Better Late Than Never…

my January ornament:

From JBW, on 28 ct. even weave of some kind, with my choices for floss. I’ll put a bead at the tree top.

I put the CoHRH square 10 on the back burner for now; the over one was making the stitching experience not enjoyable.

23 more days to find, kit up & stitch February’s ornament!

Saturday Stitching….

I think I’ve figured out why I haven’t felt like stitching lately: I’ve been reading. I don’t know why, but if I’m on  reading jag, I don’t stitch. I want to stitch, but it’s so much easier to pull out a book.

Anyway, this morning doing barn chores, the other lady, Michelle, asked if I’d do a little sewing project for her. Her husband is a police officer, and the Velcro on his rip-off tie needed refreshing. It never occurred to me, but evidently, perpetrators may grab the officer’s tie in an effort to thwart arrest, and potentially cause harm by choking the officer. So the ties have a Velcro closure at the back of the neck so they’ll rip off easily.

So because I had to dig my machine out, I also grabbed some more fabric to make Ort Bag #2:

You’ll recognize the floral fabric from Emily’s Christmas apron. The pale blue was something I had in my stash. This one came out more like Deb’s- the weight and floppiness was just right. I just need to work on the curves at the tips. I should also invest in some “invisible” thread.

Chicken wants me back on the couch:

Sunday Stuff…

Worked at the barn Friday, Saturday, & Sunday morning and afternoons. Had a small side job to do Friday morning as well, and then a call to help out my HVAC engineer friend Saturday morning. Here’s my progress on Beacon House:

It doesn’t look like much, just more snow infill, but I did 2 birds over one (the 2 darker blue ones):

 

Today, I tried to recreate Deborah’s ort “jar” from memory:

Looking back at Deb’s, I see I need to use a narrower seam allowance, plus make it a tiny bit bigger overall, and a larger radius on the arc on the points. Oh, and maybe be a little neater when I double-sew seams….

Wonderful Wednesday Wrecipes…..

Sorry about the lack of post-age. I’ve been helping out at the barn a LOT due to the barn owner’s rotator cuff surgery at the beginning of November. She’s started P.T., but it’ll be  while before she’s ready to toss 20+ bales of hay down from the loft.

The other lady helping out is there a lot, too, so I feel compelled to stay as long as she’s there, plus she’s riding one of the retired horses, and asks  several times a week if I’ll ride with her. So instead of my usual in-and-out in 90 minutes or less on any given evening, I’m there 2-1/2 hours or more, plus cleaning stalls for about 2 hours three mornings a week. By the time the weekend comes around, I just want to sack out on the couch. Blech. Plus my computer has been slow- I think I have to start taking old stuff off…

Anyway, I came across the soup thru this link from Edgar’s blog. I think it’s the best soup I’ve ever made- it was really hard to stop at one bowl! My recipe below is a tiny bit tweaked from the original, mainly by substituting turkey for beef.

Pasta E Fagioli Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey (or Shady Brook Farms 20.8 oz. package)
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 2 carrots, finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can cannellini beans (or white kidney beans), drained and rinsed
• 1 (26 oz.) carton beef broth (or 3 cups)
• 1 jar (25 oz.) spaghetti sauce (I used about ¾ of jar)
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley (I used fresh because I had it on hand)
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup uncooked ditalini pasta (or your favorite pasta shape)
• Salt, to taste (about ½ tbsp. kosher salt)

Directions:

1. Brown meat in a large skillet; drain excess fat & discard. Add to crock pot.
2. Drain & rinse both types of beans, and add to crock pot.
3. Add all other ingredients, except pasta, to crock pot and stir to combine.
4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or high for 4-5 hours.
5. My crock pot was too small (YIKES!) so I used a French oven (6-quart, I think), and cooked in the oven at 275 degrees for about 4 hours.
6. During the last 30 minutes of cooking time, add the pasta & stir.

You may want to have an additional can of broth on hand- the pasta will continue to absorb liquid as it sits leftover in the refrigerator. When you re-heat the soup, stir in a little additional broth.

Just a Quickie….

Here’s my latest progress on Beacon House:

I finished that window, started the (rein)deer, and started filling in all that snow. And realized that there is a whole middle section of chart-age between this sheet and the right side sheet. I’m starting to implement floss-saving measures now, even though I have the called-for amounts of skeins. I think it uses less floss to stitch large swathes of color (like the snow) at an angle, rather than horizontal line back & forth. You don’t have to carry over to the beginning of the new stitch as far: at an angle, if you end your stitch correctly, you only have to go up or down one stitch to start the next. Try it!

I made these babies for stitching last week:

Joanne Chang’s Carrot Cake Cupcakes, from her “Flour” cookbook. (This was to satisfy a craving for cream cheese frosting- %^P)

We were also introduced to Deborah’s new puppy, Stella. Such a sweet little thing! She didn’t even make a peep! and soooo soft! Nothing like a new puppy and a cupcake to make a night of friends and stitching just about perfect!

F***ing Brilliant!

You may not know, but I'm a huge Florida 'Gators fan. My younger brother is an alum- class of  '85. It was because of him (so goes the legend) that a lot of rules regarding frat parties were instituted. I wear my 'Gators ball cap every morning, with pride, on my walks and at the barn. And I especially love me some Tim Tebow. I've watched him his whole time at Florida, rejoiced at his Bowl wins & championships- I think he's an exceptional role model for today's kids who aspire to any kind of organized athletic teams. I as happy he was picked up by Denver, although Bill Belicheck spent a lot of time with him before the draft, so I kind of got my hopes up that he’d be on the Patriots.

Tomorrow night, Tebow and the Broncos take on the New England Patriots- my favorite  NFL team. I'm torn as to who I want to win. I guess I'll be happy whatever the outcome  %^P

A Face book friend posted this video from Jimmy Fallon. It is absolutely hysterical!

 

Thursday Stitching Update…

Beacon House progress:

My piece of yellow floss ran out with one row to go. I also don’t think the individual snowflakes show up very well as the Smyrna crosses that they are. I used one strand of floss for those because they were just a hot mess with 2 strands.

I obviously didn’t finish this for my barn owner:

But this year I’m planning *SNORT* (we’ll see how that goes!!) to stitch an ornament a month again.

Jane brought these delicious peanut-butter brownie bites:

The peanut butter was low fat, so these were virtually health food! We all had several- yummy!

Off to my couch-TTFN!