Road trip continues

 Crossing over into Tennessee, we are now on interstate highways: lots of 18 wheelers, less green nice scenery, some dogwood trees and redbud trees.  Rather boring drive now!  Perfect time to knit without distraction. I’m working on socks from bits of stash. 

Across the Mississippi River bridge into Memphis—we spy downtown and Tennessee welcome center

Area for Elvis, King of Rock and Roll

And blues musician, B B King.  

We tune our music to some Elvis and BB King blues. 

Tennessee has many state parks, civil war battle fields, Land Between the Lakes, lots of state police patrolling the Interstate!  

Nashville!!  Music City!!  We do not stop this trip. 

Onward to our night destination—Lexington, KY.  

We enjoy our dinner in the hotel lobby.  Earlier in the day, we had purchased spinach salad, bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon, cheese/meat tray, etc.  it was a treat to enjoy the small meal along with our Texas wine.  We brought along several variety of Girl Scout cookies to pair with a white and red wine. Yum! Yum! 

The next morning we left hotel @ 7 AM drive to Buffalo Trace Distillery;  arrived @ 8 to reserve place in line for bourbon special of the day.  Each day a different bourbon is presented to those in line, with wristband.  It’s interesting wait, make new friends as we wait.  Once open, line moves quickly inside to receive our wristbands—boom, you’re ready to hit gift shop and or take a tour.  Some tours require a reservation. 

Products sign featured for day is located on the entry door of the gift shop.  So many things you can buy!  

The day is still early, which gives us the opportunity to continue to Williamstown, KY and our major destination—Noah’s Arc!  

Road trip!!

Nothing like a road trip!

 The car is packed!  All four of us found our place in the car—driver, navigator/educator ride in front; two more in the back seat—I’m happy to ride as a back seater so my hands can be flying with yarn through my fingers!  I’ll get some knitting finished is my goal. 

If you are the front seat navigator/educator, it is your duty and responsibility to keep other passengers abreast of any road side attractions, historical markers, wildflower sightings, places of interest and of course, it is their duty to find good places to rest stop and eat. 

Back seat riders can heckle, taunt, bring attention to any wrong turns; and nap!  After two or three hours, we’ll swap seat assignments. 

Our trip takes us northeast—across Texas!  Hopefully, we’ll make our first night lodging in good time—it’s a must to have some wine and snacks before dinner time. 

First stop—load up on breakfast tacos from our favorite taco truck—Tex Taco.  Just a little off the beaten path but oh so good!  

We’re on back roads through Texas.  So many quaint, interesting small towns along the way.  One stop for lunch was Jefferson, TX.  We chose Caddo Lake Eatery—there was a pot of pinto beans on the back table, sign—“one bowl per person”  yum! Yum!  Menu item was cornbread salad!  One order was cornbread square for our beans!  We walked short three blocks to double deck red bus for cupcake creations. 

We had a good history lesson about this small Texas town.

On the road again—arriving to our destination. First night stop in Little Rock, Arkansas.  What to eat here?  Always the question!! 

Possum pie!  Oh my! Possum? Really?  Not really—possum pie is a rich chocolatey dessert—

For breakfast—chocolate gravy over biscuits!  No way!  But, I’ll try it once. 

Onward we go—

Preparing

 Preparing for Easter!!  First—we must plan our menu

Second—issue an invite.   Third—learn how to boil an egg.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it;  boiled eggs are the star of Easter and they need to be center stage.  

Got to have boiled eggs for dyeing, right?  Yes, boiled eggs get a pretty shiny coat of color before we mash them for egg salad, deviled eggs, potato salad, nicoise salad, pickled eggs, Cobb salad, etc etc etc

Learn to boil an egg!!  What method to use?  Instapot?  Boiling water on stovetop? Air fryer? Oven?  Coffee maker?  Add baking soda or salt to water?  Poke small hole in egg shell? 

Once cooked—will the egg peel easily?  Too many means to an end for peeling!  Favorite way?  Mine way is to put in glass jar, seal with lid and shake, shake with hopes the egg shell will loosen completely!  Good luck with your method. 

So many questions—just to have a boiled egg for Easter!!

Ok—what else is on the menu?  Hot Cross Buns—definitely!  All the essential Spring items—asparagus,  green peas with new potatoes, ham, lamb chops, baby carrots, green beans…….

And I have this pretty dish for those devilish eggs!

Menu solved—now, what to put in the youngsters’ baskets?  

A visit to Joann’s fabric store helped with that situation!  Most every item was discounted—bonus!

The 2.5 yr old great grandson will love this walking bunny that poops jelly beans.

Found two new Crayola for my collection—love these!

Another basket item for 2.5 yr—

And for the 13 month old baby, this!!

And of course, plastic eggs filled with various candies, cookies, treats. 

That’s alllllll folks!!

Just Can’t!!

 It’s been almost two weeks since time change and I just can’t get my body turned around to adjust.  I know it’s only an hour BUT it’s that hour ‘jump’ ahead that gets me!!  I had the routine down pat, after that fall back change took place last fall.  I admit, it took For-ever, though!!!  Of course, when I get use to losing that hour, it will be time to Fall Back!  Really? 

I just can’t get over—March is half way gone!  That’s what happens when you get older—time goes faster and faster, even when you’re sitting still. 

There are decisions being made about food buying and watching our budget.  Just can’t get over the price of some things.  Now, that warmer weather is arriving, we’ll eat more salads; which brings the mind to making our own salad dressings.  

One of my gifted birthday presents was this handy dandy immersion blender—mixes well in small amounts, just what is needed for salad dressings.  

The other night we had grilled Romaine Lettuce with Caesar dressing. I wanted to make the original kind using anchovies, coddled egg yolk—no mayo as some recipes added. 

Usually, you mash the anchovies in a garlic rubbed wooden bowl—just can’t imagine me doing that; besides, our kitchen isn’t equipped with such a bowl.  Into the little blender went the anchovies, coddled egg yolk, garlic, whole grain mustard, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire, olive oil—give it a whirl, taste and adjust to your taste!  

Hubby grilled the Romaine lettuce (cut in half with core intact.). Once off the grill, we squeeze lemon juice over the lettuce, sprinkle with salt and pepper, pour over our homemade dressing and top with fresh grated Parmesan cheese.  Tasty! 

And that’s just what we can’t do without—homemade salad dressings!!

Let’s Give it a Try!

 I most often give some things a try.  The headline stated—“most delicious dessert—so simple  and delicious”. I didn’t doubt the word delicious when I looked at the you tube video BUT then came ingredients list and step by step—not simple by any means.  Yes! Delicious it would be with dark and milk chocolate, whip cream, cream cheese, peanuts, and the list went on and on!  

Needless to say, after the first step of coating a ridged plastic box with melted chocolate, I gave up!  Nope—not simple enough for me! 

Melva loves Scraps blog post for her 2024 quilt along, she stated she was making this project “quilt as you go” I’ll try that!  We are unable to use our local quilt shops long arm machines by ourselves.  I need help getting some tops quilted.  I'm ready to try this method.

In my research, I found several different methods to quilt as you go.  Here is some idea of what is involved. 

There are many different ways you can do this, but the basic idea is all pretty much the same: you stack your pieced block, with batting and backing cut to the same size, sandwich them together and quilt them first, and then actually join blocks together.

Here is one way to complete smaller projects.  I'm interested in trying Melva's way to complete a much larger top.  

Years ago, our quilt group had a brilliant quilter who had her way to quilt as you go.  I did try that method.  She made her garments and small quilts reversible.  

Let's give Melva's method a try!

That Was The Week It Was!

 Whew!  That was an interesting week!  Hubby was in another location while I held down the home front.  Our grandson and his bride took a vacation and I was in charge of their Great Dane for 5 days! She doesn’t like to be crated at night but will curl into a ball and sleep on the sofa.  Okay, I can deal with that.  She is crated if I leave the house to do errands. Our great grandson stayed with his Oma and they stopped by often to visit.  Couple days we went out to lunch. 

I was able to keep up with the daily Lent meditation by knitting each section of the scarf first thing I do; that is a blessing.  In the evening I’m knitting Glittering sock pattern by Stephen West.  

Been weaving too! Yep—just throwing the shuttle with my hand spun cotton thru that shed, until I look to see misses!  Unweave! Back to no skipped warp—investigate to find reason—guess I could leave it as a design element—NOT! 

March dishcloth pattern designed by Galene of Kitchen Sink Shop

Beginning March 7 Melva will have the first block of her Pieces of my Life 2024

And how for the charity quilt block 2024 from Fat Quarter Shop--Moon Beams,  Each block is available free each month; request a donation to their charity of the year.  There is also a stitch along.

Check out this sew along with fat quarter shoppe—free!!

Did some spinning as well to finish off a length of green cotton sliver.  That could be the last of green—certain optimistic! Because, fiber has been known to multiply secretly while stored away!  

I was right!  Walking into my fiber closet, look what I found!  Yes!  More green cotton sliver along with white cotton!  Shut the door and let it grow! 

Did get two bobbins of green cotton plied! 

Whatever you enjoy doing, be sure to enjoy each and every moment!

Shop Hop! Hop! Hop!

 

Our state is having a state wide shop hop in March and April.  There is NO way I"ll be able to make it around the WHOLE state, but can stop in those that we travel through or in our neighborhood.  The booklet is worth the price as it includes six patterns--mostly using their featured fabrics, but patterns can use any type or color of fabric.

I'll keep you posted on our Shop HOP around the state!

This is the featured panel.  I ordered my fabric when the notice first came out.  Now, this month and next, I'll look forward to visiting shops on this HOP!

One of the patterns in the book used boots (pattern in booklet).  I thought about this set of patterns I bought in 2012 and hadn't worked them up.  Out of sight out of mind.  The pattens are unusual and unique

Like this one--all the boots are created with a designer in mind.  Looking at the pattern, I wondered how on earth would you make this boot out of fabric?  My mind went instantly to applique--raw applique!  I'll use fusible to create these boots--the flying geese can be paper pieced.

I'm Hopping around my studio and came across these usable pieces of flannel--these will make at least another one or two baby blankets.

I've had this book for while--love these books!  Something to collect and sometimes use.

Another collection for raw edge applique.  Better buy a bolt of fusible!