Just Do It!

When last I left you, I was in a bit of a quandary.  Do I choose to start a new project ... namely a Christmas ornament from a back issue of JCS Ornaments magazine ... or do I work on one of the design ideas floating around in my head.  Needle & thread won out over paper & pencil.

I began by looking through each of the back issues I have.  Every year I do the same thing ... I look through these magazines & put little sticky notes on the pages that have ornaments I think I would like to stitch.  On the sticky notes I write the number of the ornament(s) that called to me.  Without fail, when I look through the magazines again the following year, I wonder what on earth I was thinking when I see some of the designs I picked out.  Had I looked at the magazines in a darkened room?  Had John blindfolded me & told me to go through each one & pick out some ornaments to stitch?  I have no idea, but I always wonder not only why I chose some of the ornaments I did, but why didn't I choose others?  Year after year, round & round it goes.

So there I was ... looking through my back issues, shaking my head as I removed some of last year's sticky notes & added some new ones.  Then it was time for me to decide which ornament I was going to stitch first. After laying out maybe 5 magazines that had one or more ornaments that called to me, I could sense I had a problem.  Do I stitch this one or that one?  No, wait ... what about that one there?  I realized that I could literally spend a good hour or two ... precious stitching time ... looking & re-looking at each ornament, trying to decide which one to start.  I decided this was madness, looked down at the magazine in my hand & told myself "this is the one."

The ornament I chose is from the 2009 issue ... a LHN design called Winter Sampler. I like winter.  I like samplers.  It was a no brainer. Below are 2 photos ... one showing my stitching progress after Day 1, & the second my progress after Day 2.

Here's a scanned photo of the completed ornament as it appears in the magazine. Sorry for the poor quality.  I'll blame it on sectioning off this one ornament from the scanned page.  

Pretty, ain't it   : )

For dinner tonight I decided to make something I've never made before.  Shrimp fried rice.  I love shrimp fried rice.  I love pretty much any kind of fried rice actually. To be honest, I could eat a bowl of plain rice with just some butter, salt & pepper.  I just love rice   : )   I don't often try cooking new things.  John is not the adventurous sort when it comes to food, & if I want to make something I know he won't eat, I usually talk myself out of doing the work involved when it's only going to be me eating whatever it is. However, lately I've really been craving shrimp fried rice, & since none of the so-called Chinese restaurants in Danville (the town that borders the devil's playground) know how to make good fried rice, I decided to give it a try on my own.  I found a great recipe here.   I bought all the ingredients & decided today was the day.  It turned out pretty good considering I tried a new brand of rice which I could have used as a substitute for drywall paste.  I've always used Minute Rice which never, ever sticks to itself.  I can't say that about this rice I decided to try today.  I also used La Choy soy sauce.  The taste was not what I'd call great, but the rice was edible.  The recipe also calls for a teaspoon of salt to be added when cooking the rice with all the other ingredients.  I not only added this teaspoon of salt, I also salted my rice before eating it.  I will confess that I'm a salt-it-before-you-taste-it person.  The La Choy probably also contributed some salt. The next time I make it (using Minute Rice) I will change things up a bit ... less salt, a different soy sauce (any suggestions?), & maybe add some diced carrots & maybe some peas.

I'll be spending tonight putting more stitches in my ornament.  Here's hoping that you will find yourself doing something likewise as pleasant   : )