Slow stitch Sunday - Temperature Cross stitch

It's been a quiet week on the blog, but full of putzing activity around the ranch...

But for today, a little slow-stitch Sunday is happening on the 1998 Calendar Temperature Cross stitch project.

Earlier this week...
T'was a couple of days of road trippin'.
There were my snacky foods of choice  --  do y'all have a favorite "must have" snack for roadtrips?

Visited a new plant shop / greenhouse in Eau Claire, Wisconsin - 'Down to Earth.'
I was BLOWN AWAY!  BUT remained disciplined, leaving with only a little baby Mican Philodendron.

And the blueberries are in full swing around NW Wisconsin, having picked a few small batches already, eating many fresh berries with my morning yogurt and was able to freeze one 2lb batch so far for wine at a later date.

... and the garden continues to be in "grow-stage" without needing much attention.

Happy Sunday

Linking up with:
Kathy's Quilts: Slow Sunday stitching

 

More slow stitching - on a Tuesday

Sunday's organization of the DMC bins was SO enjoyable!  There's definitely something to be said about having everything one needs in a neat and tidy location, ready for whenever and whatever inspiration may strike.

Snort lol... and after perusing Pinterest and Etsy, inspiration definitely was hitting home, specially after seeing this photo in a FB cross stitching group of mine...

I never had THOUGHT about using cross stitch for a temperature project!  I have a few sites and projects bookmarked for crochet with this concept in mind, but... cross-stitch!?!  Brilliant idea.

Soooooooo.....
Today, I was lazy.  I was productive with cross-stitch, but lazy everywhere else around here (although I DID make a point of emptying the dishwasher while warming up some left over Creamy Penne pasta).

Much of the morning was spent scribbling in a graph notebook, testing out sizing and puzzle piece shapes...

And then the super fun part of sifting through the organized bins for colors, and deciding at the same time what temperature ranges to use...

and then from mid-morning to late afternoon, the 18-count Rustico "natural" aida was prepped along with establishing the color key.  I would describe the color palette I was after as a muted rustic, rich colorway.

And this evening will be much of the same!  I haven't decided on a year, though!  2024?  Or... having recently celebrated our 26th Anniversary (7/11), maybe I'll look back to 1998 as a sentimental project...

Taking a day off from the garden and other harvests is not detrimental at all right now.
Sunday evening was spent pruning and tying up all of the tomato plants (~60)...

And Paul erected a simple make-shift A-frame style support for us to drape our repurposed softball cage netting over in order to protect our blueberry harvest from the birds.  A quick wander around the garden and yard tonight confirms that, although a bird here and there is still smart enough to make its way into (under) the netting, most birds have been deterred.  Berry picking is certainly on the agenda tomorrow morning.

And other than that, the garden is simply doing its thing right now.  No harvests needing my attention yet, so... I guess I'll keep rocking in my glider with my feet up and stitching away, allllmost guilt free.  I just feel like I should be doing something other than simply crafting at my leisure.

Last night marked the end to my coaching career. 
Seventeen years total, nine of which were as head coach.  I love it, and nights like last night really have me jokingly saying that I plan to take back my letter of resignation.  LOL.  I absolutely LOVE competitive ball and athletes who have the ability to overcome.  A double victory last night from this squad has me finishing a winner.  I'll be their biggest fan come fall ball season.

Happy Tuesday!

Full summer days as an emtpy-nester! Gardening, grooming, and quilting

This is the first summer of true 'empty-nester' life.  Although child #3 still remains at home before heading off to school in the fall for Finance, she's working full-time at the bank literally makin' bank 🙌 .  Last summer was a bit similar, however since I was still coaching and she was still an active athlete heading into her Senior year, we had athletic events from time to time that filled the schedule.  

#3 heading to say bye to Dad before heading out, with beau 💓

 

Although a few more than a handful of years remain before retirement can hit, these summer days give a pretty good insight to what many say about retirement: "the days simply are full and fly by."  Pre-sunup to post-sundown lately, there hasn't been much downtime.  And trust me when I say: NO COMPLAINTS! The days have been filled willingly!  The weather played so nicely these past couple of days, so spending time outside with hubby, organizing and expanding the garden, was where you could find us.  Together.

Miracle Grow gets a bad rap on many gardening sites, however it's what we've used for years in the garden (any my houseplants).  The tomatoes, peppers and beans were 'fed;' Paul fertilized the corn with nitrogen; I watered and weeded the rows.  He then worked to relocate some huge heavy-tread rug/tarp/thingies away from the torn-down softball batting cage to a spot that has had a heavy growth of thistles.  Naturally, the hope is that the thistles will get choked out by the end of the season.

When moving tarps, we all know to look down nowadays! 🐍

I was faced with an Eastern Hognose last week when moving a tarp while mowing, and this little guy was who we spied under a tarp by the garlic.  It wasn't very big.  If he would have uncoiled, he may have been 10" long or so. 

Red-bellied snake - our best guess.

 

Then this morning, after chatting up this idea with Paul last night, shortly after 7-bells, the outside tasks took over.  A couple swipes were tilled up-n-down the previous batting cage spot, and then the area prepped for the plan to transplant a row of raspberries.

It's not much to look at yet, but let's check back in a year after these transplants have a chance to grow.

And yes, yes... yet again, this is NOT the ideal time to transplant raspberries, but we are patient and have additional plants up top in our overgrown location in which we can always 'borrow' a few more to fill any bare spots.

The red currants are nearing readiness, so I'll have to add that to Tuesday's todo list; maaaaybe Monday.

And theeeeennnnnnn there's Bella girl.
Bella will be turning 14 in August, and YES, that is how she sits!  

She was new to us two years ago when we rehomed her from an elderly gentleman needing assistance with her, and his family wasn't able to help out.   Never having had a German Shepard before, we had NO IDEA how much they shed 😱
She hadn't been brushed in a while, so the de-shedder was grabbed and outside we went.

The yard showed the Bella-snow aftermath

She has been slowing each year we've had her, and recently has shown signs of deafness.  She no longer responds to the normal speech of voices, but she'll alert when I break out my whistle.  The vet is surprised she's given us this last year because of her deteriorating back legs, but... we assist her and keep her as active as she allows herself to be.  Every now and then, a little hop-in-her-step will surprise us all.

And NATURALLLLLY, there's been progress on Dawn's Early Light.  Ironically so, most of my active time on it truly has been at the break of dawn lately before the rest of the day unfolds.

Prepping HSTs doesn't require the machine, so while awaiting Candace to wake yesterday, the scrap bins were pretty much emptied of neutrals and reds.

I think this will be the last of the Cars fabric received from Nancy, a fellow quilting-blogger from years ago.

And now, with the day warming up, I came inside for some lunch, to upload this post and to catch the Indiana Fever while allowing myself to take a breather for a bit.

Still on the todo list (sometime in the near future):

 - transplant questionable plum tree

 - transplant volunteer pines to create a windbreak

 - keep tackling the wood pile

 - figure out a plan to net the blueberry patch

 - pick cherries (?)

 - finish the red/neutral HSTs for DEL

 - get rock-tumbler up-n-running

POV: putting the sun to bed on the mower last night

Happy GLORIOUS Saturday!

 

Scrap happy & Slow-stitch; double-duty with Dawn's Early Light

With Independence Day upon us this week, I'm on a personal mission to complete the top for Dawn's Early Light (DEL), Bonnie K. Hunter (published in her String Fling book).

Mindless string-block piecing has been underway for multiple days, and I think I have the correct amount of larger blocks, but maybe only halfway through the smaller ones.  This evening's "slow-stitching" Sunday will be yet another de-papering session as hubby sifts through a collection of YouTube videos.

Taking a break from strings, on this final day of June, blue and neutral strips were pulled from the 2.5" drawer as a RSC task, doubling as a task for DEL!  Win-win.

Surprisingly, there weren't many blues in the bin!  

Therefore, the 3.5" strip bin and 5" square bin entered the scene.  

 

All HSTs for the DEL were completed in a few (short?) hours.

My Bernina 440 QE has been in my life for quite some time;  she's my piecer!  I no longer chuckle when she lets me know its time for an oil change, nor is the reminder needed.  As good practice, the bobbin case and oiling commence after 3-4 bobbin usages.  I know some say to complete these tasks for each bobbin use, but... 'tis a bit extreme, no? 

The garden is in the growing stage right now; not needing my attention for days at a time.  And a little bit of guilt hit me on and off today JUST because it was a BEAUTIFUL day yet again.  To make some peace with just a tiny amount of the guilt, Bailee and I took an early evening stroll.

The tomatoes were started from seed quite a bit later than usual, so they are just now beginning to blossom with the first few fruit appearing.

Years (YEARS!) ago, Paul started some grape plants.  

Then, they were neglected and became overgrown with weeds.

Years (YEARS!) later, one day while mowing, I spied some bright green leaves peeking through the weeds, and when they have the will, this lil' wifey will have a way.  After walking the ridge, four plants were found from the original six (or eight?).  So, long story short, the ridge was cleaned up, a few 'filler' plants were purchased from the local nursery, a legitimate grape trellis system was put in place, and... the growing (with patience!) began anew.

But those blasted deer!  I think this is summer #4 since then, and those darn deer keep nibbling the plants (!!), although they don't mess around with this one that much; your guess is as good as mine as to why not.  This'll be the first summer of a few bunches on the plant.  

This plant caught my eye!  It's growing along the edge of our lawn, about 10 feet south of one of our (young) plum trees...

and here are the suckers growing at the base of one of the trees...

Could that be a 'bonus' plum tree growing????!!?  Does anyone have a genuinely good plant-ID app?  The plant-identifier feature on my phone isn't alway reliable.  And I'm SO tempted to dig it up and plant it in line with the rest of our trees.  If it IS a plum, YAY!  If it isn't... psssht, it'll be easy enough to deal with. 
Yup, yup... that's the ticket.  Stay tuned!

The Minny Ginny is pictured here, just because!  I was gifted a cutting last fall and the propagation journey has been pretty seamless.  Rooted in water, and moved to soil... and now, new growth.  
Plants, ah yes... the newest obsessive passion that really took off last summer. 
More on that, eventually.

To close - my nails have been naked for months!  My sister is/was a Color Street rep, so I have quite the stash built up that simply needs to be used.  These were applied last night and tidied up a bit this morning.  Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, but I DO enjoy having them back on my nails!

Happy Sunday 💙

Linking up with:
Soscrappy - Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Kathy's Quilts - Slow Sunday Stitching