Happy 4th of July 2015

We 're having my brother and his wife over for supper today.   

I hurt my right hand (thumb) vacuuming - it's been a mess ever since I took a two day (five hours each) motorcycle course on my Vespa scooter way back in 2010.   

My Vespa had very thick handlebars.  

My hands just couldn't take the stretch that long.

  Now I'm trying to do stuff one handed.  

Luckily dinner's (country ribs) in the crock pot, table was set yesterday along with cutting up the watermelon and strawberries.    

So glad I planned ahead and kept it simple. 

I love that crocheted mail box.  

And, no, it's not ours.  

Neither is this lovely home. 

All photos above are from Pinterest.  

This is our front door.

Sorry for the crooked picture.

It was taken one handed.  

At least we got our Red, White and Blue banner hung.

                                    Wishing you all a safe and happy Independence Day.

Happy Easter

Hello!

This is my first posting from our new home in Ohio. 

We finally got connected to Internet and WiFi yesterday.

It's gray, dark and overcast here in Ohio this Easter morning.  

I slept better last night and woke up this morning sort of concerned I only had one Easter decoration out in our new home. 

Hearth Room Fireplace

Now I should be easier on myself since we just moved in about two weeks ago and many of our boxes are not unpacked yet. 

Great Room Fireplace Mantel

Then as I was lying there in bed this morning I remembered we put the Christmas bins and other holiday bins in our lower level storage closet.  

Easy to get to. 

New Kitchen!

I jumped out of bed and went downstairs, opened the Easter bin and carried up in my arms as much of my Easter decorations as I could. 

Bunnies placed in the front windows.

I had fun going around our new home and setting up the decorations.  

It seems silly putting up the decorations on Easter when it will be over so soon now.  

But I may just leave them up this week to enjoy.

Well, at least the bunnies can stay out for Spring.  

Our flat screen TVs were hung the other day.

There is a long punch list of items still to be finish in our new home.

Gutters were installed two days ago.

The screened in porch and deck aren't finished yet either.

And we have to wait until the weather warms up to have the driveway and sidewalk poured.

Now our yard is all mud…thick horrible clay.

A different view for us out of our screened in porch slider.

We are having Easter dinner at my brother-in-law's house.  

And instead of having to drive 450 miles like we had to in the past now we have less than 10 miles to drive to his house. 

We love having our family close to us.  

That is our Easter blessing!

I hope you have a Blessed and Happy Easter! 

Happy Halloween !

Are you ready for Trick or Treat?

We are here at Teacup Lane.

Candy is ready and Halloween decorations are up.

We put two strings of orange lights on shrubs in front flanking the door along with Mr. Pumpkin Head and Ms. Skeleton. 

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

Happy 4th of July!

Source:  Pinerest

Strange 4th of July.

It's windy and overcast here.  

The rain has moved on and we are hoping we will have sunshine later today. 

I didn't put our flag outside because of the rain instead I taped flags up on our front windows and hung a few on our front door. 

Now I don't have to care about the rain.

The flags are protected from the weather.

  

We're fussy with our flag - we don't like to leave it out overnight unless it is lite up. 

Love German Shepards!

Remember years ago when it wasn't considered "proper" to wear our flag as an article of clothing?  

I'm still not comfortable seeing the flag draped on one's body (i.e.,  as a swimsuit etc).  

What about you?

Happy Independence Day to all of you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

"Party with Patrick"
Rainbow's End Mug Rug

We're getting all decorated for St. Patrick's Day here at Teacup Lane. 

Another Patrick Lose's Applique Design

I finished all my sewing, embroidery and appliqué projects. 

My Design using fonts from my TruEmbroidery Software Programs.

Whew...glad that is done.  

Today I'm cleaning.  

And tomorrow.  

Then I will decorate the rooms for Bunco with St. Patrick's Day as the theme.  

Food will be prepared Wednesday.  

I 'm catering some of it.  

First time ever. 

Hope you all have a lovely St. Patrick's Day.

Oh, did I mentioned it snowed here….AGAIN!

White, fluffy stuff everywhere.

It's a bitter sweet day for me because my Mom, who loved celebrating St. Patty's  Day, passed away 24 years today.  

So I'm celebrating for you Mom!  

Miss you & love you!

Happy ❤️ Valentine's Day ❤️

It's a beautiful ❤️Valentine's Day❤️ here with the sun shining. 

Another inch or two of snow fell last night.  

It's an unbelievable 43 degrees out. 

So pretty!

Have a lovable & huggable Valentine's day.  

Source:  Facebook

My Mug Rugs

These little mug rugs are fun to sew and perfect to practice sewing bias bindings on. 

I like both mug mats shown here and although my bias binding turned out better on the poinsettia one, both appliqués are part of Merry Minis Mug Rugs (here) designs. 

Patrick Lose has several excellent videos on bias bindings (here's one). 

Here's the link for the pattern for the Shining Star Ornament Mug Rug (here).  

This is a 13 inch square I cut for this bias binding.
You offset the "rows" by one row before cutting.  

For some reason after calculating the size of fabric square I needed for the ornament mug rug's bias binding I just had enough length.   Usually you want several inches more than the circumference of the mug rug to play with.  I don't know what happened on this one.  I even had Hubby look at my calculations and he said I figured it correctly.  For the poinsettia mug rug I increased the fabric square from 9 inches to 13 inches and I had plenty of bias binding length.  

I think the bias binding got twisted on the ornament mug mat too.  

I may rip it out and cut another bias binding. 

I've blogged in the past about joining my local sewing store's monthly Embroidery and Party with Patrick clubs last year and I'm signing up again for 2014.  

Yesterday I joined another monthly club.  

This one I joined on-line at Patrick Lose's website...it's a monthly Mug Mat Club.

Read about it (here).

These mug rugs will make cute gifts.

  

Once reason I like Patrick Lose's designs is because he mostly focuses on "celebrations"…like special occasions and holidays.

I'm not getting paid to write about Patrick Lose's machine embroidery designs either by the way. 

Just in case you are wondering!

Laugh for the day:

My Valentine Framed

I added several fabric flanges to my Valentine embroidery today.

As usual I used left over fabrics from my stash.

  

It's not easy to take a photo of my Valentine framed - those darn light reflections on the glass. 

This Valentine machine embroidery design, along with my other holiday ones I've framed previously, are included in this collection - Anita Goodesign Mini Collection "Holiday Tea Towels". 

I added some 3M Command Strips to the side of my cutting table to hang my plastic cutting rulers and squares. 

So much better.   

They're off my cutting table but still within reach. 

Happy Sunday Evening to all!

Tonight is another episode of "Downton Abbey" and the start of the third season of "Sherlock".

Great shows to enjoy! 

Happy New Year 2014 ‼️