Hello, Folks!

"Hello, folks!" Hope you've all had a wonderful week! The weather has turned quite summery here in Pennsylvania--not sure if this poor snowman likes it very much... For my May Christmas ornament finish, I chose an old chart from the 1998 issue of Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cross Stitch magazine designed by Louise Young. This funny fellow just made me laugh for some reason--perhaps it was his long ant-like body!


Anyway, he was a quick and easy finish. I used 36 ct. Picture This Plus linen in "relic," DMC threads, and black beads for his eyes, mouth, and buttons. The nose was supposed to be beaded, too, but since I had no orange colored beads, I did it in satin stitches and I'm very happy with the way it turned out...For the ornament hanger, I stretched out a spring and simply inserted each end into the linen. So easy! I then tied on a torn strip of the backing fabric for a little accent in the upper right corner. He'll look mighty dapper on my snowman tree this winter!

The noise from the birds chirping, cawing, and squawking in our backyard routinely wakes me up each morning. It sure has been a busy spring here with all the new little nests popping up all over the place. We found this robin's nest with those sweet blue eggs in our pyracantha bush as we were pruning last week. And look how lovely the cream and brown speckled eggs are in the cardinal's nest. Would you believe the cardinal re-used a nest left over from last year! Is that common? I suppose it was built in such a secure location that the bird felt safe to nest in it again. The picture in the upper right is of the little robins that nested on the upper lattice work of our back porch. Don't the poor things look like they wished their mama had built them a bigger nest--they are positively squished together in there. I really love birds and was surprised to see a woman on television the other day talking about how much she feared them. The main creature that I'm truly terrified of is bats--I am petrified of them. How about you--any other animal phobias?

I hope all of my U.S. friends have a wonderful and relaxing Memorial Day weekend. What are your plans? Picnics? Reunions? Parades? We're heading down to Washington, D.C. with my youngest son who will be beginning a summer internship with the Department of Justice. He is so excited for this opportunity and eager to explore life in our nation's capital. But, I'll have to say I'm a bit misty-eyed because I've come to realize that, with his last year of college looming in the fall, he may never truly be at home for an extended period of time again. Sigh...

Thank you for your visits, your emails, your comments, and most of all, for your friendship. I hope your week is as special as each of you are to me :)