Stitching, Knitting, and Reading...... Monthly Wrap-up!

With the weather this past month being hot and humid here in Maryland, especially for us with asthma (one day soaring to 106.3 degrees), I found plenty of time to sit in my comfy chair and do lots of the titled activities. While I didn't stitch exclusively on the Musician, I did stitch on a Christmas in July exchange for my one Yahoo group, ILCS. This was so fun to work on and I had the hardest time finding just that "right" design to send to my partner along with some speciality threads. Since it has arrived safe and sound to it's new home, here is a picture of the completed project. I loved Santa's watering can and rake on his back; it just screamed summer and instantly caught my eye for this exchange. This is a 1994 Prairie Schooler design from the "A Christmas Visit Pamphlet" stitched in DMC floss on a piece of 32 count even weave. I am not sure what the color of the fabric is since it was a remenant piece I had from other smaller finishes but I loved how it came together. The fabric you see in the background is what the backing is and I used the deep red cording to complete the finishing. 

Christmas in July Exchange
Designer: Prairie Schooler
Floss: DMC threads
Material: 32 count evenweave

I did pull out a few of my UFO pieces as well. Starlight Sampler by LHN has been brought back into rotation to work on while running back and forth since the Musician is a larger piece and too much to be able to just pick up and work on in a pinch. I am working on a set of acorn trees which has lots of little leaves and acorns and since I like to keep my backs as neat as possible, this means a lot of starting and stopping. I am still liking this piece quite a bit and I think this was laid to the side when my Mom passed and I lost my stitching mojo for so long. Here is a picture from February 2011 this year and my progress from this week; every little bit counts right?

Little House Needlework
Starlight Sampler
Progress as of 31 July 2011

I also have been working on another UFO piece (aren't you proud of me????), Lizzie Kate's monthly "stamp-it" which has been sitting in the bottom of my stitching bag forever. Again this was one of those "Mom hospital" pieces, but I've decided it is time to complete it so I am trying to work on it at least once a week. I am stitching all 12 months as one design so this will be a UFO for a while but the colors in this project is so colorful and cheerful it will be a wonderful finish. Hopefully I can keep plugging away on them so wish me luck. I had to do a little searching for the "before" picture but this is from July 2010 (hanging my head in shame) and this week's progress.

Lizzie Kate June Monthly Stamp-it
Progress as of 31 July 2011

By no means should you interpret that the Musician has been moved into the bottom of one of my cavernous stitching bags! No, I am so in love with this piece (remember I am suffering from POO.... Point of Obsession) and plan on working on her quite a bit at home or when off in the camper but I need to be able to spread out threads, charts, stitching tools, colored pencils and that becomes a little too much when wanting to stitch for a few moments on a lunch break or while visiting Aunt Berns at the hospice house. Since I attended an all day 'Stitch and Bitch' this Saturday, the Musician traveled to Catonsville for a fun-filled day of stitching with some other enthusiasts. I have finished 5,750 stitches and can officially say that 1/4 of this project is completed. Woot, woot!

Joan Elliott
The Musician
Total stitches completed: 5,750 out of 22,524
DMC fibers on 32 count white evenweave

Speaking of Aunt Berns, she was moved two weeks ago to the Hospice of the Chesapeake Tate House in Linthicum. This is a gorgeous, tranquil place for the terminally ill as well as their family members to spend time together and provides top-notch palliative care for the patients. Family members are encouraged to spend as much time as possible with the patients and beautiful gardens, water ponds, and rock gardens are on the grounds along with very comfortable rooms and living/dining areas as well. The center encourages to bring in foods that are favorites of patients and family dining is even allowed. The kids are having a hard time understanding all that is happening with their great-aunt; and I feel so bad for them because these long goodbyes are the hardest in my opinion but we are trying to help them along as best as possible and be there when they need a hug or a shoulder to cry on.

I have been knitting on dish cloths and finished the one green heart design I had started in the previous post. Since I can make about 2 cloths per skein, I started another one to put away for presents. Again, this lends itself to something that I can just grab and go with to keep my hands busy while visiting or taking a break. Then when I was in AC Moore the other day shopping, I finally... FINALLY found a pale pink Sugar and Cream yarn for dish cloths which I have been saying to myself that it seemed so strange to find all the other colors of the rainbow except pink. I have a cousin who has an old 1950's black and white tiled kitchen with pink accents, so I picked up some to make a cloth or two for her. The scarf that I have been working on is over 2 foot in length now and I am so in love with this Dragonfly fiber. The picture doesn't even begin to do justice to the variations in this yarn, but it is fabulous.

Reading wise, I have finished 3 more books this month, bringing my total to over 21 books this year. I am working on catching up on all the Nora Robert titles and then I think I may start working on her other books under J.D. Robb. I just finished Angels Fall by Nora and this book was awesome, so anyone that is a Robert's fan, this is a must! Also this month I finished reading Don't Look Back by Amanda Quick which was the last in book in a trilogy. Very good as well if you enjoy period mysteries. I also read Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen and all I can say is if you haven't read her work yet, do so. She is a fabulous relatively new writer and her stories are wonderful!

I must mention that I received a wonderful surprise this week from a lady in my stitching group, Every Stitch Counts, that just made my day. CC sent me Heart in Hand's Fine Friends design with floss, fabric, chart and charm and I am planning on putting this in my stitching to do list as work is completed on some of these UFOs. Thanks so much for sending this to me CC, stitching friends really are the best!

Until next time, keep your stitchin' and knittin' needles going, spend time with friends and family and most of all... enjoy life!

Yay/Nay Meals.......

Broccoli-cheese Brunch Casserole - our dish from from the oven!

About a year ago I decided I was tired of feeling like I was serving the same things all the time to my family. I don't know about you, but there are times when it seemed like you had a "rotation" of familiar foods and it seemed like the pattern would only be broken when you went out to dinner. One day I decided that we would really start trying out new recipes from cook books, backs of packages, magazines, word of mouth and the only rule was we had to try it at least once. When the meal was done, the family would vote whether to add it to our book of favorites or to never again make such a horrible dish. The kids have affectionately named this process "Yay/Nay Meals".

This past weekend, I decided to change up our meal and made a breakfast brunch I found on the back of a package of Kraft Shredded Cheeses. The recipe was called Broccoli-cheese brunch casserole and we followed the recipe but added our own twist to it. We added Canadian Bacon and chopped onions to our version making it more like a Western omelet. Also I made a smaller casserole by splitting this recipe in half but this is the original recipe. I can tell you that it was VERY filling and would be perfect for a breakfast when guests are visiting. Of course, having 2 kids that enjoy cooking and preparing food, this is age friendly from tots to teens. Smaller fingers can help layer ingredients and bigger hands can help chop and prepare the veggies, or whatever you decide to add to your casserole and if you are a really adventurous Mom, the kids can even help crack and whisk the eggs! (Please note, this suggestion does not make me responsible for any kitchen disasters messes which may occur in your house!)

Broccoli-cheese Brunch Casserole
Prep: 20 min. Total: 1 hour Makes: 12 servings

What you need:
18 slices of white bread, cubed
1/2 cup chopped red peppers
3 cups KRAFT shredded mild cheddar & Monterrey Jack cheese
1 1/2 cups of small fresh broccoli florets (I used frozen; tasted great!)
8 eggs
3 cups milk

Make it:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Layer 1/2 each of bread, peppers and cheese, in greased 13x9 baking dish, top with broccoli. Repeat layers of bread peppers and cheese.
3. Beat eggs and milk with whisk until blended; pour over ingredients in baking dish.
4. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour or until center is set. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before cutting to serve.

I think I'm going to be including some recipes on here from time to time. I think everyone enjoys something different and we really enjoyed this one. I'm thinking it may be pulled out for a camping trip with buddies sometime or a holiday breakfast meal.

In the words of Julia Childs......... Bon Appetite!

Slowly making progress........

 So summer is here but someone forgot to send a memo to the 'Hectic Life' fairy to inform her to let me slow down for a while and enjoy life. We have been dealing with a family member's declining health over the past few weeks (since Memorial Day) and having to make several hard decisions and long discussions in regards to their well-being. I just picked up the Musician the other night after a very long absence and I was ready to weep for joy by just sitting down and making little x's while letting my mind go blank. I don't know about you but stitching really is cheaper than therapy and more enjoyable too in my opinion! While I haven't made as much progress on her as I would have liked, progress is still progress.
 

I have had a few people ask me how I am keeping track of my stitches on this piece and the easiest way to explain is I have been using a colored pencil to 'color' in my progress on a working copy of the chart. When I started I wanted to make sure I kept my place on a design of this size and so as I colored along I just started keeping track of what I had accomplished and how much more to go. It helps keep me motivated to see how much I have completed and setting goals for myself to keep going. Of course, I can say I have reached POO (Point of Obsession) with this piece so I don't think that will be a problem. (Thanks Sue P. for providing me with such a cute acronym this past week. I still grin all over myself when I think of this one!)

I was pleasantly surprised the  last few weeks not once but thrice by ladies in my Every Stitch Counts group from Yahoo! Chris sent me an adorable froggie Q-Snap cover which she makes and also sells. If you are ever in need of a top quality Q-Snap cover, cruise over to her website and I can tell you that you won't be disappointed. I am looking forward to jabbing my needle in the little green guys when I am done stitching at the end of a day or when the little slimy guys keep causing me to frog, frog, frog! Also she sent me a chart that I have loved from Country Cottage called "Mary Mary Quite Contrary".

Pam sent me a little pick-me-up gift which included an adorable carved wooden pineapple, dried pineapple (kids destroyed these....), some Mary Kay cream, a Yankee Candle scent package, some DMC and a really nice card saying that she was thinking of me during all the craziness going on. This was such a sweet present and I have the Yankee scenter hanging in my RV where I can enjoy it on the long weekends.

Sue V. sent me a lovely package containing the cutest pillow (spring exchange) and two crocheted dishcloths. I don't know if she knew I was getting started on making a few dishcloths since mine were wore out but these are wonderfully made and really show me that Ms. Sue doesn't give herself enough credit for her crocheting/knitting skills. Thanks so much ladies for such wonderful gifts; it really made my day!!!

Of course, I mentioned I was working on some knitted dishcloths and I finished one over the weekend and started another. Last Christmas, I gave a few out with presents and I have gotten a few comments from friends and family that these were really well liked so I might have to get a few done before the holiday season.

Finally, it is time for a TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long) update. I would have liked to make more progress on this front but progress is progress.

Until next time, keep your stitching' and knitting' needles moving, enjoy time with friends and family and most of all have fun!