Fall's arrival and a good pot of soup

Amazing how time gets away from you.  It's been a couple of days since the last time I blogged.  I've been pretty busy.  I went back to work for the first time since surgery.  I just finished working four 12 hour night shifts in a row.  Wow, those were tough.  But, I got through them.  Now I'm off for the next 3 nights.  I'm so looking forward to them.

Since, the last time I posted, fall has arrived in my little corner of the world.  The last couple of nights, the temperature got down to 40* F.  So, because of this, I decided to make some homemade clam chowder.  I'd never made clam chowder, and it was soooooo good.  My kids even liked it.  If you'd like the recipe, click here.  Granted it's definitely not a low calorie dish, but it's so rich and hearty, one bowl filled us up.

 Here is my progress on my latest project.  It's Prairie Schooler Winter.  Of course, I haven't stitched since last Thursday, so I'm really looking forward to sitting down tonight (maybe with a cocktail) and stitching.

 A friend of mine at work and I were talking about her parents downsizing their house and a garage sale she was having.  They we were just chatting, and I mentioned that I stitched, and she asked if I would like to have some cross stitch books that her mom was wanting to get rid of.  So, I told her that  I'd love to have them.  She brought them in on Saturday night, so before I went to bed that morning, I got to go through the stash.  There were so many magazines from the 1990's;  Just Cross Stitch, Country Stitch, Cross Stitch and Country Crafts.  There were also quite a few old charts including some sampler charts that I'd never heard of.  I'll try to post a picture of some of it tomorrow.

Thought I'd share a picture of my furbaby.  This is Bella, however, Bella is a boy.  The man we got him from said that Bella was a girl, and I hadn't checked until we got him home.  So even though he's a boy the name sort of stuck.  It just amazes me the positions cats get in when they sleep.  

I did receive all 3 of my people for my PIF's.  If you haven't sent me your address yet, please do so.  Also, if you haven't gotten an email from me about the Ornament exchange, let me know that too.  I thought I'd emailed both of my partners, but I don't think I'd heard back from Diane.  

Have a great day!

Updates and PIF

Hi all!

Thank you to all of the well wishers for the prayers and positive thoughts. I'm doing much better mentally. I've been very positive about it all. I go to meet the surgical oncologist on Weds, Aug 6th. Not too much longer. Of course, I wish the time would go much faster. I'll know more after that appointment. Right now, I'm feeling under the weather though. I have bronchitis or some kind of viral respiratory flu. I'm hoping I start feeling better soon.

I still have 3 openings for my PIF. Please post here if you would like to participate.

Now for some progress pics. This picture is from the Little House Neighborhood. I decided to take from that chart for Julianne's RR. I think it will look nice when it's all finished. This is my new floss ring tag from a Reader's Digest compilation book. I think it turned out cute. Also you can see the floss drops I made from my Cricut machine that I use for scrapbooking.
I did not stitch this next piece, but I did finish it into a flatfold last night for my sister. I went through my fabric stash and found this piece of fabric. It was perfect for this piece.

And lastly, this is a picture of me and my 3 kids at the St. Louis Zoo. We went there this past Saturday. We had a pretty good time, even though it was 95 with a heat index of 105.
Well, I hope everyone has a great week, and I'll post an update after I see the oncologist on Wednesday.
Don't forget to sign up for my PIF.

PIF

Here's the PIF post that I promised. I've signed up for a PIF with Deb. I don't usually get to many comments, but we'll see how this works.

The first 5 people that sign up will get a little finished something from me sometime within the next year, hopefully sooner.

So, here it goes!!!