Me and my grandpa
Jose and Papa (my dad)
Me and my dad
Dh and Jose
Dh the day he became Cameron's daddy
Dh and Cameron
Grandpa and Cameron
Papa and Cameron
Great-Grandpa and Cameron
Dh and Cameron having a still moment in time
On Travel with Jane Austen by The Sampler Girl. I started this yesterday evening and it’s proving fun and fairly quick for such a big sampler. I still don’t have all the fibers together, but I had what I needed to at least start it. Thank you, Tanya, for such a delightful sampler (and for the scissor sampler chart)! I’m truly in love.
This is strange. This little pillow by The New Berlin Co. (I think) was the second thing I ever stitched. Funny story though. My mother brought this over Thursday. She said it was mine but it didn’t look at all familiar. Apparently, 5-6 years ago I entrusted her to finish this for me. At the time I didn’t have a lick of finishing skill in me. Well, she finished it the other day and I’m just now getting it back. Better late than never, right?! LOL Mom, I really, really like the finish. You did a good job!
It was 97 degrees; 80% humidity; heat index of 105 degrees. The boys had such a great time! I miss being a kid and paying no mind to the smothering heat ~ glad I was in the shade. The dog days of summer are here.
Today, Jose and I had a mother/son outing. We don't get to spend a lot of time together without Cameron and dh. Mom was kind enough to babysit Cameron while Jose and I saw one of the most thrilling movies I've seen in a really long time. This movie has been given 4 stars and rightfully so. It contains every aspect a movie should have.
Sunday I traveled over to The Sampler Girl’s website and ordered the On Travel with Jane Austen chart. I’m so excited about starting this sampler. I don’t have the model fabric but I was thinking about using something different. The model is done on 30 ct, but I was thinking of using 32 ct Parchment. This isn’t written in stone ~ brainstorming only at this point b/c that’s what I have in-stash. I still need to acquire all the floss.
Tonight after dinner Cameron wanted to help with the pots and pans and everything else…I think. I don’t know what he was trying to do. You figure it out. (Excuse the yellowish floor. We’re meaning to get that replaced at some point.)
PROGRESS…
I’ve made more progress on Susan’s Sweet Sampler Tin. I finished the cloud filling stitch (far right on big piece). I finished the pin cushion with the small pink button and I’m almost done with the needlebook. We could choose any stitch for the front and I stitched the cloud filling. It’s fun and pretty so why not. The baggy with the "doh-dah’s" (Susan Greening Davis term) are some items I’m going to use with this piece. My mother had these and since she’s the best mom ever she gave them to me for my project.
The stitched banding is the needlebook which I have almost done. I finally found some fabric for inside and am in the process of tacking that down and the green ribbon (in the baggy) will be weaved through those three coral rings. Those rings came with the class, but we used the buttonhole stitch to cover them. The rings, green ribbon (my choice), and needlebook are getting attached into the tin.
My mother bought this precious doll for me, along with the accessory kit, at our SGD tin class. I’ve had Sarah in my basket for sometime, but she’s had no accessories to adorn. For sometime now I’ve had her pictured atop my blog in that basket, but she’s had no accessories. Yesterday, I looked over at her during lunch and said no more! You will not be naked any longer, so up I went and stitched her apron. The letter “I” wasn’t included, but since there was a heart charm I thought, why not say that Sarah (really me though) 
cross stitch, so I added the letter “I”. I had a blast with this!
The tiny little needlebook came pre-made so I merely had to hang it from Sarah’s hand.
BUT, and I’m really proud of that BUT, this was the first tuffet/biscornu I have ever done. As Susan describes in her directions, “this is the teeniest, tiniest tuffet EVER!” All I can say is DUH!!! She wasn’t kidding. I always thought that my first biscornu would be the average size but no. I had to make the smallest thing next to a nickel. (I used a nickel for a size reference, well, b/c my last name is Nichols – hardy-har-har! – and it is that small.) I had fun, I guess you could say, since it was my first experience with something this small, but I really don’t want to try this again. LOL Next time, I’ll do one as big as my 
Today marks 8 years dh and I have been a couple. It was 8 years ago today that our relationship went into high gear and was made official ~ we were a couple. We decided on June 14th we’d be monogamous and that’s just what we did. Here we are eight years later, married with two children with the possibility of more in the future. We don’t celebrate this day or make any special plans, but we do acknowledge it as I’m doing right here. (Our wedding anniversary is in July.) This photo is dh and I during our dating years. We always have fun and we laugh A LOT and this still holds true today.
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There are half a dozen new releases and free downloads on the website. Maybe it's the folksy-whimsy-primitive look these pieces posses. It appears that most are stitched on a low count fabric such as Aida, which I gave up stitching on years ago, but I would still stitch these designs and use linen instead ~ yeah, mottled linen! Perhaps vintage with some. 
