Last Slow Sunday Stitching for November

Well Thanksgiving came and went in a blink of the eye, and now onto the Christmas rush.  Having an online retail business at this time of year is both exciting and exhausting, not to mention quite messy at times with boxes of inventory coming in and and going out.

Last week there were 24 boxes stacked in my living room, kitchen and hallway, it took two days to label everything and send it to Amazon.

That's some of the boxes waiting to be opened, unpacked, labeled and repacked to send off to Amazon. It may be time consuming but it allows us to have more inventory by not having it all in the house.

My Spirit Bear embroidery is slow going which is fine with me because after days of labeling merchandise it's great to sit down and get in some slow stitching.

I'm currently working on the feathers. I will link up to Kathy's Quilts for some slow stitching here is the link https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/11/slow-sunday-stitching_25.html
On the days when my fingers are a bit sore from holding the needle I work on the granny afghan for my brother in law and I started a little crochet project yesterday that is coming along quickly

Round after round of stitches to begin with

Than a few stitches and a join a few more stitches and another join and more stitches until I get back to the starting point and then I join it all.

Next I work the pattern out and once again I go around and around and around this time with a shell stitch pattern..

then adding a larger shell to give the piece a bit of a flare.  I have a few more rounds to go before I end off.

I hope of you who celebrated had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

It's just been one of those weeks...

It's been one of those weeks where nothing much gets done beside the usual housecleaning, shopping and running of errands. 

My fingers were achy this week so I didn't pick up my embroidery after flubbing a few stitches and pulling them out, twice.  Needless to say I didn't bother trying to crochet either until Friday evening.

The weather has been flip flopping this week starting about Thursday the nights grew cooler with Saturday morning a beautiful 39 degrees in the early morning hours. The crisp, cool air and the leaves blowing off the trees made it feel like a true Autumn day.  We had some rain mid week which was a welcome change from the sunny days. We get cool days in spurts,, today our high is expected to be 79 and right now it's 68, it's one of the reasons I have stayed here in Florida, as much as I miss the change in season and the snow. As  I grow older  I don't miss shoveling the snow and as always when I feel the need to see the snow or the leaves change I drive north.

Crafting with autumn colors is one of my ways to bring Fall to Florida at least inside, there is always lots of ways to make a little autumn in Florida.

Sea shells go with everything including fake leaves, whether silk or paper or a few rare changed leaves; which can also enhance a favorite poem.

And then there is the old stitched pieces pulled out for the few weeks of Autumn, and table linens and dish towels too. Before you know it you have touches of autumn in every room.

I was speaking with my sister on Friday planning a meet up with her and my little great niece, she is off from school all this week when I realized I totally forgot this week is our Thanksgiving holiday, it seems so early this year, but no there it is on my calendar November 22nd.  I seem to have lost a week somewhere along the way.

November Orts for my TUSAL Report

Well I'm a few days late reporting my orts for this months's TUSAL report but better late then never.  Here are my orts from my recent projects.

Good thing there is only one more new moon for 2018 or I may have to get a bigger jar for my orts.

The orts are mostly from the two hand embroidery projects that are currently being worked

And a crochet project the granny square afghan

oh and the two completed hand embroidery pieces

If you are curious aobut the TUSAL check out the link and read what its all about  and perhaps you will join us for next months Ort report. 

https://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-totally-useless-stitch-long.html

A November Walk in the Park and some Slow Sunday Stitching

Well the clocks have all be turned back an hour, even on my car, morning came with clouds and the promise of rain today so I plan to spend most of the day stitching my newest projects.

Yesterday was a beautiful Fall day with cool crisp air and plenty of sunshine, my walk through Jervy Gantt park revealed a little bit of Autumn for us here in Florida.

Some of our leaves do change color though not enough stay on the trees when they do, the Sycamore tree's leaves turn brown and fall from the trees fast, some are just beginning to brown before falling.

These leaves are scattered on my lawn from late October through most of November, mostly from the house across the street, and the tree in my backyard.  I just leave them there to be absorbed back into the earth though I do rake them every now and again pushing them under the shrubs for mulch.

More leaves on the walking path for me just seeing these few leaves lets me know Fall is here among all the green.  I have lived in Florida since 1994, the constant green made me home sick for years until I finally started to notice the subtle changes, it was about 8 years in when I finally did notice the small changes like the green was less vibrant on the trees, and some trees turned yellow or orange but the leaves didn't fall from the trees.

My first 2 home in Florida were apartments the first with a wooded area with large oak trees behind our buildings like the one in the photo above.  It wasn't until I moved into my current house that I really saw the change to Autumn.  Still not a big change but enough to know the season has changed.

The crows and squirrels were quite active along my walk with these few characters chasing each other from post to post.
I walked around the pond and I swear the fish were following me all around the pond.

It is such a peaceful place to walk I often lose all track of time just watching the ripples on the water

some days I will take a few minutes and sit on one of the benches and take in all the sounds around me, basking in the quiet calm solitude of the place.  I usually sit on the stone bench near the pond

Yesterday however there was a strong odor coming off the pond so I didn't linger too long just long enough to snap the photos.

The last photo I took yesterday was of the pine cone above and then this little squirrel on the side of the tree.
On the stitching front I am working on a new project and made good progress earlier in the week. Spirit Bear is being stitched on brushed cotton twill, I wanted to try a heavier fabric and have a yard on hand, so far I like stitching on the fabric and have no issues. So far I'm using DMC floss I plan to add some beads here and there, at some point I'm going to try  some of the new sparkle floss (Etoile) but not sure yet. It measures about 8x10 inches with a lot of small details which should take me some time to stitch. When my fingers get sore I can pick up my crochet.

On my other new project I did use a bit of the Etoile floss on the dancing woman piece as well as some DMC Coloris and Light Effects.

I'm going to link up to Kathy's Quilts today for some Slow Sunday Stitching click the link and have a look to see what other talented bloggers are slow stitching today  https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2018/11/slow-sunday-stitching.html
And on Monday at Super Mom NO Cape https://www.supermomnocape.com/

Some Silly November Ramblings

Well its November so how about a little poem to welcome in the new month and cooler weather.

Not sure what to do with all those pesky leaves blowing around the yard, you can get crafty with some of them.

Fox

Lion 

And keep in mind not all chestnuts are roasted on an open fire, some are caught by creative people with a paint brush.

Chestnuts painted (aka conkers)

Yesterday I spent half the afternoon running around looking for a replacement monitor for my computer which decided to die first thing in the morning. Not the way I planned to start my day but a fitting in to last week of October which seemed to go downhill from Sunday morning when  I headed out the door for my morning walk and breakfast at my favorite little dinette, an hour after I arrived home my stomach decided to reject breakfast and anything else I had eaten in the last 24 hours.  Not sure if I had a 24 hour stomach bug or the result of under cooked sausage.  I was fine on Monday. I hope you week was better and you are having a great first of November.