Happy Weekend-Super Bowl Food & Slow Stitching Site

Good Morning and Happy Weekend Friends,

  Those of you that watch the Super Bowl-do you go to a party to watch the game and eat good foods, or stay home?   My husband is the "football Widow" here in my home-smiles.  I have always enjoyed watching sports-not golf or soccer though. My Mom only watched golf which I always thought was interesting being brought up on the farm with a woodstove and no electricity in the home. She first experienced electricity and more accessible running water when she went to college.

  I don't go overboard with the food but I did pick up salsa,  pico de gallo and corn chips, and I am making peperoncini beef sandwiches tomorrow.  I learned about this sandwich from a friend years ago that came down to visit us from Wisconsin one weekend and brought fixings for meals.  I have not made this in years so thinking Larry will love it. It has been over a year since I have eaten snack foods-so a treat for sure. 

   I am one of those people that prefer eating snack foods over real meals    haha

Here is a photo I found online from here

  When I went to the local grocery store I didn't like any of the buns they had. I did find a gluten free bun for me though. So I bought a whole grain thick bread instead-I will need to toast if first for this sandwich. I do have some quality hot dog buns in the freezer-I may just use those instead for Larry's sandwich

  I baked us a cheesecake this week-one of Larry's favorite desserts-It turned out really good.

I always keep a lot of eggs in the frig-just so I have them on hand when I want to bake. The local grocery store had mostly empty egg cases, but they did have a decent assortment to choose from I only buy brown eggs. I was so happy to find a new brand of eggs what were from local farmers from Missouri in cardboard containers-that I prefer and large brown eggs and were free range. The price was $6.00 not too bad for these eggs.  

  

  The other day I searched on the You Tube channel for Slow stitching tutorials. I found  Jo Mo link here to her channel    

     I am enjoying streaming tv service as I add the free app You Tube and all my subscriptions that I follow now are on my big screen tv to watch-much nicer.

 The Jo Mo site has so many different ideas and little projects to try. She has beginner as well. Here is  a  too fun one-a scroll-I love this idea-and in one of her scroll tutorials she uses a wooden plain clothes pin to close it.. This looks like a fun project after my bags project is completed-or perhaps mid way for a break from the bags.  Her site will give  me stitching ideas for my bags too.

Happy Weekend and if you watch-Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday

A Couple Photos

 Yesterday we viewed a lovely pre sunrise. Love that baby blue to the right

(For better viewing click to enlarge the photos)

I dug out my Mom's hooked rug. I place this n the bedroom near my desk where it doesn't get any foot traffic. I put it out for a few months to enjoy and then roll it back up for a bit. She dyed all of her wool and cut it all into very very thin strips-I have her cutter. This was made in the early 1960's  My brother got her vintage dining room table with the chairs that she had hooked all the seats for . I also inherited her amazing staircase runner. I gave that piece to one of our cousins as he has children to pass it down to. I may have shared this in the past. My Mom did amazing rug hooking pieces

 A surprise tonight, the person across from us on the lake did a half hour fireworks show. He has not done that in very long time.

I made a Delicious Soup & Slow Stitching

Happy first day of February-I am so pleased to have January in the past now-what a rough month that was for us.

   It has been foggy here with the change in temperatures-lake water colder than the air right now. It does make for pretty views. Today is cooler than they said it would be, but it did make it up to 50 degrees F Will not complain about that at all. Much warmer tomorrow.

  Started cleaning house this morning-it needs it. Only two days left of the steroids-thank goodness 

 I decided to make up a chicken soup today. I found a large container in the freezer of my own chicken stock along with lots of the white meat. Last fall when I was stocking up on some foods I picked up a new to me dried soup mix. Found it on Vitacost's online site. It is by Frontier, was gluten free, and no added anything like salt etc.  This was sooo delicious. As the dried veggies came to life in the stock there were nice slices of carrots-that tasted like they came right out of the garden, lots of herbs and rice etc. The dried corn was so delicious too-sweet and tender. At that time I also picked up their bean soup mix to try as well.

                                                     

 As this cooked up the broth was really thick so I added in salt free chicken stock in addition to what I had of my own.  I added in frozen peas and lots of chicken. This was a delicious hearty soup. It made a big pot so may freeze some of it so we don't get tired of it.

  I have started working on the second slow stitch bag-I am just making it up as I sew  along. Am liking it so far I have lots of embroidery threads in my stash-I inherited some from both of my Grandmas, my Mom, even some from my late sister's stash. I have picked up a few variegated colors recently Also friend Deb in Texas shared some of her threads with me as well. 

(oops ignore the time stamps-they don't seem to show up til I post them)

This fabric that I began stitching on first is the sun dyed piece from Pebeco sun dyes along with coarse salt thrown on top as it dries in the sun.

I have picked up a few templates. Each set goes from very small to large. I wish I knew about these when I was quilting.  Here is one of the sets-I bought a couple different shapes

Photo is from Amazon. these are packaged into a thick plastic bag with zipper, all pieces on a ring and includes a little bear charm I love this product

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We have our workers coming to tomorrow to help Larry get the lift's motor figured out to work right.

This & That

 Good Morning Friends,

  What a difference sunshine and above freezing feels like. Our home is finally warmer. Discovered the old furnace was heating the basement-weird-but that did keep the floors warmer than they are now when it is below freezing. So I had to wear shoes indoors-ugh I never do that just wear thick socks instead.

  I did have to go into the doctor Monday to make sure I was having asthma issues and not something else. So am on those dreaded steroid pills but am thankful not pneumonia.

  A couple weeks ago when I was buying a few food items online, I was looking for those olive oil sprays. Not like Pam etc-but just pure olive oil-doing that I found something better. Not sure why I never knew about this before. On Amazon I found a sprayer made in Italy that you pour your own olive oil into. Wow I had not seen this before and I love it! Are you familiar with these? This is the one I bought (that red piece is a protector in shipping)

After I wash up my cast iron pans, I always heat them up and spray olive oil in them, let the pan heat up and then wipe out the extra oil--This new sprayer saves money for sure. I also use it to spray into the cast iron pans for frying eggs etc

When I went food shopping yesterday I couldn't help myself but to buy some flower seed packets. I wish I could grow a few veggies here but the numerous squirrels here destroy everything ugh-except flowers This Spring I will be able to find out how many of my perennials perished with that water issue. Thinking most all of them I will replace the bee balm plants for sure. Will check to see what seeds I still have left of perennials if any.

   The super bowl will be a repeat of the super bowl two years ago. Hoping KC will win and make history-first team ever to win 3 super bowls in a row. KC has excellent coaches.

  Happy Midweek everyone, and hoping you are having warmer weather now too

  

A Bit of a Warm Up

    It has been an extremely cold winter so far. We did get down to minus 2 F Monday but a very slow warm up beginning now. Today we have sunshine which is always a good thing.

  Part of Lake in the Ozarks did begin freezing but not by us thank goodness. If we would get frozen in that can cause a lot of damage to docks and boats here. That did happen when we first moved here to the lake. With the days warming up to above freezing in the coming days-I think we will miss that ice for now on the lake in my area.

  I was thinking about this very frigid winter here,  and we have not had our garbage picked up in three weeks now-do to our iced gravel and steep hill on our road-so I have been careful not to fill it up with cardboard boxes etc-just food garbage. 

  I do need to  go food shopping again soon for fresh items which may happen this Saturday or next week for sure. I do not want to deal with any driving on ice. My younger days driving in blizzards and ice is over since retirement-I can tell you stories about some of those trips-haha. I was a phone operator with Bell and AT&T when operators used to be important and needed. When I was first hired I was assigned to a cord board office-that was wild and am glad I got to experience that.

  I have been Baking cookies this week. 

I baked up wheat chocolate chip cookies for Larry yesterday-froze most of those. The day before I made a batch of gluten free molasses cookies. These were a childhood favorite of mine. They are a soft molasses cookie not a crunchy one. When my Mom made them they were quite large. Since I changed the flour to gluten free, used butter and coconut oil instead of shortening (ugh when I left home I never used that again) and I used half Splenda and organic sugar for the white sugar. My cookies were delicious but baked up very small. I also mixed in fresh grated ginger.

Today I am baking up a gluten free batch of chocolate chip cookies for me. I added about a half of a cup of chopped hazelnuts that I found in the freezer (I had found those at the Aldi store before moving here) I also used a dark chocolate sugar free organic chip.

I roll the dough into balls first

Then I flatten them (to the right) and bake (to the left)  I will freeze a lot of them-just so I don't eat many-smiles When you don't eat much sweets then they become addictive when you have them around again. At least that is what happens to me

     I was disappointed with the Notre Dame Game loss but through their season they had only lost one game and then this one. I think some of the players were playing ill as well. During the season I thought they played a lot better than many of the NFL teams

 I began slow stitching on my second bag this week. I really like the lay out on this bag too, I changed it a bit from the last photo.

How are you all handling our arctic winter? Please stay safe and warm. This is the year we really needed a working woodstove-those are soooo much warmer.

Stay warm and safe

A Thought For Today

 

Today is Our Liberation Day & Martin Luther King Day

 

Winter Blast Coming

I am not sleeping tonight do to the strong winds out there-which is bringing back another arctic blast. Looks like those of you on the east coast will be getting it too this round. I had two warm days to work on clearing things, especially after I was able to get through that very thick ice to make a path to the top. Yesterday I finally was able to get my car back too. Our circle gravel road has been solid ice-and the steep hill is still ice when it wasn't melting. With the super cold coming back now here too-I won't be going anywhere though.  Our friends that help us out are leaving for Florida early this morning and will stay in Florida til March-don't blame them. I should have ran some errands yesterday but I just wanted to get back home.

We were still continuing to have issues with our new furnace from the original install-they had to come back out again to fix a major issue. I think it is finally right now. We keep the heat on at the woods house and have had issues getting my delivery this time. This time it was totally empty and our friend there that helps us had to bleed the lines and relight the pilot-that is in the attic. I hope this is the end of things to deal with. Fingers crossed-as they say "when it rains it pours"

 A football weekend for me-KC Chiefs in the playoffs-again at home, and the Notre Dame Irish playing in the college championship game. I will watch the inaugural activities as well.

 I was browsing Pinterest a bit a go and found a DIY that had me thinking of blog friend Deb in Texas-a wind chime made with tin cans This would be a pretty garden feature

   I don't like the sound of wind-has always made me uneasy and nervous. It is really howling out there now like crazy-I worry about dock issues when the winds are this strong. I may just take an early shower so I can't hear it haha

  I have the second bag all pinned  and ready to sew. I am thinking a big pot of potato soup sounds good for today-I will see if I still have a little ham to add to it.

Stay warm and safe

A Bit Warmer-Shoveling and Future Bags

  Good morning Sunday,

  No Sunshine today which I could use for working the ice up, but we will be mid 30's up to low 40's. Hoping I can get a path up the hill-we will see how this goes today. My legs are a little shaky this morning after working on those steps. Thinking I will skip the top three steps if they don't clear easily and get on with a path to the top and clear where my car parks.

 I am loving my finished bag-so I am excited to be going on to the next one. I started pinning it yesterday-this room has no heat ducts so it gets pretty cold. I bought the little heater for this room when we get really cold, but Larry needed it more when the heat was not working. No issues so far thinking it is fixed right now.

  Before Larry's accident (October 2023) I had dug out all of my hand dyed fabrics and the larger pieces I cut for the linings. I think I cut for 9 or 10 bags. I also had yardage of good quality heavier muslin cotton as the foundation for the hand dyed layout. My plan is to mail out to my slow mail friends but I will have extra bags-if you would like one please contact me through the contact form on my page here. This was a project to use my hand dyes in a project and then share with my online friends.  I will make a list in order as I receive them. 

  I am off to eat something, and then get to work outdoors

Happy Sunday

New Furnace Woes and Slow Stitching Bag Finish--Bag Photo Update

   We were still having issues with our new furnace. Thursday morning I thought they figured out all of the issues, but early evening yesterday it was acting up again. Blowing cold air, fan not turning off. Then when the fan finally stopped the heat came on but was too warm.  So I had called right away and the repair person was to be here around 6:30 pm but came around 7:30 pm.  He checked all the wiring again, decided it must be the thermostat we have was not compatible. He said I really do not know why they didn't send you a new one with the heating unit.  He had one in his truck-that seems to have fixed things-hoping for sure now.  He did get his truck stuck up on top of the hill-right where the hill drops off-very steep there and he would have crashed into the house and more.   So it took him a bit to get himself dug out. This is a rough winter here so far. 

  I did manage to get a couple of the steps cleared of ice yesterday when we warmed up to the low 30's for just a couple of hours. The ice is so thick with the added 4 inches of snow. So I cleared snow and then put salt on the ice and after an hour or so,  was able to clear three steps. This afternoon we are to reach 40's F so I got to get us cleared out today-as the temps are dropping again tomorrow. I want to get my car back on Monday. So far our road still has not been plowed and the rural road to here is not real good either. I know main roads have priority first.

  Soooo I have been pushing to get my first bag to the finish line. I did that last night. The outside of the bag is thicker than the lining with the layers of fabrics and stitches so the edges were not laying flat nice even after the ironing with steam. I decided to stitch a blanket stitch around the outside of the straps and then just a running stitch around the inside edges.  I am pleased with the finish.

  I began laying out the next bag last night and early this morning I finished the layout. It is ready to press and pin.

The next layout. This room is a bit dark so sorry not a great photo  The yellow piece in front with the white is not that bright as it shows up here. The little leaf cut out is one of my eco printed leaves.

   I will share a better photo once it is all pinned and I can take it into a room with more light.

  This is such a good way for me to use up my hand dyed fabrics into something useful to share as gifts. There are only two pieces in this layout that were gifted to me from a friend. That yellow and white piece-which is a light weight denim, and the strap on top of photo to the right-that blue piece was part of my gifted hand dyes.

Have a good weekend and hoping this winter is not too bad for any of you

Update: after looking at the layout photo above I decided I did not like that bright yellow piece. So I swapped it out for a more subtle piece. This one I had dyed with Pebeco sun paints and added allot of salt on top. These lay in the sun til dry to set the dye process-that was fun. I like this piece much better in this.

   When I was doing journal pages I always noticed something I didn't like or needed to be fixed after I took a photo. Same happened here. Wonder why that is?  Thoughts??

this is how this little bag closes-kinda clever

Pelicans & Geese

   Yesterday we were watching the pelicans and the Canada geese out our windows. This is the closest we have seen the pelicans. They swam up to visit the geese-that was interesting to watch.

  Still frigid cold here. Our temporary fix lasted til early this morning. The furnace has come back on once in awhile this morning-after I pray super diligently (smiles)  I called and they moved us up to this morning early to install the new unit instead of tomorrow. This has been such a good company to work with. She even said they could run out large heaters for us that would heat a room. I said we have a small heater that I have Larry using near his computer.  This company is about 45 minutes to an hour drive way from us.  I will be giving them a good review for sure.

  Our road here has still not been plowed, and we are still in the single digits so too cold for me to be shoveling a path still. hoping tomorrow I can do that.

Stay safe if you are effected by this winter blast.  Another one coming in a few days but I think that one will be south of us.

Not Sure what Else Could Happen Here---UPDATED

 Our last year was ended and the new year begun with issues.  From the no car and bitter cold and ice to early this morning the heating system quit. Yikes. It is old and something that needed changing.

  I only noticed it because I was up at 5 am finishing a book on my kindle. I heard the heater trying to come on and then it didn't-sigh  I did get a hold of someone and the earliest they could come was 9 am. We are like 6 degrees F right now Bitterly cold. It has been too cold for me to clear the ice up the hill and steps and my doors are frozen shut too-ugh. Will need to figure out how to get the front door open

 I did remember that I bought a little electric heater a few years ago. The room where my weaving, extra pantry and desk and computer are has no heat ducts so I bought the heater for this room but never used it. Didn't want the electric bill to go up.  I set it up for Larry just now in his computer room-he has to have heat.

On a positive note-a beautiful pre sunrise this morning

Update: thanks everyone, I called early in the morning and a repairman was here by 9:30 am  he told me my road had Not even been plowed or touched since our ice and snow. Not a surprise really this is just a little road on a circle that is gravel for this area.  He was able to do a temporary fix and scheduled a new furnace early this week Thursday-so that's good service.

    I even got a call this morning that they were going to look at my car--finally Holding my breath on this one

A Few Ice Photos

   The sun is out today so I took a few photos from indoors. We will not warm up til Thursday for me to even consider going outdoors-to clear the steps and hill to retrieve my mail.

 I am soooo thankful we never lost our electric-that would have been very bad for us, especially stuck indoors with all this arctic cold and ice everywhere, and no way to keep warm or cook. Well I do have lots of quilts to snuggle into.

  I retired in 2003 in the fall, a couple years later we went through a horrible ice storm at our woods house. At the time they said the worse in 30 years. Trees down, all the electric poles cracked in half in our county-that was brutal. The ice was very very thick on everything. We were last being rural, so had no electric for 19 days.  However, we were better prepared there-two woodstoves for heat which we were only using at the time, and I had my 10 burner wolf stove-oven.  We were totally ok, and I had filled up every large pot I had with water, and the bathtub I filled with water too-to flush toilets. So I am just so grateful this year was much easier.

Thankfully we did not get as much snow as predicted at the most maybe 4 inches. 

  I think this has headed to the east now-hoping all my readers are safe from this storm

We Do Have Ice

  Woke up early to ice falling, which it is still doing as I type this. It is suppose to "rain" ice all day and then turn to snow. So far we have a lot but not as bad as some areas in Missouri and other states. There is a dusting of snow on top of the thick ice.

  I wanted to feed the birds seed and their suet but the screen door is iced shut. 

I took a couple of the flag-frozen straight

At least the lake has not started freezing -that could be possible in a few days though with single digits coming in. That is always a concern for docks and boats praying that does not happen.

Early this morning I started filling up big pots with water-just in case. This is the first home in over 40 years that we don't have a back up. This is an all electric house-ugh. We always had woodstoves for heat and for cooking if needed. and my 10 burner wolf was an old one so did not need electric to turn the gas on.  So I am staying hopeful we do not lose our electric. I think we are in the middle path of this storm-much worse above and below us. The big cities in Missouri are getting hammered with more ice and lots of snow.

I got out all of my hand dyes and the gifted ones from my friend, and ironed them all-so will be ready to use on the next bags. This photo is a bit dark as it is a dark room.  And I have not taken the time to figure out settings for better photos. (These will enlarge for better viewing)

   I am finishing up my first bag, but was having trouble with it looking nice-I changed threads so hoping to get this one finished soon. I am not crazy about how much the pattern left open to sew after turning  (there is a lining inside)  On the next one will change that

Stay safe all of you in the path of this arctic storm

Recap of 2024 with Photos-Long

   I usually do a recap of the previous year but wasn't sure I had much to share being Larry's care giver still.  I thought I would take a look at my 2024 posts-and I am soooo glad I did.  I did manage to accomplish some things.

  January 

      I made soup ( I made a pot of chicken soup today too)

 February

   Oh this was fun I bought a huge huge box of  discounted buffalo fiber. This was sold to put into the garden for soil improvements  I like that the Buffalo Wool co works to use all the buffalo fibers they process.  I ended up sorting it and found a lot that could still be spun and some for the garden soil as well

and another Super Bowl win

I won a big box of wonderful goodies including these slippers-It was a huge lift for me at the time thanks again

March

 a surprise in the mail from one of my slow mail friends

blooms

I was still working with the buffalo fibers-this is roving that I spun up to yarn I had forgotten about this buffalo project-I really enjoyed that

April

 I made dandelion infused oil-so nice on the skin

I was writing many letters for Letters Against Isolation-I have since stopped doing this-it was getting to be too much for me

I was still spinning the buffalo fibers this  month 

May

  This was a surprise-the second bulb I have bloomed

I got back to blending and grinding some of  my own Gluten free flour

June

  This month I bought a few embroidery blocks to stitch up

I have since lost most all of my perennials sigh do to our water issue here  I think this one has survived though, and I saved seeds

July

I baked up a lemon meringue pie-yum

August

cornbread

First wolf block completed- I changed this up a bit-decided to go with the pattern design going forward

September

  Laying out the first bag slow stitch project. I am finishing it up now

I liked this version of the block better

October

Progress on slow stitch project

November

Pumpkin bread-gluten free

We got the smoker out-we did a duck and this turkey

December

  That slow stitch bag almost completed-hand sewing the lining to the front of the bag

We have really enjoyed watching the sea gulls and pelicans in 2024 and this year.as well

Notre Dame was so fun to watch-they only lost one game 

   They just won their quarter final yesterday, on to next week

I am so happy that I looked through my 2024 blog posts

    I totally forgot about some of the projects like the buffalo fibers. I feel better looking back that I accomplished some creative things. I do enjoy playing with fibers.

    It's been a long year still being my husband's care giver. (since October 2023) Larry will not get better sadly but I am thankful we are still together.

   I have been in the "dumps" lately-my car breaking down did me in mentally.. I checked today and they have not gotten to it yet. sigh  I have myself stressed out for sure. I have never driven Larry's suburban, I may need to get brave and try it.  It is too large for me and I am used to driving old simple cars. My Mountainer is 1998 with low mileage-the perfect size for me.

  Our nearby friends that help us out called to see if I needed to go food shopping (with this huge winter arctic blast coming in). So thankful we met these caring friends.  She will pick me up very early tomorrow morning-.Her and her husband are getting ready to stay in Florida for several weeks this winter, which will be very soon. I have been depending on them too much for sure-so that has me a bit stressed as well. . 

 Stay safe any of you in the path of this arctic winter blast