SWEET NOVEMBER!

It has been over a week since we saw the sunshine.  For Manitoban's anywhere in this province, that is a long time to be without sun.  I need the sunshine to get myself going in the morning.  I can go a couple of days, but after that I feel myself beginning to drag.

That has been the case here, all week.  I have lots of plans for my days, but no energy to get going on anything.  I can see how easy it could be to become melancholy and blue on these gray days.

I struck me in one of those melancholia moments this week, that November marks a year since our beloved Molly went blind.  To be honest there have been a few times in the past year that I wondered if we would loose her - like the rest of us, she has her good days and her not so good days.

Her blindness causes her to loose her balance sometimes, she steps out cautiously and sometimes falters. She stumbles between pavement and turf - she can't see the difference, and if I don't stop and let her feel the difference slowly - she falls.

Even so, her spirit and her determination is just plain amazing.  We all could learn so much from animals like her.  She hasn't given up on herself - and we haven't given up on her!

But life with Molly can be trying.  We are not saints, and sometimes we grumble - especially now that we can't just open the door and let her out to do her business.  Each time she goes out now requires one of us to go with her.  Whether it be two in the afternoon, or two in the morning, whether it be sunny and warm, or cold and raining or snowing!  We have to put her on a leash, take her outside, down three cement stairs and lead her to the yard.  Daylight or No light - the routine is the same.  She doesn't know the difference, but we do.

We sometimes get to feeling sorry for ourselves, until we stop and chat with people on our daily walks with Molly.  People are so taken with her, and so surprised when they hear she is blind - and pride in her replaces every other emotion we might have been feeling just a moment before.

She has her struggles, but she is still happy - the tail still wags for hugs and massages, and she still gives the sweetest dogie kisses I have ever received.  She is not in pain, but she does love to whine when she doesn't get her own way - why not - she's a female - she's entitled!

This year has taught us so much about Molly and about ourselves.  Her love for us is unconditional, as ours is for her.

I hope we have our blind dog for many more Novembers to come, I just can't imagine our life without our Molly in it - blindness and all!

                                                                     . . .

The weekend is here, and they say tomorrow the sun will shine!  I am counting on that forecast and have made plans to head to Plumas for their craft sale and to pick up and get lessons on how to set a Mole trap from my cousin Lorne.  Looking forward to both events tomorrow!

Have a Great weekend everyone - Stay safe!

COOKIE JAM!

No, sorry - not the game...



How is this for a cookie?

I told you I was going to bake!

I had all these little bags of Reese's pieces (the peanut butter ones) left over from Halloween, and they were driving me crazy every time I passed the cupboard.  So I took them out of the cupboard and emptied all the little bags into a 2 cup measuring cup.  I got a cup and a half...

So I made cookies... and are they good - they are a cross between a Monster Cookie, a Chocolate Chip Cookie and  Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.... UMMMMMM.

I added  half a cup of Chocolate Chips to the pieces to make 2 cups.

Here is the recipe...

1 Cup       Becel Margarine ( use butter or any soft margarine if you would rather)

1 Cup       Brown Sugar, packed

1/2 Cup    Granulated sugar

2               Eggs ( I blew mine out so I could used the shells to make Christmas tree ornaments)

2 Tsp        Vanilla

2 1/4 Cups     Flour

1 Tsp             Baking soda

1 Tsp             Salt

1 1/2 Cups           Reese's Pieces ( Peanut Butter flavour)

1/2 Cup               Chocolate Chips.

Cream butter and sugars together.  Add eggs and beat, Add Vanilla and beat well.

Mix flour, baking soda and salt, and add to the butter mixture.

Stir in Reese's pieces and chocolate chips,

Drop by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 8 minutes or until golden.

Makes approx 48 cookies.

This basic cookie batter could be used with crushed candy such as candy canes, mints.  Jellied fruits, nuts or anything you wish....

These however, are gonna be on the top of the list for my cookie jars from now on...

Now I have to figure out something to do with the OHenry Bars that are calling me from the cupboard.

Remind me next Halloween not to buy so much chocolate!

Enjoy your cookies!

NO SNOW; SUPPORT LOCAL - RANT ON!

I am going to go on yet another mini-rant today.  I discovered something yesterday while shopping at the IGA in a little town near here, that has me really buzzed.

But first - the snow has not materialized... I think we have escaped that for now - good thing too, because we have just realized that we don't have a snow shovel.  We left it behind for our son when he bought our home in the Peg - we will remedy that very very soon, needless to say!

So, no snow - we decided we should go and pick up a couple of things in case it does snow - and we just felt like getting out for a bit - so we drove down the highway to our favourite little shopping mall in St. Rose Du Lac.

We love the IGA store there, it is small by city standards, but it far surpasses any city store in quality, and prices.  I needed a few basic staples like milk, butter, flour.  We were ready to check out and I discovered I had forgot to get flour, so  I backtracked through the store thinking how great it would be if I could get a 10 lb  bag of flour for a really good price.

Bingo - there was a sale.  A 10 lb bag of PRARIE FLOUR MILLS  flour, made in Elie Manitoba -  for $7.49.

What?  Never heard of Prarie Flour Mills flour before, Elie is less than an hour away from Winnipeg, how come I have never seen this flour in any store in Winnipeg?

I bought a 10 lb bag, we made a few more stops at a couple of little shops where I am becoming known as a regular; stopped at Chicken Chef for lunch, then headed home.

I got right on the computer and checked out PRARIE FLOUR MILLS...

http://www.prairieflour.iwarp.com/profile/profile.htm

They have been in business a long time, and an article was written about them in the Winnipeg Free Press Dec 14, 2012 - stating they ship flour to major American Cities such as New York!

So if they can ship to great big New York City and they can ship to little old rural St.Rose Du Lac - how come not  to right down the road, Winnipeg?

Wanna bet it is not the flour company but the Winnipeg retailers at fault here?  They most likely have contracts with the big companies from all over the world, when home grown is right next door.

This is flour made from wheat grown right here in Manitoba!  You bet I am going to rant about this.  To my way of thinking, this flour should be the only flour we see on our grocery store shelves here in Manitoba!

Now that I know this company and their product exist - you won't catch me buying any other flour ever again.

Now I can't wait to get baking!

Is it too early to start Christmas baking?

HAPPY NOVEMBER!

Can you believe it's November already?

In our neck of the woods November means one major thing... SNOW!  We have been under a weather advisory which is continuing through Wednesday for rain ( which we have now had for 3 days straight) turning to freezing rain or snow.  Accumulations - who knows!

Personally I don't think it is going to happen - but if it does - I am prepared!

Yesterday I starched 10 bears, so they need to be put together and embellished.  I have 4 to make for an order and a couple to make for gifts, and will have a few in pieces in case someone wants any before Christmas.

 I also dragged out several containers of broken or needing repair Christmas Tree ornaments that my Mom and I made in the 70's out of goose eggs.   Nothing major to fix, just beads falling off, angels falling out, hangers missing or damaged.  They need a few hours and some new glue and they will be good for another 30 yrs or so.

I haven't been able to source any more goose eggs and I really have a hankering to do some eggs, so I am blowing out chicken eggs and will make some small versions of these type of tree ornaments - and I'll do some baking with the contents of the eggs themselves... no waste there!

I have signed up for a Christmas Swap which has to be in the mail by December 5th, so I will have to decide what I am going to make and get busy on that as well.

So Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow! 

I have work to do!

ANOTHER MILESTONE BIRTHDAY!

Today is my Father's 95th Birthday.  Happy Birthday, Dad... hope you have a wonderful day! I won't be with my Dad to share his day, but he will be in my heart, and on my mind.

It is hard for me to imagine him being 95, just as I am sure it is hard for him to imagine his little girl being 60!  The passage of time waits for no one, and pass it does - in the blink of an eye, the years are gone.

While I am mentioning birthdays, there are a couple more.  My niece Alanna, had a birthday yesterday, and my brother Wayne, celebrates his birthday tomorrow.  Happy Birthday to them both!


                                                                      ...

Our shopping trip yesterday was quite successful.  We had a few places to stop, and a lot of items on our lists.  We accomplished almost everything - except the mole trap.  Tomorrow an Ace Hardware store opens here in town, so we will see if they have some traps.

In the meantime, we managed to pick up some more outdoor Christmas lights at Walmart.  Everyone here has been in a light decorating frenzy this past week.  It appears that this town lights up for Christmas big time!  We brought some lights with us from the other house, but not nearly enough for this property, so now we should have enough to make a statement.

In the mail yesterday, were flyer's announcing all the Christmas activities in our town.  Santa arrives on November 20th, during a Christmas Festival which is held at the Arena as a prelude to the Santa Claus Parade!... I did not expect that, for some reason.  They have outlined the parade route and it goes right past our house, so what a treat that will be for us newcomers!

By the way, we are not the newbies in town anymore.  A new couple (our age) moved in last month.  We walk Molly past their home, and noticed a lot of renovation work being done, so we introduced ourselves.  Hopefully we can get to know them in the months to come.

So back to the Christmas activities here - there is a Christmas Craft Sale; Christmas Festival; Santa Claus Parade; Christmas Midnight Madness where the local business stay open for shopping until midnight.  A Christmas Gala - which is a dinner and a social event, catered by the Graduating class of 2017!  There is Free skating at the Arena, and a lighting of the town Memory Star; to name just a few events in November.  And more events in December as well.  For someone like me who is "Christmas 
Crazy" every year, this is wonderful news.  I won't stick out if I go a wee bit overboard with Christmas this year!

I am busy practicing Christmas music on the piano so I can go and play for some Christmas services at the personal care home.  If I am good enough, perhaps they will let me volunteer to play for the residents a few times a month... I would love that.

So that wraps up another week...

Happy Halloween tomorrow, and don't forget to set your clocks back an hour before you go to bed on Saturday night!

Until next week -

OFF TO SHOP!

Today we are heading down the highway to Dauphin Manitoba.  They have a Walmart, and I am in severe Walmart withdrawal since moving to the country!

This Walmart however is probably the smallest I have ever seen, it reminds me of the very first Walmart that ever existed.  Can you say, small?   Can you say cramped?  Well you know what I mean!

Never -the -less it is indeed a Walmart and we need to go there.  The nearest Super Walmart is 90 minutes away, this little one is 40 minutes, so we will go to the little one - for now!

I need Halloween candy - seriously, from all accounts we need A LOT of Halloween candy!  We also need Christmas lights, and I need a bird feeder.  Yup, I still need that bird feeder.

I see the birds looking around the yard for one and then flying down the street.  I am missing some awesome photo shoots, so I have to get me a bird feeder.  I should have thought about this much sooner - I could have got some wood and made several, but I left it too long, and now its too cold to be outside in the garage building anything.

I also need to go to Canadian Tire and buy a Mole trap.

  OMG!  That beast is still out there digging tunnels everywhere.  I am way past done with that varmint... he has to go... I am not sure how I will react when I actually have to look at this creepy individual!

Gary and I were discussing just who is going to be the one to remove him from the trap, assuming we do catch him... we haven't come to any agreement on that as yet!

So we are on our way out on a shopping expedition... it is another gloomy day here... Maybe a good day to shop.  We have some pretty long lists... hopefully we will be able to find everything we are looking for.

Wish us luck!

Oh and guess who moved down to the kitchen?  Although they didn't stick around, yesterday was a day for flake spotting in our neck of the woods!

FALL SWAP RESULTS

Last month I was telling you about the red work embroidery I was doing.  I was just finishing up this little piece when a craft group that I belong to decided to have a fall swap, so I started another one... this one...

I decided to make it into a small wall hanging, and this is how it turned out.

  I didn't have a pattern, I just sewed until I had something I liked.  It was a fun project.  It went to Texas and my swap partner loved it.  I am not an expert quilter - I am a wanna be someday quilter.  Small pieces like this give me hope that one day I can tackle something more substantial, but until then the practice on these smaller pieces is fun.

The woman who got my name as her recipient sent me these items.  A set of candy corn hand warmers and a gorgeous cowl - both items that will soon be worn as the mornings get cooler.  I have every intention of copying the cowl pattern and making a few more in a variety of colours.  They would make great gifts  (and she has given me permission to do so).

There are a lot of cowl patterns out there, but I really like this one because it is not as bulky as some I have seen.  You can wear this and still close the neck of your coat or jacket, and that is important here in this climate.

Thank You, Sue - I will get a lot of use from both these items.

So now Sue is organizing our soon to start Christmas swap.  I can't wait.  The ideas are flowing but I will have to wait and see who of my friends name I get before I can make my final decision on what to make.  Always nice to send, always nice to receive.

I have talked about this group of crafters many times before here on my blog.  We have never met, but have known each other for a long time - many years!  We all came together years ago on a forum in the early days of Internet, and we have been close friends ever since.

Over the years we have weathered much together, several members have lost spouses and family members in the time we have known each other; some of us have suffered serious illness, heartache  and we have stuck by one another.  We have also celebrated life's good times together... marriages, graduations - births.  This group means the world to me, and I treasure these friends with every fibre of my being.

More and more now one or more of us mention the idea of trying to get together, even if just for one time to meet in person, which would be an emotional but wonderful thing, if we could pull it off somehow.  We are scattered all across this continent.  It would be difficult - but it would be something none of us would ever forget.

I hope we can make it happen some day...

So - here's to my beloved Craft Buddies...

 Like Carol always says, " Love you to the moon, and back!"