Tuesday Musings

Today is another warm day here, in the 80s and sunny. The solar panels are cranking out energy which is a good thing.

The sumac tree in our yard is blooming! Tiny yellow flowers cover it and the bees are sure busy.

We no longer that a green lawn in the back due to the drought. The water district has recommended cutting watering outside by 70%. The front yard is tiny and shared with a neighbor so we do water it but only once a week or so. I plan on planting natural grasses and drought resistant plants in the future as funds become available here in the backyard. The African sumac tree doesn't mind the drought and loves the heat of the summers. It gives us needed shade too.

We've been getting seed catalogs, but haven't ordered anything yet. Its still early but with this unseasonable heat spell, we would sure like to start. The raised beds look so empty.

The fruit trees are starting to bloom and I hope we don't get a cold snap. Its happened before in the past and ruined the peaches and nectarines.

 As I mentioned yesterday, Cora was a gifted writer. Her sister posted one of Cora's many poems and I am sharing it here.

                              Whispers of Grace

Grace opens closet doors and reaches far

As far as it must take to find me there,

Hiding, scared, and fearing all that hurts,
But Grace embraces, whispers words of care.

Grace see the soiled dress, so ripped and frayed,
Stained, and far beyond a needle and a thread,
But Grace redresses me in robes of white,
And whispers, This is all you need instead.

Grace sees the dying embers of my dreams,
Ashes of bridges I have burned,
But Grace with sweetest breath fans life anew
And turns all my mistakes to lessons learned.

Grace sees my feet, as I would start to stray,
Leaving paths that lead to good and right,
Grace picks me up, and points me in the way
And places in my hand a guiding light.

I listen to the voices in my soul
Not Good Enough is knocking at my door,
Unloved and Left Alone would stay too long,
But Grace, in whispers, says, I love you more.

Grace rebuilds the bridges I once burned,
Leading back to Him who loves me so,
How can such love be mine, I humbly cry,
Grace whispers, And how much, you'll never know!

So loud the voices, chasing from behind!
Words that tear and rip my soul apart!
So quiet, soft, a whispered breath of Grace,
And all is calm again within my hear!
--Cora Eelman

Monday Posting, Giveaway Winner and Promotion of a Wonderful Friend

The giveaway drawing was yesterday and Patti Caldwell Tappel won. Congratulations, Patti. The tags will go out tomorrow all the way to Missouri. My grandfather was from Missouri, Carrolton, MO. My grandmother was born right across the border in Ottumwa, Ia. Beautiful country with rich history.

I will be having a March giveaway soon so please check back, either here or on FB. Please be a follower on my FB page, Sweet Home Stitchery, 

I didn't do much this weekend, some yard and house work. Valentines is not a big holiday for us. I've always thought it should be celebrated in a different way as the Saint was a strong Christian martyr who died for his faith. Its always good of course to let others know how we love them. That should be done every day!

I logged on to Facebook this morning and found out my dear friend, Cora Eelman passed away early this morning. She fought the good fight with cancer and is now  in the arms of Jesus. She never gave up and was a beautiful soul who is now at peace. Please pray for her sister who was very close to her.
Cora has a lovely blog, Hidden Riches in Secret Places.
I hope the blog is kept up as she wrote lovely poems and had great faith. It should stand as a testimony of a life well lived.

My Giveaway

Hope you're having a nice Sunday. A big storm is coming in here so we're preparing for alot of strong wind and rain. They even predict a tornado or two, although I find that hard to believe. We've had a mild winter so far, some rain but as always not enough.

I'm having a giveaway on my  Sweet Home Stitchery facebook page and invite you to sign up. I made these cute spring floral tags to give away. I'd love to send them out to the winner. They're entirely hand stitched and padded with warm and natural batting. These are fun to use, tied to a bouquet, a vase, a lamp, hung on a cabinet or door knob, etc. Plus they make great bookmarks! So I hope you'll click on the link above and sign up by leaving a comment. I like to make things simple.

I've been filling my Etsy shop with new things and loved favorites. I haven't listed this card yet, but will soon.

                                                        This cute little golden yorkie

Plus I just finished another card,

it would be nice for Valentines, don't you think?

Anyway, that's about all for now. We've been trying to walk every day and are up to over 2 miles a day. I thought we were doing good until I chatted with my brother who told me he runs 10 miles every day on the beach. Then again, he's 6 years younger than me. He's on Facebook and shares many beautiful photos of Hawaii and "his" island of Oahu.

January in the Homestead

I've been busy trying to get my little Etsy shop restocked after the holidays. I got a nice sale and sold out of several cards so am working on restocking. This little Matryoska Doll card is the latest, I listed it today.

                       I also got another Shih Tzu puppy is in the shop too, he is a favorite.

            You might wonder where I take the photos, the vintage radio is my favorite location!

                                          and yes, it does work. Quite well, in fact. We bought it from a retired gentleman who refurbishes vintage radios with new parts. They live again!

Our weather is warm right now, in the 70s most days but we are getting rain occasionally. Everyone here hopes for more, of course, with our drought. The water district has cut our outdoor water usage 70%!.
We covered our little new orange tree with shade cloth and it seems to be doing well, in spite of some freezing nights. Alan talked to a landscaper who suggested we use the shade cloth as plastic would get too  hot with our warmer days.
Of course, like many of you, we're getting our seed catalogs in. Such fun to look at all the beautiful photos and seed selections!

The new puppy has grown and doing well. Bella is now around 5 months old and full of energy. The older dogs have accepted her and she's one of the pack now. Kingston who is the elder is her big brother and plays with her. Jackson the rat terrier, also a senior is the Alpha dog and Bella follows him around like a shadow. He's teaching her his ways.

                                                          She's like a miniature pit bull.

Jayden our grandson is now over 4 years old and getting ready for school. Hard to believe!

Here he is holding a fish he and his dad caught at one of our local lakes. I believe this is a sun fish. Yes, Southern California does have lakes. Most of them are man made but we do have one here that is natural, that's Lake Henshaw.
That's about all for today. I hope you will visit my Etsy shop. Our locksmith business hasn't been very busy so my sales help us buy food and other necessities.

A New Year

  Happy 2016!



Opening a new year, I wanted to let you know my friend, Nancy Huggins has a Go Fund page to help she and her husband move out of a meth infested town. Her dogs have been threatened and a neighbors cat was shot and killed. They didn't realize what a bad place it was when they moved in and they're desperate to move into a neighboring larger town with a good law force and more healthy living, both for them and also their rescues.Any donation, small or great is most appreciated.

They want to buy a home, however, they've also been victims of identity theft which takes time to resolve. When it rains, it pours or so it seems. Her husband is also a veteran and in poor health. This stress has taken a toll.

Her Go Fund Page is here  please help if you can!

I opened my Etsy shop and have listed a few new cards. I had alot of fun making these and hope you enjoy them.

The first one is called Rose Trellis and was a challenge.

      It looks absolutely gorgeous and the photo doesn't do it justice.

The second new pattern is a poodle with a continental clip. For fun I made the dog pink.

 A pink poodle!

                   I backed it with a floral pattern and I think she's proud of her new look.

The third new pattern are these sunflowers. Much brighter than pictured and another of my
favorites.  I took the pics last night with not the best lighting. Sorry about that. Taking pics with a tablet is hit and miss. I hope to do better in the future.
Lastly, one that was sold some time ago and I've relisted it.

                     Strawberry Thieves

I'm continuing to stitch more cards, and replace ones that have sold. I have another one ready to stitch, my best seller, The Shih Tzu puppy.

      

That's about all for today. We're expecting a big rain storm tomorrow so I and Alan worked outside this morning to weather proof the patio and backyard. He raked up leaves and I did alot of sweeping. Picked up all the toys that our grandson left and got things ready for the flood.

Wishing you and yours a very happy and healthy new 2016!

White Elephant Party, Commodities and Biscotti

Its hard to believe its almost Christmas.Its been a rough year for us as for many. We've had a bad family problem that I won't go into but thank you for your prayers. Things are a bit better now but we're not out of the woods yet.

We were invited to a White Elephant party earlier this month and had a wonderful time with old friends and new. The party was started with prayer. We played games, sang Christmas carols and lots of laughter. I won the first game by naming the most Christmas carols and won a large container of popcorn! Fun!
Victor the host made a wonderful Carmel Cake, it was like eating a  candy bar, wonderful! He's an accomplished cake baker. 

The party was a wonderful relaxing evening and one I will remember for a long time.

Today I went to the monthly USDA commodity  distribution.  Years ago as a teen I volunteered handing out the food never dreaming that I would one day be on the receiving end. As I drove away from the office where I picked up a huge amount of food, I could only be thankful that we live in such a great country and praised the Lord. 

If you're reading this and are on a limited income, the commodity program really helps. This time I got a large bag of apples, two 1 gallon juice containers, rice, beans, oatmeal, 5 cans of canned chicken, 4 cans of vegetable soup, 2 lbs of raisins, canned fruit and more. It was so heavy a package, I used a grocery cart to get it to my car. The apples were locally grown and really good. The canned chicken was in large 15 oz. cans. You just have to be under a certain income level to qualify. You can find out more on the website.

Right now I have some White Chocolate Cranberry Biscotti cooling, ready for the second part of the process of being twice baked. Then I will dip one end in the melted white chocolate. I found the recipe online at  Fake Ginger. It smells wonderful as its cooling getting to be sliced and baked again.

Biscotti is easy to make and well worth the effort!

This photo is from the website, mine won't be as beautiful but I think they'll taste as good!

that's about all for today. I hope to post more often, I promise!

             Wishing all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Decorations and a new family member

I thought I'd share these little figures of piligrims. Alan brought them home one day about 30 years ago and I just love them. Put them out every Thanksgiving. Nancy Huggins made the raggedy runner and it fits perfectly with the theme.

Many of our decorations were destroyed in the garage fire we had some years ago. I've been picking things up as I find them. This little turkey was found recently at the dollar store and I think it looks great with the fabric pumpkins.

Next I'll be putting in the leaf for our table and doing a table  of sorts. I have a lovely large harvest  tablecloth that was my dear mothers.  But that's for a different day, still some time before the big feast. We have been invited to a neighbors house but I still want to decorate and will have a turkey as we all love the leftovers.

I've listed all the 12 Days of Christmas cards I've got completed. I still have 3 to go, however, with the weeks flying by, I don't know if I will be able to finish the series this year. I thought I'd better list what I have got done. The 10 Lords A Leaping is a difficult pattern, a challenge which I enjoy but having to watch our grandson takes up alot of my time. Plus we have a new puppy, I really wasn't up for that challenge however our grandson loves her so, I didn't have the heart to say no.

Bella is very small, part chihuahua and part (can you believe it!) pit bull. She's a friendly sweet little thing and lively. I can't seem to get a good photo of her as she's constant movement.

  not the greatest photo, she was busy chewing on a rubber bone. She's 9 weeks old and we're busy getting her house trained which is something I'm really not good at. I'm really a cat person. So we now have 3 dogs, 4 cats, and two Bearded Dragon lizards. Phew! 3 of the cats are ours, the rest are our sons. Quite a zoo.

Here is our son with his bearded dragon in front of our house. Very calm and gentle lizard and no problem to take care of, his name is Rango and Don feeds him meal worms and crickets which he gets at the reptile store here in town. The lizard also likes greens and other vegetables at times. Don keeps him in a large aquarium in his room, with a heat lamp. He bought our grandson a baby bearded dragon which Jay called Rosy. She has her own aquarium with similar feeding habits.

12 Days of Christmas continued

Here is the 7 Swans a Swimming, I went ahead and ordered the rest of the patterns in the series so have the complete set now.
Below is 8 Maids a Milking,

Next is 9 Ladies Dancing which I have almost completed. They are fun to stitch and I'm on a mission to have a complete set to list. If you're interested, I will offer them at a lower price per card. I usually sell the cards for $6.50 each as they take alot of work to do. About an hour or more to pick out the pattern, and then another two to three hours to stitch, plus the cost of materials and pattern.
But if someone is interested in the complete set of 12, I will offer it at lower cost. Very unique cards for your special family and friends.

 Of course, if you'd like to make them yourself, you can find the patterns here at Pinbroidery  They have many beautiful Christmas card patterns.

October

Hard to believe how fast this year has gone. I'm so sorry I haven't post very much the last few months. We've had alot of family problems that I won't post about but please keep our grown son in your prayers if the Lord calls him to mind.

We have the garden about finished for the year. Alan continues to rebuilt some of the raised beds. We have one left to do, however its raining! How California needs the rain! So glad for the wet stuff.

I've been doing alot of house cleaning and organizing. Also have more Christmas cards done and stitched. I'm trying to finish the 12 Days of Christmas series, and have 3 more done.

Here is 4 Calling Birds

5 Golden Rings

And 6 Geese ALaying

I just finished this one last night and haven't mounted it on a card yet. I think it turned out well. My personal favorite is the Calling Birds. I love the musical notes. Next, of course, is 7 Swans a Swimming and 8 Maids A Milking.

I'm so fond of the entire old English song as I first became aware of it, when I was in the Girls Glee Club in middle school. We learned many Christmas songs and went to different organizations to sing during the holidays. I've always loved to sing and was in church choir when I met my soon to be husband (now of 41 years) Guess singing the Easter Cantata paid off! My dad's family were all singers with many involved in choir. Guess its our Celtic back ground.