Damp Spring Morning

This morning was very damp, you could feel it in the air.

You could see it too. This is the park across the street from my house. There was a very pretty mist hanging over it today.

The dew was dripping from some of the trees.

It was kind of dreamy looking and the birds were all singing. Finally, it looks like spring is here. I know we will still have some snow, the chances of it are always there. But for the most part, it's spring!!

Hope you are having weather that makes you happy where you are. :)



Project For A New Baby

Two weeks ago I went to a baby shower for Ron's cousin. Her friend made her the most beautiful quilt/blanket with wonderful patterned fabrics. The wheels started turning in my head.

Hmmmm...

Ron's niece is having a baby in August.

Maybe if I start now, I will get it done in time for her shower.

Here are the fabrics I bought to make it.

His niece and her husband do not know if they are having a boy or a girl so I'm trying to keep it neutral. You know, a little of each. I hope they like it.

I have never made a quilt before, but my sister Margaret said she would help me with it. She said I need to make my pattern pieces out of plastic so when I cut the fabric with my rotary cutter, I won't shave a bit off of the pattern with each pass. Margaret has a roll of such plastic and she said I could use it. I have to get it from her so I can start.

 I'm really excited about this project. I will keep you updated as I go along.

(Now don't all of you take bets on whether or not I'll finish it)

Thanks for stopping by!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

So chicken gets eaten a lot around here. It seems as though I have a thousand recipes for it. While I'm doing my menu planning, I try to only make it once a week, or on Monday and Thursday/Friday so there are a few days in between.

This week I made Chicken with Honey and 4-Spice Seasoning.

It's delicious. Make sure you cook enough chicken pieces because it will be gone. Fast.

First of all, I made my own 4-spice seasoning. It calls for:

2 tablespoons ground white pepper

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon ground cloves

Here is the recipe for the chicken.

1 chicken cut into pieces or selected pieces of chicken.

2 garlic cloves

3 tablespoons honey

5oz soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon 4-spice seasoning

pepper, salt, olive oil

In a cooking pot on a medium heat, brown the pieces of chicken on each side in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the garlic crushed in a garlic press, then the honey.

Leave to cook for a minute, then turn the pieces over so that they are well coated. Add the soy sauce, the 4-spice seasoning and the pepper. Leave to cook slowly over a medium heat for about 25 minutes.

Check the seasoning, and remembering that the soy sauce is already salted, add salt to your taste.

 

I served this with rice and green beans. It was delicious, and like I said before, there was not enough chicken. Next time I may buy more chicken pieces and brown them in stages. I have a large pot and there still was not enough room to comfortably brown all I had. Then I might reserve some of the sauce out of the pot so I can pour it over the top of the chicken to make sure it all gets coated.

I hope you get the chance to enjoy this, it's delicious!

Window Dressing

We had a 65 degree day on Wednesday. I also saw 3 robins on my walk with Rory.
I now have spring fever.

So I have started my spring cleaning.

I started in the dining room, it's the easiest. ;)

I am always trying to come up with a new way to cover my windows in this room.

These lace curtains are so 1994, when I put them up. Also, when I wash them, they shrink, even if I don't put them in the dryer.

Does anyone have any ideas about what I can do here?

My windows are quite large, so I need to have something over them for privacy. So many catalogs and magazines show bare windows. At the same time, I hate to block out the light. This window faces the north, so the sun never comes in here. The other window faces my neighbor's house, but the sun comes in late in the day so I don't want to completely block this one either. Any suggestions? I would love to hear from you!

Time Marches...

...on.

I know I have been away for quite a while. I have unfortunately been sunk in my usual winter doldrums. I hate them, but I cannot avoid them for some reason. I don't want to complain about the winter since it has been very mild here, but it seems like we still haven't had much sunshine. That is the part that gets me.

Anyhow, time keeps moving, and even though I haven't felt like doing much, we still had a lot going on here.

For any of you who were following me this time last year, you know the very difficult time my daughter was having in a large public school after spending her life in a small Catholic elementary school. Well, we pulled her out and sent her to the local Catholic high school and the change has been astounding.

She just finished basketball season, she couldn't even touch the team last year. (I know this is blurry, but I thought it was such a cool action shot).

She was inducted into the National Honor Society (in a candlelight, hard-to-photograph ceremony).

She signed her name in the official book.

We are so proud of her and it will only continue. I'm not one to brag about my kids, but she was so downtrodden last year, I want to shout her new accomplishments from the rooftops.

Softball tryouts started today, so hopefully the blessings will continue.

Winter doldrums or no, we went to the hockey game. lol. Gotta do something fun, right?

We had Valentines, then my birthday, then Big V's birthday.

It was her 16th.

So...

...now we drive.

She has been doing very well. Of course, since her dad is a policeman, she has been driving in the park after school for the last year, but there isn't much traffic there. Or curbs.

Today I am thankful for the sun shining, finally.

We are supposed to have some warmer, nice weather for the next two days. I'm excited to have a breath of spring. It makes me start to think about my garden and projects I want to do out back. I just know I will be late starting the projects and next thing it will be 80 degrees and too hot to do anything but lay by the pool. I'm looking forward to getting some motivation to get things done. Spring cleaning always helps me feel better, maybe I'll start that tomorrow. :)

Hope you have a great night, and thank you for checking back in on me, even though I was M.I.A.



St. Valentines Day Project

I finally got to take some photos of my St Valentine's Day crafty that I made.

I've had these paper heart shaped doilies for years. I cut out some of the centers and I cut some hearts out of the sheet music I got from my dad's house last week.

I remember when I was a kid, my mom had some large round paper doilies. I loved to take skinny markers and color each circular level a different color. :)

Anyhoo, I attached these hearts to a skinny red ribbon.

Just for kicks, I took two sheet music hearts and stapled them together. Then I separated the hearts and made it 3-D.  I attached them to the doily hearts with some monofilament.

This week was crazy, and I was having some eye problems. But all is well again. One thing that was on the to do list this week:

Rory went to the groomer.

 She ran around like a mad dog when she got home and then went to lay under the dining room table. Then she looked like she wasn't happy about it.

Ooh, is she ever soft after her bath. My sweet little puppy. :) I took the bow and such out of her fur. Then she went and rubbed her head along the side of the couch and she rolled around on the carpet.

Hope you enjoy your Sunday!

Friday Treasures, Saturday's Words

Once again this week I went out estate sale-ing and thrifting.

At the estate sale I found these...

...two folding rules, two foot long.

They unfold in two directions, if you can see here.

Next I went to a thrift store in the city. I love this store because its huge and they have more furniture and dinnerware than some of the ones nearer to my house.

I found...

...a big Buffalo China platter.

If you remember my recent post with the painted china platters, I said if I found a bigger platter I would want to keep it and not paint it. Well, I found one and now I'm not sure what to do with it. lol

I also picked up this really cute chair for $6.

Little V needs a chair for her desk, and since her room is ultra tiny, it has to be a folding one so it can be stowed away. (The desk hangs on the wall. My dad made it. Maybe someday, if she cleans it off, I can show it to you).

Anyhoo, I'm not a big fan of the green, and her room is pink for the time being, so I will probably paint it white. I've been looking for a homemade chalk paint project anyhow so, for a few dollars, this can be it.

I have joined the Sister Bloggers at SaMiE Designs . Check out this program if you get the chance. They pair seasoned bloggers with newer bloggers to help each other along. I am excited to get started with this. Please check out my new sister Danni at Silo Hill Farm .

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl. Hope you enjoy the commercials and drive safely!

Have a great weekend!!!

Thank you for dropping in to see what I'm up to. It really means a lot to me. :)

Foggy Weather and A Project At Dad's

Today the weather started out warm, but got colder as the morning went on.

A light fog came in.

I went out to my dad's house to work on a project. He said he would help me. :) As I was driving down his street, I stopped to grab a few shots of the foggy morning.

The farmer's field.

So, I hate to have to admit this, but I am a procrastinator. I'm sure anyone who has been following me for a while will attest to that. I have not started to work on my bentwood chairs that I posted about a long time ago. I really don't have a good workspace and definitely don't have the tools. So my daddy said he would help me and I should come for lunch too.

Here are the chairs before we started.

The caning is all broken, and my dad already cut me some plywood circles for new seats. I originally wanted to paint the chairs black, and I even bought the paint. But for some reason, I changed my mind and now I want them stained.

My dad cut away the top of the seat, but the caning goes in and out of those little holes four or five times each. We used a nail set/punch to push it through.

Here is one without the caning.

It took us about and hour and a half to get it all done.   We put a coat of paint stripper on the one chair to see if it would work. My dad had this stripper for a while and we didn't know if it was any good. Turns out it wasn't so we have to get some new stuff and try again. We watched The Price is Right and had lunch.

Right now, my dad's own project is a rocking horse for my niece's son.

It's nearly done, just has to be varnished and put together. Oh, plus it needs a tail and a mane.

While I was there, I looked through my mom's recipe box and found a bunch to copy. I also went through some old sheet music and grabbed a bit of that for a craft project.

Stay tuned for more on the bentwoods. Now that my dad is involved, they will actually get done!

Thanks for stopping in!