Happy Mother's Day on this Slow Sunday...

Hello and Happy Mother's Day to all of you!!  I hope that you are enjoying your day... that you are honored and pampered and loved!!  I'm doing a mini- celebration today with my younger son and next Sunday I'll do another celebration with my older son... Life has gotten in the way of things but it is fine... today I plan on continuing my personal tradition of starting a new cross stitch piece... even though I have plenty of other things to work on... I've narrowed it down to 2 choices.. a patriotic piece or a Blackbird Design... can't go wrong either way. 

For a week that had few obligations in it, it certainly flew by... and I did get a few things done... I decided on Monday to make the #bbdweekendsal a 3 day weekend... and then extended to 4 days as I was enjoying the stitching immensely... and here is how far I got...

I finished the No.2, The Light Upon the Lawn, except for some french knots and lazy daisy stitches which I'll add later... since I'm stitching this on a large piece of linen that will be manhandled quite a bit I wait till I'm at the end to add them so they don't get snagged. Then I figured out how much space I could leave between the pieces... only 4 stitches... and started No. 3 She Sights a Bird... this one may be my favorite because it has an alphabet and a cat... a LARGE cat... makes me shed a tear for Big Dude... gosh I miss that cat...  anyway... this was happy stitching and I did even put in a couple of threads on the stocking although now I have a split on the other side of my thumb... ugh... 

As for sewing I was able to meet my self imposed goal of finishing my American Jane Simple Pleasures quilt... ta dah!!

And here are a couple of close ups...

Each of the big blocks is a 49 patch and in each block I did not repeat a fabric... there may be two fabrics of the same designs but they are different colorways... somehow this makes my OCD happy happy happy!!!

Now I thought I had enough fabric for a back but I was short and I did have an wide back in my stash that would have been okay... but then I saw a wide back on Hancock's of Paducah site that was perfect... here's a link to see it... a sort of mottled yellow with a random polka dot... I'm okay with waiting for it to arrive to send it off to be quilted.  Not sure what I'm going to start next... I have plenty of ideas and fabric...but don't know if I'll have a lot of time this upcoming week. 

And I did succumb to purchasing a flat of annuals ... or 2... or 3 ... or maybe 7 or 8 flats... I lost count... LOL I did get 2 flats of marigolds in the ground and did a bit of weeding. I thought about planting up my window boxes but the weather hasn't been stellar... a bit on the cool side and several nights we've gotten down into the mid 30s... I may actually wait until May 15 (supposedly the last day we could get frost) to get anything else planted... 

Oh and I did go ahead and plant up my pyramid of petunias... this year I have a total of 15 different varieties of petunias on this one little stand...

Now this is up against the house and it faces the east so it gets the morning sun... that protects it pretty well. I ended up going to about 5 different garden centers to get them all and still didn't get the one I really wanted... it is a Proven Winner called Latte... you can see it here... I never found it last year either but I had one the year before... it is my unicorn petunia... and I'll keep looking... 

Here's some shots of what I've got now... I want to take a pic every two weeks or so and then I can see how they are growing...and yes the pyramid needs a new coat of paint....

Oh I have a bit of decorating to share too... this is that white shelf unit in my living room... I am so happy happy happy that I purchased this... it is a great piece to display things on... 

On the top shelf I have a BBD Loose Feathers from the series Abcedarian... love the blue frame on that one... and Vintage Birds by Jeannette Douglas Designs...

below is Funky Bird by Barbara Ana Designs...

and on the bottom shelf is Gathering Basket, another BBD... I was surprised how many stitched bird pieces I have done... I love birds... and I love cross stitching ... so it is the perfect combination for me!   I like how this display is on the monochromatic side... blues/greens/turquoises... and just a pop of rose and yellow... I'm enjoying these displays and I think they will gradually slide into some more summery things at the end of the month... I won't do patriotic till July... at least that's my plan at the moment.

And speaking of plans, boy next week is full of them... somehow I have at least one and sometimes 2 appointments or obligations every day ... not sure how that happens ... I really like my life to be less scheduled... and I'm going to try hard to make the following week as unscheduled as possible. 

So my plans for today are to stitch a bit and my handyman Dan is coming over for a couple of hours... I hope to get him to do the finishing work on the bookcases downstairs... drill some holes in a big planter  for the yard... hang a clock... and maybe even do the trim on a bump out shelf... it is suppose to rain all day so it will be good for inside work for both of us.

I hope that your day is a great one!!!   I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and go see what everyone else is up to!

happy stitching-

carol fun