Crispy morning

We woke up to a "crispy" morning today. 

When I walked out to to the coop, to wake the girls and open the door to the run, I noticed the grass was covered in frost and it crunched with each step I took.

It made for a hard time being quiet when I walked out to the back 20 to swap out SD cards on the game cams. 

It was pretty to see everything covered in frost. These photos are from the woods when I first headed out. 

It ended up being a very sunny day so the frost didn't last long. 

It was a pleasant walk out there to the furthest game cam and then back to the house. The air was crisp but not cold. I tried to listen for animals. It was hard to hear anything over the sounds of my foots steps going *crunch, crunch, crunch* as I tried to move through the woods like a ghost taking high steps. On the way back to the house I thought I heard an animal spook and run.  It probably was a squirrel with the zoomies racing from tree to tree. Each time I stopped walking and tried to hear if anything was moving, all I heard was silence. 

It really was peaceful out there.  I had visions of sitting out in the blind, scanning for deer and listening to tell tale sounds of something trying to tip toe in to the area. 

It just occurred to me that I don't think I ever mentioned filling my anterless tag for this year. 

There isn't a really exciting story to tell and that's why I didn't think to write anything down.  I will say, that the deer literally tip-toed into the area I was hunting. Tip-toe, tip-toe.  Then she'd stop, listen and look all around, before delicately tip-toeing a few more steps. 

It was a quick harvest and tracking. 

Tomorrow is the first day of firearm season. I'm mildly curious as to how many shots we'll hear this coming week, based on the number of day time deer I see on the game cams, there won't be many successful hunts in the immediate area. 

Wow, I sort of went on a side tangent there. It's just been a weird hunting season. And by weird, I mean not enough daytime deer being photographed. 

*ahem* 

There was plenty of frost on the game cams this morning. Each camera I wiped the frost off the lens. There isn't much more annoying than photos of things you can't see because of moisture on the lens.

I saw the sun on the tops of the pines trees when I returned to the house. I don't know what it is, but there is something about seeing the early sun rays on the tops of the trees that makes me smile. 

I saw this on the book of faces this afternoon. 

Just in time for Thanksgiving. Which, I'll be planning and getting the house ready for this weekend. I'm hoping the weather stays more on the decent side for just a little bit longer.  After Thanksgiving I'll be okay with snow. 

This upcoming week is going to be a bit of an odd one for work, thanks to the holiday. We have an early pseudo-deadline that's not really deadline. We just need to get pages to production sooner in the week so there's time to work and everything isn't held until publishing day, the Monday after the long weekend. This time of year until just after the first is always a bit of a blur and craziness. Usually the Monday of Thanksgiving week is publishing day. I think.  Yeah, pretty sure. 

After I post this blog post I'll start working on the show notes for my most recent flosstube. If you were wondering where it was. 😃 

Almost ready for when the snow flies

Two weekends ago (I think it was) my area had it's first snow fall.  It didn't stay long. Temperatures warmed up and it melted away. 

I took a video of the chickens stepping out of the chicken run and experiencing snow for the first time.  

As I was editing the video I was struck by how snow on the ground, even just a small amount, totally changes how things feel. Does that make sense? 

Feelings and perceptions of everything feels different when there's snow on the ground.  My mind started going back to past years of watching homesteading videos during snow storms, daydreaming about the spring garden and sharing all my ideas and dreams to my husband and him indulging all my blather and chattering. 

I feel so nostalgic. Like life was so much simpler and quaint three years ago, or something. 

Ah, the good old days. 

It's official now: Snow could happen at any time. As I can, I've been outside getting things ready for the snow. I think everything is finally as ready as can be. Oh wait, I take that back.  I might need to place markers in one more spot outside, around a planter so it doesn't get hit during snow blowing. 

And because I mentioned the video, here you go: 

This past weekend I decided to make one more walk about in the yard and make sure the big branches that came down during the last wind storm were cleaned up.

I spent some time in the garden. Mostly daydreaming while I was out there. 

I discovered the deer have been at it again. 

The gate door was left open. The deer have been tiptoeing in the garden, nibbling on the acorns that have dropped from the big oak tree.  

My guess is that a deer was in the garden, spooked and ran right into the fence. 

My hubby already set the fence back to rights. One post is broken and will need to be replaced. Boo!

As I was walking around I discovered another spot that a deer ran into.  Those brats! 

This one is harder to see. Funny enough, this is the same area that the deer ran into last year. This time they ran into the fence from the outside, instead of the inside of the garden. 

Obviously the deer feel safe in our yard ... I wish they wouldn't hang out by the garden area so much. 

I stopped to admire the greenhouse and daydream some more about seed starting next spring. 

Then went off to go see what else was going on elsewhere. 

Later in the evening (actually like 5 p.m.) I was out and about, tucking the girls in and checking on things. I took some photos of the sky as the sun was setting. 

There was something pretty about it all. 

I had some crafting drama this weekend. I use pattern keeper for my bigger cross stitch projects. 

The kindle fire I was using for my patternkeeper decided to die and not turn back on. 

To be fair, the kindle is probably 10 years old.  So I guess maybe I was on borrowed time. 

However ... my crested porcupine cross stitch chart was on there. 

It wasn't until I couldn't find the crested porcupine backup file that I had made that I started mildly panicking. 

Yes, I did make a back up file. Could I find where I saved it? No. It's nothing to make a back up PDF for the charts. I was so sure I had it in my google drive. Nope.

*sigh* You know where this is going, right? I had to redo my completed stitches. 

1400-some stitches. 

I ended up going through it line by line. 

Surprisingly, this didn't take as long as I thought it would. Three hours, maybe? 

And before you get too excited about my showing a chart, I doubt this is even a quarter of the chart.  An eighth maybe? The first thing I did when I finished was to make a backup and made it *very* obvious about where it was saved on my google drive. 

My week started off pretty quiet, actually.  Monday was publishing day.  Even though there was some craziness at the start of the day, it wrapped up decently. 

Tuesday I spent the evening working on the crested porcupine chart stuff.

Today I had some medical stuff so I took the day off.  After my appointment I ran to a few stores before coming home and having lunch. 

I checked the weather and saw some sort of precipitation is predicted to hit the area. So I decided to load up the wagon full of firewood and get it ready so I wouldn't have to load it up in inclement weather. 

While I was out there the girls saw I was doing *something* and decided they had to come investigate. Surely I must know where all the good bugs are at, right? 

Then she decided to act like a supervisor and give me stink eye. 

"Keep at it you lazy slacker!" she seems to be telling me. These Barred Rocks, I tell ya, they are so smart.  This one acts like a cat, sometimes.  Usually in the way of how a cat is determined to run in front of you and trip you, it seems. She's figured me out.  If she follows and caterwauls, I'll usually give them some kind of treat.  When she saw I had no treats to give, she left. 

So that's my week so far.  Oh, I forgot, I did record a flosstube and loaded it to Youtube on Saturday. I haven't started shownotes on here.  I'm hoping to get them done by the end of the week. 

I noticed something odd about Youtube. Yesterday it said I had 72 views on my video. Which, Yay, but then today it said I had 61 views. Weird, right? 

Well, that's all I have for now. I'm going to put a few rows in on my sock before calling it a night. 

If we were having coffee ... the quiet time catch up

 

If we were having coffee ... It's been several years since I've sat down and had a "coffee date" on the blog. It's been a while since I've written and I don't have anything framed up, so to speak, so I thought it would be a good time for a coffee date.  I save this type of blog post for when I have a lot of little things, or when I feel the need to catch up. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd say that I felt there wasn't really anything interesting to write about the last month, give or take a week ... We'd been getting outside stuff ready and winterized ... nothing very interesting about yard clean up, making sure the coop is ready for winter, and that everything is in it's place outside.  

It almost looks like I felled a mighty giant and laid it down in the green house.  That's the new fountain. It was too tall to stand up by just a smidge. 

I'm sure there's still things I'm forgetting to do outside. It feels like I'm forgetting something.

So, yeah ... up until more recently, all my extra time was going to prepping for winter.  By the time evening descended I was pretty tired and not much in the mood to do much of anything.  Even go out for a walk on the internet and social media. 

Then the time change happened.  Is it just me, or is anyone else ready for bed at 5:30 p.m.? The chickens have been putting themselves to bed at about 5 p.m. It's crazy how early they put themselves to bed.  They aren't even hanging around out in the run or milling about on the floor of the coop.  Nope, they are up on the roost and waiting for me to tuck them in. I talk to them for a few minutes before shutting the light off. 

Back when I was getting the coop and run ready for winter, I took the solar lights from the garden and put them in the run, so they'd have a little bit of extra light when winter takes hold. 

If you were wondering what was hanging down, those are pine needles. They fall on the coop run and then hang down.  It's too much of a pain to try and keep the roof clear. 

You'd think the girls would appreciate what I did for them and want to hang outside just a little bit longer.  No.  They want to go to bed as soon as the sun starts going down. 

I decided to take the lights I previously had hanging on the run and move them over to the she shed, just to see what it would look like.  

Heh, right? It's something I sort of put up there as a temporary thing. Just to see if the solar panel picked up enough sun to have the lights going for a while.  Then we didn't get any sun for a few days.  I haven't had the opportunity to really see what happens when the sun is out for the entire day. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd share about the Christmas cacti I have.... They are blooming up a storm. 

I brought all the plants in from the greenhouse and they decided it was a good time to start putting out flowers. 

Earlier this year I had rooted some of the pieces that broke off one of the plants when it fell and those are starting to bloom as well. I did not expect that for the first year. I can't kill these plants. I had read they were hardy. I do not do great with house plants.  Christmas cactus, however, is a whole other breed and seeing those bright colors sure brings a smile to my face.  It also reminds me of this lone Christmas cactus my MIL had. In fact, I bought my first one sort of in memory of her. I have no idea what happened to her houseplants. 

Let's see ... what else should I mention .... 

If we were having coffee ... I'd share sky photos from over the last week. 

This was when I was heading out to the back 20 to collect SD cards. 

Photos don't do it justice, of course. 

That brings me back to deer hunting.  I haven't been doing any. I only have a buck tag and all those darn bucks are nocturnal right now. I'm keeping an eye out for anything that looks promising for daytime action.  

I liked the juxtaposition of the clouds and the light in the sky when we were driving to town one morning. 

Speaking of town ... 

If we were having coffee ... I'd share that the Christmas stuff has been up at Menards since before Halloween. 

Christmas will be here before we know it. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you that we have our first snow. 😭

I don't think it will stay.  Temperatures later this week are supposed to hit 40 degrees F (5 degrees C). 

If we were having coffee ... I'd say the time change has been mildly kicking my butt.  Give me another week, or two, and maybe I'll feel like my old self. In the meantime I've been feeling like it's 7:30 p.m. when it's only 5:30 p.m. It's sort of affected my crafting.  However, when I was started writing up shownotes for my next flosstube, I realized I've got a lot more done than I thought. I was thinking I had slowed way down.  Not necessarily. My crafting direction has shifted a bit and I've been crocheting a bit more than anything else. 

I've been working on a granny square crochet-along.  It's mildly kicking my butt. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd mention that today, Nov. 10, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. My friend Becky did a real nice blog post about it. 

Growing up in the city where the ship last left port, I'm quite familiar with this tragedy. 

As soon as Halloween passed the Fitz took over Instagram.  Or at least it did my Instagram. 

Years ago I came across what I consider to be one of the best Youtube tribute videos made for the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. 

Well, that's all for now, I reckon. It's a quiet time for me right now, and I don't quite know what to do with that. 

Tired from the weekend

My week days are still pretty quiet and not a lot going on.  I'm having flashbacks to a few months ago where I was writing that things were quiet. So nothing has changed, really. 

I did work on my crafty projects. 

Crochet Suzette Scarf from Hooked by Robin.  If you crochet, I recommend this pattern. It's good television crochet. 

I am *almost* done with a cross stitch. 

"But Marcy," you are probably saying, "It looks complete. How are you not done." 

Oh, trust me, I'm *this* close to being done with it. 

Little Mushroom ghost
Designer: The Little Stitcher, Just Cross Stitch, Halloween 2025
Started: Sept. 8, 2025
Fabric: Hobby Lobby
Fabric color: natural
Fabric count: 25 lugana

The weekends, though ... when hunting season started up my weekends became more busy. My weekends are almost always more busy than the week days.  I'm sure that's how it is for everyone. 

This time of year, though, usually it's a very full plate of activities. Hunting activities, preserving the harvest, ripping out the garden and getting things ready for when the snow flies. 

Even though I don't have the usual full bounty of preserving I usually have, there are still a lot of things going on. 

On Friday I started ripping out the garden. It was a bit bittersweet.  I thought I took photos after I had put in a few hours of work. Nope. 

Did I take photos on Saturday? Nuh uh. 

I did take a quick photo of some of the chickens peeking in the front door. 

Almost like the one dared the other one to go peeking in the door. 

Sunday hubby and I "played" out in the woods. We were scoping out a new spot. 

I forgot that I took a photo (well, a few actually) while we were out there. 

Both weekend days were gorgeous days. Windy, but beautiful. 

Have you ever wondered just how good blaze orange shows up? 

It was youth hunt this past weekend, so we were wearing blaze orange while we were out and about. 

Sunday my hubby and I did another big project.  Nothing very exciting or thrilling. Just one of those things that inevitably needs to be done and we'd been ignoring it for a long time.  Once we were done with it I felt inspired to go in to the craft room and do some work: cleaning out, purging and tidying up.  Fun times. 

It looks like the weather for most of the upcoming week is going to be somewhat decent.  Which is great, because I still have a decent amount of outside work to do before snow flies. Knowing my luck, I will get everything taken care of and then the family will harvest a second deer and things will get untidy and then it will snow and freeze.  That has happened to me in the past. Let it stay decent enough, weather-wise, until every thing is taken care of. Is that too much to ask for? Maybe. *grin* 

Oh, and before I forget, I put out a flosstube last week. Did you watch it yet? If not, I highly recommend you do so. You might win something. 

Flosstube 35 - It's a WIP parade

Thank you for watching my video. I am so glad you stopped by! If you like what you see, please subscribe and click the notification bell to be notified of when I load new videos. I blog and write up more detailed shownotes at AmniconStudio.blogspot.com. You can sign up over there to receive blog posts by email.

I'm on Instagram: AmniconStudio
Email: AmniconStudio at gmail.com

Projects I share, not in any particular order. No photos this time around. 

*A daily reminder
Started: June 25, 2025
Designer/Source: Brenda Gervais, purchased at Farm Girl Dry Goods
Fabric: Stash Aida
Color: Hand dyed by me, brown and splashes of green
Fabric Count: 14 count
DMC: My own conversion: B5200, 435, 947, 355, 321, 562, 435, 3776, 700

I'm participating in a stitch-along with Sarah at Sarah's Stitchy Spot, Holly at Hobbies of Holly, Judy at Stitching Bunny, and one other gal named Marcy.

* Little Mushroom ghost
Designer: The Little Stitcher, Just Cross Stitch, Halloween 2025
Started: Sept. 8, 2025
Fabric: Hobby Lobby
Fabric color: natural
Fabric count: 25 lugana

Part of a start along with We Stitch and We Know Things. Though I don’t know if they are doing anything after a few life things have popped up. 

*Red Panda, part of the Endangered Species club, 2024
Started: July, 5, 2025
Designer: Lindy Stitches
Fabric: Hobby Lobby Aida
Color: Ivory
Fabric Count: 16 count
Floss: called for DMC and fancy floss

*Crested Porcupine
Started: June 27, 2024
Designer/Source: Purple Stitching on Etsy.
Floss: Called for DMC
Fabric: Half yard of 14 count Aida purchased from Forbidden Fiber Co. 

*Mother’s Garden
Pattern by Black Bird Designs
Started: Jan. 1, 2025
Fabric: Belfast linen
Fabric color: white
Fabric Count: 32 count
Floss: DMC conversion

*Vanilla sock
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici
Started: Sept. 9, 2025
Colorway: “Buddy”
Colors: red, green, very light blue.

Other channels mentioned:

Ashley and Gianne @Westitchandweknowthings

Sarah  @SarahsStitchySpot  

Holly  @hobbiesofholly  

Judy  @Stitchingbunny1127  

Sarah  @Sarahthenorthwoodsstitcher  

Store I ordered my half yard of fabric from: www.forbiddenfiberco.com

The easiest ways you can support my channel: 

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Thank you so much for being here. Happy crafting!

Remember when we used to have blog circles? This is the same, but with Youtube Channels. You should check out these fun channels!

 Patty Penn  @StitchingWithMyKitties-xe8qz  

 Linda and Susie  @yarnoverwithus  

 Alison  @Mrs.AZfamilyzooStitches  

 Kezie  @mudpuppystitchery  

Cat  @StitchinWiththeGriffin  

Etsy and other shops you should check out

https://www.forbiddenfiberco.com/

https://www.etsy.com/shop/azfamilyzoo

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MudpuppyStitchery

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LumiStitch

https://www.etsy.com/shop/DisorderlyStitcher

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BlackRibbonShop

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LadybugStitchesShop

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SamBrieStitches

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetAutumnStitch

https://www.etsy.com/shop/StormyBlue

https://www.ebay.com/usr/northwoodsstitcher

Weekend shenanigans

 The weather was surprisingly warm on Saturday. ... According to some. 

I have to be a bit cheeky about that one because I felt the temperature was okay.  The boys said it was warm and my son wondered why the air conditioning wasn't on. 

There was some strong breezes on Saturday, so I was fine with having all the windows open. 

I was razzed about it on Saturday, don't worry. 😆

Because it was warm and windy we didn't do much outside. Instead we did a project in the house and it was a wee bit frustrating.  I'm being mildly sarcastic, of course,  it was VERY frustrating. One of those things where everything has to be just so -- and it was -- until the end, and it would fall apart. 

Eventually, we persevered and got it done. 

On Sunday the weather was still nice, but still windy. I thought "Hey, this would be a great day to wash the outside of the windows."

And you want to know what happened after I roped my son into helping me and we were washing the windows? It started raining.  Not a hard rain, but still.  Annoying. 

Especially after the morning was really pleasant.  Even if it was windy. 

My boys were bonding. 

Aren't the trees beautiful? 

I even made brownies. 

I worked on my "Hope is a thing with feathers" cross stitch project and *finally* completed it.  Now to figure out how to finish it. 

And then I decided to work on a crochet project I started the other day. 

This is called "Harvest table runner" by Sara Sach. 

Today was not as warm. Fall is here. Well, weather-wise, it's definitely here. I think it stayed in the 50s F for the high. 

It was also publishing day. It went very well. Like I told a few friends, the day was done before it even started.  LOVE that. The office received so much local stuff that it filled the paper. 

Some lovely mail arrived today. 

I won a giveaway over at Crafty Cat Stitcher's channel.  The kit I won arrived today, with a lovely note from Cathy. 

It's such a darling kit. Too late to start and have for this year's Halloween.  I'll have to figure out how to add it to the projects for next year.  

Flosstube 34 - A long catch up

Thank you for stopping by and watching my video. My show notes for this episode are way late. Sorry! If you would like to be notified of when I post the shownotes, or regular blog posts, you can sign up to receive blog posts by email over on the right side of the blog.

I'm on Instagram: AmniconStudio Email: AmniconStudio at gmail.com

 Finished Objects

❏ Project name: One Stitch at a Time

Started: Jan. 10, 2025
Finished: Aug. 19, 2025
Designer/Source: La-D-Da Stitches, purchased at 123stitch.com
DMC conversion: 501, 3799, 315, 3826, 169, 05, 832, 3787, 3859, 640; used different color for house, 3777
Fabric: 28 Charles Craft DMC "Tea Dyed"

I'm participating in a stitch-along in the Across the Pond - Stitch and Chat group on the book of faces.

❏ Project name: Beach Cruise socks

Started: June 1, 2025
Finished: Aug. 29, 2025
Needle size: 2.5 mm (U.S. 1)
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici "Beach Cruise"
Yarn color: Yellow, orange, blue
Yarn Purchased: 2025 Knitpicks order

Ripped second sock out after the heel. I realized the gauge was too tight.  Discovered I had been knitting with two different sized needles. 

Works In Progress

❏ Red Panda, part of the Endangered Species club, 2024

Started: July, 5, 2025
Finished:
Designer: Lindy Stitches
Fabric: Hobby Lobby Aida
Color: Ivory
Fabric Count: 16 count
DMC: B5200, 355, 310, 3825, 3776, 951, 3836,03, 436, Weeks Dye Works: 1236 (Mocha), 4111 (Lucky), 1267 (Kris' Bon Bon)

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

❏ Project name: A Daily Reminder

Started: June 25, 2025
Finished:
Designer/Source: Brenda Gervais, purchased at Farm Girl Dry Goods
Fabric: Stash Aida
Color: Hand dyed by me, brown and splashes of green
Fabric Count: 14 count
DMC: My own conversion, as I go along. What I have so far will be listed in the shownotes

I'm participating in a stitch-along with Sarah at Sarah's Stitchy Spot, Holly at Hobbies of Holly, Judy at Stitching Bunny, and one other gal named Marcy. 

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

I've been on a dishcloth tear 

Free knit dishcloth pattern: https://whileberry.com/blog/parsley-dishcloth-free-knitting-pattern

Haul 

* Knitting needles I heard about from Yarn Over With Us. I ordered them off Amazon 

* Chart from Patty Penn. Thank again, Patty! 

* Chart purchased from Kenzie - Mischievous Eucalyptus

Kenzie's links

* https://www.patreon.com/c/mudpuppystitchery/posts - free frog chart on her patreon.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmwKIegja-w&t=200s

Charts from The Stitching Porch

* https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheStitchingPorch

* A Simple Life

* Lord of the Rings Cross Stitch Pattern: Romantic Quote - DH and I are planning on listening to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy together, as soon as the audiobook becomes available. 

* New Just Cross Stitch magazine has arrived. 

Audio book - Three Bags Full

Other channels mentioned: 

@Stitching with my kitties
@yarnoverwithus
@Sarahs' Stitchy Spot
@Hobbies of Holly
@Judy Stitching Bunny
@Mrs.AZfamilyzooStitches
@Mudpuppystitchery
@Stiching with the Griffin

Etsy shops you should check out

https://www.etsy.com/shop/azfamilyzoo

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MudpuppyStitchery

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LumiStitch

https://www.etsy.com/shop/DisorderlyStitcher

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BlackRibbonShop

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LadybugStitchesShop

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SamBrieStitches

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetAutumnStitch

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CherryHillStitchery

https://www.etsy.com/shop/StormyBlue