Spring is Here

My chicks got to go outside for the first time. Here they are enjoying the sun.

Here's my Nephew "helping" me feed the chickens. He squatted down and then said "I'm a chicken" and then giggled. Cutie Patootie!

We finally got our tomatoes planted. I'm still waiting for some seeds to arrive in the mail so I can finish planting my garden. 

So far, I haven't put a single stitch into anything since part 7 of Around the World in 80 Stitches. I am hoping to remedy that this weekend. 

July TUSAL and Chicks

Here is my TUSAL photo. This time it's only a few days late. lol. Here is why I didn't post my orts on Saturday.

I have been giving my fresh yard eggs to friends and family but there is never quite enough for everyone. So I put some eggs in the incubator so I will hoepfully have a few more hens to lay eggs. I put in 16 eggs. I candled them and 4 of them weren't fertilized. I wasn't sure all of the 12 that were left would hatch but they did! I was so excited to see the first one start poking it's way through. Here's some photos....

This is the 12 eggs before hatching.

The brown chick had just hatched and the black chick was drying off.

My little cuties.

TUSAL

Here is my late photo of my orts for TUSAL. To make up for being late, here are a few more Hibiscus photos for you to enjoy.

A Finish! A Finish!

Here is my Happy Dance! This is King Tut from the the kit, Egyptian Pair. There is also a Nefertitti but I haven't started on her yet. I think I got this kit back in 1997 as a Christmas present. Ha ha! Anyway, King Tut was on my WIPocalypse list so I am making progress on that list no matter how slow that may be going.

Here's some more Hibiscus photos for you to enjoy.

Excuses

I have not gotten much stitching done lately but I am starting to get back into it slowly.  Summer always brings super busy-ness with it. Right now, I just have the backstitching left to go on King Tut and hopefully I will have a finish photo soon. I picked up a book a couple of weeks ago and before I knew it, I was starting the 4th book in the series. So that is one reason I haven't been stitching much. So instead of a stitching related photo, I have a photo of one of my hibiscus blooms. So pretty! I have more flower photos that I will post later.

Anyway, I need to go find out when all the WIPocalypse and TUSAL dates are/were and get caught up.

I'm Back With TUSal and WIPocalypse

Where have I been? Between working, gardening, and other chores, I haven't been doing much blog reading let alone actually posting. I'm not complaining, it's just that spring/summer is always a busy time. I missed this months WIPocalypse so todays post is another "catch up" post.

Here are my lovely Orts for TUSal. I have managed to stitch a little as you will see below.

Here is my late progress report for the WIPocalypse. This is King Tut from Janlynn's Egyptian Pair. This is pretty much the only thing I have worked on since my last post. I have the border and back stitching left to do on this. However, I must have lost the instructions that came in the kit because I can't find where it says what colors and how many strands to use for the back stitching. I have sent an email to Janlynn and hopefully they will be able to help me. I think the kit is from 1998 but I'm not sure. If not, I'll probably just do my best at guessing.

My gardening has been taking a lot of my time. I have been getting a very nice harvest of purple hull peas, green beans, and cucumbers. My tomatoes are not doing so well. I am starting to suspect that I have some kind of tomato disease in my soil. Oh well. We got a whole bunch of rain that damaged my squash and zucchini plants but they were starting to come back. Then my chickens ran into the garden looking for bugs and just destroyed what was left. It was kind of funny to watch actually.

Speaking of my chickens, I could not be happier with "my girls". I have getting so many eggs that I have to give most of them away. That hasn't been too hard either! People go nuts over fresh yard eggs. I can't wait to hatch some chicks but I really don't need any right now. I must resist!

We went to the annual hibiscus sale and got a few more "exotic" hibiscus bushes. So hopefully I will have some pretty photos once they start blooming.

Ok that's all for now. I am going to try to get back to posting as normal but no promises.

Clover and Cuteness

I decided in honor of St. Patricks Day, I would take a few photos of the clover in my backyard. I love this time of year.



My Nephew was a tired tiger and fell asleep while eating his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That is pure cuteness so of course, I had to get a photo of it. Hee hee!

September's TUSAL

Here's my monthly TUSAL photo. It may not seem like I'm adding much each month but I am. Or at least I am adding as much as I can. Ha ha ha!




I found these in my back yard. We are seriously hurting for rain. We aren't even sure we are going to be able to plant a fall garden this year. If we do, we will pretty much have to water it every single day which means we should try to keep it as a small garden. I at least need to plant some greens (collards, mustard, turnip, and dandelion) for my iguana.

Frogs and Flowers

My froggy is starting to get his arms and legs. I think this is the only thing I have worked on this week and it even then, it was for 2 days. I'm not in a slump, I'm in a time crunch. I have only managed about an hour of free time a day and I have spent that doing laundry and other chores that have been neglected lately.


I have mentioned before that I bought some "exotic" hibiscus plants. I had almost given up on some of them. The heat and drought was making it hard on them and they weren't blooming. Well, we finally got a little rain and a small break from the heat and we have gotten a few more blooms. This is "Red Planet". The blooms are huge! They are around 10 inches in diameter! They are really pretty.



And I love this one! This is "Key Largo". The photo doesn't do it justice. It is actually purple with an orangy-yellow around the outside.

I have photos of my chicks coming soon. :)

Raccoons!

So I have been feeding my cousin's farm animals as stated in my last post. I went into their garage to get the cat food and came back out to see two raccoons waiting at the bowls wanting to be fed. So cute right?

I haven't gotten any stitching done because I did in fact catch the virus that was going around my family. After I started getting better, I had to catch up on all the stuff the hadn't been done while I was down. This weekend, I am planning to stitch till my hands fall off! Ha ha! That's the plan. We shall see how that works out.

Super Busy

Well, Ive done it again. On top of babysitting six days a week, I am also feeding my second cousin's farm animals while they are on vacation. I have to feed chickens, cows, horses, goats, a rabbit, and cats. I get to take home any eggs that the chickens lay which is nice but at the same time kind of depressing. If my chickens hadn't been killed they would probably start laying right about now. I am planning to start over with my chickens I'm just not sure when.

Also, a poo n' spew virus has been making the rounds in my family. I haven't gotten it yet (knock on wood) so that pretty much means that I am doing all the chores that everyone can't do while sick.

So to make a long story short (too late), I haven't been able to stitch very much. This is what I did get done.....


Here is my very little progress on Legends of the Dragons.



We bought a few "exotic" Hibiscus shrubs at a Hibiscus plant sale and some of them are starting to bloom. This one is called "Super Kool".


And this one is called "Some like it Hot". I think this flower would have opened more but we are under a severe drought and everything is suffering.