Just Guidelines

So I recently stated here on this very blog that Mondays would be dedicated to Mouline Rouge, ahem....not this Monday. This Monday, as was Friday, Saturday and Sunday, was dedicated to By the Bay's 13th Colony Bay Parts 1-3 stitched on the same piece of fabric. Below you can see the shot I took a few minutes ago. What you are seeing is part 1 to the left and part of part 2 to the far right. I should be farther along but I'm a slow stitcher. Yes, I jump around. I started in the center and worked my way over to part 1. Now I'm working back to the center and want to get into a little of part 3. This is going to be by far one of the coolest projects I've ever undertaken. I'm so glad I didn't back out of stitching them all on the same piece of fabric. It's not difficult, just lots of solid stitching. After stitching with one thread over two on 32ct for HOHRH, two threads over two on 32ct seems so thick. I feel like my stitching appears messy. That being said, this will be one of my all time favorite pieces. I'm already plotting the china I want to buy to go with it. It's Lenox "British Colonial" Accent/Salad Plate. I "heart" it. It's a great match for this design. My boys might even fight over it one day. Now will I ever buy it? Probably not but I can dream and I can always add a few pieces here and there. I love that accent plate. Is it wrong to want to buy china to coordinate with your stitching? For family reading this I thought I'd share a picture of the middle son at the beach with his skim board. This was taken December 29th. Yep, it's winter and we're at the beach. He needs a wetsuit. The water was too cold to do much more than stand there and think about dropping the skim board in the water, the fact that he might fall in was enough to keep him out of the water.

This afternoon I finished my fourth Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. I'm addicted to these books. This one was One Shot. Couldn't put it down. I also need to correct the title of another book from a previous post, it's Without Fail, not Final Warning. Not sure where that title came from, I just made it up. How I could forget the name of a book I just finished, I don't know, but I did.

For those of you looking for a tasty crockpot recipe, I have this one going right now: Williams-Sonoma Beef Burgundy This is the second time I've made this and the older kids are already asking, "When's dinner?" It smells that good. I didn't do the precooking this time because I had to go to the store and didn't get it started until 10am. So I just tossed everything in the crockpot. I also sub beef boullion granules for the demiglace. If I get to the Williams Sonoma store in Destin I plan on picking some up so that the next time I make this I can follow the recipe but it smells pretty darn tasty right now. On a side note, is it wrong to be frustrated that the Winn Dixie only has small bottles of Pinot Noir with corks? Where's a screw top wine when you need one. I thought I'd have trouble tracking down my cork screw but no it was readily accessible, shocking that.