Things I Made

 

When I first started blogging, a blog I loved was called Crap I've Made. This was before I began hooking or doing counted cross stitch. I was just going to be a gardening blog. My how I have changed or morphed. But, this is going to be that kind of blog today. I did all kinds of different things this summer. I guess you could say I branched out. 

I wanted a little pumpkin doll. Of course, my favorite sewing machine was broken. My favorite being a Singer Feather Weight. I have a couple of other machines but my little singer I know backwards and forwards. I have all of the original attachments and books. Ron being the genius he is fixed it. The last time I used it and when I broke it. I thought I could get tricky and instead of just using the machine to hem my foundation cloth, I thought I could just use that iron on stuff to hem the fabric. It didn't work very well so I decided I would just hem the fabric, well the smallest, tiniest, bit of that stitch witchery stuff got into the works. I really wanted this doll. He fixed it and then I could finally  sew her. It took way more time than I thought it should. I think I started it and then we went to North Carolina and I finished it when I got back. 

This is one of the projects I took with me to do in the truck while we were driving, but I still can't sew in the car. I always have to keep my hand in doing embroidery. My hands now will get stiff so I have to keep doing this so my fingers limber. 

I should say, that all of these patterns came from Etsy. I took this when we went to the beach. I do love to work on wool pennies. I always have to stop and do some wool projects every once in awhile. 

When my brain is tired this always restores it a bit. 

This is a Maggie Bonanomi pattern. I bought it only because I loved the chicken. I thought it was a fun little thing to work on and I will be putting all of this stuff away as Christmas is coming like a freight train. We are at the start of the supposed El Nino storms that will be coming from the pacific. I say supposed, because the rain will be torrential in other places and we get gentle showers. We have this thing called a rain shadow that really keeps the storms from hitting us. 

I hope you have all had a wonderful week. I am still working and I had a lot of work this week. Its was all good though. 

~Kim~

"The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year---the days when summer is changing into autumn---the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change."--- E.B. White

   

The Soup Chain

 

I was so excited that Robin at My Cranky Crow wanted to start a Soup chain for November. Its been a long time since I was in a blogging chain. I haven't made my soup yet, but this is what I am making for dinner tonight. For the last two years I have been on strict Keto. Plus no sugar no flour etc. You get the drift. I have lost 40 pound in the last two years. Learning to cook, has been a challenge, because I want food to be good. To live normally, and when people come over to eat, they have no clue that what they are eating is "diet food." I would say, my food is way more fattening now that it was in years previous. So today our soup will be Cream of Broccoli soup.

Not my picture, but I hope it looks like that. Since I am a competent forger I can usually get food to look like the picture.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

1/4 cup butter

1 cup diced yellow onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 quart vegetable broth or chicken broth

6 cups broccoli florets

1 cup half and half

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon hot sauce (optional)

salt and pepper

1. Melt the butter in a large pot or Dutch oven over  medium- heat, then add the onions and garlic and sauté until the onions are soft and the garlic is fragrant, about 5 minutes.

2. Pour in the broth and broccoli florets and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

3. Add the half and half, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and hot sauce, if using. Continue cooking and stirring for about 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the soup has thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Store leftover in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.

I did find a bread recipe I am going to make to go with it. I will use that for next week I think. Depending on if it is eatable. That is the hard part about Keto. Breads. Almond and Coconut flour just don't work the same way real flour works. Nor does it have that yummy scrumptious taste. Keto Cinnamon rolls are just okay, nothing like the real thing. This is the only time, I miss cooking with real flour, making Cinnamon Rolls. You know with drippy cinnamon and sugar, and cream cheese frostings and you eat it slowly getting every lovely drip. That is what I miss most when it starts to get cold. I will make them for Thanksgiving I think. They will go home to someone else's house. Its safer. 

Thank you so much Robin, I do look forward to seeing more recipes and trying them, yes, I am a bit of a foody so I do love recipes. I read recipes about as I read other books. 

~Kim~

(Not my picture.)

"November is chill, frosted mornings with silver sun rising behind the trees, red cardinals at the feeders, and squirrels running scallops along the tops of the gray stone walls."---Jean Hersey.

 

 

 

Finding Joy in Simple Life

 

I do love November. I love the way I can drive down the street and see the changing colors on the trees.

The reds, and the yellows and the browns. What I love about November, is on dreary days, I curl up with my current hooking project on my lap, and then binding rugs are so nice to sit in front of a fire and watching the flames dance in the twilight. We also put out our fire bowl and we will go outside when its dark and drink tea and visit outside with that fire too. I love these simple things I do in November. Soup and bread for dinner and life is quiet and filled with home. I am filled with gratitude for the little things that connect me to life.

Here are the rugs I worked on and finished. 

This is my turkey rug. My daughter, drew it out from a picture a friend had sent me on one of her country drives when the turkeys are everywhere. The Toms out walking with all of their wives. I do love seeing wild turkeys. 

This is from Old Tattered Flag. It is one of her doodles. I finished it yesterday. I steamed it this morning before the sun was up. Since the time change, I can't sleep past 3:30. It really makes the day seem long. 

It was a fun rug to hook. I listened to Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. Now I am listening to Bleak House by the same author. I bought Ten Charles Dickens books on Audible and I have made up my mind I am going to finish them. They are long though, 40 hours is about the norm. I think why I like them so much is that so much of the problems we have today I think are hard, are nothing like the  hard times then and we will live through hard times now. 

I bought this pattern from Theresa Kogut. I just like simple sheep and simple designs. This was a fun little rug to make. I hope to get some more hooking done this weekend. I really want to get my turkey rugs finished by Thanksgiving. 

I think I just figured out how to get my pictures. Apple and Google just don't like to play nice with each other. I decided I was going to write this post and I have experimented and tried things. I decided I didn't care if I broke something I was going to sit here and work until I could load pictures. My post I wrote earlier in the week, I had to use my old photos. It took trial and error until I think I can do it on another day. I never had this much trouble until my computer started storing things in I Cloud. I told Lauren I was a bit of a Luddite. I have a headache and I am going to go out for a brisk walk, but I am up and running, finally! One of our family mottos is " Do it by Self." Ron could have showed me but I wouldn't be able to repeat it when he isn't home. So today, I think I finally learned. Or at least I can fake it. Really, I have blogs started that I never could publish because I couldn't get pictures.

 Today, that changes. I hope you have a lovely weekend. We have migrating birds coming through. I have some tiny Japanese Maples in front of my office. I can sit in my hooking chair and watch them unobserved. Its like being in a comfortable tree house. 

I hope that your November is beautiful and is filled with all things warm and homey. I can say, I am so glad that there are Novembers and the sun still rises each day. Thank you for stopping by,

~Kim~

"Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a  Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill." Charles Dickens, Bleak House.

 

November

 I thought maybe I would sit down and try to write a blog on this day of November. Life has been extremely busy and full of curve balls. We had lovely rain yesterday. We didn't get many trick or treaters. The ones that came though were cute and delightful. All with parents waiting to make sure we were nice people. I found it encouraging. We have new neighbors and I went over to visit. That was fun. 

It was easier to write blog posts when I had trees to take pictures of. Where I live now its just palm trees. This morning though as the storm and the clouds raced by, followed by  the wind, chasing them away the sound of the surf in the palm fronds gives me the happiest feelings. I have been doing some hooking, but not up to the the amount I used to do. I mean do you keep hooking when all of your cupboards are filled with rugs? I really have no more room. I feel almost guilty every time I start a new one because I just don't know where I will store a new one. My kids really don't want them. 

This year I had the bright idea that we would celebrate Thanksgiving on November twenty-second.

Our lovely daughter in law never gets to come to holidays as she is a nurse, who works nights and if I do it on Sunday before Thanksgiving she could come too. I didn't expect the favorable response I got. They were all so happy to do it that day. Then they wouldn't have to eat two thanksgiving dinners. I thought to myself, why didn't I ever think of that before? Then Ron and I will do something really simple on Thanksgiving. So I am okay, I won't I imagine have to make two dinners, because we will already be tired of turkey. So its a win-win. 

Now, as the time has changed, and it will be dark by five and the lights come on earlier and the nights become longer. The favorite part of fall is when it changes from the sunny days to the evenings of quiet and warmth. The smell of fires from the fireplaces, from the warmth of soup on the stove. To the dreams that come to mind as I watch the flames dancing in the fireplace. Dreaming of castles in the air and not looking back, but looking to the future of new dreams to dream and new places to go and a future that keeps me on my toes. 

Thanks for stopping by,

~Kim
 

"Some of the days in November carry the whole memory of summer as a fire opal carries the color of moon rise." --- Gladys Taber.