Weekend Stuff

I am taking it easy this long Columbus Day weekend. On Saturday, Hubby and I went to the local, well-known Hick's nursery to get some mums and pumpkins. This is not just a nursery, it is an experience. They are in the midst of their annual Fall Festival featuring Otto the Ghost. Now this is an ideal place to come with your small children, but we enjoyed going through the story of Otto as well.

 There are lots of the Halloween decorations for sale.

 Here are some old-school decorations.

 There were Christmas decorations for sale as well. I love Department 56 villages.

These beautiful Santas are all hand made.

We bought 5 mums, three pumpkins and a hay bale.

I am starting to put out my Halloween decorations. I only have half of one box to empty. The other half is Thanksgiving decor. 

I put a few stitches in on Baker Beach yesterday. More grey. I am slowly but surely approaching the finish line. This is how it looked last week.

I filled in those dots above the rock yesterday as well as some more grey/blue.

It is raining here on Long Island today. I plan to finally cut the binding for my Matthew's Maze quilt. I need to sew it into one long strip and iron it. I might even trim the quilt and sew it on so that I can sit and finish it via hand stitching. I also want to spend some more time with Baker Beach. A little shoe shopping might be in the plans also. I never did manage to do that yet. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Tomorrow I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

It's October!

It is the first of October and it is finally feeling like Autumn here on Long Island. It was sweater weather this morning although it got warmer as the day went on.

I found a few minutes today to add some stitches to Baker Beach. This is how it looked last weekend. 

 I have finished stitching that grey color across the rows.

It isn't much, but something is better than nothing and now I get to move on to a different shade of grey. Oh joy....

I was hoping to find time to go clothes/shoe shopping today, but I really wanted to work on Baker Beach. So I decided to do some online shopping instead. I am not a big fan of online shopping for clothes, because they aren't always what I was hoping for when they arrive. Hubby and I went to a major nearby mall last night and I came home empty handed. I wasn't in the mood to go to a nearby outlet mall today, so I sat down on the computer and found some good deals on clothing. I will not buy shoes online so that will be next weekend's chore.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. You know how much I stitched today, now go see what other bloggers are stitching. I will be joining the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow. Be sure to visit this site also. 

Thanks for stopping by!

The Fair

Hubby and I went to the Long Island Fair last weekend. It took two tries to get in. The parking lot was full on Saturday and the satellite lot had too much traffic to get to it. We went back early on Sunday and had no trouble getting in.

Here are a few pictures. I have to start with the iconic image of this fair. 

 Below is the building that houses all of the crafts, culinary and floral entries.

Floral arranging entries.

 A few more.

These are the individual flowers.

Isn't this baby blanket is adorable?

Elmo is so cute.

 Another pretty crocheted afghan with some cross-stitched flowers.

I believe this is another crocheted afghan although it could be knitted.

This is more impressive in person.

Some quilts.

This is the blue ribbon winner of the Advanced quilts.

The embroidery is so beautifully stitched.

This is the second place Advanced quilt.

Here are all of the Advanced entries.

My shawl couldn't win against these beauties.

I won a second place ribbon for my Autumn angel and an honorable mention too.

I hope you enjoyed the picture tour.

I got a little bit of stitching done on Baker Beach this past week. 

I still have to fill in those dots above the rock. It looks a little weird right now. I am enjoying working on the blue. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. I will try to work on Baker Beach a little bit, but I am a little down with a cold and my son is visiting. Tomorrow I will join the Stitchery Link Party. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Brown and Black and Blue

I'm talking floss colors. I managed a couple of hours of stitching on Baker Beach this week. Lots of brown, black and blue/grey floss. 

I can see the light at the end of the Beach! This is the 10th and final page. Now I am really excited to get at least a few stitches done each week on this project.

Hubby and I visited Saratoga again near the end of the racing meet. This time I went to the local yarn shop, Common Thread Saratoga. I had a couple of patterns with me that I am interested in making so I thought that I would buy some pretty yarn. Here is what I found.

I want to make this Three-Season Cowl with it.


Hubby and I are planning on going to the Long Island Fair today. We tried to go yesterday, but the main parking lot was full and traffic was all backed up to get into the remote parking lot that was being serviced by shuttle buses. We are going to go back first thing this morning. I will share pics later this week.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. I hope to fill in that area above the black rock on Baker Beach. On Monday I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. I just made a pot of tea to enjoy while I am reading some favorite blogs. Why don't you do the same.

Thanks for stopping by!

First week of school

 The first week back to school is done and dusted. I am bushed. There wasn't a whole lot of crafting completed this week. I have been crocheting some more flowers at night and today I added a few more stitches to Baker Beach.

It is the only stitching that I have managed to complete all week. I wish that I had the time energy to finish that little corner, but it is not happening today.

Today was my day to get some dinners ready for the week. Hubby and I work until 8:30pm on Monday and Wednesday so dinner is late. I cooked 3 stuffed pepper meals (no picture) and assembled 4 meat loaves (these three are for Mom....all she has to do is bake them).

I also made two plum cakes. It is made with the small Italian plums. Or at least, that is what they are usually called around here. 

 This is a recipe that came from my Aunt Alice. It can also be made with peaches. I needed to make these today, because the plums were going bad. I usually pack them in closer together, but I was a few shy.

Do you see what I got in the mail this week!

Donna at Brynwood Needleworks had a contest to name her new sewing machine. All who entered received one of these beautiful handmade bookmarks. I love this!

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. I hope to link to the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow, but as I said it is a late day. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Labor Day Weekend

My daughter and her boyfriend are visiting for the weekend. Here they are trying to get a wild bunny to eat some carrot.

Bunny was enjoying the special treat.

Hubby and boyfriend played nine holes of golf while daughter and I looked at quilt patterns. I think that I finally have a handle on the types of patterns and colors that she would like in a quilt. I'm not sure when I will get to this, but I will probably wait until next summer before I start. That gives me plenty of time to pick the pattern and find and buy all of the fabric.
I managed to work on Baker Beach a little bit this week. This is where it was last week:

You can see that I have now added about 200 stitches of brown.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. I hope to add another 100 stitches to Baker Beach, but with company here today I may have to wait for some Monday Stitching. Speaking of Monday, I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

I have managed to crochet some more roses.

 I just have to make 6 more in this lavender color and then add leaves and background to the last 30 roses. Then I can start crocheting together all 110 Granny Rose Squares. I am really looking forward to finally finishing this afghan.

I hope everyone enjoys this holiday weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Getting ready for the Fair

I have decided to enter some of my hand-made items into the Long Island Fair this year. I haven't done so in a few years so I have several items that can be entered. I am going to enter my Fans and Feathers Shawl,

the Fresh Till Cowl,

Autumn Angel, 

and the crocheted Christmas Tree that I made for my son. 

The first three have been completed for some time, but last Saturday, I finally got around to assembling the Christmas Tree. 

Each layer is stacked on a size 10 knitting needle that is pushed through a foam circle.

 Layer by layer is added and glued.

All the way up until....

the spire is on the top.

It was a slow progress waiting for the craft glue to dry, but I prefer it to the glue gun when working with yarn.

You may recall that I already made one of these for my daughter. The only change is in the skirt. I had a wee bit of variegated Christmas yarn that I decided to use to in place of some of the white on the skirt before the red edging.
The day after I glued the tree together, I glued on almost 80 small pom-poms.

I love it. Now my son will have some Christmas decor for his new apartment. But first it has to go to the Fair.

Thanks for stopping by!