Moving Forward

We went to Ash's Flower Farm today and got some plants for the front bed. We got a red-twig dogwood tree, as well as four Nandina shrubs. The Nandina are evergreens, and are also called "Heavenly Bamboo" although they are in no way related to bamboo. I am pretty excited about the plants. We are going to hold off on planting them until our house gets painted, though, because we don't want to risk the painters smashing them with their ladders, etc.


I have finished another cross stitch Christmas ornament and started another one. The finished one is for a set of friends of ours who are getting married in October; it's an "Our 1st Christmas" design. The one I'm working on right now is for my niece; it's a little girl with a bow in her hair and it says, "Ya better not pout!" above her head. Super cute.

Our Yard

There isn't much to our yard. We live in a townhouse, so we really just have a front flower bed and a back patio. When we moved in, there were some half-alive boxwoods out front that I had Mike, my husband, cut down. The result is a very depressing open space. I guess I should look at that space as an opportunity--a blank canvas, if you will. I am poring over gardening books
trying to decide what to plant...

Second Project

Here's the image of my second project. I stitched this for my sister-in-law, Jenny. She has two kids, both under the age of 3. The kicker is that she lives in Tokyo. When I saw this pattern, I immediately thought of her. It took me about a week to stitch it. The finished size of the Dolly Mamas cross stitches are 6x8, which is an impossible size to get a frame for. I managed to get Rani's in a frame, but I think for Jenny's I'm going to do something different, especially since I have to ship it to Japan.

First Counted Cross Stitch

I completed my first ever counted cross stitch a little over a month ago. It was for my friend Rani's 30th birthday. Rani likes to say "Put your big girl panties on and deal with it!" when the going gets tough, and when I saw this cross stitch kit at the craft store, I had to get it. Never mind the fact that I had never done counted cross stitch before. I fell in love immediately. I found it incredibly relaxing. It took me a while to finish it, but finish it I did, and I think she really liked it. Since I don't have the piece any more, I'll just post a picture of the kit. The kit is from the Dolly Mamas by Joey collection. Check out the Dolly Mamas website for more cheeky products and sayings--they have more than just cross stitch!