Happy Mother’s Day!

A day late and a dollar short- it’s how I roll.

Here’s what my favorite daughter sent me- I received it at work on last Wednesday morning:

And here’s what was inside:

5 individually wrapped cookies- all different, and 5 individually wrapped brownies- all different. Soooo yummy and decadent. And perfect because I needed something sweet that day! I managed to make everything last until last night. I invited Em over for chicken dinner Sunday night and we had a very nice time.

No stitching pictures this week- I filled in more snow in Beacon House, but it isn’t a huge change from the previous week . I did some quilting this week for a gift for my Mum, and then I mailed it off today but forgot to take a picture. Doh!

I would like to enlist your help:

The daughter entered her dog in a costume contest at work. If you are on Facebook, please vote for Morgan:

Click here.

Morgan came with her name when Em helped a friend out by taking her; since then, she has remarked how much she resembles Dobby from Harry Potter. She was almost considering re-naming her, but the name “Morgan”  has stuck.

NaBloPoMo starts tomorrow. I’m still debating whether to join or not….

Long Time No See….

Hi there! I’ve been rather busy these past 2-3 weeks: one of the guacamoles has temporarily returned, my hours at work got cut back by one day (YIKES!), but I’ve been able to scrape some side job work to help make up the difference and I’ve been riding 2-3 days each week (fun!), plus walking weekdays at 5:30 am for 2 miles. I had my best friend’s husband’s 50th birthday party one Saturday, then a town group had a reunion of sorts the next.

Plus here in SE Massachusetts, it’s been as humid as I don’t-know-what, for what seems like weeks. I’m thinking we should be calling ourselves the Northern Bayou. Really- my salt jar has water in it, and all my envelopes are stuck closed!

Here’s my progress on Beacon House as of this morning:

  

That tree is all Algerian Eyelets, but they’re not too difficult or time consuming to do.  I stitched more this evening at Jeanne’s, but it’s so dark by the time I got home I’ll have to take a picture another day.

I took today as my day off, because Axe was having her shoes done today. Later, at my side job, my boss called with the news that one of the smaller big jobs we were waiting on was finally given the go-ahead-YAY! They want their plans in a month, so hopefully I’ll be back to my full hours soon, and this means the banks are lending again, and our big big jobs will be starting soon too.

Two Saturdays ago, we had our first reunion of my Rabble-Rowser group and I made these 2 desserts:

A Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake and

A Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Lime Cream cheese frosting-Yum!

I also made a pan of Chorizo/Rice Casserole- very easy but so delicious I made another pan later in the week for myself. I’ll try to post that recipe soon. If anyone wants either cake recipe just leave a comment and I’ll post those too.

I haven’t even been turning my computer on some days- it’s back in my living room again, and I’m spent by the time I can sit down in the evening, and usually I opt for the couch.

Back to work tomorrow- it doesn’t take much of a disruption to my schedule to make me forget which day it is!

Welcome to Crazy Town…

So Em trashed her ankle while falling off her horse going on 3 weeks ago. She found out today after 3 doctors, 2 sets of X-rays, an MRI and a CT scan that her heel bone is broken and she tore a (the?) ligament on the front of her foot/ankle.  So no riding for her for 6-8 weeks (ouch for me) nor driving either for at least the foreseeable future. Which means lots of running around for me.

Anyway, here is more Garden Grew progress:

Friday I got numb-butt:

 

All day to do this one basket (to the right of the trellis):

Saturday involved helping the patient, so with little actual stitching time available, I finished the basket on a previously finished flower, plus had to add the badger. I didn’t take another overall shot after completing the little guy, but he’ll be adjacent to the basket of flowers above &  to the right of the  “all-day basket” in the photo up top.

Here’s the latest on Quaker Halloween:

I’m going to miss working on this one; it’s a ton o’ fun!

And then…..

I just got my computer back in my computer room, aka the kids’ bedroom for the past 2 years.

And obviously, it works. YAY!

Now on to re-arranging the living room, aka the computer’s home-away-from-home. First, I have to go take care of Axe. Miss Em’s ankle is toast.

I’m Dancing as Fast As i Can…

I’m back from a 4-1/2 day stint of barn sitting. The 2 guacamoles have moved!!! YAY!!! Now I have to try to get my house clean and back in some sense of order, plus mow the lawn. That damn fertilizer I applied 13 years ago is still making my grass grow too fast! I did a lot of stitching, but I’ll save that for another day (soon- I promise!)

Here are my lilac bushes; it was hard to get photos between all the rainy spells we had.

The big, dark purple bush out front:

 

The mini, paler one on the side:

Here’s Huey, the African Gray Parrot:

He keeps me fully entertained. He even sang what sounded like a pirate song!

Here’s Axe napping under a tree on one of the hot days we had:

If it’s Tuesday, it must be….

ummm… the day before Wednesday?

Well germs and boys (as Mrs.. Ahearn, my 4th grade math teacher would say), I manage to finish the stitching part of this:

Onwards to the BEADZZZZ!!!!!

Speaking of all that glitters, here are my options for finishing up my Heart in Hand Wee Santa:

The chart calls for 2 “wee” gold buttons with holes on either side of the hat, and 2 “wee” black buttons with holes under the candlestick.

 

My last foray to Joanne’s led me to find the Christmas-y Bag O’ Buttons and the Black & White Bag O’ Buttons , plus the tiny back-attached buttons in both shiny black & gold, and then I remembered I have a heat-set jewel gun-thing, hence the golden “jewels”. I have to pull out my other jewels to see if I have something dark. Or maybe go with the gold jewels on the hat and black buttons on the coat.

In other news, Delilah got her ovaries confiscated. She’s seems better today than yesterday.

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties…

please stand by.

*GONE*

I also cooked up The Pioneer Woman’s Dr.Pepper Pork Roast. MMMMMM!!!! I did it in my crock pot though, so I had to reduce the sauce a bit on the stove top. Good eating!

First Day of What???

At least yesterday was nice. I’m having a dreadful PMS/menopausal psychosis and literally ran away to the barn yesterday afternoon. I had been asked to feed lunch to the horses and let the dogs out because the owners were out all day. I grabbed my stitching bag in which I had this kitted up and ready to go: 

“Hilltop Seasons” by The Sunflower Seed. It’ll look like this:

I fed the animals, let the dogs out and then back in, and sat in my nice warm car. The sun was absolutely splendid! I stitched for almost 2 hours, then napped for about half an hour and then it was time to bring in the horses that were in their pastures. When I got home, I grilled a hamburger outside, and chilled out on the couch until the 2 guacamoles got home.

I also finished this last week, except for the little buttons:

And today I’m still very crabby and feeling out of sorts, but have to go to a Selectmen’s meeting for a hearing about the TATTOO parlor (!!!!!) that is moving into the strip mall behind my house- just f*%$*^-ing NICE.

As Promised….

Here is my latest on Quaker Halloween:

Here’s a close-up of my mistake:

That spider has to be moved one stitch to the right.

This is what it should look like:

I tried to watermark with “Cherished Stitches”, but my photo editing skilz are non-existent.

I helped the 2 guacamoles do some painting today. I cut in the living room ceiling, and put the first coat of primer on the medium size bedroom. Adam went behind me and painted the living room ceiling while poor Emily valiantly scraped and pried the pig (who in their frikkin’ right mind would think PIGS would make a “cute” kitchen motif???) border off the kitchen walls. Success on all fronts!

Yes, I’m still in here somewhere…

I even picked up a needle at lunch today for the first time since…...maybe January???? on that Wee Santa Em gave me for Xmas.

I WAS planning on stitching tonight but those plans got de-railed. I will try to take some pictures tomorrow- it’s too dark & messy right now. I have progress on Quaker Halloween (we skipped S & B last week) but as I was finishing up 2 weeks ago, I realized the center spider web was one stitch off-center. So that needs some ripping-out. Luckily that part of the motif worked up quickly, so I should be back on track soon.

Next month, I’ll be able to take this out again:

Sorry to be such a lackluster and sporadic blogger; just lots of noodgy stuff going on. In fact, when I went to the dentist Monday,  instead of  being my usual walking dead, my blood pressure was up to 142 over 74. Normally I’m low 90’s over 60. So now I’m conscious of trying to take deep, relaxing breathes and I’ve noticed my jaw being clenched more often- again with the dentist!

I know I have a back-up recipe on my computer somewhere, but I don’t feel like digging it out tonight. Maybe I’ll have a chance tomorrow.

Em has been house-sitting for friends this week, kind of inconveniently far away from here, so I’ve been walking Axe around the indoor-another chance of trying to relax! She’s such a good pony!

Chick pea needs a walk, and American Idol is coming on.

TTFN

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UNCLE!!!

I give up- stop with the snow already! More for mid-week??!!!Notice how quiet Al Gore’s been these days?? I’m going to have to start working on Saturdays to make up for all the snow days…GGGRRR!

A giveaway alert:

Jan at Belafonte Notes is having a 2nd Blogoversary giveaway- and the prize is extraordinary! Check it out and enter- you have until February 2nd.

Yesterday I had to replace the baking element in my oven. Now it seems to run 50 degrees hotter than indicated. To replace the temperature sensor will cost close to $100 for the part, from what I could google. Between that & the $35 I paid for the element, that’s 1/4 of the cost of a new range. Ranges don’t seem to be sale items these days, so I’ll just have to see how difficult this temperature thing will be to get used to, and keep my eye out for sales. The one I have is at least 15 years old. More GGGRRR!!!

The boy sprained his ankle badly at work on his way to clocking out Friday night. His right (driving) foot. His supervisor agreed to put him on light duty, but we still don’t know how he’s going to get there- he & Em are on different shifts. Well, I suppose he may have a day off in the middle of the week for a snow day…

Off to check my baking chicken….

SnOwCD

That would be OCD when it comes to shoveling snow. I can’t seem to go out and just do my own car; I have to do the whole driveway in my own precise methodical way. And regret it for the following 3 days.

Then come in & have a big bowl of oatmeal. Not instant or quick-cooking, but the old fashioned kind- YUM!

with milk & maple syrup! This is Silver Palate brand oatmeal- very tasty, a little more coarse than Quaker Oats.

In preparation for our snowstorm, i baked a cranberry bread (thanks for the idea Jeanne!) AND a batch of brownies last night. I think it’s PMS.

The 2 guacamoles helped out this afternoon for round two(they also came out to clean out the rest of their own cars in the am), and although I picked up the shovel “just to make a path to the cars”, I handed my weapon over to Em when they came out, and picked up the windshield brush/scraper to clean off the cars.

Chickie is exhausted from all the shoveling and is now sacked out on the couch.

Catch up…

Got the stuffing- it now comes in a 14 oz. bag, not 16 oz. And I remembered to get sausage, which I had totally forgotten. Maybe it would have helped to re-read my own recipes that I had conveniently linked to 2 days ago.

Started cleaning- OMG - a Herculean task. And daughter decides to “clean” her room which means a pile of empty boxes and bags left in the kitchen. That helps. That helps a lot.

Bob will be discharged from rehab on Tuesday, or Monday, depending on the note left in his room last  Friday when he had an appointment outside the facility. The note says his insurance pays thru until Monday, not until Tuesday, which is the day the doctors told him he “could” leave. As I told the girls at stitching Thursday night: “I want to go out in a blaze of glory”. That way I won’t have to even begin to understand this older-years insurance stuff, nor deal with nursing home conflict. Now that he’s got his discharge date, he’s gotten very impatient with all the things he’s put up with for a month: the kitchen leaving items off his tray at EVERY meal, the “yeller” across the hall, his gassy roommate, the nurses barging in on him while he’s in the bathroom “Are you OK?”. And honestly, after one month, he’s no better, if not worse, than when he went in.

I’m working on the end of that cabernet……

In Closing…

here’s the final shot of  last week’s apple pie:

I took the liberty of drizzling a bit of caramel sauce on top of the ice cream; I hope no one minds. The store brand crust was surprisingly light & flaky. And the Granny Smith apples were perfect- tart the way I like it, but without having to use lemon juice. And guess what? Diabetic boy now has the pod (like the pump, but smaller) so he can eat almost a normal diet. No more cooking with Splenda!

In unrelated news, I give my blood samples tomorrow for bone marrow matching purposes. Plus it’s primary day, plus it’s re-zoning hearing night. I’ll be a busy, tired girl.

Crazy Kid…

Look at all the fun she’s been having at the Myopia Hunt in Hamilton:

“I wanna be an eventer!”

Her friend:

This horse recovered from extensive colic surgery about 4 years ago.  I’m glad the two girls have become such good friends and have so much fun on their horses!

Birthday Girl….

Someone requested my “(in)famous” cupcakes for her birthday. So what’s a mother to do?

Why, make personalized cupcakes, of course:

I’m a sap.

Weekend stuff….

When Em graduated from BU last month, her cousin was also graduating from Army boot camp in Oklahoma the same day. Em’s grandfather and aunts went out to OK to see that event. Em didn’t take any offense, nor did I, seeing as I wasn’t planning on any festivities anyways. Then I got a call about 10 days ago, from my ex-sister-in-law, to invite me to a party they were having Father’s Day, for Em’s grandfather and to celebrate Em’s graduation. I accepted, made  a platter of taquitos, and was completely reminded of the fact that I totally LOVE my ex-in-laws! Or outlaws, as I like to call them. Don’t care too much for the ex-husband (who didn’t attend), but I’ve been divorced for 13 years now, longer than the length of my marriage, and it was like we hadn’t seen each other since last week. Of course, all of Em’s cousins’ children were now in elementary school, as opposed to being babies, but they are all bubbly and vivacious and fun to watch. And they remind everyone of when Em was that age (she was the youngest grandchild of her generation). Em’s 2 oldest aunts are now retired, in their mid-60’s. They are almost 20 years older than her father, so their kids (Em’s cousins) are about 12-15 years older than her. The out-laws love to have family get-togethers for EVERY occasion, which I found tiresome when I was married, but since I haven’t been to one in years, it wasn’t really all that bad. I’m glad I went, and grateful that they made me feel so welcome.

On a less bright note, I found out Saturday afternoon, driving Bob home, that my air conditioner in my car no longer works. SURPRISE! I don’t personally care, but I know there will be times that Bob will need it this summer. Plus I’m guessing my de-fogger capabilities (the only time I use my AC by default) won’t be too good. I’m wondering if the broken AC is related to my computer issue I had in March? Needless to say, i don’t have an extra $300 lying around to have it fixed.

These are really weeds- Milk pods, but kind of like alliums, just not as pretty colored: .

My weeds.

My lavender:

These aren’t weeds. I clipped a couple of bunches to hang in my bathrooms. I LOVE the aroma!

Cranky Pants….

I’ve not had a good night sleep in literally a year. I waken somewhere between 1 am and 3, then either stay awake until 4 or so, and/or fall back into disturbingly detailed (yes I remember them!) dreams until my alarm goes off at 5:15 am. Last night was no exception- I checked the clock at 2:23 am. I was hearing an annoying mechanical drone coming from off in the distance, that continued on the WHOLE FREEEKIN’ NIGHT. Sometimes I can hear the MBTA trains warming up at the train yard, but this wasn’t quite the same noise, plus, around 4 am, I DID hear the trains moving about from the train yard to the station, including the crossing bells, in addition to the drone. I seriously was SO close to getting in my car at 3:30 to drive around until I found the source of the noise, and then batter the culprit to death with my aluminum baseball bat. The noise was like a huge vacuum hum.  I have no idea how far away it actually was; the train yard is about 2 miles away, the train station about 3/4 of a mile.

ARRG!!!!I’m getting totally annoyed just remembering it! I was extremely cranky at work today. (And tired). My boss has been omnipresent in the office for 2 weeks straight. He’s had a head cold (poor snookums) and hasn’t gotten back to his gym schedule. We’ve gotten in a bunch of new jobs (YAY! Economy is doing something!), so I’ve been busy, but he keeps back-seat  drafting and today I was ready to whack him upside the head with a drafting scale. Gawd- I needed some chocolate!

The guacamoles presented me with this last night:

A new stitching bag! Just because! Monogrammed! And custom embroidered with a horse! It has a pocket on the opposite side for holding my chocolate or orts.

I worked on these last night at Jeanne’s:

and:

I made Salmon Cakes for my supper (and Diabetic boy). Here are 2 mooches:

Delilah (Shhh! Don’t tell her she’s getting fixed next week!)

And Chicken (with Delilah’s tail in front)