Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Christmas is just around the corner

I updated my tree. Just a wee bit.  Decided to go ahead and put some of my cross stitch ornaments on the tree.  To heck with them maybe being too big! 



This week I finally got my act together and got gifts wrapped and placed. Thanks to Amazon I have a few presents from family members that I wrapped up and I'm crossing my fingers I didn't label any incorrectly.  Wouldn't that be hilarious?


This week is a bit of a crazy one at work. We had a publishing day on Monday and I turned around and started working on the next issue because we gave ourselves an early deadline of this Friday to get out the Jan. 2 paper. 

Printer holiday schedule and the Christmas and New Year's holidays have made for a wicked early deadline this go around.  But you know what?  I think we need it.  So me and my coworkers and really enjoy the holidays and not have to worry about deadlines and publishing days. 

Over the past weekend the hubby and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and cut, split and stacked some wood. 


There is a pretty decent dent on the wood pile already.  I want to say we took 12 row feet (is that even a thing?) from it already. 

Do you see that orange stick? We got a log roller tool and it's a real game-changer. 


We are around halfway done with the first holz hausen. 


The chickens came over, looking for tasty bugs.  


Yeah ... the girls know that tasty little morsels of protein can be found in some of the wood when it's split. We may have created a monster. Ha!







This day I opened up the coop run and the birds came out, with suspicion. 

Just wait until the snow gets really deep. 

Speaking of snow ... another clipper is set to go through the area tomorrow.  Currently the temperature is four degrees Fahrenheit (-16 Celcius) Tomorrow's temps should be fun. 

Oh look, what's soaking before being blocked? 


 All will be revealed, at some point in the near future. 






Monday, December 9, 2024

Getting ready for the winter

 It's been a moment since I last wrote anything. 

What have I been up to? A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I actually started writing a blog post a couple weeks ago. Got distracted. Forgot what I was doing and started working on something else. 

It seems to be the thing lately.  I feel like what I've been doing lately is so boring and not very exciting. 

The long and short is that my hubby and I were finishing up the big wood splitting project. 

I had a supervisor.  


She said my workspace was a mess and I should do something about it.  Well, she wasn't wrong. 


So I sort of did something about it.  Or, I had my hubby do something about it *wink*

The final round stack of the project.



I finally harvested those carrots. it was like the final kick in the teeth to the garden season this year. Or something like that. I did not get nearly as many carrots as I thought I would.  A real bummer. 


At least the washing process wasn't so overwhelming.  I have two one-gallon bags of carroty goodness in the back of my fridge. 


I got the carrots taken care of just in time, too.  It snowed the next day and the ground froze. 



I admit, it was kinda magical and beautiful for a moment. 


Then reality set in, along with the cold. 

I am a member of one of those Aldi groups on the book of faces and someone mentioned something about homemade bacon ... 

Yeah, you know we had to give that a try. 

We used some pork we had in the freezer and I found a recipe. 

Right after pulling it out of the brine


After slicing it up and before cooking it.

One word: YUM!


One of my very good knit friends sent me a box of goodies and one of the items in the box was this fun chicken. 


Cute, right?  I put it in Furby's space for a while.  I had to move it because we both kept thinking there was a real chicken in the house. 

In the midst of all this I have been doing a wee bit of crafting. In November I really focused on my One Piece cross stitch and finally sat down and started working on the porcupine boxes. 


I really had to psych myself up for cutting the fabric on this.  


It's so cute. 


I can't wait to show off the final pieces. I'm still not done with the one.  I'm still deciding on whether to put the pom-pom trim on it, or not. 

I went digging for the cross stitch ornaments I made earlier this year.  I was so bummed when I discovered one of the frames broke. 


Fortunately I have extra frames, but it was a bit of a pain to get that cut fabric back into a new hoop. 

Oh, and a bit of other *exciting* news ... you are in for a surprise. 

We ordered more wood. 

Yes, you read that right! 



Another semi-load of wood.  My husband and I both decided it would be a good winter project and there's no rush on it. 



This past week we started working on the pile. I don't have any progress shots of what it looks like.  

Crazy, right?  Yeah, i know.  The amount of wood sitting in our yard is an immense security. However, no more wood after this! 

Last Wednesday I had an afternoon appointment in town.  This was the sky as I was leaving the Aldi.


Beautiful. 

So that's a bit of what's going on right now.  I've been pondering and ruminating a bit. Mostly about the crafting stuff. Last year I made the point of making goals for myself for 2024. Then things went kinda sideways in March. I'm debating on whether to try that again for 2025, or if I should just wing it. I seem to do really good at winging it when it comes to my hobbies. 








Friday, November 8, 2024

Episode 24 - What I did in October


 

Hello!  Thanks for stopping by!  Show notes are below


Knitting - Finished Objects




Project Name: Passenger Princess Socks
Started: June 3, 2024
Finished: Oct. 31, 2024
Designer/Source:Vanilla sock pattern I use.
Yarn: Patons Kroy Sock Yarn
Colorway: Midcentury stripes
Colors: Peach, blue, cream, vintage looking colors.
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm
Made For: myself.

Previous update: 


*************************************




Project Name: Autumn Hunting Socks
Started: Sept. 1, 2024
Finished: Oct. 19, 2024
Designer/Source: Vanilla sock pattern I use.
Yarn: Malabrigo
Colorway: 858 Arbol
Colors: browns, oranges and olives
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm

Previous update: 





**********************************************

Knitting - Current Works in Progress




Project Name: Bly Cardigan
Started: Sept. 3, 2024
Finished: 
Designer/Source: www.Berroco.com
Yarn: My own handspun corriedale, purchased from paradise fibers
Colors: Grey
Needle size: U.S. 6 (4 m.m.) and U.S 7 (4.5 mm)


Previous update: 




*************************************

Knitting - new cast on





Project Name: Blue stripe vanilla socks
Started: Oct. 31, 2024
Finished: 
Designer/Source: Vanilla sock pattern I use.
Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn
Colorway: Blue Raspberry
Colors: Blues and white
Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm





************************************

Cross Stitch - Finished Object



Project Name: Black Cat Sampler
Started: Early Oct. 2024
Finished: Oct. 31, 2024
Designer/Source: Just Cross Stitch magazine Halloween 2024 issue
Nancy Wahler, Faithwurks designs
DMC Floss: 310; 645; blanc; 3822
Fabric: 14 Count Aida purchase from hobby lobby, spa color, I think. 
Needle Size: 26



***********************************************

Cross Stitch - Current Works in Progress




Project Name: One Piece 
Stitch count (via pattern keeper) 
Started: March 30, 2024
Finished:
Designer/Source: Cross Stitch Bay on Etsy. Chart no longer available
DMC Floss: 310
Fabric: 14 Count Aida purchased at Walmart
Needle Size: 26
Making for my son. 

Previous update




*************************************************

Cross Stitch - New Start




Project Name: Sweatervest weather
Started: Oct. 30, 2024
Finished:
Designer/Source: Lindy Stitches
DMC Floss: 434, 310, 801, 157, 22, 680, 3347, 3824, 316, 976, 435, 3346
Fabric: 32 count light taupe Lugana
Needle Size: 28



*******************************

Haul

Signed up for the Dragon Fruit block of the month club



New cross stitch chart



Needleminder from Sweet Autumn Stitch


Youtube channels mentioned:


Monday, November 4, 2024

Breaking out the Mickey Mouse boots

 "What are Mickey Mouse boots?" you are probably thinking. 

If you are in the military you probably already know. 

Last Wednesday I said snow was on it's way.  

The forecasters got it right on Thursday, but two hours behind.  Snow was predicted to start at 9 a.m. It started around 11 a.m. 



It was warm enough the snow didn't want to stay on the solar panels. 


Thursday evening I decided to start a couple projects up.

Sweatervest Weather by Lindy Stitches


And I cast on a vanilla sock.  The photo is from when we went to town on Sunday. Isn't the blue fantasstic? 


One of the gals (redheadedstitcher24) I follow on Instagram decided to do a No New Starts November and I saw this as a great opportunity to really focus on my One Piece project.  However, I also wanted to work on Sweatervest  Weather in November, too.  So I decided to start a couple things right before November when she reminded me of the start things early work-around. 

Then on Friday there was blue skies ... and snow ... 



Saturday I woke up to a beautiful day. 


Crazy how that happens sometimes. I was, however, eager to see the snow melt.  No snow until Thanksgiving, I say. 

Like I said, it was a beautiful day. Wet, but beautiful. 


My husband and I spent a good chunk of the day working on the wood project. He was cutting and stacking, I was splitting.  I took a look at the pile, with the early morning sun shining on it, and thought it was a pretty shot. 


Back to the Mickey Mouse boots. They are a wonderful invention 


They are a military boot. They are probably one of the best things to have if you live in colder climates. 

I pulled them out of storage this weekend so my feet would stay warm and dry while we were working outside.  Hopefully I won't need them again until December.  One can hope. 

After supper I opted to go out and split more wood for an hour and a half, or so. ... When I was done, I shut off the log splitter, turned around and may have gasped when I saw the sunset. 

Sunday I woke up to a dreary, grey day.

And also to my husband insisting I go outside and have a mini photoshoot and that it didn't matter that I was still in my pajamas. 


I split 99 percent of the wood in this round stack (holzhausen) and he wanted a record of it. This was the first time we tag-teamed on the cutting, stacking and splitting of the wood and got this round stack done in a week.  It's a four-cord pile and a year's worth of heat. 

Yes, I just posted a photo of myself in my PJs on the Interwebs. ... I look cute, though. 

Sunday afternoon we wrapped up the round stack and we had our son come out and take a few photos of us. I think my husband was really proud of how much I contributed to the building of this round stack.  Bonus: I never once whined! 


The stack is 12-feet around and 5 feet tall.  It's our biggest one! In three to five years it will be ready to burn. 

Look! Mickey Mouse boots! 

And then to wrap this one up, one of the new stitchy friends I've made recently loves chickens! Yay! 

She was happy to see the video I posted last week of the ladies working on their jack-o-lantern. I pulled together some video clips I took over the last few weeks and loaded them to the YouTube.