Monday 28 May 2012

Spidey-ghan

I've been working on the Spidey-ghan that I found over at Stitch 'n Frog . It'll be a Christmas gift for my 5yo g'son who is a huge Spiderman fan. I'm almost done the second red section and it's not as big as I had expected. I may end up adding more rounds than what are in the orginal pattern. As soon as I figure out how to add photos, I'll show you all how it's looking. I think he's going to love it.

Thursday 24 May 2012

You Don't Have to be so Grouchy

I witnessed a rather disturbing scene while at the grocery store this morning. The players shall be known as Young Lad (who looked to be about 15 or 16) and Old Bat, who appeared to be between 70 and 80. Now, before all you 70-80 year old ladies get offended, I would call a 30 year old an old bat if I saw her exhibit the behaviour I witnessed.

Old Bat was standing at the till and Young Lad came up to her with something in his hands. I'm guessing that she had forgotten an item and asked for a stock boy to go get it for her. Whatever it was that he had brought up front for her mustn't have been the correct item. She says, "Oh, for God's sake. I'll just go get it myself!" With that, she brushed Young Lad aside and stormed off to get her oh-so-important item.

I wish she could have seen the look of dejection on his face. And I daresay that had someone been so contemptous towards her grandchild (assuming, of course, that she has any), the Mama Bear that resides within all mothers would have charged forth and she would have torn a strip off that person.

How many times have we, who are a generation or two older, moaned and groaned about the perceived laziness and ineptitude of the young kids now in the workforce? I'll confess to doing it. But here was a young fellow who was DOING HIS JOB and he got summarily dismissed by this cranky Old Bat.

Now, it's been said that everyone is fighting some sort of battle. Perhaps she had some stressful things going on in her life and Young Lad bringing the wrong item was the "final straw". Maybe someone really *did* piss in her Cornflakes this morning.

Or...maybe she just thinks that being "of a certain age" entitles her to be demanding. Perhaps she was a spoiled brat when she was a child and lives with that feeling of entitlement that we, who are a generation or two older, abhor so much in today's youth.

Whatever her reason, I simply can't imagine that it was good enough to warrant treating Young Lad with such disdain. Especially when he was DOING HIS JOB.

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Lemon-Herbed Chicken

I work Mon, Wed and Fri. I cook bigger meals on my off days so that we can eat leftovers on my work days. I rarely get home before 6:00, so leftovers make a quick supper on those days. There are 4 people in the house so all recipes are adapted for that. Here's my adaptation of a new recipe that's going to be added to the repertoire.

2 Tbsp salad oil
6 chicken breasts, butterflied
1 can condensed cream of celery soup
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
sage

Cook chicken in hot oil until browned on both sides. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling. Reduce to low. Cover and simmer 30-40 minutes or until chicken is tender.

My Notes: You can also use lemon slices for garnish but I omitted that. Also, I almost never measure out any spices. I just sprinkle it on until it looks right. I usually end up using twice the spice that any recipe calls for. The measures above are what the recipe called for. I made gravy with the soup drippings to pour over boiled potatoes.

To make leftovers with this, we'll cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and cut the potatoes up small. Add the gravy (with a bit of butter/margarine if there isn't enough gravy) and leftover veggies. Fry it all up and serve with a salad. Taste-wise, this is my favouritest (that's a word, right? lol) leftover. This is also a great stretcher when there isn't really enough of any one thing to make separate plates for everyone.

I forgot to get a photo of tonight's meal. Shame on me!

Sunday 20 May 2012

May Long

This is a long weekend in Canada, Monday being Victoria Day. Our two eldest daughters are camping at a local campground, about 15 minutes away, with their husbands and children. Grampa and I drove out to spend the afternoon with them.

It was such a lovely day. Blue skies, warm sunshine with only a light wind. The very dry winter and spring we've had so far meant a fire ban that was only lifted a couple of days ago thanks to some much needed rain.

You know how smoke always seems to follow one person? No matter where that person sits, the smoke goes in that direction? Today I was the chosen target. Ugh! I stink. It's well worth it, though. I got to spend some time with my 4 favourite little people.

Boys sure do get dirty, don't they? My mom always said, "You can't have fun if you can't get dirty." I guess those boys had a whole lot of fun.

I thought about taking some crocheting out with me but I'm glad I didn't. I don't mind the smell of campfire while I'm at the site but I don't really want to smell it for days after. Any work I might have taken would have stunk.

And on that note, I'm off for a shower and to get out of these smelly duds.

Introduction

Well, hello, all you beautiful people in Blogland! I'm a 50-something who loves to do all sorts of crafts. My favourites are crochet, sewing and cross-stitch. I've dabbled with knitting but I prefer crocheting.

Grampa and I are only 2.5 years away from retiring and are looking forward to leaving the workforce. We bought ourselves a little condo in Mexico a couple of years ago and spend some time down there each winter. It will be our Snowbird home when retirement arrives.

We have 3 beautiful daughters and 4 even  more beautiful g'kids...1 girl and 3 boys. Things are certainly different with boys.

I'll be sharing little snippets of our life along with some of my projects. I'm looking forward to "meeting" other crafty souls.