From the Craft Room

I made four Thanksgiving cards today for my grandchildren

 

 

I maybe should have wrapped Advent calendar gifts this morning; but going into my Craft Room to do some crafting, I chose to make cards. Since Thanksgiving is coming up very soon, I decided to start making some cards for my grandchildren. It has been a while. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. No housework got done today. I vacuumed through the downstairs yesterday and got all the laundry folded and put away, so I didn't feel very much guilt. However, all that crafting wore me out. After a late lunch, I crashed and burned, sleeping for two hours this afternoon. So there is nothing to blog about today. Maybe I will have more tomorrow. Have a great weekend everyone.

The Big Reveal

No this is not the before photo. This is indeed my finished project. I can almost hear some of you gasping and thinking to yourselves, "This is what she ended up with after working on it for over a month?  I can't imagine what it was like before she started."  And you would be right to think that. You wouldn't have wanted to see it before. I hated to be in there. I could barely find anything. Also keep in mind that I brought more stuff into this room from an upstairs bedroom where I kept all my wrappings and gift boxes. 

 

 

Walking into this room and turning right, this is what you see. It is a long narrow room with a window straight ahead, a sliding patio door behind me, and four windows overlooking the back yard to the left of me. There is a long work table to the left overlooking the back yard. My paper shelves are above one end of the table. To the right in this photo is a kitchen cabinet with two drawers and two cupboards and a deep counter space. My Cricut die cutting machine sits on top. Beyond that is a tall glass cabinet.

This is where I keep my Cricut cartridges on the top shelf.  The bottom shelf holds beads and jewellery findings and jewellery making tools. etc.  The two cardboard drawers on top hold sewing notions,   floral wires and tape and other non-paper supplies.

There is a desk top that pulls down to give me some space for making my jewellery. The two shelves below this pull down desk top, houses all my scrapbooks.

To the left of that tall cabinet is one of my freezers with a shelf above that to hold my craft and fabric paints, spray adhesive, Modge Podge, finishing sprays, etc. It is also where we store our extension cords. Beside the freezer, my son and my hubby keep various lengths of trim, lumber (for making guitars) and sections of board, because this just isn't my Craft room, it is the all-purpose junk room.  Between the freezer and the tall glass cabinet is a rolling cart with narrow shelves that holds a lot of specialty items. The blue shelves on top hold blades, confetti, glitter and sequins (tiny things).

I cannot make this pretty. On the floor in front of this window are lots and lots of frames that I have to deal with someday...just not now. Beside that is an area that is covered in a white tablecloth. I have placed a section of arborite on top of 3 covered bins. The bins contain photos and scrapbooks from family members that are not with us any longer. I have become the "family" historian and I want to scan these to discs or memory sticks to share with other family members. Those are long term projects. On top of the counter is a place to hold other projects in the works.

Between these last two windows are the beautiful shelves my Sweetie built me to hold my card stock and printed loose 12 x 12 inch scrapbook paper. They are sorted by colour. Yellow card stock is on the same shelf as the predominantly  yellow 12 x 12  papers.

My worktable is six feet long...plenty of room to spread out. Underneath the table are all sorts of bins and containers that contain stickers, tools, embellishments, punches, etc. I have so much stuff I just can't get rid of. I did donate a lot, including a full bin of silk flowers. The back of the table holds containers of ribbons, diecuts, adhesives, artist's brushes and daubers.

Looking back at the entrance to this room and on the right hand side is an electric fireplace. This room needs a little extra heat in the winter, because of all the windows and because it faces North. We painted the walls a pale and cheery yellow. In a few days I will need to bring in some houseplants that have spent the summer on the veranda. I will re-pot my lovely red shamrocks and keep them on top of the fireplace mantle. Above the mantle beside the patio door is a hanging bookcase. Right now it holds my hubby's Stephen King collection, but I would like to move those out of here and put my own craft books on those shelves. 

 

On the other side of the sliding glass doors, in the last corner of the room, is the stuff that does not belong to me. All of this belongs to my son and his GF, who have to deal with it by purging, storing in the basement or placing it upstairs in one of the other two rooms they have taken over. They wanted their own crafting space and I have given it to them. There is a square table under that lot. If they want the overhead shelf, which I suspect they do, I will place the 3 red photo boxes on a shelf at the opposite end of the room. They can also keep bins in the corner under the table. 

 

 

 

So I am really happy with how this arrangement is working out for me. Everything is in one room and I know where all my supplies are. There are a couple of sitting work areas and one standing work area. There is room to spread out and I can close the door and hide it all until I want to come back to it. Was it worth all the time and energy I put into it? Absolutely. I hope you are duly impressed. *laugh*

Wednesday Morning Kitchen Duty

This morning found me in the kitchen making my iced tea while putting the dishes away from the dishwasher. I'd already had my coffee and a fried egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast. I am already out of oatmeal and need to make another trip to the Bulk Barn. I am in the process of writing down my shopping list for the first of the month. My freezers are getting very full with my garden veggies, so I thought I would take some of those frozen whole tomatoes to make a pasta sauce. The cores are already removed, so I just dumped them into my largest bowl and poured boiling water over top. That way the skins slip right off them. I have run out of fresh onions , so I added dehydrated onion, chopped peppers from the freezer, granulated garlic and the usual Italian seasonings.

Frozen whole tomatoes and seasonings in the crock pot. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had cooked up 4 or 5 slices of bacon the other night to make the pizza. So I fried up the rest of the package and put cooked bacon back in the freezer for future meals.

 

The kitchen has been kind of smelly the last couple of days. I thought it was the garbage can,  but it turns out there were a couple of rotten potatoes in the  bag. That surprised me because potatoes generally don't last long enough in this house to go bad. I decided to peel and cut all the spuds that were still left in the bag. Some of them were kind of soft and others I had to cut away huge chunks from. After they were thoroughly washed, I left them to soak in very cold water.  I emptied the kitchen compost once again of all the peelings into the outside composter.  I noticed that it is a beautiful day outside today, but I had things to do inside. 

Potatoes left soaking in cold water

I took out one of my containers of turkey broth from the freezer and placed it in my soup pot with more dehydrated onion, salt, pepper and thyme. To it I added a few cherry tomatoes, burgundy beans, the rest of the carrots from the other night that I brought in from the garden, and some zucchini of mine that I froze earlier in the summer. I added corn that I removed from a batch of corn on the cob back in August, and some limp celery from the crisper. I sliced off the bottom of the celery and placed the stalks in a glass of water to firm up. Ten minutes before eating some for lunch, I added the chopped turkey meat from the freezer, a container of kidney beans that I previously cooked in the crock pot and then froze, and a handful of peperini pasta that I bought on clearance. (a 500 gm pkg. for 49 cents). It is very "stick to your ribs" good. 

Soup pot simmering on the stove

While the soup was still simmering, I boiled all the potatoes. I saved some to make potato salad for tonight's dinner, and the rest of them I mashed and put in a large freezer bag so it wouldn't take up too much room in the freezer.  I was able to save most of the potatoes and I have some prepared ahead for another meal. The soup will last several days for lunches. I have cooked crisped bacon to add to recipes or to make  toasted BLT sandwiches, and I will have marinara sauce for another meal, or two.

I am tired now from being on my feet, so I will relax a bit with some of that iced tea.

I intended to post again on my blog yesterday, but as soon as I finished my Daybook, my Sweetie offered to drive me to Napanee to shop at Giant Tiger. I had a few specials I wanted to pick up; but unfortunately, I  left it too late in the sale. The Country Kitchen Deli hams which were on for less than half price, were all sold out. I had intended to buy a case of Del Monte niblets corn and a case of peas. But upon arriving, found out there was a limit of 6 cans total. I bought 4 tins of corn and 2 tins of peas. Oh well. I could have gone back inside, dragging my hubby along with me, and try to purchase more, but I couldn't be bothered. I try to have a couple of tinned vegetables during the winter, but mostly I use frozen veggies. The mushrooms were only $1, the eggs were $1.98 a doz. (and before you think I paid too much for eggs, let me explain that that price is the cheapest for eggs in over a year), so I bought 3 dozen. My four 400 gm ground beef chubs were only $10 (a savings of $4) and the toilet paper which we were almost completely out of, was also on sale. I bought four frozen fruit beverages (not real juice) for my hubby to drink instead of just water.

Shopping at Giant Tiger only cost me $32.41

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I got home I quickly prepared a beef stew for the crock pot, made some lunch, and then headed outdoors again to check the garden. There was a lot to harvest. Even though my bean plants are losing their leaves and the stems are becoming brittle and breaking off when I pick, they are still going gangbusters. Some of  these beans were very big (like 6-8 inches long), so I will have to cut them into pieces for the freezer and use them in soups and stews. The tomatoes are still ripening on the vines and I brought in yet another cucumber. I put the pitchfork in the ground and brought out enough carrots to eat with our meal last night and had some left over. When I harvest the potatoes and the carrots, I will take a picture of those. NO MORE bean pictures until next year. After I washed and snapped the beans and froze some more cored tomatoes, I went back outside to cut the lawns. Next Monday's Daybook, I may report that the grass is long, but I won't be telling you that I didn't mow yet again.

Not as cute as kittens, but I'm proud of them

 So we went to Smith Falls to see the family on Saturday, and I told you that "Dee" had brought us her neighbour's 50 inch screen TV for us. Well you have to know by now that Dee is always bringing us stuff. She is so generous. I might have mentioned that "Dee" was bringing a new Blackberry charger to replace mine which has not been working well. In the box that contained the charger was this brand new upgraded Blackberry tablet.....that she bought for me. OMG! She also brought me a yoghurt maker that I have been wanting to try.

A new Blackberry and a yoghurt maker

New stainless steel bathroom shelves with built in towel racks

 

 

She asked if I wanted these bathroom shelves, and I said yes because I can replace some I already have. She also brought a bag filled with men's shirts and a sweater for my Sweetie Pie. The mason jar contains some pickle relish. Really and truly, it is like Christmas morning after a visit with her and my Dad.

So yesterday, I did not go into my Craft Room. I did not do any domestic Monday. Shopping and harvesting and mowing the lawns was all I could do. This morning started differently.
 By 11 AM, I......
 emptied the dishwasher, did two more loads of dishes, and washed off the cooktop.
 emptied the kitchen compost
 sorted all the recycling for this week.
 cleaned the downstairs litter box and washed the dog's two bowls.
put a huge load of dark wash into the machine to hang out this morning.

This afternoon I am going to Napanee Hospital to visit a friend. Hope you all are having a perfect day.  

Daybook: Monday Sept. 26/16

Outside my window.....It is mostly cloudy, but the sun does peek through occasionally. There is a slight breeze. I closed up all the windows this past weekend because Fall arrived Saturday morning. I didn't cut the grass last week, so the front lawn is desperately in need of mowing. A black squirrel just ran across the road in front of the house.

I am thinking....that this week, I will be able to start making cards, crafting gifts,  and wrapping Advent Calendar gifts in my cleaned Craft Room.

I am thankful for.....Fall weather of cooler temperatures and sunny days that allow me to work either indoors or out comfortably.

From the kitchen.....yesterday I baked a batch of dog biscuits, and I made two homemade pizzas. One I baked up right away for dinner last night. The other is carefully wrapped in the freezer for later. I sauteed onions, peppers from the freezer, some crisped bacon and pieces of leftover pork roast. I shredded the mozzarella that I bought last week. Yummy. I love homemade pizza.

I am wearing....denim jeans and a printed T-shirt, socks and slippers. I guess it is time to put away my summer wardrobe. That will be part of my October goals, I guess, when I deep clean the master bedroom.

I am creating.......lots of stuff hopefully this week; but, I will describe what I created for my brother's 65th birthday. I gave him a card from my stash of cards that I made earlier in the summer. I also made him a Senior Citizen's Survival Kit by placing the following items (with an explanation) in a tiny gift bag. Feel free to use or adapt this. That is what I do by gathering ideas from Pinterest. So not entirely original, but no one person gets credit, because it is a compilation of ideas.

Balloon.....to get this party started with a bang.
Whistle.....to call for help if you fall over and can't get up.
Magnifying glass.....to help with your reading now you are ageing.
A penny.....to contribute to your Retirement fund.
Toothpicks.....to help keep your eyes open past 8 PM.
Marbles.....to replace the ones you've lost already
Notebook.....to write things down before you forget them
Pencil......to remind you to write things down before you forget them
Tootsie Pop.....because getting old "sucks"

I am going.....to Giant Tiger sometime this morning to pick up the weekly specials before the end of tomorrow, when the new sale starts.

I am hoping....that the family doctor will give my hubby some iron shots like he is hoping, to give him a little more energy. His iron is very low, and iron pills have not been helping him very much the past year. Two other medical specialists of his have advised him to get the shots, and he has an appointment with her on Wednesday.

I am hearing.....the TV on. My Sweetie is watching a newscast. The dog is lapping up water from his bowl, and the dishwasher is on.

Around the house......I will have the Craft Room done to my satisfaction before the month is out, but as far as my other goals have gone, the windows on the second floor will not get done.

One of my favourite things.....is now a cup of hot tea, now that the weather allows it.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include picking up new prescriptions for the both of us on Wednesday, and a major grocery shop on Friday.

Here is a picture I am sharing......a new-to-us 50 inch flat screen television to replace our 32 inch TV. My dad and "Dee" brought it down to us this past weekend, because their neighbour bought herself a new bigger screen and wanted me to have this one. Notice it is almost as big as the fireplace, and I assure you it is twice as big as our old one. When I walk into that room, I am still doing a double take. My Sweetie is in heaven right now. Once he has hooked up Netflix to it, he will be as happy as a pig in muck. Ha.

Happy First Day of Autumn

Washing windows means washing with a scrub brush, a toothbrush, a sponge with a bristle side and a soft miracle cloth, followed by Windex and paper towel.  It always surprises me when I see how much light comes through clean and sparkly windows.

Working on my September goals

This morning I washed three more windows, but just the inside glass, frames and sills. These are the windows at the back of the house in the Craft Room overlooking the back yard. After I finish the other two windows and the patio sliding glass doors tomorrow, I will go outside and wash the outside of the windows. We did not get the double hung windows for this room.  Rather they are windows that need to be cranked open, with the screens inside.

After lunch, I went back into that room and moved furniture and boxes and purged some more items for the donation box. I dusted down the walls and did some more vacuuming. I made two distinct areas for working...the long table overlooking the garden is for me, and the smaller square table  in the  corner by the patio door, is for my son and his GF. This way we are able to walk away and leave our work to finish up later. Their table is already filled up with boxes of their things they still have to deal with from the move. They have to be tossed or stored elsewhere. Every work surface of mine is covered with my crap. It will take tomorrow and possibly one more day to get it all sorted and put away. I am at the point where I can see an ending. Yippee ki-yay!

That is it. That is all I did today. I am feeling very tired. My hubby went to Radiology this morning, by himself, to have another  ultra sound done on his shoulder. He is still waiting for an appointment for a cat scan done for the surgeon. He has gone to the after hours clinic now to pick up a requisition for blood work that he wants done before his appointment with the Family Physician next Tuesday. I never thought about dinner, so this will give me a chance to come up with something before he comes back.

We started watching "Mad Men" on Netflix on Monday night. We watched three episodes but neither one of us could get into it. That's okay. Last night the new TV lineup started, so we watched NCIS, Bull and NCIS New Orleans. I hope you have a great evening. 

After the Procedure

 My Blackberry playbook is still not charging but appears to be still working. "Dee" is bringing me a spare charger when I see her and my dad this weekend. So I will have my Blackberry back. Yay! In the meantime, you will get these clipart pictures to illustrate and break up the monotony of my reports.

The surgeon removed six polyps yesterday and reported that none of them looked cancerous, although one was very large at 3/4 inch. We will get an official report from the lab. When I got home, I crashed on the couch. I felt so relieved and exhausted.

Today I was back to my daily routine. I went out to the garden to check on the progress of things. You will remember that on Sunday I remarked that the garden was coming to an end. Well, scrap that notion. I brought in even more than I had on Friday. I have two more medium sized freezer bags of my burgundy beans. I will still be picking in December at this rate.  

Maybe because I hadn't picked in 4 days, I had another bumper crop. I also have tomatoes still ripening on the vine, and a second batch of peppers are coming. I will let them stay outside as long as possible to get bigger but they may still be green when I harvest them.   

This afternoon a friend (abdominal surgery) picked me up to go back to Napanee to visit another friend of ours who is doing rehab  after having a hip replacement. I had stopped in to see her yesterday while my husband was having his procedure done, but the door was closed and I did not want to interrupt in case she was sleeping. 

Today we found her outside in the courtyard. She is really coming along well.    

On the way home, we stopped at Walmart for me to buy some plastic cheese slices ($2.99) and 500 gms. of mozarella cheese for $3.87  Tonight we will have pulled pork sandwiches for dinner with some leftover pork from the freezer, some homemade BBQ sauce and some of my homemade hamburger buns from the weekend's baking blitz.                                                                          

Daybook: Monday Sept. 19/18

My Blackberry is not working very well. Firstly, I need a new charger for it;  and secondly, this morning the dog walked into the cord while I was trying to charge it and slammed it down from the desk onto the tile floor. The glass has now shattered, so I don't know if it is working at all. My photo today will be one I took this summer of Babcock Mill. This is our claim to fame in Odessa. The water wheel is no longer attached to the mill to prevent it from being vandalized I guess. My daughter chose this location to have her wedding photos taken. It is still very picturesque.


Outside my window.....the sun is trying to come out. It rained a bit overnight and the clouds are still in the area. We will be back into warm sunny days all this week. My front lawn needs to be mowed again.

I am thinking.....of my Sweetie's colonoscopy today in Napanee, and not much else.

I thankful for......everyone's concern and prayers for my husband.

From the kitchen.....I have had my two cups of coffee and porridge, but I did not empty the dishwasher or anything else for that matter. On the weekend I baked peanut butter cookies, pumpkin and raisin muffins and hamburger buns. I froze a medium size freezer bag of tomatoes and half a bag of burgundy beans over the weekend. My garden is definitely winding done now.

I am wearing.....denim capris with the rolled up cuffs and a denim coloured tank top.

I am creating......nothing yet.

I am going.....to Napanee Hospital for 11:30 this morning.

I am hoping.....everything goes as planned, despite the fact that he still has a nasty cough.

I am hearing.....only one cricket this morning. Where have they all gone?

Around the house.....things are piled all over. There is a pickup tomorrow morning for Value Village by the good people from Cerebral Palsy.  Maybe I can get rid of all my donation boxes from the house to clear up some more room. I did not wash any more windows, nor have I worked on my Craft Room. I didn't feel like doing anything over the weekend, but baking.

One of my favourite things.....is making cards. I need to get back to my Crafting room, pronto.

A few plans for the rest of the week..... does not include any scheduled doctor's appointments, unless I can get in to see my Family Physician about getting a Shingles vaccine. Apparently, four days ago the Ontario government announced that anyone aged 65-70 years of age can get a free vaccine between now and December. I am jumping all over that. It is a savings of almost $200 and weeks or months of excruciating pain and illness that I would not wish on anyone.

Also this coming Saturday, we will be going to Smith Falls to see my brother and SIL, as well as my dad and "Dee", who are coming down from Northern Ontario to celebrate my brother's 65th birthday.

Other than that, I will be working on my September goals.

Here is a picture I am sharing.....of Mill Creek and Babcock Mill.

Sunshine Sunday

Sorry, no photos today. I need a new charger for my Blackberry. So enjoy this clipart I found of me...the turkey neck is me, the glasses are me, the pudge is me. My hair is longer. 

Cooler temps bring on desire for baking

It is Sunday late afternoon. My Sweetie has been on a clear liquid diet all day in preparation for a colonoscopy tomorrow that I am not sure is going to happen. He is still coughing from his boots and is moving like a very old man. Yesterday was a very wet and rainy day, but I had to go to Shopper's Drug Mart to pick up his liquid diet and two kinds of OTC medications. I got 4 cans of clear consomme (two of beef and two of chicken), 3 2 liter bottles of ginger ale, 2 packages of yellow Jello gelatin, and a package of Chapman's sport Popsicles with electrolytes (kind of like frozen Gatorade) which my husband says are really delicious. I was so very lucky to find out that everything food I bought was on sale except for the yellow Jello. Of course the medications are pricey, but I needed them. I spent the last of my gift card on the medicines, and spent slightly less than $20 on the food stuffs, including some Becel that we were low on.

Because it was rainy, I spent most of the day in the kitchen. I baked  peanut butter cookies and one dozen whole wheat hamburger buns because I cooked hamburgers for dinner last night. I wanted his last meal to be a favourite. *laugh* However he wasn't feeling great, so he only ate a half of one.

Today turned out sunny, so I did a large load of whites and lights, with a change of bed sheets, and hung them outside. I read some blog posts and was inspired by Laura over on today's blog with her Autumn Joy List. It is a list of fun and social events that she wants to partake in to celebrate the season.....sort of like a bucket list for the short term. So I took her lead and baked some pumpkin and raisin muffins this afternoon. For dinner tonight, because it is just myself, I will probably finish off the rest of the split pea soup I made on Friday. My Sweetie and I finished off Homeland on Netflix on Friday night. The new fall lineup of cable TV shows are starting this week, so we didn't really want to start a new TV series just yet, so last night we watched "The Revenant" with Leo diCaprio. It was good. He won the Oscar that year; but it is very bloody and intense. We may take some time to watch a few Netflix movies for a while. But on September 23rd, the fifth season of Longmire will come out here in Canada, so we will be watching that.

Friday Jitters

One of my automatic daily jobs

Today I had the "heebie jeebies"....just a lot of pent up nervous energy. I'm not sure why, but I can tell you I missed a golden opportunity. I should have hit the Craft Room until it wore off. But instead I was at the computer trying to read my email and respond with comments to some blogs that I have neglected all week. I would read some and then jump up and do a chore and come back to sit down and read a little more. It could be that I was a little worried about my Sweetie. He has slept an awful lot today, but says he is feeling a little bit better. Well his colonoscopy is Monday, so he had better be feeling a whole lot better soon. We have waited several months for this appointment. The other thing that is different from the normal is that when I got up this morning at 7:15, my son and his GF had already left for the weekend for New York. They have done this before without incident, so I don't think that is what had me feeling anxious. I did my usual morning tasks that I do without needing to think about it. I unloaded the dishwasher and started to fill it up again. I do this as I make my breakfast and coffee. I made my iced tea and I cleaned the downstairs litter box. 

If only I could teach my dog to bake

I tried reading my email but left a couple of times to bake a batch of dog biscuits, wash a large load of dark clothes and put them outside on the line, wash a second load of dishes, wash the counter tops, and put the ingredients in the crock pot to make split pea soup. I wanted to go upstairs and wash the two windows in my bedroom and the one in our master bathroom, but my Sweetie had gone back to bed. So maybe later this weekend, I will try again.

Mowing grass

After lunch, I thought that I could perhaps lie down for a nap. But no, that didn't happen. I went outside to mow the back yard.  It was a perfectly lovely day outside. The days are sunny and warm, (not hot and humid.)  The evenings are very cool for sleeping. With the recent rains we've had, the grass has grown very tall, so I stalled out the push mower a few times. Ha. So even though the afternoon was still lovely and warm, you can tell that Autumn is here. By 1 PM, half the clothes line was in the shade because of the angle of the sun. I will have to bring in the clothes before dinner and perhaps check out the garden again. Does anyone have any plans for the weekend? Have a great one!

Project Thursday

I am afraid that when the end of September comes and I look over my list of goals, I will not have completed even one of them. I will only have a little bit accomplished in each area. But they are goals after all, so I guess I have given myself something to work towards. 

This morning I emptied the dishwasher and loaded it up again for a second wash. I made my iced tea. I cleaned the downstairs litter box and washed the downstairs bathroom. 

Then I washed two windows in the front entry room, both inside and outside with frames, tracks and sills.  You might remember that I washed a third one in that room earlier in the summer (the one right beside the computer) because I couldn't stand looking at the dirt anymore. I also washed the exterior door with decorative glass insert, inside and outside, frame and threshold. The pail of water was absolutely disgusting. I considered filling it up with hot soapy water again to repeat the third window , but decided it looked good enough. That was my entire morning. 

After lunch I tackled the Craft Room once again. If I finish one goal, this is the one I want to be successful with. I purged some more items, moved some storage cases around and even got to the point where I could vacuum half the floor area. I am very happy with how much was accomplished today, even if no one else can see a difference. I cannot show you any pictures just yet because it looks even worse than it did. The surfaces that I had previously cleaned, now have items piled back on top as I am in the midst of sorting. But it is coming....very slowly. 

More items purged for the donation box

Fiskars shape cutter and two blades, Santa boot planter, 2 activity kits, a mosaic kit with book, scrap booking glue, iron-on transfers, a birdhouse, more stencils, a small wind chime, 4 floral water tubes and a fabric doll brooch. 

My Sweetie was not feeling well today. He has a very nasty cough and a low grade fever. He slept most of the day and is not feeling up to eating anything. I will warm up some leftover beef stew from last night for myself and heat up a tin of tomato soup for him later this evening. Hopefully, he will feel more like eating something later on. 

Domestic Wednesday Morning

Natalie made a remark recently about doing the "domestic thing" until noon, by doing as much as you can from your to-do list until lunchtime. That sounded like a fantastic idea to me because after I have eaten lunch, I am generally too pooped to do anything else but make dinner. Besides that, I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon at 3 o'clock and needed to be out of here by 2:15. So with that in mind, I.....

emptied the dishwasher and started loading it up again.

made my iced tea

sorted the recycling for tomorrow morning (Blue box for glass, tin and plastic)

brought down the upstairs garbage to the outdoor bins for tomorrow  morning's collection

took the kitchen compost out to the garden composter

made a beef stew for the crock pot adding potatoes, carrots, tomato, and beans from the garden and onions, broccoli, and celery from the pantry.

wrote a sentiment in a handmade birthday card, addressed and mailed it out to one of my brothers

cleaned the downstairs litter box

made my homemade Taco seasoning mix and beef seasoning mix to replace my empty jars

harvested more tomatoes, beans, and peppers

froze a medium freezer bag (quart sized?) of pepper strips, and one of tomatoes

washed and snipped both ends off the beans with my thumbnail against my forefinger. This took about an hour with my hands in the water the whole time getting all prune-like.

I warmed up the last of my turkey soup for lunch at 2 PM and left for my appointment

Can you believe how many beans I am still getting?

Making my homemade seasoning mixes

Yesterday I did nothing. We left the house at 8:30 for a 9:15 appointment at the eye clinic. We were in the waiting room for  2 hours and in the doctor's office for  2 hours. My Sweetie will have two more appointments made for him....one for a plastic surgeon to remove the drooping eyelid and the fluid sack under the eye. They don't know why this has developed but the eye itself is okay.  He will also go to an ophthalmologist to see if that eye is developing glaucoma, or at the very least, they will measure a baseline so they can watch for any further deterioration.

After my husband's appointment, I drove to LifeLabs for some blood work for myself. There was a half hour wait there, so we didn't get home yesterday until 2:30 PM. I don't understand how sitting around doing absolutely nothing, can be so darn tiring. 

Crafting:  nothing

September goals:  did one hour's weeding on Monday until the mosquitoes drove me inside

Maintenance and Preparedness: homemade seasoning mixes today and more veggies for the freezer

Organizing and Purging:  nothing

Cleaning: a super load of laundry ( including bedsheets) washed and hung to dry on Monday

Spending money:  Today at Giant Tiger, I spent $19.60 for 14 kg of kitty litter ($6.99) , 6 tins of salted peanuts ($1 each), and 3 loaves of Country Harvest bread ($1.64 each) All were half price. 

Daybook: Monday, Sept. 12/16

Outside my window......it is bright and sunny and cool outside.

I am thinking........that I need to get commenting on blogs but the weather is so nice for getting house and garden work done, I am conflicted.

I am thankful for....cooler Fall weather.

From the kitchen......the dishwasher is finished doing up a load from this morning. I baked a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies this weekend and made a batch of cranberry almond granola this morning. The iced tea I made this morning is getting cold in the fridge. I bagged up three lots of burgundy beans and one large freezer bag of more ripened tomatoes from yesterday's harvest.

I am wearing.....black capris, a red printed top and slippers. The tiles actually felt cold to walk on this morning.

I am creating......nothing. But I want to.

I am going......outside to pull weeds in the veggie garden because it is another goal I made for September.

I am hoping.....that I am able to accomplish my September goals this month, especially the Craft room.

I am hearing.....the usual road traffic in front of the house and  lots of crickets this time of year.

One of my favourite things..... right now is a veggie garden that is producing lots of produce right now.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....include an appointment  Tuesday for my husband with the eye specialist, an appointment for me on Wednesday with my doctor, and an upcoming appointment for a colonoscopy for my husband next Monday and all the preparation for that. I want to work on achieving some of my goals this week, as it is approaching mid-month.

Here is a picture I am sharing..... my miniature rosebush has come back after the huge storms we had on Saturday.

Fearless Friday

 My Sweetie got up with the dog this morning, leaving me to sleep in until 9:30. Woohoo! Guess where I found him when I got up? That's right. Outside in the back yard sitting in front of the riding lawn mower tinkering with the motor again. He had already taken  the carburetor apart, cleaned it and was putting it back together when I came out to see what he was up to. About the same time that I got up to check on him, the weather got too hot to continue, so he decided to stop for the day and finish up later. *ahem*.

Cleaning the carburetor

I did the usual unload the dishwasher and make my iced tea. I didn't feel like starting my Craft Room. It was hot today but not as humid as yesterday, so I decided I might wash the other kitchen window facing the back of the house. You might remember that I washed the first one last week. When that one was finished, I decided I might as well tackle both the screen door and the security door that opens onto the deck. When I wash windows, I use a bucket of soapy water and a sponge with a bristle edge, a scrub brush and a toothbrush. I wash the tracks, frames and sills both inside and outside. When I was done with that, I needed to empty the pail of grimy water. I was on a roll, so I filled the pail back up and tackled both the living room and dining room windows. Our windows get so very dirty I think because we live alongside the highway and get a lot of traffic by our house. When looking for clip art showing a woman washing windows, nearly all of them showed cute little ladies (some in French maid costumes) with a rag in one hand and Windex in the other. That's not me. I am more like this lady doing battle against the elements, sweating like a race horse. Since the water was disgusting again, I dumped the pail and decided the rest of the windows downstairs can be done another day.

After lunch I decided I could face my Craft Room again. I didn't do a lot, but I did empty that bin I brought down last week. It was filled with Christmas wrappings and boxes just as I had left it nine months ago. I have now incorporated all of that and my  birthday and occasional  wrappings/decorations/embellishments into appropriate drawers and bins in my crafting area. I should now be able to make cards and wrap gifts at the crafting table. I tossed garbage, threw gift boxes into recycling bins and purged some more items for the donation box. 

More items purged from the Craft Room

Balloon weights, wall hooks, craft sticks, plastic lacing, and pipe cleaners.

Spending money:  Yesterday I spent $50.42 at Walmart on dog food, tin foil, 3 boxes of freezer bags, and 400 gms of Old cheddar cheese. I spent $1.15 in the vending machine for a cold drink at the hospital where I went to visit a friend recovering from a hip replacement. Today my Sweetie picked up bread with our gift card. (no OOP)

Maintenance and preparedness: Sweetie is trying to clean the carburetor on the lawn mower to save us from having to replace it. I made a batch of chicken broth in the crock pot yesterday and put it  in the freezer. I used the turkey broth I made a couple of weeks ago to make homemade turkey and vegetable soup last night to go with our roasted cheese sandwiches for dinner. I froze two quarts of burgundy beans from the last harvest. I did not check the garden today. 

Crafting: none 

Purging and organization: my Craft Room (part of my September goals)

Cleaning:  washed windows  (part of  my September goals)

Domestic Wednesday

Today I......

made a pitcher of my iced tea and enjoyed it all afternoon.

 unloaded the dishwasher twice and filled it up twice more.

made bread pudding and chocolate chip cookies.  I put another tin of 3 dozen in the freezer.

scrubbed down all the counters, the stove and the inside of the microwave.

washed out the dog's water and food  bowls

sorted all the recycling and took the gray box (paper and cardboard) to the curb

brought down all the garbage from upstairs and put 3 bags out to the curb last night

took the kitchen compost out to the garden compost

watered all the indoor plants, including the ones I have taken outdoors to the veranda this summer.

picked some more produce from the garden including another cucumber.

and beans. The longer the season goes, the bigger the yields. 

brought a load of laundry in off the clothesline.

vacuumed three rooms, and washed the floors of the kitchen and living room.

picked the meat off the roast chicken of two nights ago and made a chicken pot pie for dinner tonight. I will make a chicken stock with the rest. 

My Sweetie, in the meantime, was outside working on the carburetor of the riding lawn mower until he sliced his arm open. He drove himself to Emergency and sat there all afternoon. It required 8 stitches to close him up. I felt a little guilty sending him on his own, but he needs to learn he can't be doing these things anymore. Poor guy! I understand how he feels though. 

And how was your day?