On Hiatus

Good morning, my friends. We're heading out on our camping trip today. It's a short trip. You can expect to hear from me again by Sunday, if not sooner. I won't be blogging while I'm away, but I should have plenty to tell you when I get back.

There was still a lot to do in preparation, but I took some time to stitch up Tiny Treasure #67. This one has stem stitch, running stitch, lazy daisies, and French knots.

It was a hot day yesterday. We had the A/C turned on by 10:00 a.m. In the kitchen, I made the filling for the Blueberry Hand Pies. It needed to cool completely before I could continue on, and so I did that first. There was a little filling left over. We spooned that over some vanilla ice cream for dessert last night, and that was mmm, mmm, mmm good. 

For the hand pies. I needed to roll out the dough, and cut it into sixteen 3-1/2-inch squares. For that, I used a pizza cutter and one of my quilting rulers. (I have one with a broken corner that I use for unconventional jobs like this). It was like cutting pieces for a quilt. When they were baked off, they looked like this.

It was a scary job because, with the heat, the dough got so soft it was hard to work with it. We got 'er done, though, and these will be nice for our camping trip.

Also, I was squeezing in baking these cookies during my wait times. These are Iced Espresso Oatmeal Crunch Cookies. I'd share the link for the recipe, but it was a test recipe for America's Test Kitchens. I've checked their website, and it doesn't appear there, which leads me to believe it hasn't been published yet. In any case, please feel free to email me if you want the recipe, and I'll be happy to share it. Keep it on the down-low, though, okay? I'm not supposed to share the test recipes. It's a good cookie, and Mike requested them for our camping trip.

Okay, and then I packed the rest of the food for our trip. There wasn't a lot to pack. Erik has some restaurants scoped out where we'll eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He's making breakfast one morning, and we're providing dinner one evening. The rest of the time, we'll be eating in restaurants. 

While I was in the camper, I could hear some nestlings cheeping from one of our bird houses. This is a western bluebird, and she's been skittish about allowing me to photograph her. Finally, I just sat quietly on the steps of the camper and waited for her to return. She watched me, and decided I was not a threat.

Eventually, she started feeding her hungry babies. This little family has been here for more than a week. I expect they'll fledge soon.

Back inside, I had some lunch, then a nap, and eventually made my way to the sewing room where I found Sadie had already claimed the Shop Hop 3.0 quilt. Kitties like quilts. Any questions? Also, she would like you to know that she's been to all of the towns featured in these quilt blocks.

Eventually, I coaxed her into her little bed, and then squared up the quilt.

From there I could sew on the binding.

And then I spent the rest of the afternoon on the hand stitching. The first corner is finished, and I'm approaching the second corner. Probably this won't get any more work done on it until this weekend when we're back home.

Okay, and here's our morning's sunrise. 

It's going to be another hot day today. Probably, it's a happy accident that we're heading for the Oregon coast, where it will be cooler. We'll be heading out around lunch time and spending a couple of days at Slow Boat Farm. Slow Boat Farm is on Puget Island in the Columbia River near where it dumps into the Pacific Ocean. Erik and Mae have camped there before, but this will be our first time. It's a relatively short drive. We have plans to do some sight-seeing at Cape Disappointment in Washington, and Astoria in Oregon, and whatever else we can make time for. It should be fun, and what could be better than camping with our kiddos?

So I'm signing off for a few days. Look for me to return no later than Sunday morning.