Finished Pillow

I finished this little pillow with a Brenda Gervais design on it. It is my first time sewing something.. I was a little nervous at first, but I think it turned out ok. I can only get better from here, right? LOL

I am also working on a new pinkeep. The pattern is from Stacy Nash and it is the Malabar Farm design - I cannot wait to get it completed.

In The Spirit of Friends Show - Malabar Farms

Hi Everyone,

It has been a while since I last blogged, but I am going to start blogging at least every few days now.

Me and my mom got up at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and made our way to Malabar Farms in Ohio for the In the Spirit of Friends show. It was a 7 hour trip for us. Here are some pictures of what I purchased. I really did not know how it was set-up, etc... so I was just kind of running around, here, there and everywhere. I am not sure if I missed any booths, but I think I got them all.

I will have to say that the trip is 100% worth the drive, the goods are all primitive and all handmade and then you have those great primitive antiques there as well. Then you can go shop in the Amish area and make an entire day of it. We are already planning on next year and I think we will stay overnight next year so there is not so much driving in one day.

Here are some goodies I got... Should have bought more.

Update on Me

I know I have not posted in a while.... here is story of my life.

I am currently 35 years old. When I was 33, I purchased my first home, it was not new, but it was mine. Two months later, I met the man of my dreams, Mike. He was good looking, caring, charming, the chemistry was there, etc. We got engaged and moved into together pretty quickly. We started working on the house together and I always felt like it was "our" house since he moved in two months after I owned it. In August 2010, I got the greatest surprise of my life.... I was pregnant. I have always dreamed about being a mother. In October of 2010, Mike left me because he was not so sure he wanted the family life, the child or me. For four weeks we worked through the issues and he came back home. In November of 2010 I started having complications with the pregnancy. I had a big cyst on my right ovary and some of my levels were off. So I opted for the Amnio. The results from the Amnio came back that our little baby was perfect in every way and she was 100% a girl. In the beginning of December, our little baby started to measure behind and they figured I had Inter Uterine Growth Restriction but they were not sure why and the cyst got so big that I had to go in for emergency surgery to have it removed. I remember being so scared because I was going to be put under and I was so worried about my baby. Good news - me and the baby came out of it perfectly. However, the weeks after the surgery - the baby started measuring further and further behind. When I was 24 weeks pregnant on January 10th, I was put in the hospital on strict bed rest because I have non-diastolic flow through the cord and the Dr.'s were afraid of reverse flow and it killing me and the baby. So at that point the Dr.'s told me I had 1 to 4 weeks before I delivered because of the shape of my placenta. So on January 21st, I had to have an emergency c-section and I delivered Payton at 3:44 a.m. She was only 15 ounces and 10 inches long. She was so small. She lived for 37 hours and died on January 22nd, she was just too small to make it outside of me. I checked myself out of the hospital on the 22nd and then on January 27th, when we picked up Payton's ashes from the funeral home, Mike walked out on me forever. It has been four weeks since Mike has left me and 5 weeks since Payton passed.

Lititz Craft Show Finds

Hi everyone. This past Saturday, August 14, 2010 - me and my mom did our normal routine of waking up at 3:30 a.m. and leaving our house in Maryland by 4:30 a.m. to reach the Lititz craft show by 6:00 a.m. The weather was beautiful and we were in store for a great day of shopping. I wanted to share with you some of my finds at the show. I saw a couple of the biscuit boxes painted up.... I really like them for the kitchen.

Blanket Box/Wood Box

I plan on going to a couple of antique auctions this weekend looking for samplers and such. What I really want is a blanket box/wood box. I have not been able to find much about them. They are about 62 inches long and 19 inches high. From what I know - they have two hinged lids and maybe they were used for holding firewood in the earlier days. Not sure though... I search wood box in antiques and I get a million things. If anyone knows more about these boxes, please let me know. There is an antique store near the beach - they want $3,000 for it - I thought I was going to fall on the floor. I was so hoping they would say $500, I would have been on my way to pick it up. LOL

Yard Sale Items and Samplers

I have been busy antiquing and going to yard sales. This past weekend - I hit a great yard sale in my neighborhood. I got an old sugar mold and cutting board for $2 a piece - I will post pictures later. I should have been there 15 minutes earlier - the couple said they had a lot of antique kitchen pieces that an antique dealer purchased. They had great prices on everything. Very happy with my purchases.

I have also been looking at purchasing old needlework samplers - wow I did not realize the price of some of them. If any of you know the ins and outs of the old samplers, please let me know. I know a lot of the reproductions are starting to look like the old ones, so I am trying to do my research first. I figured I have a gameboard wall down my hallway - I am going to make a sampler wall in my living room. LOL, it will take me years to collect enough.

Doing Some Antiquing

Sorry for not posting that often, this summer has been really busy. Mike has baseball games at least three days a week now until the middle of August - I am counting down the days.. LOL I have been busy working on my sampler - I hope to have it done soon. I will post a picture of my progress soon. I also got a great gameboard from Godiloo Woodworks - wow I love her gameboards. I have been busy going to some antique stores looking for those special prims in my house. I have not found anything since the Huntboard two weeks ago, but it is fun to look. I am looking for a coffee table and end tables - but not sure exactly what I want - I will know it when I see it.

We are also making great progress on remodeling the bathroom and kitchen - I hope to have pictures of those up soon.

New Primitive Huntboard

Hi - I know it has been a few weeks since I posted last. I have had a busy summer already - couple of beach trips, baseball games and work.. I am still busy stitching my sampler - I hope to have it complete by end of August. I am going to try my hand at punch needle when I am finished - I love the look of punch needle and people say if I can do the cross stitch I should be able to do that.

This past weekend I went to the beach and on the way back, I stopped at this store called Goose on The Roof - I love this store - it is full of antiques and what nots. You never know what you are going to find in there. And to my surprise - I found this beautiful huntboard - I turned the corner and saw it and just knew that is what I needed for my living room.

More Johnston Benchworks

Here is another beautiful Johnston Benchworks chair on Craigslist. This is a great price for it too.

http://duluth.craigslist.org/fuo/1745912007.html

So Much Stitching....

So I am currently a week in on working on Primitive Betty's Live, Laugh, Love Sampler - cannot wait to finish it and I go to PFATTmarketplace.com and see another sampler by Caryn's Needleworks that I must have. It is a 4th of July Pattern and I love anything Americana. So I ordered it.. but I want to work on that one too. I need to get busy stitching.