Rain, Humidity, Heat . . . Repeat!!!

 Rain, humidity, heat . . . repeat! Rain, humidity, heat. . . repeat! Add to this the smokey skies caused by the wildfires raging across Canada and it has been quite a summer so far. There are dangerous heatwaves affecting a third of our country and also across Europe. 

It has not been possible to do much work in my garden, but there are a few bright spots including coneflowers which are one of my favorite flowers. 

Here’s another equally lovely bee. ;-)

This glorious bee needle minder is attached to one of the pieces on which I am currently working. I had purchased this needle minder from Mini Minders on Etsy. Everything about cross stitching is fun. Projects are kept in fun, themed bags and many cross stitchers have far more coordinating needle minders than they could possibly ever need. :-(). 

I cross stitch in hand or use a Q-snap. Recently, I have begun using Nurge hoops like the one pictured above, and they are great. They are easy to hold, provide a larger stitching surface, and do not leave hoop marks.

Who Knew?????

When a friend moved, I took home a snake plant that was not making the move to her new home. I knew little about these plants, which go by a number of  names, other than the fact that they are an easy plant to grow. It has enjoyed life on my sunporch. Here’s the interesting part. . . a week or so ago, I noticed a small stalk emerging. It grew and grew and grew and then this happened!!!

Who knew!!!

Keep cool and have a fun, interesting week. :-)

Patriotic Cross Stitch and “The Dial of Destiny”

In my previous post, I urged you not to be afraid to go in close with your camera phone.  Here’s an image that I took simply by going in close with my iPhone. My daylilies are in bloom! They are beautiful, but I sure wish that in spite of their name the individual blossoms lasted longer than a day.

It has been a hot minute since my last post, and I’m blaming my lack of posts on the heat and humidity alternating with the rain we have been having. I simply haven’t been doing much. I’m not complaining about the weather, mind you, as other parts of the country have been dealing with horrendous heat and storms. All things considered, I’m happy to live here with our New England weather. 

Patriotic Cross Stitch . . . 

I have added three new pieces to my July 4th patriotic display which I will leave up until the end of the month. They are: “Old Glory” by Diane Williams of Little House Needleworks, 4th of July Bird by Heart in Hand, and “Stars and Stripes Street #1 by Priscilla Blain of Stitching with the Housewives.

This flag themed wood display was purchased from Paisleys and Polka Dots . As I have mentioned in other posts, the precut pieces arrive unfinished. You provide the paint and then glue it all together. It’s easy and fun to do. I mounted the cross stitch piece on an acid free thin board and put it on another board covered with the red fabric. I would normally then use magnets to attach the cross stitch, but since I will not be switching this piece out, I simply used Ailene’s glue to attach it. 

I still have a few other small patriotic pieces that I have yet to fully finish.

So what have I been up to lately? Well, I celebrated my birthday last Sunday with a visit from my cousin Kristin and her girls. They had stopped at Tony’s on Wollaston Beach to pick up lobster rolls. YUM!!! (Note: Tony’s is the best place around to get a lobster roll.) Kristin, her girls, and I regularly went for a “Ladies Lunch” when the girls had an early dismissal from school one day each month. Those sweet,  precious little girls are now fourteen and seventeen and still sweet and precious. :-)

Yesterday we had a family July Birthday Cookout. Four of us have birthdays this month. We had a great time and the weather was perfect.

Finally, on Saturday I saw the fifth and supposedly final Indiana Jones movie, The Dial of Destiny. As the title suggests, it involves finding a legendary artifact which could alter the course of history. It had all the expected elements: adventure, danger, exotic locations, and a ‘forty year old’ Harrison Ford which was the most amazing part. How did they accomplish that? There are many articles online explaining how this was done and it is beyond amazing. Besides that, while watching the movie  I kept wondering how are they able to makes these complicated action/adventure films? I googled it later and discovered the possible answer. Start with Disney and Lucasfilm and add 300 million!!! So, should you see this film? If you have liked the other four Indiana Jones movies, I’m sure you will enjoy this one as well.

Have an exciting, adventurous week. ;-)