November is blowing in

November started off like a prelude to winter. It's cold and raining.  A few degree drop and this rain could easily turn to snow.  Brrrr.  Time to start thinking about making an appointment to get my winter tires on.  

My day started with meeting some of my gal pals for breakfast at a downtown church.  Pancakes, eggs, sausage and baked beans.  And I even got to have a little cuddle with my friend's new 3 week old granddaughter.  What a sweetie!

I hadn't started raining yet but the sky was darkening.  I have wanted to give my back lawn one last mowing but all last week was too wet.  So I raced home and got it done and then a friend came over to winterize my lawnmower and get it all put away in the back of the garage.  It's nice to have that done.  And it wasn't long after we finished and it started to rain.  Glad I didn't procrastinate (like usual). 

Oh, and I made another batch of biscuits.  I think I've got the trick now.  All warm from the oven with molasses.   Perfect little lunch!

Tonight I'll just cozy up in front of the tv and stay warm.  Tomorrow I might try sweet and sour meatballs in the slow cooker.  Haven't made those in a long time. 

Millie survived Halloween and was happy when the trick or treaters all went home.  There were not as many kids out this year. I think we had 30-35 so there are lots of leftover treats.  (What a shame, right?) wink wink 

Happy Halloween (?)

This photo is a few years old.  Millie won't really tolerate getting dressed anymore.  I guess we all get more cantankerous when we get older :)

Tomorrow night all the little Trick or Treaters (aka candy beggars) will invade.  Millie will be almost psychotic by the time it's over.  She hates it.  She will be hoarse from barking.  Banging on the door, strange kids trying to grab and paw at her.  But leave her alone in another room?  That's worse.  The barking is inter-mingled with squealing wails of despair.  Not fun for anyone! 

Happy Halloween?  Don't think so :)

Fall Sunday Random

Whoa, posts from me three days in a row.  I'm on fire!  Lol.  First this wet weather system just won't leave.  It's STILL raining.  It feels like it's been raining for a month.  I'm soggy.  I feel like I could start to sprout any day now.  I need some sun!

I was in the backyard today and my neighbor was out putting out some Halloween decorations.  I told her to stop, she was making me look like the only house on the block with no festive spirit!  But I can't go out buying decorations --- I still have no kitchen curtains!  This grown-up priorities thing is really starting to get on my nerves. Lol 

However, I do have a festive bowl of gourds in my living room. 

But I think I'm going to have to throw them out.  The ones are the bottom are all soft and whizzled up.  Honestly, I didn't know gourds went bad.  I was hoping to be able to keep them until I could fill the bowl with Christmas stuff but I guess I need an interim filler. 

I stopped to drop of something to aunties today and as I parked in the yard a giant crow landed on the roof.  It was one of the biggest I've ever seen.  He even posed for me

I'm sure I had a couple of other random snippets to share but of course as soon as I started typing my thoughts disappeared.  The weekend ended to soon.  In a few hours it's back to the grind.  

From failure to redemption

Today's topic - tea biscuits.  My grandmother made the best biscuits.  She could whip up a batch and have them in the oven before you could blink.  And I never saw her measure anything.  A handful of this, a pinch of that - and they were perfect every time.  I don't know if she ever had an actual recipe but if she did, she took it with her to heaven.

For some reason I've always been intimidated to try them but it's been a goal to make an edible batch.  Today was the day.  I went to the Crisco site for a recipe. I mean you'd think they would have a perfect recipe right?

Wrong!  Here is the first batch

Flat, dry and rock hard.  Seriously suitable for use as hockey pucks! I should call the organizers of The Stanley Cup to see if they would like to purchase them.   I was deflated and about to wave the white flag of surrender.  Then my Momma's stubborn streak appeared and I searched other recipes.  I found one in a Taste of Home magazine and I started all over again.

Are you ready??   Look at these beautiful, high and fluffy delights....

And as an added bonus, they were delicious!  A perfect compliment to the beef "stoup" I made earlier. If your new here "stoup" is my version of more than a soup, less than a stew.  ;)

What the heck, here's one more picture because they're just so dang pretty!

Here is the link to the recipe 

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/fluffy-biscuits

Queen for a day

Well to be fair, it was half a day.  There's been a lot going on here. (Hence my lack of posts) I'll elaborate more in a future post.  But let's get back to today.  

This morning a pesky Nor'easter storm was blowing through.  It was raining like a son-of-a-gun, the wind was blowing and it was cold and damp.  By late morning I had enough.  I made an impromptu decision to take the afternoon off and cuddle up at home.  On my way home I made a quick stop to the grocery store for supplies.  And then I went home, put on some slobby, comfy clothes and curled up with Millie and a blanket.  The heater was on and it was heaven. 

I watched Bridesmaids on Netflix, had a couple of glasses of red wine and ate some Mars bars.  Yes, I said bars (plural).  Don't judge :). After supper I had a nice long hot bath, followed by lots of lotions and potions.  Reeeeelaxing!!  

And I'm spending the rest of the evening with 2 fine gentlemen.......Wolf Blass red label and Orville Redenbacher :)

Sometimes you just need to put life on pause and just wind down in your castle.  TGIF folks!

Weather, walls, and water

We had a nice little surprise today.  A gorgeous, warm, balmy day.  So rare for this late in October but loved it.  I've been a bad blogger lately.  It's been a busy week and it seems there was little time for computers.  

My cousin the contractor arrived this week.  He finally got to my To-Do list.  I had an extra doorway in my living room.  It's bothered me since I moved in.  Here is the "before" picture

That doorway to the left of the tv leads into a closet area and then the bathroom.  But as you can see, you can also enter that area from the den.  So Mike has dry walled it in for me.  He has to come back for a little more work (mudding) and then I can prep the rest of the walls.  Here it is now, with a wall

I love it and can't wait to paint.   He also insulated under my eaves upstairs in the little cubby hole doors.  There are 3 of these little "hobbit doors" upstairs.  It should make the upstairs much warmer this winter.

But as usual, with the good comes the bad.  I threw in a load of laundry tonight.  Luckily I left the basement door open.  After the washer started to run for a few minutes I heard water.  Not the gentle sloshing of water filling a tub......the sound of water rushing......

Yup, that's soapy water all over the floor.  I ran down the stairs and water was shooting out everywhere.  Quickly I stopped the machine and found a hose off.  After a few minutes I figured out where the hose was "supposed"to be and shoved it back in.

I managed to finish the load but I think I've just added another thing to Mike's to-do list.  Now it time to dust off the hooking frame.  Cheese puffs in the oven and a glass of Pinot Grigio.  Happy Saturday !

Brrrrr

Fall temps have arrived with a vengeance. It's downright chilly.  Although it pained me to do it, I had the furnace running today.  

I thought I'd do a little blog catch up on some stuff that happened before I got sick.  The day before the flu took over I got a call from a friend.  Her neighbor was having a big yard sale the next day as she had to move quickly.  She was selling almost everything.  But lucky me got invited to go over the night before the sale and get first pick.  

The first thing that caught my eye was an old tin.  As long as I can remember my grandmother had an old tin she kept buttons in.  I always played with it as a child so when I moved I brought it with me.  Silly to keep an old beat up tin but it reminded me of her.  Well, this lady had an identical tin, a bit larger but in perfect condition.  I had to have it. 

I also grabbed a pottery wine chiller and a lacy runner.  And a set of 3 blue Pyrex mixing bowls.

And one day while digging through the basement at Aunties house I found this old metal stand.  I thought it would be cute cleaned up as a coffee station.  It was originally white but quite filthy and rusty.  I got some red rust paint and spruced it up.

Taadahh!   Looks kind of cute, don't ya think?

I'm working on a small hooked piece that was a Facebook challenge from Lori Brechlin.  Stay tuned for my version of Santa Claws :)

Tomorrow is turkey day!  Happy Canadian Thanksgiving 

The bad, the good, and the messy

The above image explains my recent absence from blogville.  I had the worst flu bug.  I missed over a week of work.  I just couldn't do anything.  I do appreciate the blogger friends who messaged me to check in and see if I was ok.  And also my local friends who delivered me treats and medications.   I've been back to work for a couple of days and I'm feeling better despite the nagging cough that won't seem to leave.  I had several fever-induced stories to share but they seem less funny in the light of a normal body temperature.  

Now for "the good" part.  My car registration had expired.  I knew I was pushing my luck everyday so today I had to go the the Registry of Motor Vehicles.   And I only had time on my lunch break.  This place is usually a nightmare of waiting in lines forever and I figured lunch time would be the worst.  I walked in, took a number from the machine and turned the corner........the place was empty.  EMPTY.....that never happens!  I was in and out in a matter of minutes.  I should have left there and bought a lottery ticket because it felt like my lucky day.  

.....but things changed again later.  I had a nice bowl of leftover pasta and sauce in the fridge for supper.  Grocery shopping is tomorrow night so this was going to be perfect.  I put it in a bowl, heated in the microwave and on my way to the table......it slipped out of my hands 

On the floor, on my pants, on the front of the oven and the cupboards.  The bowl resting upside down about 2 feet away from this mess......   Not only was I mad, I was also still hungry and now had to scrub the kitchen!  Supper consisted of a bag of chips and a handful of cookies while I muttered about the mess and how stupid I was.

This weekend I will get back around to your blogs.  

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?"