so much. I had a quite birthday several days ago. It hurt to know I wouldn't be getting my Dad's usual call with a big boisterous version of Happy Birthday on the other end but I was happy to hear from several other loved ones. Harold surprised me by coming home early, we went out to eat some good comfort food then came back home and I climbed into my new snuggly jammies for the rest of the evening.

I worked on my stitching some over this past week and it is slowly moving along. I have promised myself that I will not be getting any new designs for awhile. I have 3 boxes of kitted up charts just waiting for their turn at the needle. I am still enjoying getting back into my scrapbooking / journaling / photography. It is good to get these thoughts and feelings down.

No snow in our weather yet but we have been having some mighty cold days and nights. I don't think my poor ol' nose has unthawed completely in a full week! The forecast is calling was calling for a winter mix in our area yesterday. We saw some snow and sleet while we were running some errands yesterday but this morning we woke up to see this. We had alot of ice last night while we slept. Ugh!

Everyone has blogging dry spells and I hope to be better about blogging now. Until next time, may you have simple days and uncluttered heart.

Anything Christmas

Yes, I am still working on my stitching. Just taking it slow. For my hand's sake and because of other things keeping me busy right now. I do manage to put a couple stitches in a day though. Life is finally showing some signs of turning around and letting us get back our normal routines.

I admit it. I want it all. I want time to do it all. I want all the walls in my home to be over flowing with stitched pieces. I want our beds and closets to be full of loving quilts I have made. I want to scrapbook and journal our lives, our memories and what everyday means to me. I want a garden that makes you want to pitch a tent and live outdoors among it all. I want a magazine Christmas. You know the perfect tree with everyone all cozied up and happy. Not to mention that the house just looks perfect while doing it all on a budget! LOL. Now I will take a moment for a *big sigh* while reality moves back into place. It's frustrating but it keeps me moving.

This mini album is for a challenge over at Practical Scrappers. It will be a good place to keep photo and memories of Christmas needle arts I make or gifts.

Challenge Layout - Workout #9

I have enjoyed scrapping all these challenge layouts this month. There are even more I hope to get done. This one was done for Workout #9 over at ScrapFit. The layout was to use 1 picture, 1 word, some glitter and have plenty of white space. I journaled on the back that this was a picture of my moma taken during her last Christmas season before she passed away. She is playing with my dog (which was also a Christmas present one year).

Gobble Gobble

Everything has been busier than usual around here lately. Or so it has seemed. I haven't had time to play around with any of my stitching or scrapbooking until today when I did pick up MHIBIG once again. I am hoping that everything begins to settle back into place by the end of the month. I do miss reading all the blogs I enjoy so much!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I have been stocking up for the big day. I even bought TWO turkeys last week. One for Thanksgiving and another for Christmas. Who could blame me at 40 cents a pound! For now our Thanksgiving menu is pretty traditional.

1. Turkey
2. Dressing
3. Green Bean Cassarole
4. Mashed potatoes and gravy
5. Deviled Eggs
6. Cranberry sauce
7. Pumpkin Pie

What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart.

Goals and Such

I can't believe it's September already! Harold and I have already celebrated an anniversary and his birthday this month! I have always felt that once the September calendar goes up, it seems like a flash and then the holidays are here!

This past week while DH was home with me, life had finally seemed to slow down a bit and I had time to think a bit more clearly. I thought about some of my goals. Not necessarily short term goals - just goals in general for the remainder of 2009 and probably on in the next year. Since I am a major list maker for any and everything, I pulled out my notepad and pen to start jotting them down. Here are a few of the things I have listed so far.

1. On the gardening front, I want to join the two existing islands to make one big island. This will not be done until after my surgery and I get the thumbs up from my doctor to do some heavy labor. (I will do this with some weed fabric and lots of bark chips) plus re- mulch some areas in the existing islands. I brought home some cuttings of plants from my Dad's yard and I am thrilled to announce that after unsure anticipation, several have new growth and will hopefully make it through the upcoming winter months! There are still several others that haven;t shown any signs of life yet but I still have hope for them. Dad's memorial stepping stone arrived yesterday and it looks beautiful in it's new setting. I, also, wanted to share a photo of my new birdbath for the garden that came from my Dad's yard. The smaller birds just love it!

2. Get busy with my stitching! I know I will find a good many new charts coming out from the show this month that I will want but I need to make myself get more serious about what I have on hand before going too ga-ga but it's just so very very hard! I have several WIPs that I really want to finish up but those new starts keep calling my name! I am hoping to have some stitching progress to show off very soon!

3. Frame up some of my finished pieces and start hanging my work! This is a must!

4. I really need to get my pictures in some kind of order! I would like to use some of my scrapbooking mini albums and do some theme albums such as one or two for Dad, one for our trips and so on.

5. Do at least one repair, make-over, clean out (such as a closet or dresser) or fix-up to the house per month. Some of the items on the house list are small and won't take long or much money. They just need to be started. After being in a house 20 years, a lot of things tend to fall apart all at once! So goes life as a homeowner.

6. Make a trip by the fabric store and pick up some more calicos, pull out several appropriate quilt patterns and get busy!

Like I said before, these are just a few of the things I listed! I certainly don't want to overwhelm myself. After all, there are 7 days in a week, 4 weeks in a month, 365 day or 52 weeks in a year. I have time.

What makes a house feel homey to you? For me it's quilts, cross stitch or needlework samplers, folkart collections, wooden bowls, stoneware mixing bowls, crocheted doilies, soft lamps lighting a room and anything old or distressed. I guess Harold and I fit in perfectly! LOL.

That's about all for today! Thank you stopping by to see me again! Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart!

Good Morning!

For several months running, I have forgotten to post my goals (past and present). Oh well, for now I need to give myself a break! I will start listing and posting them again in the early Fall.

I hope everyone had a long and enjoyable Holiday weekend! We did some our usual errands and routines but nothing special (unless grocery shopping counts. Nawwww!). We cooked out, watched some movies and enjoyed some neighborhood fireworks from the front porch.

I took some time off from stitching to help Harold with repairs on the front porch rails. We ran into a few minor problems that were fixed easily enough until--------- we realized that the majority of the wood was just rotten and it all needs to be replaced! *big hard heavy sigh* The joys of being a homeowner!

In the meantime, I was able to get some more done on my recent work in progress. After all my bragging about not having any problems with my hands, I overworked them with more yardwork and stitching than usual and both hands had a bad flare up so I had to slow it down a bit over the weekend.

Until next time, may you have simple days and an uncluttered heart!