I Like Thursday #131

Hope to make a quick I Like Thursday post. With Christmas around the corner I for sure wanted to share a "Grandsons with Santa" picture and this one just cracks me up. I LOVE IT!!!

At the risk of making Jacob look like he's on the "naughty list", here's a picture of Gracie "greeting" the Amazon driver. I'm surprised she's not pressed up hard against the glass! Of course she feels like she's doing her job of protecting us from danger. Definitely going on the "naughty list"! Hahaha!

I finished my two Twilight Stars blocks for this week. That definitely makes me very happy. I've got 6 weeks to make up to be entirely caught up. I'll get there one day! This has been a fun QAL with Primitive Gatherings.

I've tried a few new recipes. First one was this Cheddar Bacon Quiche with Spinach from What's Gaby Cooking. It was good and we would like  more spinach and I would definitely make sure to "finely chop" it even better next time.

Last night I made this Cheese and Sausage Quiche from Southern Living. Easy and delicious! Definitely on a quiche kick!

Another easy and delicious dinner was this Tuna Noodle Casserole from Mary Berg on Food Network. I made a half-batch and cooked it in an 8"x8" dish. It worked perfectly. I also only used potato chips on top, no extra cheese as Mr. H is not a big cheese-lover. Definitely would recommend it.

A hearty dinner another night was this One-Pot Florentine Pasta from our local grocery store, Schnucks. We loved it and would've loved it even more with more spinach! Two cups of fresh spinach was just not enough. Can hardly believe we would like it more healthier! Ha!

There you go! No excuses for not making a delicious, homemade dinner. Next week I may have a couple of dessert recipes. Stay tuned!

I'm linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color to share these good things and to see what others are also sharing. I hope you have a great week!

I Like Thursday #130

It's been another week and of course I found things to appreciate. I'll be sharing on LeeAnna's blog with others. You can read & enjoy too if you click right HERE. In the meantime, let's see what I found to enjoy.

Thanksgiving was just last week and I have a few pictures to share from that day. My niece participated in her first Turkey Trot. She was very proud to finish the 5K. Here she is with her fiancé who also ran.

Thanksgiving is all about the bird, right? Here's a shot of ours this year while resting. Maybe this turkey should have trotted away!

We also had another special guest on Thanksgiving. This hawk was looking for his own bird to enjoy for dinner. Here he is just sitting on our deck where you can see my peanut feeder hanging. There are usually plenty of birds grabbing seeds but they seem to have flown away. Ha!

A side story here: Do you know what a junco bird looks like?

National Audubon Society's Photo
Info on Juncos

Anyway, one of these little birds got trapped in our garage overnight the other night. My husband said I should leave the garage door open after I bring Gracie back from her walk. I went to do that but the poor little thing kept trying to get out through the garage window and was beating his beak time & time again. Then he'd sit on the sill, catch his breath, and then start all over again. Since he couldn't be persuaded to leave with a gentle push with a broom, I went over and actually was able to hold him gently in my hands. I took him over to the bush by the garage and he hopped right in and then promptly flew away. This incident reminded me of the time when the same thing happened with a hummingbird a couple of summers ago.

My neighbor surprised with me with a gift a couple weeks ago. These amaryllis plants were only small buds when I got them. As you can see, we are in FULL BLOOM! Don't they look pretty in front of Frosty McChill? The embroidery blocks were shared last year by Melissa from Pinker 'n' Punkin'. She is amazingly generous with her designs.

Bolero on the left
Minerva on the right

Recently I finished "Someone Else's Shoes" by Jojo Moyes. It was very enjoyable. I thought it was going to be too light for me, too young, but I ended up really liking the characters.

GoodReads synopsis

Earlier I finished "The Engineer's Wife" by Tracey Enerson Wood. A good friend of mine recommended it. It's about the woman behind the man building the Brooklyn Bridge. I enjoyed it and, if you like historical fiction, you might also.

GoodReads Synopsis

Last night I started a new book. It's "Simply Lies" by David Baldacci. He's one of my favorite authors and this promises to be a "psychological thriller". Yikes! I hope it doesn't give me nightmares! Hahaha!

GoodReads synopsis

Now for a laugh: Some of our Black Friday orders arrived today. Here's the picture an Amazon driver took of the delivered package by our front door. Notice the "sweet" dog "welcoming" him. This picture just cracked me up although we are trying to get Gracie to calm down when she sees delivery people in our cul-de-sac. When they walk up to the door to drop something off for us, she really goes berserk!

I hope you have an amazing week. Look around and see how good life is.

I Like Thursday #129

Today is Thanksgiving. I like to think that ALL the I Like Posts are about Thanksgiving. Anything that makes you smile, makes you happy, gives you a warm fuzzy, can be reasons for giving thanks, right? So here's another I Like Thursday/Thanksgiving post from yours truly.

Look at this beautiful clematis that was appreciating our nice weather. Gracie & I were appreciating our beautiful weather on our walk too!

Is this upward view on the trail something? Definitely added to my Thanksgiving List this year!

My friend's daughter had a Friendsgiving get-together last weekend. Charcutier boards were the potluck theme. Here's a picture of my friend's dessert board. Isn't that Rice Krispie Turkey in the middle of the back wonderful??!!??

My daughter sent this picture to me from her local grocery store. She was very impressed (😜) with the marketing on this loaf of bread. She's pretty sure it's just plain ole white bread but I think it has poultry seasoning in it to taste like stuffing but no mushrooms, oysters, or other "different" additives. What do you think?

Last Thursday Mom, Fred, and I went to a Veteran's Day luncheon with the Troy Senior Center. They served ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans with bacon, and for dessert - your choice of pumpkin or apple pie. It was delicious but the best was yet to come! They honored all veterans from all branches of the military and we were entertained by the Scott AFB Airlifter Brass Band! They were magnificent and we certainly were privileged to meet these fine young Air Force musicians.

To say we were razzle-dazzled would be an understatement. They played a little jazz, a little marching music, a little orchestral, and an extraordinary rendition of a medley of all the military branches, including the US Marine Corp, the US Navy, the US Army, the US Air Force, the US Coast Guard, and the newest US Space Force! We didn't even know the last two branches had songs! Man, are we old!!! Lol!

Yesterday's walk, Gracie & I went up and over the bridge to see what our friend Emma was talking about when she said there's a giant Care Bear on the other side. She was right! There's no plaque to explain it but there it is.

Last week we watched (on two recommendations) "All the Light We Cannot See" on Netflix. It has four installments, each about an hour. It took us two nights to watch the whole thing. We all enjoyed it. I can add that I read the book in April 2022. Besides synopses, GoodReads is also good for keeping track of books I've read! You can read about the book HERE but watch it on Netflix.

On top of all this, we seem to be in good health around here so we are all thankful for that as well. Warm Thanksgiving blessings to all of you and your families!

November Progress

All I've manage to accomplish this week is summed up in three pictures:

This week's Twilight Stars

Trying to catch up on a couple more Twilight Stars

Red Threads block this week

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I Like Thursday #128

Well, it's been a while since I posted on I Like Thursday but there is always something happy to find. Some days you just have to look a little harder is all. One of the best ways to feel good is to read about what others have found "happy" and that's what I'll do too. Just hop on over to LeeAnna's blog where other happy-sharing folks link up too.

We recently took a trip to see family. Who could not be happy here?

Brody watching Wheel of Fortune with Grandpa
and eating gummi bears

I got love from Jacob

Brody likes his back rubbed. Grammy is good at that!

Brody went to the pumpkin patch and brought
home a Giant Pumpkin

Anniversary Date Night
(Grammy & Grandpa watched the kids)

Grammy got to play Monster Trucks with Brody

Grammy took Sadie & Jacob for a walk.
Jacob likes to stand in the wagon to
see where he's going

Brody & Jacob's Halloween Costumes
Brody - Ghost Buster
Jacob - Slime

Family Portrait
before we hit the road

We also visited my brother's family.

Mom, John, Fred, & me
checking out John & Karen's
future homesite

A Boy & His Mama

Jennifer & Chris

Kelli & Hunter
The girls had a wedding to attend

Picture of my Garden
Before we left on the trip

We did not get to see my brother's son but there was exciting news to be shared!

Will you marry me?

She said YES!!!

Lovely Rock!
Of course she said yes. Lol!

John III & Katharine - So Happy

I love Fall. I love being outdoors in the cool, sunny weather even if it means raking Mom's yard.

Lots of leaves

Filled the can with ground-up leaves

 

Looks good!

Right before our trip, my BFF came to visit for a week with a 5-day retreat scheduled in there. We went to Kinderhook Lodge with about 15 others and enjoyed our time together. Kinderhook is located in Illinois but very close to the river. On the other side of the river is Hannibal MO, home of Mark Twain. Vickie & I took a walk to see the Mark Twain statue on the water and check out this river cruise boat. We agreed to do this one day.

Mark Twain Statue
American River Cruise

Polly sort of liked Vickie - Lol!

I usually find something to admire while I walk Gracie. On this day I spied these lovely asters. Aren't they a beautiful shade of purple?

I'm sure LeeAnna gave us a prompt but, the renegade that I am at times, I won't follow today. This post has gone on long enough. Hopefully you can understand why I've been so neglectful of my I Like Thursday posts  now.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week. We are looking forward to another nice weekend here IL!

There Goes September AND October!

Started: October 2, 2023

September has come and gone and I have no finishes to show. What the heck happened? My sister came and we even spent two days sewing at a retreat center together! Oh well.

Here in Illinois we had the All-Illinois Shop Hop running from August through September. I managed to get all the stamps for my region. My completed passport went out in the mail Friday. I would like to mention that, after visiting a nice quilt shop in Columbia IL, Mom, Fred, and I went to a restaurant called Reifschneider's for an early dinner. What a surprise to find that we were there on a Tuesday and the special of the day was: 6oz sirloin, dinner salad, and mashed potatoes for $12.95. What a deal!

My hands haven't been 100% idle though. I have to confess

Finishing this post today, November 11:

Update: I won a Regional Grand Prize on the All IL Shop Hop again this year. You may remember that last year I one an AccuQuilt Baby. This year I scored a Janome Serger! It was donated by Times Square Quilt Shop in Jacksonville IL and I'll pick it up soon. Last year's prize was donated by A to Z Quilt Shop in Quincy IL. At least this year's travel to pick up the prize is a bit closer.

So what have I been up to? I finished all my blocks for Uptown. They need to be squared up, the set-in triangles cut, and then the top sewn together. Here's a photo of the last block. I ran out of bigger pieces of red fabrics used in the previous blocks so in this block, where I used red it was supposed to be blue and where I used blue it was supposed to be red. Looks fine and the quilt police didn't even raid my studio! Lol!

In September I started another quilt with Sentimental Stitches called Red Threads. I'm using brown thread instead so I'll have to come up with a different name for my quilt. It consists of 49 embroidered blocks which we get a new pattern every Friday. Here are a few that I've completed although many need to be pressed.

My Favorite So Far

Just this morning I put the tops on my RSC turquoise pineapples. Geez, they were started in September!

From This ....

To this!

Twilight Stars Sew-a-Long with Primitive Gatherings is still going strong. Here are a few pictures of new stars recently made.

Made These at Kinderhook Retreat in October

Oopsy Doopsy!

That's a Better Star on the Left Now

I found an old project from 2005 or 2006. All it needed was to be quilted and bound. It has Insul-Bright inside so you can place a hot dish on it. I think I'll use it this Thanksgiving for the mashed potatoes!

Very Old Kansas Troubles Fabrics
Finished at Kinderhook Retreat

Back Side to Show the Fancy Machine Quilting Stitches

I used my Accu-Quilt Baby to cut out two quilt tops, one for me with my fabrics and one for Vickie using her fabrics. We joined Sharon, who had cut out her own quilt top, and then all three of us sewed our tops up at Kinderhook. All three look different and mine is definitely not photogenic. It's actually kind of ugly looking, isn't it?

Sharon's

Vickie's

Mine

Of course another Chubby Charmer had to be made. Here is the Fall version for my daughter. The fabric line was Fall Frolic by Moda, I believe.

Polly Needed to Check It Out When I Got Home

That pretty much catches you up on my sewing endeavors. Last month we did our annual Fall Family Visit and I'll catch you up on another post. This one has gone on long enough. Did you make it to the end? Congratulations! Hahaha!

Sharing with my RSC friends on Angela's SoScrappy blog.