Spring has Sprung!

Four Nerve Daisies and Texas Bluebonnets

Texas Bluebonnet, the state flower of Texas and very difficult to grow from seed. I don't know how these things manage to grow wild! LOL

A pretty poppy on a windy day. Always the first to pop up in late winter/early spring.

Texas Cedar Sage

Some kind of iris that popped up in my yard! I think it's a Dixie Iris, but not sure. It only bloomed for a day and now it's gone. There are others by our foundation, but not sure if they'll bloom or not.


Brazos Penstemon, a Texas native with such delicate pinkish-purple blooms. The flowers in the top pic are a close-up of the flowers. Such a delightful flower in my shady bed.

Sweet William, dianthus barbatus, a gorgeous hot pink color and very striking in the flower bed. Very hardy to my area and blooms faithfully in the spring.

I'm Still Here!

It's been several weeks since my last post, but I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. The husband and I have been busy trying to get our garden ready, I've been sick, he's been sick, I've been missing my Callie-bug, and work's been crazy. The best thing that's happened since I last posted, was that after 2 months of searching, the husband found me a new truck!!

Trusty Steed 2.0 is a 1998 GMC Sierra with 105,000 miles on it. It's a very nice dark metallic emerald green with tan interior. I would've preferred cloth seats, but I'll take the leather ones. At some point in the future, we'll probably have the seats recovered with cloth. It's got a few scratches and dings, but it's used, so that's to be expected.





I hadn't been driving the truck for more than 24 hours, when DH "borrowed" it to go get some parts for various little things that need to be fixed. When he came to pick me up at work, it' looked like this:



The lady we purchased the truck from used it only to pull a 2-horse trailer. Because she lost the key to the trailer hitch, we now have this ginormous trailer hitch on the truck that we can't remove! LOL


With the hitch on there, it makes the back end of the truck just as long as Trusty Steed was. Trusty Steed 2.0 drives better, though, and has much more sensitive power steering and gas pedal. I've almost given myself whiplash a time or two accelerating, turning, and braking. I think I have it mastered now, though.

Also in my absence, spring has sprung! Hooray! Everything is turning green in my yard and things are starting to come back to life. However, this means things are starting to grow that I can't identify. LOL It also means that the weeds are out in full force, too. I've spent the last week or so weeding my big flower bed. I've found some plants I'd forgotten about and I found some seedlings I can't identify. I also could not find 2 plants I planted in the fall that should've come back. :(

Among the early bloomers, we have purple and a very faint lavender wood violet.




Among those resurfacing, we have cutleaf rudbeckia (top) and West Texas mistflower (bottom).




The Willow Leaf Asters are back and they really multiplied!


The comfrey is blooming. I plan on planting my tomatoes near it. Comfrey is supposed to help tomatoes do well.



Things are picking up in the veggie garden, too! We've not been on top of things regarding the timing of the planting, so some of these things may not do well at all, but I figured we'd try anyway.

The onions are doing well. They should've been planted about a month before we got them in the ground, but it was snowing, so we decided to wait.


The garlic has recovered from the beating it took with all the freezing rain, sleet, snow and freezing temps.


The Romaine lettuce is going crazy! Unfortunately it's planted too close to the garlic, so I'll have to thin some out.


We finally got the potatoes planted! The husband planted these last week. They're already poking their little stems out! Of course they were almost full grown when I planted them! LOL


Lastly, the blackberries have sent out runners and are starting to grow. Not sure the husband is thrilled about that as he's not really sure he wants to keep the plants! LOL



Remember, all the pics are clickable to see larger. Thank you for reading and leaving a comment. I'll be back next time with some stitchy news....maybe...if I can stay out of the garden!

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!

Some Progress on Quaker Friendship Sampler

I didn't stitch for a couple of days this past week, but I did manage to get a bit of stitching in on QFS. I really like this project, but it's so tedious to me. I really have to pay attention while stitching! This particular medallion is really take a l-o-n-g (!!!!!) time to stitch, too! This is where I stopped last night.


I plan on stitching on it some more today, so I'll take it out of the snaps this evening or tomorrow and post a proper pic of it next week some time.

I've also spent a bit of time working on my LK piece, Do Not Open 'til Christmas. This is the one I started back in December, before my life went to pot. I don't think I've shared any picture of it. I stitched the border on it on Thursday while we were driving to check out trucks. A total bust, too, by the way. We're still looking for a truck. *Sigh*


In other news, my potatoes arrived this week. On the coldest day of the year! LOL They've been appropriately inspected and are now sitting on my counter trying to start growing. We'll plant them on Valentine's Day, so they need to get growin'! I ordered 10 lbs of potatoes in 3 different varieties, 5 lbs of Rio Grande Russets, 3 lbs of Purple Vikings, and 2 lbs of Red Norland.


The quality control agents were on the job, checking everything out.

Tumbles thought he'd scored a big new toy!


I'm ready for Mr. Sunshine to come back for awhile and bring some warmer temps with him. My feet have been cold for the past week and my disposition needs the sun!! LOL

Until next time, happy stitching!

January Stitching & Other Mindless Meanderings

I started the new year off with stitching! I chose LHN's "He's a Flake" for my January 1st piece. I'm really enjoying it! I'm stitching him on 28 ct. Mercedes linen from Picture This Plus. I tried to find something in 32 ct. in my stash, but couldn't find a single color that I liked! Then, I changed the scarf color to CC's Ribbon Red and the tree color to CC's Steamed Broccoli. I think I'm going to stitch two 'berries' on the snowman's hat rather than use beads as in the model.


Today, I'm pulling out my Quaker Friendship Sampler. This will be my project for this week. This is the last pic I have of this on my computer. I think I've done more, but you get a general idea of where I am on it. Guess I probably should pull it out of its bag and check on it, huh? LOL

The weather has turned frightful outside. We have been hit by a blast of polar air. It started raining overnight and then turned to snow late this morning. Thankfully, it didn't really stick and it's already melted now that the snow has stopped. The wet stuff has moved off to the east and now all we have to worry about is the roads getting icy with the temperatures dropping below freezing. Here are a few pics when it started snowing. It did come down a whole lot heavier throughout the morning/early afternoon, but I didn't feel like journeying outside to take more pics!





In other news, the husband has been searching high and low for a new truck for me (us). He has narrowed down his "ideal" truck. Now we just need to find it! LOL Last night, I banned him from talking about trucks, though. Funny, he didn't have much to say to me! Here's the favorite of the 3 finalists right now. You can see more pics, if you're interested here.


It's a 1997 GMC truck, extended cab, short bed with a 350 engine, 8 cylinder, 5.7L engine. That's the same engine we had in our truck that was stolen, but this one has a bit of an upgrade on it. It's also got extremely low mileage for a 97 at only 93K!! I think it must've been someone's go to town truck! LOL I'm hoping that the weather is okay tomorrow or Tuesday for Mark to be able to drive up to see it. It's located halfway to Oklahoma from where we live!



Our household is still adjusting to Callie being gone. Hannah had to go to the vet this week for an overnight stay because we thought she might have a urinary tract infection. We didn't intend for her to stay overnight, so we didn't take her any food. When she came home, she didn't have a urinary tract infection, but she did throw up probably everything she ate the previous 24 hours! So she went on the baby food diet and ate small meals every 2-3 hours until she kept everything down. She's now back to her normal self, as you can see from the above picture which isn't really all that good!


Tumbles and Hannah are working out the hierarchy in the cat population. It's stressful for me, but something that must happen. Hannah is not a fan of Tumbles' and all Tumbles wants to do is play, play, and romp. Hannah doesn't do stress very well either. It can cause her to have a flare up of her herpes which then ends up in an upper respiratory infection. So the lucky little girl has been getting lots of extra love and attention from both me and the husband. She came and snuggled with me under the covers this morning, which she only does when it's cold and she feels like it. I got lots of purrs from her!

The other night, I got a video of feeding time at our house. It's just about the only time Tumbles voices his opinion on things. If you'd like, you can check out the video on my Photobucket page.

One thing Tumbles has mastered in the last few weeks is lap sitting, but only in Mark's lap and only in the chair! LOL Silly boy loves Mark and loves to spend his evening in Mark's lap.

Total sweetness in that picture if you ask me. I remember when Mark really didn't want anything to do with cats!

That's my week in a nutshell! Hope you all are having a relaxing weekend!

Quaker Acorn--Last Finish of 2010

I put the final stitches in Quaker Acorn last night while watching the New Year's Eve shows on TV. This was a really fun stitch!

Quaker Acorn
The Workbasket
Stitched on 32 ct. Toasted Pumpkin linen from R&R
Fiber used: Mudpie--Crescent Colours' Belle Soie Silk

I want to thank all of you who posted on the passing of my Callie-girl. It's been a rough week, but I have peace knowing that she's no longer in pain or suffering. I know that many of you have walked this road and struggled with the same decision I struggled with. I still shed a tear every now and then, but I didn't cry myself to sleep last night, which is an improvement. Thank you for your care and concern.

Here's to a great 2011!!