Wordless Wednesday #13

Headless No More!

In fact, he's not even stitchless anymore! I put the last stitches in my Silly Snowquake ornie on Friday night while watching The Blind Side.

Design: Silly Snowquake
Stitched on 28ct. Cascade linen from Silkweaver with DMC B5200
Design available from Erynne's Be-Stitched Blog

Tonight, I will start my new incentive piece, BBD's "Evergreen". I'm so excited! I will be stitching it on 28 ct. Iced Cappuccino linen From R&R Reproductions with WDW's Palomino, GAST's Forest Glade, and CC's Carrie Berry.



I just realized that I never came by on Thursday to post the captions for my pics! Sorry, folks!

My exchange piece from Veronica. It's Quaker Heart from Piecework Magazine stitched in WDW's Romance. LOVE it!

My Creeping Veronica aka Georgia Blue Speedwell. I planted this 2 falls ago and it's really grown and spread! I love the bright blueish-purple flowers. Apparently, the bees do, too. (Can you see the bee??)

The poppies are really growing! I'm continuing to find them everywhere in this flower bed as well as other flower beds in my yard. This particular stand is from last year's poppies which reseeded themselves.

The lettuces have been loving the rain and warmer temps. They've all grown like crazy!

We have liftoff with the Wando peas!!

The potatoes are continuing to do extremely well, too. I've got shoots about 8" tall in some of the planters. Time to start hilling them to give them a better chance of producing and to help them be a bit sturdier.

Wordless Wednesday #12

Weekend Update

What a weird week this has been! For some reason, this week has been a doozy! The keyboard on my computer is having some issues, like sticking keys, and my mouse is dying a slow death. My nerdy-geeky husband mentioned that "we" might have to make a trip to Fry's, *the* superstore for nerds, I mean, computer geeks here in our area. It's a sight to behold, let me tell you! I've seen some very....interesting....ummm....people...at Fry's. Nerds can enter in and not be seen for more than 3 hours and all they've looked at is 10 bazillion screws, wires, connectors, fans, and other things I don't even want to know about. Generally, when I go with the DH to Fry's, I tell him first, we get what we came for, then he only has 30 minutes to look at items not on our shopping list. After that, we're leaving! I'm sorry, no sane person, should have to be subjected to all that geekiness and testosterone in a confined space! LOL (If you're a computer geek reading this post, I don't mean to offend, so please forgive me.) To find out if there's a Fry's near you, visit their website.

We ushered winter out the door on Friday and spring arrived on Saturday bringing this:


Do you see the white stuff?? It's not much, but it's there! Yes, snow on the first day of SPRING and I don't even live in snow country! Thankfully, this was all we got and it was long gone by lunchtime today, but parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth and northeast Texas received many INCHES of the white stuff. Mother Nature also turned the fan on high and we've had winds gusting up to 40 mph!

The garden is progressing, or it was, before the weekend. The carrots have finally started coming up. The yellow onions are looking healthy and strong, and the radishes are really doing well. The potato bins all have sprouts and one even has almost as many sprouts as seed potatoes we planted! Yippee! Let's hope they've survived the freeze and are doing well.

My stitching mojo has gone out the window. Maybe it knew the freeze was coming and it flew south, I don't know. I'm really ready for it to come back, though. If you see it, please send it back to me, okay? I did manage to start my Bent Creek exchange for my non-blogging friend who really needs a blog, Robin.

My Colors exchange partner has received the piece I stitched for her. I chose to stitch the inside motif from ABC 04, a complimentary design from the blog, A Time to Stitch.


I don't remember what fabric I chose, but I do remember that it was from R&R and it was 32 ct. I used Belle Soie Cranberry fiber. I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this for my exchange partner. It was s delightfully quick stitch.

Have a great start to the week! :>)

Since Yesterday Was St. Patrick's Day...

...I thought I'd share a little green from my garden with you!

First up, are my potatoes. This container has the most sprouts in it, but the others are coming along. I think the cooler weather has slowed everything down, including me!

Next are my strawberry plants. They've been blooming for the past week. These are volunteers from last year's plants. Not sure if they are supposed to work that way, but that's what we got! LOL

These are volunteer tomato seedlings in my big onion bed. We had tomatoes growing there last year, so I might let a couple of them grow and we'll plant them along with the onions.

My pineapple mint survived the winter and put out an albino cluster of leaves! What a fun plant to grow!

Lastly, the lettuce bed. Since it's warmed up some, all the lettuces have really taken off.

Wordless Wednesday #11

A Little Update

Just wanted to post a quick update on my Silly Snowquake ornie. I've moved him to my lunchtime rotation spot, so I only have about 15-20 mins a day to stitch on him, depending on whether or not I hop on the internet during my lunchtime at work. LOL I do think he looks a bit sad without a head, now that I look at him on my computer screen!!

Please visit my gardening blog, The Haphazard Gardener
if you're in need of some greenery in your life. It's springtime in Texas and things are a-startin' to grow, including my taters!

The Big Five-O!

No, I'm not turning 50, that's a few years away, but I have reached 50 followers on my blog! How amazing to think that there are 50 people out there in the world who want to see what I have to say and see what's going on with my stitching and my gardens. I thank you for taking the time to read my blog and for leaving comments. It's nice to know there are people on the other side of my screen! LOL

It's been another interesting week. Spring has sprung for the time being here in my world. I've been out in the garden A LOT! The weirdos have come down from the non-existent hills and shown up at my workplace. Seriously! Time for them to make their yearly trek to the big city to stock up for the summer. It doesn't help that spring break is here, too, which means even more folks out and about. It does make work entertaining and busy, but really, I could do with a bit less weirdness!

My grandmother is back home!! Woohoo! According to my cousin, who is grandma sitting this weekend, there's just no telling what my grandmother will say! Unfortunately, it's usually something embarrassing! LOL LOL So thankful it's her taking care of Grandma and not me! Grandma taught us how to dish it out as well as take it, so I'm sure my cousin has some very snarky comebacks. Really, what else can you do with a 97 year old woman?!?

Believe it or not, I have done a bit of stitching this week on my ornie. Here's my progress on Silly Snowquake. I'm really enjoying the fabric color, by the way. This is a bit out of my normal color scheme, but I really like it!



Off to play in the dirt! :>)

Thursday Captions!

If you couldn't tell by the pics I posted yesterday, spring is springing in my yard and garden. I took most of the outside pics just prior to posting them. I hope that for those of you still in the grips of Old Man Winter that you are encouraged to know that spring is indeed on the way!

My start on my March ornie, Silly Snowquake. He's being stitched on 28 ct. Cascade linen from Silkweaver using DMC.

My trailing Veronica 'Georgia Blue'. It's one of the earliest things to start blooming in my flower bed.

Radish seedlings! I just planted these seeds last week.

I found this bird's nest in our holly bush while walking the yard. I don't know if it's currently in use or not, though.

Bloom on one of the strawberry plants. These survived the winter in one of our veggie beds, but DH thinks they need some kind of special soil, so he dug 'em up and planted them in little pots to replant in the 'right' soil.

Have a spring-y day!

Wordless Wednesday #10

Week-Ending Wrap Up, A Finish, March Goals

I have been on vacation for the past week and it's been good. The weather turned nice and the dear husband and I have been out working in the yard preparing it for the spring gardening season. Between his back problems and mine, we managed to put in a full day outside pretty much every other day. On the in between days, I piddled around the house and napped...frequently! LOL You can check out my gardening blog for more garden details and pics. It's raining today, so no working outside for me, but I've got seeds to start, so I'll probably be doing that.

In between naps this week, I managed to do a bit of stitching. I finished one exchange piece, decided on what I will be stitching for my partner in the Bent Creek exchange, and also finished my Jan 1st piece, Have a Heart.


Have a Heart
Designer: Val's Stitchin' Stuff
Stitched on: 32 ct. Rainkissed linen from Silkweaver
Fibers Used: Crescent Colours and Weeks Dye Works

Also this week, my brother's girlfriend gave birth to a healthy little boy, Dusty Cash. There were some complications, but both the baby and the mom are now doing well and are at home. This makes son #3 for my brother and nephew #3 for me. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics yet, but as soon as I do, I'll share them!

My 97 year old grandmother was admitted to the hospital on Friday evening for a chronic problem that she has that causes her to start bleeding. Due to her age, neither the doctors nor my aunt (her primary caregiver) want to put her through the necessary tests to find out exactly the cause of the problem. She's received 2 blood transfusions and her numbers are now back to normal. They're keeping her in the hospital to make sure the bleeding has stopped and that her numbers stabilize before springing her to go home. In some ways, I feel sorry for my grandmother. She's been "ready to go" for so many years and her quality of life really is nil, eventho she goes to adult day care daily. She's just not happy and she's not as spry as she once was. As she says, "I can't see. I can't hear. And I don't remember things." LOL I love her dearly, though. Here she is a couple of Christmases ago with her 2 youngest (& only surviving) children, my aunt and uncle.



February has come and gone. March is here, which means new goals for the month. Here are my March goals:

1. Finish Colours exchange piece and mail on time.
2. Start BC exchange piece
3. Finish Jan 1st piece (Have a Heart by Val's)
4. Start & Finish ornie for March
5. Kit up incentive SAL projects and start on 3/28
6. Continue stitching on LHN Seasonal Saltbox piece
7. Continue to record stitching time

Numbers 1 & 3 are already completed, so I'm off to a good start!

Lastly, here's my progress on my LHN Seasonal Satlbox piece, Blessed are the Pure in Heart.

Thursday Captions & Other Chit Chat

I have been stitching on this Quaker Friendship Sampler piece for 2 years. LOL I am currently working on the big green leafy motif in the middle right hand portion of the picture. I might finish this some day. My non-blogging friend, Robin (who really needs to start a blog, hint, hint!), has offered to stitch on it for me. I might just have to take her up on her offer!

Have a Heart by Val's Stitching Stuff is coming along. Actually, he's finished now, after I put the final stitches in him this morning! I'll be back later on today to post a finished pic. I've also finished my Colours exchange piece, but I can't post a pic of that just yet.

Worms from our garden!! Woohoo! Nature's little rototillers at their biggest that we've seen in our yard since we moved in almost 5 years ago. Normally, we see only the little babies, but this spring, we've seen tons of the bigger worms. The DH says it makes him want to go fishing! LOL

My first winter sowing sprouts of 2010! These are Sweet Pea seedlings just popping up. I'll plant them out in a couple of weeks.

Freshly planted onions start off the gardening season. These are red (puple) onion babies, but I also have some yellow onions (Texas 1015s) to plant. On either side of the onions are carrots and radishes. I made my own seed tape from toilet paper and buried it. Hopefully, they'll start sprouting in about a week!

Til next time!