Almond Butter - YUM!

My Sister, Leah June and I made some almond butter last weekend.  I have to tell you, homemade almond butter is SO GOOD!  The wonderful aroma when making the butter is amazing too!  I roasted about a pound of raw almonds, unsalted for about 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven then let the almonds cools completely.  Then put them in my sister's food processor.

The you turn on the processor and let it run....and run and then magic happens when the almonds turn from powder to creamy - man oh day, the taste and smell of this butter is truly amazing.

I hope you enjoyed my adventure in making almond butter.  God is amazing in thinking of all the different kinds of nuts and then to be able to make butter out of them - He really had the fore sight to our wonderful world.  Hope you enjoyed my post.  God bless you.

I love shower curtains...

and the reason is because they make some pretty shower curtains out there that make really nice window curtains.  I have a pair for my sliding glass door off of my kitchen/dining room.  The red stripe in them really come close to matching the red I painted the tongue and groove under my chair rail.  The curtains were too short so I put tabs (extra wide binding tape) on them to cover the button holes for the rings you would normally hang them up for the shower.  See below for curtain with button holes:

See below curtain with tabs:

See below curtain with tabs that have buttons added:

See below for curtains hung:

An up close look:

I like them!  Like I said I love shower curtains, they are so versatile and they have some really pretty patterns of all kinds.  Well, this was my project and even if I do say so myself they turned out pretty well. Thanks for stopping by.

Man, it is cold outside

no pictures, just commenting on how cold it is tonight and tomorrow to come.  While driving home from work this evening it went from -4 to -6 and I only drive about 35 minutes one way.  It is supposed to get down to -7 to -12 with a wind chill of -30 and tomorrow is only to be a high of 4 degrees.  They say it has not been this cold since about 20 years ago.  This kind of weather is what I remember from my childhood.  Hearing my parents talk about the weather and schools being closed because of the temperature outside.  Now I understand why my parents talked about the weather when it got this cold - I don't like it in my older years just like they didn't.  Oh well what are you going to do?  Layer on more clothes and hunker down and try to keep warm.  God made the earth and all that goes with it, including the really cold weather.

Basket for my 2nd daughter

I made a blanket basket for my 2nd daughter; which she asked for as a Christmas present.  Well I did not have a pattern so I had to figure out the measurements and cut the reed.  It was a big basket, approx. 23" x 20"+/- about 10 inches high.  It took me 9 1/2 hours to measure, cut and weave the basket.  I also inset handles at each end.  This basket is 1 of 2 very large baskets I have made.  It turned out really nice.  I did not stain it, I left that for Jessica to do with whatever color of stain she wants or she can leave it natural.

I had to wait until after Christmas to post about the basket.  I tell you what the marathon weaving was not something my back wants to take on again real soon.  I used my heating pad for 3 days at work and at night.  It was worth it to be able to make something for Jessica that she wanted.  I hope she gets many, many years of use out of it.  What a blessing from God to be able to make something that is useful.

Holidays and going into 2014

I have no pictures to post, just some ramblings...Christmas was very nice this year.  I got everything I had asked my kids for and some things I had not...they were really too generous to me this year.  I have been able to spend time with my daughter and 2nd son (her husband) and my sister.  My son and 2nd daughter (his wife) spent this year with her family.  I have to say that 2013 was a good year. No major illnesses or surgeries this past year. My artificial knees are working wonderfully and no pain at all. I have been blessed by God to be able to pay my bills.  Last year was a family reunion with my 2 sisters and all our kids and even 1 grandchild - my sister's grandchild.  I don't have any grandchildren as of this post, but you never know about 2014, but probably not.

So far 2014 has been a lot of snow, but it is January for goodness sakes.  I am thankful for my family (near and far), my friends, my home and my God. I am also thankful for my next door neighbor whom to my surprise had snow blown my driveway before I got home tonight.  He does this for me every once in a while.  I need to get him a gift card for being so good to me.  I thank God for my neighbors on either side of me, such great young families.

I made my Aunt June a fruit cake as a surprise because she loves them.  It had been a couple of years since I had made her one.  I took it down to her Christmas eve and she was so surprised and you have to know my Aunt June, she got teary eyed about it.  Then I got a thank you card from her for the fruit cake.  It is the little things that mean the most.

I wish you and your family a great New Year with God's blessings raining down.  I know I am grateful for all His blessings to me this past year and am very thankful for His blessing to come.  God Bless you and yours!

Admin Outing - 12/2013

My company has dept. outings and tonight was the admin. dept. outing.  Which was not an outing but just the opposite.  We had what is called Wine & Paint, where this company brings wine, canvases, paints and an instructor and all that attend paint the same painting.  Our company also provided food, beer and wine coolers to go along with the wine brought by the Wine & Paint.  It went about 3 hours, in our training room.  There were about 12 people that painted and some just came for food and beverages and some were not able to be there due to previous engagements.  We had laughs, fun and food with drinks - what more could you ask for?

Okay, so here is my first and probably only time actually painting a picture that could be framed.  It amazes me how we all painted the same picture but how different each one looked but somewhat the same. 

As you can see I even signed it and hope you like what you see.  Actually I think it looks better here than in person, so I may hang it and there needs to be some kind of frame ~ not so bad...  The Wine & Paint company took pictures as we were painting and are supposed to post to their website and when I get that I will update this posting.

I am home safe and sound, had some fun, enjoyed painting with my co-workers and count the blessings of working for a great company and the bunch of people I work with.  God is good.

Thanksgiving - 2013

This year was spent with Amanda and Bryan.  I have to say it was relaxing and yummy and fun!  Amanda baked the turkey breast (from Market Day), it was very moist and came already marinated in a baking bag. There was green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, candied carrots, homemade gravy and salad for sides to the meal - WOW! I had made 2 pumpkins pies (from homemade pumpkin my sister, Sandi and I processed) and a pecan pie.  Below is a picture of Amanda's table before food:

And here are a couple of pictures with the food laden table:

The food was fantastic!  Look at the steam coming from the corn (lower right). There was plenty with a lot leftover. It was so nice to spend time with my daughter and second son.  My son, Grant and his wife Jessica spent Thanksgiving with her sister in TN.

Below is a picture of my Grand-dog, Francie and I really think she actually posed for the picture cause she stood there for a long time and as soon as the flash went off she turned around and walked away - too funny.  It looks like she is smiling/grinning in the picture too!  This dog loves her Grammie!

Afterward we watched Pumpkin Chunkin, Bryan and Amanda tapped it.  Who knew this was such a sport and people spend bunches of money to make their machines to chunk pumpkins.  One contestant who in his normal day life is a dentist went to MIT and took a class about metals to make his release mechanism better, which apparently it did because his 1st pumpkin went over 2300 feet!  LOL - we had some laughs over watching the show.

All in all, it was a great day and thank you Lord for all the many blessings you have bestowed on my family this past year.  Thank you Lord for your Son, He is the biggest reason to be thankful.  Now to move toward Christmas and all that goes with the season.  God bless you.