Do Guys Dig Chicks

With porch sitting skilz? Because of all the skilz I have, I'm my very best at porch sittin'. Emma Lerch

Scarlet Letter

32ct cream linen

DMC

(click pic to make bigger)

It's that time of year, day time temps are hovering around 66°F, the sun is calling me out to soak up some of those full of Vitamin D rays, and the wicker on the porch, left so empty for the last couple of months, is yelling for me to plop my behind right here and stitch. So who I am to argue with the wicker?

I sat outside for a little while and used the time to put in a couple of lengths of DMC 352 on Emma's house. My friend Tanya mentioned that I had outlined the house and how different we all stitch, and days like this are why I save my filling in for later. You never know when opportunity knocks and you can steal some front porch time and why bother with a chart when there's all this filling in to do?

I've managed to work the border down the right side and am now keeping my fingers crossed that it meets up properly along the bottom.

Emma is a simple sampler but her bright colors make me so happy I'm finding it hard to set her aside to stitch on anything else. Once I get the border finished I'll complete all the stuff in the middle with the exception of the house and the grass and I will devote my porch sittin' stitchin' time to those areas. I can get back to outlining on Jane Atkinson and working on Isabella Johnstone when I'm forced to stitch indoors.

In other news, I've been planning my front flower bed, it's a narrow little space and I think I'm going to plant sunflowers along the back row closest to the railing and then fill the front with all kinds of cut flowers. I have two packets of cut flower mix here along with snapdragons, cosmos and zinnias. I'd also like to plant some daisies and dahlias.

I've been making lists of all the things that need sprucing up around here and I've filled up one composition book already. I started painting the patio table and chairs last week. I still have two chairs to go and then I need to get some new cushions. The table was a roadside find a couple of years ago and then the chairs the Spousal Unit found, yet again, on the side of the road. We are definitely upcyclers/recyclers so I don't feel too bad wanting to splurge on purchased chair cushions and a new umbrella.

If you like Frappuccinos but hate the price, I found a very good recipe here:

Homemade Mocha Frappuccino

Since the mornings are warmer I've decided to give the coffee pot a break and start treating myself to a morning frappuccino. This morning I even topped it with some Reddi-wip and chocolate syrup. Of course this treat caused me to add one more thing to the to do list, replace icemaker in the fridge. My ice is full of black rubber shreds from the icemaker. I hate it when that happens but my frappe was just as tasty without the ice.

Hope each of you are seeing a bit of spring in your corner of the world, unless of course you are enjoying being snowed in, which come July and August I'm going to be dreaming of six foot high snow drifts instead of 95° and 100% humidity.