Pictures from my trip:
2013!
A new year already! How did that happen? I haven’t posted since September — the fall has been so full! But I will try to do some “backward” posts – updating my various projects.
Today’s project – making a coat for Q. Q (short for Quasar, my mother’s/brother’s Shitzu puppy) loves the snow! In fact, he has so much fun bounding in it he forget what he went outside to do until he is too cold to do his business. Jim was able to get two doggie coats from a friend, but they are too big for a 4 month old puppy. I decided to use the one that fit him best as a pattern.
I used scraps of purple fleece that have hung out in my cupboard for a lot of years. I made the coat in two layers of the same fleece. In the end, it fits not too badly. Q is likely to grow out of it pretty quickly, but it won’t be too hard to make it bigger.
Billy got a new coat this fall too. Again, I bought a raincoat for her that fit well then used it as a pattern. Her coat is a light blue fleece and the purple fleece for the lining. In between the two I put a layer of nylon, cut from an old coat no one had worn for years. This coat is easier to put on than are Billie’s sweaters.
Mina loved Q! Not so sure Q felt quite the same, but he was amazingly docile with her.
a new lens
So I had my eye surgery today. The hard part was sitting around in the hospital for three hours before surgery. The actual surgery took 10 minutes. It was uncomfortable, but not painful. I could tell immediately that I am no longer seeing double. That is good!
When I took Billie outside this evening all the lights had incredible “petals” of light coming out in all directions around them. It was quite distracting!
Unfortunately my vein didn’t heal very well when the IV was removed. I removed the bandage in Dr Jellie’s office this afternoon and within an hour had a huge bubble of blood under my skin.Note to self: next time leave the bandage on for a few more hours!
Green Cookies
I have a sweet tooth. I also want to eat healthfully. So I’ve been making cookies, brownies, etc with more wholesome ingredients. I avoid using white sugar and use maple syrup and honey to sweeten things. Recently I read that avocados can be substituted for butter. I had to try it. I started with the oatmeal recipe in More With Less cookbook (pg ). My cookies turned out somewhat green, but they tasted really good (I used chocolate chips instead of raisins).
Then my friend, Marjorie, pinned a recipe for Breakfast Cookies. I wanted to try them. I didn’t have ripe bananas or pecans; I did have two avocados, a ripe mango and walnuts and almonds. I reasoned that avocados have a lot of fat in them, so I didn’t add the coconut oil. So this is the recipe I tried:
- 1 1/2 c rolled oats
- 1 c unsweetened coconut flakes
- 2 T flaxmeal
- 1/2 t sea salt
- 3/4 c chopped almonds and walnuts mixed
- 1/2 dried blueberries
- 1 c mashed avocado
- 1/2 c mango puree
- 1 T honey
- 1 t vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients well. Press 2 T of mixture into a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. (I dropped onto a no-stick cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until fragrant and golden. Cool on pan. Yield about 15 cookies (or about 44 dropped cookies — I’d rather eat two small cookies than one large one.)
Warning: these are not very sweet cookies, but they are nicely crunchy.
Back again!
For the last two weeks or so my IP address was blocked from the server that hosts this site. That meant that I could access my site from any network except my own. But today I am unblocked! I can now post freely again.