...1.28...Dinner and a Movie...

...dinner was just a bunch of things...baked tofu with Cajun mustard...I'm obsessed with it...it's so good...and sauerkraut, and broccoli...Griddlered sweet potato...and applesauce and a biscuit...kind of like dessert...

...and the movie was Xanadu...an 80's musical starring Olivia Newton John...I knew the song...but I'd never seen the movie...I only chose it because a friend of mine was telling me that her daughter is going to be in her school production of the musical...and she said they were going to watch it last night too as her daughter had never seen it either...

...we only made it through about half the movie though...so we'll probably finish it tonight...definitely not the Man's cup of tea...and I found it a bit odd and hard to follow as well...maybe we're still jetlagged...we're definitely still pretty tired by 8 or 9 PM...

...it's about this guy who is an artist...and this album cover comes to life with all these women (9) of them...they sing and dance and roller skate a lot...there's a surpising amount of close ups of booties shaking...weird...but maybe that was a thing in the 80s...there's a dance scene with Olivia and Gene Kelly that's pretty cute...and he and the artist become partners in a nightclub called Xanadu...that's about all for now...we'll see how it ends...the artist and one of the women Kira are falling in love too...so there's that...it's a pretty weird movie and difficult to describe...

...have you ever seen Xanadu?...what have you been watching lately?...

~Have a lovely weekend!

...1.27...Friday Update...Pocohontas...

...this was one of the Barbies that I'd gotten in that $1 bag of nekkid Barbies...and she's a Pocohontas princess doll...I washed and combed out her long long black hair...you can see her in the first post about the Barbies...

...so I looked up some images of her...and knew that I needed some tan coloured ultrasuede for her dress...so what do you think the universe gave me...right...a really odd tan ultrasuede purse...with royal blue straps...not exactly sure who wanted this or why...but I snatched it right up...

...took off the straps and removed the zipper...put those in my stash...I may need them later...haha...

...put the nice clean Pocohontas on a plain piece of paper...and traced a little pattern...

...then pinned that to the ultrasuede...and cut it out...a little two piece dress pattern...really really simple...

...and then her ultrasuede buckskin dress needed a fringe so I just crocheted a chain of loops...and cut the loops...long for now...I'll trim them in a bit...

...and stitched those to the top and bottom of the dress...

...and then trimmed the fringe to match the image of the original doll...

...and added a little belt...

...I'm really tickled with this simple and quick princess project...the thing that took the longest was combing out her hair...haha...

~Have a lovely day!

...1.26...What I Ate in a Day...as a Vegan...

...I had a fresh loaf of bread...so I made some toast and slathered on some peanut butter...and had that with an apple for 'first breakfast'...

...and second breakfast (some people may call this a morning snack...haha...some people who are not The Office fans)...

...I've been rationing all that vegan yogurt that Mom brought me...one a day...and today I had a blueberry one over some bran flakes...it's like a dessert...so good...

...lunch was a vegan fish-less sammie...it's tofu breaded with a 'skin' of nori...on a bun with tartar sauce and lettuce...tea to drink of course...that goes without saying...

...afternoon snack was some more bread...I intended to have it with jam...but you know me and my weird hot/cold/texture habits...I just ate it warmly toasted with a dab of cold butter on each bite...as the Man rolled his eyes at my quirkiness...haha...

...for dinner I used up some leftover mashed potatoes to make some delicious potato pancakes...I love potato pancakes so much...I ought to make mashed potatoes just so I can make them...

...and we had those with some fried cabbage, baked tofu, and a cucumber and tomato salad...and tea...

...what did you eat yesterday?...

~Have a lovely day!

...1.25...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...I was so happy to climb back onto my Oma Fiets for a nice long ride on our first day back...but I was getting kind of tired of my phone and keys jangling around in my basket...so...I spent about 1/2 hour recycling and crafting a little holder for them...and it's one of those little projects that takes about as long to describe as it did to make...

...first of all the holder will need to be fairly waterproof...I don't usually ride in a downpour (I have...if I've gotten caught in a sudden shower)...but I often ride in a drizzle of rain...

...so...I chose a Silk container for the base of my holder...it's designed to hold a liquid and it's fairly sturdy...and I just traced around it to make a paper pattern...

...then I cut it out of the piece of that flocked white tablecloth material...I still have quite a bit of it in my stash from North Dakota...

...stitched up the sides...

...it made a neat little cube...

...turned it right side out...

...flattened out the seams a bit...

...and inserted the cut off Silk carton...

...all neat...and tidy...and square...

...then I turned under the rim and stitched it down...

...I'm pretty tickled with it...

...it's a perfect size for my phone...

...now...I have to attach it to the basket...as a box for the phone wouldn't be much use if it too bounced around the basket...haha...so I got out some synthetic twine...

...and punched two holes in my little holder...

...threaded the twine through the holes and around two of the metal posts of the basket...

...and there it is...neatly tucked into the corner of the basket...

...and it holds my phone in a good position...

...then...while I was 'at it'...I made a little baggie to hold my keys...

...just a little drawstring bag...

...and now my keys nestle silently up against my phone...

...and then...because it really is a drizzly rainy sort of day here...I stitched closed one of those vinyl gloves...

...turned it right side out...

...and it fits perfectly over my phone to protect it from the rain...

...and I'll just leave it folded in the bottom of the box when I don't need it...

...what's in your workbasket this week?...

~Have a lovely day!

...1.24...Tuesdays with Julia...

...it was good to get back into the kitchen with Julia...and for a rather odd little recipe too...

...we made the little molded VEGAN TIMBALES DE FOIES DE VOLAILLE...or Vegan Unmolded Chicken Liver Custards...they were good served warm here with a salad...but I think they'd be better more as a paté...maybe served cold...they might hold their shape better cold too...

...and all the particulars are over at The Vegan Version...

~Have a lovely day!

...1.23...Over the Weekend...

...we got home...and started settling into our normal routine...the fridge calendar shows where we were and where we are now...haha...

...the Christmas decorations are still up...

...I managed to get the weekly grocery shopping done...as the cupboards were pretty bare...not really ...but the fridge was...haha...

...nothing really of note...we're trying a new Oat milk...and the organic Vidalia onions were on sale for #3.59...

...we are still adjusting our internal clocks...and it seems harder coming back to the US...Our Airman said this trip would be harder to adjust...not sure why...the flight/awake times were roughly the same...and we arrived in both countries after dark and went straight to bed...

...but we've been so tired by 8 or 8:30 PM that we've headed to bed...and then we wake up about 4 AM...

...so Sunday morning before Church we had a full cooked breakfast...because we had gotten up at 5 AM...that's something we hardly ever do...it was good though...and I'm sure we'll adjust...and things will be back to normal...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...1.21...Dinner and a Movie...

...the star of the show was these simple baked zucchini...just topped with vegan cheese...and baked...they were so delicious...

...and we had them with great northern beans...green beans...a big salad...with vegan bleu cheese...and homemade creamy Italian dressing...maybe an odd combination...but we're still adjusting to non-travel food...

...and the movie was The Starling...actually chosen by the Man...as surprising as that may sound...mainly because he likes both of the main actors...Melissa McArthy and Chris O'Dowd - he was in one of our all time favorite series...The IT Crowd...hilarilously funny...but this movie was not funny...it was just a movie about some people...a married couple who has suffered the loss of their child...the O'Dowd character is in a mental institution because he can't cope with the loss and the McArthy character (the mom) stays home and works through her grief by remodeling the house and gardening...where she meets the 'therapeutic'?? Starling...it does have funny parts...but it's really just a movie about some people...it was good...

...what have you been watching lately?...

~Have a lovely day!