YOP Week #44 Year 12

 I  managed to get a few things done this past week but not much.  I was out and about Tuesday through Friday!  That is very unusual for me and for some reason  if I go out in the morning and come home, I can't seem to muster up any energy to do much the rest of the day.  Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all had to do with my Tahoe but it is finely tuned and ready for another 20 years....I hope!  I just need to get it detailed now.  Friday was Walmart so...I was bushed after all that running around.

Yesterday was the first day all week that I got to stay home and it was a good one as it was rainy which made for a cozy day inside.  I did some laundry, made cookies and in the afternoon I got my BOM #3 finished....tada!   I've already received blocks 5 and 6 so I had better get busy!  Today I am hoping to get block #4 cut out.

I did work on my sock and finished the cuff and have about an inch of the leg done....

My focus XS piece this week was my tribute to my son.  He died in July of 2019....it will be 4 years on July 24th.  I'd tried picking this up several times to work on it but I just couldn't handle it but I think I can this time. The only problem I have with this is the part where it states "I will not shed a tear or be sad"....huh?  Are you kidding me?  I have shed plenty of tears and been plenty sad so I'm not sure what she was thinking when she wrote that.  She designed this piece to commemorate the death of  her mother.   Time does heal all wounds but some things you never get over.   I  don't dwell on it and I know Jim would want me to be happy and I am.  I'm going to have to do something with the hair on the woman....I need to make a grey topknot for her hair! LOL!

I know I showed you this bag last week but this week it has something inside it.....the very first Christmas project for 2023!  Yes, ornaments or Halloween and Christmas, Advent gifts and Christmas gifts are not all going to be making an appearance but know that there are things being worked on!

Speaking of ornaments....I ordered Lori Holt's box that holds her stitch cards and index cards.  It was on sale otherwise I would not have purchased it....I think her stuff is a little too pricey compared to others.

I also ordered her Set F stitch cards which are Halloween.....

I also ordered a covered button set, some hardware for zipper pulls on bags, and material for making the above ornaments.

So, for this coming week, I hope to get more done since I have no where I need to go unless it would be to Tractor Supply for flowers and bird stuff........oh yeah!

Otherwise, I hope to finish BOM #4, work on hexies, XS, and sock #2.

I had one of my favorite birds stop by....a mourning dove.........I always thought they were "morning" doves.....lol!

Have a great week!

Happy Trails!!!

 

YOP Week #43 Year 12

 Running late today....but it was a fairly productive and balanced week.  I'm coming along on my sabbath stitch.............just need to finish the B and stitch Our Home and add a few more of the green stitches.....a couple more months...lol!

This week my focus piece was Grayson's Wolf.....I broke the news to him that it probably won't be finished by his birthday in July....it may not be finished by Christmas.....maybe when he graduates from High School?  LOL!  I am not a monogamous stitcher....I have to switch it up plus I cannot stitch for hours at a time or Arthur Itis complains.  But there's definitely progress on it.....I did highlight the pattern where I've stitched which makes it much easier!  This is the snout of the wolf....

I made one flower of each color of the yarn I had and I ordered a covered button kit which will go in the  middle of these.  They will have a shank on the button which will allow me to sew it to my project bags or whatever I want.........

I worked on my hexies this week; gluing instead of stitching.  They have to be stitched together by hand but you can glue the fabric around the little cardboard individual hexies.  It's faster but I have to sit at the table....I used to stitch them in bed watching t.v......we'll see......these are some that were previously stitched.....

The ones on the top (the brown fabric) are glued and the ones on the bottom are stitched.

I also worked a bit on sock #2.....5 more rounds and the cuff will be done..........
 

Things are blooming around here to my delight!  I had to bring more lilacs in the house so I could enjoy them...........I just planted it last year so it's not very big..........but the smell is!  Love lilacs!

I am not sure what these flowers are...buttercups?  They're not dandelions and they come up every year all over the yard..........they have a taller stem than a dandelion too..........

then the clematis...........

I hope you all had a good week and some lovely Spring weather or Fall depending on where you live.

Happy Trails!!!

 

Oh, you were so right!

 I don't know why I thought I could cover 10 categories of tasks in one day?!?  Plus, now I've added another category....learning.  So, I've decided that if I cover each category weekly that would be good.  I've also noticed there are some that don't seem to get covered.  Probably because they are more involved and take more time to set up and accomplish....like painting.  But, I've covered all the categories this week so far except organizing and decorating.

Today, I covered learning by doing the stem stitch on my embroidery book.  This is really fun!

Next I need to fill in each of those circles with the printed stitch.  She has very good videos for everything.

What are you up to today?

I'm off to make black bottom cupcakes now...yum!

Happy Trails!!!
 

Thursday...Wednesday was a wash..........

 Yesterday was grocery pickup at Wally World and then put it all away.  I  had other plans but then a new ink cartridge for my printer wouldn't work.  So, I called them...BIG mistake.....it took all afternoon and I had to take pictures of the cartridge, serial number and model number.  Plus, I think they are in Korea because all 3 of the people I talked to I could barely understand.    Nothing against Koreans just don't put them in customer service until their English is better!  At one point she put me on hold and after 20 minutes I hung  up.....get this, she called me back and wanted to put me on hold again!  I told her no.  I told her to call me back when she got things straightened out.  Finally, they agreed to send me a new cartridge worth about $10.  I told them that a good customer service would have seen that I was a long time customer in good standing and just said they would send me a new cartridge but no...I felt like I was on the witness stand!  In the end I told them that I loved their printer but would not buy one again for all the grief I went through using their supposed "customer service".  I told them it was the worst I'd ever experienced and I hope they listen to those recordings they take to improve their service...yah right.  

So, what a waste of time!

Today was a bit better....I weeded and planted, did some cleaning and look what I found.........a sock from Grayson......he probably doesn't fit in these anymore.....I hate when they grow up.....once they hit puberty, the cuteness is over.  I still love them but they aren't "my babies" anymore and Grayson is the last one....for now though, he' s still my baby and Sam too although I have to look up to him! LOL!

I made my potato soup again and knitted a bit while I was waiting for it to come to a boil.  See my little lilacs from my lilac bush I planted?  So sweet!  There are more blooms coming but it's still pretty small.

Oh, if you're wondering what that blue tape with shish kabob skewers under it is.....I use it to find the center of my quilt....I just  leave it there............

This week my focus XS piece is Grayson's Wolf.........I finally highlighted the areas I had stitched and that was a big help!

Miss Peeps hasn't been feeling good for the last couple days.  I have no idea why but her nose was warm and she was sleeping more than normal.  Allergies?  I think she's feeling better today...I hope so...it's not easy to touch their nose.........

I tried to get back to my hexies and tried the gluing method for the individual covered hexies.  I'm not sure....I have to sit at a table, and you have to buy the glue and I think I am going to go through it fairly fast....soooo, I'll have to work with it awhile and see if it is a better method in the long run.  It should be faster although for my first try it probably wasn't.  I'll keep you informed.

I will hopefully get around to all of you tomorrow.  We are expecting storms again tonight and I wanted to get some weeding done and planting before the rains come.

Happy Trails!!!

Tuesday Treasures!!!

 I spent Sunday working on that project bag and finally finished it!  It took awhile but it turned out very nice.

I quilted the material myself on the sewing machine......

and it is lined with 2 different fabrics as I didn't have enough to use the same so I improvised....there's green on one side and yellow on the other

I need to get some charms to put on it and I am making some crocheted flowers that will have a covered button in the middle.  Lori Holt has videos for all these projects on her You Tube channel....

Treasures came today!  Books from Thrift Books...........a couple quilting books....

 

and some books I've had on my wish list for quite a while..........

I also received a pattern and a birthday book (to remember people's birthdays!) from Kathy Schmitz (embroidery designer extraordinaire...check her out!)..........look at this cute bag..........first the birthday book which was on sale too...........

I am overflowing with inspiration but I have chores to do too!  I managed to list categories and will try to do at least one if not two things from each category each day. 

The categories are:

1) food/cooking

2) finances

3) maintenance

4) cleaning

5) gardening

6) creating

7) organizing

8) self-care

9) family/friends

10) decorating

So far, I've done 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9....that's half of the 10 categories but it's 2:00 p.m. so I had better get moving!  There's still cleaning, creating, gardening, organizing, and decorating.....hmmmm.....miles to go before I sleep!

I hope you are having a balanced and wonderful day!

Happy Trails!!!

YOP Week #42 Year 12

 Holy cow!  We're heading towards the end of Year 12 of YOP!  Where has the time gone?  I didn't get a lot done this week as there were lots of other priorities.  One of my skylights broke during  the last storm so I had to get that fixed before the next storm which I did!  Whew!  It stormed last night and no leaks!  Yay! I also needed to get grub killer spread before it rained and I did that too (otherwise the armadillos come and dig up your lawn looking for them) There were other things too; like arranging to get a ride to and from the car place as my Tahoe has to go in for an entire day.  She's 21 years old but still doesn't have 100,000 miles on her.  I'm hoping to keep her in good running order.  It is expensive but still lots cheaper than buying a new car!  Plus, I did my taxes and paid bills.

I did do some "making" this week.  Two things I worked on but will not show, as there isn't that much difference from last week, are Blackbird Design's Midnight Ride cross stitch that I work on Saturdays, and my Sabbath Stitch which hasn't changed much either.

I did finish sock #1 of my Christmas socks....finally and I started sock #2...........

My focus piece for the last 5 days was Kittens by The Cricket Collection....it's a big piece and will take years I'm sure but I got a healthy start anyway..........I'm working on the  middle kitten at the moment.......

I started working on Lori Holt's panel project bags but you have to watch her video and running back and forth from the video and my sewing machine is a slow boat to China.  Hopefully, if I can finish one it will make the rest of them go faster and easier.  I find she contradicts herself sometimes which can be confusing to me anyway.  People rave about her and I like her but these bags are way more complicated than I think they need to be but then what do I know?  Here's my progress and I am hoping to finish this one today.........

I had another unidentified bird at the feeder....is it a purple finch?  This looks a lot more red.....

This morning I made Taste of Home's Cinnamon Crescent Twists...so tasty with a cup of coffee.....I've learned to add some flour to the filling so it doesn't run out onto the cookie sheet and I also add more powdered sugar to the glaze else it is too runny.  I've been able to add mashed sweet potatoes, bananas, and the cinnamon twists to my diet.  These were all foods that I did fine with before.  I still only add one at a time though just to be on the safe side.

Well, I best get to sewing so I can finish that project bag.  I also want to cut out blocks 3 and 4 for my BOM quilt, finish practicing some embroidery stitches and give some love to my Sabbath stitch.

Happy Trails!!!
 

Thursday.........

 Getting lots done around here....finally.  I took all the brush I had cut down and put it across the street.  I called City Hall to tell them and they put me on hold so long I finally hung up.  The heck with it.  I shook rugs and vacuumed and tomorrow I'll wash the floors.  I paid bills and I put away some clean clothes, and then washed a load of rugs.....there will be 2 loads. 

Today is the 13th so I worked on a Halloween XS.....I will work on it again on the 31st.....

Remember the pansies I planted last Fall?  Well, they are hardy because they are up and blooming!  I want to press some so I found a pattern on Home Depot for how to make a flower press and it's a beginner woodworking project...just what I need!  Woodworking is something I've always wanted to learn.  Here's the pansies.....

I also got an Amazon order........I hate dragging my ironing board out for just pressing quilt blocks or pieces or a cross stitch finish.  I tried using a towel but it's too squishy and it doesn't press well.  So, I finally ordered a wool pressing mat which will be great........... it also comes with a silicone iron pad.....  

I got some lavender scented crushed walnut shells and emery for filling pin cushions.....

and last but not least...this is the bees knees.....self-adhesive clear sleeves that hold an index card.  I'm going to use them to label  plastic bins.  You can remove the card and change it and/or remove the plastic envelope.  This is a game changer!  I can put an inventory of what's in the container without having to rifle through it.

The reason I blog about these things is that I find out about them from podcasts and other bloggers or I wouldn't have known they even existed.  So.....I figured I should share the info just in case it is something you might find useful in your life.

 Here's a little funny for today although where I am it is in the 70's and beautiful...no humidity so far!

Happy Trails!!!

Wednesday....or as we used to call it..."hump day"

 It's amazing how productive you can be when you're feeling good!  Today I took a load to the Thrift Store and picked up my grocery order at Walmart.  I was even able to buy some socks with my grocery order.  I was going to knit some shorty socks but who am I kidding?  I'm still working on my Christmas socks! LOL!  These were only $6 for 10 pair and how cute are they?  I hope they fit!

I got all the groceries put away and made some jello.  I worked on sock #1 as I am almost done with it.  I also practiced the quilter's knot for the embroidery class and I think I have that down pat.  Her tutorials are excellent.  I'm so glad I signed up for this class. 

I also got some grub killer as the armadillos are digging up the lawn for them.  I haven't seen one robin this year.  They must  have flown right over here in a hurry to get North evidently.

I'm done for the day other than maybe placing a Thrift Book order.  I hope you have a good day!

Happy Trails!!!