Labor of Love

Daddy's new house is officially his today when the closing papers are submitted to the county treasurer's office. He signed the paperwork on Thursday, but the county treasurer's office was closed on Friday.

That didn't stop us!

Friday, we went to the paint store, might as well give Chris at Sherwin-Williams a pat on the back for his helpful suggestions and patience, as I spent 2-1/2 hours picking out paint colors!

It's going to be Bright White for the insides of the kitchen cabinets, as well as the trim and window sills throughout the house.

For the great room downstairs, as well as the loft area upstairs, the color is Willowy White. It's a pale green that avoids being pastel by being on the gray side.  The bedrooms are going to be Platinum, it's a white with a blue-gray cast, as I wanted something bright for the bedrooms, as they seem dark compared to the all window front of the house. The bathrooms, will probably be the same color, but I haven't completely decided that one.

Friday evening I scrubbed the insides of the kitchen cupboards and readied them for paint. First tho', Daddy removed odd screws and nails to make wiping them down safe.

Saturday was official start date of painting.

I think the insides of the kitchen cabnets looks so bright and clean painted white, instead of the original gold. Don't you?

Here, Dad removes the electric baseboard heaters. With the beautiful Vermont Casting Gas Stove in the livingroom, there is no need for them. And let's face it, they're ugly. They were ugly, now they are for sale on Craigslist!

On Sunday, Brent got a start painting the great room. You can see the front of the loft area above his head. The ceiling is 2 stories high to his right.

 Large gaps and holes in the walls were filled with expanding foam. Here Dad trims off the excess, so it's flush with the wall, and ready to be painted.

A safety hand rail was removed from the stairway wall to receive a coat of stain to match the posts and rails of the stairway and the loft railings.

 Here you can see that the front walkway path is flanked by several large rhodies that are about to bloom into the most beautiful shade of red!

I gave the kitchen walls a coat of pale yellow. Pictures to follow soon. Today, I'll finish painting the refridgerator alcove, give the insides of the cabinets a second coat of white and start on the shelves.

Sunday dinner was served by Bob's at Birch Bay Square. Then Dad headed home as Brent and I headed to bed. All in all, a very productive weekend.

A Gift for My Sister Reen

A handmade gift for my sister Reen's birthday. A needlecase full of various needles and a small pair of embroidery scissors:

The appliques are wool felt. I had never worked with wool felt before, I really enjoyed it. I bought the wool felt squares from a my favorite quilting store, Folktales in Lynden and when I got them home I rinsed them in hot water and dried them in a hot dryer to increase their felting and loft. Believe me, wool felt in nothing like the cheap felt available at craft stores. It feels wonderful, not itchy at all, has a uniform thickness, didn't pill when washed and is easy to work with!

Here's a picture of the inside front cover:

The first page of needles are Sharps in a variety of sizes.

 The second page of needles is embroidery needles, in a variety of sizes. Embroidery needles have the same sharpness as Sharps, but the eye is elongated to accommodate larger threads, flosses and ribbons.

On the third page of needles, I added a variety of tapestry needles. These have a more rounded, blunted point, to slip between the threads of the fabric instead of piercing them.

The final page of needles contains a variety of household repair needles, including a spade-nosed leather needle, larger tapestry needles and curved upholstery needles.

On the back inside cover, I included a pair of embroidery scissors. Very handy to have!

This picture shows the embroidery embellishments made to the cotton cover. I added small yellow french knots to the center of the Forget Me Nots, to add emphasis and tie them into the embroidered wool flowers.

It was a very fun project and it was well received by my Sis!

Remember The Sweet Things

I wish I could take credit for the title of this post, but credit goes to the author of the book by that title, Ellen Greene.

I read a book last week that has stayed on my mind. I found it's message very powerful, her story really touched my heart. She has inspired me to do as she suggests and I will Remember The Sweet Things.

In my head I have been meditating on?conjuring up?dwelling upon?working on a post about how this story has affected me. I was so moved to even seek out the author to find a way to let her know what I was feeling in reaction to her book.

Imagine my surprise at having a published author respond to my post. Now compound that feeling. This morning I got another email from Ellen Greene. It read:

Karen,
I took the liberty of posting your oh so nice feedback on my blog (www.ellengreene.org), as my web master suggests I do with especially well written letters. I protected your privacy by changing your and Brent's names. I hope you don't mind.
My best,
Ellen
 
If you follow either of the links above, you will find the words I used to try to share my thoughts. Please go there now and read them. I have not been able to draft anything better than the words I gave her. You can also click here to go directly to the post of my comment. When your eyes see the name Brad, read Brent; when you see the name Karla, read Karen.
 
I hope you will read her book Remember The Sweet Things. I hope you will enjoy their life's journey through twenty years of marriage. I hope you, too, will be inspired by her words.
 
I want to remember the urgency I felt after losing my Mama, to express my love to my family, my children, and especially to my best friend, my lover, my husband, Brent.
I want to remember to be present, to be aware of those wonderful little moments that should be imprinted upon my heart and memory.
I want to remember to enjoy the journey, the ups and the down, hard times and good, and as I vowed for better for worse.
 
I suppose being able to see the 50 year mark coming so quickly upon me that I have realized this time we have together is not infinite. I want to share my heart, I want him to know me.
 
By an amazing coincidence of timing, I finished this book in the wee hours of Valentine's Day morning. This post, tho' late, is my valentine to you, Brent. iloveyou. Always.

A Bright Crisp Day

The sun is shining gloriously today! I decided to get out into the fresh air and took Gizmo for a walk up the way to get Mom and Dad's mail. I'm sure she thought I was being terribly mean when we didn't run up the driveway to see them. I don't think she realized they weren't there. I hope they are having a wonderful time in Italy!

From the mailbox we walked to the park and along the beach watching the whitecaps crash onto the beach.

I stood at the water's edge listening to the symphony of the pebbles and rocks as they tumbled and rolled with each wave as the incoming tide brought the waves closer and closer to my feet. The chilly wind, whitecapped waves and the brisk walk-very energizing!

Here's my little ten pound puller! She is, alternately,  ten pounds of pulling or piddling. Run ahead the length of the lead, piddle as I stride past, then runs to catch up and past me. Repeat for one hour!

Could she make it any easier on the guy?

My daughter's best friend will be celebrating her first year of marriage this coming Monday. That's right, they got married on Valentine's Day. Oh, and ya...it's also her birthday! Could she make it an easier on this guy?

He has one date to remember every year: February 14th. In one fell swoop he takes care of his wife's birthday, their anniversary day and the annual Sweetheart's celebration known as Valentine's Day!  I guess the bad news is 3 gifts/1 day, but then again, he has a whole year to save up!

For their 1st anniversary gift I sent the following gift:





The mongrammed jeans pocket and the attached waitband encases the traditional First Anniversary Gift of Paper, three gifts actually.

One of the items in the pocket is a greeting card, inside it says:

As the first anniversary is the traditional year for Paper, I send you 3 gifts of paper.

       1. This card, full of best wishes for a Happy Anniversary and for 100 more! 

       2. Paper Money! One bill for each year of marriage!

       3. The ever more practical and just as useful, bathroom tissue!

 May your lives together be filled with love and laughter!

~~~~~~Happy 1st Anniversary, Jacklyn & Richard~~~~~~~~

I Love You, Sis! Saturday & Sunday January 29th & 30th:

"The memories we share remind me

of how blessed I am to have a sister like you."

~Anonymus

What's for dinner? Savory Steak and Onion Pie!

Late yesterday afternoon, I started to think about dinner and what to fix. I knew that in about 2 hours, Brent would be calling to say he was one his way home and "What's for dinner?".

In the fridge was a bowl of beef strips. Brent had originally intended on using the round roast for jerky, but it was too marbeled and gristly.  So he trimmed it all up and cut it into little strips. Hmmm, what to do with all of it? I thought of stir fry, or stroganoff, or....I wasn't sure what yet, but I knew it needed to be cooked up.

So I started out by roughly chopping a large onion and a red pepper. Using my large cast iron  skillet,  I sauteed them in enough olive oil to prevent any sticking, and to give a nice gloss to the veggies. When the onions and red pepper chunks were starting to get a well browned, I added the beef strips and a heaping tablespoon of chopped garlic.

I have been using a pair of metal tongs to toss things in my HOT cast iron pan when browning meat and veggies. I find it better than trying to stab things with a fork as it leaves the pieces intact without letting the juiciness leak out. Browning this way leaves lovely dark edges and gives a carmelized onion flavor to my dishes. Yumm!

I added in some leftover sauteed mushrooms, maybe 1/3 cup?  and added 2 packets of a dried onion and mushroom soup/dip mix. We had a ketchup container in the cupboard that had about 2 tablespoons of ketchup left in it, so I added about 1/2 cup of water to the bottle and shook. Mmmm, now I had a tomato-y start to a good gravy.

I added some seasoning salt, a dash of this and that from the spice cupboard, including a glug of A1 Steak sauce, then I added maybe 1-1/2 or 2 cups of hot water, and let the pan simmer for a little while, wishing I had a lid big enough for this skillet. (I'm wondering if the round aluminum baking sheet-think pizza pan-I have in the back of the pantry, the one with my great-great Aunt Marie's name etched into the bottom, might be large enough. I'll have to dig it out and see!)

Back to the fridge to see what was in there....some leftover green beans and corn-yes! eggs-no, apples-no. Then I spied a box of ready-made pie crust rolls that didn't get used over the holidays. Then the light bulb came on and I decided to make a meat pie. I have never done that before but I have read of them and always thought it would be too much of a bother making a real pie crust. But having them already at hand, excellent idea!

I dug out my deep dish ceramic pie pan (a wedding gift from so long ago!) and after the pie crust rolls had warmed up and lost their chill, I spread one on the bottom of the pan. Of course, it split and tore. I've yet to have one that rolls out intact. But we'll call it rustic and enjoy it!

I took half of the beef/onion/red pepper out of the pan and put it into a quart container to go into the freezer, now it's a ready made base for another dinner, another day, another recipe. I also added enough of the sauce to keep everything moist.

Then I couldn't decide how to make the sauce thick enough not to make the crust soggy. Eventually, I decided to use flour as a thickener, as opposed to corn starch, because I wanted a gravy that would heat up easily without gelling, just in case I had extra gravy. (Which as it turned out, I have about a cup of gravy to put into the freezer for another use!)

I removed the beef mixture out of the skillet, into a large bowl. I sprinkled the misture with flour, tossing to coat the individual pieces and repeated until they looked well coated.

Then I took, maybe, half a cup of flour and a cup of cold water and shook in a sealed jar until it was well mixed without lumps. I added this to the sauce in the pan and made a very thick gravy. I adusted the seasonings, adding a little more salt and some ground black pepper.

I mixed in the leftover green beans and corn to the meat and onions, then piled it all into the pie pan atop the crust. I added the gravy on top, letting it seep in and fill the pie pan. Then I rolled out the other crust onto the breadboard and tried to repair the tears as best I could. Then I transferred it to the top of the pie. I pinched the edges together around the pan and tucked them down into the pan, so they wouldn't get overly browned and dried-out while baking.

I didn't think to take a picture of the pie before I put it into the oven, but it looked like Jekyll and Hyde, or City Pie sleek / Country Pie rustic as the first half of the crust rolled out perfectly, but the second half was cracked, torn and, well, rustic looking! As the beef mixture was already hot, I put the pie into the oven (on a cookie sheet just in case I didn't get the gravy thick enough and it boiled over) at 450 degrees.

While that baked, I made a layered mixed veggie green salad, but that's another post someday. After the pie came out of the oven, and it was well-browned after 25 minutes, I decided to brush the top with some soft butter. It kept soaking in nicely, so I kept at it. I probably used two tablespoons.

After dishing up, I thought of taking a picture for a blog post. So here it is!



Salad dressed and pie slice all ready to eat!



The cherries on the bottom of pie pan is a bit distracting, but you can see how yummy the crust turned out, even if it wasn't perfect! The gravy was perfect, just enough and nice and thick.

This pie gave us six hearty portions! Lots and lots of meat. Next time I will add more onions, maybe cubed potatoes or some broccoli or cauliflower. I cannot eat carrots, but I think nice thick carrot slices would look lovely in the mix.

I think the key to the perfect flakey crust bottom was having the filling already cooked and hot. I will definately do this again! What a perfect way to use up left overs!