Halloween punchin'...

And making some progress...I'm down to the background and hope to have the punching completed tonight. Not sure what the finish will be so stay tuned!

Weekend Ramblin'..

What a beautiful weekend!
It started Friday evening with a little birthday party for the grandson of friends and while playing with the other kiddos and toys was really fun, Rylee enjoyed the birthday cupcakes just as much! Who doesn't like birthday cake?!
Saturday evening we celebrated the long awaited (10+ years) wedding of our nephew Zane and Jamie (aka Sissy).
Sunday was a quiet day spent at home and catching up...getting things ready for John to head back out to work and I finished up this Netty LaCroix heart make-do.
The weather has been just beautiful...we've gotten a break from the HOT temperatures and since we have been without ac this year (other than the small bedroom window units) we are so thankful for this break! Makes me a little more anxious for fall!
I think I'm going to spend part of this day working on a fall punchneedle.
Enjoy your day!

A finish to share & wool gathering...

Just finished and she will be available at Randolph Mercantile soon! 
She is a design by Olde Crows Nest Inn.....and actually was designed to hold a dolly of her own but I opted not to include that and I like her just as she is.

I also want to share another snippet from Aunt Evelyns writings....

Wool gathering..."Grandma Mag talked about wool gathering when she was a child.
As the sheep went by brush or under a barbed wire fence, some of the wool gets caught and is pulled off. So they went along pulling it off and put it in a sack.
A bar of lye soap was melted in hot water. There were tubs with sun warmed water-wool was placed in the tubs and left overnight. The next morning the wool was washed. Then you took a hand full and squeezed the water out and put it in a tub of water and rinsed. After squeezing the water out it was laid out on the lawn to dry. After it was dry it was carded. A carding comb was 2 pieces if wood about 3 x 6 with nails driven through them.
It was put away until they had a quilt ready and was used as batting."

Some finishes to share...

I've been working with wools, homespun and calico's this week.....
From Notforgotten Farm's American Folk an Americana pony made with wool and hand dyed wools. Hand stitched in place with wool floss and the stem stitching being dmc floss. It has been backed with homespun.
Next up are zinc lid make-do pinkeeps using snippets of calico's from my supply stash. The two on the left are filled with mohair and the larger and smaller ones are fiber-fil. I've added rusty t-pins, pins, buttons and a threaded needle to each.
Lastly, calico bird make-do's. Again using calico snippets from my supply stash and they are stuffed with fiber-fil. Use them as they are or at your sewing table as a pinkeep. As you can see they each have a different base.....an old door knob for the gold bird...a grubbied glass candle holder for brown bird and for blue bird a small glass bottle that I filled with buttons from my Grandmas button tin.
These will all be available at Randolph Mercantile later this week!
Hope you are having a great week!

Birthday party highlights...

All dressed and ready to party, waiting for the rest of her guests to arrive...
Can you tell we just love Sofia the first?
Happy 2nd Birthday Rylee....we love you so so much!

Mr. Doodle-doo

A little finish to share.....a penny rug designed several years ago by good friend Gloria of Barn Cat Primitives. It is now available, as well as the little crow punchneedle I shared a few days ago, at the local mercantile!
Hope you all had a great weekend. We celebrated a sweet 2nd birthday and I will share photos from that in the next day or two.
Enjoy your day!

Baking...back in the day...

I love my kitchenaid mixer and all the other little kitchen gadgets I've aquired over the years but there are some things that are just better left "old school" and as I watched the last of the American Baking Competiton the other night, I see I'm not alone in this way of thinking....I know...surprise surprise, right?....and it took me back to my aunt Evelyns book of memories. This time to an entry or two she made about Grandma Mag and her cooking. Shown below is a photo of her and my Mom....

"Grandma Mag Summer was a very good cook. She cooked by dollops & "by guess and by golly". That is why you can't duplicate her cooking. I remember her bread dressing & gravy. She would cook sweet potatoes, drain & let them cool. Then she would mold the sweet potatoe around a marshmallow-then roll it in coconut-place them on a cookie sheet placing it in the oven until the coconut would brown. You had to be careful when you ate yours that you didn't burn your mouth with the hot marshmallow.
When baking a cake she didn't use a recipe. She had a small pan and she put several spoonfulls in-baked it. She would break it-feel of it-taste it. Then she could tell if the batter needed more flour or maybe more milk.
My favorite cake was a burnt sugar cake. The white sugar was burned in an iron skillet. When as dark as she wanted it, she added water making a syrup. It was used in cake & icing. The only time we could make ice cream was in the winter. We couldn't afford to buy ice in the summer. She also made burnt sugar ice cream. Our neighbor Lady  Schooler could make Christmas candy just as good as Grandma Mag. Their nut date candy roll was the best candy I ever ate. The fudge they made was cooked and beat not like quick fudge you make now. The divinity was fantastic."

"I remember Grandma Mag getting up on Sunday morning early- make pies or a cake & dress a chicken to have for dinner. She would make it to church too."

Alot of her memories brings about some of my childhood memories.
I remember my Grandma Hazel Summer talking about burnt sugar cake and my Mom talking about Grandpa's divinity and I did find a recipe and tried it for the first time last year and was quite successful! I've not tried burnt sugar anything but reading about this cake I'm really wanting to! 
I like to cook....sometimes by the book and sometimes "by guess and by golly". Sometimes I take shortcuts using new kitchen gadgets and sometimes things are better left to the "old school" way.
Hope you enjoy your day....we have a break from the heat today I think I'm going to go bake something!

A finish to share....

.....and a wee bit of progress.
Whew-whee! It's a hot one today! So what do I do? I brew me a cup of coffee, grab my cross-stitch and come sit out on the front porch. Sounds a little messed up, right? There is a nice breeze coming across and I do enjoy sitting outside.
Just want to share this little punchneedle finish...a little design by Mosey and Me but with a little bit of editing. I wanted it to fit on this little iron pad. I found this at the mercantile for just a couple bucks and knew it would be perfect for something like this. I used dmc floss and punched it into weavers cloth. I gave it a walnut stain, attached it to a piece of black wool then to this little iron trivet. It will soon be available at the mercantile.
And just a wee bit of progress on Brown Egg Farm...I started this while out with John last week. I'm stitching it for me and no rush so no telling how long it will take. It's a fairly good sized piece and I'll work on it in spurts. I've been working on alterations all day so far and decided I needed a break from it!
Hope you are having a fabulous day and getting to spend some time sitting on your front porch! Time to get stitchin'..... before I have to get back to the alterations!

From the passenger seat...