wrapping up the month

It is hard to believe that November is almost gone with one more month to go til 2009.

Pictured at left is Mr. Skyler a few days ago hopping in the underwear drawer on laundry day. He does this quite a bit in my dresser but likes to dig his way through to the back and gets on the stuff on the drawer below. No such luck with Kitty Daddy's. Tonight he is napping in his little cube I got him. In the day time it serves as a play thing (a tunnel) but lately he has settled in for his evening cat nap. Later in the evening DJ's lap or chunk of the recliner willprove to be more inviting.

I have gotten the last of the kitchen appliance sections done as of Sunday evening. I had fused all the applique and buttonhole stitched on the 3 pieces. I shifted gears a bit on this one as I thought it would be a bit tricky on the tight curves on the circular piece. Instead of making them a solid shape, I drug out some templar and made a modified yo-yo for the "bowl" of the spoon. The spoon handle has a slightly rounded end on it so I used templar there as well. I just drew up some basting threads over the distal 1/3 of the handle and used spray starch to set it. I am pleased with how it looks as it gives it a raised appearance. I was supposed to embroidery the ring and and make a french knot to look like the ring hole but just broke out the pigma pen instead. So I am closer to done but not quite there yet as I still need to spray baste and quilt both front and back panels and assemble and bind all three.

I had a Doctor's appointment just before lunch and in between time I have been cleaning house. His golfing pal is expected late Thursday though DJ has tried to reach him to head him off at the pass. DJ had sick with some sort of intestinal bug during the night and has not had a good day either, poor guy. If it is contagious, and even if it is not, he thought it best to inform his friend what he might be walking into. I feel fine so I don't think it was a food related illness. I'm crossing my fingers though as he was sicker than a dog. Anyway, I let him rest while I took care of the dusting and vacuuming. He hates to dust and I hate to vacuum so normally we swap those duties. I left the bathrooms and kitchen for tomorrow.

Monday afternoon I was in a cooking mood. Hot cocoa mix--we are about 20 degrees cooler than we should be lately so the weather is perfect for it. Made a streusel cake--tastes good but that darned Bundt pan stuck and I had to sorta stick it all back together in some semblance of order. Pan of corn muffins for our evening meal along with some candied sweet potatoes (to go with the ham slice and peas) Lastly, I made some pumpkin butter using a recipe Pam had shared with me. You put the stuff in the oven and bake it once it has come to a boil, stirring every fifteen minutes, up to two hours of time. Yummy!! I put most of it in the freezer since I don't have the stuff to can it but the bit I saved out was delish on an English muffin this morning.

I had not planned for us to have a traditional Thankgiving meal---there was a possibility that we would be joining a friend and her family for dinner but that is not going to happen. I had fixed a turkey breast not all the long ago, we had ham recently. We are having steak instead--part of the meat package we got last year and we are down to 1 porterhouse and 1 t-bone left that I was sorta saving for a special meal. What better time than now? Of course, this will all depend on how DJ is feeling by then. Play it by ear, I guess.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday in whatever you plan to do----------