Lots of stitching

I am not exactly sure why there were some slow days at work and after work, but they did allow me to get a whole lot of stitching completed on Santa and a little bit on the secret stitching.

Santa's face is filling out. I just have to keep stitching the pale peach color. 

He even has eyes now. Do you see him winking at you?

The secret stitching had some more green leaves added as well as some pale blue and white flowers that are somewhat difficult to see and not evident in this photo.

They will come alive when the outlining is completed. 

These pretty pink flowers in front of my house have bloomed.

They are a welcoming sight when entering the house.

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel in my quest to find my mother 24/7 care. I will update you next week as that care is supposed to hopefully start on Thursday. Fingers crossed. There have been a whole lot of phone calls and virtual assessments happening this past week.

To put a smile on everyone's face, I was placing an yard ornament and turned around to see these two bunnies facing off.

I quickly took a picture and then eased my way toward the fence that is too the left so that I could go up those stairs that you see and back into my house.

I got to take a couple more photos of them.

Aren't they cute?

 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Grab a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over the her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I think I will work some more on my secret stitching or Three Boats. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Stitch Along Update

Once again, I can't believe how quickly three weeks have passed by! I can't say that I have spent much time at all on Three Boats. I am trying to put as many stitches as possible on the Santa Stocking and the secret stitching. Here is where Three Boats was at the last update.

At least this time, it is easy to see the progress that I have made over three weeks.

Along with adding some stitches to Three Boats yesterday, I decided to treat my mother (and me) to my grandmother's sour cream coffee cake.

Just smelling this baking brought back so many childhood memories. It tastes so delicious too. Here is the recipe in my mother's handwriting.

Mom stated that she grinds the walnuts for the topping, but I just chopped them. Mom actually told me that she liked that better when she had a piece yesterday.

Speaking of mom, she is doing okay now that she has been home a while. Despite being approved for 24/7 care from Medicaid, we are still paying for 12 hours of care a day and I am still staying overnight as, so far, none of the local approved home care agencies has anyone available for 24/7.  I have been told that they can't provide services for anything less than what has been prescribed. That just doesn't seem right. I am so tired and frustrated. 

A big thank you to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea, maybe a piece of coffee cake, 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, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, 

Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, 

Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Easter Stitching

Happy Easter! 

It is a time for new beginnings! Hubby and I are starting our lives as a couple who are fully vaccinated against COVID this week. I received my 2nd shot on Wednesday. On Thursday, I was tired and had the chills on and off, but had no other side effects. I actually surpised myself by taking a 40 minute nap. Hubby and my mom had their 2nd shot on Friday. 

Our daughter came to visit with her pup, Ruby, on Thursday. You may recall that she and her husband rarely venture from their home so we all feel this is safe. She should be eligible for a vaccination in her state mid-April.  Ruby was a very sleepy pup on Thursday.

She has perked up a bit since then.

Our son drove in on Friday after having a negative COVID test. He has to go in to work periodically so he feels more safe getting a test prior to visiting. It is not yet known when he will be eligible for a vaccination in his state. 

We celebrated Easter as a family on Saturday as daughter needed to make the 3 plus hour drive home today for work tomorrow. Sometimes on holidays the drive can become 5 hours. 

Katie made a Challah bread for us.

We had some with dinner last night and it became Lemon Blueberry French Toast Casserole this morning.

I made a Pineapple Upside Down Cake by Brown Eyed Baker.

I haven't done a whole lot of stitching this week despite being off from work. Santa's cheeks have more color. 

I have also added a few more blue colors to the secret stitching.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I am hoping to add some stitches to either Santa or Three Boats.

Thanks for stopping by!    

A week off from work

I have the next week off from work for Easter/Passover vacation. That is a whole week before Easter to get some crafting completed. The Easter decor that you see in the header is from my mother's house. I believe she painted that little chick several years ago at a local ceramics store.

I have been steadily working on my special secret cross-stitch. Here is a peek of some green and blue that was added.

Santa now has some color in his cheeks. 

There is a story to go with that. I was about to start those rosy cheeks, when I realized that the color that was included in the kit couldn't possibly be right as it was a lighter coral/beige that was the same as the color next to it in the floss card. The kit includes the DMC number that corresponds to each color and I have a card that has all the colors on it. Nope, it was not the right color. Thankfully I had DMC 351 which was stated, although I have to tell you that in person those rosy cheeks are somewhat orange even though the kit calls it light red. I am not sure that I like how they look, but the surrounding colors also tend to coral so they are probably correct. They don't look anything like the photo on the front of the kit though. I have since finished the cheek on the right and I am leaving them as is. 

I have been reading a bunch lately. I suprised myself by thoroughly enjoying "A Walk to Remember" by Nicolas Sparks.

 I totally enjoyed the story line and the ending didn't bother me as much as his usually do. I mentioned in the past that Mom has almost all of his books in hardcover, so I have decided to read them. I always need to read something else in between though. 

I have since gone back to reading the Harry Potter series and I am now more than halfway done with "The Prisoner of Azkaban". Such an easy read and I enjoy making the comparisons with the book and the movies as I read.

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 wil grab a cup of tea and peruse a few blogs myself. I will get to stitching something later today.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Time flies

The past three weeks have gone by way too fast in my opinion. At least in terms of how many stitches I have added to Three Boats. This is where I was for the last update.

I have only spent a little bit of time working on this, mostly in the last few days. This is how Three Boats looks now. 

There has been a little more blue stitching added to the first boat.

Spring is here and I have a few crocuses in bloom. 

There only a very few, but they are pretty.

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, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, 

Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, 

Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Hot and cold stitching

 I spent some time Friday stitching on my front porch as the weather was a balmy 60 something degrees and my porch faces the sun.

I added some grey stitching to the Santa stocking.

It was a gorgeously sunny day! Then there was Saturday when the temperature hovered around 40 all day and it was breezy. I cozied up in my living room and added some more grey stitches to Santa as well as some stitches that show his face taking shape.

I needed to get away from stitching so much grey. Although I did make quite a bit of progress adding a bunch of lighter grey stitches also, especially around the ball of Santa's hat.

I also spent some time this week adding some sparse stitching to the secret piece. You won't see the whole piece until it is stitched, framed and gifted.

Obviously there is a saying on this piece.

I am happy to say that my mom, Hubby and I all got our first COVID vaccine this week. The second dose is in 3 weeks! Two weeks after that we can safely say that we are somewhat protected. We will still be wearing our masks and social distancing as well as avoiding stores and restaurants. I don't think that life will return to what was normal before this pandemic for quite some time, if ever. With new variants emerging so frequently, I plan on continuing with the established routines to stay safe. 

Mom has been a little more normal this week. Thank goodness. I on the other hand am having a hard time sleeping. I go to bed at her house and fall right to sleep (usually), but I wake up at 4 or 4:30 am and can not get back to sleep. I stay awake until at least 11, because Mom has been waking with a nightmare most nights sometime between 9:30 and 11:30 pm. I have only been getting 5 or so hours of sleep a night and I am toast. 

I have finished reading "Practical Magic" by Alice Hoffman. I think I have tried reading this book before and didn't much like it. I basically skimmed the book this time the whole way through. I didn't like it this time either. I was about to move on to the unabridged version of "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. I did start it, but I just don't feel like reading a 400 page book at this time. So, I have also started "First Frost" by Sarah Addison Allen. This is the second book in the Waverly Sisters of Bascom novels. I am enjoying this book much more than either of the other two. 

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 today. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Some Slow Stitching

I have a few bits of progress to show today. First, I have added several stitches to Three Boats once again. Now you can truly see the outline of the first boat.

I have also made pretty good progress on the secret stitching. I thought I would give you a peek today. It is a little hard to see the white on white stitching, but that is a pretty lily that is emerging.  

I keep this next to me while I work so I can pick it up when I don't have any students to help.

The Diagonal Bobbles Blanket is growing. I add a few rows of crochet on the nights that I stay at mom's house. 

My birthday was at the end of February. Hubby gifted me a wooden stand that I can use to cross-stitch or quilt. I will show it to you once I put it together. My daughter gifted Hubby and I meals from Freshly to make the nights that Hubby teaches his university classes a little easier. My son sent me this gorgeous wind spinner. 

I have been wanting one for quite some time. He and Hubby tried to get me one for Christmas, but the company where they made the purchase never sent the item. Thankfully, the credit card company gave a refund. I can't wait until warmer weather when I can put this in my back yard and enjoy it!

My stitching is my stress reducing lifeline right now. Mom is home, but she keeps saying that everything seems strange to her. She recognizes her home and me, but she keeps saying her mind seems strange. Her cardiologist didn't have much to say except that her heart is strong. She had little idea as to why mom's lungs filled with fluid so quickly when that had never before been a problem. After a telehealth visit with her geriatric physician though, one new diagnosis is dementia that has been exacerbated by the two recent hospitalizations followed by rehab. I am so sad. Mom is barely eating and often refuses to shower or take her medicine unless I am at her house. That makes it difficult for her aide to help her. I can't be at her house all day so she gives the therapists a hard time as well as her aide. Even if I tell her to do something via the telephone, it doesn't always help. My mom has become .......ornery to say the least. I am still sleeping at her house most nights. I am there when she wakes up and then I leave her with the aide. I often visit once during the day to encourage her to eat, shower, etc. and to just visit with her. Often when I go back at night she is ready for bed or already asleep (one reason why I go during the day). She is not interested in anything and mostly sits all day looking at the television. Sigh....

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I hope to work more on my secret stitching today, but there is some baking to be done also. 

Yesterday, I made a big batch of Sausage and Meatballs in Tomato Sauce so that there would be tasty dinners in the freezer for us and my mom. Today, I also plan on baking a couple of Irish Soda Breads. It is that time of year. One will go to my mother-in-law as it is one of her favorites. I will share the other one with my mom. 

Thanks for stopping by!