In my blog I plan to chat about nature, crafts, baking, gardening, beekeeping, family, and whatever else seems appropriate at the time. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Friends and Family past and present!

 FRIENDS
I returned from the shopping trip last Sunday evening (not tonight) and Monday had lunch plans with these lovely ladies.  There were actually five of us.  One of us was only there long enough to choke some food down.  She had just buried her husband on Saturday.  He had been ill for quite some time, and the little blond lady in the front was home from Arizona.  So she wanted to join us, even if only for awhile.  
 There was supposed to be six of us, but Susie totally forgot.  So we were getting ready to leave and decided to do a selfie....Marcia's not smiling.  re-take it
 Marcia's still not smiling.  re-take it
 Me, Cheryl, Sharon, Marcia.  Marcia's hand on Sharon's nose.  re-take it
 Marcia's picking Sharon's nose- it's worse than trying to get a family picture!  re-take it
 I'm out of the picture.....Cheryl's half hidden...re-take it
 I'm still not in the picture....re-take it
Cheryl's blurry....I give up!  
I worked with these women at Purdue for 15 years.  We have been through a lot together, good times and bad. We may not always agree on everything, but we've stuck together through thick and thin, and I do believe we will always be there for each other.  Oh yeah....Cheryl didn't work with us.  She worked for IU, but hung with us Purdue peeps!  We meet once a month for lunch. 

*****PRESENT*****

I am going to try to blog every day this month.  I'm a bit behind so I thought I'd throw in a few pics here and there to get caught up.  Plus I want to share something with you.  
TODAY 
Two of my nieces spent the night last night, Mom and Dad just popped over today to drop off another niece that spent the last few days with them (I was meeting my Sister and dropping them all off) and Vickie and Robert stopped by to give me....
(look at all these people in our room.  This is the room we live in.  I was by the bed taking the picture)
THIS!!!!!  It's an advent calendar....for me!  I'm so excited about it.  
 There is a hanging shoe bag underneath it, and in each pocket is a gift.  Then one final gift that doesn't fit in the bag.  I'll take more pics as I go, but what a wonderful gift idea.  Last year I had mentioned I wanted to make some advent calendars, but would have never thought of this.  And coincidentally, I was checking e-mails and I got this e-mail From Country Living with different Advent Calendar ideas.  Anyway, I thought I would post every day until Christmas and let you join me in seeing what's in the advent calendar each day!
 

Lastly...since I'm sitting here with my Shug thinking of ideas for dinner this week, I thought I'd share them with you.   I bought a turkey since they are on sale.  They're easy to bake and better for you than lunch meat!  Cheaper too!!!  So on Monday we are having turkey and a salad.
Tuesday, turkey pot pie (then freeze the turkey because we'll be tired of it)
Wednesday, spaghetti and meat sauce or meat balls (depending on what I feel like fixing, but if I make meatballs I'll double the batch and freeze some)
Thursday - pitch in dinner with friends.  I'm making potato soup.
Friday - salmon patties (which I've never made, don't really care for, and not sure if I want them, but my Shug does.  I'll eat leftovers if I must!)  Not sure about Saturday or Sunday.  Those are usually leftover, eat out, or frozen pizza days.  Jacks frozen pizza is pretty good.

Double lastly.......
The bad news....My poor Dixie Doodle got stung today on his foot.  Poor little boy. 
The good news....Honeybees were out.  I have a few hives alive. 

  I'll stop now....I just felt like sharing tonight!

But PS....Do any of you know where my old issue of "Crochet Today" magazine is?  I had it the other day and now I can't find it.

PPS...I can't stop eating Biscoff.
Good Night
Cindy Bee

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Our Family Shopping Trip

The weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving our family has gone on an annual shopping trip for about 35 years. It started out when Vickie and I were little, and our Mom's would take us shopping in downtown Indianapolis.  We would go to different places every year.  Sometimes we went to Greenwood, one time we went on a bus trip to Chicago, and sometimes Indy.  Somehow, it ended up being tradition to go to Ft. Wayne, spend the night, and wear matching sweatshirts.  And two posts back you can see pictures of us through the years.   It was fun, although we missed Mom and Gloria, who decided not to go this year. 

 OH MY...SCARY CLOSE-UP PIC!  ha ha
I think it's become a tradition for me to tease Vickie by sending her a picture of me eating her favorite Dan's Donut!  Theresa comes to my house first, and she stops on the way to get Dan's Donuts. Well, I had texted her that morning several times, starting at 6:15.  Vickie and I decided we should leave a little bit later  because the weather was freezing rain.  Bleh! on this weather.  It was supposed to warm up by 7:00 am, but Theresa never looked at her texts. So she got to our house early.  So we decided we had time to sit and eat a donut before we left.  


We haven't had a car picture taken in quite some time.  Off we go!
 As you can see, I'm driving....which sucked because on the way home it was raining so hard I could barely see the road.
 
 First stop....Dick's sporting goods.  We had to send Mom a pic because as we all know...she, "likes looking at Dick's."  I know I know...But we still tease her about saying that last year. 
 Love this picture of my Sister trying on a head band!
Theresa and I decided to take a selfie in front of the huge Christmas tree they have, then we decided, let's take a group pic in front of it, so everyone can see our new sweatshirts!
   As you saw from two posts back, we all had matching sweatshirts over the years.  Well, a couple of years ago, when Mom stopped going, we decided to stop doing the matching sweatshirts.  It was fun when there were seven of us, and even six, because it looked like we were part of a group.  But now that there are only four, we decided to just wear "normal" clothes.  Ashley had sent us a text a few days before the trip telling us we were going to be so jealous of her new sweatshirt she was going to wear.

 
Then the day before, she texted us and said she went back and bought us all one to wear.  Ohhhh nooooo.....Ugly Christmas Purdue faux' sweater sweatshirts! 

When we left the outdoor mall (Jefferson Pointe) we went to check into our room.  I gave them all a little winter survival bag.  The bags had wine glasses with a crocheted scarf around the stem, (that's who I was making the scarves for a couple of posts back) some Ghirardelli chocolate, and two little bottles of wine.  

(Vickie)
(her daughter, Ashley)
And my Sister, Theresa.
We ate lunch at a cute Mexican Restaurant, after driving this way and that to find it!  Ashley said go one way, Vickie said go another way, Theresa was the one that told us about it, but she had no idea how to get there!  She just knew it was "behind the mall and had cute mariachi statues in front of it!" 

After lunch we went to the indoor mall and had our pic taken with Santa.  Good Lord no wonder we didn't get much shopping done!
That evening we went to our room around 9:00ish and we got out our snack (dinner) foods.  We had all pitched in and brought stuff to eat.  Ring bologna, sandwich spread, crackers, cheese, nuts, chocolate, biscoff, and chex mix.  What is it about food like that, that you can't stop eating.  And I JUST NOW REMEMBERED I HAVE BISCOFF!!!!! Hold on........ahhhh.....I'm down to my last half cup of coffee...just enough left for dunking....I'm telling you peeps, I forget stuff all the time.
Anyway, So, we are sitting there eating and Theresa gets her blanket out, that she had made out of all of her old sweatshirts! Actually it's a quilt and I WANT ONE!  It was adorable, and I still have every sweatshirt we ever wore.  I did not get a good picture of it, but I will.   She said she brought it to make us all jealous, because Ashley said she was wearing a sweatshirt that was going to make us all jealous.  What is up with that?  And Ashley ended up getting us all sweatshirts...just sayin' Sister!

OK...so we were all getting ready for bed and the kids next door were screaming and jumping and banging on the walls.  A real party going on.  It was ok for the first hour.  After awhile it got old.  So Theresa pounded on the wall!  Which did no good.  So I called the front desk.  Well, the girl that answered was the only one working and she couldn't come up until her replacement came in at 11:00.  Okaaaayyyyyy......
It was noisy up until about midnight.
The only one it didn't bother was Vickie because she was snoring louder than them!  Poor girl had a cold and a bottle of Nyquil!  I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep.  So I took my pillows and a book and went to the bathroom and cushioned the tub with my pillows.  I laid down to read, so as not to wake them up.  I was secretly hoping one of them would come in and see someone in the tub and scream, but apparently Ashley and Vickie were already awake and knew I was in there.  Theresa was sleeping with a pillow over her head!  When I came back to bed around 5:00, I put a pillow over my head too!  It helped.  I finally got into a deep sleep and did not even hear Ashley and Theresa get up and go downstairs to eat.  When they got back in our room, at 8:30, they woke me and Vickie up!!!!   I do believe that was a first.
The next morning, Vickie was going to complain about the noise, but the young girl waiting the counter couldn't even figure out change.  Vickie had to tell her she only owed her 4 cents.  Apparently, she was going to get the calculator out.
When I was in the hall talking on the phone to my Shug, I saw four young kids go into the room beside ours, and the parents go into the room across the hall.  Need I say more?

Another group photo...this one is the new tradition!
We went back to the indoor mall (Glenbrook) to do some more shopping.

I gotta tell you about these dressing rooms.  We were in a store and I wanted to try on a sweatshirt.  Well look at the door to the dressing room.  Several of them were like that!  You could see right in them.  I went and got my sister and told her I wanted to try on a sweatshirt but I didn't want people to see me.  She asked me if I could leave my shirt on under the sweater I was wearing.  Yeah, but I just didn't feel right about it.  So I went to get a sales clerk.  I told her the same thing....I want to try a shirt on but I don't want to be seen. 
She explained to me that when you get inside the dressing room, the window clouds over.  All I know is it's like magic!  And very weird.

After shopping, and me stocking up on jeans....we went to Red Robin for lunch/dinner.  It was around 3:00.  When we left, as I said earlier, it was raining.  And the closer to home, the harder it rained. I'm thankful we all made it home safely.  And in spite of all of the pictures...we managed to get a lot of Christmas shopping done!

Cindy Bee

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving

The rolls have risen...

 The persimmon pudding is awaiting it's whipped topping...
the chicken and noodles are on the stove, 
(Mom made the home made noodles, but Dave made the chicken stock.  I cooked the chicken.)
 
and the mulled wine is packed and ready to go!  (How do you think our family always has so much fun together?!!  WINE!)
We are going to my sisters house for Thanksgiving.  My sister, who is always saying she is not crafty.   Now just look at this picture she sent me of her table!  Hmmm, wonder what's in the bags?

Have you ever had persimmon pudding?  I thought I'd give you a recipe.  The trick is finding the pulp.  My Shug's cousin used to always give us some but she is in ill health, so persimmon pulp is low on her list.  I found it  at Farlow's Orchard in Russiaville, IN.  It's pretty simple to make.  It looks like a cake but has a consistency of pudding.  
This is the recipe I was given by Dave's cousin, and was told it came from Dillman Farm Persimmons, 4955 West St. Rd 45, Bloomington, IN 47401  Phone number 812-825-5525   Not sure if they ship, but if you are interested in giving it a try, you could call them and ask.

Persimmon Pudding

1 pint persimmon pulp
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 3/4 cup sifted flour
2tsp. baking powder
1 cup half and half
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp soda (I assumed baking soda)
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 T. cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 t. vanilla

Combine persimmon pulp, sugar, and eggs.  
Stir flour with baking powder. Add to persimmon mixture alternately with a combination of the cream, buttermilk and soda.  
Use a pastry brush to coat baking pan well with melted butter.  Stire remaining butter into persimmon mixture.
Stir in cinnamon, salt, and vanilla.
Mix very well and pour into a 13x9x3 inch baking pan.  Bake at 325 for 30 minutes.  
(I had to bake for 45 minutes - could be my oven though)

I think it always tastes better topped with a whipped topping.  So put the whipped topping on individual pieces before serving.

Happy
Thanksgiving!

Cindy Bee

Friday, November 21, 2014

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Smallish Christmas crafts

Yesterday was freezing cold here in Indiana
 
So I decided to stay inside and be crafty.

I've been trying to get into the Christmas spirit....
 guess what....it didn't work!  But I think these gift tags turned out cute.
 I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but after that, only three weeks until Christmas!  Not much time to shop, decorate, craft, and plan.
 I thought this would be a simple craft to use up some of my scrap booking stuff.  Scrap booking supplies are like yarn and material....they multiply when you aren't looking!

 These would make good bookmarks too.
 I like the nature ones the best.
Making gift cards to use up scrap booking supplies is like making scarves for wine glasses to use up a yarn stash!  Not gonna happen!  You'd have to make a trillion of them to use up my stash!
But they're cute!  I think they would make cute hostess or teacher gifts.  You could make several different ones and use them instead of wine charms.  Or if you are giving someone a special wine glass,you could make a different scarf for each holiday throughout the year.  What do you think? 

 Do you have any smallish crafty ideas going on this year?

Cindy Bee