Sunday Starts

Hello friends.

What devastation the tornadoes brought 

to the Midwest.

My thoughts and prayers to all those affected.

A while back, I purchased this book 

from Notforgotten Farm.

There are a few cross stitch projects,

and a hooked rug I would like to do in this one.

Lori has an Etsy shop if you are interested.

 

The first cross stitch project I chose was called

Turkey Trot.

Am stitching this on 30 ct Old Salem.

Using the called for DMC floss.

I also purchased some floss drops

because I have a few Thanksgiving projects

I would like to do eventually.

This is my start on turkey trot.

I so love the mottled look for this linen.

Am not a fan of a lot of mottled linen,

but thought this one would 

be nice with the floss colors. 

Am loving this mustard house.

If you can enlarge my pic,

you can see how I count my border stitches.

Instead of using counting pins,

I just do a half stitch, and then every 

10 stitches I make a full cross stitch.

If the border pattern starts with 9 stitches,

then 9 is my first full cross stitch...

then I continue on with 10.

By doing this it helps knowing if I am 

on track with the pattern.

Being a leftie, I also like to start in either 

the upper or lower left of any project.

My next project is my lunch one now

since finishing Love Always.

I chose this pattern because it reminds me 

of a coverlet that I already own.

Pattern by Summer House Stitch Works.

There are only three DMC colors for this one.

924- Blue

420- Gold

I opted for 3778-Salmon 

instead of Terra Cotta 758 which was the called for. 

My progress thus far.

Am stitching this one on 32 count

 White Belfast linen.

I loved this pattern so much

that  decided to purchase the remaining

three seasons which also look like coverlets.

Once I start the others, I may also change

up colors a bit to match my own decor.

That's the beauty of these patterns.

You can change up color floss and fabric,

to make it look altogether different.

Finally my next Valentine project.

This one is called Cupid's Sampler

by With Thy Needle and Thread.

A smaller sampler for Valentine's

since finishing Love Always.

This piece of linen is 28 ct Wren.

I had originally started this on 32 ct wren,

but could not see the holes during the day...

which sucked, so I changed it.

I also changed my needle.

I spent a few hours on this and 

started the wing of Cupid.

Again going from top left to right.

I like shorter needles as I can stitch faster.

Also love this cute puppy needle minder.

In other news,

Bob and I were talking about what we might

do once retired.

He said he was going to be an old man

and just lay around....yeah right.

If you know him he cannot just lay around.

I on the other hand told him I wanted

to just work on my crafts everyday and

get back into gardening.

I did have a chat with my boss last week

on me retiring.

She first told me I could not retire, take

any more vacations, or sick days.

We started laughing.

Then she said can you work at least 2 more years?

She really does like me and I am her #1.

So we chatted and I realized in 2026 I would

be eligible for a 6 week sabbatical where the bank 

would pay me to be off.

I can retire right after that.

So if all goes as planned, my retirement will

be in February of 2026.

20 months seems like a long time,

but it is already almost May now.

I think the time will fly by.

This year already is.

Looks like we are on tap for some wet weather

for the next few days.

I dont mind, but do hate sever storms.

My SIL is home now,

however she is confused and still has memory loss.

My brother is home from work taking

care of her currently.

Just sucks this happened to her.

Going to make some breakfast now.

Sunday Blessings To All!

Janice

 

Whippy Wednesday

Hello friends.

Hope your week is going good for you.

Happy Hump Day.

I only have a few WIP's to show you this time.

Remember this was my sad start

for my next sampler.

I have finally made more progress on this one.

Am starting to enjoy stitching on it.

Believe it or not each one of these motifs takes me

at least one hour each to stitch and they

are only one inch in diameter.

This sampler will be dedicated to all

four of my great grandfathers.

I have one included here now.

Next up.

Patriotic Pinwheel Parade.

This is where I was at when I last showed 

you my progress.

Have gotten a little bit father,

but still need to complete this flag

before going on to the bunnies.

I suspect Lauren will be right in that it will

not be completed by July 4th.

Finally

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow.

Block number six.

This one took me 12 evenings to finish.

I know Yaya will like this block.

Now remember this block is a two part one.

As you can see only half of the cauldron is complete.

I really enjoyed stitching this one.

At least it screamed Halloween this time.

I did outline the witch's face as I thought 

it got lost with my linen choice. 

Not sure if I should do the same for her hands.

Your thoughts?

Pardon the wrinkles, but I wanted to 

get this photographed in time.

Halfway done now.

Lots of stitching in this piece.

I just hope I can continue completing

a block a month.

Soon I will need to start working on Halloween

for the store, so time will be limited.

I already started July 4th but I do not make

as much for this holiday.

In other news,

I forgot whom asked me awhile back what a shot bag was.

I do apologize for not answering sooner..

It is a bag where you would keep your balls (bullets)

inside for firing a gun back in the day.

Someone also asked me what color our keeping room

mantle was? I forgot and am trying to remember

where I put the swatch. 

Carla did ask me if our river gets high waves

during storms.

 I have seen waves up to 3-5 ft.

which creates whitecaps.

If the wind is out of the South it can be higher.

Not as bad though as the great lakes which can get 

easily over 15 ft. 

Thanks for all the prayers for my SIL.

She is off the ventilator.

Her doctor suspects the anesthesiologist

gave her too much anesthesia and she did not

come out of it.

She has lost her long term memory because of this.

Don't know how long she will remain in the hospital.

Well best get my butt to work.

At least it is almost daylight when I start out now.

Whippy Wednesday Blessings To All!

Janice

Satisfaction Saturday

Hello friends!

We had some storms roll in 

the other day.

I left work early to beat them.

Sure glad I did.

The rain and wind was so bad,

we could not even see our neighbors

house across the street.

Am glad my boss allows me to do this.

She knows it takes me an hour to get there

 each way, so she is very accommodating.

Plus I am her number one.

Being there 28 years, I earned it. 

I had two more items framed recently.

The first is Love Always.

This was my go to stitch at lunch each day.

Again I chose museum glass for this piece.

Not sure yet if I will put it out somewhere

or just bring it out for Valentine's Day.

Instead of adding the date as 20 and 24,

I chose to do 24 and my initials.

I id not change anything else with this one.

I also chose another black frame with leaves.

Thought it would mimic those in the piece.

I have my next Valentine stitch on deck to do.

Just waiting for the floss and fabric arrive.

This next piece you have already seen finished.

Now it is also framed.

Again I chose a black frame.

This one will remain in our keeping room

as part of my heritage wall.

This one had all of mine and Bob's initials,

birthday months, month/year we were married and state.

Currently it is being displayed with my other

cross stitch piece and one of my stoneware jugs.

Cannot wait to get Little Quakeresque completed.

Once that one is framed, I can start hanging 

my samplers on the wall here.

For now we will just enjoy looking at them on top

of the cabinet.

When I was paying for these, the manager

of Hobby Lobby came over to me and asked me

is she could look at these.

She told me what a wonderful job I did and that

this is becoming a lost art.

It made me think...yes it is an art.

Hopefully it is not a lost one.

I do love starting a piece and watching the 

motifs and design come alive.

I know many of you who do rug hooking,

quilting and fiber art feel the same way.

It is why we create.

In other news,

please say a wee prayer for my SIL.

She went for a test to start the kidney transplant

requirement and almost died.

She is currently in the ICU and still 

on a ventilator. She does have muscle movement

and has opened her eyes, but remains in 

critical care.

I hope this setback does not remove her from the list.

She so needs a kidney.  

They moved my daughter into a rental house now.

They started painting her house, so hopefully

soon she will be back into her own house.

Someone has been stealing her mail though.

She had been getting it every day, but lately

someone has been taking it.

She know, because she gets notified when

mail is delivered.

Really sucks that there are those out there who do this.

She went to the Post Office to stop her mail now.

Well my friends,

hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Satisfaction Saturday Blessings To All!

Janice 

 

April CupboardScape

 With April fading away fast,

I need to hurry up and post my

April CupboardScape.

April showers

Bring May flowers.

I decided to keep up my Spring quilt.

So love the muted colors in this one.

Purchased these child's rubber boots a few years ago.

Perfect for this time of the year display.

The umbrella is from the 1800's.

I dont dare open it it up as it is so fragile

it may break.

Hope you liked this simple display.

sometimes keeping it more simple makes

for a better statement.

In other news.

Thank you all for the well wishes on getting 

my wisdom teeth pulled.

I dont feel any less wiser. LOL

Friday evening was the worst, but by Saturday

I was almost up to par.

I do believe the surgeon messed up the crown

next to one he took out.

He did say it might happen.

Well I think it did and has 

 been aching ever since. UGH

Now I have to call my regular dentist back.   

No spicy foods for a week.

No straws or soda (pop) for 2 weeks.

I talked with mom on Sunday just to check in.

She had been to our house for a couple of days 

last week but did not want to call me cause

of my surgery... so I called her.

She told me her one neighbor was out on

the back porch one early evening and saw

a walking by far enough away from her

that it did not see her.

She knew it was a mama skunk because strolling

behind her were three little stinking baby skunks. 

Now I would have liked to have seen that.

Well have to get ready for work.

Last week was my 28th work anniversary.

I work for a major bank but cannot say which one.

Prior to that I worked for a different bank for 

almost 20 years before we were sold out to 

Old Kent Bank which is now Fifth Third Bank. 

We all lost our jobs with that bank merger.

At least the bank I had worked for which was

First National Bank had put me through college.

All I had to pay for was my books.

Once I retire I can say who this current bank is...

whenever that will be.

With all of the monies we had to shell out thus far

in April (my teeth, quarterly sales tax for the business, 

Shadow's vet bills and prescription food,

and paying uncle Sam on April 15th)

 it may be a few more years until I retire.

Let's just say it all could have paid for a new

foundation we were thinking of putting in

as an addition to our house.

Hope you all are have a wonderful start to your week!

April Blessings To All!

Janice

This And That

 Hello friends.

Today is a bit of this and that.

Well the other day we were able to see

the partial eclipse of the sun.

It was at 99%.

To the normal eye the sun looked like this

through my phone.

They predicted cloudy weather for us,

so we were not sure if we would see it at all.

At around 3:00pm the sky started to get hazy.

By 3:10 the sky looked like it was raining without the rain.

The sky just to the Southeast looked like bad

storm clouds it was that dark.

Overhead it was just like it was raining,

without the rain.

By 3:15 the sky started to go back to normal

and the clouds moved in.

Thank goodness they waited.

That's how I would describe it.

It was cool, awesome, mystic, eerie

all at the same time.

A once in a lifetime experience I actually got to see.

Even my mom saw it while she was here.

We were told 8 things might happen during the eclipse.

1. Beads around the moon. Did not happen.

2. Animals would act abnormal and the birds 

would stop chirping. 

Birds kept chirping all of the time.

Tundra could have cared less. 

3. Strange shadows. 

None that I could see.

4. The temperature would drop.

If it did, I did not feel it. It was a nice 65 day.

5. Wind would pick up. 

Not here.

6. Radio interference. 

Did not have any on, so dont know.

7. Solar flares of the sun. 

Did not see any.

8.May see other planets around.

Did not check for those as I was enthralled

 at seeing the eclipse itself.

Now through the lens I was looking at 

the sun was green while the moon was black.

This last pic was me taking a picture of the eclipse

through my lens.

It totally looked green here.

I know Lauren  from Rugs and Pugs 

had the best view being in the center.

That was the this portion of my post.

Now for the that.

 Gramma O's Rolls

2 cups milk

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp salt

1/2 cup margarine

1 cup water

2 packages quick rising yeast

(Fleischmann's or Red Star yeast)

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

8 to 10 cups flour

Place milk, water and margarine 

in a pot and heat until lukewarm.

You can test using your finger.

If it feels warm take off stove.

Add the following to a large mixing bowl.

2 cups of flour, sugar, baking powder,

baking soda and salt.

Mix together with a beater.

Add milk mixture.

Mix together again with beater.

Add yeast and mix together with beater.

Place a bit of flour on a breadboard.

Knead dough.

Add more flour by cupful until it does not

stick to your hands.

Place dough back into the bowl.

Cover on stove with a kitchen towel.

Let rise until dough doubles in size.

(usually a half hour to an hour)

Take out of bowl and place back on breadboard.

Take approximately 2 ounces of the dough

and roll into a ball.

Place your balls on a cookie sheet lined

with wax paper sprayed with Pam.

(In the early days they used melted butter)

Place 2 dozen on a cookie sheet.

Bake 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Take out and brush rolls with melted butter.

For the remainder of the dough,

you can either another dozen rolls or make 

cinnamon sugar strips.

Mix two parts of sugar to 1 part cinnamon

into a bowl.

Melt another 1/4 cup butter in a pan.

Take the dough and roll into strips.

Dip the strips into the butter and then the 

cinnamon sugar mixture.

Place each strip into a cake pan,

and make a circle of strips starting

 in the middle of the pan.

Go around to the edge of pan with your strips.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes and you will have

homemade cinnamon and sugar bread strips

you can then pull apart and eat.

Now my mom asked me to put out a disclaimer.

She said that anyone other than a girl in 

our family will probably not be able to make

these rolls.

She thinks her gramma put a hex on this,

as she has given it to quite a few friends...

no one has been able to make them.

I just found this out.

If you try to make these, please let me know 

if it works out for you.

I have not made these although both my

sister and daughter have.

In other news,

later today I have to get my wisdom teeth out.

Will be out of commission for a bit.

All of these years, my dentists had said 

they did not need to come out.

Now one has a cavity, 

so my dentist said its time.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Mine will probably be laying on the couch,

looking like a chipmunk,

trying to eat either applesauce, pudding or jello. 

This And That Blessings To All!

Janice