Cranberry Blossom

I had a really nice long weekend stateside.  We had a delicious fish fry dinner at the Village Inn on Friday night.    That area just loves their Friday fish fries.  You see signs up everywhere for them.   Actually though we had the baked fish with almonds on top and it is sooooo good.  Just perfect after a 3-hour drive.

Saturday turned out to be quite a nice day, after the rain stopped before the golf game.  While Marc golfed I went galavanting and found some wonderful vintage cross stitch and needlepoint kits.   I was so pleased with them.    I’m going to put them on etsy sometime this week.   Here are just 2 of them.  

Sunday it rained most of the day.  The hummingbirds were really acting up and actually we were quite entertained while we ate breakfast.  I filled their feeder on Friday night and on Sunday morning it was almost all gone!  It usually takes about a week for it to empty.  They were as good as squaking and chasing each other around       …they were buzzing around like honeybees.     Whenever one of them would sit on the perch for  a minute they didn’t even eat they were toooo busy being on the lookout ready to continue the chase.  I make more nectar and thought they might be behaving silly enough to sit on the perch while I held it up  

  They weren’t though.  I got tired of standing there and imagined them sitting on nearby branches shaking their heads at me.

After painting the Salon Cuts Teddy Bear chair a couple of weeks ago, I decided I would paint a birdhouse.  Some years ago I painted a number of them as gifts.  I attached a chair railing to the bottom and friends still have them in their garden or sitting in their kitchen.  This is what it looks like today   I hope to paint it during my vacation and I’ll share the picture with you.   I am only on Day 3 of 21 days so I should have some time. 

Tomorrow Son #2 and family and mom and I are going to her cottage which is 2-1/2 hours north of me.  They are predicting some iffy kind of weather but hopefully it’ll be warm and we’ll swim and won’t mind a little wet.  I made some goodies to take with us.  Grace made them a couple of weeks ago when we were at Marcs.  She gave me the recipe but I forgot to ask what they are called.  I’m callng them Grace’s Nutty Bars.  They are soooo yummy.   This is my favourite tin.  Although its a bit Christmassy    I’m using it to bring the Nutty Bars I made with Grace’s recipe to the cottage.   I’ve left you the recipe below.  Try them you will LOVE them I’m sure.  If you try them let me know what YOU think.  If you’ve made them before leave me a comment with their proper name.

Grace’s Nutty Bars

1 stick margarine

1 cup white sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

Club crackers about 1 sleeve.

Chopped almonds and/or hazelnuts.  I used both.   Chop them up into small pieces.

Line a cookie sheet with foil paper and arrange crackers on it.   It will take 2 cookie sheets.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add sugar.  Cook for 2 minutes stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Use a tablespoon to spoon the mixture all over each cracker.  Scatter the nuts over the crackers.  Bake at 350F for 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and immediately place on cookie sheets to cool.   You’ll need to remove them right away or they’ll get stuck on the foil.  After cooling place in an airtight tin separating the layers with wax paper. 

Have a great sweet week!

Today has been a rainy day…dark…and rainy.  Once of those days when you feel like baking or cooking or sewing something.  You know?  One of those days.  I can’t craft since I don’t have any supplies with me but I will share with you some finds from yesterday.  I can’t download pics today so I can’t share until I get home.  I plan to put them in my etsy store once I get sorted out.  ANYWAY  I AM going to make this Confetti Zuchinni Pepper Relish- once I get home…  If your weather is like ours you might want to play the zucchini relish word find once you view the recipe.  Enjoy the day.

Happy Friday!  Enjoy your weekend…

This is a picture of a fish I had and he always seemed to be having a good day looking handsome in blue.

I am on vacation today at noon for 3 weeks and looking forward to trips to and from New York State, the cottage up north, visiting with friends/family & I truly hope there will be time for crafting.

I came across the following, it isn’t something that I wrote.   It made me think and I wanted to further share it with you too.  

 An Inspirational Attitude

Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or …
I can be thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.

Today I can feel sad that I don’t have more money or …
I can be glad that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me away from waste.

Today I can grumble about my health or …
I can rejoice that I am alive.

Today I can lament over all that my parents didn’t give me when I was growing up or …
I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.

Today I can cry because roses have thorns or …
I can celebrate that thorns have roses.

Today I can mourn my lack of friends or …
I can excitedly embark upon a quest to discover new relationships.

Today I can whine because I have to go to work or …
I can shout for joy because I have a job to do.

Today I can complain because I have to go to school or …
eagerly open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.

Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework …
or I can feel honored because the Lord has provided shelter for my mind, body and soul.

My Madeline having a photo break while observing a chipmunk up close….

Oh my!  Cute.  I’ve seen a few really cute  little vintage pillowcase dresses around online.  I wanted to share the instructions given at  Red Instead if you are like me and interested in sewing one up.  I haven’t any vintage pillowcases though.  Can you suggest where I could purchase an embroidered one?  I haven’t checked ebay yet.   This is another beautiful little eyelet dress  Shelly  has embellished for her little one I wanted to share with you.  It is tooo cute.  Love to try that too.

I hope you had a really good weekend.   

                       I was so surprised to see how much bigger the flowers in the wheelbarrow at the cottage looked this weekend.  It had only been a week since I’d planted them.  I put in a Welcome sign.

We had a busy weekend.  Marc’s mom “babe” who is such a lovely lady and so sharp and 93 years old came to the cottage with Marc’s brother and wife.  It was a 2-1/2 hour drive for her.   We had a total of 18 get together especially to visit with her.  She was so happy to see her great grandson Jack again, to see everyone again.        Marc grilled a couple of pork butts on the grill for about 6 hours and we served pulled pork on buns.  It was sooo Yum!

 I made  Kathy Mousher’s Delicious Baked Beans * (recipe below)     Kathy Mousher is a friend in the family’s mother-in-law.    This picture shows them before they went in the oven.  When they came out of the oven they had a much better done and yummy look.

 Janet, the Queen of desserts, again put together 2 different, fantastic looking and tasting desserts, 

 Mocha Layer Cake   

and Flat Bottom Fruit Pie  

      both from the Kraft Kitchen site.  I don’t know which one I preferred better, they were both absolutely worth testing again!   We all had such a good visit and Babe said those were the best 3 days of her life.  That put a smile on everyone’s faces.

I live in Canada during the week, the weekends in the summer are spent in New York State at Marc’s cottage, his home.  (In the winter this plan reverses)  So a few years ago I was so excited to find this wonderful American type fabric in Canada that I made into 2 patriotic pillows for the cottage.  I took pictures to share with you. 

     Doesn’t it look like one pillow is “red” and the other “blue”?  When in fact they are made from the same fabric but one has a red cording and the other a blue cording.  It amazes me how the cording pulls the coordinating colour from each pillow. 

It even looks that way when you flip one over to show the backside which with the red cording again looks like its more red….             until you reverse the pillows again    It is NOT taking much to amuse me here. *lol*

The neighbours have this cozy little spot behind their cottage.    

It invites you to sit, or read, or visit with a friends, and sip lemonade

  and listen to the birds, or admire the flowers.

                  This little bird’s nest is empty this year, except for these dried leaves.  It was sitting in the flower flower box from last year.    It sits where it was deserted last spring after a racoon pushed it out of the box.  You can see it in the corner in the picture below.  I should put some little decorative blue eggs into it….

The flowers in the window box on the shed we planted last weekend are looking stronger this weekend too

Tonight I worked on the engagment quilt I started a couple of weeks ago, that I should have given a couple of weeks ago at the engagement party, but it wasn’t finished.       

Tomorrow I hope to pick up some fabric for the back and then I can start quilting it.

Kathy Mousher’s Delicous Baked Beans

3/4 lb ground beef

1/2 lb. diced bacon

1 cup onion diced

1 28 oz can Pork and Beans

15 oz can Pinto beans (drained and rinsed)

15 oz can Lima beans (drained and rinsed)

15 oz can Navy beans (drained and rinsed)

1/2 cup bbq sauce

1/2 cup ketchup

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp prepared mustard

2 tbsp molasses

1-1/2 tsp. chili powder

Fry the bacon until starting to brown, add onions and ground beef and cook until ground beef is cooked.  Drain.  Add all the beans and mix very well.  In separate bowl combine the rest of the ingredients and then add them to the beef and bean mixture.   Cover and bake for 45 minutes.

On the weekend Marc bought an ice cream maker.  Does anyone have one and use it?  We love ice cream and have talked about this often.  We couldn’t use it yet because we realized we had to put the insert into the freezer for 8 hours and didn’t have the time to do that when we wanted to use it.  Maybe this weekend? 

Anyway….I was visiting at lilyeden and read about squash recipes (take a look at all her beautiful handmade cards and tags and papers - yum) and travelled from there to this wonderful sounding -

 Oatmeal Cookie Sandwiches with Nectarine Ice Cream recipe.      

This is the picture from the recipe site.  Now how good does that look and sound?  VERY!

Imagine it with peaches that will be coming out next month or cherries?  delish!  Imagine making the ice cream bit and eating it even without being sandwiched?  Should you go ahead and make some before me, be sure to report back how they were ok?

Announcement …….A winner for the Soapy Freebie giveaway!

This is the lemonade pitcher….

She said she loves tropical scents so I am going to send her 2 bars, Fruit Deli and Coconut Cream Fuzz.  I hope she’ll like them. 

I seem to find $5.00 deals lately and I have been very happy with that.  A couple of weeks ago on my way home I stopped at a garage sale and bought this child’s antique wooden highchair.  It really is in pretty good condition so I’m not doing anything to it.  It was $5.00 “or make me an offer”.  I didn’t haggle that price.  I wish I knew more about it though.   Can anyone give me information on it? 

It now sits with a very hearty, happy plant on it.  

Today is the last day of this week of vacation and I’m going home tomorrow.  But it was a fun day.  I spray painted a wheel barrow I picked up for $5.00 a couple of weeks ago and planted flowers into it.   I’m going to brush paint the bottom red probably next weekend.  The flowers will look better once they settle in there and start spreading.

We made a spaghetti dinner tonight and our friends came over to share food and company.  Marc and Molly did this wine over dinner toast.

  they picked up a couple of passengers along the way….

  neighbours along the beach had a bonfire with their friends

  neighbours strolled by the cottage….

     we watched the lovely sunset

 now we’re hearing the fireworks from 2 cottages down … it was a nice day.  I hope yours was nice too! 

Flag Raising

Happy 4th of July to you!  I hope its a very special day whether you spend it with family or with friends or doing something special just for you.

We’re going to a flag raising just down the beach.  There will be songs song and poems read and then we’ll all have American hot dogs and apple pie.  Its always a nice ceremony.  I’ve added some pictures that we took and posted after the fact. 

    Whatever you’re doing…enjoy.

Last night the kids came to have a bbq and celebrating their dad’s b’day.  Janet brought all the fixings for this very yummy dessert called Jello Berry Bliss Cake which she fixed while we watched.

Berry Bliss Cake

          A slice of Berry Bliss Cake

 We made some yummy twice baked potatoes and they really ARE yummy.   This is them on their way into the oven.   

Twice Baked Potatoes

and this is them when we remembered to take a picture at the end of the meal.

All thats left..

 and this morning we fried one 1/2 gently and served with our scrambled eggs.  Twice baked and twice yum!  This is the recipe.  If you try them let me now what YOU think.