Friday Working on!

 I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a nice meal with the kids and for my birthday, they got me a new, larger bird feeder, just what I had been looking for. I didn't get as much work done on my projects, too much cleaning and cooking this week, to catch up, after being so sick.

I have been working on my large piece, a lot more work than I realized, but I will get it done this week, I hope. I am doing the main design and the details will be some glitter threads along with buttons.

Last weekend we got out for some short walks and bird watching. At one beach, I was able to spot a flock of Snow Buntings and a Cormorant sitting on a piling in a marina.

At our next stop, at the breakaway, I spotted a few seagulls on the roof of a restaurant. They know where the food is.

Then we went to the breakers and climbed the hill to check out the views. The lighthouse at Point Judith.

On the way home we went down a side road and noticed something large in a tree, in the woods. A Great horned owl, a first for me.

Today we got out for a ride, a short walk at the bird sanctuary and then a walk at the beach. The beach was

actually warmer with a cool breeze, which was a nice change. It seems most of the birds have left the areas and only a few remain. I actually spotted the hawk down the road from our house. I hope you all enjoy your weekend and can enjoy the upcoming holidays.

Friday Finish!

This week I have been working on my stitchery, and made some progress, so hopefully I can finish it this week, so I can have it ready to use when I do Christmas after the holiday. I always like to do small projects for fun and try some new things for the holiday.

This is a needle felted project that I did, from an idea I saw on the internet. I used a cookie cutter to make the original shape, then added the features for the Santa. It was fun to make and I have a few other ideas I can use for more star shapes.

 

Last weekend we got out for a ride and stopped at a few places. One place was the Umbrella factory, I wanted to take a photo of the Emu. For some reason, there was only one now and it was enamored with Bill.

We also stopped at the Breakaway. In season it is also a camping area, but now you can camp for free, so maybe if we get a nice weekend, we will try an overnight. The beach is nice and as long as it isn't cold or windy, a great place to be.

And we drove to the next beach and I caught a few birds in the inlets. I still haven't gotten good shots and realized one setting might have caused the problem. I have a touch screen and it was on, so every time I put my face against it to shoot, it messes with the focus, so hopefully I can get some good shots this weekend.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am doing better, mostly tired out from coughing so much, but today I was able to do a little yard work, so hopefully I can get moving and clean, plan a menu and cook by Thursday. Bill does a lot of the main meal and I do the side dishes, so that helps. 

Working on Friday!

 

This has not been a good week for me. I was all ready to have a fun weekend and woke up Saturday, sick with bronchitis. I spent this week coughing my lungs out and today was the first day I could breathe without coughing. So, not much got done, I had no energy and spent more time doing nothing but coughing.

I was able to put together the next pieces for my Christmas hanging. I did some stitching on my other piece, but not as much as I would have liked. 

Today I felt good enough to get out for a bit and I really wanted to get some fresh ocean air. My house has been filling with my neighbor's fireplace smoke, so that hasn't helped with my coughing. It was nice getting out and the island was popping with color.

On the way home, I spotted this Red-tailed hawk, hanging out in the shipyard. My camera wasn't working right and they couldn't fix it, so I got a new replacement. I still need to redo the settings for focus and other things I use to get better shots. I used photoshop to improve the quality.

I am hoping I keep improving and will get out as much as I can this weekend. I feel better when I am out, even if I get tired after. I hope everyone is doing well and avoiding this flu that is going around, not a fun one.

Friday Finish!

 

I was able to finish my new piece, just in time for Halloween. This is a design by Bird Brain Designs. It was fun to do and fun to do in color. I am also working on a larger piece with snowmen, and another, so hopefully I can get those done, along with a few quilts in time for Christmas. 

We were able to get out for a ride, last weekend, to enjoy some foliage and some short walks. I didn't have a lot of energy and I guess I was coming down with a flu or the new version of covid, so have been fighting that off, this week. Hopefully the meds I got will knock it out so we can get out this weekend.

This is one place we stopped, a river in Connecticut. Not as much foliage as we had hoped.

The next place we stopped, had more color. A view up river from the boat launch.

The falls were not running as full, as they usually are.

And a view, down river. It is a nice area with a drive along the river, in different towns. I am not sure how much or where the foliage is now, but it is always nice to go for the ride and hopefully some hikes. I hope you all have a nice weekend.

Working on Friday!

 

This week I am working on three projects. I am working on a wool project but wanted to start my new stitchery, so I can work on that too. Then I had another that I realized is on a disk. It was actually a machine stitchery, but nothing on the package said that. So, I got my son's player and was able to print it out. Since it is a halloween piece, I am working as fast as I can, to get it done by halloween.

This is the new Christmas stitchery that I am working on. It is by Bird Brain Designs. It is a long one, so it will take me awhile.

We were able to get out and enjoy some foliage last week. We took a ride to the quilt shop, where I got some new Christmas fat quarters to go with other fabric I have and some bargain patterns. Then we made a few stops to enjoy the foliage, and a stop to pick a big bag of apples.

Today we got to enjoy some time at the beach. We are having some warm weather but the clouds were taking over at the island. A view of the lighthouse with some foliage along the back shoreline.

A view of the inner cove. The tide was really low today. Lots of foliage in our area, and hopefully we can get out and enjoy a ride tomorrow to see more, before it is gone. I hope you all have a nice weekend and can enjoy getting out.

Friday Finish!

 

It's been a busy week with projects and running around, exploring areas with foliage. This week I saw something I had to try, a ghost quilt. It is based on a book for kids and I saw the idea in a quilt group. I cut up 5 1/2" squares and did 8 rows. The one I saw had 10 blocks and a 4" border in hers. I just sat the eyes on, I still need to sew them on and reshape them. I don't have a good base to set it on, so I will go out tomorrow to see if I can find something. 

I also saw something in a store we went to and I tried my own version. It didn't quite work out the way I wanted, mine is just a wrapped mini cat I had. I used cheesecloth on mine.

Last weekend we went to Woodstock Connecticut. We enjoyed the ride and stopped at some of our favorite shops. We even stumbled onto a craft and art fair, but I didn't see anything that interested me.

On Sunday we picked up the kids and took them to Stepping stone falls, my favorite place. The boys had fun on the hike and exploring the falls.

Bill took a few days off, but with impending rain, we decided not to go traveling. We went to the north end of the state and stopped at a reservoir to check out the views. The colors are still coming in. The church was in the town, we stopped in.

Next we stopped in a town called Chepatchet. It is a wonderful old town with lots of shops, prims and antiques. They had a scarecrow contest so we had fun walking down the sidewalks to see them.

Really creative ones and lots of creepy ones.

The upper middle photo was called, death by chocolate, it won first place.

Today we had impending rain, so we stayed close to home and visited a park in the next town. It it is a large park with grassy areas, and shaded picnic areas.

They also have a nice beach and lots of trails to walk on. 

I had to take my new camera in for repair, so I grabbed my other zoom to use. But, after seeing how bad the pictures were, I realized I took the wrong one, it was the old one that I had dropped, so the shots were not as good as I would have liked, so no good zooms. I was able to catch these ducks, hiding under the trees in the pond with my regular lens. 

Tomorrow more rain, so a good day to get things done. We have the church bazaar next week, so a good time to clean out a few things. I hope everyone had a good week and enjoyed following along with me.

Friday Finish!

 

I finally finished my Santa hanging. It is a design by Cheri Saffiote. The fabric I used is very dark, so I used lighter floss so it would stand out. I decided to add a few touches of color with the pencils to make those areas show up better. Then I used glitter floss for the x's, to give it a vintage pop.

Last weekend we went to the Seaport with the kids. They had a folk art music festival going on, so as we walked around, we got to listen to various types, at the different stages. They also had ethnic food booths, so the older kids enjoyed that, the boys had their usual chicken fingers. 

Of course Alex had to pose on all the anchors.

The next day we went back to Mystic with Nick. Poor Alex was worn out from all the walking, the previous day. It was nice to have Nick by himself so he could have more attention. We took him to the village to enjoy the displays and let him pick out some fun candy and T'shirts for him and Alex.

This was one of the strange ones.

The reason for the return was to go back to the seaport, for Indigenous people's day. They had the Eastern Medicine Singers do traditional songs and drumming. It was really wonderful music and a nice way to relax and enjoy the rest of the day.

We also spent some time at the beach, which is always Bean's favorite. Even Bean found something on the beach, he loves that ball and had to bring it home.

Today we went to the local orchard and got a bag of apples. There trees are smaller, but full of apples and I think they are much better tasting then the other orchard. After we went to the beach and found a few fun items I can use in doing art pieces and always nice to get a good walk in, in the fresh air.

Tomorrow we are planning on going hiking with the kids, to the waterfall, so hopefully all goes well. It is cooler, so there shouldn't be any bugs out. Then rain again, so hopefully not a wash out on Sunday. I hope every is doing well and enjoys the coming week.

In the works!

 

I am still working on my stitchery. It has a lot of stitching and some things I am thinking on, as I go. The background fabric is coffee stained color from Moda, so a bit darker than I usually do. I am using brighter threads so they show up and adding detail inside so it stands out. A bit more to do and then a christmas fabric for the border. It is another design by Cheri Saffiote. I don't like how the stitches in the mustache look, so I will redo that and I may add some glitter, red knots in the center of his robe squares.

Last weekend we took a ride around a section of Connecticut. Our first stop was the waterfall in Putnam. I never get tired of walking along the river and listening to the roar of the falls.

Our next stop was Goodwin forest, we stopped for a little walk and a view of the pond. A bit of color coming in.

Then we headed over to Diana's pool. It was a bit wet, so the falls weren't as stepped, as they usually are. After that we headed down to Mansfield to see the dam, always beautiful views.

Bill had a day off this week, so we headed to Newport. We enjoyed a walk along the cliff walk. This photo cracked me up when I realized there was a little man, sticking out of the pack.

After that, we went to the bird sanctuary and took another walk. Always a beautiful walk with views of the ocean and I was able to get a decent shot of the lighthouse across the bay.

At the cliff walk, a friendly Catbird was chatting at me and at the sanctuary, I spotted my first Black and White Warbler.

At home, my winter visitors are coming back. I hope everyone enjoyed their week and have a nice holiday weekend. As usual we have a rainy Saturday, but we will have two nice days, so I can't complain.

Cooking and crafting

 

This week I have been working on my new project, but I still have a bit of stitching to do. I also had a few  birds hit my sliding glass doors, so I need something to put on the upper half. I found a fun site that has Halloween cut outs, so I made a few and taped them to the window. So far, no bird strikes, so hopefully that did the trick. 

The ghosts are really simple to do and would be great for kids too. For the witch, I cut out the design from the print out, since it was black ink. You can find the pattern and others here at Love Paper.

I also made some Chalupa. I still have some tweaking to do, to get mine right, but it is not hard to make and it tastes delicious. I use mine as a snack and add homemade blueberry or apple jelly in mine. I also used it to make an egg sandwich, so a great bread to make as a treat. You can find the recipe at Cooking Carnival.

I had a new visitor to my yard this week, an Eastern Phoebe, a first for me.

We were able to spend an afternoon at our favorite beach. Now that summer is over, we can park in the private area and we have the beach to ourselves. Bean was loving being off leash and playing in the water.

It is also nice for birding, I actually had a Belted Kingfisher, stop long enough to snap a shot. 

And a pair of Laughing Gulls. 

We also stopped at the park, and I spotted a group of Great Egrets, of course they flew off, the minute I pulled out the camera.

We found more glass at the private beach but Bill found a large piece of blue glass at the park, so that was a fun find. More colors this time, off season is always better for hunting. 

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. We have more rain tomorrow, so hopefully we can get out on Sunday and find some early foliage.