The Professional Domestic

SAL- Autumn House #2

Even with all of my canning and preserving, I worked on multiple WIPs the last three weeks!Autumn house got the most done on it out of all the projects. Here is where I left off last time:

And here is where I am now:

Here is a short video of me stitching the Autumn House.

I also started a project, which for the first time I designed myself and it even has some embroidery elements. I also used a 32 count linen which I have never been brave enough to use before. It took me a bit to get used to stitching over 2 squares but I got it!

I have some tweaking to do. Still not sure about the red hearts.And the most exciting project I worked on the last three weeks is big project #1 out of two I have as a goal this year for my 20 for ’20…Fraktur Hex by Modern Folkart Embroidery

You’ll see more on this next time.Thanks for checking in with me and I will see you in October!I belong to a group of fine stitchers in this SAL. We all stitch different things during our check-ins so please go visit their links below to see what we are all up to! I would like to welcome Susan and Anne to the group!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze,
Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen,
Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Clare, Renee, Jenny,
Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Susan, Anne

20 for ’20 – Visits

Fulfillment. Do you feel fulfilled? I don’t. Not one bit.

Every day I log onto Facebook hoping I guess to find fulfillment somewhere in and amongst my newsfeed readings and every single time I get nothing. Seriously.

Instead I get political posts bashing one side or the other, abortion, gun control, gender identity, kids puking, memes up the yin yang, mean spirited news stories, and the ever abundant selfies….they leave me with nothing. I am not inspired by these things. I don’t know why I do it.

Why do I torture myself and log on?? FOMO? (Fear of missing out)?

What if someone died and I missed it? What if someone announced they were pregnant and I didn’t know for months? What if I missed the news story about the Reese’s peanut butter cup bandits and I couldn’t laugh about it with my friends? (seriously that was a news story around here yesterday).

I don’t care about this stuff. It leaves me feeling angry, frustrated, sad, depressed, irate, indignant and hopeless.

We are a society now of lazy people my friends. We don’t have enough conversations with each other. We don’t talk on the telephone. we don’t hear each others’ voices. We are all lacking joy and inspiration and fun and laughter.

Come on! We are a generation of fraidy cats. We are afraid of missing out, we are afraid to offend, we are afraid of failing, we are afraid of soaring!!

That’s why when posting my 20 for ’20 the very first thing I filled in was 20 visits with people. It’s important to me. Hearing, seeing, laughing with actual human beings is the best!

When was the last time you picked up the phone and had a conversation with someone?

Facebook, ya kinda suck.

I’ll go back to reading my book now. It’s about women soaring after the age of 40 and I am enjoying every second of it. -MM.

20 for ’20 Challenge- Cauliflower Chowder Recipe

In my 20 for ’20 Challenge this year I challenged myself to trying 19 new recipes.

Last weekend I wanted to make a cauliflower chowder and after searching the interweb I landed on Damn Delicious blog’s cauliflower chowder recipe. Boy is it good!

I did make a change and used crumbled Italian sausage because I didn’t have the bacon and I added corn because, let’s face it, we have a ton of corn available right now!

Here is a link to the original recipe:

Damn Delicious-Cauliflower Chowder

Let me know if you try it and what you think. Enjoy!

One new recipe tried 18 to go! -MM

20 for ’20 Challenge

I read a blog post by one of my fellow stitchers about 19 for 19.

19 for 19 was a challenge she was doing to motivate herself to accomplish specific goals for the year.

I have done yearly challenges before but none quite like this.

I am coming in late to the game for 2019 so I am going to start 2020 early. Why wait, right?

I like this challenge because I have so many interests and hobbies and 20 distinct goals will help motivate me in all of those interests and hobbies plus starting now will give me 16 months to complete things instead of just 12 months.

Here is my 20 for ’20

1. Build a new garage

2 – Major cross-stitch projects completed.

3 – Projects completed in our house (not to include windows).

4 – Books read a month.

5 – Windows replaced in our house.

6 – Blog posts a month.

7 – Movies at the theater with my family.

8 – Hours a month studying herbal medicine and/or herbology a month.

9 – Birthday cards sent out to 9 friends.

10 – Small cross-stitch projects done for the year.

11 – New herb varieties planted for the year.

12 – Recipes I teach to my son.

13 – Minutes of exercise a day.

14 – Walks a month.

15 – $15,000 in debt paid off.

16 – Proper dates with my husband (planned).

17 – Etsy Listings posted a month.

18 – Books of the Bible read.

19 – New Recipes tried.

20 – Visits with people.

Some of these are pretty lofty goals but I will post about my progress often.

If you did this challenge what would your 20 for ’20 goals be?

Here’s to the next 16 months! -MM

SAL – Autumn House #1

I am sorry for such a late update. I didn’t forget. I had to work a full day today and then had to get 7 pints of pickled beets canned. Lots to do to catch up since we got back from our trip to Ireland on Thursday night.

I decided that I needed a bit of a “palette cleanser” after such a difficult last project so I started on the “Autumn House” which was a free download from designer Brooke Nolan.

Super cute isn’t it? I have worked on the Spring House in the past but have not finished it yet.

With a 7 hour flight to Ireland and a 7 hour flight back with lots of time to wait in the airport I got a lot accomplished on this piece.

Here is where I ended on Thursday night so far:

I promise a better photo next time.

This group of stitchers are working on some pretty fantastic pieces. Please visit their blogs to see what they are up to.

I look forward to posting my progress on this project in three weeks. See you then! -MM

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze,
Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen,
Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Clare, Renee, Jenny,
Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon

SAL-Crown of Thorns #11 -Finish

I am doing my happy dance! Thirty-three weeks working on this project and I am finished.

Here is where I left off last time:

And here is the finished piece:

I had my husband hold the fabric up in a different light and look at the difference it made below:

The better light completely transformed the face of Jesus so you can see His full jaw line.

This was a very challenging project for me because of the colors and the thread quality but in the end I hate to be cliche but it certainly was a journey for me.

Thanks all for cheering me on! See you in three weeks with a new project. -MM

Please visit the other stitchers in this lovely group I belong to by clicking on the links below. If you are interested in joining us contact Avis who is the first link in the list for more info.

Avis,
Claire,
Gun,
Carole,
Sue,
Constanze,
Christina,
Kathy,
Margaret,
Cindy,
Helen,
Linda,
Heidi,
Jackie,
Sunny,
Hayley,
Megan,
Deborah,
Clare,
Mary
Margaret,
Renee,
Jenny,
Carmela,
Jocelyn,
Sharon

Screenshot

I personally think one of the greatest technological inventions of the twenty first century is the screenshot.

I’m being a little dramatic of course but screenshots are so unbelievably handy. Aren’t they?

I screenshot stuff everyday. Funny text messages, listings on Ebay, photos on Instagram, pictures of a certain china pattern for my business, and hey what about a screen shot of the mugshot of a guy you know that showed up in the police blotter. Don’t laugh. It’s happened.

I have 481 screenshots in my phone right now dating back to December 30, 2017.

When was the last time you scrolled through all of your screenshots? I found it pretty interesting to look through mine. I found tons of china patterns of course, cross-stitch patterns, cupcake and cake examples, a couple of photos of Jamie and Claire from Outlander, gardening, and greenhouse examples, cars from when my son was looking for his first car to buy, hotels for our trip coming up to Ireland, outdoor cat houses, uses for old silverware, books I want to read, even a picture of two guinea pigs…don’t ask, I have no idea either.

I want to make these beautiful smudging sticks!

Looking back almost two years at my screen shots is rather like looking at a journal. One week I was obsessed with cat houses and the next week vintage spoon cabinet door handles were on my mind. I got over the guinea pigs apparently.

I bought this dress on Poshmark. What do you think?

When was the last time you looked back at your own screenshots? Give it a try! I had a lot of fun looking through mine. If you are a fan of my Professional Domestic page on Facebook leave a photo of a screen shot you remember taking (or don’t remember taking) and let’s see what was on our minds.

I will leave you will a couple of screenshots of cat houses. Next post is the finish of Crown of Thorns! 🙂 -MM

Husband will you make this for Coby and Mr. Gray?

Not Impressed With our Debt Week 52 of 80

It has been a couple of months since I have checked in and for that I apologize. One very good thing happened in my time away from you and that very good thing would be I got our Home Equity loan paid off!! Yes! The last $300 of that balance and filing fees was paid in June and I am just waiting for my recorded discharge.

Even though our debt balance went up because of the medical bills and tractor, that home equity being paid in full is quite an amazing feeling. Having a debt of $17,000 get paid in full is a big accomplishment. We can handle these smaller debts much easier.

With $328 a month freed up from the Home Equity payment we can put it into the medical bill debt. When I started the medical bill debt was $3461.27. So far this month I have gotten $518.78 paid on that debt and it is now down to $2942.49. Not bad!

One more debt we have added to which I am fessing up to right now is we are going to Ireland this summer for our daughter’s wedding. Yes Ireland! Normally we wouldn’t take such an extravagant trip but this is a special circumstance. With this trip we have learned a lot about traveling internationally so far and with that came the cost of three passports, hotels, car rentals, airfare, insurance, and spending money. We paid the passports in cash because we could not charge them but the rest, you guessed it, had to go on the credit card. Hey, it’s a rare change of a lifetime and what’s an extra $3000?

So after medical bills, new tractor, and a trip to Ireland our debt is back up to $32,080.81.

Not great huh? After we get back from Ireland our school taxes are due and we need our boiler looked at before snow flies so I will probably not have much of a chance to get any extra debt paid off until October. Major bummer. However, in October there are five paychecks for each of us so my goal is to get $1000 extra paid off in the month of October.

Thanks for the support on all of this my friends. We know you are rooting for us. I’ll check back in, in a couple of weeks! -MM

I would love to hear about your debt repayment goals and what has worked for you. Message me at marymargaretripley@yahoo.com with your debt stories!

SAL-Crown of Thorns #10

I do admit I am mad at myself for not finishing this project up this last three weeks. I just couldn’t quite get it done though. Too nice outside, festivals to help out at, holidays, work, Vacation Bible School….you get the picture.

Here is where I was last update:

Here is where I am now:

Impressive right?

Just a small amount on the side then I am done!

Please visit the other bloggers in this group who are stitching some amazing things!

See you in three weeks with a happy dance! -MM
Avis,Claire,
Gun,
Carole,
Sue,
Constanze,
Christina,
Kathy,
Margaret,
Cindy,
Helen,
Linda,
Heidi,
Jackie,
Sunny,
Hayley,
Megan,
Deborah,
Clare,
Mary
Margaret,
Renee,
Jenny,
Carmela,
Jocelyn,
Sharon

SAL #9 Crown of Thorns

I really can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since our last update! I still haven’t finished this project. Summer has finally arrived here in NY and I have been in my garden and outside on hikes when I am not at work.

I did make some progress though so hopefully you can tell the difference. Here is where I left off last time: