Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!! The night of ghosts and goblins.

We don't get many trick or treaters anymore, it seems as if most people take their children to the fancier, newer part of town. We have only had three so far and it is almost 7 pm. Hoping for a few more.

This is the extent of my decorating for today.

A plug in jack o lantern and a plaster skull that Kurt made years ago. I stick those battery run candles in the skull just to light it up a little bit.  Got two more visitors as I was typing this. So a total of five up to now.

Supper was wonderful. In keeping with one of my goals to make new and different meals, tonight I made Maple Salmon.

This is what it looked like before it went in the oven. I didn't get a picture of the finished product as we gobbled it up almost within minutes it was so good.

The recipe is on All recipes. Google Maple Salmon and it will show up immediately.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thursday Tid Bits

Something is wrong with me, I still have not regained my get up and go. I had to force myself to do anything at all today. Sure the weather is dreary. Cloudy and cold, but I have never had this feeling of lassitude before. Perhaps I am just getting tired.

I did spend a bit of time working in my sewing room. Slowly but surely things are getting back to normal (or as close to normal as possible with my wicker rocker residing in the room). A few years ago when I started to organize the room I bought these baskets as storage for my patterns.

My patterns no longer reside in these baskets and they were sitting on the floor empty. I just couldn't bring myself to give them away and so spent some time today thinking about what I should do with them.

Then it hit me (almost like a ton of bricks, I now understand that saying) when I opened my cupboard in the bath. I took one look at all the soaps, sample sized lotions, shampoos and conditioners that I had sort of put away in there and decided these baskets were just perfect.

All those soaps that were part of gift sets or that we brought home from our travels went into one basket.

Masques, bath gel samples, and foot creams went in this basket.

Sample shampoos, sample conditioners, and those shampoos and conditioners from our various trips were put in this basket.

Sample, gift and those lotions from trips went in this basket.

This sure cleaned out the overflowing cupboard and made things easier to find and use up before buying even more.

Shopping at home, what a wonderful way to save money and use items that might otherwise have been given away. I feel very frugal. I must remember to do this more often!!!

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Wednesday Update

We only had 9 meals to deliver today which cut our away time down, but still I did not really do much today. My get up and do seems to have got up and gone. In fact I fell asleep in the recliner this afternoon instead of baking or working on my cross stitch! I am going to blame the new mattress we got. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

I did manage to work up the energy to finish with the scrap material in the sewing/craft room and to put a few more items in their proper places. Still can use a bit more cleaning and I will continue with that.

I also sewed more cord onto the rug project and since it has been awhile since I updated everyone on it's progress I thought I would share a photo with all of you.

As you can see it is growing. I have about 1/3 of the ball left of the variegated yarn and I managed to do another batch of cord making after the sewing. Here is hoping I get this ball finished off quickly so I can start on the last colour.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday Tid Bits

This is the week that Harvey and I are delivering Meals on Wheels. It kind of divides up the day and I don't seem to get as much done, but it is one volunteer activity that we can do together.

So other then that what did I do today?

Well I have started tidying my sewing/craft room yet again after Harvey put the rocker in there room is at a premium.

I decided that the first thing I should do is start to work on the scrap material that has been piling up just waiting to be turned into something useful.

I thought I would start with the denim that I scrounged from old jeans and the scraps that were left from the pair of denim shorts I made this summer. All is now nicely cut into usable quilting squares.

I worked on my cross stitch but had to stop as the light was not good enough for all the half stitches in the dove I am working on right now. Hopefully tomorrow I will finish it and move on to another section.

I sewed some cord onto the rug and in a little while I will start to make more of the cord. I would really like to get this rug finished early.

Next I made some cupcakes.

Here they are just out of the oven. They are now iced and ready to be put away before I head to bed and before Shania decides to help herself to a treat.

So as you can all see a fairly laid back Tuesday on the old homestead.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Menu Monday

The last week in October, and things are rapidly cooling off here at the old Homestead. In fact the forecast for today is rain, turning to wet snow in the afternoon. Sure hope we don't get lots of snow as I really would like the children to have a decent Halloween.

Here are my supper menus for the upcoming week.

Monday
Chili and toast.

Tuesday
Leftover pork made into a casserole

Wednesday
Leftover Chili served on pasta or rice.

Thursday
Clean out the fridge.

Friday
Baked Salmon, mashed potatoes, and peas

Saturday
I plan on cooking down some poultry bones today so supper tonight will be soup and some kind of sandwich.

Sunday
Roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans and gravy.

Lunches will be leftovers or a sandwich.

Everybody have a wonderful day.

God bless.

Sunday Happenings

Well today is almost over and I am so thankful that it is.

I did not get to do anything I really enjoy (other then attend Mass), but I am sure I will set aside some time to do things that make me happy tomorrow or I will be one grouchy person by the end of the day.

The day started off wonderfully. Mass was well attended, and I sang my heart out (it is the only place I am allowed to sing, Harvey doesn't like me singing in the car if he is with me). Such an uplifting homily by Father Brian. He spoke about what love looks like and it really made me think. I hope that I show love each and everyday to everyone I meet.

Then it was home where Harvey made us a great brunch of bacon, toast and eggs. Yummy. Even though I did have to do the dishes at least I did not have to cook.

Then came the less lovely things. I had to attend a meeting about 30 miles away. Said meeting started at 2:30 and I was hoping to be home by 4. Needless to say I was not home until almost 5:30 and had to phone Harv to put on the potatoes and carrots as well. Supper was rushed, I had to return phone calls that came in while I was gone, and do the supper clean up.

I also got another job for myself at the meeting (actually two jobs). One when we were talking about Prayer Vigils (these are done the night before a funeral, some know them better as Prayer Services) I mistakenly mentioned that I had been trained by the gentleman who does most of these a few years back.... Guess who will now be doing some of these. Yep me. How do you say no to your pastor when he asks if he can add you to the list. The second job I picked up is writing something for our bulletin in regards to a workshop for this and Sunday Liturgy of the Word trainings. Oops forgot I actually have a third job and that is to get a hold of our Diocesan Social Justice person and give him some information on the Sisters of Life based out of New York.

Hmmm, am I feeling the love from my fellow council members as of yet. More to the point, perhaps I should learn to keep my head down.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Why?

The last few days I have really felt like doing very little at all. Seems as if with the change in the number of daylight hours we are receiving, my productivity has gone down in proportion. I am hoping that part of the reason is because I did not do up a to do list, thereby making it seem as if I have nothing at all to do.

I did go for a walk this morning and once home admired our new backyard gate.

Harvey made it to more or less match the one he made on the side of the house earlier this summer. I feel a bit more closed in once again and this does make the yard seem a bit more private.

As I turned, the cherry trees caught my eyes. They have finally turned colour and it is such a pretty colour. I just had to snap a photo.

A beautiful orange yellow, with a bit of gold added in.

In order for me to feel like I accomplished something today, I worked on my cross stitch. Here is an update.

Slowly but surely I am seeing big changes. Mind you right now I am working on the flower bands which mean changing my threads way more than usual. I have also noticed that these take much longer to get done with a greater chance of making an error. Don't think I will be finished this at the end of this month.

I also picked out three of the five dress patterns to sew once some of my other projects are done. I even found fabric in my stash that should work with each.

I plan on making the long sleeved version of this one out of this blue flowered challis.

The long sleeved version of this pattern will be made in this medium weight cotton blend.

The knee length version will be made out of this printed cord fabric. I would love to make the longer version, but just do not have enough fabric in my stash to make it..... Perhaps when I buy the fusible interfacing I will check and see if there is anything suitable on sale at Fabricland.

I am trying to update my wardrobe without spending much at all and using up some of my fabric stash before Harvey decides I really am a hoarder.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.