Waiting for Fall

Fall has always been one of my favorite times of the year. When we lived in Texas it was the idea of Fall because we didn't have much of one really. That's what I love about being up here. There are four seasons instead of two. The leaves turn slowly on the trees before they fall. In Texas what's not dead turns fast and the trees there aren't like the trees here. We got here mid Oct. last year and the leaves had just started to turn. I'm anxiously awaiting for the official start of fall. In the meantime, I decided to unpack my Halloween and Fall stitched pieces to have ready to display when the time comes. It was then that I realized that I need to add to my collection of seasonal stitched pieces. I have a few for Halloween but didn't realize that I only have one piece for Fall. That's just disappointing considering it's one of my favorite times of year. For some reason I was thinking I was going to unpack all kinds of Fall pretties to display. Humph. In my quest to change that and add to my collection of Fall designs to display, I tossed everything else aside to start a new Autumn piece. It's Autumn Leaves from the Prairie Schooler. I've loved this chart since I got it. I especially love the verse. It's the piece on the left I'm stitching. I promised myself I wouldn't stitch on anything else until it's finished. It should be done this week. I got a great deal stitched on Saturday when Hanna was blowing through. Hopefully I'll find a really great frame for it soon after it's done. The next time I post I should have a pic of the finished piece to share.

Back to what I do have to display for Halloween and Fall.....I took a couple of pictures for you of what I have. Let's start with Halloween. First, my mummy. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this mummy. I stitched him about 4 years ago and made him in to a stand up. I really look forward to displaying him every year. The next one is a treat bag that I got in an exchange. I have to admit, when I received this I didn't know how to display it. My clever friend Laura told me that she sticks a can of something in hers to display it. I did just that and it displays nicely. I hope no one goes looking for that can of chicken noodle soup :). I also got the little jack-o-lantern pillow in an exchange. He's a fun little thing. The last piece is a flat fold that I received from Jackie in a Halloween exchange last year. I love this piece! It's called Witchy Washy from Raise the Roof Designs. Ya gotta love her Madonna looking swirly bra hanging on the line there..lol.

On to Fall....This is it. I have 1 piece to display. Not for long though because my needles are flyin! It's a pillow I received in an exchange from Lynne, a stitching friend of mine. I love this piece! She did a great job stitching and finishing it.

I've decided that I need to spend some more time stitching for me. I love the exchanges and things I join but I really need to stitch some of these charts I have. I can't just keep collecting them. I'm starting to feel guilty that I keep adding and not stitching what I already have. I'm gonna try to keep my purchases to just buying fabric and threads for the charts I already have. Let's see how that goes, shall we? LOL :).

I'm excited to say that in my endeavor to stitch more for myself that I've joined the Me, Myself, and I Neighborhood Round Robin. I'm really excited about that! I don't know what kind of neighborhood I'll have yet, but I'm leaning towards either a Prairie Schooler RR or a Liberty/Patriotic neighborhood. We'll see. I have lots of ideas swimming around! I'll put my architect hat back on soon and see what I come up with. I love the idea of this because there are no time restraints or commitments like traditional round robins.

I've been buying more bananas than usual lately, secretly hoping that some of them will overripe before they can finish them off. I found the BEST recipe for banana bread on All Recipes. I've made it several times and it turns out perfect every time. The only thing I do different is I had some cinnamon to the batter and once I mix everything together I also had a bit of milk to make that batter a little thinner. It's really good, the best banana bread that I've ever made. You can find the recipe here if you'd like to give it a whirl. I just finished baking a loaf. The best part of baking banana bread is that it makes the house smell soooooooo good :).

I'm off to do some housework. I have a date with a friend tomorrow so I'm trying to get everything done today. We were supposed to have lunch last Thursday but she had a run in with some poison ivy :o.