January Temperature Swing

We have been enjoying pretty nice first week of 2025. That ends this week. High Sunday 69 low Sunday night 27! We are supposed to be in the 30’s and 40’s during the day and high  20s at night. We start warming up again by the end of the week. May have a little precipitation in the middle of the week but nothing like our 2 bad winters 2021 and 2023.

We did take off Sunday morning and headed back to the Granger lake area. It was overcast and as my Mom would say, it was spritzing rain. Stopped at the dam overlook, too cloudy to see anything. Had decided to turn around at the next intersection.  Then we saw a grouping of white pelicans at a sand bar. The black birds are double  crested comorants.

The skies were clearing so we continued on our drive.  The Burrowing Owl was in his usual location.  Wish it was a little closer to the road for  better pictures. Fortunately Galen has a long lens on his camera.

Ever wonder how a Red Tail Hawk got it’s name?  This one this morning had his tail really fanned out.

When we got home Galen got to work draining hoses and covering the outdoor faucets.  Covered a few plants. So far we’ve been able to keep our Merkot Lime protected in the cold the past few years. Hoping to maybe keep my lemon grass going too. Brought in a few other plants.

While Galen was doing that I worked on more dog bandanas.  Have between 40 and 50 in various stages. Some are everyday bandanas, others are for Valentines Day. 19 are totally done.

These are extra small,small and medium. Lady wears a medium.  They don’t have requests for the large size.

Our Christmas tree is still up.  Will come down this week.  Outside lights are put away for another year. Chinese New Year is the end of this month.  Table runner has replaced my Christmas one and will hopefully get a few placemats made from my Asian fabrics.  Kept some out for that purpose.

That pretty much sums up life at the Stewarts. Will be staying close to home this week.  No need to venture out if we don’t have too!

 

What Happened to 2024?

Hard to believe this is the last day of the year! Right now as I type on the laptop I am watching numerous birds at our feeders and birdbaths. Yesterday we had a flock of Cedar Waxwings eating berries off one our bushes. Haven’t been out to look but I think they did brake a branch. One is hanging down a lot lower than it had been.

We have spent a good portion of the last 5 days cleaning out our biggest storage unit. We got rid of quite a bit this year. Galen moved all our shelving to a smaller unit plus our climate controlled unit. We even have empty shelving. That won’t last long tho. First unit is new unit, second the climate controlled unit. I was still sorting through boxes in the controlled unit. And have a few more to sort through. I went through 2 photo albums- one from Taiwan and one of my Mom’s (1998-1999). Need to scan some of the pictures in hers to send to cousins. Not sure how many boxes of slides. Galen took mostly slides while we were overseas and my Mom took a lot of them through out the years.

We went out to Granger a couple of mornings hoping to find the Burrowing Owl again. No such luck on our last trip. We may go out again tomorrow morning.

No sewing this past week. Between working in the storage units after Christmas and getting ready for Christmas and dinner with friends, I needed to clean up the dining room a little. No we ate in the kitchen, but the area around my sewing machine ( on the dining room table) was a disaster.

For dinner I fixed oven roasted strip steaks. 2-20 ounce steaks prepared pretty much like prime rib. It’s a recipe from Milk Street and really good. Made green Chimichuri sauce to go with it. Wild rice casserole plus an asparagus dish. And like my Mother, I make a fresh fruit dish. Always tastes good with a big dinner. Bev and Lady, a mutual admiration society!

Lady must have been worn out the next day. Probably didn’t help that someone felt the need to set off fireworks on Christmas either. She snuggled up with Galen. One of my friends said she was the liquid dog. She was very relaxed!

Will end out the year with a few pictures from Christmas

I didn’t put as much out this year. My Santas stayed packed away for next year as well as a few other decorations. This was enough.

Wishing everyone a safe New Year’s Eve and a healthy and happy 2025!

 

Almost Christmas

 poodlegirls  Daily Happenings, Gardening, General Sewing, Life at home, Nature, Our Girls, Quilting, Uncategorized  December 20, 2024 2 Minutes

Took a little time off from the blog, trying to get things done in the house, getting ready for the holiday. It’s that busy time of the year! We don’t exchange gifts as we pretty much buy what we want or need throughout the year. Christmas is a time of fellowship with friends. As in the past we are having our friends Bev and Bill here for dinner. The 4 of us have had lots of things going on through out the year and really haven’t had time to catch up. The menu is planned and no not turkey or ham.

I was not able to get back to my Blooms and Buds quilt so no new blocks there to show. I did get the Texas quilt bound so it is ready for whenever we can catch up with the friends we are gifting it too. Reminds me I had better get a label made. Moda fabric comes out with Texas themed fabrics just about every year I think. Some of it went into this quilt. I had enough of the prints with names of Texas towns for the backing. The front is made from preprinted panels of Texas themed images. So happy my friends at Classi Creations and Wombmate Creations came up with the pattern. Was fun to make.

I did make a few more doggy bandanas for La Mia Bell

And here is Lady sporting her Christmas Gnome bandana.

Our Fall has been very mild. Yes we have had a few nights in the 30’s but no killing frost. We still have plants that are blooming, The plant on the left is often called Tractor seat. I think you can see why. If you look closely at the other one you may see a couple of Cubabelle peppers. We still have other flowers blooming as well.

I did find several pre-cut log cabin table runner kits from Jordan Fabrics. It is mindless sewing which I do appreciate at times. These were in blues that pretty much match our everyday dishes from Taiwan. May combine the 2 to make one long one or make 2 and use one for a gift!

My parents are buried at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in Pennsylvania. There is a National program called Wreaths Across America. Each year in December there is a big convoy I believe from Maine that bring a distribute wreaths to the National Cementeries. I have several cousins who live nearby who also have family there. Several years ago they sent me these pictures. It’s hard to believe it is 9 years since we lost my Dad-December 2015 and 22 years since we lost my Mom-December 2002.

The pictures on the internet of the ceremony and people laying the wreaths is pretty amazing. Maybe some year we will be there at wreath laying time but doubtful. We are very grateful for this program.

 

December!

We have officially started the last month of 2024!  Did everyone get their plans they had made for the year completed?  I sure didn’t and with only a month to go, I won’t!  Always next year!!!

I did get a fairly large quilt bound. My 2015 bom from Honey Bee in Austin is done!

It was a little windy but you get the odea.

Made progress on my Buds and Blooms, a cozy quilt pattern. All 20 block A’s are done.  Had hoped to start block B but that will wait for a few days.

Am loving Kaffe with the black.

We are finally having cooler weather.  Good soup weather, but then we will eat soup anytime.  Opened up a jar one night of my canned chicken corn noodles soup.  Added noodles while it was heating up. Another night I made Hot Italian Sausage and Clam soup.  Another favorite of ours.   If you Google it I fix the recipe from the Kling House at Kitchen Kettle Village.  It is one of their signature recipes and it is free online

Our Thanksgiving was quiet, just the 2 of us.  A little quieter than usual.  Donna, our sister in law I’m PA, passed the night before.  Even when expected it is still hard. 

Our Christmas decorating has begun.  Galen worked on the outside on and off last week.  As always need to replace a laser light or two.  They do wear out.

We replaced our getting old artificial tree with a Balsam Hill tree this year.  Our 20 plus year old one was shedding a lot of needles! The tree is up.  Galen did it yesterday. He is getting really good at decorating our tree while I work on something else.  Yesterday was getting Christmas doggy bandanas sewn for Lady’s groomer.  Will get those finished by Monday evening so we can drop them off Tuesday when they open.

That about does it for us.  Until next time stay safe.

 poodlegirls  cooking, Daily Happenings, Donation Quilting, General Sewing, Life at home, Nature, Quilting, Uncategorized

 

A Little Rain Today!

 poodlegirls  cooking, Daily Happenings, Donation Quilting, Gardening, General Sewing, Life at home, Nature, Our Girls, Quilting, Travels, Uncategorized  November 18, 2024 2 Minutes

We were supposed to have rain yesterday but it went way East of Round Rock. We got a little this morning, not a lot but any is welcomed.

Late last week after Galen got through his 300 plus pictures he took while on the trip to the valley more plants were pulled out of the beds. It’s time. Now to get the support cages disassembled and put away until next Spring. We also need to transplant some Iris and get the new bulbs in the ground. Galen did spend the weekend trimming our one big bush out front. Needed too before the net lights go up. He will probably start on that later today and finish up tomorrow. We won’t turn them on yet but they will be done!

We met Osie last Thursday. She had one quilt ready for me and I gave her the 3 I had here to be quilted. This is the one I got back. A very old 5 at the Hive block of the month from Honey Bee in Austin. Have black binding machine sewn on the front. Now I have something to work on in the evenings. Good thing I have good lighting by my chair-black binding on a very busy black backing! That’s Lady in the picture she turns 9 this Friday.

There are times when it seems I go out of my way to make a pattern difficult. They say read through a pattern several times. And Cozy quilt patterns aren’t normally that difficult unless you make it that way! After a lot of ripping, sewing again, and sometimes ripping once again I finally got an A block made. B blocks are easier. Have a lot more to make but now I will keep this one at the machine where I can see it! Yes a few threads to get rid of!!!! I am loving the Kaffe fabrics with the black background. Would make a good pattern for scraps.

The other day Galen and I were having coffee on the deck. We both had a chuckle at our Anole pole dancer.

Yesterday I was watching one through our clear roof extension. Reminded me of when we lived in Taiwan. Sometimes we had small wood carvings framed with a plexiglass mat and then the wood frame. The geckos would run and hide behind the clear plexi!!! They thought they were hiding!

Spent a little time in the kitchen yesterday cooking a whole chicken so I could make Mom’s recipe for PA. Dutch Chicken Pot Pie. Chicken is cooked and boned, broth is strained and saved. Sometime later this week we will have it for dinner. I don’t think Mom would mind since she has shared this recipe many times. Mom always made hers with chicken and she did use saffron. My one aunt sometimes made it with beef and rarely used saffron. When ever the Kleinfelters got together for a reunion a lot of Pot Pie was made and eaten. Comfort food! and memories of home.

Rain is over, sun is coming out. The rain was nice while it lasted.

tagging up with Small Quilts

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2024/11/design-wall-monday-november-18-2024.html

Until next time——