Pumpkin Sunrise

  Good morning! How are you on this wonderful Monday morning? The weekend was pretty good. I didn't do anything super exciting which is fine by me. The weather was fabulous on Saturday and super drippy rainy on Sunday.  I am thoroughly loving the flowering dogwood trees in the back yard. I've shared with you one photo but gosh my phone has so many. All of a sudden everything is green! Trees, bushes and lawns, the beginnings of the month of May are simply the best.  I worked a tiny bit on the cross stitch project which is so challenging for me since it's on linen. I know some of you say to keep at it but at one point I wanted to scrap the whole project and start over on Aida cloth. I resisted and will keep going. Sunday was all day rain and some rumbly thunder. I put on some piano music for Frodo and it seemed he didn't hear the thundering (he is afraid of thunder!). I might be onto something good. How was your weekend?

  Good morning! Finally spring weather is here, well temporarily. I have the patio all set up and we had our first sit out two days ago. The patio is one of our favorite features of this house. In the photo above is our backyard and down the hill can you see the half buried swimming pool? We are trying to figure out how to completely bury it. No ideas so far, but I welcome yours. My husband is trying to figure out how to remove the coping around the edges of the pool. We also need a ton of dirt.  Our local family will be at our house for Easter Sunday dinner. I've been busy creating a menu and writing down all the 'to dos' that need to be done. I'm lucky my sister is helping with the cooking. I'll miss my kids but there is Zoom and that makes it nice! I have not done a single stitch of my cross stitch project in over a week. I snapped a photo to show you my progress and to visually remind me to work on it once again. I'm working on the second baby gift sweater a

  Thank you for all of your lovely comments on the last post, I'm glad I'm not the only one who is saving things for a special day. I'm in good company! This weekend was nice. I tried out my new reading glasses that are just for cross stitching. So far I am quite pleased with the magnification! I'll be trying them out again in the next few days. My progressive lens glasses are fantastic, oh the things I can see!  I finally finished a sock, so now to cast on the second sock. I love knitting socks that have no pattern and I can just knit knit knit along without much thinking. This morning it snowed (again) and Frodo refused to do anything after a 12 hour sleep, so I have to take him back out there. He does not like cold weather at all, the older he gets the more he shivers and that is with a coat on! I guess I don't blame him at all. How was your weekend?

  How was your weekend? Well over here we got, you guessed it, more snow. Our driveway is a big mess and that is with my husband snow blowing it several times. How are you? Before I begin with my weekend I wanted to say thank you for all the congratulatory messages over our sweet little grandson. We cannot wait to meet him in person. My weekend was pretty good. The days were mostly quiet with lots of reading. Miraculously my wrists stopped hurting so it was an arthritis flare, thank goodness. Now I am working on the blanket with less animosity towards it.  My new cross stitch project is over two threads of linen (32 count) and I CANNOT SEE IT clearly. I hope the new glasses help if and went they come in. I do not want to use a magnifying glass contraption (stubborn lady). If by the end of this project I'm still frustrated I will go back to Aida cloth for projects. This is my very first project over two threads and I'm hoping I hit a rhythm to the stitching over a period of time

  Good news! Our grandson, Blaise, was born earlier this week! All is well and good. We hope to see him in person within a month and fingers are crossed that the weather cooperates. Now I have to stitch his name and birthdate into that space and get this little sampler framed. We are beyond excited to be first time grandparents. He will be called Grandad and I will be called Grammy. I had a Gram who was formative in my life and so I hope to carry on her legacy. I continue to read a chapter a week out of Code Girls which is very interesting but dense information. I'm excited if I finish a chapter each day!  I decided to paint my Valentine cards and I enjoyed this process immensely. My watercoloring habits have slipped away with pursuing other creative pursuits so it was nice to sit at the kitchen table and be creative in a different way. My dinner below was an approximation of bibimbap. I was missing a few ingredients so I improvised to the best of my ability. All I can say is kimch

  This week has been bitterly cold and yet Frodo and I keep trying to take a walk in spite of the weather adversity. He loves his walks but he doesn't remember his limitations (almost like me!). He is a glass half full kind of dog (unlike me, I'm trying to be more like him). On one walk we were approached by a loose dog then another loose dog by the same owner. I'm lucky I can pick Frodo up and wait for the mayhem to settle. This owner like many loose dog owners before him thinks Frodo is afraid and that is why I pick him up.  Sadly I pick Frodo up because he can get nasty with other dogs...I still love him and his 'spunky' attitude.  Since the weather is frigid, I am doing all the indoor activities. Lots of reading, knitting and I started a new cross stitch project. It's been fun circulating my brain amongst all of my hobbies, I'm lucky that my hobbies are vast and I rarely get bored.  I have a routine eye doctor visit early this morning, I'm hoping she

  How are you? I spent the weekend huddling inside my house during either bitter cold temperatures or during a snowfall. I loved it! I finished all the stitching I can possibly do on the baby sampler. Now I need the name and date - due date is February 9th. We are getting closer and closer.  I struggled getting those pesky little buttons on the fabric. I had to use a sewing needle that was quite difficult to thread (old eyes). Even the needle threader could not get in that wee little needle eye. However, I kept trying and guessing and succeeded! What a challenge! I cannot sing enough praises for my bird feeder that brings me endless joy. Whenever I'm in the kitchen I'm watching them. The birds are quite greedy in a snow storm. Nothing new over the weekend, just snow, stitching, knitting, reading and those super boring weekly household chores.  How was your weekend?

  Well would you look at that! Snow! I'd say it's about six inches or so and we are still getting some more. Luckily for me I have a warm house and all the knitting. How was your weekend? I enjoyed lots of reading and knitting and cross stitching. My sister and brother in law came over for dinner Friday night and we played a few rounds of a board game. Saturday morning I was out with my sister doing some shopping (nothing exciting was bought). I'm enjoying being a homebody as I do whenever I travel and come home.  How was your weekend?

  How was your New Year? How was your weekend? I had a long time off from this space and it was relaxing and fun but then again I miss my regular posting three times a week. For New Year's Eve, we went to my sister and brother in law's house for dinner and board games. We had great great fun! I'm sharing with you the progress on the baby sampler but I haven't worked on it for a few days now. I am nearly finished with what I can stitch, once the baby arrives in early February I can stitch his or her name and the date. It's been a fun stitching project (no backstitching!!). I have been knitting like a demon to finish my sister's sweater and hopefully I will have some photos to share with you soon. It's drying right now as I type this post. The weekend was relaxing and calm. I knit a lot, read a lot, and I put away all the holiday decorations because clean spaces is what I crave when the new year begins. What have you been up to this past weekend?

  Can you believe that Christmas is this weekend coming up? I cannot. The days are flying right by it seems. We had the teeniest dusting of snow yesterday morning but so far the forecast is for a green Christmas, bah humbug.  How are you? How was your weekend?  We had dinner at my sister's house on Saturday night and exchanged gifts because we couldn't wait. There's a child in all of us! I also received a gift in the mail from a friend AND a belated birthday gift from my daughter. I love getting gifts in the mail, who doesn't? Over the weekend I stitched a lot and here's the progress of all that stitching on the grand baby birth sampler.. This pattern is nice in that there is no backstitching except for the feet of three birds and they are tiny! Hopefully I'm not making any mistakes. We talked to both kids on Sunday, I really liked that.  How was your weekend? A NOTE: I will not be posting for this Friday or next Friday as a bit of a mini vacation of sorts. I th

  How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good! I had lots of knitting time, crafting time, reading time AND I am officially done with knitting for Christmas only if I decide not to knit my husband a pair of socks. I'm still mulling that one over. I'm trying to give my hands a rest from all the double pointed needle knitting which inflamed some finger joints when I did all those fingerless mitts one after the other.  On Saturday, my sister and brother in law came over for dinner and dessert. We try to get together once a week and it's a nice tradition - schedule permitting of course. Sunday after my weekly household chores I pulled out the baby sampler cross stitch project that I want to stitch up before the grand-baby arrives in early February - no official name yet so that will be stitched in once the baby makes his/her arrival. Surprises are the best. How was your weekend?

  Good morning! How was your weekend? Mine was full - but a good kind of full if you know what I mean. The photo above was a beautiful sunrise in my backyard.  Saturday, we stayed home and I worked on my Christmas junk journal and knitted on the possibly last Christmas project (there might be one more...). I had fun dabbling in some watercolors and sketching as well. Sunday was a full day of chores. Lots of laundry and house cleaning and in between those tasks I was reading and again sketching. I get so excited to do all the things and then I wonder if I am spreading myself too thin doing all the things! Sadly on Sunday I had to give my aching hands a rest so I did not knit one single stitch. I managed to write out Christmas cards and alerted the receivers to our new address. Do you write holiday cards? I'm toying with quitting the tradition but then again, I like getting them in the mail. I don't have many to send out maybe 22 cards? The list dwindles every single year. The ph

  How was your weekend? First off I'd like to announce we had our first snow of the season. This knitter was quite pleased and the snow event occurred both Saturday and Sunday - sweet!  Over the weekend I managed to finish the cross stitch holiday ornament, I just need to glue some felt on the back side and find where my ribbons are (I think I know where they are but moving makes everything wonky with memory). Yesterday's morning walk was quite chilly so Frodo wore his coat under his harness, he is so trendy! Someone handmade this coat many many years ago for when our previous dog, Zoe, was a pup. She never wore it for long and then I tucked it into the back of the hall closet. Last year I unearthed it and trained him to wear it (he stands frozen like a statue with coats....) because he shivers a lot as an older dog. Of course I did a ton of knitting this weekend but more on that on Wednesday. Tell me about your weekend!

  Oh November, why do you go so quickly in my mind? Already we are on the fifth day. I cannot remember when I started to love November - well first of all it's my birthday month but I love the days leading up to Thanksgiving and witnessing the leaves dropping and the weather whispering winter temperatures. I love how Christmas creeps in before you've celebrated Thanksgiving too. November is usually a coat wearing month and a wool wearing month. I've been receiving emails from all the stores giving me birthday presents for the month. Ikea sent me such an email and we made the trip yesterday to visit the store in Pittsburgh. He needed a new office chair and I picked up a few things for around the house. They were in the process of decorating for the holidays and my last photo of the gnomes on the counter was one of their rooms in progress. Every month I give my self a little challenge. I've done daily haikus and daily sketching but this time around I am carving out one ho

How was your weekend?  If you're in the USA you are still weekending since it's Memorial Day.  My weekend was good overall and continuing. Our walk was the first walk in the morning because of how warm it gets during the day.  Isn't that a wonderful progression as we head towards summer?  The little bugs are so horrible this year so we spray our hat brims with deterrent and that seems to work. I sat and cross stitched all day on Saturday and finished the piece!  Sadly there was a big hiccup with the picture.  On Sunday morning, I gave it a quick swish in cold water then smoothed it out to dry and when I looked at in a mere three hours later, the red floss BLED into the white cloth (insert a very very sad face).  I will blame it all on this project being from a kit and an unknown floss brand. I went through all the emotions: sadness, grief and anger.  I woke up with acceptance.  Since I discovered the bleeding, I swilled it in laundry detergent and soaked in lots

Good morning!  How has your week been?  This week was probably my best week to date with being productive and focusing on what I want to accomplish each day.  Also yesterday while it was tipping down buckets of rain, I really didn't lament about it. Usually I whine and whine (out loud and to myself) about the clouds and the dreariness of it all. Can't say why yesterday was a non-whining day but it made for a great mental attitude day in my head. The violets are blooming as well as my flowering apple tree and my dogwood trees, I hope to get out this weekend and get some photos during some partly sunny hours.  The forecast is looking quite summery and maybe we will get the swing and lawn furniture out so we can sit in nature. The above photo is Holly looking at her beloved nemesis.  She checks in on Frodo every morning sometimes sitting within one foot of him (he's under the ottoman).  I know Frodo knows that she is there, I'd like to believe he likes her com