Sun!

 

Just look at the noon day sun. It was marvelous to be out in.  I took this photo when I went out at lunch time to take care of chicken chores and let the girls out. 

The temperature hit a high in the lower 30s F today. Which, I think is about 0 degrees C.  Am I right? 

The girls enjoyed it. 

I tossed a bit of corn out there and they were all over it. 

That blue sky ... 

Okay, enough marveling about the blue sky and sunshine.  

The week that I thought was going to be busy is starting to slow down. I'm very thankful. 

Monday was publishing day and it was *crazy*. And long. I haven't put a day in like that since I don't know when. Tuesday was a full day, playing catch up, and then some.  Today I had a work meeting in the a.m.  Nothing pressing the rest of the week.  Hooray! 

I've spent the last few evenings working on my February Cat by Happiness is Heartmade. This is a cross stitch I'm stitching along with my friend Patty for her birthday stitch-along.  I started this back on Feb. 3. 

This is my progress so far. 

Patty is already done with her piece and it looks fantastic.  

As she reminded me, it's not a race. Even so, I'm hoping to get it completed by this weekend, and maybe finished in to a pillow. Just in time for Valentine's Day. 

Oh, look. It's a Maeve granny square.  I'm about halfway done with my fourth one. Just a share to show I'm not hyper focusing on the cross stitch. 

I'm also slowly plodding along with my Battenberg squares. No photo update.  I'm still using the same yarn I've shown before.  Until I get something new to share, I will do so. 

Let's see, what else have I got going.  Nothing. 

I'm hoping for some spare time so I can start making a game plan for seed starting.  I'd say maybe this weekend, but I remembered it's Valentine's Day this weekend.  Which I forgot about until I was chatting with my hubby and son and my son made a comment about where he was going to be this coming weekend, and I was like "Why?" and he said "Valentine's day," among other things. ... I was like "Oh, yeah." I have no idea what our weekend plans will include. My poor hubby is sick. So maybe not a terribly romantic weekend.  

That's okay.  I still love him, and he still loves me. 😊 We tell each other that every day of the year.  

That's all I got for now. 

I did no crafting today

 I know.  Crazy talk. It happens once in a while. 

My whole day went not the way I was hoping it would.  I thought I'd record a flosstube during my lunch hour.  I ended up working through my lunch hour instead. 

The next issue will be a special issue and I wound up knee deep in paperwork for ads. Which is great -- we need ads. It was getting a little confusing and I had to think of a system that helped ensure I didn't lose anyone. I was sending emails back and forth all the way up til almost 5 today. 

And then I had a mess of things to take care of after work. So, no crafting.  It's probably good to give my hands a rest anyways.  I suppose I did enough crafting last week. 

Speaking of last week ... When I sat down to start writing (which seems really weird to say "write" when I'm typing) I realized I didn't do a mid-week update last week. I must have just thought the update. 

A few photos because I can't remember the daily-doings ... 

Bright sun mid-morning. It was still pretty chilly out there. Probably still down around zero degrees Fahrenheit. 

I'm still cranking out the crochet squares for my Battenberg blanket. I was cozied up under one of my blankets. 

Saturday I decided homemade french baguettes sounded *really* good.  So I made some, with the help of a breadmaker. 

They turned out so good, and were delish!

Earlier in the week I was working on bowl cozies. My sister-in-law reached out to me, asking if I'd make her some.  I said sure! I'm going to keep the fabric a secret for now, just in case she reads the blog. I want her to be surprised. 

Kitting up a cross stitch project using my new handy-dandy floss winder.  I also made up some floss drops. I'm going to be doing a Farmyard Friends cross stitch start-along with Alison, over at MrsAZFamilyZoo.  We are still deciding on a date to start. The Fat Quarter Shop is doing a stitch-along for this chart, but not until April. When April comes along, I'll probably be busy with gardening stuff. 

I broke down and purchased an external hard drive for the Macbook. It has made ripping audiobooks to our iphones SO much easier.  Why didn't I do this sooner? 

And yes, I'm still cruising along on my "Portrait of a Snapping Turtle," by Mudpuppy Stitchery.  

 If I'm a very good girl and spend all my time stitching it, I may be done with it by Sunday.  Or, 200 stitches a day, at the very least. 

I'm trying to be more frequent in my writing.  It hasn't been easy when I've been so in my own head lately, thanks to the cold weather and lack of outdoor chores. 

It will soon change, though. ... garden season is soon upon us. 

I follow a Canadian gardener/influencer because she's basically in the same growing zone I am. 

Last month she put this out on her socials:

I am happy to say that I got a few things checked off that list. I purchased my first seeds of the garden season.  My seed starting station is set up and I'm reading up on some how-tos for starting some new-to-me seeds.  

Over the weekend she popped up a new task list. 

I still need to go through the seed collection and see if there is anything else I need to purchase.  For the most part I think I'm ready to do. 

Looking ahead to the rest of the week and I suspect it is going to be a busy one. And then maybe because I said that, it will be very quiet. 

One can never know. Especially when the universe laughs when you attempt to make plans. Am I right? Or am I left? Ha!