Thimbleanna

Month: May 2013

{Almost} Friday Five

Hello Hello.  I’m popping in with five quickies — it’s shaping up to be a busy month around here.

1.  I’ve started working on a new quilt.  Blues, grays and red.  It should be fun if I can get a little more sewing time in.  (Oh, and can we please have a moment of silence for that DS gray fabric?  It was so hard for me to cut into it.  I might have to sacrifice and go find more of it.)

Thimbleanna: Sam Blocks

2.  I’m sure there must be a quicker way to make this block.  (I’ll bet Sherri knows — she makes it a lot!)  I couldn’t stand the thought of all the wasted fabric from the corner pieces, so I’m making half-square triangles at the same time.  Maybe I’ll use them on the back.  Maybe not.  I’m enjoying the process though.  And I sure do Love that sewline pencil!

Thimbleanna: Sam Blocks

3.  All the crabapple trees around here are in bloom this week.  It’s one of the prettiest weeks of the year (I love intense fall colors too.)  Here’s our pretty tree in the back.  The heavenly smell almost knocks you over when you step outside.  I love it!

Thimbleanna: Crabapple

4.  Here’s a picture of the same tree in 2010.  Can you tell me why there was so much more pink in 2010???  I felt like a pink tree then.  This year it feels like a white tree.  (And boy, look at the difference the light makes in a photo.  It was sprinkling and cloudy when I took this year’s picture.  The 2010 picture was taken on a sunny, early evening.  Such pretty light!)

Thimbleanna: Crabapple

5. I’m betting you’ve seen THIS commercial. I Loooove it. It’s easily in my top five commercials ever. I wonder if those guys who invented the camera phone even came close to imagining the impact it would have on our lives.

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Ugly Bean Dip

Happy Spring! It finally warmed up here and our weather has beeeeyouteeeeful! It’s all about the yardwork here in the spring. Can you believe I held out until May 1st before I had to mow the lawn? Brownie Points for Mother Nature! Last year, spring was so early I think I mowed during the first week of April.

All this yardwork means not much sewing. I’ve pre-washed a few fat quarter packs, but that’s about it. And the kids were briefly home to go to a wedding, so I made one of our favorite dips to have with tortilla chips.

Thimbleanna: Ugly Bean Dip

I got this recipe years ago from one of the women who was in our now defunct quilt group.  It’s called Ugly Bean Dip and I didn’t know it, but SweetiePie said they love it and she makes it when they have friends over. So, you know it must be good! ;-D

Thimbleanna: Ugly Bean Dip

Ugly Bean Dip

1/2 c. ranch dressing
1/4 c. Italian dressing
1 t. chili powder
1/2 to 3/4 t. black pepper
1/2 t. garlic salt
2 t. finely chopped cilantro
1 15-oz. can black beans (drained)
1 15-oz. can white peg corn (drained)
1/2 c. finely chopped green pepper
1 med.-large tomato, chopped
1/2 c. chopped purple onion

Mix all ingredients together. Cover tightly (or your fridge will smell awful!) Refrigerate.

(I like to sprinkle some extra cilantro over the top before serving.)

Thimbleanna: Ugly Bean Dip

Enjoy!
XOXO,
Anna


Empty Nest

Thank you SO much for all your comments about the YoYo quilt.  I have the sweetest readers!  I would suggest a yoyo-along, but that would take too long LOL.

I thought I’d catch you up on the story of Mother Goose.  If you follow my instagram account, you know that we’ve had a fun few days.   The internet was SO helpful to let us know what to expect with Mother Goose.  It said that the eggs will hatch anywhere from 24 – 30 days, so on day 24 (last Thursday) we kept an extra close watch over Mother Goose.  We even checked on her on the weekend.  And, right on schedule, Day 28 (this past Monday) we saw some action.  When we arrived at work, this was the scene at the nest.

Thimbleanna:  Mother Goose

What the heck!  Mother Goose kicked out two of the eggs.  She really confused us and we were guessing that maybe she could sense dud eggs or something?  Then, around 9:30 or so, our admin came running over to tell us that we had a baby.  We all flocked (ha — definitely obsessed) to the window and look looky — a baby indeed!

Thimbleanna:  Mother Goose

Awwww, isn’t he cute?  By 1 p.m. or so, there were three babies.   It was hard to tell what was going on as we didn’t happen to catch Mother Goose standing up very often.  (I know it’s hard to believe, but we didn’t stand at the window ALL day long!)  So, by the time we left work Monday, we thought maybe there were four little ones.  (And let me add here, Mother Goose and her babies picked the PERFECT days to hatch out — these past few days have been our prettiest spring days this year.)  After the first baby or two, Father Goose appeared on the scene.  (Finally!)  Every time someone would walk down the handicap ramp, he would hiss at them.  Finally, security put some orange cones up to keep people off of the ramp.

On Tuesday morning, Mother Goose was still on the nest but she stood up for just a minute as I was coming in to work, and I thought I counted 5 goslings. We compared notes and someone thought they saw 6. Very fun.  The internet said that the geese would leave the nest within 24 hours, so we waited. My desk is on the second floor and I have a friend who sits just below me on the first floor (people who sit on the first floor had a birds-eye view of the action), so she was on high-alert for a goose family exodus. Around 10 a.m, she texted and said “They’re here!”. (She sits around the corner from the nest.) So, us second floor girls zipped to the window, but we couldn’t see all the geese. Father Goose decided to head across the parking lot with four of the babies and Mother Goose was up under our windows where we couldn’t see her. (Sorry for the awful cell phone photo, but I want to remember what those little guys looked like trying to hop up on the curb. They all made it — so cute!)

Thimbleanna:  Mother Goose

My first floor friend texted to say that Mother Goose was headed back to the nesting area.  ???  We were worried about some sort of custody battle, but after Father Goose got all the way across the parking lot, he decided to turn around and come back.  Yay!   They went back to the nesting area, and we went downstairs for about 10 minutes to get a better view.  You know, break time and all LOL.   Here they are, very close to the original nest.  Sadly, this is the only picture I got of all seven of the little goslings together.  And it’s through a very dirty window (which is part of the reason that all of these pictures aren’t the greatest — our windows are filthy!).  If you look real closely, you can count seven — there’s one behind that tallest little peeper and one to the left of Mother Goose.

Thimbleanna:  Mother Goose

After our little break, we all went back to work.  And by lunchtime, when we went to check on them, they were gone.  Poof!  No trace of a little goose family of nine anywhere.  They apparently had a very stealthy walk across the parking lot.  We didn’t even get to say goodbye!   I did catch this little cutie below spreading his wings.  They were so sweet stumbling around in the grass.  It’s amazing that they can walk long distances and follow their parents.

Thimbleanna:  Mother Goose

So, that’s the story of our little goose family.  We’ll never really know if we see them again.  There’s another family of 8 in our industrial park, and a few more geese still on their nests, so it would be impossible to identify “our” geese.  I wish we could have put a spot on Mama’s head or something! ;-D   Here’s the scene on Tuesday afternoon.  Hard to believe those shells stayed intact as much as they did with that big Mother sitting on them.

Thimbleanna:  Mother Goose

Now, it’s a little depressing at work. We’re all suffering Empty Nest Syndrome. ;-(

XOXO,
Anna