Happy Mother's Day and Slow Stitching Sunday where I realize I'm not cut out for certain things...

Happy happy happy Mother's day to all  of you who've nurtured a child... I saw a sign in front of the local Tire Discounters yesterday which said...Happy Mother's  Day, if it was easy Dad would do it... there is some truth to that, isn't there? LOL  Hope you are having a lovely day...mine started with fresh donuts brought to my house by my older son... and while he texted me at the ungodly hour of  7:45 am that he had the donuts, we didn't eat them till I woke up at 9:30...thank goodness I had my phone silenced...well actually I do that almost all the time... I am not an early bird...9:30 was early enough... the donuts were delicious ... I got a coconut one...and then we sat and watched the Formula 1 race from Barcelona... when he lived at home we watched these races every Sunday morning they were on... it was nice to do it again. He and my DIL are coming back with dinner later...carryout from Carraba's ...my favorite. And I am going to spend the rest of the afternoon (after I get this written and posted) sitting in the sunroom/porch and stitching. It is my tradition to start a new project guilt-free on Mother's Day...

And speaking of starting new projects... I realized this week that I am not cut out for Stitch Maynia where you start a bunch of new projects...that Catholic guilt I talked about before is real...and it came back on Monday. Now I only started 2 things...both patriotic which I do want for this year... which is good, but after working on some WIPs that I love I just didn't want to add to the pile. So I spent last week working on my  Lizzie Kate "Things Unseen" sampler...

I got all the flowers in the basket started... I filled in the bird and I stitched the house...made it brighter yellow than the called for Weeks Straw... I used my favorite yellow Crescent Colors Queen Bee and gave the place an olive green door... just like a certain little house that I'm very fond of... There are suppose to be 2 sheep to the left of the house...I'm thinking they may be replaced by two chickens... a bit more personalization. That border still needs work but it is perfect mindless stitching for "watching" videos ...right now I'm hooked  on "Call the Midwife"... I got started on the show about 2 seasons ago so I've never seen the beginning. It popped up on Netflix and I watched season 1  last week. Now I should have gotten more done but between the Midwife and working in the yard several nights I sat down in my chair, threaded my needle and promptly fell to sleep.

In my defense, I cleaned out and refilled 5 big window  boxes and planted them with about 80 wave petunia... I cleaned up the spent hyacinths...and I planted about 110 marigolds. Still need to replace some perennials that don't show signs of returning and get some short zinnias and lantana to edge the bed.  Working outside next week will depend on the weather... we've gone from winter to summer in the blink of an eye... Spring has lasted about 3 days, really it did... already  had upper 80's and today humidity has returned. Forecast for the week is lots of stormy weather and temps pushing 90...sheesh it is still May...not July...

So here is my choice for my traditonal Mother's Day start...Mrs. Maguire Bee Charmer by Pineberry Lane...

I love those GIANT flowers... I'm going to stitch it on this 32 ct linen I painted yesterday...

a soft yellow and some olive green...and now that I look at it I see a chicken in the lower left corner and a seahorse in the upper right...ROFL... I totally didn't try to do that ... oh well at least it isn't as risque as the piece I painted for the Christmas sampler... you can read about that fiasco here...you have to scroll down a bit.  I've brightened up the flosses a bit... while I love the style of primitives I like a little less brown in my pieces.

So I'm off to the sunroom to stitch... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and I'm taking my laptop out on the porch too so I can see what everyone else is doing today too...

Happy Mother's Day...and happy stitching-
carol fun

A Slow Sunday Stitching where I ponder projects and porch furniture...

Hello - sorry I didn't post last week... last Sunday we celebrated my younger son's birthday with a special brunch and dinner so there wasn't much time for anything else.  Several times last week I thought about popping in with an update but there were appointments and lunches out and garden centers...lots and lots of garden centers. Spring has sprung and we had a couple of summer like days which had me itching to pot stuff up ...and I did... again this year I potted up 13 different varieties of petunias on my pyramid...

The petunias this year were already pretty good sizes ...can't wait to take a pic of this in another month or so. If you enlarge the picture take a close look at the purple petunias in the center of the middle shelf...they are gorgeous...and the little pink one on the bottom shelf is a double ruffled petunia... I haven't seen any of those for quite a while.

And here are the pots on my front steps... same combo as last  year...and the year before... peach geraniums and purple and white accents...

And since the weather was so glorious I decided by garden chickens needed a bit of a sprucing up...so I painted them...much brighter than they were...and I added polka dots...

and some close ups...

because you don't see a flock of polka dot chickens just everywhere...LOL... now my beds need mulching ...and I have 48 marigolds to plant in this bed...and I added some new outdoor lighting to my yard...you can see one of  the lights next to the red chick...they are solar with a battery back up... very bright...10 lumens... got them at Costco.

Plans for today include getting my newest window box attached to the house...just in time for the 4 flats of wave petunias waiting in my driveway... weather for this week should be great for planting. 

As for crafty stuff I have a finish to show and I need to report  that I didn't listen to a word I said 2 weeks ago about Stitch Maynia...

Lets start out with something to be proud of before I hang my head in shame...

Ta -dah!!!  Tis Spring by Notforgotten Farm...

The frame was a bargain from Homegoods...and I only added a bit of priscillafication... but I'm very happy with this piece. There is just something about animals in clothing that makes me smile!!

As for Stitch Maynia...well I caved...sort of...there was so much chatter about it on Instagram and on Flosstube...and all the cool kids were doing it ... so I decided to join in. Now I'm not starting 18 new projects... I perused and pondered my stash of WIPs and made a plan to stitch on 9 of my WIPs and start 9 new projects. I'm trying to pick small new projects...several patriotic ones that I want to finish by July...and I'm going to put a few stitches in some Halloween and Christmas projects too. I'm thinking of it as prep work for the upcoming holidays, and yes I am trying to justify my rash behavior. So far on the WIP side I revisited two projects that are very pretty...Vintage Birds by Jeanette Douglas Designs which you can see here...and Lizzie Kate's Things Unseen Mystery Sampler which you can see here. It was fun to stitch on both of these. And I completed Shakespeare's Peddler Mystery Garden Sampler which you can see here. I will be framing this one to display this summer. 

As for starts I have 2 patriotic pieces... Liberty by Birds of a Feather...click here...and Gold Star from Marly of  Santas and Samplers.  I have another patriotic piece I want to stitch on, but today I think I'll work on  a Christmas piece. You don't have to have an Instagram account to check out what I'm up to...just click here ... carolfun53..for updates. 

Now onto porch furniture...well I can say with complete certainty that having the porch turned into a sunroom was the best home improvement decision I've made for this house. I LOVE it...the Dude LOVES it...my neighbors LOVE it... even my UPS guy told me how pretty it looks and all he sees all day is porches and doorsteps!!  I've spent lots of time on the porch stitching and reading and knitting and even napping but I think the Dude has more hours out there than I have... I liked the sofa I got at IKEA but the fabric on the cushions was a magnet for the Dude's shedding ... and I was already tired of cleaning it off every day. Soooo... I decided I would "artfully" throw some quilts on the sofa and then I can just shake them out when the shedding becomes too much...

The porch before...nice but boring...

The porch after... colorful, crazy and comfy...

I changed out the pillows with the Dude's approval...

And here is a look at that quilt... it has been waiting for a binding  for quite a while...

This pattern is Lazy Goose and you can read all about it and how this quilt came together here. Every time I go out on the porch Dude is either on the sofa or on the bench...

As you can tell he doesn't like to be disturbed... LOL... I think he may believe that I did the porch just for him...

Well I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today...got my handyman coming over  to work on several projects and I hope to stitch a little...and I want some porch time for me... hopefully Dude will share the couch.

happy stitching-

carol fun