Small task, big smile

There are lots of little jobs to do around here. And when I get one scratched off the list it makes me so happy.   When they moved the washer/dryer out of the kitchen it left 3 holes in the floor.  I have had them covered by a big ugly bookshelf.  All I could think of was spiders crawling up from the basement through those holes.  (Shudder)

But today a friend came by at lunch time and put plugs in the holes, screwed them in and put a little silicone around the edges.  Nothing's crawling up here now!!

And this meant I could move the bookshelf down to the basement for storage shelves.  Another nice bonus.  But with everything there is always a down side.  I cleared off the shelves to move it.  I've just been sticking stuff on the shelves to get stuff out of my way.   So now I have a new mess

I knew that having the table cleared off for the past few weeks was too good to last.  Guess I'll have to get another storage bin for this stuff tomorrow. 

I'm on a mission to find a funky old style cupboard for the now vacant spot in the kitchen.  I have had no luck so far but I did contact someone to see how much it would cost to build me something. 

I saw this on Pinterest tonight.  I wish I had it or a reasonable facsimile 

I'm dreaming of antique cupboards instead of having nightmares about creepy basement spiders.  

One question answered, one asked

I'll start by saying this is not the post I intended to write today.  I was "planning" on boasting about finishing my rug.  However that is not meant to be.  Instead I finally have the answer to why I despite, no loath, nope-- hate binding rugs!!

Let's start at the beginning shall we..... I found my sewing machine in the back of the upstairs closet.  

The fact that it was hiding should have been my first clue.   However I was still delusion enough to think I could quickly zigzag around my rug and be on my merry way.  Hrmpph ....... Yeah right.   

It started out fine.  I happilly pushed on the petal and it whirred right along. Well, for a minute. And then I could hear a bumping, clunk noise.  And then it stopped. Not the noise, the machine stopped.  Once I pryed it from the machine, this is what I found

What's up with that???  So I untangled the threads in the machine and re-threaded it.  Wheeeee, away I went again.......for about 4 inches.  Arrgghhhh!!!

This friggin happened about 6 more times before I finally..........finally got all the way around.  By then, naturally, I was "in a mood".  All the while muttering "this is why I hate binding rugs" -- over and over again as my blood pressure continued to rise.  

You would think this sad story might stop here.....but you would be wrong.  I grabbed the scissors to trim off the excess.....and since I was "in a mood", I was a little wild with the scissors AND.....

......I cut the last corner wrong.  WHY??  WHY???   

So this finally explains why I hate binding rugs.  But it raises a new question.  Why is my sewing machine doing that?  I have a lot of crafty followers -  HELP ME 

And more importantly "Why does my sewing machine hate me so much?"

I love surprises

Really, what's better than fun surprises?  Answer: Nothing!   Yesterday I came home from work and found a package in my mailbox. And even better, it wasn't a bill, it was a lovely housewarming gift from 2 sweet blog friends - Lauren and Cathy.  

Isn't it sweet?  And so me :). It will hang proudly in my kitchen.   Thank you ladies. 

Then today I got a mid afternoon invite for after work Happy Hour at my friend Sharon's house. She also my official household bargain finder.  Nice way to end the week 

So after a little wine and some gabbing I came home with no ideas for supper. And no groceries.  And what did I find??  A bag tied to my back door knob with a container of chili.  Yay!!  

Happy Weekend 

Meet Queen

Finally!!  I've finished hooking a rug. It seemed to take forever but it feels good.  This is "Queen" - a pattern from Payton Primitives

I will bind this one before I start a new one.  I swear!  (If I can find where I hid the sewing machine)

Chilly

Oh yes, Fall has arrived.  It's been chilly. Now where are those hot flashes when I need them??  Lol. I dug out my favorite warm blanket. It's so soft and fluffy and it felt so cozy when I pulled it up around me last night.  It made this morning exceptionally hard to get out of bed. 

I also broke down tonight and went and bought one of those portable electric infrared heaters. It works great and is very quiet.  It heated up the living room nicely this evening.  And it's not totally ugly like some of them.

Maybe the cool temps have creeped into my mood too. I'm feeling a little crabby lately.   Last night my favorite show started - Dancing With The Stars - and I was uninterested.  I watched a little and then went to bed before it was over.  And have you seen the new View?  I always enjoyed watching it while I was home for lunch.  It sucks! 

All this cold hearted stuff has made me reach for a simple comfort - a nice pile of soft, pretty wool

Ahhh, thats so much better.  Now I'm a warm and cozy Happy Hooker. 

It's over so soon

The weekends go by quicker all the time.  This one was no exception.  I had a bad headache hit Thursday.  It lasted through most of Friday but I felt better in the evening.  Hence the laundry and wine. Only one glass.  So I shouldn't have woken up at 4am with the return of the headache. Saturday I layed down on the couch after breakfast while I waited for the pain killers to kick in.  I can never nap during the day.  Well the next thing I knew my phone was ringing and it was 1pm.  A 3 hour nap!!

Thank goodness the phone rang or I might have slept all day. 

All day Saturday and again today.  Today it wasn't as intense so I did do some housework and washed a few blankets.  And I made a chicken stew type casserole for supper.  It was a recipe I saw on Facebook. It wasn't too bad but next time I will tweek it a little.  It needed a little more pizzazz.

And I picked up my frame to hook a bit.  I'm working on the tongues at the edges.  Not sure if I'm happy with them yet but I'll decide once I get both ends hooked.  Then I can change if it needs it.  I just need to finish one piece to get my mojo back. 

Well, back to the frame with a cup of tea.  I hope your Monday is quick and productive. (Mine included)

Laundry and Chardonnay

Yay, it's Friday.  But sadly I am celebrating with a load of laundry and a glass of Chardonnay.   Woohoo, what a party girl!!  

I tried to write posts all week but nothing worthy seemed to happen.  I did come into possession of another giant zucchini so I see more shredding and baking in my future.  My thumb just healed from the last shred-fest!

The most exciting thing to happen all week was I discovered my new furnace actual works. It was cold enough Tuesday for the furnace to kick in.  I was momentarily excited and then realized that the expensive part of Fall was upon us.  Luckily it's warmed up since that one little chilly blip. 

Tomorrow I'm going to check out the antique stores again.  I'm moving the bookshelf out of the kitchen and into the basement for storage and I need a small table or kitchen cart type piece to replace it.  

Oh, and here is a bit of info to share.  If you have an e-reader like a kindle or similar device you should check out Bookbub.  It's free to sign up and you select the types of books you like to read and everyday you get an email with suggestions to download.  Every day at least a couple are free or up to $2.99.  I've discovered several good books to add.  It's a great and inexpensive way to fill up on books .   Even if you find 1 a week that interests you, it's worth it for free.  

Just call me Suzy

Yes, I'm still in the nesting phase.  Just call me Suzy Homemaker.   (People who know me really well are laughing really hard right now).  I know this phase will eventually end and I will return to thinking housework bites, but for now I'm riding the wave. 

This morning I settled on a couple of zucchini bread recipes and started shredding like a demon.  First up was a chocolate zucchini bread.  Turned out really well and was so tasty.  

Now I'm sorry I didn't make 2 loaves.  I cut the recipe in half in case it was not good and didn't want to waste it but the recipe was a keeper.  Next time I'll make 2. 

Then it was regular zucchini bread.  Another success.

I think my baking curse may be disappearing.  These were cut in half and put in the freezer.  I had enough of that monster zucchini left to freeze 3 bags (2 cups each).   So there will be more of this bread in my future. 

The rest of the weekend I puttered around and knit a little.  I didn't pick up my hook but I need to finishing hooking the horse rug.   Every time I walk through the den I see the still untouched UFO pile

I need to get on this so I can update my etsy store.  Maybe next weekend I'll stay out of the kitchen and get binding. 

Have a great week 

.

Thursday random

Today was the first day of school in our town.  I had to laugh this morning on my way to work.  First I saw a few little ones.  I'm always amazed at the little grade 1's. So full of excitement, skipping down the sidewalk - laughing and chattering.  So anxious to learn and make new friends. 

Then a little further up the street was the bus stop for the high school.  A bunch of teenagers - sullen, heads bowed, scuffing their feet - like they were heading for a shift on the chain gang

It cracked me up.  Such a difference.  

Now switching gears......since the pie was a success I am moving on to more baking adventures.  I aim to make a pan of tea biscuits that are edible.  I tried many many years ago and well......you could have used them for hockey pucks.  

And a co-worker had a bumper crop of zucchini this year and brought the surplus in to work.   They were enormous.  This one was not even close to the largest one there.  I took a picture next to Millie so you could see it's bigger than her.  Not the best pic but she was being less than cooperative

So I think a few zucchini breads are in the future.   Any other ideas?

Make food or Be food?

The past few days, thanks mainly to lots of rain, a new batch of killer Mosquitos has hatched.  And I swear they are all living in my backyard.

One step outside and you are covered in a swarm of vicious, blood thirsty insects.  My lawn is in desperate need of being mowed and it was probably dry enough tonight to do it but I was too scared. Lol

So instead of being food for something else I made food for me.  I finally found a nice basket of fresh peaches. I've been craving a peach crumble pie.  It's one of my specialties.  Unfortunately I couldn't find my favorite recipe.  So after an internet search I found one that looked similar.  It's all in the crumble.  Here's the filling

Next the crumble topping was added (not exactly as I remembered)

And out of the oven.  The smell is amazing.  Can you smell the sweetness?  Must be cool enough to cut now.  Gotta go taste

I think this was a much better use of time, don't you think?  The lawn will still be there tomorrow.  This entire pie may not be

Happy September

I know it's not "officially" fall on September 1st but it is to me!  We are entering my favorite time of year.  Another lovely weekend.  The weather was mainly grey and drizzly but I still had a nice 3 day weekend.  (You're going to get sick of me going on about how happy I am lately but life is good these days) 

I got lots of reorganizing done in the house.  All my clothes are finally put away properly. And I spent some time thinking about paint colors and curtains.  I think I'm ready to paint the upstairs soon. I've almost settled on a color and need to pick up some paint cards to pick the right shade.  

Today was busy.  Lots of cooking to stock the freezer.  But I started out building up my strength for the day at breakfast.  Chocolate croissants and special coffee

Since it was a holiday I thought I should start it special ;).  Then I put a chicken in the oven, cut off most  of the meat and then started a chicken soup.  Here's the results ready to freeze

I also made a batch of muffin tin meatloaf, also ready for the freezer.  These two chores took me almost all day as company kept popping in. But it was ok because they were all bearing treats.  One had a pie, one had wine, and another showed up with a loaf of homemade bread that was still warm

Gwen makes the best bread!!  

I'm feeling pretty blessed these days.  Happy September all