A New Start and Progress on Old Stuff

 Yeah, I started something new before I finished anything else. I resisted really hard, you know, but fell anyhow. You see, it's been over 40 years since I read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series, so I had determined to reread them all this fall and kind of immerse in the atmosphere. So, besides buying a cute sticker for my reading journal, I bought a cross-stitch pattern from CrossStitchBay on Etsy of the cozy hobbit house/hole. 

It's not a quick, simple pattern like I've been mostly doing lately and came in several pages which I had to tape together, but it's very clear and I'm following it pretty easily so far. I'm doing it on 18 count Aida instead of my usual 14 count, silly me, but I didn't want the finished product to be so large.

To go along with my LOTR immersion, I made Samwise's Rabbit Stew with Mushrooms and Po-tay-toes, Frodo's Scones (best with Second Breakfast), and Bilbo's Tea Cake to take to Sunday's church picnic. (September 22 is Bilbo's 111th birthday and Frodo's 33rd. So, yeah, I nerded out.

I did make some good progress on my Everyday Embroidery also.

I wish I knew how to circle or highlight the new stuff, but you get the idea. 

I've now filled in all the blocks/spaces I had laid out already, so I need to grab the yardstick and disappearing ink pen and mark out more blocks to outline in black and then fill in with cutesies.

I also got nine quarts of gifted tomatoes canned (my tomatoes didn't produce too well, so I'm thankful for the gifted ones)...

...and seven pints of green beans. I think that's the last of the good beans now.

It's been fun having Mom here and getting to show her our lives here since she hasn't been able to visit this far north in a long time. 

Goals for this week:

* Progress on Hobbit Hole X-stitch

* Draw at least a month's worth of new spaces on Everyday Embroidery

* Figure out the "Word of the Year" pendant embroideries that I didn't get to last week

* Be patient till the girls get moved out on the 1st and I can get to my sewing machine 😄 They'll be close enough for visiting, but no longer in my sewing room.

* Transplant strawberries to fill another raised bed

* Tend incubator of quail eggs

* Continue building quail egg rack, little by little

Well, I hope your week is full of blessings and that you really notice them. 😍