If you do stuff, stuff gets done.......

If you do stuff, stuff gets done.......

Monday, November 5, 2018

Monday To dos, that puzzle and other home stuff



Good morning,  
I made a pretty to do list for this week and even though I feel like I’m moving slow, I’ve already marked off a few things.  (It’s 8:37 a.m. as I’m writing) 


I’ve worked on the 1000 piece puzzle and it feels slow too. 
I’ll finish it but I think I’ll be doing 500 or less piece puzzles in the future.  


This puzzle has lots of details.  I like this guy who has eaten 3 1/2 apples from his box and is now sleeping with a newspaper covering his face ๐Ÿ˜‚


Yesterday I made a batch of hamburger vegetable soup in the crockpot.  I shared it my family,  
It was nice a slightly chilly day. 



I’m not an early Christmas decorator but I did hang the Christmas mugs in the kitchen yesterday. 
Below is one I bought last year at Dollar Tree 
And I think should be the motto for just about everything.  

Don’t get your tinsel in a tangle 

Have a good Monday everyone ❤️

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Puzzle day and Friday night pizza

Hello - first I want to thank everyone for the sweet comments on yesterday’s post,  which I somehow posted twice.  But I don’t want to delete the duplicate post as both have comments from different visitors.  But I guess we all understand internet goof ups, right?  I’m pretty sure the error was my fault though and not Blogger’s though.  

I think homemaking blog readers are some of the sweetest people on the internet and I’m happy to of met so many of you through blogging. 


Today, November 3, is National Puzzle Day in the UK.  I’m a long way from England but I’m celebrating their holiday. 
I usually work puzzles with less than 500 pieces but I decided  to try a 1000 piece puzzle from a yard sale.  
Oh my- it has so many pieces!  It took me a couple hours to turn over and sort all the pieces and work the border.  





When our children were at home. Friday night was most always homemade pizza night.  I usually made 4 pizzas and leftovers were rare.
It was just my husband and I last night so I made just one pizza.

I mix up a half portion of this dough in the bread machine.

pizza or calzone dough recipe 
My husband diced up the veggies.  

He likes pepperoni and green olives on his and we both like jalapeรฑos and onions so I put on the toppings to suit us.


No baked pizza photo but it was very good!  

Have a good weekend everyone ❤️

Friday, November 2, 2018

Changing gears

When I started blogging, I was employed, my husband was working and our children were all young adults, some were students and we had no grandchildren.
We also had to be very careful with our finances.  

A lot has changed since then.  
I left my job almost 9 years ago.  
For 9 years, we had at least 1 grandchild here most every week day while their parents worked but now all the local grands are in full time preschool and school. 
My parents have moved to our town. 
And my husband has been retired almost 4 years.  
And we have fewer financial obligations.  
Many days now, it just my husband and myself and we enjoy spending time together and doing tasks together.  

When I started blogging,  I was very busy with homemaking, careful shopping, crafting, budget cooking and decorating.  
I still live somewhat  “if you do stuff, stuff gets done” but I’m also enjoying some slower days and more relaxing hobbies like jigsaw puzzles and reading and just being Un-busy is suiting me these days.

I haven’t blogged in awhile because life is good here but it’s different.  
I want to blog but my focus will be slightly different.  I’m still homemaking but on a smaller, slower scale. 
Some of you may still follow me but I expect others won’t be interested.  

Enough chatter- here is what’s been going on here 

Breakfast this morning was New York Crumb cake.  It’s a Martha Stewart recipe and I’ve been baking it for more than a decade.  I have no idea why it doesn’t have better ratings on her site as it’s so good.  I’ve made it for lots of people and everyone likes it.  
I like the recipe because it’s uses only basic  ingredients and fast to mix up.  


We enjoyed it very much at breakfast and I took part of it to my parents.  


A hobby I’ve rediscovered is jigsaw puzzles. 
They are a fun group activity and  when I work on one alone,  I find them very relaxing,

The only problem I have with puzzles is our dog, Ducky, thinks the pieces are yummy.  I have to be vigilant in picking up pieces that fall on the floor as he will destroy a puzzle piece in no time.


Our daughter’s front door was barely hanging on so I helped my husband fix it this morning, 
The builder used those short screws ๐Ÿ˜ฑto install the door to the doorframe. 
My husband replaced all the short screws with the longer screws. 
That door should stay in place now.  



I’ve mentioned our youngest son many times in my posts.  
He recently married an amazing partner.
We are happy to have both of them in our family.






Changing gears

When I started blogging, I was employed, my husband was working and our chicken were all young adults, some were students and we had no grandchildren.  
We also had to be very careful with our finances.  

A lot has changed since then.  
I left my job almost 9 years ago.  
For 9 years, we had at least 1 grandchild here most every week day while their parents worked but now all the local grands are in full time preschool and school. 
My parents have moved to our town. 
And my husband has been retired almost 4 years.  
And we have fewer financial obligations.  
Many days now, it just my husband and myself and we enjoy spending time together and doing tasks together.  

When I started blogging,  I was very busy with homemaking, careful shopping, crafting, budget cooking and decorating.  
I still live somewhat  “if you do stuff, stuff gets done” but I’m also enjoying some slower days and more relaxing hobbies like jigsaw puzzles and reading and just being Un-busy is suiting me these days.

I haven’t blogged in awhile because life is good here but it’s different.  
I want to blog but my focus will be slightly different.  I’m still homemaking but on a smaller, slower scale. 
Some of you may still follow me but I expect others won’t be interested.  

Enough chatter- here is what’s been going on here 

Breakfast this morning was New York Crumb cake.  It’s a Martha Stewart recipe and I’ve been baking it for more than a decade.  I have no idea why it doesn’t have better ratings on her site as it’s so good.  I’ve made it for lots of people and everyone likes it.  
I like the recipe because it’s uses only basic  ingredients and fast to mix up.  


We enjoyed it very much at breakfast and I took part of it to my parents.  


A hobby I’ve rediscovered is jigsaw puzzles. 
They are a fun group activity and  when I work on one alone,  I find them very relaxing,  

The only problem I have with puzzles is our dog, Ducky, thinks the pieces are yummy.  I have to be vigilant in picking up pieces that fall on the floor as he will destroy a puzzle piece in no time.  


Our daughter’s front door was barely hanging on so I helped my husband fix it this morning, 
The builder used those short screws ๐Ÿ˜ฑto install the door to the doorframe. 
My husband replaced all the short screws with the longer screws. 
That door should stay in place now.  



I’ve mentioned our youngest son many times in my posts.  
He recently married an amazing partner.
We are happy to have both of them in our family.  






Monday, September 24, 2018

pumpkins and pumpkin spice cookies


Good morning 
Below are some cloth pumpkins that I made yesterday, for my daughter at her request.  
They are circles, with a running stitch pulled up, then stuffed with polyfill. 
The stems are made from strips of brown fleece, tightly rolled and hot glued.  



If you want to make pumpkins but don’t want to sew or can’t sew, I found this really cute and simple method to make pumpkins from old clothing items. 
No Sew pumpkins by Fresh Vintage 


Below is our front porch, decorated for fall.  
The mum has lots of buds but they aren’t opening.  If they don’t open soon,  I’ll take them back to Lowe’s.  



Here is the recipe I used for Pumpkin Spice cookies, if you’re wanting to do some fall baking.   It’s a cookie recipe I’ve baked many times.  They are great made with just vanilla and they taste like fall when the DIY Pumpkin Spice is added.  

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

1 C butter, softened (I use real salted butter, not margarine or spread for baking)
2 C brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 t vanilla (I omit this when adding pumpkin spice) 
2 1/4 C flour 
1/2 salt
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
3 cups of oats- rolled or quick- both work fine 

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric  mixer until smooth.  
Add eggs, one at a time and beat to combine. 
Add vanilla and/or pumpkin spice as desired and beat about a minute. 
Add flour, salt, baking soda and powder. Beat at low speed until combined. 
Add oatmeal and stir until combined. 

Now preheat the oven to 350.  
Line your cookie sheets with parchment. 
Make large balls with dough, I use a 2 ounce cookie scoop. 
Put dough balls on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.  Slightly flatten each ball, use your fingers or the bottom of a glass. 
Bake about 12 minutes, or just until set.  

With a 2 ounce scoop, one recipe makes 3 dozen good size cookies. 


DIY Pumpkin Spice 
3 T cinnamon
2 t ginger 
2 t nutmeg ( I left this out because my nutmeg didn’t smell right)
1 t cloves
1 t allspice 

Mix together and keep in a tightly closed container.
I added a little more than 1 T to the oatmeal cookie recipe.  Yes, I know eating raw eggs in cookie dough is a No-No but I tasted the dough before I baked it and after adding more spice,  I think a slightly rounded T of spice mix is just right.  

Happy Fall Y’all 
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