Our weekend

DH and I went up to Dallas to visit our relatives there this weekend.  We had a very nice visit with my parents, Bro, DSis-IL, and nephews.  We got caught up on all the family happenings (and gossip).  

Our oldest nephew is now reading "real books" and I had fun talking to him about the Narnia books and the one "Little House" book he has read so far.  He was also astounded to learn that his uncle speaks Spanish.  (DH lived in Ecuador for two years while in junior high and learned the language then.)  

Oh, and I sang "Motorcycle Policeman" for him.  I remember this song (it is indelibly engraved in my memory) because my Bro played the record over and over and over and over and over and over, etc., etc., etc. when he was a kid.  Of course, he has no recollection of this record, but I sure do!

Our youngest nephew is nearly two and is learning to talk.  He is also learning to tolerate Emma who has a penchant for licking any kid's face she can reach.  He would scream like a banshee when she came near him, but them he would gleefully holler, "Emma!" to get her to come back, and then scream again.  The kid is an adrenaline junky for sure.  ;-)   Emma finally figured out how to get her lick in as the adults were always shooing her away from her screaming target; she snuck up behind him while he was playing on the floor and gave his ear a good bath.  This made him dissolve into giggles.

Today, DH is nesting in his shop.  He put stuff back against the wall I finished painting last week and reorganized some other stuff.  He hopes to get the other three walls done today, but I figure two is more realistic.  He has to run electrical wire, insulate, and then hang the plywood, all the while moving stuff out of the way.  And then I'll get to paint the plywood.  Whee.  Here's the 20' long wall I already finished:

Due to our wet winter, we've had TONS of wildflowers this year.  I have no idea what these yellow flowers are (they kind of look like Black-eyed Susans), but they are all over our property.  They're so pretty, I hate to mow them down.  I may leave this patch that sprouted near DH's shop unmowed for awhile.

And I'm stitching on the BAP again.  I hope to stitch on it between laundry and doing the monthly budget today.

LoneStar

A happy hump day

Wednesday, I and Shannon, a stitching buddy, went down to Houston to 3 Stitches, a cross stitching shop and went wild.  Okay, not really, but we did have a lot of fun and enjoyed ourselves immensely. 

Shannon ended up driving and she has a GPS unit.  I must say that I thought it was the coolest gadget I've seen in awhile.  She typed the address into the unit and it showed a little map with arrows that told her when to turn and where.  It calculated the best and fasted way to get there.  (All you gadget people stop rolling your eyes and thinking I'm old-fashioned and behind the times.)

Yes, I've known about GPS units for years.  No, DH and I don't have one for three reasons: 1) we know how to Google for maps of places that we don't currently know how to get to, 2) both of us have superior map-reading skills, and 3) we're tightwads and won't buy a gadget unless we know we will use it extensively (so that it essentially pays for itself).  We wouldn't use a GPS unit all that often.  But I must say that I was drooling over Shannon's GPS unit and thought it was very fun and convenient!

We spent a lot of time in 3 Stitches.  I could spend days in there.  Pam, the owner, is branching out a bit with needlepoint, so she's added a lot of new and interesting fibers.  I could be a fiber floozy if I let myself.  Pam also carries a lot of fabric that she will custom cut if you need her to.  I did a lot of fiber and fabric fondling.  Pam has tons of shop models and I enjoyed looking at all of them.  There is a nice stitching area in her shop and there were a bunch of "crazy stitching ladies" there stitching away and bantering back and forth.  (Yes, it was fun to eavesdrop!)

Shannon ended up with a nice pile of patriotic patterns and floss.  I ended up with a nice pile of EZ-Bobs (I store my specialty floss on these), some NPI silk floss, and a patriotic pattern.  There was some mutual enabling going on as Shannon ended up with a skein of silk floss and I ended up with a patriotic pattern; neither of us had these items on our respective lists.  ;-)

Spending money and acquiring stash made us hungry, so we got in the car and "asked" the GPS unit for nearby restaurants.  We were in the mood for Mexican food so we scrolled through the GPS-provided list until we found one we liked.  Los Cucos is more California-style Tex-Mex to me, but I like that they have more salad-oriented dishes which is what I was in the mood for.  For example, I ordered chalupas which traditionally is a tostada with beans, beef, lettuce and tomatoes piled on top.  Los Cucos chalupas have shredded chicken cooked in a traditional Mexican tomato sauce with shredded cabbage, goat cheese, and avocado and tomato slices piled on the tostada.
  
All in all, it was a fun day!

LoneStar

Yippee skippy! A finish!

If you copied the recipe for the Sour Cream Pound Cake, please note the correction for the amount of sour cream - it should be a 1/2 pint (or 8 oz.), not a full pint.  My apologies.

I finished the patriotic Santa last night after frogging half the beads I'd attached and redoing them.  Here he is, all washed and ironed:

This is one of four patterns from "2000 Collection of Santas,"an OOP Homespun Collectibles leaflet that a kind stitching buddy lent me.  I stitched it on 32 count Latte linen by Wichelt with DMC floss and Mill Hill beads.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled BAP.

LoneStar

Lawn demons reign supreme

DH and I went happily to work on the new bathroom on Saturday.  We were going to install the bathroom sink cabinet and sink top we bought back in the summer of '08.  DH spelunked in his shop and found them still in the box buried under a window and brought it to the porch.  We got them out of the box and began installing them in the bathroom (with Emma's help).  

Then we decided that we didn't like the cheap particle board construction of the cabinet; we didn't think it would hold up over time.  Plus, DH would have had to be "creative" with the sink top installation.  So we decided that DH would make a sink cabinet from scratch with plywood instead of particle board.  As DH's shop is a disaster area right now, that may take some time.  *sigh*  One step forward, two steps back.  Oh well.

And the lawn demons are back.  I went out this morning with the full intention of taming much of the outside (the fence) yard and the driveway with the riding mower.  This happened:

We've always had trouble with the tires on this mower.  They are "tubeless" and once they get low on pressure, they go flat practically instantaneously and then the tire falls off the rim.  I am unable to wrestle it back on the rim AND blow it up with the air compressor at the same time, so I must wait for DH to get home.  At least I got the inside (the fence) yard mowed with the push mower.

I noticed signs of an armadillo digging in the inside yard.  This explains why Emma has spent most of the day "hunting" under the house and bringing in all sorts of yucky stuff in the house and leaving it on the floor by trapping it in her fur.  Silly dog.

I am nearly finished with the patriotic Santa I am working on and should be able to post a picture tomorrow; I just have a bit of backstitching to do and a few beads to attach.

LoneStar

Sour Cream Pound Cake recipe

Today is DH's birthday and he always wants me to make this cake for him, so I thought I'd share the recipe.  Be aware that this is NOT a healthy-to-eat cake (but it tastes SOOO good!).  Try it topped with strawberries and whipped cream (the real stuff, not the junk in the freezer).

SOUR CREAM POUND CAKE
3 c. sugar
1/2 lb. butter (two sticks)
1/2 pint (8 oz.) sour cream
3 c. flour
1/2 t. baking soda
6 eggs
1 t. vanilla

Have all ingredients at room temperature (no substitutions).  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  

Spray a bundt pan with Baker's Joy or equivalent.  Cream butter, sugar, and sour cream together.  Add flour sifted with soda alternately with eggs.  Add vanilla.  Turn into bundt pan and bake for 1 1/2 hours.  Cool and invert on cake plate.  Enjoy!

LoneStar

Shakes, rain, and Santa

Monday night, DH and I planned a leisurely evening that included a trip into town for a Shakes frozen custard, a bit of stitching for me, reading for DH, and a bit of TV watching for us both.  We went to Shakes (a fresh homemade frozen custard establishment for those of you not familiar with it) and ordered our usual treats.  When we went to pay for it, the young man serving us said that they were giving it away free as they had to close down in twenty minutes due to the 60 mph winds, rain and hail that were due in about an hour.  (The Shakes building has a lot of windows.)

Uh huh.  DH and I went home and thankfully the rain didn't start until we got there.  Then boy! did it rain!  And then the power went out.  It was raining so hard it was blacker than pitch and it was still daylight out.  So no stitching, no reading, no TV watching.  We sat and watched the storm until bedtime - thankfully, there was no hail.  With no power, I had to drag out my portable battery to power my CPAP machine; I'm glad I invested in the silly thing.  

Tuesday dawned bright, sunny, and sodden but with the power back on.  We finally have all the mowers and the tractor working again and it's too wet to mow anything.  Yes, the tractor was down as DH got it out to mow and ran over something that caused a bolt to break.  It took him a few days to find one locally.  It wasn't expensive or hard to replace, you just have to go to a tractor store to find it.

I'm coming along on the Santa.  It's a fun, easy stitch.  It's a good thing I love DMC 930 as I'd say over 80% of the design is stitched in this color.  Here's what it will look like finished:

Here's where I am with it.  This one of four patterns from an OOP leaflet by Homespun Collectibles called "2000 Collection of Santas."

LoneStar

Skippity jigging - another WIP page finished

I can't really happy dance as the entire piece isn't yet finished, but I did get another page finished.  Running the working copy of that page entirely filled in with highlighter through the shredder was immensely satisfying.

I'm taking a short break from the BAP to stitch a little Santa.  I saw the completed piece on a message board and liked it.  The pattern is OOP, but a kind friend offered to loan me the pattern.  I want to get it stitched quickly so I can get it back to her.    

I'm still working on painting and caulking in the bathroom.  What a bore.  

DH has spent the weekend working on his shop.  He's been insulating all the walls with fiberglass and had planned to put sheets of OSB (oriented-strand board) up on the walls.  Sheetrock isn't a good thing in shops as a careless elbow or an unwieldy piece of wood can knock holes in it too easily.  

We went to Lowe's yesterday to buy OSB.  We'd last bought it in the summer of 2008 and it was about five or six bucks for a 4' x 8' sheet.  It's gone up a bit.  It was nearly fourteen dollars a sheet!  DH ended up getting plywood sheets for about a buck less.  Plywood is stronger anyway.  

Right now, DH is doing one side of the shop.  He has run all the wires for plugs and electricity, has installed all the fiberglass, and is putting up the plywood.  After he gets done, I'll roll a couple of coats of primer and a coat of white paint over the plywood.  White paint will make the shop seem brighter.

He can only do one side of the shop at a time as he has to squoosh all his tools, stuff, etc., etc. into the center of the shop to have enough room to work on a wall.  Doing this doesn't give him a lot of room to work.  Hopefully, once all the walls are done, DH can get more organized.  I, for one, will be very glad to have all my painting and finishing supplies in one place where I don't have to go spelunking to find things.  Vexing.  

LoneStar