Horray for May!

The garden is coming to life!   The hummingbird feeder is out.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner on the deck almost everyday.   

I think I lost my red tulip bulbs when the landscaper put in the mulch.  I still have the yellow and the purple!  Guess I better put in a Breck’s order.

English Woods Hyacinths

 Peony getting ready to POP

I love the early morning dappled sunshine in the back yard.

Hard to see but I did the best I could to catch the early morning dew on the strawberry’s.  It was kind of enchanting.  

Allium, like them so much I have ordered more.

 

Sentry to my Back 40 garden

I love listening to the birds and sounds of summer.   It is so relaxing.   Even the sound of the lawnmower in the distance sounds nostalgic.  I enjoy the birds so much that  I am thinking about getting one of those bird feeder cameras.  I just might treat myself  as an upcoming birthday present.  Hmmmm

  Enough of my garden vibes.  For May, I changed my stitching order and didn’t start the month with the completing my WIPGO calls first.   I really wanted to finish the Quaker Garden sampler first and since my WIPGO assignments anre both only to stitch 5 hours on each project, I pushed them off for a week.

Using the alphabet in the pattern, I personalized with the names of the Round Robin table mates from a retreat.  I added the date and location with over one stitching.  This piece was charted to be stitched in one color but I am happy with my color choices.  And happy to continue to whittle down the WIP list one at a time.

Is anyone else totally fed up with the current auto correct?   Man oh man, you’d better check and recheck everything you type before you get into a situation needing explanation!   I must have spelled “mis-spelled” wrong about because when I proofread it said “distrust”.    I changed it to auto correct!  Progress right?

I also am pushing to finish the Star-a-Day piece.   I am hoping to fully finish this by Memorial Day.  I am getting there.  I think I have 50 to 60 stars until I am finished.  

 

I did fully finished Plaid Tidings from HOD’s Merry Moments collection.  I am enjoying this collection and very happy to be keeping up with it.   This month’s was released this morning.  

I still have not managed to get my plants for my pots on my porch and deck.  Nor  have I gotten my vegetable plants yet.   Oy!   I have tided up all by one bed and have managed to divide and transplant some hosta. It might not be the right time to do it but I have so many, it is OK if I loose one or two.   Hopefully I get to the power washing of the deck and furniture in the next few or so.

Thanks for stopping by and until next time - stay safe, be grateful, give yourself the grace to say no, and oh, keep on stitching.

R

Hello Spring

Finally able to string some lovely days together.    Majority of flower beds are cleaned and mulched courtesy of the landscaper.   What he did with his crew of 5 in 3 hours would have taken me weeks.   The first year we had him I felt kind of defeated to be replaced.   Not anymore.   I got over it ready quick.    Now I guess I should call myself  a “Gentlewoman Gardener”.

March ended with a great weekend in Berlin, Maryland at Salty Yarns.   An online stitching group I belong to got together there for a weekend.   There were only 12 of us but it was so nice to see these stitchers in person after meeting with them by Zoom throughout the year.   

Shopping was minimal but I guess that is a relative term.   I only bought two patterns.  Special thanks to Stacy for bringing the Santa pattern to my attention.   I realized when decorating for spring that I did not have enough spring decor so when the bunnies caught my eye, it was a no brainer.  Since they are are perforated paper they are a nice change up from linen.   I also bought linen and some needed flosses.  

Chart from Teresa Kogut, stitched on perforated paper.   

And this one.  I stitched a different Santa in the same size and shape several years ago.   I guess it is my Nordic heritage that made me fall for him.

Neither chart is anywhere close to being on my radar.  

The month started with having the grandkids for three days of Spring Break.   We went to the movies and saw Disney’s Hopper.   We went to a dinosaur museum and on a fossil dig.   Boy did we get dirty!   And we dyed Easter Eggs…..then I took a two hour nap after taking them home!

So stitching was slow to start with for April.   I worked on my French Alphabet when at Salty Yarns at the end of March and into April and I wanted to keep going!   I am hopefully that 7 to 10 days each month I will cross the finish line.    I did stop working on it for now because I want to stay on track with WIPGO and my monthly ornament.  

WIPGO numbers will have me stitching on Quaker Friends and HOD Year of Celebration.     For Quaker Friends, I would like to push through this one to a completion before working on the HOD piece.  The other WIPGO call was the last of the Year of Celebrations series from Hands on Design - October.   Finally!  The other 11 months are  done and hopefully this one can join the batch by the end of the month.

Here’s hoping that my end of the month recap will include sharing some finishes.

Thanks for stopping by, give yourself grace, appreciate all the good things in your life and keep on stitching.