Knitting, Knitting, Knitting

Me with my dear parents, Mumpy and Plumpy

While visiting my parents recently my mom got me knitting again! Mom has recently got into knitting socks for herself and Dad.

Mom knitting a sock for my dad

We took a trip to Joann Fabrics in Tavares, FL and mom purchased more sock yarn and told me to pick a color I liked, so I did.

cuff coming along nicely, but the needles are too small

Mom purchased several colors of sock yarn, she sent me 

home with more yarn, I started a second pair of socks this week using the gray, red, blue, brown yarn. 

We returned home and some serious knitting began. The double pointed needles my mom gave me to use we decided were too small, 2.75 mm, after I had knitted several inches of sock cuff. So mom ordered more needles, they arrived the next day. I started my sock again on 3.25 mm needles, perfect! 

second start on 3.25 mm needles

I knitted away for two evenings, down the cuff, turned the heel and proceeded to knit the foot of the sock.  I picked up my knitting a little bit before lunch one day and finished knitting to the toe, I put the knitting down ready to finish the sock after lunch. Imagine my horror when I came back to my knitting only to find that Mr. Wolfti had enjoyed the bamboo double pointed knitting needles for his lunch! Most of the sock was still intact but the needles were pretty much non-existent. Thank goodness for my Mom, she took over, undid several rows of knitting, picked back up and sorted the stitches out on the three needles and handed back to me to finish. This pair of socks will always have a fun memory associated with them of naughty Mr. Wolfti and Mom coming to the rescue.

A contrite Mr. Wolfti

All is forgiven Mr. Wolfti

 I am thankful to say that the mate to this sock, knitted when I returned home, did not have such an adventure in it's making. These socks will always be special to me.

 Grandchild update: Can you believe it, grandson Harrison is walking, he was just ten months old on July 6, he is growing up way too fast. Such a cutie pie, he is so adored by his sisters and cousins.

Our youngest grandson Harrison walking to our eldest grandson Henry

Keeping Busy

For the past six weeks or so I have been occupied with a knitting project, four sweaters for our youngest four grandsons. Yesterday I finished the final sweater for Peter, he was very pleased with it. What a great smile Sweet Pete has! The other sweaters are pictured in an earlier post.

I enjoy knitting, it is handiwork that is portable, somewhat mindless unless at a tricky bit in a pattern, and satisfying as a project is completed. I think knitting teaches me patience, it is a calming activity.

I am now ready for a new project, one that does not involve knitting. Last April I popped down to Florida for a couple of days to visit my parents. While there my mother, who discovered the joys of quilting several years ago, gave me the quilt top pictured below for me to finish.  I will purchase a light green print fabric for the backing, a yellow fabric, solid or patterned for the binding, and batting for the middle. Once I have put the quilt together I will hand quilt.

Quilt top on the bed in our spare room, my childhood teddy bear Andrew, and Puppy Love keep a loving eye on it.

I find hand quilting to be very relaxing. I can work on the quilt most days, quilt for ten minutes or a few hours. I enjoy seeing my progress. I like to work out the quilting pattern, will I do straight lines, curves, shapes, what will I do in the borders, what color thread will I use, it is a creative process, one I enjoy, and one that I find meditative. Often when I am making a quilt for a specific person, they are in my mind as I hand quilt their quilt and I find myself offering up prayer for them, I like this aspect of quilting.

It is good to have things to do in the winter, and this month our weather has been atrocious, limiting outdoor activities. First we had snow, then extreme sub-zero temperatures, followed by a week of fairly nice weather. Then snow, then an overnight ice-storm, thankfully the ice melted the following day as there was a heavy coating on everything. The ice-storm caused a tree to fall on the power lines leaving our area without power for six or so hours, the house stayed warm enough but was getting quite chilly by the time the power did come on. Then in the evening the wind started, we were under a wind advisory all night, strong winds buffeted our house with gusts to forty-five miles per hour. Thank heavens the ice coating had melted or a lot of trees would have been damaged. It was a noisy night, and this morning it is still very blustery with snow. Oh, how we all are looking forward to spring.

How is it in your corner of the world?

Namaste,

Bean

Lentils, Sweaters, One-Eyed Cat, Family, and Reading, Oh My!

Do you own a Rice Cooker? Well if you do, don't just limit yourself to only using it for rice. I decided to try cooking lentils in my Rice Cooker, and I am so glad I did, the lentils cooked up perfectly, and I didn't have to worry about them boiling dry and burning in the pan. I am quite sure any grain would be good to cook in the Rice Cooker, Quinoa seems like a perfect grain to try. And, I am thinking about trying a very basic rice pudding with some almond milk and rice, I will give it a whirl and see how it turns out. As they say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

A little pot of lentils

Knitting project continues on, now three sweaters are completed, and I am working hard to finish the final blue sweater for Peter. Pictured are Masen, George, and Ralph modeling their new homemade sweaters - they seemed really pleased with them.

Masen

George

Ralph

About seven or so years ago we had a one-eyed stray cat show up, she was thin and obviously very hungry,  so we fed her some beaten eggs. Later I ran to the store to purchase cat food and we have fed her ever since. We named her, very originally, (NOT), One-Eye. She is a fixture around our place, hangs out on our deck and front porch most of the day, prowls our field hunting small rodents, she is a very good hunter despite the handicap of a missing eye, and seems to have made her home in our barn. One-Eye is well fed, by us, and other neighbors, and each neighbor has their own name for her. In mid-January we had a heavy snowfall, I saw One-Eye wading through the snow on our deck to eat her food and that was the last time I saw her. After a week or so we assumed the worst, after all she is an older cat, and an outdoor cat, her life is not as cushy as it would be for an indoor cat. I was sad about her possible death and missed her morning visit to the back door. On Saturday morning when I was out on my run I said my final farewells to One-Eye. Later that day I was out and about when I received a text from my husband, One-Eye was back! WOW - how happy the news made me!!!
I am not sure where she was for two weeks, perhaps someone shut her inside for a couple of weeks to shelter her from the weather, if so I am very glad that they did. One-Eye is not a people person cat, she does not like to be petted or picked up, and she is not a fan of the indoors, once in a while she comes in, but she wants back out within a few minutes. 
I am so happy to be back into our normal routine with One-Eye, she appears at the back door every morning, I feed her, then she hangs out on the deck and the front porch most of the day, she likes to sit by the backdoor and look at us. Yesterday it was raining hard so I placed her food dish just inside the back door and after a bit of coaxing she stepped over the threshold to eat her food.  Masen and Ralph were very excited that One-Eye was in the house, I must say I was impressed with her tolerance towards their little boy exuberant expressions of love towards her, and Ralph even tried a little cat food for himself, YUCK! 
I think she is glad to be back :)

Last Saturday, after a week of brutal cold, it was nice to enjoy a very warm February day, it was in the low forties and the sun was shining! I met up at a local Coney Dog cafe with our son Matt, and our son Ben and his wife Taylor, I was watching our daughter Amber's five boys, so we had a total of eight grandchildren to dine with, I think everyone had a good time. I did, although I did not partake of a hot dog, I did enjoy a few french fries.

And, last but not least, this is the book I am currently reading, Death and The Dancing Footman by Ngaio Marsh, I am enjoying it. A murder mystery, it is fairly obvious who the murderer is from the get go, but that doesn't spoil the story, it enhances it. I liken this story to the came of Clue, just a fun little puzzler.

My Mom the Amazing Knitting Great Grandma!

My Mom spent the weeks leading up to Christmas on a fantastic knitting project, nine sweaters for her nine great grandchildren! Don't they look splendid. (The sweaters and the kids).

Around The House November 2018

Wow November blew by. It was a very, very cloudy month, and we had more little daily dusting's of snow than I can ever remember for this time of the year.

We celebrated two birthdays, Alivia was 6 and Ralph was 2. And of course we celebrated Thanksgiving.

All the grandchildren at Ralph's birthday party

I am keeping up on my reading and have a stack of books to keep me reading for several more weeks. I am knitting again, and recently finished a sweater and hat for Dolly Dingle and started a sweater for Masen and plan to knit a sweater for Peter, George, and Ralph. All that knitting will keep me busy for a while.

Dolly Dingle in her new sweater and hat

A sweater my talented mother knitted years ago.

Every Wednesday Masen, Ralph, and any other grandchildren who are over enjoy a trip to story time at our local branch library in Grabill, it is a nice little outing with story time, a craft and some playtime, and grandma can pick up any books that I may have on hold.

Masen and Ralph all bundled up to go to story time

I am busy getting ready for Christmas. I baked a fruit cake, traditional English fruit cake, for my parents, I purchased the marzipan for it yesterday and will put that on the cake in another week. I decided to make our Christmas crackers, they are expensive and I need twenty-four, so far it has gone well, eight made and they look alright.

Homemade Christmas Crackers

We have planned a Breakfast with Santa on December 16th. My dad gave his Santa suit to my oldest son Matt when my parents moved to Florida. On the big day everyone will show up for breakfast at ten-thirty (brunch really), this way no one need miss Mass. After a fun breakfast, sausage, hash browns, waffles and eggs, with orange juice and chocolate milk, my son Matt will disappear and Santa will appear! WOW how magical is that? We will have a small gift for each grandchild. The younger kids are so excited that Santa is coming to grandpa and grandma's house, it warms my heart.

Peter the marshmallow king

Tonight, December 5th, St. Nicholas comes, I made little treat bags for all grandchildren, with chocolate coins and candy canes, the treat bags are going home with the parents and the children have all been instructed to put their shoe outside their bedroom door before going to bed. My kids loved this tradition growing up. Best to be a good kid, because naughty children get a lump of coal.

We put our tree up a week ago, I purchased a real one, it is short needled and I really like it. To remember to water it I re-purposed a wine bottle to be a tree waterer. I keep the bottle next to the sink as a reminder. The wine bottle is the perfect shape to reach through the branches to the water container beneath the tree.

And finally, a couple miscellaneous pictures.

Found this in the junk drawer, oh how long ago.

One Eye the Cat, the stray who adopted our family.

Kimchi Experimentation and a Book Review

2 Quarts of Kimchi

I purchased a small jar of kimchi so I could try it, and I found it very pleasant, very flavorful, a nice little addition to a meal. I looked at several recipes online and just kind of cobbled them together to make my own vat. So this is how I made mine, can't tell you how it tastes as it now needs to sit for three days and ferment.

I took two heads of napa cabbage and mixed in 1 cup of coarse salt and then covered everything with water, placed a plate on top of the cabbage to weight it down, covered the bowl with saran wrap, and then set the bowl in the basement overnight. This morning I drained and very thoroughly rinsed the Napa cabbage. I cut up 8 ounces of daikon radish into matchstick size pieces, finely chopped ginger, probably 2 ounces, a bunch of green onions chopped, a few leaves of mustard greens chopped, 2 tablespoons of garlic, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and almost half a cup of ground red pepper. I mixed everything together for a while, then jammed the whole lot into a half gallon mason jar. The jar is now sitting in the fridge and I will leave it alone for three days and hopefully have some good tasting kimchi on Tuesday. My Kimchi is vegan, I did not had fish sauce, or shrimp sauce, this is a standard ingredient in most Kimchi, I also did not add soy sauce as I didn't want to continue to boost the salt level of the mixture.

Kimchi is good for gut health as the fermentation process produces good microbes for your gut, a little bit goes a long way, it sure is a powerhouse of flavors, and it will keep indefinitely in the fridge. I assume it will just become more flavorful the longer it sits.

 Granddaughter Alivia in her "bright stripe" sweater

I finished the sweater I was knitting for Alivia, I like how it turned out, I have started a second sweater for little sister Aubrey.

Bean - Book Reviewer

I mentioned in my last post that I finished reading Fall of the Giants by Ken Follett. I would now like to review the book.

I was not a big fan of the characters in the book, they were so obviously plot devices to be the eyes of each major historical event, and they continually kept crossing each others paths in a way that seemed unbelievable, and of course one or more where always present at all major historical events during the time period covered. But that said, I feel that I learned a lot about WW1, and other political issues going on during that time period.

I learned a lot about the suffragettes and how initially only women age 30 or older, who owned property worth more than five pounds, and/or were married to a man who owned property at the value or more were finally allowed the right to vote in 1918, in fact the 100 year anniversary just occurred and I knew what a battle that limited right was, and all thanks to the book I read.

I learned that the average working man did not have the right to vote, all decisions favored the wealthy and they had all of the power and all of the say in the governing of Great Britain, and unsurprisingly laws favored the wealthy and did nothing for the working man but keep him poor and in his place.

I learned that WW1 was a war started for no really good reason, and it kind of ran out of steam because no one really knew what they wanted as an end result. The average working man had no say whatsoever about going into war and they were literally slaughtered by the tens of thousands in a completely unnecessary war. 

I learned a lot about the Russian revolution, how desperately impoverished the Russian people were under the thumb of the Tsars, and how they managed to unseat the Tsars and to get in new leadership, the Soviets (a word that means council) only to find that for the most part they were no better off. I guess as they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

So, I would recommend this book because it is jam packed with historical facts, it shows the impact of historical events on the elite, middle class and working poor, and sadly makes you realize that 100 years later the world is still just as confusing and power hungry as it ever was.

I will be starting the 2nd book in the trilogy in the next week or two and will review when finished.

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Odds and Ends

Good morning,

Well I am doing well with my New Year resolutions, I should say we are doing well, as Dave and I are both doing dry January, and it is going very, very well.

It has been a strange winter so far, it started snowing on Christmas Eve, then arctic air descended on Indiana and for two weeks it was sub-zero, including one morning where we awoke to a low of -13, that day the high reached about 2 degrees, BRRRR. On Sunday the weather started to change, we have had more normal highs of upper twenties to low thirties, today we are going to reach the mid forties, and tomorrow the mid fifties. As they say in Indiana, if you don't like the weather stick around a day or two as it will change!

This morning I went onto Facebook and saw an event advertised, The Indianapolis Veg Fest, it is FREE (bonus) and on Saturday, March 31, I asked Dave if he wanted to go and he said he would go with me, he is definitely not vegan :) he is a good guy and always supportive of me.

Yesterday on YouTube I found a great song by the poet Benjamin Zephaniah, it should be the vegan anthen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8UfTJoFr9w . If you have never read any Benjamin Zephaniah poetry, well you should, it is excellent, I have listened to a few interviews on BBC radio with BZ, he is an interesting man, very salt of the earth.

At the moment I am knitting a couple of sweaters for my two granddaughters, I am using a very bright variegated yarn and am enjoying the way the yarn knits up.

I am reading a book by Ken Follett, Fall of Giants, an almost 1000 page novel, but such a page turner, I just started it a few days ago and am already half way through. A epic saga about WW1, a mix of romance, family upheaval, and historical fact about how WW1 began and all of the behind the scene political maneuvering that ultimately pushed everyone into the war, it is very interesting. My big take away so far is here we are one hundred years later and NOTHING has changed. Those at the top make decisions that keep them at the top and wealthy, the rest of us are to a large extent simply pulled to and fro by the decisions of the elite. Well that is depressing, sorry about that.

No caption required! HAH!!

Well not too much else going on this week.

Peace be with you,

Bean

Knitting and Bread Making - What else is a girl to do on cold winter days?

Well as the title to this post suggests, I have been busy knitting and making bread. We had such a cold February, and March began with five inches of snow and very cold temperatures, but today is the last day of super cold and boy am I glad to know things are warming up. Even with the cold, cold weather it is nice to see the day light hours lengthening, and my thoughts turn to the garden, what we will plant, where we will plant, I can't wait to get outside to play in the mud.

Anyway, back to knitting, I have been on a roll lately. First I made myself a new cardigan knitted in a bright and cheerful variegated yarn, I love the way the colors knitted into stripes and I very pleased with the end result. This must be my winter of variegated yarn, I knitted Alivia a very colorful sweater in a primary color variegated yarn and will be making Charlie a matching sweater next. Next week I will see my mom and will borrow from her a pattern for a zippered, hoodie sweater, I plan to knit one for myself in the same variegated yarn I am using for Alivia and Charlie's sweaters. Henry asked for a sweater too, I may end up making all grand babies the colorful variegated sweater, boy will we look a riot of color if we all go out and about together. 

I really love browsing the knitting books at our library and found a gem of a pattern book recently, Baby Knits Made Easy, I am LOVING this book and will order a copy for my very own. I knitted baby Aubrey a ballet wrap cardigan and am working on a matching one for Alivia. I then made a long, striped cap for Emily's new baby, grandbaby #7,  who is due on August 8, (Dave's birthday, which he already shares with our son Ben, and our grandson Peter!!).  

It was nice to bake bread on Wednesday, I decided to do a double batch and ended up with 9 loaves, the grand babies devoured the first loaf and the rest went to the freezer. Kneading bread is very relaxing, the aroma of baking bread is awesome, the taste of fresh baked, warm from the oven bread is amazing. And along with all of the delights of the bread making, baking, tasting is the cozy warm kitchen. 

Some Memories From My Mother

Recently I was listening to an interview on BBC Radio 4 with author David Lodge. It was an interesting interview and David sounded as though he is in his thirties rather than in his early eighties. Anyway, I thought to myself if the author is so interesting what must his books be like? I did a quick search on our local library website and wowsers they own many titles by David Lodge. I left work that day and headed to our fabulous downtown library, (we truly have a most wonderful library service in our county, I think one of the best in the country), I quickly located David Lodge in Readers Services and selected four of his books to read.
 I am reading the first of the four David Lodge books, I am most of the way done, I seem to have very little time to get reading in, but it is very good. In fact, I thought to myself, self your mother would really, really enjoy this book, so I emailed good old Mumpy and said you have to read this book. Wow, when I speak Mumpy jumps and she looked the book up on Amazon and ordered it. Mumpy read the book in about two days flat, she sent me email updates, to say she enjoyed it is a bit of an understatement.
The author is five or so years older than my parents, but they all grew up while World War II waged on, and all were impacted by rationing and the austerity of 1950's Britain. In the book the author is lucky enough to take a trip to Heidelberg, Germany and to experience the American way of life at an American military base, my parents moved our family to America in the late 70's. For the author, and for my parents, the American lifestyle was something unimaginable in England and life changing for all of them..
By now your are wondering to yourselves what has all of this to do with the title of my post, well a lot. As I mentioned my Mom emailed me several times as she read the book, it so resonated with her, it resonates with me too and I was born way after the end of World War II. So below I will, with my Mom's permission share her memories she emailed to me. I just loved her emails and want to keep them forever, and posting them on my blog is a great way to keep them available for many years to come.

Email #1
It arrived in the mail today.  Good golly does that not bring back 
memories.  Of course, I was five years younger being born in 1939 - But
I surely remember the anderson shelters, the mickey mouse gas masks and
the morrison shelters. And, just when I thought he had forgotten about
shrapnel collecting, there it was.  I remember so well, going into the
street after an air raid and finding the warm twisted pieces of metal
laying in the road.   Just got as far as the buzz bombs!   It is
extremely readable and brings back a lot of memories.  House across the
street from where my mom and I lived was bombed just after we left to
stay at Auntie Edna's for the rest of the war.

Email #2
How well it resonates.  I am in Heidelberg now.  The visits to the
American stores reminds me of when we first came to America.  We were
overwhelmed by the variety of goods, food, et al and the inexpensiveness
of it all.  Not that we had any excess of money by any means as you will
well recall.  But we did eat a lot better and it certainly was reflected
in the waistline. Our very first bedroom set I believe is the one that
you and Dave sleep in was on sale of course. Unbelievable. You will
remember how we rushed out to every sale at 25% off. Sales only occurred
in Uk in January and August and then it would only be 10% off.  When I
worked at Clement Jocelyn in Bury they would trot out the remnant fabric
and offer it at 10% discount and any that did not sell went back into
the store room to be trotted out six months later at 10% once more.
Also  I remember Jim Miller here, in America. We were invited over for
July 4th, he placed an enormous steak on my plate which was great and
when I was half way through and struggling he threw another steak  on to
my plate.  "Oh no I cried, thank you but this is great and is far too
much".  He did no more than lift the steak from my plate and put it into
the dog's dish.  The dog really appreciated it. I had not eaten steak in
at least three years......I was horrified. Also, I had not had a glass
of wine in three years either!

After Marika was born, things went downhill fast in UK. Inflation went
to 28%.  Our mortgage was linked to the bank rate. That went to over
17%.  Every month a letter came indicating that we could pay the same
which would mean we would never ever pay off the loan because it would
go to infinity or, we could pay the stated amount and stay on track.  We
agreed we would stay on track. Each month we had to pay more money which
meant less money for other things like a bottle of wine on a Saturday
night and a steak.  That was why we invested in the digging machine and
were planting potatoes and growing green beans.  We severely rationed
our intake of meat. The reason I knitted everything and made as many
things as I could was because that was the most inexpensive thing to do.
Clothing was expensive.  I saved the family allowance for your new
school uniforms each year - I did not dare spend it on day to day stuff
because the start of the school year was expensive and I did not want
you guys not to have new stuff for the new school year.
America was a wonderful opportunity for us and I remember when I was
first in Fort Wayne, all be it in the blizzard of 78, I felt a sense of
freedom more than I had ever known.  It was down to us. We could sit on
our behinds and starve, or, we could stand up and make a life.  Our
choice.  It was a great feeling.  And, by golly we sure faced a
challenge when Pete lost his job at Bowmar. Thank goodness for the $2000
rainy day fund I stored in the bank.  Thank goodness for my sewing
machine in the basement - I think I shortened every guys pair of pants
in the neighborhood at $4 a go. It was a tough three years.  Pete, lived
out of his car in Florida since we could not afford for him to live
anywhere.  He could not get a job in his field of expertise because he
was not a citizen and had to take what he could.  But you know all of
this and I am chattering on.  But, not once did we want to return to
UK.  We were determined one way or another we will make this work and we
did.

We have a wonderful family and we built a successful business - what
more could anyone want.  Even today, apart from visiting there is no way
I would want to live in UK. Our, "out of the shelter" is definitely here.

I just love these emails, I remember our life in England in the 70's but never realized that my parents were pinching every penny until it screamed, I remember a pleasant childhood, a wonderful garden, cool dresses my mom made for us, and one time some really cool pink fur parkas, and lots of lovely knitted items. I certainly have no negative memories of this time at all, because as an adult, I sew my own clothes and sew for my grandchildren, I knit all the time for myself and grandchildren, my husband and I keep a large garden. One of my favorite shows from the 70's is  The Good Life, a show about a suburban couple who decide to become self-sufficient in Surbiton, a suburb of London, I liked it because my parents kind of did the thing, except my Dad worked and did everything else in his spare time. Maybe a lot of people in England did this sort of thing in the 70's, even if they didn't, it was a great experience for our family and has given me many good memories.

Anyway if you want to read a good book check out, Out of the Shelter by David Lodge.

Blessings to you,

Bean

Little Nothings

Well here we are almost at the end of January, it is cold, it is snowy, yet the mornings are crisp, still, icy cold and beautiful in a way only a January morning can be. We have had some warmer days giving us a glimpse of spring time, but are quickly reminded again that we are in the middle of winter. When the weather cooperates I like to get out and walk, I have really increased my speed and last Saturday did four miles in fifty-eight minutes. I need to slowly incorporate jogging, as I plan to run a four mile Turkey Gobbler Fun Run in November!

I haven't been very busy with crafts/hobbies this winter, I think I blew myself out after crocheting an extremely large bedspread for our queen size bed. The large, very warm, marigold blanket has been a wonderful addition to our bed and we stay warm and cozy all night. There is a picture of the blanket in an earlier post.

But all of sudden I have an urge to knit, I saw a lady on a tv show wearing a nice colorful sweater, obviously hand knitted and thought to myself why have I never knitted myself something in variegated yarn, and got really psyched up about knitting something. I went off to JoAnn's and found a lovely yarn by Deborah Norville, it is knitting up beautifully. I decided to use a pattern that I used several years ago to make a "barn jacket", the cardigan I knitted way back when, in a lovely blue is a favorite and I wear it often. I started my new "barn jacket" two days ago and cannot wait to finish it, it is good to be back in my knitting groove, or should I say row :).  Along with yarn for my cardigan I picked up some primary color, variegated yarn to knit matching sweaters for grandchildren, Alivia and Charlie, they are both two and are best friends forever! I think they will look very sweet together in their matching sweaters, they are just so cute, they always greet each other with a hug and they play together very well getting up to all kinds of shenanigans that generally include much giggling, so sweet.

Working on the back of my new cardigan

Last fall I started suffering a lot of heel pain in my right foot, I believe I was suffering plantar fasciitis, it was very painful first thing in the morning, or after sitting for any length of time. I did a bit of research and determined that the best course of action was to find shoes that provided excellent arch support and plenty of cushioning and support for the heel. I researched funky orthopaedic shoes, I didn't want anything boring, and came across a brand called Alegria. I ordered a pair of Alegria shoes, my first pair had a purple flower print, and I cannot tell you just how comfortable they are, I wore them pretty much every day for several months and my heel simply got better, so ordered another pair, neon heart pattern, and I will probably order more as needed. One issue I had with the Alegria shoes is that they squeak when you walk, it is annoying, a little more internet research and I found a remedy. Simply remove the insert, sprinkle some talcum powder over the bottom of it and then holding the insert upside down and the shoe, place the insert back inside the shoe. The upside down bit helps keep the powder where it needs to be. Well this simple remedy works a treat and resolved the squeak! Another treat for my feet, are my new Mahabi slippers that my sister Michelle gave me for Christmas, when we celebrated in November. They are simply the most comfortable slippers I have ever owned and they are my go to pair every day, light weight, well fitting, comfortable and warm, what more could I ask for?

Mahabis, best slippers ever!

My first pair of Alegria's

My second pair of Alegria's

I think the other things that helped heal my heel is regular exercise, a good weight loss, and a very healthy diet. Eating plenty of green leafy vegetables each day, lots of fiber, very little sugar, limiting coffee to one cup a day, drinking plenty of water, eating lots of fish, has definitely made a huge improvement in my overall health. Another discovery I made has to do with my rosacea, if you are not plagued by this problem thank your lucky stars, I now know what the biggest trigger for a flare up is, red wine! As I changed my diet last fall, slowly, yet surely I found that my rosacea began to clear up, it wasn't inflamed and was much less noticeable. I had some red wine over Christmas and New Years and suddenly the rosacea was inflamed and broken out and burning, I didn't understand why, then realized that the inflammation was at it's worst the day after drinking a couple of glasses of red wine. I eliminated wine from my diet and the rosacea cleared up beautifully. So no more wine for me.

Today I plan to make a new skirt, I purchased some denim yesterday, I have washed it and am waiting for it dry, I always pre-shrink denim! I purchased a three tier skirt at the Goodwill years ago, I wear it several days per week, it is one of my favorite skirts. Last year I took measurements off of the skirt and made one just like it in a dark blue denim. This past weekend I was cleaning out the pantry and while kneeling on the floor I felt my skirt give, my old trusty skirt simply gave out, the fabric split in several places, I will darn it on my sewing machine and still wear the skirt, but it needs to be replaced. The denim I purchased yesterday is a nice medium blue, probably the color old faithful was many years ago, and the new skirt should last for a long time. I like three tiered skirts, they are easy to make, they look nice, and they are roomy and comfortable to wear. I like to sit "Indian style" and the three tiered skirt is very accommodating.

Well I guess that is it, a little nothings update, but it is the little nothings that make up the days of our lives.

Peace be with you,

Bean