2023 Blog Post Recap

 January

  Tried out painting again

February

  Lots of preparation of fibers and spinning began

   March

            

April

Surprise a duck family visited us on the deck

May

We were so happy to see these growing again-we fired the lawn cutting person because it kept cutting these down

June

July

Larry loves pancakes-I make them from scratch and add fresh blueberries when I have them

August

Chicken soup with gluten free dumplings

September

October

  No  photos this month-Larry's accident over an 8 foot stone wall was early October

November

I made reuben sandwiches  one day-this is the gluten free version

December

Chocolate popcorn-sooo good

  Larry is beginning to feel more like himself this week. Still bedridden, but exercises every day. Jan 12th is when he can finally put weight on the leg that was broken-praying that goes well.

  Happy New Year 2024

I Dug Out The Flannel Quilt That Needs Quilted

  I put this on my Facebook page, but decided to share here too.

A few years ago-years just go by don't they??- I sewed up a large flannel quilt for us and a smaller one for my author friend that lives near Yellowstone park as a Christmas gift a couple years ago now.

I had hunted for Yellowstone inspired animals etc in cotton flannels after my trip there in 2017. For mine, I also bought a one piece flannel backing fabric and I bought a wool batting. Wanted this to be warm and cozy.

 Last year I got frustrated with the hand quilting-the layers are just too thick for even stitches. So I put it away. I just dug it out this morning, and trying to figure out the best way to knot it with ties. At this point I think it's the best solution-and I want to use this quilt-would be nice for this winter.

My math is not the greatest, with this being a thick quilt the ties need to be every 3 inches across the quilt at the most-can be less inches apart. I was working per block as thought it would be easier to get it all straight-but the math is not working out for me as of yet, these are 12 inches blocks-alternating with a 4 patch design-also a 12 inch block. I need to step away from it for a bit. I don't want the ties to end up at the seams either.

I set up my fold away craft table that I use for all sorts of projects-and it's perfect to work on.

I took this photo sideways the other day Early this morning we had a little bit of snow-on the very old deck-that needs replacing soon.

I still have the bad monitor so hoping these photos look ok

  In my mind I still want this had quilted-before I was working with a hoop that just was not working. I may just try again with large stitches-and work on each block  instead of going across the whole length-still thinking about this. Any ideas quilting flannel??

  This is too large and bulky to go through a regular sewing machine.

Notre Dame college out of South Bend Indiana will be playing in a bowl game today around 1 pm my time I think it is. I grew up in Mishawaka Indiana which was next to South Bend

I also splurged and bought a new weaving book-designed for the very small vintage loom I have. The Structo loom.

I found this image online-just like mine-I found a Facebook group for these little vintage looms .Larry found this for me very inexpensively at a garage sale years ago. I have it all set up to weave on now. These can be very expensive now. The above book will be perfect for patterns. My little loom is a 4 harness like my larger loom This one below almost looks like a 2 harness

 Enjoy your day!

  

A Few Teas I Have Enjoyed This Year

 I was thinking today as I was enjoying a cup of tea, that I have tried new tea companies over the  past couple of years-and have really enjoyed the journey with their teas.

 Oliver Pluff & Company  based in Charleston South Carolina shares tea blends from our American history On their site they share a blog and the history of teas.

This company is a bit expensive with the shipping in my opinion,  but I have enjoyed this tea. Says it was Martha Washington's favorite

A couple of months ago I shared Harney & Sons  If you like nice tins at an affordable price, this company has them. I have enjoyed their teas so far too.

  One of the teas I purchased was Snow White-it had white tea, apple pieces, apple flavors, coneflower, and  marigold flowers.  This was a lovely tea very light in flavors

From their site-how to brew white teas

Can't remember now,  if it was last year or the year before, but I had purchased several teas-a splurge at the time- from Simpson & Vail  I have really enjoyed their teas allot. I purchased all loose teas-no tea bags-and in their paper bags, not their tins. They have tea blends with different author inspired tea blends, national parks and more.  This site has allot of tea information and all things tea

   One of the teas I bought was the Shenandoah National Park-this tea was one of the few of the parks that was decaf with green tea Of course I wanted their Yellowstone tea but it is made with black tea.(caffeine)  Their photos are set up so I can't share them.

   This year I discovered Twinings teas which I am in love with. Our small wal mart store added allot of different teas before the holidays this year including Twinings-I picked up their green tea with jasmine flavors-lovely 

    

   I don't want to forget Bigelow teas They are a USA  family owned company, and they have many herbal and decaf teas for someone like me that can not have caffeine (it raises my blood pressure sky high). 

   When I was contacting tea companies about plastics in their teas or tea bags-No was the answer I got from them The are constantly testing for No plastics I love that.

  Growing up at home- my Mom was not a big tea drinker but she did make ice tea from  scratch in the summer time and she loved constant comment-back tea only back then . I was so happy when they introduced their green tea version 

    This must be something new, not being able to copy and paste a photo from these tea companies. Oh well  Here is a link to Bigelow

Have you explored new teas???  I  need to stop purchasing and start getting teas used up-but has been a fun adventure.

T Stands for Tuesday-A Little Christmas

 Good Morning Friends and Happy T,

   Thought I would pop in to say hi and visit The T group, as we approach the end of 2023. This year has been an up and down interesting one for sure.

  I wanted to share two lovely handmade Christmas cards that I received. I really love these.

  This one is from Iris. She knows I love wolves so she painted this card for me. It is really amazing.

 I need to look for a little frame for this one. Thank you so much Iris.

  and surprise I received this gorgeous card from Deb, that I later learned was her prototype so of course I felt special. Thank you Deb

  This is such a pretty card I will display this one on the mantel again next Christmas

 I did not make my usual Christmas candies this year, and I only made just a few batches of cookies for the two of us. The chestnut cookies turned out really delicious  will make them again.

   I like to dip into dark chocolate-so I did a variety of soft candies, candy cane sticks, dried apricots, and glazed fruits. My friend that lives near us on the lake loves chocolate too-so I made a container for her and for us.

  One of our last years of deer camp at our woods home, I needed a large slow cooker as we were having extra people that year. I bought one at Sam's club and this little mini crockpot came in the box free. It is perfect for melting chocolate.

I did not make any chocolate barks this year-which are fun to do. Thinking February could be good time to make some.

I don't have a photo that I took myself, but this past week I have been drinking a very small glass of eggnog with liquor in it. I picked up a couple bottles of different brands that I had not tried before along with the Evan Williams brand which is my favorite.

  I found this photo online which is my beverage share for T

  The bottle on the left I tried first-that one had too much booze in it for me. The Evan Williams brand is really good, and I used to buy their peppermint eggnog but haven't seen that one again for years. These others I haven't seen in the stores near me. There really is a huge variety of these egg nogs during Christmas time in the liquor departments.

 If you make your own homemade eggnog-which I have not made in years-or if you buy a store brand from the dairy case and would like to add a bit of liquor to it-I found this post for 11 best spirits for your egg nogs. (photo below from this site)

Happy T and thank you Elizabeth for hosting Link for T Here

Merry Christmas

 

   I am not one to get depressed about things, I have always been good at bouncing back from tough things or life challenges. 

  I won't lie to myself-I am very depressed today, 

    Larry is just not getting better-sadly. The brand new mattress is still too high for him from the wheel chair. 

Am thankful that I have a blow up mattress-a queen size in case of overnight visitors I was able to set up for him yesterday. 

  I am praying for another Christmas miracle Tonight I am drinking one of those egg nogs with spirits in it already and watching Christmas movies.

  I needed to express my thoughts tonight some how-- so my blog is it at the moment

For smiles I am loving Snoopy over on my Facebook feed

Chocolate Popcorn & Lake Photos

     Today I finished up with the chex mix-gluten free version and then I made two batches of chocolate popcorn.

   I need to find space in the freezer tomorrow, which is limited right now. I will gift a few goodies for our lake friends but that is it this year.

  I did bake us both batches of gingerbread cookies, and I also  made a gluten free version of peanut butter cut out cookies. I didn't frost them this year. I cut the gingerbread cookies thick so the cookies would stay soft and moist. We love these cookies. Tomorrow I want to bake up the fresh roasted chestnut cookies that I found online. Those sounded delicious and festive. The small stores near me do not sell fresh chestnuts so I buy them online at nuts.com.

   I really love this chocolate popcorn and make it a couple times a year-so delicious. I use a quality dark chocolate chip for a richer flavor. If anyone is interested in the recipe-I will write it up in comments-just let me know. This is simple and easy-no candy thermometer needed.

  Over the last couple of weeks I grabbed my camera for pretty lake views-early mornings. We have enjoyed allot of reds and purples before the sunrises

 Below is a pretty cloud reflection on the lake-I love these A couple weeks ago I spotted a small group of pelicans. They were swimming on the shore across from me. I hear the loon's call early morning, and we now see more ducks and geese-with the summer boaters gone now.

We have enjoyed gorgeous sunrises this week-photo just before the sunrise

Happy last week before Christmas Day for those of you that celebrate.

Quick Update-Praising the Lord Tonight

   I can not thank you all enough for your support, prayers, positive vibes being sent for my Larry and myself. 

   At the very last of the time needed late today before Larry's nurse was going to return tonight-his body worked-no more catheter.  Larry so needed this positive result finally-since his fall early October. Larry really needed this-my Christmas miracle-with your help  Thank you Sometimes I felt very alone, with no family, and friends not close My online friends are my lifeline-hugs

  

Happy December Everypne

 

  Thought I would pop in and wish everyone a Happy December, and Happy celebrating your Christmas or other religious preference-or non religious celebration.

    I am thinking I may not be posting much this month, but I may still visit a bit. I did bake up gingerbread and peanut butter cut out cookies this week. Not sure I will do much more-I don't need the extra calories and I am not enjoying baking this year. I will be dipping dark chocolate and making a gluten free chex mix though. I will give away most of the chocolates.

   Larry had quite a set back in his recovery last mid week. He is very weak as well, nurse is suppose to check on him tomorrow but she has not called me tonight to confirm. Praying things go well with one of the obstacles he has been challenged with.

  I will share soon a photo of a very awesome painted Christmas wolf card that Iris sent me-I love it so much She knows I love wolves and I received Deb's prototype Christmas card which  l love too. thank you to the both of you.

Found this photo on Facebook-Merry Christmas

Prayers & Positive Thoughts Continue to be Needed

   Prayers and/or positive healing thoughts still being needed for my husband.

This continues to be a very difficult and challenging recovery. I needed a good cry today for myself-so I did that.

 

I did bake up a small batch of small but soft gluten free molasses cookies just now- The recipe was a favorite of my Mom's that we baked, growing up at home. Hers spread out larger with the regular wheat flour, but these are still delicious. I had some candied ginger in my pantry, so I sliced those into small pieces and added to the dough. 

Snoopy

 

On my Facebook feed during the last month or so,  I have worked on getting rid of negativity posts (news feeds etc) and replacing with positivity, scenery, recipes, crafts and smiles-I have always enjoyed Snoopy so am following different Snoopy groups now-this one had me smiling with the spirit of Christmas and the season

New Teas in the Mail & Baking Begins & T

 I ordered some new teas for the winter-and beyond, some are showing up in my  mail now.

   Yesterday I got in some of the new teas I had ordered. 

   I usually do not drink decaf black teas I prefer mostly herbal and the green and white teas. I found a cinnamon decaf black tea that sounded interesting and  perfect for December. Surprised me how good this tea is. It had a few other spices in it too. I also ordered two different brands of decaf black teas as well. Thought if the cinnamon was really strong I would add a plain black tea bag to it.

 After this photo, I did end up using one of the plain decaf black tea bags in my mug-sooo delicious which really surprised me The cinnamon tea bags were the clear triangle type tea bags and it came in a nice tin

I picked up the coffee mug at the animal shelter's thrift store late summer when I was shopping for clothes

The Bromley also has orange pekoe with the decaf black tea Amazon has a huge assortment of teas-I am shopping more online these days-so much easier, usually less expensive, and I don't have to drive anywhere.

Last night while listening to the Voice I mixed up the wheat and gluten free gingerbread cut out cookie doughs. I usually mix with my hand mixer, but since I had my stand mixer where I can get to it easily-just plug it in-I mixed in that instead. Really is nicer to use-now that I don't have to carry it over to use it-way too heavy for me to do that anymore.

 Over the weekend Larry asked for my Grandma's Yellow Angle Food Cake. I hadn't made that in awhile. I usually bake up two cakes-one wheat and one gluten free. I just made his cake this time as I will have baked cookies soon to eat.

   I had lost 10 pounds the first 6 weeks taking care of Larry from his accident-which was a good thing, but I wasn't eating much or sleeping well either. Now that he is off the every 4 hours of pain medicines I am catching up on sleep and sigh-snacking more-I have a bad habit of snacking in the evenings. I have gained back 3 pounds and want to lost that again so I can eat Christmas cookies and goodies-smiles  I will be making chocolate popcorn, dipped chocolates, chocolate barks, and chex mix. 

  Speaking of the Voice do any of you watch that show? I have watched every show from when it first started. What has kept this show interesting for me is the judges are always changing and they change the way the show works too with different rules etc. This year the music talent was exceptional but I don't care for the new rules and how they are eliminating people. Last night was the first of this season we could vote favorites to stay in the show. Usually we vote from the whole cast last night we could only vote one person through-not sure I like that set up. Perhaps that eliminates voting more for the judge than the talent-which they say some voters do.

   Since it's Tuesday, I think I will check in with the T group this week. Link Up Here  My cup of tea is my "ticket" in Happy Tuesday

Is It Really December? & a Catch Up

 As you know I have allot going on taking care of Larry since end of October here at home-but I am still surprised we have moved into December already.

Perhaps do to our warmer weather -which I am Not complaining about. No snow or ice makes life easier for me, especially getting up the steep steps and hill for my mail and packages-and I do love mail. 😀

A note to my slow mail friends-I so miss writing letters and receiving letters especially so much. Hoping soon I will be up to writing again. I am getting more sleep finally. If my slow mail friends are still wanting to write letters let me know in comments or email. I am thinking many of you have lost interest.

 There was at least 6 weeks that I was setting the alarm clock for every 4 hours for medicine for Larry.  Quick note-this is still a very long recovery, Larry has lost allot of upper body strength along with his better right leg-so he is working on that to hopefully be able to get out of bed and into the wheelchair which is very challenging for him. There are other health concerns as well that I pray will get better this month.

I order allot of foods and household needs online more than ever now since moving to the lake house. That was a concern when we moved this far away as there is no shopping close by, and the Wal Mart here is a small one not a super Wal Mart. Amazon recently changed their free shipping from $25.00 spent to $35.00 spent which is a big difference for me. So if I really need something to make up the difference I purchase decaf teas. Rather buy something than pay shipping costs.

My recent purchase was from the company Twining: a decaf all berry tea and another one honeybush mandarin orange. I am in love with the honeybush tea This one is so delicious

I don't see many Twining teas in the stores here They are based in London and have been in business for 300 years-and they still own the original store location. I will be buying more from them for sure especially knowing their history now. More information here  Those of you that live in Europe have you been to their store?

   I do still enjoy mailing out Christmas cards every year. I have done this since my college days-late '60s  This year I did not make my own cards but found beautiful cards on Etsy from a watercolor artist. I fell in love with her work. I really shortened my list this year too.

 I also love the US Post Office's new Christmas stamps for this year. My favorite is the snow globe stamps, but I bought the other ones too.

Photos from USPS online-I buy all my stamps at their online shop now-get the latest stamps that way

And I love these too

   For my baking this season, I decided to make half batches of our favorite cut out cookie recipes, the gingerbread recipe I shared in last post, and I was looking for a different peanut butter cookie recipe. I have the recipe I grew up with at home but I no longer love that cookie. Looking online I found one that looks really good and it is vegan and gluten free. find recipe here

  I am still enjoying football this season-Notre Dame was awesome they will be in one of the bowl games-need to find out when. The KC Chiefs will be playing the Green Bay Packers this Sunday. The Packers new quarterback is looking good. Green Bay has been my number one pro football team since I went to college back in 1967 in northern Wisconsin.  This should be a good and exciting game-will be neutral on this game-well mostly leaning towards Mahomes and KC

  I will be making us fajitas today and tomorrow I will roast a beef roast-using leftovers to make tamales-Larry's favorite  Allot of work for one person but worth it in the end.

    Have an awesome new week ahead

Holiday Baking Plans?? Updated-New Tea Co

  Good Morning and it's Cyber Monday as well-if you shop online (which I do more of since moving more rural to the lake) We do not live close to any large stores except for a smaller Wal Mart-that's it.

 I finished up with the baking of the fruitcakes last week. I use a very old English version recipe which is a dark fruitcake with just enough cake batter to hold it all together. My gluten free version turned out really nice this year-I had also mixed in dried fruits with the glazed fruits. Mine needs to age in the back of the refrigerator, but the wheat flour version is stored in containers in buckets-wrapped with brandy soaked cheesecloth-in a cool place.  I got these cakes baked much later this year.

 I was brought up cooking and baking everything from scratch-and after all these years I still continue to do that. Probably about 10 years ago at least we stopped going out to eat in restaurants. With our health concerns-me gluten free, and Larry heart and diabetic food concerns, we just needed to stop dining out-too expensive for one, and those dining out foods most always are full of too much salt, sugar, and not healthy ingredients. Really don't miss eating out at all.

  Since retirement especially, I have baked up loads of cookies and other holiday treats and gifted most all of it to friends and neighbors.  Gave me an excuse to make candies and lots of Christmas treats, which I have always enjoyed doing.  This year I decided not to do much of that. I will gift our good neighbor- just down from us on the lake-with hand dipped chocolates and chocolate popcorn though. Mary Lovesssss anything chocolate. Mary and her husband are always there for us if we need help with anything.

  I always have enjoyed baking cut out cookies-as I have a huge cookie cutter collection, but I may not do that this year. Thinking of trying out a few new recipes this year for our holiday baking. 

   I ran into a recipe online from Williamsburg for large soft molasses cookies-those sound amazing as we both love gingerbread. recipe here and photo from site   

I also found a group on Facebook that shares mostly older holiday cookie recipes There I ran into someone looking for a 1960's pineapple cookie recipe. Curious I searched and found this one  We love pineapple so I may make those, read the whole article as she makes suggestions like using butter instead of shortening.       Growing up my Mom always baked with margarine-ugh-being raised on a farm I never understood that-she said butter was too expensive. When I was older and left home, I never bought margarine or used it again

.

Writing this post, yes I am thinking I will need to bake up a few cut out cookies-those are always fun for me to bake and make this time of year more festive.

  Will you be baking for the holidays? 

 I have always found baking and cooking rewarding and too fun as well.

Update: this time of year lately, I enjoy searching out new teas to try, or if one pops up in my feed somehow I check it out.  Harney & Sons has a lovely list of teas with pretty tins and not overly expensive-usually the tins are too expensive for me. They have a sale right now and free shipping with any size order. free shipping is a must for me.

  This is one I purchased-with white tea

 

For my American Friends-Happy Thanksgiving

 

Asking for Prayers & Positive Thoughts & Reubins

  Good morning, I think today is one of the first of a typical November fall day-cooler with rain. I never did get the energy to burn leaves-so many here too-may just have to wait til next spring.

  After another several weeks our home nurse for Larry, came out to remove the catheter early this morning. Hoping third time is the charm. In the past his bladder was not working, and before the day was out he would be back to significant pain.

  So I am asking for prayers, and those that don't believe in prayer for positive thoughts that Larry will finally pass this hurdle today, and will be able to totally focus on physical rehab. 

  Getting in and out of the wheel chair is a big one. I purchased a hand rail for the bed so he has something to grab on to when getting back into bed-last time with our bed being very high-I needed to call the fire department to help him. Three very tall men came out and just picked him up. Thanks so much for our excellent volunteer fire department.  Our physical rehab person also suggested making a little box that will fit between the wheel chair wheels for another boost into bed. Our good friend that lives "down the lake" a bit from us built one for Larry.

 Over the weekend I brought up a corn beef from the freezer. Saturday I made up our favorite corn beef dinner and then Sunday I made us another favorite corn beef sandwiches with provolone cheese, good quality sauerkraut, and a little mustard-I forgot about picking up the thousand island dressing when I went to the store. I did really like the mustard in the sandwich.

  Here is my gluten free sandwich-I had two of these since the bread was very small

Happy new week, and for those of you in the States Happy Thanksgiving. 

Manhole Covers in Japan

   Good evening, I just started reading the latest Reader's Digest that popped into my mailbox the other day, Larry remembers this magazine being one of his Grandfather's favorites. I grew up with it too, still good reading but the pages are very few compared to those olden days.

   There was a very short article about a book and the story of these lovely manhole covers in Japan. The book was printed awhile ago and is now out of print, and the books I found started at $200.00  If I used a library wondering if they would have a copy or could get one on loan.

   I am wondering if any of you that have visited Japan saw any of these gorgeous manhole covers and looked for them?

  This is a photo of the book

If you are on Facebook I found a group that has great photos and the locations of the manhole covers-the group's name is Japan's Manhole Cover Collections

There are several articles on line with photos Here  and Here  If interested-they are really gorgeous pieces of art-just do a search as I found quite a few posts. Adding this link-history and lots of photos here

Here are few photos copied from online

I think it would be fun if in Japan to look for these lovely pieces of art

Searching online for articles I did find a couple of cities selling their manhole covers that are obsolete   here

  Japan always has such beautiful art-in many forms