The full week

 I thought I'd give something a try this past week.  Sort of stream of conscious. Sort of normal update. Enjoy! 

Monday

It was publishing day.  We put out a special issue for Pope Francis. Weather was really nice. ... It made it a bit hard to stay focused on work when I could see how nice it was outside. 

Before work I went out and opened the greenhouse.  It feels so nice to say "open the greenhouse." Spring and the growing season is officially here. Nothing that I planted this weekend has sprouted yet.  Ha!

In the late evening I decided to break out the fabric I bought earlier this year for a new project bag. I cut the fabric to get it ready for sewing

Tuesday

Another gorgeous day.  GORGEOUS.  Hit a high in the 80s. I started quilting the new WIP bag before office hours.  I spent my lunch hour cleaning my vehicle. I think I got a bit of sun burn on my shoulders. 

I knit on my sock a bit in the a.m. and worked on a new cross stitch project by Lindy Stitches

In the hour before bed I started sewing the fabric and zipper together.  I could hear the frogs croaking away.  That's another sound I've missed.  

Wednesday

The first of a few days of cooler weather.  We broke down and made a small fire in the evening. It wasn't too exciting of a day. I ran to town and the office to dig in the archives.  In the evening I worked on my Lindy Stitches project and my works in progress bag. *sigh* something happened and my bag front was larger than the back. No idea how that happened.  So I fussed and adjusted the front around a bit to get it to work. Then I discovered the bottom of the front was crooked. The heck? I was so disappointed and said to myself "This is why I don't make bags to sell.  I purchased some poster board to make a template so I don't have weird issues when I make my bags ... I'm wondering how well the poster board is going to hold up.  It's cheaper than buying the template plastic so I can always keep remaking the templates and use the poster board for floss drops. Plus, I can't get the template plastic in sizes that I need. I.e. larger than 12 inches. 

Thursday

I broke down in the morning and made a fire in the wood stove. Just too chilly otherwise.  

I don't remember much else from Thursday. I guess I got distracted, or there just wasn't anything remarkable going on Thursday. 

Friday

I decided to take the day off and kind of get ready for the weekend. Ran to town, looking for Jalapeño plants for the garden since next to none of my seeds sprouted. None to be found. Boo! I did start more jalapeño seeds a couple weeks ago and they are just now starting to sprout.  

When I was back home I spent some time out in the greenhouse, up potting some Christmas Cacti I had propagated when the mother plant was knocked over back in January (I think). In the square pots are some watermelon seeds.  Each year, I swear, I'm always trying to grow watermelons.   

It was my first time propagating something like this and I am pleased they "took." And it was so easy. 

The weather was supposed to get only as warm as the mid-60s.  It must have hit the 80s. It was a really nice day. 

In the evening I started my very first biscornu.

I started and completed the smallest size. 

Project Name: Love, Hugs and Kisses

Started: May 9

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Arlene Cohen of WorksByABC, Just Cross Stitch magazine, February 2023

Fabric: Stash 14 count Aida

Floss in called for colors: DMC 816, garnet

Needle Size: 24

Made For: Myself. 

I'm waiting until all three are complete before I attempt the sewing part. Wish me luck on that bit.

Saturday

Saturday was a lovely day. My husband and I went out for the first bike ride and picnic of the season. We rode the e-bikes out to a lake close to us. 

As we were coming around the corner. 

It's a nice little park next to the lake.  

It was so quiet out there at 11 a.m.-ish on a Saturday morning.  We saw two boats out fishing. 

The picnic area. 

Yes, I brought my knitting. 

In the evening we went out for our first fishing trip (jaunt?) of the year. 

It was lovely out on the lake. Water was still pretty cold, so no fish were biting. 

I was feeling so optimistic before I went out. We have been kayak fishing for the last several years. I enjoy it.  You can get in to places you can't with a fishing boat. 

So, no fish for me.  My husband caught a bass, though. He made it for his supper and said it was *SO* good. 

The chickens, aka "the ladies" remember fish.  It was so funny.  As soon as he walked back there and they realized what he was doing, they immediately ran over and hung around, waiting for him to toss them tidbits. 

One of the filets.  

Sunday

Mother's Day! A nice and a really warm day. Also very windy.

We started the day by making a run to town to get some supplies for a project over by the garden.  Then we went for another bike ride down to the Brule river. 

A great spot for a picnic, but is was SUPER windy even down there. Did I mention how windy it was? 

After eating I meandered down to the river. 

Yes, I took my knitting again. 

I think I need to start some bright colored socks for moments like this. 

I took a photo of the map and am pointing to where we were. Can you see? 

After the bike ride I hung out by the garden for a little bit.  My husband started the first step of his project. I hauled the tomato plants out of the greenhouse so they had a chance to be battered around by the wind a bit. 

Then I pulled out the cross stitch and stitched for about 5 minutes. It was so windy that my magazine pages kept turning.  

For Mother's Day my son gave me a really nice birdbath.  I immediately grabbed one of my little solar pumps and stuck it in. 

I haven't settled on a permanent spot for it.  I'm thinking of having it in front of the house, or keeping it over in the garden. Last year I did witness a bird using the bath and it was one of the neatest things to see in the garden. I want the garden area to feel safe for the birds. 

I got my steak dinner.  It was a porterhouse and SO tasty. At my request it was smoked before it was cooked. 

So, yeah, ... that was the week. Let me know what you think of a full week blog post at a time, or if you like my haphazard way better.  As you can see, my weekends are my hopping days. The weekdays are more sedate, unless I'm on vacation.  

Christmas and the next few days

 Christmas this year was a quiet one. As I got ready to write this I realized I didn't take any photos. Again. I felt bad for not taking photos at Thanksgiving. 

The last several Christmas holidays have been different.  At first, I thought this year felt different because of the weather.  The weather has not produced a typical white Christmas the last few years. 

A few days prior to Christmas we had some pretty snow ... 

The new holz hausen with the fresh layer of snow on it. 

Then the temps rose and the fluffy snow is now hard pack and rained on and ready to turn into an ice pack out there.  There has been no sun for a few days.  If there was sun, I know it would be bitter out there.  

Christmas feels different for a whole host of reasons, I've concluded. The biggest one, I think, is that my little man isn't so little anymore. He's a big boy now, and doesn't have the excitement for Christmas that he had three or four years ago. I'm wrapping my mind around this new insight and maybe mourning it a little bit. Back in November I asked him what he'd like for Christmas.  He said he couldn't think of anything. His needs are well-provided for, apparently.  Oh, that reminds me ... the cross stitch I was making for him.  He really liked it.  I got the "One Piece" done in time to give as a gift.  I'll share more about it when I record a flosstube/podcast.  

So, until the grand babies start showing up, Christmas's are going to be quiet, dignified affairs for just the three of us, except when there will be four or more of us because we have extended family celebrating with us.

Actually, Christmas Day I was not feeling my best.  When I started perking up yesterday I realized that I've been fighting off something. I've been feeling blah for a while.  It might have been stress, too.  Work has been kind of crazy the last several weeks. I've got a few things rolling around in my brain, and that doesn't help either. 

Christmas Eve my husband and I made one last trip to town, before the big day and I said "I need to get lights." When my mother-in-law passed away we inherited her Christmas angels. I think the lights worked the first year we had them.  Then they didn't.  It was okay, because where I had them I figured we didn't need the lights. 

Then this year I said "I have to get lights." Only I kept forgetting.  

Anywho, I finally remembered and took the angels apart to verify what bulbs I needed.  They called for bulbs that I was not expecting.  So glad I looked. 

They are beautiful. 

And yes, that's Furby up here, giving her stink eye with her good eye. Ha!

The last few days I've mainly bummed/puttered around the house. Still recovering from whatever.  The crafty bug has not been spending much time with me either.  Last week I finished my Bly cardigan (which will also be shared in my flosstube/podcast) and I only have a pair of vanilla socks on the needles.  I pulled a cross stitch piece out of hibernation and have been working on it, off and on. 

When I pulled "Christmas 2022" by Primrose Cottage out of hibernation it looked like this. 

After spending a few hours with it, it now looks like this:

The light blue on the background is kicking my butt right now.  I can't see the thread when there's just one leg on the cross done.

White Christmas 2022 ornaments

Started: Dec. 2, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Primrose Cottage stitches

Fabric: 14 count aida opalescent

DMC floss in called for colors

B5200, 310, 321, 435, 562, 722, 728, 761, 818, 898, 954, 3841

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. 

I decided today was sort of a crafty retreat day. ... of sorts. I grabbed all the things that I wanted to get a start on in January.  Maybe. Okay, I kitted up a bunch of things and filled out the project cards for them, and scanned in any paper cross stitch charts so they can be imported in to Pattern Keeper. 

Yup, a mild mess.  This is also a bit of a preview of things I want to share about in my next video. 

One thing in particular I wanted to make sure was ready was the "One Stitch at a Time" cross stitch.

 There is a stitch-along for it in the Across the Pond -- Stitch and Chat group on the book of faces. 

Yeah, I know, I've said in the past that I'm an any kind of -along dropout.  This one looks like I might be able to keep up with it.  It's been broken down to 10 parts for 10 months. Fingers crossed and wish me luck! 

I'm still pondering what my next knitting project should be. 

The other day I saw this online and I thought it was so very sweet. 

That's been the last few days, in a glossed-over nutshell. We still have the wood project going.  Oh, wait.  We finished the first holz hausen. I didn't take a picture of it. (Story of my life!) All three of us worked on it.  Until my back decided it didn't like standing on the snow buildup around the log splitter and I had a fun flare up.  My body reminding me how old I am is not a fun thing. 

I have a grand plan of recording a video next week.  I would have done one today but I really wasn't organized enough to pull together snow now. There's a lot of stuff I wanted to pull together so I felt somewhat organized hobby and craft-wise, for starting the new year. No plans or goals. I made the point of doing that for this year and I think I jinxed myself.  So no more of that! This is reminding me that I should probably go through what I wrote down for 2024 goals, and update that.  

Until next time. ... stay safe! 

I see bubbles!

Monday ... There isn't much to say about the day itself. It was a publishing day and I made it through! 

The chickens are mad at me because I haven't let them out in several days. 

Feffer, the mini rex, acted like he didn't know me. 

That's okay. Tomorrow I'll be forgiven for not letting the chickens out, and Feffer will decide he needs to do a quick snuggle up by me before bounding off to his hidey-hole. 

I'm pretty sure that earlier in the day I had an idea of how to approach today's writing.  Right now, at 9:15 p.m., not so much. 

Sorry. 

Around the noon hour I paid attention to my sourdough starter. The whole discard and feed thing. 

I took at peek at it tonite.  

She's starting to grow.  Just a little bit. 

And we have some bubbles! 

My last fat quarter solids club bundle arrived today. I canceled my subscription as soon as I received the shipping notice. 

Maybe tomorrow I'll pick out the colors I want for this last block and iron and cut the pieces needed. 

I've had the fat quarter bundle club for the last two years.  I think I'm set for fabric for now.  I know, crazy talk, right!

Oh! I just remembered something I wanted to mention.  Yesterday my husband and I decided to take stock of garden seeds in my collection and we placed an order for hot peppers. 

More Carolina Reapers, and some I haven't tried before. 

Trinidad scorpion, Scotch bonnet orange pepper, Dynamite XX Hot green chili, and some hatch green x hot, rattlesnake green.  Don't they sound fantastic?

I also ordered some shishito peppers because I kept hearing about them last year on some of the youtube channels I follow.  

Come January a ton of my attention is going to be focused on seed starting, planning and setting up for getting everything started. 

Now, even, my attention is starting to turn back to gardening.  I'm starting to watch more garden shows, and some garden-content youtube channels.  

So yeah, seed starting is practically around the corner. 

*ahem*  

I have almost everything I need, save some soil for seed blocking.  Maybe a few more tomato seeds. I'll purchase those at Menards when seeds become. 

Oh, I just remembered onion sets.  I'll probably need to get onion sets.  

In other news, I finished the ornament I was working on. 

It is wee and adorable!

12 Days of Stitchy ornaments

Started: Dec. 3, 2023

Finished: Dec. 4

Designer/Source: Erica Made Designs

Fabric: 14 count aida opalescent

DMC floss in called for colors: 3862, 498, 470, 472, 598, 761, 745, 844, B5200

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. 

Starting to look like winter

 I woke up to snow flurries.  Not a snow storm.  Just enough to cover the ground. 

It's flurried for most of the day. 

I spent most of the day puttering around the house and knitting on my harvest Sweater.  Now that the snow is here to stay I can feel myself switching into more of a hibernation mode. 

Cozy days watching the snow, puttering in the kitchen, watching period dramas on BBC. 

It was a pretty good last-day-of-vacation-before-I-have-to-go-back-to-work day. 

Thanksgiving day was just the three of us.  It was my first thanksgiving where everything came together nicely and was all ready to go at the same time. 

We smoked a turkey in the new smoker. 

It turned out lovely. 

I haven't taken thanksgiving day photos in ages, so there's no photos of the food spread or the family.  We got along and had food, and it was good! 

We didn't do any Black Friday shopping, unless you count going up to the Fleet Farm and buying chicken feed that was on sale.   

I did no shopping for crafts or gardening stuff. 

I know! I'm as surprised as you are.

Thursday or Friday I decided to set up the small tree I purchased last year.  Saturday I finished decorating it and put up a few Christmas things I have. 

My husband said the star garland that I put on the table looked like razor wire.  I have to laugh.  It totally does! "Stay away from the tree!" 

I also put up the angels that belonged to my MIL.  

They look pretty good next to the painting of Furby. 

Merry Christmas 2022

 

Hello, and Merry Christmas. 

It's been bit of a wild and crazy last week and a half, or so. You'll notice I fell off the Holiday Homestead share hashtag sharing I had been doing for 14 days in a row. 

Well, Dec. 15 our power went out, due to the storm moving through the area.  My alarm went off at 5 a.m. and not even 30 seconds later the power went out. Thankfully we have back up and a wood stove, so we were in better shape than a lot of people.  The power came back about 13 hours later.  By then I was too wore out to do any writing.  Then it's been a mix of snow plowing, shoveling, family stuff, work stuff and snow storms and cold. 

Behold ... or something to that effect. My brain is slightly mush right now. Here are photos from that storm.  The snow was so heavy that it was breaking tree branches all day. 

Front yard

My vehicle looks so tiny.

Snow caps on the holtzhausen wood stacks.

Snow blowing around my vehicle.

My son's vehicle.  Can you see the branch that broke and landed *right next* to it? And let's not forget the branch that was so heavy with snow it was touching the snow on top of his car. 

Another photo of the front yard.  I am always in awe of how the trees look when they are covered in snow.  The snow blower kind of bombed the photo by throwing some snow. 

My guy doing what he does - taking care of his family - and plowing because the snow was too heavy to push with the plow. 

Poor birch tree by the fire pit. 

In the back yard. At least one, possibly two, branches that broke from the big pine. 

A tree, or top of a tree (?), that broke by the chicken coop.  It hit the coop. Part of it is still on the roof. 

All the downed branches won't be going anywhere until spring. This storm made a heck of a mess. 

You now have the basic idea of the "fun" we've been having the last week, or so. 

We had our Christmas meal yesterday and opened presents. We all made out like bandits and received wonderful things. 

I usually take a photo of whatever the main dish of the meal is.  This year I managed to snag only a photo of the snack trays I made yesterday morning. 

We had a rib roast and when it was done cooking we were so ready to eat that my hubby immediately started carving it.  The roast was done to perfection. 

Furby was part of the festivities. I didn't get any photos of her.  She got a bit of mashed potatoes and some rib roast tidbits.  The meat she immediately pounced on.  We think she knows choice meat when she smells it.  I had music playing during dinner and I swear she was trying to sing along with one of the "Hallelujah" songs that played.  It was a choir singing the song.  Probably the Vienna Boys Choir. 

Today there's been more snowplowing and snow clearing. For the most part, it's been a restful sort of day.  My hubby took the leftover rib roast and made a pot of soup. We've been snacking on that and a fresh veggie tray I made today.  

Today I've started making lists and thinking about stuff for the new year.  Which, I realize, is something I've done about this time every year for the last several years.  I suppose that is what happens when you have as many hobbies and projects going on as I do.  

Once January starts I get to start thinking about gardening and seed starting! Woohoo! Seed catalogs have been showing up in my mailbox already.