feels like summer

Just a fly-by post so no one thinks I'm dead or anything. Although, I am wilting at an alarming pace with the hot weather we've had. The picture above was taken from our seat at the coffee shop downtown the other day when Patti and I had a little visit. I thought that bike was pretty cool!

Not much stitching to report. Shoulder and hand pain, along with other things have left me with nothing good to show. I'd like to say thanks for everyone that visited from Terri's blog (when she had the giveaway) and left such nice comments. Y'all are sweet. And Terri's a doll, isn't she? I gained some new followers (and lost a few after she had the drawing, lol), and promise to be back soon with some stitchy goodness to share.

Take care, happy weekend (and summer, even if it hasn't officially started yet ;-) )

one flag and some insomnia

Here's my latest finish....One Flag



design by Hands to Work



stitched on 29 count Cottonfields Glenshee with DMC thread.

A very enjoyable stitch! Plans are to have it made into a pillow. It will look good beside this one, don't you think? And this one too, once they're both made into pillows that is ;-)



(I am changing how I post pictures, because blogger was driving me crazy since I changed it over to the "easier" version...anyway, you can still enlarge the pictures by clicking on them, it will take you to my Flickr page, and all the sizes are available for download there).

Lately I've had terrible bouts of insomnia. I'm a night owl anyway, but the past few weeks have been really worse, maybe it's just hormones, who knows. Anyway, I've been productive at least, as evidenced by these yummy garlic and onion croutons





I am probably the last person to catch on to the fact that homemade croutons are better and cheaper than store bought, but there it is. My oldest daughter calls these "crack-tons", so reckon that means they're pretty good. I just saved leftover buns, bread, misc. whatevers that were perfectly fine but going stale, kept collecting them in the freezer until there was enough (a lot). Cut it all up into cubes, sprinkled heavily with garlic and onion powders, then olive oil and baked them in a slow (250 or 275 degree) oven until they were crispy. Took about an hour I guess, stirring them every 20 minutes or so.

Then, I made these out of a free baguette that I'd gotten from Central Market:



Just sliced the baguette up, brushed with some extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled with sea salt and baked them in the same oven until they were crispy. YUM-E! Also, the next evening, I made these:



Baker's Potatoes (second recipe on that page) in front, and a tomato pie in the back. We've eaten off of it all for two days :-) The potatoes are very good, however, if you bake them as directed, the tops don't get as tender as the bottoms. Next time, I'll either turn them as they cook, or put them in a deeper dish and cover them in the broth. Otherwise, very good. The tomato pie? Well, let's just say I have cash offers to make these for my hubby's coworkers, that's how tasty it is :-) (it's best when it's served cold)

Next bout of insomnia, I'm making DOGGIE BISCUITS!! Pugs will probably be all over that one ;-)

remember me

It's back from the framers! That was fast! They actually got it done in one week, it just took me another week to get back over there and get it...

Blackbird Designs Remember Me, from the Tokens of Friendship book.
Stitched on 40 ct. Autumn Gold with called for threads.

Wanted to share my mother's day cake with y'all, it was from Janie's Cakes....



Janie's Cakes in Tyler, Texas

A sweet friend of mine got me the lemon one for my 40th birthday a few years back...it was SO delicious. Well, I hadn't had one since then, but when my friend Patti and I were in Central Market the week before Mother's Day, we rounded the corner and saw these sitting on a table...I'm pretty sure I squealed like a little girl because you just don't see these in stores! They are very good, and have been reviewed in Country Living Magazine and others. Patti got the lemon one for her family and I ended up getting this one for mine, it's called "The Saucy Jane", for chocolate lovers, it was wonderful! It said on the Janie's website that the cakes would only be at Central Market through Mother's Day weekend, but Patti and I were there again today, and they still have them. I'm telling you all this because if you live close to a CM, you should go and get you one, they are totally worth it. I didn't get another one today, and now I'm kind of regretting it! The shipping costs on these are pretty high, and obviously you don't pay that at CM :-)

Thanks for visiting! Have a great weekend :-)

sarah esh

Another Sarah, this one from Carriage House Samplings

Stitched on 32 count Picture This Plus Ale...

with two strands DMC thread

a most enjoyable stitch!

It's starting to warm up here. Another good reason to not do housework! Yesterday I vacuumed and swept the whole house in the morning, and was drenched in sweat perspiration by the time it was done. (I wanted to say drenched in sweat, but my Mama always said "Ladies don't sweat, they perspire", so there. ;-) )

Anyway, next time I vacuum I may end up with just a leaf covering me, like Eve!

And yeah, not in the mood to cook either, perspiring over a hot stove is just not my thing! The crockpot comes in handy in the summer, don't you think? Although...it can warm the house up too. At least our house, which is not that big. I am thinking of putting it (the crockpot) out in the sun room and letting it do it's thing out there, we keep the door to that room closed off when it's too hot, or too cold, unless we're sitting out there.

Anyway, here's a good crockpot recipe for you, Shredded Beef for Burritos.

We just tried it last week and it was DELICIOUS! And if you have leftovers, they are even better! We got some freshly made tortillas from Central Market, the butter kind and the southwest kind, which are a little bit spicy, put the meat and some cheese inside and rolled them up. YUM!!

PS. I used the Kroger brand taco sauce, the hot one, 10 oz. It was cheaper than the Ortega brand (which had 8 oz in it) and it turned out perfectly!

Thanks for visiting my blog! I noticed on my stat counter that I'm almost at 70,000 hits, which is BIG for little ol' me ;-) My friend Patti and I were are our LNS last week, Needlework Boutique (which is a dream to shop at, they have everything!) and ran into some sweet ladies who had just read my blog and seen the  BBD piece I'd posted, which was laying there on the table.

Small world, huh?

(Hi Amy, Hi Trish!)

an oldie and a winner

First things first, the winner of the Mary's Best Handework chart is Alice from France! Alice, I'll be emailing you soon for your mailing address!

Here's the oldie I was referring to in the title:



The design is from Blackbird Designs, but I can't really recall which book it's from. Maybe Summer Souvenir? **edited to add - the design is from the Tokens of Friendship book** It was stitched on 40 ct. Autumn Gold from R&R, with one strand overdyed threads, whatever it called for :-) The fabric is much darker in person than what's showing here.
Someone (can't remember who, sorry), had posted a picture of this design on their blog and it made me remember that I had stitched it! Knew it was in the finished pile, not yet framed, so I went digging for it. Can hardly believe it's been 6 years since I stitched it! Goodness! So it will be headed to the framers this weekend, about time, don't-cha-think? That finished pile really needs some working on, that much is true :-)

Have a great week y'all!

wag the dog?

"Does the dog wag the tail, or does the tail wag the dog? You see the tail moving, you assume the dog is wagging it, and enjoying it, but maybe the tail is wagging the dog, and the dog is enjoying the attention!"

Here's the puppy dog tail that I left off...



my hubby said to just leave it, no one would ever know, but I knew it would bug me, so it took me all of about 15 minutes last night to fix it and now I can sleep at night ;-)

Here's the whole thing again. Although I couldn't get a very good picture because it's so overcast outside today.



Don't forget to let me know if you'd like to enter the drawing for the chart (see below).

Mary's Best Handework

Here's what I've been working on the past week or so, and managed to finish up the other night...



The design is from With thy Needle & Thread, and is called Mary's Best Handework



it is stitched on 30 count WDW Parchment linen with DMC threads, two over two, and measures around 9.5 by 12.5 inches...



a very enjoyable stitch!



I loved the reds in this the most, followed by the sheep in the grass and the little doggie. (WHICH, by the way, I noticed after I posted this.....is TAIL-LESS!!!! OMG! So, I will have to go back and fix it, because seriously, TAIL-LESS???? No way. Click here to see how he should look!)



I'd love to pass along the chart, which has been gently used of course ;-)
If you'd like to have it, let me know and I'll draw a name for it next Wednesday, May 5th.

Have a great weekend y'all!

Oh, and for those of you wondering, the rosemary plant is still alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

sarah seifer

It's embarrassing to admit just how long it took me to finish this one...



(especially since I just had to have it a few years ago and a friend sent it to me right away)...



so I won't! But there she is, Sarah Seifer, a design by The Goode Huswife. Stitched on 35 count Daily Grind linen with DMC threads :-)



Thanks for all of the advice on the rosemary! And thanks too, to those who weren't too shy to step up and confess their own plant killing skills! Whew! Some people have a gift for growing things...my mother is one of them, she can grow anything! When I was growing up, she had huge greenhouses, sold plants to the public....whole rooms full of African violets, you name it, she could grow it. Still can. But that gene did not get passed along to me!
Anyway, I transferred the rosemary to a planter pot thing for now, cause we can't figure out where in the yard it might be the happiest. Hopefully it will live and grow and be big enough to take some sprigs from for my potatoes! OH! The potato recipe I was referring to is on the PW food blog, you can't imagine how delicious these are and so simple to make! Try them!

Surprise!




Just kidding, I did not buy a basil plant, lol! Just got this fresh bunch from Central Market for a recipe. Fresh herbs are so awesome, I really wish we had a whole yard full of them. Dream on, right? ;-)

gift from a friend & rosemary!

Still plugging away on my Village and some other things too...I seem to be having some Attention Deficit problems where my stitching is concerned, ahem. So in the meantime, I wanted to share something my friend Patti stitched for me.
It was actually a Christmas gift this past year, and finally, four months later, I post about it!

Isn't it lovely?








Patti used some sparkly threads in the wings of the bees, it's kind of hard to pick up with the camera though. Thank you again Patti, your stitching is perfect, as always!

OK, see this pretty little rosemary plant?



Well, I am infamous for my plant killing skills. Trust me. Even my hubby calls me "the Morticia of the plant world". Plants come here to die. It's not pretty. But despite my knowledge of this, I keep on lying to myself! I got this on the way into Central Market with Patti a couple of weeks ago, maybe a week and a half. Because there's a killer (oh hahahaha) potato recipe I've been making that uses rosemary and I thought, oh boy, FRESH rosemary, how wonderful would that be? (Silly, stupid disillusioned woman)! So....we're walking through the store and a lady working in the deli department spotted it and said "oh, are you going to plant some rosemary? It's very hardy and easy to grow, it'll take over". I said, "yes, I'm going to try, but I kill everything"! She said "I can't get rid of mine, it keeps coming back, even after I put a big rock on top of it, it grew back up around the rock". I'm just shaking my head, thinking, lady, you don't know me, I'm the grim reaper of plants, seriously.

So can you see where this is headed? I won't show you a picture of it, but believe me when I tell you that part of it is already dead. It's in my sun room, getting plenty of light (indirect), I've watered it, misted it (which did perk it up some), read the directions over and over (not watering too much, etc). But yep, still trying to die. I'd like to plant it in the back yard but with three male pugs that use the back yard as their bathroom, there's a lot of hiking and peeing on things, so that's probably a worse idea. Maybe out front....we have a flower box on the front porch that gets a lot of sun (direct)...any ideas? Put it in a pot or plant it in the ground?

I'd like to keep it alive at least until I make the potatoes again ;-)

April sneaks in and brings us a winner!

Gosh, time sure does fly! Hard to believe it's April already! And I realized this morning that yesterday was actually Wednesday and the day I was supposed to have the drawing for the Noah chart!! Well, I declare! I have to admit, I was just too busy all day with a girlfriend, shopping and having lunch and then making dinner and playing with my stash....the drawing completely slipped my mind!
But better late than never though, so I entered the names into the Random Generator this afternoon and Cari in VA is the winner!
Congratulations Cari, I hope you will enjoy stitching this wonderful design...it was one of my very favorite stitches! I love all things Noah :-) Anyway, please email me your mailing address and I will get it off to you!

Thanks to everyone that entered for the drawing, and those that didn't but left sweet comments anyway. It's always fun to hear from y'all, and I really appreciate you taking time to let me know you were here!

So anyway, Happy April!



Here's an oldie from Ewe & Eye & Friends I stitched a while back and actually finished into the little stand up myself. He is not perfect, but I think he's cute!
Have been working on my Village and didn't get pictures this week because of having too much fun!

Meanwhile, Astro is feeling pretty good lately, he's over the broken nail incident



although, he's not over the baby food and still wants to have some twice a day, pill or no pill! Pugs have good memories, I'm just sayin'!

Well, I'd better be off, lots to do to get ready for Easter Sunday coming up. That one sure did sneak up on me!

Take good care Peeps!