It's So Sunday

We had a dinner guest up last night.  We served shrimp cocktails, marinated rib-eye steaks, cottage fried potatoes, an orange and hazelnut salad, and a bumbleberry jalousie.  Everything was delicious.  I tried to keep it simple, including Mike grilling the steaks.  Nevertheless, I still spent the entire day cooking, cleaning, and watering outside.  That makes two days with no sewing.

It's become necessary for me to give myself a good talking to about participating in various online challenges, swaps, sew-alongs, quilt-alongs, and BOM's.  While I love joining anything and everything, sewing can start to feel like a job when one is pressured by lots of deadlines.  While I've felt pressured at missed sewing days because of looming end-of-the-month deadlines, it's also been nice to have a few days off from sewing.  I love sewing, but anything starts to rub like a new pair of shoes if its taken too seriously.

So, while I'm telling you this, I'm also talking to myself...which is what my blog is about much of the time...me, talking to myself. (At least I'm doing it silently in contrast to the way I used to do it...loudly, often losing arguments with myself in public, which was very embarrassing.  Not the talking out loud to myself. The losing arguments with myself with so many people in earshot--especially when I start swearing.)

Anyway, all of that to say that while I'm still endeavoring to complete my monthly goals, I'm telling myself that I'm not going to get all worked up about it.  Summer is for being outdoors, and there is plenty to do outdoors.  For example, today Mike and I are going to pick the ripe cherries on the cherry trees...the ones the squirrels, birds, and raccoons missed.  Also, we have ripe raspberries that nearly escaped our notice. There could actually be enough raspberries to do something with them, aside from eating them as they are picked.

Also, I have a half flat of blueberries in my refrigerator.  I picked them up on the way home from the dentist the other day.  My plan was to make blueberry chutney today, but since I spent the whole day cooking yesterday, I decided to hold off until tomorrow.  (That image above is from last year.)  Besides, that gave me a chance to get my towering disaster-waiting-to-happen of cast-off canning jars organized a little better.  As we've eaten last year's harvest, I've been sticking the jars back on high shelves sort of willy-nilly until it's a bit scary to consider going into the pantry.

This morning, I got all the jars down, matched them up with rings, and put them back in some order so that they can be stacked more safely.

There.  That's a little better.  Also, it gave me a chance to pull out appropriate jars for making chutney tomorrow.

Despite my lack of sewing at the machine, I've been working away on my first Vintage Tin stitchery.  I have most of the bottom motorcycle finished now.  It's hard to see, I know.  Imagine how I must feel as I'm stitching it.

When I take a stitchery out of a hoop to take a picture of it, ordinarily I spray it with water so that I can iron all of the wrinkles out more easily.  Since this new product I'm using is a water-soluble stabilizer, that would have been a dreadful mistake.  Fortunately, I smacked my own hand just in a nick of time.  (Yes, I was arguing with myself again.)  But I wanted to tell you how this is going and let you know that I'm liking the new product so far.  I'll say that it's a little more difficult to needle through, although that could be because I have a layer of muslin on the back.  That means three layers to needle.  A thimble might be a good idea, but so far I've not felt a huge need for it.  And I'm linking this post to:

Finally, I want to close with a little message to all of you from my friend Lisa.  She has very much appreciated all your well wishes, thoughts and prayers.  The latest news from her little community is turning more optimistic.  This is what Lisa had to say this morning:

At 5:26 am as we are starting our journey north to go camping, we are leaving behind our mountain home, trusting its fate to The Lord and the proven capable hands of the 3000+ firefighters who have proven over and over they are among our truest heroes! Thank you all for your concern, thoughtful comments, and prayer. The lightning and rain currently on display are cause for continued prayer and the use of extreme caution. We all feel this expected weather pattern is the beginning of our last hurdle!

The latest news is that the fire is 49% contained, and some residents of Lisa's mountain are being allowed to return to their homes.  Also, I want to thank reader Becky for sending me this link with continuous updates for anyone who is interested.

So that's it from me this morning.  I hope you have a restful day doing what you want...even if it includes no sewing at all.