A Full Day

Nearly the whole day was spent in the kitchen yesterday. Most everything is ready to go now. I baked a cheesecake, and I'll add the topping this morning. The green bean side dish is done. Also, I made crab cakes for our dinner last night. It was 2:30 before I made my way into the sewing room, and by then, I was tired.

Before I got started cooking, though, I finished up the second of three "I Believe in Snowmen" blocks.

This makes 12 altogether, with one more to work on before I move to the next project on my list. Here are all the blocks I have so far.

When I finished with the morning's slow stitching, I went out to check the greenhouse and make sure my threats against the squirrels were giving them pause. So far, so good. Smitty and Sadie blasted through the door and went charging around the yard while I scared away the "bad dogs." Smitty flew up the cherry tree.

This caused me to look more closely. There are cherries on the Black Tartarian tree now, and so both trees have cherries. Not that we'll get any, but it's still nice to see fruit coming on.

Turning around from that spot, I noticed the second of the rhodies to bloom. It's pretty well covered now. You can also kind of see how it's blocking the sidewalk.

On the other side of the rhodie, I checked on the fifth of the peonies again, and lookie there! A bud! All five peonies have buds now. This is terribly exciting.

There was no new squirrel activity in the greenhouse. I really need to walk around the exterior and check for any digging, but I haven't. The lettuce is coming up where it wasn't disturbed by vile critters.

And check out the cat grass. I expect I'll be able to move this to the catio in the not-too-distant future.

The third rhodie is starting to open. This one has the prettiest flowers, I think.

The lilacs are beautiful this year, and they smell so good.

Here's the newest of the azaleas to bloom. Yesterday I noticed the white one is also getting flowers. I took a picture, but it was blurry. I'll get another this morning.

The apple tree is looking the best it's ever looked. I'll be curious to see how many apples it produces.

When I'd finished everything in the kitchen, I made a couple of masks. See if you can guess which is Mike's and which is mine...

Here's a hint: Mike likes his elastic to go around his head, while I prefer the ear pieces. I made mine first, which was kind of a train wreck, but it's functional. Mike's was a lot easier, although I'm still not happy with how the elastic looks where it's attached. But again, it's functional. That was my goal.

Also, I sewed the one seam I needed to make this quilt back for the Chicken Feed quilt. I love the selvage on this fabric.

And that was all the actual sewing I did. From there, I moved on to a piece I've not worked on for quite some time. I'll bet you forgot all about it. I finished the stitching on this way back on September 3, 2019. It was a different world back then. Looking at it yesterday, I wondered what our Fourth of July celebrations will hold in 2020.

So yesterday, I trimmed it to size: 8-1/2 x 8-1/2.

Then I pulled yardage and scraps I could use to finish it off. I won't use all of these, but I will use some of them.

The pattern is created to make a pillow, but I've always intended to make a small table topper from this.

I'll probably stick with Meg Hawkey's design, but add an additional border or two to bring it to a table topper size. As you see it on the cover here, it is 16-1/2 x 16-1/2 inches. I could add a 3-inch border and bring it to a nice size for our breakfast bar.

It was late in the day by then, and so I didn't do any more sewing. Outside, I found Tractor Man rototilling the garden. It's the first time this has been anything other than a big patch of weeds in many years.

Back inside, Smitty has rediscovered his afternoon sunspot. In the morning, he takes his sunbaths on his kitty pole. In the evenings, he takes them on the dining room chair next to the sliding glass door. The cat has a rough life.

The kids are joining us this evening for a prime rib dinner. Mike will do the prime rib on his Traeger grill. Aside from what I mentioned at the beginning, I'll just be making some mashed potatoes and a dip. Most of my part was done yesterday. Mae will be bringing a salad and an appetizer. We're hopeful Matthew will be returning from his Mt. Hood sojourn...that's the plan, anyway...and we'll have another birthday celebration.

There should be at least a little time for sewing this afternoon. I'll get busy making the Sweet Land of Liberty table topper. It's going to be a nice day.