Where is Spring?

Spring officially arrived on Friday, but here on Long Island we were experiencing a snow storm. 

Most of that snow is just a memory today, but we are still experiencing temps in the 30s. It is supposed to be colder than average most of this week. I really hope we get some Spring-like weather before Easter.
I have been crocheting and cross-stitching whenever I can. I will save the crochet for another post.
I can see the end of page 2 of Large Cross-stitch #1 approaching...I think. Last week I had just started the water at the bottom of the page.

  This week I worked on more of that water.

There is some more beach and rocks to be stitched down below the water. I hope I can get some stitching time in this week. I would love to be able to be done with this page by Easter. My goal for the year was a page each month, but boy was that wishful thinking.

Today is the day to join Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are hand stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!



Luck of the Irish

It is a little early, but Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was blessed with luck this week when I won Kat's giveaway on Through Our Garden Gate. What did I win you ask? Why this:

I am looking forward to reading this thriller. It will be a change of pace for me. 

In keeping with the St. Patrick's Day theme, I made my usual Irish Soda Bread today. I have tried many different recipes over the years, but I revert to the one I found in my former church's cookbook from the 1970s. You can find the recipe under the Baking tab above. I will be making a Corned Beef dinner tonight also. Yum.

I have been spending most of my crafting time working on Large Cross-stitch #1. This is how it looked last week at this time. 

Now I have started on a small body of water down to the left.

The stitching is going along quickly now as there are larger swaths of a single color. Yay!

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

Thanks for stopping by!

Snow Day Crafting

Last week we had yet another snow day. I didn't get as much crafting in as I had hoped, but I did make great progress on Large Cross-stitch #1. It went from this:

to this:

I really love when you can see a lot of progress and there were some large sections of black that stitched up really quickly. Yay!

Speaking of snow days. Last Thursday's snow started early, my glider looked like this in the morning.

As the day went on the snow got deeper.

 This is my view today. Could it be that Spring is finally on its way?
Yes, that is still snow covering the lawn in my back yard (my front yard too), but I can finally see grass around the edges. We are supposed to have another 50 degree day on Wednesday. 

I have made a bit of progress on my jacket sleeve. I thought it would be finished by now and I would be on to the second sleeve. I was really enjoying cross-stitching though so I spent most of my free time on that. 
It has definitely grown from my last update. I will return to it soon. 

I am joining Ginny for Yarn Along today. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to. 
As for reading, I finished Shadow of the Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) and I am almost halfway through with The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3) both by Deborah Harkness. Can you tell I really love this trilogy? I can't get enough of the intrigue and historic adventures of these witches and vampires. I will be truly sorry when I am finished. 

That is all for now.
Thanks for stopping by!

WIPocalypse for March 5th

I am joining WIPocalypse 2015 for the first time this year. Measi asked us to answer the following question in our blog: If money – and time – were not limiters, what projects would be on your stitching bucket list? I am not sure that I have a good answer. Until recently, neither money nor time were much of concern for me and I really didn't have a bucket list. I still don't. I work on what I want to, when I want to. I guess I would like to have more time to spend on Large Cross-stitch #1 so that I could finish it and start working on Large Cross-stitch #2. 

I would also like to spend more time designing and stitching my own charts. I really like the design process and I had hoped to one day package and sell my charts. Unfortunately, I am only one cross-stitcher and I design slightly faster than I can stitch the samples. Believe it or not, none of my friends are cross-stitchers. 

I haven't made much progress since my last update of Large Cross-stitch #1.You can read yesterday's post to find out why my progress has been so slow.
This was last week:

and here is where I am as of today.The rocks at the bottom of the bridge are really taking shape now.

I am hoping to spend some quality time with this piece over the weekend.

Also linking up with Nina for Design Wall Friday.

 An update for my readers. Mom will be having her pacemaker replaced in June. Her arrhythmia doctor doesn't foresee any problems. Such a relief. Hopefully all will be calm for a couple of months.

Thanks for stopping by!

Life Happens

Crafting, blogging and reading have all taken a backseat in the past few weeks. A few posts back I mentioned the vagaries of life interfering and unfortunately they still are. In the past three weeks, Hubby and I have attended four separate wakes and one funeral. We have also been attending to the needs of our elderly parents. This has included emergency room and doctor visits. All is stable right now. 

One reason that I am able to write this post though is that I am off from work today for yet another doctors visit. My 87 year old mother's 17 year old pacemaker is in need of a tune-up and we have to explore the options. 

Oh, did I mention that it has also been cold and snowy here on Long Island. It is raining today, but we are expecting more snow tomorrow. I am really tired of shoveling the white stuff.

All that being said, I have been slowly working on my Jaunty Jacket. I have finished the back and both front panels. 

I am now crocheting the first sleeve. 

I got started on this on the car ride to visit our daughter and lend a hand with packing last Saturday. Yup, our daughter moved from Hartford, CT to Boston, MA on Sunday. I have barely even had time to dwell on the fact that instead of being a mere 2-1/2 hours from us she now lives 4-1/2 hours away. Visits will now require an overnight stay. Sigh.....

The car ride to visit our daughter also afforded me time to read Shadow of the Night (All Souls Trilogy #2) by Deborah Harkness. I really like this trilogy about witches, vampires, daemons and the quest to obtain a mysterious book. The first book was set in modern times. The second book was set in the 1500s. Deborah Harkness includes many historical people in this book and beautifully describes the setting. I read this book quite quickly and often found myself lost in the story. I have already started reading The Book of Life (All Souls Trilogy #3). I will probably be very sorry when I am finished with this trilogy.

I am joining Ginny for Yarn Along this week. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to.

Thanks for stopping by!