Circular Thinking...

 What a great weekend! I found time to work on the Princeton Plates quilt.

 I enjoyed resting with my feet up, stitching the plates to the background 

fabric. I kept my supplies close at hand - Kimono silk thread, Thread Heaven™,

silver bee thimble, scissors and needle. Everything I needed when my attention

turned to the quilt - available when the urge to work on it struck my fancy.

 By the end of the day Monday all of my plates were sewn down!

Time to change my focus to creating the circles for the center of the blocks.

I gave Handsome fabric samples and asked him choose his favorite for the center 

circles. The winner was the blue paisley fabric. I think the blue  will be just the 

right choice for these plates. After all, the Moda "Princeton" line looks just like 

men's ties when used this way, and the blue center moves it even more in a 

masculine direction. Even so, I like the choice as much as Handsome does.

I made a template for the center and then began the applique' process of

forming the fabric into circles.  I need eighteen circles for eighteen plates.

 Today will be a total play day. I'll make the rest of the circle centers and

sew them to the plates. I bet I'll be pretty close to adding sashing by Friday.

There will be a lot of "circular thinking" before this step is finished. (snort)

What will you be working on today?

Tuesdays With Tag - Babies...

 Hi, Everybody!

It's already hot and steamy in south Florida, but I'm not complainin'.

Even though Mom isn't allowed in the swimmin' pool yet, Dad and

I have spent some quality "guy time", hangin' out in the water together.

Mom is allowed to drive again though, so she's taken me on a few errands 

where I'm not in the car alone at all. When it gets hot down here, people 

will break out your windows if you're dumb enough to leave a dog inside...

and rightly so!

The last time we went out for a ride, we parked on the driveway instead of

in Mom's parkin' tent and she noticed somethin' on one of the shutter tracks.

 She said, "Hey, Tag! What the heck is that hot mess over there?"

"I don't know Mom. Let's check it out."

So we got out of the car and did a little investigatin'.

 As we got closer, Mom said she knew what it was.

"It's a bird's nest, Tag."

No kiddin'!

Mom Bird was pretty smart. She tucked that nest right into the
corner behind the shutter and under the ledge. Then she made her nest
using lots of pine needles and fuzzy palm tree stuff. Nothin' inside that
little house would ever get cold or wet. She's quite the architect!

We had to peek to see if the nest was "ocupada" or not.

 Mom tapped on the cement ledge for the window and right away there were 

two big mouths, chirpin' and carryin' on. There are two little baby birds in 

the nest and they were waitin' for their mom to bring 'em somethin' to eat. 

Mom smiled, but she didn't want to bother them any more.

 We backed up a little bit and they settled right down, but they

kept their mouths open...just in case there was any food.

(I can relate to that! Growin' kids need their grub, after all.)

 We went in the house and told Dad about the birds right away so he

wouldn't go out there and clean up the mess...and the little birds at the

same time. Now that there are babies, he has to wait until they fledge.

(You know...get bigger, grow feathers and fly away.)

 It's gonna be my job to make sure that nobody bothers my baby birds now.

I'll ask Mom to take more pictures as they get a little bigger, but we don't want

to get in the way of their mom teachin' them how to be independent birds.

I hope you liked my little surprise this week. I'll see you again next week.

'til then...

"More Waggin' and Less Barkin'!"

Making Yummy Noises...

 Yesterday began with a nice, heartwarming brunch for two...Handsome & me.

I wanted to make something I hadn't tried before, along with an old favorite.

We both love Hopple Popple (I shared the recipe with you here), so that dish

was a given for our Father's Day meal. We also had a fruit salad on the side,

with a chaser of real Florida orange juice. But, the new dish was a real hit!

 I tried The Pioneer Woman's recipe for "Cinnamon Toast - The Right Way". Wow! 

We raved about this recipe, but agreed that it was never meant to be an "everyday" 

treat. It had just the right amount of everything and was so delicious, it was almost 

like candy.  Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman herself) always hits a homerun!

If you want to try this recipe yourself, this is the link.

Just so you know, the recipe calls for 16 pieces of bread. We used 3 and I cut the

recipe appropriately. Good thing I did, too, 'cuz we might have eaten it all otherwise!

 One more thing today...

 When I went to Craftsy yesterday, I had a great little surprise.

Seems that "Harris" was trending on Craftsy yesterday.

Click here to see.

Isn't that saaa-weeet?

Tag can't wait to see you tomorrow. Have a great Monday!