Monday, August 31, 2009

A little stitching

I started and finished this one on Saturday! It's a pattern from the online Gift of Stitching magazine. The colors I chose were completely different than how they did theirs. I used Mermaid WDW thread, I always thought it was pretty, but so random and it fit this project perfectly! I had some odd bright yellow WDW (I think it's Lemon something) and leftover Spring Grass and even had beads to match!

It was put together just like a biscornu. The to square was a seperate piece, not that big of a deal to attach once I followed the directions! :) It's a little pin cushion, in case you didn't know!

Remember that LNS I went to that had all the great deals? One was this SB kit: scissors, fabric, pattern, thread and I ended up paying $6.50 total!!

Here's the back:

It's gonna be a cute little thing once I get the cording added on there!

I got a lot done on FP the past two weeks. I'm working on these pink flowers:

Here's the whole piece. There's a bunch yet to stitch on the left of the picture. Plus all the birds, bugs, butterflies. Oh and all the backstitching!

Last but not least, this pattern is also from Gift of Stitching. I changed the colors all around too. I'm liking the dark gray fabric. I'm hoping to get the finishing done today, once I get some housework done! I don't stay home just to stitch you know!! :)

Tomorrow I'm attacking the LNS shop which has now reduced it's prices to 70% off. That means WDW are .60 each! Yup, I'm sure there's not much left, but I'll let you know tomorrow!

This weekend Fri-Sun I get to stitch all day, every day! We'll stop for some lunch breaks, and maybe even eat dinner! I'm dropping my kids off at school on Friday, (My wonderful MIL is coming to watch them.) and I'm going to go stitch until I come home on Sunday!!

Friday, August 21, 2009

Pictures and More Pictures

We spend the summer in close contact with our summer staff! We had a band of five guys that traveled with us also, but these were our four full time staff. We started the summer not really knowing any of them (except for Blair in the white, she worked with us last summer) and now they feel about like my own kids!

Andrew and Luke each got to spend a week at boy's camp. (RA camp for those who are Baptists!) They had a blast!

I did manage to get some stitching done! This guy needs a little red nose!

And she's a little fuzzy, but she's cute, isn't she?

This is an old Just Nan pattern that friend loaned to me. It will be a little needle case when I finally stitch it together. I need to find the over-dyed floss to stitch around the edges. These next two pictures are stitched in a row on a single piece of fabric. So I just need to put a liner fabric on it.

This is the back, and the top that will fold over the above piece.

This is a stitchers wallet that needs finishing. I really need 733 for it, but made a special drive (20 min) just to get the DMC and I picked up 732 accidentally! DUH! So in the empty spaces, I need to add lots of little leaves in 733. It will be folded in half (similar to the above pictures) so the triangle will actually be the overlap of the wallet.

This little saying is from the 1800's. It's laying on some fabric I had in my stash, but I think the print might be too big for the lining? Nobody will see it much! By the way, I stitched this whole thing wrong! It was supposed to have all these specialty stitches, and I just started stitching without reading the directions, so mine is just plain xstitch, except for the center of the tulips. I did that part correctly!

Last but not least, I have been stitching on my Flower Power some this week. All the blue flowers and the greenery has been done the past few days, and I finished those white flowers on the bottom right.

I hadn't even looked at FP since the end of May. I remembered stitching the pink flowers and the white daisies, but I had completely forgotten I had stitched these little pretties!

So I was so excited when I opened up the fabric and saw how much was finished! Now that the blue flower is nearing completion, it's really looking great isn't it? I have tons left to do. A tall flower fits between the pink and blue, then there is the whole left side! All the back-stitching, all the over one stitching of bugs and butterflies and hummers. But it's cruising for now!

Course over the past few days I had two RR's arrive in my mailbox, so I need to stitch those. And also I owe a Diva friend a biscornu. Gotta get on that one too!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Enjoying Our Summer

The boys and I are trying to cram a summers worth of relaxing into the ten days we have left before school starts! We've been staying up late, and sleeping in even later! Poor DH had to go back to office work as soon as we got home, but the boys and I are living it up! :)

I went to an LNS earlier this week that is clearancing all of their cross-stitch! Is that a word?! My youngest was at a sleepover, so I dragged my oldest to the store with me. After we were there about twenty minutes, he said, "Mom you said we'd only be here a few minutes." To which I replied, "I lied!" He had fun pulling some threads for me, and enjoyed his smoothie at a nearby shop! I got GREAT deals! When I got home, I realized that instead of giving me 50 % off the sticker prices, they had actually given me 50% off twice. You see, when she scanned them into the machine they scanned in as 50 % off. Which either she didn't know or forgot about. So then at the end of ringing it all in, she gave me the 50% off. She said it was easier that way.

Because I was randomly adding stuff to the pile, I didn't really think much about the price, except for thinking what a great price it was. So after I realized their mistake, and after I felt very guilty about it, I emailed them to see if I should come back in and pay them what I owed. She said it was their mistake, to enjoy my stuff! So I certainly will! :) I'm hoping they'll mark down to 75% off someday soon, and I'll go back childless and really look around! I'd love to tell you where the shop is, but then you'll go buy all the goodies and I'd have to kill you! :)

I've been stitching so many little things, that I'm at the point where I have got to do some of the finishing work. Which I HATE to do!!! So instead of starting a new "smalls" or actually having to finish something, I picked up Flower Power! I was shocked to see how far along I was. I wasn't remembering how much I had actually stitched on it. I'll try to get a few pictures taken soon.

Today we need to get haircuts and school supplies bought. That's our only goal for the day! :)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Family Missions/Summer End

My family basically does family missions all summer. At least, that's my DH's job: to run summer mission camps for teenagers. Since we're there as a family, basically it's a family mission trip....But really, I think most days it's more like a job! Not only for DH, but for me and the kids as well. I mean it's an awesome job, in fact it's DH's dream job, but some days (especially when you are dealing with 450+ teenagers and their leaders) it's a job!

This past week we have done a Family Mission's trip. The first one in NCBaptist history, as far as we can tell. It was a group effort between a lot of different teams at the office, but DH had a huge part of it. Partly because this is the first year, some was probably for economic reasons, we had quite a small group. In fact, including the staff we only had about 60 people here.

They all arrived on Monday afternoon. We did a little mini training to show them what would be expected of them and Tuesday morning, we sent them on their way. Only this time, we got to join them! Sure DH has had to do a lot of running here and there, but we've done missions as a family.

Today DH and Luke (9) took a new friend (10 or 11) and went to put a DOORKNOB on the back door to a lady's home. We're not talking a porch door, or a screen door, we're talking THE DOOR to her home had NO KNOB! Seriously folks, this is a beach resort area we are in! DH took the two boys and he held the door and THEY got to put in a doorknob for the lady! HOW COOL IS THAT?!

We have groups on the beach, talking and playing with the families there. We have families going to cook meals for service people (firemen/Coast Guard station, etc) We have families going to nursing homes and we have MANY families working on a construction site.

This has been one of those experiences that I will not forget. We have grandparents and aunts and uncles, and cousins and church families and single moms, and parents with no children,etc. etc. And at our construction job site, really, it's hard to tell which child belongs to which parent! The real construction men are replacing the floors for this lady in her bathroom, laundry room and kitchen. Apparently, she's had to shower at her neighbors house for the past YEAR, because she falls through the floor in her own bathroom, just by walking on it! Anyway, even these guys take time to talk to the kids, show them the work they are doing! How many kids get to see a real, lived in home, with no floor!? :) An older lady took a young boy (9 yrs or so) out to the grape veins and taught him how to trim those back. Another lady took a girl to help scrub off the lady's deck furniture.

I even get some of MY family here! My sister came down for the week, from Alaska. And honestly, I thought she'd rather stay here and get some sun while we fulfilled our obligations during the day. Instead, I have spent the past two days working side by side with her, and I loved it! Today we even shared a ladder while painting the trim of this ladies house. One of the older gentlemen walked past us as we were sweaty and stinky, painting the house. He paused as he walked by and said, "Looking good Ladies, looking good! And the paint's not bad either!" ha

It's just so incredible to see the way people are working together to make a difference for other people. I think this is the way God meant for the church to be! I'm telling you, it's gonna be hard to go back and sit in a church pew!

We have a fun little worship service each night, and tonight the speaker reminded us of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. And asked us, what are we willing to sacrifice for Him? God loves each of us dearly, but not only does He love us...He loves people of every nation and ethnic group! And our responsibility is to share His love with those around us. Not only those where it's comfortable to go, but to those around the world. I can no longer sit by and do nothing, when I know what is going on around the world.

The question is: what am I willing to sacrifice to be a Christ follower and join Him in reaching the nations?

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Ft. Caswell, NC

A few days in the sun and sand, and we're loving it!! We're more exhausted than relaxed, but it's a good exhaustion! :) We came down to camp a few days early, and are just enjoying being a family again!

Our four college kids will get here tomorrow evening. DH keeps telling me to stop calling them kids, but they seem like my kids half the time! Then we'll be joined by 450+ campers on Monday! This is our biggest camp all summer, but my part is the most easy! This is an established camp, so I don't have to worry about meals or clean up, or changing trash cans, or anything like that! We (Mike) just has to make sure all his mission teams work! The rest we don't have to do, which makes it much more simple for my part!

Can't believe we only have two weeks left to the summer. After this week, we are doing our first Family Missions camp, open to all ages of families. We were expecting 100 at least, but looks like our numbers are quite small, closer to 50. But it will feel much more like "family" and we'll have a great time! Plus my sister will be here, so I'll get to have some family too!

We are in two hotel/motel rooms...connected by a galley style kitchen. We've certainly made ourselves at home and about took over the place. On Monday we get to move into a little house, called Little Pier. We're so excited, we'll actually have a kitchen and living space for the two weeks we are here. Nice blessing to end the summer with!

When I get home, I'll be able to post some pictures. And we'll get back to stitching! :)