Holidays Are Getting Close

Every year CP rail sends a number of trains across Canada and the northern United States. There are special trains at this time of year known as Holiday Trains. Decorated with lights and carrying very special passengers.

This is the first year we have attended the event, and the weather actually accommodated the visit.

We got to listen to some music, enjoy the fresh air, see some people we had not seen in awhile and help out our Salvation Army Food Bank.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Hiking, Resting, and Quiet

At the end of last week Harvey and I traveled to Manitoba and one of our National Parks. We have visited this park three times now and noticed many changes.

Firstly we were actually in the same cabin as the last time we were in the park.

Harvey relaxing on the front deck of our little home away from home.

The first night we walked around the beach area and the streets of Wasagaming. Surprisingly it was very quiet.

The walk to the beach.

A friendly gull strutting down the sand.

The clouds covered most of the sunset the first night we were there.

Some photos of our walk around the beach area.

Blogger is not letting me download any more pictures so I will continue with our trip tomorrow.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Almost Ready

We will be leaving in a day and a half for the family reunion. Slowly but surely I am getting things done that need to be accomplished before we leave.

Today I straightened out the sewing/craft room. I have been working in there over the past few days trying to complete these:

This is a surprise for all the family attending the reunion. It is the first time I have made a badge on my embroidery machine and I am pretty proud of the way they turned out. I now know the mistakes I made and have an idea of how to improve them and I got ideas running through my head for more surprises for the next reunion. I am thinking a banner using the Cricut or a stencil and fabric paints.

The garden is coming along slowly. Lack of rain and the cold spring have slowed down growth. I did however get this,

My first Moonflower. 

The other plant looks to finally being able to produce a bloom or two. I think some of the first blooms (or buds) were damaged from the hail we had one evening. They died on the vine, but one now looks close to opening tonight.

The fridge is pretty well cleaned out. I am hoping to give it a wash down tomorrow, and finish off all the leftovers for our meals.

Packing will begin in earnest tomorrow. At least mine will and the neighbour is coming over to pick up the keys and see where I will be putting the cat food and such.

I will try to get back on tomorrow and at least one day while we are gone (might be the only way I can keep my sanity).

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

This week has whizzed on by. I am sure that as I age the days fly by on wings of very speedy birds. It has not been a week with lots going on, but enough has occurred to make each day seem like there are not enough hours.

I did another weeding of the perennial bed and the long planters. I even pulled mini tree seedlings out of the pots, especially the tomato pot. Today we put the cage around it to hold it up.

At the beginning of the week we got some hail. 

Forgive the blurry picture, I was dodging hail stones at the time. Thank heavens nothing too big as I got hit on the head. I should also say thank goodness I have a fairly hard head as I just had some tenderness and a bit of a bump.

This one was taken from the safety of the doorway. While there were a very few larger ones, no damage was caused to my plants.

We got the thermostat working properly which is a very good thing. In this area one needs to be able to control the temperature for those 35C and above days, as well as those -40C days in the winter. Having a thermostat that jumped from 17C to 29C was not a good thing.

Harvey managed to take apart my vacuum which broke down (second item this month and it is only just over a year old). He plans on phoning the company on Monday to see if they will send him the part he needs. Until it is fixed I will use the ear jarring shop vac.

My new TV arrived and we managed to get it set up. I also managed to get the android box set up and working with the help of some wonderfully instructive texts from Kris.

I even managed some sewing (also knitting in the evenings).

This quilt is the replacement for Harvey's morning snuggle quilt. The old one was even beyond mending.

This quilt will be used for our family reunion silent auction. Hope it raises a few dollars as what is raised is used to pay for our big family supper the next year. We didn't do very well last year so I am thinking we might have to pay a bit this year.

I even managed to get another long awaited project completed.

These knit wide legged pants have been waiting in the sewing room for awhile. Just need to wash and press them now. Super comfortable!!

Rhubarb has been picked and frozen. With the cool weather I am hoping to get a few more harvests before my plants go to seed.

Harvey got some tickets for one of his beloved Saskatchewan Roughrider games. I kind of want to pick up another two tickets for him for Father's Day tomorrow and will do so early. Must go to see the game between the Riders and Blue Bombers on Labour Day. It is a tradition. He did give up his season tickets as the drive home from late night games was a problem.

So there you have the last week in pretty much a nutshell.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Fun and Hobbies The Frugal Way

There are so many hobbies that a person can get started with, and many of those cost very little or can be done on the "cheap" as people say.

Both Harvey and I stay away from hobbies that cost a great deal to get involved in. Most of our hobbies are free or very low cost. The ones that do cost we try to do as inexpensively as possible.

Take for instance my sewing. I search rummage sales, second hand stores, sale fabric, or even on sale bedding. I have been known to cut down older clothing into squares to be used for quilts, and I use old blankets and pillow stuffing as my own stuffing for new pillows or quilts.  Scraps from sewing projects are collected and also cut into useable quilt squares or strips. Buttons and zippers collected from older unusable clothing to use in other projects down the road. Really the only things I am willing to pay for are thread and patterns, and I am considering more and more about getting my patterns for free from the internet.

Yarn wise, I have never paid full price for yarn. I search the same places as I do for fabric, and have been known to recycle hand knits into balls of yarn to use in projects. Every last bit of my yarn is used up, even the tiny pieces are collected and put out in the spring for the birds to use making their nests. The internet abounds with free patterns.

Cross stitching is a bit more expensive. However finding free patterns online, or trading patterns with friends does keep the cost a bit more reasonable.

I love to read, and while I do buy the occasional book (okay, probably more then the occasional book) I have taken to getting free on line books, and books from the library more and more.  Not only is my library a good source of books, they also carry movies, music, and magazines. A one stop shopping trip for any avid reader, movie lover or music lover. There are also a great many on line free book sources as well. Project Gutenburg comes to mind, as well as Book Bub, and Amazon has lots of free reading material for Kindle.

I love to hike, and even walking around my own neighbourhood gives me ideas for redoing my yard or colours to paint the house. Landscaping ideas abound. Sometimes I even get free seeds or cuttings from people I speak to.

Harvey loves crossword puzzles and he finds loads of them free online. He spends an hour or so every morning working on them.

The fact is the internet gives a person a great many free ideas for their hobby. Anything from crosswords, suduko, free photography lessons, youtube videos on crochet, free patterns, and wonderful recipes for those of us who use cooking as a hobby.

Probably the best advice I can give anyone is to find a hobby that the initial cost is not sky high, and that if a person wishes to continue a hobby they don't have to keep paying for that hobby. One that comes to mind is golf. You buy the clubs, you buy the balls and then you have to pay (sometimes a great deal) every time you want to play the game.

Find a hobby that you can enjoy that once you buy the essentials the cost to keep that hobby is negligible.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saving Money and Having Fun Doing It

One of the other ways I manage to save a little bit of cash is to make my own decor.

A few years ago I made drapery for the school I worked at and one of the perks of the job (along with making some ready cash) was that I got to keep the leftover fabric to use for other projects.

This past week I pulled the fabric (or at least some of it) out and decided it was time to do something. I have wanted to make new drapery for our hall since we repainted this spring and this is what I came up with.

Notice the slight brown line just above the hem? I pulled out the stabilizer and some brown embroidery thread and added a bit to them.

Here is a close up of the embroidery.

 

 So for very little cost (the cost of the thread only) and a bit of time at my sewing machine, I managed to get drapes for our hall way. Total cost......$3.59. Not bad at all considering when pricing them out I figured I would have spent ten times that amount!!

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Valentine's Day Is Coming

It has been a few days since I posted anything. I am still alive and kicking. Busy getting ready for Valentine's Day and trying out a new recipe.

I had some leftover chicken from our Sunday Dinner and decided to make a totally new recipe tonight for supper. Harvey loved it and had second helpings. I did change the recipe up a bit as I did not have some of the ingredients to hand. It still tasted wonderful.

Here it is.

Chicken and Mushroom Pasta

Company's Coming Leftover Cookbook

3 cups medium bow pasta ( I used penne)

12 cups boiling water

2 tsp salt

Cook pasta in boiling water and salt in a large pot for about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender but firm. Drain. Return to pot. Cover to keep warm.

1 tbsp oil

1 cup thinly sliced onion

Heat oil in frying pan. Add onion and cook for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring often until onion is softened.

2 cups sliced white mushrooms

2 cups sliced brown mushrooms

1/2 tsp garlic powder

I did not have fresh mushrooms so used 2 cans of drained mushrooms. Add these to the cooked onion and cook for about 5 minutes. Or if using fresh until liquid is evaporated.

3/4 cup chicken broth

4 oz cream cheese cut up

Add broth to the mushroom mixture and bring to a boil. Add cut up cream cheese. Heat and stir until cheese is melted.

1 cup chopped leftover cooked chicken

1 tbsp dried parsley

Add chicken and parsley to the frying pan. Heat and stir until chicken is heated through. Add to pasta. Toss. Makes about 6 cups. Enough to serve 4.

Now for the fun stuff. I had a great deal of chocolate left from Christmas and decided to pull out the lollipop molds. I have been busy making Chocolate Lollipops for the students. Harvey thought they were so cute he asked me if I could make a few extra for the girls at work.

Hopefully I will be finished up tonight.

Well off to visit you all, hope the coffee is still on.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.