AGL

December 4, 1985 - September 30, 2025

Four months have passed and I'm still overwhelmed with grief, still trying to figure out how to navigate this world without my son in it. I miss him beyond words.

Missed One

It doesn't seem possible but I actually had four finishes to blog about in my last post but I somehow missed this one! In my head I could hear Oliver Putnam yelling "Do you not see this coat?!?!" when I spotted it in my bin of recent finishes. (OMITB fans will understand, LOL!)

 

Lo, I give you the SamSarah pin cushion from the Silver Needle's With A Little Help From My Friends stitching circle (2017)...

I just love the heppy peppy colors and the funky birds! The finishing kit for the pin cushion is still MIA but it has to be somewhere! Right?

Aida wanted to pop in and say hello!

 

Have a happy Monday! 

Triple Play

I have not one, not two, but THREE finishes to share!

 

First is the May installment from Hands On Design's "A Year of Celebrations".

I've been keeping up with stitching and finishing these every month but it looks like I've fallen behind. I pinky promise I'll get June done before the end of the month!

 

Next is this cute piece from Lizzie Kate...

The kit came with a pre-made foldie uppie thing you can use for your stitchy supplies. It's supposed to be embellished with beads but I had enough trouble stitching on the bands that I decided to save myself the additional headache. I love the bright spring colors and do intend to use it to keep my needle and thread out of reach of little paws. Aida's way past that "getting into everything" stage but you can't be too careful with needles.

 

 Last but not least we have Bluebird Out My Window from Brenda Gervais.

I have a thing for birds and houses so this one ticked both those boxes. 

 

Speaking of birds, I am currently working on Heart in Hand's Spring Bird.

 

All that's left is to finish the giant egg. With a little cooperation from Miss Aida, I should be able to get that done today. Right now she's having a major conniption because they're on the roof blowing leaves out of the gutters. There are two big oak trees in my backyard that are wonderful for their shade but, holy schmoly! The leaves! 

 

Can you believe how fast this year is going? We're knee deep in summer already! I'm going to have to go through my stash and pick out some less springy charts!  

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

Putting the Lazy in Lazy Daisy

A Year of Celebrations - March

by Hands on Design

 

After procrastinating for weeks, I finally sat down and stitched March's lazy daisies. I don't know why I thought they were going to be a challenge. It took all of a half hour to complete them and that included watching two how-to videos. Lazy daisy was one of the first stitches I learned back when I was eleven and would pay the lady down the street a dime for embroidery lessons.

I thought they were magical way back then and still do!

 

I wanted something with bright colors to work on next so I grabbed this kit by SamSarah.

My photography skills don't do the fabric justice. It's 32-ct. WDW Peoria Purple and even though it's showing up more blue it is very purpley! The kit was part of the Silver Needle's With A Little Help From My Friends stitching circle (circa 2017) and came with all the goodies to finish it into the drum. There's even a set of pins to stick in the top!

 

I am woefully behind on my chores so Aida and I will be staying home today and catching up on the laundry and dusting and vacuuming. It helps that the check engine light is on in my car and I DO NOT want to have to deal with that particular problem today!

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

Welcome Sylvie!

We were blessed with the arrival of Sylvia Bomi Lee on March 8th! Mom, Dad, and Baby are doing well, and this "Nan" is over the moon!

 

Aida and I made the trip to Houston to meet her, and stayed about a week. I wish I didn't live 1000 miles away, but we will do our best to visit as often as we can.

 

My traveling buddy...

(And yes, she was securely harnessed in the entire trip! Precious cargo!)

In stitching news, my March Year of Celebrations is done except for the lazy daisy stitches. I admit I'm procrastinating!

 

I didn't take pictures, but in an absolute whirlwind of sewing, I made two crib quilts and three swaddling blankets for Sylvie. I imagine there will be more to come because I can't not scoop up all the baby prints at the fabric store. When she gets older I'll switch to sundresses with coordinating bloomers!

 

It's good to be back home but, man oh man, I do miss snuggling that baby! In another month I'll forget all about that hour I spent stuck in traffic, and the crazy downpours I had to drive through, and I'll start planning my next trip!

Happy Valentines Day!

I got the February installment of A Year of Celebrations finished just in the nick of time!

I also finished January so go me!

 

These stitch up really quick! By the end of the year I should just about have my finishing technique down! Just in time to start A Year of Celebrations 2!

 

Hope you have a happy V-Day with those you love! I promised Aida I would take her out for a Pup Cup so she's on high alert, waiting for me to put on my shoes and pick up my keys!

Twice as Nice

What's better than having a finish? Two finishes!

First we have this sweet one...

'Tis the Season

by It's Sew Emma

(from the FQS Stitch Quarterly Club)

stitched on 14-ct. Pistachio Aida

with DMC and CC Peanut Brittle

Then if that wasn't enough, we have a second finish!

A Year of Celebrations - January

by Hands On Design

stitched with DMC and CC Snowball

(on mystery linen)

I already have a start on February but I'm not loving the fabric I'm using so I'll be scraping that and starting over. I'd love to do the whole series on the same linen but I only have a small piece of it, hence the rather skimpy cut I used for January. The plan is to get this finish finished as soon as Aida gets up from her nap. That way I'll have a whole two days to display it before next month!

Here's November all done up so you get an idea of what it might look like...

I'm using magnets so I can swap them out every month. (Whoever came up with that idea is an absolute genius!)

My craft room organization continues! I'm up to four of those rolling carts with the drawers now and I just ordered a bunch of those cloth storage cubes to use on my shelves. In my mind everything is neatly arranged and color coordinated but I'm afraid by the time I'm done I won't be able to find a darn thing!

Tell me I'm not the only one with this problem!

Snow Day

There was no stitching done yesterday. Aida did take an afternoon nap but her spot of choice was my lap. I gave up trying to work around her after I'd bopped her on the head with my hoop a half dozen times. That girl has zero padding anywhere, and I swear she's all knees and elbows when she's sleeping next to me at night. Luckily I had a new Book of the Month selection to dive into (A Killing Cold by Kate Alice Marshall... creepy family, remote location, no cell service... my kind of book!).

 

So today was all about getting that snow finished once and for all...

I'm happy to report I have finished all the white stitching on this piece! White has never been my favorite to stitch with and this project needed almost an entire skein of it! That's 8.7 yards! Times three because I was using two of the six strands! That's over 26 yards of white stitching! 78 feet! That's like 14 of me laying head to toe! If I could get her to hold still long enough I could tell you how many Aida's that would be! Best guess is around 35 and no one needs that many Aida's!

Speaking of... are dogs like children? When they're babies you tell yourself never again, one is enough, but then they get to be a certain age and you start thinking, how bad could having another one be?

I should ask myself that question tonight when all those knees and elbows are jabbing into me!

 

Tidying Up

I've been busy revamping the way I store supplies in my craft room. I seem to do this every six months or so, which is about how long it takes the room to reach its saturation point. I'd been using the 'plastic bin method' of storage, but it obviously wasn't working for me. Apparently it's too difficult to pull out a bin and pop the lid off when I needed to put something away. Things stayed wherever they landed and I was running out of space to do any actual crafting.

 

This iteration of craft room organization, I decided to go with rolling carts with drawers.

I love the way they fit under my work space! I've managed to fill three of these so far and will probably end up buying one more, just to be safe. I bought plastic dividers to use inside the drawers but they don't fit as well as I'd like, so this is all still a work in progress.

 

I've been working on 'Tis the Season...

If I can talk Aida into taking a nap this afternoon, I should be able to finish the snow and start on the border. Although a nap does sound tempting!

I hope everyone's week is off to a fabulous start!

 

202... wait... what?

Please tell me it's still November.

 

I'm feeling a smidge guilty that the holiday season passed without much fanfare here at the Chicken Ottoman Empire. We did have a few Christmas presents to open and had our traditional 'sit around the house in our pajamas eating nothing but sausage cheese balls and peppermint bark" day. We enjoyed it so much we did it the next day. And the next. I must confess to making three batches of sausage cheese balls (SCBs in Paispeak) and consuming an entire bag of peppermint bark over the course of five days. When I finally emerged from my lair and stepped into the daylight, my neighbor asked me if I'd been away for the holidays.

 

Uh... no...

I think I was hiberbating.

Some basic instinct must have told me I needed to stay inside and consume sixty million calories while being as idle as possible.

So that's what we did. We ate and slept and watched bad TV. We made a blanket fort and threw balls in the house and allowed ourselves to lose track of the days.

Of course, now that it's the new year, there's hell to pay!

There's lists and diets and organizing and cleaning and checking in with the world.

So hello world! I hope your new year is off to a fabulous start and you're checking things off your lists, having success with your diets, and getting your homes clean and organized!

'Tis the Season

Christmas has come to the Chicken Ottoman Empire! Aida and I kept the decor to a minimum this year... some lights around the windows, a couple of red throw pillows on the couch, a wreath on the front door, and a small table top tree. I might have done more but by the time I ready to start decorating, the stores have been picked over. I did try my hand at making a garland out of paper stars but I've seen better results from Kindergartners!

On the stitching front, I've been working on the latest Stitch Quarterly project called 'Tis the Season.

It's the cutest gingerbread house designed by It's Sew Emma. I'm stitching it on 14-ct. Pistachio aida. Even with aida, I'm having trouble seeing the holes. I found that putting it in a hoop helped tremendously, with the added bonus that if I lean it against my leg I can stitch with both hands. (Or stitch with one hand and throw toys to Aida with the other!) My goal today was to finish the right side of the roof. Tomorrow I will work on the left side and possibly one of the gingerbread trees. That snow looks a little daunting so I'm saving it for last!

 

If you're wondering about Aida, she has been a very good puppy this year and is anticipating a few new toys in her stocking Christmas morning!

"Pretty please, and thank you!"

 

Pumpkin Pals

Pumpkin Pals

by It's Sew Emma

stitched on 14-ct Platinum Aida

with WDW and DMC

 

I finished my Stitch Quarterly project from Fat Quarter Shop over the weekend! For about five minutes I was considering being super lazy and not stitching the border. After doing a couple of test leaves I decided they weren't as fiddly as I thought they might be and had them all done in no time. I'm so glad I did because I really love the way it turned out!

I love these Stitch Quarterly kits! They come with everything you need, right down to the needle, plus a matching project bag and other fun goodies. This one included a cute hedgehog needle minder (presently stuck on my fridge!) and a pair of scissors.

As soon as we've finished the laundry and had some lunch, my plan is to do some finish finishing. That is, if a certain small puppy will cooperate and not insist on Mom's undivided attention.

Mom? Mom! Hellooooooo???

MOOOMMMMM?!?!?!

Still Truckin' Along

Long time no blog! I am slowly getting things back together after this years hurricane season. Helene wasn't too bad here in central Florida but Milton? Yikes! He made a mess of things! A huge tree came down just across the street from me, taking out our power and blocking the road. I can't tell you how scary that was! Both Aida and me ended up having to take sedatives to make it through the night! They had our power back on in about 48 hours so that wasn't too bad considering the amount of work it took to remove the tree and install new poles and lines. Internet was another story. It was a good week before our service was restored. It was such a pain trying to drive anywhere to use WiFi that I mostly stayed home and did a lot of reading. My brother happened to be in town (not sure if that was good timing or bad!) staying at my dad's so I went over one day and helped him clean out the pool and repair some fence panels. For all the mess and inconvenience, I know it was nothing compared to what other people endured. I can count myself lucky!

On to lighter topics... I did get some stitching done!

August Truckin' Along

by Stitching Housewives

 

I love the vintage truck and sunflowers so much! Definitely one of my favorite finishes this year!

I subscribed to Fat Quarter Shop's Stitch Quarterly club and have been working on their September kit. It's been a really fast stitch and I'm hoping to finish it soon!

 

Aida is running out of puppy patience so I better click publish on this blog post and pay her some attention!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gather Pumpkins

Gather Pumpkins

by Hands On Design

I've had these stitched up forever but never finish finished them until today. They're super easy to put together so I don't know why I kept putting it off!

 

A few more shots...

After what feels like a month of being sick I am finally starting to feel better. It took two doctors, three prescriptions, and one shot but something must finally be working. I'm still going to bed at 8pm every night but I've been slowly regaining my energy and my appetite has returned with a vengeance. I'm glad I'm feeling better because Fall is my absolute favorite stitching season! I have so many projects I want to get to!