First week of the New Year

Once again we have crossed over the threshold of a new year, and finishing up the tail end of a quarter-century. Lots of water under the bridge.

We had to start the New Year with the "good luck" meal of course. Here's a look at our black-eyed peas, (we make a big batch), and our prep method which ensures a tasty batch. We sauté chopped bell pepper, the more colorful the better, plus plenty of onions. Then after softening, add chopped ham bits, minced garlic and continue cooking until they get a little color on them. Add 2 cans partially drained black-eyes, a cup or so of chicken stock, 1T of chipotle sauce and an envelope of onion soup mix. Add a few herbs of your choice and let simmer an hour or so adding additional stock or water if they are looking dry.

Wonderful black-eyed peas, a little on the "wet" side.

We like them a little wet, over rice or cornbread. So good! We had a delicious mid-afternoon meal of smoked pork chops, collards, black-eyed peas/rice and cornbread with some cabernet sauvignon.

Here's the Boss in one of his new tee's
 getting ready to enjoy the meal.

I'm signed up for a craft fair in early February, so I've spent some time making a few more dazzlers and something new - puff trivets. I've been enjoying looking at my puff quilt lately and my brain came up with this idea. They are a good size for a bowl/plate or casserole dish, would  pretty-up the table, and also, unique I think. Any thoughts?

Puff trivets, about 12"x12". Some ppl
might not like my "twirly" trivets.

Bobby-Dazzlers anyone? I stock a few repeats
of the most popular items but hold them back in reserve.

Still getting the good sunrises on those cold, crisp mornings. Here's today's after overnight low's around 37°. 

Not a stunner like some, but still a pleasant surprise.

The Boss got the Colorado Pontoon boat commissioned the other day and while he was taking his test paddle, he got a shot of the swans having a "bottom's-up" feed. Pretty day too.

That's about it for this post. I stopped making New Year's resolutions a long time ago, however, I am planning on doing more stretching, squatting and "body-groove" style dancing to keep my joints limbered and loose. Oh, and I'm planning on laying-off the Christmas cookies one of these days too, lol. 😉😊 Thanks for stopping by and see you next time.

The week leading up to Christmas and beyond

(This post might be a bit long because.....) Busy times all around what with picking up a few smallish gifts/treats, getting everything wrapped, decorating and figuring out how to fit in all our favorite foods throughout the days before Christmas. I do love this time of year, not only because of the spiritual aspects of the season, but also because it seems like many people are on their best behavior, using small acts of kindness to spread the good cheer around.

Let's start with a southern favorite - collards. I was in Walmart the other day and spotted a great looking double bunch of collards for a very good price and I was not to be denied! I got them cleaned up and cooked one day then let them develop their flavor overnight. The next day we had the collards with BBQ chicken quarters, half a sweet potato and cornbread. I forgot to take a picture but it was pretty & yummy. Here's a shot of the greens though.

Totally worth the effort, probably 5 meals worth
for the 2 of us to pair up with pork chops or ham.

Don't forget about the pizza, also a big time favorite and easy to throw together after a busy day.

I participated in a Christmas Brunch & Cookie Exchange on the 14th which was wonderful and rather low key with about 9 of us. Definitely less noisy and chaotic than last year with 20+. It's always a treat to spend time with ladies; neighborhood ladies, lady friends of ladies. I don't get enough of that now that I'm practically a recluse at times, lol. (Self-imposed I must add, I like my solitude quite a bit.) Anyways the Peppermint Crunch Chocolate chip & pecan cookies were a hit.

I don't do too terribly much decorating these days but I did get my mantle fixed and the tree(s) up. That was fun! We had 4 up; the micro tree I made from coat hangers last year went on the fireplace hearth, the fiber-optic mini goes in the dining room, another small tree on a table in the craft room and the 4' tree in the Florida room where all the festivities take place, and viewable by the neighbors across the lake.

Micro tree on hearth - so cute.

Mini fiber-optic tree in dining room

Craft room tree with some tiny
bobby-dazzlers for ornaments

Florida Room tree where the gifts
end up and our big meal is served.

Anyway, after that was all taken care of, I turned my attention to the treats I was taking to our neighborhood Christmas Dinner Potluck. I wanted to bring some gluten-free cookies and some regular ones, so first were the Pecan Pie mini muffins. I used 1 to 1 GF flour for these and they turned out just great. The recipe is on the Food page just below the header photo. So-o good. 

Pecan pie mini muffins. I made a 1 & a half batch and got about 50.

I also tried Peanut butter cornflake cookies with a few butterscotch chips in them - very addictive! Lastly were the Chocolate Brownie Peppermint macaroon bars, to die for - so moist with the brownie layer then a coconut, pecan and peppermint crunch macaroon layer on top. Several extra's went into the freezer for later, 😉. The Potluck was very nice. Lovely decorations, a nice turn-out and super good home-cooked food.

We have a wonderful neighbor that owns this great meeting hall
and she graciously allows us to use it at various times.

Merry Christmas! It's finally here, and what a beautiful start to the day, thanks Ed for capturing it.

Christmas morning, what a beauty. Crisp and cool too.

First things first, the gift giving, ahem, right after breakfast I mean, lol. Lots of fun stuff, cool tee-shirts from various Nat'l Pks for him, a dream interpretation book for me (what do those lost-in-the-airport dreams mean?!), a great new purse, and a slingshot for me!, a gorgeous framed pic of St. John's USVI featuring Trunk Bay for him, and some other odds/ends.

He's always been like this! Gotta love him.

My goodies.

Finally time for our Christmas dinner prep. We went with a Cornish hen again this year, as it's the right size to have for 2 special dinners, one on Christmas and one a few days later. This is our 50th Christmas together - YAY!

The hens, cut in half, with root vegetables
 to join the rest; cornbread dressing, rice and gravy.

The table got dressed, the Saraceni Blumond sparkling wine got chilled and around 2:30 dinner was served. So thankful to our Father for all our many Blessings.

We were going to get into the fruitcake that's been mellowing for a few weeks with our hot tea later, but were too full to partake. Dinner was MM-MM-good.

And as if that wasn't enough, I got my first video call (through FB messenger) from my gorgeous niece and nephew & his family from California. So wonderful to actually see everyone. It's been 20 yrs (I think) since we last met up in person, but we made some plans for a Colorado visit next summer. I sure hope it comes to fruition in some way, shape or form!! ❣️

Counter clockwise, beautiful Nicki, her brother Joe behind her, and his extended
family ending with his wife Deia and her Mom, visiting from Brasil.

That was so cool! A great way to end a wonderful Christmas. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I hope your Holidays were just as special wherever you were. Wishing you a Happy, Safe and Blessed New Year.

December's going fast - baking, decorating and socializing

 It's that time of year again that I love. We've settled in from our summer travels and acquired our Christmas Holiday spirit and an extra amount of good cheer. Now for the holiday baking - yay! Fruitcake first so there's plenty of time to "mellow" it (with a bourbon sprinkle every now and then). Next was to use those peppermint crunch baking chips to make chocolate chip, peppermint chip & pecan cookies. They were very good and I got a lot of good feedback from my taste-testers. They will be my cookie exchange offering.

Fruitcake is a wonderful thing!

Got the fruitcake swaddled & wrapped, my cookie tins out, plus
the .10¢ recipe books that I scored from the library, I think I'm set.

Peppermint crunch, chocolate chip, pecan cookies

Not sure what got into me, but I couldn't stop baking. So since we love macaroons, I had to try these Chocolate Macaroon Bars. Basically a compressed chocolate cake-like crust covered by a chocolate chip, coconut and pecan macaroon layer. Oh my goodness, these were goooood! I cut them up into tiny squares so I ended up with a nice sized batch. Some of which went into the freezer.

Chocolate Macaroon Bars. A 9" x 13" pan - probably 60 pieces.

I've been steadily working on my stock of Bobby-Dazzlers so I have something to offer my friends and neighborhood folks. Lots of people have the "secret Santa" type gift exchange events going on at work or Sunday school, and these seem to fit the bill. Sales have been steady. I dedicated a portion of the craft room to a small display setup. I obviously won't let strangers into my house but my neighbors are fine. I close off the rest of the house and the craft room has it's own entrance door to the outside courtyard.

Dazzler display area. I close off my craft room from the rest of the house.

We have had some nice weather and some breathtaking sunrises this month. The other week a large flock (30?) of American White Ibis came marching through our end of the neighborhood. Very cool! They started getting a little strung-out by the time I took this picture.

This end of the neighborhood is a cul-de-sac, no through traffic.

As for sunrises, check out this beauty!

Winter sunrises are just the best. 😍

Another traditional thing that I adhere to are snail mail Christmas cards. Even though I wish my Facebook friends all the best for the Holidays, I still send out Christmas cards to family and special friends. I love seeing them on my mantle so I'll bet they do too. I do "assorted" cards rather than buying a box of one type. More interesting that way and less of an expense.

Well, I guess that's all I got for you this time, but there's plenty happening in the upcoming weeks, so stay-tuned. Thanks for dropping by and you have a wonderful Christmas. Peace be unto all. 🎄 

A busy couple of weeks

 It was (finally) time to knuckle under and get some of my personal  "maintenance" items taken care of, meaning follow-up (stitches removal) on the MOHS surgery site for the skin cancer spot, my annual wellness and prescription renewal visit with my Doc, a re-check with the eye surgeon that did my cataract surgery and last but not least a root canal on the tooth that started bugging me in late Sept. Ruh-Roh as Scooby would say. 🥺

I've never had a root canal and I was pretty stressed out about it, but I went in yesterday to have it done and I have to say I was quite pleasantly surprised. It went very smoothly and I've experienced very little pain or discomfort - YAY! I hope that it may continue that way until it's settled down and stabilized within a week or so, then the crown will happen. They prescribed an OTC "pain bomb" of 3 x 200mg Ibuprofen plus 2 x 500mg Acetaminophen 2 times daily as needed. Wow, I never knew you could safely combine the 2 for tackling inflammation & pain relief when needed. I took the combo after I got home and have not needed any such measures since.

Great, and phew. Another item was to tackle getting a new phone. My old one only had 16GB internal storage(!?) and was running Android 9, haha, time to get up to speed. Another Samsung (A15) w/128GB internal storage was on sale & just right plus it was easy to port my contacts etc. over to it.

In process Butterflies - Commission from a Craft Fair visitor

One of the visitors to my booth during the Craft Fair asked me to make her a couple of butterflies, one a bit simpler and one really "beaded-up". Delivered them over the weekend and she loved them. She followed up with an email asking if I'd ever made a hummingbird...humm? I told her I'd look into whether I could develop a good-looking, workable shape.

The weather around here has been nice, in fact we had a bit of a cool snap last week which really felt good, although it was way too breezy for my liking (don't bother with the hairspray). 😳 I used the cooler weather to trim back our crepe myrtle out front. Hate letting all the leaves/berries fall onto the rocks in the yard, then you've got to deal with all the subsequent sprouts.

I had an opportunity to stop into a really nice Big Lots over on the other side of the river after delivering the Dazzlers and found a new baking chip that promises to make my cookie exchange offerings ultra-good. 

A creamy chip with peppermint candy chunks.

I can't wait to use them. I saw one recipe that featured a blonde cookie with coconut plus the chips and finished with a drizzle of dark chocolate to amp-up the pretty factor. That sounded intriguing, although if it's a cookie from my kitchen it's going to have pecans in it for sure. Also, at this time of year I'm anxiously awaiting Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark Squares. So, so good, a super nice treat for after dinner.

Love, love!!

The other morning the Boss was up just before sunrise and took this shot from our 2nd story master. Pretty cool, pre-dawn rocket launch with a whoop-tee-doo contrail.

Well, that's about it for us, nothing terribly exciting. Thanks for stopping by though! See you next time.

Last minute scramble, a successful craft fair and MOHS

(Haha - did I fool you with the header? Just had to show off my banner.)

We've definitely gotten into the groove back home here and are enjoying some cooler fall weather this week. I've spent some time being productive in the kitchen, making and baking, and have stashed a fair bit in the freezer for coming days when I'm feeling lazy or are too busy to cook. Stuffed peppers was one thing I made with enough filling left over for a few burritos - win, win.

Too busy to cook is how it was leading up to the Mandarin Garden Club Craft Fair. I was in overdrive making up 'Bobby-Dazzlers' in various sizes and price ranges to add to my stock so if I had a really good day I wouldn't run out.

A small sample of some Bobby-Dazzlers

I'll admit to being kind of stressed-out with this being my first solo show. You might remember last fall I shared a booth with my neighbor, (I only had my trivets for that show). Her booth was an inside space but this one was an outside space. I was borrowing her pop-up tent and furnishing it, which was a much bigger deal for me. 😲 Going to all the trouble to set up and stage a booth, making & bringing all the inventory ~ a sure recipe for a big bite in the butt by Murphy's Law. Sure enough it rained (hard) during set up, the tent didn't have side panels although I did have a plastic dropcloth for one side. Well, I was one wet duckling, however, the rain didn't last long, my stuff didn't get too wet and I dried out too.

It was a great day, very successful and encouraging. 🤩🥳 I was one beat-up tired little lady by the time I packed it in and packed it up. Being on my feet all day was hard, but it was much easier to engage with potential customers than I expected ~ my chit-chatty skills are a bit rusty but serviceable. I expect I'll to try to find a few more laid-back venues around town at which to sell my wares.

A so-so shot of the booth

One fun thing I did was to have lunch with my friend Nancy. She was headed to Europe for a river cruise and to spend some time in Paris, but we managed to get together at the Green Papaya. What a fun atmosphere, very snazzy, stylish & sparkly, plus a serving robot brings the food out for the server. Cool, I'd never seen that before.

Serving Robot

Halloween Deco in full swing

And finally, I had to have MOHS surgery to remove a spot of skin cancer (BCC) from my scalp. What a weird feeling when they put the sutures in and then pull them tight like lacing up a corset or something - whew! So that's taken care of, make it #5 for my face/head. (Years of sailing in the Caribbean (or living in FL) will do it to you - I see plenty of walking wounded around here, lol.

Thanks for taking the time to check out what we're up to and feel free to comment.

PS. I read in another person's blog about a spam folder under comments in blogger and when I checked it I did have a few from y'all in there. Sorry about that.

Trip home, just dodged Hurricane Helene

 Here we are with another catch-up post covering the trip home from Rocky. In general, it was a good trip, with a few extra days included. 

It was beginning to look like time to wrap things up out west and head back to Florida. The overnight temps were in the high 30's range, and even though the days were beautiful, we knew it wouldn't last much longer. The electric fireplace was very welcome and really sheds a lot of heat. Between the fireplace and the thermostatically-controlled plug in heater we never had to fire up the furnace. Time to say goodbye to Rocky, and Rustic, until next time.

Coming home, we did our usual thing of overnighting in Cheyenne WY then hopping on I80. We stopped for 2 nights at the Point Randall Resort on Lake Ozark, Missouri. It was a restful stay however the weather was soggy. From there we headed over to the Paris Landing Lodge in the Tennessee State Park system. West of Nashville, what a beautiful setting on Kentucky Lake, just off the Tennessee River. It's rather newly built and quite fancy. Cushy rooms and a nice restaurant too.

Paris Landing Lodge, Kentucky Lake

Ed came through this area on his river cruise back
in May and wanted a better look at it.

Nice pool and firepit plus outside 
seating for the restaurant.

Lovely Kentucky Lake

At this point we began to become concerned about our weather prospects due to Hurricane Helene moving in and heading north. We dithered for a bit trying to decide whether to stay or go, but eventually headed east as quick as we could and spent the night in Knoxville. Our original plan had been to head over the mountains down to Asheville, then hit I26 to 95S, but fortunately, after scrutinizing the weather from every direction, the Boss did a re-think on that plan and instead we headed east on I81 to catch I77 at Wytheville, VA, then over to 95S and down the east side of NC/SC and GA. 

This was the day Asheville took a pounding and I26 got washed-out in places. We dodged that bullet, and skirted much of the rain. That evening we made it safely down to Santee, SC for the night - WHEW!! 😳 The next day we saw quite a few trees down as we made our way home. Everything in our area was fine with just minor debris (mainly tree limbs and lots of palm tree fronds).  

Since we've been home it's been lots of food shopping and cooking, plus plenty of cleaning and decluttering. Nothing like spending 4 months in a 26' RV to make you appreciate less clutter. 😉

Here's a look at the chicken pot pie construction and completion - so good, and 3 for the freezer.

Got to have the obligatory frozen peas!

The last thing on my mind is to cover my recent obsession with my beadworks projects. I got started on these while wiling away the hours  this summer. The result - I've made quite a few "bobby-dazzlers", or suncatchers if you prefer. I made the decision to set up a booth at a local craft show. It's a smaller one at the Mandarin Garden Club here in Jacksonville, so hopefully it won't be too overwhelming. Those big craft fairs totally freak me out, too many people and too much happening. I won't even attend one. Next post will be about how that occasion turns out. I'm having a blast making these pretties, now if I can just brighten someone's day with them.

These are just some of what I've made, but they
give you an idea of what I'm talking about. This pic
definitely doesn't do them justice at all, you need
sunlight to see the fabulous sparkle ans shine!

I'm also offering my trivets and wood/chicken wire suncatchers. I'll let you know how it goes. They are fairly labor intensive so I'll never make more than 50¢ an hour, haha. 

Thanks for dropping by and we'll see you the next time. 😘

Way behind on the blog; last auto-tour/lunch trip before bail-out.

 Well, around mid-Sept we were getting ready to think about winterizing Rocky and heading back east before any cold/wet weather could move in to bug us. You may remember that last year it rained on our day of departure making the last minute pulling in of the slide-out, locking all the storage chests/bins, putting up of flower pots and firepits, and all the other assorted chores a pain. 

But before all that happened we decided to take a lunch outing up the canyon (west) to see if there was any snow up at Cameron Pass. We'd been getting mid-30's at our elevation (7200') at night and thought there might be a chance. We had a great time at first until we came upon the dreaded road work. Out west, (and up north), they try to fit all the road work in before the snow flies, and Hwy 14 was no exception. Milling up the old road surface and repaving - whew! After about a 15 minute lay-up, the "follow me" guy showed up and we were past. While we waited, I jumped out and grabbed a couple of pics of the river, which really looked great.

There was a small stand of birch being lit-up by the slanting sunlight so I took a couple of shots of them too.

(taken from the car right before the
convoy got underway.)

When you head west out of the canyon you are heading up into the North Park area, where cattle ranching and agriculture reign supreme. We saw a cool-looking group of cowboys on horseback meeting up in the pasture before getting to it. I was too slow on the uptake to get any shots. Also slews of both firewood stockpiles and stuffed hay barns and roly-poly bales out in the fields. The "business" of fall was upon us. Quintessential North Park, where they were not in favor of the reintroduction of wolves!

The whole pasture was pretty densely-packed with cattle,
this is just a small sniglet out the window.

I have so many great hay bale shots I don't know
which ones to pick. I guess if you have to
winter-over a herd you'd best be prepared. 
Love those long, wide open views!!

We saw the beginning's of some fall color as we headed towards Walden, CO.  We (the Boss) decided he wasn't going back the way we came so we headed up and around through Wyoming to come in the back way.

Here's a great shot of what I'd say was some "premo" land for some  industrious farming/ranching folks, right on the river and beautiful scenery. Bet it's pretty in the wintertime, long way to the grocery store though, 45mins-1hr?

So pretty, I think this was near about at the stateline WY/CO.

Miles of dirt roads, wide vistas, hay bales and old, deserted properties. This was by our lunch spot, which was, BTW, beside a river and in the shade. A lonely-looking spot in a really pretty location. (What was the back-story?, inquiring minds want to know).

The last long leg of the journey was coming in through the thick forests that encompass Deadman Road west of Red Feather Lakes. It's a long, dirt road through the woods. We saw deer in the road, lots of deadfall and eventually, quite a few people enjoying dispersed camping opportunities. 

Not the best shot, we stopped way early and this is zoomed in.

Here's the route as shown on the car's nav system. See all the squiggles, yeah, a long road!

A fairly exhausting day followed up by hot showers, drinks and dinner. A good adventure for sure. Just a week or 10 days later a fire broke out along the eastern edge of the Deadman Road forested area, north of Red Feather Lakes by Crystal Lakes, human started 😢. They got it under control quite quickly ad I think it was contained at about 138 acres.

That's it for now, but look for more "catch-up" posts detailing our trip back east and to current times.

Thanks for stopping by! 🥰