In Thankfulness of Heart

At Plimoth
The Sampler Girl
Gentle Arts Simply Wool threads on 28ct Silkweaver FOTM Exclusive
Stitched November 26 and 27, 2009

Hello, my lovelies! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving holiday if you are here in the states. I was lucky enough to take all of last week off from work, so my vacation started with a bang by going to see New Moon. Loved it. Want to see it again. And it worked out so perfectly, I think the stars must have been aligned. We got tickets on Thursday for the Friday 8:15pm showing, I met Sherri after work and we went to dinner (mmmm...margaritas) and then went over to stand in line at the theatre. We actually were pretty close to the front of the line for seating, and when the doors opened, we got the best seats in the whole theatre - the middle middle, just where I like to be. And the screaming was really at a minimum, so it was a perfect night! So fun to get to see it on opening night too.

So, what have I been doing for the past nine days? Well, Eric and I did some stuff around the house - cataloging records (yes, actual records, not CDs), etc. I had some super secret stitching I was doing for my guild's ornament exchange that will take place tomorrow night at our annual holiday party.

And, you can see at the top of this post what else I've been stitching (well, what I can show you). Last year before Thanksgiving, The Sampler Girl offered this At Plimoth freebie. I was dying to stitch it for Thanksgiving last year, but for whatever reason my LNS could not get in the Simply Wool threads I needed to stitch it. After waiting three or four months for the threads, another stitcher took pity on me and sent me three of the four (I was able to get one of them) as a wonderful act of kindness. So, as the holiday approached this year, I came across the threads and the freebie in my stash and decided to stitch it up. My only dilemma was what fabric to stitch it on. I really wanted to try to use something I already had on hand. Well, in my digging, I found that I still had some of my favorite piece of fabric. This fabric was a Silkweaver FOTM Exclusive. No name, can't get any more. Sigh. And I love this fabric. I first used it to stitch my ornament for the guild exchange last year. Then, I used it to stitch Petites Lettres Rouges. And so, when I came across it and did a floss toss, I knew I had to use it for this. All the stars aligned. I started this on Thanksgiving Day during the Macy's parade, and finished it up on Friday. It was a fun little stitch, and oh how I love the Simply Wool threads. I will definitely be using them again!!! Oh, and those little wool acorns were made by a fellow guild member last year. I think I need some more of them.

I also did some reading...

So, since I promised to give you reviews of my books for my end of year book challenge, here goes. The Leopard was chosen for my most recent Artful Readings book club. I tried. I really did. Just when you thought it was going to get interesting and do something, it failed miserably. This book was published in 1968, I believe, and has to do with Italian politics around the time of the unification of Italy. At least, that's what I think it's about. I really gave this a gung-ho effort, but when my bookmark accidentally fell out of the book I took it as a sign that life is too short for bad books. So, I set this one aside unfinished. And that kind of irks me, but not enough to try to finish it.

As a reward for bad taste The Leopard left in my mouth, I rewarded myself with a little vampire reading. These books are a series called the Black Dagger Brotherhood. As one of my friends says, they are like eating kettlecorn - guilty pleasure and you just can't stop, once you take the first bite. This is the third book in the series, and I like each one better and better. In fact, I was so face first in this book that Eric had to take it away from me so that I could get some stuff done. I did finally get it back, and finished it quickly. As you can see on my sidebar, I've now picked up the next book in the series and am quickly moving through it as well.

So, that's what I've been reading. I also picked Jenny Bean back up after finishing my little Plimoth piece. I had hoped to have her done already, but she had to be set aside while some other pressing things got attention. But, she's back and I am almost done with the right hand border, which leaves just the bottom border to go. Not long now before she is finished. Rather than take a progress pic of her, I thought I'd just surprise you when she's finished. Soon!!!

And, I did want to take a moment and mention that giving thanks is an important thing to do any time of year. For those that have been with me since I started this blog, you know that at the end of each post I mention something I'm grateful for. Sometimes it's something small, or funny. Sometimes, it's something really big and important. But, I try to always do it, as a little way of sending my gratitude out into the universe. So, especially at this time of year, take a moment to appreciate all the blessings in your life. You'd be amazed how those blessings seem to multiply when you start acknowledging them. Thanks to all of you who stop in to visit me and leave your sweet comments. I appreciate each and every one of you. This blog has truly been a gift and has allowed me to meet so many wonderful people. Thank you!

I am grateful for some much-needed time at home with my husband and the cats. I couldn't ask for more.

And Finally...

Guess what I'm doing tonight.

I am grateful for opening night.

Restless

Last week I basically did no stitching, except for Thursday night with my buddies, and I stitched a "W". Yep, a whole "W". Impressive, no? Friday night I went to my book club (still don't have that stupid book finished - and for what it's worth, don't want to finish it). After book club I had every intention of settling in for a couple hours or so of stitching. Didn't happen. In fact, I didn't do much of anything.

Saturday morning, I got up bright and early to do my 3 mile walk, came home and had the intention of stitching all afternoon and evening. Not so much. I did venture out to Michael's to buy some thread though. And I think that night I stitched a couple of words.

Sunday morning, I had the intention of spending all afternoon and evening stitching. Do you see where this is going? I hate it when I get like this - I can't settle down long enough to stitch, read, or anything. Sunday, I did finally manage to do something productive. As you can see above, I wound all the thread I bought and pulled the rest I needed for two upcoming projects that are big thread eaters - my Teresa Wentzler Fourth Day of Christmas ornament, and The Nativity that I'll be starting on Thanksgiving. I'm still missing some threads for both, but only a few.

I then proceeded to bake a batch of cookies for a work potluck that was today (pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies), color my hair and give myself a pedicure. So - apparently I found my productivity groove. However, common sense seemed to go out the window when productivity set in. Let me set the stage for you. I'm coloring my hair and figure I have 25 minutes to hang out - what can I do? I know, I'll paint my toes. So, on goes the base coat, on goes the first coat of polish. Then, my 25 minutes are up and now it's time for me to get in the shower to rinse out my color. .... ummm...yeah. Get in the shower. With wet toenails. Brilliant. I did recover from that little disaster and my toes are now painted OPI's Black Satin. Again.

After that fiasco, Eric made a lovely dinner and then, glass of wine notwithstanding, I managed to stitch.

Not a ton of progress, but when faced with all of my restlessness this weekend, not too shabby. I have the rest of the words to do, and two more borders, plus two little boxes inside that text box. So, we're getting there. But really, can anyone get a lot of stitching done while watching Heroes and V? I think not. We're going to have to start DVR-ing some boring shows.

I am grateful for last night.

My Halloween & Jenny Bean

Well, it's taken me a little bit of time, life is crazy right now, to finally get around to talking about Halloween. I just love Halloween, it's always a fun time of year for me. So, on the night of Halloween, I put on my costume.

And of course, there were socks to go with it...

My fashion sense was soaring! j/k But seriously, I was dressed perfectly for curling up on the couch with pizza and a glass of wine. Oh, plus there was Dracula and Jenny Bean, of course.

And I promised that I would show an updated photo of my latest Jenny Bean progress...

By the time I went to bed last night, I'd finished that left hand border minus half of the corner pumpkin. I still have some little bits here and there to add into the border, but the Nightmare (black) is basically all done on two sides. It's moving along, which is a good thing. I have some other stitching that is going to be requiring attention very very soon.

I've also finished another book for my Book Challenge.

I've had this book for a long while, and just finally got around to it. It was so good. Very different from the Twilight books, of course, but that same Meyer writing that just sucks you in. I really had a hard time putting this book down. In fact, I chose to read rather than stitch a few times. It was that good. This is definitely another one for the Library. I highly recommend it. And, now I've got a week to read my book for my next book club, The Leopard. Not really looking forward to it. But, I'm hoping it will be a pleasant surprise.

I am grateful for two clean closets.

November

November 1st arrives, and the Christmas rush begins...even though I don't understand it. Why can't we just bask in the glow of Halloween and begin to look forward to Thanksgiving? Anyway, it does have me thinking about the end of the year and what I'd like to accomplish, even if I'm not quite ready to think about Christmas. I've been doing pretty good on my personal book challenge, which I'm happy about. So, I thought I'd apply the same logic to my stitching and see what happens. Not wanting to push myself over the stress cliff, but just to put some focus around what I'd like to work on, and keep those things with deadlines on my radar.

I'm of course working on Jenny Bean. So, I plan to continue with her until she's finished. I have two Christmas ornaments that need to be stitched - one for our guild exchange and one for Eric (the 4th day of Christmas). The day after Thanksgiving, my friend Sherri and I will be starting on a piece we've been talking about stitching for awhile, the Marbek Nativity. I ordered a beautiful Sapphire linen for it a couple of years ago, so I just need to pull threads and I'm all set to go. We don't have any sort of timeline associated with working on the piece, just a start date. So, that will be on my radar soon. I also need to finish the baby quilt sooner rather than later, so that's on my list of things for the end of the year too. Dorothy's Garden is my MAGIC piece, so even though it probably won't get finished by the end of the year, I would like to put some more stitches into her. And finally, I would really like to work more on my CHS A&E. I'd love to have my first A&E finished, so I'll put some stitches in that. So, here's my end of year list...

1. Jenny Bean
2. Exchange ornament
3. 4th Day of Christmas ornament
4. Nativity
5. Baby quilt
6. Dorothy's Garden
7. CHS A&E

Not bad, I think that's all do-able. And I also have on my radar getting fabric for my New Year's Day start. I've already decided what it will be, I just need to decide on fabric. I also need threads for my Valentine's Day project. So, I'll be working on collecting the Belle Soies for that.

I am hopeful that I will be finished with school by the end of the year too - that is my big challenge. And once school is finished, my stitching time should increase dramatically! I think I've managed to keep up with the blog and manage to do some stitching even with working full time and going to school for the past almost two years. I'm ready to have some free time though!!

I'll have a Jenny Bean update for you soon. I've finished the cartouche with her name and date in it, and have done half of the top border. Moving along on her!

I am grateful for hugs and kisses.

Cross-hatch

It's almost Halloween, and I decided to celebrate by taking today off from work. I thought I'd share one of my photos from the Fair too. Such talented pumpkin carving!

Last night I was able to go stitching with some friends rather than going to school. I actually managed to get something done! I stitched almost the whole outline of the cartouche last night. Not bad, eh? When I got home, I finished out the outline and started Jenny's name. I love the way this is turning out!

And since I had some time at home today, I thought it would be a good time to finish up the baby quilt top I've been working on. I'm really pleased with how it looks with the pattern and the 30s Repro fabrics. My piecing isn't perfect, but I keep reminding myself that "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful". Anyway, I'm happy to have it done. Next, on to the quilting. I hope to be able to send this off to my friend in the next few weeks.

I plan to spend some more time with Jenny Bean this afternoon. And tomorrow night, Eric and I will be partaking in my annual Halloween tradition. Oh, and if you want a peek at how his birthday apple pie turned out, you can see it here.

I am grateful for a night out with my friends.

Lettering

I've been stitching away on Jenny Bean and still loving every single minute of it. I have to say that there is just something about this piece that encourages me to relax a little bit about my stitching. At first, I was having lots of anxiety about the fact that I couldn't be sure that I'd sorted my thread correctly, and then I was having heartache about the coverage of the black. But, I got over it. And now, I'm like...blue tree, ok! Bits of red in my skein, ok! I'm just going with it. Which is kind of a weird feeling...because I am the person that will fussy cut my thread skein to get the color I want out of the variegation. Remember my snake in Earth Sampler? I restitched his stripes so that I could have only the bright green. Well, this is not to say that I am a new woman and have left my OCD tendencies behind...but somehow, Jenny Bean is providing her own brand of anti-anxiety.

I was able to spend a good portion of Saturday evening stitching (while baking a pie at the same time, how's that for multi-tasking!). I also got caught up on my shows from last week, Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries. Although, I was disappointed Vampire Diaries was a rerun...what's up with that? We're only a month into the season! Anyway, I got a lot of stitching done. And my helper showed me a new use for my little Vera Bradley bag...

Apparently, it also makes a good pillow.

I was able to make good progress on Jenny this weekend, even with it being Eric's birthday. Here's my progress as of Sunday morning.

I love this piece so much! And Sunday night I was able to get a little further, I now have two R's, a P, a G and part of an F. So, I'll have more to show you soon. I'm going to continue on with the alphabet, and then will probably move on to the cartouche with Jenny's name and date in it. Then, all that will leave me is the wording at the bottom and the border. And this really is the perfect Halloween stitch. I am so glad I started it immediately upon it showing up at my doorstep.

I am grateful for another loss on the scale!

A Cemetery, Bones & Raising the Dead

I've managed to get a good amount done on Jenny Bean in the past few days. Of course, you can see the house is finished, as is the cemetery and I've moved onto the tree. The tree is finished minus its leaves. And the colors for this sampler, especially since mine were a guess, are kinda crazy - at least with respect to the tree. I think it will be kind of fun though to eventually see a bunch of these finished, because they will all probably look totally different. But, I'm going with it. Who knows what this week will bring with regard to stitching time, but last week was kind of a fluke. But, all in all, this sampler is so much fun to stitch and it seems to be moving along pretty quickly for me. I have a feeling that border may be a different story though.

I've also finished another book from my book challenge. That makes two out of twelve done.

The Lovely Bones was a gift from my friend, Sherri. This was definitely a book I would have never chosen for myself, but it was sooooo good. I could not put this book down. And I definitely feel like this is a story that will stay with me. One of the things I've been thinking about too is the amount of books I have in my possession. I'd really like to whittle that down, and one of the things I've thought about is that I'd like to have a personal library of sorts that contains books that I love, books that touched me, books that stayed with me, books that I would read again over and over. So, I've gone through my books and starting weeding through the books that should stay and the books that can go. This book is definitely one for my library.

And because this book was so good, I've had a problem starting a new book. I've been carrying a new book around with me for a week almost now, and haven't cracked it open. Sometimes, when I read a book that is so good, I have a hard time coming back out of that story, or that world. And until I can kind of let it go, starting a new book is almost impossible. I wish all books were like that. Anyway, my next choice, also off my challenge list, is The Host. If I can ever start it, I think it will be good.

And over the weekend, I spent some quality time with the pile of stuff that was slowly overtaking my desk. I found a pattern that I had pulled out with the thought of starting it soon, and also found my notes on threads and fabric I had wanted to use for it, based on this gorgeous piece. I'd left this on my desk because I needed fabric and threads. But, when I picked up the note and saw the fabric I'd wanted to use was Vintage Meadow Rue...the lightbulb went off and I realized I had some Meadow Rue in my possession. In fact, I have a stitcher's half of it, that was for my first Neighborhood RR. And after all the heartache with this piece, it's just been shoved in the back of my closet still in the FedEx package, because I didn't know what to do with it.

Well, now I know. I'm going to rip out the stitching that was done and re-use this piece for Where My Heart Blooms. I think it's an excellent way of making lemonade out of lemons. And I am sure that the rest of the fabric that I end up with as leftover will be put to good use too. But, first for the ripping out. I think it will be good for me...a way to let go of it.

Hope this week brings lots of stitching and some good news.

I am grateful for Eric - always, every day.

Almost a House

The Bean house is really coming along. I took this photo last night before I sat down to stitch. Those lines on the front of the house remind me of tube socks. But, they also remind me of this. Anyway, although last night was a late night (Eric was shooting at the house - photos, not guns), I was happy to sit on the couch and stitch away at the house. I was able to finish filling in the front of the house, fill in those lines on the roof and start on my chimney. I love how this is coming along. I can't wait to start stitching the graveyard! It fits in with my Poe-esque mood right now.

Anyway, I promised I would be posting photos from our day at the State Fair. One of the things I like to do when we go is to visit the Creative Arts building to see all of the quilts and stitched pieces, etc. There were some lovely things this year.

And look at Moon Garden over one!

While I was digging around in my photos, I remembered I had some from last year I hadn't shared.

And you are not going to believe this one. I had heard stories of it, and made it my mission to track it down and have a look myself. This stitcher stitched the cover from the book, Wicked. There are so many colors in this, and the piece itself is huge!! The detail is just over the top - even to Dorothy's house spinning up there by the tip of her hat. I stood staring at this piece in complete awe for I don't know how long. What is not pictured here are the five or so ribbons this piece won. Sorry about the glare too, the piece itself is framed with glass, and then is in a glass case. Stunning. Now I want to stitch one.

If you want to see more of my photos from the Fair, I've posted them here. That's all for me today. I'm so happy to be going to stitch with my Thursday night stitching buddies again tonight. I anticipate having a tombstone or two to show you next time.

I am grateful for knowing everything is exactly as it should be.

Shut the Front Door

The fall weather is definitely upon us currently in Texas. Of course, that could change at the drop of a hat and we'll be back to 90 degree temps. But it has been in the 60s mostly, and also rainy and overcast. I actually enjoy this kind of weather. I like it more when I can snuggle up at home though. The cats apparently feel the same way because there were no empty laps this weekend. And of course, our fall is always ushered in by Eric and I going to the State Fair. I'm working on a post to show you my pics from that outing and should be able to share in the next day or so (the pumpkins above are from our day at the fair). As for this weekend, I spent most of it indoors, except for Saturday morning. I was able to get back into the groove and go for my 5k training walk on Saturday morning. Of course, for our training walks, we walk a 5k anyway, so doing the actual 5k is not much of a stretch! But, I was glad to get back to it this weekend, having missed the past two weekends. Our next 5k is this coming Saturday, so I'm looking forward to having another one completed - that makes four so far this year!

I spent some time this weekend stitching on Jenny Bean. I am so in love with this piece. I finished filling in the side of the house and moved on to the front. Now I have a door!

And I finally got around to doing what I've been meaning to do for several weeks now, working on the baby quilt. I washed and ironed my fabric, did some cutting and sewing and now have about half a quilt top's worth of blocks. I'm really pleased with how these 30s repro fabrics look together. Aren't they fun?

I hope to get some more done on this next weekend. I think it will be so cute when it's finished, and I'm really happy with it. Even though it's all blues, I love the pops of yellow, red and orange in it.

I am grateful for date night with Eric - so much fun!

Less Talkie, More Stitchie

Tuesday night was guild night, and as is always the case I do way more talking than I do stitching. And we had a fabulous presentation on Tennessee Samplers. So, not a lot of progress on my new start. But, you can see above the gorgeousness of the threads and fabric that arrived at my doorstep shortly after Market. How could I possibly resist the lure of a new start...a Halloween start.

You may have already guessed that Jenny Bean's Halloween Sampler was my pick for an October project. The fabric and limited edition thread pack arrived with the pattern and I was all set to pick this up and start on Sunday, right after my Angel of Tulips finish on Saturday night. I'm stitching this on the recommended 40ct Vintage Pearled Barley. I love love love Lakeside linen and this color is no exception. The threads look beautiful on it. And of course, I love the thread names too: Nightmare, Zombie Flesh, Sarcophagus, Coffin Lid, Parched Bones, Witch's Wart, Dried Blood and so on. The threads are GAST, by the way. Stitching with one strand, even though the coverage of the Nightmare (black) is killing me. I'm trying to love it. But I do love this design, so I am very happy with my choice of starting something new.

And speaking of something new, I've started a new book. But first, many of you asked me to review my "book challenge" books that I'd listed here. I mentioned that I was currently reading this...

As you can see, this edition is actually the first two books in the series. I'd already finished The Awakening and was about halfway through book two, The Struggle. I finished that up Tuesday night, so I thought I'd better let you all know what I thought.

As you probably already know, these books have been made into a series that premiered a couple of weeks ago on the CW. I've been watching the series while also reading the first two books. Love the series. As for the books, I had a hard time at first getting into the first book. But, then I fell into it and book one ends with a bit of a cliffhanger ending, so I breezed right on into book 2. The more I read, the more I enjoyed them. The only problem I had with the books is that because I was reading at the same time as watching the show, and because the show does differ from the books, I did start to get a bit confused with whether something happened in the book or not. But, aside from my own ability to be easily confunded, the first two books in the series are well-worth the read, if you like this genre. And although book 2 also ended on rather a cliffhanger, I did resist starting book 3. I picked up The Lovely Bones last night, because I'd promised myself that would be the next book I read. And so far, I cannot put it down. So I will probably have a review of that one fairly soon.

That's it for me today, it's raining here but not as cool as it had been the past few days. I'm hoping to have some curled up on the couch stitching time this weekend.

If you'd like to take a look at the last of my Miami photos, you can see them here.

I am grateful for my friends.

Thwarted by Ribbon

The week since I took the Jane Timmers workshop has been interesting, to say the least. I managed to get over to one of my local shops to pick up some more of the Gloriana ribbon I need to finish my Jane Timmers pieces. They are ordering it for me, and it should be in soon (they had calls from two other people needing ribbon as well while I was standing there). So, no ribbon for me. But, I didn't want my vacation day on Friday to be a total bust, so I got to work on the finishing I could do.

First things first, I finished my needlecase. I just needed to assemble the fron the of the case, attach it to the hinge and then attach my cording to both the front and the back. Et viola, I was finished! Love how it turned out. I am very pleased with it. Next up would have been to finish my biscornu, but alas no ribbon. So, I moved on to making the little ditty bags. I decided to attempt both the triangular (3-sided) bag and the square (4-sided) bag. Thanks to the very generous Katrina, I was able to have my selection of fabrics to use! So, my little bags are finished, they just require ribbon drawstrings. From there I decided to go ahead and put the color copy of Jane's sampler in the front window of my tin. I hadn't really decided whether I would stitch the piece and add the actual stitched piece, or just do the color copy. I went ahead and used the copy in order to have this one step closer to finished, but after closer inspection notice it has "2007" on it as well as Jane's initials. So, I think that I will (eventually) stitch up the sampler myself and then I can decide if I want to place it or a copy of it in the front.

The last thing I did as part of my finishing bonanza was to make the twisted ort jar. I was kind of dreading attempting this, but it wasn't too bad. The hardest part I found was getting my pieces to fit together. But, despite my minor snafus, I did get the thing together and miracle of miracles - it actually works!! So impressed with myself. (And thanks to Katrina again, I had the fabric to make it!!) You can see it closed in the top pic, and then open in the pic below that one (along with the open needlecase). So, yay!! This is all done minus the ribbon and dealing with that sampler for the front of the tin! And it's only been a week since the class. Somebody take note.

I mentioned I visited the LNS to hunt down ribbon. Well, you know I can't leave there empty-handed. Now my parliament of owls has been joined by one more.

And, I've found that this little VB bag is the perfect size for holding flossaway bags full of thread for a project - perhaps a project like Angel of Tulips.

Angel of Tulips, which is also finished! (Please ignore cat hair in photo.) I finished stitching this on Saturday night. This is a Good Huswife design that was loaned to me, stitched with the recommended NPIs on 40ct Daily Grind by R&R (the recommended fabric).

And, as a reward for all my hard work I decided that I would start something new - something for Halloween. Can't wait to show you!

I am grateful for a day at the fair taking (better late than never) anniversary photos.

Jane Timmers Workshop Weekend

Saturday and Sunday I attended the Jane Timmers workshop where she taught her Madeira Tin and Sewing Set. This is my second workshop that I have attended as part of my guild, the first being Catherine Theron's earlier this year. As you know I've been scrambling to try to finish all of my pre-stitching before Saturday morning. I managed to get my needlecase completely stitched and my biscornu mostly stitched before Saturday (all I lacked on the biscornu was two flowers and the backstitching for the front and back pieces). But, I was granted a reprieve and didn't need the biscornu for the first day!

The morning of Saturday, we spent learning how to line our tin. I was really happy with how mine turned out. Of course, as you can see above in my jelly roll, we are using the Madeira line of fabrics (and accompanying tin) by Blackbird Designs for Moda.

After lining our tins, we spent Saturday afternoon working on the needlecase. And what I love about Jane is that although I feel somewhat finishing challenged, she gives really clear directions and at no time did I feel rushed or that I was falling behind. I even made cording for the first time!

Saturday night, I attempted to finish up the stitching on my biscornu to have it ready for day 2, but no luck. I finished stitching the little flowers, and got the majority of the backstitch done, but I was so tired I kept mis-counting. So, I called it a night and was able to finish it up Sunday morning before I needed it. Sunday morning we learned how to make the tote bag, ditty bags and ort jar. Then, after lunch we got started on our biscornus. I was able to get mine completely assembled with the exception of the center buttons and ribbon for the bow. I need to stop by the needlework store this week to pick up some more ribbon. And my needlecase is mostly assembled. I finished all four pieces for it, and sewed the back two pieces together. All I lack is sewing the front pieces together, adding my cording and joining the front and back. I'm really please with how much I got done in class.

Assuming I can get the ribbon I need, my goal is to at least have my needlecase and biscornu finished before guild night next week. I think I can do that!

And thanks to those who let me know they read my blog over the weekend! I appreciate you and love to know you're out there. Thanks also to all who leave comments, it really means so much to me!

I hope to be back soon with updated photos of my finished class pieces. I'm also stitching along on my Angel of Tulips ornament, and should have a progress photo soon for you. Thanks for stopping by!

I am grateful for a fantastic weekend!

My Own Book Challenge

I saw over on Deb's blog that she was participating in Vickie's 10 Book Reading Challenge. Of course, me being me, I missed the sign up deadline. But, I thought I'd pull together my own little list, since October is closing in on us and my thoughts have started to turn to the end of the year. As you can see in my sidebar, I've now read 13 books for the year. I'd really like to hit 25 for the year, so I'm in need of 12 more. But, what to read for my 12?

Well, first and foremost, I need to finish what I'm currently reading. So...

1. Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon
2. Vampire Diaries: The Struggle by L.J. Smith

And of course, I've got another book club coming up in November. For that meeting, we'll be discussing The Leopard. So...

3. The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

But, what else?

My friend, Sherri, gifted me with a book for my birthday.

4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

And Missy has been feeding my new addiction to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, so I'll have to throw at least a couple of those in there...

5. Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward
6. Lover Revealed by J. R. Ward
7. Lover Unbound by J. R. Ward

What else? Oh, the book I bought for Eric just arrived last night...

8. The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

And I believe I have a couple of new purchases sitting on my shelves as well.

9. The Host by Stephanie Meyer
10. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

And with the new movie coming out later this year, I'd really like to finish reading...

11. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

And for my last pick, I thought I'd choose something I don't currently have on my shelves, but really want to read...

12. The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry

Of course, my list is subject to change at any time based on my whims, but for now, I like the sound of that. And there is nothing better than a good book in the fall and winter months. Something wonderful to curl up with...

Note: the photos here are from an art & antiques show that I was invited to several months ago at someone's home. Don't you love that fireplace?

I am grateful for some cooler fall-like weather.