Happy Thanksgiving

Taken at the Japanese Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth.

 

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

Take care of each other.

 

 

 

 

Trying Something Different

This past Christmas Jim and I gifted to Rachel, Kelsey and their husbands a month of Blue Apron.

 

For those not in the know Blue Apron is a" nationwide delivery service that sends you a box of pre-portioned meal ingredients with recipes."

Jim and I are a family of two.

I cook from scratch but I have gotten in to a little bit of a rut.

While I would like to be a little more creative generally there is a LOT of left overs.

With that in mind we decided to try Blue Apron for ourselves.

 

Last week we had our first delivery.

 

The box is very well insulated.

 

It's like Christmas finding out what is in the box.

 

 This is three meals of food.

 



 

And of course the state of California has to put it's two cents in.

 

 

The first meal I cooked was curried catfish with coconut rice.

Generally a fish coarse is included with every shipment and it was suggested by a friend who had done Blue Apron to cook that meal first because of spoilage possibilities.

 

I am not a fan of curried dishes so I wasn't sure if we was going to enjoy this dish.  The curry seasoning was used to coat the catfish and the meal was delicious. 

 



 

Thursday night I cooked spicy chicken with Korean rice cakes.

 

 

Again a very well seasoned meal.

Included was plenty of gochujang, a Korean hot pepper paste, to make it as spicy as we wanted.   We had never had Korean rice cakes and it gave a different texture to the meal.

Friday night we had the BBQ pork burgers with corn on the cob.

 

 

 

The burgers were delicious but the BBQ came from the BBQ sauce put on the bun so I do think the name for the menu was a bit misleading.

 

Overall I will say the dinners are very flavorful.

Jim, my meat and potatoes guy, said he would gladly repeat any of the meals again.

The instructions for each meal are well written and easy to follow.

I do think a fresh vegetable side is needed with the meals.

We had fresh raspberries and strawberries with each meal this week.

Once we are out of berry season I will probably add a green salad.

 

A great thing about Blue Apron is you know in advance what you will be receiving each week and you have the "limited" ability to change what meals you will be getting.

You are also able to decide what weeks you want to receive your meals.

Since I am on the road some weeks and I know Jim won't take the time to prepare the meals we can not have deliveries those weeks without any penalties.

 

We are looking forward to another tasty week.

 

 

 

 

Dying

I am amazed at what dying brings out in those that are living.

 

What should be a joyful remembrance of life becomes 'what am I getting when they pass'.

 

CELEBRATE. 

 

Remember the passing of stories.

Acknowledge what they have created.

 

Know the joy they have for the future generations that have come and are on the horizon.

Affirm witness to the fact that life is a journey that goes forward with each generation.

 

Live life fully and enjoy.

 

Just love your family and know they are special!!!

 

Tell them as often as you can.

 

To Jim, Rachel, Brad, Kelsey, Mike, Hagen and Rylie

I love you.

You are the best.

I am proud of you.

Remember that always.

 

 

 

 

Dear Jane Progress

 

Lately I've been rather monogamous working on my Dear Jane quilt.

 

 

Yesterday I finished the bottom triangles and have only the left side pieced triangles to finish.

 

 

 I do still have six blocks to go and there is extreme applique involved with all of them.

 

New Show Title

 

 

  Extreme Applique - Get Your Thimbles Ready To Rumble 

 

 

Okay, okay. I know I just need to suck it up and finish them but I do like the idea of an applique show.

 

Tonight  I started to sew the rows together and noticed this.

 

 

 

Not sure if this is from starch or what but not happy.  I am going to soak this block and if the  yellow doesn't go away I guess I will be redoing its center.

 

ARGHHHH.

 

 

 

 

Recall

When I lived in Texas and was schlepping  children (I enjoyed EVERY minute. It really is a great time to visit with your children and catch up on their day. They are a captured audience.) to here and there I drove a Chevy Suburban. The vehicle of choice when having more then one child and in Texas.

I drove four wheel drive Chevy Suburbans.  We had horses and it was wonderful hauling a bale of hay, feed or tack for a show.  I could also transport up to six children where ever was needed.

Towards the end of the time I lived in Texas I was down to one child who needed a driver.

During that time there was a natural gas boom and I was able to profit selling the natural gas rights to property I owned.

I bought a car.

A very impracticable car.

A two seater convertible 2008 Chrysler Crossfire in red.

The very last year they were made.

It is VERY cute.

It bugged the salesman I didn't care to drive it fast, I liked it for its cuteness.

Very impracticable. 

 



I have loved driving it here in California.  We have the BEST convertible weather.  Jim not so much.  He is not able to put the seat back far enough so his foot does not fall asleep but it's not his car and he doesn't drive it on a daily basis.

Anyway, today I received a recall notice on the airbags.

Apparently my airbag "might"
 be defective.

 

 

But there are no parts to fix it at this time.

 

 

Basically they are saying my cute car that I love to drive should stay in the driveway until it can be fixed.

Not happening.

I wonder how long they want to give me a rental before the parts come in.

I'm sure they really don't want anything to happen to me out there on the road.

I think it would have been smarter to announce the recall when they actually had parts to fix the problem because I don't see a positive in announcing it early.

 

 



 

 

 



I Won!!

A few Fridays ago my friend Liz and I attended the Sacramento Quilt, Craft and Sewing 2016  held at Cal Expo.

As you can tell by the name it has vendors from all over selling items to help you quilt, craft and sew.

One of the first booths we visited was Sharp Sewing Supplies.

 

 

If you filled out a slip with your name and email address for their drawing they gave you this great bag which was perfect to put your show purchases in.  Being that I live in California I never pass up a free bag.  I filled out the form for the drawing not really paying any attention to what you would win.

I do apologize for being so cavalier but I have enjoyed using the bag for my groceries.

 

Imagine my surprise last week when I received this email announcing I was a winner!!!!!

 

Congratulations! You won the $100 Raffle at the Sacramento Quilt, Craft & Sewing 2016 Show!

 

A hundred dollar winner!!!!

 

Today my winnings showed up.

I had a real quandary deciding what to get.  Sharp Sewing Supplies has a great selection of rulers, needles, sewing notions and even parts for most sewing machines.

I finally decided I would get a new rotary cutting mat.

 

 

My old mat has seen better days.  I have had this mat over 30 years.  Yes people THIRTY years.  My three children, now adults, used my mat for many school projects, hence the interesting paint and ink spots.  My mat was made before they put measurements on them.  I'm not even sure the maker of the mat.

Recently I have noticed bits of green on my rotary cutter and thought maybe it was time to replace it.

 

It will be hard to say goodbye to my old friend.

Actually I'm just going to put the mat in the guest room and test the new one out before really saying goodbye.

 

So in the mail today I received a new Clover 24" x 36" mat.

 

I also decided to splurge for new rotary cutters. 

They are kind of like scissors - you can never have too many.

I normally use my 45 mm rotary cutter for everything but thought it would be nice to try a 28 mm cutter. 

I know, I've been sewing and quilting my entire life and just now trying a 28 mm rotary cutter.

We'll see if it revolutionizes my sewing life.

 



 

I added the pack of sewing machine needles just to get as close as I could to $100.

 

Thank you so much Sharp Sewing Supplies

 

Jim thinks I should start playing the lottery!

A Little Obsessed

This past December I was trying to find different ways to avoid decorating our Christmas tree that Jim had brought home.  I made appointments, tried extra cleaning the house (I had to get ready for the kid's visit) and looked for any option that I might have an excuse to not put ornaments on the tree.

 

One of the local quilt shops near me (I am blessed to have several close by) Fabric Garden was offering mini demo's for quick and easy projects on a Saturday. 

I signed up and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon smelling fabric fumes.

One of the projects demo'ed was Sweetpea Pods by Lazy Girl Designs.

Using two 10" squares of fabric, a 10" piece of fusible pellon and a zipper you can make two of these pods.

Each pod uses one side of a zipper.

Fortunately the good people at Atkinson Designs make colorful zipper pulls so you can use both sides.

You also don't have to match your zipper pull colors to your zipper

 

Or you can.

 

I might have gotten a little bit carried away today making Sweetpea Pods.

I probably would have made more but I ran out of zippers.

And I can report I didn't have to decorate the tree.  I only had to put the lights on.  The kid and his girlfriend did the rest.