This and that

I've been home sick the past two days and it's not pretty! Fever, chills, sneezing, coughing and other ugly stuff. I have been sitting around counting my fingers and toes and bored out of my mind. Yeah, I know I should have been doing something.

I did try to sew a couple things yesterday and did an okay job, but kept having to lie down. I made a couple of covers for the wire shelves I put up this time of year, in my dining room window. I wanted these utility shelves to look more in keeping with the decor of the dining room. (if you can call it decor!) I use the shelves to put pots of mini roses, newly planted herbs and a little pot with a rose given to me by a dear, wonderful friend in Louisiana. I'm trying to be sure that the rose doesn't die...so I brought it in from outdoors.

The weather here has been horrible since the beginning of Dec. A couple of days ago we had a January thaw and I felt it might hurt this little rose to go from 3 days of almost 60° back down to normal Jan. temps. I pruned it yesterday and all the trimmings looked nice and green and moist, so that's good. It's sitting under the grow light in it's pot. I want to save it from winter. I never have luck with anything in pots that's kept outdoors all winter. Due to some unforeseen circumstances last summer, I never got it in the ground. So it's pruned, watered and will be fertilized this afternoon...and sitting happily under a grow light. I'll baby it along until spring when it will get a new home in a bigger pot, then into the ground.

Here's what the shelves looked like before:



Here's how they look with their toile doilies after. I love toile, my whole kitchen/dining area has toile appointments.




I made some homemade turkey "pinch noodle" soup. It really felt good, going down hot. I swear this has medicinal properties cuz it sure made me feel better. I love homemade soup and could live on it thru the entire winter. Andy, on the other hand, being a meat and potatoes man will eat it once in a while. So that's how often we have it.

It's really simple. Here's how I make it.

Turkey Pinch Noodle Soup

Boil bones from a turkey in a big pot of water for a couple of hours.
Include in the pot rosemary, thyme, sage, black pepper, sea salt,
garlic powder to taste.
Sift out all the stuff in the pot or run thru a colander to separate
the broth from the bones.
Retain the stock, this will be the base for your soup. Bring it to a
slow boil.
Pick the meat off the bones, and put back in the boiling stock.
Add any veggies you like...we use corn, peas, green beans, carrots.
Mix one well-beaten egg with a pinch of sea salt and enough flour
to make a thick heavy dough.
Pinch off pieces of the dough, flattening them and drop them into
the boiling stock.
Cook another hour or so. Eat and enjoy!

I love Dollar stores! I just love picking thru the junk to get to the cool stuff. I recently got a few of these adorable porcelain hinged trinket boxes that look like little eggs. I used to collect eggs and altho I don't anymore, I still have my collection. I just couldn't resist these...eggs with a rose embossed on 'em...no way could I pass them up. Especially since I love toile and these look like a toile pattern. I think they are really chic looking (okay, okay...shabby chic...LOL) and they cost $2 each. I got 2 of the toile-looking ones, and a couple others that I may save to give as gifts. But I'll probably selfishly keep 'em!



Last but not least, I ran across this photo of my sweet old dog (she's been gone 3 years now) when I was looking for old pix of my shelves. Can you see the Dalmatian in the snow? Bev Doolittle's got nothin' on me!



Thought for the day...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward."

Spanish Proverb