My wish for everyone is to have a very Happy New Year 2014.

I hope each and every one of you has a very special Holiday Season!

I would like to congratulate all the finishers in the SAL I hosted for 2013.  I will draw the winner's name on December 31st and if you haven't gone to the blog for the SAL, take a break and treat yourself to some beautiful stitching from around the world.  My heartfelt thanks to all the ladies who finished.

Our sweet Vallie all dressed up in her new sweater and hat.  Jenn insisted on buying the hat and I'm surprised she left it on so long.  

You know the story about Jenn, our daughter and her family moving in with us from Colorado.  Well here is something I doubt many of you see.  Her DH Daniel use to work for Coors and you know the displays the beer companies put up  in stores.....well he got ahold of a fake palm tree and kept it .  When they moved down here, they decided it would make the perfect Florida Christmas tree.  Here is a pic of it and it even has a musical pink flamingo on top that sings "Santa Baby" and "It's 5 o'clock somewhere".  It cracks me up!!!

I've not really been in the stitching mood for some time now and I better get over it soon.  I've done some knitting...Christmas present....and 3 new shawls and worked on my SAL.  I'm not interested in any kind of needlework which is very weird because usually I go from one to another but not this time.  Maybe it's the holidays.

B

I know Thanksgiving is over but I just have to share this with you. :o)

TWAS THE NIGHT OF THANKSGIVING, BUT I JUST COULDN'T SLEEP. I TRIED COUNTING BACKWARDS, I TRIED COUNTING SHEEP. THE LEFTOVERS BECKONED - THE DARK MEAT AND WHITE, BUT I FOUGHT THE TEMPTATION WITH ALL OF MY MIGHT. TOSSING AND TURNING WITH ANTICIPATION, THE THOUGHT OF A SNACK BECAME INFATUATION. SO, I RACED TO THE KITCHEN, FLUNG OPEN THE DOOR, AND GAZED AT THE FRIDGE, FULL OF GOODIES GALORE. GOBBLED UP TURKEY AND BUTTERED POTATOES, PICKLES AND CARROTS, BEANS AND TOMATOES. I FELT MYSELF SWELLING SO PLUMP AND SO ROUND, 'TIL ALL OF A SUDDEN, I ROSE OFF THE GROUND. I CRASHED THROUGH THE CEILING, FLOATING INTO THE SKY, WITH A MOUTHFUL OF PUDDING AND A HANDFUL OF PIE. BUT, I MANAGED TO YELL AS I SOARED PAST THE TREES.... HAPPY EATING TO ALL - PASS THE CRANBERRIES, PLEASE. MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY, MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP. MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY HAVE NARY A LUMP. MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS. MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE, MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS!!

I want to wish all my friends the Happiest of Thanksgiving!  Please enjoy this time with your family and friends.....I know I will.  This year is the first time in over 12 years that I'll be blessed with my family around me.  

Blessings!

I was up at my LNS this morning and came away with these two Just Another Button Co kits that I know I won't have time to do.  I'm offering these up for sale for what I paid for them.  These are complete kits....nothing has been removed.

Daisy's Scissor Fob

Kit includes:  Buttons and 2013 charm, pearl cotton and 

Handbehg Felts felt ball.  

You add needle and thread.

$22.50

Sew French Spoolkeep

Kit includes everything shown...you just add

needle and thread.

$19.50

I take Paypal only and the shipping is $1.50 for each of them.

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address given by Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the Gettysburg Civil War Cemetary.  I have been there many times and it still gives me chills to see these words.  Take a moment of your time today to read these words that are still appropriate for today's world.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Abraham Lincoln

November 19, 1863

It seems like forever since I posted anything!  I've been busy here around the  house and also in my sewing room.  Fall has arrived here in Florida and it always makes me bring out my knitting needles and crochet hooks.  I've made 3 shawls but I'm not going to post pics until I have them blocked.  

I've also been working to finish up my SAL for 2013 and below are my finishes.  The first one is for December and it was so much fun to stitch.  

The november one is in honor of my grandmother, Anna Grace, with a "grandmother's garden" hexagon quilting design.  The brass heart is just to show how much I loved her.  So now I'm finished with the SAL and I've had several members remark  about how they are going to carry on this tradition every year.  I think it's a fabulous idea!   I would like to start a book that shows all the different kinds of stitches I can do for cross stitch and embroidery and maybe even some knitting, crocheting and hardanger.  This I will have to think on some more to get it the way I want it.  I hope everyone has enjoyed the SAL and please, if you haven't gone over to check out the beautiful work, give yourself a treat and go take a peek.  It's very much worth it.

The kids went to Daytona Beach this morning about 5 am to see the sunrise.  I thought I would share some of the photos with you.  It's very beautiful till all the people get there.

I have always been fascinated by elderly peoples hands....call me weird....but I think you can see a person's life in their hands.  When I saw this picture on Pinterest, it immediately caught my attention and I wanted to share.  It's simply called "Amour".