Stitching Oasis

On Tuesday my boyfriend had to talk to a friend of the family who happened to be a priest, so we went to a catholic church.  I had my stitching stuff with me so I can work.  I walked around the grounds of the church to see if I could find a nice area to stitch that morning.  I did stitch in the main office but I felt wierd and everyone kept looking at me strange as they would walk by.  So I decided to hunt down a beautiful area.  Which I did find one location but it was a "prayer" garden, I thought it was a bad idea to stitch there.  Then I stumbled across this little area.

What I am working on is an ATC for the forum I am on.   The theme is the olympics.  I will share with you all after my recipient recieves it, and... after I send it out tomorrow. 

I really want my own Oasis in the backyard, but I can't seem to get anything growing except weeds.  I killed my rose bush, on accident.... I swear...  But there is some grass growing, well just around the edges the rest is either dead grass, dead weeds, or alive weeds. I do water just about everyday to keep that grass there, and I do keep looking at rose bushes and information on how to keep one alive!  BUT! I will get my stitching oasis if it means I need to procure one... hmmm... yeesss procure one >:D HEHEHEHEHE.

*goes off to search the neighborhood.*

Nine Walks

On Monday I went out on a double date with my boyfriend and another couple we knew.  We went to a Chinese restaurant at the request from the other couple.  My boyfriend has been wanting white wines, specifically Sauvignon Blanc, so we decided to order a bottle and the one he decided was Nine Walks.  I am not really a white wine person but more of a red wine, I have also been practicing on my wine tasting skills.  He saw me at once pull out my phone and started to type away.  He knew I was getting ready to do a review.  He made fun of me when I first brought it up but this day he didn't.  I don't know what he was thinking but the best part is he didn't make fun of me....  That's my boyfriend's hand on the bottle.  He wanted some and didn't realize I was taking a picture. 

On the Nose:

     1. Orange
     2. Peaches
     3. Mint
     4. and a nutmeg smell

On the Palate:

     1.  Berries
     2. Nutmeg (Spices)
     3. Mint
     4. Citrus

On the nose I had a sense of freshness and the wine actually had a bland/boring taste and aftertaste to start, but as I drank the first glass the wine started to improve and you could actually taste the citrus and nutmeg together (or the spices) and the aftertaste became citrusy and lingered with sweetness that I was getting really excited about but the aftertaste progressed becoming horrible with a bitter burnt taste.  I paired this wine with sweet and sour chicken, and the wine tasted great with this meal for only a few bites.  The sweetness complimented the bitterness aftertaste to make the wine bearable to drink.  The dinner also brought out more of a spiciness to the wine.  The wine stayed in a chiller which was very kind of the server. After I had finished my dinner is when you could tell how acidic the wine had succumb to and became unbearable.  I had to start shooting the wine back just to finish it because I couldn't handle the bitter taste anymore. 

This wine definitely had an arch of progression.  It started off bland progressed with a sweetness, which I was expecting from a Sauvignon Blanc, and then took a sour note real quick.  The pairing although not really conventional, and I am one who never really cares about pairing, did compliment and cover up a lot of the sour bitter burnt taste that occurred.  This wine retails for $10-$11 (but we were at a restaurant so we paid $26) and is 12.7% alcohol.  Nine Walks is a New Zealand (Marlborough), screw top, Sauvignon Blanc white wine.

Disclaimer:  Drink at your own risk.

*Let me know if there is any information you would like when I do my next wine review.  This is my first so I can definitely improve!

April Wrap-Up

Well... This past month was not a good month for stitching or anything ony because my house was infested with spiders so that had to be taken care of.  My internet was down for a while and recently back up.  Also my stitching bug is missing and I am trying to find it.   But I do have some good news.  I found a bottle of wine in my house!!  I had hid it so it wouldn't get stolen by my sister and her... uhhh... father of her kids.... they are not dating so I don't know what to "call" him...  Anyways, I found a bottle that I had and clearly I am good at hiding things.  If I can't find it, no one can haha.

Goals for April:

1. Stitch at least 10 hours on both "Woodland Enchantress" and Thomas Kinkade's "Beauty and the Beast". Ha- not even close.
2.  Finally do a wine review for you guys. Found a Bottle!
3.  Leave comments on other blogs.  (I have looked but have not left any comments, sorry about that). Err...
4.  Have the DMC part on the first mermaid finished. Nope!

Goals for May:

1.  Do at least some stitching on anything!!!
2.  Now that I have my wine do a review this weekend!
3.  Leave comments on other blogs!

This month seems great.  My oldest Niece just turned 3 years old yesterday and there are no more SPIDERS!!!

UFO week

So I am apart of a forum www.crossstitchforum.com and this is their UFO week.  I normally don't have any, ANY, UFOs buuut.... I did an obligation stitching last year and I put my Woodland Enchantress on hold... eeerr... well.. I just stopped stitching on it completely!  I was in denial for a long time about this fact.  Now that I am admitting it I have decided to work on it this week as my UFO project for this week.  The  UFO time is the first seven days of the month, you read correctly SEVEN days, i.e. August 1st-7th.  So for any of you that have any UFOs and do not have any time or don't know when to find time, don't hesitate, join me the rest of the week and pull out your UFO and stitch away :D.

Here it is as of April 1st:

Now April 7th:

Secrets In The Garden

I have NOT stitched at all last week.  Even though I had a lot of time I decided to use it to research on gardens.  My family has moved into this rental house and the backyard has a patch of grass... well, dead grass and it's surrounded by rocks.  Soo I decided I would water it and get the grass growing as well as kill the weeds in the rocks and plant some flowers.  My favourite types of gardens are cottage gardens and fairytale gardens.  So I thought what a nifty idea to do my own garden in the back yard.  Turn the place into an oasis in which I could retreat have a glass of wine (If I ever get to open one, or find where they are hiding.) read a book and stitch.  Also I thought it would be great for my nieces and nephew to learn about gardening.  I had one when I was a little lad but only a vegetable garden.  My mom is allergic to bees so flowers were outlawed in our land.  Now my mom can tough it up and I told her "If you get stung it's because you scared the bees, remember they are more afraid of us than we are of them."

Well I did water the yard but very little grass grew... Weeds shot up like a body builder on steroids!  So now I have to mow the lawn to cut the weeds down.  I am planning on using some type of fertilizer or a grass seeds to help the yard out and kill the weeds and not the grass.  Now the weeds in the rocks... those are another story.  I did pull some but I wanted something to spray on them so I can manage it a little better.  So my parents actually bought me a weed spray killer, Round Up extended controller,  It has been doing it's job!!  I give it 10 stars.  The container said "You will see noticible results within 6 hours.".  I saw results within 3 hours!  I do have 5 trees in my backyard and about 5 bushes...  I think...  Well three of the trees look dead, just aweful, and so do a couple of the bushes... One I think I killed by accident with the weed killer, it was covered and surrounded by weeds... Oops...  So I am going to contact the landlord and see if:  a. They can replace the dead plants or b. If we can replace them.  I will be happy either way (of course them replacing it would be better).  I also bought myself a rose bush.  It is a white hybrid tea called "Honor", I really want Pope John Paul II.  I did see somewhere online it being sold, so I will have to see... hmm... anyways.  it is in my backyard but still in the pot. Later this week it will either go in the ground or a bigger pot, so it can be moved if needed.  Now some pictures!!

Mermaids of the Deep Blue

So I have been pretty busy these past couple of weeks, looking for a job, so I wasn't able to do any stitching at all. I decided I would push myself and do as much as I could on Monday... Which was only 3 hours worth of stitching. To me it doesn't look like a lot; but I am proud of my progress. Since I have more time this week I will be stitching a lot more on these lovely ladies. The fabric looks a bit grey as I did take the picture with the sun beating down on the fabric... oopsie..

Mermaids of the Deep Blue

I have been slowly progressing on these girls for the past couple of weeks. I became very ill and I thought it was just food poisoning.... Err.... Not the case. I had a horrible flu and my nieces and nephew got it as well. So we're all three of us have been cuddling on the couch watching all the Scooby Doo movies we have. Once I have gotten over this bug I will drink a glass of wine. I have on waiting for me! :D.