The Rest of February's Stitches

I have been cross stitching like crazy, and also distracting myself with other things.  I've been hanging out with my parents a lot and then every damned weekend, we have been going back to Hutto (3 hours there and back driving) for something or another.  UGH.  I will be glad when we don't have to spend the weekends out there and can chill and have free weekends!

I love the show Ozark, and like most people, Ruthie Langmore is my favorite character.  She is so cute and fiesty and damn, the potty mouth on her... I love it because I also have a potty mouth.  I got this pattern on Etsy from Shirleysstitcheryco.  I like the weird designs on the top and bottom.  I stitched it on some horrible fabric that I will never buy again and I actually threw the rest away.  It's some aida from Amazon (probably a bad idea but in the middle of nowhere, there aren't a lot of options), and it's almost like a plastic canvas, but it's not.  It's horrible to stitch on. 

I memorialized my love for Judge Judy.  I have watched Judge Judy since she started in the 90s and now I watch her channel on Pluto all the time if I just need something in the background.  Judge Judy on demand... living on this timeline does have its teeny tiny privileges I guess.  Pattern partially by BusyNothingStitchery and by Me.  

I started a "Stitch a Day" project and I fully intend to do a tiny pattern every day.  We'll see how that goes.  This is my progress so far.  

So.. see ya in March!

Back in Perler Action

 My wrist started randomly hurting and it was bothering me too much to do cross stitching.  I was like... well what the fuck am I gonna do with my hands?? 

I did a little diamond painting, but kind of wanted to get back into Perler Beads, so my sweet husband went to our storage space and brought me some of my Perler bead stuff like pegboards and tweezers!  Here are the froo-eets of my labor so far:

I found this on Pinterest and thought it was super cute, so I re-created it using mini beads.

And here are some random ones.  I have tons of designs and sometimes get overwhelmed and don't know what I wanna do, so this happens.  Just little random shit I don't even know what I'll do with!

Cemetery Visit

Last night, we went to Magnolia Cemetery near Cleveland. It's off of 2025. It's in a cool area, you go a few miles down a winding wooded road and it's a small cemetery on the left. Right across from it are two huge gorgeous houses and a huge pond. We decided to try to find some memorials requested on FindAGrave. I found two! I couldn't believe it. We couldn't find the other 7, sadly. Getting outside, walking around and spending time with Allen was just what I needed! I felt great last night. We came home and I made a really good grilled cheese sandwich and then I finished a couple of small diamond paintings while watching The Sopranos and The Office. I read more of my Israel Keyes book and I actually remember what I read last night!

Here is a cute headstone we saw last night... Goober and Peanut!

My wrist is still hurting but it's not hurting to type today like it was yesterday. I am gonna try to finish a cross stitch and then try to make up my Stitch A Day project. I have like 4 days to catch up on. If it starts to hurt, then I'll stop. But I really want to cross stitch. I may have to start back on diamond painting or perler beads until my wrist feels better.

The Witchy Stitcher Cryptid Stitch-Along: Dover Demon

 Friday at laaaast!  

I finished another cryptid from the Witchy Stitcher.  According to Wikipedia, The Dover Demon is a creature reportedly sighted on April 21–22, 1977 in Dover, MA.  17-year-old William "Bill" Bartlett claimed that while driving on April 21, 1977, he saw a creature "about 4 feet tall with glowing orange eyes and no nose or mouth in a watermelon-shaped head" on top of a broken stone wall on Farm Street in Dover.  15-year-old John Baxter reported seeing a similar creature on Miller Hill Road the same evening. Another 15-year-old, Abby Brabham, claimed to have seen the creature the following night on Springdale Avenue. It's believed that it may have actually been a snowy owl, which would have reflected in the yellow headlights of older cars as the peach color described by Bartlett. In addition, the "long spindly arms" and fingers of the supposed creature could be the partially opened wings and the splayed feathers at the wingtips of a snowy owl.

2-19-25

It's pretty cold today. It was 35 when I went up to Mom and Dad's and it's 31 now. It's grey and windy. I love it! We covered my plants last night and I'm hoping it was enough. I don't know how it is, but it worked last time so...

I have been working on a lot of cross stitching lately. It's like I finish one and pick up the next. I hope I don't burn myself out. I really shouldn't have packed up my knitting because that would be something cool to do while we are out here. I wish I could really knit, like using needles and stuff. I want to make stuff but I'm just not good at it. I am finishing up the Dover Demon Cryptid from the Witchy Stitcher SAL.

I am also on day 7 of my Stitch-A-Day project...can she keep this up??? Doubtful. But it's worth a shot, right??

Let's Talk About Love

 ... and nice things.  I'm actually feeling a bit better, on and off.  I find that staying off social media and away from the news helps.  

I gush about my husband a lot, but he really deserves it.  He is happy if I am happy.  He was happy in Hutto (but really did want to move from Texas because he hates Texas so much now), and he's not into cold weather like I am, but he was 100% happy and up for moving to Colorado.  He has done so much- looking for houses to get an idea of what we will be able to afford, researching good areas and areas to avoid, researching living in CO in general, and being there for me when I break down in an anxious mess.  I have done a Valentine's Cross Stitch piece for him for almost every year we have been together (2025 makes it 19 years total!), and he used to have a little wall of them at our old house.  He has created a wall in his new office of them, which I think is just the sweetest.

I have been seeing a lot of "Until we're ghosts" patterns, but some are so big and big ones take me FOREVER because I am easily distracted, so I created my own more simple one using ghosts from a pattern I purchased from AlliePaigeEmbroidery on Etsy.  I added the rest myself.  This is his 2025 Valentine's Stitch!    I took him to pick out the frame and I think it fits really well!  I dyed this fabric myself.

Does anyone know...?

Living in the woods has been so nice so far. It's quiet.  I see my parents every day almost.  It smells lovely.  And it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL out here.  It's very conducive to crafting.  It's really cozy and being cozy is my goal in life.  

This is how I have been feeling since November 5th, 2024, but ESPECIALLY since January 21st, 2025.  Like.. .WHAT THE FUCK is going on???  Is this real life?  Are these things really happening?  Did people really say these terrible things?  Are they really trying to do other horrible things?  Are people actually believing what is being said?  Did Elon Musk really do a nazi salute at the inauguration (yes he did, I saw it unfolding on national TV) and people are defending it???  LIKE WHAT IN THE GODDAMNED ACTUAL FUCK????  I created this pattern myself  and I dyed the fabric as well :)  Well, kind of.  The flowers are from another pattern I have and the alphabet is one I purchased a while back and I don't remember who created either of them.  I just put them together.

And now, I have to....

This pattern is from Alexsitchinstuff on Etsy.  Aida dyed by me!

A slightly new direction

Well, Happy Monday!

I have decided that along with craft things, I sort of need a place to get my thoughts out so that I don't explode, so this may be boring. I am feeling a wee bit homesick for Hutto. I kind of miss my old office. I like my office now here at the house in Coldspring- it has a nice window, it's bigger... but I do miss my other one. I miss being happy in our Hutto house, without a lot of concerns about what's going on in the country and about money (we are fine now, but will we be in Colorado??). I am trying to keep away from social media and news as much as I can but still sort of stay informed, but every day, something horrible is happening. I miss when I didn’t have to worry about things. I miss being proud to be Texan and loving it here. Those days are gone.  It's not the HOUSE we are trying to leave, it's life in this state. I was happy in the house, not happy in the city, not happy in the state. Right now, everything seems so chaotic and up in the air and I don't deal well with that.

When we have gone back to the house in Hutto to work on getting it ready to sell, I have gotten really sad and cried every time except for this past weekend. I don’t know why… maybe I’m finally getting better. I will miss that place so much, but I know we will find another place we love too. We just have to get out of Texas. Will I be happier in CO? I don’t know, but we have to try. I have wanted to live there my whole life... so I am cautiously optimistic right now.

Anyway, good things... Friday, I went to karaoke with my parents. None of their friends were there and there seemed to be some sort of issue with the karaoke machine because the song I was doing kept messing up and the beat was way off and you could barely hear it. So they just played a bunch of shitty country music and everyone was line dancing. I can't really join in on that and so I was just kind of sitting there, so luckily I took my car and I was able to just leave. I took the car because I wanted to go but I didn’t wanna stay all night. I needed to get up early on Saturday to go to Hutto. 

I have a lovely witch friend group back in Central Texas and we have been trying to get together when we can, since we are moving, and also my friends Jennifer and Steven, who are part of the group, are ALSO moving to CO (whaaaaaat??? They will be in Denver for a while so we plan to get together when we can!) It was lovely to see my witchy friends and to spend time with them.

We stayed over at the Hutto house on Saturday Allen did a great job spackling the million little holes in the walls.

I went outside in the back and saw that despite the cold, my hyacinths have returned!!

We also brought some more stuff that we didn't really have a place for when we moved our stuff to Coldspring. We came home on Sunday and I finished a cross stitch piece, which I will post in a separate post.

I am enjoying living in the house I grew up in again it so far overall. I do miss my friends, but I am really enjoying the quiet out here. There isn’t a ton of crazy traffic every time I want to go somewhere. There aren’t dogs barking all night, people shouting, or our neighbors' idiot son revving his motorcycle at all hours of the night. I haven’t yet hung out on the patio out here but I think it will be nice to do some cross stitching out there at some point. I think my plants are okay out there, I guess we’ll see how they hold up. I have unpacked enough things to make it really feel a bit more like home.