Happy New Year!

I finished stitching The Prairie Schooler's Home for Christmas before Christmas.  I'm hoping to figure out a way to share a frame (change out the stitching) with it, Harvest Time, and a spring/summer PS about the same size to change out for the different seasons.  We'll see how that goes.

We had a nice Christmas with 2 (out of 4) of our "children" here, talked to our son on the phone, and visited with our daughter's family via Facetime (at the same time as her in-laws in Scotland were on Facetime) to watch the grandchildren opening their gifts.  Isn't technology amazing?!

We're bucking our normal New Year's Eve tradition (staying home and watching the East Coast New Year arrive before going to bed) by going with friends a NYE party at our city's Civic Center.  There will be a band, dancing, good company, and refreshments.  I don't know if we can stand the excitement; we've both already talked about the need to take a nap this afternoon so we can stay up late tonight.

We've already started taking down the Christmas decorations.  This is earlier than I've ever done it (I usually wait until after the new year to start.) but since we're having our floors replaced next week (!) and need to do some prep for that, we thought it best to get an early start.

I'm currently stitching an oldie but goodie, Primitive Snowman by Ewe and Eye and Friends and also started a Little House Needleworks sampler repro, Melicent Turner, for a Sampler Sunday SAL on the LHN/CCN Facebook group.  I'd been wanting to start "Mellie" for some time so this was the push I needed to get started.  I chose to stitch her with the suggested overdyed cottons instead of springing for the silks as I was tempted.  After I finish Mellie, I may restart LHN's Elizabeth Hancock in a higher count fabric....WITH silks.  Woo Hoo!

I have ambitious stitching plans for 2020.  I often make plans and do some of it but also change my mind as the year goes by.  I'm in another SAL with some friends in which we'll each stitch one of the Carriage House Samplings Hawk Run designs.  I'd been collection silks for Autumn at HRH so that will be my Jan. 1 start.  There's also a SAL of Brenda Keyes' Red House sampler.  It's another one I'd planned to start so, by golly, I'll start that one too.  I'd planned to stitch Bent Creek stockings for our daughter and son-in-law that co-ordinate with the stockings I stitched the grandkids and then my oldest son asked if I could stitch stockings for him and his girlfriend.  Add in some Christmas ornaments, seasonal projects, some model stitching, and it looks to be a busy stitching year.  I'll never be bored let alone understand the meaning of that word.

Happy New Year and as always....

Happy Stitching!

Valentine's Day and Stitching Update

I'd intended to update my blog yesterday but the day didn't turn out quite as expected.  One of my walking buddies slipped on a wet floor where we went for coffee after our walk and I and another friend spent the morning with her in the ER and got her safely home.  (She needs surgery on a broken elbow but should recover nicely.)  Her DH is currently working out of state and we "mother hens" are probably driving her crazy checking on her until her DH arrives home today.

I quickly ran to the grocery store and came home to make a pie for last night's dinner.  We both thought a nice dinner at home would be preferable to waiting for a table at a noisy, crowded restaurant.  (We never know when DH will get home from work so didn't even try to make a reservation.)  Our Valentine dinner consisted of grilled rib-eye steak, baked potatoes with all the trimmings, a nice salad, and a blueberry/cranberry/orange pie.  We even cracked open a nice bottle of champagne that one of our kids gave us a while ago.  I'd forgotten about it but after the crazy day yesterday, it added a nice touch to dinner.  I even lit some candles!

Here are some of the Valentine stitching projects I've done over the years:

As for my current stitching, I finished the March LHN Calendar Girl.

I also made a little progress on LHN Elizabeth Hancock (although I noticed that I made a small boo boo) and LHN Adam and Eve.

Happy stitching!

A Tale of 2 Finishes (...and WIP progress)

As January was ending, I realized I hadn't chosen let alone stitched my Halloween moon-themed ornament for a sal so I chose this from the PS leaflet Boo Moon:

I should have paid closer attention to the next theme for Feb which is witches.  Oops!  Now to decide on another one with a witch!


Then, I though, since February is so short, I should probably get a head start on my Day 2 of the PS 12 Days of Christmas for the Christmas Ornament sal:

This one also works for a PS 12 Days sal on another group and a DEF sal on yet another group.


Then I spent some time working on LHN's Elizabeth Hancock.  Almost done with the verse:

We are lucky to live on a small lake.  Lately I've been noticing some visiting brown pelicans.  They hung out on our dock the other afternoon.  They're fun to watch, especially when they're fishing.

Happy stitching!

Little House Week for me

I've been working on LHN's Adam and Eve lately...and for a while now have been meaning to put my wip (ufo) of Elizabeth Hancock back on the stitching stand.  Finally the other day I loaded her on the stand and have been working a bit on the lettering.  I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy working with the silks!

We're enjoying a bit of cooler weather here and I plan to make a pot of chili (and maybe some cornbread) for tonight's dinner.

Happy stitching!

Friday again already!

Spring is springing here in SE TX.  My morning walks have been pleasant with warm temps, seeing the sun, and hearing the birds singing.

I've enjoyed watching the Olympics in the evenings.  I'll miss them when they finish.

Our oldest DS celebrated his 30th birthday yesterday.  How can he be that old?  (How can I be that old?!)

I'm still mostly model stitching but am working on LHN's Elizabeth Hancock on Sundays:

I'm also sneaking in a few stitches on some PS bookmarks I'm making for gifts:

DH and I enjoyed our quiet Valentine's Day last week.  The chocolate cake he baked was wonderful!

Happy Stitching!

A framed finish!

I enjoyed stitching Hinzeit's Charmed Valentine and since it's so close to Valentine's Day, I took this one to my framer almost immediately instead of letting it "properly age" in a drawer first.  I love my framer!  Besides charging reasonable prices and doing a good job, he's very fast.  I took this too him one morning and by the time I'd gotten home from running errands, he'd already called and left a message that it was ready to pick up.

I made a little more progress on my LHN Elizabeth Hancock this week too:

I'm really enjoying this one.  My progress on this one will probably slow down for a while because I'll be concentrating on another model.

We're having some more unusually cool/cold weather here in Texas.  I'm enjoying it!  I made some more cheesy broccoli potato soup last night for dinner.  Yum!  The bonus is having good leftovers for lunch.

I finished reading another Patricia Cornwell book...Postmortem.  I know it's an older book, but new to me and I enjoyed reading it.

I heard that University of Texas canceled classes again bc of freezing and semi-freezing precip.  It's been an unusual year for sure.  They hardly ever cancel classes due to weather conditions and they've already canceled or delayed 3-4 days (I've lost count) this winter.

Everyone keep warm and safe!

Happy stitching!

Stitching and a culinary adventure

We had another cold, icy day in the Houston area Tuesday.  DH opted to work from home instead of driving the almost hour (one way) to work that day.  It got down to 26 degrees that night...and today it's in the mid 70's.

I made some progress on LHN Elizabeth Hancock:

and started and finished the stitching on Hinzeit's Charmed Valentine:

All read to sew on the charms!

I bought us a deep fryer prior to Christmas (good deal then!) and finally got around to "breaking it in" by trying Ree Drummond's recipe for Homemade Glazed Donuts.

Ree's Donuts

OMG!!!  They're wonderful!  (....and dangerous to have around.)  I immediately invited a friend and her son to come over to sample them (and help eat a few of them).  Later I froze them (out of sight-out of mind, I hope) to give to my college boys next time we see them.  I think   They're pretty easy to make and I enjoyed using the deep fryer.

Happy stitching!

Progress on Elizabeth Hancock

I'm model stitching too so only stitched a bit on LHN Elizabeth Hancock.  Progress is progress though.  I'm really enjoying using the silks on this piece.

We went to a memorial service Sat. night and a member of the choir at that church invited me to sing with them in The Messiah.  I LOVE singing the Messiah so, of course, I said yes.  I went to my first rehearsal yesterday and remembered a lot more of it than I though I would.  So now since I'm singing in our choir's Christmas cantata and their Messiah, I'll be going to 3 rehearsals per week for a while.

Happy stitching!