Hello from Hot Arkansas

      Wow!  I new that Arkansas was going to be hot but our heat index today is supposed to be around 110F.  The actual temperature is supposed to be around 98. So what does one do in those temps?  As little as possible.

     In my case, it will be, in no particular order...

   Working on redwork

   Taking Naps

   Planning on what to have to eat

   threading needles.

   Does that look like a funny list?  It is what I do most of the time but if I had just said I was doing the same thing I did every day, it would be a short post.  I did take some pictures so you get today updates.

  Let's start on redwork.  There is the red dragon block.  It is coming along ok but I can see that I will have to erase some of my lines and redraw them.  In the meantime I will work on what I can.

   

    The other redwork is my Words of Wisdom block.  I am making good progress on that.  It should not take too long to finish.

   This is my off week for my blackwork but since I can't remember if I posted this up before or not, I will post it now.  This was two weeks ago.  Tomorrow this week's pattern will be released so then I will do two weeks of blackwork.

     Next up is this month's UFO.  That will be something a bit different for me.  I have a UFO of Candlewicking .  I finally got back to it, or should I say I started it,  I'm not sure who gave it to me perhaps Susan?, but this is my year to work on it.  Here is my progress so far as well as the picture of what it is SUPPOSED to look like when it is finished.

      Let's see, what else do I have to report on?  Oh yes.  My block exchange.  I received my latest block and I like it.

     I just received my partner's name for July but am debating on what I will do.  She is heavy into helping Veterans and doing quilts for the vets.  I think that is great and awesome.  I was going to change up what I normally do for July but considering this, I might stick to the eagle.  That is my favorite patriotic quilt block.  

    I have some quilting projects (new) in mind but I haven't pulled fabric or anything for them.  That is mostly because I need my sewing machine out to do them and I just don't have the energy to pull it out and set it up.  When I do I will hare with you.  Besides some patterns off the internet I am also inspired by the flooring in a restaurant.

   

    Dan took me out to a Chinese restaurant after one of my doctor's appointment and I saw this pattern on the floor.  Being the good friend that he is, he waited for me to snap a picture of it.

   I also had to stop and take a picture of their Koi pond.  It is so lovely to watch.

     That isn't the only place he has recently taken me.  He took me to a steak place  (Colton's) and OMG!  The food was terrific.  

     I also liked the picture of the map that was hanging in their entryway.  

     In fact we liked it so much he took me again after my doctor's appointment on Monday.  This time we didn't have as good service and the Monday cook didn't know, evidently, what it meant when somebody ordered Medium steak.  I had to send it back and ate the mushrooms and green beans while waiting.  In the end it was ok.  I took home leftovers and this morning I had steak tostadas for breakfast.

     I was totally happy to see that my sugar levels were still good after eating out.  I still have some of the steak left which I might have tonight or tomorrow...I'm not sure yet.  That was the success of cooking this week but the failure was when I forgot I had carrots cooking on my stove and I have to now have to throw out my favorite 2 qt. pot.  Sigh.

   That is about it for my updates this time.  I hope everybody stays cool and has a great day.

Happy Monday?

 

     That's right.  It is another Monday.  What will it be like?  What happens when our Monday's become good  and not the stereotypical Monday?  Will we have to start calling it by another name?  See what happens when I get more than 4 hours of sleep at a time?  My brain kicks in earlier than normal and activates my mouth and fingers before I realize what I am thinking and tying.  LOL.  Either way I hop you have a good day.  What are on your plans, besides working?

     I think that I will be working on redwork today.  I only have 2 needles threaded so first thing will be to thread around 9 more.  The advantage of doing the redwork is that I have two projects currently calling for the red DMC floss.  I can double up on how many needles I thread at once and use it for both projects.  The first project I'm working on is the next Words of Wisdom block.  It is Thankful.  Here is my progress pix of it so far.

      I think that the redwork makes it come to life.  :)  After that I have my baby dragon block to do.  After the redwork, comes blackwork.  The blackwork is actually continuing on with my Fleur blocks.  That is slow progress but at least I can say it is progress.  A stitch at a time will get it done eventually.  Don't hold your breath on a date for finishing it.  

     When I need a break from that, I will start to look for a pattern for my July block exchange.  I'm not sure how much longer they will do the exchanges.  It seems each month we have fewer and fewer people signing up for it.  Since it is the July block, I want to do something with a patriotic theme to it.  Of course I have my usual eagle I can do but I might change it up this time and do something else.  I have time to start to look.  That's about it on my plans for crafting this week.

     I am still trying to figure out what I can and cannot eat with diabetes.  It has been interesting to see how bad some things are for you.  Then there is the whole how much can you have and still eat without feeling deprived etc.  Yesterday Shalom took me out to eat after our SCA meeting and I was happy to see that my sugar levels weren't too bad this morning.  It is a fine balancing act sometimes to try and figure out how much of sodium is too much and how much sugar can I have or fat etc.  I am trying NOT to buy specialty foods.  They are out of my budget.  My lunches are usually my big salad meal.  It seems to work nice with summer.  Not sure if I will want the same in winter months but for now it is good.  Pantry gave me two bags of apples this month.  It will take forever to use them up.  I might make some applesauce but then I'll have to figure out how much I can have without spiking my sugar.  My old recipe would spike it for sure.  I cut one up the other day and had it with my oatmeal.  The sugar free syrup was good over it all tasted good.  I can see that I'm going to be using the sugar free syrup more and more on various things.  

     That is about it in my neck of the woods for now.  I hope you have a wonderful day and remember to take time to enjoy life.  Love ya all.

Hello and Updates

   

   Hello everybody!

   Are you ready for another update?  Perhaps I should ask myself that since I'm not sure where I left off.  So I guess I will start with my health update before I get to my craft update.  As I think I mentioned before, I have been diagnosed as being diabetic.  I'm not freaking out over it because mom and Tony had diabetes and I learned stuff from them.  Not only that but I have good friends who have diabetes so my support system is pretty good.  This week was a little up and down with my A1C numbers but yesterday I ate raisins and cottage cheese too late in the evening so my morning blood sugar was WAY high.  As in the highest it has ever been.  So that meant that I had to be a good girl for the whole day and it dropped so much that it was low then when I tested it in the evening.  Sigh.  LOL.  It will level out and I am still keeping track of the numbers, good and bad, to show the doctor later in the month.  So much testing, though, led to another slight problem.  I am going through my test strips and now only have enough left for 1 day.  Dan is taking me to pantry and Walmart tomorrow so I called the doctor and he is trying to get me some more for me to pick up tomorrow.  We'll see how it goes.

   All of these changes are causing me to rethink what I eat  and what I do for meal prep.  In order to do this, I broke down and bought some adult bento boxes.  These are larger than the normal size so I'll see how it works out.  They arrived the other day and I immediately put one to work to see how it goes.  Here is a pix of the dimensions of the boxes.

   It will take me a bit to get used to what I will put in them.  So far I will think of putting in various pre measured out salad makings.  Another option will be to pre portion out some cottage cheese and fruit.  Now to figure out what else to use them for,.

   Now on to crafting.  I mad some good progress on my Fleur blocks.  I am working on the last one of the simpler block and then will start on catching up on the more elaborate blocks.  I have 4 of them to do and then I can start to fill in the blocks that will be filler.   Wish me luck in having enough fabric.

   I have started on another brown work piece.  This one is a combination of a couple of different patterns.  I was just doing it to keep me busy and to give me a break from the SAL and a couple of other projects.  Here is what I have done so far and also it should give you an ide of what the border will look like as well as what the center is.

      I also managed to start prepping things for the next Words of Wisdom block as well as the next Baby Dragon block.  The next Words of Wisdom is Thankful. I am certainly thankful for all of you that take the time out of your busy day to read my postings.  Thanks!  The previous block was wisdom and since I wasn't sure if I posted a final pix of it or not, here is one.

   The next dragon block has both a mama dragon as well as a baby dragon in it.  They are red dragons.  

I have used a blue sharpie to go over my lines so that it will be easier when I draw them onto the fabric.  

   These two dragons already have names.  The mama dragon is named Suthol which means Lady of the Red.  Her daughter is Pannas the Fire Starter.  If you remember the red dragon that I did earlier, which might end up on the back for a label, is the daddy.  His name, which Pannas told me, is now Irdini which means Lord of the Red.  I think they are a cute family.  I just hope they use fire proof materials for their lair!

   As Sunbonnet Sue is showing me, it is time to take my laundry out of the washer and get it hung up.

   

  I hope you have a great day and keep crafting. 

Happy Sunday and Some Project Updates

 Happy Sunday everybody!

     Are you getting ready for Memorial Day?  Any special plans?  I will be staying home and stitching.  I am going to treat myself, no matter if it is on my diet or not, to some corned beef hash and an egg for breakfast.  Dinner might be the other half of the corned beef hash so I only have one bad-ish day.  LOL.  Probably salad again for lunch  I like salads for lunch.  Other than that I will be stitching.

   What will I be stitching on?  The usual suspects.  If I make enough progress I will start preparing for another dragon block.  I did a layout of Fleur and it is coming along.  Not all of these blocks are fully stitched.

     I have to prepare another 3 full blocks for the last row but don't have enough 9 patch blocks made.  That won't take to long and then I can go back to the love I like more,,,the stitching.  After I finish the main blocks, I will start on the triangle pieces that go in between the outside rows.  I will have to piece blocks for that too before I can get to the fusing.  One step at a time.

     

     The other block I am working today will be the Wisdom block for Words to Live By.  Here is this week's progress pix.

   As you can see I don't have much left and then onto DRAGONS!  Well one dragon anyway.  LOL.

   I hope you have a great extended weekend.

This week's updates - and a new recipe

 Hello everybody.

   What a week it has been,  I'm still adjusting to this life of tracking my blood sugar and blood pressure and what I eat.  I did go see my new doctor and I liked him.  It seems that he is open to listening to what I want and not do everything all at once.  The good news, from my perspective anyway, is that my sugar level dropped a little in between the time ER took it and this doctor took it.  Not much but at least it was lower.  Of course it is still high but at least it is under 10 now.  He did a test that shows a whole bunch of stuff.  I know that it is filled with both good and bad stuff.  He will call me in the morning tomorrow to go over it.  Tomorrow afternoon I have the wound doctor appt so it is another day of running around.  I did get a sugar level tester, whatever it is called, so now I have to do that twice a day.  When I talk to the doctor I will ask him if I can cut it back to once a day because my insurance will only cover 1x day for the testing supplies.  We'll see.  

   Because of all of the diabetic upheave I didn't get much craft wise done.  I did some stitching on one of the Fleur blocks.  I am trying to do at least 1/4 of the block every two days.  So far that is working out.  It is better than no progress, right?

   Today I hope to get the next block for Words to Live By copied until fabric. Not sure if I will get a chance to start to stitch it today but it will be ready for when I get to it.

   If I have time today, I will try to get the next dragon pattern transferred to the fabric.  It will be Rosie.

  Now for the recipes.  The first one I liked and will make again.  It is for a breakfast tortilla.  It is simple and I half of it for breakfast and I will have the other half for lunch.  It is made on a 10 inch tortilla.  I used a medium size springform  pan so it would be easy to take out.  So I put the tortilla in the spring form pan.  Then I mixed 2 eggs and a half cup of cottage cheese.  I mixed them up and then pour it on top of the tortilla.  Then I put some spinach leaves and a 1/4 cup of diced tomato on next.  I topped it off with 1/8 cup of shredded cheese. Just put it into the oven (350F) for around 25 minutes or until the eggs are set.  It turned out pretty good.

   

    The next new recipe I will probably make is a whipped cottage cheese and pickle dip.

It serves 4

1 cup cottage cheese

1/2 cup Greek yogurt

1/2  up chopped dill pickles

2 TBSP pickle juice

2 TBSP white wine vinegar

2 TBP dill

2 TBSP chives

1/2 teas garlic powder

1/2 teas onion powder

1/2 teas salt

Garnish with what you want but suggestions:  chopped dill pickle, black pepper

Directions:

In a food processor blend the cottage cheese until smooth,.  Add in everything else and mix well.  Let it rest for a little bit (probably around 15 minutes at least).  

   I have the nutrional information on it if anybody is interested.  I will, of course, let you know it turns out.

That is it for this short post.  I hope everybody has a great day.

Hi! Remember me?

    I'm the person who is suppose to keep you informed on what I'm making.  I've gotten a little behind but a lot has been going on in my life.  

   I guess the biggest thing is that I was diagnosed with with Diabetes and now I am concentrating more on what to cook that is better for me.  I haven't seen the diabetic doctor/nutritionist yet.  That should be in the next couple of weeks.  I finally have a general doctor that I'm supposed to seeing in a couple of days.  My wound doctor referred me to him.  Oh yeah, did I mention the wound doctor?  I happened to have gotten an infection on my left foot and finally went to the doctor when it wasn't getting  better.  It went from being regular blisters and then they popped and got infected.  What led him to believe I was diabetic before he got the A1C rating back (10.1)?  He saw blisters and thought that I got them from a space heater (guilty of having one close by feet) and I couldn't tell when my foot was to close to the space heater by noticing that the blisters were under the foot and at the ends of the toes and on top by the arches.

   Neuropathy stopped me from feeling the blisters developing.  That is when the wound doctor took some tests and discovered I was diabetic.  Once he told me that, I started to eat healthier in the hopes that I won't be having to have shots.  I needed to eat better and more controlled for ages so this is the boot to the posterior to get me going.  

   Dan gave me a blood pressure unit so that I watch that also.  My blood pressure was very high which wasn't news to me.  It normally is high when I go to see the doctor and waiting a couple of hours in ER before seeing a doctor sent it sky rocketing.  Now I can check it twice a day at home.  

   Yes I said ER.  Shalom had dropped by to see me and I was in the middle of changing the bandage.  He took one look, called Dan, and before I knew it Shalom was taking me to the ER.  Dan was getting some supplies that I would need and calling us every 30 minutes since I hadn't called him.  Why call when I hadn't seen the doctor yet?  Men.  :)  They are good friends.  Oh, another little chuckle was when Shalom, who refused to stay in waiting room since he wasn't sure I would tell him ALL the doctor said,  and I got to the ER room and they had a TV that we could watch while waiting for a doctor to see us.  In between all the aids and nurses coming in, we discovered that we couldn't change the channel and guess what was playing.  A doctor's series and the person that all the doctor's were gathering around their bed were discussing an infected foot.  Sigh.  We just laughed but Shalom and I did get tired of repeating ourselves whenever a new person came into the room.  It got to the point that Shalom started to answer the questions instead of me since he had heard it so often.  LOL.  

   THEN, when I got a couple of prescriptions, Shalom took me to Walgreens  to get them filled.  By now it was raining and he took my paperwork in with him and I stayed in the car so my damaged foot wouldn't get wet.  While he was inside, Dan called me because the ER had called him (I had listed him as my contact person) and mentioned that we didn't pick up the actual prescription.  While talking to Dan, Shalom came back to the car, handed me a plastic bag that I could tie around my foot to keep the bandages dry and I told him Dan's message.  He had figured that out when the Pharmacy told him they couldn't fill the prescription since he didn't have the right paperwork.  Another trip back to the ER and he made me stay int he car while he went in to get the actual prescription and then back to Walgreen's.  Talk about an adventure!  So now I have to go to the Wound Specialist every week for a bit.  

   NOW, in between that, I have to go to see the regular doctor who hinted that in addition to seeing him, I'll probably have to go see a diabetes specialist.  Not much time in between all these doctor appointments.  If  Dan and I weren't busy enough with MY doctor's appointments, it is that time of the year that he has to go to see HIS doctor.  That means that this week  I have two doctor's appointments and he has one.  Next week I have at least one doctor's appointment  and he has one.  He is certainly getting driving time in!

   There isn't much time left to do some crafting but I did finish some more blocks.  Herer are a couple of quick update pix for you.

   In addition to continuing to work on these two projects, I managed to get a small mug rug finished so I can send it to a friend.  If  you see this before you get it Susan, ignore this pix.  LOL

   I will wait until my next update before showing my blackwork.  I have two weeks to do which will be done by next week. I do have one more thing to show you.  I received my exchange block and I am attaching a picture of it.

   That is it for a quick update.  Well, many it wasn't so quick but it is at least an update.  Now to go and fugue out what I have on hand that I can eat.

   I hope you all have a great day and remember:

Saturday Musings

 Hello everybody.  I hope your Saturday is going  well.  I have been busy working on various projects and can now show some pictures.  Before that, let me say that I was taken to a new, to me, retaurant by Dan and OMG!  I had the best food in a long time.  

You cam check out their website here:

https://www.ronscatfish.com/ 

   I was so full that I didn't eat any dinner.  LOL.  I don't think Dan did either.  We both went back for seconds.  Talk about a super great tartar sauce and their breading on the fish and shrimp was so nice.  Don't worry.  I didn't forget my veggies.  I had a small salad (complete with beets) and some okra.  It still counts as a veggie even if it has that delicious breading on it, right?  I almost didn't have any okra because, before now, I hadn't had any that didn't feel or taste oily or slimey.  Whatever they are doing, they are doing it right.

   Today, though, I made a new dish called Queso Chicken.  The original recpe called for it to be put in the crockpot to cook for 6 hours but I didn't want to wait that long.  So I boiled up the chicken breasts, drained them, and then added the rest of the ingredients plus a few others.

   

     It full of cheese including a jar of Monteray Jack Queso and some mix shredded cheese.  In addition to that, it has a small jar of salsa, some garlic powder, some onion powder, and some diced tomatoes on top for color.  The only bad thing is when you try to take it out of the pan.  Still next time I will shread the chicken and use it more as a dip with chips.  It has a little heat in it but notiung my whimpy taste buds couldn't handle.  

   The next thing to report on is crafting stuff.  First up is my block that I received from my swap partner.

   Isn't that cute?  I will add it to all my other blocks in the swap and then eventually will figure out what to make with them.  LOL.  I also managed to get my NEXT block done.  I'm not sure yet what that block will be but I have plenty of time to decide.  

   I was looking through Pinterest, getting in more trouble by collecting more things to work on, when I saw this.

   Isn't that cute?  I think it would be easy to make and you could put whatever animal (even humn ones) you wanted to.  I think putting in a tree in the silhoutte would be good also since there is a small bird way on top.  Don't you just love getting new, to you, ideas?

   I also managed to finish up another baby dragon.  Her name is Goldie.

   Next up will be Green Gene.  Gene is out of order but I already told some people he was nexty so I will just bump him up a bit.

   

   I also managaed to catch up on my Blackwork SAL.  I am still loving the stitch a long but I don't always follow how many strands I'm suppose to use.  That is ok.  I just makes it more mine.  

  

   I am working on another piece which will probably be redwork.  I'll let you know more on that when I start to stitch it.  In the  meantime...

   I hope everybody has a great day!

Total eclipse

 Shalom stopped by and showed me a couple of the pix that he took of the eclipse.  I thought I'd share with you.

The first two pictures were taken without any filters, etc.  The last one he said was taken through the lens or something like that.  LOL.  I was looking at the picturs and wasn't listening to him.  Shhh.  Don't tell him that.

Isn't this cute?

 I was at Dollar Tree the other day and sawy this cute little cutting mat.  I had to get it.  For $1.25 I jusrt HAD to get it.  

It is only six inchea but it sits nicely next to my keyboard which means I can use it for those quick little bouts of inspiration.  I can see it coming in handy when it comes to working on hexies.

Did I show you the latest Blackwork progress  Here it is.  I have it all caught up.  This week I will get the block that goes on the left and will fill in that square corner.

Not only did I get caught up with the blackwork, I managed to finish another block for the redwork.

Soon I will soon start on another block.  That block is the "love" block.  It won't be long before I willl be at a stage that I can show it to you.

I need to stop here and work on some more prep work and get something to eat.  The sky is still nice out but I'm not going to watch the eclipse.  I can see it safer and better from home and on the internet.  :)

Everybody have a great day and I'll post more updates soon.

Progress

 After coming out of my food c oma from Easter, I got back into stitching.  I will say that my Easter meal this year was the best in a log time.  I messed up on how to put the stuffing into the roast but it all turned out in the end.  It was a little over two pounds before cooking and there was only a half inch of one end that was leftover.  Dan took leftovers home, except for half a cup of mashed potatoes and 3/4 of the pumpking pie.  He took home the stuffing (which is normal) but there was only a spoonful of carrots and a spoonful of greens left and he snagged them too.  The carrots were cooked witht he roast.  The green beans had cut up bacon and onions in them and were cooked in the bacn grease.  Then I put parmesean cheese on top of that.  

I did finish baby blue and she is adorable.  

Nest up is Goldie.  Before that I need to finish up my Words to Live By block.  I will show a pix when it is time to move the hoop again.  I am about 3/4ths of the way done with that block.

 I have to work on my black work but will wait until I get the new block tomorrow (Wednesday).  That will put me two blocks behind but I'm not worried.  I can catch up pretty quickly.

My swap partner for March in the block swap surprised me and sent me two blocks for March.  :)  I love them both but will have to analyze the one on the right more.  I  like it and might try to figure out how she did it.

Speaking of the block swap.  I finished up my April block and it is now in the mail to my partner.

That certainly is appropriate for the kind of weather we have beeen having lately. I decided to make some tuna quiche to help take the chill out  of the air so now I have dinner all ready.  

Well back to stitching.  I hope everybody has a great day,.

Happy Easter

 I hope you all have a delightful and safe holiday.  

Happy Easter