A summery finish

Hello! Hello! I hope each of you is enjoying your summer as much as I am. (Although at times I question if this really is summer--it was only 54° here this morning!). We just returned from a wonderful visit with our youngest son in Washington, DC and, although stitching seems to have taken a back seat for me this month, I am so enjoying the extra time spent with family that summer seems to bring. I did manage to finish a big (for me, anyway!) piece and framed a couple of older finishes that I'd like to share with you today. 

From the moment I saw the July Sampler chart by Prairie Schooler, I just had to have it. I think the colors were what first caught my eye, but it really has everything that makes summer so special: the quaint seaside scene with the lighthouse, sailboats, and long-legged seabirds (oh, and don't forget that adorable crab!), the juicy summer fruits, the patriotic fireworks and flags. And I always love the bottom borders on these PS monthly samplers, don't you?

Prairie Schooler "July Sampler"

For this piece, I used 40 ct. antique white Newcastle linen and most of the suggested DMC threads. I did make a few changes (as usual!): I changed the blue to DMC 311 and the dark brown to DMC 3031.  I also changed the grass in the main photo to a lighter DMC 3052, made the door on the large gold house, red, and stitched the door on the small house in the upper left, dark gray. I also made all the words brown except for July.  I think that's it... Oh, no! There's more:  I changed the white fireworks to gold so they would show up better and also filled in around the one bird with more "water."  I plan on framing this one--hopefully, by next summer, but I'm not the best at getting my larger things out of the drawer I put them in after I've finished stitching them.

But, surprise, surprise! I actually do have two framed pieces to show you today, too! The first is La D Da's "O Birdy" which I finished last November. If you'd like to read the details of my finish you can go to this post. I had this rustic looking black frame in my stash and thought it looked perfect with the primitive looking fabric. I have the fanciful framed bird perched on a bookshelf in my familyroom right now--not sure if he'll be staying there or not. I'm trying to find the perfect place to hang him.

 La D Da "O Birdy" framed

The other framed finish is one from last summer--another PS piece from Book No. 50 "Prairie Seasons." If you're interested in the details on this finish, you can read about them here. I used this same frame for the Spring and Autumn finishes in this series--all done now except the Winter design. And look at the bright summery flowers that are resting beside my finish--aren't they gorgeous? My husband is growing them for me inside his fenced in vegetable garden to keep them from being eaten by the deer.

Prairie Schooler Summer framed

"Grrr..." Unfortunately, something else other than the deer has discovered my husband's vegetable garden and just feasted and feasted while he was away on his biking trip out west earlier this month. Yep, it's our gang of "friendly" neighborhood groundhogs. Do you remember this photo of one that we had trapped a couple of years ago? Well, we should never have let his size or those pleading brown eyes fool us--he has "gone forth and multiplied" (many times!) because there is now a whole army of these giant rodents marching through our yard. They apparently crawled right up over the high wire fencing that surrounds the vegetable garden and their weight was heavy enough to bend it over so they could simply fall into the garden, get out their napkins and forks, and sit down to a tasty gourmet dinner. Dinners, plural, I should say, because all of the leaves of the sweet potatoes, beans, squash, parsnips, zucchini, and peas were absolutely devoured. My poor husband was so upset--all that hard work down the drain. We doubt that the vegetables will grow without leaves, but who knows... We may just end up with miniature everything this year!

Don't let that innocent looking face fool you!!

Luckily, we still have a few pretty flowers that neither the groundhogs or the deer or rabbits seem interested in...

 Masses of purple supertunias

 Our lone rose bush produced this yellow beauty!

 First time we've ever grown hollyhocks. 

Such beautiful flowers, but the leaves were 

all eaten by some sort of pest!

The ferns have just gone crazy with

the wet summer we've had!

And my perennial favorite--the beautiful blue hydrangea!

I want to share this yummy dessert recipe with you that I made for the 4th of July.  I saw it on the Balancing Beauty and Bedlam blog and immediately ran out to buy the needed ingredients. Although this recipe called for butterscotch pudding, I had to substitute chocolate. Oh, my--it was so decadent! Very rich and calorie-laden, I'm sure, but worth it! And although it tasted like it took ages to make, it was so quick and easy to prepare. I followed the recipe but added shaved chocolate and toasted pecans to the top to make it even tastier.  Give it a try for a special summer night's dessert and let me know what you think...

Easy Chocolate Torte

Our trip to Washington was so enjoyable, but very hot and humid, and, unfortunately, very tough on my Plantar Fasciitis heel pain problem. We did a lot of walking on hilly concrete streets as I had predicted, but let's just say, my 26 year-old-son's idea of a "short walk" is a bit different than that of myself or my husband who suffers from ongoing foot pain issues himself! Yikes!! I feel like I'm right back to where I started with the pain level over six weeks ago...The icing, stretching exercises, and general babying of my left foot have resumed.

We didn't really tour the monuments or most of the typical touristy things because we actually lived in the DC area for a year back in the late 1980s and also just visited the city in 2011 (you can see photos from that trip by clicking here). The only museum we visited this time was the wonderful National Museum of American History. We thoroughly enjoyed the "America at War" exhibition--so much to take in. I really could have spent the entire day just perusing that exhibit. The "America On the Move" exhibit which traced transportation in the U.S. from the Conestoga wagon to the electric car was quite enjoyable, too. I would have liked to have spent longer in the First Ladies exhibit, but just dashed in long enough to see Michelle Obama's gorgeous red inaugural gown. The guys really weren't quite into that whole exhibit, as you can imagine. And to see the 200 year-old flag (in the Star Spangled Banner exhibition) that inspired our wonderful national anthem and read about how the words to the song were written was truly awe inspiring. Did you know that the song itself was not written by Francis Scott Key? He simply wrote the poem and it was set to the music of a popular British tune called "To Anacreon In Heaven?" I was so surprised to learn that fact!

Courtyard at the National Museum of American History

The National Museum of American History

Entrance to The Star-Spangled Banner Exhibit Hall

My husband and I had never taken a boat ride on the Potomac River so my son suggested we cruise from Georgetown down to Alexandria, Virginia for dinner on Saturday night. You get a whole different perspective of the monuments when you view them from the water. I can't remember the last time I was on a boat and it was surprisingly relaxing with the warm sun on my face and the breeze in my hair--ahhh....

Georgetown Dock area

Potomac River view of the Washington 

Monument and The Lincoln Memorial

A perfect summer scene

I'll have to say we all loved Old Town Alexandria and wished we could have spent more time there. My son thought it would be a great place to live until he checked real estate prices there--I think they're some of the highest in the country!

Old Town Alexandria all decked

out for the 4th of July

Street sign for Captain's Row in Alexandria

Many of the houses on Captain's Row were 

built in the 18th century for sea captains and 

wealthy merchants. It was so picturesque with

the cobblestone street and Federal style homes

painted in patriotic colors.

I truly love the Washington, DC area and am a bit envious of those of you who reside in that part of the country. My youngest was doing his best to try and talk us into retiring there! You never know, do you?!

Thank you to all who commented on my last post--who knew a simple tin plate finish could get so many of you so excited! I'm glad I've inspired some of you to create your own plate finishes and have even received some photos from stitchers who have used that idea. I always love seeing photos of finishes from stitching friends who don't have their own blogs--feel free to email them to me! And I'm always happy to try to answer your questions--just be sure to leave an email address in your comment so I can get back to you.

I'm working my hardest to catch up on my monthly Christmas ornament stitching and I hope to be back by the end of July to share three new ornament finishes with you. Wish me luck! And wish me luck later today, too--I will be spending the afternoon cowering in the dentist's chair as he prepares a back molar for a new crown. I am, to put it mildly, a bit scared as I have never had more than a simple filling installed now and then. But, I suppose it's better than a root canal, right? Enjoy the rest of July everyone--can't wait to visit your blogs and see what you've been up to. Bye for now...