Old friends and books

English: Open book icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I often think to myself, “I really need to get busy keeping up with my Goodreads page.” I never seem to get around to it, but I do think about it. I don’t read as much as I used to, though I can’t stand to be without a book in waiting. Even as a child, I was reading far above my age/grade in school and there was never a lack of books at home. I remember my mom reading to me often and making up voices to go with the characters. She loved to read as well. I learned to love reading from her.

Looking at my friend’s lists and they are so long and varied! My list would be full of recipe books, books about dehydrating food and storing it, gardening methods, a number of how-to books, books on knitting, crocheting and lately, woodburning. (which I’m learning). I’m reading to learn a lot more than I used to do. But there are still my favorites…mostly in the Fantasy/Sci-fi genre. But then I wondered how my reading list would look to someone else.

I read a lot of books over and over again. Yes, I admit it. I’m a seriel reader. lol. I like trying new authors, and have found some I really enjoy, but I always fall back on my favs when I need a lift, a smile, a little courage or just a warm welcoming feel. It probably sounds odd, but after having read them for so long, I feel like they are part of the family…well, the family in my head. <grins>

We moved a LOT when we were first married. One year we had 11 addresses in that year alone.  It was hard because I’m very much a home body. I don’t really care for travelling. I’m not an intrepid explorer or brave adventurer. I’m more of a bunny jammies wearing,  bread baking, stew eating homegirl. My books always came with me though and when I was feeling particularly lonesome or upset about our wanderings, I could always pull out my favorite authors and cuddle up with old friends.

I knew Lessa and F’lar would make things alright and a lovely dragon would choose me and keep me company. I longed to walk the Harper Hall and take all the music classes they’d let me in and I’d get to hear Robinton sing again. I rode like the wind on the back of my very own Companion and would learn to be braver and more adventurous as I went about on my missions for the kingdom. I’d gaze in wonder at the beauty of Imladris, aka Rivendell, listen to the elvish singing by moonlight and be enchanted by Gandalf’s fireworks. More recently I’ve wished I could play quidditch, wave my wand and clean my kitchen and get from here to there in the flash of an eye. Yes, I loved reading about the exploits of old friends I knew, liked, missed and wanted to be like.

Now I’m getting to know new folks in books I’m discovering. I have to admit that it seems to be harder to find books that really capture my heart as well as my head. Books where you really care about what happens to the characters and mourn with them, laugh with them, roll your eyes at things they do and, in general, just get to know them. There are a couple, though, and when I get around to updating my goodreads, I’ll tell you all about them.

Until then, I’ll visit with old friends, find new ones, and keep learning all the wierd and quirky things I love to learn.

How do you feel when you read? Do you read for fun? to learn? to escape?

Fickle is as Fickle does

Those who come here often will notice I’ve changed the blog look….again. I know. I’m fickle. Actually, its more that I can’t seem to find one that I really like enough to stick with it. We’ll try this one a bit and see how it goes.

Starting off with something pretty. These are the flowers my sweetie brought home for me on Mother’s Day…from our doggies.   I love them and they look gorgeous on top of the wood stove. The lilies have the entire house smelling wonderful. He’s wonderful!

Next we have a dutch bench that I found last summer. It needed a new home and some TLC and now that its getting nice out, its a good time to start on it.

Here’s how it looked when I got it. There’s no seat, the wood needs some tlc and it needs a little tightening up here and there. Nothing drastic, though. Certainly nothing that cannot be easily fixed.

The other picture is the bench seat that I upholstered today. It’s a crappy-ish picture and really doesn’t show off how pretty the material is, but I’m really happy with how it came out. I’ll do the work next on the bench, then attach the seat to it and it’ll be ready for sale.

I also got new knitting needles and crochet hooks in the mail today. yay!  The first are 6 inch bamboo dpns from 0 -9 in size.  The second are bamboo crochet hooks sizes 3-10mm. I find that the bamboo really is easier in my hands because its warmer. I really didn’t think it would matter that much, but the more I do the more I notice it, specially in the winter.  Talk to you all again soon!

Another trip to the LDS Cannery this past weekend

For those who don’t know, the LDS Cannery is the storage house of the Mormon Church. They have them all over the country. You don’t have to be Mormon to go and buy bulk food stuffs. The prices are unbelievably good, the folks are always really nice and its a fun shopping trip. We went this past weekend and added to our little supply of foodstuffs.

We got 75 lbs. of flour, 50 lbs of red wheat berries, 50 lbs of white wheat berries, 25 lbs of dry milk, 25 lbs of white beans, (we eat a lot of bean soups and such and below this I’ll tell you a funny story about beans. lol), 25 lbs of mashed potato flakes, 25 lbs of oatmeal, 12.5 lbs of hot cocoa (25 lb bag but I split it with a friend), 25 lbs of rice.

We’re doing what we can, when we can, and I’m not making myself hysterical over it. You do what you can and anything you do is better than doing nothing. I’m learning this as I go and trying to be a non-panic prepper. Honestly, some things you see on the internet are, I swear, meant to make you a freaked out, hysterical panicked person. bah!

Course, I’m still packaging. lol. They were out of mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, but I paid for them and when they come in I’ll get them. I’ve had good luck getting 5 gallon buckets from the Price Chopper bakery and a lot of the things are being put in to those with bigger oxygen bags. Then, just in case, I wrap a bit of duct tape around the lid in case it didn’t seal quite all the way.

I also found the pressure canner I wanted to get. I know a lot of you get the really big one, but I don’t do as much canning and wanted the smaller one. I bought the 16 quart presto pressure canner. It’s plenty big enough for my canning needs, and more than enough space for anything else I want to make in it, like roasts or stew. It does the 5, 10, or 15 lbs of pressure, so I’m very happy with it.

After looking at a lot of different models, I’ve also picked out the grain mill that I want. It’s the Wonder Junior Deluxe Grain Mill.  It does everything that I want a grain mill to do, or may ever want it to do and it’s in the price range that I’m able to handle. I’m really excited about it. I won’t be able to get it for a few weeks yet, but I keep watching the video of it and enjoying my choice vicariously. lol.

I also did some ordering from Augason Farms. They also sell bulk food items, but different kinds of stuff. I like that they also sell everyday sized cans of stuff so that you can try it before you invest in a #10 can. We found some soups called Bear Creek. They’re dried/freeze-dried soups, stews, etc that are good for camping, backpacking, or even bug-out bags. We found them on sale and decided to try a couple. I was shocked at how good they were, especially since the “meat” wasn’t really meat but that tvp stuff. Even my sweety liked them, which is really saying something. So… since we liked those we decided to try more of this vegetarian “meat” tvp stuff. So we bought, from Augason Farms, a small can of beef flavored, bacon bits and chicken flavored tvp. We also ordered some powdered cheese, a small seed vault (very small, but it’s a start),  5lbs of red kidney beans (they were on sale and I love them), butter powder, and something called honey powder that sounded just too yummy not to try. I’ll let you know how they all taste as I try them.

I bought some plants for my garden (yes, flowers <grins>) to replace the ones that I know will have to be sacrificed to un-grass my poor garden. Sad, but necessary. I bought most of my seeds and am planning a mostly vertical garden this year. I just have to finish buying all the stuff to make towers and teepees. I’ll keep you all posted on that. I’m not started with it all yet because we’re still getting freezing and below freezing weather here at night. We don’t generally plant up here till May anyway.

I’m going to start putting up recipes again since they seem to be so popular on my site. Hope you all enjoy them!

What I made and what God made

So first, what I made. These are called Friendship Bags. Along with them you get a little card attached explaining the bag’s contents to you. This is what it says.

Lifesaver – to remind you of the many times others need your help and you need theirs.
Cottonball – cushioned support of friends for the rough roads ahead
Rubberband – a reminder to stay flexible
Candy Kiss – we all need kisses and hugs
Paper Clip – to help hold it all together
Candle – a reminder to let your light shine
Marble – to help keep you rolling or in case you lose one!
Sweet and Sour Candy – to remind you to accept and appreciate the differences in others
Happy Face – smiling not only increases your face value, it’s contagious
Band-Aid – for healing hurt feelings; yours or someone else’s
Eraser – to remind you that every day you can start over with a clean slate

And here is what they look like. Terrible picture, I know, but you get the idea.

Now for what God made… a beautiful sunset which lit up our trees in orange glory!   Enjoy these and see you again soon!

OMG! She’s made a new post! Call the press!

Yes, I know. I’ve been a very naughty blogger. I’ve been a little absent from both blogging and reading blogs. I have no really good excuse. Just got busy and had to prioritize my time differently for a bit. But, I’m back and “hoping” to be around more. My mail has been a disaster though, so I’m so far behind on reading my lovely friend’s blogs that I may just have to start from scratch and just pick up with the current rather than trying to go back and read them all. ::pouts:: I’m sorry in advance!

The weather was wonderful today. Bright, sunny, warm… most of the snow is now gone even.   I went out in my side garden and started raking it out and doing the pruning that I really should have done last fall. <blush> Luckily I caught them pre-budding stage. I may not have too much this year, but we’ll see. It’s terribly overgrown with grass that snuck in with my plants. I have to just yank it all up, and that’s not going to be an easy or quick task. I’ll have to sacrifice some of my plants as well. I bought new plants to replace the ones that end up yanked with the grass.

Did I bother to dig out my gardening gloves? Nope… and since my rose bush is a bit overgrown as well, and pretty much central in the garden, I ended up with lots of puncture wounds and scratches. My arms and hands look like I got into a cat fight. Still it felt really good to be out in the dirt again.

You’ve probably also noticed that my theme keeps changing. I just can’t find one that really floats my boat. I prefer the text to be wider, but I like a header picture. I’m having a hard time finding something that I like enough to stick with. Hang in there with me while I try different ones.

So what all have I been up to?  Sooooo glad you asked!

We rearranged some things in the kitchen and built a real pantry area! Yep, we bought really good shelves (had no idea good shelves cost so much!), measured for how many we could fit in there and here is the result. Not the best pictures, but there is a black shelving unit against the wall in the back, the one on the side that you can see with the cans on it, and for the front shelf we found a slightly smaller one on wheels. It has basket shelves, too, which I love. I use that one for the stuff I use the most but want to keep in the same place. The one against the wall is for big pots, pans, stockpots, pressure canner (which I just got the other day! yay!) and other large things. Side one is full of my containers of dehydrated items, containers of beans/peas and the like and baking items. It’s working out really well and I couldn’t be happier with it. It’s took me forever to go through every closet and hutch in the kitchen to rearrange where things are, though. I still can’t find things I moved at times. lol. Still tweaking the system, but thrilled with it.

Another project in my kitchen is my sled pot rack. My sweetie’s brother brought us two sleds that were theirs when they were kids. Both of them are radio flyers and very old. The smaller one I knew just what I wanted to use it for. Long ago I had seen a picture of a pot rack made from an old wooden sled. I loved the idea. Mine isn’t that old, but up onto the ceiling it went. It’s working out GREAT!  We have very low ceilings, so the only place I could put it was over my island. Since that was where I wanted it anway, that worked out well. Here’s how it came out.  Now if I can finish painting the kitchen, putting in new bottom cabinets and refurbishing some of the pieces in it, I’ll be golden. LOL.

Another post coming after this one! Whoopee!

A Stitch or three in time…

I found some yarn in Michael’s that I just fell in love with. I suppose it would be considered a novelty yarn. All I know is that as soon as I touched it I knew I had to make something with it. That something turned out to be a shawl that I found the pattern for in a small book in the store.

AS soon as I find the label I’ll edit this and put down the yarn I used. I can’t find it right now, (blush).  It’s a bulky yarn that is kind of like a chenille on steroids. Fuzzier and much softer but with that sort of look. It’s totally lucious to touch and you really just want to sink into it.

This is the shawl I made. I had to learn how to do a Broomstick Lace stitch. It was a very odd stitch to understand, but once I learned it I loved how it looked. The shawl is soooo warm! The color reminds me of Neopolitan Ice Cream. I love how it came out.

When the van first broke down, as it always seems to be the case, it was during that week that we barely got above 0 degrees even during the day. My poor sweetie was out in that all day trying to fix the van. For 4 days he froze his bits and bobs off, and his face was practically numb it was so cold. I decided to try my hand at a helmet liner, or balaclava.

I found lots of patterns online. I started one and it was going great until I got to the part where the opening is. I couldn’t figure that out for anything, so I found another pattern and used that one for the opening. There was a bit of tweaking, but it worked out. The only thing I didn’t like was how short it is. It looked a LOT longer in the picture, even though I know I measured it and made it to the size they called for. Next time I would make it much longer and do it with a bigger hook so that it was more of a dickie look before moving into the neck part.

Still, it fits the sweetie fine and he LOVED wearing it the other day while spending hours snowblowing after the storm. He said his face was actually hot. yay!  The yarn is Cascade 220 washable wool in a dark green.

I’ve been wanting to try learning to make baskets. I’m always looking for something different to make to add to my things for sale at the store. I looked at a lot of basket patterns and got the general gist of how it works and set down to make my first ones. These are made out of tshirt yarn that I salvaged from the sweetie’s old tshirts. I like the rag rug look. I’m going to stiffen them up and put a bowl in them to get the shape to really set, but I don’t want them too stiff. Just enough to add a little body to them. I like how they came out overall. I’m thinking of weaving some ribbon in to dress them up a little.

Since I’ve been making nice warm wristers for others and my hands are always cold at my computer, I finally sat down to make myself a pair. I bought this really pretty pattern for a set of cabled fingerless gloves and a cabled headband. I started them last night and one glove is about halfway done, even with having to rip it out and start over.   They are going to be soooo soft and pretty and really warm. I’ll get pictures of those up when they’re finished.  I’ll also show you my newest earrings, which are made with crochet thread and look like tiny doilies.

Talk to you all again soon!