one benefit of aging...

...is that although you might have to wear reading glasses to see your linen while stitching...

when you take them off, you don't see the pug hair or the twisty stitches!

The America Pillow
by Handwork Primitives
32 ct. unknown linen (calls for Sparrow by BOAF)
Gentle Art Sampler Threads

Here's my patriotic finish for the 4th, just a wee bit late! Started in June, this one took me forever it seemed, all of that border! I decided before starting on it, that I would not railroad my stitches, (something I usually do when stitching with two threads because I tend to twist my thread a lot while stitching), as that takes a lot more time for me. And since this will be a pillow that the dogs will just shed on, who's ever going to know that my stitches aren't flat? And I certainly can't tell without my glasses!

Here's another benefit of my getting older....I DON'T EVEN CARE ANYMORE! Life is just too short to fuss over such things. At least for me anyway! I have doggies to kiss, people to hug, pies to make...you get the picture!

Gotta run, Muttley is whining because his tennis ball is under the coffee table!
Have a Happy Weekend!

no stitching. just pie.

Oh, I have been stitching, and something patriotic to boot, but since it's the "lazy, hazy days of summer", I am trying my best to live up to the lazy part by refusing to iron it and take photos of it until it's complete!

So instead, may I present....

The Easiest and Best Key Lime Pie EVER



I thought twice about making this since it involves turning the oven on for a few minutes, but the fact that there are no eggs in the recipe made me forge ahead.
My family was glad about that ;-)

Here's the recipe (please note that I had a typo on this recipe when it was first posted, but it's correct now)

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
2 cans sweetened condensed milk (I used Eagle Brand)
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lime zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime zest. Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of pie. DO NOT BROWN! (mine never did get the little pinholes and I baked it ten minutes then took it out and it was perfect!)

Chill pie thoroughly before serving. Garnish with lime slices and whipped cream if desired.

If you would like to be lazy like me, you can use this stuff, instead of squeezing all those tiny limes....



We happen to go through a LOT of limes in this house, so I had some zest already, but I think this pie would be fine without it. You can also use the fat free Eagle Brand milk to reduce calories but whatever!
One piece ain't gonna kill ya.


Last week was my birthday and here's one of the bestest things I received, just had to share....



Isn't it adorable?! (thank you sweet Nancy if you're reading this, I love you!)
I was truly spoiled by my family, friends and coworkers and felt completely undeserving of everything!

Life is good. Pie is good. Enjoy it.

the winner

is Tricia!
(no blog)

There were 35 stitchers names that I entered into the random generator thingy, in the order the comments were received, and this is what it came up with....


There were 35 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1.Tricia
2.Meghann
3.Tanya
4.Sharon
5.Joanie
6.Autumn
7.Patti
8.Rosa
9.Siobhan
10.Terri(TerriBoog)
11.Jan P.
12.Nancy
13.Marjorie
14.Kristen
15.Barbeeque4(Edgar)
16.Jan
17.Sadie
18.Lynn
19.Deb
20.Dee L
21.TammyK
22.Violet
23.Sandra
24.Melissa
25.Rebekka
26.John (Pam)
27.Natalie
28.Tammy
29.Heather
30.Jolene
31.Leslie
32.Kathy N.
33.Judy
34.Missy
35.Staci
Timestamp: 2009-06-27 17:20:45 UTC

Congratulations Tricia! I'm off to email you now!
Thanks everyone for playing along and letting me know you're on the dark side too ;-)

link for the angel ornament

Several of you have asked where I got the tombstone angel ornament, so I wanted to let y'all know...(in case you don't win the drawing on Sat.), that I got them from the Bay of Evil (as I've heard it called...I for one, love ebay!)...anyhoo...this seller, stitchinthedayaway was lovely to deal with! I don't know her personally, but thought these were very reasonably priced, and her shipping charges were good as well! Not to mention, these are adorable in person :-)

split personality (& a giveaway)

Yep, Terri was right when she guessed that I was referring to a tombstone sampler in my last post!



While I love the cute, with Shepherd's Bush, etc. (not to mention my love for Mary Engelbreit), I am drawn to the dark side...



and this little design from The Primitive Needle features one of my favorite tombie sayings



I stitched this little sampler on 36 ct. PTP Ale linen over two with one strand WDW Onyx....a very enjoyable stitch!



Any other morbid fans out there? If you'd like to have this little chart, AND a beeswax tombstone angel ornament (like the one pictured here) of your very own



just let me know on this post and I'll have a drawing on Saturday, the 27th, for a winner! And if you want to stitch it with the WDW Onyx, let me know that as well, and I'll include it with the prizes :-) Let your tombie friends know, they can enter their names too!

an old wip and some little finishes

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with me on the last post, it sure was helpful to have some opinions on the matter. I've decided to just leave the framed sampler as it is....I had lived with it for all the years that it awaited a frame, (TEN!) so there's really no good reason to freak out over the missing parts now...

And speaking of things that are ten years old, here's an oldie from Ewe & Eye & Friends that has been in the WIP box for a looooooooooong time....




I feel pretty certain that I did not start on this in 1999, but that's the date on it....



had all of it done but filling in the grass area...and it's really shameful how long this was waiting for me to do that part...



After finishing up that, I was in a patriotic mood, so I pulled out this little quickie kit from Shepherd's Bush...



as you might guess, it's called Peace for All....



And of course, I cannot do just one SB design at a time, and this one had been calling my name...



it's called Glad Heart



such a joy to stitch



I especially loved the cherries on this!



From bright and cheerful to terribly morbid, that's me....wait until you see the next thing I'm working on, lol!

finally framed!

This one only took me exactly ten years to get framed....and no good reason for that time frame, just that I had other stuff framed instead, and pushed this one to the back of the line....

(this is the indoor shot)



and here's the outdoor shot....



This is from Little by Little Designs, and is called "Tale of This & That Sampler".

(OH CRAP! I just saw a picture of this design HERE! and realized that the cover model shows the designers name and date stitched in the cartouche along the top! Now that I look at mine, it looks BARE!!! OMG, did I just completely mess this up??? I can't believe that I would leave that off! And there are also other initials added that I didn't do. What the heck?? Should I redo it??)




It was the first thing I'd ever stitched on hand dyed linen with silk threads, and good golly Miss Molly, was I ever hooked after that, lol!



And here's my little "Be Kind" by Homespun Elegance that I stitched earlier this year. The frame is also from Homespun Elegance.



Now I'm thinking I need to go ahead and stitch the "Be True" that was on the same chart....had talked myself out of doing it, mainly because I was ready to work on something Shepherd's Bush at the time. Hmmm....

Thanks for visiting! Have a good weekend y'all!

earth sampler

Oh what fun I had stitching this one!



It was very enjoyable, right down to the last stitch :-)



It was stitched on the recommended Ale linen (from Picture This Plus), I used 36 count, with the threads called for except I used GAST Cinnamon for the bunny because the Sable I had was just Ugly, (if you look ugly up in the dictionary, I'm pretty sure you'll see my skein of Sable)!



So what is it with this designer anyway? I just love all of her designs! Not to mention, she's cute as a button! She just doesn't know how to put out something I don't like!

Astro says "Hey y'all! Have a great weekend!"




And you know, with the look on his face, you'd better do it :-)

sweet summertime treat

My friend Sheri gave me the recipe for this ice cream dessert she is famous for. It was something she always brought to our stitch group lake retreats, by our request...we lived for this!

Here's a picture of what the whole thing looks like....



my family demolished it soon after this picture and in the frenzy, I didn't get a picture of the layers, so use your imagination...

Here's what you need:

1 package Oreo cookies, crushed, with about 1/2 to 3/4 cup crumbs reserved for topping
1 stick melted butter
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream (I use Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla), softened enough to be spreadable
1 can Hershey's chocolate syrup
1 tub Cool Whip, thawed

In 9x13 pan, mix Oreo crumbs with melted butter and pat down evenly. Spread softened ice cream (all of it) over Oreo layer, freeze until firm.
Next, pour whole can of syrup over ice cream layer, freeze again until syrup hardens.
Spread Cool Whip over top of syrup layer and then top with reserved Oreo crumbs. Freeze until firm again or serve immediately. (the easiest way to cut this is with a metal spatula, in my opinion :-)

So easy, and yet so good! I'm wondering about different combinations of cookies and such...like maybe Nutter Butters and caramel syrup...hmm, the possibilities could be endless....I'll get back with you on that. Blue Bell is on sale at the grocery store this week ;-)

almost half way there

In our little family, two birthdays mark the mid-way point of the year, one falls on June 30th and the other one, on July 1st. Happy times. And this year, more so than ever as it means I'll be halfway done with 2009, which so far has done nothing but kick my patootie!!

Anyhoo, I'll spare you all the gory details, and just offer up some pretty pictures instead :-)

Here is my Cape Cod Girls....



design by The Primitive Needle and stitched on 36 ct. PTP Highland with recommended threads....



and this is Westwinds, by Carriage House Samplings...






which I stitched on some unknown 32 ct. linen with recommended NPI silks. I wasn't that happy with the coverage of one strand over two, but was already halfway done when I decided that, so I just kept stitching and tried not to think about it ;-)



this birdie was my favorite part of the whole thing!




Here are my boys....


Astro, soakin' up some sunshine....




and Muttley, who is too busy worrying about what's in my hand (maybe it's FOOD!!) to pose for a cute picture....




and while we were outside, I snapped a picture of this old cross stitch that's sitting in my Fuchsia plant....



If I recall correctly, it was from a Debbie Mumm kit...these used to be one of my favorite things to stitch in the 90's....she had some Christmas ornament kits I did as well, all on plastic canvas and I can remember having to use a leather thimble on my finger while stitching, otherwise it would bleed from pushing the needle through with all that thread on it...thinking it was at least three strands...



This little chick has held up pretty well over the years, she's been chewed on, gotten wet, sunburned, dirty...but she's still here. Hmm, kinda like me, lol!