Rescue Birds

I know someone who rescues birds and these little guys were being thrown away by their owner. I felt bad for them and took them in. I hope they enjoy hanging out with us.

Tiramisu Baby Blanket Started

I used to work on projects one at a time and stay with each until I finished, but lately I have a lot of them going on and work on whatever suits my fancy at the moment. I'd been wanting to make a Tiramisu baby blanket and got one started recently. It's going quickly and I have the stitch pattern memorized, so hopefully it'll be finished soon!

Ribbon Flower

I'd been wanting to try making these and I finally finished my first one for a friend. It has a pin on the back so she can wear it on whatever she wants.

Sunny Breakfast

Toast with homemade lemon curd and mock Devonshire cream. I do love having time to eat something a little more leisurely while on break.

Ripple Blanket Update

The ripple blanket I started a while back is still around and growing. I did take a break from it in summer (just not the type of weather that inspires blanket making.) But here it is so far, about halfway finished:

Felt Ornament

I made a little felt ornament for a friend who is expecting next year.

Mini Cheesecake Brownies

I saw these online and had to try them. I made a few modifications and baked them in mini muffin pan to control portion size. They were delicious!

One More Doll Quilt

Blues and browns, machine assembled, hand quilted.

More Charity Squares

This time it's for St. Dunstans. More information on the blankets for St. Dunstans at Michaela's Blog.
I will have to admit I loved the colors on the skein, but once they knitted up I'm a lot less keen on them. My apologies to Michaela! Next time I think I'll either work with self-striping yarn or solids.

Fall Is Here

I love this time of year: the crisp air, the color, the golden light on the trees as the sun sets. Time seems to be moving at a more accelerated pace every year, it seems.

I also wanted to wish everyone a very warm and happy Thanksgiving. :)

Sour Cream Apple Pie

I have been wanting to try making a sour cream apple pie for a while (how time flies!) and finally got the time to try it. It will become part of our holiday recipes from here on out! Creamy and tangy, with the apples still crisp, not too sweet. I cut back on the amount of sugar in the original recipe and substituted low fat sour cream. I also realized I do not own a pie dish, so I used a store bought crust until I remedy that situation. I used five large apples and it was piled really high going into the oven but got to a more reasonable level after it was done. Unfortunately it's not the best photo, but the pie was delicious!!!

Baby Gift

Here is a gift I made for a friend having a baby. It's gender neutral, but in a very cute sort of way. :) Both fabrics are 100% cotton flannel, and it's oversized in case it's used for swaddling.

Illustration Friday: Vacant

One of the first exercises that we did in painting class was a visit to blind contour drawing. We had to draw each other without looking at the paper, and of course that always has some rather interesting results. Then we had to take our drawing and transfer it to canvas and paint it. Our instructor actually encouraged us to push the boundaries even more and use strong colors, so I ended up wiping off the face and attempting to re-do it in our next session, but didn't get very far. I was originally not going to post this painting because it's really not the type of style I paint, but it was such a perfect illustration of Illustration Friday's "Vacant" theme that I decided to just get over it and post it. I've been thinking about adding a pair of eyes to the original painting and call it "Eyes Without A Face" after the Billy Idol song. It's painted in oils on canvas.

Blue Ridge Parkway

This past weekend we traveled to Asheville to see the leaves change color. I took this off one of the stops along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The weather was perfect and the colors were gorgeous.

Bebeh Squirrel

The weather was quite nice yesterday late afternoon and DH and I decided to spend a little time enjoying our yard. We heard a shrill noise coming from one of our trees and could not quite put a finger on whether it was a bird or what. Walking around we figured out what tree it was coming from, a large oak near the back of the house. We were standing under it looking up and an object dropped on the grass under the tree in front of us and a large owl flew away. It was a baby squirrel, and it was what was making that shrill noise. The poor thing. I wasn't sure it would survive such a large drop and we stood there not quite knowing what to do. We thought about it for a while and could see the little guy was still breathing. We stepped away a ways to see if his mom was coming to get him but after several minutes, nothing happened. After a while DH picked it up and I hit the internet to see what to do. I immediately found a local site with a number to call for volunteers who take care of the little guys and called them and left a message. Meanwhile another site said what to do. DH opted to warm up the little guy in his hands while I made some homemade pedialyte and looked for a dropper to rehydrate him. I fed him a few droppers full and he perked up considerably, though he started rooting around DH's hand nibbling him trying to nurse.

I microwaved some small towels and put them in a box and then lined them with a soft kitchen towel and tucked him in. He fell asleep right away.

An hour later we got a call from the place and they took our location, an hour after that we heard back from a volunteer a few miles away where we took the little guy. The volunteer wondered whether we wanted to raise him ourselves, but I'd need to go get one or two others to raise with him so he wouldn't get too tame. At the end, I knew my boss would likely kill me if I brought baby squirrels to the office to feed, so we opted to just leave the little guy with other ones at the care of the volunteer. I hope he makes it, the volunteer coordinator who took him said he looked pretty good. :)
So that was our good deed of the day for yesterday: baby squirrel rescue. Considering how much squirrels love to dig up and kill my potted plants, well... but how could anyone resist such a cute little guy?