Weekend...

 Good Evening Internet Friends!!!

Super Busy few weeks and this weekend was too!

Friday after work I did a wee bit of Black Friday Shopping and of course I kept it local and small business!  Stopped at Homes Alive and got doggie some treats for now and maybe some for the stocking as well.  I also found this really awesome silicone form for making frozen doggie treats.  Reading the fine print on the back I found that it is heat rated to 230  Celsius.  After checking with the staff who had not noticed that it was agreed that I could try it in the oven.  Sooooooo, last night I baked some banana/oatmeal/peannut butter treats for doggie.  He loved them:

TAH DAH!!!

Today was laundry, house work, meal prep, walk the dog across the community and then some cross country skiing.  

For dinner I made Jasmine rice, poached Atlantic Salmon, steamed broccoli and spring rolls.  Super yum and some left overs for tomorrow:

After dinner and between laundry loads I finished the applique on a Christmas Tree Skirt Pattern Kit that I picked up at my LQS Sew Divine:

Now to quilt and bind it....

Cooked some chick peas as well and made my favourite lunch; green pepper, yellow pepper, orange pepper, red pepper, purple onion, cherry tomatoe, cucumber, feta, and chick pea salad:  

Yes, the yellow Tupperware container is older than I am🤣.  It was made in Canada back then.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the BEST Day EVER Monday tomorrow.  Stay safe out there,  😷

Kathy

Labour Day...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I hope that y'all had a restful Labour Day and are ready for whatever tomorrow brings.  I really tried hard not to do any kind of labour today at all!

I took doggie out for a really looooooooong walk this morning.  Quite chill out there and no doubt that Winter is on its way😰❄

I took several pictures of the Autumn Blaze Maple in my front yard.  It is SOOOOOO beautiful right now.  I was supposed to get a different type of red maple, but the supplier was all out so I got this type (this is the one I really wanted).  🍁

Late this afternoon I baked a Rhubarb Cake with the Rhubarb I got at the St Albert Farmers' Market on Saturday.  I froze 8 bags with 2 cups in each bag and kept the last 2 cups for use in cake today:

For dinner I made kiddo Spinach/Mushroom/Green Onion/Zucchini/Red Pepper/Boursin stuffed chicken.  Served with baby potatoes and fresh green beans it was a HIT with him.

This evening I spent a bit of time with my knitting and even watched a little tele (not something I do regularly).  

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the BEST Day EVER Tuesday tomorrow.  Stay Safe out there.  😷

 Kathy

Summer Vacation

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Day Four of Summer Vacation.  Still have not made any plans as non essential out of province travel is still not recommended.  Enjoying my time at home though.

Today I did some knitting and also spent some time in my kitchen.  My friend Lynn at No Regrets Ranch posted that she was making Pesto.  I have a planter of basil on my deck so I decided that I would make some too!!!  Nuts make my throat itchy so rather than nuts I use a 50:50 ratio of chick peas and sunflower seeds as a subsititute:

I don't own a large food processor but my trusty blender never fails me☺

I used the pesto on top of the Spaghetti Squash Parmesan that I made for dinner along with a Greek Salad (no olives - that is a taste I have yet to acquire).

For dessert I used freezer blueberries and strawberries to make a crisp.  So YUM!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity.  Wishing y'all the BEST Day EVER Friday tomorrow.  Stay safe out there.

Kathy

Open???

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today was the soft reopening of the province.

After work I took kiddo for a hair cut.  He like me has not had a hair cut since January as we were both due for haircuts in March just as the hairdressers closed shop!

After his hair cut we went for burgers at Delux Burgers.  As a small local business I decided that we would support them.  Was FUN to go out again and of course the mushroom burger was delicious:

After we got home and doggie walked I made another two Flock of Geese Blocks for the 52 Week 2017 Block Challenge Hosted by Darlene D'Eon Designs:

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the BEST Day EVER Friday tomorrow.  Stay Safe. 

Kathy

Happy Mother's Day...

Happy Mother's Day Internet Friends!

I spent most of my day in the kitchen.  Before y'all sigh,,,, I LOVE spending time in my kitchen.

For breakfast I made buttermilk waffles with fresh strawberries, and raspberries.  Served with whipped cream and Maple Syrup from Quebec:

For lunch I made my son's favourite lunch of Macaroni and Cheese.  I topped with deep fried onions for a different flavour:

For Dinner I made a roasted cauliflower/lentil dal:

For dessert I made a coconut cheese cake square:

SOOO Yummy!

Plan to knit a bit before I take doggie for a walk.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the BEST Day EVER Monday tomorrow.  Stay safe.

Kathy

Making Do...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I decided today that I needed to do something productive.  At present we are still eating from the house with the exception of milk, and fresh fruit and veggies every week.

For dinner this evening as I did not go out nor feel like going out I made a Salmon Wellington with freezer and refrigerator ingredients:

Turned out delicious!!!  Plus there are left overs for tomorrow.

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the BEST Day EVER Thursday tomorrow.  Stay safe out there.

Kathy

Stay Home on Tuesday??

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful Tuesday and were able to find a little bit of fun, good, or even both today.

Fresh milk, fruit and veggies arrived today.  There were 2 eggplant and 2 zucchini in the box so I decided that kiddo and I would make Lentil Moussaka for dinner.  It was DELICIOUS:

After dinner I went up to my craft room.  Breathing still tight with my asthma so I make minimal trips to the second floor of the house.  Assembled the last 4 blocks of the Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt:

This will eventually be centre block for the quilt☺

Hope this inspires your own creativity.  Stay safe out there and please WASH your Hands!!🙏  Wishing you all a BEST Day EVER Wednesday.  

Kathy

Easter Saturday...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Busy and productive day despite being on Self Isolation.  We have not left the house other than to walk doggie since I got home from work on Thursday evening.

Made buttermilk pancakes for breakfast this morning.  We are still eating from the pantry.  I do get fresh fruit, veggies and milk once a week as those are staples in my world.  Whipped cream and Quebec Maple Syrup are staples from the refrigerator:

Took doggie for a walk around the park and lake while a batch of Easter Babka rose:

After lunch I baked it:

Had to sample some fresh out of the oven and it was delicious and really soft.  

On occasion I do cook a bit of meat and although it was Friday this was something kiddo wanted.  So, I made slow cooker short ribs with a mushroom cream sauce, shelled peas and carrots that were part of my fresh fruit and veggies this week, roasted garlic mashed potatoes with green onion topper:

After dinner I checked on my chive planter that has spent the entire winter on the patio against the house and........

SOOOOO excited!!!  This means that spring might actually be on the way!! 🌷

Spent a bit of time in my craft room this evening and put the second last border on my Lush Quilt.  There is another 8 1/2" border to be put on.....but I think I am going to leave it like this:

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the BEST Day EVER Easter tomorrow.  Stay safe out there.  

Kathy

Day 6

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Day 6 of Self Isolation in our part of the world.  Off work for the weekend now so will actually be able to participate in Self Isolation.

Walked kiddo and doggie down to the village to see what was new and get in our exercise.  Made 4.96 miles round trip so that should do us.

Made a batch of Rocky Road Brownies for snack while we played a couple board games this afternoon.  

Currently I am making sure that we eat the fresh fruit and veggies from the refrigerator and using only ingredients that we have on hand.  I did pick up one jug of milk this week but that is all.  Really trying not to go out.  For diner I made a Cottage Cheese Souffle (cottage cheese from the freezer) with oven roasted fresh veggies.  Turned out delicious and will have left overs for tomorrow.  🍲

After dinner and before last walk around the lake with doggie I completed Steps 1 and 2 of the Laundry Basket Quilt Along:

I am using fabric from my stash vs the yardage that the pattern calls for "sew" will see how this turns out.  "Sew" far "sew" good.

Hope this inspires your own creativity 🧵 and wishing you all the Best Day EVER Sunday.  Stay safe, get out in the fresh air if you can and WASH your hands 🙏.

Kathy

Flattening the Curve...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

It has been a while since I have had time to blog.  🤷

Today was a conscious decision to "Flatten the Curve".  In my head though I had the Good Ol' Boys song stuck in my head𝆕. 

We started the day with pancakes, fresh fruit and Quebec maple syrup.  Apparently we have no whipped cream in the fridge so added that to my Grocery Wish List.  Who knows how long that will take to get.....

After breakfast we took doggie out for a really long walk.  The neighborhood was super quiet.  No one seemed to be doing anything.  Was very odd to see. When we got back I made a batch of Rice Krispie Squares. I had bought the cereal a couple of weeks ago before the crazy shopping began.

Turned out delicious as a treat.  After that I decided to get serious about planning for the week with lunches etc and knowing that what we eat mostly has to come from what I have at home.  Banana bread of course is a staple for lunches and no worries there are still LOTS of frozen bananas in the freezer.  There will likely still be bananas there when the pandemic is over.  🤣

While the banana bread was baking I finished the toe stitching on my latest sock.  🧦

Might try to start the other one before bedtime this evening.....

For dinner I made a Cauliflower, Green Bean, Lentil Dahl as these ingredients were all available in the house.  I also made a batch of fresh naan bread to go with and topped with herbed sour cream.  So yummy and there will be left overs for tomorrow!

After dinner I finally got around to washing the basket of scrubs that I have been keeping in the garage.  I wear my scrubs to work and then change in to the hospital ones for my day at work.  At end of day I put my own scrubs on to travel home.  The reason for this is that scrubs are able to be washed in hot water and dried in a hot dryer.  

While I waited for the laundry I finished the last row of my 2018 Red and White 52 Week Block Challenge from Darlene D'Eon Designs:

This quilt called for a patch work and snowball block a week for 52 weeks.  I chose however to make this quilt larger to fit on my overstuffed bed.  I made 156 blocks instead of the 104 so I will justify my tardiness on this quilt by that factor🤣.

We have no learned that school will be cancelled indefinitely.  🏫  This is going to be interesting......however, tomorrow I will put on my scrubs, wash my hands and go stare this beast in the face!!!  Literally.  

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the BEST Day EVER Monday tomorrow.  Staff safe and WASH your hands.  🙏

Kathy

Here We Go Again...

Good Evening Internet Friends!!!

Another work week is about to start and so here we go again....  There just does not seem to be enough time in the weekend to get everything done that I would like to.

Breakfast this morning was fresh fruit, whipped cream and maple syrup waffles:

YUMMMM!!!  As a bonus I made a double batch so that we would have waffles for breakfast this week as well.

For the lunch box I made fresh tomato soup with some home grown tomatoes that I was given:

I was also given a garden pumpkin that I cooked and mashed.  Most of the mashed pumpkin went to the freezer but I did make two loaves of banana, pumpkin, walnut bread.  This will also be in the lunch box tomorrow ☺

For dinner I made a chicken breast sheet pan dinner.  Garden potatoes, onions, zucchini and cauliflower that I was given along with red, green, yellow and orange peppers, and mushrooms.  I drizzled a fresh dill and mustard sauce over all and baked.  Dinner for this evening and a couple days of left overs as well. 

Super YUM!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the 

BEST Day EVER Monday tomorrow.  🥳

Kathy

Friday Finish!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Today I finished a project I started two days ago!!!  Amazing what a little bit of a time crunch can do to motivate a person.

A very loooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago I had agreed to participate in a Christmas Block exchange using the Peppermint Lane Quilt Pattern.

The idea is that I make 12 blocks and send 11 on to other participants and in return I will get 11 different blocks with which to make this quilt.  These are due to be mailed out on or before July 15.  So......in typical Kathy fashion I start to sew these on July 02, 2019.  

I will be posting these out tomorrow morning once I figure out who exactly I am to post these to. 😕  

Earlier this week I purchased the BIGGEST size of cauliflower I have ever seen.  Now of course I would not want to waste this and I am currently not planning any party snacks.  I decided to make Cauliflower Dal for dinner and of course one should have naan bread with that too, so I made a batch of garlic naan bread as well (I added the garlic cause I found a whole bunch of it in the fridge too):

The Cauliflower Dal turned out AMAZING, I did substitute sour cream for the yogurt because I don't keep plain yogurt in the house.  Personally I don't trust the stuff.....what is it trying to hide and or what is it trying to become...it has no identity...

There are lots of left overs from this so the good news is we can get a couple of dinners from it and a few freezer lunches which means I can get a bit more quilting in tomorrow.

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the 

BEST Day EVER Saturday.🥳

Kathy

Still Awake.....

Good Evening Internet Friends!

So......today was first day of my summer vacation and I had big plans to do NOTHING!

Well.....the day started out at 0417 hours this morning when I had been asleep for almost 4 hours.  No matter how much I tried to return to sleep I was unsuccessful.  So at 0500 I got up and took doggie out for a very long walk and a bike ride.  Returning home he went straight to sleep. 🐕  Must be nice.

Mid morning I decided that I should start on the blocks I need to do for a Block Swap I agreed to participate in.  What was I thinking????  Good News is that as of this evening half of the blocks are complete and I REALLY like these blocks so I might just end up making some for myself yet so that I have a quilt too!

Part way through this process kiddo informed me that he had lost another bracket on his orthodontic hardware so off to the other side of the city for that to be fixed.  

I took my knitting of course as sometimes these appointments can get rather lengthy.  This appointment was sooooooo long that I knit a pair of socks!!!  Okay, not really I just finished 10 rows of the foot and then the toe.  Stitched it up when I got home and wore these out for dog walk this evening with my capri pants because I was too lazy to change into regular pants!

These socks are called the Bookbinders Sock and the yarn is from Sweet Georgia as a special colour way for a Sock Crush subscription box from earlier this year.  It's been a few months since I have been in wool socks daily so it was nice to wear these again.  🧦

There seems to be a little more time in my days since I have been home now for 4 full days.  

For dinner this evening I made asparagus, mozzarella, chive stuffed chicken breasts wrapped with turkey bacon (I am stuffing that stuff in everything I can right now!  Along with garlic mashed potatoes and a green salad dinner was served.  It was delicious!

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the 

BEST Day EVER Wednesday tomorrow.  🥳

Kathy

Smokin'

Good Evening Internet Friends!

WOW!!!  I had not realized how long it has been since I did a blog post.  Too much on the go but I do try to get a bit of creative ME time in every day🧵

Yesterday I came home from work early due to the heavy smoke that we have been gifted from the forest fires in Northern Alberta. There was ash on my car and on the deck!  After a couple of hours of the smoke entering the clinic with each patient I started to wheeze and cough!  My asthma and allergies have been acting up to start with this spring.

Today I stayed home as the air quality still remains poor.  Took a couple of naps because breathing is hard work.  Seriously.

I did make dinner:

Barbecue lentil stuffed sweet potatoes topped with salsa, sour cream and Parmesan cheese.  A side of broccoli salad rounded out the meal as well as moved a couple of items out of the refrigerator.  🥘  

I did a bit of knitting today between naps as not a lot of energy to do anything.  I did also finish the embroider (for lack of a better word) on the quilt label that I started for the quilt I gifted my friend last year at her wedding:

Family members who along wit me attended have their names underneath as well.  

Hopefully this weekend I can get this label sewed on and give it back to her Monday.  That will clean something out of my craft room!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the 

BEST Day EVER Saturday tomorrow.

Cheers.

Kathy

You Bought What????

Good Evening Internet Friends!

If you follow my blog (which of course who wouldn't), you will likely know that I have a philosophy that if you cannot buy something at Costco you should question if you really need the item!

While there last week I came across an entire bag of Eggplant!!!  Seriously.  Well.....I could NOT leave that behind.  So this evening when I got home from work I set about making Eggplant Parmesan for Dinner.  Yes, ALL the ingredients in this dish and for all of dinner are from Costco:

Eggplant Parmesan, Brioche Bun, Fresh Green Beans Steamed, and Pan Seared Steak with Butter Balsamic Vinaigrette Sauce!!!  So YUMMY!

Then it was off to a prayer Vigil for a long time family friend's Father in Law.

When we returned home I sewed all of the red and white blocks I currently have together and made another row!

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the 

BEST Thursday EVER 🎉

And Then...

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Busy day as usual around here.

Walked the dog early this morning of course.  After I got back from being out with the dog I made Buttermilk Pancakes for breakfast:

After lunch I made two Apple Cherry Crisps with frozen fruit from the freezer.  One for us and one for the neighbors that I will walk over later today.  

For dinner I made Chicken Yakitori:

After dinner I made another of the Twisted Star blocks so I now have another row complete.  Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to sew it on to the other rows ☺.

TAH DAH!!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity and wishing you all the 

BEST Sunday EVER🎉.

Kathy