My Summer Has Begun

I left off last post with a restful Memorial Day weekend. I decided to take a few more days to let myself truly relax before I jumped into that list of summer things to get done around the house. I let the chores go around here other than the major rooms and just let myself not jump up to do the next thing. 

Cross Stitching

I started my June ornament in Auburn the last of May, so I have it done already. July's probably won't be spit out that soon. June's selection is another from The Magic of Christmas book. It has a vintage feel to it. I think for July I am going to do a Prairie School Santa, and then I am going to dig around in my patterns for some youthful ones for the next couple of months. 

In other stitching news, I will share the sunflower pillow next time. I just don't have it all stuffed and trimmed yet, but it is so cute. I am about to start on the "my town" stitch. It will be a long term project since I am kind of designing as I go. I did order a Country Cottage Needleworks store that was taller to kind of guide my first building in the town. It is a 2 story building and I felt I needed a guide. I have my palm tree patterns all picked out, so hopefully late June I will get the first stitch in it. 

I did chase a rabbit trail with stitching. A new flosstube account popped up on my YouTube feed. I really like the ladies, so I watched along of one of theirs and went back and caught up with the beginnings of their older ones so that I would know them better.  They are called Curious Crafters, 2 sisters from California. I then followed their Instagram account and that is where the rabbit trail path began. 

Here is the post that made my go ...Gotta have.

I mean how adorable is this whale. I immediately ordered the pattern along with a seahorse like it and the exact linen and trim. It is all DMC colors. I have started the whale while I wait for my order of the store to start my town stitch. I typically write things down I like and ponder and the notion goes away, but this one was screaming at me and I knew it was a Sandy kind of pattern.

For months, I had planned to take The Shepherd's Song sampler to Auburn, but at the last minute I changed my mind. It stayed here....

I decided to make a little collage on the wall in the bedroom. The other 2 were already in the bedroom, so I just rearranged some things.

I think they all go quite well together and they make me very happy.

Outdoor Time

I have loved the late May and early June weather. It is still so pleasant in the mornings here. I have enjoyed my quiet time on the deck in the mornings. There is still a little odds and ends being done on the seawall and dock, so the day isn't all that quiet, but I think they are done as of today. Than the dirt.

Gus and I have kept up with our walks. He is a great reminder to get up and get outside.

I made it to the beach on the cloudiest day. Even cloudy days are good at the beach. I just walked. I will go back this week to sit a spell. 

In family updates, 

Lindsay brought the kids by after work on Friday because Grandma hadn't seen them in a while. I had gone to get Mama and bring her to my house because her house is sort of out of the way and would make it a little difficult for Lindsay. Mother fell down from hugging Tucker. We don't exactly know what happened but Lindsay and I looked up and Mother was laying on the driveway with Tucker sort of underneath her. He saved a broken hip I am sure. She scraped the top layer of skin off of the forearm so I knew that would need professional bandaging, but she also bumped her head and had to have that glued. Lots of blood and an ER visit Friday evening. We would have been out of there pretty quick for an ER visit, but her blood pressure was read as they were about to dismiss her. 227/102, so yes, we were there for  the rest of the evening. We pulled in the driveway at 10:40. Mom's blood pressure will spike like that when she is nervous or upset, but we have found BP meds will cause the opposite. A dip which can be just as dangerous. I think every single test in the book has been run over the last 10 years about it and I never really get a diagnosis. I have found I usually can talk to her and calm her and it will go down. 

Anywho, lesson was learned that Mama will now be greeted by all grandkids in a sitting position. They are not allowed to hug her if she is not sitting. Tucker will hold her to that. Mother will not follow those rules, but he will so that should be good. We got lucky in that she didn't have a broken hip.

Lindsay and our family are still so upset about her dear friend and her breast cancer. They will stay in Huntsville for now and return to the jobs they were giving up to move. It is all a bit much to understand, but I know God has them in His Hands.

Miles is crawling. Katie should have lots of fun this summer keeping up with him. He may even be walking by the time school starts for me to have him. 

Here he is at Auburn. Paul Allen and Katie went up this past weekend. He is wearing his Daddy's first Auburn shirt. It has now made the rounds through the other boys as well.

Here are Tucker and Palmer Sunday morning early. Palmer with a snotty nose is still cute as he can be. Palmer and Daddy weren't feeling well so they had to stay home from church, but Tucker didn't want to miss because we were having snocones at church.

The one thing I did do last week was cook supper all week. I won't get any points in home economics for color, but I made some tasty meals last week.

We are enjoying the time on the deck as long as we can.  You will find Gus with me all the time.

That was about it for my week. Even with the Friday night excitement, it was a quiet week and one I needed to handle such things as Friday evening. I will leave you with pretty pink roses on the bottom deck.

Oh and I did read a good book. No picture because I have already passed it to Lindsay, but it was good. The name is Walking Shoes by Lynne Gentry. My description of it is somewhere between Karen Kingsbury and Jan Karon. For Kingsbury it contains a faith based storyline with a wee bit of drama, but for Karon it contains a small town (Mt. Hope) with the eccentric characters in the town. Good clean faith based book. A good summer read. I plan to order the others in the series. 

It is my favorite time of the year, so I am going to hopefully soak up as much fun out of it as possible.

Sandy