Sunday nap.

Too precious. I had to post it :o)

Weekend of December 19th and 20th.

Nice relaxing weekend for a change. Got a little bit of quilt basting done. I pieced this one by hand and thinking about doing some hand quilting on it, and and tying with yarn at each corner of the blocks. I will take more pictures as I go along. Will have the quilt in the frame in no time! Binding is going to be light green, and I am giving it away as a present. I made this one for myself, because I liked the pattern so much, and it proved very easy to hand-piece, too. 

One of my quilting teachers, Leslie, designed it and picked the fabrics for it. Check out my favourite quilt store, Leslie and Adele's The Quilter's Palette. They are amazing, and a very helpful bunch up there, and very happy and willing to help even the most confused noob!

 We also got some cuddling done this weekend as you can see in this very adorable picture of the man hanging out with one of the "boys".

Tyler is an adorable pup. He will be 6 months old on December 25th! So he's getting to be a big boy, and we love him :o) Those adorable brown eyes just melt my heart :o) Lately he has a thing for laying on the couch, and I have to say we have "lost" him a couple of times, to then realize he is laying on the black leather couch and we just didn't notice cause he blends into the leather so well :o)

Our House.

I haven't been very creative lately. The stresses of everyday life have been getting to me a bit too much. But I am hoping that will start to change in the near future. In the meantime, this is a picture of our house in the summer of 2009, a couple of months after we got it.

I am planning on putting a fence to separate the lawn from the neighbors, and edging the grass down the driveway from the entrance to not only widen the driveway, but also to make it neater.

I am also planning on fencing the side to the right. The basement apartment door is on the side, and I have a small fenced in back yard, but I think bringing the back fence up to almost the front door level will not only give us more privacy back there, but it will also give me a lot more room to play with at the back, and we will be able to let the dog out to frolic back there off-leash :o)

There is a LOT to do inside and out, and we will get it all done eventually I'm sure. But right now it just seems a bit daunting when I look at the list of all the things I want to do and renovate in here. As things get done slowly, but surely, I will post more pictures. In the meantime, I just love this picture of our house :o)

Moroccan Peanut Chicken Soup.

One of my favourite things to make! It's simple but so tasty!  I make a regular chicken soup by boiling chicken, stock mix and a couple of bay leaves in lots of water. Add a couple of ribs of celery chopped, a couple of carrots sliced and any other herbs/spices you like (I like thyme and oregano and sometimes parsley).

To this I add some tomatoes, diced, or canned stewed tomatoes, and any other vegetables that you like. In this case I added some cauliflower I had.

When the potatoes and other veggies are almost done, I add 1/2 to 1 cup of crunchy peanut butter. Always taste! 

I have done this with regular peanut butter, smooth and crunchy, but find the crunchy gives better texture, and then I started using organic natural crunchy peanut butter and got a better result: A less salty and more flavourful broth :o)

Feel free to experiment with Frank's hot sauces, I've tried fresh ground pepper, too. Very tasty :o)

Kitty Picture :D

Here is one sleepy kitty to get it all started :o)

The Man took this picture of Sam laying in bed. He's my little old man, and the grumpy butt and I love him :D

He usually has more respect and consideration with me than with anyone else (including The Man), but he has undoubtedly been known to get cheeky with me once in a while :D
Like the day I was sitting in bed, playing with him, and bugging him.
He wouldn't dare try to bite me right to my face, so he waited until I wasn't paying attention to him anymore, and he jumped at me, bit my bum, and RAN like hell :D
lol We still laugh at that :D
His birthday is December 29th, and he was born in 2001. I've had him since he was 5 weeks old, and he has always been with me, one way or another. He exasperates me sometimes, but I do love him.