Some Slow Stitching

Well time is moving at a slower pace this week since I closed the shops the day before Christmas Eve. Still there were many packages to pack and ship for the items that were waiting and a few that were pending, not to mention labeling 24 boxes of inventory to send off to Amazon so the store would be fully stocked.  It was crazy right up to the last moments but as the dust settled I was able to slow down and stitch.

I pulled out the Celtic Cross piece which has been patiently waiting for me to get back to it, rather I have been waiting to get back to it, I did.

While it may not look like much progress was made the hours passed pleasantly enough while I found my groove and felt the tension leave my body.   I left off here last night:

I didn't just manage to get in hand embroidery this week, I finally finished the mystery novel I began in November and after unraveling the start of a shawl I was crocheting I restarted it adding a stitch marker to the bottom so I wouldn't make the same error I did when I put it aside for a time. So now if I get to the stitch marker I know I went wrong again and won't have to tear as much out.

The original start of the shawl

the restarted shawl

So progress was made on the crocheting which I tend to pick up when my fingers start to ache from holding the embroidery needle or when my eyes just can't see the fine lines to embroider.

Yesterday morning I bake some strawberry scones, another mix from the Sticky Fingers Bakery, I love the ease of just adding water and baking.

The weather yesterday was gloomy and humid so the dough was sticky but still dropped okay

and the end result was just wonderful.

Today is another rainy day here in Florida and while my plants are getting a nice watering I am a bit tired of the rain.  We have had rain just about every day for two weeks and this is our dry season.

Despite the rain the hibiscus gives me blooms of sunshine even on a cloudy day and these quite surprised me because most of the time the rain knocks the flowers off.   

The New Year is fast approaching so I spent some time searching for a few online groups and challenges to start in 2020, the first is a FACEBOOK group Journal Threaders which can be found here  https://www.facebook.com/groups/journalthreaders/?ref=nf_target&fref=nf   if interested check it out closing sign up is January 14th.  The concept of stitching as a way to journal is interesting to me, not sure how I am going to layout my piece but the idea seed is planted.

I have rejoined the A Year of Stitches for 2020,  the link is

here if you are interested in joining.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/ayearinstitches/?notif_id=1577580593742356&notif_t=group_r2j_approved&ref=notif

I participated in the Year of Stitches for several years which kept me motivated to stitch each day or as often as I could in the early days of rediscovering hand embroidery, when I go through my clearing out the groups I don't participate in I purged this group in error, thinking it was 1 Year of Stitches.  Do you ever do that?

I will continue to do the at home challenges put out by the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design and hope to have my piece completed for the current challenge deadline of January 15th.  You can find the info here on the website https://www.sfneedleworkanddesign.org/

Well it's getting late and I need a bot more coffee before I pick up my needle and stitchery, my post today I'm linking up at Kathy's Quilts for the last Slow Sunday Stitching of the year. Take a few minutes to see what other bloggers are slow stithcing https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2019/12/slow-sunday-stitching_29.html

Thank you all for your comments, for taking the time from your day to stop and read my blog. I wish all of you a Happy New Year! 

It's a Rainy Night Time for A Cup of Tea

A Cup of Tea
When the world is all at odds
And the mind is all at sea
Then cease the useless tedium
And brew a cup of tea.
There is magic in its' fragrance,
There is solace in its' taste;
And then laden moments vanish
Somehow into space.
And the world becomes a lovely thing!
There's beauty as you'll see;
All because you briefly stopped
To brew a cup of tea.

Welcome Winter

Hello December and Some Slow Sunday Stitching

The last few weeks have been busy with things picking up now that Thanksgiving is behind us. This year with Thanksgiving falling in the last week of the month sales have been crazy, but a good crazy for the business.  Unfortunately it doesn't leave me much time for anything else.

This year I went to my sister's house for Thanksgiving dinner my sister's youngest daughter who recently moved to Tampa and will move on to Chicago this summer was there, my son's girlfriend (aka The One) Megan as joined us for dinner, it was a wonderful day and the first time I celebrated with family other then my son in over 20 years.

On the stitching front I haven't done much in the way of hand embroidery but I did finally have time to remove the stitch and wash product off my greenman piece, now to iron out those pesky wrinkles.

Nothing will be done with him until after the holiday season when I have the time to find the right frames for him and the Greenwoman piece. I plan to do some Slow Sunday Stitching today.

My plants are doing well and I added a new Rosemary this week, I could resist the Christmas tree shaping.

The lavender is growing fuller and filling out nicely, I had planned to transplant to larger pots this month but I don't think they need it yet.

Oct. 2019

Dec. 2019

The Mums have re-bloomed and changed color from a light orange to a deep red orange and are just lovely, I love how they change color, a few years ago I had Mums that re-bloomed 4 times each with a new color.

November 2019

September 2019

This week I'll pick up some poinsettia plants to add more color to the front and near the rocks along the driveway.  But for now I plan to get in a bit of stitching before the busyness of the day begins. I plan to pull out the Celtic Cross piece to work on for a while today and I am linking up to Kathy's Quilts here:https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2019/12/slow-sunday-stitching.html

I am going to try to hand stitch every day throughout the month of December even if it's just a handful of stitches I miss the quiet calm that stitching brings to me.