I Like Thursday #195

 Welcome to my 195th post for I Like Thursday.  What is I Like Thursday?  Weekly a group of bloggers hosted by LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color share things that they like/love during the week.  It can be things they accomplished, music, art, new recipes, books, all sorts of things.  

I had an uninspiring week.  One of those weeks where you just wanted to curl up in to  a quilt with a cup of something warm, your favorite fur baby and read.  

I did try a new recipe.  Everyone talks about overnight oats.  In my wee brain all I could think of is cold gooey oatmeal.  But I saw a recipe on Tik Tok and tried it, and it was more like a dessert (think rice pudding).

Peanut Butter Banana Overnight Oats.  I didn't have to buy any ingredients, and it is finished off with a crunchy chocolate shell topping with walnuts and sea salt.  The recipe he gave was for 2, but I made 3 and probably should have made 4.  

I am constantly amazed at the things in our pet food aisle at work.  Lately we have had a lot of shortages when it comes to cat food, especially canned cat food.  But I saw these and it made me smile.

Pup-Pie Birthday Cakes!  This one is for a girl, but there is also one for a boy, and then a gender neutral one too.

I saw this on Facebook a post by Severe Weather Updates:

Later on someone posted that the whole week in a way was palindrome 22122, 22222, 22322....But Tuesday was a palindrome, and an ambigram.

While I read several books this week, these two were my favorite.  

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny is the 4th book in the Inspector Gamache series.  

I realized one of the reasons that I really enjoy this series, is the dialogue flows so well, there are jokes, jabs, jibs and it feels like you are listening into a conversation of very real people.  Which then made me realize that very few writers are that adept, and the books that I seem to enjoy the most the dialogue flows like a real conversation.  

The 2nd book I read was Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kemmerer.

I would call this book a series of essays on her life, her experiences, what she has learned, relationships, indigenous culture and her knowledge as a botanist of plants.  The book was very good, in my opinion, and I was surprised reading the reviews how many people she triggered telling the creation story of the Falling Sky Woman, and her comparison that the indigenous story had Sky Woman as a nurturer of the earth, but Eve who was supposed to be a nurturer of Earth, but after being cast out of Eden, that nurturing of the Earth ceased to exist. 

Finally there are so many changes that occur in life, some rapid, some slowly.  In December we had a huge wind storm, and I awoke, because my roof sounded like it was rippling.  Now my roof is over 160 years old, it is standing seam steel, and last year we sealed a portion, fixed some nail pops, etc.  I have never heard it ripple.  I late checked and everything looked OK, but then a couple of days later I noticed some cracks in my bedroom ceiling, soon those cracks became bigger, and actually connect all the way around the ceiling on the outside walls of my bedroom. 

Too cold, windy and wet to try to get onto the roof, and the crawl space entry is barely 2 X 3 so almost inaccessible for most of us.  To stay safe in case the ceiling collapses I have moved to another bedroom, but I can't get days off from work to shift my bed, dresser, and other belongings to another room for a couple of weeks.  I was fretting about it one day when I remembered a scene from the movie Parenthood.

Thanks for stopping by, head over to LeeAnna's to check out the other I Like Thursday posts.

I Like Thursday #194

 Welcome to my 194th I Like Thursday post.  Each week a handful of bloggers share things throughout the week that they have discovered that they like/love.  LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color hosts each week.  

I got in a wee bit of sewing the past couple of days.  I finished the binding on a quilt called Covered in Truth.  I am donating it to church.  This was a kit I purchased, and the directions were not great, and the measurements were off, a lot.

Of course while I was trying to take a picture Bobbin had to help.  

I also finished 2 quilts and started a 3rd for church.  They do simple squares, then a pillowcase turn.  

I have been trying to be good about buying fabric and saw some and broke down and had to have it.  I have been trying to stick to the rule that any purchases will be going toward stash to work on projects, and I am really trying to not start anything really new.  It doesn't mean that I can't pick up a few patterns here or there, but they have to be made from stash unless I am in need of a background.

I love the sewing theme with the machines, scissors, thread, cats, and even some tea pots.   I loved the fun bright and whimsical prints.

What I loved about the package when it was delivered was the bag it came in.

 I am still working on the gray string piecing for Bonnie Hunter's On Grassy Creek from 2020/2021.  I keep pulling gray scraps, but I really feel like I am not getting far.  While I grabbed some gray fabrics from stash, before cutting it up for the string piecing I cut enough to work on my old fancy fox quilt which I started as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2016.  I wrote down all the colors for the past few years RSC so I can pick up and start working again on the blocks.

I have had this hankering to make scones.  I have no real reason why.  I make them at work all the time, and frankly, the ones I make don't really appeal to me.  They are dense and kind of crummy and we put glaze on them.  I have been trying cream scones which are very tender.  This week I tried cranberry orange scones.

They had a glaze of powdered sugar, fresh squeezed orange juice, a little orange peel, and a dash of sea salt.  They were flaky, and tender.  Definitely not on my diet though.

My books for the week, most are series.  Some I have read recently, some a while back.  I think I would like to go back and reread the 1st book in the Kate Shugak mysteries.  I find that a lot of books I read in 2017 I cannot remember, probably due to widow's fog.

A Fatal Thaw by Dana Stabenow which is the 2nd book in the Kate Shugak Mysteries.  Kate is an Aleut living at her father's homestead in the middle of a national park.  Nearby a shooter goes on a rampage killing 9 people.  But soon it is discovered one of the 9 was not killed by the shooter but someone else.  Kate is tasked with finding who killed victim 9, and there are many suspects in the tiny community nearby. 

B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton.  I think this book was much better than the first book.  Since it was much improved I will read the next in the series. 

Caught Bread Handed by Ellie Alexander is the 4th book in the Bakeshop Mysteries which take place in Ashland, Oregon.

One Potato, Two Potato, Dead by Lynn Cahoon is the 3rd book in the Farm-to-Fork Mysteries which take place in Idaho. 

I loved the movie Practical Magic which was released in 1998.  Practical Magic was written by Alice Hoffman and is a tale of the Owen sisters. 

 Now head over to LeeAnna's and check out the other I Like Thursday posts. 

 

I Like on a Late Thursday #193

 I am going to try to eke my I like Thursday post in this afternoon.  Every Thursday a handful of bloggers share things they have done, found, saw, heard that they like/love during the previous week.  LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color has been kind enough to host for well over 2 years now.  

The pet aisle at work always has something interesting.  

These cutie pajamas with cutie pie on the bum.  

Did you know that Oreos are 110 years old?  

They have chocolate confetti cake Oreos to celebrate.

I had a hankering for a scone, but I wanted one that was tender, not too dry and flaky.  I found a recipe for cream scones at The Flavor Blender.

Oh they turned out so yummy.  Nice and tender, and the left overs could be reheated in the microwave for 20 seconds.  I put blackberry jam on mine.  Definitely not on my diet!

We had a warm, sunny day and it helped some of the snow/ice melt.  Bobbin and I were lounging in the sunroom when there was a huge crash that shook the room.

Here you can see the couple of inches of snow/ice on the roof.  The roof is metal, so as it warmed the sheet of ice/snow started to slide off of the roof.

 

You an see the ice that slid off and broke into the blocks.  I think that they were at least 3-5 inches thick. 

Back to work so many neat items about women recently.

These awesome towels!  

A quote attributed to Calamity Jane.

Another quote attributed to Mary Anne Radmacher.  

Then there were these cute Llama planters with succulents.  

I have been readings some great books lately.  My current reading trend seems to be historical murder mysteries.

Murder in the Crypt by Irina Shapiro.  

Captain Jason Redmond has arrived in the village of Birch Hill in England to claim his inheritance, there are so many moving parts in this book, that all tie together to create a character that you empathize with.  Constable Haze too has many things going on in his life.  When the body of a young man is discovered in an ancient crypt Constable Haze is quick to pass judgement and arrives at the estate to apprehend the perpetrator, only to discover that Captain Jason Redmond is the new Lord of the manor.  Redmond and Haze form an unlikely alliance to discover who killed the young man in the crypt.

A Woman Scorned is the by Suzanne Downes is the 3rd book in the Inspector Lazarus Mysteries.  

For Dead Men Only by Paula Paul is the 5th and final book in the Dr. Alexandra Gladstone mysteries. 

I finally left the past, well kind of and read  The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths.  Archaeologist Ruth Galloway has been asked to investigate a skeleton of a child unearthed under a doorway in a house that is being demolished to build flats.  

Finally Heather and Homicide by Molly McRae is the 4th book in the Highland Bookshop Mysteries.

Finally LeeAnna mentioned that she was enjoying watching The Olympics curling competition.  When I saw this I had to share. 

Now head over and check out the other I Like Thursday posts. 

I Like Thursday #192

It's a snowy Thursday here, and another chance to share on I Like Thursday which is hosted by Lee Anna of Not Afraid of Color.  Each week a group of bloggers share things they have seen that they like/love.  Th1is is my 192nd post. 

We have had a little snow, well up until yesterday, then the "snow event" started. It has snowed several inches, and according to the push notices on the phone will continue until 10pm Thursday night.

One morning it was very foggy and once the sun came up it was amazing, almost like everything was coated in powdered sugar.

The ice crystals were amazing clinging to everything.

My SIL gave my parents household COVID.  Luckily they are all immunized and boosted so it hasn't been terrible.  The fact that we are all pretty angry with my brother and his wife for being so cavalier about COVID and passing it around is a road I am just not going to go down that rabbit hole.  But the fact that everyone in the household had COVID, and even though I live thousands of miles away my mom asked me to pick up an anniversary card for a friend and mail it since she was told by her doctor to stay in and quarantine for 14-21 days due to her age.  I really wanted to get this card.

But I was trying to be mature and picked something else up instead.

I know I have mentioned (probably ad nauseam)  that I have been doing a lot of workouts, the problem is the different devices I use, trying to use a Kindle Fire, Ipad, or even an Iphone is not always easy getting them to sit at the right angles.  I purchased this easel and I love it!  I can put my Ipad, or Kindle Fire on it and adjust it perfectly so that I can do whatever workout I am doing.

I love the quilts and patterns by Jen Kingwell, and pre ordered her new book Quilt Recipes months ago.  It finally arrived!

There are a couple of quilts I really would love to make.  

I finished filing all of my patterns, I also printed out many that have been sitting on my old computer, and transferred them to an  external hard drive.

I read several books this week, what I actually picked up were some tried and true, which I discovered that I had never read.

A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton, the first of the Kinsey Milhone mysteries.  I am not too sure if I liked the character or not.  The story line was good.  

The next book I read was One for the Money by Janet Evanovich, the first in the Stephanie Plum series.  

I really enjoyed the book, and enjoyed the writing.  After this one I read the next in the series Two for the Dough, and then the next Three to Get Deadly.  Stephanie is a sassy Jersey girl, while not always the smartest cookie, sometimes dumb luck gets her far.  

Bleeding Heart Square by Andrew Taylor.  1934 London and Lydia Langstone has left her abusive husband and moved into Bleeding Heart Square with her father.  There are many dark mysteries that surround the house and square. 

Now head over to LeeAnna's and check out the other I Like Thursday posts.