(log) cabin fever

One of my New Year's resolutions is to start incorporating fun traditions that were conceived earlier, but have fallen by the wayside amidst our constant upheaval over the past 4 years.  I love the idea of celebrating the little things, so I've devised a fairly lengthy list of ways to do that, and tamed it with meticulous scheduling in my day planner.  Here's the first one:  welcoming the weekend with homemade Danish every Saturday morning.  I've made sweet bread before, but not for a long time.  The bread recipe came from Smitten Kitchen, and I modified the Sally's Baking Addiction Iced Raspberry Danish filling recipe to use blackberries (taste preference), a bit more cornstarch (texture preference), and a sweet cream cheese layer.  Made late Friday night and photographed hurriedly with my cell phone (which explains the dough color difference), it came together fairly easily.

The resulting bread was lightly sweetened and very soft, with a to-die-for fruit filling reminiscent of my favorite pie.  I sliced it up and froze the servings.  One braid is enough for a month's worth of Saturday morning treats!

As Todd and I clinked glasses and savored our slices the next morning, I knew that I was on to something.  I can't wait for the rest of our traditions to roll around!

I've been outside quite a bit this week.  We've been having atypical weather for January - temperatures in the 40s/50s and sunny.

It's still frosty in the morning shade, but quite warm by midday.

Everything in my garden is starting to come up - eek!  And it's going to continue this week, with rain and temperatures into the 60s.

Normally I'd be a bit grumpy - I LOVE winter - but these temperatures are definitely good for our outdoor cats.

I love seeing birds like European Starlings in the sunshine, too.  In the shade, they're fairly unremarkable:

But they light up in the sun!

I've been working on several projects indoors, including a new quilt.  I didn't intend to start this particular quilt with this particular fabric.  I just made a test square and kept going.  The pattern is Scrappy Granny from Quilty Love:

I like blues and reds in quilts, but decided to go with something a little more muted (and use up fabric that I already had!), so I tried some squares with Victoria by Moda (photo by Missouri Star Quilt Company).

I put together about 15 squares, or half the quilt, before going back to check the original pattern.  Whoops!  It's constructed incorrectly.  Here are my squares, just sewn in a row:

And here is the proper way to sew them - on the diagonal, and trimmed into a square.  ARGH!!!

If I add strips of white around my squares, I can still salvage the quilt, but I'm a bit grumpy about it.  I just bought a Log Cabin ruler and am dying to get started on this scrappy quilt.  Isn't it cheerful?

(photo by Felicia's World)

I have several other ideas in the works, so it's a bit of a slog to work on something that is not going to end up looking like I'd hoped.  I may end up turning it into a summer 'couch throw' or even a wall hanging instead of a larger quilt and take it as a lesson learned.  Just like all of my elementary school report cards said, "Jaime does not listen or follow directions well."  Sigh - don't I know it! 

I've been distracting myself from my quilting fail with a little knitting and, of course, puzzles.  They're so fun that everyone wants to get in on the act.

Have a great week!

all the light we cannot see

Happy New Year!  I've been going through some photos of our recent trip to Oregon.  Normally, I cart along the nice camera with the heavy interchangeable lenses, but since we were trying to pack really light, I just used my iPhone for pictures.  The quality isn't great, but convenience wins out this time. 

We hit our usual spots, like the coast.

We saw beautiful lakes...

...and mountains.

The heavy rainfall and moderate temperatures mean a whole lot of green. 

Huge piles of oyster shells...

...and several paper manufacturing plants, both active...

...and defunct.

Our destinations changed, but one thing that reminded constant was how the frequently overcast skies affected the diffused light.  It was so beautiful!  We had some dramatic threatening skies:

Amazing fog:

(yes, those are brake lights!)

And even some sun!

We had a great trip, but it was good to get home and see our cats.  The only missing face around here is our dear Claudia...our exterior feeder got jammed while we were away and wasn't properly dispensing food.  I embroidered a Claudia ornament for Christmas this year...see the mouse in her mouth?

Hopefully she'll make her way back her soon...and hopefully I can get back on my regular sleep schedule again.  I don't feel like I've cobbled together more than a few hours at a time in quite a while, but I think I'll fall into the normal rhythm of it soon enough.

Have a great week!

snow mysteries

I love it when it's cold and bright outside, especially when you throw snow into the mix.

It's a lovely, crunchy walk back to the barn for our daily work.

One of the best parts is trying to decipher the mysterious tracks in the snow that appear when the snow sticks around for several days.

This splayed bird shape is probably from a small hawk, diving for a mouse or mole traveling beneath the snow.

Back by the barn, this large tamped-down circle is probably from a gathering of coyotes.

Tracks leading into the circle show that the coyotes came from all directions.  We need to get a trail cam set up back here!

Who are these mysterious companions that made multiple trips to our front pond?  One is certainly cat, but the other is strange.  Four distinct large prints, then a significant space, and then the repeating pattern of 4 prints.  Something surely hopped or loped, but what? 

Of course, bird tracks are unmistakable.

I love seeing the birds come...

...and go...

...around the feeders.  There are plenty of seeds for everyone.

Claudia doesn't seem to mind the snow too much.

The horses, too, have been out every day.

The snow will probably be gone within a day.  The sun has been bright, causing drippy icicles outside...

...and sleepy pets inside.

The snow will be gone, but we'll still have those amazing sunrises and sunsets to look forward to.

Have a great week!