March First! Can you believe it!

 I have a very busy Gal the past two weeks.  Helping Sissy in the shop four mornings a week has taken up a lot of my leisure time, but I am really enjoying it and learning a lot!

Sissy is completely caught up on all of the mending in the shop and can now just concentrate on Wedding Dresses, of which she has nine in the shop as I type.  The pressure is off and I can tell it is helping her immensely.  It is also helping me fill my time.

I have been working on ceremonial clothes for the Nez Perce Indians, and it has been really fun as I love creative work.

These next two pictures are of Men's shirts done with appliques.

I have many more to make but this is a long-term project that may or may not pan out.

Front of shirt

Rear of shirt.

Then I have completed six ribbon skirts which I did not take very good pictures of, but they turned out beautifully.

These were so much fun to make, and I have so many other ideas, but must meet with a Woman from the tribe to run the ideas past her.

In the meantime, I usually have at least a pile of mending a day and it keeps me hopping.

Tomorrow, I have a fancy ball gown to take the sleeves out of and make a set of long sleeves out of chiffon and a complicated motorcycle outfit that needs work.

I also have some alterations to do for myself.

I altered a Kelly-Green suit for Sissy, and it turned out beautifully, she will wear this next Sunday to Church.

She will take a picture when she wears it to show you!

It has only been hanging in the shop for two years and I got tired of looking at it! She rarely gets anything done for herself.

There are certain things that I cannot do and Sissy loves to put things off, so with my hounding her we have cleared things up.  I want it in and out in a week, and I know the fast turnaround time will help the business to thrive.

Hubby and I also have a had busy nighttime schedules with Lent and charitable endeavors.

At least I did not have to cook three nights this week!

We went to charitable chili cook off that my Lil Sis entered and she won the people's choice award for her white chicken chili.  All of the chilis that I tried were very good, but way to spicey for me and I paid a price for our healthy donation!

Hopefully this week we can slow down some.

I have closed my budget for February and did quite well in the freezer eat down and the grocery spending but still have a long way to go.  Eating out was another disaster but will continue to try and stay out of the Restaurants.

I am going to continue the pantry freezer challenge this month and more than likely into April.

At this point I see our actual grocery budget is going to run around $500.00 per month but we shall see.

I have a ton of ironing to do, and I must go do something with my hair and put my face on.

Hot dogs with coleslaw for dinner tonight!

Now I am off to get some things done.

Happy March everyone!

God is good.

Kay

Happy Valentines Day!

A Picture of the Turtles I made for Sissy's cookie trays.  They are very good.  Although I am not crazy about the Trader Joes Belgium chocolate I used.  Not chocolaty enough.  I will stick with my Aldi German chocolate; both milk and dark mixed in the future.

I need to call my Girlfriend back east to do another Aldi run for me. 

It has been a busy week and a lot has happened.

First of all the old shed on the abandoned property is gone and our fence on the side yard is no longer suffering.

WE are so thankful to have that nasty thing gone, cost some money but well worth it!

The next big news is "the driveway is finished and I can now park in the back of the house and get the car off the Street!

See below!

This is the goal we spent all last spring, summer and fall to accomplish!

The new yard took a little beating, but it will come back strong.

Now we must wait for the weather to warm up and then we can start building our path to the patio from the back gate and get the pavers down under the grill.

We also must tackle the side yard with the Hosta situation and still have not quite decided how to solve it.  But we will live with the space.

I had a productive week in Sissy's shop, and she is really caught up.  Two difficult alterations to do next week, but I will persevere, with Sissy's guidance.

I have been experimenting with Keto bread and pizza dough recipes and am so discourage as they have been a total failure. Almond flour is hard to work with and very expensive, and I have wasted several hours making things that are truly not good.

We love homemade pizza, but the carb content is just too high for the Husb.  I have been making his pizza on low card large tortillas, but he wants a thicker crust.  So, I am going to try and low carb Naan bread and if that is a failure, I am done!

I will use the almond flour purchased for Keto crackers and mix it with gluten free flour for a friend and make some goodies.

Today I must run to Costco and fill my car with gas, I will also run up to Sissy's for a bit and then home to binge watch the last season of the West Wing.  It will be a lazy Saturday, as I do not have to cook dinner, but simply reheat last night's leftover pizza.

Daniel and I do not go out on Valentines Day as we call it amateurs' night, and the Restaurants are packed and the service is awful.

Now I am off to run my errands.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day!

Kay

An exciting week!

Our driveway fence is up! I will soon be able to park off the street.

Now the driveway area has to be graded and that will come soon and then the black gravel will be brought in and spread.

Still, lots of work ahead but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

We are also having the old shed on the abandoned property torn down and hauled away and the fence it was damaging will be repaired.

Worked three days up at Sissy's and had a productive week.

I have plenty to do next week to keep me busy while Sissy concentrates on Wedding Dresses.  I am gaining confidence and it really helps.

Have been eating out of the pantry and freezers religiously and feeling good about that.

I did spend over two hundred dollars at Costco for things that we just needed as I under shopped and over shopped in December.  I need to set a more realistic budget for groceries, and this is just a process I am working towards.

It is Saturday and I am making a pan of caramel to make turtles using leftover pecans from Christmas.

WE are having New York strip steaks and artichokes for dinner.  Got artichokes for 87 cents apiece last week and you can't beat that for a vegetable.  There will be plenty of leftover steak for steak Cesar Salad tomorrow. We have now used up the last of our New Yorks, but still, plenty of Beef to choose from.

We have an overabundance of pork, and we must start using this, but not today.

I made two loaves of orange cranberry walnut bread this week and took it to Seniors, using up the last of my cranberries from Christmas.  One more thing out of the freezer!

Okay the caramel is done and cooling.  I have vacuumed the basement and now must run several errands.  I will then come home and put together my Turtles!  Yum!

God is good!

Kay
 

I have been a busy bee!

Working with Sissy has made me a very busy bee!  I am learning a lot, but the learning curve is huge.

I want to accomplish so much more and time will tell.

Did not get as much done this past week like I wanted too as Sissy gave me two Woolridge heavy flannel shirts to shorten the sleeves for our Little Person.

I got one done, badly after ripping the same sleeve out five times.  I then proceeded to sew the cuff and placket opening in backwards three times. 

I swore a lot!  But I now know what I am doing and the next one will be easier.

I also had a floor length Opera Cape that had to be shortened nine inches, and this was really a challenge, but I finally got it done.  Did knock out three pairs of Jeans in record time.

Tuesday was a bust as I was ripping out the damn shirt all morning and then Lil Sis came up and cut Sissy and my hair. I was just done for the day.  My hair is very thick at the back and I had it cut back to a classis bob.  It is a difficult cut, but Lil Sis does a beautiful job. Yes, I lopped off seven inches of hair.

I love it!

Husb and I had our bi-yearly dental cleanings yesterday (I love getting my teeth cleaned) and then we went out to lunch. Read the rest of the afternoon. We stopped and picked Sissy's dog Roscoe up after lunch as the last time she took him to her daughters he rolled in something dead and then proceeded to clean himself and was one sick dog for about a week.  Husb kept Him while we were in Missoula and he was getting better, but the last time he pulled this, the Vet bill was close to eight hundred dollars.

Thank goodness Sissy still had meds from this debacle, and it really worked to settle his stomach.

Today Husb has a Dr. appointment and then I will run errands.

I gathered all my beef bones from the freezer late yesterday and put half of them in my large crock pot and processed that this morning and got three quarts of yummy beef broth.  The second batch is processing now.

Sissy and I have been very, very good this month about eating down the freezers and they are going down. Yeah!

I am closing out my month financially today as I have funded all my accounts and made my savings goals for the month. I have dinners planned with what I have on hand through the end of the month!

I have spent $ 184.00 at the grocery store and more than half of that was wine and soda for the Husb, wine for me! Everything I purchased was a loss leader!  I call that a win.

Eating out however was totally out of control.  We are so bad, and this has got to stop!  But we enjoy it so much!

I see my freezer challenge continuing at least another month if not more.  Now I did stock up heavily last month in anticipation of staying out of the stores this month, so my grocery spending will be a bit skewed for at least three or four months.

I need to make a Costco run on Sunday, as we will be out of coffee, half and half and heavy cream.

I will also pick up romaine lettuce and broccoli and cauliflower.

I need to get to the post office and return some books to the library.  Sissy and I are going with her Neighbor to a play this evening and tomorrow I am going to bake and make more chocolate caramels!

I eat at least two pieces of chocolate before bed and have been eating the Aldi's chocolate with hazelnuts that my Lil Sis brought me back from St Louis.  I am almost out.  Here the good chocolate with nuts is super expensive and I hate cheap chocolate. 

During Christmas baking and Candy making I discovered that if I cook chocolate caramel to 255 it turns much harder, but still somewhat chewy.  I make it with crushed pecans.  I ate this failed batch myself and it was so good.  It took me a month to get through the failure, and I enjoyed every bit of it. So, this will be my new go to chocolate fix for bedtime.  I figure I can make a batch of caramel (we have a years' worth of nuts left over in the freezer!)  for about six dollars and this is a true savings.  One half gallon of heavy cream will make four batches!  I will get this done next week, one batch at a time and freeze it!

I am also working on perfecting the Keto cracker recipes for the Husb, and when I get it down pat and to the texture and crunch, I want I will shoot you the recipes.

When you download recipes from the internet, they rarely give you really good instruction and I have baked enough that I know how to tweak!

Now I am going to go and put some makeup on, so I do not scare my public.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Kay

Just sewing,,,badly, but learning!

Yes, this is me, and I look that young and beautiful (not!).

I have been helping Sissy for two weeks now, and I do not know if I am more of a help or a hinderance, but we have had a lot of laughs. Probably too many to really get things done.

My frustration levels have been at an all-time high and I have dropped the *F* bomb more than I want to admit.

I segue... three weeks ago I was so bored by my retired life and the long dreary winter that I decided I needed a part time job. So, I put out the word that I would like a part-time bookkeeping position.  I got an interview last Tuesday morning.  I intimidated the hell out of this small accounting bookkeeping firm, and they have not called back? Did I mention that I do not interview well?

NO discussion of wages, nothing, but we will have to think about this! Great entertainment for Sissy and me. So, I went up to Sissy's and told her I was going to jump off of one of the two bridges in this area if I did not find something productive to do at least 10 to 15 hours a week.  Sissy had by now nine wedding dresses in her shop, so she hired me!  

I am on the learning curve, and I mean a big one. She is being the bad Sister that she is, gave me really hard stuff to do.  I have now relined the sleeves in a man's dress jacket and learned how to replace zippers in Levis (quite difficult) and men's dress pants (also very difficult).  I spent a total of nine hours on one suit, bringing my earnings to under three dollars an hour? (for the dress suit) I keep asking myself is it worth it, but for the laughs it is.

I was able to do a California hem on a pair of jeans this morning in under seven minutes, so I call that a win! $12.00

I show up at Sissy's at eight o'clock in the morning and she is starting to rise earlier.  We shall see.  I am learning a lot and feel quite satisfied with myself for the first time in a long while.

The yard so encompassed all last year, but this year it will be so different as we have hired the front yard to be done.  I will just require maintenance which Husb is more than willing to handle.

Now I have to say this might not work out, but for now I am happy.  I need to do more meal prep like I did back east.

We are leaving tomorrow for Missoula as the roads are good, and I am excited just to get out of town.

I have been to the grocery store twice this month and have spent under 110.00, go me.

Now I have to go scrounge up something for dinner and get to packing ever so little!

Hugs.

Kay

 

Another January Monday!

Busy weekend and a lot was accomplished.  The porkchop dish was good but different and a whole lot of chopping and dicing. I do not think I would make it again, although I will say those tough pork chops were very, very tender. I might but will tweak it. Less onion and more apples.

I also made two loaves of cranberry orange bread and this time it was not a failure and very good.  So, we got half a bag of cranberries out of the freezer and two cups of toasted ground walnuts!  That is a win.

Kim's middle daughter brought up dinner last night, so we did not have to cook and that is always wonderful.

I did get to the library and checked out several books on Excell and worked both Saturday and Sunday mornings for an hour and learned a lot but have a long way to go as I am not memorizing like I used to.  I have started a cheat sheet I can refer to for quick reference. 

After I blog, I will work again for an hour.

Tonight, the Husb and I are going to a fundraising Bingo game which is very entertaining and fun.  Cheap entertainment and the money goes to a good cause.  The big winner gets a 1/2 a processed beef!  Everyone brings two cold dishes to share amongst a table of eight.  So, I am making my famous smoked salmon dip and baguette toasts.  I also purchased Chinese barbecue pork as I cannot make it for what Winco sells it for.  I have the toasted sesame seeds and Chinese mustard that I buy in bulk.  I also spent two hours making keto crackers yesterday morning and they turned out very well.  Husb loved them, so I see this becoming a weekly chore, but then I love to bake.  I made a cheddar cracker (needs more salt) and an everything bagel seasoned cracker.  I baked them twice to make them extra crisp and put them in a large tin in the refrigerator as they have no preservatives and will go bad in several days.  Hopefully this will last Husb a week, we shall see.  I will try parmesan and garlic the next time.

Last month our Neighbor won it!  We were so excited for them.

I did break bad and go to the grocery store where I spent forty dollars and change and mostly for the Husb.  Keto and low carb food is very expensive, but it keeps his blood sugar in check.  That was the first money spent on real groceries for the month and here it is the twelfth!

I need to run back to the library to get a book they ordered in for me, and it is there and then run to little Sis's for a bag I need for tonight to haul my goodies.  I will then run to Sissy's to drop some things off and then home to make things for tonight.

It is nine thirty and I am showered and dressed, and my morning chores are done, I just need to dry my hair and put on my makeup, so I do not scare my public.

I also need to plan my menu for the week but will wait until I talk to Sissy and see what her plans are for sharing meals.

I still have not gotten her pantry organized as I petered out on Friday, but it will get done eventually.

Now I am off to make myself beautiful, which is hard work!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

God is good!

Kay

 

Friday the ninth of January 2025

Here it is Friday again, and I cannot believe how fast the week has gone.

I was up at 4:30 and have had a very productive morning.

Morning chores are done, and I did some organizing in my very large pantry.

Today I am going to head to the Diamond Shop to have a necklace repaired that I wear all the time, and I feel naked without it.  Then onto the Library where I have been wanting to go all week long.

I will then go up to Sissy's and start working on her pantry and make two loaves of Zucchini bread. After I clean up my mess, I will start dinner.

We have so many pork chops that we bought on a loss leader for 99 cents a pound and they are tough as nails, so I am going to try a new recipe where they are baked.

Sissy has a head of cabbage that must be used, so it goes like this.  Four pork chops in a glass 9 x 14 pan laid in melted butter, then a layer of cabbage leaves, then a layer of thinly sliced onion, another layer of cabbage, and then a layer of thinly sliced apple, another layer of cabbage and then a layer of thinly sliced potato just keep layering until pan is full and bake at 350 for an hour or so.  Sounds delicious and I will let you know.  This is something that the Husb can eat although the potatoes are not good for him, it is all about moderation when dealing with a diabetic.  A little portion and that is it.

Our grilled cheese and tomato soup was wonderful last night.  I do not like to use canned soups because of the preservatives, but I have several cans for emergency, and I used one with a can of petite diced tomatoes (no additives in that) and a can of heavy cream with dried basil leaves. It was so very good, and two cans have left the pantry!

I think Husb and Sis are going to start another puzzle as Sissy got a large puzzle board for Christmas.  We shall see.

It is day number nine of no grocery store for me, and I know I will have to make a trip soon as I am out of half and half for my morning coffee and am using up heavy cream instead.  Heavy Cream has about two more mornings left.  I will keep you posted. The least expensive place to buy these two products in our area is Costco and I need to have the discipline to only buy that. Need to put blinders on!

It is a cold and dreary day after two days of sunshine.  Cold here but the sun rarely shines in the winter months, so I will be grateful for the two days we had!

I also dug out my knitting basket and will work on making more cotton dishcloths, which both Sissy and love, and the others I made last year are just about at the end of their usefulness.

Knitting, reading and baking are my go-to winter past times, as when spring hits it will be about the yard.

As Cheryl stated spring is only 10 weeks away and it will be here before we know it!

In the meantime, I will be intentional about getting things done and not wish the day away waiting for warm weather.

Talked with Anne in the Kitchen yesterday to fill her in on Sluggy and it was so nice to talk with her. She is one of those people that just makes your heart squeeze!

Now I am off to gather things for Sissy and get my errands done.

God is good!

Kay