Wednesday Goings-On

 Happy Hump Day, Everyone 😀😀😀 How's your week going?

 

I've been a busy beaver for sure!

NATIONAL DOG WEEK

Did you know it's national dog week?  Apparently, it's celebrated the last week of September.  I told Mr. B he couldn't be stinky during dog week so he let me give him a bath.

My handsome boy and smells good too!

 

GARDENING

Despite it being Autumn, my flowers are still blooming.  I'll be enjoying these right up until frost.

 

Every week, I spend a little time each week "training" the Laguna Climbing Roses on the chain link fence.  This is just a fancy way of saying I zip tie the vines where I want them to grow on the fence.  As they grow, I snip some of the zip ties off.

 

This is year two and the vines have grown tremendously.

 

 This is what they looked like last summer:

I bought a Hibiscus plant on clearance a few weeks back. I'd planned on putting it in one of my floral beds, but I've learned this one is a tropical plant and will not survive the winter weather here.

So, I'll just enjoy the pretty pink blooms this year.

I learned last year that if I trim off the withering blooms of my Double Knockout Rose bush, it will grow faster and produce more blooms.  Last year and this year has seen the most growth than in the past 13 years. 😍  Have any of you readers had the same experience?

My strawberry plants got a late start (i.e. I didn't get around to planting them until late).  They are just starting to bloom and form fruits.  I'm not really sure if they will ripen before frost.  I plan on putting in a couple of raised beds next year and put them in there. 

This is my first time growing strawberries like this.  Will they survive the winter in pots if I place them in the non-heated garage?

 

The mums I mentioned in a previous post ::finally:: are starting to bloom.  I see little peeks of color!

 

My coworker brought me two big potted mums left over from her wedding a couple weeks ago.  I'll have to find a spot for them before winter rears its ugly head.

 

HOME IMPROVEMENT

I have to special order window well covers for my basement wells as they're 42" wide.  A few weeks ago I did all the other windows except this one by the gas meter.  I miscalculated how many I'd need.  So, I had to order one more.  Thankfully, there was free shipping.  Gotta love that, right?!

 

These covers never seem to last longer than a year or two.  This one was in sad, sad shape.  They literally disintegrate over time.

 

 

This one is always such a pain because the edge of the window well is very close to the gas pipe and I have to cut the cover to fit around the pipe.  Previously, I used heavy scissors to cut a notch.  I usually ended up cracking the window well cover.  This year I had a brainstorm idea.  💡  I used a wood burning tool to cut the plastic.  It worked pretty good.  Don't accidentally touch your leg.  Ask me how I know!

Much better, don'tcha think?

Another project I'm working
on:  Great Stuff in the gaps and cracks along the sill of the garage walls.  Last year, I did the south and west walls before the cold weather set in.  This year, I started on the north wall.  I was a bit over-exuberant in my spray technique.

I read that I could use a serrated knife to cut away the excess.  Off to Dollar Tree I went to get serrated knives.  Pack of two $1.25.  Can't beat the price for what I'm going to use them for.

The results turned out great.  Once the Great Stuff debacle was resolved, I caulked along the front sill plate to reduce water seepage.

CASITA CAPERS

After weeks and weeks of de-oxidizing, polishing, and waxing I'm happy to report that the exterior of the Casita is done.  Thank goodness!  I've received a variety of comments saying, "I drove by your house and it looks so shiny from the street!" to "It looks good.  You won't have to do that again for 3-4 years."  I hope not!

 

I did a couple of other simple repairs.  When I bought the Casita back in May, the cable TV port was missing the cap.

 

 

It was pretty dirty, so I cleaned it up before installing the new cap.  If you look close, you can see my reflection in the lower part of the photo (so shiny!).

I installed the Anderson ball hitch on Ruby, my Highlander.  It weighs a little less than 60lbs.  Why you ask?  I'm going camping this week!  My last trip before I winterize and put the Casita away.

The weather is supposed to be in the 70's during the day and 50's at night.  Perfect camping weather.

YUM-YUMS

I've been cooking up some low carb things that have actually turned out really tasty.

First up, is low carb pizza.  For a 7" personal pizza, it ended up being 342 calories with 9 net carbs.  It was delicious!

If you're interested in the recipe, leave a comment below and I'll post it in a future blog post.

Next up, I made egg bites two different times.  The first time, was just eggs and veggies.  The second time:  eggs, veggies, bacon, cottage cheese, and shredded cheeses.

While the veggie only ones were good, I ::really:: liked the ones with cottage cheese in them.  They were so creamy delicious.

 

Not low carb, but I made a small apple cake to take camping.  The recipe called for walnuts.  I didn't have any so I topped it with a few chocolate chips.

 

 

STITCHY STUFF

I'm plugging away at the Halloween Mailart.  I'm hoping to complete the stitching while I'm camping this weekend.  I just have the back to do.  Can't show the whole thing, but here's a sneak peek:

QUILTY BITS AND PIECES

I found a not-so-local quilt shop that's doing an in person block of the month program.  We met for the first time last night and were given our first month's fabric.  The quilt is called Violet Crush and the shop sample is SO gorgeous.

I plan on cutting the fabric while I'm camping so I can start sewing next week.  There are five blocks that need to be done in the next month.

This will be my first in-person BOM participation.  It's going to be fun... each month when we bring our blocks in, our name goes into a drawing.  If we bring a show-n-tell piece (doesn't have to be quilt related), we get our name put in again.  At the end of the 9 months, the shop does the drawing.  Fun-Fun-Fun!

To end off this post, I'll leave you with a photo of my Autumn office decor.  I don't know how long this will stay out since I have Halloween decorations to put out.  I really need to make an Autumn-themed table runner for the top of my cabinet.  Currently, I have two: Patriotic and Winter.

Until Next Time,

 

Marvelous Monday Update 8/26/2024

Happy Monday! The beautiful weather with 70-80F temps and no humidity has come to an end.  The forecasters are predicting 109-112F heat index for the next few days with high humidity.  Ugh!  Thank goodness for air conditioning, right?

 

What have I been up to this past week?

 

MACHINE EMBROIDERY

I made this table topper after last year's Kimberbell Day.

 

 A couple of closeups show the detail of the machine embroidery and the quilting design I chose.  Isn't that glittery spider the cutest?

I finally got around to making the quilt label for the back. So now I can finally call it a FFO!

 

STITCHY STUFF

I misplaced my Halloween issue of Just Cross Stitch so I did a deep dive into the stash to try and find some Halloween designs.  I'm hosting a Halloween Mailart Exchange on the FB group Stitchers of Mailart. I also signed up for a Halloween Ornament Exchange hosted by one of my FB friends.  I also found a link to some Halloween freebies on Cyberstitchers.

I didn't have plans to complete the Halloween Ornament in one weekend, but I did.  Whoop! Whoop!  I can't show it in entirety, but here's a sneek peek:

I hand dyed the fabric back in March when I went to the Spring Hoosier Retreat.

 

I had some random spools of Kreinik in ziploc bags so I decided to organize them into my existing storage boxes which happen to be 20 guage shotgun shell cases.

 

As you can see, I'm now up to three boxes.  I have an obscene amount of 032 blending filament.

If you're interested in seeing how I store my other stitchy stash, click on over HERE.

FURBABY LOVE

Early last week, I gave Bailey a bath because she smelled like she rolled in something outside.  I kept calling her my "Stinky Girl" LOL.

 

 

She has always had a floppy left ear.  Isn't it endearing?

 

On Saturday, both Bailey and Baxter had a scheduled spa day. I could hear Bailey crying when I entered the grooming salon to pick them up.  Poor girl. 

Both were so happy Mama came back.  They smelled so good!

 

This morning I woke up to Baxter letting out a scream at 4:50am.  I jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen.  He was cowering in the corner of his playpen and he had pee'd himself.  I gave him a bath, he went outside to do his business, and ate breakfast. He seemed okay.  Scared the bejeezus outta me!

 

Based on what I told the vet, they think maybe he had a seizure due to low blood sugar.  They suggested I give him a small snack at bed time and journal this in case it happens again.

GOOD EATS

I tried a new spaghetti squash recipe. It had bacon, garlic, and onion in it.  The receipt called for Parmesan cheese, but I was out so I used Mexican blend.  It was so good!

TRANSPLANTS

Last year, my supervisor gave me a Kalanchoe for Administrative Professionals Day.  It had outgrown the pot it came in so I transplanted it in a larger pot. I'm hoping it will bloom again.  The tiny flowers were so cute.

Months and months and months ago... Did I say how long ago?  I propogated Sedum Morganianum (Burro's Tail) and Echeveria Runyonii (Topsy Turvy) from leaves that dropped off of a mother plant.  They were finally big enough to be planted in a pot.

This was the pot the Kalanchoe came in.  Both have homes on the window sill of my office.

Until Next Time,

Marvelous Monday Update 7/29/2024

 It's hard to believe August will be here in a few days. Summer has flown by so fast.  What have you been up to this past week?  As usual, I've had a few things going on.

MACHINE EMBROIDERY

The second annual Kimberbell Day was last Saturday. 

 

It's a national celebration of machine embroidery.  Shops all over the U.S. host the Kimberbell event which is held the last Saturday in July.  This year's theme is Choose Kindness.  

I missed the fun last year, so I put it on my agenda this year.  My "local" shop (which is 45 minutes away) had us prep fabrics for the project we would be doing while watching Kimberbell zoom live on the TV screen.

 

I had my fabric and machine ready to go by the Tuesday prior!

 

Saturday arrived. I packed the car and was and ready to go.

 

 

We played games.  I won two prizes for finishing two word searches, and one a prize for spinning the prize wheel.

 

While we watched the live Kimberbell Day show, we worked on our Choose Kindness project.  We all hoped we'd win a prize from Kimberbell, but alas... none of us did.

We didn't get our project entirely finshed, but everyone made good progress.  Here's what mine looks like so far:

 

Everyone had a lot of fun the entire day. I hope to make it next year! 

STITCHY STUFF

In a previous post, I showed the ornament I made for the Patriotic Exchange.  You can see it HERE.  While in Virginia, I received my ornament from Sue V (my second mom).

She painted a wood ornament and attached the stitched piece on top of a piece of felt.  It's embellished with tiny star buttons.  Isn't it adorable?  The design is part of Olde Glory by Heart in Hand.

 

I'm crusin' along on Mrs Martha 1776.  I had one stripe on her dress almost half finished when I realized I was off by two columns.  Whoops!  I like the nubby end of the mini seam ripper to "erase" the fuzzies off the fabric.  It does a great job.

I couldn't find any of mine, so I improvised by using a small piece of magic eraser.  It worked pretty good.

No trace of red fuzzies.

 

Since I was close to Hobby Lobby on Kimberbell Day, I ran over and picked up a few more mini seam rippers.  They're only $1.99 vs. $6.99 at JoAnn Fabrics.

While watching the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, I stitched on Mrs. Martha.

DOGGY DIARIES

Bailey turned one year old a couple weeks ago. We (and by "we" I mean me, Baxter, and Bailey) celebrated with a little party, complete with a photo, doggie cake, and of course a new toy.

 

 

Doesn't she have the sweetest face?  It's hard to believe she's already one.

Baxter celebrated his 2 year birthday back in March.  Poor little guy spent almost a year with his leg in cast after he was dropped and the leg was broken. Three surgeries later, he's back to "normal".  His leg still bothers him if he walks too long.

Mr B is so adorable. Everyone who sees him falls in love with him.  I tell him he's my favorite boy. LOL

 

Until Next Time,