May 21/18

Here is my first attempt at making bath bombs. I used the usual citric acid, baking soda, cornstarch, olive oil and water. For epsom salts, I used the Body Shop peppermint foot soak that I had in the cupboard and eucalyptus oil. The mold is a muffin tin that I found at the thrift shop the other day when I was doing a shift there. The directions that I found on pinterest were pretty straightforward. The hardest part for me was figuring out how to change the measures of ounces into something that I understood so that I could double the recipe. After packing the mold tight, I left to sit in the mold while I visited with some friends and then left them on the cutting board to dry overnight. They are now in the bathroom for the fella' to try out during his next bath.

I did start stitching the Christmas ornaments for his kids, watching TV and stitching late into the night last night. My project for this evening is to make chocolate chip oatmeal cookies so that we have a treat for this week. I so enjoy making stuff!

May 20/18

Ta-da!! Hot off the hoop. Life has been hectic and stressful around here. I have been coming home from work, eating supper, walking the dogs and collapsing into bed kind of stressful. Anyhow, I picked up the needle and hoop this afternoon to complete this piece, a Dimensions kit that I had to re-start on my own fabric because the darling little puppy had chewed a few holes in the original fabric. She did me a favour because I was on the fence about the fabric that came in the kit.

I have recently joined a Facebook group for stitchers in Nova Scotia to discover that two of the stitchers live within a few blocks from me. I met one of them the other night when I went to collect a book from her that I had purchased from her from another Facebook group. It is nice to actually meet other stitchers as discussions on line and shopping on line are nothing like face to face and hands

Some other things that I have been working on are baking cookies and soap making. The cost of buying home style chocolate chip cookies has become a bit prohibitive and the fella' loves home made cookies so I tried out a recipe that was not so stellar and then learned about this recipe from one of my co-workers. Well, this recipe yields more cookies for a lower price than what I was paying at the grocery store bakery. I had been scheduled to take a soap making class this week, but a sudden illness at work has delayed that class for me. I also have all of the makings for bath bombs because, similar to the grocery store experience, I was at Lush when I realized that I could make the same things for a much lower cost! Oh yes, and then there is gardening. I put out some potted plants and edged all of my flower beds yesterday. There are seedlings sprouting on my deck for broccoli and some flowers. A few new perennials have been added to my flower beds and I moved some of the plants that needed to be moved so that the garden looked more pleasing to my eye. The shorter plants were moved to the front of the bed and the taller ones moved to the back.

Happy stitching!

May 6/18

How many excuses can I have about my lack of stitching?? My mojo for stitching has been low recently. There are just so many other things to do before I can get to my stitching. I won't bore with the list that does, sadly, include things like laundry and, happily, include time with my dogs. My latest excuse is that the bulb has died in my natural light lamp. The replacement lamp should be here from Amazon within the week.

One thing that I have learned for myself this winter is to not beat myself up for not getting things done. I constantly have a list of things to do and projects in all areas of my life. Being sick so much since November and being very slow to bounce back, I have finally learned to do what I can and rest when I have to. I try to do a little bit every day on my various projects so that eventually that little bit starts to add up to a completed project. When I need to rest, I do. 

I hope that all is well with you, dear reader. Some day soon, I will have some thing, any thing, stitchy to share with you!