It's a twinkle and candle light, blanket, sweater, hot tea and knitting kind of night. Really it's been that kind of day. Yesterday morning my throat started burning and by 9 I was in bed coughing and struggling to breathe. This morning, full on cold. Ugh...
So it's been lots of hot tea with lemon, some Sambucol and even my mom's "remedy" teaspoon of sugar with Jack Daniels. (That was what my pediatrician prescribed when I was a little girl and had the croup. I had the croup a lot.)
Anywhoo...
Yesterday was supposed to be a finish cleaning the kitchen from turkey day meal, de-bone turkey and make stock for next year kind of day. But I became distracted. Very distracted.
I ended up rearranging half of my studio space. Every time I went in there to do something I'd start panicking and feeling supremely claustrophobic. (3rd photo from the top) So, I moved some stuff around. (next photo) I'm not sure how long this will last and I may end up moving everything in the room next time.
I had stuff everywhere. I moved most of the supplies I keep on my table into the living room and put them on the hearth. It was covered. More stuff ended up in piles in the living room or the other half of the studio. I'm still sorting and trying to organize, but I feel better when I walk in there now.
Many years ago, when I was still working, I collected plants and had a house full. Even my office desk was more than half covered in plants. After I had to leave work, I was so sick most all of them died from neglect. I've been trying to renew my green thumb for a few years now. Sometimes I do well, others...not so much. But, I'm trying. I added a cyclamen this week and bought an amaryllis. I haven't potted the amaryllis yet, but plan to this week. I have paper-whites from a kit I bought this time last year and never potted. They are looking pretty good. My Christmas cactus is blooming (the dark pink). I've had that plant for maybe 6 or 7 years. My flower friend at the local farmers market had some gorgeous cacti and I just had to have one. (the light pink flowers).
So, that's basically it for today. I know I'm rambling a bit. I'm trying to get back into the habit of being here. Hopefully I'll have some more entertaining and insightful commentary soon. Ha ha ha!
What's your best way to treat a cold? Did you grow up with an unconventional remedy?
I'm heading back to the knitting now. My team has a late basketball game and I'm hoping to keep myself awake for it. :-)
thanks for stopping by for a read!
love & blessings
~*~
ps...I really appreciate your comments. I'm trying to figure the best way to reply but I'm having some issues with it. Please don't think I'm not reading them, I am and they mean the world to me. xoxo
I've been staying pretty busy lately. Lots of knitting and studio play.
My Steelers Scoreboard KAL. I've the first game and part of the second on the needles. They don't play again until a week from Monday, so I'm hoping to be caught up. I knit pretty slowly and my stitches get tight if I'm not paying attention. It has taken me about seven hours of knitting to get that far. Because of how slow I am and all the other things I'm doing, I've decided to hold off on the Heels scoreboard I was going to knit.
I found these little cork top bottles at Target the other day. They were $1 each so I bought several. I've already put two to use and I have plans for these two.
My Halloween mantle decorations. I'm pretty happy with it. I tend to move things around and rearrange a lot during the season so we'll see if this gets tweaked.
My new shoes! I saw them used as a decoration at Mary's blog and fell in love with them. The last time I was this crazy over a pair of shoes, I was never able to find them. So, I went on a mission. I found these on sale at Kohl's website, plus I had coupons so they were pretty reasonable. I never order shoes online. I have a hard time finding shoes that fit comfortably, so I'm always afraid to go that route. But I just had to have these, so I took a chance. They came today and I tried them on right off. They fit! Plus they make me about 4 inches taller (which is great when you are as vertically challenged as I am!). I also found a cream colored pair which I really, really want and am fighting with myself about ordering.
I've spent quite a bit of time in my studio the past several days. I've played with paint, feathers, tulle, wood, glitter and clay. I've been wanting to get my hands in clay for over a year. Finally! It felt really good. I have several small things drying. I am looking forward to being able to paint them and see how they turn out.
That girl up there. I think she's finished. The paint is still drying and I may put a sealant on it, but I think she's done. (The picture is just a small portion of the piece.) She's one of my faceless girls. I've done a few things like that, where I leave the face blank. She could be anyone or everyone. I'll show her full picture soon.
It's still raining here. Well, not right this second, but it has been raining every day. I woke yesterday with aches and pains and was freezing. I decided to keep myself home. Today was even colder and I'm congested and my throat hurts. Maybe walking in the rain is not such a good idea. I hope to get back to walking tomorrow.
Well, I'm off to work on that scoreboard kal. How's your weather? Have you decorated for Halloween?
thanks for stopping by,
love & blessings
~*~
Another night of extreme dreaming and another day of feeling like death. I was supposed to meet my family for lunch this afternoon and about an hour before leaving I received a call that we had to postpone. I was so happy as I hadn't even made it out of bed yet. I lay down for another half hour before getting up and trying to move through my day.
It led me me outside to water and tend my little garden. Then to the studio, where I played with paint and glitter. And lastly to the kitchen where I had an Amish Friendship Bread starter to tend. It was day 10 (or maybe 11) so I needed to bake with it today. I made four small loaves and had enough batter left for four muffins. I made the basic recipe (without the pudding) but at the link above you can find many recipes to use your starter. I've already printed off a few to try, but as I'm now out of milk and sugar, I'll have to wait. I ended up with five more cups of starter. I've frozen one for use at another time, and I plan to give two to my mum (even though she only asked for one!). I'll probably bake up the last two with different recipes. The breads freeze really well, so that helps.
I am so tired now, but the Isner/Federer US Open match just got underway and I really want to watch it. I'm going to try to tough it out.
I hope you have had a wonderful day today and were able to do something fun.
Anyone have any favorite bread recipes to share? I'm loving spending time in the kitchen lately. How about you?
thanks for stopping by,
love & blessings
~*~
I've really meant to post sooner than this, but life has been taking me for a spin and I'm just now feeling up to sitting down and typing. Everything has felt so different for me, since I went to the Red Thread Retreat last month. I am living so much, instead of just existing and I am so enjoying it.
Since my last post, I've been to a local consignment shop hunt and found a wonderful piece for my studio. On their FB page I'd seen a hutch that I thought would do nicely for my studio to house supplies and knickknack type things (of which I have many). It was big, but seemed well made and very inexpensive and I thought I could slap some paint on it and it would be lovely. When I arrived to the shop, it had already sold, but the lovely lady pointed me to another area in the shop and there it was! This lovely old secretary was waiting just for me and was so much more "me" than the other piece.
Isn't she wonderful?!? Behind the desk shelf is nine cubbyholes and three drawers. I was able to get her home on Saturday and spent all day cleaning her up and letting her air out. Sunday I put the shelves and drawers back in and started loading her up with things.
My studio space at dusk. I'm planning to add shelving in that corner over the workspace for more storage. But now I have lots of play space on my table and still have my "toys" for inspiration. :-)
When I went back Saturday to pick up the secretary I decided to treat myself to a new friend. They were having a sale on all their Halloween items and I just couldn't resist!
Meet my new friend Eloisa! I don't know what name her creator gave her, but we went through a list of names (old fashioned, as she doesn't seem too much of a modern girl to me) and we both thought Eloisa suited her.
I met up with a friend from RTR (who lives close by) for lunch early this week. It is so nice to make new friends. I've never been very good at it, but maybe I'm just out of practice?
This morning I met an old friend for coffee and a trip to the Farmer's Market. I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year (first time ever! eek!) and I want to have as natural/healthy a meal as I can. I ordered my turkey from a local farm and I won't mention how much this could end up costing. Let's just say I could eat for maybe two weeks for the cost of this turkey. Now I've to read up on how to brine the bird and such.
That arctic cold front that is sweeping the country is headed our way in the next few days. Today it was up to 73 degrees. I'm personally looking forward to the cold. I always prefer to be cool rather than hot.
Last week we had a nice frosty morning and I was up early enough to get out and snap a few pictures.
This one is my favorite. A bit of water left in the birdbath overnight had frozen over and well...
I'm not sure if you can click on the picture to make it larger, but it looks even better that way.
We've had some marvelous sunsets lately.
I've adopted this idea to try to find something beautiful in my life every single day and to take a picture of it. I'd been posting a lot of my photos on FB. My sweet friend Rachel from Blue Finch suggested I get on Instagram. I'd been thinking about it for a while, but just hadn't done it. But, now I have! I've added a button in the right hand sidebar if you wanna check it out. I'm doing my #beautyeveryday pictures there as I know I just don't have it in me to blog every day. Maybe at some point, I will but for now, I'm just getting back into this blogging thing, s l o w l y...
The paints, pens and such have been making an appearance lately. I'm having so much fun making things and have SO MANY ideas. I'm hoping to pull out some clay soon or maybe do some more paper-mache.
I think I've rambled enough for today. I hope you are having a wonderful week.
What beauty did you find today?
blessings
~*~
