Kidney Issues

All the girls were at Chick Weekend

Boadicea has had a lot of ups and downs in the last two weeks.  Her health issues prompted me to bring her and Wedgwood to the Cape.  Thankfully, these two are much better travelers than Cannoli was.  So their unexpected addition to Chick Weekend was less stressful than my last attempt at including the sows.

The long drive down didn't slow them down.  Boadi and Wedg made themselves at home as soon as I had the travel cage set up.  They happily explored, just like any cage-cleaning day, then settled in to eat hay and pellets.  Wonderful!

So... Boadicea had not improved after the vet removed her stone.  In fact, her weight continued to go down and we returned to the vet over Labor Day weekend.  Not cool.  Teeth were fine.  Ultrasound showed nothing unusual.  Blood was drawn.

I Like Thursday: The Cape

I was down to Cape Cod for several days this week.  Alas, I am back to work today.  But there was lots to like while I was on vacation.






I liked this little library stand.  There were two of them in the area, less than a half mile from the beach.  What a perfect place to have these!  So many people read at the beach.  This one had a couple of my favorite YA books (The Hero and the Crown, The Dark is Rising).  There was an old Hardy Boys mystery, several little kids books, some romance novels, several thrillers (including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and the classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  It even included The Book of Mormon.  Covered a lot of reading levels and tastes in a small container.

Cape Chick Weekend XI

Another Chick Weekend has come and gone.  So many good memories to keep us going until next year.

The weather was terrific - sunny and comfortable.  It was small group again this year, two gals arrived on Friday.  The afternoon was spent walking the beach and catching up.  We enjoyed company, wine and the sunset.  I love all the golds and browns of the beach in the evening (a contrast from all the blue and white of the day).

One Pot Meals - Alfredo and Florentine

Only one pan to clean after dinner

I bookmarked a few one-pot meals a while back and tried them out.  Two of them passed the initial test.  I made them again last week.  They're fast, easy and really quite tasty for a slap-together meal.

The first was a cheater Alfredo (which I don't have pictured - sorry if that's misleading).  I cooked up a half-batch both times I made it (because how often do I have over 6 cups of milk on hand?).  This dish will never be confused with real Alfredo - it's missing so much fat.  Still, not bad.  And easy.  And one pan.  I recommend giving it a try.  It's a good base - you could probably add anything to it.

Start of a Big Project

I went fabric shopping with my mother on Labor Day.  I came home with fabric for a twin-sized Celtic Solstice.  I'm excited to be attempting this pattern, although I'm a bit nervous to taking on a project of this size.  So many pieces!

I hope to start cutting in the next week or two.

We traded cookies and veggies, stuff I need to bring to the Cape and more fabric.  Like I need more fabric?!?


The beige pieces are border strips.  Actually, these all go together really well - I may have to figure out what I can make with them.  Like I need another unexpected project.  Ha!

I Like Thursday: Some Small Stuff

It's a small like this week.  I've been dealing with a lot of not-likes:  stressful work, sick guinea pig.  So I'm happy to have any likes!

I liked meeting up with my mother.  We met at Fabric Place Basement to pick fabric for a quilt I'll be making her.  I spotted this lovely brown batik.  Isn't it pretty?  I needed to bring it home with me.  Mom got it for me - thanks, Mom!

I also liked that we managed to swing $10 off the purchase, even though I had forgotten my coupon at home.  Yay!

Shirt with Borders

I need more fabric to do one last border on the shirt quilt to make it twin sized.  I finished assembling the inner and middle borders.  The black and white remained my favorite and I'm even happier with it in place.  Proves that it's worthwhile auditioning even questionable fabrics!

The middle border is a hodgepodge of the smaller scraps of shirts.  There's even a pocket sewn into it all.  Now that it's together, a larger inner border may have been better, or put the middle border as the outside border.  Too late for second guessing - it's together now.  Besides, I don't have enough pieces to expand the hodgepodge border to run along the outside.

I like it with all the blues and browns.  Rob keeps trying to convince me to keep it, but what am I going to do with another twin-sized quilt? 

So this will get put to the side, until I find outer border fabric.

Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Or in my case, this is Nearly Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake; I'm sure my chocolate chips aren't vegan.  Regardless, this cake is yummy.  The original says it serves six?  Hmmm... maybe.

I'm not sure how I stumbled across this recipe, but the photo must have caught my eye with it's rich, dark chocolate.  I looked through the ingredients and thought:  I have most of that on hand and it looked easy to make.

I don't have almond butter, but have had luck using almond meal as a replacement, so I did that again.  Although I didn't process it long enough to become true almond butter consistency, the cake was still moist and dense.  I may try skipping the food processor next time and add the almond meal like flour.  If you try that, tell me!