My Autumn JOJ

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July! The last four days have been filled with a rodeo, a parade, fireworks, and stitching on my JOJ WIP in between all that. JOJ stands for Just One July that Justine is doing where you work on a WIP for the entire month. I decided to drag out a WIP that hasn't seen the light of day for almost a year! Here's Pumpkins and Sunflowers before..

And after...

Lots of progress, stitching about 3 hours a day plus a little today. 

Below is what it should look like..

When it gets boring stitching the inside of the big pumpkin, I move onto another section. Now I have the other sunflower and the two leaves left. Lots of backstitching also. I really think I can get this finished before the end of this month IF I ignore the noise the Spooked LK sampler and other WIPs are making!

Some of you may know that I'm an empty nester and I'm divorced so I live alone. Lately, I've been eating fast food a lot and we all know how healthy that is! You have all heard of Blue Apron? Well I thought I would give it a shot. At $30 off the first time, I signed up for two servings and you get 3 different meals. I stretched it into 6 servings/meals for $29.99. Regular weeks are $59.99. I'm not sure I  can do it every week though. So here's what my first meal was..Blackbean Pork burger and Green Beans..

I have to say it was very tasty. The green beans have sesame oil and a Japanese seasoning on it. It was all pretty good. Tomorrow night it's Fried Chicken breast with Kale Slaw. We shall see...

I now subscribe to 3 Flosstubers and last Thursday night found me and ET watching a floss tube..

ET is the youngest and the runt of the cats I have and I think she was getting into the Flosstube!

Alrighty, that will be that! It has cooled down here some after last weeks monsoon rains. June gets hot here and that tends to usher in our monsoon season. It should be dry the rest of this week.

Thanks for stopping by and hope your week is off to a good one!

Gone around the bend, a detour

Hi all!

Yup, I've gone around the bend. In the last week, I've signed up for a Fall/Halloween exchange and two, yes 2, SALs! The exchange hosted by Terri from Dixiesamplar, and the SALs are the Prairie Schooler and the Americana hosted by Kaye of Kitten Stitching. I would put up links but they don't work so well on this app on my iPad. Now, I haven't stitched up a whole lot of PS but since hearing they are retiring, I had to join in on the fun. As soon as I can, I'll add to my stash some PS.

I took a detour recently. Here she is..

The Black-Hearted Queen by sub-rosa. Here's a better picture of the color of the fabric I used..

Here's a commercial for DixieSamplar fabrics, unpaid of course! But because I love her fabrics! This is 28ct Vintage River Rocks. I also made some changes to the pattern: red lips, a different neckline. I knocked this out in a weekend. 

So, I've been tackling some long time WIPs and put in a few more stitches on this one..

This is Pumpkins & Sunflowers from a Cross Stitch & Needlework magazine. It's taking on a life since the last time I stitched on it..

October 11th of last year is the last time I stitched on it. To the left of the sunflower is a ginormous pumpkin taking shape. You can see a leaf above it and the stalk. I'm looking forward to it because it's one color of orange!

I haven't stitched a whole bunch in the last week. It's been pretty warm here and it just sucks the life outta you! 

I'm off. Just finished watching the Pro Football Hall of Fame ceremonies on TV. It always ushers in football season and the start of cooler weather around here. I am so ready for Fall! 

Thanks for stopping by! See you around the 15th!

Turtle Trot October, SAL-itis, yadda yadda

Wow, these last few months are sure going by fast, aren't they?

I worked on one TT WIP, Pumpkins and Sunflowers, Now

Can't get a good picture of this.

Before..

P & S is a fun stitch and not very big.

As for progress on Harvest Delivery, here she is..Now

I like the argyle pumpkins. I want to finish this before Thanksgiving.

And before..

I'm getting ready to stitch the black wagon, a few more flowers, and the wagon tongue. Onto the horse! Looking forward to him/her.

I had to have one last new start for something Halloweeny, so here it is..

Tombstone Angel Pinkeep Drum and Strawberry. Yes, I'm going to attempt to construct this drum! I have a perfect fabric for the top and the wool for the bottom. I'll have to buy the black velvet for the strawberry though. Which then brings me to the question of-If I can stitch this tombstone angel, why can't I get back to stitching on my Early Witches piece?!

This the SAL with the Primitive Hare. Actually, as I was working away on the drum piece up above, I was feeling like I could go back to Witches and really put in an effort to catching up. I think the last part is being released this coming week. After I post this, I think I'll get back to it.

My plan for October is No New Starts for Halloween! I will finish up the all the Halloween type projects I have going, including Wicked..

I just need to frog some stitches at the bottom of the key. 

Lets see if my self-talk works!

Speaking of SAL-itis, I joined yet another group! Kim at Wisdom with Needle & Thread is hosting the Traveling Treasure Chest. She has sent off a package with some of her unwanted stash. She picked the first Pirate who is Teresa from the blog At Willow Tree Pond. Teresa picks two charts she wants, adds two or three from her own stash and sends the whole thing off to the next pirate! All of us who joined have alter egos! I am...

Harriet 'One-Eyed' Goff, the Knave of Mudskipper Harbour, who is also a jolly japester prone to the yo ho ho-ing, especially after a bottle of rum!

Yup, that rum will do that to you!

As mentioned in another post, I joined with a Christmas exchange hosted by Angela P at Hooked on Stitching. I received my recipient info and will begin stitching here soon, probably after I get all my Halloween done. It's not due to be shipped until the end of November.

I'm taking it easy today because Mr. Vertigo is trying to make his presence known. I dreamed I had an episode this morning but I think it really happened! How weird is that! I've been plagued with vertigo for the last 10 years and its a B---H!! Sometimes I can go for a year with constant vertigo but at a small degree where I have to lay down very slowly and get out of bed very slowly but life goes on. And sometimes they're so bad that I can't drive or work. One episode I went to the ER and had an MRI and  an EKG because this one was sooo bad and I could feel my heart beating like it was going to jump out of my chest. Both tests came out clear and positive. I was sent home with Valium to help with the anxiety. Right now I have a huge headache because I'm stressing over this. I've gone an entire year and a half without Mr. Vertigo. Why he's shown up now is beyond me. So no weedwacking for me. I had planned on yard work today but that's not happening now.

Thanks for allowing me to vent about Mr. Vertigo. I hate him! Lol!

Thanks everyone for your comments! I'm also happy to see new followers, either through Blogger or Bloglovin'. A BIG Welcome to you all! My blogging anniversary is coming up in December so a Giveaway might be nice, right?! Take care all!

Playing catch-up!

Today, I had to put some stitches into my 5, 6, and 7 starts to say I'm caught up! Thursdays is when my 10 hour days start to catch up with me and we got home at 7 p.m. that night anyway, already dark and not good picture-taking light. Enough of the excuses! Here's #7

This pattern is from an old BH&G Christmas issue, 2001. I've had this project kitted up for a long time; time to make it! Do some of you long time stitchers remember Linaida? This is 14ct with DMC threads.

#6 From the November '08 issue of Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine. On 28ct Lambswool Jobelan with DMC threads.

#5 Unofficial title is the Ark Sampler. On 28ct tea-dyed linen with just 4 DMC colors! I like this one! From a JCS '88 issue.

I planned on starting PSS's Queen's Crowns for my 13th start. However, I've been unable to find the 36ct Vt Maritime from LL at a decent enough price. So I"m moving everything up on my CJC list and I've picked Candy Corn by With thy Needle & Thread in place of Crowns. I ordered the Gold WDW linen from eBay so I should receive it in a week.

Well I'm hanging in there. Still haven't heard whether the insurance company got the test results. I'll be doing some calling on Monday. I'm really hoping they'll see that I need surgery. Fingers crossed!

I'm going to sit and stitch on the mitten while watching the Phoenix Coyotes vs New York Islanders hockey game. It's already dark out here! You all have a great evening!