Unexpected Surprises!

This post is being edited because I made a BIG mistake. I checked, double checked but dang it, I didn't check a third time, (even after other pics had somehow mysteriously fallen off my post) that all my gal pal's pages were represented. Somehow, Linda's pages from the book got dropped. Linda is such a sweet person, always upbeat, always a smile on her face and just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside! I feel terrible that her pages were left out. Lynda is the one that got the posters made for the party, she got the cake, darling plates, champagne, the balloons and the wonderful birthday banner and her pic wasn't in the post! I am so sorry Linda and hope you realize that it certainly wasn't intentional. Thank you for all you did to make my birthday celebration so wonderful!!

Last Saturday and Sunday, DEB, Julie (no blog) and I all took a Catherine Jordon map class with our Guild (the Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild). Deb posted some great pics on her blog so I won't show you more but I have to show you this. It has nothing to do with the map class except that Roz had it at the map class. I oohed and aaahed over it so loudly, I got shushed by Catherine. Yikes!


These are pics of the antique porcelain doll family that lives inside my KSS friend Roz's stitching basket! WoW! How cute are they? She found them in an antique shop and just had to have them - can you blame her? I am so on the lookout for a little family of my own to live in my sewing basket. Well.... I'll have to make a sewing basket - I have a little something but nothing fit for a family this grand. The outfits on these dolls are so exquisite - I just had to show you. Isn't the inside of Roz's basket gorgeous?! She does the most beautiful work! Oh, and if your curious about the walnut in the basket with the ribbon wrapped round it..... well of course, a baby lives in there too! Look:
Don't you think everyone should have a baby living in a walnut in their sewing basket? I DO!!!

Anyway, after class on Saturday, I was going to spend the night at Julie's house 'cause it's quite a drive for me to get to the guild meetings and Julie lives about 10-15 minutes away. On the way to her house after the Saturday portion of the class, she says "Josh is at a pool party/sleepover, do you mind if I swing by there before we go home?" Well of course I don't mind. Julie just wanted to make sure everything was alright before heading home. I followed her to the hotel and all the while I was thinking "She is such a good mom! I don't know that I'd have gone and checked on my kid." We get to the hotel and go up to the room and I could hear Sponge Bob (an American Cartoon) playing in the background. Julie knocks and then finally lets herself in and "SURPRISE!" all my dearest gal pals were in the room to surprise me for my 50th b-day! To say I was shocked is an understatement. I couldn't believe it! I think I'm pretty savvy and think I'm pretty hard to get anything over on but this time they got me (partly because my b-day is a couple of weeks away yet)! The room was decorated with balloons and cake and champagne!!!





After the shock wore off and we'd drank the champagne (well Linda and I drank most of it, I think), I got to open presents! Have you ever gotten a gift that was made with such love, time and caring that looking at it you just knew, it would be one of your best presents ever? I got just that kind of gift. Julie asked all the girls (there are 8 of us altogether) to come up with some of their baby pictures and to write me a letter about our friendship. Julie made this book for me with all of their input. She even contacted my mom for my pictures! She gave each of the gal pals the exact paper they were to write on with it pre-torn to fit the page she had envisioned. Then, she began creating this lovely book for me. she made it all from cover to cover (including the cover!) and I just love it and have to share it with you. Check this out!


Me:

Julie:


Linda:

Sheila: doesn't the line up of first communion girls look like a Life magazine picture?

Lisa:

Christina:

Sally:

Gretchen: Look at the stranglehold she has on that cat!

This page is a composite of some of our many outings:

This page is when we all went to see "Menopause, the Musical". Yep, that's me, right in the middle of the Red Hat Ladies - I wasn't old enough to join them but I will be come August! I thought they all looked so cute, I just had to have a picture with them!

The posters Linda had made for me:




But, as if this wonderful book wasn't enough - they also gave me this:
I just love her! The funny thing about this is that this is from my frame shop that went out of business a few months ago. Anyway, Sheila and I were looking for bargains when we found out it was closing and I loved this angel. However, at 50% off it still wasn't a bargain so I told the gals to call me if it went to 75% off (assuming it was still there) and I'd get it. They said the would. A couple of days later, Rob and I were having dinner at a restaraunt right across the street from the store and who do I see come out of the store with the angel? Yep, Sheila and her DD Meghan. They sort of looked around to see if anyone (me, I guess) was looking - not seeing anyone they ran to their car holding the angel. I said to Rob, "Look! There goes my 50th birthday present." He laughed and said the joke would be on me if she was buying it for herself but I knew better! Thank you, my friends - I just love her. But wait! That wasn't all! Nope, hard to believe but there is more. I love jewelry, and Troll Beads are a favorite. They gifted me with 4 new Troll Beads! Whoo Hooo! They're all beautiful but I couldn't get a good picture of them so you'll have to trust me.

After the champagne was drank, the gifts were opened and the tears were shed, we went to dinner. Here's a pic of all of us.

This was a wonderful surprise and I am so thankful to have such dear, sweet friends! Isn't it wonderful!? Aren't friends grand!!? Thank you (in picture order) Lisa, Christina, Gretchen, Julie, Linda, Sheila and Sally (not pictured)! I love you all! The only thing that would have made this evening better was if Sally had been able to be there, but she was on vacation.

Are you still with me? Whew! Long post, huh? I've got a couple more things I'd like to share with you. A while back I posted about this wonderful clam shell needlebook our Guild president put together. PATTI loved it and asked if she could get one and the answer was yes! So, I've got yours PATTI and will try to get it wrapped and mailed this weekend. (BTW, can you BELIEVE I won Patti's Giveaway!? Me either? Guess I can't say I never win anything anymore, can I? I can't wait to see what comes from across the pond!) Anyway, I got a few extras in case any of you would want one. They're gorgeous!!! They are $25 for the kit + shipping and it includes everything needed to finish except glue and that sort of thing. Let me know if you want one. Here are some pics I took of Sharon's finish:




Remember back in April when I showed you Paula's Dutch Beauty? Well now it's finished and framed - have a look. Is this not amazing? I love it.
Congratulations Paula (no blog) on such a spectacular finish - I love the frame and everything about it!!!


Okay, I'm almost done! If you are still on the fence (MARGARET)
about joining in our SAL, please hop down and join us. There aren't a lot of doo-dads to this piece (some, but not a ton) and it'll be fun! If you don't have a blog and would still like to join, shoot me an email (in my profile)/ Please look and see if your name is on the list in my last post - if not, and it should be, or you want it to be, please contact me. This is gonna be one sweet sail!

Finally, my Tyler gets back on Saturday after two weeks in Virginia and I CAN'T wait to see that boy! Here's a pic of my father and Tyler getting ready to hit the links! I can't wait to see you, Tyler ~ we missed you TONS!!!




Thanks to all who have joined our SAL and thank you for the comments on my blog. I'm telling you, it is some kind of fun to take a peek and see that there's a new post! Thank you so much!

Have a great weekend, my friends!
Peace,
Terri

Come Sail Away, with Me

Come Sail Away, Come Sail Away, Come Sail Away with me! LORRAINE and I decided a while back to do a little SAL with SB's Sail Away - I hope you'll join us. This is a beautiful sampler and one which I loved (for the most part), the minute I saw it. What I didn't care for on it was the quaker styled motifs at the top of the sampler. I thought I would try to re-do that portion but who am I kidding - I am not a designer and really don't want to do that. So, I let it just grow on me over time and now, I can't wait to start it. I hope you'll join us! There is still plenty of time and Lorraine and I will try to make this as fun and stress-free as possible. We will start this pretty sampler on August 5th - my 50th (AAAGH) Birthday. So far, we have the following participants:

1. Lorraine
2. me
3. Kristin
4. Teresa
5. Kelly
6. Cindy
7. Mel
8. Lenna
9. Glenna
10. Katrina
11. Cari
12. Lizzy
13. Marjo
14. Edgar
15 Marjo
16. Annie
17. Jolene
18. ANDREA ~ How could I have forgotten YOU!?
19. Margaret (I'm glad you climbed down off that fence!)

Melissa decided not to join us at this time - maybe next time!

In other news: We are slowly getting ready for the big party for Matthew which will celebrate both his HS graduation and his making Eagle Scout. To prepare, Rob is painting the house (the interior). This is now the 4th time we've (by we, I mean Rob) painted in the 15 years we've lived here. It has been colonial blue and cranberry, then I wanted to get rid of the blue and add some gold to the cranberry which then looked, as one dear friend's husband put it, like mustard and catsup ~ I never liked those two colors after that! Then I thought sage! That's it! I'll have Rob paint it sage, get rid of the hot dog colors and I'm sure I'll love it Nope - didn't like that either. The sage turned out to be this funky green which was supposed to be sage but looked more minty when it was all done and at night, the place looked like a swimming pool, all lit up. Now it is going to be a kahki color and yep, more red. So far, so good. I not only have craft ADD, I have decorating ADD as well. I do get bored easily. Rob has said this is the last paint job he'll do for a very long time - he's DONE! All I can say is that sexual promises are a very good persuasion technique! Pictures later. Pictures of the paint job, not the persuasion, you naughty reader!

Anyway, to get ready for the big party I wanted to have lots of candles in the yard. I thought the neighbors privacy fence would be the perfect place to hang them. I didn't ask their permission. I hope they don't get too mad. It's easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, don't you think?! I looked in several stores for what I wanted but just had no luck so.... I decided to make them. I wanted something tall enough so that a candle wouldn't blow out with the slightest bit of wind. I found these cute, cheap, jars at a discount store and loved the look and shape of them. I got some 16 gauge wire and went to town. Each jar has two pieces of wire, the first that goes around the jar i knotted in a heart shape and then strung the handle. I put in some sand, dropped in a candle and done! I love how they turned out and they cost less than $3 a piece to do, I'd guess. I had them all lit tonight and they looked so pretty. Unfortunately the night picture didn't turn out very well so you'll just have to trust me. What do you think?




I had enough of them to hang a few lanterns elsewhere in the garden to include our big maple tree but drats, I forgot to take a picture. They all looked so pretty when it got dark and lit up the yard.



I also wanted to tell you that JOLENE is having a great giveaway on her blog - go check it out.

It's late, I'm tired and so I'm going to call it a night. I hope you all have a good Friday and a terrific weekend and please, come sail away, with us!

Thank you so much for stopping by and for leaving a comment when you can. I love reading whatever you have to say and I really do appreciate that it takes up your time to do so. Thank you!

Peace,
Terri

I'm Done!

Well.... done with my part anyway! When I told BFF Julie that I had gotten the BoaF Friendship Sampler pattern she wanted to stitch it too. But, she had a great idea. She would stitch the girl on my sampler that looked most like her and I'd stitch "me". When she gets around to stitching the sampler herself, I'll stitch "me" on hers. Instead of the year the piece shows at the bottom, this sampler will have both of our initials in it. This seemed like such a great idea and will really give the "Friendship" sampler more meaning. It would be an ideal piece to stitch for a dear friend and give away but I have such a hard time doing that. Giving my stitching away, I mean.

I get to stitch the blonde girl. Not because I am a blonde, at least not a natural blonde, anyway. I got blondie because I am a natural brunette but I've had highlights gone bad (orangey), I've had red hair - from fire engine red to a really pretty auburn, I've been darn near platinum and I've been what I am now which is sort of a non-de-script brown. Julie has never strayed from being a brunette. She is true to her natural hair color whereas I am constantly getting bored and changing my color.

This was a really fun stitch. It is on an unknown 32 ct fabric and I used most of the called for fibers. A couple of the colors called for are no longer being made, or they've changed the name but I found something similar and it worked out. I did change one of the blues to a darker shade as the piece was just a little too pastel for my tastes. You can see the difference in this picture and the last time I posted my progress on this. I ripped out all the light blue letters I had done and restitched them in the darker blue. The colors are so pretty and it was a fun, easy stitch. I also used a DMC flesh tone for the girls face - the fiber the pattern called for was going to make her look orange. While that might have been closer to my own natural look (especially if I use the wrong color of tanning cream!), it just wouldn't do for my sampler. I have to admit though, that her cheeks do look a a lot like mine when I put my blush on in the car, in the dark, on the way to work. I go in the bathroom for the first time at some point and wonder how it is nobody slapped a big, red clown nose on my face.....

I am so happy to have finally gotten to stitch this sampler that I loved the first time I saw it. I have now passed the pattern on to Julie so she can stitch it, too.




Finally today, look what ANDREA sent me! She had a contest on her blog and although I didn't win, I must have gushed enough about the cute angel that she sent me a prize, too! How sweet is that? I just love the primitive angel and look at that pretty needle waxer! How darling is that? Andrea's friend made it and I just love it. Please tell your friend thank you for me, Andrea. Not that I'll ever use it ~ it's way too pretty for that, but I will put it in my sewing basket that is the home for some of my prettier sewing accessories. She also sent the cute notepad. I was so surprised and really tickled. What a fun and sweet friend you are, Andrea. Thank you!



Thank you all for all the comments on my last post. I just love reading them and so appreciate that you take the time to leave a note. I don't take them for granted and truly appreciate each and every one.

Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend.

Peace!
Terri