A bit of Thrift and such...

Hello my dears.. 

I was going to say Happy Monday but I guess it is almost over.. smile.. 

I am usually tucked away in bed by this time but I was cooking a cake and decided I may as well say hello while it is baking.. 

I have some old friends coming for lunch tomorrow so I thought I would bake a cake.. 

Not very fancy but it will be fine with our coffee.. 

We went to town and I thrifted a few treasures.. 

Several plates, dessert dishes, cups and saucers to add to my blue collection.. 

Also, a lovely copper dutch oven... 

It is in excellent shape.. 

Inside and out.. It was only five dollars.. 

A doll that the girl at the thrift store gave to me.. 

She said she just wanted to get rid of her.. 

The poor dear.. 

This is her before pic for you and I will post another 

after she receives her make over.. grin.. 

I am turning her into a vintage girl, I am thinking.. 

Supper one night ... 

My version of Bubble and Squeak.. 

One of Terry's favorites.. 

Bacon, onion, cabbage, left over potatoes and a bit of parsley.. 

Not very complicated.. 

Then I had bought a package of Betty Crocker's Salted Caramel cookies.. 

They were a mix but sounded so good.. 

And yes they were delicious.. 

I baked them Saturday afternoon to have for our church fellowship on Sunday.. 

When they were cool I placed them in the can that I use most weeks and left them on the pantry counter.. 

The next morning after getting ready for church I forgot to grab the can and was part way there when I remembered they were still home .. 

I mentioned it to Terry and he didn't say anything.. 

Well, after lunch after church I thought a little cookie would taste good with our tea.. 

When I opened the tin I couldn't believe it.. 

Someone had ate almost half of them.. 

Now, it was a mix and not many in there but still.. 

I would have felt pretty silly taking the cover off of that tin if I had remembered it.. grin.. 

I know that he would not have said anything.. 

I kindly mentioned it to him and he just says.. 

No one asked me.. 

Ohhhhh.. what a man.. 

Do you have one just like him? lol.. 

This has not been much of a post but just a little check in.. 

We still have tons of snow although the weather has been great and warming up .. 

Snow is going down but there has just been so much.. 

I thought I would share this with you that was in our news today..  

We have had over 400 cm. of snow in our area..

This is one of the snow dumps.. 

Amazing, eh? 

Good night and God bless.. 

xo

Geraniums and Pewter...

Good Afternoon, my dears.. 

Here I am posting in the afternoon for a change.. 

Normally, I don't get to it until after supper but this is another very snowy day in New Brunswick.. 

My get up and go seems to have got up and gone.. grin.. 

So, I thought I would do my post now and perhaps do something else later on.. 

Terry is out on a mission..

Snowblowing.. 

The dear man loves the challenge of  just finding enough room in our drive for our vehicles .. 

 Well, not really.. 

The challenge is in finding the vehicles after the storm is done.. 

No ... just kidding.. grin..

It is bad but like I said before this is not a new dance.. 

Anyway.. 

Here are some pics of our mantel that had a little facelift.. 

Not much but a change none the less.. 

Pewter, geraniums and an old picture..

Pretty simple.. 

I may have told you that I bought this picture at the Museum yard sale in St. Martins several years ago.. 

All it needed was a new glass ... 

It is called.. 

WAIT FOR ME.. 

She is tying her shoe and you can see the shadows of her friends leaving her behind.. 

Did that ever happen to you?  smile.. 

The cast iron candle holders were a gift for Christmas one year and I love the battery operated candles.. 

Much safer and a bit prim looking.. 

I must admit that I have this love affair going on with geraniums lately.. 

They are just so cheerful and we kind of need it here in the Winter..

I have been enjoying going into my Sun Room and watering them all.. 

My Gram always had geraniums and I often think of her.. 

She was such a dear thing..

I decided to put a primitive string of lights up for the Winter months.. 

I am sure they help Terry see his tablet and brighten up the evenings..smile.. 

You girls said in your comments that you like posts about our home and the old farm.. 

 You also mentioned the soups... 

Here is one I made on Monday.. 

Irish Stew.. 

One of our favourite meats is Lamb..

Many years ago when Terry and I were in our twenties we lived on a little hobby farm.. 

We raised sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks and turkeys.. 

Not very fancy farming but I loved the sheep and still do.. 

We had 2 ewes and an old one eyed ram..

I went to a farm auction one day by myself and bought them.. 

Terry was a bit surprised.. grin 

Every Spring the ewes both almost always had twins... 

That is when we began to eat Lamb.. 

It costs a lot here now and we do not get it very often.. 

Our son found some on sale and brought us up a bunch of chops.. 

So... 

I used a few of them instead of stewing meat and it was delicious.. 

So easy to make .. 

I just put the chops in a stew pot along with onions, carrots and celery, a couple of handfuls of barley, bay leaves, salt and pepper and let it simmer for a couple of hours and kept adding water..
Then just added chopped onion, carrots, potatoes and celery and herbs.. 

Simmered away until lunch time and voila... 

If my friend Christine from Ireland reads this she will no doubt have a chuckle as I am sure it is not a bona fide Irish Stew but it is my Canadian version.. smile.. 

Yesterday, we  went to St. John.. 

That is where our daughter and her family live as you know.. 

They are leaving for Florida for March break once again so this Mama wanted to see them before they left... 

It was  a lovely time with them .. 

Shonda made us Supper.. 

It was all lovely but her Dad delights in her Apple Pie.. 

Her brothers tell her that she makes a mean apple pie.

It was so so good.. 

 I will be glad when they get back home once again.. 

I hope they have good weather and have a break from shovelling snow.. 

Their decks have at least 5 feet of snow on them as do most of us.. 

Well, dear hearts that is all of today.. 

Not very interesting, I know but will come up with something better next time, I hope.. 

So nice chatting with you and receiving your lovely emails.. 

One dear girl from SC made my day yesterday by sending me the funniest email.. 

She had taken a pic of the snow they received there and figured I would get huge enjoyment from the chaos it had caused when we have so much here.. 

It was really funny and I so enjoyed it but I do understand that this is normal for us and not normal for you southern ladies.. 

It is beautiful, though but still... 

I will admit to being very tired of it all.. 

Come on daffodils... 

God has been good though and we are all safe and well.. 

So blessed to have a roof over our heads and wood in our furnaces.. And faithful road crews who clear our highways and byways.. 

Take care and don't forget the give-away HERE 

Looking forward to all of your sweet comments.. 

I read and cherish each one.. 

xo 

A Winter Project.. Felted Bed Runner..

Hello everyone.. 

Welcome to the Blessed Hearth today.. 

This is just a little post to show you the felted bed runner that I finally finished.. 

I was wondering if I would have started this if I had known how much work it would take.. 

I think so.. smile.. 

I saw this idea on the UK Country Living site..

Here

Their directions are much better then mine.. 

The first thing to do is find some 100 % wool and felt it.. 

I found this red wool coat at the thrift store.. I sort of felt bad about cutting it up as it was a London Fog.. smile.. 

Oh well.. it was the color I wanted so I cut it up into as big of pieces as I could.. 

Then I found this old wool blanket out at the farm and cut it into four pieces.. 

Put them into boiling water in my canner on the stove.. 

I boiled them for about 15 minutes, I think.. 

Then put them into the washer with hot water and let it do the cycle with cold water rinse and spin.. 

After that I put them on my wood drying rack for several days to dry... 

I used this old picture frame as a template..

You could use cardboard or such but this was the perfect size.. 

I used a marker to draw them out and made sure it was on the wrong side when I sewed them up.. 

You are supposed to use a tailor's chalk but I didn't have any.. 

For the red ones I measured them half the size of the cream ones.. 

Then I sewed them together which sounds much easier then it actually was.. 

Felt is not exactly the same as working with cotton for example.. 

I found it had a mind of it's own and had to be measured exactly.. 

But I finally managed to sew them all together and pressed them with a damp cloth.. 

They pressed out rather lovely and I was pleased with it thus far.. 

I actually made two runners out of the felt and sewed them together. 

Both sides are felt rather then lining it with a different fabric.. 

I had an old vintage doilie which I teadyed and cut into strips.. 

These went along each edge to cover the stitching.. 

Then.. smile.. 

I made a heart in the centre piece with a piece of the doilie.. 

With some old jewellery I made an arrow (kind of ) smile..  

And added a couple of buttons.. 

And here it is.. 

Remember this is a water bed with a duvet on top so it is a bit fluffy shall we say. 

The pics were all kind of dark so these are the best ones.. 

You get the gist of it all, though, eh? 

Just in time for Valentine's Day..  

Then after all that it was lunch time and we had veggie pita pizza.. 

Such a simple but delicious lunch.. 

Do you make these? 

I thought you might get a smile out of the snow at our front door.. 

Terry was digging us out after the last storm.. 

So far this week we haven't had any, thank the Lord.. 

Well, dear hearts thanks for your visit and for all your sweet comments on my last post.. 

So happy you enjoyed it.. 

Are you making any Winter projects?  

Take care and have a great week.. 

Hugs.. 

No-Knead Cinnamon and Raisin Bread Recipe.. Easy..

HAPPY MONDAY MORNING ...

Here we are again at the beginning of another week and going  into one of my favorite months.  Our anniversary is at the end of March....41 years... Imagine.

When we were younger and Terry's parents had celebrated their fortith one I thought that we would be years away from it and that his parents were OLD:)

Well....HELLO... here we are and past it now...

I am so thankful to God for the many years we have had together.

This past week in Psalms I was reading where we are to thank God for his KINDESS in the MORNING and to PRAISE Him for his FAITHFULNESS in the EVENING...

Did you ever notice that verse before... I probably read it often but it didn't sink in.. Anyway... I think it was in Psalms..

And so this morning I thank Him for the kindness of the many years we have had together..

I said all that to end up by giving you a recipe that is my husband's

favorite all time BREAD RECIPE.. 

NO KNEAD CINNAMON RAISIN BREAD...

1 package active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups of warm water (105 -115 degrees)

1 tsp. sugar

2 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups flour. divided

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1 cup raisins

In a large bowl dissolve yeast in the warm water and add sugar and honey and stir.  Add butter, salt and 2 cups flour...

Beat with electric mixer on LOW until blended..

Beat on high speed  for one minute..

Stir in remaining flour with a wooden spoon.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size...

Punch down by stirring with a heavy spoon.  Stir in raisins and cinnamon.  Spoon batter into a loaf pan.  Let rist again until batter reaches the top of the pan.. (I forgot and let it rise higher)

Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for forty minutes or until when tapped it sounds hollow...Cool on wire rack..

This batter bread is a wonderful treat for breakfast or in "munchkin's " lunch sack as peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches..

This recipe came from Alaska....

If you get a chance to try this you will find it very easy and very tasty..

Now just a quick shot up how much SNOW was outside my KITCHEN window on Friday morning...

That is the curtain at the top and than the sky and then that is SNOW... You have to see it to believe it..

Acutally, Terry shovelled snow from the roof onto the patio but the last storm doubled the height of the snow..

GREAT TO BE CANADIAN, EH?  lol..

Thank you again for dropping by .. I look forward to hearing from you.  I read and enjoy every comment and email from you all.

So my dears have a wonderful and blessed week.

and remember He is the BREAD OF LIFE.... 

HE is ALL we need...

 LOVE AND PRAYERS

Faye