The Winds Have Changed

 Not only have the winds changed but the day has changed too with the time falling back. It is dark in the morning & dark at night, the daylight has shrunk the days.

I'm battling another lung infection & taking antibiotics again. Bill brought this virus home & I just couldn't shake it & my lungs began to make noise again.

It has been three days in with medication & I'm starting to feel better.

Bill just works through everything & today he's planting the tulips for next year around the Gnome Home. The three dogs Gordo, Baxter & Bridget have to go out to help Bill too but don't stay out in the cold wind for long. lol

These three all stay together all day long.

Bill planted 50 tulip bulbs of Single Late & 37 Parrot tulip bulbs, I kept 13 bulbs to force bloom in the house over winter. I always enjoyed the Paperwhites but they are so expensive now when you find them. 

 I was trying a new recipe for Christmas breakfast called Breakfast Lasagna, it was quite a lot of prep but once in the oven you're home free!

Butter a 9" x 13" pan

Preheat oven to 375F for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are browned.

The 'noodles' are French toast, topped by a drizzling of maple syrup.

After making 16 slices of French toast I used the same pan to make scrambled eggs that are cooked in milk with a bit of butter. 

Grated potatoes are the last topping that are drizzled with olive oil, the potatoes are put in water & drained well, just as they are starting to boil.

Cooked ham is diced into small pieces to be added on top of the scrambled eggs.

Then shredded cheese is added on top of the ham & the layering process is repeated twice more, with the replacement of shredded cheese for the shredded potatoes that are drizzled with olive oil.

It was tasty & I think it will be on the menu this Christmas morning as much of the prep work can be done the day before. The one thing I did learn was that Villaggio Italian Style Classico bread was too thick for the layering & I only got two layers instead of the three-layered ones making it more bread than fillings.

It reheats nicely in the microwave for breakfast too!

Surprise... it was 'something to sweeten your day' my girlfriend Deb said on the phone & she would be right over but not staying as I was ill.

Deb had given me a white square box filled with such delectable baked goods that made my eyes widen with the assortment of goodies. She said it would go down nicely with a cup of tea.

What a wonderful surprise, she did lift my spirits as getting sick again has dampened them.

Bill & I ate those treats with tea and again with coffee!

Thank you for making my day. xXx

Sewing Time

I'm working on the Chloe's Cafe Mystery Runner for Fall 2023

I'm pulling from my stash & incorporating two designers, so interested to see how that goes!

I'm hoping for a Christmas table runner for the Christmas dinner.

The striped theme of 12 Days is going to be the border, the blue is the background & the black/white is the center design. At least that is what I have in my head. lol It's a mystery so you never know...

It is a 4-day mystery pattern designed by Danielle Richard & here are days 1 & 2 in the Tula Pink fabric.

I finished the Season In Blue sew along with Laundry Basket Quilts, I added a top & bottom border as it seemed unfinished to just have side borders to it.

These are all blocks from her Season In Blue book, some blocks were very challenging for me & others were fine. So now I know what quilts will cause me grief if I were to make them. lol

Thank you for stopping in for a virtual visit, you won't get sick this way! lol 

I hope to see you soon with my good health restored!

In case you're wondering it's 45 sleeps until Christmas!

Wishing you health & happiness as it is the key to life!

Hugs,

Cynthia xXx

Were Is Time Going?!

 The autumn time in Northeast New Brunswick is so beautiful to take in as nature sings out fall colours. Where did the summer go, I tried to savour every day, it had wings & flew into autumn & soon it too would evolve into winter. I know I could not live without seasons coming & going. With my favourite saying, 'This too will pass' with winter coming.

The winter too has its own beauty & seems to last the longest!

I've been working on Edyta Sitar's SAL with Seasons In Blue & have nearly completed that project.

The month 10 was a busy appliqued one!

It's a monthly sew-along with her Seasons In Blue book, you do one or more of the 16 quilt blocks to make the quilt. This is much like Lori Holt's Scrappiness Is Happiness that I did this summer. This quilt is scrappy too with all my neutral backgrounds & blue fabric scraps.

I'm hoping it is going to look OK when it is all together!

I was going through my background scraps & found a piece of French writing on it...

Then I had an idea from watching  Vloger to make French hens, yes, three French hens!!

This is the scrap that is left from that scrap & I had crocheted a red, white, and blue basket with scrap fabric & that would be their nest!

I love how they turned out from scraps to an idea!

This was what I saw from my sewing room window last week, the pigeons were enjoying the water fountain/birdbath. lol All the garden cement decor has been brought in for the winter now so the snow & ice won't damage them. I hope the Thompson water sealer keeps the gargoyles safe through their first winter season.

The Thanksgiving bird was delicious this year & we don't eat turkey again until Christmas Day. Bill covered the top of the bird with a woven blanket of bacon to keep everything moist & yummy.

I tried something new with the grapevines this year, a grapevine orb!

It was quite the job using the hog grips to put the metal holding rings around the vines. My hands are losing strength due to arthritis, very frustrating as I use my hands for many of my crafting items. 

The last of the visiting friends/family this year was Sandy from London, a girlfriend that I had not seen for four years due to the Covid restrictions & life's timing. She is the owner of The Red Door Antique Shoppe in London & always enjoys seeing the antiques here on the East Coast. She took home a few treasures from this visit.

Bill was arriving from Holland at Pearson Toronto Airport & she was arriving from London ON at the airport, they met & flew to Moncton together. They arrived at midnight & then the drive to Hardwickee was in a terrible rain storm having them dodge construction road signs on the highway in the dark!!

One of many things we cannot control is the weather!

The sunny days would open up & she had a great time taking in the views from our shoreline. I was having a bout of sciatica & knee pain, not making a very good walking buddy for her.

Bill managed to get the lawn cut, hopefully, for the last time before the snow flies, we had a very heavy frost the day after this photo was taken.

Donald has settled into his new job at Kone Elevator & does the NE of New Brunswick service/maintenance. He does Don does 2500km on an average each week! Nothing is close by in all these rural areas & schools are now open & servicing them needs to be done also.

Gordo has beautifully fit into our family & it's like he has always been here!

I am keeping up with the daily number of sleeps until Christmas...

Where does the time go?! 

On November 4th I am doing my first craft show at the Baie-Ste-Anne Community Center with some of my sewing goods. It is a 6-hour show so it should be a good one! I still have pieces to finish so I need to stay focused & not do anything new in the meantime. lol

Thank you for stopping in on this virtual visit with me & I'm sorry about being so tardy with my blogging but life does get in the way & time flies by way too fast. 

Take care and stay healthy, health is what keeps us going in a positive direction & I'm noticing it more & more as I have turned into a senior! A privilege that many are denied.

Hugs

Cynthia xXx

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

We had visitors from Ontario staying with us for a week & upon leaving they gifted us with this wonderful decor turkey!

I called it Tommy the Turkey, looks great in the bay window. He was on the porch but the nights were getting cool & the condensation was all over everything, so inside he came. lol

I didn't go all out with the decorating this year, just put up a few pieces.

Mostly fall leaves & harvest so far. Soon the turkey smell will be in the house as the stuffed turkey cooks. 

Peter & Joan enjoyed the walking trails & the shoreside walks that they took together. It was the very best weather that week & they couldn't have come at a better time to enjoy the sights of the northeast coast.

Bill & Peter brought up a 'sculpture piece of nature' for me, I love it, seaweed & all!

The weather was great & the green grass & colourful landscape was being showy for our guests.

I love how my potting shed's landscape has come to life around it. The mosquitoes were horrid in the month of September, chasing us inside from their attacks on us! With several cooler nights, their number went noticeably down!

Bridget & Baxter enjoyed the company of Peter as he played stick with them & went for walks with Bill & truck rides to get the mail too, Peter was part of their pack. lol

My rug is done! I may change out the darker selvage pieces for a few string pieces that were left. The material was really close to running out!

With this, many sleeps...I have so much sewing to do!!

Bill & I went to see Jimmy the Janitor a stand-up comedian with Peter & Joan, Don & Christine, & Nick & Leslie. It was a fun 90-minute show.

I had never seen him in person, we had his cassette tapes from back in the '90s when we were in the maritime with the two young boys...his show is adult content now & Nick enjoyed him.

I've been trying to get myself in a better state of wellness & have started back to the exercise classes twice a week with strength & cardio. This week my girlfriend Deb, my bike partner...talked me into an Aqua Fitnessness class that lasted 55 minutes. Those who know me know I DON'T do water, well I don't know me because I did & I loved it. It was terrifying at first, I had a floatation belt put on & going down the ramp the water got deeper & my breathing stopped. Deb was so patient with me & told me to hold the handle on the ramp as we made our way to the 4ft area. I'm 5'2" so the water seemed very close.

Once the music started & we were all moving it was wonderful on these aching arthritic joints and after 55 minutes I felt like a new person, the pain was gone, it felt wonderful. The pain did come back but the memory of the Aqua Fitness class will have me going back next week.

It's like that saying "When was the last time you did something for the first time?" Life just keeps surprising me. 

Last night my stove's circuit board went...again. & this is our second stove since the kitchen remodel in 2017. 

With Thanksgiving weekend starting it is a happy thing that Nick & Leslie didn't want their old stove in their remodelled kitchen & Bill stored their old stove in our shop. That is the stove that will cook our Thanksgiving Day turkey. And writing this just reminded me to take the turkey out of the freezer & place it in the fridge! Done!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Thank you for stopping in & I hope you have a wonderful weekend wherever you are. xXx

Hugs, 

Cynthia 

Very Overdue Post!

 Hello & thank you for stopping in on a very overdue post!

Life has gotten in the way of my posting with so many fun days with family. xXx

The Alberta kids came from a visit & so many activities were going on, including my 66th birthday!

The kids all took Bill & me out for an Indian dinner at Namestte in Miramichi, it was delicious, the last time we ate Indian that good was on our England trips. A wonderful warm night, and the A/C was broken, the kids said it was an experience of being in India lol.

Yard work was done with many hands and the weather was perfect! The Alberta kids came from a drought in their province & here we are growling about the rain. I'm feeling grateful that the weather has been manageable for us here in the NE of New Brunswick. There are so many natural disasters going on right now with climate change.

The front yard was beautiful this year & the limelight loved all the humidity that this summer had to offer. The hanging Costco basket was a messy addition with the spent flowers dropping on the front porch every day...I'll be rethinking those next summer. lol

The laneway covering that Bill worked so hard on looked lovely again. He hand rolled all that top cover on, bucket after bucket!

The Gnome Home is complete with the roof that is now in the aging stage for the cedar to go grey. When I see how close that huge sick tree was to the back porch/great room if it were to fall & with the winds that come with living at the shoreline, another feeling of relief & grateful to see such a view!

I'm so glad Bill took out two of the limelight so these ones could spread out!

When Bill saw the Alberta kids' pics at the airport he noticed what t-shirt Mitch was wearing & he too wore his to the airport in Dieppe to get the kids. These two are devoted NASCAR fans every weekend! 

These two Alberta kids work so hard with the outside work & love it! Mitch & Nicole are always working outside when they come for a visit. We smile at the wonderment of their work when they leave. And are happy to know that they will return for Christmas and another beautiful season here in the NE.

They were making mulch from the down tree branches, the path in the woods is becoming such a beautiful journey through the woods!

The newest playtime now is the horseshoe pits that were put in with their visit!

The plan is to clean up this area for a L-shaped pergola that will house the BQ's for Donald's cooking.

The firepit was moved & made larger too, making it closer to the BQ area for nighttime entertaining.

Bill is fixing another lawnmower deck, it has become a joke now that every mower that Donald has used has broken. He walks into Green Diamond John Deere center & they look at him and ask what he has broken now & what part is needed. lol

Before Mitch left, Bill, Donald, & Nick went out with Miramichi Outfitters for a fishing adventure. Mitch caught a striped bass that is now in our freezer! It was fun had by all!

This BOW is now done! It is a Little Red Hen called Jacl O' Lantern, it's wool/flannel applique on a cotton background & borders. The bottom right binding has been sewn & it's waiting for a hanger to be cut & soon will be hung.

When Bill was in Holland a few weeks ago, Donald & I had the surprise of horses in the backyard!

They had broken through their electric fence & were enjoying the run of the backyard!

Beautiful animals!!

They always stayed together with the ringleader leading them. lol

The owners were at work & their neighbour jumped in to gather them.

They thought about the oats in the red pail but the freedom was better!

Then the ringleader was roped up & they walked down my laneway & around the corner where they lived. It was an exciting morning for all of us!

The ditch was too deep for them to go back through, so the long way around...going down the lane.

Again another beautiful day for all!

The furbabies are enjoying the cooler days, for Baxter, he is warmed with my sweater that he pulled off the back of the chair & curled into. lol

Gordo loves to sleep under my sewing chair & uses the leg for his headrest. Having him there holds my chair in place as I spin around to use the ironing board or cutting mat. lol

Gordo has also taken to sleeping under Bill's desk. He was in one of his Zoom meetings & Gordo's snoring was so loud that people had to ask if that was snoring that they were hearing. lol

Gordo reminds me of a soft walrus! LOL, he is such a gentle creature & has fit right in with all three furbabies of mine.

The couch is a base place when we watch TV at night, Donald usually snuggles up with him before their bedtime. Gordo now goes up to his crate in their bedroom if he is too tired to wait for Donald.

The Vintage Bee BOW is done too!

Rose did a beautiful job on the quilting. I use the Country Rose pattern on Lori Holt's patterns, I think it compliments her designs.

Binding & buttons are needed to finish it off!

It's not a very good pic but I made the crow from a 1994 Simplicity pattern. It's something I wanted to do for a few years now & I'm happy with how it turned out, I changed a few things like keeping the beak black rather than gold/yellow & adding leather feet to finish her off. It was from a Costco leather coat purchased back in the 90s too.

This was the sunset the night before Hurricane Lee. It was stunningly beautiful & I worried what was in store for us. We were spared this time with no trees coming down or losing our electricity, others were not so lucky.

We only had rain & winds, the map made us fearful but lucky again the North Atlantic waters & land slowed it down by the time it reached us.

An Exciting find at Crystal's Emporium!

A first Canadian edition! It is hard to believe that in two years Winnie the Pooh will be turning 100 years old! I have always loved Winnie the Pooh & was so delighted to hear that the bear was real & came from Winnipeg! Mitch & Nicole purchased the history book for me when they drove through Manitoba in 2017. It was a gift for my 60th birthday surprise visit & boy was it a surprise!!

So finding this treasure made my heart sing.

I was gifted some cucumbers so I made a batch of Lady Ashburn Pickle Relish for the winter. I stopped having a tomato garden after learning that my arthritis was made worse with tomatoes. I loved tomatoes & ate them in a different form nearly every other day. The pain is so much better without them, you do have to pick your battles to have a good balance in life.

Thank you for visiting to the end. I know I've been quite negligent with blogging. 

It seems life is busier & days are shorter.

And the reminder of my gingerbread countdown is on! Such a sweet birthday gift from Nick & Leslie, they know me too well! xXx

When you make Christmas gifts you have to start early & I've taken a table at the 8th Annual Christmas Bazaar in  Baie-Ste-Anne for Nov 4th, sew much to do until then. I'll share with you some of the items next blog. 

Thank you so much for dropping in for a virtual visit & those who have dropped in for a personal visit!

Until the next blog stay safe & healthy as we move into the beautiful Autumn season of colour!

Cynthia xXx