Slow Sunday Stitching

I have finished a tree on "October Morning".  

I think I will try to work on some more of the grass below the church next.

I have also started the face of the bunny on "Happy Birthday America". 

Not much, but at least a start. I think I will work on this some more this week as I want to finish it before July obviously. 

I bought some plants at a local garden shop. I have planted the three pots that are on my front porch. The third is hiding to the left of my front door.

I have also planted two tomato plants and some other pots on my back deck. I will show those to you when I can get a picture. It was pouring rain yesterday. 

I have basil, a pepper plant and some other flower pots still to fill, but again it was raining yesterday so I couldn't finish potting plants.

Bunny was visiting my driveway when hubby went to get the newspaper. It just stayed where it was and watched Hubby. I got my camera, came out on the front porch and snapped these photos.

Isn't Bunny adorable.

Yesterday, I made Banana Blueberry Bread. 

The recipe made three small loaves. I haven't tried it yet, but my MIL says hers is tasty.

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 my patriotic bunny.

Thanks for stopping by!

Reading, thinking and knitting.

I finished reading "Wind Chime Point (An Ocean Breeze Novel) by Sherryl Woods. 

This was the second novel of a trilogy. The third is due out in June. This is a very nice, beachy romance novel that makes you feel good.

Now, I have been reading "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah.

This book is set in occupied France during World War II. Not an uplifting book for these times of quarantine. I am not someone who is much for introspection. I admit to blithely living my life day to day. This book really has me thinking about the life we are currently living under quarantine and the threat of the COVID19. Many people are bemoaning the loss of "freedom" and protesting.  I am thinking how blessed we are to have jobs that Hubby and I and our children can work on remotely. How we can still put food on the table and not live in the abject fear of death due to war. Sure this virus is deadly, but we have masks, gloves, social distancing and cleaners that can give us a way to combat it.  I feel for those people who have currently lost their jobs and are struggling to stay afloat and feed their families. This book highlights the poverty, starvation, fear, cruelty and bigotry that were all part of living under the Nazis in WWII. These innocent people were just trying to live their humble lives. Surely, what they went through for many years is so much worse than the quarantine we are currently experiencing. I wish that those protesters could read this book and see that their "rights" are not truly being stepped on, we are just all being asked to do our part and protect ourselves and each other. I strongly recommend reading this book. It will make you so very grateful for all that you have.

Now on a happier note, I have been knitting away on my Butterfly Baby Blanket. 

It is growing nicely. The yarn is very pretty and soft if I do say so myself. I am glad I bought it when ACMoore went out of business. 

Yesterday was my mom's 93rd birthday. I made her a Lemon Meringue pie from scratch. It is one of her favorites. 

Not much of a celebration, but I potted some plants for her front stairs as a birthday gift and ordered dinner from a local Italian restaurant. Just dinner for the two of us...Hubby ate at home to maintain some social distancing.

Thanks for visiting! 

Same old, same old

I have graded all of my finals and submitted my grades. My work as a university professor is done for the semester. Yay! It was stressful trying to teach math online. 

From now until September, I will spend my days cross-stitching, quilting, knitting, crocheting and reading. Same old, same old and I am going to just love it. Of course, I will be helping mom too, but I do that normally so there is no difference there. Oh, I do believe I will have time to blog more often also.

I shared this past week, that I finished Jingle. You can see that post here. 

I have been adding some stitches to "Three Boats". I am finally, temporarily done stitching black. I have added some color....dark blue, dark green and brown. I kid you not. Can you even tell that I added any colors? 

I am going to keep working on this, just until I can see some differences. I calculated that if I stitched 100 stitches a day, this will take me 726 days to finish. Hmmm..... I had better get stitching.

I made Crisp and Spicy Cucumber Salad yesterday.

 This has become a favorite for Hubby and me. Hubby is not big on cooked veggies, but likes some of my salads. This will last most of the week for just the two of us, but will get spicier as the week progresses. 

The weather has been warm the last few days. A walk around my back yard revealed these pretty flowers.

One of my azaleas is starting to bloom too.

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 add a few stitches to "Three Boats" and make a dent in all those stitching days.

Thanks for stopping by!

A finish

Jingle is finished! 

I sat down the other day and stitched the last 3 gold balls. I would love to actually complete the finishing by making it into a banner, but that requires fusible fleece which is nowhere to be found on the internet at this time. Since I live in NY, it will be a while before any fabric/craft stores are open or if I would be willing to shop in them. I am hoping that I will be able to find what I need by the end of the summer to be able to have this as a Christmas decoration.

Meanwhile, I have kitted up a new small cross-stitch project. It is from the July/August 1998 Crafting Traditions magazine. Yes, I do hang on to things for a long time.

I don't have a couple of the salmon colors, but I have plenty of different floss that I will be able to substitute. This should be a quick little piece that I can finish by July.

I think I will also return to working on this printed cross-stitch, October Morning, that I put down again a few years ago. 

You may recall, this was a piece that my mother started, but she really didn't enjoy working on it.

 I would rather work on counted cross-stitch, but I think now is the time to work toward finishing this piece. I thought I was farther along than I am. 
I added some stitches to the church and the tree on Monday.

I am hoping to finish the tree this week. Then again, I have to grade my university final exams tomorrow first. 

For Mother's Day I baked a one-bowl, no crust Coconut Custard pie. 

The pie was good, just a little too eggy tasting for me. It is easy to make in a pinch and I usually have the ingredients on hand, so I will probably keep the recipe.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Chorus Line SAL

First of all, Happy Mother's Day! 

Sadly, I will only be video-chatting with my children today. I will get to visit with my own mom though.

As for the SAL, I have added more black stitches to "Three Boats". Here is where I was on my last update. 

 I thoroughly enjoyed adding over 150 black stitches the other day while listening to the soundtrack of "A Chorus Line". Oh how I adore that soundtrack. When I was in high school, way back when, we took a school trip to see the show on Broadway. One of the perks of growing up on Long Island is the relative ease of piling students on school buses for a trip to the city to see a matinee show. Oh my, how I loved that show. Now I was somewhat naive so I am sure that at the time a lot of the references went over my head, but there are a few songs that left no doubt about the "naughtiness" of the show. I am sure that if my mother knew the titles of some of the songs, even now, she would be scandalized. Still, I love that show and I happily stitched all those black stitches while I sang along on Wednesday. 

This is what "Three Boats" looks like after that sing-along.

Trust me, there is a lot of progress.
I had some more time to stitch on Friday and added yet another 100 black stitches and this is where I am as of today.

There is still more black to stitch, but I will be stitching some colors other than black very soon.

This Stitch-along is hosted by Avis of Sewing Beside the Sea. She has gathered several bloggers to share what they are working on every 3 weeks. Please pay a visit to the wonderful stitchers listed below:

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie,
Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, 
Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Sherrie, Helen

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

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Stitching

I finished stitching all the words on "Jingle as ye enter, Jingle as ye go".

There is not much left to stitch, just snowflakes and gold balls.

I have been reading a lot lately. I recently finished "Under Currents", by Nora Roberts.

 

This was a good book, but I almost didn't read it. The beginning chapters deal with a very disturbing subject matter.(I don't want to write any spoilers). I started skimming a few of the first chapters, because I just couldn't read the details. The book became easier to read and enjoyable, but a word of warning, that subject matter returns over and over throughout the novel.

Obviously I needed something lighter to read so I turned to a Sherryl Woods novel, "Sand Castle Bay (An Ocean Breeze Novel). 

A good romance novel is what I needed after the last one. I am totally enjoying this book.

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!

Knitting and reading bliss

Update, my mom is home and getting healthy. The initial test came back fine. It appears she has an upper GI tract problem that is causing some bleeding that wasn't helped by her blood-thinner. I am so grateful for all your prayers and well-wishes. 

I have been happily knitting away on my Butterfly Baby Blanket. 

I love the way it looks.

I also finished reading my latest book, The Oysterville Sewing Circle by Susan Wiggs.

  I really liked this book. I had trouble putting it down. It starts with a few sad occurrences, but it becomes a very uplifting story with a nice ending. 

I put a few stitches on Jingle this week. I started the last word " Ye". I really want to finish it soon.

Spring is here and the bunnies have returned to our back yard. This one just wouldn't look my way.

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 try to finish all the red stitching on Jingle today and possibly make a few more mask so that everyone has two.

Thanks for stopping by!