Counting Our Blessings Linkup

I've been quiet here lately. I have been on a social media break, as much as possible these days. I have only been posting book reviews, for the most part, especially here. I needed a break to quiet my heart and my soul. There has been a lot going on here and I've also been experiencing pain issues more intensely. I did get a back injection on Tuesday so I'm hoping for some relief, however, right now I'm sore and moving slow. It's been a long, hard process of getting my injections for my knee and my back as the insurance company is getting more difficult in approving these shots that help me so much. It's frustrating and concerning when you feel like you won't get the help you need. I'm so thankful for my doctor who fights for me and gets me the help I need so I can live a more normal life.

I have been starting off my mornings with coffee (of course) and cross stitch. I take the time to start my morning off quietly, stitching and praying, before things get hectic. I got this idea from Vonna over at the Twisted Stitcher who started doing this during the Lent season. She worked on the most beautiful portrait of Jesus and had quiet time each morning. I realized that this was a great idea, especially since I'm not a morning person. It helped me to ease into my day. So here's what I've been working on

I love this Desert Santa with his cute, little burro! It reminds me so much of my years of living in Nevada and seeing these packs of burros roaming the desert. I'm nearly done with the stitching and then the fun part will be next - the beading.

After I'm done with this project, I'm going to pull out one of my large projects and finish it. Either the sampler I'm doing for my son (his birth announcement - he's only 28 years old - but it's never too late, right?! lol) or the Queen Elizabeth I've started. I'm ready to put away the small projects using the perforated paper and get back to stitching on my cloth.

We had a lovely Easter day here. I made ham, cheesy potatoes, loaded cauliflower casserole, and more! It was a very delicious meal shared with my family, which made it very special. We played cards after dinner, which was a lot of fun.

I made Easter baskets and was so happy with how they turned out! My hubby and I went to three different stores looking for just the right things to put in them. It was so fun!

It was a lovely day all the way around and I am so grateful for the saving grace of Jesus that we celebrate every year. He makes everything worthwhile and I honestly know that I could not get through the things I have to deal with without Him. He is risen!

Thank you so much for coming by to read my blog. This blog has brought me so much joy and friendships that I would never have had otherwise. I have several friends that I met through my blog and I am so thankful for each and everyone of them! It's amazing how God works all these things out and brings us together despite many miles apart.

Share your own blessings on the linky below!


Many blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - Linkup

It's been a wonderful week of warmer weather. I'm welcoming Spring with open arms! I have actually spent some time on my deck, soaking up the sun, feeling the warm breeze on my face and praying to God as I enjoy His creation.

I've been working on a Lent study using this book


and creating an art journal with Scripture, stickers and die cuts. I love this little journal and how personal it feels. It focuses on Jesus and the promises of God.

I added a tip in to this page and here it is with it on top of the page

I created this little book using the journal and printable stickers from the Etsy shop, Praise and Pray. She's having a 30% sale right now as it's her 3rd anniversary on Etsy, so if you're interested in her things,, this is a good time to get some of her beautiful printables. The link to her shop is HERE.

I bound the journal myself using my binding machine but you could use a disc binding system (like for the Happy Planner) or even take it to an office supply store and let them bind it. The book and doing the journal with it, has been just wonderful.

I've also been stitching a lot and have an update on my Desert Santa. Here's the kit for him

and here's what I have stitched at this point

I usually don't do my beading until the end, but I just had to add my beads to the little donkey and see what he was going to look like finished. I'm absolutely loving this kit!

I also purchase something special and fun from 123 stitch. I have had my name in for an email notification to get the beautiful Mouline Special Etoile threads. I finally got my email and ordered them right away.

These threads are amazing with a touch of glittery type thread running through it. I have seen so many people adding them to their projects for a pop. I'm definitely going to try it on my Queen Elizabeth project I'm working on.

It's hard to see the shimmery threads running through, but they are there and gorgeous!

Share your own blessings on the linky below! Share something that blessed you this week, something you made, a recipe, or anything that blessed you and would bless others.



Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings Linkup!

We are still waiting for the snow to melt that came down on us last week. I haven't seen a snowstorm like this for 30 years here. In fact, this was much worse than the one in 1988. We have a little over 2 feet of snow here!

This is just the beginning of all the snow. We had snow on Thursday, it stopped, and then we got even more on Friday.

Gorgeous beauty out my front door.

It has been so cold, that it just hasn't really melted. I looked out my backdoor last evening to see this gorgeous sunset. You can see we still have a lot of snow.

My son had to go to work on Saturday because they closed down on Thursday and Friday. Lots of businesses did that, in fact, there were very few things open. On Saturday, we couldn't even get our truck to move so he had to hike out to the main road and have a friend pick him up. He did the same on Monday!

This is very unusual for my area but there were so many blessings attached to this. First, the beauty of the snow...it really is gorgeous. We needed the moisture here so our trees and other plants will be so happy come Spring. The other blessing is that we had gone grocery shopping on Tuesday so we didn't have to worry that we would be out of anything. We have made it through just fine, stayed warm and cozy and that was a huge blessing!

I worked a little on my cross stitch Desert Santa. To remind you, this is the kit

Here's and update on the stitching I did

You can finally see the little donkey. I did a mistake that I realized last night. I used the wrong thread for the medium brown. 😞 I did ALL the stitches before realizing it, too! I sat there and thought about pulling all those stitched out, but I knew that it would be risky since I'm working on perforated paper. So, I decided just to go with it and make an adjustment on the dark brown thread. I have only done a little bit of the adjusted color but, so far, I'm okay with it and I don't think it's going to be a huge deal or that anyone will be able to tell, but me, of course. This would have driven me to distraction before but now I can let these little mistakes go and just try and fix it in other ways. That, my friends, is a blessing!

How was your week? Is it warm or cold where you are? I hope no matter what the weather that you had a week full of blessings! Please share on the linky below...



Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - Linkup!

My goodness, it's been cold here! We have had cold, Northern winds and dustings of snow this week. I have such Spring fever, my friends! I'm anxious to step out on my deck and have the warm sunshine on my face again. How has it been where you live?

I've had some lovely blessings this week. I shared that I called Shepherd Bush for the missing page of my Three Pale Eggs pattern. I received it in the mail already! I'll be working on it next now that I have the next steps!

I finished my sweet little bunny! I wasn't too sure about the back-stitching when I first started it as I thought it might be too dark. It's what the pattern called for, but that's not always the best color, in my opinion. I decided to do at least one side of the back-stitching and, the more I did it, the more I found I liked it.

Isn't she adorable? This is from a kit that was in my World of Cross Stitching magazine. She to be made into a card to send to someone, however, I'm going to put her in the card but then frame it.

Here's what she looks like inside of the card.

I will go to Hobby Lobby and look for a little frame. They seem to have the best selection here so I'm sure I'll find something cute.

I made this adorable bag from a die I bought for my Sizzex from Peachy Cheap. When I saw it, I knew what a wonderful gift bag it would make and I was right!

You can probably tell more if you click on the picture to make it larger. I love the detail of the heart and the scallops at the top of the bag. I'll be making a few of these for Valentines Day!

Now it's your turn to share your own blessings on the Linky below! It's such a blessing to others when you share something that blesses and I thank you for being a part of my linkup!



Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - Linkup!

Hello friends! It's time to count our blessings!

We've had some really cold weather here and, while I really don't look at that as a blessing, I do love when we get rain or snow because our land needs the moisture! It's cold here today again and the weather is blowing up a storm! I am so thankful because my dear husband ventured out and did some grocery shopping for us. Now that's a true blessing!

We got all our Christmas decorations put up on Saturday. While I really love Christmas and all the beautiful decorations, it was time to put them away. I rearranged my furniture yesterday and now I need to dust and decorate for every day. I also have a few ceramics I've made that I keep inside that needs to be put away but my son will help me as they go up high and I don't get up on step-stools. I also need to put my floral Pioneer Woman tablecloth on my table. I was going to decorate for Valentines but, it's so close now I don't want to have to put it away so quickly. I have to do things in spurts because of pain but I'm so thankful and blessed that I can do it!

I have been working on my cross stitch in the evenings. That's been a goal of mine for the new year. I haven't been consistent but I so enjoy my quiet times of working on my stitching. I set my Desert Santa aside for now to work on something for Easter. This little guy is from the UK magazine, The World of Cross Stitch, and came as a little kit inside. It's supposed to be made into a card, which came inside the kit, like this.

However, I'm going to frame it and put it out as a decoration instead.  Here's my little guy, almost finished.

I need to finish the rose and leaves under his ear and do all the back-stitching but I love when it gets to this point where I can see his little personality shining through!

Do you remember my stitching of the Shepherd's Bush Three Pale Eggs?

This has been a couple years back and I was at a stand still because I was missing a page of the instructions. I finally called Shepherd's Bush to ask if they could send me the missing page. They were so very nice about it and said they would pop it in the mail for me! Yay! I can finally finish up my eggs for Easter. :)

What have your blessings been? I hope you'll share on the linky below!


Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - Linkup

It's the second Tuesday of the New Year - how have things been going for you? I hope well. I'm doing my best to stick to my goals and not beating myself up for those days when I'm too tired or too much in pain to do a lot. I look at where I was last year at this time and I see so much progress! That's what I choose to focus on. I hope you are doing the same and giving yourself grace on the hard days.

I'm so thankful for these two...

I shared that Muffy, our pug, is now 16 years old. She is completely deaf and almost blind. She also has been having a harder time getting around and, because of that, wasn't eating out of her bowl enough to keep herself healthy. I decided she needed to be fed canned food and so now I feed her twice daily (off a fork!) the richer canned food and she is doing so much better! She sits on one chair and I sit on another and I hand feed her. It's quite a sight! lol  I've seen a huge improvement in her mobility and strength so I'm so glad that I can do this for her. One of these days, I'm going to take a video of me feeding her. 😉

The other guy in the picture does so much for his mama. He has become a dependable person that truly cares about his family and others. I could write pages of what a blessing he is but suffice to say, he is a wonderful man and I'm so proud of him!

I haven't done as much creatively as I would have liked this week but I am working on a new cross stitch kit by Mill Hill Beads.  I know I keep working on these kits, but I enjoy them so much and think they are so beautiful when they are done. Here's the kit I'm working on now.

Isn't this such a cute kit? This reminds me so much of when I lived in Nevada and all the burros that were there. It's such a great project to commemorate my time of living there. There is a lot of bead work to this one on Santa's outfit. I always do all the stitching first and them the beading so looking forward to that.  Here's what I have done so far

You can see my pencil marks on the paper where I figured out the center.  I will erase them if they aren't stitched over at the end.  Such a cute little burro! I love when I get enough stitched to be able to see what it is.

I hope you had a week full of blessing.  Please share on the linky below!


Blessings - Julie

A Little Peek Into My Christmas

I finished my gingerbread man ornament. It's considered an ornament, however, I'm hanging it on the wall as it seems more like a small bell-pull to me. Besides, I really want it to have it's own place for focus as I think it's so beautiful!

Here's a closeup of it. Isn't the beadwork gorgeous? I just love the Mill Hill Bead kits. They are exceptional. (You can click on the picture to see a bigger version).

We had a lovely Christmas! I will share more about it in another post but wanted to show you a couple pictures from our day.

Here's our tree. Isn't it pretty?  I love the flocking and how the lights are so plentiful and colorful.

I took this picture at night so it's probably not the best picture but I do think it shows off all the lights. You can see our Santa in the background plus Cookie on the chair if you look closely.  😊

For one of my Christmas presents, my son bought me something I've been wanting for a long time. A My Little Pony Monopoly game!! I know you're probably laughing right now but I absolutely love it!

We played an all day game on Christmas, which was a lot of fun.

I give my guys a lot of credit for being manly enough to play the My Little Pony Monopoly game! 😂 It's a fun set, actually, and I really like the larger player pieces. They are easier to move around the board.

It was a great Christmas and I have a lot more to share so stay tuned!

Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - Linkup!

Hello friends! I feel so bad that I haven't been consistent with my weekly Counting Our Blessings Linkup. I have been so very busy working on things in my house. After 4 years of being in recovery mode from illness and surgeries made things get put on the back burner and now I'm working on getting everything back in order. It's a big job, let me tell you! I'm also still recovering from my last surgery and trying to get used to the strange feeling of the mesh over my hernia. I also still have days of pain so with all this, I have to just do what I can and rest when I need to.

Let's get started!

78.  I am so very thankful that I do have more energy and am able to work on my home again. Purging, organizing, moving stuff around. Because I can't lift more than 10 pounds, I am also very, very thankful for my husband and son who step up and help whenever I need it! I wouldn't get half of this done without them!

79.  I finished my Fall wreath! I am so pleased with it!

I have it above my stove. You can see the cute shelf my son made me and all my Pioneer Woman stuff. I'm a huge fan of hers and have so many of her things. My ceramic cactus is something I made years and years ago and I keep it lit all the time.

Here's a more closeup picture of the wreath. I'm so happy with it and it was great fun painting it!

80.  I am also trying to cross stitch more but I'm not stitching as much as I would like! I was hoping to have a lot more of my ornaments stitched up by Christmas so will need to get with it and do my nightly stitching again! I am almost done with my Gingerbread boy ornament and here he is.

I'm really just down to the back stitching and the beading. I love the beading part but not the back stitching part so much. I don't hate back stitching it's just not a favorite of mine. 😉 It has to be done, though!

81.  I also received the cutest gift from a book company that I work with. It's a t-shirt and a cute journal. I love what it says - Prose before Bros.

Many thanks to BookSpark for sending me this! I absolutely love it and it was such a fun surprise!

Now it's your turn to share your blessings!  Please share on the linkup below.


Blessings - Julie

Counting Our Blessings - LinkUp!

Counting our blessings - one by one. Such a good thing for our minds and souls! Join me as we focus on our blessings!

72.  Our son finished off our deck this last week. We also changed the color, which I like so much better than the light color I had before. Such a lot of hard work was done by my son but my hubby and I helped as much as we could, too. We painted each board all the way around before he put them down. Lots of work but so worth the final result! This is the area of deck we've had for a couple years. I ended up not liking this color as much as I thought I would.

Here's my son working hard on the new deck addition. All those boards had to be painted on all sides before he put them down. He carried each of those boards by hand, by himself - 20 feet long!

Progress....

Finished!

 I absolutely adore this color and am so glad that I decided to go darker. It's so beautiful and we are going to enjoy sitting out there with our coffee, tea and just be in nature. I'm so blessed by my son for doing all this work!

73.  I've been working on my little gingerbread man ornament. I love how his little personality is coming through now. I can't wait to get started on the beading!

There's still quite a bit of stitching to be done before the beading though, so gotta keep stitching! 😊

74.  I'm so glad Fall is on it's way. It's still been really hot here but I'm thinking about pumpkins, leaves changing colors and cooler weather! I am working on this piece that will go above my stove when it's done. It's a ceramic piece that I've had for awhile and I thought it was time to get it done! Here's the start of the painting.

I started out by painting the whole thing with an autumn brown, then dry brushed white over the whole thing. Now, I'll add the colors on top of that. I think this is going to look adorable when I'm all done. I'm so glad I have the opportunity to make things for my home. I find it a blessing.

I changed the font on my blog to something easier to read and bolder. These old eyes were having trouble reading my blog! What do you think? Do you like it - is it easier for you to read? Let me know!

Share your own blessings on the linky below!


Blessings - Julie