Visit to the Biltmore - Bottom Floor- post 1

My friend Andrea and I went to Chapel Hill North Carolina and we made a stop at Asheville to visit the Biltmore House.  She had never seen it and I loved seeing it again!  This year they let you take pictures...so I will be doing about 3 or 4 posts over this house!!  There are no words!  They were doing a Romance Showing of Wedding dresses and I will post those pictures in a later!  They are worth it!

Since they were focused on Romance the entry way to the house has a big cake with a rose Chandelier 

I am not sure what it called but I call it the Plant room!!!

As Stitchers, I know you will appreciate all the tapestries.   I found out that they were woven in the 1500's with metal strips going vertical and horizontal so they would not crumble apart!!!!  How cool???

This is the formal dining room...the table can expand to host 60 people!!!!

Breakfast room

Love how they used fabrics on the ceilings:

Music room!

Hallway to the library which had several sitting areas..those weren't as interesting as the tapestries! 

 the Library!!  The room of my dreams!!!

this fireplace is in the room of the tapestries!   I am just too lazy to move it!

This is the first floor of the Biltmore!  these pictures do not do it justice!

Saying Goodbye is so hard

We said goodbye to grandpa Lenard last week.  He passed away on May 19th.  My dad called to let me know on Wednesday that he had taken a turn for the worse and we needed to get to the hospital.   He lived 2 hours away. I left school immediately and headed down to the hospital.  He was moved into ICU and the plan was to move to hospice but it was determined that he would pass before we could make the move.   He was surrounded by his family when he passed.

He was 89 years old and a WWII veteran.  He was very proud of his military service. He was a barber for 40 plus years and even had a shop set up in his garage after he retired.   If you notice in the picture above, he always wore his hat cockide.  He said that is how the important people wear their hats.  

                                  

We had military honors for him at his funeral.  The Navy sent two honor guards to play Taps and fold his flag that draped his coffin.  Military custom is the oldest child gets the flag. I asked my dad what he was going to do with it and he said..do you want it?  I think it would be better to go to the oldest grandchild.  So after the funeral he passed the flag to me. 

I do have stitching updates to show but those will have to be later...I am so glad the month of May is over.  I don't think I could handle any more loss this year.  

Faery Tales Update and a More New Stash!

I am going to try and make myself give weekly updates on my stitching.  This week I worked on Faery Tales.  This was a bad stitching week.  I was so tired that I was only ale to put in 500 stitches. Hopefully this week will be a better stitching week.

So I got the bright idea that I would use the grid in my EC Planner for motivation to work on Faery tales. I thought every time I finished a 10 x 10 grid I would color in the square so I could see how much progress I was making.  The joke was on me....after doing the math (math teacher here) I realized I have so many blocks left, it would take up 1.5 pages of my planner!!!!  I may still do it....It would be nice to color in a grid to show progress....

New Stash!!!!

I have to stay off my Facebook stash sell groups!!!  They are really hurting my wallet!!  Here is what I have ordered in the past 2 months: 

Frosted Pumpkin Story time Sampler

I have become obsessed with Mirabilia designs!  I have just decided I need to collect them!   If you look at the top of my blog I have even made a wishlist of all the ones I want!!!!

Summer and Spring Queens

Christmas Elegance and Rose Arbor

Christmas in London

I just LOVE this one!!!!

Opinions needed:

I am thinking of stitching these ornaments on one piece of fabric in a vertical format.  I haven't decided if I want t leave them in a circle format.  I have thought of adding a square border so they will stack on top of each other....Opinions???

Overdue Stitching update and new stash!!!!

Let me just say this is the school year from HADES and I am not sure it will never end!!!!   I love teaching..I love my kids...it is the crazy adults I could do without!  It seems everyday there is one more thing added to my list and I can feel myself wearing down again.

This week I spent time on my Preening Pixie design...I have finished the detail work on the left side of the mirror and now working on the mirror itself.

UFO Stitching update:  I have 3 HAEDS that are UFO"s. The oldest is Faery tales that was started in 2007,  Winter piece - 2009 and Hot Air Balloon is 2013

Faery tales update!!!   I can't believe I haven't posted this but I finished page 20 of Faery Tales!!!!!  I have exactly 20 pages to go!!!

Close up of page 20

Hot Air Balloon Santa: This quarters HAED Challenge was to stitch an entire page cross country.  Which means you start one color...stitch all of that one color on the page. Once that color is done move to the next color stitch all that color.   I took the challenge head on and I learned one thing..I DO NOT like cross country stitching!!!!  I couldn't handle leaving all the spaces...I wanted to fill them in!!!  But I finished the 2nd page on my Hot Air Balloon Santa

A Wintery Heirloom:  This is supposed to be my Friday night stitching piece but I have been very bad these past few Fridays  I wanted to finish my challenge piece and I was just loving my Tinkerbell piece that I have avoided it!!!!  

As you cans see...I don't have much stitched on it.  The trees are coming in nicely.  Trees are the reason this piece became a UFO.  They cause so much confetti stitching that it drives me a little nuts

My mom and I went to Little Rock this weekend to see Disney on Ice- Frozen.  We had a wonderful time!!   We stopped off at Stitchers Garden in Conway for me to play in a cross stitch store.  I had way too much fun!!!

I bought myself 3 Mirabillas, fabric for one and a Lavender and Lace.  They had the fabric for the Lavender and Lace in stock however I really did not like it!!!!!  It was just too much!!!!    The chart is called Evangeline and it is for the Katrina Victims.  

Not to make you jealous but I did get this Passione Ricamo Christmas design for 1/2 of 1/2!!!!!

I found some fabric on Picture this Plus that I think will work  better....  This is called Haunted.  I think it is would pop.  The decision is to I get it with sparkles or without?????   

 I just LOVE these two designs....the one on the Right is titled Elizabeth and for some reason she just speaks to me!  I love it!

I found this one - Ella- Princess and the Frog design which drew my eye.  I looked in the fabric section and found this Picture this Plus Joblean - called Baroque fabric.   I thought...hmmm...pulled up the pattern viewer to see what it looked like....

This is what it showed:

I just knew this had to be my fabric!!!!!! Doesn't it just pop!!!!!  

I have a lot more new stash......I have been very, very bad these past two months.  I have been stress shopping!  I admit it...Work has been so crazy that  I have shopped.  Here is a few of my new charts

There are  alot more that I have bought...but I will save those for another post...

Nenidesigns  from Etsy had a huge sale.  Buy 10 charts for $10.  I am not sure how you feel about Etsy charts but I like them.  I probably will never stitch them but they make me happy...

Crossing the Rainbow Bridge

Tusk Hartwell

2005-2016

Mark and I had to make a very hard decision this week concerning our oldest dog, Tusk.  Tusk is eleven in this picture and I have considered him a old soul since he was a puppy.   Tusk has been going downhill for the past 6 months.  He had stopped eating as much and was having a hard time getting around.   He just couldn't find a comfortable spot no matter which way he lay.  

Mark and I had a long talk and we decided it was time to talk to the vet about his quality of life.  We met with Dr. Parker on Friday and after listening to all our concerns, he agreed that we were making the right choice for Tusk.  He has been Tusk's vet since his first vet visit.  

Mark and I were with him until the end.  He died peacefully with his head on my lap.  I won't lie, I held him and cried like a baby.  It was the hardest thing I had to do but I know deep down in my heart that it was the best thing for him.  I know that he is in a better place where he can run and play without constant pain.

Our house is so quite now without all his groaning, growling and click clacking on the hardwood floors.  We never could get his nails short enough because he refused to let them get a good angle to cut them.  Everytime they tried to make him lay down or do something he didn't like, he pooped on them!  Crazy dog!!!  

Below is some of our pictures with him....