HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY AND TOP O' THE MORNING TO Y'ALL !!

These are three of my favorite vintage Irish pics ~ ENJOY!!
Mary

GOTHIC ARCH CHALLENGE ~ FLOWN THE NEST

Ahhh as usual I am running late with another challenge. This time it is Gothic Arch Challenge.  http://gothicarches.blogspot.com/2012/03/sunday-5th-march.html
The challenge is something on an arch shape with wings or birds and/or an empty nest. So with a couple of images from the Graphics Fairy and hunting around in the yard for just the right tree branch for my empty nest, here is my take on the challenge:

Hope you have a great Saturday and God's Blessings on each of you!

Mary 

GREEN PAPER'S MARCH COLLAGE CHALLENGE

Well I just got my entry in just under the wire Mary Green's blog http://greenpaper.typepad.com/green/2012/03/our-march-2012-collage-challenge.html . This is the first time I have entered her challenge even though I have been watching it for over a year now.  If you are not familiar with it, she gives you a collage sheet with ususally 3 pics on it and you can make anything, but you must use at least parts of all three pics

Ok so here is my take on this.  I think the woman is a school teacher that is ready to something else besides school rooms and little kids.  Hmmmm maybe a boyfriend and picnics???

I admit that I am new at this tag thing.  I don't have photoshop or any of those programs so it is scissors and glue sticks for me. I am having fun and to me that is all that counts. 
 Be sure to swing by Mary's blog and check out the designs all the other folks have done. It will be worth your time.

Til next time May God Bless you and your families.

Mary

SOARTFUL CHALLENGE

Well here is my entry in SoArtful Challenge. Finally I am getting back in groove again. I love the different challenges, mainly because the make me do something. I just seem to be coasting in nuetral lately.  The theme this time was Time for Tea.  Here is a link to them http://jeanette-soartfulchallenges.blogspot.com/2012/03/mid-challenge-reminder-post.html

I made a little tag, the teapot is from the GraphicsFairy http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2011/04/vintage-clip-art-images-adorable-pastel.html

The tea party pic was also from the Graphics Fairy. It is an illustration from Alice in Wonderland. The five oclock tea words are from the top of the tea party pic.

I hope you all have a great week and may God bless you.

Mary

TAG TUESDAY

  First my Tag Tuesday entry this year. http://tagtuesday.blogspot.com/ The challenge this past week was BOOKS.  I read ALL the time. My husband reads all the time. (That way he can't fuss at me for spending all my time reading!!) (I keep him well supplied with books from the library!!) Any whooo, back to the challenge.
GONE WITH THE WIND BY MARGARET MITCHELL 
 My all time favorite book. I read it when I was around 12, maybe 13. My mother gave me her 1939 copy (hardback) to read.  I mean I had already been spending all my spare time reading books. Hardy boys, Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, Little Women, Tom Corbett ~ Space Cadet. I mean we had space shots etc all ready then. If you want a great set of books for boys mostly but girls too, Tom Corbett is great. Adventure, honor, more adventure ~ they were riveting. Trixie Belden was another favorite. I collected all of them, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (they each had their own set and they also crossed over each other. Our church (Roebuck Park Baptist in Birmingham) had a huge library of books for all ages and contests each summer for the kids of who could read the most books.  I won several years in a row ( I still have my certificates). I usually read 2 sometimes 3 or 4 times as many books as everyone else. I don't think the ladies (in charge of the contest) really believed I read each and every one and they would quiz me about the books. I remembered everything I read (too bad I couldn't do that with school text books) but give me a good novel and I remember everything!! Anyway Gone with the Wind wins hands down with me. It had it all. The panarama of the Civil War, Rhett Butler, southern belles, Rhett Butler, romance, beautiful mansions, Rhett Butler !! I fell in love with Rhett Butler (even before I saw the movie). If Scarlett couldn't treat him right ~ I would have!! And when I got to see the movie I fell in love with Clark Gable. He was perfect for that roll.
 Oh well, here is my entry:

  Go on over and check out the other folks. There are some really interesting tags to be found.  http://tagtuesday.blogspot.com/

I'm working on some other stuff. I will be back later and bring you up to date with things that have been happening and not happening around the old homestead here.

Hope all of you have a great day and my God Bless YOU.

Mary

TAST WEEK 6 ~ THE CHEVRON STITCH

I have given up trying to keep up with the fabric pages to a stitch sampler book.  I found the 1st lost page (under a stack of papers) and now have lost the 2nd page that had week 2-5 stitched on it. Just a long list  of 'stuff' happening. 
 Don and I have been sick now going on 2 weeks.  He has the flu and I had a really bad stomach virus. This has truely been the sick taking care of the sick.  I don't get stomach viruses often but about once every 4-6 years, but when I do they seem to go overboard. I literally lost 10 pounds in a day and half. I still have not gained much of it back and am as weak as a limp dishrag. Don is feeling better but still sounds like he has the croup. I have been guzzling citrus flavored GATORADE (on my 3rd 2 liter bottle), Diet Mtn Dew (that actually seemed to settle my stomach some. I still can't eat much of anything.  I made a huge pot of chicken veggie soup and am living on that, wheat saltines and some butter cookies. I went a whole week without a cup of coffee (I start the day out with atleast 4 cups) and am only just now drinking my 2nd cup in 10 days.  Enough about us.  As the old saying goes ~ This too shall pass~  I hope......

I have decided to just show real stitches in a work in progress from now on.  If I ever find all the pages of stitches I started with I will also try to finish it ~ Maybe
Here is the chevron stitch ...  the green is a practice stitch and the beads the real deal. 

 I will check back with you folks later. May God shed his Blessing on each of you. 
Mary

PLAYING CATCH UP ~ A G A I N grrrrrrrrrrr TAST 3 ~ 4 ~ 5

One more time I am going to play catch up at TAST.  No ones fault but my own ~ I guess laziness.  Sometimes it is like my brain shifts into neutral and won't shift out.  So here are my entries for TAST week 3 ~ the feather stitch:

The feather stitch is my all time favorite.  Oh it will hide a multitude of sins on fabric and crazy stitching. My favorite variation is a grape vine.

So here is TAST week 4 the cretan stitch.  It is not one of my favorites. It is really hard for me to do a balanced cretan stitch repeatedly.  I do love it used as chcken wire fencing as several of the other folks at TAST showed ~ I tried but ripped it out. Still working on that one.

So Now with this TAST week 5 entry I am caught up again.
This week is the herringbone.  Easy to create, not so easy to repeat over and over as a balanced line of stitches.  (**in case you haven't figured it out yet ~ I am a Libra which means balance is EVERYTHING is me.  I absolutely suffer pain trying to do anything asymetrical.**)
So here is my creation with the herringbone stitch.  It is a pretty one to do completely in beads.

So now I am caught up ~ AGAIN.  Maybe for a few days.
Here is a view of my first page of my sampler book I am doing.  I will go back a put the names of the stitches in each square. I have not figured out if I will just write them or what.

 

Now I have to go back to work on my square for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project for J A N U A R Y.  Yeah I missed that deadline too !!!!  But that is a whole different story... and post.
Prayer helps. I am living proof of it.
Mary