Happy Birthday to You

Today is Roger's sister's birthday, a milestone birthday, her 70th.  The extended family will be gathering for dinner this evening to celebrate it. 

Here is the birthday card I made for her.  The images are all from The Graphics Fairy.  I embellished the hat with feathers and silk ribbon. 

To everyone who has a birthday today, best wishes and may you have many happy returns of the day. 

Here it is, my frog plagued Winter Box lid. 

As you can see, the first side is finished and I was working on the second side when I discovered my miscount.  It was not as bad as it could have been.  I have restitched it and am now working on the border. 

Yes, my initials are LMN.  I just love it when I am working on a sampler or anything with an alphabet.  I hope the salmon is not too much of a contrast when I have finished the stitching.  Of the colors I am using for the design, it is the one that I think will have the most, if any, leftovers. 

I just hope that edges three and four are completely devoid of frogs. 

I continue working on the Winter Box at an infuriating pace, two steps ahead and one back.  I continue frogging.  Perhaps I should just take a picture of it right now and let you see.  At least the frogs are out at the moment. 

I have made a little progress with this one. 

Now I can show you with I did with the Pink Carnations.  The pocket arrived at its destination yesterday.  The recipient has been following the progress here but I wanted to leave the final product as a surprise for when she opened the packet.  Although I began it last year, it is my first completion for 2011. 

Here is what we did to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder.  The cone below the feeder is covered with snow but is really green metal.  It is doing an admirable job of keeping all the squirrels out of the feeder.  There is a dark-eyed junco in the feeder. 


Right now, the temperature is -5° F (-21° C).  The sun is shining which is nice but means that we have cold temperatures.  The little birds have been eating from the feeder.  The gray squirrels have been eating the corn I put out on the ground for them.  The red squirrel has been on a vigilant stakeout to be certain the gray squirrels do not go into its territory. 

The red squirrel standing guard on the garden fencepost. 

This is the beginning of the consolation exchange gift which I inherited. 

Our temperature is low and going lower for the next couple days.  We have more sunshine today than a month ago.  The sun has power.  This still does not change the fact that we have bone shattering cold. 

I let the bird feeder empty so I could wash it out yesterday.  By the time I returned it replenished with birdseed, it was too late for the birds to come.  They have enthusiastically visited it today. 

It feels so good.  I have finished the Pink Carnations motif. 

No sooner did I finish the Pink Carnations than I inherited another consolation gift from another exchange.  You will have the opportunity to follow that one as soon as I begin to take pictures of it. 

There will not be a picture of progress on the Winter Box this week because there is little progress to show.  I spent the week completing the Pink Carnations and what little progress I have made on the Winter Box has been plagued with frogs. 

All of this is not to belittle the Pink Carnations because I am very pleased with it and wish that it could stay with me.  But then, they frequently are the best gifts because they carry such a large part of the giftor.  I know that giftor and giftee are not recognized words but I like to use them because they describe what they represent so well. 

Joke of the Day
Heard in a local church at the beginning of January. 
Dear God, for 2011, all I ask for is a big fat bank account and a slim body.
Please do not mix up the two like you did last year. 
Amen

Look at this gorgeous little box.  The top has some significant scratches but I like it anyway.  Last weekend I found it buried in a box of stuff at an estate sale.  I think I was supposed to buy the whole boxfull but I acted as if the contents of the box could be divided into individual sales and the people conducting the sale when along with that idea. 

At the same sale I found a bag of supplies for heirloom French hand sewing.  It found its way into my shopping basket and eventually home with me.  Buried inside the sewing supplies, was a vintage card of tiny mother of pearl buttons.  That was just frosting on the cake as far as I was concerned. 

Now for my stitching progress.

The top of the Winter Box lid is finished.  Next part will be the sides of the lid. 

This little project is coming along but more slowly than I would ideally like.  I am buttonhole stitching the outside edge to keep it from raveling when I cut out the motif.  And- - -I still need to stitch on the beads and buttons.  All in all, it is beginning to feel like the conclusion is within sight. 

The Grand Experiment and Squirrel Truce

In Minnesota, Abdulla's Sea Salt Caramels are the best, bar none.  The other day I had a craving for them; of course, there were none in the house.  I had what might have been a brilliant idea.  We did have some Nestlé's chocolate chips, Kraft caramels, and sea salt.  One at a time and before the previous additions melted, I popped into my mouth a caramel, several chocolate chips, and sea salt. 

In theory, all the right flavors were there but in reality it fell short.  I guess that I will just have to get some of the real thing. 

The squirrels, birds and we have come to a delicate truce.  We got a squirrel deflector for one of the bird feeders.  Essentially it is a low or shallow cone 18 inches in diameter at its widest end.  It rests on a plastic block that we fasten to the post that supports the feeder.  The gray squirrels stayed away for a few hours.  I think they sat in their tree trying to figure out a way around the deflector.  While they were thinking, the red squirrels went into action.  Their approach was to climb the post about two feet up.  Then they looked up and apparently decided they could not get to the food and stopped trying. 

In the meantime, the gray squirrels came back.  They stood on the highest part of the nearby snow piles and easily jumped to the base of the feeder without dealing with the deflector.  Eventually I shoveled down the height of the snow piles and put out cracked corn for the squirrels.  The gray squirrels continue to look for a way to jump onto the feeder but are foiled, at least for now.  I continue to put cracked corn out because it is not that I do not want to feed the squirrels, I just do not want them to take everything out of the bird feeders. 

This is how it works out. 
1.  The gray squirrels eat cracked corn but the red squirrels do not. 
2.  The red squirrels are so small they can get into the supposedly squirrel-proof feeder inside a wire cage.  The feeder is designed in such a way that they can only eat a little at a time and cannot dump the bird seed onto the ground. 
3.  Both gray and red squirrels will eat the fallen bird seed. 
4.  The red squirrels claim the wire protected feeder and the ground under it, leaving the remainder of the yard to the gray squirrels.  The red squirrels stand guard on a particular garden fencepost and a particular spot on the garden fence just in case the gray squirrels get too close to their protected space.  Then the red squirrels hurtle themselves into the air and tear up the ground to chase the gray squirrels away. 
5.  The birds eat at both feeders and the suet feeder which the squirrels cannot touch. 
6.  We are quite happy with this arrangement as the squirrels are no longer emptying the bird feeders as fast as we fill them and the squirrels no longer seem to be hyper-scrappy. 
7.  I assume that the birds are happy with the arrangement too because they have a constant supply of bird seed. 

Toward the end of last year, I became hopelessly behind and bogged down.  I had intended to show you an exchange gift that I gave and the one that I in turn received.  It just never happened. 

This is the darling little Quaker sampler that Judy stitched for me. 

Here is the pocket that I made for Patricia.  You probably recognize the pocket as I made it as part of the group of three and you probably recognize the Quaker motif which I showed you as I stitched. 

Finally, here is what I stitched during the weekend on my new project for the new year. 

Happy New Year

It is the beginning of a new year, the time when we want to make new beginnings.  Psychologists tell us that if we want to successfully change a habit or begin a new behavior, we should concentrate on just one thing.  That's a nice idea but I subscribe to the shotgun approach.  The more things I try to change or begin at one time, the higher the probability I will be successful with at least one.  

 Last night, I finished the second of the two ornaments.  I know that you cannot differentiate between the two but it is the second one.  It will go to its recipient tomorrow.  

My new project for the new year.  It is the Winter Box from Victoria Sampler.  I have selected a different fabric but I think it will not make much difference.  It is what I had on hand; I feel virtuous for dipping into my stash as opposed to purchasing new.  Fortunately I also had the correct size pearl cotton in the correct color.  I have marked out all of the sections for the lid but I neglected to take the bundles of threads apart.   

And, the ongoing UnFinished Project (UFO) that is receiving my attention.  Thursday I picked it up and worked some of the light pink parts.