Stewing

With all the cold weather we've had I was seriously craving a great big bowl of beef stew. Last weekend I made a pot of it

Can't see too much of the beef in there but believe me it's in there. This was way more than we could eat so I froze half of it and we'll have more for another day.

Winter chill approved of this meal.

There's got to be a better way.

The other day Wade and I were sitting at the dining room table eating dinner. There's a doctors office right behind our house and there was a guy there taking care of snow removal on the sidewalks.

I could be wrong but that looks like a leaf blower to me that he's using. Sitting there watching him I couldn't help thinking that a shovel would have worked a whole lot better.

It seemed to take him a really long time to do this too. With the way the wind was blowing and then he's blowing the snow off the sidewalk I think it had to be settling back onto the sidewalk. I probably could have done those sidewalks in half the time with a good old fashioned shovel

snow, snow and more snow

Yesterday I showed you Saturday's lovely blizzard like conditions.
Sunday I woke up and saw this sky out the back window

It looked like it was going to be a nice day and it was off and on. We still had more of the blowing and snowing though.

There was also shoveling. Wade does the work and I do the ever important documenting of his efforts.

After this Monday morning was another killer in the weather department. More blizzard like conditions. Luckily someone came and plowed the driveway while we were at work.

On a side note. I just wanted to let you all know that if by some chance I've missed a couple of your posts in the past week, it's not that I don't enjoy visiting it's that I'm a bit of a lame brain. Not once but twice I have clicked at the bottom of my feedly page and wiped out all the current unread posts. Is there a way to get rid of that big check mark at the bottom that says "mark all as read"?

enough is enough

I've had enough of this weather. Saturday it looked like this out my front window

You can barely see the houses across the street

Seriously, you're out driving in this? I hope wherever you're going it's important. I for one did not leave the house

Here's a view out the back window

My thoughts on Monday

Smell the light

Yes, you did read that right. I said, or rather wrote, no make that typed, "smell" the light.

No, I have not lost what was left of my mind.

One of Wade's daughters gave us this for Christmas

This is one of those plug in tart warmers. Not the bigger kind but night light size that you plug right into an outlet. It gives my bathroom a nice glow and it smells good too. Current scent is caramel apple.

The weather outside is frightful

I suppose it could be worse but darn is it cold out there. The plan is to stay inside and keep warm.

I finished winter chill

To beat the chill I plan on spending the day doing some cleaning, maybe some crafting, cooking a pot of stew and whatever other activities I can think of. 

The only thing I don't plan on doing is going outside.

Instead of Agent X

I seriously want to go on a rant about my frustrations with a certain insurance agent but I'm afraid it would get entirely too long and possibly sound completely incoherent.
Instead I'll just go with snow since that's what we've got.
While Duke was on one of his nightly jaunts in the back yard I took a few pictures of the snow falling.

Absolutely nothing special about these pictures but this first one kind of reminded me of stars. It looked like a whole other galaxy existed right there in my back yard

Again nothing special just our run down old shed out there in the back yard collecting snow

 
In case anyone is wondering about the whole insurance agent thing. My car is finally in the shop for repairs. I dropped it off yesterday after work but if I had left if up to a certain Agent X I would still be waiting.

Look that way

Hey look over there.

I think I can see the weekend closing in on us.

Winter chill

Last weekend I was chasing the winter chill by working on some craft projects. One of them was a little snowman called Winter Chill.

The pattern is by CottonWood Creations and I purchased it through Connecting Threads. I discovered this website has some great prices on fabric and I was pretty pleased with the service too. Now I just need to finish this guy up.

Road kill

Poor little raccoon. I don't know if he ever saw it coming

Oh no! What's this? There aren't 2 victims here are there?

Nope, it's just one victim and one stuffy killer

Zip it

In all the years since I've learned to sew I have always been afraid of buttons and zippers. When my daughter was little I made her several dresses but I always avoided patterns if they had a zipper or buttons.

After seeing several tutorials on Pinterest for projects with zippers and reading just how easy it was I thought I would give it a try.
I followed the tutorial for a simple zipper pouch that I found on a blog called Quilting in the Rain.

I don't think I'm afraid of zippers anymore

Heck I may even have the courage to face button holes now. Of course first I have to search for an inspiration project. 

Pinned inspiration

Recently while browsing through Pinterest I came across this

I can't find the exact post this belongs to but it was linked to a blog called Life is a Beautiful place to be.

Anyway, I really liked this idea and wanted to do something similar. Well, my similar really didn't turn out looking anything like this but I still liked it.
I started by creating a bit of an outline on paper and placing random things that I found in my stash in different squares.  I found some fabric that had all kinds of cute little Americana pictures so I cute several out.

The original plan was to put this on a pillow cover and up until the very end I was sticking with that plan. When I was looking for something else I happened to find a thrift store frame I had in the closet. I wondered if this piece would fit in the frame so I decided to try it on for size.

Forget about the pillow, it's going in the frame.

What a hoot

Just one simple picture of a gift I got for Christmas

I searched for a good clean funny joke to include with today's post and either my sense of humor is taking the day off or there are some really stupid jokes out there.

Finally Friday

Even though I actually have to go to work today, this is by far my most favorite day of the work week. Lets hope for a quick day. Hey maybe if I'm lucky I'll finish early and get to leave. 

While I'm off making donuts and bread and all that yummy stuff enjoy these sunset pictures that I took recently.

I took all of these through an upstairs window the other night when I noticed how beautiful the sky was. Looks like it's going to be a cold weekend with a chance of snow so I'm going to find a nice warm blanket, and maybe work on some projects. 

Cracked

According to Duke I would be better off going with another picture of him sleeping but instead I thought I would show you the damage to my car.

A quick glance and you think that doesn't look so bad.

A closer look shows a little more. Now granted this really isn't all that bad in comparison to what damage I've seen on other vehicles but still, this is my car that's not that old and shouldn't be looking like this.

I even took a close up of the deer fur stuck in the crack

Now here's a funny story. My car has all kinds of warning signals and the other day it started with "washer fluid level low" Ok so I'll go buy some windshield washer fluid and get it filled. I bought a jug when I went to Wal-Mart last Sunday. I had it in the trunk and forgot it was there until it kept rolling around in my trunk on Monday. Wade said he would go out and fill it for me. He comes back in and says, "Can't fill it" He said as he was pouring he saw a stream of washer fluid pouring out from under the car. The washer fluid tank is right there in the corner that got hit and apparently it has a nice hole in it. So until my car gets fixed I have to listen to that darn warning every time I start my car.

As of yet I still have not heard back from the insurance company and as far as I know, no one has come to look at my car yet. I guess I'm going to have to give them a call and ask what's up.

Demonstration

Hello everyone. It is I, Duke, here to demonstrate for you what my mom preferred to do last night rather than come up with something better for a blog post.

Are you ready?

Here goes, watch closely....

Whoa, that was exhausting preforming that recreation. I think I'll go take a nap now.

Please don't make fun of my team

Mom will you get out of here with that camera. People will see me wearing my Steelers coat and make fun of me because my team didn't make it to the playoffs this year.

Duke don't worry about it. You friends would never make fun of you. They love you. Come on, look at the camera and smile big.

Fine, I'll look at you but I won't smile

Up a tree

I can't believe it's Monday already. Where did the weekend go. I tried to make it last by setting a very slow pace.
Today I continue with some more pictures from that place I drove by. This is what made me spot this place the first time.

The sky was a bit on the gray side that day so I did add just a touch of color to these pictures. It could be the angle that I got these pictures from but they don't look quite as impressive as the bears in yesterdays post but still cool.

And of course the eagle that also resides in this tree

Prehistoric creature sighting

Whenever we go to Wade's dad's house we pass  a shop in Corry Pa that has some very unique things in the parking lot. I always say I'm going to stop on the way back home and take pictures but I never remember.
This time I remembered. Especially after what I saw.

We drove by and I said to Wade "Was that a dinosaur?"  I told him on the way back we HAVE to stop.
I like this bench that's sitting in the front of the building too.

Tomorrow I'll show you the tree that has always caught my attention when we drive by.

Random

Sandra mentioned the other day that I still had Santa up in my header. I did know but was too lazy to change it. Last night I finally got around to making a new one but that was the end of my energy for the day.

I find it a bit ironic that yesterday I posted a cutesie picture saying to be the reason someone smiles today and then I started my day off by hitting a deer. Yes, that's correct, I hit a deer. I'm not sure if the deer is dead because it wasn't laying on the side of the road but it sure messed up my car. I suppose I shouldn't complain too much, the car is still drive-able and insurance will fix it but not only did the deer NOT make me smile I didn't smile when the lady from the insurance company informed me I have a $500 deductible. I know on a previous policy through a different company my deductible was $250 and I thought that when I switched over I kept everything the same. I told her and she said she would have someone call me regarding that.

I could blame the whole thing on winter driving but the truth is the road conditions had nothing to do with it. The spot where this happened has a steep incline on the side of the road that the deer came from. It was running up the hill and there was just no way to see it coming until it got to the top of the hill which by chance happened to be exactly right in front of where my car was at the time. Luckily the roads were snow covered and I was only going about 40 mph or it could have been worse.

Thought for the day

Will it ever end

With the cold temperatures that have been hitting everyone these past few days I bet you think I'm going to complain about the weather. Well nope, not gonna happen. At least not today.

No, the "it" that I'm wondering about is this week. It feels like there has been 8 days in this work week so far and it's not over yet


I did do a little playing with a picture which I haven't done in ages. I didn't like the boring gray sky in the original above so I gave a little blue color and some clouds then I lightened up the birds a bit.

Me being the one to never know when to quit I had to try out a filter also. This one was paint daubs

Could be

It's quite possible that this....

has something to do with my weight gain. It's just so hard to resist though