...2.18...Friday Update...

...on the Read Harder front...I'm flying through this challenge...haha...not really...I've just finished my 4th book...You should See me in a Crown...which I chose from the list the Read Harder folks sent for people like me who can't come up with a book that fits the criteria...so I'm thankful for that...this was a super easy and quick read...it's basically a teenage romance novel with a couple of twists...the main character is African American in a mostly white school who runs for Prom Queen...oh...and she's also gay...it was really...really predictable...but still it was a different perspective...and definitely not my 'normal' book choice...I was chatting with Mom and she's added it to her queue...along with Hamnet...next up is That Way Madness Lies...I think I googled the #5 - read an anthology featuring diverse voices to find that one...it's an anthology that contains 15 retellings of some of Shakespeare's works...so it should be fun to read as well...and luckily my local library has it as well...

...my Valentine's Day flowers are opening up to be quite gorgeous...

...that doesn't always happen...I've had them just droop and die more than once...they actually smell good too...

...now on the puzzle front...I can't walk by it without at least placing one piece...I LOVE it!

...of course...we started with the brightest birds...as their pieces are the easiest to pick out...

...but now we'll have to do the towhees and chickadees...and all that green and brown...

...and I got a little package of goodies from Amazon...some vegan lactic acid for my cheeze making...and some plant based food colours...and the caramel sweeteners I had ordered for the road trip with Amy...so we could stop and get coffee...but they didn't arrive in time...oh well...

~Wishing you a lovely weekend!

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

...for breakfast...I got out some mango and peaches from the freezer...and the soy yogurt that I'd made over the weekend...

...just a small handful of each fruit...thawed and roughly chopped...

...added in a half cup or so of yogurt...so delicious...(haha...I know that's the name of a vegan yogurt)...

...then I also had a bowl of bran flakes with homemade soy milk...I was pretty full and didn't have any snacks before lunch...

...so for lunch I made a really big salad...what I call a 'fancy' salad...because I added fruit and nuts...and beets...and raspberry vinaigrette....

...and then with my 'fancy' salad...I had a pretty plain assortment of leftovers...some pinto beans with relish...and a slice of toasted homemade bread half with Chao cheddar melted on top and half plain...

...then for supper...the Man had gotten these chiles...he and Our Airman had tried a lot of dishes in New Mexico that contained Hatch Chiles...they were omnipresent there...haha...Hatch chile is a label for New Mexico chile grown in the Hatch Valley...

...and they were too hot for me...but the Man said they have a really good flavor...and he put a small amount into the TVP chili he made for dinner...it was good...but it made my nose runny...I think in future he'll just have to top his chili with them if he wants...haha...

...I made some vegan cornbread in the biscuit pan Mom gave me...and froze the leftovers...you know...as hockey pucks...

...and we had some collard greens cooked in the InstaPot as well...

...I think the only snack I ate all day was an apple and some walnuts...

...but I also snacked on some tortilla chips and salsa while we were cooking dinner...but I didn't take a photo...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...2.16...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...now that Valentine's day has passed and the sweet little family in Japan has gotten their package of Valentine's goodies...I can finally show you the entire project...

...way back in January...I showed you the very beginning of the project...

...and even that glimpse of it pretty much shows the tip of a heart...

...I used the Candy Heart Pillow by Juli Anne

...it's a really simple and straightforward single crochet pattern...

...you just make the heart shape...

...and then make another one...and the band that goes all around the pillow...

...and then like the Eyelash Pillow...I didn't want any of the stuffing popping out through the crocheted fabric...so I just used the heart shapes to make the pattern for that...

...and the band too...so it has pretty much the exact dimensions of the pillow...

...and stuffed the liner...

...and then I just had a little opening to close up...

...stitched that closed...

...a side view of the stuffed liner...

...and I just topstitched the opening closed...as I'm going to crochet the hearts directly over the lining...it will probably never be seen...

...then I just single crocheted the band to one side of one of the hearts...

...it looks sort of like the inside of a floppy box of chocolates...haha...

...and then I single crocheted the other heart to the top...stopping at the second bump of the heart...

...to slip the little stuffed liner inside...

...then continued single crocheting around the rest of the 'top'...

...and it was finished...front...I guess...

...and back...it doesn't really have a front and back...it's completely reversible...the pattern has some cute 'sayings' and the examples were all in pastels...but I was going for a regular ol' red Valentine heart...

...it'll make a cute decoration in their little home away from home...

...I packed it up with a little valentine box...some tinsel-y door decorations...and a card for each of them...and sent it on it's way...

...Now...I'm still working on the little pressies to go to Japan for the next Holiday...and again...this may...just by the colour...be showing too much...haha...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...2.15 Tuesdays with Julia...

...we made another delicious vegan chick'n dish...Vegan Fricassée de Poulet Sauté à l'Estragon...

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

~Have a lovely day!

...2.14...Valentine's Update...

...so...the Man was right...I absolutely LOVE my little Valentine's presents...

...first up...early in the day...these flowers arrived...

...I can't really say they were a surprise because I can't ever remember a Valentine's Day...even when we were in High School that I didn't receive flowers from the Man...

...and they are beautiful...of course...

...and I should have mentioned these yesterday as we got them over the weekend...one of our parishoners had given the altar flowers in honour of our servicemen...we only have two in the congregation right now...Our Airman and a nice young Marine...so each family got to take home the flowers after service...they are really pretty and they smell amazing...if you like the smell of carnations...and I do...

...now...on to the presents...

...I used to have both a Birder's Handbook and the Audubon Bird Guide...but we had given both of those...and the one for lizards...snakes...seashells...etc...to Our Airman...and so they all got packed up in his 'stuff'...so I no longer have ready access to them even though they are still in my basement...haha...

...so the Man got me a new Bird Identification book...

...not sure why I've not mentioned this before...I do keep a Bird Journal...of sorts...

...when I started the journal...in my early married life...you can see that I chose a rather non-descript generic composition book...and although it's not the prettiest...it has definitely served me well over the years...

...it started out completely red...but now because of years of lying on the dash of a sunny car or truck...it's got this cool faded effect...

...and this is a pretty typical entry...I always write the time and place and weather conditions where I saw the bird...I keep my pencils with the notebook and do a quick sketch...and then usually when I'm home...I write up some notes from the handbook...

...this sighting of a peregrine falcon...which used to be pretty rare...they're more common now...includes a sketch of the bird in flight as well...but usually they do not...

...and remember when we lived in North Dakota...I passed down my bird-watching trait to the next generation...

...anywhoo...I should have done a whole post about the journal before now...

***as I was reading through my blog list...I came across Beth's Blog - BLD in MT : Living a Simple Life in This Interconnected World...and believe it or not she just posted about her 200th sighting...I'm always amazed at how like-minded we are here in this little community...CONGRATULATIONS to Beth on her 200th sighting...***

...and the present that he was so sure I would LOVE...is a puzzle...

...and a BIRD PUZZLE...so TWO things that I love...it's so pretty...

...and puzzles always kind of make me feel like I'm on vacation...as we always took a new puzzle to the beach with us...and found a place for it...to just be there at the ready...and we'd work on it here and there...throughout the week...and then leave it for the next family...

...we went through the 1000 pieces and got them roughly sorted by colour...

...but the important initial sorting was to get all of the 'edge' pieces...do you do that?...find all the edge pieces first...or do you just dive in and start working on the most eye-catching part of the puzzle...

...so...before bed...we had managed to get all of the edge pieces in place...

...do you like puzzles?...

~Have a lovely day!