It's a Wrap and I'm Building an Ark!

Design: City Stitcher Country Stitcher
Designer: Little House Needleworks
Fabric: 32 ct. Autumn Harvest from R&R Reproductions
Fibers: DMC and Crescent Colours

I'm so happy to have this one finished! It's a former incentive piece project from 2007. I remember stitching on it while my husband was in the hospital after falling from a ladder. After I brought him home, I was so busy taking care of him and doing everything else, that this went by the wayside. I did leave off the weather vane on the "country" house on the right. It has French Knots on it and I was having all kinds of problems getting the knots to stay on the top side of the fabric! I love doing French Knots and normally don't have any problems, but today was not my day!!


This was our rain gauge on Friday night. We had 3.75" of rain on Friday night between 6pm and 11pm. That's an insane amount of rain for such a relatively short period of time. It rained fairly hard for about 2 hours with lots of thunder and lightning. However, it didn't stop there! This morning, I dumped out another 3.5" of rain, and we've received almost another 1/2" today! We're supposed to get more this evening and into tomorrow. I feel like a hurricane has come ashore and we're getting the after effects. I'm thinking I might need to start building an ark! Here are some pics from my morning stroll of the yard in the drizzle this morning.

Crepe Myrtle blooms laden down with rain

Rock Rose (I LOVE this plant!!)

A very wet Blanket Flower. I have another one that shows a very soggy flower head.

Black-Eyed Susan


This bucket hasn't been emptied since the rains started. Just think, there's more water in it now!

Monday Update

I am still alive and kicking, though you wouldn't know it by my lack of posting. My husband and I have been very busy outside building the raised vegetable beds and working on other outside chores that are most pleasant to do early in the spring when it's not 105º and oppressively hot outside. It's actually pleasant to be outside at this time of the year! Of course today it's very, very windy and only going to be in the mid-50s with a freeze warning for tonight. I'm so ready for the spring temps to hang around for a few weeks so I can get my stuff planted! If you'd like to follow my gardening adventures, you can do so by reading my gardening blog, The Haphazard Gardener.

Since we've been spending so much time outside, my stitching time has greatly diminished. I am stitching SOME, just not a lot. I haven't even finished my ornie for March yet!! I did start my incentive piece last Sunday, but I only put in about 20 stitches. Just enough to say I'd started on the start date. LOL

Here's my March ornie, Walt the Malt by Raise the Roof Designs from the 2008 JCS ornie edition. He's stitched on 28 ct. Rocky Mountain linen from Silkweaver using GAST threads.



And yes, even though I'm using overdyeds, I still do the bottom leg all the way across and come back and then cross the top like when using DMC. I just like the way my stitches look when I do it this way.

Here's my incentive piece for this round on the OOE board. It's LHN's "Heart of America" stitched on 32 ct. something or other from R&R. I think it's Iced Cappuccino, but don't quote me on that. I'll have to find my note and get back to you with the correct answer. :) I stitched almost all of this last night while watching the ACM awards and the 10:00pm news.



I'm on vacation this week, and while I plan on spending the bulk of my time outside and some time working on some indoor chores, both of these are on my stitching agenda for the week. Maybe I'll have a finish on that ornie by my next post!

:o)

Love is in the Air Exchange Piece Received!

I mailed my piece off to Donna yesterday, so I should be able to post a picture of it soon. I can't wait as I really am pleased with the way it turned out!

In the meantime, I received my piece from Robin. She chose "Friends", an older Heart in Hand complimentary design. As always, Robin's stitching is perfect as is her choice of pieces. This is stitched on 28 ct. Pearl Gray linen using Crescent Colours fibers.



She also included a package of Piecemaker's needles (woohoo!) and a piece of Sassy's Sugared Coffee linen. I'll have to find something to stitch on that soon!

Again, thank you for all the get well wishes. After making it for almost half a day at work yesterday, I came home and went to bed. Didn't pass go. Didn't collect $200. Didn't even eat lunch!! (You know I must've been feeling really bad if I didn't eat lunch!) I woke up about 4 or 5 hours later, feeling much better. I've started using my Neti pot again to rinse out my sinuses. Not sure it's getting anything out, but I'm trying to do some proactive things. I tried the prescription nasal spray, but it makes me sneeze. Maybe that's a good thing?!? The husband made me (us) some homemade chicken noodle soup the other night. It was quite tasty, even if I my taste buds have taken a vacation. I also made myself a rice sock to help alleviate the pressure in my sinus cavities. Just took one of my husband's old socks, filled it with some dry rice (used brown rice that's been in the pantry for who knows how long) and then tied the top off. Put it in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes then apply to forehead or wherever the congested feeling is. It works great! Anyway, I'm on the road to recovery, but it's very slow going.

The weather has turned nasty. We've had drizzle since yesterday and now the temp has dropped below freezing with some kind of weather system moving in that's going to bring us ICE. I really don't like icy weather, but we get at least one ice storm a year. Totally traumatizes the entire area and everything shuts down. The evening news will talk about it for 30 minutes and show the same stuff over and over and over again. Really sad when the weather is the only newsworthy item worth talking about.

I stitched for about 2 hours last night on my January 1st piece, LHN's The Busy Needle. I really am loving the way it's turning out on the Blue Dynasty linen from Silkweaver. Maybe I'll have a finish to share in the next couple of days!!

I've posted a couple of new recipes over on my food blog, so check 'em out if you're hungry!

(c: