Friday, June 13, 2014

City Beans

Hello my friends...and happy Friday.




I am so excited to share with you the green beans at City House.  I haven't had a garden here in at least nine years so it feels good to see them poking their little heads up.




Marching like proud, green soldiers.


Hope you all have a great weekend and a big Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.

xo

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

City House Living

Hello friends. It has been so long since I have posted, I feel a bit rusty.

This will be a short post today just to get myself back into the swing of things.


I have been staying at City House for awhile now and will continue through the summer.

My leg problem turned out to be a recurrence of  the 'C' word.....

I have already started on the my treatment program which is every three weeks.  I had my second one a week ago last Friday.


I must say that I do not feel too bad so far and have been getting some gardening done and much needed yard work..and the never ending list of projects inside.



I am not going to dwell on this and after the initial 'total' shock, have come to realize even more than before, that we really just don't know what will happen in our lives next.

My faith has not been shaken and I have drawn even closer in my walk with Jesus, who knows all and provides a peace that transcends all understanding  (Philippians 4:7).


The thought of telling you this broke my heart and so I kept putting it off.  I feel so much better now that I have and can move forward with my blog and come and visit you all.....I have truly missed you so.

Until next time..much love to you.  xo

Sunday, April 20, 2014

HE HAS RISEN




Matthew 28:6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.

And I sing "Hallelujah" !







Friday, March 7, 2014

Taking a Break

Hello my friends. I will be away from my blog for awhile. A pesky knee and back have taken control of my body and I am laying low. I will be having a MRI on my knee Monday and we will see what that brings.







 I will still be vising you as I am able. Wishing you all a very nice weekend. xo

Friday, February 28, 2014

The Stitched Journal Project - February

Happy Friday, friends. I hope you all had a nice week.

I have joined a challenge hosted by Lola Nova. It is simply a stitched page of where you are personally, or artistically, well...it can be anything really. I found it as an encouragement to get going on something, anything as long as it is forcing me to get my heart and thoughts together in an artistic way.




My journal will be on thankfulness.  The first page was a given for me.  It is an abstract paper (magazine) piecing of the view from my front porch her at Little House.



The only actual 'stitching' is the card stock begin attached to the felt page.  The paper is the medium that I ended up being led to use.



The thankfulness part of this is very deep in my heart.  I will share it with you now.  I didn't tell anyone about this at the time, but a year ago last October when they found I had cervical cancer, the only thing I heard in that phone call was 'stage 4'.  So, when I packed up the car and headed for Portland for the real diagnosis at Compass Cancer center, I feared the worse.

I stood on the porch and looked at that view and felt that I would not be coming back and that would be the last time I saw this.

As it turned out, the actual cancer was stage 1 and a good prognosis...So thankful, I am.  Very thankful indeed for this view. 

I thank the Lord for never leaving my side.

**

I am joining the rest of the group over at Lola Nova's.


Have a happy weekend.  xo

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Mr. Bunny Holds Auditions

It is way too early to decorate for Easter, but with winter being so brutal to many across our nation, it seems only right that we start dreaming about sunnier times.



With that in mind, Mr. Bunny decided to hold auditions for positions in the decorating scheme, very wise indeed.



Out they marched from drawers  and boxes in closets.




Some are new this year and have just been adopted from the thrift shops.



Others are old, wise friends from years past and are there to welcome and guide the young ones.



Mr. Bunny is happy about this good turn out and will be doing further auditions as others show up from far away storage units.  He says.."This will be a very good Easter indeed".

Hope you are all having happy Spring time thoughts.

See you tomorrow.  xo

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Last Minute Goodie

I woke up this morning and realized that tomorrow is Valentines Day....Actually I knew it was the big day but had forgotten that if I wanted to send special goodies to the coworkers with the Mister, I would need to do it this morning as there will be no work tomorrow....Oh, what to do? 

Since it had to be all done and ready to go at 10:00 this morning when he comes home for 1st lunch, it needed to be fast, easy and tried and true.





Well my friends, I did it...yeah!  With the help of the Pioneer Womans recipe for chocolate sheet cake.  Not just any chocolate sheet cake but, "The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever."  If you haven't tried it you must, and I really mean must, you will not be disappointed.

Luckily I had some Valentines sprinkles and a few things to make an arrangement, I think it will be appreciated.

And to you, I wish you a very Happy Valentines Day in what ever way you choose to celebrate.

Much love to you all.  xxoo






Wednesday, February 12, 2014

A Rare Rant

Please bare with me for a short rant.  Normally, I try to keep this blog free from downer details but I would be amiss if I didn't share this.



Isn't it nice that we have a money tree in Washington D.C..?  Do you know what fertilizes that money tree?

Would you like to see all of that 'free money' in action?  

You can find it right here...go ahead, take a look.


Thanks to the lawmakers in the House of Representatives, a 'Clean Bill' passed, raising the debt ceiling once again, with no strings attached... on it goes to the Senate to be passed then to the President for his signature.  Here is the link for full info.

Can any of you imagine what your financial situation would be if you just kept getting one credit card after another and every time you got to the borrowing limit on the last one, you just go ahead and get another ?!!!  Yes, you are right...it all comes to a screeching halt eventually.

We had better prepare our children and grand children to be hard workers and not mind turning all of it over to the government because 'payback time' is coming.
 
Thanks for listening.  xo

Image source

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Alternate Magazine Winner

Hello, I hope your week is going well so far.  I am just popping in to make a quick announcement.






You may remember the magazine giveaway last month for Country Living.  The winner was Cindy but, unfortunately, she left no email my efforts to contact her have failed.  I feel it has been long enough and  so we must move on to another winner.

This time the winner is ...... Lola Nova!  Congratulations my friend!   Please email me your address and I will get this ordered right away.


My sweet hubby has been bringing me flowers on Fridays...the store were he buys the pretty bundles is conveniently located close to the gun shop, so that may have something to do with it.  :)

Have a great day friends..see you later this week. xo

Monday, February 3, 2014

Introducing Audrey

Happy February my friends! Can you even believe how fast January passed by..it seems we were just taking down Christmas lights!

Now that the new year has been well established, I thought it a good time to introduce you to my new studio assistant.  Any one that has visited here, for any length of time, knows all too well that I have grand(iose) plans and ideas that don't always come to fruition.  Miss Distraction stops by for a visit way to often..uninvited I might add, and shortly after that, all plans are lost.

The Mister set about to find a nice lady to keep me on the straight and narrow and after interviewing several prospects, decided on this nice, straight forward helper.



I am pleased to introduce to you, the lovely Audrey.  She has already been busy sorting and organizing the studio and has three boxes ready for donation.  I must say, "Is that the light at the end of the tunnel"?

In the future, you will be seeing more of Audrey and the projects that we will be doing together.


I wanted to share this thrift find from last week. 

  


A container of old thimbles at a good price of $2.00.  :)


And...look at this unusual one with a moving part.  I looked around the Internet and found that it is a thread cutter.  It looks to me like it might be something else also...Any guesses?

Have a lovely Monday.  xo



Tuesday, January 28, 2014

My Very First Cookbook

Yesterday, I took a walk down memory lane. Waaaaay back down memory lane, into the early 1970's, to my very first cookbook.




Here it is, the Betty Crocker's Cookbook 1969 that I got in the early 70's.  It was my only cookbook for years and served me well...as you can see.

As I have matured in my cooking tastes it has been ignored, for newer and more modern recipes.  Lately I have been seeing quite a resurgence in the dishes of the past...with a new spin put on them of course.  So I thought, let's take another look inside.




This favorite, literally fell out of the book as did half of the pages as you can see below.




Waikiki Meatballs, one of the very first 'exotic' recipes I tried in my newlywed kitchen.  I was so proud to stir up something none of the other wives in our circle had made!

So, last night I decided to try it out again and see if it tasted as I remembered.




I must confess, I had forgotten how 'not fun' browning meatballs can be and remembered thinking, way back then, that it would be much better if they were meat 'squares' instead of balls.


I changed it up a bit and switched the green pepper out for a small jar of drained pimentos.



Here is the end result, and there was a  nod of approval from the Mister.  In those early years I served it over rice but chose rice noodles this time.

As I look back, I realize how far our culinary tastes have come in these years.  In the 1970's this would have been a special dinner, perhaps for company and now we could easily find something like this in the frozen food section to 'zap' in the microwave on a evening short on time...How times have changed.



If you are interested, here is the full recipe....short and sweet. 

Changes that I made:

I could not find that size of pineapple tidbits so I used two 8 oz. cans and it turned out fine.
Saffola oil instead of shortening.
Less Sodium soy sauce.
1 4oz. jar of pimento, drained, in place of green pepper.

I did enjoy reliving my first years of cooking and will try to include more of these early recipes into my menus in the future.

What was your first cookbook and do you ever make any of your early recipes, still?
I'd love to hear about it.

Have a great day, my friends.  xo

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Weekend Magazine Special


** Sorry, the weekend special has expired.  See you later today with a favorite retro recipe.

Hello friends. Hope your weekend is going well. Just popping in for a quick share which is too good to keep to myself.






Does it look like I need another magazine subscription?  I see you shaking your head back and forth, as in "NO".  Well, perhaps not a new magazine, but I never turn my nose up at another year tacked on to one of my existing subscriptions...and for a mere $5.00!

So, here is the link to DiscountMags.com, special weekend deals for that very good price.  There are many different types offered this time so you just might find one to suit your interests or perhaps a gift for someone else.    

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.  xo

Friday, January 17, 2014

Mom Chooses a Winner

Hello friends and happy Friday. I hope your week has gone well and you have fun plans for the weekend.

Mom had her procedure at the hospital and as we waited for them to take her back she chose a name for the giveaway.  I am happy to report that all went well and the doctor said she may not need any further procedures for 6 months or more...yeah! 

The winner of the Country Living magazine subscription is....Cindy. Congratulations to you Cindy, please email me with your info and I will get that ordered.




I realize that these sewing machines have absolutely nothing to do with this giveaway but I just had to share...aren't they lovely?



There are more machines to drool over if you care to take a gander.  You will find the link here.

Wishing you all a very pleasant weekend.  xo

Monday, January 13, 2014

Magazine Giveaway

Happy Monday friends. I hope this finds you all well and having a good new year so far.

We have been busy with the usual first of the year projects and some flood control thrown in for a bit of interest....I will spare you all of the dirty and muddy details.



It has been quite awhile since we have had a giveaway and I figured what better time than at the start of a bright new year.

I know many of you probably already subscribe to Country Living but not to worry as we will just add it as a renewal.

We will have the drawing on Friday and I will be having my mother pick out the name in the morning before we go to the hospital for another procedure on her esophagus.  She will be very pleased to take part in this fun event.


To enter, you just need to leave a comment.  Any comment will be fine, but it would fun be if you have something to share about Country Living Magazine..I will start out by saying that I have been reading this magazine for approximately 24 years..maybe even longer, and I think that I never missed an issue!

See you soon.  xo

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Fresh Start

  

No new resolutions for me to share . . . . 




Instead, it will be, new beginnings.




And sweet memories.

Wishing you all a Blessed and Happy New Year.   xo