Five Things That Made Me Smile

 1. We've had a stretch of lovely days, crisp but sunny, with lots of autumn color.   Today was fairly unscheduled for me, which I always enjoy.  Ben came back from his early morning visit to the climbing gym with some friends and we all visited over a casual breakfast, I had a long phone chat with my friend LeeAnna, did some errands, and had a late lunch at a sub shop with Ben.  All very pleasant, and the evening promises a short training session with Turbo, a good home-cooked meal here and some reading by the fire. 

2.  The forecast is for a snowfall tonight of three to seven inches, which is one reason why I'm looking forward to a cozy night at home.  (These pleasant evenings are known in our friends Ray and Paula's house as "fuzzy slipper evenings," which I think is cute and descriptive.)  There's something about a forecast for snow that always makes me excited!  This afternoon while we were out, we spotted the snow clouds coming in over the Flatirons. 

3.  Whenever it snows we try to have a special treat for breakfast, so at the market today I picked up a thick slice of zucchini bread and two pistachio biscotti to have with our coffee in the morning.  Hmm..good.  And thinking about winter weather comfort food reminds me how I made Guinness Pie last weekend on a blustery evening when we had some friends over for dinner.  It's basically a beef stew made with two bottles of Guinness beer and topped with a rich pastry.  Delicious and well worth the effort to make.  You can find the recipe here.  Don't fret about the crust, just make it. You can see from the photos that mine didn't look anything as pretty as the one in the NYTimes, but we all snarfed it down anyway.   

courtesy New York Times

4.  Both Turbo and Sheba and doing well, and that brings me happiness! Mind you, I didn't say that they were doing well together.  They mostly ignore each other.  But each are thriving and very fun to have around. 

Turbo is now 13 weeks old, is learning some puppy manners, and thinks everyone he meets is his new best friend.  Which they seem to be, as they instinctively respond to how cute and (usually) calm he is.  Paul suggested that we find him a fall bandanna and I couldn't resist a new orange Halloween toy. 

Sheba still loves her hideaway in the basement where no dogs go, and sneaks up to our bedroom every afternoon to snuggle into our deep covers.  She parks herself there for the night, silently gliding out and back down to the basement every so often to visit her litter box, and then slipping back up, usually without Turbo spotting her.  

She loves to sleep on Ben's chest and while he was away on a climbing trip recently tried without success to sleep on my head and face; not something I can handle since I am allergic to cats.  She was really glad when he came back home, and so was I!  

5.  Supervising and enjoying a puppy has made it hard for me to concentrate on making original fiber pieces, but it has given me the time to work on several traditional works.  At the area Quilt-a-Fair in September couldn't resist a "kit" to make a Christmas wall hanging.  Kits are one-stop shopping, complete with a photo, detailed instructions and all the fabric needed to make a particular quilt.  Although kits are extremely popular with quilters, I've only bought one other before this one.   I generally like to figure out my own designs and pick my own fabrics.  But I fell in love with this one and I've been having a lot of fun with it.  It's been easy and very satisfying to find small segments of time while dog-watching and make a unit here and there.  So easy that I not only made the wall hanging but used the scraps and extra coordinating fabric that I bought at the same time to design and make two table runners.  I can't show you those since one is going to be a holiday present for my sister, but here is a photo of the wall hanging.   

Pattern and fabrics designed by Bonnie Sullivan, Maywood Studios

One of my goals today is to get all three prepped for quilting.  That requires cutting the backing and batting to the correct sizes and basting the three layers together.   This may not happen today since it's already 5:00 but who knows-- maybe we'll get the full seven inches of snow tonight and have a good excuse to hunker down and quilt tomorrow.   I can always dream, can't I?

Linking to my friend LeeAnna's "I Like Thursdays" at Not Afraid of Color