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!

Model Stitching

It's always exciting when the designers release their designs that I model stitched for them.

I have 2 I can show you now and I loved stitching both of them so much that I will, no doubt, stitch them again for me.

The first is by Diane Williams of Little House Needleworks called "Hands to Work".  This one was just my style that I love to stitch.  You can see it here:

Little House Needleworks

The second one is by Nikki Leeman of Country Cottage Needleworks and is called "Be My Valentine".  I loved how the colors of pink looked against the color of the fabric and that you can stitch this one in its entirety or use some of the parts as "smalls".  You can see it here:

Country Cottage Needleworks

I enjoy model stitching for both these talented women.

Happy stitching!

Happy Friday!

We've actually had a rather boring uneventful week which is just fine with us.  Last Saturday we returned our DS to Austin (first day back at UT was Monday).  Our older DS caught a ride back the previous Wednesday with his roomie. So...we're back to empty nest again.

I finally packed up a stowed all the Christmas decorations.  Yay!  (Well, except for a few things that are DH's "department" and I'll encourage/help him with those this weekend.)  It feels good!

I decided to try to finish up some wips this year.  The first one I picked up was "Betsy's House" by Plum Street Samplers:

I'm also working on a PS freebie called "Welcome Home" for an exchange block:

I'm also excited to see that Diane of Little House Needleworks released a design for which I was the model stitcher.  It's called "Hands to Work".  I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this one...so much so that I was almost sad when it was finished.  For sure I'll be stitching it again for me.

We've had some cool enough weather this past week that I claimed a couple of "soup weather" days.  One day I made some homemade vegetable soup (I don't really have a recipe bc I made it up...and it can be different every time.  I used to call it "garbage soup" bc I'd make it on Fridays and put in all the little dabs of leftover veggies from that week.)  I made a big batch and kept out some of the leftovers and froze the rest for later.

I also tried a new recipe for Cheesy Broccoli Potato Soup which DH and I both loved.  What's even better is that it was easy peasy to make and doesn't call for any "exotic" ingredients (many of which I already had on hand.  I love a well-stocked pantry and freezer!) .  Yum!  I'll definitely be making this one again.

We have a neighborhood association annual meeting/get-together tonight for which I'll be baking some Texas Sheet Cake and some cheese breads.  While the oven's hot, I may bake something else to freeze for our use later.  I'm thinking maybe a pound cake that I'll divide into 4 "hunks".  (I'd like to stock up the freezer for those too-hot-to turn-on-the oven days that will be here soon enough.)

Until next time.....

Happy stitching!

Getting back to normal

I've taken down the Christmas decorations (although I still need to pack them all away--it's like a puzzle to me getting everything in their little boxes and then fitting them into the bins).  I'll do that next week when I'm here by myself.

One DS has returned to his college apartment.  The other one goes back tomorrow.

DH's care was indeed totalled and we bought him a replacement car last week.  He liked his old one so his new one is just a newer version.  It has a back-up camera, blue tooth (for the phone), and a little plug-in for an mp3 player.  We weren't thinking of it while choosing which color car but DS asked why, when 3 of our sons have attended University of Texas, we chose a maroon car (the color of Texas A+M).  I told him just to squint while looking at it and imagine that it's really scarlet for (The) Ohio State University (my alma mater).

I've been stitching a bit too and managed to finish 2 small LHN designs:

Seven Pines (I stitched this for a snowman themed exchange block.)

Happy Skater (from a JCS ornament issue)

There's a group doing a sal of an ornament each month this year so I'm going to try to keep up.

I also started another small piece, a little bagpiper guy that I was going to stitch for DD's (Scottish) bf, but I ran out of time before Christmas.  If they're still together next year, I'll be all set.  No picture yet but hopefully I'll have it finished next week.

One DS requested that I make "chicken cobbler" for dinner one night.  It's a recipe from Ina Garten and very popular in this household.  Here's the recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chicken-stew-with-biscuits-recipe/index.html

.....and here's a picture of my version:

Until next time......

Happy stitching!!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!

Our 2013 ended with sorrow.  My mother in law passed away the Sunday before Christmas. We feel blessed that DH was able to be with her and 2 of his siblings when she passed.

Summer 2011

He flew back here so we could have Christmas together and then he and I flew back to Pittsburgh for the funeral activities.  It's all very sad, but it was comforting to be with extended family and many of his old friends (some whom he hadn't seen in ages).  We arrived home just last night.

We're in the Central time zone but were so tired that we celebrated the new year during the Eastern time zone's midnight.  We weren't sure if we could stay awake one more hour.

We're still awaiting word from our insurance company about whether DH's car is worth the expense of repairing or if we'll be looking for another car for DH.  I'm hoping we hear something tomorrow since his work commute is one hour each way....he goes back to work tomorrow.

Before our trip, I'd frogged the leaves on LHN's My Dwelling Place bc they were so light, it was hard to see them against the fabric.  I restitched them in a darker green and I'm so glad I restitched them.  The piece looks so much better now.  It's my official last finish for 2013.

I finished 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, then picked up and read Brain on Fire by Susannah Calahan (I couldn't put this one down!).  Yesterday at the airport before boarding our first flight, I bought the Kindle edition of Sycamore Row by John Grisham and read about half of it while traveling yesterday.  So instead of stitching this past week, I was able to get a lot of reading done.  (I love to read about as much as I love to stitch.)

I spent (more than I'd planned) time in the kitchen today.  Later we'll have some black eye peas, ham, and cabbage casserole for dinner and some pound cake (that I'd baked and frozen before we left) with a little blueberry pie filling on top for dessert.  One DS has plans with a group of friends to watch Baylor's bowl game tonight and our other DS who's home hasn't been feeling well today so I think he'll stay here with the "old folks" tonight.

I started a January 1 project (with one of my groups).  My choice is Bestitched Lone Star Sampler.  I saw it stitched on some overdyed fabric when I was at the San Antonio LNS earlier this month and bought the fabric for it.  (I already had the leaflet;  in fact stitched it once for a friend's Texas themed family room.)

I'm hoping to have a progress picture to post soon.

Happy stitching!!