A New Giveaway!

If you want the chance to have a Christmas surprise, head on over to Down Sunshine Lane and enter their Christmas giveaway!

Good luck!

Giveaway!

The lovely Jennifer is having a Christmas giveaway here.  It's such a lovely treat!  Good luck!

Exchange Received

I recently received my "Sock it to Me" exchange from the ILCS Yahoo group that I belong to.  Check out all the fun stuff I received from Nancy J.

Thank you Nancy!

Blog Giveaways Won!

I was the lucky recipient of a couple of blog giveaways recently.   I've been an avid reader of Jennifer's blog Feathers in the Nest and she had a giveaway a little while back that I was fortunate enough to win.  I won a pair of breast cancer awareness scissors and a sampler from Primitive Traditions called "Jane Baxter, her Sampler of 1824".  This is my first pair of "Good" scissors and I am in love with them!  I need to get more, he he!  

I also won a giveaway at Lyssa's blog My Stitching Corner and was treated to some yummy HDF from Vicki Clayton.  The colors are fantastic....I especially like the "Dragon Droppings".

Thanksgiving Day Prep

For Thanksgiving we always go to my brother/sister-in-laws home for dinner.  This year I made my Mom's scalloped corn, my Grandma's cranberry orange bread and my own butter yeast rolls for dinner.  We got to enjoy a fresh, not frozen turkey this year.  Wow.....what a difference!  The breast was just incredibly moist even after sitting for a few hours after it was taken out of the oven.  I'd say it was worth the extra cost. :)

Into the oven they go!

 

 

Fresh out of the oven

Hot out of the oven!

Yummy!

Scalloped corn ready to go in

 

 

 

 

A finish and a new start!

I completed LHN "Acorn Hill" last night while watching ANTM.  Here it is!  So pleased with it.  I'm going to wait to "finish" it until after Christmas as I have tons of ornaments to complete.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to frame it though.  I'll head to the thrift stores to find just the right frame.

And then I started the Christmas ornament for my niece Grace.  Appropriately, it is the "Grace" word tree from M Designs.  Here's the little bit I got completed last night and I plan to stitch more tonight.  I was amazed at how fast this little bit went when stitching over 1.

We Remember You - A Veteran s Tribute

An amazing song and video written and performed by Steve Hollis.  Steve is from my hometown of Freeport, IL and we grew up together.  His dad was the Pastor of my church and was the minister that performed my and DH's wedding ceremony.  Please watch!

We Remember You - A Veterans Tribute

Been stitching

I've been doing a little more stitching.  I really wanted to get a Halloween piece done before Halloween and I did complete this one.  It's from The Silver Needle and called "Witch Way".  Here it is
.

I've also been working on Little House Needlework "Acorn Hill" and am so close to being done.  I really wanted to finish this Autumn piece before I started anything for Christmas.  I have soooo many ornaments I need to cross stitch that I really need to start NOW.  I'm hoping to complete the stitching on this today.  Here it is.

And I'll end with a cute picture of my grand-daughter Emma dressed up like the monkey she is for Halloween.  No, she didn't go out trick r treating, my daughter just wanted to dress her up. :)

October Breast Cancer Give-a-way

Jennifer over at Feathers in the Nest is having a fantastic giveaway for Breast Cancer awareness.  Go here to check it out.

Broken Girl

One of my favorite singers is Matthew West.  His most recent album tour is called "Story of Your Life".  On his website he tells how he invited his fans/listeners to send him their "stories" and as he read them he came up with the songs for his new album.  One of the many "stories" he heard was that of sexual abuse and he wrote the song "Broken Girl".  I'd not listened to it yet, because that's something I went thru and although I've been thru counseling and am no longer treating, it's still hard to think about. 

He recently performed a concert in my area and this is the video of the song "Broken Girl" - it's beautiful.

My daughter's wedding

My daughter married the man of her dreams, Bryan A Wolff, on Saturday, September 25 2010 at St Patrick's Church in Doylestown WI.  It was a beautiful, albeit cool, fall day and was perfect for a wedding.  The wedding was small, with only family and a very few close friends in attendance.  The entire wedding party was made up of family, including all three of my sons, 3 of my nieces, 1 of my cousins, my BIL, FIL & MIL, all of Bryan's brothers and his niece.  It made for a bigger wedding party, but it was important to them to include all their family in one way or another.

Rather than have traditional instrumental music played for the processional, they chose to have my BIL sing this beautiful song by Brandon Health on his acoustic guitar.  The words are based on the "love" verses from 1st Corinthians 13.  This was also on the front of their wedding program.



When they said their vows, I then sang "From this Moment" by Shania Twain.  It was a bit of a challenge as my asthma started acting up and I'd been to the Dr twice that week for both my asthma (got a new inhaler) and also a respiratory virus that was going around.  The only thing I was truly worried about was being able to sing the song without crying halfway through.  I was doing great until I looked at my Mom who was crying and that's when I lost it.  I missed a few of the words, but then closed my eyes, refocused my thoughts and when I opened my eyes, I looked at my husband and sang the words directly to him.  It worked and I was able to complete the song without anymore tears.

After the ceremony, the bride and groom left the church on their Massey tractor and traveled down the road to their house, switched out into their car and then met the photographer for some location shots at a park in the town between their house and where the reception was in Columbus.  The photographer is a good friend of mine and is very talented.  You can check out some of her photography here.  Michelle Martin Photography   She did an amazing job!  Bryan does NOT like posing at all, but she made him feel very comfortable and encouraged the two of them to just talk and interact with each other.  She was able to get a couple of face on shots that really captured his true smile and personality.  I've made this little collage of some of her sneak peeks that she edited for us.  Click the picture to "biggify".
If you'd like to see more of her "sneak peek" photos the link is here. Therese & Bryan Wedding

They had a wonderful reception at the Cardinal Bowl & Ale House in Columbus with lots of fun music & karoke.  They have a friend/neighbor who has a karoke business and offered to do the music for the reception as his wedding gift to them, their good friend Mari made the wedding cake which was both delicious and pretty, my BIL again sang at the reception for their first dance which was to "their" song "Amazed".   We were able to visit with several of Dave's (my hubby) aunts and uncles that we hadn't seen in quite a while and all in all, it was a wonderful and beautiful day.  I still can't believe my baby girl has her own baby girl, let alone is now married!

Well, though it's been ages since I've posted on my blog, I certainly have made up for it today, LOL!  I'm hoping to ease back into posting over the next weeks.

Reflections of Mothers

Found this on another blog.  What would YOU tell yourself pre-first child pregnant self?  I thought hard about this and this is what I would have told myself.

"Spend time w/your husband, he's still important!", "Don't lose sight of doing what you enjoy", "Even though you say you won't, you're going to make some of the same mistakes your own Mom did" and most importantly - "Yes, breastfeeding is natural, but it's HARD and it takes time to get comfortable with it and it's the most wonderful feeling in the world!"  "One day you'll wish you had all this little one time back. It goes so incredibly fast and before you know it, they're 20 and having their own baby and being married, and your boys will be nearly teenagers and not want as much snuggling and lovey time and your "baby" will be almost 8 and in 2nd grade and growing up way to fast!"

Enjoy the video!

Beautiful song...."Grace Flows Down"

This speaks to my soul today..."It covers me..."

Breast Cancer Awareness Giveaway

 Jennifer over at Feathers in the Nest  is having a lovely giveaway in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Hope on over to have a look!

Check out this amazing giveaway Shelly is having over at Shelley's Artsy Fartsy Life.  She's having a giveaway for a whole set of books!  Wow....what a generous giveaway!

Quick WIP & Exchanges

So I was working diligently on Papillon Castles in the Air and I ended up frogging the same part 3 times so I put it away for a while.  It was driving me nuts!

I have also been working on "Quaker Sampler" by The Workbasket and that's coming along nicely.  I have a picture of where i was in Feb and where I am now.    

 

I participated in a couple of exchanges in the last couple of months.  There was the St Patty's Exchange on the ILCS Yahoo group.   And this is what I received from Georgena.









I also participated in the Pin Pillow Exchange that BeckySC hosted on her blog.  I sent to Francois and this was my first attempt at a Pin Pillow and I failed miserably with the first one I made, so had to quickly stitch a 2nd one and came up with this.  I definitely need to work on my finishing techniques!

This is the pin pillow I received from Sadie.  She did beautiful work!

Update Granddaughter baptism and 12th birthday

So, there's been a lot going on in the last 6 weeks.  My niece was dedicated at church, my other niece had her family birthday party, my oldest son turned 12, Easter came and went, and my granddaughter was baptized.  

My son Devan, turned 12 on March 27.  Hubby and I took our 3 boys and our nephew Silas to the local bowling alley for some fun and then the family came over for cake, presents and ice cream after.  Here is Dev, Caelan & Si at the bowling alley.  And here is is with his cake at home.  

Here is our beautiful Emma Ann all dressed up for Easter in her dress that Great-Grandma Beckie made for her.  

On April 11, she was baptized at the church her Daddy & Grandparents Wolf attend.  My daughter was dedicated as a baby in the Nazarene church, as we believe baptism should be understood by the child when it is performed, but obviously, this was my daughter & her fiancee's choice.  Emma wore a dress that was worn by 3 other generations including myself.  My Mom gently washed it, tacked a few places & you'd never have guessed it's over 80 years old!  This is DH & I with Emma after the baptism.  And here is Emma, Mommy, Daddy & Father.  And here I will end, and start a different post with my WIP.

Brandon's Giveaway

Jennifer over at Feathers in the Nest is having a giveaway in honor of her son Brandon's homecoming.  She's giving away this lovely pattern along with the needed fabric and floss to complete it.  You can go here to enter her giveaway.

Busy, Busy

My Mom has been and gone.  It was so sad and hard to say good-bye.  On a positive note, she DID apply for a job at the company I work for.  She has been contemplating moving back here to Wisconsin where I live, but of course, doesn't want to move until she has a job lined up.    Amazingly enough, the day after she flew back to Colorado, I found out that there were 2 training classes starting in April and May in the department I work in.  NOT the same unit, just department.

 So, now we wait to see if she gets the phone interview and then 2nd interview.  I pray that she gets the job.  I cannot express how amazing it would be to have her close to us again.  She has lived in Colorado since 1997....that's a long time!  I want her to be closer so that she can get to know my boys and of course, my Granddaughter Emma.  We just never know what will happen in this life and I want to take every bit of time I can with her.


I did talk to my Mom about the sexual abuse I suffered as a child.  It was easier than I imagined it would be.  It was also quite freeing....my secret is out.  I told my husband that I feel, now, that everything will be okay.  I know I still have work to do with my therapist and I AM continuing that, but it just feels "right" now.  I don't know how else to explain that.  


I do have some new pictures of Emma, but don't have our printer hooked up to our new computer yet.  Waiting for hubby to take care of that.  She is growing soooo much!  I can't believe she's nearly 4 months old already.  Where has the time gone?  She's smiling a ton, starting to giggle and coo, and drooling like nobody's business!  he, he!


Saturday Therese and I went wedding dress shopping.  She tried on some beautiful dresses, and we're down to just two to choose from.  We're going back Wednesday night for her to try them on again and make a final decision.  One is from the clearance rack for $200 and the other is brand new, custom ordered and over $600.  Biiig difference there!


On the stitchy front, I've been plugging away at my "Castles in the Air" SAL, but it's time consuming.  Also been working on my Quaker Sampler.  I'm nearly finished w/my pinkeep for Becky's Pinkeep Exchange.  I recently won a couple of Ebay auctions for some Gentle Arts threads and also some Weeks Dye Works.  I think I'm coming to the realization that I really like the more subtle overdyed threads like Gentle Arts and Belle Soie.  Since I can't really afford Belle Soie, I've been picking up more and more of the GA.  My goal is to have 2 of each of their threads, so I can work a new piece whenever I want.  I need to purge my floss stash and either post it for sale on the ILCS group or put it up on Ebay.  I had bought quite a bit of overdyed flosses a while back, and have decided I probably won't use it after all.


Well, it's about time to put the youngest to bed, and try to work on my Pinkeep.  I need to have it shipped by April 1 and it's nearly done being stitched and then I just need to finish it.  Hopefully I will get that done on Sunday.  Take care!

It's been a couple of weeks - PICTURE HEAVY!

Well my Mom has come and gone along with the Olympics....  :(   She got here on Friday the 19th and left on Wednesday the 24th.  It was such a short visit, but full of love.  It was everything I had hoped it would be and I was able to finally talk to her about what happened to me during my childhood.  I wasn't sure how I would feel afterwards....would it change how I am or how I feel or react to things.  Honestly....I think it has.  I certainly feel more open with my husband.  Things just feel right.  It's hard to put it into words.

Anyway, while Mom was here I didn't really get any stitching done, but I sure did have fun showing her all my stitchy stuff!  I finally did a little stitching last night during Biggest Loser.  I'm working on a Pinkeep Exchange that Becky from Becky's Bee Stitching Hive is hosting.  I'm finishing it as a Biscornu, so that will be a new thing for me.  After I finish it, I'll post some pictures.  I'm hoping to work on either my Quaker Sampler or Castles tonight...not sure which.

So that leaves....pictures of course.  While Mom was here we drove down to our hometown of Freeport, IL where my niece & nephew live and visited them.  So the group pictures here are of them w/my kids (sans my son Caelan).  We had such a nice time.   Obviously the older woman in the pics is my Mom and the dark haired girl sitting w/my daughter is my niece Andrew who is 6 months younger than Therese.  Please enjoy my pictures!

 The last group shots are of my Mom's last day here.  I pulled the kids from school just after lunch so they could say their good-byes.  This is Great-Grandma holding Emma before she leaves.  It was very sad. 

My Mommy's coming to visit!

I haven't posted in the last couple of weeks, or for that matter hardly stitched.  My Mom is coming to visit from Denver and I've been busy with putting the house to rights in anticipation of that.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to see her.  It's been since Mother's Day 2008 since I've seen her and Jan 2008 since my boys have seen her.  

My boys have been asking me for the last 2 weeks how long it was until Grandma came!  And then yesterday my youngest who is 7, made a comment that made me so sad.  I told him that we (Grandma & I) would be picking him up from school in the afternoon Friday, and he said, "I don't always remember what Grandma looks like, but I remember her voice!".  It's hard to live so far away from those you love.

I'm also a bit anxious about this visit.  I'm going to tell my Mom about the sexual abuse that happened to me over the course of my chidlhood.  This is actually a very good thing, and will hopefully help me a lot in my healing.  BUT, it's also very hard to do, because I know that this will also hurt her terribly.  

Well, that's it for now, I'll probably update next week after Mom leaves with pictures and such.  She gets to meet her Great-Grandaughter for the first time, and that's going to be a joy to see.  Have a great week and hope you all get to do lots of stitching!

Tuesday Night UFO

I worked on my Papillon "Castles in the Air" for the ILCS Tuesday night UFO.  Here's my before and after.

Virtual SAT Update

Here's my before and after for the Saturday Virtual SAT.

 

And of course, the obligatory picture of my Granddaughter, this time with my daughter.  They were here a good part of yesterday.  Aren't they beautiful?

 

 

Unfinished Project Tuesday

So I've decided Tuesday are going to be an Unfinished Project night for me.  So last night I picked up my Papillon Castles in the Air SAL and worked on it.  While technically, this SAL is still going on, I had only completed Part 1....so it really is unfinished as to where it should be, since there are now 7 parts released.  

So here's my completed Part 1 and where I started last night, with a nice close up.

And here is where I finished at the end of the night.  I started stitching @7pm when Biggest Loser started and stopped @10:30 when the evening news was done.  Doesn't look like much, but I had to switch colors a few times, so I kept my needles loaded and that helped a bit.  I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed working on this one, so I think I'll add one more night a week to work on it and see if I can get caught up to where I should be by the end of next month.  Otherwise I'll keep focusing on my Quaker Sampler.

And just because I can, I'll share another picture of my beautiful Grandaughter , well let's make that two!

Really.....that's what I look like?

I had one of those "A-HA" moments this weekend.  I got together with some ladies I used to work with to just hang out, have pizza, have a few drinks and just have a good time.  It's been 2 years since I've done anything by myself, so I was really looking forward to it.  I had a blast!  We listened to music and danced....I LOVE TO DANCE!  I used to go dancing all the time in my early 20's.  My husband doesn't care for dancing, so I haven't danced since my bachelorette party in 1997.  That's a long time!
So, we were taking lots and lots of pictures.   See that third picture there....that's me in the green.  I couldn't believe just how bad I looked.  I've gained back the 10 pounds I lost last summer and I have really exercised at all since fall.

Today I started working out again.  I was up at 4am and did the Leslie Sansone 4 Fast Miles and I did each one!  My daughter is getting married this year and I'll be darned if I'll be this size when she gets married.  I felt so much better physically and mentally when I was running last summer.  It's too snowy for me to do that now, but I can do my DVD's.