Rainy Day

The weather was dismal today, not cold, but grey, wet and windy. A perfect day for being 'domestic'.
I started with cleaning the bath room and the cat box, a weekly chore, usually done Monday or Tuesday. Then I had a date with Lily (my sewing machine).
I made flannel blankets for the cat girls. I recently found a bunch of flannel fat quarters in one of my fabric boxes and decided that they were just the right size for cat blankets. So, two fat quarters and a piece of batting makes one happy cat.

Isn't it great when your gifts are being so appreciated? The picture is a bit blurry because I took it through the window of the back door so I would not disturb them.

Then I made a pillow cover out of a large piece of Christmas fabric with cats. It was too cute to be cut up for something else and it was big enough for one pillow and I even have some left over.

I prepared a template and the fabric for tomorrow's project and then I baked a batch of scones (vanilla and chocolate chip) and washed the dishes.

The weather got worse in the meantime and it is getting rather dark. I hope we don't get a storm. When the cats come in by themselves before I call them there is usually something brewing.

Busy Weekend

We had one of those stay at home - work around the house weekends and we got a lot done. We brought the Christmas decorations down from the attic, put up the tree, decided which decorations to use this year and then put the rest back into the boxes and back up into the attic.

Here is my Christmas engineer, trying to figure out what is wrong with the lights (well, we bought them at a yard sale, after ours got stolen from the storage unit we rented while we lived in the apartment, and have no idea how old they are). He managed to find a broken wire and fix it. :-)

We also finished our Fall cleaning. Del washed the kitchen cabinets and the woodwork, mopped the floors, cleaned up the cat mud room and washed the dishes. He also dug up the last of our parsnips, some of them put up quite a fight.

I washed and hung and folded laundry, changed the bed linens, baked bread, cooked and put up the decorations.And I squeezed in a bit of knitting.

Sunday night we treated ourselves to some gingerbread from Germany and hot mulled cider. A good weekend, for the next one we have some out-of-the-house activities planned.

Day 3 after T-Day

Turkey Chili

And that was the last of our tasty bird for this year. The rest of it was eaten cold on sandwiches and shared with the cats.

Two More

Two pairs of crocheted slippers made with the yarn left over from the scarves for Special Olympics.

Day 2 after T-Day

Turkey Cannelloni

Day 1 after T-Day

Cooking a whole turkey for two people and four cats is a bit much even when the bird is not too big. So, on to the leftovers. Today:

Turkey Frittata with Green Salad

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving meal.
On the menu:

• Cold Turkey
• Cole Slaw
• Potato Salad
• Cranberry Sauce
• Cranberry Pear Pie with Oatmeal Streusel

After hearing how everybody likes turkey better cold the next day for several years now we decided to give it a try and had a cold Thanksgiving dinner. Worked well for us. An Miss K. liked it too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been a tough year for us but there is still a lot to be thankful for. Have a safe and happy holiday everyone!

Not well

Del was out of town last week to take a class for his job. I had planned on having my own private little quilting retreat, but alas, the best laid plans ...

I had stocked up on all the essentials for a week alone at home.

And then I ended up fighting a cold all week and instead of sewing I just did some knitting in between drinking hot tea and keeping warm.
I knitted a blanket for Miss Kitty, I guess she likes it because she sleeps on it every night.

I finished knitting two scarves for Special Olympics, still have to weave in the ends and find a way to talk the one on the right out of rolling itself up into a tight little sausage. Since it is made with acrylic yarn I am not sure it will allow me to block it.

And I finished one mitten (second one is almost finished) for the homeless shelter and one pair of baby slippers for the Pink Slipper Project.

I also watched some TV series online which is better than I thought, much less commercials to get through and the playback quality is pretty good.
And I baked two loaves of Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bread. 

Del came back home on Friday with a nasty cold of his own and the two colds decided to merge. Now I have a chest cold, coughing like crazy and hurting all over. Why is it, that I always get to feel poorly with holidays coming up?
I will be cooking and baking tomorrow for Thanksgiving, stay tuned for our not so traditional dinner. ;-)

Candlemat Swap II

I received my candlemat today and my partner sent me a lot of extra goodies with it. Thank you so much, Mary Grace, you covered everything I enjoy doing!

I think it is funny that she sent me sock yarn. I have just recently discovered that in all of my 40+ years of knitting I have never, ever knitted socks and I was about to do something about that.

More Slippers

I am working on my second batch of slippers for the Pink Slipper Project.

Fun in the Sun

Playtime with MamaCat. A perfect stress buster.

Candlemat Swap

I just finished the candlemat I will be sending to my swap partner.

Ornament Swap

I received my ornaments yesterday and they are all so pretty and creative, love them. My tree will look great this year. Thank you ladies!

Fall

The squirrels are in a hurry to store food for the Winter (as frantic as they are I wonder how bad this Winter is going to be).

Beautiful colors.

Matching slippers for warm toes (I just finished a pair for myself with the yarn left over from Del's slippers).

Comfort food for dinner on cold evenings.

I love Fall!

Pattern for the Mittens

The pattern for the two needle mittens is a free pattern from Lion Brand and can be downloaded here.

Easy-Knit Mittens

Knitting

Hats and scarves for the homeless shelter. Not as many as I was hoping for but with everything else we had going on this year I am glad I got as many done as I did. The mittens are a late addition after I found a pattern for mittens on two needles. They are really easy and I will make more during this Winter.

New dishcloths for myself, as usual approved by Miss Kitty. If only I could teach her to do the dishes. ;-)

Del's Birthday

Yesterday was Del's birthday. Here is what I made for him.

Gift 

Cake

Dinner