Happy New Year!

You're probably shocked to see another post from me so quickly!!!

I quickly took down my little Christmas tree with my cross stitch ornaments, and then put up my New Year's Tree.  I only have FOUR cross stitch New Year's ornaments!!!  I guess I need to get on that for next year!!  However, a couple of years ago I bought several small packages of gold and silver shiny ornaments at Walmart on the 90% off shelf!  So, I've just filled in with those bought things to make it a shiny and festive tree!!!

I left the little top decoration and just added four gold party horns!  Below are some close-ups of my stitching.  I plan to make a few more.  I did a google search for free New Year's Cross Stitch and a ton of things came up.  And I mean true freebies, not the things tacky people have scanned in that are copyrighted and illegal copies.  I will find a few more that way!

 

A couple are Trail Creek Farms and a couple are online freebies.  I hope to stitch up another one or two soon.

Thank you for all your sweet comments on my last post.  I appreciate your concern for my finger!! I don't think I was clear about my big bandage!  I had that large one on for only two days.  Now, I just have a band-aid.  I went back to the doctor yesterday for an x-ray, and all is fine.  I will have the pin removed on February 7th and I hope this will all be over!!!

Sweet Vickie asked if I would ever be showing my piano...well, I had never thought about doing that, but if you really want to see, here it is:

 

I've had my Steinway for about five years.  I love it!!  This piano came with a player on it.  I never wanted a player because I didn't think I needed one, since I play myself!  However, it turned out to be great fun to have it!  When company comes over, you can let the piano play as background music.  It's really nice!

When my mother died, I got several nice pieces of furniture from her house.  The secretary you see was hers and is filled with old things that were at her house.  You also see part of a settee and that was also hers.  When I had a designer's help, we put a silver leopard seat cushion along with a silver lumbar pillow and a black mink pillow!  I'm not real sure what my mother would think of that!  But I've enjoyed it that way!!  You may also notice a dark brown border by the ceiling.  At one time, I had a little floral border up there. I got an artist to paint it out in dark brown, and then he painted a music quote by Plato, in gold, on top of the brown background.  I love it!  (The tree you see in this room is my music tree).

I am hoping 2017 will be a MUCH better year than 2016!!  I will probably make my usual list of resolutions that I never keep!  hahaha  But one I want to keep is to stitch more and post more on my blog!  Maybe I can at least accomplish that much!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you come back soon!

Happy New Year!!

Frances

Merry Christmas!!

Dear Blogging Friends:

As usual, I start my blog posts with some lame sentence about wanting to post more!  I will just let that go now--you've heard it already!

As you know, this is the busy Christmas Season, and I have been overwhelmed with music stuff, and a lot of other things, too!  But I do want to catch up and hopefully stay caught up!

So much has gone on since my Thanksgiving post!  (isn't that pitiful?!)

I am getting into a rhythm of my "new normal" since my husband has been gone now for 6 1/2 months.  It's not how I want things to be, but I've made up my mind to search for happiness and contentment, and that's where I am now.

You all know that I am a musician, and have a job as a church musician.  Well, imagine my surprise when this happened!!!

Yes, I had a little accident!  I was gluing something with plain old white glue, and got a little on my finger.  I went to wipe it off with my left hand, and heard a little pop!  It didn't hurt, but I looked at my right hand and the end of my finger was drooping!!  SO,,,I went to the doctor and it wasn't broken but the ligament had popped loose!!  Freak accident!  SO, I had to go to a hand specialist and I now have a little rod inserted in my finger. It will heal in 8 weeks and the rod will be removed.  I'm already finished 2 weeks.  Can you believe this???  I am still playing, with 9 fingers!!!!  It's not great at all!!  But I guess I'll survive! This is a minor setback!

My new grand daughter is due on January 4th!  I am so excited!!!!   I will keep you posted on that!

I did put up four trees this year..even did some with a hurt finger!  My heart really wasn't in it this year, but after I was finished and looked at them, it was the right thing to do!  I think I would have been extremely depressed to have no decorations.  

This is the family tree, full of decorations from events in our lives.  This is in the den, and where Santa always came.  We have decorations from our travels, things our son made through the years, old family items, and just a good mixture.  The last time my mother came up before she died, she stood there looking, and said that this tree was like a diary of our lives.  And it really is!

 

This is my music tree,  It has all types of musical ornaments, with emphasis on little grand pianos!  I love this tree.  It's in my music room, of course!  I can see it when I play my piano!

This is a skinny little tree for Mississippi State University!  I did not go there, but my husband and son did.  We have season football tickets and it's just a big deal!  So, I still put this up, even though my husband is gone.  But our son loved it.  It's tucked in the corner of the dining room, so we can see it when we eat!  ha

Finally, this is my cross stitch tree.  I made most of the ornaments, but have a few that were gifts or from exchanges.  I love this tree!  And I have a couple of new ones this year! One was a gift from a FB exchange that Dixie Samplar started.  I absolutely LOVE my ornament!!

Isn't this beautiful??  I am so lucky!  I just love it!

I also had a small finish--finally!  ha!  My dear friend Janie was down from Indiana to visit her mother and she came by and we did some finishing!  I will show you one for another holiday later.  I love this silly little ornament!

I am worried that I might be a no-reply blogger.  If anyone has found that to be true please let me know!  Google + has messed everything up!  It looks like all is ok but I read an article saying that just because it lists your email on your profile, it still might not show up!  I just don't know!  ha

You know I can't post without including Omar!  My son and daughter in law brought him this fabulous kitty cocoon, handmade in Nepal!  He loves it!  I think it suits him perfectly!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!  Keep stitching!  Thank you for your visit and please come back soon!

Frances

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Blogging Friends:
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of good food and loving visits with family and friends.
I am hosting my family as always.   It is small, so there will be 8 of us.  It is bittersweet, because this is our first Thanksgiving without my dear husband, and only the second without my sweet mother. But, life goes on, and I know that we must try to have a good time.  This is what they would want and what I want!  I have most of my food ready to be cooked.  I'm about to go to bed early (for me) and will get up early and get it all together!                             gobble, gobble!

Of course, you know this means another holiday tree!

 

 

Thank you for visiting, and I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Oh yes!!  I have one other piece of exciting news:

Yes, I'm going to be a grandmother to a little girl, due on January 4th!  I'm so excited!  This is certainly something to look forward to!  My son and his wife are really happy.  They came and told us right when they found out, so my husband did know the baby was coming.  After they left, he said that he hoped he'd be able to see it, but I guess that just wasn't meant to be.  But this is glorious news and I'm so ready for a baby!  

I'll keep in touch.  I'm actually stitching some, for an exchange that I must mail next week!!!  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Frances

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone!  I hope to have a new post soon!

I'll be fixing my Thanksgiving tree shortly!

Shocking, isn't it??

Dear Blogging Friends,

I know you must be in total shock to see a post from me!  I have thought about all of you often. I hope you are all doing well!   It took me this long to just sit down and make a post!

As you know, my life has turned upside down lately, but I am progressing and getting used to my new way of living.  I wish, so much, that things were different, but they aren't, so I am determined to forge ahead and try to enjoy life!  I'm pretty much finished with all the paperwork and financial things I had to do, so at least that is behind me now!

During the past year or so, we let our yard take a back seat to everything else, which wasn't a good thing!  After this Spring, the grass was almost non-existent in places!  We had dead limbs hanging in our trees, and a some trees that looked like they were on the way out!  After reviewing everything, I had four trees taken out and dead limbs cut from every tree!  I also had St. Augustine sod put down in the entire yard.  Some overgrown bushes were removed and replaced with new ones, but not all.  I had to stop somewhere! I am pleased with the end result, and now I'm in the process of watering until I could scream!!!  But I have to do that for the sod to live!  I did not put in a sprinkler system because I spent a small fortune on all the trees, landscaping and sod.  Maybe in the future!

It looked so sad with all the grass scraped off & utilities marked....

Then, tons of sod magically appeared at 6:30 AM and change began!

Now I have a yard full of sod and some new stepping stones, so I don't step in gooey dirt while watering all day long!!!

Sometimes, I think I must really be a genius!  Since I have been watering all day long, I decided to take advantage of the water that goes on the driveway, and parked my car there to get the dust rinsed off!!!  And yes, I did turn it around and get the other side, too!  

I have put up my Halloween Tree, and I'm really pleased with it!  I love all the fun colors and I have located such cute little bought ornaments to fill in with!  

I finally have a finish to show!!  I know some of you might need to sit down with that news! 

This is a little Prairie Schooler freebie card that I had stitched up quite a while back.  It's on hand dyed linen and I think it's really cute!  I even had some BOO! ribbon to use on it! This is one in a stack of things that must be finished, so maybe I'll have more to show very soon!

Just a little lesson I learned...never think anything is ever completed and over!  I walked out on my patio and noticed this in my yard.  I thought it was a big limb and couldn't believe it!  I live next to a creek, and there is a small strip of common area between my house and the creek.  I do not own that land.  My tree people were so kind, that they went on and trimmed up the 2 trees on that common land so they would look nice by my yard.  And then they left.  And the the yard was done.  And then...this very tiny but tall tree that grew beside the larger tree got tired and just fell over.  It didn't crack.  It just drooped. Right on top of my new camellias and gardenia bushes.......I was able to slide it off my bushes and on to my new sod!  hahaha  But, I called the homeowner association and they came and cut it and took it away!  I guess I just live for drama!

Thank you for reading my blog.  You know that the past few months have not been the greatest, and I appreciate any of you who are reading this post!  I am back in the swing of things and I will be posting some additional finishes very soon!

Frances

Here I am!!

Dear Friends:
I have missed all of you, but have tried to check in and see what fun things you are doing!
You know that I have been trying to get everything from my husband sorted out.  I have everything almost done and completed!  I am so relieved!

I am determined to totally finish a few more ornaments!  I will keep you posted!  I have a nice, big stack just sitting there and waiting for me!

I went to my mailbox today, and look at the wonderful things that were waiting for me!!!
Kim sent one of her lovely RAKs and I am just so thrilled!

Her gift is totally personalized...cats and music...my two favorite things!
Look at my precious Treble Kitty!!!  Isn't he special with his little charm on his tail!
And look at the precious little August kitty chart!  Also included are music ribbon and fabric and black and white floss!! (just like on the piano!)

I am just blown away, and this made me feel so much better!  It's been a tough few weeks, but it's slowly getting a little bit better.  I think it will definitely take a while but I'm hanging in there!  I have smiled a lot today--every time I see my cute cat ornament!  Thank you so much, Kim!  Everything is just perfect!

I will be checking back soon with a finish.

I also bought the Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue.  I liked several patterns in there and decided to splurge and get some new "reading material"!!

Thanks for stopping by and please visit again to see what is going on next!

Frances

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July to all my blogging friends!!

 

Here's two views of my Fourth of July tree!  I always enjoy this tree.  Patriotic decorations are all over town right now!  And fireworks are tonight!

Thank you for your kind and loving comments to my last post.  I am sad and lonely, but I know things will get better!  I never would have guessed that our lives would come to this point at such an early age, but you just never know what is in store for you.  I have read that people who were happy before a tragic event usually can become happy once again, so I'm counting on that!!!!

Happy Fourth to everyone!

Frances

Where I've Been...

Dear Blogging Friends,

I am so very behind, and have thought about posting so many times recently.
I truly think I will finally get caught up and back into the wonderful swing of blogging and stitching!

I am a very private person, and you know that I usually post mainly about stitching, with a few fun things thrown in the mix.

My darling, sweet husband had been sick for the last 16 months.  I always thought he would get well. This has been a long, hard journey and last Tuesday he lost his battle with lung cancer.  Before you ask, he was not a smoker and this is just one of those things.....

We are devastated and sad beyond all sadness.  I cannot believe he is gone and I cannot believe that I am a widow in my 50s.  But this is how it is and we will keep going and somehow we will be ok.

I didn't have much to post recently--I had been caring for him more and more, which took all of my time.  You know I wouldn't have been anywhere else but with him.  I still have my church job, which I am so grateful to have!  We had a beautiful Funeral Mass there in the Cathedral and it was so lovely.

I have a stack of finishing to do, and hope to jump into that for some pleasure and distraction from all of the other stuff I must now take care of!  I also plan to put up my patriotic tree this week.

Anyway, please say a prayer for my family.  We will heal and be ok, I know.  My son and his wife are doing ok and we've been spending a lot of time together.  I'm also grateful for my beautiful cat Omar--he is such company and I'm so glad to have him with me!

I'm sorry this is such a "down" post, but I wanted to explain my huge absence.  I will be back on a happier note very soon!

Frances

Back Yet Again!!

Hello Blogging Friends!!
I am back to blogging now...Holy Week and Easter are behind me now!  What a great feeling to have it all finished!  Everything went so well.  It was really beautiful!

The week before Holy Week, we lost one of our retired Bishops.  We were sorry because he was such a lovely person and will be sorely missed.  I have played for priests' funerals before, but never for a Bishop!  It's a three day group of events!!!  And this was the week before Holy Week!  I could not believe it, but everything was wonderful.  It was a joyous funeral.  We just had to juggle things greatly at the last minute!  Bishops from all over came--here is a photo of them during the processional hymn.  Quite an impressive bunch!

I went shopping at the Salvation Army (after leaving some donations!) and couldn't pass up this little strawberry picture.  It was a whole dollar!!  I plan to take it apart and make a little pillow ornament with it!  So sweet.  I always feel bad to see someone's hard work end up in a junk store!

You all know how wild I am about my sweet kitty Omar!  I got him a little t shirt.  You can see that he is not a fan of t shirts!  His expression is priceless!  I guess I'm just not going to have a cat that wears clothes!!!  hahaha   It even says "mommy's little dude" on it! hahaha

I'm embarrassed to show my Easter tree now, but I will do it anyway!!!!  It was cute and I enjoyed fixing it.  I will pull off the obvious Easter things and add some flowers and butterflies to make it a Spring tree!

 

I love all my sweet bunnies and carrots!

Finally, here are a few photos of the Cathedral decorated for Easter.  It is truly a stunning place!

Our weather has been delightful in Mississippi, except for the pollen and oak tassels!! Everyone is snorting and snooting!  But that's just how it is at this time of year.  These azaleas were so pretty at the rectory.  The bushes are so full!

Thank you for stopping by and please come back soon!  I hope I will have more posts and finishes to show very soon!  I am planning a big finishing day--my stack is growing and I'm very anxious to jump in and get some things done!  Now that Easter is over, we have a long stretch of calm regular Sundays!  YAY!!  Nothing special!  I feel like I will finally be back in my normal life!

Happy Spring!

Frances

St. Paddy's is coming soon!

Dear Blogging Friends:

I have taken down the Valentine Tree and now have the St. Patrick's tree up!

 

This green tree always makes me happy!  I don't have any new cross stitched ornaments, but I do have a sweet little Lizzie Kate kitted up to do--hopefully before the holiday is over!!!

St. Patrick's Day is such a fun day here.  Jackson has the St. Paddy's Day Parade, and it is so much fun!  Everyone wears green and throws beads and dyed green potatoes!  (not sure about that, but it's always done!).  Many of you may have seen the books about the Sweet Potato Queens.  They were always in the St. Paddy's Day parade, until recently!
They are so funny!  Google them if you aren't familiar!!  A Riot!
Anyway, a local shopping mall used to have a Miss St. Paddy's Day Pageant.  It was a farce--not a real one!  Everyone was silly and dressed up funny!  To make a long story short, a friend of mine posted on Facebook a photo of me from like 1995, when I was Miss St. Paddy's!!!  In the parade, I rode in a golf cart driven by an Elvis Impersonator!  It is such a highlight of my life!  hahaha
My name was Miss Kitty from the City and I wore leopard and tiger print, with large fuzzy tiger slippers with plastic claws!  I teased my hair and wore a Burger King crown!!

Our weather has been so wonderful lately...except for the horrible storms a couple of days ago!  ha
The Canada Geese love to come in our yard and visit.  Here is a sweet couple, just waltzing and honking through the yard!  Look at all those sweet gum balls on the ground! They make such a mess!

I had a wonderful trip to Louisiana last week.  I accompany a friend of mine from when we studied for our Masters Degrees.  She is a wonderful singer.  We presented a program on music from the Harlem Renaissance and it was such a delight!  It was at an art museum--a beautiful setting!

I even have a tiny bit of stitching to show!!!  It's a very tiny bit, but some, at least!  And one is not quite completed!!  I stitched these with some wonderful floss that was sent to me by our sweet friend Annette.  This floss is Cosmo Seasons floss.  It is wonderful!  Egyptian cotton and glides beautifully!  I didn't know about it--we have no local stores--only Michael's and Hobby Lobby, and they only carry DMC.  Thank you again, so much, Annette!!!  I will make these into two sweet little ornaments!  I am getting a bit of a stack for finishing.  I will have to take a day and get it all done!

 

Thank you for visiting by blog, and please stop by again soon!
Frances