Heaven and Nature Sing! The Third Day

Starting off with a critter friend here on day three. This precious fawn, curled up resting underneath the tree. Remember that paw print paper punch? Ideal for the spots on a baby deer.

Another favorite of mine, the Goldfinch, with their beautiful, vivid yellow and black.

How do y'all like my grumpy Great Horned Owl? I love hearing these at night. We heard them occasionally when we were stationed on the East Coast, and I was delighted to hear one not long ago here. Such an arresting sound to hear on a quiet night.

The humble House Sparrow. But we managed to jazz her up a bit with some glitter! And she gets a lovely freebie tribute!

Is there anyone who doesn't like Hummingbirds? Exquisite little things. This one was really fun to make because I could go over the top with glitter! The thing I like best about these patterns is how well she captures the shape of the bird. Doesn't that just look like a real hummingbird sitting on the branch?

I considered using clear sewing thread to attach hangers to my birds, and you could certainly do that, but instead I opted to glue a bit of pipe cleaner to the back so I could perch them on the branches. This has the added benefit of making sure they stay put. I moved this tree, fully decorated, from one room to another and nothing budged.

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Our third main dish option for this week is a ridiculously easy slow cooker recipe for taco meat that you can toss together in minutes. It is so good! The recipe calls for cooking the meat in the slow cooker, but I always pre-cook mine. I have relied on this recipe a lot in recent months. 

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Hope y'all are enjoying the week. Back tomorrow with lots of little grey friends, and a slow cooker side I do two ways.

Heaven and Nature Sing! The Second Day

Welcome back, y'all! Hope you enjoyed yesterday because there's a lot more where that came from. 

Today we're starting off with everyone's favorite, and the unofficial birds of Christmas, Cardinals! Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, in fact. Can't get much lovlier than that bright red plumage against snowfall.

Oh, my sweet wee Chickadee. I adore these little munchkins and their cheerful buzzing and chirping. They're probably my favorite bird. 

Critter friend! A teeny tiny Chipmunk has joined us. Yes, I reduced the size of the pattern to 33%. Yes, I almost went nuts making this microscopic friend. But how cute is he?

And finally, the glossy Crow. This would be a great pattern to use for fall decorating as well. To compliment him, today's freebie is a very unusual Crow design. I'm not sure I'd stitch it, but it's different, which I like, and it's we'll done. Might be a neat fall piece, with some color adjustments.

Here's a TIP for making sure your birds fit together with no fuss. When you cut out the pieces, cut out the bottom piece, or base, of the bird just inside your traced pencil line. Cut the top pieces just outside your traced pencil line. This ensures that when you're gluing beaks and wings onto the body, they're a tiny bit bigger and you won't have bits of the body peeking out where they shouldn't, requiring you to do extra trimming.

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Today's main dish is my adaptation of this recipe for Cajun Chicken Pasta. It's very good as is, but I added a bag of frozen peppers and onions at the beginning, and then sprinkled generously with mozzarella cheese at the end for my version of the Rattlesnake Pasta we used to enjoy from a restaurant at one of our duty stations. Either way, it's low effort comfort food, perfect for cold weather and busy days. I used mini penne pasta and it cooked perfectly in the suggested time.

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Day two, in the books. See y'all tomorrow!

Heaven and Nature Sing! The First Day

Christmas Open House, day one! Are y'all ready for wall-to-wall birds? If so, you're in the right place! Even if you're not much of a bird lover, hopefully this week will be a source of Christmas cheer and maybe even inspiration for a simple, old-fashioned, handmade Christmas, perhaps using a different theme. There will be tried and true recipes as well, so at least stay for the food!

All of the birds and animals I'm showing this week were made using free patterns from the lovely Downeast Thunder Farm blog. I'm so thankful for talented creators like her who so generously share their work. During the week I'll be sharing a few tips you might find helpful if you decide to make some paper pretties yourself. These can be as plain or as elaborate as you like, with or without embellishments, different sizes--all sorts of variations. I used a combination of solid color matte, pearl, and glitter paper. You could use patterned paper to give a quilted or fabric look, or even make these in pastels for a spring project. There's really no limit to how you could customize these birds and animals. And you don't have to make tons of them (though you'll see at the end of the week how making loads of them creates an eye-popping result). Choose a few favorites. Make ornaments or gift tags or cards or even a garland (oh my! I need to do that!). Break out the paper, scissors, and glue and unleash your inner second grader! 

These little adhesive embellishments from the scrapbooking section are perfect for eyes.

I couldn't decide in what order to show these, so I took the easy way and opted for alphabetical. Helpful since there are so many. Let's get started!

First up, the king of birds, the awe-inspiring Bald Eagle. They are so fierce looking, and I tried to capture that expression. Should they also be sparkly? Probably not. But this one is. Fierce and sparkly.

The Baltimore Oriole. We were stationed outside of Washington DC for ten years, and in all that time, I only saw these beautiful birds three times, and only as flashes of orange in the trees at that. A rare treat.

I love Blue Jays. I know they're loud and bossy, but their bright blue coloring is so pretty. I really enjoyed making this little guy.

TIP: Here's an easy way to make those squiggly wing markings: scrapbooking scissors! I also used the toes from the paw print punch to make some other markings you'll see.

Our first critter friend! Y'all. We have black bears where we live now. I've only seen one since we've been here and that was plenty. He was enormous, and although the locals tell us they won't bother you, I still feel... it's a bear. (Photobomb!)

Today's last bird is the Canada Goose. Such striking coloring and so much a symbol of Christmas, and of course, so much goose attitude (goositude?). 

Today's freebie is a classic. You may have already seen it--or even stitched it--but perhaps not. First Snow is too perfect for this Open House not to include.

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As always, the recipes this week are ones I've been making for us. They're easy and quick to put together, so you can get back to Christmas stuff. I'll be sharing a whole meal, with three main dish choices (all super easy slow cooker), two sides, and a dessert. 

Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Flank Steak needs a little prep work, but the extra step is worth it. If you're pressed for time, you can definitely just dump everything in your slow cooker and it will still be good, but if you can, follow the recipe as is. It's delicious. And it's not spicy at all. Easy to increase the heat if you prefer, as we do. 

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Come on back tomorrow and see who else we have in the Christmas tree. We're just getting started!

Heaven and Nature Sing!

Welcome. Welcome, my dears, to my 9th annual Christmas Open House. What a year. You've been here. You know. But we're not skipping Christmas, and we're definitely not skipping Christmas Open House. I'm so glad you're here with me for another celebration. This year's Open House is different from any of the others as it's the first with no stitching or stitching-related things to show (there will be freebies though).

I did my best to get a stitched theme pulled together, and while I got quite a bit done, considering the circumstances, I kept having to scale back and scale back until I just wasn't satisfied with how it was going to turn out. So I put it aside for another year (don't worry, you'll see it!).

Story time! Here's what happened. We will be traveling at Christmas, which is not something we usually do, so that together with the fact that we have kittens in the house made going 100% on the decorations impractical. I came up with a plan to only decorate the bedroom, since it's a baby-proofed room where we spend a lot of time right now. Of course I needed a new table top tree (my 7th?!) to go on top of the chest of drawers where the babies can't reach it. Wanted a fat little 3' tree. Already had the wee shatterproof ornaments for it. Absolutely not to be found. Ended up with a 4' woodland-ish tree with lots of space between the branches. None of the decorations I had bought were going to work. Now what? 

Dear readers, I was mugged by an idea.

Birds.

I wanted to do a bird tree. And I had the perfect way to do it, a way that had been stored on my computer for years and years.

There is a beautiful blog called Downeast Thunder Farm and years ago she began posting (and I began saving) free patterns to make felt birds and other critters. I've always wanted to make them in felt, but I'm always so busy with stitching I never got it done. Then when the bird tree idea hit me, almost simultaneously, I thought, "I can make all those birds in paper!"

And then, for the first time this year, I started to get really excited about Christmas Open House. I couldn't manage a lot of finished stitching, but I could make loads and loads of beautiful birds for my tree. 

A tree covered in paper birds. Simple. Old fashioned. Meaningful. 

Birds have had a special significance for me this year that's too personal to share, but I will say that sitting on the floor, surrounded by scads of colored paper, quietly cutting and gluing and decorating, has been so soothing. Maybe it takes me back to childhood. 

So the theme this year is "Heaven and Nature Sing!" And this, too, seems right for the year we've had. 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

let every heart prepare him room

and heav'n and nature sing,

and heav'n and nature sing,

and heav'n, and heav'n and nature sing.

Isaac Watts, 1719

The sewing room and the kitchen are open. Make yourself at home. As ever, we'll have recipes and freebies and birds, birds, and more birds (and a few critter friends)! Thank you for coming.

 Let Heaven and Nature Sing!

It's Coming...

It's happening! Join me on Saturday, 17 December for my 9th annual Christmas Open House!

If you're a new reader, welcome! And make sure to check out the Christmas Open House tabs at the top of the page to catch up on this festive tradition!

See you soon!

Adoption Day!

Marigold and Butterfly are officially ours! Cookies for everyone to celebrate! These are the collars they were wearing when we brought them home a little over six weeks ago. Look how tiny!

And now look how big!

Four months old on Friday, and four pounds each. Next big adventure: their first road trip to Texas to Grandma's house for Christmas. Y'all. We are doing a road trip with two 4-month-old kittens. Keep us in your prayers!

First Christmas--ready for Santa!

Stitchy Stuff & Bonus Baby Pic

 

Hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving. Figured I had better post some stitching content to reassure everyone this hasn't become a cat blog! I haven't shopped much lately and have stitched even less, but I have managed to find a few new goodies. A little package in the mail is a nice bright spot when things are tough.

This very sweet stitching set is from Old Tin Roof. The vinyl-fronted pouch will hold a few small tools, and the felt-lined book holds needles and bits of thread. I couldn't resist the retro winter theme. Oh, how I'm going to miss winter! Of course, I had to go in search of a matching needle minder. Found the perfect one at Autumn Lane Stitchery. It's large enough to hold a small pair of scissors. How cute is this winter stitching stuff?

This wee bauble is just to pretty up one of my stitching cases where I keep my Christmas projects. I love the soft green color and the tiny light. It's from this Etsy shop.

If you are a regular reader, you know I love Zweigart's Basalt Splash fabric, particularly the grey, but the pink is also luscious. I don't have a design in mind for this, but I needed it just in case. Pretty sure it's widely available at most shops. This is 32 ct. linen.

I got this spooky needle case back in early fall, before everything went completely pear shaped at our house. I had hoped to stitch it for Halloween, but even this tiny project was beyond me. Something to look forward to for next year. 

And finally, this adorable Santa with his little fox helpers. This design is part of a series of Santas with animal friends and I've had my eye on it for a while because it is just so cute. At last, foxes! It's by an Italian designer called MyFanny. I think there are currently 14 designs in the series. I really would love to stitch it this year, but this is another one that will probably have to wait, because...

...these little hooligans have not learned stitching manners yet.

Look how big! The babies hit three pounds the day after turning three months old, so they are now on track for a normal weight for their age. This was a big milestone, not only because they caught up to where they should be, but also because they're now big enough to be spayed and after that we can finalize their adoption. They will be officially ours in time for Christmas (and yes, I have ordered their stockings)!

Magnificent Ear Floof

 

One of the ways you can get an idea of a kitten's adult coat length is by looking at their ear floof. As you can see, the girls have rather dramatic ear floof! Butterfly (left) has a thick undercoat and looks almost wooly. She also has a lot of floof between her toe beans. Marigold's coat is not as thick, but is silkier and she doesn't have as much fur on her paws. They both have beautiful little ruffs going already. But the ear floof, y'all.

 

They finish up their meds on Thursday and will be 12 weeks old on Friday. They're doing well, and are almost up to three pounds! 

Saturday Sampler: Baby Edition

 

Our little ones are 10 weeks old. Their first week at home was challenging as they came to us with pretty significant GI issues, but the shelter felt they would do better in a home, so we took them anyway. We've had a week of vet visits (one each, including an all-nighter), round-the-clock meds, and sleepless nights. But also lots of rambunctiousness and snuggles. They have wonderful temperaments, very confident and social, not skittish or shy at all. In the last week, we've had a chance to get to know their personalities a little better. Butterfly (above) is our little bulldozer. Just wants to play as hard as she can, whenever she can, with whatever she can find. Marigold is our thinker/explorer. You can see her mind working, figuring things out. She learns to do something, and then Butterfly watches her and learns to do it, too. They are a handful, but they are such good babies. Our main focus right now is getting them completely healthy and getting them fattened up. 

So I'm taking care of babies 24/7 and not much else (including stitching). They spent the day at the shelter yesterday getting some extra care and testing, and I spent the day cooking and cleaning and doing laundry like an espresso-fueled squirrel, trying to catch up. My blog will probably be mostly baby pics for a while, until we get their issues sorted out, because that's literally all that's going on around here. 

Thank you again for all your kind words about Tiger Lily, and for your sweet welcomes to our new girls.

Meet Our New Babies

We have new babies! Butterfly (left) and Marigold (right) are 9 week old tortie sisters. They are rescue babies from a local shelter we are fostering to adopt. They had a rough start and although they're two months old, they are *tiny*. They're doing well, though. And... they're going to be floofy!

I want to thank each and every one of you who left such heartfelt comments on my post about Tiger Lily. It meant a lot to me that so many of y'all share our heartbreak. The grief is still so raw, and I thought about waiting to find another kitty, but I couldn't stand the house without that little spirit. It was an odd series of events that lead us to these little girls, but then again, maybe "odd" is just the word we use to describe a plan we can't see. 

So that's my happy news. Y'all have shared our sadness, and I hope you'll share our happiness with these new little ones. Our grief isn't gone, but it's not alone anymore. Now there is joy with it, which makes it a bit more bearable.

Happy Halloween, from our wee black & orange babies!