Flowers, Paper and Real

 

 Youngest son's partner makes amazing crafts and she made this for me. It looks like a bouquet of paper flowers, and it is, but it's also a calendar. ( It comes in a "vase" but I forgot to take a picture of that part).   Each month has one bloom or leaf on it.

 

 

Real flowers grace the table for Christmas. 

 

 I will try to do another post before Christmas but just in case I don't I wish you all a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  Thank you for all the kind comments  this past year. 

 

 

Amaryllis for Christmas

 Here we are in the last days before Christmas. Nothing to do but to wait.  A couple of weeks ago we dropped by a plant shop so I could admire the lovely flowers.  The primroses in the first picture are lovely but I've bought them before and can't keep them alive so I walked past those.

 

  The Amaryllis were all full of buds and very reasonably priced so I chose one...

... and now it is blooming.  It has 2 stalks, each had 4 buds and now the first 4 are open. I measured  one flower and it is 7 1/2 inches across.  

 I don't have much to blog about but I did want to drop in and say HI.

 

As you know, I love all the cute pictures on the internet and can't resist including them here.
I hope you enjoy them too. 

 

Thanks for visiting

 

This and That

 

 We did the weekly grocery shopping this morning.  Eldest daughter came at lunch. She made us a living wreath for the front door.

 DH brought out the old sled and propped it up outside and hung some greenery on it. Later I hung some old skates on it as well. 

 Eldest collects miniatures and this fridge is quite something. The attention to detail amazes me.
The little drawers all open, in fact the fridge comes with an assortment of tiny food.  ( If I'm not mistaken the fridge is about 10  inches high.)

 

 

We went downtown yesterday to look for something not all that important and the traffic was terrible. 
We decided to turn around and go back home. We'll get what we need after Christmas. ( The grocery store at 7:30 AM was not busy though.) Do you have all those last minute things?

 

 

Thanks for visiting

 

 

 

 

Update on Flooding and Christmas around the House

 

Thank you for all the concern for us during this "rain event". There was a brief lull in the rain yesterday and today so far rain has been light. However, 50 to 75mm are forecast for tomorrow and another 15-20 on Wednesday.  Here in town there are some streets closed due to deep puddles but the main problems are out of town and in the industrial areas.  Rural properties and many farms are flooded. We have not been affected so far. The power was out for an hour this morning but I don't know what caused it.

We celebrated DH's 83rd birthday yesterday.  Eldest daughter took him out for breakfast. The other 4 dropped by in the afternoon. Eldest son came to show us his new car!  I didn't get a picture where he parked it but this is exactly what he was driving.

 Preparations for Christmas continue. Here are a few pictures so far.

 

Thanks for visiting.

 

 

 

 

Flooding and a Question

 We have had a great deal of rain these past days and many low lying areas have been affected. Some of our streets are closed and even the U.S. border crossing is closed ( flooding extends to that area as well.)  Fortunately so far our street has not been affected but I know that some of the farms, like the one below, have hardly recovered from the last flood.

 

 

 On to another subject....I bought some wool dryer balls and am looking forward to seeing what difference, if any, they make.

I'm always trying to use up half boxes of this or that and this morning I used a partial bag of marshmallows and a box of instant Butterscotch pudding to make  Rice Krispy squares ( I had a half a box of the red & green ones from last Christmas!! ( Please don't judge me lolol).  I can't see why that wouldn't work.

Yet another subject, on which I'd be interested in knowing your opinion.  We were with a group yesterday and a couple of folks gave out Christmas cards to everyone. In my opinion if you are going to wish a person a Merry Christmas in person why also give a card?  

I've rambled on long enough.  Both my girls are coming over shortly. I better put the kettle on for tea. 

 

Thanks for coming by! 

 

 

 

 

Monday Laundry

 Monday again. I discovered this on the internet and I liked the illustration so much. Then I read the words and I thought I might share them also.

 

 Something else I'm thinking this morning while laundry is on my mind and that is sheets that get all twisted together in the dryer.  I found these tips on Real Simple site....

• Shake out your sheets and pause the dryer cycle halfway to keep them from clumping and to ensure they dry thoroughly.

• Toss in dryer balls, tennis balls, or a clean towel to help prevent your sheets from tangling and reduce dry time.

• Limit how many sheets you wash and dry at once, or invest in a detangling product to avoid twisted and clumped-up sheets.

After reading these I have decided to buy some wool dryer balls.  For those of you who use a dryer, do you have any tips to share?

It's a wet and windy morning. Fortunately we got our walk in before it got wild outside. 

Thanks for visiting  

Thrift Store and A Fudge Recipe

 

 On my latest trip to a thrift store I took a few pictures. This is the biggest of all our local thrift stores and is roomy and well organized.   Lots of furniture and dishes as well as the usual books and pretty ornaments. Lots of Christmas decorations too.

 

This time there was a most unusual item....a small car that someone had donated.  We had a hard time believing that was true but we asked and they said it was. The price was $9000.

The Easy Chocolate Fudge recipe was so popular that I thought I'd include this Peanut Butter recipe too.  I made a half recipe just to see how my guys would like it. They loved it and now I made it again. This time I made sure to put some away in the freezer for Christmas although it's so easy and quick to make that I can easily make more.  For PB lovers this is a treat!!

3 Minute Peanut Butter Fudge

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter(or margarine)
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar) 

Instructions

1. Line 8x8 dish with parchment paper.
2. Microwave butter and peanut butter in a bowl until it is soft enough to stir together.
3. Stir in powdered sugar.
4. Spread into lined dish and refrigerate for 2 hours.

That's it for today.  Thanks for visiting.