Snowmen in September

Good morning, my friends. It's a pretty day here at the Three Cats Ranch. I'm happy to have a morning at home where I'm not anticipating getting ready to go somewhere. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had a doctor's appointment with a new PCP. I liked her very much...better than the one I had previously. She asked pertinent questions and gave me some useful information. 

For the first time in a couple of years, I felt confident someone was paying attention. Since before the beginning of the pandemic, I've felt as if my regular healthcare was falling through the cracks. Fortunately, I'm in good health, and so it hasn't mattered much. But, as Mike and I like to say, you can be healthy...until you're not...and then it's good to be acquainted with someone you trust to help. Hopefully, this one won't leave right away. I still need to return for a fasting blood draw, but otherwise, I'm good to go for a while.

When I got home yesterday, I needed to get to work baking some Healthy Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins that were to serve as a side dish for last night's dinner of Mushroom, Gruyere, & Spinach Quiche. I've linked to the recipe there. Just know that I used buttermilk instead of regular milk. The recipe includes baking soda, which needs an acid to activate it. Since there is no other acid in the recipe, I figured buttermilk would give a better result. Also, I used golden raisins in mine.

They were good with dinner, and the ones we didn't eat can be for our morning snack.

Sadie could care less about muffins. She wanted to know when we were going to get busy sewing.

Yesterday's project was still sitting on the table.

Wait just a minute! Pawrdon me, but didn't we finish this yesterday? 

Well, she was offended that I would offer her a day-old project. She left in a kitty huff and let Smitty pick up the slack.

Our project for the day was to make a second block for the Merry, Merry Snowmen...this one:

The first step was to create a back for it. I'm using fabrics already in my stash for this.

Starting in the upper left corner, we made a reindeer and his birdie friend...a cardinal, apparently.

And then we added the Santa snowman in his sleigh. Their faces will be hand-embroidered. The buttons are just sitting there for now.

When both were fused down, I added the reins and the arms for the snowman.

It felt too late in the day to continue, and so I stopped there. Today I'll add the three snowmen at the bottom, and then this will be ready for hand-stitching and top-stitching.

Since I didn't have time for my slow-stitching yesterday morning, I worked on that in the afternoon. Now, it's stitched as far as I can go until I get some more light pink floss. I'll be out and about tomorrow, and I'll get some then. It shouldn't take long to finish it off once I have the floss in hand.

You might remember I was working on this Phenology piece before we left on our trip. I'll get back to that today. 

This morning, I received notification that the Peltex stabilizer I'm awaiting is out for delivery. I've needed it before I can continue on with the "Spices" quilt. When I finish with the snowman block, I'll be able to get back to work on that. I'm itching to work on the thread painting. The quilt is looking good so far, and I'm hoping I can make it look better with the added thread detail.

So I'll get back to Phenology this morning, and then I want to get in a Bow-Flex workout. It'll be my first time back to the Bow-Flex since we returned from our trip. My new PCP gave me some attagirls for my workout efforts, and she suggested I add in some balance exercises. She had lots of suggestions about classes held locally, but I'm going to take a look at YouTube and see what I can figure out on my own. I really hate to leave home if its something I can do right here.

Also this morning, I'm trying something new in my slow cooker. While we were traveling in Kentucky, we discovered a traditional Kentucky stew called Burgoo. The recipe I'm using is from Southern Living. It can be made with different combinations of meat, but I'm using some leftover Jimmy Dean pork sausage and some pork stew meat. Of course, I'll let you know how it turns out. It's probably too warm a day to be making something like this, but we'll probably find a way to eat it anyway.

And with that, I'll be on my way. First stop will be my slow-stitching, and then I'll get dinner started. It's going to be a mostly sewing day here.