A plan … sorta

Yesterday I was busy baking cookies and cleaning house. So as I expected, no post was written. And I’m okay with that.

Today I was expecting to be at a reunion (which was part of the reason for the cookies), but last night I had the first recurrence of a retinal/ocular migraine since a year or two ago. No headache, but very unusual visual effects lasting about half an hour. Which is why I’m not going anywhere today as driving didn’t seem like a great idea.

Instead, I’m posting about the tentative beginning of a not-quite-daily stitching project …

The patches to be inspired by whatever catches my interest on any given day. Like Fiona’s postcards on New Year’s Day and the Run Out Soup …

Likewise the fair linen I’m making for St Liz and the starfish that topped our Christmas tree …

There will be more, which I’ll post whenever I have  few to show.  Unlike past birthday patch cloths, I’ve decided to make all the patches the same size and to alternate light and dark patches. Or not … I’ll just see how it goes.

The weight of the world

The news just keeps getting worse … and in spite of completely swearing off television news (local, national, and MSNBC), it’s hard to avoid since I still read the New York Times every day.

Thank goodness for Jon Stewart and the Daily Show … although even they can’t completely gloss the reality.

My personal news is more pedestrian. It was a relief to go to my annual physical and have absolutely no questions or concerns. Although I did ask them to check my height and discovered I’ve shrunk 1.5” from my one-time height of five feet six and a half inches (I always added that half inch, like a proud child announcing their age). My grandkids will likely be delighted that they’re even closer to surpassing me in height.

Sadly, my weight is trending in the opposite direction, necessitating multiple purchases in a new clothing size this past year. But my doctor commended me, saying more weight-bearing is good for my osteoporosis. I’m skeptical, but whatever you say Doc.

In stitching news, I dismantled these two bags, made 8 years ago …

and plan to repurpose them into table placemats …

since the placemats I made 14 years ago are getting threadbare. Nothing is forever, but I do like to keep using and re-using cloth as long as possible. Besides which, I’m over carrying large shoulder bags weighed down with “stuff” now that I’ve converted to a much lighter crossbody bag (a $100 leather bag found at a local antique store for $25). It doesn’t take much to make me happy. 

Kindred Spirits

I began blogging in 2009 when Don and I moved from Williamsburg, Virginia to the Hill Country near Austin, Texas. The early blogging years focused on recipes and learning about the land, but in 2014 I found my way to Jude Hill’s Spirit Cloth blog and thence to a group of like-minded stitchers and creatives. Many of them continue to blog, as evidenced by the Kindred Spirits sidebar to the right (if you’re reading this on a smart phone, scroll down to the bottom and click on “View web version”).

Among them is Mo, who taught me much about blogging and led me in turn to Fiona Dempster and Barry Smith, Australian artist/creators who were (and continue to be) tireless advocates for peace. Over the years they have been a steady presence and have inspired many of my own creations. 

Fiona’s recent post had an intriguing bit at the end about a square alphabet that she created last summer … which I had missed, being otherwise occupied with helping after my daughter’s surgery (from which she has made significant recovery).

Better late than never, I happily took on the challenge of deciphering a bit of text that Fiona had created …

Then pondered stitching a bit of peace of my own.

Morning meditations

 

As I was sitting in my stitching chair, reading and commenting on the Kindred Spirit blogs (see the sidebar to the right), a comment popped in from Beverly. And this is why I do what I do … this sense of community from people I may never meet irl (in real life), but who are nonetheless friends, truly kindred spirits.

Winter, such as it ever is in Texas, has left its mark, graying the vibrant colors of spring, summer, and fall. Happily Don has upscaled the bird bath to make it more visible over his wildly successful garden …

And when there are no true feathered friends about, we have some others that keep the beds company …

The first, a hen from Williamsburg days beneath the prayer wheel for peace, created three … no, four long years ago at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The second, a Williamsburg rooster perched atop a leaning peace pole created by Don. And yes, the dwarf pomegranate was quite fruity this past year.

Last, the pelican painted by our grandkiddos, below which the latest addition to the garden: firefly lights, which gather in the sun and then shine through the night …

May peace abide.

My stitching chair

It’s been over 20 years since we bought a couch and two chairs at Ethan Allen. The couch is long-gone, but we still have the chairs, of which the swivel rocker has always been, and will forever be,“my” chair.

It sits by a southern window, where the Texas sun pours in, bleeding color and life out of its fibers. On the rare chilly days, it is my greatest pleasure to sit in sun. But better yet, on any given day, it’s where I stitch.

I’ve written before about mending my chair, so this is the latest installment of an ongoing saga. The two arms, which get the most abuse from sun and from the friction of my presence, needed some serious attention. So I patched one arm with leftover piecework from the table cloth project …

While the other arm got a log cabin block that I pieced some time back using cloth gifted by Deb Lacativa  and others …

In the background, the other Ethan Allen chair and another fair linen that is my current project for St Liz. My stitching nest is rarely tidy, but there’s always a project or two close at hand … as are my pins and needles.

O Christmas tree

 As usual, I had help decorating the tree …

And what I most notice is the bottom, which is no longer a mass of ornaments. Our grandkids are growing taller (besides which I’m no longer leaning down as far as I used to).

This year’s paper ornaments were inspired by Mood Body Studio on Instagram, thanks to which I got to buy lots of fun new art supplies: tempera paint sticks, washi tape, big hole punches, acrylic paint markers. Such fun (but hard to photograph to show they’re dimensional) …

So today I’ll take all the ornaments down, mentally traveling memory lane from the glittered walnut shells I made in first grade and the blackwork ornaments stitched in college, to the ornaments crafted from outgrown grandkid clothes and those made for us by those same grandkids. Not to mention everything in between. I could write a book (hmmmm … maybe I should write a book).

Run Out Soup

Every so often I’m reminded that this blog began when my newlywed daughters were in the habit of calling for recipes … almost 17 years ago!

The reminders come when I manage to make something that I want to remember, as I did last night. Don was recovering from a routine colonoscopy, so I wanted to make something easy on his stomach using homemade rotisserie chicken broth …

I was of a mind to make Brunswick Stew, but belatedly realized I was out of potatoes. So I thought I’d pivot to tortilla soup, but I was also out of poblano peppers and cilantro (oh the joys of restocking after going out of town).

Then it came to me that I had just bought fresh corn and coconut milk (which is not usual for me, but for some reason I had picked it up at the store). Combined with onions, celery, grape tomatoes, a sweet potato, chipotle powder, salt and pepper, I had just what I needed to create a chicken soup riff on Rundown Chowder. Which turned out pretty darn well …

All that was left to decide was what to call it … Don, wag that he is, suggested Run Out Soup. And so it is. I do think I’ll add some poblanos and thyme for the next go round, but otherwise the “recipe” (sorry, no amounts) should be good to go in the future, whether I’ve “run out” of ingredients or not.

P.S. Fortunately, we did have some tortilla chips in the pantry that added the requisite crunch that I always crave with soups … and salads, and sandwiches. Ha!

Christmas 2025

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then our Christmas held a dictionary’s worth of joy-fullness.

There was art and BBQ, bowling and cookie dough, lights at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, Dave’s Hot Chicken and Top Golf …

But wait, there’s more … pizza and card games, more art and much silliness, along with candlelight and carols …

All of it fleeting, as these two pictures from 2022 and 2025 show …

We are so very rich in love and happiness.

Happy New Year

Ten years ago when I turned 60 I blogged everyday …

Five years later I made it halfway through 2021 (and all the way through turning 65) …

So here I am, contemplating a third try for my 70th after a year when I barely showed up (because 2025 absolutely did not inspire). Which is to say, no promises … but I dare to hope that 2026 could be different.

As always, I find inspiration from Kindred Spirits. Today’s inspiration comes from Fiona Dempster in Australia …

May each and every one of us experience peace, joy, and wellness in the year to come!

No Kings

 

Kyle, Texas today ✌️