Thanksgiving week – Part 1

I know I’m late posting about our American Thanksgiving week. What’s new?

First up: I finally finished a puppy sized quilt for our Mini-schnauzer Pepper. I used leftover scraps of fabric in reds, blacks, and whites. I tried to go with an animal theme so I had some paw-prints, cows, and one flamingo fabrics along with flowers, some kites, polka dots, and miscellaneous red, black, and white prints.

I framed it with solid white and charcoal. The back consists of two different pieces of grey flannel that I had to piece together to get the right size. Boring so no picture.

I didn’t bind the edges but simply sewed the front and back together leaving a 4-5 inch open section to turn it right-side out. Then I machine quilted about a 1/4-inch inside each block.

I keep it on the ottoman that Pepper likes to sit/lay/jump on to try to keep it cleaner.

I spent the night with a friend (who lives an hour and a half away) so we could get a jump start on a craft show in her city on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. She used to always bring a plate of homemade cookies or her delicious buckeyes to me whenever she was in the area, so I thought I’d make something edible as a hostess gift for the weekend.

With one decorated sugar cookie success under my belt, I made and decorated some autumn inspired leaf cookies.

I forgot I had these leaf shaped cookie cutters that must have been a gift with purchase or something similar from Nutella some years ago. (Confession: I am not a huge fan of Nutella, so that means more for you!) Perfect for the season.

I think these turned out pretty nice. I’m still learning how to use Royal Icing and practice makes perfect. I plan on making more cookies this week for our church Christmas Party next Sunday.

Stay tuned for a sock update!

Creative cookies

While at our daughter’s house, we baked cookies for Valentine’s Day.  Because of the mishap on Friday evening and E’s not feeling well on Saturday, we waited until Sunday, February 15, to bake and decorate cookies.  Mom and Dad were expected home on Monday so the cookies were a day fresher.

Cookies-1 copy

We used half of the recipe of Royal icing as we didn’t have a lot of cookies to decorate.

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Red, pink, and white icing and red colored sugar.

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I found these little squeeze bottles for the icing so the twins would have more control over their decorating.

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I spread most of the cookies with a solid color and the twins decorated the tops.

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You can never have too much icing.

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For some reason the pink icing got a little too thin and was running everywhere.

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When we finished up with all the cookies, we decorated animal crackers.

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There’s no place like home

Mr. Aitch and I went on a short motorcycle trip this weekend to visit his brother and father and my aunt.

Jim Aitch (brother) finished part of his basement a few years ago into a fabulous bar.  Just good old H2O for me this time.  I didn’t drink enough water this weekend but I really am trying to do what the doctor ordered.  Anyway, Jim commissioned me to make a sign for him and I delivered it  this weekend.  The pictures are still on my camera and I will post them as soon as I can.  He is a wonderful host and has a great sense of humor.  Of course having a great sense of humor is a requirement with two daughters, one in college and one in high school.  His wife is this petite firecracker who keeps the house running smoothly.

Mr. Aitch the Dad lives in assisted living and gets around fairy well with his walker.  We run out of things to talk about so it’s hard to visit too long.  He did appreciate the peanut butter cookies I made for him.

Miss Kay is my mother’s sister and has always been my second mother.  She also lives in the same town as Jim Aitch and Mr. Aitch the Dad.  She called me at Jim Aitch’s house Sunday evening saying she wouldn’t be home on Monday.  I found this to be rather unusual.   Miss Kay is 85 years old and doesn’t really go anywhere too far that she wouldn’t be home.  I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone where she is but I will spill the beans as soon as she gets home.

It was good to get home and sleep in my own bed last night.  It was not so good getting up at o’dark-thirty to go to work

I did finish the knitting on the second eyelet sweater Saturday evening.  All that’s left is to graft the four-stitch seam at each armhole, sew on the buttons and block the sweater.  Then I’m done.  Finis.  The end.

Now what light knitting am I going to get into?

Wild moment

Have you ever seen something so unexpected that you thought you were dreaming?  On my way home from work yesterday I saw something I’ve never seen in the wild.  I was on my motorcycle riding up the mountain and a big black bear ran across the road in front of me!  He was about 30 yards away so we weren’t going to collide or anything but it sure freaked me out.  I’ve seen deer, kamikaze squirrels and even turkeys on the road before but never a bear.  I had to call Mr. Aitch at work to tell him about my wild moment.

The peanut butter cookie dough was made last night and is in the refrigerator.  I’ll make the cookies later today.  Procrastinate is my middle name.

I only have a couple more rows of neck shaping on the second eyelet sweater.  My goal is to finish that today.  Shouldn’t take more than an hour then I can do the front bands, neck edge and be finished with it.  I’m not sure if I will make another eyelet or lace thing again.  Too much concentration for me.  Not that I don’t like a challenge but too much pressure having a deadline and making two from a pattern that I made up.