Livin' La Needle Loca

 ...on Independence Day 2025. Our garden path in the morning sun: Ageratum in the courtyard: Coneflowers: and a pink dahlia in our backyard:

 ...and a finished object! I hoped to finish this for June, but I had to swap out a couple of colors because they wouldn't show up on the linenband. The color of the linenband was too dark and the original color choices were kind of bland. Fortunately, I was able to find some brighter versions of floss. I wish I had done that with the hat, but it is what it is. This is August 1997 Hat-of-the-Month: Specs: Started 6/23/2025 Finished 7/1/2025 Chart from Fanci That; Buttons from Just My Imagination  WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Flahridah Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Started 6/28  Mom's cookbook (cooking) Finished adding mom's recipes into the app; working on the order of the recipes. Peacock Zen Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Finished the singles; ready for plying No Work This Week: California Red Poppy Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ]   Japan Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Look Through My Window quilt for me (qu...

 ...I missed last week, oops. :) I'm enjoying all of the color in our backyard. The plumbago is going strong: The pink dahlias are starting to bloom: As are the canna lilies: The sunflowers are popping up: and the vervain appears here and there. The cats love watching the lizards sun themselves by the bedroom window in the morning. It's real kitty TV our there!

 ...and a finished object. This is Happy Bluebird, another mini cross stitch piece from Just Nan: Specs: Happy Bluebird mini Started 5/24/2025 Finished 6/23/2025 Chart and charm from Just Nan WIPs Roll Call Worked On: August 1997 Hat-of-the-Month (cross stitch) Started 6/23/2025 Japan Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ]  Started 6/18; finished singles Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Did a little block rearranging Mom's cookbook (cooking) Added 20 more recipes to the app. I'm down to the last 2 recipes - the most complex of her recipes. Peacock Zen Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Started 6/22/2025; working on singles No Work This Week: California Red Poppy Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ]   Sky Lanterns Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Website (other)  Ready for Finishing: Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing) Happy Pumpkin needleroll (cross stitch...

...it's been a slow week.  I've had trouble getting into my WIPs. I keep getting distracted by potential new projects. And yet, I haven't started anything new... I've been working on another Just Nan cross stitch project, on and off. This is Happy Bluebird as of today: WIPs Roll Call Worked On: Happy Bluebird mini (cross stitch) Working my way around the purple flowers. Mom's cookbook (cooking) Added 18 more recipes to the app - I'm working on the recipes starting with S. Sky Lanterns Shawl (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Finished first pattern section. Look Through My Window quilt for me (quilting) Put this back up on the quilt wall after I finished the Road to Chaos top. Worked on queueing more projects. No Work This Week: California Red Poppy Handspun (spinning) [ Ravelry ]   Website (other)  Ready for Finishing: Finishing work for some old crewel pictures (sewing) Happy Pumpkin needleroll (cross stitch) ...

...and the end of a very trying week. I'm keeping away from the news as much as I can without being completely ignorant. So much wrong going on. :( The garden continues to bring us joy. The apricots are a day or two away from being completely ripe.  This new tree has more fruit than it did last year, but still not enough to feed us and the squirrels. Those @&%! rodents are stealing the fruit already. The hydrangeas are blooming in different colors: And the blanket flowers (gaillardia) are going strong. The Love-in-the-Mist flowers are in different states - some in bloom and some setting seed pods. It looks like aliens invaded the garden. :)