Variety

I have a variety of things to show you today. Hubby and I have been trying to get out and walk at different parks lately. At one park we saw some geese in the lake.

At another there was a turtle swimming in the bay.

Despite my tomato plants looking like they are half-dead, they are yielding a bounty of cherry and grape tomatoes.

I have added this cute little lady bug to my back yard. I used to have several little figurines around our pool, but over the years they've gotten broken. 

I need to defrost the large freezer in my basement, but first I need to use most of the food that is in it. I decided to try to make room for some of it in the freezer part of my refrigerator and found many, many Italian bread halves that we save from when we order in. The restaurant always gives us two halves and we only share at most one at dinner. I sometimes slice them thin and make bruschetta, but this time I decided to make some croutons out of 3 of halves to go with our salad. I used this recipe for Homemade Croutons and it was delicious. 

I will be making these again to use up more of those breads.

I cut up more fabric for the Log Cabin Star quilt.

I have added some stitches to the bow of the gift that Santa is holding. 

I have been spending most of my stitching time on the secret stitching so there is not much progress to show. Here is a peek at a pretty rose.

Unfortunately, the arthritis in my right thumb has started acting up again probably due to all the stitching I am trying to accomplish and I can only stitch 2 or 3 18" strands a day.

Now for a story. My current dishwasher is 14 years old. It works perfectly fine, but the racks are rusting and staining my dishes. It also gets mold under the utensil rack and a few other places that we are constantly battling as it has an old polymer interior. Hubby and I went to our local appliance store and I ordered a new, not inexpensive, dishwasher with a stainless steel interior. I don't want any more mold. Wednesday the crew that delivers and installs the dishwasher came bright and early. The installer walks in to my kitchen, looks at the old dishwasher and immediately tells me that the new one won't fit. Now trust me when I tell you that I researched and measured before buying. He measures the opening which he states is 23 1/2". The dishwasher needs a 24" wide opening. He goes back and forth measuring and declares that it can't be installed. He says I will get a call. It is loaded onto the truck and off they go. Hubby and I decide to go to the store and get this sorted out. I remeasure the opening and I find the manual to my current dishwasher that includes it's dimensions. At the store, the salesman is very helpful and actually finds our purchase of our current dishwasher on their computer. Guess what? The dimensions of the old dishwasher are virtually the same as the new one. Specifically, the widths are identical. We are told that the polymer tubs give a little during installation and the steel ones do not which is why they believe that our current dishwasher fit in the space, but they need to speak with the installation supervisor who is at another location so we go home. I decide to start researching other dishwashers just in case it is determined that I need to find something else. Now I need to tell you that supply is very limited. I originally tried to order a dishwasher that was one step down from the one I ordered and the store had no idea when they might be getting it. There was a two week delay on the one they wouldn't install. Thankfully mine works.

So I find two other dishwashers that are possibilities. We decide to return to the store and speak with the store manager who wasn't in when we first went. He was exceedingly nice and went through the same procedure. Noting that the old dishwasher is the SAME WIDTH as the new one. He looks up the two new dishwasher choices that I have made. One has over 40 people waiting for it and they aren't expecting any units to come in next month, the other has 30 people waiting for it and they are expecting 3 units next month. Sigh.... The manager says to wait until he hears from the installation manager and he will call us. We go home.

The store manager calls us and says that the installer insists that we only have a 23 1/2" opening and they can't install the dishwasher that we ordered. We need to go back to the store so they can process a refund. I am not a happy camper so I took pictures of the opening just to show the manager that the installer was wrong. Hubby and I measured the opening with 3 different measuring tapes and yard sticks.

I am not sure what we are going to do next. I think I am just going to look for another polymer tub dishwasher and wait until it arrives. My old one was fine and I don't think I will be in this house another 14 years. I will get an upgraded one in my next kitchen. Just have to decide whether to go back to my usual appliance store or try another. 

Well that was my story for this week. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I think I will work on some more secret stitching today.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Santa Progress

This is where Santa was on the last update.

I have finally finished the grey stitching on Santa's beard. Filling in the white floss will happen later as I don't want all of that white getting dirty. Once all the other stitching is done, I will work my way through the white. 

I have also started working on the bow on the gift that Santa is holding.

Yesterday, I bought a few perennial plants. I had wanted to get a bunch at the end of Spring, but hurting my shoulder put all that on hold. I made a quick trip to a local nursery and bought a lavendar plant,

 some purple Salvia

and  two Gazania. The last plant is new to me, but I think will bring a nice pop of yellow where I planted them. 

My tiger lily now has all 5 blooms open. I am loving it!

This week Hubby and I took a day trip out to the North Fork of Long Island. We visited a farm stand and Marcari Vineyard.

We enjoyed a bottle of chardonnay, a charcuterie tray  and a pretty view at the vineyard.

It was a really nice day away from the house.

Thanks so much to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other talented bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. You will see a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, 

Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan,

 Deborah, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy,

 Anne, AJ, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Stitching

I have been cutting out the green fabric for the Log Cabin Star quilt. I need to cut 9 different shapes.  For each shape I need 6-7 pieces of each of 32 different green fat quarters. I have cut 9 different fabrics so far.

I am using a wide variety of fabrics with dusty green, blue green and teal

I have added some stitches to my secret stitching and some rows to my baby blanket. Here is a sneak peek of the secret stitching. I am working on finishing all the colors in this rose.

I recently finished reading "The Island House" by Nancy Thayer and "A Cup of Silver Linings" by Karen Hawkins. I really liked both of these books. Now I am reading "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks.

My tiger lily has started to bloom and it is gorgeous!

I have many more flowers to share with you from Hubby and my recent trip to Longwood Gardens with our son. You can find that photo heavy post here.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I think I will spend some time stitching Santa today.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Pennsylvania visit

Last weekend Hubby and I made a short trip to visit our son in Pennsylvania. He lives in a fairly new apartment building in King of Prussia. He is using his balcony for a small garden. His tomato plant looks much better than either of mine. 

This is the view of the courtyard of his apartment building from his balcony.

On Sunday we drove to Longwood Gardens. We had gone there once before in the Fall which was wonderful. The gardens in the Spring are magnificent though. Here are some photos for you to enjoy. There are a lot of photos and a couple of videos. The best video is the last one.

My son was taking photos of the flowers to send to his fiancee.

Along the garden walk, the flowers were grouped by color. Below is the pink/purple area.

Some of the plants are bolder than others.

I love trailing vines.

The plant below is called Angels Trumpets and we saw it in yellow, white and pink/coral. It is quite impressive to see in person.

As you can see we made it to the red section below.

We got a photo of the two of us. Yay! Look at all those gorgeous flowers.

I never found out what kind of tree is below, but it was so very pretty.

Below is the yellow version of the Angel's Trumpets.

Below is a few videos of the Italian Water Garden. I loved seeing the water pour down the staircase.

It was nice to cool off walking through a wooded area with pretty ferns...

and a redwood tree.

There were two different fountain shows while we were there. The first was very nice and was accompanied by music and an informational narration. 

The second show was all music and quite impressive. I have included a video below.

I hope you all get to visit Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania someday. I would like to return around Christmas as it is supposed to be a festival of lights at that time. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Stitching

Hubby and I celebrated 36 years of wedded bliss by going out to dinner for the first time since February 2020. We enjoyed a couple of cocktails then a delicious dinner.

 Dessert was a shared tiramisu.

I have been busy this past week cutting the fabric pieces needed for the quilt I have planned for my daughter and her husband. I finally finished cutting the beige fabrics. 

I have managed to find quite a variety of beige fat quarters.

Each of those baggies have almost 200 pieces with one having almost 800. Whew! Now I have to cut the green fabrics. There are almost as many pieces needed and almost all of them have a 45 degree angle on one end. This is going to take a while. I am not even sure I have all of the green fabric that I need, but I will get started on cutting and then figure out if I need more. 

I haven't worked on Santa at all this week as I have been concentrating on the secret stitching. 

I have been adding rows to the Butterfly Baby Blanket when watching TV. Hubby and I have a short overnight road trip planned. I will bring this blanket with me to work on in the car. 

I have been reading a lot. I recently finished "6 Rainier Drive" by Debbie Macomber and "The Clockmaker's Daughter" by Kate Morton. The first is such an easy read and I am enjoying working my way through this series. I enjoyed "The Clockmaker's Daughter", but found it a little dark and depressing. 

I am currently reading "The Island House" by Nancy Thayer. This is yet another book delving into family and friend relationships. I am enjoying it though I am not going to rave about this book. 

I received good news on Friday. My shoulder is getting better. Although it isn't fully healed as yet, I no longer need to wear the sling and I can start driving. Physical therapy must wait until after my next appointment in 4 weeks. Progress.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Happy Fourth!

It is Independence Day here in the USA. My shoulder has prevented me from dragging out the box with my patriotic decorations. I usually have swags on my front porch. Hubby will hang our flag out front though. At least I have a new decoration for inside my house.

Last summer I finished stitching this Fourth of July cross-stitch, but I never made it into a finished decoration. I remedied that this past week. 

Isn't that patriotic bunny adorable? This is from the June/July 1998 Crafting Traditions magazine. It is mounted on mat-board with fabric that I had in my stash added to the mat-board frame. Do you see the ribbon that I used for the hanging loop? Don't ask me why I saved such a small piece of ribbon, but that was the entire piece of red/white/blue striped ribbon that I had saved in my ribbon box. It worked perfectly for a hanger.

I have spent a good deal of time cross-stitching since school ended. So much so that I aggravated the arthritis in my thumbs and have had to stop the last couple of days. Here is how Santa looked for the last Stitch Along update. 

 I have since managed to add lots of stitches to Santa's beard and finished the holly. All of the light grey that outlines his beard is completed and I am now working on finishing the darker grey that also outlines the beard. There was some frogging at the bottom yesterday as I was one stitch off. Ugh!

I am looking forward to the beard outline being completed, because then I will start working on the gift that Santa is holding and add a bunch more color. 

Thanks so much to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other talented bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. You will see a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, 

Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan,

 Deborah, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy,

 Anne, AJ, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by!

School is out! Summer Vacation.

Last Sunday we celebrated Father's Day with a walk with our son at a local waterfront park. Our daughter had visited the weekend before. 

School is out as of Friday. I don't go back to work until the last day of August. Oh the crafting plans that I had for the summer that will now have to be scaled down due to my shoulder injury. How sad. I was supposed to have another appointment with my orthopedist this coming Friday, but his office called and said he would be out all week and postponed my appointment by a week. I want to get started on physical therapy. That being said, I have been doing the exercises that I was given and my arm/shoulder is getting stronger every day. It still gets tired when I do too much cross-stitching though. Then again, my other forearm starts aching when I do too much also. I do have to be happy that I can now type this post using both hands. So much easier.

I have been working on my secret stitching and Santa a whole bunch this week.Here is a peek at the secret stitching.

Do you see the beige shading off to the left? Well I had completed a bunch of it near the top of the piece and was surprised by how dark it looked compared to the photo on the kit. I checked and double checked that I used the correct floss. What I didn't notice was that it was only supposed to be stitched with one strand of floss. Needless to say, I did a whole lot of frogging this past week and then I couldn't rest until I put all those stitches back in and finished some more. Now at least it looks like it is supposed to and I am pleased that I caught that mistake. 

Here is where Santa is. You may not notice much progress, but I have added a pale blue (almost light grey) to the fur on Santa's hat near the holly and I added more swirls to his beard. 

I have also been knitting the Butterfly Baby Blanket while watching Mets baseball games, Islander's hockey games (sadly over now) and US Olympic trials in various sports. It has grown a decent amount with all those sports.

My daylilies have begun to bloom. Always so pretty around my deck. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!