Good Old Rudolph

Back in the 80s my mother in law made this Rudolph wreath for me.  I copied it and made some for my sisters.  It's corny, askew, and a little crazy, and I still love it!  

Navigating the Parties

What do vegans eat at dinner parties?  Well, this one has not been eating very well.  At the last one, I thought I'd try to eat vegan as much as possible.  So when the appetizers came out, I had crackers but no cheese.  Then the salad had fresh parmesan cheese grated on it.  I didn't eat the chicken, but did have some of the pasta with alfredo sauce.  I think I need to start hanging out in the kitchen and getting my plate filled early.  If I'd done that, I could have asked for salad before the cheese was grated on it, and for pasta before the sauce was added.  We'll see how I do in the next round of parties.

Perennial Favorite

Sweet little oxalis!  I forget it's there until a rainy day makes it bloom.

Christmas Toys

I put Christmas decorations that are toys on all my windowsills.  The grandchildren have been playing with them ever since I put them out.  

The Gift of a Quilt

I know I posted this picture last week because I finished it, but I'm posting it again this week because I got to give it to my son at Thanksgiving.  He and his wife asked for this quilt over 2 years ago, and it's taken me this long to get it to them.  I loved making it, and yes, they loved getting it.  My daughter in law said they will put it on their bed in the winter and hang it on the wall in the summer.  I think it's my most creative design that is in a traditional format, so that was very satisfying.  But giving it away was even better.

A Vegan Break

I cooked a turkey for Thanksgiving.  We just polished off the leftovers today.  It was good, but I will be happy to get back to our vegan diet on Monday.

Favorite Plants - Sage

Here's another plant that tolerates neglect well and stays alive anyway.  It will also be the star of our Thanksgiving feast.  Sage - delicious, pretty, and easy to grow.  Gotta love it!

Wonderful Visit

I'm so happy to have had my grandson visit us for the weekend.  Even though it meant he had to fly by himself on a plane, we all had a wonderful time.

Finally Finished!

It's finished!  The quilt that took 2 and 1/2 years to make!  

No Apologies Here Either

Yes, I will eat turkey for Thanksgiving.  And pumpkin pie made with milk.  With whipped cream.  And mashed potatoes made with butter and milk.  It will be a true feast.  And I will be all the more grateful, because I don't eat like this every day.

Favorite Plants - Mexican Mint Marigold

This Mexican mint marigold had just started to bloom a few weeks ago.  

Now it's covered in yellow blossoms.  It dies in the winter, but comes back every spring.  And it's edible!  For southern climates where tarragon won't grow well, this is a great substitute.  They survived the drought with no problem this year, but they are a little smaller than in rainier years.

Grandchildren in the Garden

It's time to pick all the tomatoes, many of which are still green.  So while picking tomatoes, we found a couple of big green tomato horn worms.  My grandchildren instantly adopted the creatures and named them Crawly and Zebra.  I let them keep the worms in an old fishbowl, and feed them with fresh tomato leaves.

Back from Houston

Here are some examples of the fabulous quilts I saw last weekend in Houston at the International Quilt Festival there.  If you quilt, you should try to go to the Houston festival at some point, because it is amazing!  Now I'm inspired and excited to finish my projects and start some new ones.

from portrayals of nature

to abstract shapes . . .

from realistic

                     to . . . interesting

Structures such as . . .

primitive houses

art deco

 spiral

and just plain lovely!
I love quilts!

Living on Lara bars

Sometimes it can be hard to find vegan food when you're traveling.  Thanks to my savvy daughter-in-law, I had a box of Lara bars with me.  My schedule was so tight I often ate the Lara bars for breakfast and sometimes for lunch too.  They're made of fruit and nuts, and that's it.  No sugar high, no subsequent crash, just food.  Now that I found their link, I realize they have a lot more flavors than I realized.
http://www.larabarstore.com/

Houston!

This week is the Houston International Quilt Show.  And this year I get to go!  So no more blogging for the rest of this week.  I'll be busy looking at quilts from all over the world, at the world's biggest quilt show.

Vegan Cookbook Review

The Happy Hervivore by Lindsay S. Nixon is a cookbook with all kinds of recipes.  From Vegan Worcestershire sauce to tofu chocolate icing, Lindsay has it all.  I tried out her recipes for cornbread, tamale pie, and blue corn chickpea tacos.  They were good!  There are lots of recipes that call for tofu or seitan or nutritional yeast, which I'm not quite ready to eat yet.  The recipes are fairly simple - some are so simple they are more ideas than recipes: like fresh applesauce made from fresh apple slices ground in a food processor, or salad made with "dinosaur" kale and salt.  But those are good ideas, and I had not thought of them before.  One recipe, the "5-Spice Harmony Bowl" is a lot like what I cook when I'm not using a recipe (minus the spices).  Overall, I liked this book because of the wide range of recipes, the simplicity of the recipes, and it has things that I may be able to try someday if I get up the nerve to eat tofu or nutritional yeast.  The recipes I tried turned out well.  You can see her recipes and try them for yourself on her website, www.happyherbivore.com

The asters are blooming!  Like all my favorite plants, these asters are easy to grow.  Once you plant them you don't have to do much at all, and they reward you by blooming every fall.  

Scary Spiders

This is a great activity to do with grandchildren.  We started with styrofoam balls and washable poster paint.  I didn't have black, so we used purple.  (The other Halloween color)  After the paint dried, we glued on two googly eyes and poked in 8 black pipe cleaners.  It's kind of tricky getting them to stand up, but don't they look like they could skitter around pretty fast on those long spider legs?  Scary!

Quilts, again

Today I worked on a quilt for a friend with cancer.  Hoping to send a little comfort her way.  Also, still basking in the glory of the two ribbons my quilt won at the quilt show.

Greens

I love greens!  This is a basket of swiss chard my granddaughter and I picked from the garden.  There is also  basil, rosemary, oregano, chives, thyme, and sage in there.  We sauteed onions and the herbs and greens, and added those and some tomatoes to our lentil soup.  Yum!