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!  :)

July 21, 2026

It's been a slow day around here. No canning. Very little work in the garden. I watered but that's it. Leftovers for lunch. 

I stitched a bit on Come to the Garden by Teresa Kogut.

After working on that one a while, I decided to pull out the project that's probably closest to being finished, which, without doing much searching, I decided is This is the Day by Plum Street.

There isn't much left to do. The checkerboard-ish border at the bottom has a bit of work left, and a bit more left at the top . I need to fill in some flowers/leaves on the left side of the house, on the right side, I'm going to put two stalks of flowers instead of the sheep and one flower. I will probably stitch the butterfly above the flowers. There's a bit of fill in on a few flowers near the bottom but that's it.

And I need to add the smoke coming out of the left chimney.

I probably won't work on this one tomorrow with Debbie but if I get some good stitching time tonight and some on Thursday, I could have this finished maybe by Thursday night or for sure by Friday. 

There are eggplants still to be canned and more salsa to be made so . . we'll see what I end up doing but a potential finish is pretty exciting!

July 20, 2026 - A Visit to An Unfriendly Post Office

 The first thing this morning, I managed to start my day off in a frustrating way. I checked my informed delivery and had a package to be delivered. I knew what it was - it's a chart by The Scarlett House that has been hard to find but Tanya (Scarlett House designer) told me a shop that might have it. I called, they did and I ordered it. So, checking the delivery schedule, I saw that it got to our post office, and then was sent to another local post office instead of being "out for delivery". I called our post office and the guy there who always answers the phone (probably because they have caller ID and no one else will talk to me!) is very nice. He checked the the tracking. Yes, accidentally got sent to another post office. I asked what happens next. Heavy sigh. Likely it will get sent back to Kansas City and there are two or three stops there, then to Springfield, then back here. I said "And I may get it in 7 or 8 days, right? He kinda chuckled. I said "Is there any way I can go to the "wrong post office" and get it?" Maybe. Call and see if they can find it (encouraging!) and tell them you want to come get it. He gave me their number. Wrong number! I found the right number. Called and a nice lady said she would go see but sometimes they get a huge box from our post office and if that's the case, she probably can't go through it all to find my package but she would try. She came back and said my package was right on top and she would hold it for me.

I went upstairs and told Vince I had to run to the next town. I'm not saying where because someone will probably know this person and tell them I was complaining. Nope. He had PT at 11 and after that, WE could go together. That's one thing I sometimes like and sometimes don't. I can drive there by myself, retrieve my package and get home before he ever went to PT. No, he couldn't go before PT (at 11 and it wasn't even 9 yet), but WE could go when he got back. OK!

We got there and a very grumpy woman was at the front - only one there. She finished with the person ahead of me and I told her my name, handed her my driver's license (which I was told to bring). She kinda snatched it out of my hand as I was telling her the package story. She said "Who did you talk to?" I told her the name I thought the lady said. Oh . . it must have been "a totally different name". She went back, was gone longer than I thought it would take, came back and said "No, you didn't talk to her." It was like she didn't believe I had a lost package nor did she believe I had called. She just stands there looking at me like . . we're done here . . go away.

I said "I called, the lady I talked to told me to come get the package before 4:30 and bring my driver's license." She said "Maybe you talked to "another name" and she's at lunch. She'll be back in an hour or so. I said "Can you just call her and ask where my package is?" NO!! NOT WHILE SHE'S AT LUNCH!! Oh, my goodness. I was still standing there and she said "Do you want to talk to a supervisor?" I said "Sure". She goes and gets someone who gives me that same "I don't believe anything you're saying look". I told her my story. She turned, walked off, was gone for maybe 10 minutes - never came back. The first woman came back up front and said "It doesn't seem to be here!" She was about to walk away and I noticed a box behind the counter that had 20 or so certified mail letters that looked like they were waiting to be picked up. There was also a priority mail envelope and a small white cardboard envelope - just the size I suspected my chart would be in. This was within reaching distance of where both of these ladies had been standing. Was this their first day on the job? Surely they knew that was where things to be picked up were placed.

I said to grumpy lady - can you check that box right there and see if maybe that white envelope is mine? She huffed, turned, without even needing to take a step, picked it up and literally shoved it across the counter at me. Didn't say a word and walked off.

Good grief!

It was so hard for me to keep my mouth shut. It was so hard for me not to call the postmaster (who was the one who had been at lunch and apparently could not be disturbed even though we had driven at least 15 miles each way for the package the USPS screwed up on! Vince said "You should call them!" I said NO. I'm not wasting any more time. They don't care. I know they aren't "government employees" but for all intents and purposes, they are and short of criminal behavior, nothing is ever going to happen to them so why waste another minute of my time. Oh, wait . . I just wasted half an hour writing this post!  :)

All's well that ends well I suppose but now I don't ever even want to go to that town again and, unfortunately, we do go there fairly often. It's sad that one grumpy woman changed my opinion of the entire town.

On a positive note, I cut about half of the basil today, changed the oil in the freeze dryer and got it loaded, probably too much, with basil.

I cut 8 more eggplant. Tomorrow I'll probably go ahead and make the eggplant salsa and get it canned. I've put it off long enough.

No stitching yet today. Could happen but may not. It's already almost 9 p.m.

 Are you tired of hearing about canning yet? I never get tired of canning but I do get tired of cleaning up the messes I make while canning. 

The chicken "frames" went into the roasters last night and cooked all night so this morning, as soon as we finished breakfast, I got busy canning. I ended up with 21 quarts of broth - which was two canners FULL. The big canner holds 14 quarts and smaller canner holds 7 quarts. Once I got the canner going, I started picking meat off the bones and ended up with 7 pints of meat. As soon as the quarts of broth were finished in the canners, I added cold water to the small canner to cool it down so I could take it outside and wash it, then get the 7 pints of meat in the small canner. 

While the canners were going with the broth, I began working on dinner. I plan very easy meals for busy days. Today's plan was baked fish (all I had to do was season it, and bake it), a jar of butternut squash and a jar of Anasazi beans - both were ready to heat and eat. I cut us each a bowl of a variety of sprouts, added some cucumber and cherry tomatoes, a bit of olive oil and balsamic and that was our "salad".

While the meat was canning, I went out and watered the garden, picked a few more squash. Right now it's the Honeynut Butternut squash that's kinda going wild.

There's a lot of time during the canning process when I'm sitting, listening to the canner jiggling. I don't want to get far enough away that I can't hear that but I can leave the door from the basement garage (where I can) to the house and I can hear the canner while sitting and stitching so I got a bit of stitching done today.

I've filled in some of the flowers in the border of GH 1857 but I'm going to put this one aside and get back to Come to the Garden.

This one is Come to the Garden by Teresa Kogut. I think I'll work on this one through the end of July and see how much I can get stitched.

No canning tomorrow. The meals are easy - Breakfast is going to be overnight oats with blueberries and yogurt. I'll fry up some sausage; for dinner Vince is going to grill, I'll bake sweet potatoes, steam broccoli and dinner won't take much effort so I'm hoping to get lots of stitching done tomorrow.

July 18, 2026 - Another Day in the Kitchen

 That's what happens this time of year - too much time in the kitchen but so worth it to have all the goodies on the shelf for winter. 

If you've ever grown a garden, you know it can be feast or famine. Some years, I get very few tomatoes. Some years, I get so many I can barely get them all canned. Last year I had six eggplant plants and canned about 50 pints of the eggplant salsa that we love. We don't eat it so much as salsa but I like to cut up chicken, sear it, then pour the salsa over it, add a bit of white wine and serve it over rice or pasta. I knew that 50 pints would be enough for two years so this year I only planted three eggplant plants - just enough for us to have eggplant during the summer. NO! Those things have gone crazy. We've been eating them as fast as we can. We had an eggplant and ham casserole earlier this week and today we had Cheesy Eggplant Casserole with pasta. I picked 12 eggplants this morning so tomorrow or Monday, I'll make more eggplant salsa to can. I will also make the Cheesy Eggplant Casserole again while we still have plenty of eggplants and put it into smaller dishes and freeze it.

But, for today's canning . . 

I've now pulled all the Candy Roaster squash off the vines so I needed to get those canned. The biggest one I had today was 9 pounds, 12 oz. but one I pulled last week was right at 15 pounds and I had another that was 13 pounds. Today I processed the 9 pounds, 12 oz. one and one that was probably about 5 pounds and got 13 pints of cubed squash.

I will probably can the rest of it on Monday and should get at least 15 more pints because there are two fairly large and one small squash left to be canned. I've kept a few that I will store in the basement and we can use those over the next couple of months before we start using the jars.

The Candy Roaster squash is so good because it can be used different ways. I will drain the cubes, kinda dry them on a paper towel, spritz with olive oil then sprinkle savory spices (any variety!) over them and air fry them til crispy on the outside but still very tender . . almost like mashed potato consistency on the inside. Or, I can add a little brown sugar, cream and pumpkin pie type spices and make it like a sweet potato casserole. They also work great as pumpkin pie filling!

Just as an experiment, here it is a bit past mid-July and I planted a few more candy roaster seeds just to see what happens. I planted the seeds the second week in May and it took two months for them to grow and mature so there's a chance I could get more of these. We'll see. Hopefully the vine borers have all done what they have to do for this year and I won't have to deal with those this time of year but we'll see.

Today I also got started on the first batch of chicken broth. I'm using my two big roasters so I've had three packages of the "bones" defrosting the fridge since Wednesday evening. Today was the first day I could separate them so I seasoned them, roasted them and  they're in the roaster. Tomorrow I'll strain off the broth, can it; then pick the meat off the bones and can it.

Look at how much meat is on those bones! There are six "frames" in the roaster. Each package contained four frames so that's 1-1/2 packages. I think I have three or four packages left, plus some chicken feet to get processed. I'm probably going to take this same amount of the freezer Wednesday and let it defrost again until Saturday and do that same thing until all the chicken bones are gone.

It's 7:20 p.m. so hopefully I can get a bit of stitching done tonight.

July 17, 2026 - Mostly a Day in the Kitchen

 Today was the day I had planned to make salsa. But a bigger priority was making Ezekiel bread and rye bread for Vince. I feel like I have a mental block or something against those breads. I know I say this every time but I really dislike making both of them. I don't like the way the taste. I don't like the way they smell. I don't like the stickiness of the dough! I sound like a complainer, don't I? But really, I have to just stop and do it because my preference is to keep putting it off so before I started the salsas, I got the Ezekiel bread made.

When I remembered to take a picture, the bread was already cool and bagged to go into the freezer. So mature of me to make the bread before he runs out!

Next I made the rye bread. I only have three cast iron pans (I know I say that every time too) so once they cooled, I got the rye dough in the pans to rise.

With the bread made, I could turn my attention to the salsa.

There were enough tomatoes to make a triple recipe, which gave me 10 pints and 1 half pint of salsa. I had everything from the garden except cilantro. It bolted months ago. Vince was going to town and I asked him to get cilantro. 

I doubt I get enough tomatoes to make another triple batch but, based  on what I picked this evening and how many are getting ripe, I should be able to make a double batch and get at least 5 more pints. That will give us enough salsa for the year - until tomatoes are ripe again.

No cross stitching today. I'm going to sit and read for a while and probably go to bed early.

Tomorrow my main project will be getting some of the chicken broth finished and canned. I need to can the candy roaster squash. I've probably picked all there's going to be for this year, but that's a pressure canning project, as is the chicken broth and unless I want two canners going upstairs and two canners going downstairs, that's too much to try to do in one day so . . chicken broth tomorrow and maybe the squash on Sunday.

July 16, 2026 - Overall, A Good Day

 We had an Azure Standard pickup this morning and we needed to be there by 7:30 a.m. and it's about 40 minutes from here so I was up very early to get the dogs walked, the garden watered, the hair combed . . 

Even though I said I was NOT buying more jars, I got to the town a bit early and stopped by the Walmart there, grabbed 5 cases of quart jar (more chicken bone broth). I still got to the drop location on time but the truck was early. It had already been unloaded and some people were leaving. 

I was pretty excited to be getting 24 pounds of fresh Bing cherries. My plan was to spend today pitting and canning cherries. I even washed all the jars before I left home. BUT . . almost every one of the cherries was moldy and gross. Thank goodness there was a cooler in the car or I would have had a real mess on my hands. I contacted Azure and they gave me a refund. I knew they would. The trash man had not come by yet so after getting photos in case Azure needed to see them, all the cherries went in the trash. 

Sad about the cherries but . . I had more time for cross stitching than I had expected. And . . Hobby Lobby had called yesterday and told me that two frames I had ordered were in so I had time to go by there and get them. And, Hobby Lobby always had a little area near the framing desk where they had custom frames that for one reason or another were for sale. People didn't like them or never picked them up. The last few times I'd been in Hobby Lobby, something else was in that area. Debbie mentioned to me that they had moved those frames clear across the store so when I first got to Hobby Lobby, I headed over in that direction. I grabbed 6 or 7 frames and most of them were $8. They're fairly small - several are about 9 x 10; one is 10.5 x 15. I already have one project started that I think will fit in one of the frames.

Our Hobby Lobby doesn't have a lot of frames and there are several that I already have and two that I got today that are repeats for me.

Look at this -- I paid almost $48 for this one.

This one below is a bit smaller but it's the one I almost picked instead of the one above and this one was only $8.50.

The one below is one I already have. I had ordered it for a piece but haven't framed it yet.

I think for the next frames I need, I'm going to order from Art to Frames. They seem to have more choices, the shipping is free (I think) and they may be a bit less expensive.

On the cross stitching front, I have almost finished stitching the "frame" of the top border and right side border and I'm pretty sure the linen is going to be big enough. If you see any mistakes, please tell me. Fingers crossed there are none but nothing would surprise me.

The last of today's good news is that my finger is almost back to normal. I had a little help (a LOT of help!) from a friend in Florida who intervened. I'm still not exactly sure how all the "advice" I got came together to fix this finger but there's very little I do now that hurts. The redness and swelling is almost all gone. There's still a bit of a knot (arthritis bump type thing) on the side but the finger is so, so much better and I am so grateful for the help that got this finger on the road to recovery. Next week it will have been two months of dealing with it.

I'm sure y'all are happy too so you can stop hearing about it.

I feel like there was something else good that happened today but it's late and I can't remember.

July 14, 2026

 Let's talk about cross stitching first today! It's almost 8 p.m. and I haven't taken a single stitch. I thought I'd be back in the house by 7 a.m. and be stitching by 8 a.m. Didn't happen.

The best thing was . . I found a chart I'd been looking for and thought it was one of those charts I would never get. A while back, Tanya from The Scarlett House had shown a piece she had stitched for her sister and the name of it was "She Feeds Them Well". Her sister loved feeding the birds! I have a friend here who has dozens of bird feeders out and she has the prettiest birds that come to her feeders. She's always doing something nice for me and I thought she would love having She Feeds Them Well hanging in her home but I couldn't find the chart anywhere. I missed a couple of them on eBay so I asked Tanya and she told me The Attic should have them. I wrote them, they do have it. I called, gave them all my info and it's on its way to me. 

I can't wait to stitch it and give it to her.

The first thing I did this morning was go through four or five boxes of "stuff" that had been piling up downstairs. Took two bags of trash out, found a few things I had wondered where they were and cleaned up that whole area. That felt good!

Then I made pdfs from three charts I'd like to stitch soon. Liberty and Freedom, His Grace and Freedom and new charts from Teresa Kogut so I think those are going to be my Wednesday projects for a while. I chose a piece of linen and got it loaded on a scroll frame, got all the floss pulled and my bag packed for stitching with Debbie tomorrow.

I seem to have a bad case of startitis.

• Come to the Garden - A friend asked me if I wanted to stitch that with her. I love it and it's funny because the name of the chart is about a garden and I find myself wishing my garden wasn't taking so much time so I could stitch more!
• GH 1857 - I started that a couple of days ago. It's one of those I can't put down when I start so there have been a couple of nights with very late stitching.
• Grateful, Thankful, Blessed - I have only made a few (less than 100) stitches on this one but I would love to have it finished for Fall.
• Toile Flag - This one is so pretty . . elegant looking. My goal is to have it finished for next summer (Independence Day).

There are plenty of WIPs I'm trying to work on too. It's weird to me how I can work on WIPs for weeks and then all of a sudden, I want to start everything and create more WIPs. 

For dinner, I made the eggplant/ham casserole and added zucchini. I also made the Caponata. Both were delicious but we love eggplant. Vince was out scouting in the garden and he said we have five more eggplants almost ready to pick. 

There were maybe 10 peaches left so I used 5 of those and made a peach cobbler. It was so good. Glad I don't make that often!! We didn't have vanilla ice cream to go on top so I made a warm "caramel" sauce - same recipe that goes on the fresh apple cake. Oh, my, it was so good and I don't even want to think how unhealthy it was.

I'll get 2 or 3 hours of stitching done now. I have to go to bed fairly early - tomorrow is my day to make a road trip to Debbie's.

July 13, 2026

 It's Monday. Life is funny. I don't pay much attention to the days of the week any more. I check my calendar on my phone each evening to see what I HAVE to do the next day. Do I have to do something with my hair and put on makeup? No! Good! I saw a funny thing on FB today. It had a dachshund getting his nest built in the big bed and the caption said "Mom is dressed in her homeless clothes today so I know she isn't leaving me alone." That's kinda how I feel most days . . 

Most every night I'll say to Vince . . are we going anywhere tomorrow? He almost always says no but then he almost always ends up wanting me to go somewhere. I can usually talk him out of it but some days . . I end up having to get dressed in going out in public attire and go with him.

This morning he had PT at 9, then he went to Walmart (because he thinks he has to go EVERY day!). He got home about 11 and came downstairs. I was bracing . . I knew he was wanting to go somewhere or he wouldn't have come straight downstairs when he got home. He wanted to go to Woody's Pizza. Oh . . my defenses are not strong enough to say no to Woody's. That was where I had wanted to go for my birthday 1-1/2 months ago and we didn't go so yes, I'm happy to go to Woody's. When we were done eating, he said "Do you mind if we go to the pallet store for 20 minutes?" NO!! Oh, my goodness. We don't need anything! We both go in there and find things we MIGHT need some day and buy stuff we'll never use. 20 minutes turns into 2 hours and I'm having a hard time being nice and most times I end up going and sitting in the car but it was almost 100 degrees outside today. I said "20 minutes . . NOT one minute longer.!" He agreed. We got there and it was closed!! I can only hope it's permanently closed but I'm thinking they're just closed on Mondays. Who wants to dig through huge bins of stuff that someone ordered, went through it and sent it back? Not me.

As much as I love Woody's Pizza, I had a recipe for lunch that involved leftover ham and eggplant and basil and parmesan cheese (and a few other things) but I was looking forward to that. We'll have it tomorrow for lunch.

I did pull out all my zucchini today. The vine borers did what they do and it was all dying. I did take the time to cut the stalks open and kill every vine borer I could find. Those things kill the plants, then bury themselves in the ground and come back out next year to kill all my squash again. I know I'll never get rid of all them but it makes me feel good to get rid of some of them.

On the cross stitching front, I signed up for Hands On Designs' ornament Patreon. I did before and wasn't stitching them and dropped out but then I wished I had stitched them so I'm trying again.

I'm still stitching on GH 1857. I'll keep doing it til I get to the end of one side border and one top or bottom border  to make sure there's enough linen, and I'm not going to run off the edge. Then I'll put it away and go back to Christmas Roads.

The best thing that happened, besides getting to eat at Woody's - I ordered an "electric" sprayer a while back and it arrived today. Actually, it gets charged like a cell phone, but it's to mist the sprouts because, with my sore finger, pulling the little trigger thing on a spray bottle is painful and trying to use my left hand would make a huge mess. I ordered the sprayer from Walmart weeks ago and had planned to cancel the order today but I forgot and then it showed up. I'm so happy. I also got some new containers for the sprouts so I need to get those all set up but right now, we have so many sprouts . . I'll probably wait til at least Wednesday before I start more in the new containers.

Back to my stitching . . 

July 12, 2026

 Today was kind of a lazy day but that's probably a good thing because it seems so much of what I did was wrong! Ever have one of those days? I did put an end to three squash vine borer larvae so that was a good thing. :)

Right off the bat, before the stove got hot, I took the grates off, took the top part of the burners off and scrubbed everything. The stove was a mess. I had needed to scrub the stove before I started three days of canning so you can imagine what it looked like. Done. Nice and clean . . until I mess it up again!

I did fix egg, ham and jalapeno burritos for breakfast. I made bread . . finally. It was a new recipe for me - Honey Oat Wheat Bread and it was delicious!

Recently I ordered some of the Rouge de Bordeaux wheat from Living Sky Grains and this may be my new favorite wheat.

On the cross stitching front, I was going to set up the linen on the frame and get the floss on tags. That didn't go so well. I needed a piece larger than a fat quarter. Mostly I have fat quarters of linen but I had a few fat halves. I found one, got it cut down to size, served, sewn onto the leaders of a scroll frame. There's one spot on this project where I'm not sure the floss color was going to show up on my linen so I was going to make a few stitches using several colors. That's when I realized there was a flaw in the linen. I got a tape and was measuring to make sure I could find enough space around the flaw to stitch and I found four more flaws - broken threads, a hole in the linen. So frustrating. A fat half of linen is at least $70. I stuck it aside. I will find small spaces where I can stitch smalls so all is not lost but I had to find another piece of linen, cut it to size, serge the edges, get it loaded on the scroll frame. Doing all that is my least favorite part of stitching but I now have a piece that I can get started on later tonight.

While Vince was outside yesterday he found a cecropia caterpillar. This is the third year (not in a row) that we've found these. Year before last, we found three of them. They're so pretty and so interesting. You can read about them here if you don't know about them. I had never heard of them until we found the first ones in the yard here.

July 11, 2026

 Before I start telling you about my day, I wanted to solicit advice for a reader who commented asking me for a recommendation on a dehydrator. I have an Excalibur and have been 100% happy with it. I think I bought my first one maybe 30 years ago. Then probably in about 2016, I bought a newer model. Then not long after we moved here, it was still under warranty (5 year warranty as I recall), it stopped working. Vince contacted him, they tried to troubleshoot and then replaced it so you can't ask for better service than that. No hassle at all.

It does everything I need it to do and I have no complaints but I probably don't use it as much as some people do since I also use a freeze dryer.

So, if any of you have more knowledge of dehydrators, would you please share the info in the comments so the lady wanting to know more about which models might be right for her can see your responses. Thanks!

Now to my day. I guess I will never learn my own limits. This morning I went upstairs with recipes for a chocolate cake, caponata (eggplant salad), and honey oat whole wheat bread. Also I knew I had to finish the pickles and can peaches and bake a ham! For lunch, we were going to have caponata, ham and baked sweet potatoes. 

I got ready to make the pickles and could not find my mustard seeds. I looked everywhere they might be. I even went downstairs to see if I had an extra container of them. Nope. I had black mustard seeds but I wanted yellow. I was contemplating running to Walmart . . nope! Not doing that. Then I saw them .. on the wrong shelf where I have my large containers of herbs and spices. If they would have been in a small container on the spice rack, I would have found them but I had to laugh - how could I miss a half gallon jar full of mustard seeds? I got the pickles canned.

When we went to the Amish auction the other day, Vince bought peaches. I told him I was not going to have time to can them. That was ok. He was sure he would eat them all before they went bad. He had them in a cooler with ice packs that he was changing out daily. He decided he might not be able to eat them all . . he would help if I would can them. I thought that was a good idea then I realized that was probably not a good idea. Vince and I could be the only two people in a gymnasium and we would get in each other's way. He was in his office working on ham radio stuff and I knew he was really getting into that so I did it but I was so tired when I got finished.

21 pints of peaches and 5 pints of mustard pickles. This is a new recipe for me - one recommended by a reader so I'm very anxious to try them. I'll wait at least a week before opening a jar and should still have plenty of cucumbers in the garden if I want to make more.

Nothing about lunch went as planned . . the ham was baking at 300 degrees; I waited too long to put the sweet potatoes in the oven and have them be done in time; and I ran out of energy before making the caponata so we ended up having ham sandwiches with sprouts and pickled onions and I fried some potatoes that were very thinly sliced - almost like potato chips. The cake and the bread never got made. Maybe tomorrow.

Friday, July 10, 2026

 First thing this morning, I got back to canning the tomatoes and got the last ones finished - 100 pounds of tomatoes = 40 quarts of crushed tomatoes. All canned and all except the ones I canned today are put away.

Next I cut up some of the bigger cucumbers to make pickles using a recipe a reader mentioned. I'll get those finished tomorrow.

Then I went out and did chores in the garden. We have some kind of weed with wicked thorns on it. They go through all the garden gloves I have so Vince put on his heavy leather gloves and pulled them out for me. He put them in a bucket and will put them in the trash. I do not need those things reproducing in the yard. I picked two more of the Candy Roaster squash. I weighed the biggest one and it weighed 15 pounds! I cut one this morning and used about 1/3 of it for a souffle type dish for part of our lunch (oven roasted country style pork ribs, homemade baked beans and the squash, along with a cucumber/tomato/sprouts salad. 

Tomorrow I'll cut up and can the four candy roasters I've picked so far. I hope there will be at least four or five more.

After lunch, I was really tired so Oscar and I took a nap. Cooper will sleep on my lap during the day but he will not get in the bed and sleep if it's daylight outside.

On the cross stitching front, a blog reader/enabler wrote me to say she is starting Come to the Garden by Teresa Kogut. I've been working some, ok . . just a little, on G. Leger. I originally started that thinking it would be in memory of my grandma because she loved pretty flowers but then I was thinking maybe Come to the Garden was a better choice because it's more primitive/folksy and I think my grandma would have liked that one better. I believe G. Leger is a better choice for my aunt who loved flowers and also loved dainty, pretty things.

Then, I was trying to decide what linen to use for Come to the Garden and I was looking for finished pieces or anyone who mentioned what linen they had used. I came across Jo's finished piece - you know Jo or you should know her from Jo's Country Junction. Here's the post she wrote when she finished hers and it's gorgeous. Jo changed the verse at the bottom to be part of the old gospel song, In the Garden. My grandma played the piano at their little country church and she had a piano in her tiny little family room. She loved that song and not only did she play it often at church but on the weekends when we would be up in north Louisiana visiting them, almost every night, Nanny would play the piano and we would all sing. It was always hymns and this one was sang frequently. So, that confirmed for me . . Come to the Garden will be in memory of my grandma. I had already pulled out half a dozen pieces of linen but Jo had used Vellum by Picture This Plus and I loved hers so I that's what I'm using too! Thanks Jo (and Kayla for charting the words to the song!).

I had been working on Christmas Roads and was trying to get to where I could start stitching the big red house. I was almost there but I'm going to put that one aside for a few days . . . just long enough to get the border frame done on Come to the Garden, then I'll switch back and forth between them for a couple of weeks and decide what I'm going to do.

We were maybe going to have bad weather tonight but so far (almost midnight), nothing bad yet. Let's hope it stays that way!

Thursday, July 9, 2026

 As I was thinking of what I wanted to include in this post and thinking about a title, I'm reminded what a jumbled word salad most of my post are. No main topic. Any post could be about cooking AND gardening AND dogs AND cross stitching. Since the blog name is "Diary of Judy L.", maybe I should just write about everything (within reason), like I did in my middle school diary. 

We'll see how that goes.

We went to Sam's Club this morning. Vince had told me yesterday that he needed a couple of things from there. Of course, one can never leave Sam's Club with a couple of things. When we were there on July 2 or 3, they had a three pack of Boursin cheese on sale so I wanted to get another one of those. I got the last one! Good timing, huh?

Here's something I didn't know. I have a big 64 oz. jug of soy sauce in my garage fridge. I keep re-filling a soy sauce bottle with that. The big jug is almost empty so I wanted to get another one. They didn't have them in the store so I figured . . it's been a while and they don't carry those any more. I bought a 2 pack of 20 oz. bottles. Then I got home and looked online and they do still have the big jugs but only to order. The two jars I bought in the store are .20/oz or $7.98. The big jug is .12/oz or $7.38 for the jug. Instead of $7.98, the at the jug price, the two bottles would have been $4.80 instead of $7.98. I need to shop smarter!

Did I already tell you we went to an Amish fruit and vegetable auction earlier this week (Tuesday)? I don't think I did so . . Vince needed to go to Lamar, a bit north of here, and a bit north of Lamar is an Amish fruit and veggie auction on Tuesdays and Fridays during gardening season. We've been wanting to go and the timing was right so we went. We ended up buying 100 pounds of tomatoes and maybe 15 pounds of peaches. Tuesday night I canned 40 pounds of tomatoes. Wednesday night after I got in from stitching with Debbie, I canned 20 pounds of tomatoes. To today I canned about 20 pounds and I should have about 20 pounds left to can tomorrow.

That's 35 quarts of tomatoes - just crushed tomatoes. I can use them for soups, stews, pasta sauce, pizza sauce. My goal is 60 quarts to get us through a year but we'll see. Water bath canning is slow because I can't can two layers at a time and still have at least 1" of water over the top of the jars. In my big canner, I can pressure can 15 quarts at one time but I can only do 7 quarts at a time with water bath canning.  And, since the food is cold packed, I have to either dump the water after each session or let it cool down almost completely before running another load. That big canner is super heavy and handling it when it's hot and full of hot water isn't a good idea. So . . 14 quarts is about all I can do in one evening.

I'm making good progress on Christmas Roads.

I'm trying to work my way to where I can start on the big, red house . . maybe tomorrow. I'm thinking before bed tonight, I might be able to make a few stitches on the red house!

GH 1857 - Cross Sttiching!

 This is kind of a funny story - at least I think it is! 

Sometimes it seems that there's a cross stitching chart that EVERYONE is working on and talking about on YouTube and Facebook. That's what I'm seeing with GH 1857.

In my opinion, this photo doesn't do it justice. There are many of them popping up on Instagram and on Facebook that are just gorgeous! I kept saying . . I have too many projects; it's too big and talking myself out of it but the more I see it, the more I want to stitch it . . or should I say  . . start it!

Last night while in the shower, for some reason, I remembered that I have the chart and I thought it was kitted and it might be in one of the storage ottomans that I haven't opened in probably a year. 

This morning Vince needed to run to a little town a bit north of here and asked me to go with him so while I was waiting to leave, I decided to check and see if Vikki Clayton has a "packet" of floss for this project. Yes, she does! It's here if anyone else wants it. How's that for enabling?

Before ordering the silk floss, I thought . . you'd better check that kit and (1) be sure you know where it is and (2) be sure you don't already have the silk floss from Vikki Clayton.

I got up, found the kit right where I thought it was. How does that happen when so many of the things I look for I never find? And, I had Vikki Clayton's packet of silks for it. AND I have linen which I'm probably not going to use. It's the called for linen but I think my piece is kinda dark and the house may not show up so I need to see what else I can find. It's big enough that I need either a sampler cut or a half yard and mostly I have fat quarters. I do have a few pieces that are larger so I'll check that out soon.

I looked back to see when I had ordered all of this - March, 2022. Yep, it's time to get that project out and get it stitched!