Be Still and Know...Then and Now

One of my favorite things are the precious moments I have with my granddaughter just after she wakes up on the mornings she is at my house. She crawls into my lap and we sit for a few moments just being together. This morning I had put my old ratty sweater on as it was a bit chilly in the house. Muffinhead was intrigued with the buttons. She decide we needed to count the buttons. There were six buttons down one side. Next we needed to count the button holes. Then she deemed that the buttons were magic buttons. After we counted them again she decide that I needed help buttoning the sweater up. She struggle and struggle for several minutes to try and get the buttons through the button holes, After several attempts she sighs deeply and announces, “I can’t do it!: and dramatically falls into my chest and hides her face in my sweater. I give her a gentle pat on the back and say “Life is hard sometimes!” and give a little chuckle. In a tiny voice muffled still with her face against my sweat...

Good Wednesday Morning, It is time for a bit of Hodgepodge, love that word by the way! Christmas is right aroun the cornere, four Hodgepodges to go till Christmas….How did that happen? 1.  With that being said I think I need to dive right in to some Christmas related questions, don't you? Which do you prefer-pretty gift wrap with a bow or a pretty gift bag with/without a bow?  I think I kinda like both, some gifts just require wrapping paper and others work better with a gift bag. However the thrifty side of me loves a gift bag as I can reuse them….. What percentage of your holiday gifts are currently (as in right this very minute) wrapped in some form or fashion? Easy answer…..ZERO! Also I will share that I have bought exactly one gift so far….YIKES! 2.  What is one item on your Christmas list this year? Most of the time I gravitate to kitchenware, I just got an awesome Kitchen torch for my birthday and I LOVE it! However this year I think I am going to ask fo...

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday week. I think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! Well it was a good week so let’s get right at it… No pictures on Sunday, November 18   Monday, November 19 The Hubs had a business trip  so he hopped a plane flew out of town on Monday morning and the Girlchild made arrangement to spend the majority of the week with her cousin and Aunt. Sooo you know what that meant…..I had a few days all to myself! Woooo Hooooooo!!!!!!! We met at our usual place to make the exchange and when they drove up I had one of those moments that you have from time to time when you realize that the little babies you love are growing up. My niece and nephew behind the wheel of a car. Being twins the deal is the Neicegirl get to drive there and Nephewboy gets to drive home. Knowing these two as I do I was more than a bit concerned to place my beloved Girlchild in the vehicle knowing that Nephewboy would be driving them back home. God is good and he heard...

I woke up early on Tuesday morning and I had my house all to myself. I dropped the girlchild off at my sisters and the Hubs is away on a business trip…can you say Wooo Hooooo! So I spent a few minute doing a bit of blog hopping. Since I had a few uninterrupted  minutes I decide to give Wednesday Hodgepodge a go! 1. Turkey-love it or leave it?  White meat or dark?  What's your favorite thing to make using leftover turkey? I enjoy turkey, however like most folks I usually only serve it at thanksgiving. My opinions, the only proper way to prepare a turkey is to brine it. If I am going to go to the effort of cooking a turkey then going the extra 24 hours to get it brined ahead of time is totally worth the effort. The end result will yield a wonderful juicer flavorful bird! If you are so inclined you can go to food network and look up Alton Brown’s recipe for brining a turkey, I highly recommend it. I like both the white and dark meat, but if pressed I would always chose t...

Good Morning, or afternoon depending on what time you pop over. It’s very early for me. The family is still sleeping and I am waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. It’s officially cold here. I woke several times last nigh to see the temps outside fall below freezing. Well it was a good week for me, lost of time to do things I wanted to do, the hubs was out of town again so I had a mini housework vacation. I was in the zone with a lot of creative juices flowing, who knows were that came from….but I have a theory. You can click here to ready my highly scientific reasoning…NOT! I got almost a picture every day this week…not to bad! Let’s get at it! Sunday, October 11 My fall garden is bursting with lettuce and my remaining peppers are still doing very well. I love watching the peppers turn from green to red! I finished another Homespun Shawl. I have started using the traditional granny square pattern. It comes together very quickly and the simplicity of the concentric squares...

Sometimes when my son is out of town on a job they call it quits on Thursday and then he has Friday off. His day off mean I have the morning off as well and Muffinhead is not here. I so enjoy my time with her but I also am enjoying the quiet and having a morning to myself. The Hubs comes home this afternoon from a business trip as well, so after I hit the post button I have a bit of pick up to do to get the house in order for his arrival. When the Hubs is away the wife will be….very lazy! I have my shopping list to make today and then a trip to the store. I am not having thanksgiving at my house this year. It has been many years since I have been able to actually have a thanksgiving at my house and sit at my table. All things in good time, yes I know but I will confess I am longing for a simple uncomplicated holiday time of being at home and doing what I want to do and not having to yield to the wishes of extended family. In years past I have opted for having my own Thanksgiving cel...

A long, long time ago in a land far far away an old woman picked up a paint brush….. For my second foray into painting I have chosen a landscape I took while we vacationed in San Francisco. This picture was taken at Golden Gate Park in the Japanese Tea Garden. It was one of the most beautiful gardens I have seen in a very long time. The tranquil beauty and Japanese simplicity was stunning. October 2, 2010 I have found that if I do a few preliminary sketches first then I have a better sense of what the focal point of the painting needs to be. I also took the time to make a grid, which I did not do last time. I really regretted not taking the time to do this. My perspective suffered and there were many times as I painted over certain parts of my last painting that I whished I had taken the time to get my perspective right before diving in. October 26, 2010 I was finally able to transfer my grid to my canvas and get the main structure of the painting sketched out!   Decembe...

It was a week of working on the clay and getting in the kitchen. I was thankful for the many distractions to keep my mind off political disappointments this week. Not to mention a heavy dose of hormones tossed in for good measure. However I have little photographic evidence to show for it. I do have lot’s of picture of wet drying clay, but as promised I will spare you the riveting details of drying clay! No pictures on Sunday, October 4 Monday, October 5 It was time to go to the dentist. Unfortunately I had to fire my old dentist. We loved him, but it became cost prohibitive as he was not in our insurance network and it was just to expensive. Laziness and just plane forgetting to do it kept pushing the task of finding a new dentist lower and lower down on my list of things to do. Finally I made myself sit down and find a new dentist. Thankfully both myself and the girlchild escaped without incident. The Hub’s however has some major dental work in his future….YIKES! Tuesday, Octo...