July 31, 2026 Good News and More Good News

 The first good news is that I found my lost tablet. It was a week ago last Thursday that I couldn't find it. It has so many of my cross stitching charts on it and I was missing it terribly. Today I was moving some stuff around and found my tablet! It was right by my chair. I had tried to find it on "Find my Phone" and it wasn't ringing. It had fallen down behind the shelf where it was and had managed to fall into a basket of yarn and had made its way down under a bag of yarn!

The second nice thing is that I'm almost finished stitching the first "Ginger ornament" from Hands on Design. There's a bit of "decorating" that has to be done but the stitching will be finished tonight.

The third good news is that Blackbird Academy starts tomorrow. We will be stitching a new chart from Blackbird Designs every month - August through May. It's ok if we want to work on the same chart several months. There are suggestions as to what we stitch on each month. For August, it's a chart with the alphabet. For September, it's a chart with a bird. For December, it's Winter or Christmas. So many of Blackbirds' charts have the same things - a house, an alphabet, a bird, a flower, etc. You can see that Christmas Rose has a bird, a House, an alphabet, a flower and Christmas. I'm going to try to finish it in August but if not, I'll carry it over to another month.

September is a bird. I've been wanting to stitch Come into my Garden for a long time. I know I wrote about that last week. That's going to be my September project. If I don't finish it, I can work in it during the flower month or the house month. 

You can also see that I've created a little Blackbird Academy Journal. I'm really excited about this stitch along!

July 30, 2026 - Busy But Nothing to Report

 There's been things going on but nothing worth writing a blog post about. 

Of course I've been canning - more salsa; while I have lots of bell peppers and Giant Marconi peppers, which to me are pretty similar to bell peppers, I've been canning ground beef as the base for two casseroles we love. One is Philly Cheese Casserole. I brown the ground beef - not even totally brown but enough that it will not clump together in the jars, add onions and bell peppers towards the end, put the mix into 1-1/2 pint jars, top it off with beef broth, leaving 1" head space and pressure can it. Then when it's time to have it for dinner, I'll pretty much follow the recipe except I will drain most of the broth off but cook the meat with a little broth until it's hot and the broth has cooked down, then go on according to the recipe. It makes for a super quick meal and you'd never know the meat came out of a jar.

The other is recipe I like to can while I have way too many poblano peppers is  Chile Relleno Casserole. I scorch the peppers, peel them, then set them aside. I brown the ground beef with the onions as in the other recipe. I add the salt but no other seasons. Then I add the ground beef to the 1-1/2 pint jars, but only put the beef up about 2/3rd to the top. Then I put four or five of the peppers on top, pour beef broth over, leaving 1" head space. 

The only seasonings I add to both while in the jars is salt. Pints are pressure canned at the appropriate (for your level) pressure for 75 minutes; quarts for 90 minutes. When using 1-1/2 pint jars, I go with the time for quarts. Since the time for canning beef is longer than for canning peppers, I'm not concerned about the peppers in these recipes.

For winter, I love having red beans/sausage, beef stew, chili, the Philly Cheese Steak Casserole, Chile Relleno Casserole, Split Pea Soup and Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup. 

Tuesday I spatchcocked a chicken, which is how I like to roast them because the bones are pretty flat and I can stick the whole "structure" in a ziplock bag and freeze it until I'm ready to make bone broth. Not pretty but it was delicious. I picked the leftover meat off the bones and today I made chicken and rice.

Remember the eggplant I made the other day that was quite a bit of trouble? I made it again today but was lazy about making it. While it wasn't pretty, it tasted the same. I peeled the eggplant, sprinkled it heavily with salt and let it sit for about an hour, rinsed it, dried it, and cut it into chunks. I dried all those with paper towels, dipped them in egg, then seasoned cornmeal and fried them.

Then I spread them out on a parchment lined baking sheet, heated up marinara and poured it over the eggplant, added mozzarella and stuck it all under the broiler til the mozzarella began to melt.

Took it out, placed it on our plates and topped it with shredded basil. That's in the picture above with the chicken and rice. The good news is there's plenty of leftover eggplant and chicken and rice so we'll have it again Friday or Saturday.

Finally, I've been working on a new journal and can't wait to share that. I don't have it all put together yet - hopefully I will have it by the end of Friday. It's going to be a separate journal just for the Blackbird Academy which will last August 1 - July 31, 2027 with a new project each month.

There's one page out of it. You may not be able to read my scribbly  handwriting. Sorry.

Then there's what's left of the garden. I wanted Vince to help me pull out the tomatoes, except for Cooper's tomatoes but his back is bothering him.  It's time for the tomatoes and cucumbers to go. The squash is already gone except for a couple that I planted a few weeks ago. The eggplant may last til Christmas at the rate it's going! I probably should not have said that!  I've been trying to keep the basil cut so it doesn't bolt, which it REALLY wants to do so whatever I cut has to be freeze dried or dehydrated.  Summer is not my favorite season, partly because of all the work in the garden and the canning, but I bring that on myself. The other part is the heat and having to water so much but I think most all of us are in that same boat right now. I'm ready for winter. I'm ready for it to be dark early and all the outside chores are done before 4 p.m. -- just a couple more months of summer heat!

July 25, 2026 - A Finish & A Frame Ordered

 This was apparently my New Year's Day start in 2025 because I started it on January 1, 2025. Last night I finished it! One and one-half years sounds like a long time but I have plenty of WIPS that are much older than this one. Any finish is a good finish!

I kinda plopped it down on the ottoman and quickly took a photo before the dogs landed on top of it. Those straight rows are more straight than they appear . . I hope!

The chart is This is the Day by Plum Street. I changed a few things - over on the right side of the house, I put two flowers instead of some sheep and other things. I stitched it on Picture This Plus 36 count Regency and used Vikki Clayton Silks.

Some of this is ghosty -  the smoke from the chimneys and the Ram.  I'm no longer stitching ghosty things. I'll change the color of floss if it doesn't show up on my linen. 

Another thing - see the container of flowers to the left of the house. Those little shapes in the container that are not stitched . . those were supposed to be a light green and really didn't show up - just kinda blended into the container color. I thought they looked better not stitched with just the linen color showing through so I left them not stitched.

A reader asked yesterday or this morning about frames. I'm probably not the one to ask but I will share my experiences. 

First, I do my own lacing and plopping the piece into the frame. I bought this Point Driver from Amazon in 2021 and it is really nice to to secure the piece into the frame. I highly recommend it or something like it and surprisingly, the price has hardly changed since I bought it.

The majority of the frames I have purchased came from a subscription place that I do NOT recommend. I think it was something like $99/year and the frames were discounted and they were enough less that if I ordered 8 - 10 frames per year, I felt like the cost was worth it. It was some place that takes your order, then they have three or four places across the country that fulfill the orders. All of the places except one did excellent work but everything I got from the other place was not good at all. Corners didn't match up. The small frames that were supposed to arrive assembled were not assembled. There were little notched out places little "butterfly" looking pieces would slip into the notched out places and that's what would hold the corners together. Sometimes they didn't line up at all; sometimes they looked like a beaver had done the "notching" - just a careless mess! The last frame I ordered from them, I had to send it back and have it redone THREE times and it still wasn't right. At that point, I was done with them and didn't want to renew my annual subscription. I made sure I canceled my subscription in plenty of time. They assured me it was canceled and I would not be charged. I was. I had to dispute it through my credit card and finally got it resolved. So . . I'm not going to say their name but be careful with something like that. 

I have used Michael's (again, I just ordered the frame and did all the lacing and "installing" myself. I got frames from them once during one of their 70% off sales. I felt like even with Michael's sale, Hobby Lobby was less expensive BUT about the middle of June, I ordered two frames from Hobby Lobby. They've always been made well. The people in the framing department are very nice and helpful but those two frames were pretty pricey. Neither were large. I think one was about 8" x 9-1/2" and one was something like 7" x 10". I'm always careful to get the least expensive frames that I can live with. One was $60 and one was $75. The smaller one was actually $75 because the frame was more per inch. The foam board was extra - only about $2. I did not get glass - I rarely get glass. 

The piece I stitched for my dad's family was about 15 x 15 and I got a nicer frame and museum glass and I think I paid about $75 for that frame so I think there's been a price increase there. AND I was very disappointed in their selection in June. In our HL, they have vertical rows with the frame samples. I think there were at least three, maybe more, fewer vertical rows than when I was last in there ordering frames and most of the rows they had, only had frame samples about 2/3rds down the row where they used to be full.

So, today when I needed a frame, I went to Art to Frames. Their name is Art to Frames but the website doesn't have an "s" on the end of frames but if you type it in with the "s", it will still come up. That was kinda confusing to me.

I had heard several flosstubers recommend them so I figured I'd give it a try.

They have a great selection. The website, at least for me, seemed a bit confusing but that was just the first time I was using it. Don't be discouraged if it seems confusing because when I went back later to look for another frame, it was all very easy. I didn't want glass. I didn't want a mat and finding where to change the default on that took a second. I picked out 5 or 6 frames and it showed them with my piece in the frame. I put them all in my cart, then went upstairs and had Vince look at them with me. He likes it when he feels like he has a say in the frames. Shipping is free. I had a coupon (so sign up for whatever they offer) for $10 off $70 or $75+ purchase but my total purchase was $57 so I didn't get to use the coupon.

There is an option for "economy mode" for free shipping. That's what I got. I ordered it this morning and it says it should be here by August 6. If they use USPS, all bets are off on when it will arrive but I will post here when it arrives and how I feel about it. There was another shipping method offered and I think it was $14 and the frame should arrive by July 28 if I had chosen that method.

That's about the extent of my knowledge of frames and framing!

July 24, 2026 - Tired Dachshunds!

 In May (I think), we added a chain link fence that's about 25 x 25  and it's inside the wood fence. There were too many places the dogs could dig under the wood fence or fall off the side of the retaining walls so I didn't feel comfortable with them running loose in the whole back yard. 

They have been LOVING being able to go outside and run.

When we got Oscar, I was talking to the breeder about the kind of puppy I wanted and I told her I wasn't crazy about a lap dog but I wanted one that was spunky and liked to play. She said "I know EXACTLY which one you want!" And, it was Oscar. She was so right!

By the time we got Cooper, I was ready for a lap dog and he is a snuggler. Oscar doesn't like to be snuggled but Cooper surely does.

Cooper wants to run . . back and forth, back and forth. He has no interest in chasing a ball or playing with a rubber frisbee. I can throw the ball probably ALL day and Oscar will go get it and bring it back to me. Neither one of them wanted to go back inside this afternoon and I probably let them stay out too long. When we went back inside, Oscar was huffing and puffing enough that I was kinda concerned. Cooper just wanted to sleep!

I had to move him to reach my camera and he didn't even notice. 

Until it gets cooler, I'll go out with them for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the afternoon. Ten minutes of playing results in about 4 hours of sleeping for them and uninterrupted cross stitching for me.

I'm hoping Oscar will lose a few pounds if we do that every day. 

Vince told me that he thinks I should go out and work with Cooper bringing the ball back when Oscar isn't out there. Maybe that's what it is - maybe he doesn't get that he's supposed to bring the ball back to me. I'll spend some time with him tomorrow one on one and see if he gets it.

They're so different! Cooper runs full speed like a race horse and his mouth is wide open and you can see every tooth in his mouth . . which is funnier because his face is black and his teeth are so white. Oscar isn't as fast as Cooper but he runs with his mouth closed! If you have a dog and he runs, does he run with his mouth closed or wide open?

July 23, 2026 - Dinner!

 Today I seemed to put a little more effort into dinner than I have been. Maybe it's because I've not canned anything this week and I've gotten some rest! The main reason I made what I made is that Debbie shared an Instagram  . . I don't know what you call it - one of those short videos, of a lady making this eggplant dish. I think it's called Eggplant Milanese. I found this recipe and it looks a heck of a lot easier than what I did. The recipe I made started with wrapping the eggplants in parchment paper, then wrapping that in foil, roasting at 400 degrees for 40 minutes (according to the recipe). My eggplants were big so it took about an hour. With this heat, the oven at 400 for an hour was brutal. I went out to water this morning and those darned eggplants just won't stop! I picked 12 late last week and this is what I picked this morning. Off THREE plants! 

Then .. the tomatoes! There are so many of these little tiny tomatoes. The big tomatoes are doing good too but these little ones - except for a couple that I planted for Cooper . . they all came up volunteer and there are hundreds of them. They're even outside the fence! 

Those tomatoes came off three plants and there are probably 100+ plants. Next year, I will be much more careful about removing 99% of them.

I told Vince I was going to pick a bunch of them, give them a quick run through the blender and try making a sauce from them. Grinding tomato seeds usually causes the sauce to be bitter but I figured as sweet as these tomatoes are, it might be ok. 

I ended up with about 7 cups of tomatoes. The sauce simmered for an hour or so and it was more bitter than I had hoped. I read that adding carrots might help "tame" the bitterness. I knew I could add a bit of sugar but those tomatoes were almost candy sweet so I didn't want to make it any sweeter. I did add a bit of baking soda which was also suggested as a cure for the bitterness. When Vince got home, I asked him to taste it to see if he was ok with it. He loved it. That husband of mine - he does love pasta sauce. I'm not sure there's anything I could do to a big bowl of tomatoes that would make him not like it, which is NOT the way I feel about it.  :)

I roasted three eggplants and according to the video I watched, the peelings would slip off. They did. Then I would gently mash the whole eggplant to be about 1/2" thick. I did. Then I would dip it in bread crumbs and fry it. That wasn't so easy. The eggplant was a big, floppy, fragile hunk and by the time I got it breaded, trying to get it into the hot oil without kinda tossing it in and hoping for the best was about all I could figure out to do with it. 

Next I put mozzarella cheese over it and stuck it under the broiler for a minute, added fresh basil and tomatoes and served the red sauce over beef ravioli. Vince seemed really pleased with it and that makes me happy. I loved the eggplant but do believe the linked recipe will be much the same but way easier.

The PERFECT Piece of Linen

 You may remember this story because I have blogged about it - probably more whining than anything else - but I have one last blog post about my search for the perfect linen.

Back in 2022, Vince and I went to Branson and we went by Cecilia's Samplers. That was really my first time in a cross stitching shop and, well, I probably don't need to tell the rest of that story. As we were leaving, I saw a piece on the wall and it really caught my attention but I told myself . . no, NOTHING else today.

I kept thinking about it so we went back. I got the chart,  but they were out of the linen. The lady told me it was Veldt by Picture This Plus. I began searching for Veldt. This was back when linen was a bit hard to get. I found several pieces, ordered it, but when it arrived, it was NOT the same color. The pinky brown was missing. Probably, at this point, I have about three times more Veldt in my stash than I'll ever use but I kept hoping to get that perfect colored piece of Veldt. Spoiler alert: It never happened.

There's a shop where I order sometimes and they had a picture of Veldt with the pinky brown. It must be an old picture because that is not the Veldt I received with a recent order. Because I'm so desperate for that color and I want to start that project so badly, I continued ordering Veldt, never really expecting it to be the color I'm looking for. I think it's safe to say . . I'll never get Veldt with the pinky brown but . . I no longer even need that color because I found a perfect substitute.

There are dyers out there whose colors are more consistent so if it matters to you, probably most of the time it doesn't, try to stick with those if you can't see the linen in person before purchasing.

Fast forward . . a few weeks ago, I was on Fabrics by Steph's FB page and she had a picture of her Sassenach linen. I thought that might work, chatted with her a minute on FB. She assured me the color in the photo would be fairly consistent with what I received so I ordered it. Today it arrived and it is so perfect. There isn't one thing about this linen I would change for this piece.

The colors are going to be perfect on Steph's Sassenach.

Here's the chart cover. It's an older chart (2020) and many places are out of it but it can still be found fairly easily.

When will I start this? Not right away but hopefully within a few months.

Grandparents' Day

 I can't remember if this was taken when Addie was in kindergarten or first grade. Most of you will remember it. I thought I had lost it but was looking through old Facebook pictures and found it.

It was grandparents' Day at Addie's school and she drew us a picture. Nicole's parents were there, Vince and I had driven in from Texas. The teacher kinda sighed as she handed us the picture. We all laughed . . and Vince said "Is that me on the end?" Yes!  I'm "Grene" (Granny), Nicole's mom is Nana, Addie is in the middle. Papa is Nicole's dad and she didn't put a name for Vince. She probably asked the teacher how to spell Grumps, which is what she calls Vince, and the teacher didn't want her to write that. 

All except Vince have their arms open for her and a smile. Poor Vince! Look at that frown on his face!  :)