I got a box in the mail today!

Oh! Our mail lady was good to me today!  She brought me a box filled with goodies all the way from Turkey!  My sis sent me a get-well box!  Thank you sis!!!!   Sweetie Pie was home with me and she brought it in from the mail lady.  We opened it right away- of course!  Here's what was inside:

A lovely key chain/zipper pull, however the pottery heart-shaped bead broke.  I glued it back as best as I could but one side of it was pulverized so it didn't quite work....I'll figure something out. 

 

My first turkish rug (a.k.a. mouse pad-I love your thinking Sis!) it's a little small, but a good start.  I suspect when it's not where it should be(on my desk) it will be being utilized by a barbie doll... or polly pockets.  I'm forseeing future arguments between Sweetie Pie and myself...  

A jar of honey- florally sweet, will be yummy over yogurt with fruit and granola. I love honey!

Now for the other item, the pickles.  I remembered my Sis telling me about these, how good they were, and something else but I didn't bother to recall it.  So we opened this jar immediately, and dove right in.  Yum! I took the first bite with Sweetie Pie looking on, and since she likes pickles, she got the next bite.  Now I start feeling a warm non-pickle feeling in my mouth and then I more fully remembered what Sis told me about these. They are pickled with hot peppers and garlic(notice them on the label?)!  About this time Sweetie Pie is over at the sink spitting her bite out, and I am laughing very hard!   I very much like these pickles. Sweetie Pie?- not so much!  I'm sure S will like them, but I'm not real sure how many he will get, these are really good and I'm not a pickle person.

Thanks Sis for a wonderful box of goodies!  You made my day!  

Now reading....

Ohhhh!  I am soooo excited!  The UPS delivery man( God bless him!) just dropped something wonderful to me!  I have been waiting on these to show up...  I ordered them back in January!  Now while I am waiting on the books I requested from the library, I have a couple wonderful books to read(that I don't have to give back!!!!)! 

More info on the chickens I will someday keep.  Boy, when I actually get some, I will be VERY knowledgeable!  Don't you just love chickens? They are so funny to watch.

And for when I am actually able to spend some significant time in the kitchen, after gathering the bounty from my home garden(HA!), this treasure will come in very handy!  It stands to answer some of my lingering questions regarding canning and the proper techniques for various things. 

The author of these books has a blog that I follow.  She has give-aways sometimes on her blog of her canned chutneys and other various things, but alas I haven't won any yet... I hold out hope that I may win one day.  She is in the process of writing a couple more books for this series, and I am looking forward to them!

Ashley's blog can be found here.  Stop over and check her out, you will be glad you did.

PS  Had my first beer in 3 weeks tonight.  Can you say "AHHHHHHHH"? : )

Get Stuffed...

Sorry for the hiatius, I had an accident.  A rope swing accident.  Compression fracture in my vertebra.  Can you say OWWWWW?  I CAN!  But, who doesn't love a rope swing, I still do, but will be more sure of the capacity of the rope next time....

The child's party whom I did this at, is the purpose of the sorta-tutorial that I had planned on posting right when I got home.  I am a couple weeks late, but better late than never.  So here goes:

What can you make with these?

Regular ordinary mittens(@ Target for a buck!)? 

Maybe so, but if you consult this book you will find many things to quick change them into!

These particular mittens were calling out to become a bear. 

So after cutting apart the mittens, and finding something to become a shirt, I stuffed the appropriate items.

(sorry for the fuzziness, still working on the macro setting and getting the hang of it...)

After assembly, and shirt construction, and keeping in mind the recepient of this bit of cuteness who is VERY into Bear Gryls from the Man VS Wild  tv show, this is the end result.

HEHEHEHE, Bear Gryls!  Complete with napsack and water bottle, ready to go on adventure with a sweet red-headed boy!  Here is Bear with some of his friends(with instructions from the book):

He was both sad and happy to leave our house and his new friends, but I know he will be back to visit!

As for me, I am still recovering.  It will be 6-8 weeks before I am hopefully back to normal.  Not too many cooking adventures will be happening in our household for a while yet, maybe some creative ones, but mostly reading and knitting... 

Until next time....