Week 19, 20, & 21

Thanks for sticking to me, folks...I know I've not been consistent in posting and I just don't know how to change it....I really appreciate folks coming back to check on us!

I've spent the last few weeks stitching and sewing and embroidering...just keeping busy.  I've got a project in the works that is taking all my patience and making me nuts but it has to be done and I'm hoping to have it complete by the end of June - more later but I just can't talk about it right now.

I finally completed this little berry that was started late last summer.  It's the Fall Berry from Erica Michaels.  Berries are quite fun to stitch and pretty easy to finish.

I heard this poem while watching a BBC show about celebritie's grandparents who served in WWII.  For some reason, the poem resonated with me.  I'm not really a poetry kind of person - it doesn't make a lot of sense to me when I read it. But this one made me appreciate that there is never not someone who loves me....never not someone who values me. Never not someone who is glad I was put on this earth.  Pretty powerful stuff, eh?

Annual Cross Stitch Camp starts on June 1st.  I completed my camp badge for this year (bottom right corner) and put it on my camp project bag.  The first challenge is to stitch something with a bird on it.  John chose the Quilting Bird from Heart in Hands design.

And here are my fabric and floss choices.  I can't start this until June 1st and have till June 30th to complete it...not a problem.  That fabric is only 9 inches square and my stitched motif will end up being only 3.5 by 5 inches in total.

July's challenge is to stitch something that pictures something that grows (flowers, trees, etc.)  I've got a couple of ideas for that project...but no firm decisions yet. August is to pick something new to me - a fabric, a designer, a floss....that is also going to be a challenge.  And new designers for me are all huge charts that I have absolutely no chance of finishing during the month of August.  So I will keep looking and come up with something. 

I have no pictures of this next tidbit for you...I was too busy helping John herd cows.  Last week John was in the kitchen preparing dinner and I heard him say, "Oh, No!" I asked him what was wrong and he said, "the cows are all out!"  I jumped up and looked out the window of the studio and, yes, all 4 of them were outside the gate and happily munching on grass between the barn and the house.  Not anyone who knows me will be amazed at what happened next!  I jumped up and ran out the front door with only my slippers on my feet...I managed to get down to near where the cows were while John was in the barn getting a bucket of grain to entice them back into the field.  Mama Belle and her daughter Babette are pure chowhounds and as soon as they saw John with a bucket, they knew exactly what that meant and began to follow him back into the field...baby Onyx just followed her Mama Babette without really understanding what was going on.  That left 6 month old Cinder still munching grass with no interest in that feed bucket - she is still nursing and only now learning about grazing on grass...that green grass was mighty tasty to our girl!  Cinder may be only 6 mnoths old, but she must weigh close to 600 pounds and is quite large when standing near her.  There was no way I would be able to get close enough and just grab her ear and lead her back into the field like an obstreporous toddler.  She shied away every time I got anywhere near her.  I remembered one time hearing John telling someone that the best way to 'herd' cows was to 'get big' - so I raised my arms up high and got as big as I could, walking slowly toward her. John, meanwhile has come out of the field - having put the loose ones into the corral and shut that gate so they couldn't follow him out again.  Cinder took one look at me and ran into an area past the gate opening but not into the field.  John moved the gate to the other side of the field so it looked like a wall opened up and began moving toward her while I moved toward her from the other side...she finally spied that opening and ran into the field to get away from us two arm-waving humans...I ran over and shut that darned gate!  John let the other cows out of the corral and I came back into the house and had a good panic attack.  I am not a country girl....cows and gates and chickens and stuff like that just isn't in my make-up.  But I helped John get those big (they are BIG up close!) cows back into the field and then I yelled at him cause he went into the field earlier and forgot to lock the gate!  The more I thought about it, the more proud I was of myself.  But, I do NOT want to have to do that again, thank you very much!

We are leaving a week from tomorrow for a quick trip to Utah for our granddaughter's high school graduation.  My brother is flying out here from Arizona to take care of the cows, chickens, dogs, cat and Mom!  He offered and we took him up on it. I don't think he really understands what he's getting into.  Fortunately, we are only gone for 5 days so he won't be on his own for long.

Thanks for stopping by! More next time.