BEAUTIFUL KIDS, BEAUTIFUL PHOTOS

A little earlier this afternoon, son John sent over this photo of my grandchildren. They're sitting in the cockpit of an AirbusA319. They are SO adorable. And it's no surprise that Ann is sitting in the captain's seat! We'll be seeing them this weekend, so get ready. More photos will follow.

I love blogs and I love blogs with pretty pictures. Several weeks ago, I found a blog with photos of my hometown, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Well, I started checking on the blogs on this site and made a great discovery. Here goes:

Tuscaloosa Daily Photo: http://ttownphoto.blogspot.com/
I love visiting places I remember from so long ago.

Occasional Scotland: http://occasionalscotland.blogspot.com/

Telluride Daily Photo: http://telluridedailyphoto.blogspot.com/

New Orleans Daily Photo: http://neworleansdailyphoto.blogspot.com/
If you go to the bottom of this blog, there are links to ALOT of city photo blogs.

Well, so goes this day. Hope you enjoy the picture and check out these other blogs.







So long for now,

TOTALLY USELESS SAL: BIG PROGRESS

I really didn't think I did that much work this month but I was wrong. My jar grew. There's some fabby from the Traveling Stitcher, ribbon from my Stitching for a Cure projects, a label from GAST and some magenta colored thread from a project I decided to re-cycle. This is an eye-opener SAL!

And now it's time to punch the threads down to see if I can get a few more into the jar.

HAPPY ST. GEORGE'S DAY!......

To all my English friends here and across the pond. To those who don't know, St. George is the Patron Saint of England. He's the famous one who slew the bad old dragon. The symbol worn today is the red rose, one of my favorites (the favorite being the lavender rose). My favorite statue of him is the one in St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. He's pictured as a young man, quite well done by the artist. I think of him as one of "my" saints because I'm such an anglophile.
To Julie, Elisa and all the special friends (including Midge and Mr. Moe): I hope it was a good one.



I finally managed to get the Traveling Stitcher put together. Not without its problems! I decided to make the case myself. First mistake. I used some fabby from my collection here. Second mistake: now that it's together I don't really like it. There is an extra case because of a stitching mistake. Third error. But it's all done and in my needlecase basket. It's getting so full now that I need to find a larger way of displaying them. OH, and for fun I corrected the grammar!


I've now got Loose Feather's Peacock Pinkeep kitted up and am ready to start it. The fabric is wonderful. Colors-well???? Not my favorite.

Anyway, that's about all going on here. My visit to the retina specialist wasn't so good. I had it figured all wrong, of course. I thought the problem might be from diabetes (I'm insulin resistant and I thought maybe I had crossed over) or perhaps MS. It's not, of course. It's a part of my heart disease. It's hell growing old!

"For all the saints who from their labors rest,

Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!"

Well, what a surprise. Today is St. Marian's Day. I was born in October, so I missed it by a few months.

It wouldn't surprise my close friends that I'm definitely NOT a saint. I've had my share of good times, especially at the old party school of the South, Alabama. But in the end, I believe and celebrate my beliefs. And I'll look forward to meeting this gentleman in time. I especially like the part about birds and bears and all the animals.


St. Marian
Feastday: April 20
When St. Mamertinus was Abbot of the monastery which St. Germanus had founded at Auxerre, there came to him a young man called Marcian (also known as Marian), a fugitive from Bourges then occupied by the Visigoths. St. Mamertinus gave him the habit, and the novice edified all his piety and obedience. The Abbot, wishing to test him, gave him the lowest possible post - that of cowman and shepherd in the Abbey farm at Merille. Marcian accepted the work cheerfully, and it was noticed that the beast under his charge thrived and multiplied astonishingly. He seemed to have a strange power over all animals. The birds flocked to eat out of his hands: bears and wolves departed at his command; and when a hunted wild boar fled to him for protection, he defended it from its assailants and set it free. After his death, the Abbey took the name of the humble monk. His feast day is April 20th.

"O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor's crown of gold:
Alleluia! Alleluia!"




"For All the Saints": text by William Howe Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams
From the English Hymnal, Oxford Press, London

AT WORK ALREADY

I've started my weekend blog housekeeping. I've added some sites and taken some away. Some of the ladies in the Friendship Sampler have blogs and I've added them. I've also added the site one of the girls made just for the sampler. Check it out! And check out Blue Hen Hollow. I love it!

Now on to the other blog. I'm going to add a recipe section to that one. I'm thinking I may wait until the A Day game tomorrow.......

HOW GOOD DOES IT GET!!

I just called the Old Man to wish him Happy Birthday. Well, the family is in Colorado skiing. A great way to spend a birthday. He DOES say his knees ache a bitl. Wait until he gets my age!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN

Being the proud mother that I am, I claim author's privilege today to wish my oldest son John a very Happy 39th Birthday. Sometimes it seems like yesterday and sometimes it was a long time ago that he was a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy, driving me crazy, then making me so proud as he proved to be far more of a musician that I could ever hope to be. And when I was just getting used to that fact, he made me even more proud to be the grandmother to Bradley, Grace and Ann. With Laura's help, of course.

Where the time went I'm not quite sure. One realizes time has REALLY flown when she sees that her little children are turning gray. And on the verge of turning 40.

I can honestly say that John, and his brother Michael, are the best of the best things that have ever happened to me. David's included, or course! I could not be more proud of them and love them more.

So to John (and Laura, too, because she had a birthday last month): I love you dearly and the best part of my being old is watching you grow up to be the man you are. And thanking you for the three little ones.

Happy Birthday!

John, Laura and the Kids


The two generations: John, Michael and Bradley

John and Laura

AN EASTER TREAT BETTER THAN CANDY (ALMOST!)

"Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming" has long been my favorite Christmas carol. It's not exactly one that a lot of people know and it's even more beautiful sung a capella (no accompaniment).

Much to my surprise a charted version of the song started appearing on several blogs in the last few weeks. One group was using it as a SAL and were passing the book along person to person. Well, not to let a chance pass me by, I started searching for the pattern.

I emailed Brightneedle, the original designers, and the ladies emailed me back that it was in a 2001 edition of BH&G Cross Stitch Christmas. Where do I find one? Then it occurred to me that I might have it amongst some very old stitchery books in the computer room. Whoopee! It was there! I found it yesterday.

Today I pulled what threads I have-Weeks Dye Works- and found a piece of linen just the right size and color. Tuesday I will buy the rest of the colors and off we go. What a treat! The pictures on the blogs have been beautiful and now that I have some of the colors, I can see why. Wow. What a great Easter gift. The old bunny deserves a kiss.

In the meantime, I've finished the stitching on the Traveling Stitcher and am starting to put it together. It's been the oasis in the desert of music. I will do the Sunrise Service EARLY in the morning and then the two worship services tomorrow morning. It's the first time I've ever had to wear black on Easter!! Then a nice nap and end the day with Little Dorritt on Masterpiece Theatre.

And to all of you, may you have the most marvelous Easter Day, always remembering the significance of the season, why there is an Easter. And may the One who was willing to give His Son to die and rise again on this special day bless all of you

AN INVITATION

It's going to be a busy few days, but I wanted to take a few minutes to give all of you in the area a special invitation. And if any of you far away want to make a special trip that's okay, too.

My church, Parkview Baptist, is presenting special music on Wednesday night and Sunday morning.

Wednesday night will be like an early Tenebrae service. Darkness, music. Getting ready for Good Friday. Emphasis on the Death of Christ. It's at 6:30 PM in the Sanctuary. Dress casually.

Sunday morning will be joyful. Services are are 8:30 AM-a little more traditional- and at 11AM- a little more nontraditional. In this case, I think I prefer the 11 AM service. Dress as you wish as long as you are dressed and comfortable. Emphasis on the Resurrection of Christ.

Parkview is the big white church at the corner of Airline and Jefferson. We'd love to have you join us and celebrate this wonderful season.

A GREAT SURPRISE

I received a comment on one of my posts from a friend. It brightened my day and was
SO glad to hear from her.

Gwen moved to Baton Rouge after Katrina destroyed her home. She's a needleworker so it was natural to run into her at my LNS. I remember her telling us that her stash actually survived the hurricane because it was stored in a plastic container in an upstairs closet. And her needlework is fantastic. You can check it out on her blog.

I have some great memories of the time she spent here with us. She's a nurse so she worked at Our Lady of the Lake while she was here. One Sunday, a bunch of us went to a local tea shop. Gwen went with us. I don't know if she is aware of it or not (I guess she is now!), but we always did whatever we could to get her to speak. She has the most wonderful accent. We all just loved to hear her talk. Then again, I suppose some of us may have sounded different to her, Southern accents and all. I am so glad to be in contact with her again.

Check out her blog and a big hello to Gwen.

http://bahamian-hideaway.blogspot.com/

THANKS

I appreciate the nice comments about the save. I'm getting ideas now and I may experiment. I'm not sure sweetened sodas would work, but maybe sugar-free cherry flavored sodas would be okay. It really turned the fabric a lovely soft shade of pink. That might work for the Miribilia fairies I have for my granddaughters' initials. This was also my first experience using tea.

What really amazed me was that the over-dyes didn't fade. The blue in the lettering is "Blackberry Jam" and it's really dark.

I feel the "chemistry".......

P.S.: YoYo: maybe dilute the spaghetti sauce???? Oh, Lord: I'm getting carried away!!!!

DAMAGE REPAIR--EVERYWHERE!

It was bad enough that I spent most of the last two weeks removing more stitches than I sewed. Guess all stitchers go through bad patches like that. It was a way of filling my jar for the Totally Useless Sal! Worse disaster struck on Monday. I was enjoying my latest addiction: Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper. I sat the can on the table right next to my latest Jane Austen sampler (from Sampler Girl). Yep! Old Nimble Fingers knocked it over. Right on to the sampler. Well, no way I was going to throw it away: too much time, too much money. SOoooooo. I got creative. I blotched in some more Dr. Pepper. Let it dry. Then put the entire piece into tea. It evened out pretty well. The after photo is not particularly great. I took the picture with the towel still under it and there's pink on it and it's casting some shadows. I had already planned to finish it as a wall hanging instead of framing it, so things will work out okay. I'll post a picture-probably next week-of the finished project. I suppose the next disaster will be to sew my finger to some fabric with the sewing machine. But Lord, please let it be after the Easter music!!

And finally, almost seven months after Gustav, the roof has been repaired. Four days of pounding and grinding. No way would I ever climb to the top of our roof. Too steep. And like everyone else around here, we have that dreaded black fungus. Excuse me--had. The new roof has a guarantee against it. The damage was on the back of the house. The good news is that hurricane season starts again two months from today. Now to get the hole in the ceiling repaired.