Friday, April 29, 2016

April Finish!

Fresh off the Q-Snaps is my April block from
A Prairie Year! I'm hoping the rest of them stitch up this quickly!

Here's a picture of January through April...
This means I'm officially 1/3 of the way done with this project! More importantly I am back on track to finish one each month! Woohoo!

Have a great weekend, everyone!


Thursday, April 28, 2016

Bun Done!

What a handsome bunny! I finished him up yesterday afternoon so now it's on to the border! I should be able to get this finished before the end up of month! Woohoo!


Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Tuesday Progress

I'm not going to win any speed records for my stitching!

I made a little more progress on my April PS Year... a little more of the bunny's body, his white tummy and tail, and two bunny feet. I would say I'm almost to the halfway point on this one.

I finished the L on Shop last night while watching the Blackhawks game. There's also a little bit of the O there, and one of the shopping bags started.

We had quite a storm last night with thunder, lightning, and hail! All's quiet today but it's very chilly out. I think I'll turn on the fireplace, get under a blanket, and work on some stitching for the rest of the afternoon!


Monday, April 25, 2016

Flea Market Finds

I thought I would share a few of my flea market purchases from last week!

I loved this duck (or is he a goose?) the second I saw him! He is sitting on the buffet near the front door where he can greet everyone who comes to visit!

I've always loved Debbie Mumm so when I saw this little teapot I had to scoop it up. I have it sitting on a bakers rack with a bunch of my bird houses. I do have a thing for birds!

Here's the rest of the bakers rack. It might be time to do some rearranging on it.

This set of salt and pepper shakers had to come home with me! I was looking for little things to add to the centerpiece I try to do for each season. I haven't put together one for spring yet but it's on my To Do list.

Naturally I had to grab this cute paper banner! Birds!

Phil is away for a couple of days on a short business trip so I think I will try to get the house all spiffed up and spring-ified for when he gets home! I'm also going to do a major closet clean out. I have a ton of new things from Stitch Fix so I need to make sure it's all front and center so I don't keep reaching for the same old faded jeans and sweatshirt combo!

Happy Monday!


Friday, April 22, 2016

On A Friday

Good morning! It's shaping up to be a lovely day here at the Chicken Ottoman Empire! The windows are open and I'm listening to the birds cheeping and chirping outside! Phil refilled the feeder before he left for work this morning and "business is booming" as he likes to say!

I'm having my coffee in the kitchen, enjoying the view of the lake while the birdies poop all over the deck. Gotta love 'em!

It's turning out to be a "yoga pants" kind of day. (You know what I'm talking about, right?!) I believe it's perfectly acceptable for me to sit around in my yoga pants half the day because I do 15-20 minutes of actual yoga in the morning. Of course, following this reasoning, I should feel justified to sit around the house all day in my pajamas since I sleep every night. I might be on to something here!

I started April on my Prairie Year piece yesterday. Just a tiny bit done but I feel like I'm back on schedule now. I should be able to finish it by the end of the month.
(No snickering!)

Another project I started recently is Shop from Sam Sarah Designs. It's stitched on a pillow topper that will be attached to a sham with buttons. It's going to go upstairs in the Purple Room when it's finished. That's the room my daughter uses when she visits so I like to keep it girlified!

Aren't the colors yummy??
I love fun projects like this!

Anyone else a Game of Thrones fan? Phil and I have been doing the 50 episodes in 50 days "challenge" in order to be ready for Season 6. For the most part we've managed to stay on track (thanks to a few binge viewing nights!). We have three episodes left to watch but we should be ready to roll come Sunday! I can't wait!

Weekend plans? Phil and I are heading to Pinball at the Zoo on Saturday. We love us some pinball and have three machines downstairs. Remind me to show you some day!

Sunday will be Mass followed by lunch and we'll likely need to do some grocery shopping. After two weeks of being home we still have nothing to eat in the house but Lactaid, some eggs, and about six pounds of cheese! Omelet anyone? I'm hoping for some sunshine but it looks like we have rain in the forecast. I can't complain after the glorious weekend we had last week. Hopefully soon we'll get the boat in the water and will be able to go out for a float the next time the temperatures soar!

So that's what's on Paisley's Plate for the next few days! What's up with everyone else??


Thursday, April 21, 2016

Some Stitching

Yay! I finally have some stitching to share!

I took a ton of projects down to Florida with me but never really worked on anything other than what you see here. I wanted to have plenty of choices, like a buffet, but ended up with more on my plate than I could ever finish. Just like a real buffet, right?

Anyhoosie, I have the first three months of A Prairie Year finished as of this morning! The plan is to stitch one a month so if I don't get busy I'm going to fall behind. And it's only April! Luckily today is rather dreary out so a perfect day to spend in the Chicken Ottoman Empire!

And speaking of stitching, here's something I found on the coffee table in the den when we were down south...
Phil's son who is in medical school was staying with us and was practicing different sutures on this fake arm.

I can't repeat what came out of my mouth when I first saw it!


Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Free to Good Home

One thing I love here at the lake is the variety of birds we get on our feeder. We get plenty of sparrows and finches but also chickadees, juncos, titmouses (titmice?), cardinals, woodpeckers, and nuthatches. They tend to forget about us while we're away for the winter and it takes a few days for them to rediscover the feeder so I always tempt them with their favorites. Along with some fancy birdseed I like to put out different flavors of suet which always lasts a few days even when the squirrels are nibbling at it. Lately, though, it's been disappearing overnight! I thought maybe the squirrels were super hungry after a long winter but I hadn't seen a single one on the tree. What on earth was chowing down on our suet?? So last night we set up one of our security cameras outside to keep an eye on things. At around 9 PM, this is what we saw...


It's a raccoon!
(His eyes look so eerie in the infrared light!)

We sat and watched him sticking his little raccoon hand into the feeder, grabbing a chunk of suet, and greedily shoving it into his mouth! It was actually kind of cute, watching him chew, chew, chew as he stared into the camera like he knew we were watching. Eventually we scared him away hoping there would be some left for the birds in the morning but he came back a little later to finish eating the rest. Now, I love critters as much as the next person but this guy is obviously going to keep pigging out on the suet every night and that simply won't do! We are going to have to catch him in a live trap and find a place to relocate him to.

So.... anyone need a raccoon??


Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Fuppie Framed

Yellow is my all time favorite color, so when I spied this little frame while out flea market shopping with my daughter on Saturday I just had to snatch it up! I figured I had something buried in my Fuppie Box that it would be perfect for. After a little rummaging I found this little cutie from Lizzie Kate I'd stitched on a scrap of lavender Quaker cloth. An hour later I had it gussied up and ready for it's photo shoot! I think it looks so bright and springy! A little spot of happy that makes me smile when I see it!


Monday, April 18, 2016

Spring Flag Banner

We have returned to Michigan after a three month hiatus in Florida for the winter! I have been getting back into the swing of things here in the Chicken Ottoman Empire, doing a little stitching and crafting. I love making these flag banners because they're soooo easy to put together and it's a fun way to use up fabric odds and ends. This particular fabric dates back to the 80s! We used to live in a town where there was a children's clothing manufacturer. A couple of times a year they would open their doors to the public for a big sale. You could buy leftover bolts of fabric for $1/yard so I was always stocking up. I made crib sets for my kiddos with the gingham and stripes you see here, plus tons of little sun dresses and bloomers for my daughter. I still have gobs of it left so I'll be looking for other ways to use some of it up!

Stay tuned!