Self-Isolation, Week 6

Wow, has it been that long.   I have ventured out three times.   Once to make sure the car was stilling running, once to pick up a prescription and lastly to pick up a take out dinner Tuesday night - a much welcomed break from cooking every night.    Today or tomorrow I hope to visit one of the local garden centers to pick up what plants I need for my vegetable garden.  I have ordered a few online from GrowJoy.   In the past there was never enough time with working to go to all in the stores in three counties to get what I needed and of course, I don't need 8-packs of veggies for just me.  I have been very happy with the selection and products from GrowJoy.  Yes, I know I am paying a little more but I don't have the space to start from seed, I don't have the room for all the seedlings I would get and pre-retirement I never had the time.   I figure the extra cost is worth it to me to get the established plants.

A co-worked gave me a garden planning diary for Christmas and I have (with all this free time!) drawn out my vegetable and herb beds and plotted where everything will be planted based on size needed and height.    A little to anal retentive I think.   I thought it might be a good thing to note what worked and what didn't and refer to it next spring rather than relying on my memory!

All that said, we, yes we, are continuing the yard work.   Removal of the ground cover, (Robin in Virginia - it is Liriope.  This is the pretty variegated version seen in landscaping and around malls that has a pretty purple flower.  Mine was the poor-step child version, not variegated and rarely flowered and on the rate occasion it did flower, the flowers were white  but sure did spread.)  The root system while not deep (3 to 4 inches) is thick and innertwined that like fibers in a filter for your heater but worse.   We are getting under it and rolling it up like sod  to get it out.  My job is to cut it into movable pieces as Mr. W. rolls it up.


Being out in the yard, I have stayed away from stitching on this piece for the better part of the last week.   I think I needed the break.   I picked it up again yesterday and this is where I was.

  And here is where I am this morning. Finished off two partial ornies, started and completed a second bell and started another ornament.  I am approximately one-quarter of the way through this pattern.

I am enjoying this piece so much more that I thought I would.   I kind of took one for the team and joined a couple of friends to stitch it and I am glad I did.  

I was dreading this ornament but it has turned out to be not so bad.   I think it is the symmetry.   I like all things balanced and symmetrical.  I have to finished the Kreinik (pale blue) and then add the beads and I can cross another ornament off the list.  The beads are the slow part for me.   I doubt this will be finished today as I have a 11 a.m. FaceTime with friends and then will be heading outside.

That's all I've been up to.   I continue to FaceTime with family and friends.   I think I have watched 400 of the 470 episodes of SVU, binged watch all the seasons of Line of Duty (British police drama),  watched all I could of A Place to Call Home (Austrailian drama) until the free subscription to ACORN TV ran out, still cooking dinners, still have plenty of food and the ever important TP.

I pray you all stay safe and healthy and.....keep on stitching.

Apologies......

I have no excuses.   I blame online filing of taxes and bill payment; I blame retirement; and perhaps the current situation of the world for not knowing what day it is.

Without further ado, the winner of the Cross Stitch Nation Pattern is Rose Heck.   Rose, please email me your address at RED1974@hotmail.com. and I will get this pattern in the mail to you as soon as possible.

I have finish to share.    This is Blackbird Designs Easter Parade.   I stitched this from stash and substituted several of the colors - which as I stitched, I didn't like and then substituted yet again.   But a finish is a finish.    As I look at it, I am rethinking the peach colored tulip.    I'll have to think on it for a while.

More yard work in my future today.   Mr. Wonderful has found the yard.   It is a new discovery for him.   Until now it is something you walk across to get to the garage.   He has been an incredibly big help to me as we are ripping  out ground cover.   With his help, in a morning we can get more done what I would in a week.  We have two patches left and should be able to eradicate at least one today.

The weather is beautiful today and the laundry is in the basket already to hang.   Going enjoy the outside weather today before the rain comes back tomorrow.   

Have a great day, stay safe and keep on stitching.

What I Hate Most and Logic Out the Window

I hate spending time looking for things.   There is a place for everything and everything in its place.  Things are put, like things together, in a logically order and all is well in the world.    That said, I have spent the last week looking for my pre-stitch for PSS and the free pattern I stitched for PSS so I could send it off to Faye Riggsbee, The Carolina Stitcher, for her to create a project bag.    Dam....I remember seeing the pressed pieces sitting for weeks on the corner of the ironing board in my craft room.   When PSS was canceled for this year, I remember putting them in a place that made sense at the time.   A place that I remember saying in my head I can't go to Prim Stitchers without that so this is the perfect place to keep these three pieces safe until next April.    Even though that was just two weeks ago, I haven't been anywhere, I am at a loss.   ARGH!    So frustrating.  And you know I keep looking in the same place because it seems logically it would be there.  Well, when I least expect it, I guess they will turn up.

I do have a little bit of new stash to share.   I placed on order with Salty Yarns mostly for needed perle cotton for my grand daughter's christmas stocking but a couple of patterns managed to get included.   My semi annual retreat to Salty Yarns has been cancelled (fingers crossed on a reschedule) so I justified my purchases by telling myself I would have spent more had I been to Salty Yarns in person.

Before the wind and rain descended on us for a few days, I took my orchids outside to repot them.   Fingers crossed they survive.

I have barely any progress on Easter Parade......I am using floss and fabric from stash.   I am seeing such prettier versions being posted that I am not in love with my version anymore which translates having lost interest in the piece.    I'd better just remind myself that I am trying to reduce the UFO's in the basket, not add to them.   Time to buckle down and be done with it.















I am working last week's Blackwork SAL installment.     I did a kind of sizing up of how much banding this will take and it looks like I won't be able to get all the 52 weeks on the length of banding I am using.   I guess I will stitch until I run out of room.

For Ornaments ala Round, I can't believe the progress I have made.   The three of us are doing much better than one motif a week.    The girls are both ahead of me but that's AOK with me since I've been dividing my time between the yard and stitching and making masks for my neighbors.

 And yes, that is frogging you see.    Seems I extended that purple for 8 stitches instead of seven.   Could I have compensated.....probably.   I felt I would be happier to frog and get it right.

I am getting the flower beds done, ordered veggies plants for my vegetable garden and in good shape yard wise.   This leads me to my next dilemma.   I have been out of commission for the last three or four days with a bum shoulder.   Of course I used my medical degree to research on the internet.   Don't think it is a rotator cuff injury, I think it is bursitis from the repetitive motion.   Both suggest the same - rest the shoulder.  Between digging and moving top soil, pulling weeds, hand edging flower beds and the reach around of stitching on a 16-inch square set of q-snaps I was a hurting pup.  I couldn't get comfortable.   I couldn't even stitching for days.  I have taken more Advil in the last three days then I have taken in the last three years.   Advil and a bag of frozen cranberries have become my new best friends.  Since I found sleeping so elusive with this shoulder, I spent most of Easter napping and watching HGTV.  Nice diversion but I think I have turned the corner.  Pain is less than yesterday and hopefully tomorrow will be less than today.

And while unable to stitch, I did manage to get some computer work done, cards written and  worked on EGA membership renewals and just generally doing nothing but old movies.   I took a couple of laps around the yard and did take a drive around town on Sunday since the car had not been out of the driveway for a month.  Boy it looked like a ghost town.

Easter started with a 6:45 FaceTime of a happy little boy having his Easter Egg hunt in the back yard.   Don't you just love that excitement in how they unconditionally believe?  For dinner, I had bought a large ham in the beginning of March which I cut in half and froze half of it.   I mean with two people eating it we could have ham every which way but loose and still have some left.   The half that remained was perfect for Easter dinner, some Robin-made egg McMuffins for breakfast yesterday, hot ham and cheese sammies for lunch and may be some soup with what is left.

Hope all are well, staying safe.   Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.

As Kitten Stitcher would say

What am I all into today.......in the midst of the Coronavirus......

I mentally was listing what has not changed in my life the last month.  When I did, I realized I have a lot to be thankful for.

• Still am getting up and getting dressed every day - may be wearing sweats more than usual
• Still showering every day - may be closer to 9:30 some mornings than 7 a.m.
• Still making my bed every morning
• Still doing laundry and hanging it outside on nice days
• Still enjoying my cross stitching
• Still enjoying gardening on warmer days
• Still communicating with friends but not in person; using FaceTime, Skype and Zoom
• Still cooking dinner
• Still doing dishes
• Still cleaning my house
• Still able to pay my bills
• Still not believing most “stuff” posted on FB 
• Still don't want to be included in any "copy and paste" chain mail or FB posts
• Still thankful for things like the internet to help us keep in touch and entertained
• Still have food in the pantry and freezer.

What has changed...

• Not driving my car.  Started it yesterday to make sure the battery was still charged.   Most of us have Halo Bolts so it would not have been a problem  if the battery were dead.
• Not meeting friends for dinner.   This kind of runs in fits and starts.  Either plans 8 nights a week or no plans for weeks.
• Not meeting friends for stitching but communicating other ways...girls did a FaceTime catch up earlier this week.

What I am missing.....

• Not seeing my children and grand babies in person but that happens anytime there is a lot of time between visits
• Not hopping in the car and driving somewhere just because
• Not packing for a trip somewhere or making any future  travel arrangements

What I am I doing new....

• Going to try online grocery shopping
• Having a renewed appreciation for the internet 
• Watching Season 5 of Outlander!  Thankful STARZ is being offered  free.  I lost STARZ  in the  latest rebundle and therefore lost Outlander this season.

For me, this has been not an overwhelming hardship so far and may be why I am not overcome with the Cabin Fever yet.  Having STASH and staying positive are my key.   That said, I am in no way diminishing what is happening. 

I am......

• Scared for my friends and family
• Thankful for all the essential people - doctors, nurses, pharmacists, EMT's, police, grocery store workers, garbage men, etc.
• Keeping informed by my the local health department 
• Offended by people that tell me not to look down on service workers because I never have.  
• Frustrated by people that won't follow the rules and stay home or practice social distancing 
• Not understanding the toilet paper shortage
• Fearful of what this will do to families and small businesses financially
• Unable to wrap my brain around what this will do to the world economy and what the recovery time will be
• Not worrying about my 401K 
• Stressed on the days I am not able to focus or have the drive to work on a project 
• Delaying the sorting that box of photos (recipes, news clippings, etc.) that I said I would do one day when I had time
• Uplifted by acts of kindness
• Watching way too much television
• Hopeful for the human race
• Somewhat enjoying the downtime and lack of pressure to be somewhere and do something
• Feeling accomplished by all my crafting, household fix ups and gardening I am getting done
• Exasperated by "well" intended people that message or email misinformation.  Please fact check people
• Optimistic that this pandemic may change a lot of people going forward
• Encouraged by parents that are spendings inventive quality time with kids
• Thrilled that those that have the means (sports figures, actors, business men, the average joe, music stars, teams owners, etc.) are donating all kinds of things from money, to paying for meals, to flying around the world for masks, and more
• Partaking in an evening Happy Hour more frequently

• Praying this will be over soon. 

From WillowHillSamplings.net

I like to think like Henry David Thoreau, to live simply, simply live which is very important now.  Every now and then we all need to be reminded to focus on what we have and not what we don’t have.   It could be a great time to reset yourself;   take stock of what is really important; and  take care of yourself and your family.  By the way, Thoreau's  Waldens Pond is a beautiful place to put on a list of places to visit

Stopped here several years ago on my way home from Mass.

Think about it......What’s different for you?  What’s your biggest change?  What are you missing?  What are you thankful for?

OK, I'm off my soapbox now. 

Thanks for stopping by....keep calm....keep being thankful......keep on stitching.  

Give-a-way

I have several patterns that I liked so much that I have bought them twice.  Like no on else has ever done that.    In my defense, some may have ended up in my stash by other means as well.   Since I now log all my patterns in an ap, I can hopefully avoid buying duplicates.

And hopefully I can brighten your day by offering up the following pattern.

Cross Stitch Nation by Heartstring Samplery

If you are interested and would like to be included in the (pattern only) drawing, please leave a comment below.   On April 15th, I will pick a winner using a random generator.  If you are not a follower, please become one.   USA and Canada entries only.   With the current self isolating I will mail as soon as practical.

Thank you Stasi at Bee-Mused and Bee-Stitching for sparking the idea.

As I "weed" through my stash, there could be other future give-a-ways.

Thanks for stopping by.   Keep safe, keep healthy and keep on stitching.

Ta da

I took a break from cross stitching the past rainy few days to work on a quilt for my granddaughter.   This was is proving to be  EZ PZ.  A kit, called a Cuddle Quilt, purchased a quilt show from  from My Stitch Central. The complete kit was only $35 and so worth it.  

I sewed away while listening to my new favorite kind of  music,  smooth jazz.   I used to just tell Alexa to play current music but I have grown tired of the language in pop songs.  I listen for relaxation and not tension.   It is so nice to just tell Alexa "play smooth jazz"  and like magic she starts playing.  A little Sade', some George Benson, some Aaron Neville, maybe Michael McDonald.   Really enjoying the change of pace.




And why is it that even if you cut and stitch with the precision needed for creating a Faberge' egg, you still need to square up your blocks to make them the same size.  Rows assembled, perhaps next step later today.    Since I am still self isolating I've got the time.

For my watching pleasure, I starting watching a show on the Smithsonian Channel called Aerial America.   It is an aerial view, hence the name, of each state. During the hour long show you have a view over landmarks, historical sites, industrial wonders,  natural features of the individual state.  Yes, a bit nerdy but I like history and nature so I am enjoying it.   I also find that for an hour a day it is an escape from the worries of the current day.  It may be something husband will enjoy.

I have made great progress on my blackwork.   I am working on Week 12 and Week 13 came out today so not too bad.  Super happy with the progress.

I have made little progress on Ornaments ala Round.   This is a more difficult stitch.   It is large, it has frequent color changes and no less than 49 different DMC flosses, 12 Kreinik and at least a dozen different Mill Hill bead colors.   My goal is one motif a week.   Might be hard to do since I haven't picked this up since Sunday.

As for Easter Parade from Blackbird Designs, I should just pick this one up and finish it.

So that's all I've got today.   Heading outside to soak up some sunshine.   Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and healthy and keep on stitching.