Monday Musings

We finally got some rain yesterday. Lack of rain was never a problem in Florida, but I've discovered how important it is here. 

As the rain was pouring down, we look out the back patio door and see the dog (who's supposed to be going to the bathroom) playing with something by the fence. And this is what we discovered.

A fledgeling baby mockingbird! We were afraid to disturb it in case mama bird wanted to come back, so we brought the dog inside and watched through the glass. The bird hopped around the yard and took refuge from the rain under this tree. I ran out to get the picture and saw mama and daddy mockingbird in the peach trees.

After some research on the internet, we found out it's customary for mockingbird parents to push the babies out of the nest at about 12 days old. They can't fly for several days yet, but they take shelter in bushes and rely on mom and dad to bring food to them. This means we have to keep the dogs in the house except for bathroom breaks for the next few days. That should be fun; they both prefer the outdoors.

I made Crockpot Lasagna Friday night. It was good, but I didn't like how soft the noodles were. Next time I make it I might only boil them a few minutes before adding them to the crockpot. I got the recipe from this book.

Tim and I have been taking our evening walks around the neighborhood again. We managed to get a picture of this bunny before he hopped away. It's not the best shot because I didn't get too close for fear of scaring him; the zoom is all the way out but it didn't focus very well.

Hope finished her mosaic. This was the piece before she did the grout.

And here's the finished mosaic. I love the contrast it has with the black grout.

I've made three more preemie cocoons this last week. 

The top left one in Red Heart Melonberry is the Sunshine and Shells pattern from Beatrice Ryan Designs, The pattern is for a newborn so I modified it a little to make it for a preemie. I used an I hook and worked the pattern through round 5, then skipped to round 8. I repeated round 8 until there were 18 rounds total before doing one round of single crochet and one round of single crochet with picots.

The top right one in mauve in TLC Amore (or Red Heart Plush, I get the two confused) is the Blue Skies Cocoon pattern from Dly's Hooks and Yarns.

The bottom one in Red Heart Monet is the Preemie Ripple Cocoon from Suzie's Stuff. This one worked up the fastest but it's really tiny. Babies come in all sizes so hopefully it'll be OK, but I think I'll go up a hook size the next time I make this pattern.

I made another four preemie hats, too. All four are the same pattern from The Dainty Daisy. The top two have pattern option B, and the bottom two have pattern option A.

I'm linking these Stashbusters on the Stashbuster Link Party at Linda's Crafty Corner. 

 

That's all I have going on right now.

Have a marvelous Monday!

Thanks for reading.

Blessings :-)

Today's Inspiration

Source: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/87/9a/1c/879a1cba9048442a330a6af7eea5a576.jpg