THE BEST TIME OF YEAR

Folklore shirt

 spacing button gadget

Yup, it’s January 2023, no denying it any longer. Time is flying by -especially winter, my favorite season! Winter is my season to tuck in and do all the things I love- sewing, quilting, knitting, rug hooking and spinning. Far too many hobbies for this women to get all the projects done that she has planned. But, I have a start;

I have finished sewing the Folklore shirt and I am very happy with the results. I am not a detail anything kind of a person, (depend on my hubby for those skills) so doing buttons evenly is always a challenge here. No more, I have this new gadget and it does all the thinking for me!!!! Also, putting buttonholes in, well my new Bernina does all the math on that as well, all I do is hit a button. Sewing life is good here. Another old invention, new to me to use is Fray check. Sew in a button hole, fill with fray check, let dry and when that button hole is opened it’s perfect!!!! How did I not know about that!!!!

 On the Knitting front;

Ozetta Highland Slipover-Brown Sheep yarn from stash 

Gnome Pun Intended by Sarah Schira  

Hat completed . Planning on a monthly gnome project (will see how many actually get done. Remember I am not a detail, fuzzy anything kind of a person. This will stretch me(thank you Kat, I fell in love with your gnomes))

Several more projects started but we will talk about those later in the month.

January is a great month to eat down the freezer and pantry foods. It’s the month for lots of soups, homemade breads, roasts and …….

I love cooking in January and so far this month we have only spent 4 dollars at the grocery store.  The challenge is on as to how little we will spend this month on food. I am sure we will be doing this in February as well. 

linking up with Kat

unravel Wednesday

A GREAT WEEK AHEAD FOR ME

 Things here the past week has been happening in the kitchen. Artisan Breads have been made, and the Mr.states 'it's the best he has ever had'. Wow, now that is an endorsement! Also yesterday, made a total of nine quarts of chicken bone broth, we were dangerously low, maybe only one quart on the shelf...yikes. Just for fun, I made bacon date wraps and we ate them for a lunch. 

Little Oaks Sweater is finished, (except for buttons) but no picks yet ;-]  

Reading: Dark Sky.  C J Box is always a great escape read.

Shadow Box By Luanne Rice.  A 3 star, didn't hold many surprises for me, I finished it in a day to see if I was correct as to who the murderer was, I was correct.

Now for the exciting news:  I have my first vaccine scheduled for this morning! I could hardly sleep last night knowing the end of this pandemic is within sight.

Second great news of the week; we have a snow storm coming. A real Rocky Mountain, upslope March snow......which means a prediction of 2-4 FEET of snow. Those totals will get more accurate by Thursday night but this storm is working up to be a whopper. I love a good RM Spring storm! Today, we will run errands ahead of the storm, gas for the snow blower, googles for the Mr. so he can clear all the snow. Due to the pandemic we don't need to stock up on food items, our pantry will due fine.

Joining Kat   

FIRE WEEK

above picture was taken over a week ago, last semi-smoke  free day for the next eight days.

Wednesday, Oct.15th. Cameron Peak fire exploded and moved quickly burning through 15 miles in a day. We had winds sustained in the mid-thirties and gusts 70+ MPH. 

Days like Wednesday are filled with anxiety. Friends up in Foothills that own homes, will those homes be there when this is all over? Nothing to do but wait and try to keep busy. I made beef bone broth, the broth I simmered for about 36 hours and then pressured canned my golden broth. It has been years since I have bought any bone broth, homemade is so much better with a real deep earthy taste. Also, it's a great way to use up dead end veggies. (that I throw in the freezer), and all the bones from meat we eat. Use it up or do without! 

Kids are playing in their new Halloween outfits! Since we will not be trick-or-treating this year, thought it would be fun to start a little celebration early this year. 

ONCE A WEEK

SOAP

Smoked Ribs, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob, Salad

Getting to 'trace' with soap

Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob

This new blogger, I am not having fun with! I can't move my pictures around and blogger won't load them in the order I try to put them, sooo, I get this mish mash sequence of pictures! Ugh....

A couple of weeks ago, Caitlin and I decided to 'make' one day a week. Our first week was...

Canning Pickles. We put together Refrigerated Pickles and Dill Pickles. We forgot to put horseradish in the Dills, ( just something to rachet up the flavor, oh well next time.)

The pickles came out amazingly! It's hard  to let the jars sit and the spices to do their magic, but patience is a virtue, so I am told.

The second week, we made SOAP. I love homemade soap, I love making it and the only thing I love more, is to make SOAP with Caitlin. Of course, while making two basic batches of soap, we are planning our next batch....Goat Milk, and what essential oils to use. It is endless our plans and Caitlin has already found a local source for that goat milk!

Two year olds can be sooo funny! Gus walked into the kitchen and told his Mom, "I going to the library to pick up books and I have my mask on!" Cuz, you know all the germs out there. 

Kids, they will never know how much sunshine they spread in this crazy world.

After replacing all our appliances , I have been cooking and Eric has been smoking. 

I will say this stay at home thing, it has allowed us to cook some yummy, comfort food. And right now, I need comfort food a couple times a week!  The other thing in the kitchen happening is making dishes from scratch that before would of  been bought ready made at the store, like potato salad and all salad dressings. The hits have been, potato salad, cole slaw, and several salad dressings. The one pictured about, not so much, its Creamy Cucumber, needs some work. 

Are you cooking? I would love to hear all about your kitchen experience. 

UNRAVELED WEDNESDAY

It's been over a month since my last post! I'm still wrestling with, do I like having my life on the open internet? Mind, not that it is a very interesting life, I strive not to be interesting, just normal-low key, doing things I enjoy. I guess, I will give this blog another run and if I get 'trolls' I will rethink "why am I blogging?'

A two sweater finish for January, both sweaters started in October and November, [ I am not a fast knitter, just steady.] The mustard sweater is for my daughter and the green one for my DIL. They both were very happy with their sweaters and I am sure will get lots of wear from these wooly goodness. 

Sent home the quilt,[pictured above] with my kids from Chicago. I am soo privileged that all my children love my quilts and always welcome the 'next one' into their home and lives. Fills my heart with joy. 

Doesn't that tray of snacks look amazing! Caitlin is amazing in the kitchen, perhaps that is why she is owner of a Coffee & Pie shop! The Charqcuterie Board was our meal on Christmas Day watching movies... ALL- DAY -LONG! No one even got dressed on Christmas Day, it was PERFECT!

2020, I have several plans in the 'making' world. Some shirts for my son, quilts, ( finishing up several UFO's), dresses for me and Daughters, and of course knitting! Their will be lots of reading as well. 

First up on theReading list:

Sandra Dallas: The Christmas Quilt

Sandra Dallas:Whiter Than Snow

Miss Read: Village Centenary

(I need some lite reading)

Joining up with Kat

Unravel Wednesday

30 JULY 2017

Helpful

Looking for Roly Poly's. We check for them several times a day.

'Grandpa, please bring my bike'

I joined this journal group on line and have not been very good with keeping up on the writing. Having a one year old during the day is far more interesting than anything else I can think of doing, but it is time to get more involved with 'other' things that are of interest to me. So this week's assignment is on BBQ's, do you and what do you BBQ? Normally during the summer we BBQ a lot, but not this year for several reason. One, a broken foot, just haven't been up to it and two, it has been hotter than hades this summer and our porch has full sun(west side) at cooking time. Grilling anything in the heat is a great diet incentive for me. Sweat pouring down my face just makes me cranky and not hungry, thirsty for an ice cold beer maybe, but not grilled food. I will say though last weekend we were at the lake and S-I-L grilled the best charred dogs I think ever crossed these lips of mine, I had two!

This week I do plan on grilling some burgers and some pork chops. I make a weekly loose menu and these  are on the menu. Eric and I have been working our way through the freezer, (feels so good to use what we have)and it's chops time for sure! Having our big meal at noon also helps with eating what we have and eating at home, not wimping out and being too lazy at dinner time to cook. I have perfected that habit(eating out) since the kids have left home to start their own lives. I am also really tired of restaurant food, especially knowing I could make it so much better if my laziness would not rear it's ugly head at around 4-5pm. 

Yesterday, I had a lovely day sewing ALL DAY in my sewing cave. I finished one quilt for Baby B,(christmas present) and worked on two other ones for gifts. I pulled fabric for 3 reproduction quilts and tested one of the blocks. I am off on the block, not a perfect 9.5 inch square so am going to try starching the fabric  then cut and sew. This is new to me, though all over the internet, I read about this starching technique on Minick and Simpson blog. Sure hope it works, will be worth the extra steps if the blocks come out truer to size I need. I hate fudging when off a couple of centimeters, gets to be to much to deal with when making a big quilt.

Missing my baby today, she is 28 years old this very day! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

6 JULY 2017

I'm not good at completing tasks in the late afternoon and that includes cooking dinner! Yeah, see the problem here? My husband sure did when he retired.  The ridiculous heat in the summer only makes this issue of mine all the worse, (why are we not underweight I do not know, it could be the ice-cream for dinner;-}) After reading some foreign blogs and realizing they eat their main course at lunch, I thought brilliant! I am full of energy and like to have all chores done by 10am. Dinner at my house is now served at American lunch time and American dinner is "what ever". I have been doing this for three weeks now and I think it is working well. Eric, Miss B and I are guarantee a decent lunch(dinner) with all the fixings and then we graze when needed the rest of day! Today was homemade pizza! The pizza sauce is a Pioneer Women recipe, pizza dough from Cast Iron Cooking, garlic scape pesto-Allrecipe and the rest of the fixing, what I had in house and needed to use. This new routine also works well in being more creative to use what I have on hand and have to use up, plus cooking from scratch as often as I can manage, which is a lot, (I have more energy, lots more energy in the morning). The pizza was DELICH or MMMMMM as Miss B says often between bites. 

Yes, I am still working on Brassy Dress, the knit that never ends. Although Woolythyme tells me it will end, at least she completed hers. Since I am still in an air cast and not suppose to be walking around "too much", yeah, right, it is a good mindless knit. However, this HEAT WAVE the Front Range is experiencing makes it even hotter to have Brassy on my lap. I really want to be able to wear this in the fall and winter- so knit on I must. 

Don't you LOVE, LOVE little girls in pigtails and hats???? Be still my heart.

WAITING FOR THE STORM

Waiting, with much anticipation, for the first snow {measurable snow}of the season. I love a good snow storm and better yet, one that I do not need to make my way to work. This morning I spent cleaning the upstairs, tiding the downstairs and cooking a roast with all the trimming and a pumpkin pie straight from the hubbard pumpkin-so when the snow starts to fly, I will be tucked in and watching the magic happen. I have also casted on a new hat, color knitting using YOTH worsted weight yarn. I am riding on the shirt tails of Soulemama with this hat...thanks Amanda!

I was up in the foothills today (before the storm blows in), went to Eden Farm for some spices and sea salt, it was rather empty of people. Once inside the only soul there said "so and so went to town to get some shopping done before the storm hit", funny, I drove up there to get some things before the storm hit. Love this little community store run by the Seventh Adventist, nothing fancy, in fact real un-fancy as you can see by the door to the shop;-} Once in the valley I could see the storm building up over the mountains and that wind-ououeee-it was cold. Tonights temps will be in the low single digits. Get those knits out ladies and gents! My husband just informed me -11 tonight....more quilts on the bed;-). And the wind, hang on, it's blowing out there now at 49 mhr. (I think that is the end of my weather report).

Last week I spent making chicken broth, chicken and rice soup, bread and cut out cookies{for my youngest girl now living out of state}. Well of course it didn't take me all week, but I do move at a rather slow pace now, I have no need to rush. The rest of the week was spent knitting and quilting on my mammoth size quilt, what was I thinking?

My baby GD loves bacon, { much to her dismay she had it taken away from her, soon BB, soon, you will be eating bacon}. I completed her pink hat for the Women's March in DC and we tested out walking on a cold, cold day, [she loved it, until we had to turn into the wind].
Hope you all are tucked in for what ever weather is heading your way...gotta go. update weather report on radio.