Monochrome Serendipity 2 & Record Heat Wave

Hello stitching friends from an inland pacific northwest that is hotter than ever recorded and it is only June! Yikes! A whole new type of 'lockdown' is being imposed on us. In the 41 years we've lived in this part of the country we've only experienced a day or two at most during the summer of over 100 degree heat - a big part of why we wanted to live here - but this heat wave is not only putting us in 110 degree range but it is lasting for a week.

Winter is not the only stitching season it seems, lol, since I can hardly poke my nose out the door after we finish watering the poor sweltering gardens. We're up at 4 am to get things ready for the day's heat. Thankfully, we had a lot of shadecloth on hand and the plants we worked so hard to start, plant and tend are making it through so far. Terry is braving the heat of the day to check on any emergency 911 situations out there. The heat loving things like tomatoes, peppers and corn are doubling by the day while the lettuce and spring greens melted days ago.

Praying that this ends soon and does NOT come back again!

While in this heat prison I made another edition of the latest design, Serendipity Sampler #2 that is in monochrome shades of mahogany. It is just fun to see what happens to a pattern when you take it to sepia type tones. It can be purchased through ICG Everything Cross Stitch and will soon be available on Creative Poppy

Serendipity Sampler #2 Monochrome

One of the beds that is getting a lot of water cause I do not want to lose them is the rose bed that I overfilled with poppies this year.

Pandora Poppies from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

And finally proof that a 'cool cat' can be cool even in such heat.

Nanny Cat after her garden inspection

Stay cool as you can, stitchers!

New Design - Serendipity Sampler #2

Serendipity Sampler #2

First, a quick note, if you've been getting email notices of new posts and want to continue receiving them please take a moment and enter your email in the box on the top right of this page. The service that blogger had been using to send out such notices has changed and you'll need to indicate once again if you wish to receive notices. I've been looking forward to doing the Serendipity Sampler series to have the opportunity to gather some of my favorite images/motifs together and see what happens :) The second in the series is complete and for sale - it can be purchased through Everything Cross Stitch and soon through Creative Poppy . You can also send an email to me at bungard.gracewood@gmail.com and I'll send a paypal invoice for $8.00 and I'll send the pdf charts for the pattern.

Greens Gone Wild

Almost summer on Gracewood and the green things have gone wild.

Chijimisai is a Japanese superfood that we like much better than spinach and heat isn't bothering it at all, great in salads or frittatas!

And after a winter with little to no salads and greens this bed of lettuces is getting a nice clipping daily.

Hoping all are well and you too are enjoying the bounty of late spring almost summer!