Its Friday...

Wishing you Long Chats on the Telephone,

Sunshine and Blooming Flowers,

Yummy Popsicles,

and Freedom from Inhibition.

Happy Weekend, Everyone!

Stitchy

Every so often, I like to search etsy's Vintage category for "cross stitch".

Click on the photo below to go check out the treasury I just made, full of lovely x's.

Sometimes

Sometimes, in Oregon, in the Spring, the sun comes out.

The air feels less cold, the sunshine warms the skin, the birds sing, and the flowers bloom.

On such days, the absence of the normal rainy gloom lightens so much that one simply must take advantage.

On such days, I'm the Mom that lets the kids play on the school playground for an extra forty minutes, while the other sorry children are riding the bus home.

I'm the Mom laying on the bench, sunglasses on, soaking in as much warmth as possible.

April Showers

My world is pretty wet today... But lovely all the same... Enjoy...

This last one I turned into wallpaper-quality for you. Left click to open, then right click to save to your computer and use as desktop background. For your personal enjoyment...

Christmas in April

My life as a cross-stitch designer can sometimes feel a bit disjointed, stitching ahead of each holiday to try to time releases season-appropriately. But having been so sick during the holidays last year, it was actually a bit therapeutic to be working on one of this years' Christmas designs in the early Spring. I'm going to miss this one when I'm done stitching.

Thought you might like a little sneak peek... to be released in September.

Looking Back

I recently used up the last of the space on my ancient external hard drive. With lots more photos and files to back up, I bought a fancy new one that holds more data than my computer hard drive (time to upgrade!) While waiting for files to transfer, I started looking back at the Aprils of the past, and thought it might be fun to take you on a little walk down memory lane with me.

All photos taken on or around Tax Day.

2006... Farmboy with a four-month old Firstborn.

2007... The Boy with his Dog (Bailey).

2008... Three-month old Baby Sister joins her Big Brother and parents on a trip to see some BIG FISH.

2009... The kiddos having fun with crayons and a butcher-paper covered table.

2010... Farmboy and the kids feeding the fish.

2011... Palm Sunday celebration.

2012... The kids in their new play fort.

And this year... looking so grown up, still the best of friends.

Lest you wrongly get the impression that they are always sweetness and light... this is the unprompted, spontaneous shot that came next.

I'm pretty sure they get it from me.

*New* New Every Morning

Inspired by a theorem painting of a basket of flowers, a leafy border on an old sampler, and a favorite Scripture verse.

“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3: 22-23

A good reminder to hang on my wall where I can see it daily.

Stitch Count: 199 x 199
Model stitched on Picture This Plus 36ct. Legacy

Using flosses from The Gentle Art: 0320 Old Brick, 0420 Gold Leaf, 0450 Cornhusk, 7007 Cidermill Brown, 7019 Pomegranate, 7025 Shaker White, 7039 Bayberry, 7040 Lexington Green, 7061 Caramel Corn, 7080 Endive

And from Weeks Dye Works: 1118 Goldenrod, 1230 Havana, 1268 Molasses, 2199 Tarragon, 2220 Curry

Frame by Valley House Primitives.

This design is now available in my etsy shop, and will be going out to my distributors and the shops on my automatic shipments list soon. If you prefer to bypass etsy and order directly through me, you can send me an email: beth@heartstringsamplery.com

Invest

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. 

If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. 

Your life will be impoverished. 

But if you invest in beauty,

it will remain with you all the days of your life.”

- Frank Lloyd Wright

Some Days

Most days anymore, I find myself looking at my computer, thinking about this blog, and coming up with nothing to say. The ideas used to flow out of me like water, posting every day was a breeze. While in most ways, I'm improved greatly in my health over what I felt a few moths ago, it seems the inspiration and free-flow of ideas are stopped right up.

Bloggers block, I guess.

So I sit here, this morning, with photos of my lovely spring flowers to show you, and nothing really to say. I've heard that the best way to overcome writers' block is to just start writing and see what comes out. Perhaps the same applies in my situation.

So, I sit down, and I just start to type whatever comes to my brain.

How are you all? What are your days full of? I hope lots of joy and peace and inspiration... I find my days full of laundry and vitamins and thinking about food.

Its pretty hard to not think about food when you have to change so many components of what you usually eat. We're at the end of week 6 with no dairy, eggs or gluten for the First Grader. We've settled into a bit of a rhythm, but there are many moments of missing foods that are now impossible to concoct. Two more weeks and we can start experimenting with bringing those foods back. We're all praying that he'll be able to tolerate small quantities of the now forbidden foods.

As for me, while I'm much, much better, there are still plenty of days when I'm just not myself. Still trying to get the whole progesterone deficiency taken care of. Perhaps that's where the lack of inspiration lies. I feel tired a lot, and boy-howdy, when my monthly cycle starts, good grief! The emotional swings are a bit hard to take for someone who's always been the picture of even-keel.

All these Spring flowers are helping to brighten up my horizon, along with the newly crossed-off-my-bucket-list dream I've achieved.

Want to know what it is?

I'm now officially a bass-guitar player.

Yep! After nearly 20 years of on-again, off-again, fiddling with an acoustic guitar, and faint voice in my brain wishing to learn bass, I've finally been given the opportunity. A borrowed bass and amp have been in my studio for months, but it wasn't until I was given a song list and deadline that I finally stepped up and gave it a real try. Easter Sunday was my debut at church, playing with the worship team. I usually just sing, but this time it was vocals and bass at the same time, and it was so very fun!

If I could sum this post up with one wish for you, it would be that you would also find the gumption to cross something off of your bucket list. Let go of whatever is getting in your way, and just do it! And when you do, be sure to let me in on the story.

And that's all I've got for you today.

Crossed

Not only are all these old threads crossed, it feels like my eyes are too. I thought this sampler would be a simple one to chart, but didn't take into consideration those pale flowers.

Pale, faded flowers, yet they contain more colors than one. And at some point in time, the linen was glued to its backing, so there is no peeking at the back to try to decipher original color shades. I am completely at the mercy of daylight and a magnifying glass.

So I'm working at getting the most challenging parts out of the way so that I can get on to the fun, easy, colorful parts.

This last photo is sized to fit your desktop wallpaper if you'd like it. Simply left click to enlarge, then right click to save to your computer. For personal use only please, although I don't mind you pinning it if you so choose.

Enjoy!

Glimpses

Our Spring Break wasn't all sunshine and warmth... the Farmboy had to work all week, so the kids and I spent time together at home, had a few play dates, but mostly did a lot of very normal things.

But then, the weekend... our Resurrection weekend was about as beautiful as it can get this time of year in Oregon.

There was family time, a joyful celebration with our church congregation, and sunshine!

When the sun comes out, so does the tractor...

... and short sleeves...

... and toes that are normally swathed in at least one layer of wool, were breathing the Spring air quite happily.