Once again, earlier in the day I started kind of doing a blog outline in my head. I was thinking I would go in a direction that is different then the one I'm going. That's all right though. You'd never know unless I told you. Which I guess I just did. Ha!
Remember in a previous post I said my son was sick around Easter? My husband got sick. Then I got sick, but managed to shake it off? Yeeeeahhhhh .... it came back and got me.
I took a sick day yesterday and pretty much spent the day on the couch, after tossing supper in the slow cooker.
The weather wasn't all that great, anyways, so I didn't feel too bad about laying about and taking naps.
Today was the second day of the year that we had nice weather. And by nice weather, I mean nice weather all day.
Blue skies for days. Nary a cloud in the sky.
I opened all the house windows and they are still open at the time of my writing. The sun was out all day, shining brightly down. It was almost a bit too warm even. I'm debating on whether to keep the windows open all the way to almost night time, or close things up in the next hour. For the record, I'm writing a few hours earlier than I usually do when I post on the blog.
I keep reminding myself that this type of weather will not last long before the heat of summer descends on us, so enjoy it while I can.
Just a few patches of snow are left. I cannot wait until it's ALL gone. So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu.
Can you believe April is half over?
All this nice weather made it a bit hard to focus on work, but I was a good girl and stayed focused.
On my lunch hour I bopped out to the greenhouse, with all the plants, and set them up out there.
Wait til you see the temperature out there.
And it most certainly felt like it.
So I went out of the greenhouse to plant my tomato seeds.
Thirty-two plants. Do I need more? I'm seriously pondering this one. Last year I planted SO many tomato plants and then it was such an awful garden year. I still have a bit of time to start seeds.
The girls enjoying some table scraps.
This is the spot where my fountain goes.
Just a bit of snow left. Then we can set the fountain up.
Not that ones I bet you are thinking of as soon as you the the word "plants."
Where my son works they have an area were you can buy plants. I strongly suspect no one really takes care of them. That's the area where he got the tulips that he brought home the other day.
Yesterday he brought home a couple more pitiful-looking plants. He asked if I'd be able to do anything for them. I said I'd try.
One of the plants was a begonia. I cheered a little at the thought of having a begonia.
The other plant is something I don't know. At first I wanted to say it was a gerbera daisy, but I don't think it is.
Well, that one felt pretty dry, so I gave it a bit of water.
Woweee!
This is what it looked like this morning.
I wish there was a before photo so you could see how sad this plant looked when I got it last night. The leaves were limp and the stem holding the flower was laying down. Even the petals had no oomph to them.
So what did my son do today? He brought home four more plants.
One more begona, two cyclamen, and I don't know what that purple flower one is. I tucked the daisy-looking plant in so they'd all be on the same 1020 tray.
Amazing.
Oh, and here's the begonia from yesterday. Just so it doesn't feel left out.
At this rate, I'm going to have to keep my shelf up year-round!
Here's a photo of my baby garden plants.
I brought them out to the greenhouse yesterday, for a few hours. My hubby commented that being out there seemed to agree with them. I forgot to bring them out there today. It was overcast yesterday. Overcast today.
Something that I haven't gotten used to yet is how long it stays light out. This was at 7:30 p.m.
I was out there, tucking the girls in, when I stopped and looked up at the sky and marveled about the longer days and the snow being almost gone.
Speaking of the girls ...
Tonite I brought my phone out to the coop so I could try snapping a few photos of them.
This girl was so judgey. Like "What are you *doing*? Really?" She had no time for my shenanigans.
"Get my good side," this one seemed to be saying.
I tried to get a photo of a few of them snuggled together.
However, I think the photo of the evening is this one.
Sometimes I really marvel at the photos you can get with a smart phone.
Bit by bit I'm learning a little bit about adjusting settings to take photos, and all that jazz. I didn't do anything special to get this shot. Just point and shoot.
This whole week has been off for me. Our last publishing day was done earlier than usual and this past week I thought we were working towards a publishing Friday. Ufff, when I was wondering why the issue had such a far out date I was like "What's going on?" then "Oh yeah ...."
So, yeah, it's been a weird week.
I recorded a flosstube on my Wednesday lunch hour. In it I shared my tale of woe about my Armande cardi.
When I was scrolling through my camera roll I saw this photo.
Even though I saw this Armande in the sunlight and I'm well-aware of the color difference, and it doesn't bother me that much ... seeing the color difference in this photo did. Ugh, I just feel annoyed when I think about all the work I put in to this cardigan.
Back on Monday Feffer was in a mood, so I decided to spend some quality time with him and cuddle for a bit.
He can be still for only so long.
Then he saw me trying to take photos.
"What you got there?"
This one came up on my Book of Faces memories from like eight years ago. I'm *sooooooo* feeling this one.
Fortunately, the snow is going away. Finally. I admit to not remembering much of the weather this past week. So it must have been less than ideal. This weekend's weather was a bit off, shall we say. Though it did end the weekend in a lovely way. Temps in the 70s! At the end of the day. That part wasn't so hot. I would have loved the nice weather for most of the day.
Things starting picking up this weekend, despite my hubby being ill. He did a wee bit of car maintenance on my vehicle, before admitting defeat (about being sick) and spend most of the weekend taking it easy.
We made a quick trip to town Friday evening. I joked to him about taking me out past my bed time.
I took a few photos of the sights along the way.
Yup, snow. Though I was more focused on how beautiful the sky looked.
The sunset, though. ... WOW!
Saturday morning was cool and a bit sunny, before it turned cloudy and rained for the rest of the day and all through the night.
See, beautiful day!
I did a couple homesteady-type chores before the rain.
I had to get wood for the woodrack. We have now reached that time of year when a wagon full of wood lasts more than half a week. Yay! Though we did tear through this load a bit, thanks to the rain and wanting to keep the house warm for my hubby.
The girls certainly enjoyed the weather while it was good. When it started raining they did go in to the coop for the rest of the day.
Friday evening I started a new cross stitch chart. My friend Alison posted a new chart and I decided I had to get it and stitch it right away. Then I got hit with the tireds and had to go to bed. Turns out I wasn't immune from whatever pestilence was in the household. I managed to bounce back, somewhat.
I picked the chart back up Saturday afternoon while I was watching CHiPs. Yes, I was watching CHiPs. You know why? Potato chip tv watching, plus I know things are going to wrap up by the end of the episode. A bit campy. A bit silly, but I don't have to worry about what I might see or hear.
Anywho ... here was my progress.
In this episode of CHiPs Ponch was being super serious and explaining to some motorbiker that if he hadn't stopped him, the motorbiker would have driven off a cliff and hurt people and likely killed himself. The motorbiker saw the error of his ways.
This morning I woke up to rain. Rain and mist and fog and all the things that would make you think you lived on a boggy moor, or something.
We ran to town for the weekly grocery shopping.
Once we returned home and I did the things that needed doing, I completed the chart I purchased from Alison, over at AZ Family Zoo. She also has a youtube channel.
Wee Bee Patriotic
Can be purchased at: https://azfamilyzoo.com/shop/ols/products/wee-bee-patriotic-cross-stitch-chart-pdf-download
Started: April 10, 2026
Completed: April 12, 2026
Fabric: 14 count aida, dyed by me
DMC: 310, 725, blanc, 797, 321
Super fun and quick stitch. I told Alison I'm going to need to get the entire series now.
Oh, I want to mention that she runs a forever home sanctuary so all the proceeds go towards the care of the animals, which I pink, puffy, heart love, and it makes it super easy to decide to purchase the charts and support the animals. Plus, when she records her videos, we get to hear some of the birds that are in her care, and they are always so lovely to hear. Especially Zazu, the canary.
It was cloudy and overcast for the majority of today. I think it was mid-morning when my hubby checked the forecast and saw we were supposed to hit a high of 70 degrees. We were both like "What?! No. Way."
You know what? It happened.
The sun came out. The temps warmed up.
I went out and did outdoorsy things. But mostly I sat by the garden and soaked it all in.
The hens loved it and I spotted them out in "the great wild" looking for tidbits and tasty bugs. Because I'm nice (hee hee) I took some video of them enjoying being wild wood chickens.
Today was my first day back to "reality" after a four-day weekend for Easter.
Easter was quiet. My son was (and still is) sick. We had a *really* good prime roast for the Easter meal. (This was the only photo I took of any of the food)
However ... we had ... weather .... Ugh ...
Icy bits of death was falling from the sky. Then it snowed ... then it rained. The weekend didn't start off very good, weather-wise.
Sunday was gorgeous.
Today's weather wound up being pretty nice, despite waking up to 8 degrees outside. I had work, though.
I have a story for you. One that will have you kind of shaking your head, I bet.
Okay ... back in December I started seeing other flosstubers talk about the most recent issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine landing in their mailboxes. I waited until early January and contacted Just Cross Stitch customer service becasue mine hadn't arrived. I was told that I should receive it by Jan. 9, and to contact them again if it doesn't arrive.
About mid-February I contacted customer service, again, and said I had not received my issue yet. I was told they'd send me an extra one in the mail.
Meanwhile I had received a second Christmas ornament issue.
Sometime in the middle of March I contacted customer service *again* and explained how I hadn't received my issue yet. By this time I have received the Spring issue.
I received a prompt reply, apologizing and that they would send me an issue. Within 24 hours I received an email which said they were sending me something.
So I waited, patiently.
Weeks went by and no magazine issue.
Then, on Good Friday, I *finally* received the magazine.
I thought maybe they dragged their heels on sending it out.
Look at that postage date. They posted it a few days after I contacted them.
As my friend Becca would say, USPS Do better!
On the crafting front I've been diligently working on my Armande cardigan the last week.
I've encountered some issues and it's so frustrating.
I've knit up the front and backs of the cardi. I finally finished working the second front and collar and laid the sides together to compare
Something is very *not right* with the collar. I've ripped back the left side twice and reknit. It did not line up with the right side. This morning I ripped out the right side. This evening I started reknitting the right side and it's not lining up. Again. ... I think I sat and started at it for a full 10 minutes.
So then I messed around a bit, adjusting and tugging the fabric a bit, getting the bottoms of the collar to line up.
I'm seriously debating on ripping the project and putting the yarn towards a different project, or finish the collar, again, and seeing if things will line up. Then, if they do line up, I'll keep going with it. Or rip it because it didn't work out and never speak of it again.
In the meantime, the cardi is in time out. I can't believe how long I've let this linger on the needles.
Well, being that it's the start of a new month, and I actually had some chatter to share, I figured it was as good of a time as any to write my thoughts down.
Now what were they? ...
Ha! I crack myself up.
We are still in the phase of what I'm going to call "Quiet times" at work and at home. I've been taking advantage of the quiet times and catching up on a few work things that have been on the back burner for a while. I went to the office today and it was like a ghost town there. Then I remembered that it's holy week and people are either taking time off, or are out and about doing holy things.
On the home front we've been dealing with cooler temperatures. Again. Currently it is 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Supposedly we are in for another storm. Last I saw it was supposed to be a mixture of snow and ice. Who knows what we will wake up to tomorrow.
Can this *please* be the last snow weather event? Please?
Just about any time that the weather is decent I'm out in the greenhouse. I'm starting to worry I might be starting some things too early. But, really, I think I'm thinking that because the weather keeps going cool on me.
Last night I decided it was time to make the second patriotic-themed project bag.
I love that I've figured out how to properly use a zipper foot.
And this style of project bag is so great.
I still need to figure out measurements for making a larger bag. While I love how compact this size is, I want a larger size for the projects that need bigger hoops and Q-snaps. I still haven't figured out what style of project bag I want to make for those Peter Rabbit animals I want to make at some point.
This afternoon I spent some time with my old man Feffer.
Yes, he was on the table. Do I care? No. This could be his last year with us and I'm going to indulge the heck out of him. He was super lovey this afternoon, too. I wonder if he senses the storm that's supposed to be descending upon us?
With it being April 1 (and I totally forgot about it being April Fool's Day) I started a new stitch-a-long with my friend and fellow flosstuber Alison.
We started Farmyard friends by Lori Holt. I keep wanting to call this one barnyard friends. ...
Here's my start. A whole 170 stitches.
I'm using the called for DMC and 14 count aida that I dyed myself.
I've been absolutely awful lately about posting my projects, updates and pertinent info on the blog lately. I really need to fix that.
And this reminds me that I posted a new garden journal video yesterday.
I've got kind of a funny story about this one. Maybe not funny ha ha, but funny odd.
I loaded the video to youtube early and had it unlisted, with the intention of making it live today. Yesterday I saw a youtube notification pop up from a friend leaving a comment, saying she had a hard time finding the video but eventually persevered in finding it. I was like "huh?"
This was me:
I went, looked and verified the youtube video was still unlisted. How? How did Youtube sneak that one out? *shrug* I decided to publish the video early. If you watch, I hope you enjoy it.
Another thing that happened this evening was the launch of Artemis II. We are headed back to the moon! This time it has nothing to do with the stock market. (Ha! There's that hilarious wit of mine again.)
I said to my husband that the last space launch I remember was Columbia in 2003. Well, wait, that's not true. I remember watching that one spaceship launch where it put itself back in it's spot. That doesn't sound correct as I type it. Let me go google it. ...
It was this one, though I didn't actually watch the launch.
Pretty trippy.
Tomorrow is my work Friday. I'm looking forward to a four-day weekend. I have Good Friday and Easter Monday off. I don't have a game plan for the weekend just yet. I do know I want to make a carrot cake. I haven't had a carrot cake in years. I'll likely end up menu-planning on Friday. I know what the main course for Sunday will be. I haven't figured out the sides.
