Life In Pictures

*WARNING....PICTURE HEAVY*

I thought this would be the easiest way to tell you everything I've been up to lately.....Enjoy!

I've been birdwatching through the sliding glass door.....

The pole system was a birthday gift from Hubby and MIL.

I think this may be the same Cardinal that I found back in July.  You can still see his tufts of baby feathers!

 

I've been on vacation......

Wild Ponies in Corolla, NC

Shot of the ocean looking out from behind the dunes.

 

Hubby anxious to go 4 wheeling behind the dunes.

 

Area behind the dunes where we typically see the wild horses.

 

I decided to put my sewing machine into action and attempt a baby quilt for my new nephew who is due in December......

 

Six fat quarters for the Yellow Brick Road Quilt Pattern.  I'm using a combination of Puttin' on the Ritz by Bunny Hill Designs and Blueberry Crumbcake by Blackbird Designs

Block A (fabric locations vary)

Block B (fabric locations vary)

Block C (fabric locations vary) in progress

 

And, of course, I've been stitching......

Be thou the Rainbow by Blackbird Designs

Summer Needlebook by Blackbird Designs

 



I think I'm all caught up now!  Happy Stitches!

Vacation/Staycation Part 1

I can't believe it!  I actually managed to get some sort of a vacation after all.  It was by no means long enough, as vacations typically aren't.

I thought it was going to be a really great vacation since I started it off by finishing my Lizzie*Kate fifteen minute piece.

ABC's of Aging Artfully by Lizzie*Kate

Unfortunately, the beginning wasn't as good as I had hoped because we spent it with my FIL and he bombarded us with "downers" about 10 minutes after we arrived.  (Now you know the reason for this post.)  I'm just glad that my days were filled with "quality time with DH" and my evenings with FIL were short since we spent most of our time out of the house.  Plus, FIL decided to leave early which gave DH & I some serious alone time even if it was for only one day.

DH & I spent lots of time on the beach in the OBX.  The OBX is our favorite "go to" spot.  (For those of you who don't know, OBX is the abbreviation for the Outer Banks of North Carolina.)  Our favorite beach is the 4x4 beach in Corolla where you can drive on the beach.  It is only about a 20 minute drive from where we stay.  Plus, on the way to/from Corolla, you have to pass through the town of Duck.  In Duck there is lots of great shopping.  The main reason it is our "go to" spot is that both MIL and FIL each have a week's time share down there.  DH & I hope to be able to get our own week sometime in the future.

We did a bit of shopping in between beach days and we came home with some really great things including this which I found at The Cotton Gin......

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love mermaids.  I love them so much that I have purchased all of the Nora Corbett/Mirabilia Mermaids.  I have completed four of them and I have two in progress.  All of the others are fully kitted and someday will be stitched.  I think this piece will be a great addition to my collection.  In addition, it will actually serve a purpose for us and will enable us to hang a few items so that they will be up off the floor.

When we returned from our first beach day we were treated to a breathtaking sight later that evening.....

On our last beach day before we left, we decided to drive down the beach a little further than we normally do since we didn't manage to see any of the wild horses that are native to the island. Many times they will come down to the shoreline to bask in the sea air. (Remember my pictures from last year?) Well, this time we decided to walk along one of the roads that access the other side of the dunes. As I crested the rise I saw this......

Amazing, right?  Just another reason that I love the OBX!

I hope you enjoyed my little trip to OBX.  Next time a few staycation pics!

Coming Up For Air

I have to say, this has been quite a tax season.  I was busy from mid-January right down to the extended deadline of April 18th.  It is amazing how "normal life" tends to get put on hold for those three months.  There is so much that I need to catch up on.  However, I'm not rushing into anything........if it waited three months, it can wait a few more days!

Our office closed on Tuesday to give us a break, so I spent the well deserved day off with my husband.  We decided to make a short trip to Chincoteague Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.  I had such a nice time!  We got to visit several Antique Stores along the way before we made it to the Wildlife Refuge on the island.  Unfortunately, it was quite overcast, so these are very crappy snappies.....

This was my very first visit to Chincoteague.  It is something I've been wanting to do for quite awhile.  The island was pretty much in the preparation stage for the summer tourists, so there wasn't much open.  That didn't matter to me.  I just loved being able to head to the refuge in search of the famous Chincoteague Ponies.

Each year, sometime in July, healthy ponies are selected to swim across the Assateague Channel and are auctioned off.  The proceeds from the sales go to the local fire department.  This event is quite famous and has been going on since 1925.  You can read all about it here.  Maybe one day I will brave the crowds......or maybe I will just head back on a sunnier day.

Of course, now that things have calmed down, I'll get back to stitching and blogging on a more regular basis.  Stay tuned.........I've got my needle revved up and it should be smoking in no time!

Happy Stitching!

Wordless Wednesday

Just Life.....

There are many blogs out there that seem to show the "perfect life".  Well, my life is not perfect.  In fact it is far from being perfect.  And, since this is also a blog about my life, this blog will not always be perfect either.  My imperfections are shining right now as I think that I'm in a little bit of a depressive slump.

Take the last two weeks.........

As you all know, Hubby was in an accident.  The accident was on my birthday and overshadowed my whole day! Yet, as irony would have it, he hit the back of a beer truck while he was doing about 15 miles an hour. (If you knew hubby, you would know that he can't drink anymore due to medication and other different factors.  You would also know that the truck he hit was carrying his favorite kind of beer......how's that for irony?) Here's the $2,000 minimum worth of damage that was caused by the hand truck/dollies that were on the back of the beer truck that he hit............

I know it doesn't look like $2,000 worth of damage, but the "aftermarket" bumper alone was almost $500!  And, that doesn't even include the damage that you can't see from this photo.  Hubby is not a "do it yourself" kind of person and I'm no mechanic. (Good news to add........Hubby sold his truck to a "DIY'er" and that person is going to fix it up for half the cost.  So, the money Hubby got from his old truck will go towards the car tax bill that will soon arrive in the mail.  At least I won't have to worry where that money will come from.)

You also know that we ended up with a new truck.  A bright shiny new Ford F-150 4X4.  It is one massively big truck.  I tried to talk Hubby out of it and talk him into something a little smaller, but he wasn't listening to that line of reasoning.  We tried looking at used trucks too, but with all the incentives and the Z-Plan, it wasn't in our best interest to go used.

Well, the new truck went with us on vacation last week.  Vacation you say?  That should bring a girl back into good spirits.  Well, did I mention that the week was spent with my FIL......Mr. Unhappy Grumpy Old Man himself?  Now, don't get me wrong, FIL can be a very nice man when he actually tries to be.  But, most of the time he is just an "unhappy camper".  It is very hard to spend a whole week with someone who hardly ever smiles, constantly grumbles, complains and sighs.  He didn't even help with the cooking or the cleaning up of the dinner dishes.  That was left to Hubby and me.  His version of a "Thank you for cooking such wonderful meals, cleaning up and making me feel like a king" was a comment on the last night that Hubby and I were there.  He grumbled "I haven't eaten like this in years" and then sighed.  To boot, he put us in the bedroom with the two single beds and he took the room with the queen size bed for himself.  See what I mean?

At least Hubby and I had some alone time last week without the FIL.  We spent time on the 4X4 beach with the new truck.  I was supposed to take the truck for a spin on the beach, but I chickened out.  However, the time spent on the beach was quite relaxing.  (Unfortunately, it was not enough to overcome dealing with the FIL!)  If you look at the right hand side of the picture, you can just catch a glimpse of Hubby relaxing in the sun. 

There wasn't much in the way of picture taking this time while we were in OBX, but I was able to get a couple of good shots of some birds.  I was disappointed that we didn't see any wild horses this time.  I was really hoping that Hubby would have gone on one of the Wild Horse Tours with me, but we decided that the $100 was better spent on other things now that we have a truck payment.  I was very frugal on the whole trip and just about all the money that I did spend was used to buy Christmas and Hanukkah presents for friends and family.

I guess I'm just having a hard time snapping out of a "Birthday Gone Bad" and a "Vacation With the Grump".  Unfortunately, this week hasn't been the kind of week to get me out of the slump.  What's the saying?  "When it rains, it pours"  Well, that's exactly how I feel right now!  I'm hoping that once I blog this out (and talk this out) of my system, I can get back on track to my normally happy life.

Any suggestions????

Happy Stitching!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Stitching!

What Happened to........

..........my weekend?  In a blink of an eye it was gone and now we are back to Monday!

..........my summer?  It's already the 2nd of August.  I don't know were the summer has gone!

..........my husband?  We went shopping, yes, shopping over the weekend because he has gone from a 36 waist to a 33 waist.  So, not only has he lost weight, but he has also gained the ability to go shopping with me for extended periods of time.  He hates shopping!  It's amazing how much better you feel and how your life turns around when you can get an illness under control.

..........Seaside Memories by The Sampler Girl (my current work in progress)?  This happened:

Seaside Memories

by: The Sampler Girl

Stitched on Lakeside Linen's 40ct Vintage Sea Storm

As you can see, it has gone from a work in progress to a happy dance! (Sorry for the crappy snaps, but today is real cloudy and this was the best I could do right before heading off to work.)  I finished it up last night after making some changes to the year and the area where the initials are.  The design had a place for a family of four, but since it is just the two of us right now I had to modify it a little.  I just added a few more birds in the empty spaces.  I really enjoyed this piece and it will be a wonderful reminder of the time we spent down there this summer.

What's next?  Well, I've sent off my Blackbird Exchange stitching this morning, so I should be able to show pictures of that in the next few days.  In the meantime, I'll be working on stitching a private exchange until my model stitching arrives.  I hope to have the private piece finished by weeks end, but you know how that usually goes!

Have a great Monday!  Happy Stitching!

All Good Vacations Must Come to an End

WARNING!!!! VERY PICTURE HEAVY POST!!!!

Whew, this post has been a long time coming!  Believe it or not, it has been three weeks since we left for vacation and I'm already ready for another one.  I hope that we get to go back to the OBX later in the Summer or in the early Fall.  Until then, here are some of my favorite pictures from the last day.

We spent Day 5 on the beach in Corolla.  Just hubby and me......we had some well deserved "us" time.  We got onto the beach with the truck and just drove until we found a spot that had our names on it.  There are some houses on this stretch of the beach, but the only way to access them is by a four wheel drive automobile.  I guess this person decided that when there are jellyfish in the water they can opt for a dip in the pool instead!

We finally found our perfect stretch of beach.  Believe it or not, we had this section all to ourselves.

There were lots of stretches of the beach that had amassed tons of seashells.  The shells were just ripe for the picking.  I picked quite a few clam shells of differing colors.  Hubby found a perfect hermit crab shell, without the hermit crab thank goodness.  I decided that each time we go to Corolla that I was going to pick up a few shells and display them in one of the ball jars that I purchased at an Estate Sale. So, every time I look at the jar full of shells I can remember all the fun that we had in the OBX.

The sand that day was almost like quicksand.  With each step you would sink into it deeper and deeper.  We saw many vehicles get stuck in the sand.  I didn't think this old car was going to make it, but he finally dug himself out and drove further down the beach.  We even got stuck on the way out.  In all the times that we have been down there we have never been stuck.  DH dug us in pretty deep, but there was a redneck kind soul in a Jeep that pulled us out.  If you want to know the truth, I think that was the only reason that guy liked going to the beach.  Why you ask?  Well, when we passed him earlier in the day he was sitting in the drivers seat of the Jeep.  And when we got stuck.....well, he was still sitting in the same place!  That is when you thank God for the little favors of a redneck strangers help.

After being pulled to safety we went on our merry way.  And, wouldn't you know it, we finally hit the tri-fecta!  There were wild Corolla Stallions heading up the dunes.  I was so shocked to see them that I had some trouble working the camera.  See the truck antenna on the left side of the picture?

Here's a few more with a couple of close ups........aren't those horses magnificent?

DH also saw these birds resting on the shore and thought that they were a hoot.  I love their little mohawks!

Later on in the evening we went back to the Lone Pine Inn to see Ricky, Lucy and their hatchling(s).  Apparently Ricky and Lucy nest there every year.  In these first picture you can see one of the parents and one of the hatchlings.  The second picture shows both parents and you can see the wing of one of the hatchings.

 

After playing with the Osprey, we decided to grab a bite at one of the pizza joints before heading off to the Sound Side of the island for some sunset pictures.  Unfortunately, there were storms brewing so our sunset was not exactly what we were expecting.  However I did get a few good pictures in before we had to go.  (This is also where the picture in my header came from.)  I especially love the last picture.  I don't know where that guy was headed, but he had a cold Corona in the side pocket of his shorts!

I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse of my vacation.  I don't know about you, but looking at these pictures makes me want to put on my swimsuit and head to the beach.  I can't wait to go back!

As for my stitching, I always have high ambition while on vacation.  Unfortunately I didn't get in as much stitching time as I thought I would.  But, I think I got a great start on Seaside Memories by The Sampler Girl.  I'll just have to put a little more effort into it so that I can get it finished and framed.  It will be another great reminder of a beautiful family vacation.