My First Finish and Progress Made!

Nature's Song Exchange Piece
Stitched on 32ct. Mt. Baker Blue linen
Threads: Belle Soie silks: Blue Lagoon, Icing, and Beanstalk
Designer: Olka
Chart can be found here: Aliola's Blog,
My "He's a Flake" piece is almost finished. I changed the color of the scarf to a red because I like it better than the called for color. I'm also going to put red berries on the hat for the holly berries.


Lastly, I've done some more stitching on my incentive piece, PS's Sunflower Garden Sampler. I'm really enjoying this stitch.



Other progresses, the totato and bell pepper seedlings are doing well and we've planted our onions! Let the gardening season begin!

A New Start, Stash Prize in the Mail, and Life in General

Last Sunday began the start of our new incentive stitching round. This time around, I'm stitching Birdhouse Sampler from the Garden Samplers leaflet by Prairie Schooler. It's stitched in good 'ol DMC and I chose 32 ct. Cream Brulee linen. This is how far I got during the Super Bowl game last Sunday. Unfortunately, the vine at the top right needs to be frogged. I'm going to leave it for now and see if I can't make it work.

On one of the message boards I belong to, there was an end of the year drawing for ornament stitchers and I was one of the 3 lucky winners! I received my winnings in the mail this week, and what a haul! Here is the first pic I took, with the ever helpful photo assistant, Tumbles and his big head.

And here's a better pic, minus the big headed kitty.

Thank you, Jan! If you've never read Jan's blog, please stop by and visit her. Such a generous lady and great designer! You can visit her design blog as well, Tree of Life Samplings. I am not responsible for any enabling. LOL

I have been busy stitching on an exchange piece. Unlike normal, I changed my choice mid-stream and now I'm stitching like crazy! This new choice feels "right", if you know what I mean. I need to finish so I can get it ready to mail off before we leave town for a few days.

We're heading south to visit my dad for a few days and to help him with a few projects around his house. He's been in the hospital with heart problems a few times over the past month. Well, he was in the hospital 4 times in 3 weeks with a 99% blocked artery at the site of one of his bypasses, but it took them until the 4th trip to do an angiogram to find the blockage. He then had a stent put in and now he's doing great. They told him that bypasses are generally only good for 10-13 years and he had his bypass surgery in October, 1997, so he's gotten some good mileage out of his bypasses. It will be the first time we've made the trip without Callie and with the little Tumbleweed. I have no idea how well he'll travel. I hope I'm not listening to him howl, cry, and meow for 5 hours!

Not too sure how the seedlings will do. We'll water them well before we leave and then pray they're still alive when we get back!



Until I return, happy stitching!

Snow Days!

So we had 3" of sleet/ice accumulation on Tuesday. Wednesday I was given the option of working 10-5 or taking a floating holiday/vacation day. Can anyone guess which option I chose? By Thursday, I needed to get out of the house as cabin fever had set in and I had 2 appointments. Driving was still treacherous, but my hubby is a fantastic driver and off we went! *Vroom* *Vroom* The roads were actually getting better, but then this morning, we woke to this:

After being put on "hold" as to what time to report to work, I went outside and snapped some pics. Here's the view down my street. My neighbors obviously didn't get the memo that there would be no trash pick up today or they didn't check the City's internet site to find out (like we did because we missed the memo, too).

This is my garlic bed. I hope they survive since I didn't cover them.

Another street view.

Don't get me wrong. I like snow, in pictures and if I don't have to get out in it, but this morning, I had to get out in it. I also like my snow melted off by the end of the day. I don't like ice and I don't like not seeing the ground or the sun for days on end. I don't think I could ever make it in cold country. Just call me a cold weather weenie! LOL

As most everyone in the US knows, this is Super Bowl week and the big game is being held in my backyard. I cannot tell you the number of out of staters that have been interviewed who've said, "Don't you people have snow plows down here?" I just want to smack them! I want to say, "Do you have central AC in your home and run it on Christmas Day because it's hot outside?" Hellooooo!! This is Texas and we don't have snow plows because we don't normally NEED snow plows!

Personally, I think the kitties have the right idea! Hunker down and snuggle up for the duration!

Iced In!

This morning, I was awakened at about 3:30 to a very loud rolling thunder. I think I said something along the lines of "Good grief!" to my husband! Since that time, we've had rain, sleet, and snow, along with very high winds and freezing temps. All of this is very unusual for my neck of the woods. Okay, maybe not all that unusual, but definitely not usually combined in one fell swoop.

This is my garden & backyard this morning. Lovely, isn't it?
That would be my garlic in that bed. To the right of the garlic is the lettuce, hopefully safe under the cover of a sheet and plastic.

Currently, the sun is trying to peek through and we've got flurries. This is so wild! I'm also waiting on a call back from my boss with the final word that we're closed. Seriously, no one's going anywhere in this weather today. Tomorrow, the road conditions probably won't be much better either. Driving on a solid sheet of ice is treacherous anyway.

So many of you wanted to see a bigger picture of my Quaker Friendship Sampler, so here you go! I really enjoyed working on this a couple of weeks ago. I've had to put it away to work on an exchange piece, but it'll be in my February rotation.



Last Thursday, I started my tomato and pepper seeds. This is the first year I've tried to grow them from seed inside. I planted them in plastic cups, then set them in aluminum pans and set them on a shelving contraption the husband brought in from the garage. The contraption is set up in my spare junk room bedroom.


We put a space heater under the bottom shelf to increase the warmth in that room since it's the coldest room in our house. Then, because the heater was trying to heat the entire room, the husband draped a big sheet of plastic over the shelving contraption. When we open the blinds in there in the morning, I'm afraid someone's going to see it and think we're growing the weedy plant! LOL Believe me, if we were, we'd have a much more sophisticated set up and you'd not be able to see it from the outside!


I've been checking on the cups daily and spraying them with water. This morning, on the coldest day of the year, I awoke to feed sprouted seeds! I'm so excited since this is the first time I've done this! Once they're sprouted, they'll be moved to an area with lights set up directly over them and about 1" from the top of the cups to help them grow straight and strong.

If you click on the pic, you can see it larger and see the seedlings.

These are Sioux tomato seedlings and Pantano Romanesco seedlings.

Well, I have received official word that we are closed at work today. I think I'm going to go make nice with my electric blanket and take a much needed nap! I sorta feel the need to bake to warm up the house, but a nap sounds so much nicer. :) Taking my cue from the kitties.



Until next time, happy stitching!