afters

(and pumpkin cheesecake)

The first photo is a small sampler adapted from In the Kitchen with Jane Austen by The Sampler Girl. I’m having a giveaway drawing over at the Handcrafts Online facebook page for the chart for the little Turkey Farm design shown with Amber’s scrumptious pumpkin cheesecake.

One more after to mention ::

The day after the day after sale at the webshop!
November 28 – 30.

Shipping in the USA only .99, $1.85 international for any size order. Place an order of $30 or more and get a free chart of YOUR choice up to $9.00 in value (or I’ll take $9 off the price of a more expensive chart). Just email me the name of the chart you’d like added to your order – happy stashing!!

:0)

Thanksgiving PM

The kitchen this morning (flowers for the chef from her mom and dad).

the chef

the dish boy

I made these rolls!

Amber made…

roasted butternut squash

Potatoes, both mashed and these yummy cheesy bacon potatoes.  Corn, stuffing, risotto, gravy, salad, and dessert which no one is able to even think about at this point – I’ll have to share it tomorrow.

did I mention I made these rolls?

Jerry made the (fried) turkey (which had been soaked in a delicious brine made by Amber) 

Dinner was wonderful and amazing!  The chef is exhausted.  I on the other hand feel happily full and relaxed.

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stitching dilemma

I want to stitch all of these…NOW!

A big pot of comfort :0)

frosty couple

New goodies coming and going all the time!! I’ve been updating the webshop, lots more to do. This is current release for the Country Cottage Winter Wonderland series, starting in November there is a great series coming called Spring Social and not to forget the Once Upon a Time series coming from Little House. Both can be seen at the Fabulous Fall page at the webshop.

Amber made a batch of chocolate meringues today and served them with some of our raspberry freezer jam – yum. So good with a cup of cocoa. We are in need of cocoa here as you can see by this other little frosty couple all bundled up in a quilt. Tonight’s weather calls for 2 inches of snow and in some nearby areas (a little too nearby) there is a winter storm warning.

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friendship

Such good stuff in the mail from stitching friends. My exchange stocking from Janice. Isn’t it pretty?? Janice organized our exchange over at the BBD Yahoo group – thank you so much Janice for everything!

A super surprise from another stitching friend. I’ve wanted this chart for ages and my friend was so sweet and sent it to me recently – lovely. I’m leaning toward a blue thread for this – thank you, thank you! Kim and Cari also sent me wonderful designs I had admired recently, thank you both so very much! Can’t wait to share my finishes here.

My family has been a great support to me recently – I’ve been so busy (doing work that I love, it sure has been an exciting month for cross stitchers) that I’ve barely had time to get chores done around the house. They have picked up the slack beautifully. Amber made some great pesto the other night and even took pictures of it for my blog. She has been doing all the work on the improvements you see here on my blog as well as helping me with my other work – thank you Amber. Jerry has twice sent me to stitch in a quiet room this month, just so that I could relax – good thing, it’s the only stitching I’ve had a chance to do. Two days of stitching in last 3 weeks, that has to be a record low for me I think – thank goodness for small projects.

So to all my friends and family, here are some flowers from my garden for you!

:0)

PS – Yzma & Ophelia say hello!

PPS – I’m not sure why my paragraphs are bunching together here – I’ll have Amber take a look.

a little history

Weekend stitching with an old fashioned feel – from Blackbird Designs and Beehive Needleworks

Some weekend sewing with a little nostalgia on back.

Some pictures, quite old in fact.  Yesterday was my youngest sister’s birthday she is thirty-something, closer to 40 than 29 these days.  Tomorrow is my other sister’s 25th wedding anniversary.  Here we are 25 years ago.  That’s me with the hanky, I think you can figure out who my sisters are.  The other two ladies are my mom and my grandma.  My grandma passed away 14 summers ago. 

This much older picture is my grandma’s wedding portrait.  That’s Grandma and Grandpa  (Ella & Otto) sitting down.  The man standing between them is my Great Uncle Julius (Grandma’s brother).  No one can remember who the other girl is here.  I have my great grandparent’s (Ella & Julius’ parents) wedding photo hanging on the wall with this one which you can see here.

A few other old fashioned activities this weekend included making pickles and raspberry jam – both very yummy but not intended to be eaten together of course.

I’ll leave you with this little bit of weather history for our area from 1875 -

August 19-30, 1875… grasshoppers appeared in great numbers at 10:00 am
        on the 19th. Thousands landed on the ground. The streets
        were literally covered with them. Swarms of grasshoppers
        were seen on each day. All gardens in the city were
        devastated… and in the Countryside the grasshoppers were
        very destructive to ripened grain. On the 30th the
        grasshoppers were so numerous as to almost darken the sun.

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Rocky Mountain Wednesdays

This week’s post is a bit of a washout. We have had low clouds and rain most of the day and it’s chilly, like in the 40s tonight cold…..

About today’s photos, 1. the shadow of a large cloud, 2. on one of my evening walks, 3. the weather that hit as I was out on last night’s evening walk (I was very wet and scared from the lightning), 4. some cold weather comfort food (dinner tonight).

I hope I can do better for you next week.

:0)

PS – Dinner was good.