Two finishes and Father's day

Today is Father's day here in the US. I am forever grateful to have shared parenting with my hubby. He has been and still is a wonderful husband, father and father-in-law. I can't wait to watch him take on the roll of grandfather.

I have two finishes to show you today....and two new items to start.

First and foremost I finished the stitching on the Winking Santa Stocking. I love how he looks!

I still have to make it into a stocking, but I will do that once my summer vacation starts at the end of this coming week. I want to buy some lightweight fusible web to put on the back of the stitching. I also have to choose a fabric for the back of the stocking as I don't like what was provided with the kit at all.

I also finished the embroidered kitty bib.

Please excuse the wrinkles. Isn't this kitty adorable? I have to wash it as an old tag has left a glue mark near the bottom. I really don't mind if it doesn't come out as this is a bib to be used and will probably get stained. 

Hubby and I have been enjoying trips to the beach at night. Jones Beach is a state park that is free after 6pm.

This is a view of the water tower and the Wild Play zipline and aerial adventure park.

Listen to the waves crashing on the shore.

It is so peaceful.

Another evening we went to TOBAY beach. (Town of Oyster Bay)

This is the bay side.

The paddleboarders were accompanying a large group of swimmers.

We went the ocean beach side of TOBAY on Friday night when the temps during the day were in the high 80s.

You can just barely see a container ships on the horizon. This is looking southeast, but to the southwest I could count at least 13 other container ships all waiting to dock in NY. It is easy to understand part of the supply chain problems when you see all these ships.

Some of my flowers have really bloomed beautifully this year. Look at these tiger lilies!

This is a new perennial I bought this year called Betony. I love it!

One of my lavender plants is getting in on the blooming also.

I do love purple flowers. 

My mother's astilbe are going strong. I took this photo to show her.

Now let me tell what stitching I may be working on today.

I want to start a baby announcement that I purchased.

I bought the suggested 28 count fabric, but I still have to check whether I have all the flosses. I am sure I have most of them. I may have to purchase a few.

I also want to start working on larger bib. 

This will be my last week of school/sitting with my mom project. I do want to finish it by mid-July though as that is when my daughter's baby shower is. Once again there is a glue stain on the bottom where the original sticker was affixed in the 1950s or 60s. I have the flosses chosen for this and am looking forward to working on it.

I also want to share with you a gift that my son bought for me when he was on his honeymoon in Hawaii.

He found a needlework shop and bought me this baby announcement pattern. Can you believe he stopped in a needlework shop on his honeymoon? He said it was also a quilt shop that had a lot of applique patterns and the owner was impressed that he knew what he was talking about. I love that guy! You know that whenever he and his wife are expecting, I will start stitching this pattern immediately.....or maybe sooner if I ever have a stitching lull. LOL

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I think I will determine what flosses I need for the baby announcement, iron the fabric and affix it to my scroll frame. I might put some stitches in October Morning also.

Thanks for stopping by!

A visit, flowers and stitching

Last weekend our daughter visited with her pup, Ruby. 

As you can see I took a lot of photos of Ruby.

We went down to Jones Beach one night to walk on the boardwalk. It was a little chilly.

This is probably our daughter's last visit to Long Island until after her baby is born.

I have made a decent amount of progress on the embroidered bib recently when visiting my mom. 

I have finished all of the blue and red. I just have green leaves and grass and the bottom half of the kitty.

I have also been doing a ton of black backstitching on Santa. I am going to run out of the black floss that came with the kit, but I have plenty of other black floss and a slight deviation of color (should there be any) won't show in backstitching. I have been working around the bow.

My garden and potted plants are looking quite lush. Look how many buds this tiger lily has. Wow!

The astilbe is blooming.

Coral bells, astilbe and hosta.

More hosta and astilbe.

Salvia

This astilbe I planted only last year. It was an offshoot of one of my mom's many astilbe plants.

Tomatos, lettuce and some flowers.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I will be working on Santa. School is out in two weeks. I think Santa should be done by then and I can start something new and work on my daughter's quilt all summer. I can't wait.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stitch along update ..... More metallic stitching

 There may only be one more Stitch Along update on Santa. I am hoping that in three weeks I can do a happy dance that all the stitching is complete. This is how the Winking Santa stocking looked three weeks ago.

I have since completed all of the cross-stitching and am now adding the bling and backstitching. Here is where I was on Friday. I had added all the beads to the furry brim of Santa's hat and outlined his face and mustache.

This is where I am as of yesterday.

 I was muttering a few choice words when adding the metallic backstitching to the bow. I also had to search my stash for some extra metallic thread as what was provided ran out due to the constant shredding. Yes, I used short strands and also ran the floss through bees wax. There is only one little bit of metallic stitching left where the ribbon goes down the gift box below the gift tag. I think I will have just enough gold metallic floss to finish it. I still have some black backstitching to complete on the rest of the stocking as well as more beads, but it is all going quite quickly. I can't wait to show you a finish and what I will be working on next!

Thank you to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks and sending us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other talented bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, 

 Sharon, Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie

Thanks for stopping by!

Flowers and stitching

 I bought a whole lot of flowers to plant in pots a couple of weeks ago and I have been slowly doing just that. First the pots that go on my front porch.

I always plant geraniums with another flower or two as the porch faces south.

I planted some tomatoes and lettuce for the back deck.

I always plant marigolds with my food plants.

Hubby had yet to find my tomato cages when I took the photo above.

I bought a couple of new plant stands this year as my old white ones were rusty beyond repair.

I am trying dahlias for the first time this year. They are the center flower in each of these planters along with petunias and creeping jenny.

The irises in my garden are beautiful this year.

The salvia is just beginning to bloom. 

I have planted some other pots, but it is raining today so I can't get more photos.

I have been steadily working on the backstitching and beads for Santa.

He is looking more finished each day.

I have been working on the kitty bib a little bit each day when I visit my mom. 

I started working on the green shirt yesterday when I was with mom, but didn't take a photo. 

Please keep all the families in Buffalo, NY (my home state) and Uvalde, TX in your prayers. I truly wish there still was a ban on assault weapons.

Keep the people of Ukraine in your prayers also.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

A notable birthday

Those of you who regularly follow my blog know my mother's dementia story by now so I won't rehash it, but Thursday was my mother's 95th birthday. I took the day off from work and made a lemon meringue pie from scratch for her.

 I also went to the fish store and bought some flounder. I made her flounder and mashed potatoes for her birthday dinner. She ate almost all of it which is quite an accomplishement these days. 

I had previously contacted as many of my cousins as I could and requested that each of them send her a card for her birthday. She received a total of 12 cards from family and friends. 

One of her aides bought the balloons to hang around her bedroom to make it festive. The flowers are from me. She seemed to enjoy her special day. 

I am still working on the cross-stitches on Santa. I finished the first border and my son-in-law's name. I ran out of one of the colors in the middle of the name so I had to make a stop at Michaels. I am now working on the final border.

 The metallic floss again gave me fits. I have purchased the bees wax and definitely see a difference, but one time the floss shredded as I was bringing it through the beeswax. Really!? 

Our son is visiting us this weekend as he had a course to attend for work in Connecticut. He traveled to Long Island via the ferry on Friday. 

Yesterday, we went to Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park in Oyster Bay for an "Art in the Park" event that unfortunately wasn't all that interesting. It was more like a glorified craft fair. Don't get me wrong, I love craft fairs, but that was not what I expected. It was nice park with pretty views of Oyster Bay.

From there we went to Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelts's home that is often known as the "Summer White House". It was a hot day, and we weren't looking to tour the home, but rather enjoy the nature trail.

There were a whole lot of ferns along the path.

The path ended at the bay where Teddy Roosevelt used to play with his children.

The views were pretty.

We were hot and sweaty, but glad to be together.

At home, my lavender azalea is in bloom.

One rhododendron is starting to bloom also.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I am going to try to finish that upper border on the Santa stocking while Hubby and son go golfing.

Thanks for stopping by!