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!

Nancy's having another great giveaway on her blog

Check here for details:

Victoria Motto Sampler Shoppe

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm model stitching this week so I can't show my current stitching progress.  Instead I'll post some pictures of some of my Valentine's Day stitching:

Book recommendation:  I just finished reading this book:

The Defining Decade

DH and I heard the author being interviewed on PBS on the way back from visiting our college boys so we bought the book.  I HIGHLY recommend it to "Twentysomethings" and their parents.  She explains common issues that occur during this time of life (developmentally, culturally, etc.) and suggests ways for Twentysomethings to take charge of planning their futures, both career-related and personal/relationship-related.  We're passing the book along to our boys to read.

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!

Brrrrrr!!

It's the Houston area Ice-pocolypse of 2014!  Now, I know for many of you, it's laughable.  (...and since I lived many years "up North", I have to agree somewhat).  But high temps in the 30's and frozen precipitation is pretty unusual for here and many people don't know how to drive in it.  Many schools (and some businesses) have closed for the day and people are pretty excited (especially the news media).

I was planning on hibernating today until I remembered my Friday am coffee group so off I went.  It wasn't all that bad here (we're about an hour south of Houston) but DH decided to wait a couple of hours before driving to Houston to work.  I'm thinking that was a wise decision.  I heard on the radio that the Houston police responded to >250 accidents before 9:30 am.  By the time DH got up to Houston, they had sanded the overpasses and the traffic was very light.

Austin must be experiencing similar weather.  U of Texas canceled classes for the day.  One of my student DS's texted me asking for a tomato sauce recipe.  He plans to make good use of the day to make lasagna for himself and some friends.

My comfort food of choice will be to make some baked ziti.

On the stitching front, I worked a bit this week on LHN's Elizabeth Hancock.  Samplers are my first love and I fell in love with this reproduction sampler the first time I laid eyes on it.  I'm using Belle Soire silks--love them!!!

I put a few stitches in Betsy's House but not enough to even take a progress picture.

I also started CCN's Sugar Plums from the 2009 JCS ornament issue.  I'd stitched this once before and made it into an ornament for an exchange but I wanted to stitch it again for me.

We have a pretty quiet weekend planned so I look forward to enjoying this cold weekend by staying in and stitching.

Stay warm!

Happy Stitching!

Nancy's having another contest at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

You can read about it here:

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe


Happy stitching!