Spring

 Well, spring has arrived and we are starting to see signs of life outdoors again.  Unfortunately the artic blast we had several weeks ago here in Texas killed all of the shrubs in our landscape out front.  I lost a beautiful rosemary shrub, several Indian Hawthorns and a Loropetalum.  I am still hoping that the crepe mytrle trees will come out of it without too much damage.  They can always be clipped back to the ground and will regrow.  It's really too early to tell.  So Tom and I went to work removing all the lava rock and concrete edging, something that was here when we moved in and really not to our taste, so all was removed.  We then replanted with yaupon holly and nandina and a viburnum.  All of these are much more hardy and also do not require a lot of water.  It was quite the job, as we are not as young as we once were, but we managed by working a few hours each day.  We found quite a few large boulders and removed them also, so hopefully all will grow well in their new home.

I also have some landscaping to do on my Summer stitchery!  It should help spruce up the little house in my stitchery.   I am pleased with my progress this week with all the other projects going at our house.

 

My little house needs a tree and some lawn and a few flowers don't you think!

I always put a few of my houseplants outside for the summer.  The screened in porch seems to be where my Christmas cactus loves to grow and I also moved by parsley and cilantro from under the grow light out to the porch!  I just love this time of year!

Ice Cream & Lemonade

  A wee bit more progress on my Summer ABCs.  What's summer without ice cream and lemonade? 

Summer ABC's

 A little more progress was made on my Summer ABC's by Little House Needleworks.  I was able to finish the stitches around the tree branch add a few fireflies and add letters E-J.  I also added the basket of fruit!

 

Today I hope to start adding a few motifs to my SAL from 2020.  I thought these two motifs might be where I start.

 

Now I just need to decide where to start!  Should be a lot of fun!

Thought I would share some pics I took this week of my orchids.  I am new to growing them, but really have enjoyed learning to care for them.  The pink one has been blooming since late October!  The white one started blooming over month ago.  The blooms are so delicate it's hard to believe they last so long.  I used to grow African violets but they just don't do well here in this home.  I think it may be how dry the air is here.  Anyway, I am learning to adapt and these orchids really are so nice to have during the winter months when nothing else is blooming.  However, my Christmas cactus has started to bloom again.  I thought this was unusual, but read on line that if you let them dry out and then start watering again that they will rebloom.  A nice little surprise for sure!

It's been ages!

 Well it's been ages since I have done a blog post!  The holidays are long over and I am not sure where the time has gone.  I do know that I spend part of my day doing the PT stretches for my back and with the inflammation med the apain is bearable.  The epidural injection lasted about 2.5 months which did give me time to strengthen my  core muscles.  I have some good and some bad days but realized taking the medicine and not forgetting to take it makes a big difference.  I finished my spring cross stitch piece and decided to hang it! 

I really love this set of seasonal stitcheries by Little House Needleworks! Aren't these bunnies so cute!

 The following week we got the artic blast that came all the way down here in Texas.  I really can't complain as although we were out of power for 12 hours straight when it was 2 degrees at night, at least our pipes didn't freeze and cause damage.  The line to our icemaker in our refrigerator froze but we were able to thaw it out with an electric heater and our house is new enough that we have pex lines which does much better than copper lines.  All those quilts I have made over the years really were put to use.  It got down to about 52 in the house so by wearing hats and gloves and staying under the quilts we didn't freeze.  The coldest morning was -2 on a Friday by the next Friday we reached a high of 82 such crazy weather.  I know a lot of you endure these kinds of temps every year but the infrastructure here just isn't designed to handle it.  But we endured and now its time to move forward.

I have had a slow start on the summer cross stitch project, but I have started.  I also need to pull out my Linen and Threads 2020 SAL and add some little motifs instead of the initials that the original designed used.  I bought a book of tiny motifs that I hope will work.  I am look really looking forward to enjoying some stitching time each day. Getting out of the habit has not been good.

Holiday Decorating

December arrived this week and I thought I would have my Santa's completely finished but life has been full of surprises as of late.  I do know it won't happen unless I keep at it. 

The steps to assemble them are not difficult and I used the assembly line method to get things rolling. 

Soon they were stuffed!  I decided since I didn't have my winter stitchery to hang  in the nook I would use my Santa's.  This was the result! 

 They are really cute with the twinkle led lights! Now to get the rest of the decorating finished! But today I'll put in some crosstitches and begin the December chart for the Linen and Threads 2020 mystery sampler. 

How time flies!

Wow! I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of November.  How time flies when your having fun they say!  I will start this post with announcing that the shot I received on the 16th was a success.  It's not a permanent fix but it has given me a lot of relief.  The orthopedic surgeon did say I have a herniated disc.  I will see him on Tuesday to see where we go from here.  I am praying that some adjustments and PT will help me cope with my situation.  So I have been resting and enjoying a bit of stitching since we got back from East Texas.   I finished up the November stitches on the Linen and Threads SAL.  I decided to include the fly. A little wrinkled but completed!

!s

I also made some progress on my spring cross stitch project!  I am feeling more comfortable with my cross stitch with all the practice I have done this year.  When I started stitching in January I felt like I took out as many stitches as I stitched!

  

But my focus this week will be getting my Santa's finished!  I did get the interfacing applied to the Santas and the backing fabric.  Then I sewed the back seam, so now I just need to sew the front and backs together with the hanger .  It shouldn't take too long, then the stuffing will begin.  The addition of the bow and maybe a jingle bell and they  should be  ready to enjoy this Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. There is always so much to be thankful for!  At our house we enjoyed a lemon meringue pie made with a couple of lemons off our tree. We really enjoyed watching it grow and form fruit.  Of course, enjoying the pie was wonderful too!

Advances

 It's been a crazy the last two weeks at our house.  But all in all things have gone well.  We had our tile planks installed and the house is back in order.  We were very luck to have gorgeous fall weather and were able to stay outside while the tilers installed and grouted.  It took them four days to do three rooms and a hallway.  I must say I am very pleased with the results.  It is so nice to have the smooth transitions from room to room!

I also found some time this last week to work on my Linen and Threads November Chart!  I am hoping to finish this month's stitches this afternoon.  I decided I am including the fly.  Tomorrow morning I have an early start as I will head to the hospital to have an injection into my lower back to help with the back pain that I have been dealing with.  I found out I have two pinched nerve ends and bulging discs that are pressing on my sciatic nerve.  No fun, and I am hoping  this will do the trick along with some  physical therapy.

Not much progress has been made on my spring stitchery, but I will get back to it as soon as the SAL for November is completed!

We are continuing to have gorgeous fall weather here in North Texas.  I captured a pic of a neighborhood tree that showed some nice fall colors. Most of our trees are live oaks that stay green or oaks that just turn brown. So it was nice to this one sparkling in the sun.

Soon it will be time to bring the Meyer's lemon tree indoors for the winter.  I plan on picking the lemons and making a lemon meringue pie for Thanksgiving.  It has been a fun journey watching this tree bloom and finally get some new leaves  and actually produce some fruit.

On a final note, I purchased my interfacing to finish my Santas.  I probably won't be doing that however till we get back into town after Thanksgiving.  Hopefully all goes will with my back and I can get the Santa's stitched and the house decorated for Christmas.  Happy Stitching Everyone!

Thankful for slow stitching!

 It's been a hectic week here.  The new floors will arrive Monday and take most of the week to install. We are replacing three rooms of carpeting with a wood plank look tile.  We looked at laminates and the new vinyl that all are beautiful but we didn't want to have a transition strip between the tiled kitchen floor and the other rooms. So we opted for the tile wood look planks.  I always am a bit nervous about decisions like this between the time we choose and the time it gets installed. Second guessing can drive you a bit crazy. Better to keep my mind off of it and take a deep breath and enjoy some stitching.  I finished up the fall stitchery and the Linen and Threads SAL for October so I decided to start the spring stitchery.  I know I skipped the winter but I need to dye or order some aida before I can start that one. 

I also spent some time adding interfacing and trimming up my Santas so they can be stitched and stuffed!  I need to pick up more interfacing for the back pieces before the assembling begins and that may not be till next week as the flooring people will have invaded.  I really like seeing them all together and trimmed up!   The different shades of tea/coffee dyed aida and being stitched on a couple different aida cts make me happy too!  Variety is the spice of life as they say!

 Yesterday, the November Linen and Threads Chart were released!  Just one more month and this stitchery will be completed!  However I didn't add initials as I stitched these cause I just didn't know what I wanted to do.  

This month as you can see in the lower right hand corner along with very traditional  motifs there is a fly!  Oh my a little different but yet intriguing  to me.  Wondering how the rest of you stitchers that are working on this feel about the fly?

I'm not sure how I feel yet!  I guess it will all depend on what I want to add in the other open spaces that were initials in the original charts.  I guess I will stitch  everything but the fly and decide once December charts is completed!  Not sure how much I will get done this next week, with the house in floor chaos.  I also have to go see a orthopedic surgeon this week about my lower back. I had a MRI last Wednesday and I have a couple of pinched nerve roots along with some narrowing that has caused my back to ache for too long.  I finally said last week it's time to see my doctor!  It is all a little scary, but I have told myself to just not give it a thought until I hear what the specialist has to say.   So glad I have some stitching lined up to get me thru this!