I almost forgot the dogs

I've posted photos of embroidered blue birds and I've posted embroidered kittens. I almost forgot to post photos of all the cute puppy dogs. Among the dogs, I think my favorite designs are usually the Scottie Dogs. There's just something about the rich black floss against snow white linen, and there's usually a little bit of red in there, too. But there are all kinds of doggy designs that are just so cute.


Just look at this sweet little doggy talking with the blue bird in the arbor.

There is so much detail on this runner: the sky in the background, the bell shaped flowers and even the arbor itself.

This Scottie is very simple, but so very cute. It is embroidered using teeny stitches on a white linen card table topper.

This runner had a different dog design on each end. One end had a long haired pointer...

And a little black terrier puppy on the other. Isn't he so adorable

These little darlings are so happy to help with laundry on wash day.

Some puppies are even embroidered on to baby blankets. This is an old Vogart design. She's got the cutest expression on her little face as she pushes her baby doll in a stroller.

I sold this adorable pair of pillowcases to a lady who's daughter was marrying a firefighter. Notice the fire hydrants in the background? How cute is that?!

And so romantic, too!

This card table tablecloth had a little chunk torn off of the side, but, Oh my! the design is so cute! I love the Scotties!

Hope you enjoyed my doggy episode. I'm looking for photos of horses and other animals. Flower designs are fun, but I enjoy embroidery of people and animals so much more.

Patricia :o)

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

I've been trying to think of something new and wonderful to post about, but the truth is that I live a very ordinary though busy life. The only thing that's been on my mind lately has been linens so I will show you some more photos of vintage embroidered items. Last time it was sweet little blue birds. This time it's all about the kitty cats.

The cross stitched kitty above was embroidered on a pillowcase. It's a newer design and not vintage at all, but I loved it anyway, especially because it says "perfect friends" just above her.

The design of two kitties in the basket below is very old. They are hand embroidered on a runner. It's nothing fancy but oh so cute.

I love the expression on this kitty playing with the butterfly! So Sweet and happy!

It's hand embroidered on a simple but pretty pillowcase.

I can't have cats in our home because my hubby is allergic so I enjoy them in embroidered pieces.

I'm always talking about embroidery, but just look at the beautiful hand embroidered lace trim that goes all the way around the runner.

The kitty in the basket below is an old, old design. The stitches are so tiny that the embroidery work looks like it's been drawn on instead of needle work.

My favorite linens to collect are pillowcases, runners and dish towels. I try to use them in "real life" when ever I can. It's funny when people come over and are so surprised to see that I really do use them.

Dish towels add such a touch of charm and whimsy to my kitchen. And they're so easy to care for, too. I love the colors on this sweet kitty dish towel.

Hopefully I'll be selling linens again on eBay some time soon. I still have several baskets to go through and prepare, but I just keep on procrastinating. Oh well, some day I'll get to it....

Blessings,

Patricia :o)

Government Canyon State Park

I've been trying to loose weight by dieting for the last seven weeks and haven't lost a single pound. I truly have been eating right and very healthy, but the pounds won't budge. So, a couple of weeks ago, Floyd and I decided to start hiking. We're lucky enough to have a little state park just a few minutes from our house. It's really hot here in San Antonio (over 100 degrees for the last 30 days), so we thought we'd visit the park near sunset. The photo above was taken just as we drove out of our neighborhood.


This park is only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 7:00am to 10:00 pm. It's been closed since 2005 due to a flood and only just opened this June. We bought a state pass last year, so we get to come and go as we please. It's so nice to be able to do that!
Anyway, when we got there, we saw this sign with a picture of a guy hiking on the trail.

It's so funny because it looks just like Floyd from the back. The picture above is from the sign, the picture below is Floyd! I knew he was cute, but he never told me he was a model!!

I was so surprised to see how beautiful this place is. This is one of the easier trails (perfect for me) and is almost like a tunnel because the trees grow over the path. It was warm, but not really as bad as I thought it would be. There was a slight breeze that ran through the trees which made it very nice. Plus, the sun didn't really shine down on us since it was close to sunset. Perfect hike! We done several since we found this park, and so far they're all beautiful. Some, of course, are tougher than others, but all have been very do-able for us.

The whole time we're walking along the path, I'm trying not to think about rattle snakes. This little guy was laying across the path as we came along. He was very beautiful and not scary at all.

Just look at this gorgeous old oak tree! It split right down the middle many years ago and died, but has never lost its beauty. You can't tell by the picture that it's huge, but it is!

This is one of those places that will be very fun to visit at different times of the year. Because there are a lot of trails, and we have the changing seasons, there will always be something beautiful to see here.

Blessings,

Patricia :o)

Tranquil Pond

I mentioned in my last post that we just put in a pond. This is something we've always wanted to do, but never had the space for in California. I wish we could have had a professional install it, but that was WAY out of the budge (by thousands of dollars!) So we decided to try it ourselves.

Here are Floyd (my hubby) and Cody (one of my doggies) outlining the shape, size and location of the pond. The ground here in my part of Texas is mostly rocks and rock slabs. So we decided to build the pond up rather than digging down.

We built a rock "retaining" wall up using stones we found, bought and dug up from the ground. Filled in the sides with purchased dirt, and laid the liner.

After we laid the liner, skimmer and water fall, we got a truck load of more rocks! It's amazing to me that with all the rocks around us, we had to buy more.

The preparation for the pond took many week-ends, but we built the liner, rocks and put in the water in one weekend. After about a week, we added plants and fish.

Finally finished! It was waaaaay hard to do. It was so labor intensive that I was only happy that we were done. I wasn't happy with the pond at all! However, that quickly changed now that the memory of the hard work is getting farther and farther away.

I've only had the pond for a short time, but we've already had so many stories revolving around it. I sit at the edge almost every day after my morning walk and do nothing except for feed the fish, watch the birds and spend quiet time with God.

Lots of easy to care for plants line the edges between the pond and the retaining wall.
Planted inside the pond and along the water's edge are calla lilies, miniature cat-tails and water lilies.

This is the back view of the rock wall on the path side. It's dry stacked and amazingly stable and strong with the dirt holding everything in place.

I almost forgot to include a photo of my fishies! We bought 14 little gold fish and two little koi thinking that most of them would not survive the "new" water. Not only did they all live, but they're growing fast! The two white ones are the koi that are named Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb.

I hope you enjoyed my pond-building adventure. There's still so much to tell you about our little bird, frog and snake friends who come around for a visit. But that will wait until later.

Blessings!

Patricia :o)

Creatures big and small

Since I've moved to Texas, I've been lucky enough to have much more wildlife visit my back yard. I didn't get pictures of the raccoon and the little grey fox that visit me at night, but here are some other guests that come by.This pretty butterfly actually fought with a hummingbird to get the privilege of a yummy sip of nectar. I've never seen a hummingbird and butterfly "duke" it out before.

I don't mind sharing the bird food with this little guy. He's such a hoot to watch. The only problem is when one of my dogs notice him, there's no peace from either of them. She doesn't stop barking at him, and he sits high up in the treat chattering back at her.

This beautiful creature is an orb spider. This one isn't so big, but the very first one of her species that I saw was as long as my hand! It gave me the heebee jeebies at first because not only is it a big spider, but the web is really sticky. It's not "dangerous" to humans but it can leave a painful, baseball sized welt if it gets you. Thankfully I'm not speaking from experience; just what I've read.

My son left his shoes out on the back porch and found a little visitor inspecting a possible new home. Glad we informed him in time that shoes probably wouldn't work for him.

We have these cute little anole lizards all over the place. Sometimes they're bright green and display a pinkish/red throat pouch. I love having them around.

This is a Greater Roadrunner and runs through our yard on an almost daily basis. I didn't think he'd come back after we put up our perimeter fence, but he just jump/flies over it with no problem. The dogs don't bother him at all and he'll come to the bird bath in the afternoons for a nice cool drink.

I almost forgot to show you our very first INSIDE visitor. This guy was about 1 1/2" long and I found him on my office wall! It was about a week after we moved in to our brand new house. They told us we might find an occasional scorpion in the house, but I sure wasn't expecting it that soon! I know we should have just let him outside, but my hubby got him with tongs and flushed him! Since then, we've found a teeny one on the master bedroom floor (I never ever step on anything that looks like lint on the floor because it might be a scorpion or spider) and a bigger one in the garage crawling above the door the leads to the house. Who wants to move to Texas with me?