I Love It When That Happens!

 

Admittedly, I am a stitching daredevil.  Living life on the edge, throwing caution to the wind...So it is always pretty exciting when I join two sides of a border or in this case, the wreath on this piece.  I do not graph my fabric or mark it in any way. I am old school and count my stitches and compare against the pattern often.  I am happy to report that everything lined up and I can breathe more easily.  I still have a lot of stitching to do on her, but the hardest part is over.  

Yesterday turned out to be a stitching day.  I had intended to paint my office/craft room, but it is really cold and windy here.  Like the wind cuts through you.  I could not get warm the entire day.  So I did not go to Home Depot to get my paint.  I hate to be cold.  

It was also meal prep day yesterday.  I try to make a couple of things for the fridge that I can just grab during the week.  One of my favorite lunches is a lentil, feta and bruschetta salad.  It is just so good.  I like really bright flavors.  The recipe is one that I found on a Trader Joe's Facebook page.  Unfortunately, for about the past year, Trader Joe's was having supply chain issues and did not have the bruschetta.  I finally gave up and found a copycat recipe that is fresh and so much better.   If you are interested both the salad and the bruschetta recipe can be found here: https://alexandracooks.com/2022/07/01/homemade-bruschetta-sauce-trader-joes-copycat-recipe/

It is so fresh tasting and a bit healthier than TJ's.  I buy the fresh Campari tomatoes at Costco to make mine and  I grow the basil on my countertop in my Aerogarden.  I also put a pinch of sugar in the mix to cut the acid in the tomatoes.  So delicious!  

So now that I have faced my fear with the Lady of the Needle, I am thinking about my other large WIP's.  The largest two are Teresa Wentzler's Fruit Bellpull and the Stoney Creek Hummingbird Trellis.  I might have to take a look at these two now that some time has passed.  Teresa Wentzler patterns are notorious for confetti stitching.  While the finished project is so beautiful, with the depth of color that comes with the variety of color, it can cease to be fun because there are no real blocks of one color.  The Hummingbird Trellis is just large, with blocks that are just white.  Two extremes.

Hoping you stay warm this week!

Stitchy Progress!

 

I am close to closing the loop of the wreath.  Once I do that, I have to go through and fill in a lot of the places that I have missed.  Mark my words, I shall never stitch on black fabric again.  I feel like I am seeing triple.  It is really hard on the eyes.  I do love the way the finished product looks, but seriously.  

I woke up to total happiness today.  My son sent me a video text of my little 10 month old grandson taking some steps.  He just decided while he was standing that he was going to let go and start walking toward his daddy.  He had this determined little look on his face.  I am so proud of him but I can't believe how fast he is growing.

My craft room is in bad need of being painted.  I am thinking that tomorrow may be the day!  I have been looking at paint samples for in there for some time.  My craft room/office is blue and white.  I thought about blue walls, or bluish gray.  I know gray walls are very in, but it just seemed kind of depressing, so I think that I will go with a buff neutral.  I think this will look a lot warmer.  So off to Home Depot I go tomorrow.

This will actually be my second trip to Home Depot this week.  I had to run in to pick up some drain cleaner the other day.  I always park by the Garden Center because it makes me happy to walk past all of the plants.  I am counting the days until March 3rd, the last date for frost here in the Almanac.  I can't wait to start my garden.  I miss the way that soil smells when you first work on it in the Spring.  

So, as I was walking through the Garden Center, I saw that they had all kinds of cool things that I havd not intended to buy that day.  I have two fig plants, strawberry plants, potato starters, sweet potato starters, scallion and onion sets. I thought to myself that between all of that and the seeds that I have bought from Baker Creek, I am all set.  I really wanted the dahlia bulbs, too, but I had to rein myself in.  For now. LOL

Enjoy the Superbowl tomorrow!  I hope you get lots of stitching time in!