I thought I’d have some fun this Halloween with my new window! My mom bought me the tree with the orange lights. I had the other things that I never really had a fun place to display them. Trying to find them was driving me ‘batty’. I need to condense my decorations! Anyway, that is Casper the Ghost holding the candles and a totem pole of pumpkins next to him. The lights are taped up, so I hope they hold. I like how my white curtains look orange from the glow of the lights. Thanks to Bri for taking this photo.

Brian works in Quarryville, about 10 miles away from this morning’s tragedy. We live at the end of the pink line. Nickel Mines is near the Strasberg Railroad and an area of Lancaster we visit all the time. We are all sick about this. I can’t even imagine what those girls went through.

This just happened about 10:45 am. It happened in a one room school house with only 27 students. This is in southeastern Lancaster County. A man entered the school and they say about 3 children have been killed. I’ll update this. It’s very close to Chester County where I live.

Close-ups of two of my many African Violets. My mom had purchased these a few years back at the Philadelphia Flower Show. The pink flower isn’t part of the plant, but the plant has pink in it’s leaves. The one above is called ‘Frozen in Time’ from The Violet Gallery. I love the lime green around the white flowers.

This is near my dining room window. I rearranged everything last week. The teak tea cart was a gift from my late cousin who owned Dane Decor. That’s the wicker chair I spray painted. I made the scarecrow back in 1993! My Uncle Don painted the blue bird painting above the shelf. The floral box under the cart contains cooking magazines! Isn’t it pretty?

Here’s my little child’s rocker

My friends and I make these collages for fun and one lady already did a snow one. I decided to take it a step further and do a snowflake one. There are a few repeats here, but I think it’s a cool look at something that not many people realize-how unique each and every snowflake is….

Yesterday, I happen to notice this interesting mud ‘adobe’ on the hinge part our glass door out front. I tapped on it and swore I saw spider legs! I came in and looked it up and it’s a wasp nest-an organpipe mud dauber to be exact. Why ‘she’ picked this location is interesting as we are in and out of this door several times a day. Brian knocked it off and we saw the larva like this shows. The female builds these long ‘pipe-like’ mud nests and finds and paralyzes a few spiders for food for her offspring. When the larvae comes out, they munch on the spiders! Interesting!
Then today I was picking some basil and this little monarch came crawling up through the basil. I think it just hatched as it wasn’t afraid of me and let me hold it several times. I was getting attached to it and worried for it’s well being as it’s a damp, chilly day. I think it liked the warmth of my hand. I put her on some zinnias in the side yard, hoping she would get a snack, but when I went back out, she was just sitting there. I brought her in the house to show Sean and she started to crawl up my arm. I stepped out on the front step and she started to really vibrate her wings like she was ‘warming up’ and she was! She took off soon after. I think she’s in the evergreen out front. Not sure, but I’m glad to have helped her. It’s rather late in the season for butterflies and I don’t want to think about how long this little one has. But if she hangs around here, she’ll have plenty of food for a while. : )

Some golden mums just starting to bloom

I haven’t been answering these every week as I didn’t have such good answers. Here are a few that I think I can handle. I sure hope Blogger isn’t acting all wacky like it did last night.

When you find yourself making a lot of mistakes in various stitching projects do you find it better to muddle your way through or do you take a brief break from stitching? If you do take a break, how long do you take? This question comes from Sharon.
This is when I would most definitely take a break from the project if it was for me. If it was for a RR or charity square, I’d muddle along, but maybe take a break from it with an easier project. I would probably take a break from it if it was my own for a little while to indefinitely. If it was for someone else, a few days to a week.

How many pieces have you stitched? Out of these, how many have been for you? How many have had specialty stitches or other techniques besides cross stitch?
I know for charity-at least 40+. All together-add another 40 or so. It may be more, it may be less. I don’t keep a record. One of my first pieces was finished in 1980. I will try any specialty stitch and am good at French knots and Algerian eye stitches.

Just wondering…