Home

Sitting at my desk in the office, occasionally glancing out the windows the rain fell steadily as the temperatures dropped. Christmas music played softly in my earbuds and I longed for pjs and home.

As my work day came to end I hurriedly packed up and headed out. I picked up Elijah from school, stopped at the grocery store to grab a few things for dinner and home we went. There is nothing better on a cold, rainy day then coming home. Home to bright red leaves blanketing the lawn, an excited dog greeting you at the door and the promise of an evening cuddled by the fire.

Weekends

I know they say you shouldn't live for the weekends, but I often find myself doing just that. I wish the week away just to get to Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Just typing that out makes me cringe! I need to check myself and quit wishing my weeks away. There's nothing I can't do during the week that I do on the weekend, well except sleeping in. Anything else, I can do during the week when I get off work. So no more! I'm going to make a conscience effort to not wish my weeks away. On that note, this past weekend was a good one. Not that we did anything spectacular. Fonzy and I stayed in pjs all day Saturday, but I didn't mind because I had these cute spooky pjs to lounge around in. I worked on my Flax sweater throughout the day, watched college football with Fonzy, napped and cooked. That was our Saturday.

Sunday was rainy and a perfect Fall day. Peep the leaves starting to change! I knit some more on my Flax sweater, along with cleaning, laundry and basically getting ready for the week. Oh, I also cut the fabric for my Emery dress. Yes, I'm still chugging along on that. I figured if I do a little everyday I might have a dress by this weekend. Fingers crossed! Fonzy did yard work most of the day and that was that! Another weekend gone!

Home

Yesterday was one of those days where everyone at the office seemed to be in a mood! The day dragged on and on and I couldn't wait to leave the stress and foul moods! When it was time for me to go, I ran up out of there!

When I got home, I started dinner then headed out to the porch to enjoy the beautiful Fall day, knitting and a glass of wine in hand. It was in the 60's and Titus and I enjoyed the setting sun and cool weather. We watched neighbors come home from their day of work, check mail and let their dogs out. Titus whined when he saw the neighbors dogs across the street because he wanted to go play! Birds flew in formation in the blue sky, cackling as they went along. I took a deep breathe in, out, and purged the negativity from the office. Knit a few rows, took a few sips and welcomed home Fonzy and Elijah as they pulled into the drive to end their day. I gathered up my stuff and we all headed into the warm house to the smells of dinner.

Frosty Morning

Woke up this morning with temps in the low 20's. I wanted nothing more than to burrow deeper into the covers, but unfortunately that was not in the cards. I slowly made my way downstairs with Titus dancing around me to be let out.

As I stepped out on the porch, I shivered in the cold, but then noticed the beauty of the pasture covered in frost. The pasture behind our house changes daily and I often find myself gazing out the window at it. I let Titus back in, started my coffee brewing and couldn't resist the pull of the pasture. I grabbed my camera, coat and headed back out in pajamas to snap a few pictures. After being out in the cold for a bit, the warmth of the kitchen and morning cup of coffee was all the more sweeter.

Lately

It's already January 10th and I still feel like I haven't gotten back into the groove of things since Christmas break. We still have a suitcase sitting in my craft room waiting to be emptied. I really need to get it together and our house in order. Maybe then I'll feel like I'm back into the swing of things and my mind won't feel so cluttered. 

2019

Happy New Year! 

2018 just flew by didn't it! Don't blink, because 2019 might be gone too. Time is funny like that. Days sometimes drag on and on, but then a year is gone and you're left wondering where the heck it went. I'm feeling that right now. 

With the new year, everyone is setting New Year resolutions. Not I, I never keep them. But there are a few things on my heart and mind that I'd like to do. So here goes. 

During the Christmas break, we went to Texas to visit Manuel, my older son and my Grandbabies. They are growing so fast and I hate being so far away. While visiting Samuel at the cemetery, Jonah, my grandson took my hand and guided me to a headstone. He started to read the headstones out loud to me. In that moment, with his little hand in mine, listening to him read I said to myself I would start writing letters to him and all my Grandbabies. Nothing extravagant or long, just little notes to let them know I'm thinking about them and love them. I wrote some letters last year, but not nearly enough. More letters this year!

In knitting, I want to learn intarsia to knit this sweater for Christmas. There will be a lot of learning in this sweater with intarsia, charts and short rows, all techniques I need to learn. I have almost a whole year to figure it all out. Besides this sweater, there will be plenty of other knitting going on as usual. 

In sewing, I'm still such a beginner and have so much to learn. The reason I wanted to learn to sew was to make vintage dresses and cute novelty skirts. I have plenty of patterns for dresses, so now I just need to decide which one will be my first and sew it up. Before this year is up, I will have made a vintage inspired dress. I have plenty other patterns I want to sew, but the retro dress is the only one I'll list as a must do. No more being afraid, like Nike, I'll just do it! I'll never learn if I don't tackle it. That's why this weekend I plan on organizing my craft room. I'm sure hubby will be happy about that! 

More memories will be made and captured, more words will be written, more loving and living for 2019. And hopefully time will slow down just a bit to savor it all. 

evening walk, country roads, pink fields, setting sun

Sometimes all you need is an evening walk on a warm day, with pink fields and setting sun. And of course a companion.

Herb Garden and Galettes

On this dreary, rainy Tuesday lets take it back to a sunnier day in the backyard with my herb gardens. I'm so enjoying the herb garden. I'm learning all I can about the herbs, how to grow them, dry them, store them and recipes that use fresh herbs. I'm learning that cilantro doesn't like a lot of water and I may need to plant it in it's own pot. I love rosemary and seems to be pretty easy to grow. Rosemary was actually the first herb I used from my garden in a pear, goat cheese and rosemary galette.

When I tell you that galette was some deliciousness! Hubby would disagree, but he didn't even taste it, so his opinion on this one doesn't count.  He couldn't get past the goat cheese. His loss and more for me! For the galette I used my favorite crust recipe found here. This was my first time baking with pears and won't be my last. I'm kind of loving the pears. I kept eating the slices as I put them in galette. I had to stop myself before I ate them all. Once I assembled the galette, I sprinkled with sugar in the raw, then baked. Once out the oven, I drizzled with honey. YUMMY!

Since Fonzy didn't like the pear galette I made one with strawberries (with 2 strawberries from my garden) and fresh basil from my herb garden. It wasn't as good as my pear one though. I have another crust in the refrigerator right now waiting for another galette. I'm thinking apple with salted caramel sauce. That might be on the agenda for dessert tonight. Need a little goodness to brighten this dreary day!

Herb Garden, Roses and Wildflowers! Oh My!

This past Saturday it finally warmed up and was a perfect day to work in the yard. I've been longing to get out to plant flowers and my herb garden, but the weather hadn't been cooperating. Until now.

I was up bright and early, coffee in hand and new garden boots on! I was too excited about my bright yellow boots with chickens on them! I've been wearing them every time I go out to work in the yard. They are my new favorite.

So on the agenda for the day was to plant an herb garden, wildflowers and 2 rose bushes. There's already 3 rose bushes when we moved here, but one of them is really struggling. I'm hoping to bring it back to life. I was most excited about my herb garden. I have them planted in window box planters I got off Amazon and hung on our back fence. I couldn't risk anything on the ground for fear of Titus peeing on it! I have rosemary, thyme, sage, basil, cilantro (which isn't doing so well) and chocolate mint. I have more, but drawing a blank at the moment. The smell of the fresh herbs was so heady!  I'm excited to watch them grow and cook with them. I've already used rosemary in a pear, goat cheese, homey and rosemary galette I'll be sharing here on the blog. It was delish! While buying my herbs to plant I saw a strawberry plant I couldn't pass it up. We already have berries ready to be picked. I never had an herb garden or strawberries, so I'll be learning along the way, but excited about it all.

Next are the wildflowers. I'm so hoping they actually grow. We have a tree line along our property that I'd like to brighten up with wildflowers. There's not a whole lot we can do with space, but if I can get beautiful, colorful flowers to grow amongst the tress I'd be too happy. Fonzy and I cleared a few areas that get some sun and I planted away. Let's hope we'll see flowers in the next few weeks. And of course I couldn't resist getting sunflowers! I have a couple packets I haven't planted yet, just need to find a nice sunny spot.

And last but not least, I have a grapevine. Yep, you read that right. A grapevine. While searching for a burn barrel to burn leaves and brush from our yard, we found a man less than 5 minutes from us who had barrels. We went to pick it up and ended up spending over 30 minutes talking to him about gardening and family. He had a greenhouse and gave me a little grape plant he had from his own vine. I repot into a bigger container and hope it grows. While reading up on growing grapevines it says it may take a couple years to bear fruit, so I'll just be growing the plant for now. The vine is in the clay pot, with yellow boots, so very small right now. But since I've gotten it, it has grown more leaves on it.

Saturday was definitely a good day, even though I got sunburned. Now to stalk the wildflower patch and watch my herbs grow.

So have you done any planting? Any ideas to help my cilantro? I'm thinking it needs it's own pot and less water, but not sure. I'm learning as I go along.