TUSAL 6/19/12

I'm a day late. I'm sure no one noticed.  If you did.... Shhh!  It's our secret, OK?  As you can see, froggy felt the need hop into the photo.  Sneaky little bugger!

This month's orts are the result of stitching on:
•  Fleurs et Papillons
•  Stockings Were Hung
•  Baby Afghan
•  Forgive Quickly
•  Sampler aux Bouquets
•  By The Bay Summer Mystery Sampler
Here's a compilation of the first six months.  It's pretty neat to see my jar fill up.

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The Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long (TUSAL) is sponsored by Daffycat.  For more information about the TUSAL, click on the badge on my sidebar.

Counting The Days

HEALTH
Some of my faithful concerned readers have asked about my shoulder and arm issues. For the most part, the pain in my upper arm is gone but I still have numbness in my thumb. I'm still going to the massage therapist once a week, and am extending the chiro visits out to two weeks (since they don't seem to be doing much).

STITCHY STUFF
I didn't do much stitching last week, but I did manage to get Part 2 done of Fleurs et Papillons.

I tried a little experiment with hand-dyeing fabric.  I bought some opalescent fabric for Winter White Santa and hand-dyed it a sky blue with a slight tint of navy blue and a bit of pink.

While I was at it, I also hand-dyed a piece of 22ct Hardanger.

RETREAT TIME!
I bet you were wondering what's up with the blog title?  I'm going to a retreat!  On Thursday, I'll be leaving for Colorado Springs.  I've helped with the planning this year, which has had me busy!  It's been two years since I've been on a retreat, so I am really looking foward to it.

Until next time,

Nuttin' But Stitchin'

Normally, I'm not one to stitch up projects and then stick them in a drawer.  I did have this one that I stitched in 2008.  I finished it into a dimensional flat ornament with handmade cording.

Sing Noel

Stitched: 12/14/08  Time: 3Hrs
Designer: Primrose Needleworks
Fabric: 18ct Seafoam Green Aida
Fibers: GAST, DMC Color Variations, The Dye Shop
Embellishments: Handmade cording w/DMC 321 & 815

I finished Part 2 of the Summer Mystery SAL designed by By The Bay Needleart.


I worked on Fleurs et Papillons.  I finished the top center floral arrangement and the second butterfly.  The top lace is almost finished.  I think I'm going to continue working on it again this week so I can finish Part 2.

GIVEAWAYS
Parsely over at Seasons of My Mind is hosting a Paws & Stripes giveaway. Go check out a cute Patriotic giveaway.

Teresa (At Willow Tree Pond) is also hosting a giveaway for reaching 300 followers. Click over to see what it's all about.

Until next time,

Marvelous Monday Update 6/4/12

A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE
As children, my siblings and I had an authentic Irish log cabin as our playhouse. My parents rented property from 1967-1979 upon which the log cabin sat. In 1979, my parents moved us to the home they currently live in and the log cabin was donated to a local historical museum.

Front View

Back when it was our playhouse, it didn't have glass windows or a very nice back door. We made do, though. We nailed plastic on over the windows (like we'd seen our Dad do on the house) to keep cold air out (Yes, we played in there even in winter) and nailed old curtains up to make it pretty inside. That was probably my idea, lol. My brothers built bunk beds out of scrap wood in the upper part that was accessed by a *very* steep staircase. Btw, it's not a good idea to try and coax the dog down them, lol. (Don't ask me, how I know) I tried to get a photo of the staircase through the window, but there was too much glare and the windows were too dirty. Believe it or not, my brother and I used to think it was fun jumping out of the upper window in front... Well, that was until his butt landed on the doorstep on the way down, lol. Oak is pretty hard on the bottom side!  I'm sure jumping out the window was my idea, too. I seemed to get into trouble for being "the leader" as my Dad always used to say.

East and Back View

To concur my playhouse story, there's even a blurb about it on the museum's website: "During the decade from 1840 to 1850 Irish immigrants moved into the area... This little cabin made of rough oak logs... The cabin is almost square. It is slightly more than 14 feet in each direction... Over the years it has served its owners in many capacities. Probably it was used as a summer kitchen or cookhouse, for storage and as a playhouse for children."

I scoured my parent's photographs and even found one that has part of the cabin in the background. I was such a little squirt then!

Me and Mom,
circa early-mid 1970's (1974?)

COOKING
I had quite a few requests for the casserole recipe I made last week, so I posted it in the previous post.  To all who try it... enjoy.  With my changes, it really was yummo!


WINNER...WINNER... CHICKEN DINNER
OK, maybe not a chicken dinner but I was a winner!  Not once, but THREE times!!

Last week must've been my lucky week.  First, I received an email from Chris over at Fugue.  She said I was the winner of her recent giveaway!

If you get a chance, take a click over to her blog.  Thank you for hosting such a cute giveaway, Chris!

The very same day, I received an email from Kim at Cupcake Cutie letting me know that I was one of three winners of a chart she designed called Babushka Sampler.  You can see a photo of it HERE.  Kim has a really cute blog and a really cute little boy.  Thank you, Kim!

The next day, I received an email from DMC notifying me that I was the winner of their Easter/Passover celebration giveaway!
 

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CONCERT - CHEAP TRICK
Around these parts, the members of Cheap Trick are considered "hometown boys" as all the band members graduated high school in Rockford, Illinois which isn't too far from where I live. For the BF's birthday, I bought concert tickets.

Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander, Tom Petersson

Robin Zander - Lead Singer

Rick Nielsen

Tom Petersson

I had never seen them in concert, so it was interesting.  I did recognize about four of their songs.  The BF said he recognized all of them except for one.  One thing is for sure, for 60-year old guys, they can still rock the stage.  When the concert let out, all I could hear was a bunch of static noise and voices of other concert-goers I could hear sounded like The Chipmunks!

AIRFEST 2012

The concert was the kick-off to the weekend's Airfest.  It was such a beautiful day... temps in the mid 80's, big billowy clouds in a bright blue sky, and light winds.  Perfect for an air show!

Other AirFest pics can be seen HERE.

STITCHY STUFF
I bet you thought I'd never get to this part, didn't you?!?  I have another finish!!!  I finished Sampler aux Bouquets I and started II.

I decided to join in the Summer Mystery Sampler SAL offered by Donna at By The Bay Needleart.  Each week during the month of June, she will release another part.  Part One was a quick stitch.

I even was able to work on Fleurs et Papillons.  Here's the bit of progress I made:

Until next time,

Italian Casserole

2 cans (8oz ea) tomato sauce
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
2 cans (10.5 oz ea) cream of mushroom soup
2 c. shredded mozzarella or cheddar cheese
1 (16 oz) package of pasta -- any kind
1 lb. ground turkey or ground beef

Preheat oven to 350F.  Cook pasta according to package directions in pot of boiling water.  At same time, add ground meat to large skillet.  Break into chunks and brown over medium heat.  Once the meat is cooked, drain fat from meat if there any.  Once pasta is cooked, drain water and place in 9x13 baking pan. To meat, add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, and cream soup.  You could add some shredded cheese to the mixture at this point.  Mix together and cook over medium-low heat until it begins to simmer then pour over the pasta.  Cover with shredded cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese on top is melted.  After removing from oven, let sit 5-10 minutes before serving.


NOTES:
•  I used ground turkey and made it into turkey sausage in the morning so the spices could work their way into the meat.  (3 tbsp. grated onion, 3 cloves finely chopped garlic, 1 tbsp. poultry seasoning, 1 tsp. fennel seeds, 1 tsp. crushed red pepper)

•  I didn't have 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup so I used 1 can cream of mushroom and 1 can cream of celery.  I also added some basil and oregano to the meat mixture.

•  I layered some meat sauce and cheese between two layers of pasta.  The top layer should be smothered in meat sauce and cheese.  I used about 3 c. of mozzarella cheese.

•  I baked this on my grill.  I have three burners -- I turned on one burner to the far side and it heated the grill to approximately 400 degrees.  I placed the casserole on the opposite end of the grill and grilled it for about 30 minutes until the cheese started to turn brown and bubbly.

Yummo!