manatees and DST

okay.....are you or aren't you a fan of DST ?

Don't know about you, but I love Daylight Saving time. Probably because I am not really a morning person and so I don't mind if it's dark when I wake up.
I think the weather also plays a part.  This time of year in Florida, the weather is so beautiful in the evenings that having it stay light, longer, will be really nice.
The drawback to that is dinner gets later and later too.
We find ourselves puttering in the yard (or he in the yard and me in the studio) and before I know it, it's 7:30 or 8:00 and then I'm scrambling to get dinner on the table. Oh well, after a few weeks of disorder things get back into rhythm.

We recently had family come to see us, my sister-in-law and her hubby were here for a visit and we headed to Manatee Park in Ft Myers.
It was a very chilly day ( no really) and lo and behold there were lots of manatees at the park. The manatees frequent the area because it is the waterway that the power plant discharges warm water into. The manatees gather there for warmth when the other waterways get too chilly for them.

Just think, sailors long ago mistook these as mermaids. Just goes to show you how society's perception of body image has changed over the centuries....and I guess they didn't mind bald mermaids at that. Must have been out at sea a very long time.

Enjoy the extra daylight.....

puzzled?

Made another jaunt up to Wisconsin in July, my Dad had to have a pacemaker put in and I surely wanted to be there to support him and my mom. It was amazing though, how quickly they put pacemakers in. He was out of surgery in about 1-1/2 hours and is doing just great. He had to stay in the hospital just one night. Here he is in the waiting room beforehand with my sister-in-laws husband. Looking pretty relaxed huh. All went well and he is recuperating very well too.

While I was there we had the rest of the family over a few days later to celebrate my moms birthday.  We also worked on the puzzle from *H E (double hockey sticks) that I started while there.
*If you don't know what H E double hockey sticks means ask someone older.
Anyway this was a puzzle of a Gee's Bend quilt, mostly black and white with a touch of red. I would tell you the name of it but it is still on the table at my parent's house! Of course we assembled all the areas with red in them and now all that's left is black and white.

 My niece and nephew (seen here) told me I was evil for bringing it. Even though there were about 7 or 8 of us working on it - it never got finished before I had to leave the next day. I keep asking my dad if he finished it and all I get in response is a chuckle.

My mom and I went to the grocery store and picked out her birthday cake. Heve you ever heard of a Fürst Pückler cake  ???? Well...neither had we until then. We saw it in the bakery case and it looked really good. It had a chocolate glaze instead of frosting. We asked the lady at the bakery counter and she said it was mutitple layers of vanilla and chocolate with strawberry filling and marzipan under the chocolate glaze.  When we googled it there seem to be several versions. It is a German recipe and named after Prince Pückler, Hermann Ludwig Heinrich Fürst von Pückler in fact. If you are bored or curious someday, google him.

Fürst Pückler cake - no really

Turns out it was a REALLY good cake and my mom (and everyone else) was happy she choose it.

mom's birthday ( she's at the piano)

Oh, and I just have to share this pic of dad (great Grandpa) with our newest family member, Miles.. my great nephew - he is so adorable!

twas the days after Christmas.......

Ho - ho - ho - hope your Christmas was filled with delight. I purposely stayed away from the keyboard over the holidays so I would spend my time doing fun stuff like baking cookies, visiting, sleigh riding, napping, eating, watching cheesy Christmas movies......... all that good stuff that goes along with Christmas and the holiday season. Fortunately , unlike my friend Karen, (poor Karen)
I didn't catch a cold nor did my hubby.
I did try some new Christmas cookie recipes though. I LOVE baking and this year I tried 3 new recipes.

The first was peppermint snowballs. They are cookies that get filled with a peppermint cream, baked and rolled in crushed candy canes and powdered sugar. Yummy! Speaking of candy canes my D.H. made me a set of 3 candy cane decorations for the yard. He's a real handy guy.

The next cookies were coco-mints. You make coco wafers and then sandwich them with green mint filling. Also yummy!
The third new recipe was double peanut butter cookies. You make the dough, which is peanut butter dough, form into logs, chill, slice and then add a small dollop of peanut butter, cover with second slice, seal the edges and bake. They are super peanuty flavorful! double yum!

Christmas eve we drove around to see some Christmas lights but didn't go to our usual light display neighborhood because we go there so much we know it by heart. So we picked a different neighborhood and we did catch a few ambitious displays.

We spent Christmas eve at my D.H.'s step brothers house for a tappas party and wow did they have a wonderful assortment! There were 2 kinds of shrimp, salmon and capers, lots of cheeses, chutneys, fruit, carved ham sandwiches, 3 kinds of ravioli, the squash ravioli was awesome! They had sausages, Italian wedding soup and then of course desserts - I will post the recipe for the nut yule log in a day or two for you.  It was unbelievable and it's a super easy no bake recipe. I usually don't even try fruit cake type loafs because they are not always very appetizing. You know all the jokes about doorstops and anchors right? Well, I had 3 pieces of this one - oink -oink!
Christmas Day was going to be in laws over for brunch but my FIL was in the hospital until late Christmas eve. He was too weak still to bring on an outing, so we shared the mid day meal with my FIL and MIL at their assisted living center then came home and took a short nap and then eventually got around to opening gifts.
Our Christmas dinner was quiet, we threw some nice beef tenderloins on the grill and relaxed the rest of the evening. 
I still have a few Christmas cards to mail out - yes really. I know it's almost 2012 but that's another story.......

a stitch in (double) time.....

Calling all procrastinators.......If you know me, you know that I am the reining queen of procrastinators.
All hail the queen! NOT. Today was spent in my studio stitching in double time. I thought I would be farther along with my gift making but alas here it is a week before Christmas and I am frantically stitching away. Please tell me I am not alone....please don't tell me that you had your gifts done and wrapped before Thanksgiving, don't tell me your cards are mailed and your cookies are baked. That would just be cruel.
One of the gifts I am determined to finish tonight is a scarf made with this really fascinating yarn I found at the last quilt show I went to. Have you seen this yarn? Have you tried knitting with it yet?  I am knitting with 7 stitches cast on and as you knit it kind of twirls itself around and makes a unique accent scarf.

this is the yarn

this is the scarf, so far

I must say it was a challenge to cast on,  and will probably be just as much of a challenge to cast off. Guess I'll find out later.  Next up is to finish an apron....

this is an apron yet to be completed....

 I better step away from the computer now if I want to get these done tonight...tomorrow is another day.
Speaking of tomorrow - (Saturday) it's the last day to enter my giveaway. Scroll down to the last post for entry info. 
It's super easy, and I am loving all the delightful comments you are all posting about Christmas. 
I so miss my family up north. I guess the only thing I don't like about Christmas is not being with them.  (don't mind me, just a small pity party in progress. If you're missing your family you're welcome to join in )


Well... off to knit and hug my darling DH

giant chocolate or UFO?

Look what I found! Actually my hubby stumbled across it and took me to see it. We didn't see Gort or Klaatu anywhere around so maybe it is filled with chocolate....mmmmmm!

Anyway it's pretty cool looking.
Got a new camera today, an early b'day present from my family so I'll be back to taking more pix again. Didn't realize how much I used my camera until my old one broke. Had a hard time finding one with a view finder.  With sunshine almost every day here a view finder for outdoor shots is a huge benefit. Ended up ordering a gently used one because it had a view finder. It's a Cannon power shot SD770 , and I'm looking forward to putting it to use.
My Dad is an extremely talented photographer and I used to help him develop prints when they were done the old fashioned way, in a dark room with chemical trays. He has a lot of really cool black and white pix from way back that I hope he will put into a book. He along with most the population has gone digital. He really embraced the new technology and I'm very proud of him for that.
This week he is facing complete shoulder reconstruction and I know it's going to be a rough road ahead while he heals. It's hard being far away when you want to be by your family's side. So thank goodness for technology.....because at least we can talk, and facebook, and email. Darn it, why haven't they invented the transporter yet???  Maybe I can hop on this UFO and get there.

literally.... over the rainbow

Yes we were over a rainbow!

On our way back from our Wisconsin visit to see family and friends we flew over a rainbow! Our very nice flight attendant came over and brought it to our attention and it was so beautiful. I have never been right over a rainbow before. Anyway, were' back home and had a fabulous visit.
It was my parents 6oth anniversary - yes 60th! They are an amazing couple and truly an inspiration.
They have known each other since grade school and he teases about how he used to pull her pigtails in class. They had a fantastic celebration party and we were so happy to be there to celebrate with them.
The week went by all to quickly as it always does when we visit but we got a lot accomplished around their house and did a lot of visiting too.
We of course had to go to a Friday night fish fry...it's truly a Wisconsin tradition and when you find a good fish fry- oh my! We went to a family style fish fry with a group friends and family and it was all you can eat. They just keep bringing platters of fish and I confess, I didn't keep count, I just kept eating. It's not a batter fried fish, it's lightly breaded and oh so good.
It was so wonderful to see our families other than on facebook and spend some much needed quality time with them. Now comes the bad part....we forgot our camera! arghhhhh- oh well you'll just have to use your imagination.

Picture this.... family dinners, lots of laughing, cows, cheese, rolling hills, fireflies (there were tons of those) rainbows, bluebirds, chipmunks (so cute), morning coffee on the deck, anniversary celebrations and toasts, blooming flower beds, pulling weeds,  and then of course the tears of departure.
I hope you have the chance to connect with your families and friends this summer....

Life...

Karen's stencil from our "art camp" reflects my feelings right now. We've been in upheaval around here since my father-in-law went into the hospital the day before Mother's Day. We were very afraid that we were going to lose him and are so very joyful that he rallied through. We are also very grateful for my DH's step family that have been by our side through it all. We ended up having to move my FIL and his wife to assisted living over the Memorial Day weekend along with our stepbrothers' mother-in-law (by coincidence).
Needless to say we have been quite busy. The Lord does work in mysterious ways though .....
My DH was off work for 2 weeks and my hours have been cut for the summer, which in turn gave us the time we needed to devote to getting them moved, settled and to be able to spend a lot of time with them during this transition. We continue to pray that my FIL will respond to continued therapy and get stronger and healthier.

I hope to get back to keeping up my blog on a more regular basis, we'll see how that goes... in the meantime...... here are the last few pictures from our Saturday "art camp" .....

This was a piece that Marti did using Shiva paintstiks and textured rubbing plates..... I'd like to do more of this.

This is a piece Karen painted using watered down fabric paints. It will be a background for future playing. I also painted a background....

Here is my palette plate and the table after our day of "art camp"

Looks a bit different from the start....

a precious week....

My parents were just here visiting from Wisconsin for a week but unfortunately my Dad arrived with a nasty cold and cough. It slowed him down a little but didn't dampen his spirits and the four of us had a wonderful, quiet, lazy week together. We reminisced, laughed, cried, ate, took naps, fed the squirrels, and went for walks.  My mom and I had a shopping day together and my DH made his out of this world BBQ ribs one night ..... they were thoroughly enjoyed by all. We also made a trip or two to the Apple store for some software updates. We all went out to a nice restaurant their last night here and as always, the week went by way to quickly. I miss them so much already. It's hard being so far apart, but I am truly blessed to have such wonderful parents that are lots of fun to be with besides.

My dad is a photographer- in fact he shoots most of my product images and this time around we shot my first video. It was a hoot to say the least and then I had to become and I.T. geek and figure out how to splice together 4 segments, cut out the bad parts, add tittles, and then load it into QuickTime to format it and then get it into youtube. I just hope I remember how to do it all again for the next one. LOL
We only did a couple of takes and my dad had a blast doing it. He recounted some of his early adventures as a photographer for the Milwaukee Sentinel when he was just in his early 20's. Great stories, some new ones I hadn't heard before. Like the one where he and my mom were on their way to a wedding reception and he got called to report on a bad fire, they missed the reception.


Here's hoping that you cherish your family moments.......they are the most precious gifts of all.

had enough turkey?

So...... just how many turkey leftover recipes have you been cooking up?

 I hope that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends. We had half of my DH's step family and his older step brother had the other half. No....there's no bickering, just making the size of the gatherings a little easier for the hosting families. The family has grown with nieces and nephews marrying and adding wee ones and moving closer. It was a great day, the weather was nice and it was good to get together to count our blessings and share our thanks around the table. The down side was I so missed sharing the day with my family up north.  sob, sob , sniffle, sniffle :(
I am so grateful to Alexander Graham Bell so that at least I can hear their voices over the miles. Texting is great and convenient, but there's still nothing like hearing the voice of your loved ones.
Of course it goes without saying that we ate our fill of the Thanksgiving feast and yet as always there was leftover turkey. Last night we had turkey enchiladas and we'll most likely have turkey sandwiches again for lunch today.  We're also working our way through the leftover apple pie.

I promised on facebook the other day that I would post a soup recipe and it's NOT turkey soup.
So here is my recipe for meatball soup...it's easy and it is a favorite of ours on chilly days.

Meatball soup
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic - minced
2 T olive oil
4 cups water
 2 cans condensed beef broth
1/2 can of 6 oz. tomato paste (3 oz.)
1 cup coin sliced carrots
2 cups cubed potatoes
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup snipped parsley or cilantro
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup long grain rice uncooked
1 can black beans drained

In large pot, cook onion in oil until tender but not brown. Add the garlic and cook about a minute. Stir in water, broth and tomato paste. Bring to boil and add potatoes and carrots. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile combine egg, cilantro or parsley, salt, oregano, pepper, ground beef and uncooked rice. Form into small 1 inch meatballs and add a few at a time to the simmering soup. Bring soup to boil again. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes or until veggies are tender. Add 1 can black beans and simmer another 10 minutes.
yummy ~ yummy
If you have any leftover freeze it for another day that begs for warm and hearty soup.

By the way, sorry I have not been posting as frequently. Now that I am working in the outside world I have been working on juggling up my free time between, designing, blogging, stitching and all the other aspects of my pattern business and life. Bear with me, I am also working on the next post for the tortoise paced stitch -a-long. At least you've been able to keep up LOL