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. 

Friday Finishes!

 I spent more time at home this week, so more time to finish things. The weekend looks like a washout, so no big outings for me. Today we went for a ride to the beach areas and I was surprised that the private ones, are still keeping people out, so I wasn't able to get to the long point for bird watching. It seems they are keeping parks and beaches open, longer this year. 

My first finish was my Halloween piece. This is another design by Cheri Saffiote for our Facebook group. It had several designs to put into a quilt, but I just wanted this and the other I made, for a set on my wall. As always, it was fun to do and add a few of my own touches. I added a quilted star in the left area, but hard to see in the photo.

The second project I did was a Halloween cat, done with needle felting. I started with a cookie cutter and then added a little more bulk and detail after I got the main shape, felted. I think I do better without a shape, it does limit me, but I wanted it for my wreath, it sits in the middle area.

Over the weekend we got out for a few outings. I am always watching the Semipalmated Plover and wondering what they find in the seaweed. Now I know, there are worms, that come in with the seaweed.

Another day we went to the forts on the island. It was nice to walk around and they cleaned up the area so more open spaces and better pathways to walk on. Beautiful views from the top. I hope everyone had a nice week and have a good week ahead.

Weekly Wanderings!

 

This has been quite the week with activity. Vacations at home, are easier in one way and on the other, I still have to cook, keep the house clean, laundry and all the planning. So, I am exhausted and seem to be sick again, I think I got too much sun this week.

Our first day on the weekend, we went to Jamestown. It was too wavy and cool for swimming, so we did some beach combing and just enjoyed the cool air. I took this photo of the light in the fog and added a saying.

The next day, we went to the farm and picked up some veggies for dinner and checked out the animals.

After we headed to the ocean, to see the kite festival and go for a swim. The fog was heavy, so only a few kites and you couldn't really see them well. The fun was swimming in the ocean. The tide was up, so it was easier to get in and the waves were fun to surf in, I haven't done that in ages.

Monday we went back to the seaport. It was a nice day and we enjoyed seeing exhibits, we missed the last time.

We went into more buildings, but they were all musty, so I didn't stay in them, too long.

This is an exhibit we missed and will have to take the boys in this one, interesting and a bit creepy. These were on the bows of the old ships.

We took a break on Wednesday to get things done around the house and the next day we headed to a river that goes to the ocean. The sky was ominous but it didn't rain and the sun was out enough to keep it warm.

Along the way, we saw a lot of birds, still migrating so we have more than usual. 

Seen as we paddled, along the shores.

And at the end is the ocean. It was low tide and still going out, so we could go in the channel and float out to the end. A great place to rest and have a snack.

Of course the seagulls see people and see food, so we had company.

I enjoyed paddling so much, that we headed to another salt water pond at the southern end. We enjoyed the paddle, bird watching and some time across the dunes, at the ocean. 

Today we are getting winds from the storm, coming up the coast. We went for a ride to the south shore and walked along the beach. The wind was stronger and the sand was blowing on us, so we went to the end with more rocks and views of the breakers. I was able to get some shots of the surf and surfers who were brave enough to venture out. 

Tomorrow will be windy again and some rain, so a good day to rest. I haven't had any time to work on projects or energy, so I can work on finishing my halloween piece and cutting out the appliqués for my Christmas piece.

I hope everyone had a good week and not in the storms path. It has lessened, but it will still pack heavy winds and storm surges.