A Giveaway and Locksmithing

Linda Stubbs, and her blog, Prairie Flower Farm has done a very generous thing..she has gathered many good cookie recipes from her readers and put  together a free cookbook...its on a pdf file and you can download it here....I contributed two recipes myself that are family favorites..one was my grandmothers and one a Swedish recipe that a co worker of my husbands gave us years ago..both are very good......so please get over and get your copy..you won't be disappointed!

I spent today helping Alan doing some locksmithing...both houses were here in our area so the drive wasn't bad...the first  house was very trashed and run down but had alot of potential to the right buyer. It was in a good neighborhood and had lots of good square feet with a fireplace, lots of storage cabinets (a big plus with moi), 3 bedrooms with a large yard, a covered patio and fruit trees. Needed alot of clean up and work....
The second was a big box house with 6 bedrooms, very modern and clean with wood floors which were very pretty.....way too big for most people and more suitable as a bed and breakfast or a old fashioned boarding house.
We are tired tonight but its a good tired....sorry no photos as the son has my camera..I haven't heard from him yet but that's normal for him...they didn't get started on the trip until early evening yesterday...it takes about 12 hours to get to where they were going in Northern California, Humboldt county. We haven't been up there in years and I envy him..beautiful countryside.......

Hallelujah chorus and a little decorating

This has been going around the Internet viral...beautiful! a wonderful way to start the Christmas season.....
we started a little bit more Christmas decorating...I went through our linens and found one crocheted table topper and when I was at the thrift shop last week, I found a cute little wreath of various Christmas fabrics on a wire frame so I combined them for a holiday candle arrangement..I found one lone red votive candle  holder and raised it with another one
...the wreath was only .50 cents!

 Our youngest son  Matt (19) is going on a 4 day trip up to Northern California with a neighbor who is building their retirement home on the coast.....first time he's been up there so he's borrowing the camera. (Shh..don't tell, but we bought him a nice one as his Christmas gift.)...he loves  photography and I am sure will come back with some good photos to share..he'll be back on Thursday..I will really miss him..he is asking for travel prayers.
There are supposed to be strong winds today...in some areas as high as 50 mph. and its still unseasonably cold...Our normal temperatures this time of year are in the 70s and its been in the 50s all last week and into this week. Plus we had rain again over the weekend. In fact, its been warmer in St. Paul, Minn than here...very weird.....

Arbor House Lane Giveaway

One of the new blogs I've just started following is Arbor House Lane...she is having a giveaway which will end on Dec. 3rd...she is giving away one sheet music ornament, one button ornament, one sheet music tree, and 3' button garland......very pretty so please sign up for a chance....her blog is a delight to the eyes so have fun!

100th Follower Giveaway Winner!

I am proud to announce the winner of the redwork towels...Alan drew the name, Pauline, from Country Dreams
 Congratulations, Pauline....I see that you're from Kansas ,we both love the Midwest, my  husband grew up in Iowa and we've traveled through Kansas many times....hope you enjoy the towels and I will send them out as soon as I get your address.......thank you, everyone, for signing up and I will be  having more giveaways in the new year....already looking ahead to Valentines for stitching projects..and will be working on more redwork.

I'm having quite a problem with Blogger lately..I wanted to change the background to a Christmas one but blogger expands every background I try..the same thing with banners right now...any photo banner I put in, is HUGE..even ones I've used before...hence, this blog is a little plain right now....is anyone else having this problem? hope its just temporary....

YES!!! I was able to do some blog decorating..last night nada but this afternoon...YES!!!...hope you like it...
thank you,Tammy from A Primitive Place for the great blog background..it was just what I was looking for.

Day after Thanksgiving

We had a very nice day yesterday....it was quiet and peaceful...in the early afternoon everyone gathered and helped get dinner ready.....the turkey really came out beautifully this year....

not having all my holiday things, we made do with what we had...and were happy with the result....the table looked simple but festive

the tablecloth was my mothers which we use every Thanksgiving...the glasses are Depression glass from my grandmother, the boys great grandmother as well as the candle sticks were some found by my paternal grandmother found at the Amvets store back in the 60s when she would visit us every summer.....I think they may be carnival glass...the dishes were from my step fathers estate....they are called His Majesty from Johnson Brothers....so many generations  were represented.....the silver was my mothers......I am truly blest with so many heirloom pieces , so many memories of past  holidays with family. Our oldest son led the prayer and we all thanked the Lord for His many blessings. This year has been a rough one but we find ourselves all working, bills paid and healthy...thanks be to God...

One little decorating item I discovered was this small little hanging ornament...I found it at Michaels and bought it as it was only about .75 cents....thought it looked cute on the candlestick, wish I'd found two!

Tonight at 6:00 p.m. we will draw the name for the winner of my redwork towels....and I will be announcing it in my post tomorrow......so there is still time to enter if you haven't already done so...just click the photo on the left side.

A Warm and Happy Thanksgiving to You

wishing all my readers a wonderful Thanksgiving....I will not be posting tomorrow to spend more time with family.......usually I post a vintage Thanksgiving postcard but I found this wonderful video of them so...enjoy!



now off to make pie and getting ready....

oh..I almost forgot....Linda at Prairie Flower Farm is having a giveaway..actually two....she has designed the prettiest embroidered quilt and is giving away the pattern in a pdf file to her readers + is giving away one quilt kit of the same pattern for a lucky winner....so please sign up if you like to embroidery or quilt..here is the link..4 Seasonal Stitcheries

I posted this video some time ago...but thought during this busy week, it might be nice to visit it again....a small break from cooking and cleaning for Thursday.....we have our turkey thawing and tomorrow, I'll be baking pie...
its been so cold here..we've had to turn the heat on..normally, we don't do this until February or so..sometimes there are winters when we don't use it at all....its 30 degrees right now at 8:30 a.m. and they predict rain....ironic as the newspapers are reporting that we are in a El Nino which means a dry warm winter..but then what to experts know? It pored rain last weekend too...nice as we haven't had bad fires this year anywhere..a few minor ones but not like in years past.....

Pork and Sweet Potato Stew.....

We get the Better Homes and Gardens magazine..this month is a real keeper..so many good recipes and ideas..if you haven't picked up a copy..I highly recommend the December issue......as I had some thick boneless pork chops in the freezer and sweet  potatoes....I decided to make this stew and no one was disappointed...its very good and a little unusual.....

Pork and Sweet Potato Stew
1 pork loin, cut into 1 1/4-1 1/2 cubes (as I had boneless thick chops, I thawed out 4 and used them)
3  T. flour
3 T. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 to 3 stalks celery, chopped
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 14.oz can chicken broth
1 10 oz. bottle apple/cranberry juice (I couldn't find any sugar free so used all apple juice)
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/4" cubes
1 to 2 oz. fresh snipped sage (I couldn't find any so used dried)
Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Place flour in large bowl, add pork and toss to coat. In a large Dutch oven, heat 1 T. of the oil and brown half of the pork cubes...remove and then brown the second half. add more oil if needed.

Add remaining oil and cook onion,celery, cook 5 to 7 minutes until tender. Stir in garlic. Sprinkle in any remaining flour, stir to coat. Slowly add broth, juice and 1 cup water. Return pork to pan, add sweet potatoes, and sage.Bring to a simmer, then lower heat and cover. Cook 20 to 30 minutes more or until pork and potatoes are tender. Sprinkle a little nutmeg over when serving.

I also finished the basket arrangement, bought all the homespun that our local Walmart had.! They are about out and I didn't know if they'd be getting any more in so bought the rest of the bolt.  Its actually nicer than this photo.....as I added some dried orange slices. Someone suggested rag balls so I added a few, thanks for the idea!I have enough matching home spun to make a runner for the china cabinet so that's my next project.
 Work will start next week on the garage but we are not sure if we will get our Christmas things out of storage before the end of December.
If you haven't signed up for my giveaway, please do...we will have the drawing after Thanksgiving....and announce the winner on Saturday, the 27th.

What a Friend!

What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!

 

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged, take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows over every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and  laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer;
In His arms He'll take and shield thee, thou wilt find a solace there.

Another Giveaway and thoughts

Not only am I having one...others are too...great time of year, huh?..Tammy from A Primitive Place has these adorable stacking Christmas boxes to be given to a lucky winner...
I was looking through some older posts and actually found a photo of our old (and very melted now) Christmas tree...it was over 9 ft. high as we have tall ceilings in the living room...

.The skirt was yo yos that I made and stitched together..trimmed with skirt with vintage hand crocheted lace..sadly I think its gone too...since then, we've found a smaller tree that will go on a chest in the living room...I've been collecting ornaments from the thrift shop and do have one large box here in the house so all is good.

Those of you who are new followers, we had a garage fire on May 4th of this year which destroyed many things.....still haven't gotten the garage finished but there is light at the end of the tunnel...they will be starting work the Monday after Thanksgiving... things were saved and are in a storage locker which we can't get to as its too far away.....I wonder how many Christmas things were saved? I had a lot of Dickens Village houses, boxes of ornaments from over the years, antique and vintage depression glass..two sets of china..etc.
Its fun starting over though and it could have been much worse...we have so much to be thankful for....