Silly Me...

I've been missing and it's because I over-did (much to my husband's chagrin 😟) and ended up in pain again. I have such a hard time letting other's do things for me! I'm not supposed to lift over 10 pounds or do any strenuous things but I find this SO hard! However, I am going to stop feeling like it's wrong for me to ask for help It has not been a fun week because I've had to just rest as much as possible because I aggravated everything and was just miserable. I know...really dumb on my part.

I'm so blessed to have this girl to hang out with me. This is the look of a content poodle who is getting her back rubbed! 😄🐩

Look at that face! LOL

I wanted to let you know that I'm sharing lots of pictures of Cookie and Mitzi, plus my books, on my new Instagram account. If you're interested in following me (and I hope you are), you can find me here:

MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT 

Thank you for stopping by! Hopefully, I'll be back in full force with my personal posts soon.

Blessings - Julie

My Quiet, Bookish Life

It's been a while since I've been here with a personal post. I've been trying to recover from my surgery and, while I'm doing better, I'm still very tired and have to really conserve my energy. I will admit that it's frustrating for me, but on the other hand, I'm so very thankful to be past that horrible episode in my life.

I've mainly been trying to get my house back in order after the neglect of the past few months. My husband did such a great job in taking care of thing, but it's the little things, like decorating and fluffing about that a woman finds important. One thing we did is to replace the blinds in our master bedroom. It had those crazy hanging vertical blinds that would snap off and they hadn't worked right for a long time. I had been wanting to put drapes up and we finally got that done. Here's the picture without anything...

Then here's the new drapes...

They are actually a mnty green color but with the light through it, it lightens it quite a bit. I'm so happy to have this done! It has made a huge difference in the temperature of our room, too. The sun shines directly in this window during the summer so it's nice to have it blocked out.

I made a wonderful meal last week of Classic Roasted chicken from the Hairy Bikers website. I have watched several of their shows on Netflix and they have some wonderful recipes. I made the gravy, too, however, I had lumps (which I never have!) so didn't want you to see my lumpy gravy. 😉 Here's my lovely chicken...

and here's the potatoes and carrots.

I can highly recommend this recipe as it was easy and everything was so delicious!!

Since I don't have a lot of energy, I spend my time reading. Oh, the joy of a good book! I have actually started an Instagram account to showcase the books I'm reading. You can find the links to all my social media on the right sidebar. I'm so thankful for the books I get to read and share with you all. It's a true blessing.

Speaking of blessings, these two are my constant companions and reading buddies. I don't know what I'd do without them and I'm so thankful for the love and snuggles I get from them every day. Look at those faces! lol  😄

Hopefully, I'll be back more and more to share things. I am hoping to have more energy for my stitching and art but will be thankful for all the blessings I have right now!

Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - Linkup!

Hello friends. This will be a rather short Counting Our Blessings for me because I'm still sick! I can't seem to shake this cough or stuffy nose. I know it hangs on so I'm doing my best to do all the right things to help it move along. I didn't want to miss another week for the linkup so I hope you'll enjoy my little post and share your own blessings!

16. I honestly haven't felt like doing much of anything but I did work on my Celtic Santa one evening. I love how he's coming together and now he has eyes to see. 😊 The eyes make him come to life for me.

17.  I had to share my devotion from my Jesus Always devotional for February 5th. This spoke volumes to me! I hope it will touch your heart as well. I really like this bigger book with the leather-like cover

Plus the larger font makes it easier to read and there's lots of space for notes. I decided to put the year down for my thoughts as I know I'll do this devotional again and again so wanted to write down what speaks to me each year.  I'm so incredibly blessed to be a Jesus Calling Ambassador as I love these books and it gives me such pleasure to share about them!

You can click on the above picture to read it easier. I hope this blesses you as much as it does me! (I am a Thomas Nelson Partner and received this copy of Jesus Always from them).

18.  Of course, this sweet girl just blesses me to pieces! She's lying on the huge bed in my craft room here. I can't even express how much I love this girl. Mitzi blesses me each and every day!!

Please share your own blessings on the linky below!



Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - LinkUp!

This is the first Counting Our Blessings for 2018! I have high hopes for this year and am excited to start counting my blessings. I hope you are, too.

1. The first thing I am always thankful for is my family. 2017 wasn't exactly easy for us and we went through so much. Some of which we are still going through with this latest surgery I had. My family has stood beside me, helping me and encouraging me. I am so thankful and so blessed!

2.  I have been blessed with wonderful in home nurses. I have one in particular that has gone above and beyond to help me. She was the one that tried everything and anything to help with the ostomy bag when it wouldn't stay on. She has come to my home late at night to replace a bag that has fallen off or leaked. She has given of herself and helped me so much. I am so thankful for her. As a token of my appreciation, I made her this for Christmas.

3.  I actually made quite a few of these pins to give to my other nurse and a few special friends. I got the idea from a fellow painter who encouraged us to show random acts of kindness to those that have touched our lives. I had so much fun painting these!

4.  I also made a few of these ornaments. Can you stand the cuteness?

I didn't make too many of these but did share with some of my most favorite people. :)

5.  Of course, my blessings wouldn't be complete without these two! The baby girls got all prettied up for Christmas. They didn't keep those bows in too long but it was fun while it lasted!

Don't you feel like Mitzi is saying, "Talk to the paw!" LOL She's such a cutie and I adore her. These babies just bless me beyond measure.

Now it's your turn! Please share on the linky below. You can share your blessings, something that you think would bless others, something you've made, a recipe...anything that blesses!


Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - LinkUp!!

I hope your week has been full of blessings! If your week has been difficult, I hope that you had some small blessings along the way.

22. Hubby and I went to JoAnn's as I wanted to look at the cross stitch magazines. I'm so thankful that I can still find my magazines somewhere as it's getting harder and harder to find them. Anyway, I thought I would look at the fabric for quilting and found this

I have been collecting the Peanuts fabric for years with the plans to make a quilt. I love this piece and how very patriotic it is. It's going to be a great addition to all my other fun prints.

23. My son surprised me the other day with this beauty!

He made it for me as a surprise! The top is on a hinge so that I can clean out the house. Isn't it beautiful? I've started painting it a lovely pale egg blue and I'll share a picture when I finish it. I was so touched that me did this for me! He knows how much I love the birds and watching them. Such a huge blessing!

24. I finally finished this little painting. I've been working on it for months. I paint then I sit it aside - over and over. However, I finally finished it and I'm so happy with it!

25. I've had a Keurig machine for over 10 years. It has been a faithful friend to me but for the past few months, it's been acting up quite horribly. It was not acting properly and I was wasting k-cups (not a good thing at the prices they cost, even in bulk!). Hubby kept telling me to get a new one but I resisted. I missed it so much, though, so I researched the different models to find out which one was best and got this one.

Oh, my goodness! It's amazing! First of all, it doesn't make all the "landing of a jet plane" noises that my old one made from day one. It's so very quiet! It makes several sizes of coffee, so I can choose what is best for my mug. It will also make a pot of coffee (I haven't done this yet) and it's such a treasure. Plus, don't you love the red? Such a blessing to have this wonderful machine!

26. Of course, my little Mitzi blesses me each and every moment of each day!

Now it's your turn to share your blessings!! If you like my link up, please share about it on your blog. You can grab my button off my "Grab My Button" page at the top of this page. Also, if you haven't yet, would you please become a Follower for my page? I am so grateful!


Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - LinkUp!

21. It's good and truly Spring here! The weather has been amazingly warm and lovely and we had a high temperature of 82 yesterday and 74 today. Just perfect! I'm hoping and praying that we don't get a late freeze as all our fruit trees are in bloom. My rose bushes are bursting forth with new growth and I'm seeing hints of buds here and there. Weather like this truly is a blessing!

These are the views from my front deck.

22. We had beautiful weather to celebrate my youngest son's birthday on Saturday. He wanted to cook outside and it ended up being perfect. It was our sweet family of four celebrating together and I just cherished this precious time that has ended up being harder to do as they get older.

My husband and I bought him the complete series of "The Middle". It's a hilarious show that we all recently just discovered even though it's been on for 8 seasons. Here he is with some of his DVD's.

A few years ago, my youngest son started a tradition of gag gifts to his brother and it has stuck. I think this gift was the craziest of all...

You can see him laughing as he looks in the bag...

Seriously? Who knew there was such a thing as a Snuggle Tail?! LOL We all had a good laugh over this.

My son requested hotdogs, burgers and bratwurst on the grill plus I made my baked beans that he loves. He created this for his feast and wanted me to take a picture of it.

Yes, that's a bratwurst with bacon! :)

He always requests this dessert for his birthday and this year it was exceptionally pretty.

He said it was really good, too. Unfortunately, I couldn't taste it because of all those little seeds in those berries. I'm so glad he enjoyed it, though!

Here's my oldest on the birthday with his pug, Muffy. She is now 14 years old and still going strong!

23. As always, this sweet girl just blesses me over and over. She has learned to now sit in her bed on the table while I work on my Bible study. I love having her close and she feels the same about me.

Miss Mitzi is such a joy!! I love that sweet girl!

So many blessings! You can share your own on the linkup below.


Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - LinkUp!

I hope your week has been full of blessings! I've had a rather difficult week again. I spent over six hours at he Emergency Room last Friday and was diagnosed with diverticulitis again. It's starting to get me down physically and emotionally. Your prayers are so greatly appreciated!

12. Thankfully, I had a lovely Valentines Day with my hubby! I was so pleasantly surprised to receive some lovely gifts from my him including these beautiful flowers

and these amazing cookies!

We had a couple of the cookies and then I froze the large one and the rest of the little ones for a treat for my hubby and I another day. My beautiful flowers are still looking as fresh as the day I got them! They cheer me up so much.

13.  I'm trying to work on handwork as I recover and have been crocheting and doing cross stitch. I started this little Geisha Girl from a little kit I received in one of my stitching magazines. Here's my start on her

14.  I also started this Virus Afghan using  Caron Cake yarn. I'm really loving this afghan and it's quite easy to work up. The pattern is a repeat and I love how the colors in the Caron Cake really make this pattern pop.

If you're interested, you can find the pattern HERE.   She also has a wonderful step-by-step video you can watch. I found this really helpful in seeing how the pattern in worked. You can search YouTube for the Virus Blanket.

15.  As always, my girls, Cookie and Mitzi are one of my greatest blessings!

 

 

These pictures were taken the day they came home from the groomer.

I also chose by random number, the winner for the Designed to Pray book. My winner is Tamar. I will be emailing you to get your mailing address and congratulations! Thanks to all who entered the giveaway!

Now you can share your blessings on the linkup below. Thank you for being a part of my linkup!

  


Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - LinkUp

Greetings, friends. I hope you're having more blessings than disappointments. Either way, remember that God is with you and loves you!

In case you're wondering, I start from 1 at the beginning of each new year but have way more blessings if I go back and add them all up! :)

I picked a random winner for my Bible study giveaway last week and my winner is Kathy Lynn. I have sent you an email, Kathy, and if you'll send me your shipping address, I will get these Bible studies out to you. Congratulations!

9.  I've been working on my faith journaling - specifically - my Documented Faith journal. I enjoy doing this so much and focusing on my faith and all God has promised me. Here are three pages that I finished recently.

I've used the art from my Adorn-it book and colored it in using my alcohol based markers. I also used favorite washi tapes and other little things that make me smile.

10.  I did another little cross stitch ornament finish. Here's my little kitty in her Christmas sock. I think she's just too adorable!

She's another little ornament from my British magazine, Enjoy Cross Stitch. I do so many of the patterns in these magazines - I definitely get my money's worth out of them! lol

11.  Here's the two sweet girls playing with their LambChop toy. You can see it lying on the floor with all the stuffing gone. I got them two new ones last time I went to the store. They continue to be their absolute favorite toys. These two just make me smile and bless me so much!

What are your blessings? Please share on the linky below!


Blessings - Julie