Feline Friday

Mr. Leo, all comfortable on the office chair.

"Kitten" Birthday

Our adorable little "kittens" turned 2 today and because we don't know when our other three girls were born they got to celebrate their birthday today as well.
Here they are enjoying a special birthday treat. Del had to hold on to Jackie to get him into the picture because he did not want any of the tuna and Miss Brownie decided she would rather not be in the picture.

And here are the blankets I made for them. I also wanted to make some toys but decided to hold off on those until Christmas.

Monday Morning in the Garden

It has been a while since we had such a beautiful sunny morning. I just had to take advantage of it while hanging laundry.

Weekend

Saturday was cool and rainy, perfect for working on indoor projects. We fall cleaned the bedroom. It involved a lot of vacuuming and dusting and moving of stuff. Since it also doubles as my sewing room there are lots of storage totes with fabrics under the big worktable and the bed. Everything got moved out of the room, the floor was thoroughly cleaned, all the furniture was dusted and polished and all the stuffed animals got a vacuum bath, even the mattress came out of the bed for a good vacuuming and then got freshened up with the help of baking soda. Three of our cats are not afraid of the noisy blue thing and helped us with the cleaning. The others were hiding out in the porch. By lunchtime we were almost finished and we took a well earned pizza break.

After lunch we put everything back into the room. Because we worked so hard we treated ourselves with a nice big slice of this in the afternoon.

It is a spice cake with caramel icing, very yummy, but I do not make it very often, the icing is so sweet it knocks your socks off, but once or twice a year it is just fine.

Sunday morning I organized my craft cabinet which was in dire need of a makeover. I had recently just crammed everything into it that I wanted to keep away from the cats and it was a mess. I organized the projects that need working on in baggies and baskets and now I have a better idea of exactly how many WIPs are hiding in there. Plenty of stuff to do in Winter. In the afternoon we had more cake and watched movies on Amazon. It was a good weekend.

I have a busy day ahead of me today, I am a tad behind with making the birthday gifts for the kitties and their birthday is tomorrow, there is also laundry to be done since the forecast said it would be dry weather for most of the week.
I hope your weekend was a good one too!

Recipes

I was asked to share my recipes for the ginger ale and the pumpkin bread, so here it goes.

For the fresh ginger ale I use this recipe HERE.

And here is my pumpkin bread recipe, it is from a cookbook but I changed a few things.

Pumpkin Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, add pumpkin, milk, eggs and butter.
Beat with electric mixer on low until combined, then on high speed for about 2 minutes until nice and smooth. Stir in raisins. You can also add 1/2 cup of chopped nuts but I never do.
Pour batter into a greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 60 - 65 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.
The recipe says to wrap and store overnight before slicing but I think they are joking, who can resist tucking into it immediately? I even tried it when still slightly warm and it was delicious, it is nice and moist.

Enjoy!

Now I am off to mix up a batch of pumpkin pie spice and bake a spice cake for the weekend. I love Fall cooking and baking!

Feline Friday

Let sleeping cats lie.

Productive Day

 I finished fall cleaning the kitchen today. Then I roasted peanuts, made ginger ale, started a new batch of vanilla essence and baked a pumpkin bread. Now I am going to start a new crochet project, fingerless mitts for myself. The temperature never reached 70 today, I think Fall is coming closer. I hope to spend the next two days finishing the birthday gifts for the kitties and on Saturday we are going to deep clean the bedroom, mattress and all, oh what joy (but necessary).

Anniversary

 It has been 8 years today since we moved to NC. A lot has happened in that time, some good, some not so good and some really bad stuff, but we are still here and we do not regret the move.
If anyone is interested in reading the story of our move and our first year here, I have a journal I started when we made the decision to move, you can find it HERE.

A Day in My Life

My day almost began way too early at 2:30 in the morning, when Mr. Leo decided he wanted to play and attacked my feet. I was able to convince him that it would be much better for him to go back to sleep or to find one of the other cats to play with. I went back to sleep and then my day started officially around 7 a.m., which was more to my liking.
We had a breakfast fit for a king, freshly baked pumpkin muffins with apple butter, bacon, eggs, fruits, coffee and orange juice.

After breakfast I read through some blogs I always visit on the weekend and checked into some other websites. The weather was nice and cool and even our house is finally cooling off a bit. I was able to work some more on my crochet project, which will become a kimono-style cardigan to wear around the house. I use a rather hairy yarn and that is the reason I crochet rather than knit with it, much easier to find my place again if I have to undo something.

After a late lunch of pork chops, onion-tomato-squash stir fry and potatoes, we had homemade chocolate ice cream for dessert, made with coconut milk, and in the afternoon we watched "Das Boot", which made me feel a tad claustrophobic and I needed to step out into the garden for a breath of fresh air or two. The movie is 3.5 hours long but it does not feel that long at all.

After a fight with my computer, the camera software and the cat insisting on lying on the keyboard, I was finally able to get onto my blog. Now I am going to fix a light dinner and then we will watch some more stuff for the rest of the evening (probably "Torchwood").

Sundays are usually quiet around here and may seem a bit boring, but that's how we like it.

Feline Friday

Weekend

It was a 'working' weekend. Del had to work half a day in Greensboro on Saturday and I cleaned behind the stove. It was not as bad as I had thought, just dust and cobwebs. I had already deep cleaned the stove itself on Friday.

The weather was pleasant but the house is still rather warm. I wish it could retain some of that warmth for Winter. I started a new crochet project to keep my hands busy when Del is around, my other yarn projects are the kind he cannot see until they are finished. It is nothing special, just something to help keep me warm this Winter.

Sunday was spent watching movies and playing with the kitties. I have a strict rule - no housekeeping on Sundays (unless it has been raining all week and I need some laundry done urgently, but that rarely happens). This week I will continue to deep clean the kitchen, I want it finished by Friday.

Feline Friday

One box, two cats, our biggest - Mr. Jackie, and our smallest - MamaCat.

This and that

Goodness, that week has gone by in a hurry. I cleaned and I sewed and I made plans. I started fall cleaning which this year includes areas that don't get cleaned very often, like behind furniture and inside cupboards, cabinets and drawers. I also cleaned the blinds at the back door and found it much easier than I expected. I soaked them in the tub and then gently rubbed them with a cloth. I am sewing birthday gifts for the cats, September is cat birthday month at our house. Holiday plans are getting under way.
The weather was pleasant and the cats were livelier than they are when it is hot. So much to do, so much fun. Our long weekend was relaxing and quiet and full of food. Here is some of it. Lemon cupcakes with blueberries, homemade buns, made into burgers.

I discovered that there is nothing wrong with my camera after all. The battery re-charger has died and that is why the batteries did not work properly. Now I am back to using regular ones and taking pictures again.
I find myself a little disappointed with our farmer's market this year. There are more people selling baked goods and less farmers. The prices have gone up and the produce does not look all that good which is probably the fault of the weather. I am buying a lot less than in previous years, mainly meat and eggs and fruits. I so need to get a vegetable garden going again!

Well, hello there September!

The promise of Fall is just around the corner, the nights are cool, the mornings dark and the leaves are slowly changing color, we made it through Summer.

In September I hope to -

- start fall cleaning.
- catch up on all the projects that got sidelined by the summer heat.
- ease myself into fall cooking and baking.
- start to prepare my house for the coming seasons.
- read more.
- listen to a lot of music.
- spend some quality time with the furry ones, grooming and loving.
- buy different kind of produce at the farmer's market.