Rotten Potato

As promised, some updating....since there has been much going on and little blogging, updating will have to evolve over several posts.....one part stitchery, mix in one part travel, blend with family and friends = ahhhh! life is good.

Travel and Family
My most recent trip was to visit my daughter in Lowell, Massachusetts.   I used to tell everyone she lived in Boston because I figured most people never heard of Lowell.....wrongo I was.   Seems if I say she lives in Boston it is followed by someone saying something about UMass, the mills in Lowell, or whatever...but enough.

Outside her condo the ground was covered with pink snow that swirled with each passing car.

Gardens at the House of Seven Gables

Whenever the three of us get together....we laugh and giggle, stitch and knit, eat well, shop and have a glass of wine or two.  Each time I visit, we pick some local tourist attraction.   We went to Salem, Mass. this time.   We visited the House of Seven Gables which was really cool.   We took the sightseeing trolley around the city and did the witch tour thing.  I've got to hand it to Massachusetts, they do their museums and attractions right.

House of Seven Gables - not perfect weatherwise but perfect in every other way.

I've got one more photo to upload from my phone that is a better shot of the house....on the to do list.

Hearth and Home
I am doing something new this year.....I am planting a vegetable garden.   I never have had a vegetable garden before.  I've had a couple of pepper plants and a couple of tomato plants along the way and then there were the strawberries that eventually took over a whole corner of the year..... It has nothing to do with messing in the dirt because I am a hands in dirt without gloves type girl.   I say this because I know some women who would not put their hands in the soil for all the tea in China.   I can't bear to think of what they are missing.  I just love this time of the year when you can come home from work and take the high heels and pantyhose off and put the sweats on and get your hands in the dirt and more importantly be outside for a couple of hours.  I have always been a flower gardener.

A new venture

 The flower gardens and landscaping are so well established that after the initial weeding and mulching, it is just some deadheading and pruning here and there.  Since I think my days of digging and moving scrubs from here to there are done  I thought a veggie garden would be fun.   So I asked the lawn guy build me a 4 x 8 timbered area.  I could have built is myself but it would have been September by the times I was done.   I guess I am a gentlewoman gardener!  I do hope I can produce (LOL) some veggies and good ole jersey 'matoes.  Please don't laugh at my wonky posts and goofball wire clothesline.  I followed the instructions from a girl at work......"oh just put some posts in and put clothesline back and forth for the climbers" .... I am just hoping to get my starter plants in this weekend and they grow quickly to hide my kindergarten attempt.   Now I am getting worried that I won't have enough room for all the plants I bought.   Not only did I prep my garden for planting, I power washed my deck so it will be dried out by Sunday for a quick coat of stain.

This is my usual type of gardening.

Stitching
A little teaser of what I have completed.   I already gushed about my Ellen Chester class in April.   I finished one of the class pieces - Long May She Wave.    I think this is the fastest I have ever completed a class piece.    I may devote my Mother's Day afternoon to a nice big glass of green tea on my deck and start the finishing.  This really doesn't count as far as reducing the number of UFO's but it is a finish just the same!

Pocket and label for the back of the needle book.

Ellen shared photos of someone who stitched a cat instead of a dog so I attempted.  I think I did OK.

Pieces for the pin keep and the needle page.

Front of the needle book

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 Each stripe is a different stitch.   I didn't think it would make such  impact but it did. 

Little point of reference on the size compared to quarter and dime.

And as for the rotten potato.....I kept smelling something.....kept looking in the same places.....did Miss Baby Cakes, the cat do something in the house.......and then I found it, the liquified potato, YUCK.   Potato mess cleaned up and disposed of and candles are burning and I am ready to put my feet up and put needle to fabric.