Santa's finished!

I finished stitching my Prairie Schooler Santa this week. Yay!

 Of course now I need to take this Santa and the one below (that I finished in April) and make them into flat-board ornaments.....which are really too heavy to hang on a tree.

 I think I may buy a few small display stands and include them when I gift these to my son and daughter. 

Did you remember to turn your clocks back last night? Did you get an extra hour of sleep? My internal clock woke me up at the usual 6 am.....well 5 am today. 

I am slowly stitching the binding on Matthew's Maze. I have made it around my first corner. Sorry about the poor photos, but it is a dreary day here on Long Island.

I made Apple Bars last week to use up the tasteless Macoun apples that I had. The recipe came from a Gold Medal flour Fall Baking booklet that I have had quite a while. They included apples, raisins and walnuts. I substituted craisins for half of the raisins. They were delicious. 

I had to take Halloween off in order to get Mom to a routine doctor's appointment and myself to an orthopedist. I found out that the tightness in my thigh and hip all Summer and Fall has been bursitis. A cortisone shot and starting some therapy should make it right. I can already feel the difference.

Having that day off gave me some time to add a few more stitches to Baker Beach. Here is where I am at the moment. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. 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.

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Sunday Binding

It is a rainy, rainy day here today. Tonight we are expecting near hurricane force winds. I hope the electricity stays on. Super Storm Sandy occurred exactly five years ago today and we were without power for a week. I don't want to ever go through that again. I feel so very bad for the citizens of Puerto Rico who have been without power and clean water for over a month.

That being said, today is perfect weather for hand-sewing the binding onto Matthew's Maze. 

I machine sewed the binding onto the front of the quilt a few weeks ago, but it has been so warm that I haven't wanted to sit and complete the hand-sewing. Today is the day that I start. 

I am almost finished with my Prairie Schooler Santa. I just have to stitch the lettering. 

This would be completed already except for the fact that instead of using green for the stitching that frames it, I initially used the same grey as the lettering. I had to pick that out last night.

Baker Beach got a whole lot of love last weekend. I hope you can see the progress.

I am taking a break from it this week so that I can work on the quilt. 
I had an unexpected day off on Thursday. The check engine light came on when I was driving home from teaching Wednesday night so into the mechanic it went on Thursday. Since I was stuck at home I lit a candle, 

made a cup of tea, put some CDs on and sat at my kitchen table to grade just under 70 Pre-Calculus exams that I had given the night before.

I think some baking is on tap for today also. I bought a bag of McCoun apples with much anticipation. I love how crisp and slightly tart they are. Unfortunately, these are tasteless and somewhat mealy. I am going to make either an apple quick bread or a coffee cake with them. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. 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 also wanted to share this pic of a squirrel enjoying a leftover roll that we put in the back yard.

I love watching the squirrels hold the rolls and nibble on them.

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope I'm not boring you.

I really do hope that I am not boring you because I am really spending most of my crafting time on Baker Beach right now. There has been so little crafting time and I want to finish this. I have added some more blue water.  

I am so close to only having half of a page left to stitch. 

When I feel like stitching at night I have been trying to finish this Prairie Schooler Santa. 

He is almost done. I need to stitch his beard and then complete the back-stitching.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. You know what I am working on. 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!

Rainy day, visiting son, quick update

My title says is it all this week. Yesterday and today have been rainy days. I spent most of yesterday with Mom, bringing her for a medical test and then looking with her for a new front door. Our son is visiting this weekend. He and Hubby went golfing yesterday while I was busy with Mom so we were hoping to find something interesting to do today all together but it is cloudy, humid and rainy. Yuck.

Normally I would love to just sit and craft on a day like today, but that interferes with visiting with my son. He is watching soccer right now so I have time to update my blog. I did get some stitching time at the end of the week. Here is how Baker Beach looked last week.

There was a lot of confetti. Yesterday I spent stitching 1 to 4 stitches of many colors in order to fill in some of that confetti.

This is how it looks today.

I would like to finish the water that I am currently working on soon. 

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

Thanks for stopping by!

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!