Hot Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

             This is how I spent my morning, with my dear friend Pam, who showed me how to make cinnamon rolls. Now these are not my typical kind of rolls. The kind you take from the refrigerator and pop open. These are the good old fashioned yeast cinnamon rolls that you actually have to knead, let rise and all that.

Pam mixes everything up into the mixing bowl and covers it until it has risen to twice the size.

She then places it onto her counter and kneads it several times and then rolls it out to this monster size.   

Once she gets it to the size she wants, she spreads softened butter all over it. Then we sprinkle a cinnamon, sugar mix over the top along with about 2 cups of chopped walnuts.

We then start rolling it up to this nice large roll and then proceed to slice it into bun rolls and put them onto cookie sheets to rise for a bit longer.

Once they have risen, and are out of the oven, Pam puts this nice light icing over the tops and after they have cooled we individually wrapped them for the freezer.

Look at how nice they turned out. Makes your mouth water just thinking about how they almost melt in your mouth fresh from the oven.

              Truly, cinnalicious!!!! ( my word for them)

Now if I can just talk her out of the recipe.........

As we are getting nearer to..............

       Valentine's Day, it is just around the corner, and I want to try to make a few cards of my own. 

       I'm not very talented in this area but hope to learn by looking at some of the many cards I have seen on line.  Here are just a few that have inspired me.

  As you can see there are lots of ideas out there. 
          And I can't wait to get started.
      I know I have a lot of ribbons, stamps, doilies and oodles of things to play around with. This should be fun.
             Would you like to join me?

Snow Days are Here

Well old man Winter has finally arrived. We have had snow falling for almost three days now. Thought I'd share with you what goes on around this homestead in Winter.

Our girls love to go outside and play.

I think Pearl must clear the path for Jade since she barely gets the snow sticking on her. This goes on non stop throughout the day.

 Outside, get covered in snow and have a ball, inside, come lay by the fire and get all toasty until they're ready to do it again.

                           Ahh, to have such a life. 

 But poor Onyx is having to be caged for two whole weeks. Can you tell she is not happy missing out on all the fun? She has been diagnosed with a congenital myopathy. She has low back spinal misalignment and an extra rib. She is only three years old,  but already suffers with arthritis and severe pain.

This all came on her very suddenly. We take her in to therapy laser treatments every other day right now. Along with that she is taking several pain meds to help with controlling her pain.

This is very hard on her as well as us. I hurt along with her when she is suffering.

First thing I did when I found out she was born with this, was to get on the internet to make sure the people we purchased her from, are no longer breeding. Thank goodness they are not.

This is Taz. He is 14 years old. Still loves to play, but is becoming slower in movement. He has lost a lot of muscle, but still sleeps beside me every night.

With snow outside, he is quite content sleeping next to the wood stove.

Now me on the other hand. This is what I do when the Winter is apon us.

I'm either plowing the roadway or hauling wood with 'Ol Hank'. And I must say I am out of practice again on the road. No doubt, it won't take long to get back in the swing of it.

But if I don't want to be out in the cold, I have been keeping myself busy learning how to make a few crochet things. I purchased this book online and love it!

Especially the one skein projects. It is giving me opportunity to use up a lot of leftover yarn.

This is my version of the braided scarf that is on the cover of the magazine.  I must admit I like the pink one better, but again, using what yarn I have laying around.

Another of my quick hats. Love this one.

This pink one was quite the challenge. Used stictches I have never done before. This one took quite a while to finish. Thought I'd use an antique button to finish it off. Love the pink though.

So this is what is keeping me going through our snowy days.

But one more thing I like to do in Winter, bake chocolate chip cookies. That's where I am headed next.

Come on over and I'll serve some up with a nice hot cup of tea.

Thanks for stopping in.

Easy Crochet caps

I found a pattern that is actually easy enough for me, as I am learning, to make some crochet caps. It is from Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick Pipe Wheat Hat, pattern #L0491E.  I can put one together in about an hour. Here are some of my first caps. The little baby one still needs a pompom. But isn't it cute? I just did'nt want to waste the last of the yarn. But will buy more to finish a pompom and make another little cap.

Here is what they look like on my head. The green was my first and it is not made with the thick and chunky weight of yarn the pattern calls for. It is too big for me.

The grey is with the proper yarn but I made it 3 inches shorter, and I love how it turned out. With luck I can get several made for donating at the cancer center. I will just need to find a thick and chunky yarn that has no wool in it.

I'm just tickled I finally found a pattern I could figure out. I tried this type of hat a couple years ago, but had no success so I made the chemo caps from cotton, sewed on the machine. The type that the doctors wear. They are a little more time consuming, but nice caps as well.

Now that I can do these, and especially for winter caps,  I can put them together much faster. I am working on an off-white one though, that I hope to give to my granddaughter along with one of those large shawls you wear over your neck. My next project to try.

What are you working on? Know of any more simple beginner patterns, please let me know. I'm all for easy. I'm just riding out the cold days and waiting for the snow to hit.

The things I get myself into....

Some times I wonder why I take on a project at all. I guess I had always been curious about how to knit. Just never thought about doing it until I saw that it is one of many badges I could earn through MaryJanes farm sisterhood. I have been earning badges over the past three years since joining and knew I had to give this knitting one a try.

And try, I did. If you could have seen my face while attempting to make this scarf, it would have scared the dickens out of you. I swear, I was straining and scrunching up so much. I guess I figured it would some how help me get through this troublesome task. I just had to at least say 'I did it'. So a beginner badge is, I'm pretty sure, all that I will be accomplishing in this category. I started out with 19 hoops on a knitting needle, and at times there were 20, then back to 19. Boy, what a challenge this was.

On a better note, I needed to start practicing making homemade Valentine's cards. Our local chapter is going to be making them at our next meeting and then we will draw names to exchange amoung ourselves. I thought I'd better get a head start on this too, since again, I am not real coordinated in paper stuff. Here is my first attempt at a card.

With a bit more practice, I should have something fairly decent to give.

I did learn that hot glue does'nt work real well in a room that is only 50 degrees. So I guess if I am to make any more I will need to come inside and out of my craft room which isn't heated on a regular basis.

In the meantime, I will keep looking in on some of my favorite blogs in hopes of finding ideas on how to make the perfect Valentine's card. With the many talented women out there, I am sure I will find one who can show me the way.

I just helped cut down a couple of juniper trees that were overshadowing my flower and herb garden. It will be so much sunnier for my plants this year. It is a messy, hard job to do but one that had to get done. After hauling several trailers full of branches to our burning pile, I went to pick up my mail and found the sweetest package of goodies from my Tea Party swap partner on MJ farm. Just look at all the nice things Darlene from California sent me.

I love doing swaps on some of the forums. I have a Secret Sister I will be sending out things to all year and receiving from one as well.

I just finished another book by Jane Kirkpatrick, "A Sweetness To The Soul". I just love how she writes about pioneer families who came out to Oregon and settled here. It brings you into the moment and I can actually picture some of the locations she speaks of in her books.

I have also been taking up knitting, at least trying to. I am just playing around with a ball of yarn so I can put together my beginner badge in knitting on MJ forum. I don't think I will be doing much beyond that as it is much slower going than crochet. Here is a little of what I have accomplished in the last few days.

I even bought those round knitting helpers and that is how I did the hat. I think I may try that again and make one of those large cowls that go over your neck.

In the mean time, I will keep at my crochet blanket I am working on too. I like to switch back and forth on my projects.

I am also getting together some goodies to make Valentine day cards soon. That should be interesting and fun.

Just keeping myself occupied on these cold days. We are expecting snow, finally, come next week. I only hope it does'nt stay until June. We could really use a nice Summer for gardening.