Merry Monday

Love my Monday's off work. Finished up the remembrance quilt yesterday. Take a peek....

Then I made a couple of blocks for our guild president's quilt.

Then today, I've done some house cleaning, got in a run.....

....and also have six loaves of honey wheat bread in the oven.....

I eat this every single morning for breakfast. Sometimes with honey and butter, sometimes with cinnamon, sometimes with jam. Yum. Thankful I have a convection oven so I can make a double batch at once. It is a mess but so worth it.

Next Project

I'm still into designing quilts and came up with another one I want to make. I didn't want to buy anything so I decided to use some kiddie fabric scraps I'd saved and a large fabric piece, also from my stash.

It is going to be a bit more challenging since some of the blocks take about an hour to make. I guess I make up for it in the simple strip blocks though......I think it will make a cute, bright, toddler quilt.

...but for today, I'm snuggled up underneath one of my first and favorite quilts.....

Doing a little reading. We had friends over for lunch and enjoyed our afternoon very much, but now it's time to rest, relax, and count our blessings.

 

Adventure Day

When we retired we had planned on having an adventure day each week. That was a little ambitious. Maybe every two weeks or maybe once a month would be doable. Anyway, today (after about four months of retirement) we took our first adventure day.

We went to the Crossville quilt and tractor show. Had a great time!

Jim was a good sport while I walked around looking at the beautiful quilts.

This was a favorite. Made of 1 1/2" squares. Isn't it neat how she used squares around the outside of the wreath to be like real greenery? And the darker red to give depth to the ribbon. Just beautiful.

We walked through the antique tractors and equipment. Took a ride in a Kabota four wheeler through a display of old trucks, and enjoyed a nice conversation with a local farmer and his son. Bought some homemade fried pies and kettle corn. Stopped at the outlet shops for a little shopping before we headed home. A fun day.

I told him we needed to make a bucket list of Tennessee "must see" places and events and do a bit better about planning our adventure days. Life goes by fast. We need to be making memories.

 

 

Projects

The last few years I've gotten a reputation for doing some big projects while the fisherman is off on his annual summer fishing trip. It started when I wanted to paint the dining room a few years ago. He didn't want me to. I did it while he was gone. On subsequent fishing trips, I re-did the front landscaping, redecorated the living room, painted the front door, did a faux tile finish on our concrete porches, and redecorated the screened porch. I might have also changed the carpet to wood on our staircase. Lots of projects.

Although I retired last December, I've recently gone back to work part time. I love my new job - less stress, fun work, great folks, and it's nice having a little extra money to do some things around the house. So......here are some before pictures........my projects might or might not include paint, organization, or some new furniture. Stay tuned. It's going to be some good changes.

I'm excited. I'm also on the kick again about painting my cabinets, but that MAJOR project certainly won't happen while he is gone, maybe not even this year. I'll have to do some sweet talking to the fisherman before he would give his approval for that project.....got to keep harmony in the home!

Rollin' up my sleeves and getting to work!

By the way, I eat good when he is gone.......

I'm trying to perfect my homemade O'Charleys honey mustard salad dressing. Mine was pretty good but not quite as good as the real thing.

 

Old friends get together

Last Thursday night several of my old work buddies gathered together for a meal. It is always fun to be around some of the old folks.....ha. We are all old now, although there were a few that are still working.I've recently gone back to work part time. I think it will be perfect for me. As much as I love my hobbies, I really missed the work and decided full time retirement just wasn't for me....yet.

Also wanted to post this precious Mother's Day photo of my beautiful daughter-in-law and my grand baby Emma. Love these two.

 

 

Spring?

High of 87 degrees, doesn't that mean summer? Well, strawberries say "spring" to me.

One flat of berries from Tidwell's in Spring City = 2 pies, 6 quart bags in the freezer, and 18 cups of freezer jam. Oh yeah, and a few to eat.

The Fisherman and I drove to the Dayton/Spring City area today. They have a big Strawberry Festival every year. Today was when they set everything up. We enjoyed walking around town and going into a few of the downtown stores.

But when we got home.....it is hot! The cats say it is the lazy days of summer....

 

Monday run and healthy smoothies

Doing a bit more reading abut Jeff Galloway's running method. Today I did five slow miles at 3/1 run/walk intervals. I am going to try to follow his recommendations for a while. I do think I'll be faster with a more frequent walk break. It was a beautiful day for a run. Sixty degrees, sunny skies.

I've been a fan of protein smoothies for a while now. Today I added some spinach to my regular frozen banana, strawberries, almond milk, and protein powder.

It looked pretty gross, but tasted awesome. I couldn't taste the spinach at all. I'd like to try it with kale too.

 

 

Making caramel sauce

I tried a method yesterday for making caramel sauce from eagle brand sweetened condensed milk. You just simmer the can for about three hours. I think my simmer might be a lttle lower temp than what was needed. It didn't turn to caramel sauce.

So today, I emptied the can into a canning jar sitting in a pan of water and have slightly boiled it for a couple of hours now. It is turning brown so I know it is turning to caramel sauce. The hubby was wanting some as dip for apple slices.

 

Home again, home again

it is so good to be home! Like last visit I caught a terrible cold while I was in Edinburgh. However, this time it was much worse. I am always one of those folks who say to wait out a cold, 7-10 days. Today is day seven and I was miserable. I won't gross you out with the green details. It was time to go to a physician. Amazing what one dose of a Z pack can do!
I tend to stay a bit dehydrated and flying always makes that worse. On top of the cold yuck, last night's sleep evaded me with horrible foot cramps. I've read it is due to a magnesium dificiency. I got up and took a magnesium pill. Ate some salty crackers and drank water. Still horrible. I was desperate.

This works. At 2:30 this morning I ended up putting about a half to 3/4 cup of Epsom salts in a bucket of warm water and soaked my feet in it for about five minutes. No more cramps the rest of the night.
My daughter in law is a great cook. I came home with a few more of her recipes. I made British scones today. I decided to add some dried blueberries to mine, but I think the original recipe served with clotted cream and jam is the best.

It should say bake at 430 degrees.

...so good to be home.

DIY - FAIL!

I found a recipe to make your own almond milk. Since I love almond milk and am always wanting to do it myself, I tried it.

It looked good.

But it was horrible! I followed the recipe to a T. Added honey, still yucky. Added some vanilla, still yucky, and even added some sugar..bleh! It is pretty bad. Whatever magic Blue Diamond does to make theirs taste good, I can't replicate. Don't waste your time making this.

I've got the strainings drying out in the oven now to make almond meal. Maybe I can use that for something, in cookies or a cake, maybe. I sure hate I wasted a cup of raw almonds.

 

Sunshine!!!

 

So thankful for the sunshine. I had a long run on the schedule for today.

Seven miles! In short sleeves and a running skirt!

Mercy, those legs are lily white! (I wonder...is that a purely southern expression?)

Got her done. 5/1 intervals, long and slow. Foot feels ok. I've self diagnosed my foot pain as metatarsalgia, and I think the cause is all the running I've had to do inside. Lots of turns. It started hurting after two weeks of inside running due to the ice and snow. Some day I may have to break down and get a treadmill.

In other randomness...have you tried Pioneer Woman's meatloaf recipe? It is the best I've had, especially with her tomato gravy as a topping. Just for the two of us I halve the recipe, but it is so good I think next time I'll make the whole and freeze half of it.

With some green beans, and sweet potato fries (from Costco; officially a Costco fan now), we've eaten two meals each and still have a little left -- and I only made half the recipe!

Let me put in a plug for Costco while it is on my mind. The nearest one is about 25 miles away but I've decided it is worth it for us. One reason really....my glasses. I had my eyes checked last week and I usually get my glasses at the eye doctor's facility. With vision insurance, the cost to me was going to be $292! That was for a nice stylsh frame, scratch resistant, non glare, progressive and transition lenses. Basically the works. HOWEVER, at Costco, all of that cost me only $115. The basic membership is $55. I still saved $122, and I found several things we use that were significantly cheaper at Costco. The vision center is run by licensed opticians and they are open the same as the store hours, seven days a week. No charge for adjustments. They were so very nice too! I was impressed.

So here are the fashionable frames I picked out. Did you know cat eye frames are making a comeback, along with more rounded frames too? I just couldn't do those. They reminded me of the fifties and sixties. I hope these are stylish enough to help make this old gal look a bit more modern.

 

Ice storm of 2015

What did you do today? Here is a little of what I did....

...made some yummy potato and ham soup...

...then some chocolate chip cookies....

...watched the ice and sleet fall...

...did the quilting and binding on this quilt....The backing is grey "grunge" fabric....

I used a little free pantograph that I had printed off and taped the sheets together. I'd never used it before but I think I like it. It is straight lines which are very difficult to do, but I think they turned out ok.

Then I decided to machine bind it, which I rarely do...for good reason.....I'm not good at it. The above picture shows how "not good" at it I am.....

...this one is a bit better....I'll only do it if I think the thread will almost disappear into the backing.....Do you machine bind? Hand bind? Or both?

...pretty productive day....and for now anyway, we still have power!

 

Linking to finish it up Friday

I purchased this little toddler quilt kit and made it up in just a few hours. The pattern is called Child's Play but I would have never purchased it because it was made up in Halloween prints. I really liked this version.

I also made this sweet pillowcase for my grand girl.

Decided to make the hubby one of those no sew fleece blankets for a Valentine's present.

So soft and cuddly. I really liked it and he did too. He doesn't mind that the fabric is a little girly. Also the big kitty loved it.

...and I'll leave you with something yummy. This is an old recipe from one of my favorite people who passed away several years ago. Yummy and hearty!