Where I Go On Days Like This

When I woke up this morning and let the dogs outside I was bracing myself for how cold it was probably going to be when I went outside to open the gate. I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was it not cold, not even a jacket was required. Perfect day to spend walking downtown. Here are some pictures of some of my favorite places that I try to stop in at as often as I'm able. I really love browsing through the antique shops. The two here are my favorites.

I found a few things I needed for my little room at the antique shops, but here's my favorite purchase. Old skeleton keys. I love these!

On the way back to my car I passed by Saint George's Episcopal Church.

If you're looking at it, there's a cemetery immediately to the left with a gate around it. It's the oldest cemetery I've ever seen. This is what it says on a plaque right outside of the gate-

I found out recently that Martha Washington's Father's final resting place is in this cemetery. If you walk right through the gate, he's in the far right corner. His name is John Dandridge. Here's where he sleeps-

Here are a couple of pictures of the cemetery. I love looking at the headstones. Even though it's in the middle of the city, it's so peaceful there.

I had such a nice time walking through the city. My parents are coming for a visit this weekend. Hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can go to Washington on Sunday. I've taken my dad twice but my mom hasn't been yet. I've got lots of things I want to show her!

Playing With Pictures

Every time Mike goes out of town I find myself some projects to work on. Things I've been meaning to do or wanting to do but for whatever reason never seem to get to them. I had several little things I wanted to get done while he's away this time. First, I wanted to fiddle with a lot of pictures that I have and wanted to get put out. I know I've mentioned this before, but I LOVE those Kodak picture makers! We have one of Mike's baby pictures framed. We did have it hanging in our bedroom with one of my baby pictures. They didn't look right together though because his baby picture is black & white and mine is in color. I took my baby picture to the Kodak picture maker today and copied it as well as turned it in to a black & white picture. Tomorrow I'll head out to find a black frame for it so I can hang them back up. My original picture had a crease it, that's the line you see in the picture. It's pretty old, you know :).

I also took along a really old picture I have of my brother and I when we were little. I remember when we had it taken too....My parents took us to Six Flags for the first time. When we first got there my dad gave each of us some money to spend while we were there. When we saw the Old Time Photo place we both wanted to get dressed up and have our picture taken. We split the money my dad gave us for them. I'm so glad we did that. I have a small one in color that I wanted to have printed up again in black & white so I could frame it and put it in my little room. Here's a pic of the framed picture and then another of it on a shelf I recently put up in my little sewing room. It sits beside the buttons that Mike gave me. My mom painted that ceramic girl for me on the right of the shelf when I was something like 7 or 8.

After I printed those up, I got crackin on some pictures I've been wanting to print up in black and white for a photo collage I wanted to put downstairs. Yes, I do have a thing for black and white pictures :). Most of the pictures I've put in here have a story to tell. I love all of them and remember what I was doing when each one was taken. They all make my smile. I think it turned out really well, although I do wish I would have bought a much better frame.

One of my next projects is going to be to re-cover the seat of a chair. I bought this chair at an antique shop in West Virginia when we went to visit my parents one day last year. It was only $5 and I couldn't pass it up. It's really old and the seat is really ugly. The chair's in good shape though, so I'll re-cover the seat. I thought about painting it, but I'm not going to. I love that it looks old. I'll be putting it in a corner in my little room so if I'm down here sewing or something, there's a seat available if someone wants to come down and visit with me. I went to Joanne's today and brought home a bunch of fabric samples. I decided on a blue fabric with a small white pattern that runs through it. Here's the chair with it's ugly old seat with a scrap of the blue fabric I'll be heading back to get tomorrow. It's a lovely little chair.

Thanks so much to those of you who left comments and emailed offering your condolences for Mike's Grandmother. I am incredibly sad that we're not able to go to the service tomorrow. Such is life. Everything can't be easy all of the time. I am keeping myself very busy with my little projects though so I've not had too much time to sulk. Plus, I've got a lot of things to look forward to over the next several weeks :).

Sad Day

We drove Mike to the airport last night. He flew in to West Palm Beach and will be spending this week and next in Florida. I got a call a little while ago and his Grandma died this morning :(. She had lung cancer. Thankfully she went in her sleep. I'm really in shock I think....Everyone had been going on about how much better she's been doing. I guess when it's your time to go, it's just your time. His mother said she's on her way to the funeral home now where she'll be cremated. She also said they'll be having a very small service. I'm just so very very sad. I really loved her. Really, she was the only Grandmother I've ever had around. I have a Grandmother but have never been around her much at all until we moved up here. I'm just glad that Mike got to go back to TX to see her one last time. I'm really wishing that I could've gone with him. He's on a very important business trip. As much as we'd like to, we're not going back for the service. It's going to be small and we both know that she knew how much we loved her. It's really stinky that Mike's out of town right now. Such is life...things seem to happen at the worst possible time, don't they....

Hi!

I thought I'd stick my head in here for a sec while I have a chance. We've got a busy weekend. Joshua's got a Little League orientation today. He played ball in Texas but this is the first time he'll play since we moved here. He's really excited. Some of his buddies have signed up too so I'm hoping they'll end up on the same team. We'll see. Tomorrow is his Cub Scout Banquet. He and Mike are supposed to be baking something for the Father & Son bake-off. I'll be sure to take a pic of whatever they come up with. Right after the banquet Mike's catching a flight to Florida. He'll be working there for 12 days. I think he's starting out in West Pal Beach and working his way up to Orlando. I had planned on going for a few days, but I'm not. I was going to take the kids out of school for 2 days and drive them and the dogs over to my mom & dad's. They had the Friday off from school so I was going to take them out on Thursday & Friday and drive them over Tuesday after school. It snowed though so they had to give back their Friday which would have meant I would have had to take them out for 3 days. That was semi-ok too even though I wasn't thrilled about it. Then Cassie got the flu and missed a few days of school so I nixed that idea all together. There will be other trips. I'm really not heartbroken about it. I've been to Florida several times already. I don't want to do anything Disney without them. I had so much fun with them when we went last time.

My good buddy, Rachel had a birthday yesterday! And to celebrate, I took the kids to the Cold Stone Creamery LOL! I couldn't take Rachel....she lives in Utah, you see...lol. I did send her a box of cake mix, icing, and candles though. I was to send to her for our birthday exchange in our yahoo group. I didn't take a pic of all the goodies I sent her, but I did take one of the piece I stitched for her. I stitched a design from The Prairie Schooler. It's K is for Kitty. Rachel loves cats and designs from PS, but she hates stitching them so I stitched him for her. I made it in to a pillow and love how it turned out! Isn't he great?! Now she'll just have to keep her ribbon eating cat Odette away from it LOL! Speaking of Rachel, I'm so excited...Laura and I are meeting Rachel in Williamsburg on March 8th. We've got a hotel book for the night and we'll be going on a walking tour of Williamsburg that night. We're spending most of Monday together too and have lots of fun things planned. I'm really looking forward to our little trip! And I'm really looking forward to March! Lots of fun things planned for March!

I Love Days Like These

The kind that are packed full of things we want to do, not things we have to do. I woke up extra early this morning with a full itinerary for the day. My first stop after dropping the kids off at school was Ferry Farm. My stitching group was meeting there for a field trip. We had the best time! Not only did we get a nice history lesson from the Director of Archaeology, we also got to go in the archaeology lab. That was the highlight of the whole thing for me. I LOVED LOVED LOVED looking at all of the artifacts that they've dug up at Ferry Farm. I especially liked looking at the pieces of china that they've found. We also go to see several needlework notions that were found. They've found pieces of what were embroidery and sewing scissors and several thimbles. One of the thimbles that I really liked was smushed and had the words "Forget Me Not" engraved around the bottom of the thimble. We got to see several buttons that they've dug up, one of which was a Civil War button from a uniform. I got to hold that one so I was thrilled. I was just itching to touch something. Ok, so I didn't actually touch it...it was in a little bag...close enough for me :). I feel like a little kid when I'm near things like this. I want to touch everything so bad I can't hardly stand it LOL! There was a doll in a glass case there that I really wanted to hold. We had a really great time. I really should spend more time over there. They always have events going on and are always needing people to help out. I need to make myself more available for things like that. I just love being around all of those historical things. I just can't seem to get enough of it.

After my outing with my stitching group I met a good friend of mine for lunch. Today we lunched at Chilis. We're looking forward to Spring so we can go to the little eateries in downtown Fredericksburg and eat outside. I love doing that. Really, there's not much that I don't love up here. By the time we finished up with lunch I only had a bit of time to spare before picking the kids up from school so I stopped off at the mall for a bit of browsing. It was such a nice day out with friends. I wanted to stop by and say hi to my friends at HE but ran out of time. I'll pop in to see them on Thursday, I think.

I finally finished up a birthday present I've been working on for the past few weeks. I got it mailed off today so should be able to share a pic of it the end of the week. I think it turned out really great. I hope she likes it to. I spent some time this afternoon kitting up my next projects. In my quest to add more stitched items to my walls, I've kitted up 3 designs for me. Here they are minus the threads. I've not decided which one I'm starting tonight but these are the 3 I plan to stitch next. First is the Liberty 1776 Hanging Sampler Pinkeep from Stacy Nash Primitives. I plan to stitch this and hang it in my little sewing room. I've loved this piece since I first saw it and am looking forward to stitching it. It looks like a pretty quick stitch. Next is the small sampler from a chart from M Designs called Sampler Girls. At some point I plan to stitch the large sampler as well, but for now I'm stitching the small one. It's got two little ladies on it and it says "Let Virtue Be a Guide to Thee". I know this one will be a quick stitch. It'll be for my little room as well. I'm leaning towards starting this one tonight. Last but certainly not least is The Dolley Madison Sampler from The Sampler Girl. My hope is to eventually stitch all of the pieces from the First Ladies Series. I loved stitching Abigail's Sampler for John and know I'll love stitching this one just as much.

My little guy is waiting with a book in hand, so off I go.

Happy Happy Heart day!

Today didn't go quite as planned, but still a very very good day nonetheless. Rather than the 4 of us journeying (is that a word?) up to Alexandria to enter my piece in the needlework exhibition at Woodlawn, only the girlie and I went. Joshua's been fighting something off all week and started complaining of his ear hurting last night. He wasn't in the mood for a day trip today so Cassie and I had a girlie day and the guys had a guy day. Worked out fine for me. I love day trips and the girlie does too. I love Alexandria. The girlie does too. And I love Mount Vernon. So does the girlie. I love stopping off at stitching shops on my outings. So does the girlie because she stitches. Every now and then a little chart for her manages to find it's way to the counter when I'm paying for my goodies. Not today though. Both shops kept her thoroughly entertained with the bowls of chocolate hearts that they had sitting by the register. So our first stop was Woodlawn. I was really excited to be taking my sampler but disappointed when I got on the interstate and remembered that instead of putting my camera in my purse, I left it on the kitchen table. I really wanted to take a picture to post. I'll have to wait until I go back next month. Anyway, it's there! And the ladies working there were just about the nicest women I've ever met! They're all members of Nelly's Needlers. Everything was very organized, and they were all very helpful and very complimentary of my piece. I thought before I went that I'd feel nervous or apprehensive about leaving it, but I didn't. I was really excited to take it and am really looking forward to seeing everything on exhibit. As we were leaving a woman brought in a really ginormous piece. I just caught a glimpse but I think it was of a horse. A really really huge horse. I really wanted to stay there all day so I could look at all of the pieces that were coming in.


After we left Woodlawn, we drove down the street to In Stitches. We had to. I mean we were just right down the street :). I picked up some new goodies from Blackbird Designs that were just released. Really great charts! I tried to refrain, but I couldn't. I LOVE Blackbird Designs and I really really wanted them. Plus, my mama sent me some $$ for Valentine's Day and told me to by myself something, so I did. Thanks, mom! I picked up the newest book called My Heart is True. I really like this book. It's filled with charts for small things. Pinkeeps, a pin box, a pocket, a needlebook, and a little friends project book. There are a few other pieces in there too. It's a really nice book. I also picked up a little chart called Small Token, and another chart called Love is in the Air. I can't wait to get cracking on some of these. I'm really happy with my purchases.



After we left In Stitches we went over to the Shops at Mount Vernon. We had a really nice time browsing but didn't stay too long. I think most everyone on the east coast went to Mount Vernon today. It was a really nice day. A little chilly, but nice. We've not taken the tour of Mount Vernon yet. We're going to do that in April when Mike's dad and his wife come to visit for spring break. I'm really looking forward to that. I've been wanting to do the Mount Vernon tour since before we even moved here. After Mount Vernon, we headed back towards home stopping in downtown Fredericksburg and walking through the city a bit. Stopping of course at Everything Cross Stitch to see what new and exciting things that they picked up at Market. I love Market days. Such fun!


Mike loves ice cream cakes, so for Valentine's Day I ordered a Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard cake from Dairy Queen for him. Isn't it pretty? I think they did a really great job on it. I'm not a fan of ice cream cakes and neither are the kids so we're letting him eat this one up all by himself. Somehow I think he's happy about that...lol.




Let me show ya what he got for me. First, lots of chocolate. I don't know what it is about those cheap boxes of Valentine chocolates, but I love them! So he got me a box of those and then a box of the Russell Stover chocolates, too. Here's the good part. we went in to an antique shop in downtown Fredericksburg a month or so ago. I like this shop because it has all kinds of antique needlework tools and some stitched pieces from the 1800's. I've been in the same shop before with Laura. He remembered me pointing out some jars of really old buttons that I really liked. I was really giddy earlier today when he handed me a jar of them. Who knows where the buttons came from. I'd like to think that some of them are Civil War old. Maybe not but I like that thought so I shall keep it. There are some really old wooden buttons in here. I think I'm gonna dump them out and sift through them in a bit. I love the peanut jar they came in too. I'm putting these in my little room. First I need to get another shelf. I might shelf shop tomorrow. We'll see. I love these buttons. I bet they could tell some stories.

Back Among the Living

Shortly after my last post the flu caught up with me. I got to spend a fun filled week doing nothing. About 4 of those days were spent doing not too much more than sleeping. After I started to get a little better, it managed to catch up with Cassie. She had a flu shot this year, I didn't. That just goes to show you that just because you get the shot doesn't mean you're home free. She's feeling a lot better but is still not herself. I'm still trying to get all of my strength back. I'm almost there. Not quite but almost. I've really not wanted to go out and do anything at all. After I became fever free and felt like I could actually move a bit, Mike took me out and about to get some fresh air. We've had some really gorgeous days weather wise lately. There have been a few days that it got up to around 70 and it was just glorious. It made me forget all about that little rugrat, Phil seeing his shadow last week. I'm ready for winter to be done.

I got a phone call from the framers saying that my sampler was ready to be picked up. I LOVE how it turned out! He did such a wonderful job framing it, it's perfect! I can't wait to get hanging. In the meantime, it's all wrapped up and ready to go on a journey. I'm entering it in Woodlawn's Needlework Exhibition this year. The entry days are this weekend, so we'll be driving up to Alexandria on Saturday to enter it. I'm SO excited! The exhibition runs the entire month of March. Laura and I went together last year and decided that we shall go together every year. I'm especially looking forward to going this year since I'll have something hanging on the wall. After we drop it off, I'm going to swing by In Stitches to look at the new goodies they picked up at Market. After that we're going to head over to the Shops at Mount Vernon to do some browsing. At some point I'm sure we'll have a nice Valentine lunch some place.

Speaking of Valentine's Day, this year Cassie and I decided we'd make her Valentine cards. Since this is her last year of elementary school, and probably of Valentine card swapping, I thought it would be nice if we made them together. She loves crabs and we came across a really cute crab paper punch from Martha Stewart. We made little pink cards and punched out little red crabs and glued them to the front. She loves how they turned out and I think they came out really cute too. They just scream "Cassie" and I know her friends are going to love them. Joshua opted for some store bought puppy dog Valentines with some Sweetart lollipops for his pals.