Year of the Tiger! 🐯

 I was born under the Tiger in 1962.  Yep, I'm turning 60.  Seems like only 10 years ago I was 50.

🐯🐅In the Chinese zodiac, a woman born in the Year of the Tiger is independent, solicitous and a born leader.  She seeks a partner who equally matches her strong qualities, yet still respects her need for freedom and autonomy.  I got blessed with Mr. Fun.

Speaking of  Tigers - the Cincinnati Bengals are in the superbowl for the first time in over 30 years!  woo hoo!!!

My soon to be son in law is from Cincinnati so we are super excited!

Around the house:

My final amaryllis bloomed.  This is Apple Blossom - pretty.

We survived the big snow storm.  I'm so grateful for Mr. Fun who always works hard without complaint.

It was very pretty when it was all over.

On Sunday I made a family favorite:  Toms Pork Chops in the crockpot.  Hearty comfort food.  I'll add the recipe at the end of this post.

I made two more crochet hats with pom poms as gifts.

I've done very well on my Hitchcock viewing thanks to the library.

I have watched 34 so far!  I will give a final top ten report after I see the remaining five I intend to watch. I can not watch the silent ones.

For now the next few weeks, I'll be watching the Beijing Olympics! 

Curling is one of my favorite sports.  I saw the Italy/Norway match last night.  Since I am a quarter Italian I cheered for  Italy who is 3-0 after defeating Norway.

My current wordle stats:

I will leave you with this sweet little photo I took on my way into the house the other day.  This is my little bunny garden figure.   It looks like a groundhog popping up to check things out.

Stay well and warm!

xo

Tom's Pork Chops  (named for the boat cook Tom Jensen)

4-6 pork chops, I like bone in, but I couldn't get them last week.

1 onion

1 lb mushrooms

olive oil

butter

1 can cream of mushroom soup (I used low sodium)

1 can cheddar cheese soup

1/2 cup white wine

• Brown pork chops in olive oil and butter on both sides, add to crock pot.  
• Add more butter if necessary and brown the mushrooms and onions for about 10 minutes and add to pot.
• Mix the soups and wine and pour over the top and toss with chops.
• Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 8-10
• I serve them over egg noodles with vegetables and cranberry sauce.
  
  
  

Domesticity

Happy Wednesday!

I changed the quilt in my sewing room to "Friends and Neighbors" 2004.

This was exchange with my Illinois friend, Mary Pat W when I moved to NJ. Some of the liberated houses are mine and some are hers.  I still love this quit and remember it being very fun to make.

The back is all household related print fabrics.

I'm finally marking my big star quilt.  Great News!!  I'm having 2 versions of my over sized baptist fan stencil manufactured and I'll be offering it here on the blog for purchase.  They are also manufacturing another one of my designs for their catalog. (my room is a mess - again)  At least the dolls are behaving.

On other domestic fronts:

I turned these

Into this

a Food and Wine recipe for Tortilla soup.  click here for the link.

I did a little "fake baking".  I added vanilla and some oatmeal and viola'

I inherited Jill's extensive collection of doilies, aren't these pretty?  Warm fake bake is better than no cookies, right?

The hummingbirds area gone, but the winter birds are here at the kitchen window.

This year I moved the whole feeding station up to the deck where I can see them.

I don't know if this is a red-headed sparrow or a purple finch, but he's handsome.

First cardinal of the season.  He's a handsome fellow too!

I've planted an amaryllis and paper whites.

I'm uploading lots of reading for my ipod.

I finished my first block of the Alice Payne quilt.

I found my name tag collection.  I'm off to my second meeting with my new guild tonight.

If I'm not back, have a Blessed Thanksgiving next week to my US friends.  Hope you are staying warm and find time to stitch, read, bake, cook or watch the birds.

Happy Friday!

I'm on my way to a long awaited and much anticipated Quilt Retreat today.

Here is a little gift I made for my fellow retreaters:  Little Fabric Scrap Buckets:  I found the pattern on Pinterest and you can find here.

I found these cute buttons at a quilt show here in CT.

It was really fun mixing and matching the patterns.

I love one, a fried egg at the bottom of the Rooster fabric, lol.

this has the mustache fabric with royal crowns.

And I'm passing along a new Crockpot recipe:  Fake out Take Out - Beef and Broccoli - also found on Pinterest. 

Here is the recipe.

Here are the changes I made to the recipe:

I used slender tender green beans
I added raw peanuts
I added toasted sesame seeds
I added crushed red pepper 

**I also cooked it for 1 hour at high and then 4 hours at low.  Perfect for a busy day of sewing.

Have a great weekend sewing, cooking, gardening whatever you are doing.