February 22, 2026 A. D.

 I finished stitching my patritoic stitch. 

The pattern was purchased on Etsy. It is called "Let Freedom Ring" by Needle Treasures Nook. I plan to make it into a pillow but have procrastinated a bit on that. After all, I have until end of May, right?

I want to add something else to commemorate America's 250th birthday. I have several patriotic small pieces and love them all. I usually put them out around the house the week of Memorial Day and leave up until the second week of July which just so happens to coincide with the home show for the Blue Angels in Pensacola. We haven't been in the last couple years, but we may try to fit in it this summer. It has always been one of my favorite summertime activities. 

My conundrum on what to stitch for the America 250 has been - do I stitch some more smalls and make a little basket or something to display (at which I am horrible at doing that display thingie) or do I stitch a sampler type thing???  Now, here is my thinking. I love a ton of the samplers that I have seen and really really like, BUT would I actually hang that in my house or on the sampler wall in Auburn? I am on the fence and haven't preordered. All of these new patterns are coming out the first week of March. All that thinking on the patterns I have seen come out are being filtered through that lens. 

In the meantime, I did pull out 2 stitches that I had started or wanted to get done this calendar year. You may remember I stitched the 2 bells and messed one of them up while trying to finish it into the bell. I am going to try and finish up the second one because I originally had a plan for them.

FYI, I think this linen they are stitched on is gorgeous, but I loathe it. I will stitch this and pass the extra on to someone with much better eyes than me. The holes are just so hard to see,.

***

I had a rough week last week!!!

Without the details, sometimes life can just catch up with you. When you leave no margin for an area such as time for your brain to handle all the incoming, you can get very overwhelmed. I am an only child which means I like alone time. I am also one when too much comes in too quickly or things get too disordered, then I can get disordered:)

That was the case last week. A series of events just piled on in a short period of time. The final day's events on Wednesday that brought tears to my eyes was as Lindsay said, "A series of unfortunate events." She was drawing from an old series of books from elementary school but nevertheless such an adequate description.

I saw this quote today in our Starting Point book which Jeff and I are leading at our church at the moment.

"I am a most noteworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy, and they have covered me completely. I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His marvelous Presence."

---Christopher Columbus

It brought me back to what has become my favorite verse and promise of God in the past few years.

Let us therefore, draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need."

---Hebrews 4:16

Today, I am trying to give myself that margin. Nothing on the agenda and praying it stays that way.

To lighten things I am going to share 3 scans of me...

The first is at my cousin's wedding. Remember when weddings were such a wonderful small event with friends and family at the church and the reception there too? I picked this one because I was having a great hair day!!!

This next one is an example of the many wonderful clothes Mama made for me. This was me at about 15 for a holiday dance. Blue velveteen.

This was me in the summer before college. I bet those of you 65 remember that belt. It could change the belts and then clipped together.

Digitizing photographs will be a long on-going process but no rush anymore. I was working to get them done for Mama's birthday next month. I bought her a digital frame which said it was good for seniors. I thought she would like to look back at the old ones. I will probably take a rainy day or too hot day to do more or just whenever to continue digitizing the family photos. I actually love how they look on the screen, even the oldest ones look so sharp. 

I bought a rather cheap scanner from Amazon, but it turned out to be very good. You can put a whole page from an album on it and if the pictures are not too close it will scan and separate them making it very efficient. 

I have booked our summer vacation to Cape San Blas for the family and looking forward to long sunny and warm days. Ole Mr. Winter decided to burst my bubble today. He is blowing as hard as he can with a cold wind. He is telling me he is still not done. Boo...

That is all for now. I am certain I will have my stitching plans in place by next month.

Until March and spring,

Sandy

February 5, 2026

 I have not been in a writing mood, but I have accumulated enough information to put together a post. I finished the sandpiper stitch yesterday. I am taking it to the frame shop tomorrow.

It is larger than the one I stitched for myself last year about this same time. The new one to be framed is on 28 count and the plain linen you buy in the craft shops. The one below is the one that hangs in my guest bathroom and is stitched on 32 count linen. I can't remember the name of the color that it was dyed. I think when I get the above one matted and framed it will be lovely too.

Here it is in my bathroom. I love it! As I said in an earlier post, I love stitching all of the birds in the Crossed Wing Collection.

Speaking of birds....

Jeff gave me a coffee table book for Christmas, called Birds of Florida by Zach Jones.

I will admit to just kind of sitting it aside thinking it was just another bird book. When I finally picked it up almost 3 weeks post Christmas, I was completely blown away. I should have known if Jeff gave it to me as a present that it was going to be special. That man is absolutely the best gift giver on the planet. He knows me so well and has truly blessed me so many times.

The above picture is one I picked to show you because I pass this location at least once a week on the island. It is an old electrical pole left because it is home to a pair of ospreys that return each year to have their babies. How do we know it is the same pair? Well, the book does a wonderful job of explaining how their eyes are like a human fingerprint. They have dots in the yellow glowing iris that can be in different locations. 

The book has the most amazing pictures of all my favorite birds of Florida. I would only add the cardinal and the mockingbird, but most of his pictures are the water birds.

The clincher though was this photographer is a wordsmith too. His descriptions are literally amazing. I would only change the font. Font is important to easy reading. Take it from the old school teacher here.

He even has this cutie. I honestly can never get enough of these guys when I walk on the beach. They entertain me so well.

This would make a wonderful gift for your Florida bird lover.

What I have been up to this cold winter?

In an effort not to dread the days, I made me a list of projects especially for the early dark nights to keep me awake. Since, I don't have that much to declutter as in past years. (I still have much too much stuff, but I am not ready to part with those things, just yet.) You may remember that I already knocked one of those projects off my list with getting our ancestry books done. They are very nice and I am proud to have them completed. Of course, projects always lead to new ideas. In doing those books, I realized how in both sides of the family a church history had been an important piece of family history. 

I have not mentioned it on the blog and never felt a need to share here, but Jeff and I stepped out in 2007 with 3 other couples and planted a church here in our town. It was life changing. It was hard work, but such a wonderful thing that has brought many blessings to this community. I sat down the month of January and wrote the story of its history. You know you added something worth while to the ancestry book when both kids stopped what they were doing and actually read it through and said thank you.

My latest project has been digitizing photos. I sent off our home videos over the course of 2 years a little at a time looking for sales on Legacy Box. 

I decided to try my hand at the enormous amount of photographs at our home. Outrageous numbers. My mom was a picture taker for her whole family. I have tried to send many of those to the respective relatives.

I have two very large albums of me from birth to high school graduation. I have gotten 1 of those done. Whew!!!!

That red checked tablecloth still comes out on occasion.

I can be a little Type A when it comes to getting things done once I start. I am forcing a little break this week before I start on album #2, but I would like to have them done by the time change.

I am hoping to maybe give my mom a digital frame to view these and current ones for her birthday next month.

All of this has helped me be productive this winter.

I am going to refrain from complaining about the weather because any long time reader of this blog knows I am a full on SUMMER girl. My goodness...the thought of NO electricity in below freezing weather put me in my place!

Oh photos again... I still love this hallway so much.

No matter how old your children get you still love seeing their younger pictures.

On the agenda for this weekend and next week is getting outside. I am going to be cutting back my bottlebrush shrubs. I didn't do it last year because I was trying to make sure they survived the 100 year snow event. They have and are getting a wee bit too tall, so they are getting cut back. It is also time to prune roses. In our zone, they need to be done by Valentine's Day. Can we believe it is almost Valentine's Day? I realized I could use a little Valentine's decor. Probably will look at the clearance when I go out to get my stitch dropped off at Hobby Lobby. The grandchildren notice Mimi's seasonal things.

That's a wrap.

Dreaming of spring for now,

Sandy