Christmas is coming...

...in 223 days! Although the way I've been stitching anything and everything Christmas this year, you would think it's arriving next month! In my attempt to have some bigger Christmas pieces on my walls by December, I've been pretty much stitching Christmas all year so far. I may just have to take a break and stitch up some patriotic pieces soon, though--they've definitely been calling to me!

So, how is everyone doing in mid-May? It sure doesn't seem like May here as our truly nice spring days are few and far between. We get one picture-perfect day and then a string of cloudy/rainy/gloomy days. And the weekends? I don't even want to mention them! It doesn't really matter to me being retired, but I do feel for all the folks who only have the weekends off and are met with gray, soggy days. 

I've managed to stitch another big (to me, anyway!) Christmas piece. Would you like to see? This is "Christmas is Coming" by Shakespeare's Peddler and it was such a fun piece! I love stitching words and little motifs so this one was just perfect. Stitched on 40 ct. vintage country mocha Newcastle linen with "most" of the suggested colors, I'm so happy with how it turned out.

"Christmas is Coming" finish

How about a closer view? My main changes were to the house portion of the design. The year was supposed to be stitched above the fence, but I substituted five snowflakes. I also changed the color of the house itself to WDW Brick (front) and WDW Havana (side), changed the paint on the door to WDW Charcoal, added muntins to the windows, and added more snow under the house. And do you see the comma and the period? Yep--had to add them to make my librarian's brain happy :) 

In the lower portion, I changed the goose in the box to match the pair of geese above. It was charted as just a silhouette in black, but I preferred a full-color goose. I also added some snowflakes inside the box and to an empty space to the right of it. The long flower had leaves that weren't symmetrical so I changed them, too, and altered the flower's color a bit. I centered that bottom row of holly to match the spacing in the row at the very top. And yes... more punctuation :)

So, I have another large Christmas piece to add to my "to-be-framed" drawer. I need to get busy and place an order for frames soon!

Now to find a frame...

Speaking of frames--I managed to frame one of my Christmas finishes from last year! This finish is actually the result of what I like to call two "happy accidents." Happy Accident Number One: First of all, the "2019 Twin Peak Santa" was not stitched according to the chart. I accidentally started the design off-center so I didn't have enough fabric to stitch the bag of toys that was originally charted. To fill it in a bit, I chose random snowflake designs from various charts and added them along the sides. You can read about my finish of this handsome Santa in this post. I really love how it looks with the pretty snowflakes falling gently down on both sides of the blue-robed Santa. And then Happy Accident Number Two: I placed an order from my favorite online frame shop, Franken Frames, last year. (You can read about the frames I  ordered in this post). Well, the frame you see below on the Santa was in that order, although originally intended for a Prairie Schooler Thanksgiving piece. When it arrived and I held it up to the PS piece, it was way too small. Thinking that the framing company had made an error, I checked out my original order, and sure enough--it was me! I had sent them the wrong measurements. Ugh! But... I just happened to hold it up to this Santa piece and, lo and behold, it was an almost perfect fit! What do you think?

Framed finish of the 2019 Twin Peak Primitives Santa

The color of the wood in the frame perfectly matches Santa's staff and the size was excellent--a bit wider on the sides than the top and bottom, but that's okay. It sure feels good to have a framed finish checked off my list. For those of you who wonder how I do my framing, I'll link to the instructional post by Brenda Gervais that I follow right here.

Giveaway winner... Wow! I was amazed at the number of you who wanted to stitch the "Cycling Santa" chart that I offered last month as a giveaway. I truly appreciate all of your book recommendations, too. I'd read many of them, but did add a few new titles to my "must-read" list. I so wish I could send each of you the chart, but there can be only one winner and that winner is....

Rita H. 

Rita H.--you are the winner of the "Cycling Santa" chart!

Congratulations, Rita! Please send me your mailing address and I'll get this chart right out to you. Hopefully, you can pass it on when you are finished, too, and keep the kindness going. For those of you who didn't win, luckily, the chart is still readily available for purchase. In fact 123 Stitch has it on sale right here for just $7.19!

The ups and downs of May... May used to be one of my favorite months, but that has changed over the past several years. You see, my mom's birthday was May 14th (she would have been 97)  and my mother-in-law's birthday was yesterday, May 15th (she would have been 96). It was always such a fun, festive time of year with Mother's Day falling right before their two birthdays. But, now that they are both gone (mom in 2020 and my mother-in-law in 2022), I tend to get pretty sad. This year it seemed to really hit hard... The fact that none of my boys were able to be here for Mother's Day on Sunday didn't help. The tears were flowing pretty frequently over the past couple of weeks. 

But...

I found a feather this week! Yes, a teeny tiny white feather in the middle of my kitchen floor. As I bent to pick it up, I just knew it was a sign from mom--that she was nearby and watching over me. I felt such comfort the moment I found the feather.

A message from mom? I believe so!

I know a lot of you are probably rolling your eyes right now, but I truly believe in signs and my mom has sent me feathers before. Anyway, I carefully placed it in "her" spot in my Pottery Barn cubby with other special things I've received from her over the years. How about you? Have you received signs from a loved one that bring you comfort and a sense of peace?

The cubby space dedicated to my dear mother

Our Spring flowers continue to dot our green, green yard with brilliant spots of color...

Love the shade of purple in this clematis

And the pink is pretty sweet as well!

Our Korean Lilac bush has never had so many blooms!

The rhododendron bloomed about two weeks earlier than normal this year

And the wildlife... I think I've mentioned (probably many times over the past 15 years that I've been blogging) that we are blessed with a large yard. It's a bit over an acre with a good-sized pond in the back. I thought you might enjoy seeing an aerial photo of it taken by my youngest son with his drone back in 2018. On the left is the pond, in the upper middle is my husband's vegetable/flower garden (which he's since made half the size for easier maintenance) and the garden shed. The little bluish "blob" in the lower middle near the pond is the top of the big bird house that you often see in my photos.

An aerial view of our home and back yard from 2018.

Because of the pond, our back yard is filled with  animals who are drawn to the water. The pond contains probably two dozen koi. The koi are huge--18 to 24 inches long--and are orange, white, black, and a combination of those three colors. During the spring, summer, and fall we feed them special koi food, but when the temperature falls below 52° we stop feeding them for the winter and they survive just fine. You can see a portion of the pond and a couple koi in the photo below, taken last summer in 2023. My little grandson, Mister B, was almost three years old here and looks like he really wanted to jump right in with the fish!

 

"Look, Nonna!"

Here are some of the many visitors we've seen in our back yard this spring...

The blue heron is a frequent visitor hoping to grab a koi. They are simply too big for him, though, so he often flies away still hungry.

 

Can you spot the blue heron flying above the birdhouse near the top of the photo? What a wide wingspan!

This mallard duck couple has been spotted a few times this spring. They sometimes wander up the lawn from the pond and feed underneath the bird feeders. We were hoping they would choose our pond  to build their nest, but I think they've gone elsewhere.

Spot the bunny! And the squirrel and the mourning dove couple! All gather at the base of the bird feeders to enjoy easy-to-get treats.

I honestly can't imagine living in a city... Every time I look out my window, it's like a moving picture of wildlife. From the silly squirrels chasing each other round and round the tree to the mischievous bluejays stealing all the bird seed, to the herd of deer that roams through our yard (eating many of our flowers!)--it's always something new each day. I get so much joy from watching nature!

My husband was on a bike ride for five days earlier in the month and sent this sweet photo taken while biking on Assateague Island. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Assateague, a 37-mile barrier island located on the shores of Maryland and Virginia, is home to over 150 wild horses which are descendants of horses from the 17th century. If you'd like to read more about them, you can click on this article. I'd love to see them in person some day!

Three of the wild horses on Assateague Island. I simply love this sweet photo of the little foal nursing from his or her mother. A perfect photo for Mother's Day weekend, I'd say!

I always think I don't have much to write about when I first begin a post, but it seems to mushroom as I look through the photos on my camera! I hope you don't mind these longer posts... I'm not sure if I'll be back by the end of May or not. It's going to be a busy time with many doctors' appointments, shopping for flowers and planting them, and a trip to visit my grandson. Just a bit uncertain if I'll even get much stitching done to share with you. As I mentioned, I think it's about time I began a few patriotic pieces. After Christmas stitching, red, white, and blue stitching is my favorite! Hope you all have a great month with lots of sunshine and stitches--and as always, thank you so very much for your kind comments and emails. Bye for now...