City Outing and Appliqued Blue Birds

Lollygagging here this morning, mostly in front of the window with its view of the bird feeder...I saw a junco which I have not seen in awhile; also see two robins further down the garden combing a tiny circle of exposed grass at the base of the tallest fir tree.  The male cardinal is back again and such a flashy fellow he is especially amongst the chickadees, vireos and downy woodpeckers.
Yesterday we made one of our rare trips into the city; this entails frequent stops and facing down many lanes of traffic.  I keep advising hubby to drive like an old man instead of the racing car driver he fancies himself to be.  Sometimes he even listens but his old competitive instincts aren't to be denied just yet.
We had to get him to an appointment at one of the big inner-city hospitals and as always, parking is a challenge.  The parking garage at this one reaches to five stories and we had to wind our way to the very top to find a space then make our way down all the flights of stairs to cross a road to the entrance.  I have a distrust of parking garages born of too much t.v. and movie viewing where so many bad things occur in them.  This one did nothing to dispel those thoughts...old, grimy, poorly lit; a haven for some criminal activity of one sort or another, for sure.  I always feel a little relieved when we exit as if I've escaped something or other.  I could also legitimately grumble about the parking fees you have to pay for all this too, but I won't today. 
Afterwards, we went to lunch at a tandori restaurant nearby.  It was buffet style and I filled my plate with food that I couldn't put a name on.  It all tasted delicious and the homemade naan bread was especially good.
We made it home without further adventure and with enough light left in the day for me to work on my latest project.  I really want to improve my applique stitch so I thought simple shapes would work well to practice on.  I chose birds as a subject and picked out my prettiest blue prints; they show well against the white tone-on-tone material I used for the backgrounds.  I have six completed and here are three of them.

I am enjoying the stitching and trying my best to keep everything even and tiny.  It seems like a springy kind of project; I have no idea what I will do with these but I'm confident I will think of something.