A Beautiful Bookmark.....

My Emily was very kind and generous in her gift giving this past Christmas.  Not to mention that she made all of the gifts that she gave.  She was a busy girl!

She made me two of these beautiful and delicate-looking hand crocheted bookmarks!  I love them!  I think I will put one in each of my two favorite Bibles.  She got the pattern from here, if anyone is interested in making a few for gifts this year.  They would make wonderful gifts for anyone on your gift list though out the year!!!

We are hibernating inside awaiting bitter cold weather the next few days.  Brrr!!!  I'm thinking about what projects I'm going to work on if the opportunity presents itself.  Probably my next quilt assuming we have power as I am still piecing it.  And if we are without power I am thinking I could work on my next hand embroidery project.  It's always good to have a few projects ready for any given situation. That's my philosophy anyway!

Keep Stitching and Stay Warm!!!!  xoxo!!!

Beautiful Kitchen Windows....Before and After......

Happy New Year Friends!!!!  I have taken quite a break from blogging while keeping busy with my family.  But I have had an itch lately to give a few updates and share a few projects while they are still fresh in my mind.  

First, I thought I'd start with my kitchen.  We moved a little over a year ago now.  Most windows are still lacking curtains and most walls are still lacking our pictures.  So a few weeks ago I started thinking about possible window treatments, starting with the kitchen.  I honestly prefer as much sunlight as possible and therefore no curtains.  However, I thought this room could really use a bit of color.  

So after searching all of our local fabric shops for possibilities I settled on this fabric pictured above from Hancock's fabric store.  I made mock roman shades and I like them.  And I really enjoy the color they bring into the room.  Since the ceilings are so high I am considering adding something above the windows as well....but I haven't decided yet.  Any suggestions?

Sewing these curtains is just the tip of the iceberg of my sewing lately.  I hope to be back soon to share more.  And I'm hopeful my Emily will share some too.  She has done a lot of sewing and crafting lately.

Happy stitching!!!!  xoxo

Christmas Preparations....

Wow, talk about laziness!!! I did not mean to be absent for the past two weeks...but it is that time of year when things can get crazy, and often do.

Christmas preparations are taking place in our house at quite a frantic pace. The gifts have mostly been ordered and I am waiting for their arrival so I can spend an evening wrapping them.

We've had lots of activities with our new church family. I don't think I've mentioned it before but we have found a wonderful new church home. We've been looking for a new church for awhile now...and we have finally found one and it is only 2 miles down the road from our house. It sure makes things easy and convenient.

Our Smocking Guild had our annual Christmas Dinner tonight and it was wonderful!!! Our hostess this year really out did herself and spoiled every single one of us. It was such an enjoyable evening!!! I did take Ean with me....fortunately he was pretty well behaved!

I have only made one gift so far this Christmas. And I can't show a picture yet...because the recipient hasn't received it yet. I'm hoping to make a few more things to add to the stockings for the kids...but we'll see how much time I have available as the week progresses. The ladies at Guild laughed at me tonight when I told them I hoped to do some sewing later this week.

My girls had their ballet recital last week. They both did extremely well, as did all the girls in the recital. It was a busy day, but fun.

Oh, last week we also took the photos for our Christmas cards. The kids were at the front end of a cold and we did not know it at the time. But it sure explained the lack of cooperation we received while trying to get a few pictures to work with. The photo at the top of this post is from that night. It's a little blurry....but if you squint at it just right...you won't notice so much.

Alright, I think you all know as much, or more, than I do now. The rest of the week is going to be busy too. We have a friend coming over for dinner Thursday night....we are so thrilled. We are also going to visit with a potential new piano teacher for the girls and a violin teacher for Emily. Then a Christmas Eve candle light service Friday evening and lots of cooking, baking and wrapping gifts thrown in as well. It's going to be a great week!!!

I hope Christmas preparations are going well at your home too!!!

xoxo,

Cindy

P.S., I also forgot to mention that Elisabeth had a birthday last week. See it really has been busy around here!