About Me

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West Virginia
When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

October 04, 2012

Wanted to post sooner than this...

but I also wanted to finish the little cross stitch piece I was working on so I'd be able to show I had accomplished something! 

But the reason I wanted to post earlier was because things would happen and I'd think "oh, I should remember to post about that" and, of course, now that I'm finally getting around to it, who knows what wonderful, exciting, momentous things I'll be forgetting (that's a little joke, folks). :)

But before I forget I will post a few pictures of the evening sky about 3 nights ago I guess.  We've had mostly wonderful, wonderful weather but there have been a few days here and there of heavy rain.  This particular evening, it had rained most of the day and finally stopped, the clouds broke up, the sun came out and when I happened to look out my window, this is what I saw.  My windows face east so I don't see the sunset but I doubt if it was as gorgeous as these clouds!

First, the one black cloud in the sky (but even it was impressive).


And then these stunning "catching the sun" clouds:



Aren't they wonderful?  I sure thought so!

Also, I have a new recipe I've been wanting to post.  I've already made it 3 times cause it's pretty perfect for "cooking for one" when you don't want to fuss a bunch.  It's an egg strata and I can't for the life of me remember where I found the original recipe which called for 8 eggs(!)  But each time I've made it, I've done it slightly differently and it seems to be invincible - it's always good!  It's in my Recipe Collection but to save you looking for it, just click here to go take a look.  Of course, I didn't remember to take a picture of it which is a shame cause it's an attractive dish, especially in my bright red casserole.

And as I said at the beginning, I finished a miniature cross stitch and have put it in my Etsy shop.  My Etsy shop had to all intents and purposes died - never did sell a lot but had the fun of getting visitors every day and people "favoriting" things.  Even that had dwindled down to very little. Finally, one day I went to see how many visits I had had and it was 44!!  That's a large number for me but out of those 44 visits, not one thing had been "favorited".  I belong to an Etsy team of miniaturists and whined around about it in a post one day and everyone was politely sympathetic.  And pretty much ever since then, I've been having all kinds of activity - today there were even more "favorites" than there were visits.  In fact, I made a new treasury list and for the first time ever it's had 100 hits!!  Nothing compared to the 1,000's that a lot of them get but then I don't do anything to publicize mine - no Facebook or anything. Oh, and somewhere in that long saga, I did actually sell something - that white wire bed that I covered with the pastel squares quilt I made.  But since I'm not in it to make money, I don't care that much about not selling - I just like to see activity so this past week or so has been quite fun.

I did have a disaster this week - I had offered to cook dinner for a family in our building who are having severe health problems and decided I would make a batch of my spaghetti and meatballs, making a double recipe of the sauce cause it's not enough for how many meatballs there are.  That day I'd been feeling kind of glumpy cause it was raining and I had to go to the grocery store and I hate going to the grocery store in the rain now that I no longer have an attached garage to come home to.  But I got home, started cooking, things started smelling good, I started feeling domestic and was reaching the purring stage.  I had made so much sauce that I knew I'd have to switch from the skillet I had cooked the meatballs in to a larger pot.  So I put the meatballs in the pot first so they wouldn't plop into the sauce and splash.  As I was doing that I had a little omen of things to come - one meatball rolled out of the bowl and onto the floor.  But even that didn't spoil the mood, I just hummed the "On Top of Spaghetti" song to myself.  So, I'm pouring the sauce from the mixing bowl I mixed it up in into the skillet and somehow managed to drop the bowl right into the skillet of now pretty much sauce....  Sauce went everywhere!!!  Not the entire kitchen, true.  But all over the stove, down in the burners (and, of course, burning up on the two burners that were hot), all across the wall that runs behind the stove, over onto my canisters, etc., etc.  Golly, whizzers, darn!!!  Not exactly what I said at the time, but it will do for here.  However, I finished cooking it, kept myself three meatballs and a scoop of sauce, took the rest down to the family and came back and ate my share and in spite of everything, it was pretty good, as usual.  But good grief...

And now it's just about time for a friend to pick me up and we're going to have dinner at The Black Sheep where I've only been one time but enjoyed it that time.  So that will be nice.  And now I'm back from dinner which was nice and fun - lots of talk and laughter and a large $4 glass of good wine. :)

I'm about done I guess.  Here's a picture of the cross stitch I finished today:

And, what else?  Oh - I've had three nice shopping trips - the first one, I bought a new wine rack which I love, the second one I went over to Ashland to Belk's and bought 3 pairs of slacks, all of which I tried on in the store and thought "finally, some pants that fit and are the right length", got them home and now have them bagged up to take back.  So then my third trip was to our mall here in Barboursville where I bought two pairs of pants, 2 shirts, a pullover and a lightweight sweater!  And I'm only taking one of the shirts back.  I'm known for my returning habit so I'm pleased that I'm keeping everything else.  Then I went and bought the most expensive pair of shoes I've ever bought and they are very, very comfortable.  I think when I get ready for my next Europe trip, I'll probably buy another pair of their more actual walking shoe...

And if there's anything else, I've forgotten it!  So, g'night all and hope the weather is being as kind to you wherever you are as it is to us here in wild and wonderful West Virginia!

2 comments:

Chinch said...

Your new needlepoint is very cute and looks good in its surroundings -- also, I'm sure I've seen your cute cottage teapot but I noticed & liked its cuteness again. And I've copied the strata recipe which I believe you've told me about before but I always forget the bread part and have never made it; now I will. And my oh my what clouds!!!

Christopher said...

I love when the evening clouds are lit on their tops like that, and so fluffy too. Beautiful skies! And the cross stitch is so perfectly autumn. Nice little mini-vingette setup.

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