25 years ago

I married my best friend

and the love of my life!

Ok, now back to those balls of pearl cotton

Back in the early 80's, I forced my sister to go with me to Lee Wards, a local needlework/craft kit assembly warehouse.  They made needlework and craft kits that were shipped from their location in Elgin, IL.  They had a good size retail outlet that I could spend hours in.

I found this Hardanger book in the clearance bin.  

I had never heard of or seen Hardanger before and I fell in love with it.

I convinced my sister that her reward for going with me to the store was that she got to choose the thread colors for my new project.   She chose these gray and peach colors.

I don't know which of these I did first or why I chose two different colors of fabric.

Each one is 8 - 9 inches square. 

I was thinking this was probably the first one I worked on because 

of the number of mistakes, but I'm not sure.

This one is not without mistakes either.

I don't know if I completed all the stitching on these.   As I looked through the Hardanger book, I was unable to find this design.  I clearly remember buying this book for this design, but darn if I can find it.

What would you do with these two pieces?

Sunday

Wishing

All the Moms

A

Happy & Blessed

Mother's Day!

Out My Window

This nest is in the tree right outside my bedroom window.

Dottie Dog has decided she likes performing her guard duties from the upstairs bedroom.  

"Mom, do you have to put the curtains back up?  I like the window without them!"

Have a Happy Day!

I Think I'm Lost

because I've been missing email notifications and messages.

For weeks, I have not been getting emails of new blog posts for ANY of the blogs I follow by email.  I thought maybe I had mistakenly changed some setting on my Blogger account or my email account.  I've searched and searched for some answers as to why I'm not getting the new posts in my email.  Today, I finally found an answer, but I haven't been able to fix it!

Way back in early April, Yahoo changed some DNS settings in an effort to eliminate spam, phishing and spoof emails.  In doing so, it bounces and prevents all email that comes through a third party (like feedburner) to make it to any email account that uses Yahoo servers.  The emails don't go into my inbox or spam folder and they don't go to a place where they can be accessed and approved as coming from an accepted/trusted source.   It's as if the email messages never existed.

So what to do about it?   Honestly, I'm not sure.  I'm still trying to figure it out.  One page I found suggests changing the FROM email address in my feedburner settings so my readers who follow by email will get email messages.  However, when I looked at my feedburner settings, I'm not using a Yahoo email address, so does that mean my email followers are getting my messages?

I still haven't found a place within feedburner where I can see whose blogs I am following or where I can change my email address so I can receive email messages from the blogs I follow by email.  If anyone knows of an answer to this problem, please let me know!

On to other things ~~

Yesterday, Mary Ann (Just Stitching) posted about the sewing box she got on her 10th birthday.  You can read about her pretty pink sewing box HERE.  Mary Ann posted about her sewing box in response to Annette's (California Stitcher) post.  You can read about Annette's memorable sewing box HERE.   These posts brought back some wonderful memories because I have the same sewing box!

Here's my sewing box.  Mine isn't pretty pink or lovely blue like Mary Ann's and Annette's, but I treasure my sewing box!  It's been many years since I've opened my sewing box, so lets take a peek inside.

Oh, look at those little spools of thread!  I got those when I got the sewing box and used the threads for repairing stuffed animals, sewing Barbie clothes and creating patchwork pillows made from mom's fabric scraps. 

Various needle packages --

Do you store needles this way? 

These needles are so tarnished they won't be used anytime soon.

Hey, I wondered where those balls of pearl cotton were.  

More about them in another post. 

Lets keep digging.

Do they still make these little plastic frames and heart magnets?

I also have my sister's sewing box.  When we were young, she liked sewing, embroidery, knitting and crafts.  As she got older, not so much.  If I ask her to work on a project with me, she rushes through it just to get it "done and over with" as fast as possible.

The tray is missing and most of these paints are dried up. 

They've probably been stored in Sis' sewing box since 1984!  

Do you still have your sewing box from when you were a kid?   

I'd love to see your sewing box!

Happy Birthday!

This little cutie turns 21 tomorrow!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone.  She will always be my baby!

Mom Update:  Mom saw the oncologist last week.  Her labs are showing an increase which means she's not in remission.  Since mom is very anemic, she will not be able to have additional chemo at this time, but will be getting a special type of iron infusion.  Mom has kidney disease and every chemo treatment causes reduced kidney function.  The doctor will continue to monitor mom and may delay further treatment if the kidney function does not improve.

On Monday, it was confirmed that she has skin cancer too.  I find it ironic that my mom was diagnosed with skin cancer on National Skin Cancer Awareness Day.   We go to a specialist on May 20th to have the cancerous areas removed and to determine the extent of the skin cancer.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!