More Texas, more tiny baking!

The Texas goodies continue to flow in! This super cute chart arrived today from Robin in Virginia. I'm already thinking of ways to customize it. Thank you, Robin!

These pretties arrived from a shop in Texas, part of last week's mini Texas shopping spree. The two Redbird Designs charts will be small enough for my Texas basket; the wildflower design on the right would be too big, but I couldn't resist it.

And speaking of goodies, I did a little more tiny baking today. This is a mini sprinkle cake, only 6"! You could use any of the seasonal color combinations of sprinkles: pastels for spring, red/white/blue for summer, brown/orange/yellow for fall, red/green for Christmas. Just a fun little cake when you want to celebrate something--anything, really. Like making it through the week. The recipe is in Christina Lane's Sweet & Simple.

Isn't this cute? I found the tiny cake stand at Michael's earlier this spring.

Mr. Wonderful is treating himself to a little carbohydrate-heavy NFL draft party tonight. I couldn't find any football-y paper goods, so I went with something bright and cheerful.

You probably need a tiny cake, too. I'm pretty sure everyone does.

Texas Basket Update

I've been stitching away and have a couple of finishes for my summer Texas basket! Here's the Indian Paintbrush that matches the Bluebonnet I've already done.

Here's an old Redbird Designs freebie that was sent to me a few years ago by a sweet lady in Texas. I stitched it on PTP's new fabric Oaken, which I absolutely love.

And I think this will be my next project. I found this gorgeous Bluebonnet fabric on Etsy and will be using it to back some of my finishes.

I hope I'll be able to get some finishing done over the next few days. I've got a couple more Christmas pieces to finish, and then I can get started on finishing these Texas pieces. 

I need a Texas basket, y'all.

Okay. So if you've been visiting for a while, you know I have a thing for seasonal stitchy baskets. If you've just arrived, you can see all of them here. I love stitching small designs for my baskets, and I'm always adding finishes to them. This year, I think I'll have enough fall finishes to have separate fall and Halloween baskets. Anyway. My summer basket is just sad. I am not a summery type person and I don't really stitch summery themes. What to do?

A few days ago, it hit me. You know that feeling you get when you have an idea that was so obvious you should have had it ages ago? It was that feeling. My summer basket should be a Texas basket. Of course. Bright colors, flowers (yes, Texas wildflowers are spring flowers, but shhhh...), waving flags. It would be perfect for summer.

Well, then I was off down the rabbit hole: pulling out all my small Texas charts...

...running to my LNS to find the perfect Bluebonnet blue and Indian Paintbrush red, and dusty green and fire engine red and lovely scraps of fabric...

...and collecting supplies for my first official Texas basket project, the Indian Paintbrush companion to this Bluebonnet I recently finished.

I'm supposed to be working on other things, but this has captured my imagination and I need to run with it. Sometimes what you plan to do is not what you need to do. Just as your body will tell you when it needs food and sleep, your mind will tell you when it needs to be let off the leash for a while. So I'm off leash! Let's see what happens!

And a Few Winter Finishes

Link to this freebie in this post.

This is from the 2016 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. My changes are listed in this post.

Link to this freebie in this post.

A Few Fall Finishes

Link to this pumpkin freebie in this post.

Link to this October freebie in this post.

And I also made a chocolate chip cookie needle minder. For obvious reasons.

One More Stitch Finish!

Finished up my Stitchapalooza project today! This is my pink/purple conversion of LHN's One More Stitch. 

My color choices can be found in this post. 

Stitchapalooza Status Update

I'm back! So, that domestic issue that interrupted my finishing activities on Thursday ended up taking over all of Friday, bringing Stitchapalooza to an abrupt halt. Nothing serious. We live in quarters, and when the powers that be decide to paint the master bath, the master bath gets painted. If it takes all day, it takes all day. If it prevents you from picking up Mr. Wonderful at the airport, it prevents you from picking up Mr. Wonderful at the airport. As you can probably tell, Friday was not how I envisioned it. It was followed by a busier than expected weekend, the result of all that being that my Stitchapalooza project isn't done, and I still have a pile of finishing to complete. 

Solution?

Extend Stitchapalooza, of course! Happily, the weather was beautiful over the weekend and Mr. Wonderful spent his time grilling, so I'm off the hook on cooking this week! How about that?

I did get some stitching done this weekend. Here's my progress on my pink/purple conversion of LHN's One More Stitch. Just the alphabet to go and it will be finished.

I even put some time in on Sleeping Fox.

For week 2 of Stitchapalooza, I'm hoping to finish up One More Stitch and catch up on my finishing. If I get all of that done, maybe I'll be able to get some framing done. Will there be more tiny baking? Maybe. Probably. Okay, yes. If I can't resist. 

By the way, y'all will be proud of me: there was still cake left when Mr. Wonderful got home!

Stitchapalooza: Day 4

April is being April. This week has been warm and sunny and beautiful, but today it was back to cold and rainy.

One More Stitch is coming along nicely, but I took a break from it today to get some finishing done.

I've let it pile up again, but not like last time. And I haven't been stitching as much so far this year, so the pile hasn't grown too overwhelming.

Tiger Lily has been missing Mr. Wonderful a bit, I think. She's been sleeping in his chair.

But this afternoon, I caught her red-pawed, curled up right smack in the middle of the clean laundry.

 Stitchapalooza was unexpectedly interrupted today by a domestic issue (all is well!), so I didn't get nearly as much finishing done as I had hoped, but I did manage a couple of things. 

Spring in Texas is Bluebonnet season. If you've never seen a field of Bluebonnets blazing blue under the wide Texas sky, you've missed something pretty special. 

Mr. Wonderful is due home tomorrow afternoon, but I suspect Stitchapalooza may linger through the weekend. I'm not quite done indulging myself yet!

Stitchapalooza: Day 3

Well! Look what arrived last night from Mr. Wonderful (who is currently nearly 5,ooo miles away). The card said they were for Stitchapalooza.

I deliberately exercised bad judgement this morning and did some more baking. This is a fresh-from-the-oven mini Texas Chocolate Sheet cake, made using this recipe. This is quarter sheet sized. My pan is 11.35" x 8", so it's pretty small for a sheet cake, but it's still way too much cake for one person and I don't even care. I've already had two pieces and I'm not sorry. 

It. is. delicious.

And while I will not continue to update y'all on my progress on killing this cake (in an effort to preserve a small shred of my dignity), I will show you my progress on LHN's One More Stitch. This is my pink/purple conversion. I really like how the colors are working out.

My stitching notebook is pretty much done. I haven't yet decided what to do with the inside back cover, but otherwise it's finished. Front cover:

Back cover:

Here's a shot with the light reflecting off the cover so you can see that I've sealed it. I use Ranger Multi Medium Matte for adhesive and sealing. I use an inexpensive paintbrush to apply it when I'm using it as a sealer, and it dries to a hard, nicely textured, water-resistant finish. 

These are the Washi tape section dividers I mentioned in my last post, which correspond with the little circles on the table of contents on the inside front cover that I showed yesterday. I'll be able to quickly flip to whatever I'm looking for.

My notebook is now ready for me to transfer all the information on all those bits of paper.

My plan for tomorrow is to tackle some finishing that's been piling up. It's been too long since I've had a finishing day, and Stitchapalooza is the perfect time. Back with more tomorrow!

Stitchapalooza: Day 2

You guys, look what arrived today from Robin in Virginia, just in time for Stitchapalooza! Aren't these beautiful? What a wonderful surprise! Thank you, Robin!

It was an absolutely beautiful spring day here on the East Coast, nearly 80 degrees. The hosta is loving the warm weather.

The perfect April sky. I had all the windows open today and it was glorious. 

I spent the morning doing some tiny baking. I made Strawberry Rolls using this recipe.

Look at that tiny lump of dough. Isn't that cute?

Yum! The recipe makes four, but I think next time I'll cut the rolls to make six. And because I tweak everything, not just cross stitch designs, I think I'll add a pinch of cinnamon to the dough and reduce the jam just a smidge, maybe to 1/3 cup. I have a couple left over for my breakfast tomorrow!

I'm making progress on my stitchy notebook. The front and back covers are ready to be sealed.

And here's the inside front cover. Those little circles are punched from Washi tape. This will be my table of contents when I get it finished. I plan to put a little piece of Washi tape on the edge of the pages to divide the sections.

I spent most of the day stitching, but I'll wait to show my progress until I'm a little further along. Finally, I just couldn't resist sharing one more sign of spring, even though the picture is a bit fuzzy because I had to zoom in. This is Gigantor, the groundhog who lives across the street (not to be confused with Henry, who lives out back). This is the first time I've seen him since last fall. Hi, Gigantor!

Yep. Now it's spring!

See y'all tomorrow!