Sunday Praise

Have a glorious Sunday!




Blessings from our home in the woods.

Afghan Number Five

Happy Friday evening!  I have been making each of my six grandchildren an crocheted afghan for their birthday this past year.  I started by making my oldest grandson one for Christmas and all the younger ones asked for one.  I have just finished number five.

A large granny square afghan.

Did not care for the center.  The afghan is a rectangular shape which made the center hole larger.

I added one of these flower motifs to each side.   It really made a difference and was a nice finishing touch.

Our granddaughters came for a visit last weekend and this swinging girlie will be the recipient of the afghan.

Older sister.

 Have not lost my knack.  I raised three daughters and spent many mornings braiding hair.  It has been a while since I have tried my hand at it.   Happy Farmgirl Friday!

Enjoy your weekend and many blessings from our home in the woods!

Samantha's Quilt

It is done and it is gifted.  After many years of changing directions, starting out with a pattern from an older magazine then having to make changes and adding my own ideas to change the quilt from one size to another to yet another, I have finished my middle daughters quilt and she came by a couple of weekends ago to pick it up.  I could not deliver it myself as planned because my car was in the shop, where it has been a lot in this last year.  I think I am going to have to break down and go car shopping soon.  Car payments, bah humbug.  The quilt fits my daughters king size bed and it was so large that hubs had to wrap the top around a board and hold it as high as possible so I could get a picture.  He is over 6 feet tall and he was on his tippy toes.

The local quit shop, Patchwork Dreams, did the quilting.  I had planned to hand quilt my daughters quilts, I have three, but time has gotten away and it was so large I decided to have it quilted so I could move on.

Ladybug was feeling left out.

 

This daughter is the mother of our four grandsons and we are so proud of her.  She was very happy with the quilt and could not wait to get it home.

Blessings from our home in the woods.

Sunday Praise

Good Morning!  We have 3 of our grandsons this weekend and they are keeping us busy.  Have a blessed Sunday!

Apples

Last weekend I peeled and cut up a bushel of apples which I used for canned applesauce and apple butter.

 The apple butter recipe that I use is posted here.  The applesauce recipe that I use is out of a cookbook that I have had for close to 30 years.

The dust jacket has been missing for a very long time.  I think you may be able to read the recipe if you click on the following picture and enlarge it and the recipe is very simple to follow.

 As promised, I made hubs an apple pie for dessert last Sunday.

I found the recipe at Pots and Pins blog.  It is called Skillet Caramel Apple Pie and it is to die for.  Mine did not come out as pretty as Nan's did but it was scrumptious!  I do not have the correct sized iron skillet.  Gives me an excuse to buy a smaller one though so the next time I make this pie, and there will be a next time, it will look just a pretty.  I also forgot to sprinkle the sugar on top after the egg white wash.  You will just have to go over to Pots and Pins so you can see how pretty this pie can look and get the recipe to make it for yourselves.  We had my husbands parents over for dinner the next evening and both mom and dad raved about the pie which we had after I served a roast on this new vintage,  farmgirl looking platter that my middle daughter brought over for me last weekend.

 

Isn't it pretty?  I love blue and white dishes.  I broke the ironstone platter, that I always served a roast on, a few years ago.  The platter was my grandmothers, and every time I make a roast  I remember that platter and my grandmother and it makes me a little sad.  But now I have a new happy platter.  Love how my daughters know what I like.  Linking up to Farmgirl Friday over at Deborah Jean's Dandelion House.

Check out the other Farmgirl posts and have a great Friday evening!  Blessing from our home in the woods!

Vacation Day 5, the Evening

This is it folks.  This will be the balance of what I have to share of my vacation.  On day 5, I shared what we did earlier in the day on the previous post, we went to Fort Macon State Park just shortly before they closed the gates.  We were able to take ourselves on a quick tour of the fort and then walk along the beach.

We then drove over to Atlantic Beach to watch the sunset. 

So I leave you with a beautiful sunset.  It was a wonderful trip.  I hope you enjoyed the photos.
Blessing from our home in the woods.

Vacation Days 3, 4 and 5

Today I am going to share with you what we did on days 3, 4 and 5 of our vacation. Tomorrow or the day after I promise to wrap it up.  On day three we went to the Seafood Festival in Morehead City which was fun to walk around at.  It was very busy.

We had some of the usual fair food but we really enjoyed the Seafood Spuds that the Sanitary Restaurant serves at the festival.  And check out this yacht, it is a few stories high and has some sort of art exhibit in it.

The yacht is in the background.

We spent the afternoon at the fair and then went out for the evening for dinner with my friend's daughter and some of her friends. 

My friend and her daughter.

 Sorry, cannot remember the name of the restaurant, but we had some wonderful appetizers, lobster bisque, cheesy biscuits, the best hush puppies I have every had and flounder dinners.  It was great fun.

Picture of the rear of the restaurant from the deck we watched the sunset from after eating.

Day four our host gave us a tour of the base her husband is stationed at and we made some yummy crab cakes for dinner and had a little more down time, we needed it.  On day five we went to New Bern for lunch and some window shopping.   New Bern is the second oldest town in N.C.  and had a lot of older buildings in it. I wish I would have taken pictures of some of the beautiful old homes.

New Bern is also the home of Pepsi Cola, in case you did not know that.  I didn't. 

Love these trees!

 

 I was told what kind of trees these are but I have forgotten.  Can someone remind me please?
That is all I have for today.  Hope you are enjoying my picture tour.  Having company for dinner so I better run.  Blessing from our home in the woods!

 

 

Sunday Praise

Happy Sunday!!!!



Blessings from our home in the woods.

Vacation Days 1 and 2

I promised to get back with you and share some of my vacation.  My best friend asked me this summer if I would like to go with her to N.C. for the seafood festival that takes place in  Morehead City where her daughter's family lives.  I was excited to go on the trip with her, I do not travel often.

My friend (on the left) and me. Friends for over 30 years.

 Our days were full and I think I drug my body to bed around 9 most nights.  The first day after going to coffee we went to a sweet little town called Beaufort to peruse the shops.  After shopping for a couple of hours it was back to Morehead for lunch at the Ruddy Duck.

 We sat outside on the deck that was right on the water.  The signs said not to feed the birds but that was not keeping them away.

I took this from where we were sitting.

 

I am not sure if I took the above photo in Beaufort or Morehead but there are boardwalks along the backs of all the shops and restaurants along the Sound.

Our second day our host set up a ferry crossing to Ocracoke Island.

Cedar Island Ferry.  This was taken after we docked on Ocracoke because I could only get a shot of the back of the ferry  when we were driving onto it. 

 

We were on the ferry at by 7:00 A.M., so we were able to watch the sunrise during the crossing which took around 2 1/2 hours.

Pretty.

Picture of the island as we were coming in to dock.

 

Island Ponies.

 That is most of what our first two days consisted of, along with some good and some bad coffee breaks, and we made our dinners at our host's home together those first two evenings.  More to come.
Blessings from our home in the woods!