BUSY MORNING

 

Happy Monday everyone.  Hope your day is treating you all kindly.  This is one of those days I woke up and decided to get in gear and get my 'to do' list completed quickly.  It has one more item on it to be completed and that will happen as soon as I take the last load of laundry out of the dryer.  The last item?...................................hit the swimming pool!  Our temps have dropped considerably, so I want to enjoy some out door time.

So for today I have completed:
 2 loads of laundry
 called my car dealership about a recall
 made a grocery list (only need 2 items)
 exercised on my teeter
 emptied the dishwasher
 made a loaf of bread

My new bread machine does a lovely job on the bread.  It makes my house smell so good too.

I have not talked about book lately.  Mainly because I was not really reading much.  Do any of you go through spurts where you can not get enough reading time and then you could care less about reading anything?  I am just now starting to read again after a several week hiatus.  Here are the books I am reading at the moment.

This was brought to my attention by fellow blogger Claudia Bugh of "The Knitting Blog By Mr Puffy the Dog".  I read this on Thursday evenings during our hour of Adoration.  It is one of those books that makes you take a look at your life and how you live it and where improvements can be made to better our world while keeping your faith strong.

This book is my nightly read and any other time I feel like I have 15 minutes to read.  This came from Josie.  She is voracious reader and loves to pass her books on to me so we can discuss them.  I have found myself chuckling while reading this one.  It is a nice light book to read throughout the day/

I also have two audio books I downloaded and listen to them while swimming and also while working out on my Teeter. 

I just started this one today so do not have anything to tell you about it................yet.

And, who doesn't like the Gaines!  This will get listened to after the first one.

That is all for today.  My dryer is buzzing and I want to get that done and hit the pool for a bit and then have lunch.  The rest of my day is going to be for crafting while listening to my book.

Until Next Time.....................happy crafting & stay well!

WEEK 9

 

Hello and happy Sunday to all of you.  I hope this past week has been good to all of you.  Those of you who were in the way of Hurricane Laura, I pray you made it through without personal harm.

This past week was not a productive week for this lady.  I do not know what happened, but there were actual days WITHOUT any knitting or crocheting.  Some of it might be the weather.  We have been over 110F for 50 days now.  That is a new record for us.  Not one I would care to repeat again though.  This heat just drains me.  Even though we have A/C, I still need to step outside from time to time to get groceries, get the mail and take out trash and recyclable items.  It is just plain HOT!  Even after the sun goes down.  Then it is dark and hot lol.

Here is a look at what I did manage to do.

Hubby's socks are moving along.  Each sock got 20 rows added to it.  They are still not to the point of starting the heel.  Maybe I will make it there this week.

The Havana blanket got it's seventh color added to it yesterday.  From here on, I will just repeat the colors until I get to the length I want.  This is a very addictive crochet project.  Unfortunately, it is also extremely warm to have on my lap.  Usually I can add a couple of rows before I start melting.  

Since I have learned how to do Mosaic crochet now, I am already planning the colors for the next blanket I am planning on making.  It will be a different design than this one and uses a bit of a different technique for it.  Same designer though, so I should not have any issues following her charts and instructions.

So that is all for my crafting this past week.  Pitiful, right?  LOL  

Good news!!!!!!!!!!  We finally got some rain last night.  And by rain, I mean it poured at our house for quite a while.  It dropped the temperature from 105 to 70 degrees in about 15 minutes.  Of course it raised the humidity from 12% to 89% LOL.  We even had thunder and lightening with the rain storm.  What a blessing.  There is a prediction of more rain coming our way this evening too. 

For those of you who do not follow me during the week, I have to show you this.

This is a cheesecake I made in my Ninja Foodi pressure cooker.  It is awesome and so easy.  There is a catch though.  You need to know 24 hours ahead of time you want to eat cheesecake.  But, the mixing and cooking time is only about an hour total.  Then there is the 3 hour cooling at room temperature and then in the fridge for overnight.  Hubby was thrilled with it too.

I also made carnitas in it and was super impressed with how easy it was not to mention the short amount of time it took.  Hubby had made carnitas on his grill a few weeks back and it took 3-4 hours.  I made them in the Foodi and it took 1 hour total.  I think I have found my new favorite appliance.  

We have air fried in it also.  I want to try making rice in it soon as well as steaming veggies.  

So, that is all for me today.  This coming week, Luna has an appointment for a dental as well as having a lipoma removed from her left flank.  She will need to be watched for a few days afterwards to make sure she does not bother her incision.  Our new vet does not like to put dogs in cones (I hate those things too) and neither does she want to put any kind of wrap on the incision.  She suggested getting a baby onsie for her to wear at night and just watch her during the day.

I will be measuring her from base of neck to bum to determine what size she will need.  I will also be cutting a tail hole as well as redesigning the bottom part of it so she can wear it when she goes outside to do her 'business'.

Until Next Time....................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

It is pretty early on Thursday morning.  Not even 7am yet.  The house is quiet as hubby is still asleep and the dogs have already eaten breakfast and are now taking their morning nap.  I wanted to post yesterday, but the day got away from me.  It must have been because of how nice my house feels now LOL.

I had told you on Tuesday, I would let you know how the cheesecake turned out this time.  OH MY GOODNESS!  It was fabulous!

Here is the slice I had before I devoured it.  It did taste like cheesecake.  Hubby was very happy with it also.  The only substitute I made was changing out the sour cream and using fat free greek yogurt instead.  Otherwise, I followed this recipe exactly.  If you have an instant pot of any kind, this is the dessert for you to try in it.

For dinner last night, I made carnitas in the Ninja Foodi.  It started on the pressure cooker setting then went to the sear setting and finally to the broil setting.  Total time for dinner to cook, 1 hours total from the time I dropped the meat into the machine until I plated it.

I added sour cream and homemade salsa on top of mine.  I have tried so many recipes for carnitas and have always been greatly disappointed.  This recipe was in the cookbook that came with the machine.  It was spot on!  Hubby was happy with this too.  The left overs will be reheated in a skillet and I will add eggs to it and make breakfast burritos for us.  

Today my goal is to clip my dog's toenails.  It is a struggle but needs to be done.  Their nails grow faster than mine.  I also want to boil up some eggs.  All of our stores have had them on sale lately so I have about 3 dozen in the fridge now.  There will also be a load laundry done today.

Speaking of laundry..............on Tuesday, after our A/C tech left, hubby was putting a few things away that had been borrowed by the tech. (extension cords)  While doing that, he knocked over a full gallon bottle of lemon scented Pine-Sol.  The lid popped off and spilled all over the floor in our Arizona room.  Luckily, that is the room where I keep our pool towels.  I handed him towels as he mopped up the floor.  Three towels later, he got it all mopped up.  He was angry with himself for being so clumsy.  I told him it was not a big deal and that the smell of lemons was much more pleasant than the smell of 'regular' Pine-Sol.  I threw the towels into the washer (without any detergent added) and washed them.  My washer smelled like lemons afterwards.  I left the washer door open, after they were washed, to try and air it out a bit.  The towels do not smell like lemons anymore, and as of this morning, the washing machine does not have the lemon smell either. The Arizona room still has that lemon fresh scent to it though.  LOL

Hubby just woke up so I can start getting my 'chores' done now.  

Until next time.................happy crafting & stay well.

Finally

 

All the pieces are finally in place.  Our A/C is finally working as it is supposed too.  For only being 3 years old, this has been a very frustrating time for us.  Our technician came out around noon today and he just left.  (it is 5pm)  While he was replacing the part that was giving us issues, he also found some settings that were completely wrong for our unit.  He adjusted everything and replaced anything that was needed and told us we should not have any more issues with the unit.  I can tell you this...............the humidity level in our house has already dropped from 48% to 37% in just an hours time.  The other thing I have already noticed......it is running MUCH quieter.  Just like it did when it was first installed.  I am a very happy camper now.

While all this was going on, hubby and I packaged up 15 pounds of green chili we purchased last year.  It was delivered frozen and we had not needed it until now.  Well, we are not able to use 15 pounds of green chili quickly.  So, hubby grabbed a good knife and just started slicing off 1/2 cup pieces of it and we packaged it and threw it back in the freezer.  Oh, we did take one package and made salsa with it.  This house is never without homemade salsa!  

The other thing I did today was make a cheesecake in my Ninja Foodi on the pressure cooking setting.

 

I know this looks really yellow, but it is not really that yellow.  Must have been the indoor lighting.  There had been another cheesecake made last week but it was so nasty, it got thrown away.  This one actually smells like a cheesecake.  It is now in the fridge where it needs to stay overnight.  We will give it a taste test tomorrow and I will let you know.

While all this was going on, I found something I had been looking for.  

This may be a bit hard to see.  It is my Pampered Chef dry leveler.  It fits perfectly on the Pampered Chef measuring cups to level off flour and sugar and other dry ingredients.  I have been looking for this for over a month.  My thought was it got thrown away somehow since it is clear.  Nope, it was underneath my napkin holder!  I know that thing has been moved to be cleaned under.  So, how did it manage to hide there for over a month?  I swear there are gremlins in my house sometimes LOL.

We have leftovers for dinner tonight.  I am glad as with all the mess with the A/C, I have no desire to cook.  I will make us a nice dinner tomorrow night though.  

Until next time...................happy crafting & stay well!

PS:  because our covid numbers have dropped so drastically, our county is going to go into phase 4 of opening up businesses!

WEEK 8

 

Hello!  It is that time of week again to show y'all what happened in my crafting life this past week.

Hubby's HES socks got quite a bit of love this week.  They are finally at the same point.  You can see the progress keepers on each of them.  That is where they were last Sunday.  I need to knit another 3 inches before I start the heel.  Hubs likes his socks loooong.

The cross stitch did not get any love this week.  

So, what do you work on when it is 115 outside and your A/C is not pulling the humidity out of your house?   You work on a worsted weight blanket, of course.

I added about 3.5 inches to the Havana blanket, this past week.  I have started my 6th color of yarn.

The white spot is where I was last Sunday.  It is now about 17 inches long.

I am pleased with the color layout I chose.  The colors will repeat throughout the remainder of the blanket.  My goal for this week is to complete the rest of the orange color and then add the last color and make a bit of progress on that one too.

As for our A/C....................the part needed to make it work properly (pulling the humidity out of the air) has arrived and will be installed on Tuesday!  I can not tell you how excited I am for this repair.  Our humidity level in the house is running at 50% and above.  If I wanted to live in that kind of humidity I would move to Florida or New Orleans!  I live in Arizona because I enjoy the dry weather we have.  UGH!  The past few weeks have not been much fun.  My little fan by my chair is running 90% of the time just to keep me 'dry'.

This little guy is my best friend LOL.  It is very quiet when it runs and puts out quite a nice breeze, even on the lowest speed.  I should probably give it a name.  Any suggestions?

The rest of the day I will be working on menus, grocery list for produce, making a loaf of bread and of course working on crafting.  Since we got up at 5 this morning (for church) there might be a little snooze also happening.

Until Next Time............................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!!

Let the Weekend Begin

 

It is Friday evening.  We have just finished our dinner of leftovers and are settling in to watch a little baseball and then the Stargate SG1 series we are still binge watching.  Stargate is almost completed and then we will watch the 2 movies that explains what happened to all the characters after all the series ended. After that..............who knows.  

Today, hubby cleaned the last half of the house.  I stayed out of his way after I moved all the items out of his way so he could just barrel through.  While he was cleaning I watched an Amazon Prime Movie called "Sweet Home Carolina".  It was very predictable and the acting was not the best but............it filled 90 minutes while he cleaned.  I also worked on his socks while watching the movie.  

Once the cleaning was done, it was time for lunch.  As soon as that was over I took Luna to meet her new Vet.  She is scheduled for a dental and mass removal on September 3rd.  Poor old girl.  Hopefully everything will go smoothly.  The Vet is pretty sure the mass is just a fatty tumor (lipoma).  I really liked the new Doctor too.  She was very informative and explained things in great detail.

I dropped Luna off at home and went to fill our water cooler bottles and on to the grocery store for a few veggies we ran out of.  While at the grocery store I found some pans I can use in my Ninja Foodi.

  

These were all at my grocery store and on sale!  The reason I got them.............the springform pan I used for the cheesecake was waaaay too big even though it fit in my Ninja, it was a very tight fit.  This way, all of these will fit without issues.  I plan on making good use of all of them.

Speaking of cheesecake.....................it was horrible.  There was NO flavor at all other than the crust.  I am now searching Pinterest for recipes using ingredients I have used before in cheesecakes I have made in the past.  

The bread I had to finish off in my Smart Oven yesterday turned out just fine.  Now I know if I want, I can just make the dough in the bread maker and then cook the bread in the smart oven.  Just another idea for me to put in my little pea brain.

Want some good news?  We only made it to 100 today!  There was a little issue with the humidity and dew point though.  When we lived in Pennsylvania we would call this type of weather 'close'.  In Kansas they called it 'thick'.  Needless to say, this was not a day you wanted to go running or hiking.

The other good news is.................the part for our A/C has arrived.  It will be installed on Tuesday and the tech installing it is the one that found out the issue.  I am so happy.  I really liked him and Luna LOVED him.  Enrique was not allowed to meet him as E can be a bit of an itch with men.

So, that is about the extent of my exciting day.  Tomorrow will be laundry day (only 2 loads) and working on my WIP's.  I will be back to blogging land on Sunday.

Until next time............................happy crafting & stay safe.