Does anyone else love this song?  I get it stuck in my head.  I thought the picture was beautiful, it was painted in 1864 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  Interestingly as I browse through pictures of his paintings red haired beauties in green dresses seem to be a theme... some think the song was written by Henry the VIII for his lover and future queen, Anne Boleyn... but many say that's unlikely since it was probably written after he died.  Whoever wrote it for whomever... it's a classic tail of a broken heart. 



Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in your company.

Chorus:
Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my lady greensleeves.

Your vows you've broken, like my heart,
Oh, why did you so enrapture me?
Now I remain in a world apart
But my heart remains in captivity.

chorus

I have been ready at your hand,
To grant whatever you would crave,
I have both wagered life and land,
Your love and good-will for to have.

chorus

If you intend thus to disdain,
It does the more enrapture me,
And even so, I still remain
A lover in captivity.

chorus

My men were clothed all in green,
And they did ever wait on thee;
All this was gallant to be seen,
And yet thou wouldst not love me.

chorus

Thou couldst desire no earthly thing,
but still thou hadst it readily.
Thy music still to play and sing;
And yet thou wouldst not love me.

chorus

Well, I will pray to God on high,
that thou my constancy mayst see,
And that yet once before I die,
Thou wilt vouchsafe to love me.

chorus

Ah, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu,
To God I pray to prosper thee,
For I am still thy lover true,
Come once again and love me.

chorus

Snow Garden ~ 1 more day

Good morning! I hope you all are snug as a bug!  For those Blogging Buddies in the East and North East, stay warm and safe and home if you can!  I was just reading a bit about your storm.  I have yet to turn on the TV... but I saw that you were suppose to get pounded... and that for one the weather people were right and you did get pounded.  Well, looks like a good day to stitch! :-)  Here is progress on BBD AotH ~ Snow Garden.  Almost done! and that peacock is done... except the specialty stitches in the tail.  I have the key and one more initial and some snowflakes left... one good sit down and I should be able to call it good.  Am checking on frames now, so I can begin the wall of AotH.  I'm thinking old, shabby chic, white/cream. 

Thanks for stopping by and any comments! 

Happy Stitching.

KimVDR

Snow Garden

Ohhh.... I think that peacock might be the death of me... LOL  
no seriously... I finally chose the colors.  I began to stitch, man, he was looking good.  Almost done... to the tail... hmmm... what's this? what did I do wrong... wait... count that again... 1, 2, 3, 4... hmmm... look at chart... 1, 2, 3... hmmm... look at bird... hmmm... I'm off... how can I be off... oh, wait... way over here at the beginning... yeah, 5 stitches NOT 6! ARGGGHHHHH! can I fake it? can I leave it...? no... long, deep, drawn-out sigh... ok, pull your stitches... and of course, that's not easy.  So, finally, stitches are pulled and bird started over.  I'm beginning to get impatient to finish this one! :-)

On a bright note... we have wonderful, glorious, sunny sunshine!!! (which is good since it's only 3 degrees! yikes!!! that's cold)  Sojo is very much enjoying the sun.  
All of you Bloggin Buddies in the North East... be prepared... I heard your to get some major weather tonight and tomorrow.  Stay Safe and Warm.

BBD Anniversaries of the Heart SAL & my little stitching corner

Hello there Blogging Friends! I promised update to my AotH SAL.  This is a SAL (stitch along) That I'm doing with the BBD (Blackbird Designs) Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blackbirddesigns/

I started on January 2nd.  I'm getting close to done... if I keep stitching like I have been.  This is the 1st design of the series, Snow Garden.  There are 14  designs total, 1 for each month and 2 bonus.  Some in our SAL are stitching on one piece, some are stitching separate.  I'm stitching separate. I think they will look awesome framed individually and grouped together.  I am stitching Snow Garden on R&R Iced Cappaccino 40ct linen.  I am using most all the colors called for in the chart.  I have changed 4.  I substituted WDW Dove for GA Toasted Barley, I substituted GA Sable for GA Cindermill Brown, I substituted WDW Chablis for GA Lexington Green and I am going to substitute ?? for GA Portabella.  I'm having most trouble with the Portabella.  I love the look of the sample but my Portabella is mostly brown.  I'm not sure what to use, I thought I'd try GA Green Pastures... too dark, pulled the stitches. I thought I'd try GA Mountain Mist... still a little dark and too tealish... pulled the stitches.  I'm inclined to use both Woodsmoke (roof) and Dove (letters & side of house) to achieve the look I want.  Stay tuned to for continuing drama on the color of the peacock! LOL!  For the year I chose 1990, my wedding date.  The VDR is our last initials (seriously 3 letters!) Then I will add K, M, B & C for our family.

 1-2-11

 1-4-11

 1-8-11

 1-9-11

The Christmas tree went away yesterday.  I spent a good part of the day taking Christmas down.  Then I rolled up the rug, swept all the floor, rearranged the furniture, put back down the rug and vacuumed it again.  My hubby wanted to know I rearranged and I pointed to the recliner and said: "That's My Stitching Spot!" It has a lamp for me, a place for all my stuff and a cup of coffee.  Ahhh, he just nodded his head as though this was important to him too.  

This is Sojo, my mom-in-laws dog.  I'm babysitting.  He thinks he's pretty important and that your job is to wait on him hand and foot and play with him and pet him and watch him and read his mind when he wants to go out to potty and to clean up potty if you were too stupid to read his mind and know that he wanted to go out.

There's this SAL that I've been seeing on other blogs called TUSAL ~ Totally Useless SAL.  You are suppose to keep a container of all your snippits of thread.  I can do that... and actually for me it's not that useless cause it keeps my Spot neat and clean.  Well, sort of... lol

Have a wonderful day!  Remember it's a wonderful life!

KimVDR

Oh look, I got pretties!

I got some lovely Klemscott scissors and a needle minder at Christmas... well, I got them for myself... I got some for my Mom too... but anyways... it doesn't matter which Santa brought them right? LOL 

The fabric fat quarters are Moda from one of my wonderful LQS... I have to admit we have some of the most awesome quilt stores in the nation... I think anyways.  The bottom fabric is Wyndham.  The tote... Oh, my at the Quilt Away in Great Falls, MT they had these lovely Moda BBD totes... arggghhhh.... I have to have it! so, I got it and the lovely Moda fat quarters too...

The needle book with the strawberries I made and just finished up with the buttons. It's made with all felted wool.  They are very easy to make!  I love needle books! I love wool!  I love scissors, I love needle minders, hmmm... I love a lot of things! The crocheted doilies... I bought on Ebay.

oh, and lastly... a little more stash... Carriage House Samplings: Fredrick, Frederika, Sampler Stocking and Alpha Blocks and BBD Tokens of Friendship.

Friday... again

Hey! How is everything with you?  I guess, I should tell you all thanks for being my bloggin buddies!  
Here is a picture for you...


Not as good as the first time I came up the stairs.  This is my bed... maybe I should qualify that... my side of the bed and this is also Shadow (my 6 year old mutt whom we rescued when he was a puppy anyways I digress...) this is his favorite spot during the day.  My first trip upstairs he was laying stretched completely out with head on pillows soundly asleep ~ that was the picture that I wanted to share but he seems to know when your sneaking up on him...

the other mutt... is Copper, who is my 10 year old Boston Terrier/Pomeranian cross... Best dog ever!  Heck, I had a designer dog before such a thing existed!  True story, I went to the store and when I came out (in Great Falls, MT some 60,000 people) in the car across from mine is this white dog... I swear, Copper only white... hmm... Copper had 2 sisters, he was about 6 at the time and I had no idea what had happened to his sisters, (yeah, you know where I'm going with this) so I wait... about 10 minutes for the owner (ok, I did go and talk to the dog, but she wasn't giving any info, she did want to be petted and she was sweet but mums the word on her family) the owner comes (finally) and long story short... yep...Copper's sister! and I could tell it was... and her owner said the same thing... Best dog ever!

My RAK for the week, I went to the post office on Monday. I had to go into the office for pay for postage.  The poor gal working was suppose to have help but they never showed and when her supervisor called she kept saying she'll be there... well, no, she's an hour and a half away in another town! So, this poor gal (who is filling in) has had no break, no food, no drink because she thought she had help... she had been there since 7:30am and it was 3pm... and she still had 2 hours to go... I went and got her a pizza and liter bottle of water... 

Hand Dyed Flosses and Threads

Oh how I love hand dyed threads! I buy them just because they are pretty... I have to admit, I get a little frustrated when I buy a chart and I don't have any of the flosses listed even though I have many, many skeins of floss... but they are pretty to look at! lol 

 Now, my only gripe with Hand Dyes are the exact reason that I love them... the color and of course there are different dye lots... so just because your chart calls for this specific color and you love the picture from the chart... you may not get the same look... in fact you probably won't get the same look... and that's ok because it makes that project our very own... and no one will have one just like us.  I am doing BBD Snow Garden right now.  I have changed some of my colors because as I started to stitch with the charted colors I didn't have the same variations that the picture shows.

The chart calls for  GA Cidermill Brown for the window side of house but I used GA Sable because my Cidermill Brown wasn't all that different from the GA Harvest Basket which the windows are stitched.  Probably my biggest change so far, however; is the other house wall.  The chart calls for GA Toasted Barley with GA Woodsmoke for the roof.  I am using Woodsmoke but changed the T.Barley to WDW Dove (which is a color that I LOVE and have adored this floss forever, I have a new project in mind just for it... share later)... 

My last change that I think I'm going to make is my peacock.  In the picture he looks mostly greeny/blue with some browns, the chart calls for GA Portabella... now, I love the Portabella that I got, but it's almost entirely a rich chocolatey brown(in the middle of picture)... not quite peacock material... lol... so, I'm thinking either GA Mountain Mist (lighter color at bottom) or GA Green Pastures (on top)... I haven't decided... I think I will stitch him last...

I'm stitching on R&R Iced Cappaccino 40ct 2/2

Valdani Hand Dyed Perl Cotton... I still haven't used any... it's too pretty!