MOD Indian Bullfrog Slippers

I started & finished these little slippers a couple days ago but since then both Hubs & I have been battling bronchitis – not horribly bad, but it does interfere with our days because we get so worn down – so I haven’t felt up to posting anything until now.

I used this color scheme …

Indian Bullfrog- Thailand

They worked up rather quickly, and I think they turned out pretty cute:

MOD Indian Bullfrog Slippers – BOY/Toddler  $10 PR

I feel another wave of dizziness coming on, so I’m going to knock off again. We are fairly certain that we picked up this nasty complication while at a senior gathering a week ago where everyone was either sick and coughing, or had just had their round of shots; due to personal convictions and living fully in our Faith with faith, we haven’t stepped inside a doctor’s office for the past 20 years, and we decided to forgo the scheduled senior shots; so for the time being we are going to try to avoid people who have recently rushed to get their scheduled shots and hopefully this bronchitis will quickly pass and we can get out and about again … and I can get back to designing and posting again real soon.

MOD Spotted Poison Dart Frog Slippers

Every year I chose a “theme” for my original designs, whether it be kitchen towels, sweaters, hats, mitts, booties, or slippers. I did Chameleons last year and my special/original designed Slippers went over big ... I even had repeat orders for them: calls came in before and after the Bazaar season ;-) The year before last I worked my designs around colorful sea slugs and the colorful giant maxima sea clams.

I only make 1 of each design so my customers are assured that they have bought an item no one else has; I never repeat a design. Ever … firstly, is the fact that I get bored easy and doing repeats of the same thing over and over and over would drives me nuts and take the fun out of my designing creativity; and secondly, because that is the trademark of my in-home-Shoppe business … O.R.I.G.I.N.A.L.I.T.Y.

I also made 2 very special pairs of Chameleon Slippers for my 2 year old grandson - and they were really cute on his little feet as he ran through the house :-D

This year I'll be focusing on colorfully patterned exotic frogs and lizards – that is my ‘theme’ for 2017 designs; I may try something designed after exotic flowers too, but we’ll see where things go and how much time I have to dink around before the new Bazaar season begins the end of October 2017.

I like this frog’s color scheme: and I had the yarn on hand ;-)

Spotted Poison Dart Frog

These slippers only used 2 main colors and a scrap of black for the eyes, so they worked up fairly quickly last night; I started them after Supper and finished them around midnight:

MOD Spotted Poison Dart Frog Slippers – Toddler $10 PR

DUTCH SPLIT PEA SOUP

This is a delicious soup, and my favorite when it comes to a split pea soup recipe ;-) I cook this soup all day long in my crock-pot (instruction at end of post) but I am posting the recipe as originally written in my cookbook.

Simmering this soup a long time is what gives it the rich flavor you will enjoy. The flavor also improves with age; if needed add more broth to it when reheating.

And it can be frozen.

DUTCH SPLIT PEA SOUP – 6 servings

1 pound dried green spit peas

6 cups water

4 cups (approximately) broth (chicken or beef)

¼ pound smoked pork or ham, diced

¼ cup celery, chopped with some leaves

2 leeks (white part only), thinly sliced and washed well

1 large onion, chopped (1 cup)

2-1/2 cups diced potatoes

1-1/2 cups diced carrots (2 large)

½ teaspoon salt, if desired

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Dash hot pepper sauce (Tabasco), or to taste

In a Dutch Oven pan, combine the peas and water. Bring the water to a boil, and cook the peas for 2 minutes. Remove the peas from the heat, cover the pan and let stand for 1 hour.

Add the broth, meat, celery, leeks, and onion. Bring the soup to a boil – reduce the heat, cover the pan, and simmer the soup for 1-1/2 hours.

Add the potatoes and carrots, and cook the soup for another 15 to 30 minutes (the peas should disintegrate). If the soup gets too thick, thin it with additional broth.

Season the soup with salt, pepper, and hot pepper sauce. Serve and enjoy! :-D

*CROCK-POT DIRECTIONS: Put ALL ingredients above into the crock-pot. Set to Low and simmer 6 – 8 hours. Stir occasionally while cooking.:

**IF USING FROZEN BROTH AND VEGGIES, set crock-pot to High and cook for 6 hours. Stir occasionally while cooking.

All of the ingredients - except for the split peas - was frozen so it looks like I overfilled the crock, but once it was plugged in and turned on, the ice melted and the ingredients were easy to push down into the broth.

After I got the soup underway, I was walking through the back livingroom past the sliding glass doors, and happened to catch a glimpse of a spot of light purple near my Patio Apple Trees at the far end of the back yard: CROCUSES! What a nice Shabbat surprise :-D And there were hyacinth leaves poking out of the past Fall’s flowerbed litter mulch too:

Early Crocuses in the back flower bed; it's still too wet to weed, but the that's okay ... the tiny flowers hide the weeds for now. LOL

Hyacinth leaves pushing through in the back flowerbed

Then I walked with anticipation to the front livingroom, looked out the window, and saw that the early crocuses had come up in the front flower bed too – what a sight for winter weary eyes! So I ran and got my boots on and stepped outside to see what else was making an appearance; my eyes are so hungry for color and I can’t wait for winter drabness to be over …

Early Crocuses poking up through the shiny dark purple Ajuga ground cover in the front flowerbed

Contrasting Tulip & Ajuga leaves highlighting brilliantly in the front flowerbed

Primroses showing in the front flowerbed; a little bedraggled around the edges due to the stormy rainfall, but otherwise bravely and boldly heralding Spring on the horizon ;-)

Wild Woodland Hyacinths and Tulips in the front flowerbed

UPDATED! MOD Ranitomeya Toddler Slippers

I finished these little slippers up last night around midnight:

MOD Ranitomeya Slippers – Toddler $10 PR

And they turned out okay ;-)

Getting a picture with orange yarn is always dicey for me – when I use a flash, I get flashback … but when I don’t use a flash I get a dark picture that is unusable. But I liked this color scheme so I chanced the orange ...

Crocheting the mouth line took a considerable amount of time; more than I would have thought necessary, but I am pleased with the final result:

The color yarn I used really is the same shade of the pictured frog face above, but the flashback makes it lighter.

UPDATE! The original eyes I designed for these slippers were closer to the pictures of the frog ... but they bothered me because I didn't think they looked "froggy" enough; so I broke with sticking to 'original' and went with gut feeling - and designed these new eyes for my frog slippers (updated pics below) and I think they look a LOT better, what do you think?

All in all this is a cute pair of toddler slippers and I am happy with the results :-D

CHICKEN –RICE CASSEROLE

I cut this recipe in half for just the 2 of us; but I will post it in its original measurements for families … for large families, bump the measurements up to accommodate your family size ;-)

CHICKEN-RICE CASSEROLE – 6 servings (about 1 cup EA)

¼ cup reduced-calorie margarine

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1-1/2 cups skim milk

1 cup chicken broth

2 cups cut –up COOKED chicken or turkey (about 10 ounces)

1-1/3 cups COOKED white rice or wild rice

1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper

¼ cup slivered almonds (I use a drop of almond extract because my body doesn’t handle nuts very well – and this works for me)

2 Tablespoons chopped pimento

1 can (4 ounces) mushroom pieces, drained

Heat oven to 350-degrees.

Heat margarine in a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat; stir in flour, salt & pepper and cook. Stirring constantly, until bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk & broth and heat to boiling – stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in remaining ingredients.

Pour mixture into UNGREASED 2-quart casserole or square baking dish, 8 x 8 x 2 inches.

Bake UNCOVERED for 40 to 45 minutes … or until bubbly. Garnish with parsley if desired.

MOD Ranitomeya Slippers – Toddler

I like the color scheme of this little fella that packs a big punch ;-)

Orange and Jade Blessed poison frog (Ranitomeya benedicta)

This frog is one type of the poisoned dart frog species, and I am designing a pair of toddler slippers around this little guy:

MOD Ranitomeya Slippers

I hope to get the trims designed after Supper, and complete them tonight :-D

Tu BiShvat - New Year of the Trees

MOD Toddler Ranitomeya Slippers

This is the color scheme I am basing my next toddler’s slippers design on:

Orange and Jade Blessed poison dart frog (Ranitomeya benedicta)

I’m winding the yarn balls now while listening to John Haller … the actual designed slippers shouldn’t take too long to complete once I start on them.

Packwood Coffee Run

I have the most loving and lovable husband in the world … I don’t know of any other man that would agree to a 4-hour-round-trip-Coffee-Run-spur-of-the-moment-whim to satisfy his wife; do you?

He is a true gem and I am a lucky woman to be so blessed :-D

I woke up this morning, took one look at the lovely weather outside and thought, ‘this would be a good day to enjoy a drive’. And since I hadn’t poured my coffee yet, I thought that the considered (yet unspoken) day trip would even be better with a mug of Cowboy Coffee to top it off.

So I broached to topic to Hubs: “Hon, it’s a really nice day today – perfect for a drive”. That gets his attention ;-) “Where, and how far?” he asks. “Hmmm,” I hedge. “Where, and how far?” he repeats. “Well … it is a clear day outside; and I haven’t had my coffee yet …” I look at him hopefully. “Not Packwood!” Hubs finishes what I had not yet spoken out loud. “I did think Packwood; yes. A Cowboy Coffee sure would taste good.” And I smile at him. He’s hooked ;-) “That’s 4 hour drive,” he grouses.

An hour later we’re on the road enjoying a scenic drive to Packwood with my 3 beloved mountains surrounding us to the right, left, and straight ahead:

To our right is Mt. St. Helens. Jackson Hwy. cutoff.

To our left; and later down the road, straight ahead, is Mt. Rainier. Jackson Hwy. cutoff. Mt. Rainier is the mountain I will miss the most – I visited that mountain at least 2 … sometimes 3 times a year for the past 24 years and have gone over the 3 Passes on the backside of that mountain ever since 1970. This particular mountain takes up a huge part of my heart.

“There’s gold in them thar hills pardner …”; LOL”: Glenoma hills.

Seriously though, there is at least an ounce of gold up there that we know about, for a fact; Bob did lose his wedding ring up there in those hills when he was logging that big hill. He got seriously sick one winter with walking pneumonia and lost a lot of weight; the fell ring off his finger before he realized later that night that it was gone. When he called me I could tell in his voice how sick he was and it worried me. When he came home on the weekend I don’t even know how he got home without wrecking … he was so sick. The kids were so worried that they sat at his feet for hours after he sat down and passed out from the illness and the long drive home, crying that they wanted to give him his Christmas gifts “early in case he doesn’t make it”. Poor little dears.

But he did rally during the Christmas time-off from work … and when he drove back to Glenoma, which was a four hour drive 1-way from where we lived at that time, I started seriously studying to get my driver’s license, so if he was ever that sick again he wouldn’t be alone that far away from home, worrying about his family, about possibly dying, or about how to get safely home being so sick.

Snowy peak of Mt. Adams showing above the horizon just out of Packwood, on the right – in the faaaaaaar distance and to the east of Mt. St. Helens.

Ahhhh: tasty good coffee. We took our time driving back home because Hubs knows I enjoy seeing my beloved mountains, and he lovingly let me feast my eyes on them at leisure.

MOD Green-Pink Tree Frog Slippers

Every year I pick a theme to work my designs around – this year I am designing my items around exotic animals and plants. My first design for this new year is a pair of toddler slippers designed after a cute little green and pink frog. I do not know where this little frog lives … and I do try to get that information when I can … but I found the frog picture cruising the internet and thought it would be a good idea for slippers; my color of yarn is a little darker than the frog’s skin, but I have to work with what is available locally.

This is a picture of my design’s inspiration:

Green and Pink Tree Frog

I started my design last night around 9:30 pm and got this far before knocking off and going to bed around midnight; I went to bed early last night because I simply could not tolerate any more ridiculous, spiteful, or immature and bitterly malicious televised libtard and demoncrat BS about President Trump – I just called it a night and went to bed where I shut it off and put it out of my mind … and thought about how I’d finish my slippers in the morning; LOL:

Tonight I picked my work up again after Supper and just finished the pair about 10 minutes ago as I listened to Diamond And Silk in the background while the rain raced through the outside gutters and melted the latest bit of snow away:

MOD Green and Pink Tree Frog Slippers. FINISHED! Toddler/18 MO $10 PR

I think they turned out pretty well and should be a good seller ;-)

Record-making Snow …

As we were leaving our driveway yesterday morning, ice was mingled in with the rain. It started snowing in earnest about an hour later, around 9:30 a.m., as we were on the road to visit with friends. By the time we reached our destination at 10 p.m., there was several inches on the ground. We visited for about 2 hours and then headed back home because the snowflakes we could see through the window were getting bigger (some the size of a quarter) and we needed to make a stop in town to purchase a printer before making home.

Back in town, which was wet from the rain – but not snowy – we decided to stop at our favorite Thai restaurant and get a bite to eat. While there the snow started in to fall in town and the owner, who we had watched grow up before our eyes when his father owned the place in the mid-1980’s, remarked that “this is the 4^th time this year we’ve had snow … isn’t that like some kind of a record?” And we said yes, it is a record. Here in the PNW where we live, we get the rainforest effect which is torrents of pavement pounding rainfall and snowfall is a novelty. Some years we don’t even get a hint of snow – and some years we get overnight snow that melts almost as quickly as it showed up. During really weird winters we get freak snowfall of anywhere from 4” to 18” that may last a whole week, as we experienced earlier this winter:
(http://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2017/01/snow-day.html); but FOUR SIGNIFICANT snowfalls is certainly a record in these parts.

After eating, we stopped at Office Depot and bought a new printer to replace the one that died …

Now we can get our Tax Filing done.

And of course while we were in town, I had to stop at Jo-Anne’s and buy some more yarn “because it’s still on sale and I have some ideas I want to design”. I bought several MORE colorful skeins of Red Heart yarn:

Seducing jewel colors ...

When we got back to the pickup, Hub’s made a remark that “we are yarn poor” … and I thought he was teasing me about being a yarn whore and quipped, “Yes, I am: I can’t help it; when I walk the yarn isles the yarn seduces me and I succumb”. And then we laughed about the misunderstanding. But it IS true that I AM a yarn whore. And I can’t apologize because we both know that the same thing will happen again. And again … and again no matter how much I swear I will control myself ;-)

Finally making it home and hauling our newly purchased possessions inside, we were amazed at how quickly the snow began to accumulate …

2” snow on the back deck by 2 PM; I had put the saucepan on the table to collect rainwater for my houseplants

Even the squirrel that has commandeered the largest birdhouse Hubs made, poked its head out and chattered, “What the heck?” before quickly darted back inside and staying there nice and cozily warm …

Just yesterday it was Spring-like weather (so much so that I even put my greenhouse up near my veggie beds area a day ago and bought potting soil to start cabbages, kale, and lettuces to slip in the beds for an early head start), and then suddenly the fickle weather turned on a dime and dumped snow on us. How rude >:-(

And the snowflakes got larger and fluffier and steadily fell and slowly accumulated:

3-1/2 inches of snow by 8 PM. Not a lot of snow like other parts if the USA … but unusual and significant for our part.

By 10 PM, 4-in. snow had piled up, and was glittering which meant the icy rain had begun and the snow would begin to melt come morning.

And it is melting even as I type. I can see the rain has ice in it, but the snow is melting. The temperature outside is 36-degrees and everything is dripping. The snow probably won’t last the day.

And that’s okay with me! This snowbaby is aging and isn’t as enthralled with snow anymore – I admit that my eyes do still light up when I see it falling, but my old bones groan. Overnight snow works for me at this stage of the game LOL :-D :-D

Post-obama "legacy"

http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/anti-trump-protesters-block-ambulance/

This is not the America I know – this is Amerikka post-obama. The scene shown depicts a 3^rd world country in full throttle anarchy … especially muslim countries.

But it most reminds me of what the so-called-palestinian-thugs do to Israelis. THIS is obama’s “legacy”.

These are the types of people libtards and demoncrats wnt to flood America with ... these are the types of people American obamanite governors are suing the government to allow in. This is death-becomes-her steeps's, hollywood hag streisand's, traitor madrona's, media whore assy judd's, stand-by-her-man hellery's, cry baby chuckie's, and dementia poster child nancy plasticface's dream for America: that she goes up in flames.

God give our President, Mr. Trump, the courage to buck the assassination threats leveled against him TO DO what NEEDS TO BE done and end this insanity.

Call the National Guard in. This has gone beyond the pale and needs to be seriously dealt with.

Mediterranean-Style Shrimp

Mediterranean-Style Shrimp – serves 2

1 teaspoon Olive Oil

½ cup EACH: diagonally sliced scallions (green onions), sliced zucchini, and green bell pepper strips

½ ounce pine nuts, toasted

1 small garlic clove, minced

2/3 cups water

1 tsp. Chicken Bullion

5 ounces shelled & deveined medium sized shrimp

12 slices canned peaches, cut into chunks

1 Tablespoon raisins

2 ounces drained & rinsed canned chick-peas

1 medium tomato, cored and diced

*Parsley

1 cup cooked rice

Cook rice.

In a 9-inch non-stick skillet heat oil, add vegetables, pine nuts, & garlic and cook over medium high heat, stirring constantly, until vegetables are tender crisp – about 2 minutes.

Add water and broth mixture to veggie mix and cook over high heat until mixture comes to a boil. Add shrimp, peach cubes, and raisins and stir to combine. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook until shrimp turns pink – 3 to 4 minutes.

Add chick-peas and tomatoes and stir to combine, cook until heated through – about 1 minute.

Serve over rice.

MOD Wooded Moss Dish Towel

When I started MOD dish towel, I didn’t have a specific design in mind; I just worked along with the cotton yarns and buttons I had on hand, and it actually turned out rather nice ;-)

MOD Knit Cotton Dish Towel

I’m not really a pattern writer … I aimlessly jot down chicken-scratch-notes as I work along for personal reference (which doesn’t mean anything to anyone else), so I hope this pattern in understandable to the rest of you.

************

Cotton yarn in 4 colors of choice (I used Olive, Maize, Wooded Moss & Cloves)

# 10-1/2 knitting needles

#J/10 crochet hook

With Olive, CO 73 sts & P 1 row.

Row 1: Continue in Olive and work as follows - *K 1, P 1* across row; end K 1.

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Purl

Repeat rows 3 & 4 x10 (13 rows total); drop Olive and attach Maize.

Rows 15 thru 18: Repeat rows 1-4; drop Maize and attach Olive.

Rows 19 thru 22: Continue with Olive & repeat rows 1-4; drop Olive and attach Wooded Moss.

Row 23: Continue in st. st. with Wooded Moss for a total of 61 rows from beginning.

Drop Wooded Moss and attach Cloves & decrease as follows: P 2 – P 3 tog across row to last 2 sts: end P 2 sts.

Change from knitting needles to crochet hook and work in sc as follows: dec 1 st EA end until 8 sts remain.

Sc for 13 rows.

Sl st x5; ch 6 and sl st in same sp; sl at to end. Turn.

Dc x12 in chain loop; EO.

Sew button in place and weave in loose ends.

The Yarn of 2 Skeins of Yarn :-D

This afternoon we visited some friends and shopped our way home as we passed through town – as we passed Jo-Ann’s on the way to the grocery store, I said to Hubs, “Nip in here; I need to buy 2 skeins of yarn”. I had in mind the 2 colors I would need to work out the slipper design I see in my head, but my yarn stash at home is dangerously low and lacking the 2 colors I need. Hubs teased me and said, “I bet you can’t limit yourself to 2 skeins” … and I replied, “Yes. I can. I can get more later; I just want to wrap things up asap and get home. I’m tired.”

Well … I got to the yarn isle and started to reach for the 7-oz. Red Heart Super Saver skeins I always get, when I noticed that 3-oz. Red Heart yarns were on sale! I immediately started berating myself for saying out loud that I as only going to "get 2 skeins and be right back out" of Jo-Ann's. Darn it! Quickly calculating the sale prices, it dawned on me that I could get MORE yarn for my $$’s and still stay honest ;-)

So I did: I bought SIX skeins at sale price and broke kinda even price-wise. The 7-oz. skeins ran $7.99/EA and the 3-oz. skeins ran $2.79/EA – about a $0.76 difference. MPO is that according to my calculations and the registered total … I DID actually “only get 2 skeins of yarn”, with the extra one thrown in only costing me an additional 76 cents (2 smaller skein equal 1 large skein). So both Hubs and I were right in our teasing conclusions ;-)

Hubs started laughing when he saw the bulging bag I was carrying across the parking lot, and I started laughing when I saw his laughing face through the windshield where he waited for me in the pickup.

And I explained the whole thing to him, concluding with: “…that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”

Then we went grocery shopping and I grabbed a box of chocolates – also on sale – to enjoy while working out my newest design. It’s supposed to snow tonight through tomorrow, so holing up inside with my yarn, chocolate candies, and a warm fire crackling soothingly in the woodstove, I will be busily content:

Such is the yarn of the 2 skeins of yarn :-D :-D