October 27, 2026 - Stitching and Car Update

I've been sitting here trying to decide if it was worth waking the dogs, who are both sleeping so peacefully on my lap, to go find my phone to take a picture of the progress I wanted to share on the current project. I decided it was not worth it and started back to stitching, then realized I can take a picture with my tablet! Why didn't I think of that an hour ago??

This is a SAL and we have weekly assignments. I've worked ahead so I can put this aside on November 1 and work on the Blackbird Academy project. I'm kinda jumping around but by the end of tonight I think I will have finished the assignments through November 15 and a good start on the house, which is the week of December 5. I've been outlining on the house because I want to get to the bottom of it and outline the grassy area.

My stitching plan probably makes no sense to anyone, including myself, but it's hard for me to work on the Blackbird projects if I'm behind on this SAL and it's hard for me to work on this SAL if I know I'm going to get behind on the Blackbird projects. Yes, stitching is fun and it really doesn't bother me if I miss a "deadline" but I do want to keep up if I can.

This project is A Grateful Heart by The Scarlett House. I love the verse on this one, which says "Each dawn brings a new day for us to do whatever we may may. Choose to be happy with a grateful heart for we have been given a brand new start."

On the car issue, we left it with the mechanic yesterday so he could check it out today and drive it. He's pretty sure it isn't the driveshaft. He said there's absolutely no shaking or wobbling he can feel in the steering wheel when driving it. The back right strut has failed and that's the noise I've been hearing the last two or three times I drove it. Remember, I only drive it once a week. I told him the noise I'm hearing doesn't happen when I hit a bump but it mostly happens when I'm on a washboard type rough road. He made the tire bounce and I heard the exact noise I've been hearing and he explained to me why single bumps don't cause the noise as much as a washboard type road. Made sense when he said it because that's exactly what I was hearing. There still could be more issues once he gets it all apart but, for some reason, changing struts doesn't sound nearly so sad as changing a driveshaft. Vince said "I think you have it wrong because changing the struts is going to cost more than changing the driveshaft!" In my mind, struts sounds like a much easier fix. In fact, we had the struts changed on that car either three or four years ago. The guy who did our work back then was really good, had a very good reputation but he retired and closed his shop. He changed all four struts and today's mechanic said we probably just had a bad one. He didn't see anything wrong with the installation. Vince wants to go ahead and change all four of them. We brought it home so I can use it tomorrow to go stitch with Debbie, then it goes back in the shop next week for "a few days".

October 26, 2026 - Funny Cooper Story

 This really isn't funny but . . it kinda was. Cooper does NOT like other animals. If there's a dog, a horse, a cat, even a butterfly on TV, he starts barking and jumping at the TV. I've really worked with him, including behavior classes, and he's come a long way on some things but not liking other animals is not an area in which he's improved much.

He had his annual vet visit today. We always get the first appointment of the morning, hoping we can get in and out before it gets crowded. One lady came in with a cat in a carrier. Apparently that was an emergency because the techs immediately took the cat back and the lady sat near us in the waiting area. The techs were talking about an aggressive dog was coming in and they wanted to put him in Room "A". Then, someone came in with a BIG dog. Apparently he was the aggressive dog. There was a man and woman and the man had a tight hold on his leash. Cooper saw him and barked one of his BIG dog barks and scared that poor dog. He tried to get as far from Cooper as he could. 

The funny part: The couple took that dog over to another part of the waiting area. It's kinda partitioned off from where we were sitting. Cooper was continuing to bark because he knew that dog was over there. The lady with the big dog said to her dog "And we thought YOU were bad!" 

The lady who had brought the cat in said "I have NEVER heard such a loud bark from such a small dog." Yes, Cooper can be quite loud when he wants to be. Oscar isn't nearly as loud as Cooper is.

This part wasn't so funny!

$857!! It does include Interceptor Plus and Credelio for both Oscar and Cooper for a year. When Oscar had his annual visit a couple of months ago, they were out of the Interceptor Plus and I told them I still had some at home and would get them when I came back with Cooper, Even taking off the pills for Oscar, Cooper's visit, including the meds, would have been $550. I'm not blaming the vet . . those meds are outrageously expensive. It makes me sad to know that there are many pet owners who are having to do without these meds because of the cost.

I checked Chewy's price and with the discount for auto ship, the price is about the same as the vet's charges with the discount they offer.

And then the least funny part of all . . we brought Cooper home, then took both cars to Discount Tire for their semi-annual checkup. A couple of weeks ago, my car started making a rattling sound - not all the time but enough that I knew it needed to be looked at. I was thinking something was loose . . no big deal. Wrong! I have no idea what I'm talking about here but I think what they said is that all the carrier bearings need to be replaced. The driveshaft is not exactly in the position where it's supposed to be and, lucky us, this is one of the years that the driveshaft has to be replaced when this happens. Of course, getting a driveshaft for a 19 year old car may take "a while".  The car is in the shop now and hopefully we will find out more tomorrow (Tuesday). 

I understand most people would say "Buy a new car! Don't spend that much on a 19 year old car." That is not the way Vince thinks. I'm fine with it. I drive that car once a week - sometimes to Nevada, MO to meet Debbie and sometimes, she comes here. The most miles we ever put on that car is about 260 miles per month and it only has 130K miles on it. 

The mechanic is going to go over everything and make sure there's nothing else he sees that might go wrong in the near future. This will be a large repair bill and if there's something else that looks like it's about to go out, we'll have to re-think that not buying a new car decision.

The mechanic seems to think that the folks who changed the struts didn't use the right tool and one of the carrier bearing assemblies is completely gone and that's what started this. He said it happens often. There's a certain tool that has to be used and if the shop doesn't have that tool, they use something else and it almost always causes a failure in the same part that has failed on my car. 

We'll know more tomorrow but for now, I'm really sad about my car.

And to further make you shake your head and wonder what he's thinking . . Vince's car is 25 years old and it seems the transmission is going out in it so once my car is all back to safe driving, he's going to put his in the shop. That's the way it is around here!!

October 21, 2026 - Blackbird Academy SAL Finishes

 Apparently I've been getting a lot of stitching done! I've started and finished the Blackbird Academy SAL pieces for August, September and October. I've already shared the finish for August but will put it here again just to make them all easier (for me) to find later.

For August, the prompt was to stitch something with an alphabet. I stitched Christmas Rose. In this photo, it isn't framed, just stuck in the frame I will use. I will get it framed in plenty of time to have on the wall before Christmas. I have Addie's initials on this one and the year she was born.

For September, the prompt was to stitch something with birds. I stitched Come Into My Garden in memory of my grandma. The frame is ordered and I can't wait to get this on my wall. I think this is the prettiest piece I've ever stitched! I had looked for the perfect linen for so long and I don't think I could have found a more beautiful linen. It is Sassenach by Fabrics by Stephanie.

I will confess . . I didn't get it finished in September but as soon as I finished the October project, I began working on Come Into My Garden and it only took a couple of days to get it finished so I'm back on track.

For October, the prompt was to stitch something with a pumpkin and I stitched Moonlit Garden. This one also is not laced or permanently in the frame - just stuck in there for the photo.

November's prompt is something with a basket. I will be stitching What Remains is Love and it will be done in memory of my aunt, Dorothy. I already had this kitted with linen and floss but in keeping with the memorial piece I did for my dad and for my grandma, I'm swapping the solid-ish to a mottled linen, Marbled Terracotta by X-Ju Designs.

I will work on the SAL for A Grateful Heart and try to get several weeks ahead on the assignments so I don't fall behind while working on the Blackbird Academy SAL.

Yes! I am enjoying not having the garden to deal with and loving the extra stitching time!

October 12, 2026 - Floss Organizing

 This is a MUCH needed project and has been a long time coming. In the grand scheme of life, this is not a huge problem but it has been something I've been thinking about and trying to figure out how to "fix" it for quite a while.

When I started cross stitching at the end of 2020, it was hard to get supplies so any time a color of floss came in stock, I would order a couple of skeins. 

I can justify my out of control floss stash . . because I manage to justify all of the crazy things I do but . . hear me out! First, there was not a cross stitch shop anywhere near me. There was one in Tulsa and one in Branson and one near Kansas City. All of those places are at least two hours from me IF there's not at least one 18 wheeler turned over on the interstate, which seems to happen daily! Second, back then if I needed two colors of floss, there was a good chance I'd have to order from two different shops to find one that had it and that meant paying shipping for each skein of floss that cost less than $2.50.  So, if I was going to order floss, I was going to order a LOT of floss and make that shipping cost worthwhile. If you've been around for a while . . you know how I am. It could be worse!

When I started out, I bought loose leaf binder rings. I kept my floss in alphabetical order - separate for the brands - Weeks, Classic Colorworks and Gentle Art. I kept DMC in small plastic boxes according to their numbers.

I did a great job of keeping the floss organized until about 2024. Then I decided I would give up on alphabetizing, mix the Weeks, Classic Colorworks and Gentle Art and keep them organized by color - all the reds together, all the oranges together, etc. I got about through the "L" colors and decided . . nope, don't like that system but I never changed it so A - L was all mixed together by brand and sorted according to color but all the floss I bought after that was put on new rings according to brand and alphabetized. Then a friend who was no longer stitching sent me some of her floss - all alphabetized with the brands mixed together. She had BIG rings and maybe A- F was together and then G - M was on another ring, etc. So, if I was looking for a color, say Chestnut by Weeks Dyeworks . . I would have to look through the A - L ring that my friend sent, the ring I had mixed up in 2004 to find a brown (Chestnut), then I would have to look on the new rings I started after I sorted them by color and, I had a box for each brand where I put floss that needed to go on the ring! 

To further complicate matters (feeling sorry for me yet? <G>), the floss was all stored in the sewing room closet.

Problem #1 with this setup: The closet is dark. The light is in the ceiling but with all the shelves, the light didn't do a lot of good. I had asked Vince about a brighter light and he said it would be the same - the shelves and "stuff" on the shelves blocks the light. 

Problem #2 with this setup: The sewing room doesn't have good lighting. It was meant to be a family room/game room and the light is fine for that. Vince offered to have more lights put in but I didn't want to go to that expense. I don't sew and for the most part, the lighting works fine. If I'm cross stitching in there, I have a magnifying light and that works great.

Problem #3 with this setup: Just outside the closet doors, there sits the long arm that should have been sold 8 or 9 years ago! I can barely walk past the table. We haven't tried to sell it  . . don't get me started on that!  :)

So, if I'm thinking maybe I want a brown that isn't so dark instead of Chestnut, I make my way to the closet, grab a couple of browns, make my way to a room with better light, decide none of those work; go back in there, put those colors back on the right ring, pick a couple more . . and give up and use Chestnut!

I've been thinking and thinking about what to do and I came up with a plan.

There's a little "foyer" type room at the bottom of the stairs in the basement. It's right off the family room where we watch TV, flosstube, I stitch - basically this is the room we hang out in. There's a door off the foyer that goes into the downstairs garage, which is air conditioned/heated and where I do my canning and we have things stored that need to be in a climate controlled area.

When we first moved here, the light in that little foyer was just awful so Vince got a better light and it is the brightest light ever. In fact, the people we bought the house from were over one day and Vince said "Oh, come see the light I put in the basement!" The former owner was joking and covered his eyes because the light was so bright. It's great though because it lights up the stairs at night better than the little lights going up the stairs and, as old folks, we need light going up and down stairs at night. We can turn the bright line off and on from upstairs or downstairs.

So, I thought . . what if I put some kind of hanging system on the wall in that little foyer. No one sees it but us. It can easily be taken down and that small wall repainted if we leave and my plan would not be expensive (nor is it pretty!)

I had the idea to take a board that is about 1" thick and 2" tall, four or five feet long, drill holes all the way through it about every 1-1/2", put a few spacers behind it and put S hooks through the holes and hang my floss there. I explained my plan to Vince and while he wasn't as excited about it as I was, I'm sure he thought . . I might as well do this because she'll probably never shut up about it if I don't.

We talked about it and threw around some other ideas. I took Vince into the sewing room and showed him my current setup. When he saw how I had the floss hanging, he said "What if we just get dowel rods and hang those up on hooks on the foyer wall?" Oh, yes! Much easier and probably less expensive.

This morning we went to Menard's and Home Depot and ended up with most everything we needed. Vince came home and got four dowel rods up on the wall for me.

You can see the stair rail and the door leading to the garage. 

The top row has the Weeks Dye Works floss that I got re-organized last week. It's all now on rings in alphabetical order. The next two dowels will have Classic Colorworks on one and Gentle Art on the other, both of which have to be re-organized alphabetically. The bottom dowel has Colour & Cotton. I was hoping to add Victorian Motto to that row too but there isn't enough room. I don't think my Classic Colorworks or Gentle Art floss will take up the entire dowel rod so, if they don't, I can put some Victorian Motto at the end of each of those rods and I can squish the Colour & Cotton together a bit and make more room and put more Victorian Motto there.

I'm so happy to have this new setup because (1) The lighting is great there; (2) It's easy to get to and I have a spot where I can spread it out and make sure it all works together. If not, I can put it back on the rings and put them away easily. (3) Since I walk by the floss 100 times a day, if I'm thinking . . this Chestnut color is too dark, I can glance at the colors as I'm walking by. I think just seeing it all so many times every day, I will be more aware of the colors I have so when I think a color is too dark, I might be able to go right to a color I think might work.

I can't wait to get all the cotton (except DMC) on there!!

October 11, 2026 - Blackbird Academy Progress

 My project for October is Moonlit Garden and I'm making good progress. Since I took this photo, I've finished the letters at the bottom and have the stars down the right side. All I have left to do are the stars on the left side, fill in the roof, stitch the light bricks in the house and finish the moon. That's still a lot of stitching but I feel like I can finish this by the end of this week.

As soon as I finish this one, I will get back to the September project, Come Into My Garden.

I'm pretty sure it's only going to take four or five more days on this one to get it finished. I've been wanting to get a frame ordered but have held off until the stitching is done. Can't wait to get this one on the wall.

I haven't even thought about what my project will be for November.

October 10, 2026 - Baking Day

 It seems like forever since I've had time to make different types of recipes - two types of bread and cookies. Most of the summer, I was barely keeping up with having one kind of bread available. 

I started with a Marbled Rye. It was the first time I've made this recipe and it was perfect. Such a great dough to work with.

The kitchen was so hot that all the dough was rising way faster than I had planned so things got crazy in the kitchen!  Plus, Vince was planning to watch the Georgia Tech/Duke game. I always ask Vince the night before if we have games to plan meals around so I can plan what time we eat. Last I knew, the game was at 6:30. At some point during my baking frenzy, Vince told me the Tech game had been moved up to 2:30. Here's what Vince thinks he communicated to me: Because the game time got changed, we need to eat at 1:30. Here's what I heard: They moved the Tech game from 6:30 to 2:30 because of the weather. Here's what I thought: Oh, good, he'll be downstairs watching football and I can turn my music up loud!  

I never thought about having dinner on the table by 1:30 . . my brain was concentrating on bread and rolls and cookies. Then about 1, he said "Are we still going to eat by 1:30?" Huh? Who said anything about eating at 1:30?  We were having a broccoli and chicken casserole. Chicken hadn't even been cut up yet but I got busy. Once it was in the oven, it only had to bake (at 450) for 20 minutes because the chicken got browned quickly in a skillet on top of the stove.

I had the wall oven, which is what I mostly use, preheating to 350 to bake the bread so I switched it to 450 for the casserole. I store many of my cast iron pots in the regular oven so I had to take all those out, get it preheated to 350 for the bread.  

The casserole was cooked, I had leftover homemade pasta so I heated that up . . and that was dinner. 

The rye bread was baked, then the rolls/hamburger buns went into the regular oven. It was a bit chaotic for a while but it all worked out. We ended up eating about 2:15 so Vince probably missed a few plays.

All that to say that I had hoped to have the rolls ready for dinner but we ended up cutting into the hot rye loaf for our bread. It was past ready to be baked and the rolls weren't quite ready.

I used Grains in Small Places Sweet Dinner Rolls recipe for the rolls I made.  I made 7 rolls and 3 hamburger buns. We're having grilled pork burgers tomorrow.

Next thing to bake was Grains in Small Places (can you see that I love her recipes?) Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I don't like chocolate, and I didn't have any chocolate chips in the house so I used white chocolate chips. I also added chopped walnuts.  I think next time I make them, I'll leave out the chips completely. They are really good cookies!

It's after 5 now; Georgia Tech game is still on. I'm headed outside to see if there's anything left in the garden I can salvage and maybe plant some arugula and get one bed of garlic planted.

October 10, 2026 - Weather

 If you thought I was finished complaining about the miserable heat here . . nope! Not yet.

We've been back in the 90's for the past week and it continues mostly through this week. I think Sunday - Wednesday, we may set records every day. There's a huge difference between 91 and 114, which is what we had several days in August so I'm not complaining . . at least not was much as I was. And, the evenings cool off nicely. When I get up in the morning and go out with the dogs, it's so nice not to open the door and feel like I just opened the oven door, even though it's still not even daylight yet.

But . . I have hope!

A low of 37 in the forecast probably means 31 or 32 at our house. I'm optimistic enough that I brought our jackets downstairs today so we won't be shivering when we go out with the dogs.

I'm ready for chili and soup and gumbo weather!