Facelift

My turn - today my blog got a facelift. I had downloaded several blog templates a few months ago, but never seemed to find the time to then select one and update my blog. I didn't want to give up any stitching time in order to do it. But, today I did find time since I had the day off from work and it was too hot and muggy to work in the garden anyhow. I know the image on my blog does not match my garden/stitching title... but there are so few nice garden themed templates available. The one I do like is being used by a friend, so I chose this one instead... after all, I do my final postings at night anyhow... the picture suits that....
Uh-oh.... if I go by how long it took for me to stitch the black to fill in the roof around the birds, I am guessing it will take me months to fill in all the black in almost the entire block on House6 - LOL! Seriously, that seemed to take forever! This is the second time I have used my scanner since my desktop had to be reworked post hard drive death last week... and it is again a very light scan... will have to ask Mike to take a look at that and see what is up with it...
Since today is the official start of my birthday weekend, I decided to open up a pile of birthday parcels that arrived during the week from some of my stitching blogger pals.... This first one is from Becky - she amazes me. She sent me another of her stunning finishes - a super pretty friendship piece, and she altered it to add a bee charm and a gardening charm in place of whatever Betsy Foster had originally charted near our names. Isn't Becky sweet? That beauty is in my curio cabinet and on proud display! Then she also sent me a cute Mary Engelbreit gardening theme notepad for my fridge door and a fun book on birthday quotes! Thank you Becky! (Blogger got cranky, that pic had to go up via Photobucket!)
I also received a lovely parcel from Katrina - she stitched me this very sweet pillow that is proudly displayed at this very moment in my glass curio in the dining area of kitchen (I love it!!).... and she sent me the neatest gardening magazine from New Zealand, and scrummy lavender Gardener's Hand Cream from NZ too! How sweet! And, I am having great fun reading the magazine. It amazes me how the plants are so similar to ours, despite our dramatically different climates. The one difference, though, is that some of the plants that are perennials in NZ are grown only as annuals here. They just wouldn't survive our winters.
Last but not least, some pretty gifties from Karen too :-) She sent me this really pretty pewter Noah's Ark brooch that does not need to be worn - it came mounted on a pretty black velvet background in a beautiful frame! It is now proudly displayed in my curio too! She also sent me a lovely 35 ct Kiwi Antiques linen by Country Stitch in the color Brandy - oh, this is just screaming to be used for a pretty sampler and I already have tons of ideas! Plus, what a cute cat scissor fob - thank you Karen! (Karen had also sent me Bliss as an early birthday gift months ago - she just knew I would buy it for myself if she did not send it early! She was right - I already have it kitted up with Vikki Clayton's conversion and I am good to go as soon as I find room for it in my rotation!).
Today's daylily choice is Cameroons. I put this one up primarily for my own pleasure. I am quite fond of the colors in this one, yet this plant yields very few blooms for me each summer... so I am posting this one for all posterity.
Mike really likes this photo, and he asked me to share it... it is of some blooms on one of our hosta plants :-)

****News about the Kreinik for Just Nan's Mermaid Heart - the 043 blending filament has just been discontinued by Kreinik! I emailed Just Nan, and John wrote back, "Here is the substitute: Accentuate MMA287 from Access Commodities." I do have a full spool of the 043 that I was lucky enough to get from another shop... if you need some, maybe I can pull off enough for you....

Stitched on today: Houses of Hawk Run Hollow