Happy Thursday Folks - and a special Happy Thanksgiving to my neighbours to the south!

It's been quite some time since I posted last!!! I've been missing you blogland!!!! Unfortunately, I've been mega busy over the last couple of weeks and just didn't get around to posting and uploading pictures to show everyone. C'est la vie!

 

Now that I've finally uploaded some pics I can now do justice to the  Fall exchange I participated in with Stitched with Love Exchanges. I've done a number of these exchanges now and not one has failed to surprise me :) I think I fall more in love with these exchanges with the more I do. Plus there's lots of motivation to get things done! Funny how that is... I always put down the WIPs for me so I can do an exchange piece. It's not that I don't love my WIPs... I just have so much fun with exchanges hehe. 

 

Anyway here we are! This is what I sent off to Kathy :) For the piece I stitched, I used a chart out of a cross stitch magazine that was fall themed... My memory must be dying because I can't remember the designer nor the magazine at the moment. Will have to dig that out later!

 

I've done speciality stitches before, but the stitches in this were insane!!! The pumpkins in particular were VERY difficult. But I think they turned out great (some how)!

I decided to try a different finish this time too. No help from mom other than threading the sewing machine through. For some reason I find setting up the sewing machine to be an impossible task. First off the thing is ancient, any wrong move and something could dislodge and I'd have no idea how to put it back... and second - well it's sooooo darn hard to remember how and where to thread the floss through other than at the needle. I think Mom has shown me this a hundred times now and I still can't understand when to put the floss through the leaver and in what direction!!!! HUMPH! 

 

 

I think I lack some serious ability on the sewing machine... I can't even sew straight lol. So it's a miracle that this finish came out like this at all.  

Then there's the magnificent parcel I got from Fiona! 5 skiens of floss and 4 trimmings from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe, 3 rolls of ribbon, buttons, a tape measure, beaded needle, 2 pieces of fabric from silkweavers,  and the most gorgeous box finish with a Blackbirds designs  xstitch :)

And as if this wasn't enough - when I opened the box the inside was beautifully finished and with little goodies too!!! Some fine tapestry needles and the cutest pair of embroidery scissors EVER!

 

So a big huge thank you to Fiona for this wonderful exchange package!!!!

 

Until next time!

 

Happy Stitching

 

Melissa

 

 



Happy Tuesday Folks!

I've been a busy bee lately - in life and stitching!!! 

But I'll post more on that later :)

Today's a quicky post!

While checking out some of the Facebook groups I'm in I discovered that Country Cottage Needleworks released their new Santa's Village series!

For the next year CCN will release a new chart every month.

Here's a peak at the first chart Santa's House available today (hasn't been put up on 123stitch yet though):

SO I thought it would be great to start a SAL!!!

If you're interested please join me at Santa's Village SAL on Facebook. 

IF you don't have Facebook but would still like to participate in the SAL please leave a comment here and if I get enough interest I'll create a new blog especially for the SAL :)

Merry Stitching!!!

Melissa

Happy Friday Folks!

Halloween has finally come and gone. We had a few trick or treater's come to the door in the CUTEST costumes ever. All small kids and just so adorable.

Next up... I know you don't want me to say but I will... Christmas! Halloween has really become the boundary that Christmas doesn't past (unless you're Costco).  So here we are 2 days after Halloween and the decorations are put back in their little cubby holes for another year... and now it's the Christmas dec's turn. I'd say we have about 500% more Christmas decs than we do Halloween decs... which is not a hard thing to do considering they consist of a few pumpkins, a mummy candy stand and a witch with a broken nose (poor witch). 

The next couple of weeks will see the house slowly turn into a winter wonderland with Christmas Trees and garland around every corner. Every surface in our house will be subjected to the wonder that is Christmas. AND I LOVE IT! 

I don't really get all wrapped up (pardon the pun) in all the commercialism of Christmas and only buy gifts for those closest to me. No endless shopping trips for me NO WAY! Instead I choose to steep myself in the feeling that this Season brings. My boyfriend especially LOVES walking in downtown St. John's. Hot Chocolate and lazy evenings spent in downtown's cozy cafe's are calling my name.   There's something about watching the hustle and bustle on the street, and seeing people wrapped up in plush coats and wooly mittens and scarf's that just makes my heart warm. I long for this feeling even now as I type up this post! 

This morning I also heard my first Christmas song on the radio... I feel that it's still a little early for the x-mas tunes - it takes forever to put of our Christmas decs so that is justifiable :) See I'm not entirely crazy ;) But boy I cannot WAIT to pop in those Christmas CDs in the car's CD player!!! I'll hold off on this for another couple of weeks if my willpower holds out. I remember one year I started playing x-mas music super early and by the time the big day finally rolled around it didn't really feel like Christmas at all - I had worn out Christmas!!! I won't be doing that this year!!!! 

In stitchy news (that is a bit Christmas-y admittedly), after some excellent advice from all my lovely peeps (aka: devoted followers hehe) I've decided to keep my L&L WIP on the hoops. I've actually put in about 7hr's of work in on just the bottom half of the tree already - and this is what I have to show.

'Slow going' is the best phrase to describe this project. Not much to show for so much work... BUT I SHALL persevere! 

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Ciao for now :)

Melissa

Happy Tuesday folks!

Well after starting this one back in July (has it really been that long?????) I finally managed to finish off Lizze Kate's Mystery Halloween sampler after a full day of stitching on Sunday and a bit of work on Monday evening as well. 

(Sorry for the poor lighting! I leave when it's dark and come home in the dark so there's not much in the way of options except a fully lit room!)

Happy Dance Time :)

Close up of the last section I've been working on!

A first time for everything! This is my first time putting charms/beads on a project!

Surprisingly I love the Pumpkin Head Cat! 

I loved working on this project, despite having to frog my way into a oblivion a couple of times... did I mention I hate frogging!? I don't mind a little bit of frogging... as it's virtually impossible to cross stitch without making a mistake at least once. But it seemed like everytime I turned around I was either off a stitch or a row... which left me contemplating whether or not I was awake while stitching at allllll. But I made it through and have compensated for my little boo boos in some areas rather than having to rip out a hundred stitches - I think I'd cry if I had to do that. 

Knowing I was close to a finish drove me to my stock pile of stash. I have tons of charts now and about 4-5 extra that are kitted up and ready for the hoop. 

Speaking of stash, the mailman finallllly delivered this on Friday:

This is what I bought with the Gift Card I got from Anne over at Doll's Musings after winning her blogoversary giveaway. It's Quaker Christmas II - Songs of the Season and it has been on my wishlist forever!!!!! I remember I wanted to buy it the first time I saw it BUT with the called for floss it was always too expensive. WELL! as soon as I found out I won the gift card I knew EXACTLY what I was going to spend it on. Thanks again Anne!

So what next I wonder???? I'm a little torn between starting something new or digging out that one WIP that just doesn't seem to want to get done... partly because it's soooooo hard. Do you guys remember this one? 

Yup that's 'Oh Christmas Tree' by Lavender and Lace. This is the WIP that kicked off my cross stitching craze again and was the subject of my first post EVER! Just looked, April 8, 2012 guys.... APRIL! JUMPIN'S! I know I shouldn't discriminate, but it's stitched on aida... and I just don't love it anymore. If there's one thing that blogland got me into was stitching on linen and evenweave - which I didn't even know was possible beforehand (I was strictly aida alllllll the way). This chart also has tons of confetti stitching... thanks to the tree. Sure it gives lots of dimension to the tree BUT it takes forever, which is painful. 

And while we're on the Christmas note... it's only 55 Days 'til Christmas! Let the hysteria begin! hehe

Have a great week everyone!

Melissa

PS: Thinking of our Neighbours to the South today! My thoughts and prayers are with everyone having to deal with the monstrosity that is Sandy!

Happy Friday Folks!

My life has been positively 'squashy' over the past couple of weeks. I mean it! Hardly a day goes by without some type of squash being in my diet. SO I thought it would be cool to share some of my kitchen creations :)

Exhibit A:

Butternut Squash Soup

I have this recipe to thank for getting me into cooking with squash in the first place. I've never been a lover of purée'd foods, but after a friend whipped this up one day I simply couldn't resist trying it! 

Doesn't it look yummy??? Or maybe Instagram just has that affect ;)  Personally, I don't have the Instagram app - one of many apps not offered on Blackberry... so annoying. So what's a girl to do???? Well I commandeered my boyfriend's iPhone of course.  

And to throw back to a couple of posts ago - I used the little butternut squashes produced from my lovely garden! T'was very yummy indeed :)

Butternut Squash Soup Recipe:

- 1 med/lg Butternut Squash peeled and cubed (make sure to scoop the gunk out too)

- 1 onion (chopped)

- 2 - 3 tbls olive oil

- 1 or 2 boxes of chicken stock. About 4-6cups for those who use chicken bullion. 

- 2 Bay Leaves

- 3/4 tsp of nutmeg

- salt

- pepper
- 1/4 cup of milk/cream (optional)

- Chives (optional)

- sour cream (optional)

Add Olive Oil to large saucepan on med-high heat. Add chopped onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook until soft (about 5-8mins). Add the cubed butternut squash, adding additional olive oil if necessary. Let brown for another 5-8mins. Add enough chicken stock to cover the tops of the butternut squash plus some. Add bay leaves. Bring to a gentle boil and let cook at medium heat until the butternut squash is soft when pierced with a fork. Add more salt and pepper to your taste.

Using a hand held blender or a food processor purée the soup. Add nutmeg after you've given the soup an initial go with the blender/food processor and then blend until smooth. I usually add some milk or cream as well to make it creamer. I also add more chicken stock than most people because I like my soup like soup and not purée veg. When all's set and done I like to top with freshly chopped chives and a little bit of sour cream as well. 

If you decide to give this recipe a go, please feel free to experiment! Add as little or as much as you want of the ingredients listed. Go by how things taste, that's my method of cooking :)

Exhibit B:

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Squares

Boy were these ever fun to make!!! I had some left over puree pumpkin (from a can) in the fridge after having pumpkin spice pancakes over the weekend and I thought that this would be a great use of my leftovers. Yey for not being wasteful!!!! I brought them to the office and they were GONE in a jiff. 

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Squares - more instagram fun :)

What I liked most about this recipe is that it was only a little cheesecaky if that makes any sense. It was a fun twist on a traditional cheesecake I think. Best part - the crust is NOT gram crumbs. Not that I have anything against gram... it's just so much funner (and yummer) to have a crust made from flour, brown sugar and butter :))))))) 

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Squares (Anna Olson - Foodnetwork Canada recipe):

Crust
- 1 cup of all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup of packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup of cool butter, cut into cubes

Pumpkin Cheesecake
- 1/2 package brick cream cheese, at room temp
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of pumpkin purée (NOT pumpkin pie filling!!!)
- 2 tbls all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp of baking powerder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 whole egg, at room temp
- 1 egg yolk

Cheesecake Swirl
- 1/4 package brick cream cheese, at room temp
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350 F. Greease an 8-inch square pan and line it with parchment paper so that the paper comes up the sides of the pan ( this makes it easier to remove after).

For the crust, using a food processor, pulse the flour and brown sugar together, then cut in the butter until evenly blended (the mixture will be dry and crumbly). Alternatively, this base can be made by hand, blending the butter into the flour and sugar using a pastry cutter. Press this into the prepared pan and bake it for about 18mins, until it turns just a little brown at the edges. Cool completely before adding the filling. 

Next for the pumpkin cheesecake filling, beat the cream cheese to soften and then beat the cream cheese to soften and then beat in the sugar. Add the pumpkin and stir until smooth. Switch to a whisk and add in the flour, backing powder and cinnamon. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk and set aside.

For the cheesecake swirl, beat the cream cheese until smooth and then beat in the sugar. Stir in the egg yolk and vanilla until smooth.

Next, pour the pumpkin cheesecake onto the cooled crust. Either spoon or pipe the cheesecake swirl on top and use a tooth pick or bamboo skewer to create pretty swirls. Bake for about 30 mins until, like a cheesecake, the filling is set at the edges but still has a little jiggle at the centre. Cool the squares to room temp, then chill for at least 2hrs before slicing. The squares will keep, refrigerated, for up to 3 days.


OK enough talking about food for one day - I'm literally drooling here!

I hope everyone has a great halloweeny weekend! Lots planned :)

Cheers,

Melissa