...3.18...Tuesdays with Julia...

...no food post today...but I got an email that The Vegan Version had been chosen by FeedSpot as one of the Top 30 French Food Blogs...that was so nice...I'm honored...

Here's the post...the Vegan Version is #8...a couple of the others are 'healthy'...but I think The Vegan Version is the only vegan one on the list...

~Have a lovely day!

...7.26...Friday Favorites...a did you know episode...

...just a few things I recently found out...

...did you know that soaking non-organic veg and fruit in water mixed with baking soda for 15 minutes removes about 98% of residual pesticides...

...and then I rinse them a few times...usually necessary with greens like these anyway as they can be pretty sandy...

article here...

...I buy organic when I can...but sometimes it's just not an option...at least at my local grocery store...

...and then on the preservation side of things...when I do get to buy organic veg...I want it to last as long a possible...and if you wrap it in foil (not suitable for acidic things) it will actually keep for a couple of weeks...

...when I open a new bag of lettuce ...I just wrap the individual heads with foil...I also give my spring onions and celery the same treatment...

...and then pop them back into the bag without zipping it up...

...and finally...I just found out that my county DOES recycle those tetra packs that I now get my vegan milk in...you just have to remove the lid and the piece that's attached to the box...which is surprisingly difficult to do...I've found the easiest way to do this is with a pair of pliers...which I keep in my utensil drawer...they're handy for all kinds of things...

...I screw the pieces back together and toss that into the recycle bin as well...

...what tricks have you recently discovered?...

~Have a lovely day!

...7.11...Space Station Sighting...

...the International Space Station flew right directly over our house...

...it reminded us of standing on the deck in North Dakota with a very young Airman watching the same thing...

...it appeared from the northwest...and we caught sight of it once it moved beyond the wispy clouds...

...and then it tracked directly over the house...

...it's amazing how fast it goes...

...but you get to see it for a few minutes...

...there's been some drama on the space station this week...with some leaks and such...that would be scary for sure...

...and then it disappeared from sight as it faded into the city lights...

...have you ever seen the space station...you can go here Nasa site
...and choose your state to see when it will fly over you...

~Have a lovely day!

...6.19...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...I finished the head section in one sitting as recommended...it was a lot like turning the heel on a sock...and then I had to decide if I wanted a bright yellow beak...or a more gold-toned one...

...after looking at several photos of actual chickens...I decided on the gold...you can really see the short row shaping with the chicken laying flat like this...

...then I knit the wattle and the comb...

...you sew the comb on first as you want that done before you add the eyes...and I got a set of brown safety eyes at Joann's...

...it really does sort of bring the chicken to life...

...then you sew the beak closed and add the wattle...I only have the little underbelly section left to knit...and then putting it together and stuffing it...of course...

...y'all may have noticed the silver watch I was wearing in the peach photo...it's actually years and years old...a long ago Christmas gift from the Man...and I put it away when I got my Garmin watch...which lasted about 9 years...I recently tried replacing the battery in it and the screen looks exactly the same as before...you can't read the numbers...it still communicates with the Iphone for fitness results...but I was using it for an actual watch as well...

...anywhoo...when I got my old Fossil watch out of the jewelry box...it just felt too tight...but I had saved the extra clasp and link...so I got out the eyeglass tool kit...and added a link back...and guess what...now it's too loose...but I like it better loose than tight...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...1.4...FLU...

...Oh my goodness...we're pretty miserable here...so things may be quiet for a few days...

~Have a lovely day!

...12.27...W.I.P. Wednesday...nada...

...we're spending our last few days in the parish in a hotel...everything...EVERYTHING...is completely out of the parsonage...so we're going to spend a while here...

...and there should definitely be a W.I.P. post....BUT...I can't find my knitting bag...I'm guessing it's at the new house...well...I'm sure it is...just not exactly sure where in the new house...haha...I'm sure I'll find it...but I was definitely planning on and looking forward to finishing my red sweater during all the after-moving-after-cleaning time here at the hotel...oh well...we'll be 'home' next week...and I'll finish it then...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...12.22...Friday Update...

...Posting some comments to blog friends here...again...

...to my sweet sissie Karen who blogs from her boat at McCraw Sails...Hey K...sorry it's so windy for you...it still looks so pretty there though...we had a very rainy move here last weekend...Love, T

...to karen from Pumpkin Sunrise...Hi Karen...poor Frodo...that was such as sweet photo of him...old dogs that have been with us for many many years are just one of the best sweetest things in life...your stockings are so cute...

...to Éphée from L'éphémère quotidienneté des repas et autres trucs de magie...Hi Éphée...Your potatos look very yummy...and so does your avocado toast...I love avo-toast...and your additions would make it extra delicious...what a sweet black kitty...reminds me of someone...haha...

...to Penny from Snap That Penny...Hi Penny..Im so happy that you get to spend some time with your family...and how awesome that you'll get to see the Stones...we've seen them live in concert...but the last time was many many years ago...Steel Wheels...haha...I loved seeing your Christmas decorations and your reading stats...I have not read a line or knitted a row in about 2 weeks...so I'm looking forward to that in the new year...

...Merry Christmas!

~Have a lovely day!

...8.30...Well...that was a disaster...

...my trusty laptop has died...R.I.P. ...beloved laptop...

...I have removed the hard disk...and I'm in the process of getting all my photos and files off of the old and onto the new...not sure how long it's going to take...but definitely longer than I expected...haha...

...the poor deceased laptop was never ill...she never gave the slightest indication that she was sick...but Saturday morning I opened her screen and found an odd black screen full of dashes...I could not boot to bios even or try to perform any sort of recovery for her...poor thing...she just died right there in my arms...

...oh well...I'm getting used to using my shiny new laptop...it even has a touch screen...and hopefully I'll be back to posting regularly very soon...

~Have a lovely day!

...2.10...Friday Update...

...so...since I'm still unable to post comments on any Blogger blogs...arghhh...I thought I'd just do that here...

...to my sweet sissie Karen who blogs from her boat at McCraw Sails...all the gorgeous above and underwater piccies...and the fun beach/island walks...and in answer to your ? ...the halved version of the Black Walnut Pound Cake was certainly edible...but needs some tweaking before I post that recipe...the texture was just a little bit not quite right...the dollie path is pretty creepy...and I think it's so weird how many flotsam dollies you find...also flotsam drugs...that's weird too...Love, T...

...to karen from Pumpkin Sunrise...I love your paintings...your hat...and all your museums...I have museum envy...

...to Beth from BLD in MT : Living a Simple Life in This Interconnected World ...I loved seeing all your adaptations of seitan...and your winter camping trip - I've not done any of that since Our Airman left Scouts...and your list of books read is pretty impressive...

...to Penny from Snap That Penny...I love all your sky photos...February skies here are often really pretty too...and your memes are so fun...and I love seeing what you're reading too...

...to Jackie from In The Land of The Living Skies II...I love seeing all your handcrafts and all your frugal and menu ideas...

to Éphée from L'éphémère quotidienneté des repas et autres trucs de magie...all of your food looks so delicious...thanks for reminding me that it's time to make the vegan carrot salmon again...and also the bourguignon...

...I can still comment on Wordpress and .com blogs...it's weird and frustrating...

...missing my grandbabies...and Big Sissie was FaceTiming with me the other day...and she said..."why did you have to go on a plane?"...so sweet...she's so cute wearing her little poncho...

...and Little Sissie...still loving her trike...

~Have a lovely day!

...8.5...and just like that...I'm back...

...but you'll notice that I'm no longer affectioknit...I'm now affectioknit2...and hopefully everything else will remain the same...

...thank you all for the emails asking if everything is OK...it is...except for this pesky blogger problem...and I've spent hours and hours trying to figure it out and make things go back to "normal"...but alas...affectioknit as I knew it is no more...I have a lot of theories about the problem...but nothing definitive...and I seem to have a workaround now...but...if at some point in the future I again drop off the interwebs...it will probably be some sort of the same problem...

...I was really loathe to lose this blog...I've been blogging almost daily since 2006...thousands of posts...and many thousands of photos...and there are a lot of memories here...and I've made a lot of friends here too...some that I've even met in person...so hopefully things will chug along for a while longer...

...all-right-y-then...let's catch up...

...we had COVID...

...that's right...even as careful as we are...and with a mix of Moderna and Pfizer...we still got the virus...

...but because of those four shots we had very mild cases of Covid...we were lucky...I'm well aware that not everyone makes it through...and we are thankful...

...my symptoms were:
Day 1...a scratchy throat...not a real really sore throat like I get with every cold I've ever had...but just a scratchy throat...enough to let me know that I was catching something...
Day 2-5...a low grade fever...general achiness...a slight dry cough...no congestion at all to speak of...a slightly runny nose...
Day 6-7...no fever...no achiness...just a little bit tired...which continued for a few days...and I have no residual effects...

...so that's about it...so thankful for the shots...and the immunity response that gave us...we've definitely been a lot sicker than this...like way back in 2009...when we all came down with Swine Flu while we were on vacation...

...and...I had a birthday...

...the kiddos sent these beautiful flowers...I love them...

...and there was lots of yarn-y goodness too...

...this skein of tan cotton...I'll probably use for socks at some point...actually called "hazelnut"...

...and this is a whole pile of bamboo needles...

...one in every size you could possibly need...

...this was such a fun package to open...the Man knows how to thrill my knitter's heart...

...another skein of cotton...probably destined to be a dishcloth or two...pretty colours...the Man knows I like anything purple...

...and then...more black thread than I'll probably use in a lifetime...I already had a white one like this...

...hey fam...remember the cones of thread like this that Mom used to sew our clothes...throughout our entire childhood...and never even made a dent in it...haha...

...and then my sweet sissie sent a package...the book is of Christmas music...

...with these adorable (vegan) sandals...they are so comfortable...I had noticed the ones she was wearing at the reunion...and thought they were so cute...and I'm happy to have a pair just like them...

...and a new puzzle...I can't wait to get started on this one...

...and we got so much garden goodness as well...Jack-Jack inspected and approved...

...tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and green beans...

...and a whole bag full of delicious sweet corn...

...and we watched a lot of YouTube while we were sick...you know...as you do...haha...and one of the channels we watched was Glen and Friends...I veganize a lot of his Old Cookbook recipes...and this one was supposed to be the very first "Brownie" recipe...and it's not got any chocolate in it at all...

...from a screenshot of his show...

...and it's really good...not like a brownie as we know it at all...but a really nice sort of tea cake...muffin-y thing-y...

...and then...I think the only other thing of note was that our (probably half-a-century) old washing machine finally kicked the bucket...I went out to the laundry room and there was a cloud of acrid blue smoke...yikes...

...but the Man and I managed to haul the spare (leftover from the W.V. move) up from the basement...and now it matches the dryer that we also replaced a couple of years ago...

...I'm so happy to be back in the Blog-o-sphere...now I'm off to see if I can actually comment on any of your blogs...I could see them of course...just not comment...

~Have a lovely day!

...3.11...Friday Favorites...a Clothes Shaver...

...so this post is getting filed under 'frugality'...because...we will get more use out of our clothes if they look nice enough to...you know...wear...

...the top/dress that I'm wearing in the photo was a hand-me-down from Mom...I think it would be cute just as a dress worn over flats...but I've never worn it that way...I always wear it with these polka dot leggings that I got for $1....

...and it has started to get all of these little knobby 'pills' on it...making it not so nice looking to wear...

...so...I hopped on Amazon (of course)...and searched for a little shaver to take them off...just read the reviews and settled on this one...

...spread the top out on a towel on top of the dining room table...

...and started shaving...

...I was amazed at the difference...

...and all of the little pills get vacuumed up and trapped in the little cup...

...there were a lot of them...

...do you have a clothes shaver?...I have seen some badly 'pilled' items in the giveaway bin at Goodwill...so maybe they'll be worth a second look now...it only takes a few minutes to run the shaver over even a long top like this one...

~Have a lovely day!