Beans, Beans......

Good for your heart.....

Hahaha!!!
As you all know by now, I am married to a bean lover.
Actually I am a beanaholic too!
My obsession goes in spurts tho.
Right now after eating like an old sow hog for the past several weeks, I am craving healthy foods.
I am craving a healthier lifestyle all around, this could be coming from my new position as a Cardiology nurse!!!
I guess I had better practice what I preach huh?
So today I have a pot of
15 bean soup on simmering with a small hambone left over from the Honey Ham that Robin brought from the Honey Ham store! OMG!!!
Talk about a good ham, if you have not had the privilage you should!
Luxury hams at their best!
I am sure this will be a yummy pot of bean soup too!
Sure is smelling good!

Now this is Danny's Christmas gift from me.
Yes I do think about him when I am Christmas shopping......
This was the gift that we teased him that he would never guess, not even after opening it!!
We were right!





I found this at Red Hill General Store and thought it would be so appropriate for a bean lover like Danny!
I have to say that their prices were so much better than at Amazon.
They also had the 3 tiered Tiffin Set just like this one for a fraction of the cost.
I may have to go back and get this one too!




Isn't it cute?
So Laura Ingallsish!
He loves it!
Didn't take him too long to figure out what it was!





We are going to get him a little one burner propane stove so that he can carry some beans, soup or chili, etc etc etc and heat it up out in the woods at work for lunch!
Here I go getting the Wife Of The Year Award yet again!
Sorry gals!!

I have been researching bean recipes online and there are so many websites devoted to the almighty bean! Toot Toot!
Robin has a very close friend and neighbor who has published this cook book all about beans too.
It's called Stretching the Bean!
I will be getting one of these soon.

Now I just have to share a funny story about beans with you......I may have shared this in the past but please forgive me if I have cause I have a poor memory any more.
Now my brother still says that I can remember things that happened before he was born and he is two years older than me!!
I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday
But I can remember this from when I was four years old as if it was yesterday......

I was staying with my Grandma Goldie, and she had taught me this little bean slogan.........
We were in her dark basement when she heard a knock on her front door upstairs.
She ran upstairs to see who was knocking.
I slowly meandered around in the basement and I knew that there was a gentleman upstairs, an insurance salesman.
I decided to come up the stairs.......
I started at the bottom in a chant that matched my every stomp of my feet on each step as I climbed each step stomping very loudly and shouting even louder.........
Beans.....
Beans.....
Good for your heart.....
The more you eat.......
The more you........
My Grandma slung that door open so fast it would make your head spin as I made it to the last step. She slapped her big ole hand across my little mouth and muffled my very last word so as to assure that the insurance salesman did not hear me shout
"Fart"
and when she released her grip on my mouth I shouted the rest of my little song.......
"Want"

I had no intentions of saying a dirty word such as fart.
Now my brother on the other hand always said that and I knew better, why I was a little lady!!
Grandma and the insurance salesman had to sit down to keep from rolling in the floor laughing at me!!!!
LOLOLOL!!!!
I got her good!!

Cabin Fever......

Unlike this beautiful American Goldfish....haha inside joke here....

I don't tolerate the snow and cold very well.

I know you guys think I do cause I am always wanting to be a homebody and do inside things such as sewing, quilting, crocheting, knitting, decorating, painting, crafting, etc etc etc.....but when I HAVE to stay in I do not handle it very well.

It has been soooo nasty here for the past several days. Yes we had a white Christmas, but Bah Humbug on that one!!

I did have a good Christmas and I hope the children did too.

Here you see Emma with her new American Girl doll that I bought her.

Don't they look alike??

Now I have to make her some clothes for her doll, maybe some matchy matchy ones for them both!

Colton only asked for money this year so that he could buy him a really good coon hunting light
he asked everyone for money and he ended up with over $336!

He shouldn't have any trouble seeing his way around the woods now!

Morgan is now 16 and she didn't really ask for anything other than chapstick and hair products!

She got a huge box of make-up and all sorts of other girly girl personals, a foot bath, a jewelry box and hair products! She was happy!

The best gifts...well it was a hit with the kids anyway.....were fleece throws with their names embroidered on them!

I found some really nice throws at Dollar General for $12 and used the new embroidery machine to put their names on them and they were a HUGE hit!!

Colton told his mom that was the best gift that he got this year!!

WOOT WOOT!!! I was just wanting to try out the machine but I guess it was a good item to practice on, Leslie even wants one now!!

I bought myself this feeder for Christmas.....I bought all my own presents this year cause he doesn't do things like that....urgh, why is it so hard to walk into a store and say to yourself.."My wife might like this!" or "This would be something she could use!"

anywhooooo

I have had the best time birdwatching in this storm.

I have had about 35 goldfinches at one time and up to 8 purple finch males.

Many many other birds too.

It really does my heart good to be able to see these from my windows.




So I have done enough whining about the weather, a husband who doesn't love me enough to shop for me and anything else that I can gripe about.
Now I am going to turn over a new leaf.
Another new leaf!
Since I will be starting to work full time next week with my new job, I plan to put that money to some good use.
I am going to hire some things done around my house.
I have been making lists and drawing out the plans.
I will start with getting "the boys".....(the men who put our roof and vinyl siding on a few years ago, and they are needing work in this tough economy)
.......to build the steps back up into the apartment over the garage that Danny tore down 9 years ago, so that I can store things up there out of my way such as Christmas decorations. This room will eventually become a sewing/quilting studio.
They will then close my side porch in and extend my great room for some much needed space.
After that I will hire them to build my glass conservatory on the side of my home.
I have always wanted one and I will have to hire it done myself in order to get it!!
Oh well!

Maybe while Virgil and Paul are building these things, Danny can get to work on my barn?
I also have great big plans for the inside of the house.
You know how I like white, right?
Well I do love my white floors, even though I can't get people to not wear their shoes over them, and I have found that I can clean them easily with a steam mop.
I love the white so much that I will and I say I WILL paint my kitchen cabinets white!!
Watch me!!
Danny doesn't want them white but he did not want the ones at The Fairy's Rest to be painted white either. After I painted them white he loved them!!
Have you heard the old saying "If Mama ain't happy, ain't no body happy!"?
Okay then!! Nuff said?
When he starts being of concern about anything that goes on inside of this house other than a full plate of food and where the TV remote is, I will listen to his wishes, until then my paint brush handle will be warm!
I started today with the bathroom cabinet...it's all white and purty and he hasn't even noticed it yet!!!!
Go figure!!
So each evening after work I will do a dab of painting as stress relief and therapy for my SAD! That's another self diagnoses!!
Then before you know it I will have a lot of painting finished and be all the happier person!
I hope!
Wish me luck on that one!!

A little o' this and a little o' that....

I have been doing a little whining about the snow.....

a little whining about the cold weather.....

(well, a lot of whining but who's keeping tally?)

a little bird watching.....

Wish it could be a lot but the bringing home the bacon gets in the way....

I am loving all the colorful birds that are at my feeders now...
Never saw a purple finch til this year.
I was pulling into the driveway one day and spotted one in my feeder and I almost ran over the garage while staring in total amazement!!!
Do you think Danny would understand?
I was driving his truck!!!


I don't think this little fella likes the snow and ice any better than I do!!

He looks as if he is puffed up pouting just like me when I have to get out and brave the elements to go to work......slipping and sliding on our skating rink slick driveway to the truck....fell one morning, no injuries except to my pride......I have to put the truck in four wheel drive and still can barely get out of my driveway and up my hill on the main road......

did I mention the cold?

It has been so cold that we had a "heat wave" today with temps around 30 degrees!!!!!!

We lost our 2 baby goats last week, apparently from freezing to death.

I don't even like to think about how horrible that was.

The temp was around zero for many days and wind gusts between 40 and 55 miles per hour.

The poor little babies just couldn't cut it.

I am this close to hanging up my goat farming license.

I know that it is not meant for me to have a spotted goat.

Just sayin.....

and that's all I have to say about that.

I have been gardening indoors!

My first attempt at forcing paperwhites.

This is what they looked like at 2 weeks after planting the bulbs.

Danny and Colton say that they are very pretty onions!

They are very very fragrant and it's a fragrance that I could really do without due to my many allergies but so far I am OK.

They are really really good for my soul!

I think I will try these again next year!

Still trying to get ready for HoHoHo to appear.

I have wrapped zero gifts as of yet.

I will do that tomorrow morning and make sure the list is all checked off, if not I will make a run for it to finish up. Then I will just sit back and let the fun begin.

Robin and Eric will be here for a couple days, coming in tomorrow before the next big winter storm that they are calling for on Christmas Eve and Day!!! URGH!!!!!

I hate winter............

Had an all day Christmas party at work today....well not all day but it was festive all day. Patients bringing in goodies to eat all week, Dr's gifting us for all our hard work!!! I made off really good too! Even got to do some at work shopping today.....we have a really great gift shop in the hospital and they had 50% off all their Christmas merchandise. We all took turns going down and the average loot was 3 bags each....of course I came back with 3 bags too!!

Makes for a really fun day!!

I have my house really clean cause I cleaned it ALL weekend last weekend and have kept it pretty clean this week.

One major thing crossed off that list.

Wrapping gifts, cooking and a couple embroidery projects to be completed for gifts and that's it for this old woman!!

I am going to sit back and rest and enjoy my last 2 weeks at my part time job...........cause I just got a new job that's full time!

What the heck am I thinking about these days?

It's a true brain freeze!

I just obtained a fulltime position as the Cardiology nurse in our office!!

I am excited about this....even though I don't really want to work.....the Dr is the nicest man any one has ever met!!! His patients are wonderful and the job is easy!

Wish me luck!

So that's another chapter in my little world!

I wish all of you a

Merry Merry Christmas!!!

One winter day......

When it is snowing, sleeting and freezing raindrops.......
and all is frozen over...... and you can't make it to work......

you sleep.......

or you get creative and make things!

Or you let your creativity come from within your embroidery machine......in other words someone elses creativity put to use....

and what a fine job they did!!!

Yep, we, along the rest of the Universe, according to our local weatherman, are under a wintry mix today and the world is all but standing still for us. I was off today anyways (Thank Goodness) but Danny was supposed to drive the tractor and trailer today with a load of something (maybe lumber??) and he thought he wasn't ready to be stranded away from home in this frigid weather. So while he sleeps I play!

fyi~ I love my new machine!!

It is so easy to use, I just took right off on it.

Could be that it is the same machine set up as my Baby Lock which makes threading it a breeze.

Could be that Danny already had it warmed up for me when I got home last night from work. He had took it out of the box and had it set up on the table.

He said "If you were just a little bit longer, I would have been sewing on it!"

hahahahaha

Now I think I will download some embroidery patterns from the internet?

Or take a nap??

Stay warm and safe!!

Just call BR-549......

.......and I will fix you right up! That is if you are in the market for a sewing machine or serger or if you are selling one of those items. Cause girls it seems that I have "trader" in my blood. I feel just like Junior Samples from Hee Haw! I know that most of you guys who read my blog are old enough to remember Hee Haw, right?

Yep ole Jr here has been wheelin and a dealin and has purged 4 sewing machines in the past couple months and gained ..........ssshhhhhhhh...two new ones!! My new Juki TL98Q....

themachinethatIloveandwouldn'ttakeafarmingeorgiaforquiltingandallaroundsewingmachine.

My latest deal has come down this weekend. I decided on Thursday to bite the bullet and list my Baby Lock Quilters Choice on ebay........remember the trip across the state last year to pick her up? Yeah me too. I did love her but I also didn't need her anymore and was really really jealous of my daughter Robin and her incredible Bernina embroidery machine and knew that I couldn't live much longer without a similar machine! So I listed my baby on Thursday and some nice seamstress from Hawaii needed her and purchased her on Saturday!! Well what do you know? I made exactly enough on my baby to buy me a new baby! Actually a new Brother!! (Not that I really wanted another brother cause the one that I already have has never liked me......my real life brother that is!) But I found this Brother PE770 Embroidery only machine and it's now on it's way to my house!! Yay I traded for myself a wonderful Christmas present that I didn't really even have to cough up any money for!! (I purchased my machine from QVC.com, it was cheaper there but hsn.com has the video for it)

The Elna Serger and two other Kenmores were sold in my etsy shop. I think I like trading sewing machines almost as much as collecting them! Maybe that's the indecisiveness of me being a Gemini coming thru? Hey at least it's not car trading. I used to LOVE the smell of a new car but I think I finally grew out of that one. Not that I wouldn't like a newer pick-up to pull our boat with but I don't think I have enough sewing machines sitting around to pay for that one right now. Even though I did make that great trade a couple years ago via Craigslist to basically trade one boat and one camper for a much larger and 14 years newer boat!!!!! I think I'll stick to trading sewing machines for now!

Now will someone please find me some time to play with all these new toys?????? PLEASE!!!! I beg of you! I will get my embroidery machine this week and maybe be able to come up with enough time to learn how to thread it before Christmas! I also have a "Black Friday on Saturday" sale item, a new Cricut to play with someday! I saved $140 on it and just "had" to have it too!! Got it for $59!! Now if I could trade something else around to get the money for an Accuquilt-Go Cutter????? Hmmmm.....maybe a coondog?? Imagine all the toys I could purchase if I could sell Little Ann??

So this leaves me with the Juki for quilting, in or out of the frames, and regular sewing if I wish. The Bernina for regular sewing, and yet one more Kenmore that has all the bells and whistles, more bells and whistles than my Bernina, that also sews like a dream. My Singer serger. And now my embroidery machine. I think I have all my needs covered pretty well. What do you think? Maybe sell the Bernina too?? hmmmmm?????

I think I will get off of here and go slap together a charm pack or something quick since I have the sewing fever really bad today and it is a nasty wintery mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain coming down outside right now. Maybe I can talk Danny into a cooking a pot of pinto beans and cornbread while I sew??????? I should be cleaning my sewing room back up cause it does not look like this right now!

I'll be back soon with pictures of all my new projects!!

Stay warm my friends!!

Well my dear cousin, this post is for you!

My dear sweet cousin Martha lives on the other end of the state of Virginia from me and she is a faithful reader of my blog. She must really lead a boring life!! Just kidding, she has a brand new grandson and her life won't be boring for many years!

She is also my facebook friend and left me the sweetest comment yesterday about how she really has missed my blog posts and what was I up to that I didn't have time to post any more. She also said that when she came to my blog each day it was like looking at a good magazine!!! OMG!!! I felt so honored! LOL!

So Martha, I have spent 2 days now knocking down the cobwebs and trying to assemble what one might see as a Christmasy home!

Just for you ;-)

We are sitting under our first snowfall of the year......and albeit beautiful and inspiring to help me get in the Christmas spirit.....I hope it's the last snowfall of the year!!

I had enough snow last year to do me for the rest of my life!

I did get a great amount of enjoyement from watching the feeding frenzy at my bird feeders tho!

I wish this picture could warm my heart but it doesn't.....


This one sorta warms my heart!
If the picture really captured the beauty of the lit tree I would be much happier.
I tried many settings on my fancy smancy camera but it still never looked like it does in person.
In this picture the tree skirt appears to majorly clash with the rest of the tree, but in person it's not to bad a match.




My nativity set that my mom bought me about 20 years ago.

My vintage Santa salt and peppers in front of a pot of Amaryllis. I have paper whites started too. I have to garden year round or I will go crazy!

Oh yeah......I must mention here that my dearest husband has agreed to build me a glass conservatory on the side of my house!!!!

I have begged for one of those for ever!

Of course I had the detached wood and glass greenhouse that was very very cold and very expensive to heat, that is now a hot tub room. The new one can be heated by our outdoor wood furnace!! Yay!!!! I can't wait!

You guys know how much I like to camp and I could not resist this to add to my Christmas Village!!! Too stinking cute!!!

So other than healing physically (shingles mostly gone)but losing it mentally (my job), I have been working almost full time hours for a couple weeks and will for a few more. I am not enjoying my job as much as I once was, maybe the holidays, maybe the winter weather, maybe the job itself, maybe just a mood that I am in????? Who knows?? I am just not feeling the love!

I am back to soul searching again and I have to decide what is right for me. Until then I am enjoying the extra money, but money isn't everything!

I am hoping the snow melts tomorrow so I will be in a better mood!

Danny even bought me the sweetest pair of cowgirlish cowboy boots yesterday and I don't even want to get out in the snow with them on. We bought each other boots for Christmas!! I have been wanting these for quite a while and I saw them, pulled out my size and slipped them on and they felt like they were made for me! I wore them home from the store all giddy just like a little child!!!! When I got home I realized that I had the tags hanging off the side!!! hahahaha

Now I just don't want to get them dirty!!!

Click here to see my new farmgirl boots!!

Hope you guys are having a great time in the snow, if you have it at your home, and that you are enjoying your holiday decorating!!

Talk soon!!