Happy New Year... meet bucky & Samantha

Hello Everyone!
We had a nice Christmas. I received two lovely stitched pieces as presents from my college friend. I also received some nice Christmas stash from DH. I'll share them in my next post.

Thanks so much for all your encouraging words last year.

I have one more finish to share with you. Well- at least the stitching is finished.

HAED Forest Walk Storykeep Chart design by Michele Sayetta (Artwork by Anne Stokes) © Heaven and Earth LLC 2009  now at 12850 stitches. I have some nice brass bellpull hardware that I hope to use.
25ct Dublin Linen
DMC Threads (90 colors), 2 over 1











I'm not sure if I am going to start a new HAED or work on finishing another one of my WIP's. I have so many to choose from....Hmmm. I guess I'll have to see which one calls to me the most. For now I can't decide if it will be Mini Gothic Girl Artwork by Lisa Parker, Mini Frozen Hearts Artwork by Zindy S.D. Nelson, Mini La Victime Artwork by Nene Thomas, Mini Too many books Artwork by Randall Spangler, Storykeep Water Dragon Artwork by Anne Stokes, or Stocking Cherished Christmas Artwork by Ching Chou-Kuik.

Meet Bucky...on the day he adopted us...The rusty color on his back was all his loose undercoat.

And here is Samantha... she has white boots.


They are slowly settling in. We have been told that they are between 9 and 12 years old. Some sort of Shepherd / lab mix.. about 75 pounds each. The day they found us it was bitter cold (below zero° F) with about 8" of fresh powdery snow. Expected temps that night were  to be -24° F below. Thankfully we spotted them. They have a sad history. We found out that their original owner was in a car accident that put him in a nursing home. His son took the dogs and dropped them. The were rescued by an animal control officer in late May. We learned their names (Bucky & Samantha), and that they were brother and sister, and that they had all their shots. They were adopted out to a new family sometime September - October of 2013. Sadly they were dropped again. We aren't sure when they were dropped - but the were dehydrated and very hungry. They now have their forever home. It's just taking them awhile to let us be in separate rooms. Hopefully when they nap this afternoon, I'll be able to catch up on my emails and some household chores. They are very affectionate, and when I sit down to stitch, they decide it's play time. LOL!



Here they are after being with us for 2 weeks.















Have a wonderful day!
Lisa

W.I.P. Update

Hello everyone,
I've been away for awhile as my Dad had some health issues recently. He twisted wrong getting into his vehicle resulting in a problem with his leg. After several days - and lots of Dr. visits, we found out the problem is 2 blood clots in his leg by his knee. Hopefully the treatment won't take too long.


This fall has been so nice - we've had lots of brilliant colors. (The last few years the colors were more washed out). Hopefully I'll be able to share some pictures in my next post.The robins and cedar waxwings returned to eat up the mountain ash berries. Now we are waiting for some of our winter birds to return.

I did get my exchange piece stitched, but when I started to finish it I realized that I needed 2 threads - they came in the beginning of this week and I got the piece finished today. It will be awhile before I can share it though. 

Since I had to wait for the threads, I picked up my Heaven and Earth Storykeep and added about 1000 stitches.

HAED Forest Walk Storykeep Chart design by Michele Sayetta (Artwork by Anne Stokes) © Heaven and Earth LLC 2009  now at 10950 stitches.
25ct Dublin Linen
DMC Threads (90 colors), 2 over 1














DH & I celebrated our anniversary yesterday. The sun was shining and the fall colors were so beautiful and we had temps in the 70's - it was so different from our wedding day  15 years ago - we woke up to snow flurries and temps in the upper 40's - thankfully the snow melted before the church service was over and we were able to get several outside pictures.


Have a wonderful day!
Lisa

Almost there

Hello everyone,
This week I thought I would take a break from my Christmas finishes to share the progress on my HAED Storykeep.

Less than one page to finish :) 

HAED Forest Walk Storykeep Chart design by Michele Sayetta (Artwork by Anne Stokes) © Heaven and Earth LLC 2009  now at 9850 stitches.
25ct Dublin Linen
DMC Threads (90 colors), 2 over 1

 I just love how this is coming along. I had to set it aside for a few weeks to get an exchange piece finished. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it soon.





 

Spring has arrived and our gardens are starting to show some color.

Earlier this week DH said "look at the hummingbird feeder". I expected to see that the hummingbirds had returned -  instead this is what I saw.

Then yesterday evening I happened to look out and saw our first hummingbird of the season.

Now all we need is the first hatch of the dragonflies so the black flies and other insects won't be such a bother.

Have a wonderful day!
Lisa

A Heaven-ly end of year update

Hi Everyone,
Where did the year go? I have been inspired by so many of your stitching pieces. Unfortunately, my dial-up service and Internet Explorer don't let me leave as many comments as I would like. I just wanted to let you know how much all of you have inspired me this past year.

I have been adding some stitches to 2 of my Heaven and Earth projects since mid-December. After we dug out from the storm of my last post, we got another 8-10 inches of snow the next day. So I had a litttle more time to spend stitching.

HAED Forest Walk Storykeep (Anne Stokes) now at 8350 stitches.
25ct Dublin Linen
DMC Threads, 2 over 1










 

HAED 2012 BB SAL Storykeep Forbidden Doorway (Meredith Dillman) now at a little more than 10,750 stitches completed.
28ct Opal. Moonglow (Picture This Plus)
DMC Threads & Kreinik #4, 1 over 1

It's so nice to see my progress bar lengthen. I also added a new one for the HAED 2013 BB SAL Mystic Garden (Ciro Marchetti) that I'll be starting soon. I don't have any special stitching plans for 2013 -  the fun is in the journey.

Happy New Year! Wishing you all good health, much happiness and lots of fabulous stitching in 2013!

Have a wonderful day!
Lisa

Heaven and Earth updates

Hello everyone,
I've been busy this week trying to put some finishes together and get some presents for family and friends wrapped. To keep their gifts a surprise, I don't think I'll post until after Christmas - except for the few that don't have internet access. You will probably be seeing Christmas Ornament finishes in January. LOL!

So instead, I'll share with you my 2 Heaven and Earth updates.
First up is HAED 2012 SAL SK Forbidden Doorway (Dillman). My last update was at 7350 stitches -when I finished Page 1. Here she is at 9244 stitches.

Fabric: Picture this Plus 28ct crystal Moonglow
DMC Threads, 1 over 1, full cross

I just love how she is coming along. 

Next up, I had to move my stored WIP bag to get something out for finishing. When I did, my WIP Storykeep Forest Walk (Stokes) fell out so I spent the next couple of nights adding 500 stitches.

This was my first HAED purchase back in December 2009. I abandoned for quite awhile. I thought something was wrong as the picture showed a much greener bottom. I picked it up again after joining the 2011 SAL - I found the colors used blended into a different color as I continued.

This one has quite a few confetti blocks- especially in the area I'm at now (the face). I do love how it is coming out, but the 2 strands on 25ct has the back very thick and at times my needle has a difficult time.

Fabric 25ct white Irish Dublin Linen
DMC Threads, 2 over 1, full cross

 
I hope to make some more progress since next year's focus will be the SAL QS Mystic Garden.Hopefully I won't get sidetracked too much.

Have a wonderful day!
Lisa

More than half done

Here is one of my ongoing Heaven and Earth Designs. It is called Storykeep Forest Walk Artwork by Anne Stokes. I started at the bottom left for this one, back in December 2009. I abandoned it after just a few weeks because I thought there was too much black in the design - my picture showed a lot more dark green. I picked it up again,almost a year later and put it aside in less than a month. Wanting to finish this piece, this past year I joined the HAED SALs just to see if I could figure out what was wrong. After seeing such wonderful results with the SAL, I brought this out of my pile and began working on it again. Here is my progress as of today. Completed 6750 stitches .

Fabric: 25 ct Antique White Irish Dublin Linen

Threads: DMC (90 colors)

Stitch Count: 50W x 257H stitched 2 over 1, full cross

only 6100 stitches to go.