The End

 March 22, 2014

That was the date of my first blog post for this blog. I had actually dipped into trying with a teacher blog previous to that date. 

I have enjoyed the ride of blogging, but the past 2 years have thrown a lot of obstacles my way that have proved hard to keep up the blog. I have had a rather long list of obstacles, but I have had many blessings too. Many times over the last 2 years, I planned this moment but held on because, I have met so many wonderful people and always hoped that anything I posted brought encouragement.

I learned a lot along the way. I was retiring from 31 years of teaching that year and threw myself into home and decor and decluttering and the likes. I was reading as many blogs as possible and filled my home with so much that I saw. A few years later, all of those purchases were heading to Goodwill and I learned to be comfortable at home and the home decor fell back into order with the true me. 

All that to say, that when you look back too far you see stuff that I did to take pictures and if you look at say the last 2 years you see me popping back in.

I considered changing the tagline and only keeping it as a stitching journal, but that seemed like an added pressure to stitch for content rather than enjoyment. 

I know that nothing stays the same and in keeping with my goal for this year....

My goal for 2023 is to not waste any days on things that are not worth my time. I want to shine a light for Jesus in all that I do and count my blessings.

I am choosing to end blogging. I know that will be a surprise for many, but it has been a thought for a very long time. I don't feel like it is a waste of time like my above goal might indicate, but more that is just not what I need to be doing in the here and now.

I don't plan to take it down anytime soon, because I want to continue having the blog books made of it.

Again, I want to reiterate that I have made so many wonderful friends out there, but it is just time to end the blog. I hope to still keep in touch with many of you and I will still be reading blogs. I am on Facebook where I am not the best poster:)  but going to try and interact more and Instagram where I post my stitching and some other things, so if you have been a long time follower and want to keep in touch you can friend request those places. My name on those social media sites is the same as the name associated with my blog. My name all written together - no spaces. I will also send my email to those of you who I have grown to love. 

Like I said, I know this catches many by surprise, but I knew it would have to end one day and I just feel that the time is now. I have my mother and my grandkids to see about which take up a good bit of my time. It is time to let the blog go. There is a season for everything.

With love,

Sandy 

Stitching Post with a Little More

 The New Year has brought a few stitching finishes to share with you. The few days around New Year's Day brought some really good stitching time.

My first share is the framed stitch for the third grandson, Miles. I love how it turned out. It has been delivered and I think Mommy and Daddy were very proud of it. These are honestly not the easiest stitches because I am trying to use a lot of different patterns to personalize them, but I am proud of all three of these that I have done.

My next stitch was something my daughter, Lindsay asked me to do. I mentioned before that little Tucker is quite the prayer person. I give a lot of credit to his parents who say prayers with him every night and to our church. The curriculum we use is just amazing. I know because I worked in the preschool environment of our church for years. Of course, some children are just more confident in their verbal skills and that is certainly Tucker. 

Lindsay said that he basically says  the same thing every night and she wanted me to stitch it. She was in no hurry and it didn't have to be fancy. I actually started this in September or October when we went to Auburn one weekend. I started the little silhouette boy then. That came from an old bookmark pattern. I finished the words using another pattern over the New Year. I self framed it. It has things that could have been done better, but it turned out cute.

Now, my final share is an ornament for my first stitchalong. I plan to try and do 12 ornaments this year. Carol at Stitching Dreams has been doing this for a long time and has the most amazing tree, but my motivation came from Lindsay at Christmas. My plan is to have a basket of stitches that can be used for gifts for her or Jeff to use at work or wherever. I love stitching and I think this will be fun and useful. 

Not only fun and useful, but this is going to be a great way to use all those little end pieces of linen. I also have so many cute patterns. I plan to do a variety of things for the ornaments. 

I hope my finishing skills will continue to improve. I think I am always a wee bit impatient when finishing. 

My first picture shows the backing material. I struggled with this ornament because of the many colors and it not being traditional Christmas colors. 

Here it hanging. I look forward to stitching these and using this a learning project too.

While preparing my ornament I just have to say it is the little things in life that bring joy. I have the cutest little corner on my work counter. My January stitch which is honestly my least favorite of them, but when Robin sent me this card I just knew it had to sit there between the stitch and little cardinal print. How cute is that little corner and such joy to look at while I work. Most of you know Robin as Robin in Virginia in your comments. Robin is truly the Miss Congeniality of Blogs. She is the truest and most sincere person out there in BlogLand.

The colors and little card were just perfect in my little corner.

I am now onto my The Lord Is My Shepherd sampler for the remainder of January.

Now for some gardening updates. When I finally was able to get out and really look around, the freeze unlike any we have had in my lifetime took a toll. Many things will take some time to see if they actually survived. I have read a lot about things to know what to do since I really had no experience for this kind of freeze. For instance, all my spider lilies look like a pile of mush. I actually found a website about freezes on plants with pictures. It says do not prune or cut back yet. They will return to life in the spring. I also read I shouldn't prune the burnt ends off of the bottlebrush shrubs just yet either. One side of the yard must have gotten a lot more wind than the other because one side looks worse than the other. 

I hope I never see cold like that again.

Here is a picture of the lemon tree. 

Many of those burnt leaves have fallen off now, but I do see some green in there on some of the branches, so hopefully it is not lost. It may not produce over a 100 lemons next year, but if it survives I will be grateful.

Also, January should be very colorful on my street with camellias. They were budding like crazy, but now we have to see if all those buds open up or just fall off. Time will tell.

A few other random items:

Miles joined me on Thursday and Friday for his first time. It went really well. I was expecting lots of tears, but he did so good which I think helped Katie's feelings a lot. Palmer starts daycare on Monday. I truly wish I could keep them all, but I know I can't. Tucker really learned a lot and I could see the benefit of being with the other children. I am sure the same will happen with Palmer, but Mimi's heart is a little sad.

I thought this picture of Tucker was so cute. He was vacuuming out his new car just like Mommy.

One thing we can count on is nothing stays the same. The mall here is closing down and will be torn down as soon as the few stores in there have cleared out. I have so many memories at the mall, but if I am being honest it has been done for sometime. Dillards was the last thing there that I visited. Pooh! I feel a bit like I am living back in Brewton as a teen when we had to go to Pensacola to shop. 

Now, it is Destin or Pensacola. Both are difficult at this point in time because of bridges being built and the traffic issues with said bridges. They are about to start on the main bridge to Destin from Fort Walton Beach in a couple of months. I don't care what they say that is going to be a disaster for commuting.  I mean a mind numbing disaster for tourists as well as those who live here.

That is it in my world right now.

I want to try and find some time to do some Thursday's Treasures posts again, but time is always the issue.  My time is filled with good and important things through and that is a blessing. That is the goal. Time filled with good and purposeful things.

Until next time,

Sandy