A Bit of Enjoyment

 

I am happy to say that today I completed three weeks of classes. Now it's time to relax a bit before I start getting ready for the new school year. After school begins I'll have one more class to take, and then I'll be done with this master's program. It's taken me a long time to get close to reaching this goal, so it does feel good.

Awhile ago someone asked me how I made the banner for the top of this blog. I'm sure there are far easier ways to make a banner, but here's what I did. Through the Picasa program we downloaded for our computer, I made a collage of various stitching photos. I love making collages on Picasa, in fact. I then saved the collage into my main Microsoft Photo program. While using that program I cropped it to make it fit in a better way, and I added the caption. It was fun to do, and easy! I am not adept at doing tasks on the computer, but this way worked for me.

So it's off now to get some stiching done. Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you get a chance to relax a bit too.

 

Almost Done!

Ah, relief. Tomorrow is my last class this summer. It has been a long three weeks, that's for sure. I haven't stitched a bit, but I hope to get to it soon.

Awhile back I saw one of my stitching friend's pieces, and I really liked it. It was not something I probably would have wanted to stitch if I just saw the leaflet, but in person the colors were absolutely beautiful. Here it is:

 

I ordered the leaflet from an online store, and it's awaiting me in my very large stash supply box.

Recently I celebrated what some would call a milestone sort of birthday. I really only mention it as I want to show you one of the wonderful gifts I received. My husband and daughter collaborated secretly and somehow managed to get this watercolor painting of our dog done. It's great how getting a portrait like this works. They sent Eddie's photo to the gentleman via email, and he painted him in watercolors and had it shipped to our daughter's home within days.
This wonderful artist sells them through Etsy, and his name is Ron Krajewski. Check out his stuff! Here's a link to his website: Ron Krajewski

Eddie's Portrait:



Another view of Eddie, along with the photograph that inspired the watercolor:



Just click on them for a better view of the work.

Thanks for stopping by today, and have a great day.

Country Skies

We recently returned from a trip to my husband's home state. While we were there, I did just a tiny bit of stitching. Here's the latest photo of my wee bit of progress:



And a close-up of the canoe:


I moved the canoe from a different part of the original chart since my husband did a lot of canoeing in that part of Minnesota when he was a teenager. I am enjoying working on this relatively simple project after some of the other ones I've stitched.

Tomorrow I'm starting three weeks of classes. I'm looking forward to getting this coursework completed! I hope to find time to stitch in the evening, but we'll have to wait and see.

I wanted to share some photos of our recent trip. It was a beautiful, relaxing time.

We took these photos after we left the city airport and headed towards our rural destination:




When you live in an urban area as I do, you simply can't believe the beauty you see in the midwest's open skies. The folks who live there seem rather amused at our ever present camera, but we truly marvel at the beauty we see there and we try to capture it on film.

A few more from our trip:






Finally, a photo my husband took of an old abandoned farmhouse. Our son-in-law also took some of this one, and he got treated to three ticks jumping on him and snuggling up to him after walking through the thigh-high grass. Good times!

It's interesting to look at an old house like this, and wonder how it once must have looked in its glory days of so long ago.



Thanks for stopping by today!