Nature Friday – Christmas Card Edition

Hi everyone! It’s Millie and Walter here. We always like to share some of the nature we find in our yard on our annual Christmas card so today we will give you a close-up view of the nature pictures on this year’s card.

Let’s see some of the interesting nature from our card this year.

Our mom loves trying to capture pictures of the birds in our yard. They move fast so sometimes she has to get lucky to get a good picture. This is one of her favorites this year.

White Breasted Nuthatch

You know we love all the flowers in our yard, but our dad had fun this year taking pictures of the dahlias in a nearby arboretum. This pink one is a real beauty!

Many of the flowers we have planted in our garden are attractive to all sorts of pollinators and butterflies.

Giant Swallowtail on Clematis, Mrs. Robert Brydon

That clematis is a non-vining or bush clematis, and our parents enjoy watching all the bugs that use it.

Finally, we have a look at a frosty Rozanne Geranium.

For those of you that aren’t on our Christmas card list here is a look at both sides of our card this year. Feel free to take a copy for yourself.

Front

Back

We hope you enjoyed seeing the nature pictures from our card this year and we wish all of you that celebrate it a Very Merry Christmas!

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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Hooking on Hump Day – Christmas Stockings

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to tell you about the Christmas stockings I made. Last year I finished a small quilt that we hung on our fireplace. It’s a bit small for the space so this year I searched online for a Christmas stocking pattern to crochet so we could add them to our display.

The stockings were hung from the quilt with care…

First a little word about how I hung them. Since the stone on the fireplace is so irregular, we couldn’t attach anything to the stone to hang the stockings from. Charlie found a 1/4″ dowl that was already stained and would work perfectly for that spot. To attach it to the quilt I used a matching brown thread and sewed three loops that hang down from the quilt. The dowl slips through the loops and even close up it’s difficult to see.

Now let’s get to the stockings. 

Charlie’s stocking
(Blue yarn is Red Heart Giant in Dark Country Blue – possibly discontinued)

I found the Country Cottage Stocking crochet pattern for free on the Who’s Homemade website. On the pattern page there are also links to paid patterns on Etsy and Ravelry and a video to show you the entire process.

Millie’s stocking
(Red is Caron One Pound in Claret)

The pattern instructions are well written and with the video there is no way to go wrong. I went “shopping” for the yarn from my stash and was happy to find colors that coordinated well with the quilt.

Walter’s stocking
(Green is Caron One Pound in Grass Green)

The only thing I did differently from the pattern was I added four rounds to the main stocking before adding the cuff to make them a bit longer.

Cindy’s stocking
(Purple is Red Heart With Love in Aubergine)

I like how the use of post stitches gives you a more closed fabric for the main body of the stocking. The toe was easy to work and with the help of the video the heal and cuff were no problem either. The white yarn is also Caron One Pound. It’s always nice to be able to work from your stash and create something new that will be a part of our holiday decorations for years to come.

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly known as Hookin’ on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

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Christmas Card Selfie Sunday

Hi everyone. It’s Millie and Walter here. We’ve gotten lots of Christmas cards from friends and family and from all over the world. 

We’re both sitting nicely.

Dad’s got some good treats so that helps!

We donned our holiday scarves and posed with all the cards we’ve received so far. This year our mom printed all our e-cards on card stock so they aren’t curling. 

All this posing is making me tired.
Come on Walter! Usually I’m the one laying down.

As usual we’re beating our pawrents on the card count.

Millie & Walter

16 Snail Mail cards

17 e-cards

Total Card Count – 33

Mom & Dad

9 cards*

We took these pictures a few days ago so don’t worry if you don’t see your card. Can you find your card? Here’s a picture without us that also shows the cute Christmas stockings our mom made for all of us this year.

(click on the image to make it bigger to find your card)

We’re joining The Cat on My Head for their Selfie Sunday blog hop. You should check out the hop to see some of the other selfies. Thanks for stopping by.

*One card from Chewy.com, one from our Mail carrier and one from our dentist! BOL!

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Selfie Sunday

Hi everyone. It’s Millie and Walter here. We’re expecting wild winds in the next 24 hours and we hope we don’t loose power.

Just a couple of pups hanging out on the bench.

So far this season we’ve only gotten some dustings of snow but we hope we get some real snow soon. We’ll keep you posted!

We’re joining The Cat on My Head for their Selfie Sunday blog hop. You should check out the hop to see some of the other selfies. Thanks for stopping by.

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