Should it stay or should it go

Greetings stitching buds.  The sun is out today and will also be tomorrow.  Yay!  Almost half of July gone, Kraynak's is putting up the shelves for the Christmas items, Pat Catan's is a sea of orange and brown for fall,  sweaters were on racks at Macy's....I'm not going into any more stores for a while.  Not only for that reason, but they must have changed sizing again because the last two increases I was forced to buy are now even smaller.  It didn't matter how high I jumped, my ass would not go down into those pants.  I think they're using shorter zippers. Those big girl underwear that I had to buy last year?  The elastic screamed until the little threads broke. 

 

Do you always stitch from your chart or do you follow the chart photo?  I'm a visual stitcher and like to follow the photo on smaller pieces.  If I don't color the chart's graph, I waste a lot of time even though I use markers and guides.  For Ann, I had the photo in the Magma's pocket and wasn't seeing it often, but when I pulled it out last night was disappointed.  I should have been looking at it because I prefer the flower and birds in the photo to the chart.

 

 Will I remove it all and start the flower over?  Haven't decided yet and since the initials on each side don't interfere with spacing, I have time.  I like the look of a more primitive sampler so maybe it will stay.  When the bottom is completed, then I'll know what to do.  Something tells me it will stay and maybe just the birds will be redone. 

 

We are still having problems with Yellow Cat, another fight last night.  And we've seen a new very thin tortoise color, small, possibly female, hiding in the woods.  This is getting ridiculous.  In town there are loads of strays and everyone is seeing more and more in the suburbs too.  What a shame.  My brother has another groundhog he's feeding.  The goofy thing runs up the driveway whenever the screen door shuts and actually gets on Ron's shoe for food. 

 

I plan on enjoying the weather this weekend, slathered in bug spray, before the storms return.  I have dryer sheets everywhere so strong that I get a headache but mosquitoes are not deterred.  Tried everything but ended up with the spray on my clothing.  ThermaCELL is a fabulous device and truly works, great for setting out during outdoor festivities.  It takes 15 minutes to warm up (it gets hot!) before creating the 15'x15' bug barrier zone, doesn't work well if you're walking or it's windy.  They even have lanterns with lights for camping.  The only drawback is having to replace the butane cartridges and scent pads, but still worth it when bugs are this bad. Did I ever tell you that my uncle was the second person to die in MN from West Nile virus (mosquito bite)?  They didn't even know what he had until it was too late.  Did I ever tell you that I jumped into a pool in FL and pulled out a baby from the bottom that no one was watching?

 

Enjoy your weekend!

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

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Cloudy with a chance of rain

Really?  Here we go again!  Are you overheated and dried up or waterlogged and chilly?  Is there anyone in between?

This little fence sitter looks like she's guarding the yard...

 

 

 but obviously not.  Finally had some blooms on the geraniums and the sweet potato vines (which love water) were enormous.  Hmph.  Is that how you spell that sound you make while blowing air out like a snorting deer?  Since I was feeding the 4 mama deer all afternoon in the backyard, this must have been the fawns sneaking around the front.  The little buggers are running and playing all over the place.  Must have been in the garage too because the corn is everywhere, and these flowers were at the garage door. 

 

 

My stitching has been frustrating.  I am a stitcher of letters.  Flowers and motifs that require constant chart checking make me nuts.  I am a sloppy stitcher, carry over threads too far, and go up down and sideways.   Therefore, the corners of the crosses are pulled one way or another depending on the wrong turn my needle is taking.  Adding another color is a crap shoot because it may split that stretched corner thread, go beneath it, over it, any way it can to get into that little hole.  Do I care?  No.  So sad.  I know I should but I don't.  Such  a relief that I don't like the fancy elegant samplers because they wouldn't be when I was done with them.  Just because I like reproduction or primitive style that is missing stitches, misaligned, misspaced, misbalanced, mismatched, misspelled, doesn't mean my stitches should be misshaped.  I made an effort this time to prevent that.  Didn't last very long but still doesn't look too bad. 

If I would have studied the chart before starting, I would have seen that the lightest color is in the large flower, not the one in the border flowers.  All that time wasted on changing to the 758 and it's not even in the flower.  Thought for sure it would be since it was with the red in the border. 

 

A few other things - I still can't figure out messaging and answering on Facebook.

 

If you ever want to search a blog to find a particular finish, recipe, or tip, use the search box at the top left of any Blogger blog.  It's word specific but still quicker for me to use.

 

And.... I didn't stitch that wallet.  Our favorite wallet gal Ann did. 

 

Remember the It Stays roll-on that glues your sling backs and keeps your straps in place?  I bought a new bottle and loaned it to Carole since her split neck blouse kept drooping.  Worked great but she can't remember where she put it.  Don't you hate when that happens?

 

Hope your week is going well. 

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

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Onion sauce correction

I thought there was missing something!  Obviously there are two sauces, one is sweet onion and that's what I made.  Can't vouch for the other but it sounds good too.  I updated the recipe on the other post.  Instead of looking for my recipe note, I went to Food Network's site and thought it would be the same.  I plan on trying the original too - not sweet - more spice - but you know I prefer sweet!

Sweet Onion Sauce

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 large onions, halved and thinly sliced (or coarsely chopped)
2 Tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup water
1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. Add the onions and cook until soft, about 15 minutes. Add honey, chili powder and cinnamon and cook for 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup water, the ketchup, hot sauce, salt and black pepper and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened and the onions are very soft. Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature before serving.



Original Onion Sauce (Bobby Flay)
 

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 large onions, halved and thinly sliced

2 teaspoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chili powder and cinnamon and cook for 1 minute. Add 1 cup water, the ketchup, hot sauce, salt and black pepper and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened and the onions are very soft, adding more water if needed, about 25 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature before serving.

Color choice

Hello everyone.  How was your holiday weekend?  We had a nice time at Carole's and I made both pie and cake.  Couldn't get the elderberries out of my mind so out of the freezer they came and damn that pie was good.  So was the cake.  And I tried a new recipe for a hot dog topping that we loved.  I found it in Food Network's magazine.

 



 



Sweet Onion Sauce

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 large onions, halved and thinly sliced
2 Tablespoons honey

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup water
1/4 cup ketchup

1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

 

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium/low heat. Add the onions and cook until soft, about 15 minutes. Add honey, chili powder and cinnamon and cook for 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup water, the ketchup, hot sauce, salt and black pepper and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened and the onions are very soft. Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature before serving.

 

Next time I will coarsely chop the onion instead of slicing.  To me, just easier to eat.  There is a grilled pepper relish that goes with it but the potato salad, baked beans, pie, and cupcakes were selfishly demanding all my time.  We were also using the cordless power drill with its very heavy battery pack, which was knocked off the counter, chipped the soapstone, landed in front of my left foot and then fell onto the right.  The one that is still painful and swollen.  And hard to believe, but the tiny little screws that hold the cupboard hinge, actually made marks when they fell 15" and landed on the soapstone.  They are as light as a potato chip!

 

So here's the color choice.  I followed the chart (316 used with the red) and didn't care for it, so the first change was to a similar shade, 3727.  Still not happy with it, so now it's either 754 or 758.  I preferred the 754 until I put the white paper behind it and now I see it's too light.  So if I wouldn't have posted this and added the white for the photo, I would not have seen that.  But I will probably line it with muslin, not white, so now I'm confused.  I better do 758 just to be sure.

 

We've had three days of sun.  I sure hope it continues.  Our June was a total washout.  Budman is enjoying the weather on his throne.  I had to move the potted flowers around because the deer were eating them.  The Vicks and mothballs aren't working now, maybe because of all the rain.

Hope your week gets off to a good start!

 

Thanks for visiting. 

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A spider in my pants

Yep.  Stupid fricking spider bit me in my pants!  I sat on the sofa after getting a drink, and it felt like I was sitting on a button, magnet, something small and hard.  So I reached up the leg of my loose knit shorts to grab it and OMG it was a spider.  Already bit me and when I realized what was between my fingers I threw it on the floor.  The little bastard was already dead from my fishing him out. You know how I feel about arachnids.  The bite just looks and acts like a mosquito bite - believe me, I'm very familiar with them.  Upper outside of my thigh, right above the saddle bags.  Will keep an eye on it but it happened a day ago and no change so far.  I was working on Ann at the time so every time I see that sampler I will remember my scream.  I doubt the neighbors heard me but today, the 4th, I sure am hearing them.  They are setting off  ???? fireworks - no sparkle, no color, just noise.  It sounded like a sonic boom, and shook my windows.  Over and over and over.  I sure hope the deer didn't run out onto the highway.  Then there's the go carts and 4 wheelers that the little ones have, up and down the road at high speeds all day.  I would love to hitch a ride but doubt my long legs will fit in.  Years ago, we were continually surrounded by large 4 wheelers from a neighbor and his friends.  Drove me nuts.  The sad thing is that each of them ended up running away or put in detention.  Mom's boyfriends were a problem, the guardian grandfather was hitting another, another with a mom on drugs.  No one really wanted to give up anything and devote time and attention that these teens needed.  There weren't bad kids but ended up with so much anger and resentment, which I think was sadness and despair from not feeling important or wanted.  My neighbor was the last one sent away after the divorce.  I have no idea what happened to the four of them after a few years.  Wow I really got off track.  It's funny how certain things trigger memories.  I wonder where they are.

 

I wanted to show you the color choice for the sink base after months of this that and the other.  First reds, then grays, then greens, now this.

 Sherwin Williams old Curio Gray.  Finally.  The colors just stood out too much in this small space.  This neutral color is a change from the other cabinets, but a subtle one. 

 

Will distress quite a bit with red showing through.  May even use the cabinets' color over it and show both through it.  Should be done in a few days.

Sunday we'll be taking hot dogs and all the sides over to Carole's for the 4th, my birthday, and Chris's birthday.  He can't eat chocolate so I always use the vanilla box cake for cupcakes.  Never liked yellow but the vanilla is really good.   Mark mentioned to my sister that I clean, I've bought her clothes for years, paid off cards, we're giving her a car, the yadda yadda family stuff, and she has never baked a birthday cake for me.  She snapped back that I didn't make one for her 70th or 75th.  I guess all the other years don't count.  So this year, I got cookies.  Close.

 

I'll make my favorite scratch sponge cake at the month's end for my brother's birthday.  Nothing like it!  Wonderful texture.  Mahogany chiffon is good too, both from a very old Betty Crocker and Softasilk flour booklet.  Still buying the grocery store's whipped cream icing because I can't duplicate it.  Mom's whipping cream recipe is good, but this is ready to frost, freezes so there's always some on hand, and everyone's favorite.

 

 

Damn.  Last time it was pie, now I want cake.  Unfortunately, I've never craved a vegetable. 

 

Hope your weekend is spectacular!

 

It's July.  I need to keep repeating it to believe it.  But we had sun for two days and Sunday will be also.  Finally.

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

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A rant for the 4th

 

Wishing everyone a safe and fun filled 4th.  Independence day.  The land of freedom to have beliefs, faith, opinions.  To live your life as you feel correlates with your ideals and values.  Not hurting anyone, just quietly exercising the rights of this country, given to all.  But no longer.  Whether politics, race, gender, faith, if you don't believe what some do, you are chastised, spit on, ridiculed.  They have and demand rights, but ignore and trample on those of others.  Hypocrisy is rampant, the country has never been more divided, and people are called haters by those that are filled with it.   Called racist because of one idiot holding a flag.  Media only reporting incidents that incite and follow their personal narrative.  Grow up.  Quit acting like a bunch of babies on the playground.  Act like Americans, multi-cultural, multi-beliefs, multi-values, multi-religions.  One large group of free people that should be able to talk, to debate, to express, to accept, to respect, to honor, to celebrate their traditions and culture.  Stop teaching that people are haters because they don't agree with your views.  Differences do not constitute hatred, but if you believe that disagreeing makes people haters, then look in the mirror because that's you.  Whether your opinion is valid or not, respecting freedom of opinion and beliefs is the issue.  That's what should be taught.  We may one day face a great tragedy that will need us to be together and helping others.  Will we ask what you believe before we offer each other a hand?

 

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