Well… I am almost done with Lavendar Girl, but not quite. By the next update, she will be finished and put together in a pillow and sent off. I can’t wait to show you that!
Here’s the before:
And here’s the after.
There are lots of little places on her to get finished, but probably only a couple of hours’ worth of work is left to do.
Next update will definitely be a happy dance!
That’s it for me this update. Time to hop to the other stitchers in our group!
Thank you, Avis, for organizing this Stitch-a-Long. Please visit the other blogs to see what other fabulous stitchy projects they are stitching. We are all working on different pieces!
2025 was not a good year for me in the garden or outside for that matter. The year started off rough. I never got any plants started indoors, which is unusual for me. I didn’t buy any seeds, just used what I had from past years. I couldn’t get into the mood. My gardening mojo was not there this year.
Potatoes harvested this year
I find when things weigh heavy on me, I retreat into my phone. I’ll play games on it for hours, scroll social media, look at my email. Why does this happen? It’s almost like my creative drive has been snatched away, and the things I loved to do once are not interesting anymore. That’s frustrating. Blame it on my hormones? Maybe? Probably, yes…that’s what other women have told me. I think in general there is a lack of satisfaction in everyone’s lives right now. Again, another reason to get off our phones.
Right before a killing frost a few weeks ago I harvested everything I could in the garden. I got quite a haul too! Lunchbox peppers, bell peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and parsley. I immediately set to preserving them otherwise I would procrastinate and not get it done.
I used my dehydrator this year after not using it for a while. I preferred to hang my herbs but when I tried this year the parsley just bleached out and looked awful so I used the dehydrator instead and was very pleased with the result.
Then I dehydrated rings of lunchbox peppers. I have done this in years past and then run them through a coffee grinder to make powder, but I elected to dry and store them just as they were to use in soups and stews and sauces later. I like both methods. We ate the rest of the haul, fresh.
I NEED to be more organized and disciplined next year. I need to get my gardening mojo back. I am going to start tonight by getting my workbench cleaned off and all of my husband’s “stuff” out of my planting dresser. Then I am going to get a batch of microgreens started. :).
Here are some shots I took of the garden this year.
Another three weeks on this project, and a lot got stitched!
Here’s the before:
And here’s the after.
The right side of the project is pretty much finished, and the left side is more than halfway done.
Next update I hope for a happy dance because I need to get her done before Christmas 🎄.
That’s it for me this update. Time to hop to the other stitchers in our group!
Thank you, Avis, for organizing this Stitch-a-Long. Please visit the other blogs to see what other fabulous stitchy projects they are stitching. We are all working on different pieces!
I have worked really hard to get more stitched in this piece.
Here’s the before:
And here’s the after.
I got the right side of the lavendar field done and most of the rest of the skirt on her dress.
Next update I hope to have the rest of her dress done and the sky finished at least.
That’s it for me this update. Time to hop to the other stitchers in our group!
Thank you, Avis, for organizing this Stitch-a-Long. Please visit the other blogs to see what other fabulous stitchy projects they are stitching. We are all working on different pieces!
After all of the March cakes I did and the 200+ loaves of St. Joe’s bread AND moving my mom and son, I had to take a break from baking for a bit. I took 2 months off and started back again in May (other than the orders I already had booked) and of course it’s been non-stop since then lol!
Here are some photos of most of what I have been working on since just May (and a few Easter orders).
My favorite this time was the 50th birthday with the huge roses. It was even more impressive in person!
The one that gave me the most issue was the Sunshine Nursery school cake. I had to scrape my original design off it and re-frost this time with their own logo instead of my idea. It turned out much better!
Phew that was a lot, and I didn’t even take photos of all of them! I’ll update again soon 🙂 -MM
Man, it’s been a bit since I updated about life without Facebook. One of the biggest updates is about Mr. Gray, our gray tiger cat.
Last update was he was still struggling from his tooth extraction and not eating, and it wasn’t getting any better. With my anxiety sky high, I said to my husband, the Thursday after kitty’s tooth extraction that now the other side of his face was swollen, and he still had not eaten much more than a few licks of food in a week! I called the vet and told them they needed to see him asap and I wanted them to sedate him to really see what was going on in this poor cat’s mouth.
Both me and my husband took him in again to the vet that night at 5:00 pm and they knocked him out. We waited in the waiting room anxiously for results. After about 15 minutes the vet tech burst through the door with a big smile on her face and said “well Mr. Gray’s teeth are all gone now, the doc wants you to come in and look.” What??? All gone? We went into the exam room and the doc had cleaned him all up, dried blood was gone from his chin, the matted hair from drooling for a week was shaved off, and his mouth was squeaky clean from teeth. Apparently ALL of his teeth were rotten and when they went in to see what was wrong they just all came out! Unbelievable! They had really never seen anything like it and thankfully he had no gum disease or stomatitis which would have been really bad! Also his blood tests were perfect other than the obvious teeth infections. Poor guy! We thanked our vet profusely and took our guy home all groggy but let me tell you not having any teeth did not deter this cat from eating once he came home. Within an hour and a half, all groggy and wobbly still, Mr. Gray ate like I had never seen him eat before. Nothing was going to stop him and although I was worried I let him eat his wet food until he couldn’t eat anymore.
Within hours our gray boy was feeling much better and within a day he was already acting like none of this ever happened. Thank the Lord I brought him back to the vet even though I knew it would be tough on him otherwise we would have had a dead kitty!
Last weekend we went to the Apple Umpkin Festival in Wyoming and had a blast!
I had a ton of cake orders which I will show in another update.
I cooked my heart out all week, chili, chicken, roasts, pasta salad, breakfast bites, etc.
I got a ton more stitched on Lavendar Girl.
We walked a bunch of times and went to the library, does your library have puzzles to check out?? Ours does!
I cleaned out more items I wanted to get out of the house and down to the parsonage sale.
We had a bonfire one night!
I got 10 jars of chili sauce canned.
A bunch more photos taken of dishes for my Etsy shop.
Lots more work and meetings.
The harvest moon was incredible on Monday!
That’s it! Nothing spectacular but a lot got accomplished.
This will probably be my last official “Life without Facebook” post. I have looked at certain pages on Facebook and I am the admin for several pages on it so it’s hard to completely remove myself but I will continue to use it sparingly and for business and quick info purposes only. -MM
Happy Sunday to everyone! It’s time for our three week update! I got a ton stitched on my girl since last time!
Here’s the before:
And here’s the after.
This piece is definitely looking like a lavendar field now. My eyes have taken a beating on this one, much like the poppy field I did years ago.
That’s it for me this update. Time to blog hop the other stitchers in our group!
Christina is taking a break from the group but we hope she is back soon.
Thank you, Avis, for organizing this Stitch-a-Long. Please visit the other blogs to see what other fabulous stitchy projects they are stitching. We are all working on different pieces!
I was really tired after last weekend so the only things I did on Monday were work, tend to sick kitty, pick beans and go to my Trustee meeting at church, plus I got a little more stitching done on Lavendar Girl. A bonus was that my awesome husband had the entire kitchen cleaned up while I was at my Trustee meeting. He is the best!
Yesterday I finally went to the chiropractor after weeks of neck pain. I worked at the office, still tended to sick kitty, (any advice on how to care for a cat after a nasty tooth extraction?). We went to dinner because I just didn’t feel like cooking, then went to Zoning Board of Appeals meeting (I am the recording secretary). I rounded out my night trying to get my orders organized for the next couple of months. I had someone ask me about 500 cupcakes for an order next week but I doubt that will happen. I am not sure where people’s heads are when it comes to giving people notice on orders that large. I mean come on!
That’s it! Nothing spectacular. I needed a couple days of not that much to do. 🙂
What do you think of Social Media right now? Yay or Nay or somewhere in between? -MM
“Peace of Mind comes from not wanting to change others.” -unknown
Busy is an understatement if I needed to accurately describe the last four days without social media.
Things I got accomplished onWednesdaywithout thinking about social media:
I worked a normal day at the Town office.
Dinner was leftovers for me because the Hubs was golfing after work.
I got to work after dinner, getting two batches of peach jam made, and after cleaning that all up, I got two half sheets baked for the weekend’s orders.
Things I got accomplished on Thursday:
Thursday was an interesting day at the Town, I know it wasn’t a full moon, but boy people were whacky that day. Neighbors were fighting with each other. One was throwing stuff in a hedgerow, one swore her neighbor’s new fence was an inch higher than 6 feet, and wanted code enforcement to do something about it. One old woman we had never seen before came in and asked where the deli went, and we told her it hadn’t moved yet and it was still up the street… she started arguing that we were wrong. Whatever, right? Sheesh!
After such an aggravating day, we took the ’57 over to the Charcoal Corral about 25 minutes from us and had dinner. The Corral is a local treasure with two drive-in movie screens, mini golf, fine dining, pizza, ice cream, and arcade. We know the owner and he sat and chatted with us until we got our food.
It was a beautuful night for a drive, good food and good friends.
Things I got accomplished on Friday:
Friday started off awful, and it never got better.
I got up early to get a cake done for the grade school and over to them by 7:45 but one of my cat’s started acting really distressed. I thought he had something caught in his mouth but quickly realized he had an abscessed tooth. Everything snowballed after that. Call to the vet, cake done and to the school, made the cat as comfortable as possible until his appt., alone at the clerks office because the clerk had a funeral, ran home on lunch to check on cat, back to work, left at 2:30 to wrangled sick cat into carrier which is never fun, cat to vet, pulled tooth, antibiotic shot, rabies shot (it was due) in and out in 20 minutes, cat deposited back home, me back to work until end of day at 4:30.
Then, when I got home, I had to make cookies for my son, who asked me to bake cookies for his friend’s birthday party, which he had asked me for weeks ago.
We ate leftover pizza and wings for dinner.
Then I told Hubs let’s get some fresh air and go for a walk. He said absolutely! We both needed it!
What a Friday!
What I got accomplished on Saturday:
Yesterday was still a nightmare with the cat. He was drooling and hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink since Friday morning. Poor guy! I called a vet tech friend and she gave me some advice. Pretty much this was all normal but boy was I worried about him.
I also had 3 more cakes to do, and this weekend was just not my friend. What should have taken me just the morning took me all day.
After one order was picked up, I headed to the grocery store because the one day sale was too good to miss. $2.99/lb butter and eggs $2.50/ doz?? Yes, please!
By the end of yesterday, we were so frustrated and tired that we went to bed by 9:30. Ugh.
What I got accomplished today (Sunday)
Today was a better day. Kitty still looks awful, but he took some licks of water and a few licks of food. I tried to clean his neck fur but it’s so matted. He let me touch him, which is a good sign.
I finished the cakes that I started yesterday and delivered one before church and one after church.
We grilled steak and chicken on the BBQ, ate outside, I finished my book, stitched for of Lavendar Girl, cleaned up the kitchen, and went for a walk after dinner. We even stopped and said hi to my mom on the way back from the walk.
I am pretty sure I am glad this week is over. Actually, I absolutely positive it’s over!
Ok, so this week, I did not go on Facebook except to post the live feed for my church, and I checked my messages on Messenger. I did look at a few accounts on Instagram that I really like, and that brought me joy but did not waste my time going down any rabbit holes.
Should I keep posting on what I have done on a daily basis without social media doomscrolling? I wish I could get off completely but I do use social media for my two businesses and the organizations I am the administrator for.
Sorry for the REALLY long post!
-MM
“Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace.” -Dalai Lama
Things I got accomplished on Tuesday without thinking about social media:
I slept in until 7:15 because I was up till after midnight, not because I was scrolling obviously but because my peri-menopausal brain wouldn’t let me fall asleep….sigh.
I got my first post written about not being on Facebook done before I went to work.
I worked my typical work day at the Town.
Dinner was a sandwich for him and a salad for me. (We are getting sick of the ham)
Ran to the store, then to my planning board meeting (I am the recording secretary). We had a land separation and two variances to get through.
When I got home, I got 4 quarts of beans in the pressure canner, which I had prepped for before I went to the meeting. After those were done and waiting to come out of the canner, I got 7 pints of the peach syrup in the water bath canner. In between all of this, I got 6 bunches of herbs hung up to dry and had Dancing with the Stars on in the background.
By 10:45 I was done for the night and I dropped into bed.
If I had been on social media scrolling, I would not have accomplished all of this!
More to come tomorrow! I am definitely on a roll!
-MM
Peace is letting it be. Letting life flow, letting emotions flow through you.
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The Professional Domestic 