Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Working On Projects

Today was a laid back kind of day. I accomplished a great deal, but one would never know it if they happened by the sewing/craft room.

First I had some t-shirts that needed to be cut up. That was done in a matter of minutes.

Then I had this old knit tank that was too small.

It was still in excellent shape. What to do?

I turned it inside out, pinned the bottom closed and sewed it together.

Next I squared off the bottom.

Voila, a tote or bag to use with my knitting when we travel.

Here is a picture from last week of my cross stitch project.

I did not quite get done what I wanted to get done, but I am sure you can all see some progress.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Getting Things In Order

Here it is Tuesday and almost the end of this first month of summer.

All in all it has not been the nicest month weather wise. It seems as if it has been raining more than usual. This is what it looked like yesterday.

We had another downpour and received another 1 1/2 inches of rain. The sun is shining today, but the temperature is a bit cool. While the constant days of rain keep the lawns and gardens nice and green, we need some warm sunny weather to get anything more out of the garden.

This morning I completed on of the sewing projects I had lined up. I had a stack of recycled denim and old clothing that I needed to get cut up into usable quilting squares.

I finished the last of it and by doing so cleaned off one of the counters in my sewing/craft room.

Since Harvey picked all the cabbage on Saturday and I made Cabbage Bread on Sunday, there was still a lot of cabbage (still have lots to work through), I decided to make Lazy Cabbage Rolls.

Here are the 6 tin foil trays waiting to go in the oven.

And here are the first 4 baked, cooling down and getting ready to be put in the freezer for the winter.

The final two were in the oven at this point in time. One will go in the freezer and one was used for our supper tonight. Mmmm, good. We will enjoy these during our long, cold winter. It will save time and money to have these prepared ahead of time.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Menu Monday

Time to post my entrees once again.

Monday

Pork chops, grilled. I do know the sides with this so here goes. Foil packet potatoes and onions, and sliced cucumbers.

Tuesday

Lazy Cabbage Rolls a whole meal in one pan. Hope to make extra to freeze for the winter and use up all that cabbage in the fridge.

Wednesday

Baked Chicken quarters.

Thursday (a new month is starting)

Sausage

Friday

Fish Fillets

Saturday

Spaghetti

Sunday

Pork Roast (I am hoping there will be some leftover since it is a long weekend here in Saskatchewan and Kris is planning to make it home for fishing with his Dad).

So there is my week down on paper. Hopefully not too much will change, and if it does, well guess I life will continue.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sunday Ramblings

It is the end of a very long day for me.

I spent much of it working in the kitchen putting up dills and making Cabbage Bread. I did take a break while the Cabbage Bread was baking to work on my cross stitch project. I keep reminding myself "little bites" will get it finished.


Since our cucumbers were more or less set way back by the hail storm we had I ended up buying cucumbers at our Farmer's Market here in town. I made 2 batches this morning and only one did not seal after putting them all through the hot water bath. That one is now in our fridge. I managed to get 14 quarts done and I think that will be enough for Harvey and I this winter.

I only made one batch of Cabbage Bread, which gave me enough for 6 meals this winter. I didn't get a picture of them, but we had 2 each for supper tonight and they were very good.

Mass was bitter sweet today. Our priest is leaving for another parish and we are getting a new one starting on August 1st. While the priest who is coming has been here before and is well liked I know there is going to be fall out over the reason for our other priest leaving. I am going to keep my fingers crossed that nothing untoward happens. I do believe there will be a shake up of the entire parish however.

Harvey picked the last of the peas today. We have enough for a meal so there is no need for me to prepare these for the freezer.

The next item that will be made for winter use will more than likely be the carrots, peppers and making another batch of Cabbage Bread. I am even tempted to make some Lazy Cabbage Rolls instead of regular ones.... I have lots of shredded cabbage as none of our cabbages were decent enough to keep for regular Cabbage Rolls. The carrots and peppers will be awhile yet so the cabbage is the only thing I will be working with over the next week. Should leave me some time to get some sewing and knitting projects done.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Still Getting The Harvest In and Contact

Today has been another let's get the harvest in day in the Phillips household.

Harvey decided to pick the last of the cauliflower and since I still have a head that I am using for meals I needed to get this one into the freezer.





Two more meals for the freezer and for us to enjoy over the long, cold winter.

Then a friend dropped off some free blueberries. Just had to get those in the freezer for blueberry pie over the winter.


Yummy, I can taste the goodness of these pies already and to make matters even better my friend says that there could be more coming my way.

There should only be one more picking of peas and then those will be done as well. I hope to get enough for a meal of fresh and at least one meal in the freezer.

The days are cooler and my morning walk is a bit nippy. I hope that I can continue to walk in the mornings, but if the temperature keeps dropping I may be walking later in the day. What this means for food preparation is mornings will be busy with not only cleaning, but preparing food for the freezer and the dehydrator.

Kurt texted and he will be coming back to Canada tomorrow. He plans on staying a few days in Toronto and then flying back into Regina. He will stay with friends there and then head back to Drumheller.

Kris called tonight and he had his meeting after 3 months probation in his new position. He is now a full member of the company and will be eligible for all their benefits. This is a relief as he can now be covered for medical, dental, and retirement. Nice!!! Better yet he seems to be enjoying this job more than the previous one.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Thursday Tid Bits

It has been a cool cloudy day. Really quite enjoyable after the heat wave we suffered over the past 2 weeks. Hmmm, now that is a bit of a lie. It really wasn't that hot, it was the humidity that was terrible. We have managed quite nicely today to have the air conditioning off and the windows open. Now I am hoping for rain so I don't have to water plants tomorrow or water Father Joel's memorial garden.

I promised you comparison pictures of my cross stitch project.

Well here is last weeks.

 And this one is this weeks.


You can actually see a difference. I plan on working on the sash and the sleeve this coming week. I hope that I will have lots done by the next comparison time.

I also needed some new dish cloths so I decided that my evenings would be spent knitting some out of the cotton yarn I inherited from my mom.


I have these two done, and I am hoping to get another two or three done by the time the weekend rolls around. My old dish cloths leave a lot to be desired.

I am still harvesting and drying herbs. Today I managed to get the oregano trimmed and dried. Tomorrow I am hoping to do some more chocolate mint and perhaps freeze the cauliflower out in the garden that is calling my name.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Busy Harvesting


The last few days have been busy ones around our home.

The garden is coming in by leaps and bounds and when I am not preserving the harvest I am drying my herbs.

Harvey picked peas yesterday and got them shelled late last night. This morning I blanched and froze another batch.




I got another 6 bags for this winter and there is still at least one more good pick on the plants.

As the water for the peas was coming to a boil I ran out in the garden and cut some chives to chop and freeze. I got them washed and dried before the blanching water came to a boil and managed to get most of what I picked cut before it was time to cool the peas down. While the peas were cooling I got the rest of the chives chopped. This is the tray I put in the freezer.
 
I also dried mint and parsley in the good old dehydrator.

I did get a picture of the parsley, but not the mint. The mint really made the house smell great!!



Slowly but surely I am getting the harvest in. We are leaving on our trip in mid September so I really have to work to get things done.

We also celebrated Harvey's 63rd birthday today. Nothing really special, but we did go to the live summer theater tonight (hence the late post). 

Tomorrow I hope to remember to share a comparison picture of the counted cross stitch project. You can actually see a difference now.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Menu Monday

I think I am just going to post the entree for my meals as I seem to make a habit of changing the sides. Sometimes it is to use up what I have on hand and other times I am just too lazy to go down to the freezer and bring a veggie up.

Monday

Leftover Shrimp Pasta Salad (ran out of tuna so used shrimp instead).

Tuesday

Leftover Beef Roast made into a stir fry.

Wednesday

Baked or grilled Chicken Breasts

Thursday

Leftover Ham made with scalloped potatoes in the microwave.

Friday

Salmon Patties

Saturday

Grilled or baked ribs

Sunday

Pork Roast

So those are my plans for the week. Hope to get some inspiration for sides as the week progresses. I do know I want lots, and lots of veggies.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Sunday Ramblings

It has been a fairly quiet day. We went to 10:30 Mass and worshiped with our community as the thunder rolled and the sky grew dark. The power flickered a few times, but never went off. I was very happy about that as I was one of the lectors and was worried about my voice carrying without a microphone. I know I am loud (years working with the youth of the parish had proved this), but I am out of practice projecting my voice to the back of the church. No worries though, the power stayed on and the flickers only occurred when the priest was up there.

We came home and Harvey made us brunch or perhaps a late breakfast. All I wanted was scrambled eggs and toast, so that is exactly what he handed me.

Not the fanciest of plates, but it hit the spot very well.

I started a journal for a survey company today that will last a week. Everything I eat or drink needs to be recorded. I have to take a picture and upload it to the "diary". Lots more work than I thought it would be.

I spent a bit of time cleaning and tidying my sewing/craft room. I just can not understand how something can get that jam packed with "stuff". And the "stuff" does not even belong in there!!!! I made some headway and hopefully will make a bit more after our supper.

Harvey picked the remaining beans. We have enough for another couple of meals. Not many at all for the freezer. This means I will be buying frozen green beans this year at $4.99 a package, unless I can get them on sale. I feel for Harvey as before the hail storm the garden was looking just awesome.... Now we will need to keep our fingers crossed.

Tonight I may just cast on some knitting. I need some new dish cloths and that is one item on my to do list in the sewing/craft room. Hmmm, perhaps I can get another 4 or 5 out of the leftover cotton yarn, use it up and get another project off the list. Getting projects done is one of my challenges this month. I am hoping to manage quite a few of them between getting in what is left of the garden.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.



Saturday, July 20, 2013

Saturday Going On's

The title is a bit deceiving as I did absolutely nothing today other than get dressed, run a few errands this morning, and meet a friend for lunch.

Harvey on the other hand cleaned up the yard after our storm from yesterday. I just looked at my flowers and garden and could not even think of clearing things up.

Just thought I would share some photos of our hail yesterday.

Here it is coming down.

Here is a picture of the sizes (well the bigger ones that came down).

No wonder there was such a mess to clean up outside. I am just glad our siding did not get dented or holes in it. A friends new siding has at least 4 holes and numerous cracks in it. They also lost a few shingles as well in the wind.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.


Friday, July 19, 2013

Scary Friday

Today started out nice and sunny with clear skies and sky rocketing temperatures. Just a gorgeous day to get some needed maintenance done around the house.

Our front door had not been closing properly for awhile so Harvey got out the tools and started to work.


At first he thought all he had to do was replace the plunger on the door knob and he had just the ticket in his work room. Wrong!!! We ended up buying a new lock set, but at least the door closes now and we can lock it behind us as we leave.

Towards the afternoon the skies got dark and with a loud clap of thunder the rain came down. The first of the rolling storms dropped 4/10ths of an inch in about 20 minutes. Not bad at all. Then about an hour later the sky got dark once again and the rain started to fall. This time we got hail. At first the hail was very small and would not cause much damage at all. Shortly, however, the hail got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Soon we were getting loonie or twonie sized hail. Those cause major damage.

My flowers on the deck took a hammering, breaking off and getting bruises. The garden....well here is a picture of what is left of our cucumbers.

Broken and blown around, beaten into the ground. I have a feeling we won't have too many this year.

Tomorrow we will be picking what is left of the beans and perhaps even the peas. I am worried about the carrots and the potatoes as well.

Power was out for about 2 hours which seems to be happening every storm we get lately. Thank heavens I had made the main dish salad earlier in the day.

Oh well that's what living on the prairies brings, storms, snow and hot weather.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Thursday Tidbits

It has been a busy day here in the Phillips household.

Even though it stormed last night Harvey decided to finish picking the peas. He managed to get a 5 gallon pail full. So this evening after supper I managed to get an addition to the 4 bags I blanched and froze last night.

We should get another picking from the peas and hopefully another 5 or 6 bags for the freezer. I do have 2 meals of peas in the fridge and perhaps another 1 or 2 with the next picking.

Harvey figures he will be picking beans tomorrow. That might be the last pick of the season as the plants have stopped blooming.

I worked on the lap quilt for my friends father. Since the materials are all a bit different, and some seem to stretch a little when cutting the corners did not match up exactly.

I am not totally happy with it, but I am sure her father will be. I am using buttons that I took off the clothing to sandwich the layers together. Got a few more to sew on but tomorrow is another day. I am hoping to finish it very soon.....

The reason I want it finished is that I am suffering from knitting withdrawals. This has probably been the longest in years that I do not have something on my knitting needles. I can hardly wait to start another project for my evenings.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Rainy Wednesday

It has been raining here since about 12 today. A nice slow soaking rain, which means that I will not have to water any flowers or garden for awhile. Just the way nature intended.

Today I am sharing how far along my cross stitch project has gotten over this last week.

This is a picture of last week.

 And here is this weeks.

I am beginning to see a difference. Hope I can continue to work on it and not put it away again. I may not finish it by the end of the month, but it will be interesting to see what I can achieve with an hour or so of working on it every day.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Catch Up Tuesday

Well it has been a busy day in my house. The garden is coming in great guns and I have been busy today trying to keep up.

First off I froze some green beans.

This is the first batch.

Then I moved on to pickling a few of them.
I only did 6 pint jars, but since I have never made them before this is a good start.

Then came the second batch of beans for the freezer.
So now I have 7 meals in the freezer. Hope to get at least that many more. Harvey only planted one row of beans so I guess I should consider anything over the 7 packages a gift.

I then moved on to getting some of the kohlrabi into the freezer. I managed to get these 3 bags done.

I still have fresh kohlrabi and a bag of fresh beans in the fridge to use in meals this week (as well as a slightly bruised pepper and some cucumbers). We will be eating very well for the next while.

I would like to share a picture of our sky last night. we got a bit of rain and when I looked out our front window I saw this......
Just had to get a picture. After the hail and torrential rain that caused a bit of flooding on our streets this was a welcome sight. God's promise for a wonderful day.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.


Monday, July 15, 2013

Menu Monday

At this time of year, when the garden is starting to produce rapidly, I can only post the main course as the sides seem to change a great deal. So that being said here are my basic menus for the week.

Monday

Spaghetti and meat sauce. I do have salad leftover so this will be used tonight.

Tuesday

Leftover pork casserole from the fridge with lots of side veggies

Wednesday

Baked chicken legs, on a bed of rice. Other sides to be decided upon.

Thursday

Baked spaghetti, using the leftovers from Monday.

Friday

Tuna pasta salad.

Saturday

Lazy perogies.

Sunday

Beef Roast and all the trimmings.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Goodies

Well I thought it was about time I posted some pictures of our shopping trip and the goodies we managed to snag while there.

Along with some great savings on groceries and a major stock up on whole chickens we stopped at a few other places.

Our second stop was at Future Shop. Harvey left the good camera in his truck one night and left the door open. Needless to say the camera was not there the next time he ventured out. Other things like his small binoculars were still there but not the camera.

We need a good camera for our trip (seems that our old one that I mostly use just wouldn't cut it), so we were on the search for a great deal.

We ended up with a Sony. It did not come with a case so we got one and a larger capacity card. I bought a smaller card for the old camera as well. Now we can take lots and lots of pictures on our trip.

Next stop was Fabricland. I wanted some more machine embroidery thread and while there checked out the sale fabrics.

As you can see I got my embroidery thread, and a new template for cutting quilt squares. I also picked up 4 pieces of material. After all a girl can never have too much fabric.

The next stop was Micheal's. I needed to get embroidery floss for my cross stitch project and was hoping to find more goodies on sale. I printed off a 20% off your total coupon before we left and was determined to get some good deals as this coupon could also be used on sale items. I found lots of items on sale, but held off buying them. I did come home with this haul however.

The candles were on sale for $2.97 each, down from the regular price of $8.99. The multicoloured yarn was on sale for $1.99 down from $6.99. The other two types of yarn were not on sale but I just could not resist them. I got all the thread necessary to finish my project (may even have some leftover). I also bought some candy melts and some cake pop sticks. I plan on making cake pops again very soon.

All in all it was a great day, the best part being that we got to have supper out with Kris and spent time with each other.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.



Saturday, July 13, 2013

Saturday Storms

For most of the afternoon we were under a tornado watch, but at around 4 pm the watch changed to a warning.

While we did not get a tornado, there were places around us that did. They also got very large hail stones (so thankful that ours were not any bigger than a nickel).

This is what the sky looked like before the deluge hit.


The clouds were twirling and rolling around. Then the rain came. We got 3" in less than 3/4 of an hour. 


This is a picture after it let up a little bit. At one time you could not even see across the street and seeing down into the valley was an impossibility.


If you look closely you can see the rain coming out of the downspout from our eaves. Once again this is when I actually could open the door to get a picture. It was coming twice as fast when the rain was at it's hardest.

The sky is clouding once again, but at least we got to BBQ. Power was off and since the rain had stopped this was our only way of getting a meal.

Hopefully we will not have any tornadoes and the rest of the evening will be uneventful. 

One last picture of an well known eating establishment on our main street just after the storm hit and the power went off.

They got to go swimming on our main street.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.



Friday, July 12, 2013

Long Day

We just got back from our trip to Regina. While it was great to get away for the day, it was hot and tiring. We got lots of great deals and I will share them with you tomorrow.

Tonight I just thought that I would share some pictures of the garden and what is blooming right now.

Just look at the blossom on my one Moonflower. I am hoping that it opens tonight.

My Delphinium is standing tall. Harvey tied it up for me as the blossoms are just so heavy.

The Asiatic Lilies have started to bloom. I just love the colours these flowers come in.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Thursday Tid Bits

It has been a very warm day today and so I have spent most of the day (other then the morning running a few errands) inside in air conditioned comfort.

I did manage to get a few things accomplished, the main one being the cutting into 4" squares the material I salvaged from the clothes I received from my friend. These will be fashioned into a blanket for her Dad.

 I cut up all the white, brown and odd colours and placed them into individual small baskets to make it easier to piece them together. I still have the black and blue material to work through. I hope to be able to start the blanket by Monday. So nice not to have to buy material to make this, but recycle clothing into something else. Frugal and it keeps me busy and out of trouble.

Harvey says the garden is growing by leaps and bounds. Today he brought in a small cucumber to use in a salad that I will put together later tonight. I have been informed that we need to pick some more kohlrabi and probably a head of cauliflower shortly. Why, oh why does everything have to get picked at the same time, I just know I will be picking more beans very shortly. The kitchen will be going full blast preserving all this bounty.

Tomorrow we are making a trip to the capitol. We will do a bit (okay a lot) of shopping and take Kris out for supper. I am looking forward to this little get away.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Wednesday Wanderings

Today I stuck around the house except for one small errand this morning. The day started off cool so I went out to the garden for some picking.

First I picked some sage and got it into the dehydrator.

It sure made the house smell nice.

Next I picked these.

There is nothing like having fresh beans for supper. Yum.

I started and finished the pillow I was going to make for my friend Deb out of her mother's clothing.

She only wanted a small pillow that she could hug in bed.

I dropped it off late this afternoon and she loved it!!!

I have started to cut the squares for her Dad's blanket. Tonight I managed to cut up all the white material and hopefully tomorrow I will get the brown and odd colours cut up.

Then tonight I had a surprise. Our youngest son Kris Skyped us and we had a lovely conversation about Harvey and I coming up to do some shopping and taking him out for supper. We have it all planned now. I think I will enjoy this Skype thing once I get a handle on it.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.