Sunday Sharing with positive thoughts and a Finish!!

Good Morning/Afternoon! 

I've been up early this morning, awakening to another idea of expanding on one of the "Sunday Morning" designs of mine into a band sampler and worked on it for about 2 hours. I love creating and using colors. I will share later on this expansion.

 Last night late, I finished Bent Creek's Land of Liberty  gifted to me by Karyn, Ma Teakettle, and as fickle as I can be, at midnight it was hard to decide whether to frame, or make into a hanging, or a pillow, or whatever......BUT here it is finished before the "finishing" which I will make a goal to do today.

And here is the fabric I got on a Boston trip last year.

I sold many cuts of fabric in my selling blog from this trip but held on to this piece and now I know why!!!

I plan to make a hanging for my kitchen.

And here is the small bird bath from Target, a place I could get lost in for hours. ;p

It's in the Smith and Hawkins section for the outdoorsy things.

I love this blue and the birds.

The base of it.

I still have to find a special spot outside for it.

Welcome newcomers! I absolutely love reading your comments!! I love give-a-ways mainly to share love around the world in some way and also to meet new people who share the passion of needlework!

Sunday is a day for reflections. I have recently started yoga and meditation. Alot of meditation, which if practiced is really helpful for stress reduction and making life a little more simplified.  Even when you close your eyes and go to that place in your mind that is the perfect spot, whether it be the beach, or the mountains (for me), hugging your kids (for me too), or whatever, at first many thoughts zoom through and at first can be a little distracting but soon I found that in doing this, the zooming thoughts of "things to do", etc. get less as I trained my mind to be still for just 10-15 minutes. It's really not a hokey thing to do! ;)

I am finishing a book that I wanted to share because it was so incredibly good. I spent longer reading it, in little bits and pieces, to savor each passage.

I have always known that stress is the root of most of our physical ailments and even though I try hard to use stress management techniques, there are days that my body lets me know it's too stressed.
This book, which I read in the Kindle edition, (my Gracie), is very uplifting. I happened upon it on Amazon and loaded it up. It's about 360 pages of very insightful messages.

The author is Joseph Murray, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.

Some important concepts from this book:

1. Your subconscious mind never grows old. It's timeless, ageless, and endless.
2. How to stay young in spirit forever--continue to think on good attributes for the mind and body
3. If you fear aging or fight aging, you are in essence accelerating the process.
4. Whatever you believe, and expect, your subconsious mind will bring to pass. Be careful what you think.
5. Even though looking only forward to the future is desirable, it's also healthy to practice mindful meditation of positive thoughts in order to overcome the blueprint into the subconscious mind from the past. For some the blueprint is very imprinted with negative thoughts. This book helps to replace the old blueprint of subconsious negative thoughts with postive, peaceful ones that  the body remembers.
6. The mind-body connection is real.
7. Life is self-renewing
8. Peace, love, joy, beauty, happiness, wisdom, good will, and understanding are qualities which never grow old or die.

One of my favorite quotes from this book (and there are many to read and reread) is:

The mind is the master weaver, the architect, the designer, and the sculptor.

I hope this Sunday is a good day of reflection as it is for me and remember

 As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23.7.

Best get to the roast chicken in the oven for dinner. I can smell the herbs and the chicken getting aquainted with each other in the oven.....YUM!

Till later,
Jennifer

Let's start over......

ok, yesterday was such a downer I simply hit the delete button on that post and it felt good! That's one thing about delete buttons......and a woman's mind put together. It's a beautiful thing.

Back to a few sights around the house. I finally hung the This Too sampler on the downstairs wall between our chairs. It's a good spot for it ......

please excuse the new "incandescent" light bulbs. This is the only pic I got to not look like the ball of the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella, it looks weird in pictures.  LOL

Let's just leave the light out........

I need to work on finishing the 2nd sampler of The Scarlett Letter one (which is one over one) and  then have the pair together, but until that time, this is it.

things got better when my fellow hung his hat here right by the reminder of the simpler things in life being the most important

 and

a foot rub with this wonderful lotion!

which started me finally finding this pack of buttons I knew I had from the trip.....somewhere,

from the button store. I felt like I was a kid in a candy store. A kid opening a new pack of Crayola crayons.

and didn't get to this tonight.........but hope to work on it some until my insomnia abates tonight.

That may be a while too because while I was writing this, I heard a big BIG gunshot outside.

Our dogs were viciously chasing a bear off the down the street, neighbor's porch after BG walked down there. The neighbor shot in the air to scare off the bear and they told us this is day 2 they have seen him/her......on their porch.

And this is the primary reason, well, besides snakes in the summer, that my hiney stays in the house after dark!!!!! 

Our last day and home sweet home!

Before we left Boston, and after the conference ended BG and I headed over to the Summer Shack. It was a cool place that we had popped into one evening for a cup of chowder and yum it was!

We planned our last meal to go back and eat lobster. This was the first time (OK, don't laugh) that BG and I ever ate lobster. It's just always been too pricey but we splurged and the waiter was neat by helping us figure out how to crack it open and use the bucket. It was eaten in a very short time, dipped in hot butter with corn, corn bread and rolls.

Great lunch!

I had been taking cold medicine all day and it seemed to get worse as the day went on.

 I wanted to show you this in case you ever go through Logan International Airport.

I caught the glimpse of this right after we got through security.

A quilt with blocks of cross stitch, specialty stitching squares and regular quilting squares all for the 9-11 memorial. What a beauty! If my head wasn't throbbing so much, I should have taken more attention to the history written on the left but we were in a hurry.

Wouldn't that be awesome to have a piece of your stitching at the airport?

This square, my favorite.

By the time, I got to Atlanta airport I was sicker than sick and had to get some more medicine at the airport even just to go to baggage claim. My head felt like it was going to explode and then nausea and fever set in so I'm finally home and praying this bug goes away tomorrow with rest.

Abbie and Ren will be home first thing in the morning. I hope they had a good time at the pet sitter and don't pout too much when they get here!  LOL

They will each get a junior cheeseburger if they are good little furbabies on the way home.

I got a great start on LHN, Always and Forever and will post tomorrow. Unfortunately, this was the first time I got lipstick on my fabric AFTER I had already put many stitches in, so a button will have to be improvised at that stain. Evidently a lip pencil top came off in my purse which was huge and for such a small bit it smeared on everything, my phone, my wallet, everything.

I reached to get my phone and check the time while I was stitching and there it popped on my fabric. I almost had a coronary right there but the button idea sounds good. A heart button.

I definitely will not be frogging all that out. And the more I tried to rub it off the bigger it got, so as they say make lemons out of lemonade. I'm stitching with overdyed silk so it's not an option to wash it.

I have a laundry list of many more to stitch so I best get this finished.

Tomorrow I also want to frame This Too Shall Pass and make the pillow of a Sweet View.

We enjoyed the week. It went by in a flash to me and Monday morning will come oh so soon enough.

Tomorrow is unpack, clean up a bit and probably rest alot so that I can work on Monday and get over this viral/flu like feeling.

Every bone in my body aches right now so I'm turning in........

nite.

Jennifer

Our date night

Another fun-filled day!  Today, I actually woke with a sore throat and ear ache, I think from the wind up here. The weather was beautiful till today with a cold front moving in and actually a little light snow flurry a bit north of us.  Here is my finished sampler A Sweet View by The Sampler Girl!  

I couldn't have described Boston any better myself. 

Here is another sweet view......my hubbie went shopping and came back today with this hat to go with his new pipe!  Is that pipe long enough or what?   LOL

He looked quite European with his hat there.

The Lobby is full of beautiful tulips

By 5pm we were heading out on the town.....a rainy cold night on a trolley tour.

Hayyyyyyy  in my Southern voice here......

During the ride they left us off at Cheers for a quick drink and food.

Where nobody knows your naaaaaaaaaaamme...........

We had lots of fun!  I forgot my sore throat and earache.

We actually met another couple from the area and caught up a great conversation about the New England area vs. the Georgia area of the US. 

I'm definitely not a beer drinker but they introduced me to a small taste of Samuel Adams Summer....something......it was  a sweet tasting beer.  Quite tasty with our wings and chips!

Note to self:  Don't drink a beer and hop back on a trolley car........

although here is BodyGuard waiting on me at the lobby.

Evidently it made me hit the women's restroom quite frequently....LOL

And I had to pack all my shopping tonight and it actually fit. I couldn't resist this pair of shoes from Ann Taylor. Oh how I love shoes.  A trip is not a trip without bringing home a pair of shoes from the big city!!!!!

We are very tired and heading for another night of rest. Tomorrow may be a challenge at the airport as their are delays up here from the International flights being all cancelled in Europe due to the volcano today.

I caught a little bit of the CNN news and it looks to be a mess for travelers over there. Even the military is having to fly wounded soldiers here instead of Germany.

The Red Sox played tonight and got rained out. We saw the field and the trolley tour guide said a ticket is 400-750 a piece.  WOW!

Needless to say, I will never attend a Red Sox game.

The hotel is quite busy tonight due to the weather and the game I guess, plus being a Friday night.

See ya soon back in Georgia!!!!

Jennifer

Day 4-Boston and more

Yep,Dunkin Donuts ......again

there were 6 doughnuts......oops

While in conference, BG toured the city and had it all mapped out. He even said today he went to the south side and felt like he was back in Chicago southside.......why did he do that?  He lives on the edge!  LOL

I did get to finish this one above and packed it away and today during conference while listening to the various updates on pelvic pain and female issues almost finished A Sweet View (somehow that didn't sound right in the same sentence.......but anyway)

I will post a pic later when completely finished. I love it!

Yesterday, pics of the city.....

not a cloud in the sky

mall shopping too convenient in walking distance.  Boy, did I do too much shopping!

Tonight, guess what we grabbed for dinner.......CHOWDA!  GREAT chowder so we are definitely getting our Omega 3's this week, seafood at least once a day.

I'm pooped out again, was up at 7am and will have to get back up at 7am for another full day of ......gynecology issues. I won' t discuss all the details of such but if you are a woman you can imagine, menopausal issues, and .....well....I better not tell.

LOL

Things I noticed here are:

I'm slow from the South. People here are in a big hurry!

Today I .... ate lunch at a bakery that had the best sandwich I've ever eaten....Turkey and Cranberries on Pumpernickle bread with a large fresh chocolate chip cookie.

I discovered the heaven of Teavana!  OMG!  I had a peach relaxing hot tea brewed fresh to take back to conference. I got a ceramic mug with a ceramic holder for dried tea leaves and a cannister of Lavender white tea with roses.........WONDERFUL!!!!  for the mind and body.

I also, with many others, have noticed an incredible amount of static in the air, so much that you shock your hand every time you touch metal after going down the hall. Well this morning, BG kissed me at the elevator and we literally popped the heck out of each other's lips and OH IT HURT!

We laughed so hard our sides hurt. Maybe it's a chemistry thing.

I worked on and almost finished A Sweet View and will always remember I stitched it in Boston.

I plan to begin stitching tomorrow, Always and Forever by Little House Needleworks.

I have  so many shopping bags I can't figure how this will all get back in our luggage. :o

I'm reminded of city water smell and taste....YUCK!

It turned cold up here tonight, windy and feels like 30 outside.

I can't believe tomorrow is Friday!!!!

I've definitely made up any missed sleep, food, etc. for the past year, this week. I feel alive again.

Till later,

Jennifer