A Week for Little Things and a Giveaway

It was a day of sloth yesterday, if walking nearly 12,000 steps with Sue can count as sloth. But, honestly, the rest of the day was pure sloth. We didn't get rained on too much, although there were a few showers. Since I was wanting to stop off and pick up our living Christmas tree at a nearby specialty market, I first surveyed myself when we got back to our cars. Just how wet was I? And since I was only to drowned rat status, I told myself it would be okay. This is Oregon, after all. It rains a lot here...especially on the last day of November. True to form, I walked into the store carrying my little tree in a basket, and folks barely glanced up from their own shopping.

So anyway...want to see the tree? I saw it at this store about ten days ago, and couldn't get it out of my mind.

It's kind of a Charlie Brown tree, and it probably looks larger in that picture than it actually is. It's about waist high on me. Mike and I have been getting living trees...little ones...for the past several years. Usually they're the same variety, and we have a veritable grove of the same tree in our field now. For this year, I was looking for something different.

It's grown locally. It has the most interesting "needles," which is what had me thinking about it nonstop since seeing it just before Thanksgiving.

It's still parked outside...I said it was a day of sloth. Once I dropped it off at the back door, I went inside and took a nap. Maybe I'll get it decorated this weekend, although it is a bit early for me.

The only sewing I did yesterday was some slow-stitching on the Appalachian Memories quilt block. I'm getting far enough along that I'm going to need to move my hoop to finish off some of those lines.

Okay, so I wasn't too lazy to make a little dessert for our Friday evening. I've been smacking my lips waiting to try a recipe I found on the Food Network website for Caramel Bread Pudding for Two. You can find the recipe right here. The caramel comes from four soft caramel candies. I used these.

It isn't hard to make, but it does take a little time. It's made with two croissants which are torn into bits. They have to sit soaking up the "goo" for about 15 minutes, and then it bakes for about 30 minutes. I did mine in my toaster oven, and it was done in 25 minutes. It sure did make the house small good. And here they are.

They were bubbling around the edges when I took them out of the oven. I can be made in coffee mugs, but I used ramekins this time around. Yum. It was hard to wait to finish dinner before digging in. The recipe says to serve them warm, but ours were at room temperature. I asked Mike to put a "dollop" of whipped cream on them. This is his definition of a "dollop."

And Oh. My. Gosh. This might just be the best thing I've ever eaten. And, I know...I say that about all the desserts. But this time I really mean it. It was so good, I was really glad it was a recipe for just two because if it had served ten, I'm sure I would have eaten the entire thing. It was hard enough to restrain myself from making another one right then and there. There were still candies left in the bag, after all. Oh, but no more croissants, so never mind.

Okay...so here we are.

It's time to set a new goal for...

And it's time for me to bite the bullet and finish off Wind in the Whiskers. You might recall that last month's goal was to quilt the portion inside the pink line...

Now it's time to finish off the portion outside the line. The quilting shouldn't take too long, but then I need to bind it and embellish it, which should take longer. It'll be good to get this one into the finished column, and so I'm hoping this long month will give me plenty of time to git 'er done.

Finally, 'Tis the season of giving, and I have a couple of book giveaways for you this month. First, this book:

Since I've been having fun with mini quilts, I thought y'all might want to join in. This book will give you a place to start. So let's talk about what you need to do to win it.

First, leave a comment...any comment will do...and if you can't think of anything then tell me what you'd like Santa to bring you this year. And, this is very important...if you're no reply, you must leave an email. No way to contact you = no chance to win. 

Second, if you're a follower, leave a second comment for an extra chance to win. 

Third, this giveaway is open to all residents of Planet Earth so comment away, my international friends.

Fourth, hm, I guess that's about it. Good luck, everybody. I'll leave this giveaway open until 12:01 a.m. (PST) Wednesday morning and then I'll let Mr. Random's elves choose a winner. Winner will be announced whenever I write my blog post this coming Wednesday.

Today's sewing really will be to get a block started for the Chicken Buffet quilt. Maybe I'll even do two blocks in December since it got short shrift last month. Also, there's a craft fair in town. I might just head down the hill to check it out.