Lossing my touch

I first want to say thank you so much to everyone who left comments on my last post about the giving and stuff. Every single person totally agrees with me that it is ok to give charts and things to other people! There were only two people who said they would NOT be offended if a handmade gift was re-gifted to someone else. I honestly never thought about it before, but I see what they are saying. If I give someone something that I made for them and they just did not like it but knew someone who would just love it . . . well I think it would be ok with me too! I said in my last post that I would rather them put it in a drawer rather than re-gift it, but actually YoYo , Ranae and Carolyn are right. I would rather my work be appreciated and "showed off" rather than thrown into a drawer. I would appreciate and email or something letting me know that they were going to pass it on to someone who would truly love it! I think that would just be respectful! Anyway, thanks again to everyone who responded.

Now onward to other stuff! Here lately it seems like I have been getting lots of stuff in the mail, which I am not arguing about at all! I just love it, I mean who don't! Anyway, to start with I received my gift from the drawing that Amy had on her blog! I was so excited to open, as I don't win things very often . . . well almost never! Well let me tell you, Amy out did her self! If she had this stuff pre-selected to send to the winner, then it was just meant for me! The pic is below and I must say that the Praise His Name chart is my favorite!!! I have been wanting a chart like this forever! It is huge though, so I am going to wait until I can afford a good scroll frame!I signed up for a birthday ATC exchange on WOCS forum and I already received my first one! My birthday is not until April 23rd! Claire sent this to me. Now as far as I know she don' t blog, but if she reads this one I want her to know that I love it and this is my very first ATC to ever receive!Beth had left a comment on a post and mentioned the Stitcher's Bible. Well sweet Sandy let me know that she had the book and that if I wanted it she would send it to me. So very graciously accepted her offer! I received it this week as well! It is great and I think it will help me start moving on from just regular cross stitch and aida to bigger and better things!I have also recently decided to give swap bot a try and join a Biscornu exchange. I love Biscornu's and think that are just too cool! Anyway, I got to goofing off with a blank piece of graph paper stuff decided to see if I could create my own design. Well every thing fancy that I tried went terribly wrong so instead I ended up with this (below) and then I even messed up of the stitching of it! LOL Anyway, maybe I will try again! Do you see the mistake?Now, I know this is a long post but one last thing. Have you ever had one of those patterns that just gave you a hard time! Well I had one this week and it has got me to thinking that maybe I am loosing my stitching touch! (thus the title of the post) I started on this little pattern four times before finally getting it right. It is such a simple little pattern too!! Anyway, I finally got it right and the pic below is the finished product of a birthday card for my step-mom! Now the kids had a hand in this one. My son drew on this inside and my daughter just had to write on the front! LOL Anyway, it turned out really cute. I do want to NOT take credit for the flower though, it is an iron on patch!
Well, I think that is it for now! Hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed week filled with lots of stitching!

Happy stitching,
Cindy Mae