Monday, March 19, 2012

IHSW Results, a Frog and a Thank you

Bonjour mes amies!!!

I woke up and what did I see? The SUN!!!!! Yes, it finally came this weekend! Although it did snow over night it is wonderful to have the sun out and melting the snow.  I just hope that it stays with us this week and give our flowers some much needed warmth. 

So my weekend was a nice hermitty weekend.  How was yours?  I managed to work on my two BAP's and do a lot of baking and cooking.  I made the most delicious Vegan Chocolate Chunk cookies! They are almost all gone! I took a recipe from the net and adjusted it slightly.  Instead of chocolate chips (which we had but the chips had milk products) I used a dark chocolate bar I had lying around and chopped it up.  Then I added some coconut bits and chopped up pecans.  Boy are the cookies good! You couldn't even tell that they didn't have dairy in them!!!
I also made two loaves of bread which I forgot to take a photo of, but trust me, the bread's tasty too!! For dinner we made a curry, which our friend says is more like a Thai curry than an Indian one, although we were going for an Indian curry.  It was also really yummy! We made papadams to go with it.  MMMM!!!!

Before I show you the IHSW stitching, I want to send out a big THANK YOU to AUTUMN!!! I recently won her dark chocolate Giveaway and received the package last week!!!! It really brightened my day and week in fact. The package included some really yummy Dove chocolates which I'm saving for after Lent and luckily, my husband isn't a big fan of dark chocolate so he's not eating them up!! HAHAHA! All the chocolate's MINE!!! The tea she sent is also really yummy and it's always nice to have more varieties at hand!! I love the little Tea book too! It has lots of great info of the origins of tea! Thanks again Autumn!!!!









I also won a cute Bumble Bee chart from Rahenna!!! I haven't received it yet, but when I do I'll show you the chart.  It's really adorable! So a big Thank you to Rahenna too for making my week!!!!! You should check out both of their blogs!!

So for awhile now, about a year, I've been hunting for a glass frog while I've been thrifting.  I've noticed on some blogs that there seems to be an abundance of them in the States, but we lack a good glass frog here, for whatever reason.  Maybe Canadians aren't picky about their flower arrangements?!?! Anywho, on Friday, I strolled up to the church where I got those cross stitch mags, hoping to score some more, when I noticed an amber glass frog for $2!! How can that be?!! I scooped it up and now I am the proud owner of my first glass frog!  I put my three sets of scissors in the frog and hope to get more scissors in the future.
I really wanted to start another little project this weekend, but cooking and baking got in the way, so instead I just stitched on Jane and TBF.  I think I did fairly well too. 
I LOVE the trees in Jane so much I wish there were more to stitch!! After I finish the middle tree, there's tons of little motifs all around the trees to stitch which I'm looking forward to! Have you seen Jane's sister's sampler? She's Sarah Philpott and I really hope that Theresa from Shakespeare's Peddler recreates Sarah's sampler soon.  Wouldn't it be great to have the two sisters hanging side by side?!
Sarah Philpott from Shakespeare's Peddler


As for TBF, you can see that I like to create outlines to work with instead of completing a page like most HAED stitchers do. I find it easier for me to follow the pattern and to fill in the blank parts.  Sort of like colouring!!!

There you go, that's my weekend full of good home makery stuff!! Titus of course came along to help on numerous occasions.  I'll leave you with a pretty photo of him and some lovely tulips I bought to brighten up our place. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's progress and will try to get to most blogs today and tomorrow!!
He loves to pose!



Hugs to all!!


Anne

36 comments:

Autumn said...

Glad you liked the tea.

Your glass frog find is AWESOME. I only have a few pairs of scissors but if I found a glass frog I'd scoop it up anyway!

Pauline said...

Great stichings!
And your cookies ...mmm, i can smell them!

Margaret said...

Well I just zoom into your Jane. Gorgeous! I'd forgotten about Sarah Philpot. I hope she gets reproduced! Love your baking -- and your prizes too! And of course Titus. Such a cutie!

missy-tannenbaum said...

Your stitching looks really nice, the cookies sound great, and it's impossible not to like a blog post that ends with cat photos! Also, I've never made an HAED before, but I like to do outlines when I'm stitching, too- I think it makes it easier to keep track of progress on a project.

Diane (di) said...

Anne, everything is just beautiful. The cookies look amazing! Great idea to use the dark chocolate bar you had on hand! ;)

Unknown said...

Mmm, those cookies look really yummy - but coconut, yuck! Can't stand it for some reason. Tastes awful.

Congrats on the find! Second hand stores and garage sales are great places to find stuff like that.

Great progress on your projects! I especially love following your progress on the Tea Bath Fairy. :)

Titus is adorable! ♥

butterfly said...

Lovely stitching , cookies Yummy, and great frog and gifts.

Vickie said...

Your stitching is coming along nicely.:) Aww, Titus you are such a beauty! I had never seen an amber frog before. Good for you!

geeky Heather said...

Glad you had such a wonderful weekend. =) Someday I will find one of those lovely glass frogs!! Titus is such a sweetie. =)

Anonymous said...

Hello

Your cookies look delicious.

Congratulations on your wins.

Your projects are looking lovely.

Titus is gorgeous.

Happy stitching.

Bea said...

Your stitching progress looks great. A weekend well spent.

Love the glass frog.

Your cat is gorgeous. I have 2 of my own and I know how helpful they can be!

Joysze said...

ANNIE!!! All those goodies and you didn't send me a cookie??? Or did you and the postman ate it, drats!! Hehehehe.

Nice winnings!!! Great going, and yanno, I've never heard of a glass frog till now. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention huh? ;) Nice find on that. :D

Jane's looking great and Tea!!! My goodness, doing those outlines have helped big time. :D

Awwww... Titus!! He's my "if I could have a cat that won't kill me, I'd want him" kittie. Hehehehe. Pretty pink tulips too. :D

Joysze said...

I forgot to HMBW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Catherine said...

Sounds like a perfectly wonderful weekend! Great goodies, great wins, great stitches and that frog! Love the color ~ congrats on your find!

valerie said...

Those cookies look yummy! And congrats on finding a glass frog. The amber color is so pretty! Great progress on Jane and TBF! It looks like you've been stitching a ton. The sun finally came out yesterday but my hair blew round and round til I had a matted rats nest on my head. ugh! So windy!

Melissa said...

Hello, my sweet! (& hello Titus too!)

congratulations on the winnings! I've never seen an amber frog before! Good for you!

Lovely stitching. Hope you are enjoying this CRA-zy weather!

Veronica said...

Those cookies look so yummy. Congrats on the giveaway wins. And that amber glass frog is too pretty. Jane and TBF is coming along nicely too. LOL! I know what you mean. Filling in stitches after stitching the background is exactly like colouring. I do that too whenever I can :)

Hugs,
Veronica.

Patty C. said...

Lovely flower frog ;)

sana said...

From the photograph of the cookie, there seem to smell delicious!
glass frog is beautiful!

Rowyn said...

Mmm, those cookies look good! And lovely stitching as always.

Titus is such a pretty kitty. His eyes are so blue - just beautiful!

I've awarded you a Liebster award, if you'd like to participate pop on over to my blog for the instructions :-)

Chris said...

It looks like you had a great productive weekend!
I love the trees on this sampler too.
I hope that you and Titus have a great week!

McKenna C. said...

Your stitching is beautiful! Congratulations on the wins! I just joined your blog, and I love it!

~McKenna

Meari said...

Those cookies look scrumptious!

Congrats on the wins, and for finding an amber frog. I've yet to find one of those in the U.S. And they usually aren't found at a price of $2 either! Kudos to you for your great find.

Your stitching looks great. :)

EvalinaMaria said...

Cookies look fantastic! May I have the recipe?

EvalinaMaria said...

Congrats on the glass frog, that's a real treasure! Your stitching looks awesome.

Carol said...

Oh, those cookies look amazing, Anne--are you a vegan? My son is trying a gluten/dairy free diet and is really having problems trying to find food he likes...

Love your amber frog--I have one, too!! Will have to show it on my blog some day--it was my grandma's :)

Great job on your stitching and what a sweet boy that Titus is :)

Jennifer M. said...

Lovely stitching and your cookies do look yummy. I like to bake too although I don't carve out enough time to do it though. How lucky you were to find that amber frog. Your scissors looks great in it. Your kitty is beautiful too. :)

Jen

Ewa said...

Steals a cookie and runs away, laughing maniacally.

love your stitching Anne, and, as always, beautiful photography. Great steal on the amber frog - and Titus has the most beautiful eyes!

Heidi said...

Hi Hermit Anne! :-)

Same here with flower frogs. They are so hard to find. I have to bid on them on eBay from England. I adore that amber glass! You are so lucky to find it and what a bargain.

Speaking of lucky...congratulations on your wins. I never win giveaways. It would be like Christmas I am sure when a package arrives.

Your stitching is looking great! I have seen so many beautiful samplers being stitched that it makes my fingers tingle to want to get one out and start it but I want to keep up my UFO challenge to myself. Love the hips on the people in your Jane sampler...lol.

Hi there Titus! I have a kitty who also loves to get involved when I am stitching or quilting. He enjoys hermit weekends since I am sitting with needle in hand as much as I can.

Hugs from Holland,
Heidi

Sally said...

Your stitching looks fantastic Anne. It looks like you had a good IHSW:)

Those cookies look delicious!

mdgtjulie said...

Some lovely things there Anne. I love your kitty cat. He's beautiful!! And so are your Tulips. Very springy. And I wanted to let you know, I just gave your blog and award on my blog. Come check it out at http://juliesandyesdearsravings.blogspot.com/2012/03/award-for-me-whoo-hoo.html. Congrats!!!

Julie said...

Hi Anne,I didn't even know what a frog was till reading blogs,and haven't seen one to buy has yet over here. :(

Jane and Tea are coming on great.

tiffstitch said...

Great find on the frog! And lovely stitching this weekend, not to mention the baking. I'm on the other side of the continent and all our snow is melted and it's 20C today. Crazy.

Southpaw Stitcher said...

Great progress on your WIPs, your cookies look scrumptious, and Titus is such a cutie-pie!

Debbie said...

I`M NOW ON THE LOOK OUT FOR A GLASS FROG, TOO! I LOVE YOURS!!!

Dani - tkdchick said...

Great score on the flower frog! Yes they are a challenge to find up here!

Your projects look wonderful and those cookies oh so yummy!