Cook, Make, Think

One more day and we will have left this darkest of months behind us. It's sad really with valentines in the middle you would think that February would be a month of light-hearted joy but it really isn't. I don't blame February for its bad rep, it is its placement in that time between the new year and warmer weather that makes it difficult I think. Even before it gets here we are tired of the snow and the cold which makes it feel colder and darker. Or maybe it just feels that way to me. I thought maybe I would share some of my crafting efforts this month though I'll be honest I didn't do much. Hearts. I like the big one best Tree of Love: So simple sticky foam hearts & pipe cleaners Pirate #1 Habitat Valentines Vignette A Warlock at Work The Pirate one I think you have seen before, still working on the skull problem. The Valentines one just came together one day. That's a heart in the background, it was the first one I made &

Broccoli Cabbage Salad - I followed the recipe on this one and while it turned out ok I think it would have benefited from a different dressing. In my opinion, the oil & vinegar dressing just didn't do anything for the taste, in fact, the vinegar masked it a lot. Lemon Spaghetti - I was raised by a very plain cook who used tomato soup to flavour her spaghetti and until recently I thought there were only two other ways to top spaghetti with spaghetti sauce or alfredo sauce. I've been wanting to try other sauces and this cook-in-sauce was so good that I intend to make it again. I cooked it with spinach this time as per the recipe but I think it would taste just as good without it. Lemon-Parsley Bean Salad - It looks kind of white doesn't it? That was a choice I made in the preparation. I had red kidney beans & I had white kidney beans and I chose to use the white because I like the red in chili and I have it on my menu for next month. Because I didn't use t

Follow where I lead Let's plant a seed Each of us belongs Each of us sings songs The notes of the song Are deep and long While others soar high As keen as a sigh Which song is yours? Which notes soars? Is it a happy tune Or one of gloom? Take a look inside your mind Listen to what you find Take a moment out To change from doubt Negative to positive Make it possible Change the tune You will feel better soon. Original verse by me. Poetry is clearly coming back to me. I am glad I have chosen this year to write instead of crafting. It is time I think to set my glue gun aside for a while and use my other skills.

Something I need to remember. I have spent so much of my life running and hiding that I don't know if I can stop. Even now I am feeling the need to run, to change my sourroundings, to alter my view but at the same time, I do not know where to begin to change. Giving up and drifting is easier. It makes me wish I could still drink, then if I did something stupid I could blame it on the alcohol. I don't much like myself some days. I see a lazy whiner who is also so spoiled she expects everyone to do as she tells them. As I said sometimes I don't like myself much. I can make all kinds of plans and say I'm going to change but inevitably I fall back into old habits and don't even notice it until it is nearly too late to change course again in the direction I want to go. Maybe you can relate?

We are nearing the end of this month and it's time to start thinking and planning for March. I usually start here with the idea to find out what is cheap and what I want or need and add them to my shopping list. What to Buy in March From Premeditated Leftovers Here are some items you can look forward to snagging great deals on during the month of March! Hooray for  Frozen Food Month ! Did you know such a thing existed? March is National Frozen Food Month, so now is the time to fill your freezers. Here are some of the items you can find: 1. Frozen family sized meals 2. Frozen diet meals 3. Frozen vegetables and fruits 4. Frozen beverage mixes and juices 5. Frozen pizzas 6. Frozen breakfast items 7. Frozen side dishes and appetizers 8. Frozen meats and seafoods March means  St. Patrick’s Day  is near. Keep your eyes opened for great prices on St. Patrick’s themed décor as well as traditional Irish food items. 9. Corned beef 10. Cabbage 11. Potatoes 12. Irish br

I love the way the sun is shining on my lego table! This is me today according to my computer camera. I know it is not my own writing but it describes me very well.

Cultivate the intellect, and you shall have a mind that produces beautiful thoughts, worthy images, helpful ideas, that will serve as solace in times of stress and be to you a refuge 'gainst all the storms that blow. The cultured mind, as compared to the uncultured mind, is the difference between beautiful gardens that produce vegetables, fruits or flowers and a tract of land that is overgrown with weeds & brambles To be a person of culture is to be at home under all conditions. Your mind is stored with mental images, and memory comes to keep you company, and guide you to nostalgia and the sense of separateness to universality or oneness with the Divine. The country will be beautiful to you in any season, and society and solitude each will be welcomed in turn. You are to reject nothing, despise nothing, knowing that everything belongs somewhere, and that it is needed to make up the great mosaic of life. Elbert Hubbard (sunset magazine) I do not know what year this w

Doing my best!

I have had many pets over the years. Here are a few: Bongo was a beagle-basset he looked like the one on the right. We had him around for 13 years until one day on a dump run he took a walk and never came back. I remember how much sorrow I had when my dad told me that, he had been an important part of my childhood. This is Shadow. When I first moved in with the Professor he came with me. Against the Professors wishes, at least at the beginning. The Professor grew to love him as much as I did and kept him when I moved out. He lived a long time until one day he went out and never came back. I miss him still. This is Coco Chanel with one of my daughters cats. Coco is mine by her choice but my daughter has had the keeping of her. I wanted to keep her with me but she is far too big for any place I have lived. She still loves me though and keeps me company when ever I go to visit with my daughter. Today I am pleased to introduce you to the newest pet in this line. Her name is

I spent yesterday preparing a couple of graphics to share with you then forgot to share them so today you get two posts instead of one.

Because I needed yesterday as a Rest Day we decided we would try to get into Snowflake Kingdom this morning. That did not go well. The area directly in front of it was blocked off so we had to travel around the park to find parking, unfortunately every where we looked was full so we decided to give it a miss this year but made a promise to ourselves that we would try again another year. Only next time not on Family Day. We then went looking for Brunch so that we could take our medicine. After some discussion we decided on Cora's. This is the second Cora's I've eaten in and I can honestly say the food has been great both times. I got a Smoothie bowl and it was delicious. Something to try on my own some day soon. After brunch we headed home. At the half-way point we had to make a pit-stop so we pulled into a Petro-Canada. I was surprised and pleased when I went in, it was like walking into one of the old general stores where they had a little bit of everything and so

Took a break today. We did go check out that Zellers store. Well worth the visit! I found a few warm nightgowns for $4 each. There were some fancy names as well like Ivanna Trump fashions. We stopped into  The Butchery/Veras Burger Express for a peek but decided against eating there. Loved the Meat counter though and would love to have something like this at home. In the end, we ate lunch at the hotel restaurant and it was lovely. Its called the Brew Table. The Kale super salad was perfect and the chocolate bread pudding was out of this world.

If you drive an overnight here would b well worth it. I am running late today cause I was so excited I used up more spoons then I should have. Which basically means when I got back to the hotel I was exhausted and ended sleeping for three hours before I was ready to do anything even eat. Oh so worth it though, we drove down government row and looked at all the embassy buildings, then parked and walked through the main Byward Market area. I'd almost given up finding them when we finally found the ice sculpture pavilions. Well worth the look though. This is my favourite. Isn/t she beautiful! Tonight's entry is kind short because I'm still a bit tired but when I get back home I'll upload the images to Facebook and Pinterest so you can see them in all their glory!

Hi all Well we made it to Kenata right on time for the professor to make his appointment even with me delaying him a bit for a potty break. We spent a couple of hours wandering around and grabbed Lunch at an East Side Marios During our wandering I saw a knit shop and a quilt shop. I managed to let him know in time about the quilt shop so I was able to go in and take a look. I was able to find the best patterns for the March quilt square. I liked that it is folded into a triangle so if I want I can just cut on the folds to get the pieces for the piecing part of the square. Happy Me! We were just headed back to our hotel when we spotted a Loblaws so we went in to get some food for the nights like tonight when I use up one or two spoons to many during the day and am in too much pain to go out. When we pulled into the plaza we got a bit of a shock. We saw this! and it was open for business! We took a look in the window and the Professor said it looks like HBC is using it as a cle

Happy Birthday to my sister, Cindy! Our sweetheart born on Valentine's Day! And happy Valentines to you too may love flow in and around you every day of your life!

Yep!

Body Image ReMix:  said, “No one will love you more than you love yourself. To have true love, you have to love yourself first.”   A positive body image means having unconditional self-love and compassion for yourself. Self-love  is about knowing ourselves, showing up as ourselves, and treating ourselves with trust, respect, and kindness. the definition of love from one of my heroes, Brené Brown, as written in The Gifts of Imperfection. It defines love perfectly for the purposes of this conversation:   “We cultivate love when we allow our most vulnerable and powerful selves to be deeply seen and known, and when we honour the spiritual connection that grows from that offering with trust, respect, kindness, and affection. Love is not something we give or get, it’s something we nurture and grow—a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them. We can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Shame, blame, disrespect, and

I am not very good at making friends or keeping them it seems. I do not go outside much, in fact I hardly leave my home unless it is family related. That makes it hard especially since friends expect you to come to them at least once in a while and I find I can't. If it were simply a matter of laziness it would be understandable but it isn't. Some days I can't even open the door to let in some fresh air. I do not know where the fear comes from I just know that that is what I feel when I think about going outside most of the time. Agoraphobia: Triggers for this anxiety may include wide-open spaces, crowds (social anxiety), or traveling (even short distances). Agoraphobia is often, but not always, compounded by a  fear  of social embarrassment, as the agoraphobic  fears  the onset of a panic attack and appearing distraught in public. Causes: Genetic and environmental factors Symptoms: Anxiety in situations perceived to be unsafe, panic attacks Treatment:

February 1 Home-made Potato Leek Soup to celebrate Imbolc. The only change I made was instead of using white potatoes and yellow onions I used yellow potatoes & red onion. It tasted great and I had forgotten how much I used to like leeks. This one is super easy if you don't have leeks just add a whole onion instead of only a half cup, it will have a slightly stronger onion taste but that isn't a bad thing. If you don't have half & half cream use a 7/8 cup milk & 1 Tbsp unsalted butter, if you use low fat milk add a tsp or so of flour to thicken it up a bit Lemon Loaf . To begin with, I didn't have a loaf pan so I used a 9 x 9 cake pan. I made my own lemon zest and am still having trouble with that white pith but I did better with the lemons then I did with the grapefruit last month. I switched white sugar with coconut sugar, it made the base a little bit thicker than usual but it tasted great and it is better for me. Instead of half a cup of milk I used

I looked in the mirror this morning and this is what I saw: Do you know her? Her name is Madame Min and she is a Disney Villian. My hair isn't Purple yet but it's coming because as of today I am more Salt than Pepper and her outfit, oh yeah I'd wear that , though in my case it would be ankle length or longer. But my hair was sticking up all over the place like hers and it has gotten that long. I had to smile at that. Do you look like any Disney character when you wake up? I know some of you go to church... what do you pray about? I'm a pagan my church is wherever I find myself, though closer to nature is better of course, so praying is easy. Yes, I do pray, I just send my prayers out to Mother Earth and Father Sky rather than a particular god or goddess. Today just take a moment to commune with your guiding spirit and thank them for the peace they give you. Have A Great Sunday!

I am celebrating today! Several things actually! 1) I like Pizza & I have a perfect reason to make one. It's National Pizza Day ! Its going to be a simple one though made with an everything bagel with pizza sauce, pepperoni & cheese. I might even add some onions and peppers for a filling supper. 2) Getting the pantry of my dreams. The one I bought is similar to a cupboard that sat in the house of one of my Uncles for as long as I could remember. It was a bit more delicate than the one I bought though. It looked a little like this one. 3) The Professor as confirmed that we will be going to Ottawa for Valentines, I am over the moon! It won't be the week I wanted but it is going to be four days & three nights. It means that I can explore the Byward district a bit more than I did a few years ago. Happy Dance!

This is me dealing with the consequences of the last two days. I am tired of always writing about stuff that matters only to me it seems. Well me and 2 or three others. Today Cinchshare  in their challenge was to write about a hack. There are two meanings for that word in association with social media; the first is when someone steals your account from you, the second is taking a simple thing like an Ikea Lack table and altering it to be useful for something else besides a coffee table. I haven't finished it as I have not finished many of the crafts I began but I have one of those that is supposed to be a Lego play station for the kids like this: I have glued the plates down, its the storage I have issues with as there are so many different types of blocks. What I know is that I use it to hold my works in progress and if you have little kids this is a great idea. You can find the tutorial here:  Lego Play Table If you are looking for more making ideas you can fin

Sorry this is late. Yesterday  I bought a nice sturdy pantry and today it was delivered, cleaned and set-up. I have been moving my appliances and things into it. Isn't it gorgeous!? And it only cost me $50 at the Restore. Those drawers are deep enough to hold my instapot sans lid and my blender sans base which means they are about 12" deep. I was so pleased when I found it and even more pleased when I heard the price. Everything you see on the shelf above is now in the new pantry and I still have 2.5 drawers left to put the rest of the stuff in plus all that clear space on top. I am extremely happy with this. In the process my desk got cleaned off.

loving your body is something you create for yourself from the inside out.  Let me repeat: Loving your body is something you create for yourself from the inside out. Loving your body and being the woman you want to be is about your mindset, your actions, and most importantly, it’s about how you relate to yourself. Innanen, Summer. Body Image Remix: Embrace Your Body and Unleash the Fierce, Confident Woman Within. Archangel Ink. Kindle Edition. I will be completing the exercises in this book to share with you as I go along this path and hope you will join me as I learn to love my body again. The first step is to create a list of 10 things that will flesh out your future badass self (FBS). Be SUPER specific! Close your eyes and picture her. Write it down. • What does your FBS do on a daily basis? • How is her life different from yours? • How does she feel when she wakes up in the morning? • What does she think when she gets dressed? • How does she interact with the people clo

"Love is neither good nor evil, just love. And everyone is entitled to it, even gods and monsters.” Timms, Lexy. Primals: Reverse Harem Paranormal Shifter Romance (Reverse Harem Series Book 1) (pp. 91-92). Dark Shadow Publishing. Kindle Edition. Love is neither good nor evil, just love, everyone is entitled to it. Everyone? Yes, even that paedophile has something in them that can be loved. Sometimes you have to look really hard to find it if you insist on proof or you can just accept that it is true and find a smile and a kind word for them.  That I found this in a fiction book was surprising but a pleasant surprise. Below are a couple of other quotes that I believe and try to live by.

With Valentines Day coming up there are so many different ideas for a Valentine menu from the intimate dinner for two to the heart-shaped fruit and sandwiches for the kids and since this happens to be the day, I present a few ideas for us. To begin with, unless you have a partner of some sort there is no real reason to celebrate this day but I found out that there is a single awareness day which is celebrated on the 15th! Even if you have a partner like mine who lives out of town you can celebrate on that day. I plan to. But what to celebrate? Well, how about showing some love for yourself. Cook one of those intimate dinners, light some candles and celebrate bright, beautiful you! I've ordered some heart-shaped cutters and I am going to make some heart-shaped biscuits, Finish off my Potato Leek soup and end with apple slices cut into hearts. If you want to do a little more check out these ideas from the Dating Divas. Celebrate with your other single friends. Go to   a da

Unfortunately, I am having a bad mental day so the post I had planned will not be published instead I'll leave this quote for you to brighten your day

that a groundhog can predict how much longer winter will last? I know you are seeing groundhog day stories all over the place so I'll try not to bore you. I don't know about that but this is still a very important day. It marks the midway point between Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. What that means in layman's terms is that we are at the point where winter starts to give way to spring. In the Pagan tradition, it is called Imbolc (lamb's milk) or Brigantia (goddess of light). The Christian Church calls it Candlemas. All of those things have a common denominator they all celebrate the return of the sun after it's winter hibernation. So where did this groundhog come from? Well historically in Europe they used bears or badgers but when they got here they were hard to find but there were tons of groundhogs or woodchucks as they otherwise known so they switched to them. The saying is " “If he sees his shadow, we’ll have six more weeks

Love vector created by balasoiu - www.freepik.com February is: Heart Month Black History Month Hot Breakfast Month National Snack Food Month Embroidery Month National Flag of Canada is on the 15th Canada's Agriculture Day is the 16th Plus a whole lot more! Check out the February Holiday Board to see some of the other fun stuff to celebrate in February The colours for the month are reds and pinks. Choose your shades and make a collage to welcome February for yourself