Happy New Year!!



    Well, the year is about over, and I'm waiting up to see the New Year in. Since I'm a wild, party person, I'm watching movies on Netflix.

   Today, Tim and I finally made it to Wolf Lodge Bay to see the Bald Eagles that come by the hundreds to eat the dying salmon after they spawn. Wolf  Lodge Bay is on Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. I was even able to get a few pictures of the eagles. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get any of them as they were flying. We have 2-3 months yet to see them, so maybe I'll be able to get in flight pictures. I got a new camera and was having some trouble finding the eagles. I'd point the camera where they were, but I couldn't see them in the screen. New cameras mean more pictures to get more practice. I did manage to get some fairly decent photos of cooperative eagles just sitting in trees. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took.

 

 



I was busy this month doing crafty things. Below is a picture of the rabbit I made for Michaela's 1st birthday.



Michaela's birthday rabbit





These are the bears I made for Christmas for our 5 grandchildren. At one time, I had thought about making them and selling them, but they were more work than I want to do to make and sell. The bears come with different outfits, so the grand kids will let me know what their bears want to wear.

                                               



I think I will start a denim patchwork quilt next with the stack of old jeans I have collected. I have no idea what size I will make it. The thought even crossed my mind to make several that are child size and embroider things on the squares and give them to the grand kids. I thought about making a large quilt and still embroider things on it. I guess it all depends on how many squares I can get out of the jeans.

Not that I really make New Years resolutions, but if I was going to make some they would be the usual loose weight, exercise more and fold the towels when they come out of the dryer instead of just taking a towel out of the basket when I need one. Oh, and the really big resolution would be to cut waaay back on the sugar.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year.

The Things I Get Myself Into

   Well, Christmas is getting closer and I'm still cutting out bear pieces and crocheting Michaela's bunny for her birthday. I had to take a break from it all yesterday, so I'll be extra busy today.
   Little did I know when I decided to make these bears x 5, I would be cutting out 125 pieces. I just thought, without reading the directions of course, that 11 pattern pieces isn't bad. Everything is cut 2 except for the muzzle and nose, which is just cut one, because who wants a bear with 2 muzzles and noses. The ears are cut 4.
    Anyway, I have one more bear to cut out. The first bear took the longest because I am making it striped and I had to cut it to line up the stripes. Three bears are made from dresses that no longer fit, and I wish I could honestly say they shrunk while in storage or they are now too big, but I can't.
   I see on my weather thing on my blog it's 17 with a real feel of 2. Yeah, it's cold outside. The freezing fog doesn't help matters any, either. I have to be mean and really force Jake out in the mornings. The cold hurts his 3 toed foot. Poor dog. He's acting more and more like a grumpy old man. He's around 8 or 9 years old now, but sometimes he acts so much older until he sees something to chase, and then he's off like a shot and you can't catch him.
   Both Jake and Chip are banished to our room now when Michaela eats. They really know about babies in high chairs now, and Michaela thinks it's fun to throw food at the dogs.
   Poor Michaela is still confused about what she is. Baby or dog. Yesterday, she was walking around until she got to the laundry room, having a good old time hitting the metal folding chair we have there to sit on to take off our muddy shoes, when she decided to crawl over to the dogs' water. I heard a sharp intake of breath as she stuck her face the dish to get a drink. We were all in the kitchen, but she's a sneaking fast little critter. Now, Amy tells me that she gets on her knees and begs like their dog, Sadie. Just imagine what she would do if we had lizards or snakes.
   I'm about done with my morning glass of chocolate milk, so I'd better get busy. I'll be washing clothes for fun, too. Chances are, these bears will be finished in time for Christmas, but mailed too close to Christmas to get there in time. I'll just be known and the grandmother who sends late gifts. The kids will just have more days to open things this way.
   Well, my chocolate milk is gone, so, see ya later.

The Newest Fashion Accessory

    Well, here it is, my new fashion accessory. It's actually pretty comfortable and light weight. It only weighs 1 1/2 pounds. My back even feels better since it has a 3/4 inch lift in the the heal since my leg is that much shorter than the other. Teach me to break a leg in 4 places and then get arthritis, or arthoritis as the kids used to call it.

   I have started more projects, like I don't have enough started already. I am now making 5 teddy bears of different colors for the grand kids. It's taking me a lot longer to cut all the pieces out than I thought it would, but I really should have known better. Hopefully, the sewing part goes as fast as I think it will. I will have a regular bear assembly line going. They just get the bears now and I'll make the clothes for the bears later.

   Our weather has been pretty nice, even if a tad on the cold side. Our snow has come and gone. No snow in the forecast for at least this week.

   No one has started complaining about a brown Christmas yet. We thought it was funny when we moved up here in 2006. People were complaining about a brown Christmas. We just chuckled about that, because we moved up here from the Mojave desert and we really knew what a brown Christmas looked like. The grass was even green, so we thought it was a green Christmas.

   Christmas dinner is at my mother-in-laws house since I did Thanksgiving. Besides, if we do get snow, Tim won't have to go and get them and bring them here.

   The last week there has been some really loud explosions around here. The first on was the loudest and I thought it was some one's propane tank exploding, but it wasn't, and it was in the afternoon. Now, we hear them starting about 8:30PM for about an hour and a half. We have decided they are definitely artillery of some sort. Someone has a cannon and is firing it chasing away deer? Secret war games? Who knows, but we'd like to. We'd also like to know where they are coming from, since they sound fairly close.

   I hear bear parts calling my, so I guess I'd better get to them. Nothing like noisy bears that are in pieces.

Oops

   Have you ever had one of those days when you should just stay out of the kitchen? I should have the other night.    I thought I'd make some carrot bread. I doubled the recipe as usual. No problem there. I put everything except the carrots in my kitchen aid mixer bowl, raised the bowl up and heard a crack. I didn't see anything, so continued with the mixing. I added the carrots, mixed it all together and poured the batter in to two pans. First, things do cook much faster if you turn the oven on.
   I moved the mixer back to it's spot and found a small piece of white plastic that looks like nylon. It wasn't there when I started, so that must have been the crack. The mixer worked fine, so who knows.
   The bread baked, I took it out of the oven and turned the pans upside down to get the bread out. I did let them cool for a bit first. Most of the bottom of the first loaf stuck even though I used nonstick bread pans that I had sprayed with cooking spray just because.
   I went to pick up the loaf of bread and it was too hot and it really didn't want to be picked up, so my brilliant idea was to put another cooling rack over it and flip it over. I have done this many, many times before with no problem. Not so lucky this time. The bread slipped from between the racks, hit the edge of the kitchen island and broke. Most of the loaf landed on the floor. It's really a good thing I made two loaves. I figured I probably shouldn't do the 2 second rule, so it got tossed and then the dogs had a good snack of crumbs.
   I had Amy get the other loaf out. She did, with no problem. Amy did tell me I couldn't be perfect all the time.
   I then went on to make Tapioca pudding. I managed to burn it. The heat was on low, but it still burned. I even stood there and stirred it the whole time. I soaked and scrubbed and soaked and scrubbed the pan. It finally came clean. It's the first time I've ever done that. Such is life.
   All this is almost as bad as when I melted the plastic cutting board in the oven. I had used the cutting board, washed it and for some reason put it in the oven. Later, I fixed steaks in the broiler, wondering why the steaks smelled so funny. They tasted really odd, too. Seems the oven gets hot when the broiler is on. Duh!! Anyway, once the oven cooled down, the melted cutting board came off of the racks and the bottom of the oven with no problem.
   Unfortunately, these mishaps still don't get me out of cooking, so it's off to fix spaghetti I go. Hopefully, mishap free.