Sewing Project - Food Storage Coths

I made another batch of food storage cloths as I found the very cute flannel at the ReUse Center this week.

With pizza on them there will be no mistaking them.

I use these in my veggie and fruit tupperwares in the fridge as well so now I have plenty for all my food storage needs.

They are 6x7 inches and I just cut it into 8 pieces and serged the edges.

Job done!

Family Christmas

We celebrated our family Christmas on January 6-7-8 2023.

We rented a ranch house so most of the out of town folks could stay for the weekend.  

The weather was great for driving - the sun shone and the highways were dry.  The place was still decorated for Christmas.  There was a large tree and fire place mantel had seasonal decor.  The house has 6 rooms with their own bathrooms.  We visited, played outside, prepared and ate food, enjoyed our potluck supper on Saturday evening. There was enough time to touch base with my siblings that were there.

I believe we were just about 30 for supper which was wonderful. 

Mom was not able to leave hospital to be with us. She was close so with the use of Face Time and 2 Ipads we were able to each have a bit of a visit with her a few at a time so she could recognize those she was seeing.  Thanks to those who made that possible.

There was turkey, brocolli salad, pyrophy (perogies), holopchi (cabbage rolls), tourtiere (meat pie), brussels sprouts and asparagus. Homemade buns made by nephew.  Wild cranberry sauce which is what we grew up with.  Baked and mashed potatoes. Yummy gravy!

A chocolate torte, fruit salad and much more.

I brought my famous Caramel Popcorn for snacks.

It was a great weekend and the first with out Dad who passed in May 2022.

We have been so blessed to have our parents for so long and be so constant in our lives.

I received food gifts for Christmas which are always appreciated.  I  have come to appreciate linen tea towels so those will be great.  Watercolor paper will be used in my family cards this year.

The yellow sunflower bowl will live on the dining room table for a while.  The silver trivet fits in really well with  my silver tea pot and accessories. This beautiful teapot ornament was part of my gift with the sunflower bowl.

I was limping around that weekend because on my way to wash my car on Friday, Jan 6th something happened to my right knee but more about that later.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I captured this shot of the summer hare this morning.   I came loping across the grass into the shrubbery and I caught the movement in the corner of my eye.

It was on high alert but stood still for a bit and I managed several shots.

Love this one because the eye is great, the tree on the right is out of focus but frames it well.  

The photo has a cohesive color scheme in the warm grays and browns.

I finished this book - Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood on the weekend. I found it interesting though disturbing in some ways.  It chronicles the life of a painter artist Elaine Risley who is in Toronto for a retrospective of her work.  

Her early childhood was spent in northern Ontario traveling from place for her father's work as an entomologist.  They settle in Toronto when he gets a more stable job.  Her memories are not good.  Being the odd teen in a group of girls was hard. Clothes, hair, school politics, friendships and boys were all avenues she had to negotiate with rough patches at times.

It was a different kind of read filled with insecurity, lots of questions, angst, and disconnection.  I suppose it is part of adolescence and young womanhood which shapes the woman she became. 

I have been investigating the Asian food aisle at the grocery store for a while.   

I was searching for what I call glass noodles.  I was introduced to these at a potluck in high school where a dish contained them. The contributor was a school teacher of Asian heritage who came to teach at our school for a couple of years.   Loved the food. 

After, several purchases that were disappointments, I found them on my last grocery shopping trip.

I thought they were rice noodles but no so.  They are made with bean starch.

I cooked up a wonderful shrimp stir fry and these were the perfect accompaniment!

 These will be on my regular shopping list.

 

I have been doing some artistic photography work.  I was getting some pieces to enter an art competition.  I will blog the entries in a couple of weeks.

This piece was created with a process called Bottled Light.  I have blogged about it in this post. 

I loved the thread of green going across the composition and some of the complementary colors.

I love the jewel tone colors in this composition. The object I had the light go through was a blown glass ball.

I used another technique called In Camera Motion where you move the camera with a long shutter speed to allow the capture of the patterns of movement.

The lights and darks are captured during the movement. 

This is a piece of dark fabric with bling on the surface in spiral patterns.  By shining the light onto it, the bling reflects the light and produces light areas.  You can see hint of the spirals in the bottom third of the art.

I called this piece The Waves. I really like the patterns I created with my movement.

 It was great fun to be inside as it rained most of Saturday but the earth is grateful and putting out all kinds of green.

The challenge for Flickr Macro Monday is object with Zed in it's name.  I think this challenge will produce a lot of variety of subject matter today.  You can check out my Flickr Photostream (SMDPics) to see the shot I submitted.  On the left is the bezel on my cell phone.

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #130 and Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #288 .

I hope you have a great week and Be Safe Be Kind.

Welcome to my Kitchen - February

We had a great morning with ladies from the Welcome to my Kitchen fellowship group.  It's been a while because we did not meet in December and January was cancelled due to very cold temperatures.

We had 14 ladies attend, a new hostess, wonderful food, great catching up time and prayer time.

We had praise reports and many in need of support and prayer.

Devotions reminded us that God is Always with Us.  He does not forsake us.

Our hostess makes the best tea biscuits!

Hosting Family and Friends

With my place in order I have hosted 5 sets of folks in the last week.   The table was set with the red tablecloth, a white linen square on the diagonal and plaid Christmas place mats. White plates and large mugs was the order of the day.  Large white porcelain tea pot.

My friend to celebrate her birthday on December 13th with our favorite - pecan crusted cheesecake. My niece on Dec 16 where we had steak, baked potatoes and coleslaw and we had a great visit.
My sister and brother in law on Tuesday where we had a great lunch of chicken, rice, brocolli and a pineapple squares for dessert. Lots of tea. 
Another friend came on Thursday for morning tea to celebrate her birthday with Earl Grey Decaf and sweets.
Tonight my neighbor came and we munched on cheese, veggies and a few sweets with Jasmine Green Tea.

This Christmas season is more about people and less about stuff.

Photo Blogging Challenge - Whatcha eatin’?

Breakfast generally has bananas and some sort of cereal. 

Here I have rolled oats, wheat bran, yogurt, cranberry syrup for a bit of vitamin C.

I have added a bit of soy milk and a cup of tea.

I made mushroom sauce for my green fettuccine noodles.  Basically a white sauce with fresh mushrooms, garlic and onions.

I have added some KimChi and some chutney as condiments.  

A big cup of tea rounds out the meal.

I made some of these for guys who worked on the renovation at my house.  Of course, there was a bit of the puffed wheat left so I have to make half a batch for myself.

It was so good!

I can't have these in the house regularly but sure was a great treat!

Of course a wonderful cup of tea.  I am adjusting to caffeine free tea so that is a slow adjustment.

A hearty meal with lots of protein.  Cheese melted on the one half of the multi grain bagel.

A fried slice of ham and a sunny side up egg for the other half.  The yolk just the right consistency to drip out and cover the rest as I cut it into 4 pieces.   Yummy!

This is frozen mushroom pizza.  I generally add fresh tomatoes but there were none available this day so I check the fridge and there was broccoli. 

Broccoli it was which added some great color to the pizza.

I am sharing with PJ who hosts the Photo Blogging Challenge.  The November prompt was Whatcha eatin’?

Looking forward to some yummy shots.

Recent Photos

It was "spring forward" because of Daylight Savings Time this weekend.

I went to visit Mom and Dad as we are finally having decent temperatures and the traveling was good.  I had postponed the visit 3 times because the temps were in the -25C or worse for the last few weeks.

I captured some of the sparkle in the snow along the highway.  I was able to stop because it was near 0C which was very pleasant.

I loved the shadows I saw yesterday.  I have managed a few in this shot as well.















I finished this book.  It was story about Novalee, a pregnant 17 year old abandoned in a town in Oklahoma.

She meets a Sister Thelma Husband, a devout Christian and the welcoming committee for the town. Forney Hull, the man who runs the local library. Novalee seeks out Forney's help in caring for her buckeye tree, a gift from Benny Goodluck.   She be befriended by a photographer which was my favorite connection to Novalee.  The novel has a happy end because Novalee has finally found her native place where her heart is. There, Novalee regains her love and good luck, which she didn’t have all her life.

I attended my aunt's art reception on Friday. She was presenting her latest intuitive art series.

The weather in the morning was very snowy and travelling was not the best.  I pressed on as the roads were not slippery and the temperature was decent.

She really appreciated the support.  I brought healthy muffins and we had a sprinkle of folks drop by all afternoon. I managed the food while she visited with those who came to see the show.

I always enjoy spaghetti but don't want to used canned sauce from the grocery store.

I went on line and found Beef Stroganoff sauce.  It had lean ground beef, onions & garlic, mushrooms and canned tomatoes.

The sauce was made with white sauce, the tomato juice from the canned tomatoes, and of course sour cream.

I managed to freeze 5 containers to I can have this sauce a few more times.  Loved it!

I finally have all the plumbing jobs done in my place.

The kitchen sink drain has been cleaned to ensure no back flow of soapy water in the sink. That was Jan 24th.  It has been 6 weeks of making calls, waiting for response, more communication, water shutdowns, and plumbers from 2 different companies. 

This is the new sink, taps and aerator installed in the bathroom.  It is nice and shiny.  It was no dings in it and the best part is the underneath is no longer rusting and making a constant mess under the sink.

I have reorganized the storage under the sink as well so things are not just dumped in there.

With refurbished bathtub taps as well it is feeling like a new bathroom. No dripping taps, no mess, great storage all is good in there.

This is my Flickr Macro Monday submission for this week.  You can check out my Flickr photo stream here. 



 





I created the mosaic from great sunny shadow snow shots from Sunday.

Sharing at Mosaic Monday #18 hosted by Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.


Also sharing with Through My Lens 182 hosted by Mersad Donko.

Welcome to my Kitchen

It was our Welcome to my Kitchen fellowship group gathering this morning. 

We met in a clubhouse of a condo complex so there was plenty of room for everyone with great kitchen facilities!  Thank you so much.

We had mini quiches, ham and cheese breakfast oven casserole. There were crackers, cheese and fruit. I really appreciate the yogurt.  The tea and coffee was excellent.

We had a good turn out with the weather being very decent this morning. 

Mosaic Monday - 2019 Goals

I like to set goals for the year and in 2019 there are few on the list.  Some of the these are just continued affirmations of what is best for me.

1. Creative Photography
I've done lots of nature photography in the last couple of years.  This winter weather has made me focus on indoor photography.

This is a photo of my camera taken in an old mirror I found at the ReUse Ctr.  Love the bokeh I was able get on the right.

2. Photo Challenges
I will continue with my Flickr challenges despite the limit of 1000 photos for free accounts.

3. Homemade Food

This is a bowl of soup I made the other day.  Carrot Ginger Curry soup.  I had bought coconut milk a while back so I went searching for a recipe in which to use it.   I made chutney with ginger and curry this fall so I knew I liked those flavors.  I knew I had all the ingredients as they are staples in my house.

I did not blend the soup as it was suggested in the recipe.  Chunky is good with me.  I cut the veggies on a mandolin.

It was pretty spicy hot from the ginger and pepper but I have eaten all three bowls.

It is colorful, flavorful and delicious.  I will definitely make that again.



4. Continue to Read

A read a quote this other day.  “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” – George R.R. Martin

I have been to London, England and Paris, France and New York NY in books.  I have visited different times during my reading.  Learned about different cultures during my arm chair travels.

Here's a few of the books on my reading shelf.




5. Walking Everyday

Walking every day to get the heart rate up and investing in my health.  I can use the treadmill during the winter and really enjoy the outside as soon as the weather gets warm.

Drinking lots of water as well is a priority.

Sharing with Mosaic Monday #13 hosted by Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.

Christmas 2018

This is the only nativity on display at my house this year. 

Craft sales and other projects took up much of my time and the results it was coming down to Dec 23 to decorate.



Then the battery in my car died on Sunday night and I had to get some help to diagnose the problem. Thanks to my brother-in-law who came when I called; my sister who drove me home at midnight, and my brother with the knowledge to determine the problem.

I borrowed this book from the lounge in the apartment building at Mom & Dad's.  I had read the Lilac Bus but the Firefly Summer and the Silver Wedding were new to me.

The Firefly Summer was long in places.  It covers the re-building of a mansion which burned down in the early 1900s.  It is in a small Irish town and the consequences of coming to town bringing American tourists is a concern.  The pub nearby will likely lose it's business, the project manager is happy to have a big project during the construction phase, the local kids used to play in the ruins and now that has changed.

There are a couple of tragedies which take place.  Again, changes are taking place with sadness and adjustment needed.

It has a great ending.




We had a wonderful Christmas lunch with around 40 in attendance.  We had a children's gift exchange and an adult exchange.  This is the wonderful food provided in our potluck. 

Mom & Dad enjoyed have their extended family to celebrate the birth of Jesus. 

We had great weather for all of us who traveled several hours to get there. 

Boxing Day was a wonderful day.   The sky was blue, the sun was highlighting the hoar frost on the trees.

The snow machines were started and those who wanted a ride got a ride across the yard and fields.

I am getting ready for New Year's Eve.

Enjoy!