Welcome to another Monday everyone :)

While I wish the weekend was just a tad longer, I'm not a Monday hater. I love starting off the week on Monday, generally feeling refreshed and ready for another week of work and hobbies. 

First things first, MY GIVEAWAY ends TOMORROW! So if you haven't entered yourself already get over to the post and pop your name into the draw. While I only have one biscornu up for grabs I'll be having a couple more 'runner-up' winners.

So what's on the menu this week you ask? Gardening for one! Vegetable Gardening to be precise. It may seem kinda late for those of you blessed with a more hospitable climate, but here... well let's just say Saturday night we had a frost warning. I'm beginning to forget what a normal Summer actually feels like. We're heading into July soon enough and have only just begun reaching days of 15+ degrees but the weekends still remain 'shitty' for the lack of a better word. Cold, rain, drizzle, fog, etc. The only good days we seem to have (like today) are spent inside at work, typing away at my desk. It's down right infuriating, especially given that all I want is a real summer to make up for last summer! June of 2011 was dubbed June-uary, you can just guess what that entailed... You can even buy shirts that say 'I survived June-uary 2011'. YES, it was that bad!

I'm particularly anxious for some good weather because I'll be house sitting for the next couple of weeks starting Wednesday for a friend of mine who actually has a pool... heated... in Newfoundland! This is a true rarity. I've only known 2 other people (by association) to have had a pool here. I want to be able to take advantage of the glistening water just outside the door, but have to have some sun or I might come out an icicle. So here's my wish and prayer that Mother Nature might give us old Newfs a few good days!

Back to Gardening. Myself and the BF have been preparing the two veggie beds over the last couple of weeks to make ready for their 2nd year. The last stage... BUNNY proofing! I used to love bunnies, I really did. But what few veggies that survived last year's awful summer, were gobbled up by slugs and those menacing bunny rabbits. I snapped this picture last week... I'm sorry, but 'it' looks down right scary! Those are the eyes of the devil I swear! YIKES. Getting the creeps just looking at it.

The Devil Incarnate 

So Bunny Proofing is in full swing and now our beds are ready to welcome some seeds and some squash plants, without the fear of being eaten prematurely.

butternut squash plant

The low hanging branches of the evergreen trees just love my hair!

While out shopping for Bunny Proofing Supplies we also took the opportunity to pick up a bird house and seeds. We have a few chickadees that frequent our little koy pond to splash around so I hope they will enjoy a bit of food too :) Hopefully I'll have some bird photo's to share soon with any luck. I also hope the devil bunnies will be more attracted to the bird seed that falls to the ground than my garden beds. 

In Stitching news - IHSW was not as successful as I had hoped but I did get a far bit done and am now in the HOME STRETCH! Only 3.5 blocks left to complete and I'll have the Friendship Sampler completed!!!! YEY. A Happy Dance is on the horizon. 

I also have to complete my stitched piece for my exchange this week so Friendship Sampler may take a back seat. 

That's all for now folks!

Melissa

Hi Folks!

Welcome to all my new followers and thank you all for your kind comments :) I seemed to have gained quite a few new followers in the last couple of weeks so if I'm not following your blog currently please drop a comment here with the url to your blog! I try my best to follow you all but sometimes blogger doesn't co-operate with me when I click on your pic looking for your blog!!! 

I just wanted to give you all a quick update today on the progress I've been making with my Friendship Sampler. 

Most recent section completed!

I'm now more than halfway done!!! I hope to get this piece completed over the next couple of weeks and then off to the framer she'll go. In the mean time I do have to complete my next exchange!!! YIKES I'm such a procrastinator!!!! But I've really been putting all my spare time into my Friendship Sampler so stitching time for other projects has been rather sparse. Even my Papillon SAL (which I love dearly) has gone untouched and soon enough the 3rd part will be revealed!!!! 

Hopefully I'll get some more stitching time in on other things soon, just so you all won't be bored with just seeing the Friendship Sampler allllllll the time. We all need a bit of variety in life to spice things up every once in a while.

Before I sign off for the day here's a pic of my lovely Leia! She's been doing alright since here buddy Blue left us... just a little depressed a times I think. She misses her play buddy. Tomorrow she goes in to get spayed!!! I remember this from when we had our last dog and I'm worried for her. Such a big operation :( So tonight is 'Smother Leia with Love Night'!

Ciao for now and Happy Stitching Everyone!!!!

Melissa 

Merry Monday All!

Welcome to another week and the second week of June already! Crazzzzzy!!! Time certainly flies and the weekend even more so. My weekend was pretty quite, but this post is not entitled 'FOOD' for nothing.... so you can guess what I was up to all weekend ;) I figured I put my culinary skills to use for the first time in a while, and really enjoy being back in the kitchen. First things first, cookies!!! My ULTIMATE Peanut Butter cookies to be precise. 

First one MUST make as big a mess as possible on the counter.

Then fend off the puppies who are addicted to PB... Blue decided to visit at the right time hehe

Rolling the the little drops of deliciousness in your hand and press with a fork. 

Bake the critters off for 10 mins and you get the most golden and moist PB cookies ever!

... a tragedy occurred in the transfer to the cooling rack. One poor cookie didn't make it...

Now didn't those look absolutely divine????! If only they had Nutella in them...  I'll list the recipe at the end of my post if anyone is interested in having a go at them :) 

Next up on the menu - Beer Can BBQ'd Chicken. Now this is something I LOVE sinking my teeth in. The profanity of having a beer can shoved up into the poor chicken's insides is all worth it when you get to have a taste of this baby. In fact, the chicken doesn't really retain the flavour of the beer so much as the moisture. On the other hand, the chicken does hold on to the flavour of the herbs and garlic that is used. I promise you'll start to drool as soon as the scent hits your nose... I know I am right now just looking at the picture lol.

Good ol' Nova Soctian Alexander Keiths going to work!

A shot of the Chives, Rosemary and Garlic.

Whewwww, making meals is no easy task!  But the results are soooooo rewarding. 


While I'm on the subject of food - check out my friend Dawn's blog "The Scoff." She's new to blogging but judging by her last couple of posts she definitely knows her food. And for those of you who do not know what the word 'Scoff' means here's a little explanation. It's primarily an old Newfie word (perhaps English in origin... but I really have no idea) that means to have a big old party and a feed of food. Basically a scoff entails good times and lots of good food. 

Now! Moving on...

When I wasn't in the kitchen this weekend, I was stitching and gardening (which I'll have photo's of a little later when things look a little more presentable). I'm happily stitching away at the Friendship Sampler I've been at for the past month. It's certainly coming along and soon I'll be half way there when the empty block you see below is filled. The only complaint I have at this stage is that I have had to correct numerous mistakes in the chart. They're not a big deal and easily corrected... but if I wasn't paying attention then I would have added a whole unnecessary row to the chart that would have made all the blocks on the right side uneven. I feel like I have to be constantly on the look out while stitching and I hate it... but I had inconsistency even more so I'll deal with adding/subtracting a stitch here and there. However, I want to you all to know I do LOVE this piece and the small errors would not prevent me from purchasing the chart if I had known about them in hindsight. The design is just to beautiful to give up on that easily :) AND, like I've been saying in just about every post this has been in, I am LOVING stitching this peace.   

Sorry for the poor lighting...

Anyways, folks - that's it for me today! I hope you all have a grand week!

Ciao!

Melissa

Recipes 

Ultimate Peanut Butter Cookies

1/2 cup of Butter (room temp.)

1/2 cup of Brown Sugar (packed)

1/2 cup of Sugar

1 egg

1 cup of Peanut Butter

1/2 tsp of salt (if using unsalted butter)

1/2 tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp of vanilla

1 1/2 cups of flour 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.


(1) Beat butter until light and fluffy.
(2) Gradually add sugar and brown sugar - continue beating.
(3) Beat in egg.
(4) Add peanut butter, salt, baking soda and vanilla. Cream these ingredients together in the mixture with a wooden spoon or spatula.
(5) Gradually mix in the flour.
(6) Once the dough has come together, spoon a drop of the dough onto the palm of your hand and roll into a ball. Place onto greased cookie sheet or parchment paper (also on a cookie sheet).
(7) Press a fork onto the top of each ball of dough to flatten the cookie slightly.
(8) Bake for 10-12 mins, or until lightly golden brown. Be careful to not overcook them or the cookies will dry out. 

Beer Can Chicken

1 Full Chicken (small) -  make sure the inside cavity is empty. 
1 tablespoon of fresh or dried chives
2 tablespoons of butter (room temp)
3-4 Sprigs of Rosemary
5 Cloves of Garlic
1 Can of Beer
Salt and Pepper


Start BBQ and preheat on medium heat, roughly 300-325 degrees F.

YES! You can make this even if you don't have the device in the pictures above to do this. I often make two chickens and just shove the chicken onto a beer can on a small baking sheet. This works perfectly fine, but you may have to balance the chicken a little. 


(1) Mix together butter and chives. Add a dash of salt and pepper if desired.
(2) Clean the chicken and pat dry. Insert your index finger inbetween the skin and the meat at the bottom of each chicken breast. Loosen the skin for the meat but do not tear. Only a small corridor is needed.
(3) Using your finger or a small spoon work the butter/chive mixture into the space between the skin and meat you have just created. THIS WILL BE A LITTLE MESSY but soooo worth  it I promise ;)
(4) Rinse off the can of beer with some water, and pour half of it's contents into a measuring cup.
(5) Place the beer can onto a small baking sheet (I use a 9'' round pie sheet). Then place the chicken over the beer can, inserting the can into the chicken's cavity. You may need to manipulate the legs of the chicken into such a way that the chicken is balanced. I usually put one leg in front and twist the other leg to the back. 
(6) Place some of the rosemary sprigs and garlic into the hole at the top of chicken, scatter the rest into the baking sheet. Pour the beer you set aside earlier into the baking sheet.
(7) Rub the remain butter onto the skin of the chicken and season with pepper.
(8) Transfer your bird on the baking sheet to the BBQ. 
(9) Roast for 45mins - 1hr or until juices run clear and meat is no longer pink. A meat thermometer will come in handy here if you have one, that way you will not have to puncture the meat too much as you would with a knife.


ENJOY! 


PS: If you have any questions drop me an email at k73mmf@mun.ca


Have a great foodie week :)
  

Hello from a VERY wet Newfoundland and welcome to the Merry Month of JUNE!!! 

Also, a warm welcome and thanks to all my followers, new and old :)

This past weekend I had my belated belated belated Graduation Party and BOY! was it ever a blast. I received my diploma in the mail just over two weeks ago so I thought it was about time I get to celebrate my graduation, despite not being able to attend the actual ceremony way back when. Having officially completed my program back in September 2011 (but really being finished back in April 2011), this day has been more than a year in the making. To say I was happy when I finally received it would be tremendous understatement. So I treated myself to a bit of a "par-tay" with my very best friends :) The morning after was hang-over free and I had a great time the night previous so I'd count my "graduation" as a success! Here's the happy girl... gonna have to get that framed pretty soon...

I also managed to make quite a bit of progress on my Friendship Sampler this weekend as well.

LOVIN' IT!

In other news, I've purchased a chart making program for my iPad which I've been experimenting with for a couple of hours. I do like it, but it's a little slow and prone to freezing, so I'm not in love with it at the moment. But I do like that it has the ability to show me the coloured version of the final product which I think is EXTREMELY useful. Here's a screen shot of what I'm working on...

All Rights Reserved

Remember my post back in April about the house in Tors Cove??? Well this is my inspiration ... 

I may add a few other Newfoundland inspired elements - a dory and maybe some birds off in the distance... I need to spruce it up a bit ;) 

Generally speaking though, I really think charts are more like guidelines rather than being something that is set in stone. I have no qualms with making changes when the real deals starts to come alive on the fabric. 

I hope one day to be able to produce a few charts inspired by the unique and funky houses that litter Newfoundland. As you can see below there are plenty out there!

Anyway, that's enough from me for today! I hope everyone had a great weekend and if you haven't done so already, sign up for my give-away here. Ends JUNE 19!!!!

Ciao for now.

Melissa

I simply cannot believe the response I've gotten to my give-away so far! Thank you all so much for the comments and be sure to enter my give-away here!!! 

Never would I have EVER thought it possible to reach 100 followers on my little blog. I'm almost there and it's sooo AMAXING :) It is an absolute joy blogging and sharing my experiences, but what I love most is reading all the other cross stitchy blogs out there. They are a constant source of inspiration and motivation for me, and perhaps they also feed my addiction just a little too ;) 

This week it's back to the Friendship Sampler I've been working on. It took a back seat to the exchange piece I was working on over the past week or so... so I'm very happy to have it back onto the hoops. 

Over all I'm loving this sampler, despite a few errors I've caught in the chart. Last night I was stitching happily away when I realized... UH OH... I'm off a stitch in the stem I was working on... being too lazy to frog it all I decided the best course of action was simply to add a stitch to the top and hope things didn't look too off. By rights the red petals on either side shouldn't be directly touching the green of the stem... SUPREME LAZINESS... me no wanna frog .... haha. Here's the problem area.

Now to some doggie entertainment. I bought some bubbles at the dollar store today and instantly my mind went to the dogs. Literally. They would LOVE chasing around the bubbles!!! Here they are in action :)

Getting ready for some fun!

OMGZ BUBBLESSS! Ready to pounce!!!

Anyway I hope you all are enjoying the week so far. I'll be busy preparing for/recovering from my graduation party that's on Friday this week for the next couple of days. Lots of Italian themed games/drinks/food because that's where I did my Master's Degree :)  Wish me luck!!!!

Happy Stitching 

Melissa

Hello my stitchy friends!

It's finally the 24th of May long weekend (aka Victoria Day). But isn't May 24th on Thursday next week you ask??? Why yes it is, but May 24  is always celebrated on the Monday before the actual day. Victoria Day here in Canada is technically a celebration of the Monarchy and Queen Victoria's b-day. That's Queen Victoria of England I'm talking about. Some of you may be surprised to learn that formally Canada's Monarch and ruler is the Queen of England, Queen Elizabeth. Now mind you we do have a Prime Minister just like the UK who actually calls the shots, but Canada is part of the commonwealth countries. There's your fun fact for today :) 

Now onto the more serious business! The May 2-4 weekend would not be complete without a couple of things, mainly a trip to 'da cabin' or 'around da bay' or 'up in a gravel pit' with your trusty camper. One must also be equipped with copious amounts of grub and booze to entertain all those that might pop by for a scoff (aka - a feed, a kitchen party, etc etc etc). I would even go so far as to say that the May 24th weekend is THE most anticipated long weekend in Newfoundland. It symbolizes so many things, good times with friends and family, start of the fishing/camping season, and most importantly May 24 weekend is the unofficial start of spring/summer... despite the fact that I can remember waking up to snow on the tent at times during this weekend. But as for this upcoming weekend... well I don't want to jinx it but... it's looking pretty darn fine. A few showers on Saturday but temps are suppose to be in the teens all weekend. I'm headed to the cabin this weekend with some family and friends, so here's me crossing my fingers and hoping for a good weekend. 

One other thing that we lot like to indulge in during this highly anticipated weekend is MUSIC. Specifically traditional Newfoundland/Irish Music. Below is a song I've linked that you must ABSOLUTELY listen to. It's called '24th of May' by Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers. This group has been around for years here in Newfoundland, so this song will give you a feel for what May 24th is all about and also a bit of traditional music. 

In mentioning Buddy Wasisname I also have to let you have a listen to 'Salt Water Joys'. My all time favourite Newfoundland Song. I would often listened to this when I lived away... it always made me a little homesick, but nevertheless I love this song.

As many of you already know it's also IHSW this weekend. I've signed up in the hope that I'll get plenty of stitching done. Wish me luck!

This week also saw bit of work put into my Friendship Sampler. Here's were I'm at currently.

I also got some stashy things to report on! I received some new patterns in the mail the other day AND Bronwyn also sent me here Peter Rabbit Charts that were in an old magazine of hers. So a BIG thanks to Bronwyn, especially since her offer came to me just as I was entering the blogging world. Couldn't have asked for a better experience :) A couple of weeks ago I received some new fabrics from Silkweaver Fabrics and 123Stitch as well and am only just getting a picture in of them now... shame on me... hehe.

That's all from me for now! Have a great stitchy weekend everyone!!!

Ciao!

Melissa

Hello again my stitchy friends :)

Firstly, thank you all for the wonderful comments on my last post. I'm so glad you all enjoyed to pictures of South Brigus - I love this beautiful Island of mine and cannot resist sharing the photos I take with you guys!!!

My post title today is very appropriate because we got DRENCHED yesterday. It rained, and then it rained some more right up until 7pm and then the sun came out for just a quick hello and goodbye. 'Weather' also happened to be the very first thing I stitched on my new start!

This is the beginnings of the Friendship Sampler I purchased from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe not too long ago. I'm loving the hand dyed floss so far, especially since it's not quite the same shade throughout the length of the floss so the end result is rustic - which is exactly what I'm going for on this project. The only liberty I've taken with the design/instructions so far is that I'm not using full floss stitches - and by that I took it mean the whole 6 strands of floss!!! So instead I'm using just 3 - essentially halving the floss. I did a couple of stitches in full floss but the result was far to bulky for my liking. 3 strands on 18 count aida is just full enough for me I think. 

On another note ... I'm beginning to feel a bit guilty for not working on 'Oh Christmas Tree'... but I'm just not in the mood :( There are so many other fun stitchy projects calling my name! I know this is probably no excuse but I simply want to do other projects first. Maybe I'll get around to it soon... no promises though. 

Oh! Also, this weekend I finished up part of my project for my Stitched With Love Exchange partner, this of course was between helping my brother put the finishing touches on his new house. Just got to get the ok from the inspector and he'll be in the house and my free time will have doubled (or maybe even tripled!). Seriously though, I'm very happy for him and his girlfriend. Soon I hope to have a house just as beautiful as theirs. 

I'll leave you with a puppy picture, it's been some time since I posted a picture of these two rascals. Blue (the black and white one) will soon be leaving us to live with my brother - the true owner. I'm not sure how Leia will like that seeing as I'm pretty sure these two are in love with each other.  I see many a puppy date in the future...

Happy Stitching dearies!

Melissa