Woof You!

I painted this rock in honor of my friend Susan.



She's the best doggy mommy I know.



This rock is nearly the size of a softball!




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Inspired by this image. I don't know the original artist.

Thinking of You

I made this card for a friend from college. He lives alone and has a physical disability. I imagine this Covid-19 isolation might be hard on him, so decided to send him some cheer.

I dug through the cardstock and paper in my stash to find some that could coordinate and would be suitable for a man. I am so pleased with the combination I came up with.

I used a buff cardstock for the base of the card. The border pieces of cardstock are from the reverse side of the plaid paper. The brown crackle print worked beautifully with the plaid. Then I found a scrap of muted green with a swirl to use behind the sentiment. The "Thinking of You" was stamped onto the green with black ink.

I wrote a short personal letter on plain white paper and adhered it to the inside of the card. One the back, I signed it in my usual way.

Once again, I decided to personalize the envelope flap. I repeated the brown crackle paper there. I love the pro finish a lined flap gives to the card set.





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I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest by Greeting Cards by Lasheila

Pete's Gambling Hall

As of today, Dale and I have been married for 29 years! We celebrated yesterday by taking time to put a jigsaw puzzle together ... together! We're very compatible puzzlers, neither getting in the other's way (very often).

Unusual for us, we tackled a 1,000 piece puzzle instead of one of our normal 500 piecers. Dale was able to snag a few from Amazon before they sold out due to people buying them to stay busy during Covid-19 isolation.

This image by Charles Wysocki is tons of fun. So many details in the picture to discover, and lots of good puzzling "clues" to help the jigsaw go together.

All the horses, carriages, and townfolk give this puzzle lots of personality.



Check out all the happy people at the gambling hall that stepped out to "have their picture took."


What ho! This is made for me.

A heart.

Dotted Heart

Happy Easter, friends!

Here's a cheery painted rock to greet you.

This is one of the smaller rocks I painted. It's about half the size of my thumb.

Love Note

This is the sweetest stone in my Hearts and Dots series.

Ahhhhh

It's the size of my thumb.

Heart Egg

In honor of Easter weekend, I present my rock painted to look like an Easter egg.

This is one of the largest rocks in the Hearts and Dots series. It's about the size of a baseball!

I like how the silver paint glimmers.

Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 14

Jump on into the Wayback Machine again today. These are the final five projects I stitched in November 2006. I concentrated on stitching the rest of the Twelve Blessings of Christmas series by Lizzie*Kate.









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Friends

The charm is a dainty star on the snowman's hat.

Caring

The charm is an elegant sprig of holly. I think the colors are weird on this ornament. Not Christmasy enough.

Giving

The charm is a doll. She's cute, standing on her toe like that.

Charity

The charm is a gingerbread man cookie. Adorable.

Faith

I changed the colors on this design to some I liked better than those that were charted. The charm is a church bell. How appropriate. 

I kept this set of ornaments and display them with my Christmas cards each year. They've held up remarkably well.

Next time I'll share the two projects I stitched in December. 

#throwbackthursday

Supermoon

I was ecstatic to be at the right place at the right time yesterday to watch the pink supermoon rising over our neighborhood. I stood at the window in Dale's office and had my long lens on my camera. (Maybe next time, I'll have the tripod nearby).

The higher it rose, the more the moon and the sky changed color.

Until ... this.

Pink Moon Rising

Tonight is the night of the Pink Supermoon ...

"Pink moon" is just a nickname from folklore — a reference to moss pink, or wild ground phlox, whose pinkish flowers are among spring's earliest flowers in the eastern United States. April's full moon is also called the sprouting grass moon, the egg moon and the fish moon.

This photo was taken looking east from my garage just before sunset yesterday.

Namaste

I got the idea for this painted rock from my friend Lisa. She recently found a rock with a similar design while out geocaching. I believe she said hers was nestled in a tree -- a peaceful chap sitting in nature, meditating.



I loved the idea, so painted a meditater of my own. He's offering a greeting of "Namaste"  - "I bow to the divine in you".  (It smudged a bit when I added the clear coat).



This is one of the larger rocks in my Hearts and Dots series. It's the size of the palm of my hand.



Hey! You! No peeking!

Asymmetry

One of my favorites from the Hearts and Dots series.

This is one of the smaller rocks I painted last week.

Greeting Card

My aunt is having some health issues. Her treatments have left her weak. She's staying with her son and daughter-in-law for now. I hear she's lost some of her spark.

So I made her a card and sent her a little letter. It's not much, but it's what I can do.

Her favorite color is yellow, so I started with yellow cardstock for the card base. Once cut to size and folded, I adhered the floral scrapbook paper with the punched circle. I embossed some parchment cardstock with hearts, then cut it into a heart shape. It's adhered to the yellow base with foam tape, which gives it the 3-D look.

On the inside, I used another strip of the scrapbook paper along the fold. Then I printed my greeting on some of that same parchment cardstock that the heart is made from. Finally, I adhered the greeting to the card, and embellished it with some gold and white striped washi tape. I was pleased that the mitered corners worked well.



I signed the back as usual.

This time, I made the envelope match the card. Beginning with a plain envelope, I adhered more of the scrapbook paper to the inside of the flap, and cut it to size. It's a nice touch.

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I was inspired by this card by Mach Es Selbst DIY which I saw on Pinterest.

Mach Es Selbst DIY

Friday Blue

and green

It's one of my smaller painted rocks in the Hearts and Dots series.

Throwback Thursday - 2006 Part 13

I was a busy bee in November 2006, completing 10 small projects. Here are the first five. Come on! Jump into the Wayback Machine with me!

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Dragon of Air

I made this bookmark for my daughter Jeanne's birthday. She enjoys fantasy stories and really likes dragons. This dragon was designed by Jennifer Aikman-Smith, who has a whole series of free patterns on her website.

To finish this bookmark

1. I pinned a strip of a blue calico print to the stitchery, right sides together.
2. I sewed the sides on my sewing machine.
3. I then turned the fabric tube right sides are out.
4. I folded the calico to the inside of the tube on the top and bottom.
5. I hand stitched the top and bottom in place using a running stitch with a single strand of floss.
6. Then I fringed the aida on the top and bottom.

Peace

Next, I returned to stitching another of the ornaments from the Twelve Blessings of Christmas series by Lizzie*Kate. The charm for Peace is a snowflake.

Baby Card

My great nephew was born that Fall. I crocheted an afghan for him the previous month. In November, I stitched a card to be sent with it to my niece. The design is by Leisure Arts from the booklet Just For Babies.

The inside of the card read:

You must be so happy

Now that your little guy is here!

May your love and togetherness grow

… Year after year.

Congratulations!

Strawberry Teapot

This sweet little teapot was one of 18 squares made for a charity quilt. It's from the Tiny Little Teapots leaflet by Cross My Heart designs.

Family

Yet another of the ornaments from the Twelve Blessings of Christmas series by Lizzie*Kate. The charm for Family is an angel.

I'll share November's final five finishes next time.

#throwbackthursday

March Goal Update

I made more excellent progress on my 20 Goals in 2020 in March. Dale and I have been staying inside at home for two weeks now. I'd like to say that made a difference in how many goals I could complete, but it didn't really have much of an affect. After all, I'm home all the time and Dale now telecommutes to his job in Spokane, WA.

In March, I concentrated on painting rocks. I made 20. I also made progress on several other goals.

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Overall Statistics

Completed: seven goals

In Progress: nine goals

Unstarted: four goals

As for my word of the year, settling, well, there wasn't much of that. Dale has been making strides in the garage, but my forward movement is crazy slow right now. We did get a couple more pieces of furniture put together. But the thing that's made the most difference in our life is having a refrigerator that works! 

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Goal Details

1. Transcribe session from last year's Skamania Celebrate Your Life retreat

Finished in February

2. Create a watermark for my photos
not yet

3. Memorize the names of all the U.S. presidents in order
not yet

4. Reach a new goal weight

Finished in March

5. Find a new doctor, a new dentist, and a psychiatrist
Got my new doctor in February

Scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist, but it needs to be delayed for a while. Might have a tele-appointment instead.

I have a lead on a dentist, but will forego making an appointment until the crisis is past.

6. Put together 20 jigsaw puzzles
Finished in February

7. File all new digital photos once per quarter
Finished first quarter in March

8. Zero out email box once per quarter
Finished first quarter in March

9. Learn to cook six keto dishes (altered this goal on doctor's orders)
Finished in March. Such yummy meals!

* Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf - March
* Beef & Broccoli/Cauliflower Casserole - March
* Chicken Egg Roll Bowl - March
* Chicken Vegetable Soup - March
* Pizza-Stuffed Zucchini - March
* Fathead Supreme Pizza - March

10. Listen to 20 podcast short series
I listened to one more podcast series in March, bringing my total to seven:
* Epidemic with Dr. Celine Gounder and Ronald Klain - March 21 (highly recommended) 

11. Find 20 geocaches
Finished in March

12. Watch 20 movies from my Netflix / Netflix DVD / Amazon Prime / Hallmark queues
I watched two in March, bringing my total to three. 

* Rivers and Tides - March
* Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - March

13. Celebrate 20 minor holidays
I celebrated two in March, bringing my total to nine:
* Poultry Day - March 19

* National Fragrance Day - March 21

14. Read / listen to 20 books / audiobooks
I finished six in March, bringing my total to eleven:
* Sisters in Spirit: Book 1 of the Ghost-Stumbler Chronicles by Karen Peacock - March 17

* Keto for Beginners - March 17
* 7 Day Ketogenic Diet Meal Plan - March 17
* The Year of Less by Cait Flanders - March 23
* #IMOMSOHARD by Kristin Hensley & Jen Smedley - March 25
* Never Sit If You Can Dance: Lessons from My Mother by Jo Giese - March 30

15. Write 20 #throwbackthursday blog posts about my 2006 and 2007 projects
I wrote four in March, bringing my total to eleven. My posts covered August, September, and October of 2006.

16. Create a preliminary design for permanent furniture and fixtures in my Studio
Not yet.

17. Master bedroom closet organization
Finished in February.

18. Convert cassette tapes to mp3 or get rid of them
Not yet. I'm still not sure I want to do this, and may substitute another goal.

19. Paint some rocks
Finished 20 in March. 

I decided to start my painted rock garden near the front door. 

20. Buy furniture: couch, loveseat, glider, dining room table
Couch and loveseat arrived in February.

Glider put together in March. 

We haven't picked out a dining room table yet, but Dale did order some beautiful wood furniture for his office, and I ordered a cabinet to hang in my bathroom for extra towels.


Word of the Year: Settle

The missing parts for our bed finally arrived ... but not until it was recommended that we isolate. After opening the boxes, we learned that not all the missing parts arrived. We ended up going to Lowes, got the parts, and put the bed together ourselves, even though we'd paid to have someone do it for us. We were tired of waiting and stubbing our toes, and wanted the thing done. 

The following weekend, we put my new glider together. I also set up my needlework floor stand. I now have a stitching nest in the living room. I hope to get back to cross-stitch in the near future.

My Studio still isn't arranged quite right, but at least I have good work space again. I'd been missing crafting and sewing. So spending time painting rocks for three days was very therapeutic.