It's Not Thursday . . .

. . . and I have no stitching accomplishments to show you. 

Right now we are about half way through an all-day snowfall. 
Yesterday was my regular day at school with the kindergarteners.  Several of the children are progressing very well with counting by 2's to 20 and counting backwards from 20.  One of the little girls is now ready to demonstrate proficiency on both tasks. 

It had been my intention to ask to not work with one of the girls because she has so little motivation.  Last week it seemed like a battle of wills between the two of us.  I felt I needed some more time to distance myself from that episode.  It simply did not work out; the teacher and I had too much to go through to allow me time or opportunity to discuss my concerns.  Wouldn't you know it; that little girl was one of the first children I worked with. 

I could hardly believe it.  She was on task, motivated, co-operative, happy, and a generally sweet child.  I would not have recognized her for the same child I have been working with since I came into the kindergarten.  She is almost ready to test out on her counting tasks.  I was so grateful that there was not an opportunity to ask to not work with her. 

Now, If you have not been over to the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe to register for Nancy's Spring Floss Give Away, do so right now.  She is going to give away 5 skeins of floss, your choice, from her 1795 Sampler Collection to each of 5 stitchers.  The lucky recipients will be selected on 15 March so you really have to do it right away.  Just to whet your appetite, I am going to post picture of some of the flosses in the collection. 

It's Thursday

Well, at least it is getting me to post once a week. 
This will be the last stitching picture for a while as I have a model from Just Cross Stitch. 

This is the first item in Nordic Needle's Hardanger Stitching Accessories Club.  Unfortunately I cannot show you the information about it because all of the sets have been sold and there is no longer a listing for it on the website.  The lid insert for the box was the first item.  The second item is a pocket for the scissors.  It came during the week before the JCS model came; I was only able to stitch a small part of it before putting it down.  As soon as I finish the model, I will stitch the pocket. 

Once a Week Posts??

Well, don't laugh.  It is a lot better than I have been doing.  :-D 

I checked back and I am fairly certain that I never showed you the Gingerbread Mouse from Just Nan.  I was supposed to poke the end of the tail into the fabric just above the button on the bottom.  I stitched the button on so securely that I could not force the end of the tail through the fabric.  I stitched it on the outside and secured it in place in the middle with a Kreinik braid tie. 

I did not have time to stitch it for this past Christmas because I had to take time out to stitch a model for Just Cross Stitch magazine.  Right now I am trying to get as much stitching accomplished as I can because another model is supposed to arrive in a day or two.  I have a very short turn around time so there will not be an opportunity to stitch my own things.  

During the night it is supposed to snow; depending upon how the storm tracks, we could have more or less snow.  Normally this would not be a problem but our son who shovels the walkways at church has his car in for repair work.  The  transmission is kaput and is being rebuilt.  We are all hoping that the work will be done tomorrow because it is extremely difficult co-ordinating the needs of four adults and one car. 

In the meantime, it looks like he will take our car and his brother to church to do the shoveling.  That means we will have no way to get to the health club in the morning.  I will be exercising at home, the best that I am able. 

Happy Valentine's Day - Happy Snowfall

This morning we woke up to new fallen snow.  But, we knew we would when we went to bed last night.  The question was how much would it be?  The answer is not as much as it could have been but it is heavy snow.  It sticks to everything. 

I watched for the sun to come up to try to catch a few early morning pictures.  Unfortunately, it was not a pink sunrise so there was no pink sunlight for me to revel in. 

Missing Again??

Yes, I am back again with no excuses or explanations other than I just was not writing.  I wasn't even looking at the blogs that I follow.  I can now show you the gift that I made for Blackbird Designs Exchange.  I just arrived.  Because it was an international delivery, I was afraid that it might not arrive in good time if I did not send early.  I posted on the first and it arrived today.

Monday mornings I go to school.  I help one of the kindergarten teachers at our local elementary school.  Essentially I give the little kidletts some extra practice to help them develop pre-reading, basic reading, and basic number skills. 

Today was a wonderful day.  While I was working with him, a little boy, one of the youngest in the class, learned to count by 10's and subsequently learned to read all numbers between 1 and 100.  When he caught on to counting by 10's, his face lit up with the excitement of the ah-ha moment.  I will always remember and treasure that moment; it was like a light went on in the room.  After that,  he was able to read all the big numbers and every time, his face lit up with pure joy. 

National P-I-E Day . . .

. . . was yesterday. 

I made a lemon meringue pie for the day.  It was an extremely busy day; I took the pie out of the oven sometime after 5:00 p.m.  By that time, I was just too tired to write this post. 

March 14 is National P-I Day.  I wonder if I should make some p-i-e for that day too. 

Another Finish

Yesterday I finished this little ornament as a tongue in cheek gift to the husband of one of our pastors.  I actually decided to make it just prior to Christmas but had to put it aside.  We had a baptism scheduled on very short notice for the Sunday between Christmas and New Years Day.  Dad was home on leave. 

Through the years, we have frequently had a baptism scheduled on short notice on that particular Sunday and they are more likely to not be military families.  My theory is that the family is together for Christmas when they begin to talk about the fact that everyone or at least everyone who is important is in town so let's see if we can have the baptism right now. 

 This year I had to set the moose aside to prepare the baptism banner.  Our pastor's husband is a librarian and also does a reading program during the summer at our church.  It is an outreach to the community as a whole.  He calls it Moose on the Loose and uses a plush moose puppet to help him read the books to the children.  When I saw this design from Designs by Lisa in the 2012 Just Cross Stitch Ornaments Issue, I knew it would be perfect. 

All I had to do was change the wording just a little bit.  As you can see I used the DMC alternatives for the Gentle Art threads.  I also used a star charm that I just happened to have.  Yes, I dove into my stash and came up with everything I needed. 

Now the big question was would my off beat sense of humor be understood or just politely tolerated.  Today our pastor's laugh said that her husband would truly appreciate his new moose.