...12.5...Dinner and a Movie...

...Mexican takeout for dinner...

...a chip bar set up on the counter...

...my vegan bowl...black beans and rice...lettuce, tomato and guac...actually off of Our Airman's dish as he didn't want the salad...

...and the movie was not a movie...but a couple of episodes of a (new to us) reality show...The Repair Shop...it shows craftsmen (and women) repairing treasured heirlooms for people...it includes a little history about the item...and it's all very sweet and the results the restorations are amazing...

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

~Have a lovely weekend!

...12.4...Friday Favorites...

...well...I'm thankful that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

...the cards we ordered at the Beach have arrived...that was quick...and I'm really happy with them...

...the Church is decorated...outside...

...and in...the Chrismon Tree is up and decorated...and looks so pretty...

...the Nativity scene is set up outside as well...I love that...

...and Sunday evening...since we can't have a Christmas Pageant this year...they are going to 'show' one of the previous year's programs on a big screen outside...Drive In style...I can't wait...

...it's cold here now...finally...but here's one last picture of Our Girl playing outside barefoot...her Mama got some winter clothes out of the packed up bins stored in Our Airman's old bedroom so she would have some warmer clothes to wear...

...what are your favorite things this Friday?...

~Have a lovely day!

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

...well...I'm certainly happy to be home...and back to a more regular routine...

...and breakfast was pretty 'regular'...just a bowl of mixed cereals and fruit...topped with almond milk...

...Our Airman called and asked if we wanted him to pick up something for lunch...so you know what that was...Asian food is always his #1 pick...this is 'curried tofu family style'...a little too hot for me...and I always prefer fried tofu in these dishes...the menu didn't specify or I would probably not have ordered it...but it was still pretty good...

...for dinner I made a fresh cucumber and tomato salad...

...to go with some more Thanksgiving leftovers...I think everyone has had just about enough of those...

...and Mom's delicious Christmas cookies for dessert...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...12.2...W.I.P. Wednesday...1948 Bride Doll Restoration...

...I thought maybe Mom had a proper before photo...but I couldn't find one...maybe she'll send me one of when she actually got the doll back from Polly...

...Polly found the doll in pieces at Grandma's...and made the dress and veil for Mom's wedding 25 years ago...I don't think she knew how to put the doll back together because it looks like she glued it...and there weren't any bands or cords that would have been used to hold her together...

...and it was just in this display case up in Mom's bedroom for years...and when we were looking for a 'vintage' show and tell item...I took it down and noticed that the arms were off...so I took it out of the box and stand...and it just completely fell apart...

...so this is what we found in the box...all of her limbs were loose with what looks like wood glue residue...some really discoloured stockings, a petticoat, dress and veil and shoes...

...so I took all of her parts down to the sink and washed them really well...she dates to about 1948 and she's made of some composite material...not plastic or china...I was surprised to find...

Antique composition dolls are formed by molding a composite mixture of sawdust and glue, resulting in a denser material than papier-mâché but lighter than wood or porcelain. Composition doll manufacturing lasted until the late 1940s in the U.S., when plastic began to be used for dolls.

...look at the adorable blush on her knees...

...here she is all cleaned up and ready to go back together...

...Mom found some somewhat stretchy lace in her stash...and I used the old discoloured stockings as a pattern and cut out a new pair...the old ones were falling apart and we didn't think we could save them...

...I used the newly refurbished sewing machine to sew the new pair...it worked perfectly...the tension adjusted correctly and the newly oiled machine worked quietly...I was really pleased...

...I used some hair elastics and some help from Mom to get her all put back together...it's a series of hooks...first I used one elastic to go from her head and attach both legs...and then we doubled one and pulled it tight to attach the arms...

...oh...and the new stockings fit pretty well too...

...we washed all of the other pieces of clothing by hand and hung them out to dry...

...carefully ironed everything...

...and started re-dressing her...stockings, shoes and petticoat...

...fully dressed...

...from behind...you can see her pretty train...not really visible when she's in her display case...

...and here she is...ready to go back on display for anothe 20 years or so...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...12.1...Vegan Food at Mom's...

...I promised a vegan food post...and here it is...

...also...how on earth is it December 1st...

...breakfast...a bagel and a vegan pancake...and tea...

...lunch...we all sort of snacked around a bit...I had a hummus and veggie sandwich...and we ate outside...it was delicious...

...before the stove broke...we started cooking the veggie patties that were the star of the dinner...the recipe is from a vegetarian friend of Mom's so the only real substitution was flax seed for the eggs...

...these were cooking away when we noticed that they weren't cooking...haha...

...we cooked the zucchini on the electric fryer...and laughed about another Thanksgiving when the stove went out...seriously lightening does strike twice...haha...and that time Mom carried everything up to one of her rental properties and finished cooking it there...

...after the new stove was installed we put the patties in the oven...

...my delicious plate of vegan Thanksgiving goodness...

~Have a lovely day!

...11.30...a very EVENTFUL weekend at Mom's...

...after a week at the beach...

...we arrived at my ancestral home in the mountains...no real fall colour anymore...looking out front at Mill's Knob...the weather was still gorgeous though...

...my sweet Baby Brother and his wife came down for a nice long socially distanced visit...

...Our Girl climbed the stairs about 1000 times...she's a pro...at going up anyway...down...not so much...haha...

...playing ball with Great-Grandma...

...and playing with a bunch of beads we found upstairs...they're actually Mardi Gras beads...but this little one just thinks they're pretty necklaces...

...she loved the bird flag...she's just learning all the animals and the sounds they make...she's really good with cat...meow...and dog...arf-arf...the other animals are a work in progress...

...she loves being outside...and is so easily entertained...with just about any old thing...a leaf for example...

...she loved the toddler swing...

...and the bigger slide...she's used to the toddler one at Church...

...overall...she loved visiting with her Great-Grandma...

...and she loved all the food...

...speaking of food...I'll do a whole post tomorrow about all the vegan eats...but halfway through cooking dinner...the stove broke...(well...we did have all four burners and the oven going at the same time...haha)...

...but...luckily...Mom had another brand new stove in the barn for one of her rental properties...so the boys just moved that in for her...

...and Our Airman wired it up with direction from his Papa...

...and we continued cooking...

...in other fix-it news...Mom asked me to look at the tension on her sewing machine...so I took it all apart and cleaned it and oiled it and it turns out the problem was just the spring had gotten too compressed and sort of rusted there...so I oiled it and sprung it back out and put everything back together...and I actually did a little bit of sewing with it...I'll show you that on Wednesday's W.I.P. post...

...and we got out the manual and oiled everything really well...Mom said it hadn't been done in about 20 years...haha...

...and we were upstairs in the boys' old bedroom looking for something for another great-granddaughter to take for a 'vintage' show and tell at school...and we came across her grandfather's old cornet...still has his name on the case and everything...so I took it downstairs and Our Airman took it all apart and serviced it for him...

...it all seems to be in working order now...Our Airman advised that someone should take it apart and oil it periodically...haha...

...the kiddos took the golf cart down to the river...I jogged along behind as I needed to do some exercise so I could cross off another day on my 100 days chart...haha...

...past the gorgeous fall garden...

...when we were getting ready to go...Mom went out to her stores in the pump house...and got me several jars of canned garden produce...

...and boxed it all up with some vegan white chocolate and her famous Christmas cookies...the leftover box of mushroom soup and can of Vegeta and bread from dinner...and a faucet sprayer like the one she has...that I had admired...

...I am so blessed...

...and we headed back down the mountains...

...when I was unpacking things I installed the new sprayer...easie peasie...

...more to come...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!