Tiny Needle Tuesday, 4/20/21

 Good Morning Everyone!

Kind of a chilly morning here (37).  I'm sitting at my computer with a shawl wrapped around my shoulders.  Tyg is keeping me company - he loves hanging out in the office ever since we put one of those bird feeders that attaches with suction cups on the front office window.  Purple finches, white crown sparrows and greedy cardinals come to feed and Tyg bangs on the window with his paw.  So funny to watch.

Anyway, it is Tuesday, so it must be TNT time.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had a lot of ripping back to do on Sunday.  I was working on one of the last two border motifs and the yellow (kind of pale) against the linen was difficult at best for me to see.  Here's a close up of that part...the yellow looks stronger in the picture.

I had finished the right hand side, but when I went to join it across the top I found that I was one stinking thread off.  Of course I discovered my error at the bottom, so had to rip out all I had done on the right hand side.  I might have been able to fudge it, but it just did not look good to me, so out it came.  I have not picked it up since!!

Before that mess, I did manage a mother (I assume)/child duo of wild boars!

I don't normally think of wild boars as being cute, but I like this pair.

And here's an overall view of the sampler.  As I say each week:  closing in on the finish!!

One and a half border motifs to go, one more big creature and then my initials and date (year).  It's a satisfying piece (except when I have to rip out).

Yesterday's time at the office (about 3 hours) went well.  I only saw Tom from IT and as I was leaving two folks from accounting were in a conference room.  That's it!  Also, by the way, it appears that the hawks are not nesting at the office.  I don't know what happened, but I haven't seen them for a number of weeks and there is only a stick or two on top of the light fixture.  Too bad - I would have enjoyed watching the nest again this year.

After leaving the office, I drove to "Steve's Sew and Vac" in King of Prussia to pick up my sewing machine.  I have a new foot pedal for it and the machine has been serviced (cleaned, oiled, tension checked, etc.).  And boy have prices climbed - it was over $100 just for the servicing!!  The final bill was just under $150.  Not what I had been expecting...but still less $$ than a new machine.

Today Fletch and I are heading out for our second vacinnation jabs.  We have to go back to Willow Grove (about 40 minutes away).  We'll go early like we did for the first one and hope to get in and out.  I have three conference calls this afternoon, so hopefully I will feel ok.  (But I've reminded my boss that we are getting our shots and that I could be delayed or just not feeling well - time will tell.)

I'd best grab another cup of coffee and then make sure that Fletch is waking up.  Have a good one!

Tiny Needle Tuesday March 30, 2021

 Good Morning!

Back to the chilliness this a.m. - 28 degrees which is a bit of a rude awakening after the warmer weather we had last week.

Yesterday ended up being different than I expected.  My boss Bill called shortly after I hit publish for my blog post and it turned out that I ended up going in to the office for a bit.  No big deal...it is only 12 miles away and the drive is a pretty one wandering through Valley Forge Park.  Plus, as I told Fletch, it gives me a chance to check on the hawks.  Sadly I didn't see any hawks, but the sticks are still on top of the light fixture.  No one sitting on them, so no eggs yet.  It was a quick trip in and out - I got to the office at 9 and left before 10:30, so not bad.  I still managed to get the bathrooms cleaned and do some laundry.  Now I need to find new bath rugs for the downstairs bathroom as the toilet bowl cleaner leaked onto the rugs and left a trail bleached out.  LOL

Here we are at another Tiny Needle Tuesday and I'm happy with the progress I made this past week.  I stitched 3 more letters (G, S and H) and...drumroll...stitched the second fir tree!  I love the look of those trees, but geeze, what a PITA to stitch.  LOL

And here is a close up of that fir tree clump:

I think next up will be another creature or two.  Time will tell.  I also need/want to finish the bottom border (fingers still crossed that it will meet up the way it should).

Today is our first vaccination appointment.  Hoping it is not crowded and goes smoothly and quickly.  Fletch has an eye doctor appointment this afternoon, so we will be rushing back home so that he can get to that.  I hope to knit/stitch/read this afternoon...oh, and I guess I will check work email - hahaha.  I am also in search of unsweetened coconut.  All I can find at our grocery stores is the sweetened kind.  I found a new recipe I want to try for Easter:  a Lemon Macaroon Pie!  I may head over to a "natural foods" store later today to see if they have the coconut I need.

Hope your week is going well.  See you tomorrow for Unraveled Wednesday!

Tiny Needle Tuesday 3/23/21

 Good Morning!

Gosh - yesterday was such a beautiful day!  I did manage to get out in the morning for a walk (just over 3 miles) along the River Trail in Valley Forge.  The Schuylkill River goes alongside the trail.  I only saw a few people (either biking or walking) and no wildlife, but I did hear woodpeckers in the woods.  At one point I spotted this hanging over the river:

At first glance I thought it was some strange kind of nest, but then I saw lots and lots of them.  It's just clumps of leaves that washed together when the water was high.  But so strange that almost all of them are round in appearance.

Work stayed quiet all day and later in the afternoon I got in some archery for the first time this year!

My first two arrows!  I did not continue doing as well...but I shot a total of 25 arrows which I thought was a good start to the season.  Rather than shooting all the arrows at once, I'm shooting 5 and then fetching them.  Since a good portion of them do not hit the target, it's easier for me to stop after 5 and walk up to retrieve them - less likelihood of missing one or just forgetting where one went.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun.  Obviously our target has weathered a bit....

Well, it is Tuesday which means it's time to report on Tiny Needle Progress.  There was a tiny amount of progress this week.  Another motif in the bottom border was stitched.  First a close up and then the overall sampler.

It is coming along.  Just two more motif figures along the bottom edge and I sure do hope it meets up well with the right hand side.  If not...I will fudge...I will not be ripping out - LOL.  There are still some letters to stitch (and I should decide on a color for my initials - I want them to be different than the other letters), also a larger fir tree than the one at the top, a few more leaves and a bunch of creatures.  I'm enjoying seeing this come together and, fortunately, it is still a joy to stitch.

A little later I'll head to the office for a little work and our virtual lunch.  Thanks for the wishes for me to win a prize!  I don't really care - I already received gift cards, a lovely candle (forgot to mention this, but it was in the box with the gift card and golden egg).  Bobby and the company are beyond generous!

One thing I need to work on is planning a meeting for April.  My one boss, Bruce, has decided he is having a meeting for his team in April in Florida.  What???  I told him I would organize it, but I will not be attending.  I have no desire to travel at this time and I think he's nuts to be holding a meeting...but that's my opinion, not his....

Enjoy your day!  Time for me to pour some more coffee and try to wake up.

Still Snowing on Tiny Needle Tuesday 2/2/21 AKA Groundhog Day

 Hello and Good Morning!

It appears the weather folks were correct...for a change...we have not had a storm like we are having currently for a long, long time.  Yesterday we had sleet ALL morning.  You could hear it hitting the window and at times making an awful racket.  At some point in the afternoon it changed back to snow.  Fletch was out shoveling a path to the bird feeder and I stepped out to take a picture.  This was at 9 p.m. last night (Monday night):

And now it is 6 a.m.  This next picture is one I took when I stepped out on the patio at 5:30 a.m. this morning:

It looks very similar, but I can tell it is a little deeper.  The weather app on my phone is showing the snow continuing through 7 p.m. tonight.  That will be a lot!  Or as my friend Leslie commented, "that's a butt load of snow!"

I did make a turkey pot pie for dinner which turned out great (and I forgot to take a picture) and also made some bread (and failed to take a picture of that too).  We haven't tried the bread yet, but it's an oatmeal bread with wheat germ and both whole wheat and white flour.  Work was a little busy for me, but not too crazy.

The birds were feeding like crazy ALL day.  This guy showed up at our peanut feeder while Fletch and I were having lunch.

Lots of blue jays, chickadees, tufted titmice, sparrows, wrens, woodpeckers, cardinals, etc.  Fun to watch.  And, amusement for Tyg of course!  He was trying to help last night as I took pictures of my Quaker Autumn Sampler:

Poor Tyg has been a little stir crazy.  He goes out and then comes back in...then goes out again and comes back in...then chases kitty ghosts all around the house.  After a bit he will settle in a chair in the kitchen where he can feel the warmth of the heater or he will sprawl on the bathroom floor tucking his paws underneath the heater.

But, speaking of the sampler, it is TNT, or Tiny Needle Tuesday and a little bit of progress has been made in the past week.

The letter Y, the acorn and the rabbit were all stitched this past week.  The rabbit looks more like a Jackalope minus the antlers.  Fletch thinks it looks like a Kokopelli.  Whatever it is, it was fun to stitch.  Slowly but surely the sampler is filling in a bit.

On another topic, I'm tempted to fool around a bit with MDK's Kiki Mariko pattern - looks like an awful lot of fun.  Is anyone working with this (or have you in the past)?  The MDK post today shows a sweater (!!!) in that pattern as well as a cowl and, of course, the rug.

Planning to get more knitting (and maybe a bit of stitching) done today.  The bathrooms need to be cleaned as well and now some laundry because earlier I spilled an entire cup of coffee on me!  Klutz!  Have a wonderful Tuesday!