Friday finish!

 

I hope everyone has done all they need to, so they can enjoy some time before the holidays without the stress. As usual, I seem to have picked up another flu bug, but doing ok and will be fine for Christmas. I am glad I got all my shopping and wrapping done, so I could relax this week and not do too much.

I hung the new quilt I was working on, on the banister. It is a cheater piece and I added a border to make a lap sized quilt. It was something I could work on at night, by quilting around the black lines. Nothing fancy, but the design is fun and a nice way to greet people when they walk in.

We were able to get out for a bit last week, mostly driving since it is too cold to be outside for long. I finally caught the Horned Larks in the parking lot, at the beach.

In the breachway, there was a large group of Common Eiders. The black and white male seemed to be the leader and wherever he went the females followed him.

We also take drives around the island. It is even colder there with the ocean breezes, but the views are always beautiful and a way to get out of the house for a bit. We ran into this doe, that was walking down the road.

Today I tested a recipe, cranberry cornbread. I wanted to make something a little different for Christmas and the cranberries make it more festive. I really liked how cranberries gave it a bit of tartness. I use Monks sugar and the recipe called for buttermilk. I don't use that but a trick I learned. I warm up milk and then put a bit of fresh lemon juice into it and let it sit, instant buttermilk. If you want to try the recipe, you can find it at Spilling the Tea. 

Tomorrow will be a rest day, we got a bit of snow, so hoping to get out and get some photos with snowy backgrounds. Then it will be time to get the house ready and start cooking for Christmas Eve. The kids come here for dinner and we go to their house on Christmas. I give them presents at our house, then save some for their house. 

My hope is that everyone has a wonderful holiday, no matter how you celebrate it. Even if you cannot get out or be with family, take the time to make the day special, for yourself. Christmas blessings to you all.

Friday Finish!

 Christmas is coming and as usual, faster than we would like. I have done my shopping and the house is decorated and packages and cards are all done. Now I can relax a bit and plan our meal, we eat at our house on Christmas Eve with the kids and give them some presents, then on Christmas we go to their house and I save some presents to open then. 

I am working on finishing up my cheater quilt and after going through some of my old books, I decided to make a small piece from a Whimsical quilts book. It was fun to do and I still have plenty of wool to use up, so I grabbed most of it from my scrap drawers. I added the snowflake buttons for fun.

Last week after shopping, we drove around the beach areas. We saw a boat coming in.

And one going out. 

And as we drove by the town beach in Narragansett, we just missed seeing Santa, as he rode by.

With Bill working days, he gets up early and falls asleep early, so hard to get out at night to see the lights around town. He does have a long week off for the holiday, so hopefully we can get out more to see them before they are gone.

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays and can enjoy some time for yourself and Christmas around your area.

Friday Finish!

 Another week zipped by too fast. I spent most of it, decorating the house. I have a mix of prim and fun around the house. One thing I wanted to try was a rag garland. I looked up ideas and found one that I could base mine on. You can find it at Ikorn crafts.

I used up the scraps and smaller pieces to make it, and used a red twine to tie them onto. I was going to put it on the banister, but it was too thin, so I used it on top of my curtain rod.

And I decorated with what I had in the basement, and there is more that I had no room for. 

I found a new place for my Grandmother's quilt.

And some of my nativity collection with a bit of cats mixed in.

And a few trees. This year I decided to put up my cat collection. I could only do so many and I have a lot of larger ones, that don't fit on the skinny tree. I have quilts hanging on the banister and decorations in the kitchen, so it is fun for the boys when they visit.

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday. I am finishing up my cheater quilt and next is getting my cards done. After that I will work on my other quilt, even if I can't finish it in time. 

Friday Finish!

 

Well, I just realized it was Friday and I almost forgot to post. Quite the hectic week with holiday preparations. We had a nice dinner with the kids, and today we mostly rested.

This week I Finished a nativity, that I started last year. I thought it would be fun to try and have something different to add to my collection. 

The bad thing with this panel was, the pieces did not line up exactly so I sewed them by following the front facing pieces since they are the ones that you see. I stuffed them and sewed the bottom after, seemed easier for me to do it that way.

One new thing I did this year was, make corn bread with a mold. I like how they looked and fun for the table. They actually tasted better than when I do them in a pan. The silicone mold was also nicer since they popped right out, no sticking. 

We did shorter rides lately, not as many birds to see, so no photos. Next is pulling out all the holiday decorations and getting the house ready, Christmas is coming fast. I have done a lot of online shopping, so most of the gifts are here and I can enjoy relaxing a bit and getting my cards out. 

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and can enjoy the upcoming holidays.

Friday Finish!

 

This week I wanted to try something new, a silverware holder for our table setting. I didn't have any good fall fabric, so I used a christmas one, that looks a lot like a fall one. They were not hard to make and I did them in a day. I cannot remember where I got the original pattern from, but I just used it to get the idea and figured it out myself. Here is one with diagrams you can use, if you want to make your own. You can also do a search and find a lot of different types. I definitely plan on making more for Christmas.

Last weekend we took the boys for the day. We stopped at a farm that was having an event, but everything cost money, and the rides were more for toddlers. They did have fun feeding the farm animals and they got apple cider slushies, which they loved.

Since the farm had their own brand of corn meal, we headed to Kenyon mills, the only one I will use. I got our supply of corn meal and then we got to take the boys to the mill for a little tour. This mill still does stone ground cornmeal.

The next day we headed to a new place in Connecticut. I was interested in finding, what was left of an old mansion in the woods. Luckily it was easy to find, though the trail was rough and rocky. It was a cool old mansion that was there during the mill days. It is also said that they had their own electric system in the house. 

The trail was too rough for me, so we headed back to the parking lot and we walked a little way up the road, where I saw an interesting wall and my instincts were right, it was an old cemetery.

From there we walked to the old mill area, and then across the street on another path. It is an interesting area, with rivers and ponds, so it is another place I will go back to in the spring, when the birds come back.

I hope you all had a good week and can enjoy your holiday. I will be busy with cleaning and cooking, so hopefully I can get all that done and another unfinished project done, during the week.

Friday Finish!

 

As usual I am working on several projects and started a new one. Most are taking time, so I always like to have a smaller project to finish for the week. I found this design from Dearie Dolls, who seems to have disappeared from the web, but still has her blog with freebies.

I made this for the kids, so I wanted it to be fun. I am still trying to get the blue pen out, but once that is set, I will use glitter in the snowballs. It is still wet, so it looks discolored.

Last week we went for a ride and stumbled onto a ceremony at the Westerly cemetery. It was for an area that only had one grave and later it was found out that there were 172 people buried there. They had veterans from each era represented and this group did the 3 gun salute.

On the weekend we drove into Connecticut so I could get some fabric and then stopped at a park for a walk. Lots of birds along the river, most were far away or constantly moving, but I got a few decent shots.

After we drove to Eagle landing on the Connecticut river and I was surprised when I saw the nesting eagles, hanging out in the trees nearby.

The next day we went into Connecticut again to visit the fish hatchery. They have paths along the river and into fields, so a good place to walk and enjoy the birds. 

Today we went to Jamestown, a nice place for a walk and enjoy some beach time, Beans favorite. I caught this bird, hanging out on a rock. I hope everyone had a nice week and nice weather for this weekend. 

Friday Finish!

 

Since I am working on several large projects, I like to have something that I can make up quickly. This Christmas mat is a pattern from BareRoots. I have been gifted a lot of items on top of things I have bought over the years, so trying to finish them, a bit at a time.

Last week we went to the pond, to see if we could find the eagles. None in sight this time, but I did catch a Killdeer at the water's edge.

After we went for a walk at the bike path. Would love to try my new bike there, but it is either too cold or too windy lately. Lots of Chickadees at the park.

Today we went to the lighthouse. It was windy but warmer. Lots of seagulls were enjoying, floating in the winds.

We ended up taking the back paths and found out they go a lot further in the opposite direction, so we got a nice long walk, along with views of the bay. 

Most of the foliage is gone now, but we still see pops of color, here and there. My backyard came in late, so this was last week and now they are bright yellows and falling with the wind. I hope you are all safe from the horrible storms, crossing the middle states. We have good weather this weekend, so hoping to get out for long walks and maybe a bike ride.