5/25/23

Celebrations R Us

Good morning, my friends! Can we stop with the celebrations now? Good grief. May is such a busy month for our family. We have three birthdays, Mother's Day, and our anniversary. Fortunately, Memorial Day is on the horizon. I don't know about you, but that's always been a day to relax around the Three Cats Ranch. Unless I miss my guess, I'll probably be out hoeing the garden.

The morning here started with Smitty experiencing severe lap envy.


Backing up to yesterday, if this makes any sense, I was so excited to get at my sewing yesterday, that I flew out the door to hoe the weeds. Then, I flew back inside to do my inside housework. And then, after all that I realized I'd completely neglected my morning slow-stitching. Sheesh. There must have been something in my coffee for that to happen! Well. Doncha know I sat right down and finished it up. When it was trimmed and pressed, it looked like this:


Sadie was there to offer her suppurrt. When I told her I had everything under control, she purrceeded to test the chin-scratching capabilities of the plastic shoe bins I had sitting around.

Hmmmmm....smooth, and yet gritty.


This one has a rough edge. No, no, no. This won't do at all.


Oooooh...this one is purrticularly gratifying. What is its vintage?


This is an excellent specimen...spirited and stout-hearted!


I like the slight hint of tree bark on this one.


Okay, and while her testing efforts were underway, I spread out all the blocks I have for this quilt.


The pattern is from a 2016 BOM from Jenny of Elefantz. Her designs are always so pretty.

With that finished, I traced out the next one. This one has a lot of detail. I don't usually use just one strand of floss, because I don't like how it looks. For this piece, I might have to. There are some very tiny lines and tiny stitches. I'll have to see how it goes.


After that, I spent a little more than an hour on my challenge piece. I'm nearly finished making my way around the outer edges. The subject of the piece is in the middle, and so I've worked my way around the background portions first. Happily, I was able to fix the problems I mentioned in yesterday's post by simply readjusting the pieces. There was no need to remake them. So far, I'm happy with how this is turning out. It seemed more difficult before I started, but it's turning out to be less challenging than expected. Here's your peek:


When my hour was up, I might have started on the next Tiny House. I got as far as cutting the sections apart. I guess that's something.


And then it was time to get ready for our dinner out. We each ordered a glass of wine appropriate to our meal.


And then, the gluttony commenced. Mike had a wedge salad. He's been choosing these lately. I've made it at home, but he never showed much interest beyond it being acceptable. His father was a picky eater, and his mother often served very basic salads like an iceberg wedge. Maybe his memories of those bland wedgies has faded. I might start making this at home again. Of course, his mother never served it up like this.


Mine was a more basic garden salad with candied walnuts, apples, dried cranberries, and plenty of goat cheese, which I love.


Mike ordered the "filet medallions," which came with asparagus and mashed Yukon gold potatoes.


I had the Prawn Bucatini, which was delicious. There was lots of garlic and basil in the sauce. If you ask me, one can never have too much of either.


For dessert, Mike had the creme brulee.


I had an embarrassingly large piece of carrot cake.


When we got home, we swore off all food until at least breakfast this morning. Yeah...we're pretty good at dieting when we need to be. In all seriousness, though, we're going to have to watch the calorie count after a month of good food every time we turned around.

Okay, so we swore off food until breakfast, and whaddaya know? It's breakfast time. We're getting COVID boosters today. Mike is also due for a tetanus shot. We expect to feel puny from these needle jabs, but maybe not. Just in case, we have nothing but relaxation planned for today and tomorrow. If we can do more, we will.

11 comments:

Barbara said...

Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. ~ Jim Davis

piecefulwendy said...

Happy Anniversary to you two! Your dinner out looks very enjoyable! I've never really enjoyed wedge salads - too much to cut and fuss with, but that is one decked out wedge! That moth embroidery will be fun to see! I really need to quit procrastinating about getting the challenge piece sketched out so I an begin!

Pam Dempsey said...

Oh, my! What a wonderful dinner out! Happy anniversary again 🥰

Sara said...

Prawns & creme brule - those would be on my preferred list too. Yum, yum, yum!! Those blocks looks so bright and spring-y.

abelian said...

Happy Anniversary! That dinner looks wonderful. I liked the photos of Sadie and the shoeboxes. She’s marking them all as hers. My cat likes to rub his face on the corner of my iPad (on its keyboard stand), and then wants to nibble the corner. I draw the line at that! Dot

Karen said...

Happy Anniversay! Dinner looked amazing and I'm glad you saved room for dessert!

Christine said...

I'm not surprised you swore off food! Love that wedge salad.... a wedge of lettuce and everything piled on top??
Glad you had a lovely time.

Jenny said...

Your Anniversary meal looks delicious. You both have excellent taste, I would have chosen the prawns and the brulee if you had asked me to join you.

Lyndsey said...

Mmmmm your anniversary meal looks delicious. Great choices.

Brown Family said...

Happy Anniversary! You were ahead of me on the tiny house, but I am getting it out of the way, now. Just in time for 20 to be published

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Happy Anniversary (although now belated!). Looks like you had a wonderful meal. Have to admit I was astounded when I saw Mike's salad - wow! It looks like a meal in itself.