A little bit of everything

Hello everyone.  Easter being  mom's favorite celebration, she's been on my mind more than usual.  Her favorite things are what I've been cooking and her simple food pleasures came to mind also.  One of her favorite snacks was fresh crusty Italian bread dipped in a good sour cream.  She was definitely a bread and sweets girl and I made bread often.  But her favorite (and mine) of store bought has always been King's Hawaiian.  OMG.  THE best for sweet breads and Walmart carries it in their deli section now.  I also came across some of her sweatshirts.  The stains from coffee and pies and chocolate were hard to keep up with and not wanting to discard her comfy tops, I improvised.  I started using fabrics to cover the stains and some really cool shirts were born.  This is all that's left and weren't the best of the bunch.  I've been doing this to my own denim and cloth shirts in addition to sweats.  Butter and grease stains are easily removed with Lestoil but I believe it was taken off the market.  She had matching sweatpants that had coordinating patches, when necessary! 

 Remember the scary armless boat woman from Virginie Cochepin? 

Some inquired about the design and amazingly, I knew where it was.  The magazine photo of the sampler is very dark but something caught my eye that hadn't before.  Take a look at their arms.  They indeed have them!  The scary woman's arms even extend into the apron part.  Here's the chart.

Since it is sewn to a muslin backing, I can remove it and add the arms but hers won't extend into the apron area (it's smaller than the original) and I will try to give the gentleman on the right his appendages also.

While working on Lucy, I made the mistake of not noting my color changes so I am just checking the symbols to the completed stitching to verify the color.  When doing this, I found something that surprised me.  I didn't catch it before, but there are two X symbols, one is darker than the other, but not enough for me to see that difference in the chart itself so I am following the chart's color photo.   

This is all the further I am, mainly because I hate squiggly borders.  I'm really anxious to get back to something smaller but know that if I do, Lucy will be put aside.  I am definitely putting And They Sinned on EBay soon along with a few other charts since I have no desire to tackle a project that size. 

I came to a decision on the kitchen.  After seeing how much I would like to change throughout the house, the logical plan would be to update without an overhaul.  Instead of messing around with layout changes, I think I can get the look I want with added features, such as the bottom trim/legs on the cabinet fronts, changing depth or height, and adding more cabinets.   I do want the door opening enlarged which is still much less costly than moving it. 

Thinking of making the stove area a different color with different cabinets and adding side pieces to mimic a hutch so I added cardboard wings to see if I could live with it.  The left end cabinet will be gone.  See my slot for cutting boards?  I'm a good designer.   Now I just have to rearrange a few cabinets and get the right people to complete it.  Then paint.  Not looking forward to that.  I'm getting a new counter top and vanity top for my sis and it's always easy for me to choose for others, but I'm indecisive for my own home. Hope I don't change my mind again!

Two more things.

 I had a pleasant surprise.  I forgot I recently ordered new sampler charts and came across them yesterday.  This has happened before and I'm sure it will continue, and if I misplace them again, I'll get to exprience new purchase excitement a third time.  That's bang for your buck.

And I'm asking for your prayers for a very sweet friend named Patti.  Thank you!

I'll leave you with the brat family enjoying their daily cream.  Junior is as big as his mom now and although she rubs and purrs, she still draws blood!  She also doesn't like my petting Junior and takes a swipe at him.  My hub says she's right at home here!

 Hello and a big thank you to new followers.  Honestly, if it hadn't started this blog and felt the encouragement to continue, I doubt if I would have started stitching again.  I've got so many projects of various mediums roaming in my head and it's very difficult to focus on one, which means none get accomplished.  Is that a sign of great intelligence or menopausalness?  Can't we have both????

So thank you to all - have a great week!

MIADD

Menopause Induced Attention Deficit Disorder. 

Good day all.  As usual, this post will be all over the place.  First up, I want to wish a joyous Easter to everyone who honors this day.  It was Mom's favorite holiday, and I have her childhood rosary on my SIL's stitched bunny in memory of them both. 

The only other rabbit I own is my very old gourd that I painted depicting our first Lab pup.  The gourd is unusual because of the split and I thought a rabbit would do its form justice, but I just can't paint those ears properly.

I've been working on Lucy and started the right side after a bunch more errors.  Thank goodness nothing lines up on this or I would be really frustrated. 

And I received a fantastic package from Bertie.   Isn't her blog fabulous?  Such wonderful photos. (She also included two Cadbury with fruit and nut - guess why they aren't in the photo.) 

Thus, the MIADD.

She stitched a Stacy Nash and aged it perfectly, which started me on a path of total chaos.  I slipped into my muddy garden shoes to walk down for the mail and got so excited with the box that I forgot to take them off.  After opening, I started going from room to room, thinking of so many places to display my new treasures.   The huge Cadbury bar was going with me.  I would set it down, place the pinkeep, snap the camera, and move on. 

Next room.....where's my candy? 

Go look for it.  Ah.  Back to the other room to play.  Where's the camera?  Go look for it.  Wait!  What about displaying it here?  Where's my candy?  Wait a minute.  Where was I?  Did I leave the pinkeep in the other room?  With the camera?  Where's the camera?  Ah.  Here we go.  Wait! 

What about here?  Where's my chocolate?  Where's all this mud coming from?  OH!!!  What about HERE????   From room to room and back again, misplacing, searching, finding. This went on all afternoon until the entire bar was gone and the camera batteries died.  My husband came home and said "what are you cooking?  That's an odd smell."  Well.  In the oven were fabric pieces I tried drying after staining and forgot about in all the excitement, now burned.

Hmmmmm. "You're drying cloth in the oven, which is for cooking, instead of in the new dryer.  May I ask why?"    "Yes you may smart ass.  It's because your dinner is in the dryer."

 And look at this!  I've been searching for a place to hide my baby Rolodex with all my passwords and such while keeping it close to my laptop.  TA-DA!
It's a perfect fit.  I plan on doing a larger box for remotes.

The final project on a dizzying day was to age my little natural color beeswax pineapple.  Instead of searching the net for instructions, I just continued on in my chocolate induced stupor.  I held it over a flame to soften and then sprinkled the spices.  OK.  But not enough and it didn't stick very well.  So I covered it with more spice and used the flame again and it burned the spices.   It only took a second to blacken and if I messed up I just scraped it off and started over.  I like it!

Since Easter is a time for baskets, I thought I would show you my very first attempt at basket weaving some 20 years ago. 

That about wraps up what I am willing to share about my day of MIADD.   I'm embarrassed to say that I spotted a box during my frenzy and realized that I forgot about the new computer I purchased months ago.  That damn fish oil better kick in soon or I will be increasing the dose to a quarter cup. 

 If you made it this far, I want to thank you for enduring my ramblings.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and joyous Easter.

Blessings to you all!

What I've been doing

Hello everyone.  It's a beautiful Sunday and I woke up ill so things I planned on accomplishing today will not happen.  What a week.  One good thing - one of the five cats that my brother rescued (he neutered and found homes for three stray litters), came home injured after a week of absence.  Peanut is his favorite and we thought the little wild girl was gone for good.  She looks like a round brush, long hair stands straight out in all directions, with legs WAY too short for her body. one of which is broken.  You can barely see them!  She will be fine and we are happy, but one of mine - the big male that I can't trap - is not doing well. 

On the stitching front, I finally finished the Algerian eye alphabet on the left side and will start on the top right now instead of continuing the left to the bottom.   This stitch wimp can't wait to return to the basic X's!  I also worked for days on creating a few new labels.  Nothing painted yet, and not sure when or if they will be listed, but I was in the mood to play on the computer and here's a preview.  The smoke detector hasn't gone off for a while so you know the edges haven't been scorched yet. 

Remember the oranges I am drying?  Here's a snap showing their progress.  Five are already hard and I poked holes in the stem to help the inside dry completely.  The others are still soft but I poked those too.  You can see how some are perfect, some are misshapen, and some will be mottled.

And I've been cooking.  One of my favorites - kugel.  SO easy.

It's kind of like cottage cheese pierogis or blintzes, but not.

Low-fat cottage cheese, sour cream, sugar, eggs, and a little cream cheese blended and mixed with yolk free cooked noodles and baked.  I held back on the crushed graham cracker/butter/sugar topping.  OMG.  TOO good.

We have so many of these noodle recipes, another favorite is with cottage cheese, egg, crushed pineapple, and walnuts.

The next is the standard with fresh fish - macaroni and cheese.  Another very easy dish to make from scratch and great because you can use your favorite cheese.  White cheddar, cheddar blends, swiss and hot pepper, Jack, anything.  Hub likes buttered bread crumbs on top.

You just melt 2 -3 Tbsp butter with 2 - 3 Tbsp flour in a saucepan, cook for a minute, add 2 cups milk (any), whisk, and add at least 8 oz of the cheese of choice, cook till melted, pour over cooked elbows and bake.  We like cheddars mixed with Jack or hot pepper and I usually add more than 8 oz.

Speaking of whisks, am I the only one with arthritis that can't whisk well?  I have always used the tool in the palm of my hands and rolled back and forth like a beater to prevent the fatigue and pain in my hand.  That's it.  I was tied up most of the week so nothing happened with kitchen plans but hopefully this week will bring a decision.  A few other things - I found this thumb pincushion and think it is so neat for a sewer.  I also found a sampler pattern I plan on ordering - it isn't new - but I just found it!  Eliza Low Pumroy.  Long and skinny like I used to be.

Thank you all so much for visiting and taking the time to read.

Have a wonderful week, talk to you soon!

Just a quick note

Hello everyone.  Nothing to show, no progress, no decisions. 

 Another very quick and unexpected death in our family of my cousin at the young age of 65.  If I'm not commenting on your wonderful blogs for a few days, I will eventually catch up.  Maybe by Sunday I will have Lucy progress to report.  Have a great week, talk to you soon.

How do you demand nicely?

Hello to all!  First off, I'm still at it, and it's a good thing linen is such a strong fiber.  It's been taped, pinned, stretched, pulled off, pressed, rolled, and pinched.   Your kind comments have used the word "creative" but I think it's more "restless"!  RFS.  Restless finish syndrome.

I wasted my time going to the antique place to pick up that box, because once the vendor heard that I wanted it, she brought it back in with a higher price tag.  I  didn't bring it home and will not buy from her again.

Then the contractor came for a look, and I was steaming when he left.  Not from a flash either.  Thank God I didn't have one while he was here or there would be a lawsuit for sure.  He was much shorter and thinner than I, and I know I could have taken him.  But he was so nice!!  So how do you nicely convey your demands to someone that is very pleasant and polite, when you want to rip his face off?  Not easy.  For me anyway.  But you can't burn bridges with contractors or no one will ever come out to do work.  A friend recommended this gentleman highly because he removed a load bearing stone wall with fireplace, moved everything that was within that wall, rebraced, and installed a new kitchen - whatever she wanted!  So I started the work list.  I said I wanted a smooth cooktop and a wall oven built in beneath it.  WHY?  It's cheaper to just get a regular stove.  I don't want a regular stove.  I want the door opening made wider with trim added.  WHY?  You're only gaining a few inches and you could buy plastic strips to put on edges instead of trim.  This 9" end cabinet needs removed for the wider opening with an end filler panel instead. That's a nice cabinet and you can't have just an end support there for the oven.   Isn't the oven supported by sitting on the cabinet and not HANGing on the side????  Technically yes.  Moving on, I want this base end cabinet 1 1/2" higher with a wood top, and the upper cabinet extending down to the wood to create the look of a hutch.  WHY?  You want as much counter space as you can get and all cabinets should be the same height.   You can't use wood for a counter top unless it's butcher block.  OK.  I want a cabinet built to accommodate the fridge so it looks like a large furniture piece.  REALLY?  I never saw that and don't think it will work.  I want this wall moved back to make this area larger for dining.  WHY?  It's a nice layout as is and you'll end up with a very small space there.  Have you ever heard of a hall, with a desk and computer?  Hey. If that's what you want.  The cabinet maker will ship the doors so the additional cabinets match but I need the cabinet boxes built.  I can't build the box. 

Here's what my hard-of-hearing husband heard loud and clear-

 I can build the box!!!  He's a contractor - why can't HE build the box!   I'm paying him.  He's not supposed to question my plan unless it's improper to code.  Don't question my style especially since you have NO idea of what colonial or shaker design entails.  Do not tell me what kind of stove I should purchase, or that something can't be done when I have an entire DVD of kitchen photos, and one state over there is a man named David T. Smith that does this!!!  He took down a stone fireplace load bearing wall for my friend but THIS can't be done????

And believe me when I say that I sanitized the language for you.

 I will start calling a few others and see what they say.   There is a custom cabinetry business out of town that is extremely pricey, and the last time we spoke, he didn't get it either.  Maybe I will take the DVD with me, and see if he would consider putting me into bankruptcy, or if the job is too small for them.  I'm done and I'm sorry for the ranting.  I thought if I wrote it out it would help let it go. 

I'm afraid to pick up Lucy right now because I have had more errors on her than any other piece and that includes that little BBD bird from hell.  I had to remove the first part of the last line of the verse and when I did, I used the blue that is charted.  Several times.  The eyelet is going very slowly. 

I would like to sit outside and rock away the anger, but someone else has that idea.  As I'm closing, the Flicker is drilling on the stainless steel chimney stack, vibrating in my head like a jackhammer.

Again, sorry for the rant!

Have a safe and enjoyable weekend.

Thank you for listening!

If you're running out of wall space...

check this out!!  Hello people.  I've been playing again.  When I was measuring the Hinckley/Bliss small samplers for mounting, the numbers sounded familiar. 

 Aha!  A real sampler box!  You know I couldn't stop there.  My favorite of all the other ways of displaying samplers is my sliding box.  LOVE.

So I continued....

 

I'm liking this.  Warning....this post may be photo heavy!

The nice thing about this?  My fabric is still intact, just folded back.  If I ever want to frame it, there is plenty to mount.  A good way to display your finishes that are out of sight, waiting for a frame!  The smaller Hinckley sampler also fit perfectly on the little 4" round box, but I'm tired of them.   So here we go..

I still have it in my head to try a tall glass cylinder with ornaments (or a single sampler), filled with dried fruits or greens for Christmas but this is a small jar from a candle.  We all know to slice the remaining wax and stick the entire jar in the freezer to make it easy to remove what's left.  I usually let it melt down and pour it out before freezing - pops out easier.  I love these jars with the lids.  Too short though, so I moved it to the outside of this one, and like it.  Again, extra fabric is pressed to the back.  This is easy for small projects, but my larger pieces waiting for a decision are pressed and draped across the back of a chair, hung over a basket, taped to a cupboard door.

I keep standing up, putting down, standing up, putting down, but I like how this injects stitched pieces that don't need to be put into something, hung, or lost in the display. 

 And can anyone tell me what this is?

It's scratchy and I found it with some wool.  I checked samplerfarmer's Webshots and saw her Pineberry Lane Wool finish and remembered that I have a little bag of raw wool. Now I know what to do with it!  She also finished the Catherine Metcalf sampler and in case you didn't see it on Pinterest, you can see it here.  I think I'm missing a lot by not viewing Pinterest but when I entered Catherine Metcalf, Metcalf sampler, samplerfarmer, yadda yadda, I got zippo.  I'll learn eventually but don't need to be engrossed in more photos until I get things completed around here.

I'm on my way to the local antique store for a box they are holding.  It's so ugly.  Brass straps, goofy legs, modern handles.  But I can see all that removed, holes filled, painted, distressed, possibly stenciled, little bun feet attached, and the solid cedar box will be a looker. 

Another beautiful day here, hope yours goes well, have a great weekend, thank you thank you for visiting!!