I like Thursdays: December 24, 2020

 Merry Christmas!  How are you and yours holding up?  It's quiet here but we are looking forward to 2021 and getting the vaccine.

It's Thursday and time to post a few things that make us happy!  "I like Thursdays" is hosted by Lee Anna and you can find more happy posts here.

I like dogs playing together!

A rare photo of Kerry aka Taz.  

We had a break through this week.  Scout had decided she likes playing with Kerry and now bugs me in the morning to go over to see her.  Another interesting turn of events is that Scout is more comfortable that she won't hurt the puppy.  She is really asserting her dominance over her and that makes me happy.  and has tantrums sometimes 😁.  It appears to make Scout happy when Kerry is stymied, hence this photo:

Nothing much else happening here.  The only people we see are my Mom and it will be a quiet holiday.  Brad is feeling good and hoping to go back to work in January.

Have a safe and happy holiday.  Wishing you and yours blessings and good health!  

Merry Christmas!

To-Do Tuesday: December 23, 2020

 

Happy Winter!!

Today is To-Do-Tuesday and I hope you and yours are all doing well!  You can check out other bloggers at our wonderful hostess' website, Home Sewn By Us.

Last week my only goal was to assemble the Sunny Skies quilt top and I had that done by Saturday:

I thought I was done with Christmas quilts for this year and I cleaned up all the scraps and put them away.  The next day I went upstairs to look at what I might sew.  I was thinking I might do a nine patch quilt.  But nooooooooooo.....the Christmas fabric scraps called out to me.  So I found another pattern and in between my chores, I'm piecing blocks together.  The pattern entails more 16 patches and I'm hoping to get enough from the scraps to make two lap quilts.  We'll see how it goes.  I'll need 56 blocks.

Goal:  56--16 patch quilts.

I hope you are all doing well and pray you stay safe!

Have a great day!

Sunny Christmas Skies

 

Yesterday morning I finished my latest Christmas top.  The pattern is from Missouri Star Tutorials and it is called Sunny Skies.  I wish we had sunnier skies right now.  None of our snow has melted yet.  

Linda has already asked for this quilt for her family room and I'm happy to oblige.  She actually helped choose the colors.  I don't know about you, but I'm always looking to make good contrast choices.  I was going to scrap using this pattern because the Engelbreit 16 patches are already wild but Linda said, "It's a Christmas Quilt, go crazy!"  Actually using two darks for the chevron worked well.

And here's a little secret:  I don't have any dark green regular fabric left so I used fabric that is supposed to emulate grass.  Like Beth said:  We use what we have and I had enough for this quilt.  Here's an overexposed photo so you can see the pattern:

I just figured if you turn the grasses every which way that it could look like a close-up of a pine tree.  Anyway I'm happy with it and Linda loves it so all is good.

Today I'm going to attach binding to two quilts so I can hand bind them this week.  I'd also like to make some kind of single Irish Chain quilt.  I just feel like making an Irish Chain right now. I'll pull fabric and start cutting that today.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and please stay safe!

I Like Thursdays: December 17, 2020

 It's "I like Thursday" and time to fill the internet with positive posts!  Check out our hostess LeeAnna for more happy posts!

Well as predicted, we got a lot of snow last night.  There's about 10-12 inches of the stuff and a few more flakes might fall this morning.

We aren't going anywhere anyway so it may as well snow although Scout is sulking that she can't lay on the couch after she's been outside.  😁

I like that I'm not mailing Christmas cards this year.  I was all ready to...but then my Mom was lamenting that she didn't have cards to send out.  I gave her my bag of cards to use.  She needs projects to keep her busy and it seemed like a better use for the cards.

I like the new sofa cover I bought for the winter.  I just wanted something different and I like this.  

I like holiday humor:

Happy pups with Christmas toys.  Always a plus during snow storms!

I tried this recipe yesterday because... I had everything in the house!  It was easy and pretty good.  I served it over rice cauliflower yesterday. Today I wanted to make some fried rice with the leftovers but hubby doesn't want the rice.  I'll figure out something.  I used toasted sesame oil because that is what I had hit the title for the recipe:  

Simple sauteed sesame chicken

This week I'm grateful that my friend Diana made it through surgery and is safely at home.  

I'm grateful that my neighbor clears the snow for us.  I pay him and bake him cookies to thank him but it means so much more now that we are getting older.  

I'm grateful the kids understand that we can't get together this holiday.  

I'm grateful that we've been isolating (for months) so we can have a Christmas dinner with my Mom.

I'm grateful for the vaccine that I hope we get soon.

There is a lot of good out there.  Just look for it!

Have a safe and happy day!

To-Do-Tuesday: December 15, 2020

Good morning!  It's To-Do-Tuesday and time to list my goals for the coming week.  This wonderful idea is hosted by Roseanne over at Home Sewn By Us and you can visit our bloggers for inspiration here.

My only goal last week was to finish my 16 patch blocks for my latest Christmas quilt.  Done!

I also started on the alternative blocks.  I have nearly all of them done except for 15 border blocks.  With the snow anticipated for this week, I'm hoping to not only finish those blocks but assemble the quilt as well.

I haven't even decorated for Christmas.  To be honest, after caring for my husband for 4 months, I'm exhausted and I'm really tired of the police shows he watches all day/every day.

The sewing room is now my escape as he is doing more things for himself.  I like the silence and I'm really looking forward to the peace that descends when we get a snow storm.  We are expecting 12-18 inches of snow Wednesday into Thursday.

I hope you are staying well and keeping safe!  Have a great day!

 

I Like Thursday: December 10, 2020

Happy Hanukkah friends!

Today is "I Like Thursday" and time to fill up the internet with happy posts!  Hosted by Lee Anna at Not Afraid of Color, be sure to fill your day with positive thoughts by visiting her and the other participating bloggers!

Photo above is the little pond down the hill from us.  I was surprised to see a boater on the water.  Turns out the city was pulling out a floating fountain they use in the spring and summer.  Little surprises like this make me happy!

Scout and Kerry are cleared to play with each other.  It's really hard to get a photo of the puppy because she is all black.  Also she is a handful.  She wanted to play with the really big crazy Weimaraner next door.  She kept going to the fence to see him.

Yesterday she wriggled through the fence!  My mother had to call my brother to come collect the pup.  Fortunately the big boy didn't hurt her (of course she is so crazy that maybe he couldn't catch her).  There's a reason why my husband has nicknamed her the Tazmania Devil.  On the other hand, Scout is a little lady.  She doesn't want to play with the rough boy, and tires easily of the puppy's constant attacks on her.

Early in the pandemic, we all quickly became tired of cooking.  We looked for new recipes and had breakfast for dinner.  Lately, we've been having childhood favorites.  This is partially because I was so exhausted from caring for Brad and partially because I was looking for nonperishable foods to put in storage.  Brad is particularly fond of canned ravioli and fish and chips dinners.  I know we should be doing all fresh food but sometimes you need to take a break.  This week I actually bought Spam.  Neither of us have had it since we were in elementary school.  We are wondering if we will like it as much as we did when we were kids.

We are close with our neighborhood and this past week, Scout got a Christmas stocking.  She loves the hedgehog that was in it!

Scout got a haircut yesterday and I took the opportunity to run up to the mountains for a no-contact pickup from my machine quilter.  Scout looks beautiful and I'll get a photo of her this week (she's still tired).  What I didn't expect was that once I was on the turnpike that I would encounter a heck of a snow storm.  Down here we got a dusting but north it was treacherous and the roads hadn't been plowed or treated yet.  Today I'm grateful that is behind us.

I'm off to work on my Christmas cards and get some sewing in!

I hope you are all doing well and staying safe!  Have a great day!

 

To-Do-Tuesday

 

It's Tuesday and time to participate in To-Do-Tuesday!

Each week we list our goals and share them with other bloggers.  This is sponsored by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us and I love to peruse the bloggers and get inspired!

Last week's goal was to finish the navy Christmas top!  Done!

We didn't get to Terri's to drop it off, hopefully later this week.  I haven't take a photo of it either because I was feeling that sewing Christmas put me in the mood a little.  I pulled a lot more of Christmas fabric out and decided to use a jelly roll of Mary Engelbreit Christmas fabric I've had for years. 

This week's only goal is to complete my 16 patch blocks for the quilt I want to make.

Hope you are all staying safe and have a great day!

I Like Thursdays: December 3, 2020

 

Good morning!  Today is "I like Thursdays" when we fill the internet with positive posts!  Hosted by LeeAnna, find entertaining and happy energy by visiting her and the other bloggers here.

Today's theme is making lemonade out of lemons!  

Brad had his two week post surgery appointment this week.  The good news is that he is healing exactly as expected (slowly).  The really good thing that is that we met with the Physician's Assistant and she answered a lot more of our questions.  

Turns out that hubby has the worse kind of disk herniation and that the recovery is a minimal of 3 months.  Or longer?  Couple the injury with the fact that it took months before the hospital system/insurance companies allowed him to have the surgery and you have a long convalescence.  

This is actually good news; we know to relax now and just take it as it comes.  But here is what we are SUPER grateful for:  He got the surgery before the office closed (they expect that will happen and even his next post-op appointment is scheduled for a phone consultation).  My husband is safe and home during what surely will be the worse covid surge.  

Baby it's cold outside!

I'm grateful for silk underwear!  If you don't have them and have to walk your dog frequently like I do or if you just like walking, I highly recommend them!  They are like long underwear but thin as silk and boy do they keep you warm!

This is Kerry, my mom's new puppy.  Brad and I call her the Tazmanian Devil or Taz for short.  So the good news is that Scout likes playing with her..for about 10 minutes.  When Scout has had enough, she sits down and while the puppy is jumping all over her, you can tell that look on Scout's face means, "Please make it stop." 😂

Kerry has a virus and is now quarantined as well.  She'll be fine.  The good news?  Scout didn't catch it.  The other good news?  I figured out what to get my mother and her new puppy for Christmas:

A hand held carpet stain eraser made just for pets!😂😂😂😂

I already had it delivered to my mother and she was really appreciative of it!

So this past week I mostly just kept hearing the song, "Always look on the bright side of life..." in my head.  I hope you are keeping your sense of humor too!

I hope you are all well, wearing your masks and staying safe!

Have a great weekend!

To-Do-Tuesday : December 1, 2020

 

It's To-Do-Tuesday!  Today bloggers post our weekly sewing goals!  Hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us, it's a great way to keep motivated--not to mention inspired--these days!  

First off I want to thanks Roseanne and Sue for making my day week so much better!  I won their International Sisterhood block giveaway and it has really brightened my world!  I won 4 of the lovely blocks they created and you can see them here.  This block was already on my list to do for the coming year and now they have given me a wonderful head start!  Thank you Roseanne and Sue!  You made a rather sad holiday weekend really so much brighter!

I finished my only goal for last week which was to finally finish the plus quilt.  I had started binding this quilt last summer and then put it aside because I don't like binding during the summer hot months!

It's done and ready to be put aside for a wedding shower next year!

I've already begun working on this week's goal:  Another Christmas quilt similar to this one that I finished about a week ago:

I have enough four patches and fabric to make another lap top and finished making the blocks yesterday.  I'm not going to put the cornerstones in the sashing for the next quilt; I can never decide if the small patches make the original quilt too busy so I'll try it without.  I'd like to finish this and take it to Terri (my machine quilter) by the end of the week but we'll see how things go.

My husband is getting a little better but still has a lot of pain.  He goes back to the surgeon today for a check-up.  

Thanks again Roseanne and Sue!  Winning those blocks softened a weekend we couldn't see our family, Scout's ear infection, and a broken dryer.  Hugs!

Have a great day and please stay safe!