3rd Blogaversary Pressie Giveaway!

August is the month I celebrate my "3rd Blogaversary" and 240 post. Blogging has been a wonderful experience that has enriched my life in so many ways. Besides the confidence to try new things with my camera and on my computer, I have made "connections with others around the world". They have taken the time to contact me with encouraging and kind comments and I have learnt a little about their world too, wherever they may be. I truly enjoy reading the feedback from my fellow bloggers. The most "Cherished Opportunities", though, have been simply, gaining wonderful friendships that will last a lifetime.

To me it is very rewarding and soul-filling to be able to relate to others with similar passions. To know that I am not the only one who has a love for Stitching, Wool Felting, Crazy Quilting, and on and on makes me happy. vbg

The above photos are gifts for my readers. I created "Miss Sunshine" a Dotee Doll from Silk Ribbon Embroidery and lots of beads. I also made "Two Polymer Clay Projects" for you all too. The face can be used as an embellishment on a crazy quilt project or beaded for a necklace or brooch. The other piece with roses and dragonfly can also be used in the same way. I painted them with PearlEx powder and then bake them so they sparkle. The last gift is "100% Linen Flosses in 12 Pastel Colors" that might appeal to my stitching friends out there.

So there is "Three Gifts to Giveaway". All you need to do is leave me a message and your name will go in the hat for My Sweetie to draw in two weeks on September 9th. I will send the three gifts anywhere in the world. So please all leave me a message and will look forward to reading them all.

I greatly treasure all the friendships I have made over the last 3 years of blogging and these wee gifts are a small token of my appreciation. I truly look forward to another year of blogging and chatting with you all.

A Beautiful Gift from Mother Nature. Please have a look at My August Booms, I think you will enjoy looking at them. I think I write from my heart of feelings in connection with my quiet life surrounded by my beautiful gardens. I think the "Everyday Beauty" finds me more often than I find it. I walk out into my garden and find myself in awe of what Mother Nature has left me... a flower that bloomed overnight. Such a beautiful gift!! And it just appears there; I wasn't even looking for it. I grab my camera and snap a photo. I've always taken pictures of my gardens, but now I also think of sharing the pictures with my readers. I know they would enjoy seeing the beauty too. There is beauty everywhere. The above photo is of a Sedum "Autumn Joy" which I have several of.

This is a close-up of my sweeties favorite bush, the Hibiscus.

This plant is another lovely one which keeps my garden with lovely color, the beautiful Estilbe.

This lovely bush I just planted this summer. It is a Limelight Hydrangea and I can hardly wait for it to get very grand in size. It blooms change color and gives interest to the garden the whole winter.

Wish, Hope and Dream........................ Then Make it Happen!!!

Hugs,

Chrissie Lovely Wool Felt Art, Blogaversary Postpone Until End of August

A month or so ago I discovered Chrissie lovely blog called, "Niminy Fingers" and her very lovely wool felted art. I fell in love with a lovely wee wool felted bag and had to have it. My gift was all wrapped up in the most lovely way with wee felted hearts attached to twine that gathered the pretty bag that Chrissie made to send out her art. It was all so beautifully done.

This is my very lovely wool felted bag with gauze handles.It is approximately 7 inches by 5 inches in size. Inside my lovely bag there was a wool felted ball in a lovely deep purple color with hand dyed gold wool winding through it. I love it. I am a very passionate stitcher so I think I will embroidery some sprigs of Lavender on it and place a Lavender Sachet Heart inside. I think it will smell and look very lovely placed on my bathroom shelve. Thank you Chrissie. I love all your wool felted art. I will treasure it always.

Tomorrow starts our holiday. The first day I will be attending the "Michigan Fiber Festival". I will be taking an all day class by Letty Klein on how to create a wool roving braided rug, called "The Shephard Rug". I am so looking forward to this class. So I plan to take heaps of photos from my class project and will post them in September. After my all day class my sweetie and me are off for the next couple of weeks.

So my 3rd Blogaversary Celebration pressies will not be posted now until the end of August. Sorry for the delay. I hope everyone is having a super great summer or winter. I will be back soon to chat with you all.

Hugs,

My First Watercolor Painting, Buttons, and Gardens

This lovely Summer is pasting way to quickly. I have spent endless hours in my gardens this year. Creating new ones and adding lovely plants to the old ones. I am also in the process of creating my first patio block walk way. It has been a bit of a challenge but it is coming along nicely. I had blood vessel break in my right middle finger from lifting all the heavy patio blocks which has delayed me a bit.Oh, it was so swollen, black and blue and so very painful. But hopefully I will be back at it this coming weekend.


Along with all the gardening I have found some time for stitching too. Sometime ago, I fell in love with Karen Raune from "Contemporary Embroidery" lovely work which she is so well known for around the world. Karen creates the most beautiful unique embroidery creations I have ever seen. Please have a look at her lovely blog, "Comtemporary Embroidery"! I bought some lovely things from here awhile back. I wanted to create something special for my Dear Friend Lyn whose birthday was at the end of July. Because Lyn also loves to do stitching too, I decided to try and create some embroidery buttons for her pressie. I have been stitching for a very long time but it took 4 attempts to create these buttons for Lyn. One is supposed to be a Hydrangea Flower and other a BE Daisy. Not as pretty as Karen's work but Lyn loved them.

After watching the movie Miss Potter, and admiring Laurie from "Laurie's Charming Designs", lovely watercolor hearts and roses and other wonderful creations, I decided I would like to try and learn how to do watercolor paintings. Well, this is much harder than it looks. After 4 classes this was the result. It is suppose to represent the Lake Michigan Beach with its lovely beach grasses not far from my home. Of course it is not done yet, and hopefully I will get back to it oneday and finish it. But I truly think I will stick to stitching. LOL

My August Gardens this year are truly lovely. I never saw my Asiatic Lilies bloom last year because the deer ate all their buds. But NOT this year thanks to my wonderful Sweetie who has been the protector of the gardens this year. Thanks sweetie for all your endless efforts they have results in endless lovely blooms to admire this year. This photo is an up close look at them. Aren't they truly gorgeous? Click on the photo and it will get much bigger.

Another photo of my Asiatic Lilies and in the background my new Limelight Hydrangea.

A couple of weeks ago our local quilt shop at a small quilt show. I love stitching and this was the only quilt that had lovely Twilling added to it. I do not know how to do Twilling but it is on my list of things to learn.

A lovely American Robin searching for food in our lawn.

A Black-capped Chickadee searching for food at our bird feeder.

I planted this Summersweet Clethra just a few weeks ago and it is already blooming. It loves the shade and I could never get anything to grow and bloom in this spot until now. Love it.

I have several places in my garden where I have Lavender Blazing Star blooming. They are so beautiful.

My Butterfly Bush is now blooming in all its glory.

More Lillie's along side a Red Butterfly Nesting Box that my Sweetie build for me.

In a couple of weeks I will be celebrating my Third Year of Blogging. It is amazing how quickly the time has passed. I had no idea what a wonderful experience I would have blogging or how many lovely and kind friends I would meet along the way. I have made some special things to give away so I hope you all will come back and see what I have created for this event. I will be posting some photos by the middle of August and the drawing will be at the end of August.

I hope everyone is have a lovely summer or winter. Have a great weekend everyone.

Hugs,