Wonderful stitching gifts received

Well here I am trying desperately to get packed and the house cleaned. Tomorrow I leave for my sister's in Ohio. She is having a knee replacement and I am heading up there to help her out.

I wanted to make sure that I posted everything to bring myself up to date. Some of my little gifts have been with me for several months and I apologize for being so late getting them posted.

I received this lovely homemade card, beaded thread counter, plastic storage box and darling little voile bag from Jill (now I do not know how to make her name so that you could see her blog, but she has posted to my comment sections and I encourage you to visit her blog she is a very talented lady) Jill had a PIF (pass it forward) that I signed up for and my name was pulled.So with any luck - when I get to my sister's - hopefully I will have internet!!! I will then have my own PIF and it will be a big one since I ended up winning another PIF from another great stitching gal.

Below is a close up of the beaded thread counter, isn't the Mother of Pearl piece beautiful! Thank you Jill I love what you put together and this little needle counter.Below is a birthday gift (I know! I know! my birthday was in December!!)now I cannot remember if I had shared this with you all - this is from Clare in England. There are 2 little candies, a keychain with my initial, Carrie Threads, little pens, a bottle of beads, a phone fob/or scissor fob!!;o)) a lovely voile bag and a beautifully stitched needlebook.

Here is the inside of the needlebookThis is the stitched outside - Thank You Clare for putting together this lovely package - I truly love everything. (again not good at getting this link thing)Below is a giveaway from Barbara in The Netherlands. Just love the chart from the Sampler Girl and the threads, but look at how cute the hanging pillow is!! there is a little kitty there - so cute!!
A close up - can you now see the little bird on the roof!!I just love the backing fabric - Thank you Barbara for such a darling little pillow and for the chart and threads!Now this is a huge apology to a very special gal - Heidi!! She made this lovely stocking for me for our Secret Santa exchange back in December and somehow I never posted it!!! This is so lovely and so well done, I just feel badly that I didn't get it posted.

Thank you Heidi for making this for me, I will treasure it.
Now I will leave you with these final pictures. The other day I showed you what my yard was starting to look like and I had a few cherry blossoms at that time. Well!!! You can see in just 3 days what a change the cherry blossom trees have undergone. The whole city is a bloom with Bradford Pears and Cherry Blossoms and today is the start of the Cherry Blossom Festival - it is also the first day of SPRING!! Everything here is Pink -----including the paper today - the entire paper is printed on pink paper.
Thank you for stopping by ----- Roberta

Springtime in the garden

Thought I would wander outside today with the camera to share the beauty that is starting in my yard.

This is the Weeping Willow that we received as a housewarming gift from our realtor and we had it moved to the back yard a few weeks ago.
For Terry's and my 30th anniversary we planted a Blood Red Japanese Maple.
Below are some shots of the creek that runs behind our house - the 1st picture is where 2 creeks come together.
This is a view from the back of the house looking to the left.
Another view of where the waters meet.
This is looking to the right from our backyard.
Once the summer comes you cannot see the creeks or even walk back to them for all of the foliage and plants.

Below is the cherry trees budding and blossoming - Macon will begin its annual Cherry Blossom Festival this weekend.Here are some of my pansy's in the front yard.The Camilla bushes have been in bloom all through February and are still blooming.

Here is the Dogwood tree down near the creek.The front door with spring flowers and sprigs of silk Cherry Blossoms. Almost everyone decorates their door or mailboxes with pink bows and Cherry Blossom sprigs.

Have been out of town and crazy busy

This is just a quick HELLO to let you all know that I am still here in blogger land. Just returned from a trip to Florida with DH, Terry, and now need to get ready to head to my sister's in Ohio.

During the month of February I worked 2 days a week at the LNS while the owner went to 'market', went on a trip with her husband and then off she went to stitching seminar. I also have been looking for a job (not going well in these tough times!!), have applied for a job and I do have an interview on Monday, but they had 50 applications and I haven't worked in over 20 years - but have volunteered lots!! I did pass the phone interview, hence, the face to face on Monday. Will give more info Monday.

Of course, the weather has been warm then cold, warm than, cold --- so I am trying to get out into the yard as much as possible. Needless to say, my computer has been ignored!! I was slowly catching up with messages and I am almost caught up.

I have several pictures and things to say before I head to my sisters - so I am hoping to get them on this blog before I go.

Now, why you ask, are you going to your sister??? She is having 'knee replacement' surgery on the 25 of March. I am going up there on the 21st of March and will return on the 19th of April. I am taking my laptop and I am hoping that I can log on to her wireless network - of course she and I are as computer literate as fish on a beach!!!! I am hoping that my nephew will be able to talk me onto the network from college!!! If so then I will be able to blog and read my messages.

Sorry that there is no pictures, but did want to say HI to you all and let you know that I will be posting some stitching and gardening pictures hopefully all this week.

Again I really love that you all do drop in to visit - THANK YOU!!! Roberta

Last Week was our 30th Anniversary

Just a quick hello on my blog, I am a bit behind in my blog reading, and my e-mail messages.

Last Tuesday the 24th of February was DH Terry's and my 30th anniversary. We had a dinner at the Outback restaurant with DD Lindsay. But on Friday night I made, dinner in celebration. We decided not to go out since we will be heading back down to Florida in a week and will be eating at some really nice places in Palm Beach.

So for dinner, I made prime rib, with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes (Tyler Florence's recipe) and roasted asparagus. There was also buttermilk biscuits (Mary B's from the freezer case) - I couldn't make these biscuits as good as these are!!!

Below is a photo of the flowers that Terry gave me - I am also getting red Japanese Maple for my yard.
I am thinking that I might try to dry them when they are finished looking pretty.
Have a great week - and thanks for visiting -----Roberta

Snow Alert, Snow Alert!!!

March definitely came in like a lion!! Yesterday it rained most of the day and started up again at night. Well, today the rain turned into snow. It came down soft and fluffy.
And it was so very pretty.Now as the afternoon progressed the snow really started to accumulate.
As you can see - the snow is melting as it hits the concrete, but it is really sticking to the grass and trees.
This is so beautiful.
Here is DD Lindsay, introducing her little kitty - Natsuki - to snow. I am thinking that Natsuki is not real happy!!
Thanks for stopping by --- Roberta