Friday's Stitching Ground 🍺

My normal stitching spot, just a different view for you!

Next to me is my ORT mug, with a sweet little dragon peeking out.

Before and after about 130 French knots were added. 

And finally, I finished all the backstitching and have now moved on to the outer border! This is still going to take me awhile, but it's all good.

Yesterday DH had two beer deliveries and today he had one more. His excuse? New beer releases he just couldn't miss! He did get me a couple of sours, the one on the right is a strawberry/banana and it was very refreshing. The one on the left was his that I tried and I surprised myself by liking it! Something about adding it to a whiskey barrel made it quite tasty. I even asked him to save me one to have at another time.

Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by trying something new and finding that you actually liked it?

Scavenger Photo Hunt, July 📷

After this heat wave we've been having, you wouldn't think it was July's last day with rain and temps in the low 70's this morning. But I'll take it if it means a break from what it's been.
And the end of the month now means it's time for Katie and her I live, I love, I craft, I am me ... scavenger photo hunt.

The words for July are...

Something purple...
Our Hostas are a little out of control, but when they bloom it's worth it.

Shades of green...
This from from our walk on Father's Day last month. There are so many shades of green, I had to repost it.

Starts with F...
Friend or Foe?

Foe, oh no! And part of his wing has already been chewed by Chewie.

And more Friends - The Gmen and S have been friends since they started high school eight years ago, and today S is moving to Wisconsin for a new job. So Farewell for now to S in starting his new adventure, wishing him all the best!

Still life...

At least until the lights go out and they're all alone?!
I love Toy Story and might need a bigger display if/when I get more.

Snapped at this moment...
Ming this morning in her safety spot from Chewie, giving him the evil eye with the help of the flash.

My own choice...
A very busy bee indeed!
This lilac hibiscus is outside my craft room window and is very pretty to look at, inside and out.

And that's how July ends, please go have a look at what others have posted this month.

Friday's Stitching Ground 🌹

This afternoon I decided to bring out this lovely piece, it's been quite a while since I worked on this one.

It doesn't look like I did very much since I'm working on the backstitching, but it's a start.

I did finish this one though, I'm just not sure how I'm going to finish it yet.

This evening Nathan and I went to another drive-in movie, it was Guardians of the Galaxy. Before we arrived, it was pouring rain with thunder and lightning at home so we weren't sure what to expect here. Well, it was beautiful!

We had a great view - the moon, the movie, and heat lightning!

When we arrived home, Chewie's brother, Zoom, was over for a visit and apparently I'm not allowed to go to the bathroom without them wanting to follow and help me. Thanks guys, I'm good.

It seems I also needed assistance in drinking a margarita. Guess who's in his crate sleeping off his very active play date?

How's the weather been with you lately? I'm a little tired of this heat wave we've been having, but so glad we've had some rain in spite of it being a little severe! This was from this evening, our rain garden was filling up.

Time for a Change 🎃

I decided I needed a break from The Haunted Mansion, so I went in a totally different direction... sort of, not really?!
Still Halloween, but instead of 32 over 1, I went for 18 (I think) over 2.
BIG difference!

This was an easy one to pick up, it was on a freebie table at one of the retreats I went to last year and it was partially started - the grey pumpkin, cat, and part of the purple pumpkin had already been stitched, AND it was stitched in the same direction I stitch in, BONUS! I'm thinking of stitching it again with different colours and a smaller count, we'll see.

And while I'm stitching, Ming is keeping a careful watch on Chewie as he "innocently" sits next to her.

While Maximus sneaks away to our bedroom for safety.

 More togetherness, still at a distance. You can see on Ming's fur where Chewie was "loving" her.

Friday's Stitching Ground 🐱

This afternoon I was stitching in my regular spot in the great room, but later this evening I stitched in the bedroom so I could spend some time with Maximus. He is still being a scaredy cat and not coming out of the bedroom unless we take him out and bring him to another safe place. It's been two months, this is getting ridiculous!

So close, I'm almost finished with the right side! I might take a break after I finish adding the two ghosts and then stitch something else just for a change of scenery. Not sure what yet, probably something small.

Earlier in the week I had company in my craft room, Ming!

I found some fun fabric to sew more masks, perfect for Nathan because his school's mascot is a knight.

And because I don't need Chewie in my room getting into trouble and bothering the cats when they're in there, he gets to sit outside and watch. Still spoiled rotten.

These two are for DH, perfect since he's an aerospace engineer!

My girl Cori and I went to see Finding Nemo at our local Clarksville Commons, outdoors with social distancing in place.

"Mine, mine, mine!"

You can never be too old for Disney movies, at least not me! Do you have a favourite one? My favourite princess is Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I love Toy Story because of the Gmen, and Cars because of Nathan - they were the first movies they got to see at the theater and they loved them. I still have their toys from both movies, I can't get rid of them!

Thank you for your suggestions last week about filing/labeling, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do and might just wait until the fall/winter to do something about it.

Friday's Stitching Ground 🗂

This was my view this evening in the corner of the great room, with Chewie checking on me!

I finally completed the bottom and now I'm working on the tree. I have a couple floating ghosts to add and I think I might use glow in the dark floss for them.

My question this week is how do you file away and find your patterns?
For the most part, my patterns are here, not too hard to locate.

But I also have them here, mainly smaller kits including all the Mill Hills.

Then I have some stitching magazines here, 

here, 

and here, although these are mainly Christmas.

Some combo drawers, Mermaids and Halloween.

Then I have my WIP drawer, at least the ones I can fit.

I can pretty much find what I'm looking for, EXCEPT remembering which magazine has what in it. I used to put sticky tabs labeling what the pattern is that I like, but that ends up being a lot of tabs! How do you remember (and find) the pattern you're looking for in a magazine? Did I mention I have online magazines I've purchased too? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated!

Friday's Stitching Ground 🎥

This Friday was rather busy, with TWO stitching grounds!
This afternoon I was stitching in DH's brew area while he was brewing a new beer.

I was also partaking in this amazing sour, it was delicious!

Still slow going, I want to finish everything outside of the house before doing the last room and the front door.

On a side note, I got these earlier in the afternoon at the local Dollar Tree. More travel cases, always nice to have extra on hand and something a little different than what I have.

This evening there was a beautiful sunset at the fairgrounds.

With this guy!

We went to the fairgrounds for a drive-in movie night and I was able to get some stitching in while we waited for it to start.
After a 90+° day, it was actually cool enough that we could open the windows and sunroof and it wasn't too hot.

Can you tell what we're getting ready to watch?

Unfortunately at this point, it got a bit breezy and the screen went a bit wonky and then deflated. But not for long, they got it up again and we got to finish the movie.
This will be a weekly occurrence for the rest of the summer, with social distancing and masks in place when you're not in your car. Not sure what next week's movie will be, they'll be posting it tomorrow.

Have you been lucky enough to have any pop-up drive-ins or something similar?