birdhouse, lawn sale, cracker barrel breakfast, and birthday cookies...

moss covered birdhouse

Bought this moss covered bird house this past week for the little Wren that is always looking around for a place to nest in our yard. It may be a little too late for her (meaning she has probably already nested), but we got it anyway... another bird perhaps may come upon it.  Finding a place to hang it where it will be relatively safe from feral cats wasn't easy, but hopefully it will be alright here.

Also bought these little chicken kitchen timers over at Cracker Barrel... one for me and one for a friend. 

Thought they were a cute addition to my Aga chicken collection.

We ran to Cracker Barrel this morning for breakfast so DH could try their chicken eggs benedict - a new dish that his brother had tried and liked.  It met with his approval (I had cheese grits and hot tea).

And our Home-owner's Association had their Saturday Garage/lawn/driveway sale yesterday. It went well. Reported about 20 houses participated... which isn't a large number, but OK. We've never done a garage sale before, so it was interesting. DH and I sat outside on the front lawn under a tree with 4 tables of "stuff" set up on the driveway. Got to meet a lot of our neighbors as they walked by and checked things out. We didn't have any furniture or big items, so most of our stuff was priced from $1 for tons of movie DVDs, books, etc. to $5 for banker's lamp, old land line phones (that still work), etc. Luckily it was a nice sunny cool day for the most part. 

The highlight of the day was when our old next door neighbors (of 30 years) who had moved to Austin 3 years ago dropped by. They were driving by their old neighborhood and stopped to visit for a bit. So good to see them!

Today I'm making espresso shortbread cookies to send to my daughter for her birthday this week. They are her favorite!

espresso shortbread cookies with dark chocolate centers

Happy Sunday!

cat owl?

My son texted (is "texted" a word?) me this picture and I think it's great!  As you probably know from our own cat pics, we're rather fond of black and white cats anyway... and we have a black outside cat that spends most of his time way... and I mean way up in the top of one of the trees in the back by the creek.  He's one of our younger ones (maybe about a year old).  We call that group of youngsters 'the Velociraptors' as they hunt together and circle their prey.


The following are some of the clay projects for Fall 2012 that I've been meaning to post:
:

These weren't all  25 piece projects, but they were all *projects or special projects* for last semester.  The very top one (birdhouse duplex) is mine, the others were all done by  fellow classmates.

Note here concerning the current flu problem:  Having gone out to grocery shop this morning, we noticed people are definitely 'taking precautions' as there was practically no hand sanitizers, no large bottles of Listerine, etc. left on the shelves.  I imagine that while movies and restaurants may feel a loss during this time if people are avoiding crowds, grocery stores and drug stores must be experiencing a little rise in their sales... not only due to the sale of these health items, but also due to the fact that I found myself buying a little more than our weeks worth of groceries... in order to extend our time away from crowded areas.

Well, that's enough for today.  Have a good weekend, be safe, and stay healthy!   :)

(Now I have to go see if I can resize my photos - which I probably should have done before posting these... oh well.)