A Bit More Progress on the Dragon Tea Party

I guess I have fallen out of the habit of regular posting this month.  Even though I was off for the last 4 days, I never looked at the computer once.  I spend so much of my time on the computer at work that I tend not to associate the computer with leisure activities.  Except for blogging and a few message boards and my e-mail, I am not much of a fan of social media.  No Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest, etc!

Memorial Day Weekend was quiet.  Friday and Saturday were rainy and hot, so I pretty much stayed at home with air conditioning and stitching.  Sunday and Monday were sunny and hot but I managed a very little gardening and even some cooking, in spite of the heat.

I cooked my husband's favorite comfort food: Pasta with meat sauce. I made the meat for the sauce from the usual meatball mixture of 2 parts ground beef, 1 part each ground veal and pork, eggs, Romano cheese, garlic, Italian parsley and bread crumbs.  It's like having the taste of Grandma's meatballs in every bite.  We accompanied it with cucumber infused water over chipped ice.  I had made a pitcher early in the morning so it had time to infuse properly.  It is really a very refreshing beverage.  I first had it at a hair salon.  [The owner had been to a spa where it was served.]  I have been hooked ever since.

What with all the indoor time, I did manage to get quite a bit done on The Dragon's Tea Party, finishing all of page 1 and getting a small start on page 2.  I made a few very small changes.  The chart called for stitching the tea in DMC 801 [coffee brown].  Heresy!  Vile heresy!  I stitched the tea in a very dark coral instead.  And since I like a little glisten in my dragon wings, I added some Krenik blending filament [832] to the 369 that was used to fill the wing.

P.S.: To make the cucumber water, I slice one whole cucumber in very thin slices using my kitchen mandolin and place it in a large pitcher with 12 cups of water and 4 cups of ice cubes.  I let the pitcher sit in the refrigerator for a few hours and, voila, cucumber infused water.  I serve it in tall glasses over chipped ice, sometimes adding a sprig of thyme.  It's a great way to detox the body and is especially good for the complexion.