The Velveteen Rabbit Still Brings a Tear

All the wisdom I needed to know in life, I could get from this book. I think the messages apply more than ever, being real in an increasingly unreal world, how life breaks us all in some way, and how love is the answer... loving each other is always the answer.



I used to say that if there was a book I wished I had written, it was The Velveteen Rabbit.  But Margery Williams had that honour.
 I've read it countless times to many children, including my own, over the years.  I usually tear up at certain passages like the following...

 The little stuffed rabbit has just asked the horse how do you become real.
And this is his answer.




Timeless and touching; all the sweetest of elements... a little boy, his attachment to his stuffed rabbit, described beautifully as "fat and bunchy" and then the lonely rabbit's aching longing to be real to reunite with his best friend .

Being real, a wish fulfilled, a transformation achieved through love, friends united, a simpler world  ...
make no wonder I love this story.

Who Rescued Who

Perhaps you have seen Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory" using this little gadget to test the temperature of his cup of cocoa.

My hubby got one for Christmas and just loves it.  He doesn't use it for his tea or cocoa though.  He can sit on the sofa and aim it at the wood stove and tell how hot it is burning.  This is important information; if it is too hot he has to get up and turn down the air control lever, but if not, he can sit tight.

Another gadget and this one has many uses.  It is a camera with a special purpose.  The long tube or scope can be inserted inside something like a pipe, engine, under boards, walls or any dark or hard to reach area  and it will show you what is there.  This has already proved helpful because hubby lost a cotter pin inside an engine and used this to locate it and retrieve it.
 Just a thought, but remember the tree with the new round holes in it I showed you a photo of; I wonder could I use this gizmo to look inside and see if an animal is there.  Worth a try.

When I saw this mug, I knew immediately it belonged to my husband. He has shared his home with dogs all his life and most of them have been rescued.  He admits that when living alone, the unconditional love of his dogs, the happiness they showed when he came home, the reason they gave him to walk every day,  was enough to keep him going.  So yes, who rescued who?

Bone Broth, Cherries and HalfPops: Good Enough to Eat

Daughter made a gift of this first 'new to me' food item.  It is something called beef bone broth and, unknown to me, certain nutritionists have been whipping up interest by making amazing claims about its goodness. Immunity booster, inflammation reducer and longevity promoter, to name just a few.
  I always boil leftover chicken bones for the basis of my soups and keep extra frozen in the freezer.  I'm sure what I have after 4 or 5 hours of boiling must be close to bone broth.

Pretty bland looking and rather bland tasting actually.  I think I will add a few vegetables and a little salt and pepper to drink the rest.  This came from a local farm, Agape Gardens, and is just one of the nutrient-dense foods they are producing.

http://www.agapegardens.ca/
I wonder what their Kale Chips would taste like.

Cherries 

I've been reading a lot about dried cherries.  They are larger than my dried cranberries so have a more satisfying chew to them.   I love the sweet/tart flavour. I add them to yogurt, my smoothies, sprinkle a few on top of hubby's cereal. I'm loving them in my salads too.  I won't bore you with the nutrition facts but cherries are a good source of copper and essential vitamins.  

HalfPops

If you like a satisfying crunch to your food, then this snack food is for you. I can thank the other Daughter for discovering these.



















Marketed as a curiously crunchy popcorn, these are partially popped kernels and dense in flavour.  I like the individually packaged sizes which have been scientifically proven to help curb snacking.  A great snack I now keep on hand.
I bought the cherries and the HalfPops at Cosco, by the way.  Haven't seen the HalfPops anywhere else.

Drawing and Stitching

I had decided a while back to stitch a scene for my blog header.  I tried out all sorts of wintry scenes before settling on the idea of a house.

I drew any number of houses starting off with a bungalow similar to the one I live in.  Somehow a bungalow did not show the kind of warmth I wanted to portray.

Here are some of my scribbles.  I had three ball snowmen in the beginning but decided I liked the two ball ones better. Hubby wondered why there are three snowmen...as in who has three of them in their front yard.  I started with one on the right but then the front of the tree seemed bare so more snowmen grew.  I liked the idea of a road in front but had to give up on it. I began with a bare leafed tree but it seemed too stark for a little happy scene so I changed it to a fir tree.

One of my drawings and the colours I wanted to use...

I used coloured leads to bring up a little colour on the fabric and after one failed stitched piece, I was happy enough with the next one.
A winter scene is certainly in order; parts of Canada are being constantly bombarded with snowstorms.  We don't get the wind for storms here, but it steadily snows and the accumulations eventually mount.

I hope my little stitched house conveys what I set out to show; a warm welcome to all.

Quilted Wall Hanging: Now an FO

Another UFO I've been finishing up...

This started out from a little cross stitch kit I bought several years ago.  It features a few items of Newfoundland and Labrador, namely the provincial bird, the puffin, and the provincial flower, the pitcher plant.  At the time I think you could buy a similar design for each of the Canadian provinces.
After finishing the cross stitch, I decided to make it into a little quilted hanging.

I made a drawing of what looked like waves which I thought an appropriate motif for a province on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.  I used that to guide me in adding a little hand quilting to the top and  bottom of the hanging.

The side seams are actually much straighter than the photos allow, by the way.
I just sewed the ends last night and added a couple of ribbons to the back for hanging.  So I'm going to say this is no longer a UFO but an FO (is there such a thing?).

My Chia Berry Buns

Another extreme cold weather warning.  I'm not sure how they decide to pick one day over another.  Everyone is complaining about the bitingly cold temperatures we seem to have had a lot of since Christmas.  It made it a great day to keep the oven going.  I got some chicken drums ready for supper, hiked up the oven temperature and pulled out the recipe book.
 A great baking day...  I finally settled on making some chia berry muffins which is a variation of my recipe for Walnut Berry Buns ( I'm trying to keep up with the times...food trend wise, ha ha).

 Berry Buns

3/4 cup rolled oats                    1 cup flour
1/3 cup chia seeds                     1 tsp. salt
1 cup Greek yogurt                   1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup oil                                 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup applesauce                    1 cup mixed berries
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg

Soak oats in yogurt.  Add chia seeds.
 Mix oil, applesauce, brown sugar and egg.  Add to the yogurt/oat mixture and blend well.
 Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
 I used chopped apricots, dried cranberries and chopped dates to make up the cup of berries.  Oh yes, I also had a few strawberries to top it off.
I mixed the berries into the flour, then combined with the yogurt.
Fill 12 muffin cups and bake at 400 F for 20 minutes.

I wonder should I have made them in the smaller muffin pan to have them more two-bite sized.  The batter is not cakey so could be dense enough for smaller sized.
Anyway  hubby just ate two for lunch which means they are good.

Gillian Anderson, I'd Walk a Million Miles For One of Your Smiles

Are you watching "The Fall"? It is one of the few shows I put down my needle to actually watch.
 I have become intrigued by Gillian Anderson's performance in that series.  Every word from her lips is delivered in such a deliberate, measured manner that I am beginning to find her the eerie one.  She is not a 'wordy' character to start with; so it is probably her subtext that is alluring to me and so I can't wait to see her again each week.  Obviously her acting chops are up to snuff. Smile. Usually it is the serial killer who garners the attention.  But after Dexter, Paul Spector is a little dull and sadly predictable.


Yes, she's slow at doling out the smiles, but I guess that adds to the mystique.















Meanwhile, back in my life....

Today was a dithering kind of day, some sort of listless day with no real meaning and not much to show.
  I hemmed and hawed over all my numerous old lists.  My problem is not ideas; they seem to blossom uninvited in my head mostly to annoy; no, my problem is action as in a big lack of it.
 I visited my sewing room in the basement.  It was in ship shape order when I left it in the fall, but running in and out and poking things down there, seems to have upended the place.  And it's too uncomfortably cold just yet to get in there and organize it properly.  I couldn't find the particular UFO I had in mind, so after a couple of deep sighs, I left the place to languish in its messy state some more.
 I know I sound like Miss Othmar, the teacher in the Peanuts cartoon, whining on.  (A trombone was used to give her that distinctive voice, by the way.)

I've tried three different patterns to use the wool we found in the basement and I'm not happy with either of them.  This wool, by the way, I now realize is part of another UFO from my deceased mother-in-law.

It's not the wool's fault; it's mine.  I think I am so used to using heavier, worsted type yarn that I am not good with this much finer wool.  And too, I'm not that familiar with gauge so should know more about that before tackling a pattern. These balls are missing their labels so no help there.
 But you know how it is; it takes so much time to set up a pattern on needles and you have to knit four or five inches to see if it is working out, only to have to unravel it, yuck.