Nearing the End of the Month

I can't believe it's almost Halloween. It was over 90 degrees for 17 of the last 29 days. Three of those days were well over 100 degrees! I really look forward to fall weather, and I sure hope it arrives soon.

Work has been very busy, but I did manage to stitch a bit a few days ago, and I started my final house on the sampler. I may actually add a gazebo later on, but I'm not sure yet on that one.

I found the final house in a lazy way. I had a few old stitching magazines in my stitching bag, so I just went through them and found a home to add to the sampler. Yes, yes, I should have gone through my list of possible homes that I made awhile back and then looked through all my stitching stash, but I was just excited to add that final house. I did not want to get up from where I was sitting, either!

The home I'm adding is a bit of a "French Quarter" sort of home, so I think I will modify it down a bit to make it a little less stylized. No pictures to share of my progress yet, but I will take some within the next week. Thanks for your suggestions on adding some birds to the sampler. I'm going to do that, indeed.

Today I'm just going to share a few recent photos that we've taken around here. My husband really loves to take pictures with his camera, so thought I should post a few here.

Here's a few sunset photos he took a few weeks ago. There was a small fire that evening about 15 miles west of here, and that's why the sunset was so unusual that evening:



Finally, here are some photos of our dog Eddie the Greyhound playing with my mom's lovable Rosie. Eddie looks rather fierce in the photo, but I promise you it was all play!


A more tender moment:



Eddie with our son-in-law:



Thanks for stopping by today.

WIP update- Garden Features Added

I finished adding the fence, trees, and some flowers to the house in the right portion of the middle row. Here it is:



Close up:


I am thinking of adding a vine with flowers above the roof, similar to the one above the house in the bottom right corner. How do you think that would look? I am not happy with these additions that I'm showing you now, but in time with more features added to the rest of the sampler I'm hoping I'll like them more.

Thanks for stopping by!

Recipe~ Noodles Romanoff

I haven't had the chance to do any stitching in over a week. It's just been too busy lately!

My mom came and stayed with us last weekend, so while she was here I tried a few new recipes, so I'll share one today.

This recipe is from the book "Dishes Men Like". I love that old vintage book!



We ate this dish as a side dish, and everyone really liked it. Here you are:

Noodles Romanoff
Makes 6 servings

1 cup cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream
2 cups hot boiled noodles (6 ozs. uncooked)
1 Tbsp. minced onion
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

Mix together gently the cottage cheese, sour cream, and cooked noodles. Add onion, garlic, and seasonings. Place in greased 2 quart casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, removing the foil the last 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for all your comments.

Sampler Update

Here's the plan I drew up for some trees, a fence, and a few pets to be added around a very bare house.



I drew it up about a week and half ago, and here's how the sampler looked at that time:



Here's how it looks tonight. I still have to add the other half of the fence, and the flowers along the top of the fence on both sides:


A closer view:


Close-up of the house and elements:


The colors of the trees look duller here than they actually appear in person, I think.


I think the whole thing will look much better when I add those deeper colored flowers to the area right above the fence. We'll see!

Finally, our cat enjoying herself despite the photo taking that was going on around her. I love how cats can just relax, no matter what.



Thanks for visiting.

Fall ?

It's officially fall here. Today it hit 99 degrees. I'm tired of the heat. Seriously tired of it.

Soon I'll post a photo of my stitching update, I promise. Not much progress really but it will still be fun to share some of the garden elements I've added.


Thanks for visiting!

TGIF

It's been a very busy and stressful work week, and it's been extremely hot here. It finally was a bit nicer today, and instead of being over 100 degrees it was in the 80's. No stitching this week, but I did do a bit last Sunday on some of the newly charted garden elements.

I've been toying with Flickr and came up with this mosaic that shows our backyard flowers. It's not the least bit creative, but the colors appeal to me:


1. Backyard Flower, 2. Pansy, 3. Morning Glory, 4. Hydrangea, 5. African Violet, 6. Hydrangea, 7. Hydrangea bloom ~ "Endless Summer", 8. Hydrangea, 9. Lilac, 10. Endless Summer Hydrangea, 11. Hydrangea ~ planted 2005, 12. Hydrangea, 13. First Yellow Tree Rose of Spring, 14. Pansy, 15. Pansy, 16. Yellow Rose, 17. Tree Rose ~ Potted, 18. Orange Flower, 19. Orange Clock Vine, 20. Orange Flower, 21. Orange Flower Collage, 22. Orange Clock Vine, 23. Morning Glory, 24. Cabana Rose, 25. Red Tree Rose, 26. Poinsettias in March, 27. Begonia, 28. Bottlebrush and Bee, 29. Climbing Rose ~ Blaze, 30. Cliimbing Rose


Thanks for all your kind comments on my stitching design. I can't wait to get more done on it soon!