Christmas Confetti Bean Soup in a Jar

What is on your "I Really WANT to Do" list for the holidays?

Really, is there such a thing as a list of Things You Must Do For the Holidays?  Kinda takes the fun out of it.

Besides listening to more seasonal music, I really wanted to make "soup mixes in a jar" for gifts.  It was unbelievable how many sites came up on a Google search for just this topic.

Here is the one site I settled on at this link because it was COLORFUL, EASY, and HAD LABELS.

Needed: 12 wide-mouth pint (2-cup) canning jars with lid and rings 14 pounds assorted dried peas, beans and lentils (at least 8 different varieties):

•  pink beans 
•  black beans 
•  baby lima beans
•  lentils
•  red lentils 
•  black-eyed peas 
•  red kidney beans 
•  pinto beans 
•  split peas 
•  great northern beans 
•  small red beans 
•  white beans 
• 12 Italian-flavor or beef flavor bouillon cubes 
• 12 bay leaves

Just put half cup of each bean layered in the jar topped with a bouillon cube and bay leaf and tie on a the printed label.  Like this!

I like soup, and almost any kind of flavor.  How about you?

If you made the soup exactly as directed, it would be pretty bland.  I'm thinking of giving a package of ham hocks along with the jars of beans, reminding the bean recipients that they will also need to add spices for a heartier, tastier version of this bean soup.

(Just had to add the Soup Nazi picture from the Seinfeld days.)

Linking to A Sheltering Tree ... because soup is something that can nourish a body and soul!

A Pause In Advent

Joining in with Floss in France who has offered to sponsor a Christmas Blogger Event Termed "A Pause in Advent," where we stop a moment and reflect on the spiritual season, this article from the late 1980's gave me pause to think about a different turn on Christmas. Perhaps you will like it too.  An excerpt...

I direct a Christian theater company and this Christmas season we have a play running called "0, Little Town of Bagels, Tea Cakes and Hamburger Buns." The play is about the contemporary experience of Christmas based on the fact that the people to whom Christ came that first Christmas are the same kinds of people that we are today. Bethlehem means "house of bread." Bread means bagels, tea cakes and hamburger buns. Christmas is not a remote event. It is not a memo tucked away in a history book and forgotten. It is a celebration for right now — for the people who are now, as were the people who were then — some of them hurting, some of them alone, some of them angry, some of them tired, some of them separated from their family, some of them ill. Unto those people, God sent his Christmas card.

Click on the highlighted title to read the entire essay O Little Town of Bagels, Tea Cakes and Hamburger Buns by Jeanette Clift George.  It is a thoughtful writing.

You can read others' Pauses in Advent here.

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click here to join in the pause

Silk Painting: Poppies

A few hours to make the correctly sized frame to hold the fabric taut, two weeks to paint, a bit of a mess in the kitchen, two hours to steam the painting, and meticulous ironing of the silk resulted in this painting:

Dimensions: 33" X 22"

Close up of the flower in left upper corner

I am pleased with the results and learned more about using the gutta resist. This will go to our local frame shop (today?) to be protected by some sort of plastic overlay.

Thanks to the husband for finding the wood for the frame and for putting up with me in the kitchen while completing this project.  He still managed to make some wonderful meals while working around the paints on the counter tops.

Prior posts on my silk paintings can be found here and here.

Angels and Oranges

Be it a spiritual angel,

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or referring to fun in the snow

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or thinking about the most important event in the realm of Christianity as relating to Jesus' birth when the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary:

Luke 1:26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

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we are all somehow linked into God's kingdom.  And I believe angels do guide and protect me while in a state of grace.  (More about this here on guidance and protection.)

A few angels from my Christmas display collection:

See the angel furthermost to the left in the picture above?  My mother had that easel angel for many years.  She usually displayed it right beneath a pot of ivy.  I think she must have connected to her heavenly roots each time she gazed on that angel.  Stair-stepping up from the left is a contemporary angel my sister Pam gave me several years ago. I asked for it; wasn't that greedy?  But she willingly complied...I just wanted an angel from her!  Then the angel at the center-most top of the photograph was given to me by my friend Francis eleven years ago before she died that following summer.  I always think of Fran and the good times we had painting together when I hold that fragile pink glass angel. The white angel above was given to me by my friend Carol about 15 years ago.  We met in the early '70's when our husbands were in graduate school in Michigan, and we still keep in touch.

Linking to Inspiration Avenue and the Theme of the Week: Angels

  also linking to Mandarin Orange Monday with a bowl of tangelos and orange squash

What I Did For Love (with leftovers)

You know your leftover turkey in the fridge?  This is what I made at 6:30 AM, because there was a hankering for it:  Curried Chicken Salad

That is Ina, not me...

And is it ever good!!

Thanksgiving Week in the USA

Leaves in our yard...

A close up of the pretty gold craft leaves Betty the Wood Fairy sent me from the UK

Betty took some pictures of leaves while on her walk and inspired me to do the same.  Go look at her silk painting of leaves here.  (She goods such a good job of painting on silk fabric and her music in the background will make you feel you are in the woods taking a walk with her.)

The marigolds, mums and daisy are blooming in the greenhouse even after several nights when the outside temperature was well below freezing.

Using the pretty leaves both from nature and from the hands of a craftsman, as well as mums and marigolds, I tried to mimic the colors in silk.  This is the beginning of a silk painting using those colors and shapes ...

and with more flowers and definition:

Jaquard silk paints on 8 mm silk, finished size 8"x10"

The colors turned out a bit garish, but it is all a learning experiment.  Usually I paint on a heavier silk with nubs, and the colors do not look as they are straight from the bottle.  And on this piece I did not mix colors or water them down.  All a learning curve ... but I think this might perk up an entryway

linking with Mardarin Orange Monday

Countdown

The husband says it all HERE in his op-ed about turkey dressing.  Read it for current and back content.

 You just might love the recipe. We do.

Look Through a Window

Linking up with Inspiration Avenue here for the weekly challenge of "Look Through a  Window and Share What You See," this was my view out the front door at 6:30 AM.

and the back windows...

Cold and wintry!

How is your morning and what do you see?

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Reprise of a Footstool

Definition of REPRISE. 1: a deduction or charge made yearly out of a manor or estate —usually used in plural . 2: a recurrence, renewal, or resumption of an action (Merriam Webster)

And here is the footstool in its second life with all pieces cleaned and new accessories.

A lace border (four pieces) was added between newly purchased fringe and the needlepoint top:

 

and corner pieces attached: 

(the flower is by Susan B. Anderson for a pacifer clip with five petals; directions at the Ravelry tag below)

So glad to finally get the ottoman put back together again. Thank goodness for hot glue guns and red duck tape.  The red duck tape was a base for the purchased trim since the wood on the footstool showed under the fringed piece. What crafter can live without our friends duck tape and glue guns?

Linking to Finished Objects Friday and linking to Fiber Arts Friday.

A Van Gogh Weekend

Let's start out by announcing the winner of my give-away last week regarding the Make Do and Mend post. The not-so-scientific approach of using a random generator resulted in having the husband pick a number from 1 to 14, and he chose a random number of "8".  The eighth post was from Ann at Tin and Sparkle.  I will be sending Ann the piece of needlepoint this week.  Yea Ann!

The prior three days were spent in Denver with friend Kathy and Ellen, her 11 year old daughter.  We visited the Van Gogh exhibit.  It was excellent.  Read all about it here. Fine art and painting are some of the things that I count as blessings. (Linking to Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge of Count Your Blessings.)

This picture (1889) was the one I spent the most time examining because Van Gogh did not follow the rules, yet created a masterpiece.  Do you see what I mean? ( Hint: clouds)  Do you like the blues?

linking to Blue Monday

Niece Cindy was singing with the Sweet Adelines.  Her group had an international competition last week in Denver with over 4000 participants, and she seemed to be having a great time.  We had dinner and caught up on family.

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Then on to Kathy's activities: Ellen played a basketball game (her mom and I cheered), we shopped a bit, we had an outdoor iced tea at a local restaurant, we ate at the Olive Bargain (ok, Olive Garden) and Kathy hosted her sister's birthday party one evening.

One of Kathy's other four sisters (right in light blue) helped in the festivities.  The birthday girl is in dark blue and Ellen is in yellow. Kathy is in white on the left.

The color on the trees was absent on the drive between Grand Junction and Denver due to cold weather, but I will leave you with this lovely autumn picture.

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Yes, I am almost finished with the ottoman makeover and will post this week about its completion.

Easy Pumpkin Muffins

Want to make a batch of pumpkin muffins, stirred up in less time than it takes to read this post?  Why not?
Two ingredients and a few spices with no liquid...really. Plus they stay moist and freeze well.

Thanks to AllRecipes with the directions found here, they turned out tasty.  Ingredients: one packaged cake mix and one can pumpkin with extra pumpkin spices.  No liquid.

They were so pumpkin-y and moist.

One last picture.  My husband found this little mouse trying to scare the kids away last night and hung it up on the front door to discourage further varmints from trying to scurry in.

Here is to a great November!

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