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!

October 9, 2026 - Prayers For All Affected By This Hurricane

 First off, let me say I'm praying for all in the path of the hurricane. My heart hurts for you all. It's stressful even if you don't take a direct hit - lots of anxiety waiting to see where it will hit and having friends and families who will suffer, even if you don't. I lived near the coast in Louisiana from the time I was 5 until Vince and I married in 1997. As a kid, a hurricane warning and evacuation order  meant an extra trip to grandma's. They lived two hours north of us and even though they could get winds and rain, it was mostly safer there. Then when I became an adult and especially a home owner, I wished it was as simple as packing a bag and going to grandma's house. In all the years of living there, we never had a direct hit or serious hurricane damage but that area has had several very damaging storms in the past decade or so. My uncle still lives there, as well as many friends. 

Even though Louisiana, at least not southwest Louisiana where I am from, should be safe, I do feel for all of those in harm's way and pray you will all be safe and not suffer damages and if you do, getting things put back together won't be too stressful.

I talked to Chad today and they are not headed to the affected area. I've seen pictures and it looks like there are lots of utility works headed to the area; many already as close as they can safely get. Please pray for those folks too, as well as their families left behind.

You may remember that several years back, Chad had gone to New York (Long Island I think) to help there. They were there for weeks - maybe a month or more. They started back and on the way home, a derecho hit . . Iowa maybe. They got re-routed back to that area and were there quite a while. Then when they got home, he was home one night and was sent to Louisiana when Hurricane Laura hit there. I think Chad spent one night at home in 3 or 4 months. I'm always happy when he goes to help but I'm happy when he's home.

October 4, 2026 - A Found Project

 I'm going through each bin of charts to come up with the charts I want for my roulette project. There was a system to the way I filled those bins - a system that worked well for a while but, as with most everything around here, it's all now out of control. Some bins may have kits; some may have started projects; some may just have charts but most have a combination of everything.

Yesterday while going through a bin, I came across Elle Brode des Lettres Carmin. 

Not long after I started cross stitching in 2020, I came across The Gift of Stitching collection which was available to purchase - either as a PDF to download or as a CD. The internet tells me that The Gift of Stitching was an online stitching magazine that was published from 2006 - 2012. I purchased the PDF and that's where I found Elle Brode des Lettres Carmin. It was a six part series. Of course, I started it and didn't get very far. Here's what I have done.

Not very far, huh??

I do plan to work on this. I thought about stitching on it one day per week or making got my Sunday stitch but, for now, I don't have any empty frames so I can't do anything on it until I have a frame.

One change I'm going to make - a bit below halfway, there's some stitching with a silk ribbon laced through it. I did order the silk ribbon but I think I'm going to leave that band out. I'm not much into the decorations so I would like it better without the ribbon.

Some day, maybe I'll get this finished. It isn't hard - there are two colors - a deep red and a brighter red. I'm using Vikki Clayton silkse I will stick with this and get it done.

October 3, 2026 - Two More Projects for the Roulette Box

 Two more bags are packed and in the roulette box. It may be months (or days) before I pull something out of the box to start working on. I have to be up to date with the Blackbird Academy projects (I am not finished with September's project) and I have to have at least one empty scroll frames (I do not!)

Here are the projects I added to bags today:

The first one is Little Deeds Sampler by Plum Street. It was already kitted with floss and linen but the linen is the old Weeks (not Zwiegart) and I don't really like it so I changed it to a 40 count natural tea bag by Graham Cracker Linens. 

Here's the point where I can do a little planning. The stitched area should be 6-1/2" x 7-7/8". I'm just going to call it 6-1/2" x 8". If I were to leave 3/4" on each side, the frame would need to be 8 x 9-1/2" . . which would likely mean buying a custom Frame. If I add 9 more stitches to the side borders, that would make it come out the perfect size for an 8 x 10 frame and I have LOTS of those so I've made a note to add a few extra rows between some of the places that look a little crowded and that will save $$ on the frame!

The second piece that was added to the roulette box is 

The second one that was added is The Light of Winter by Brenda Gervais. This is one I got as a kit and this is probably the final kit I will ever buy. First, I have all the linen I will ever need . . probably floss too. Second, I understand the shops get LOTS of orders and cutting linen takes time but . . some of what I got in the last few kits I got was totally not usable. On 40 count, which was included in the kit, this would be 8-3/4 x 8-3/4". If I leave .75" on all sides, it would be 10-1/4 x 10-1/4". I would like to have at least an inch to wrap around to do the lacing so that means I would need at least 12-1/4" square linen. The piece that came with the kit was not cut straight and by the time I pulled a thread to make sure it was straight and to be sure I have enough linen, my piece is 12" x 12-/14". I can do it but if I had been using linen I purchased, I would not have gone with less than 13" x 13". Most anyone will suggest starting with at least three extra inches on each side. I'm happy with two extra inches but I'm not happy with shops that cut it too close. So . . no more kits for me.

So, I pulled two extra piece of linen. The piece that came with the kit is the one to the right of the chart. The linen on the bottom left is Colour & Cotton's Golden Oak. The piece on the bottom right is Cedar River Linen's Coffee Stain. I think either of those pieces will be fine so all three linens are in the bag for this project.

Both of these have now been setup in Markup R-XP so I'm ready to go . . when the right time comes!

Four projects in the roulette box!!

October 1, 2026 - Two Projects in the Roulette Box

One of my goals for today was to get a couple of projects kitted and in my "roulette" box. It isn't really roulette for me because I'm not doing to draw numbers. I'm going to mix the bags all up, grab the first one and work on it . . when the time is right. That's not right now!  :)

Today I kitted Spooky Mansion.

That's the photo from the Etsy listing. You will see why I didn't use the one I printed. The colors are so off but I kinda like the purple house!

It looks way more purple in person! I ordered the White Rose floss from Primrose Yarns and asked for their help with converting the colors. When I looked at the chart I had printed and the colors of floss they suggested, I was thinking something wasn't right so I went back to the Etsy listing and realized my printer was way off. Since I like the purple house my printer chose for me, I went ahead and pulled those two purple flosses on the left side. I'm not sure what I'll actually use. The sample was stitched on Grandpa's Sleeve by X-Ju Designs and I had that in 40 count, which is what the model was stitched on, so I'm going to use it.

Each bag will get a working copy of the chart, the linen, the floss and a pack of needles.

The second one I kitted up was Pink Coat Santa by Teresa Kogut. 

The colors are more peachy than pink. I may change them but I may not. I've looked at some that were changed to more pink but they kinda look too pink. I'll figure it out when the time comes.

This one is kitted with the called for colors of floss. For linen, I'm using Fiber on a Whim's Espresso, 40 count.

I think these are the bags Tara used. She's the one whose flosstube inspired me to do this. The bottom has a gusset so they will easily hold everything I'm putting in them and they should stand up in a bin. 

There are fairly decent sized Velcro "dots" to keep the flap closed and they are very grippy.

I ordered some 2026 and 2027 stickers. I'm sticking one of those on the top left of each bag and that way I will know when this project was kitted. Wish I had started this much earlier!

Only projects that I REALLY want to stitch are going into these little bags so, no matter which one I grab, I'll be happy to be stitching on it.

I'll keep you posted on how this plan works!