A small fix

Things settled down a little this week, so I decided to take on a project to make my life harder. Emilia's birthday is coming up this week and she requested a How to Train Your Dragon party. I decided to hand-sew 8 of these (because I'm crazy):

Most of my free time this week has been devoted to making the pattern, cutting out the felt, and sewing them. I've finished 2 1/2 of them. And now I'm stressing out because I've got everything else to get ready--like decorations, food, invitations, games, etc.

We also got a kitten this week. We shopped for all the cat accoutrements on Tuesday and picked her up on Wednesday. I think the only reason I was brave enough to get a pet is because Ben and Haylee's cat had babies and they wanted to give us one.

This is what she looked like for most of Wednesday and Thursday:

Now she's gotten braver and is playing and running around. I'm glad. And she's pretty cute. too, so that helps. :)

Her name is officially Flaming Beauty (a compromise between Sleeping Beauty and Flame--we thankfully didn't ask Steve for his input because he says he would have named her Nancy).

On Thursday night. I got to go to my friend Leah's house (she's in my writing group), we mostly talked and ate unhealthy food, but I did pick raspberries. She has a beautiful patch with both white and red raspberries and wasn't going to have time to pick for a while. I told her I would be a good friend and help her out. So I came home with about 5 pounds of raspberries for no more cost than my time. Heaven!

I made raspberry syrup, cranachan (if you haven't tried this Scottish dessert, you really should) and froze the rest. <> Oh happy da-ay!

Other than that, we mostly hung out at home. Reading, making funny faces, gardening...

Anyone know what kind of plant this is? It's getting a bit too big.

My first produce of the year. A nice big zucchini.

We at the zucchini and the squash I got later in the week with  this recipe tonight. It was delicious. And it's easy. What's not to like? http://www.marthastewart.com/334243/pasta-with-roasted-summer-vegetables-and

Yesterday, we worked on the house and I worked on the dragons some more. I sprayed for bugs and worked in the garden. Steve was a regular handiman (not his regular schtick to be sure) and put our entire wall back together except for mud and tape. I am super proud of him. We went out to Red Robin for dinner to celebrate not having to spend thousands of dollars fixing our foundation. Yay for things not turning out as bad as you thought, right? I feel like God watches out for us in those small ways and I'm so grateful. We are very blessed.