Lace, Ladybug, Lemon Curd/Butter Microwave Recipe

I had to show you this fabulous old lace tabletopper! I just took some pictures of it for Ebay and thought I'd show it here as it's one of those pieces you rarely see........a real antique piece of battenburg/tapelace...All handmade, old, with some breaks, but these pieces give me palpitations when I spot them at a sale, even with some damage. You just don't see them anymore! ...and you must know by now, I LOVE LACE!

We got a teensy bit of snow on the weekend, it's pretty well gone now, but Kiera was over for a visit, saw the snow on the deck outside the patio door, promptly removed her shows and socks and carefully stepped out and made these footprints!....what a girl!!

I shooed her back inside for her shoes and socks and jacket and she spent a few minutes out there making a few snowballs and making more prints and handwriting in the snow.

As for the ladybug? Well, I went to the garage for some potatoes and there she was atop a potato in the pail. Brought her in and perched her on a little potato in a dish so I could take her picture. She has since disappeared in my kitchen and I hope she winters well.
Now for a recipe that a girlfriend swears by for

Microwave Lemon Curd (lemon butter)

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1tbsp grated lemon rind [I put more]

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2tbsp soft butter

In microwaveable bowl, whisk together eggs & sugar. whisk in lemon rind & juice & butter.

Microwave on high for 2 minutes, whisk until smooth.
Microwave for 2 to 3 minutes longer until it boils & thickens slightly.

Whisk again until smooth.
Cool, pour into jars & refridgerate.

I sterilise the jars & it will keep for several weeks. If it lasts.

Great on toast, in tart shells or on icecream.

I can't wait to make it but will make it after Christmas when we're in Arizona and I have TIME, and luscious fresh off the tree lemons are  a dime a dozen!! Off to make dinner, have a good week, hope I'll be back here before the week ends!

Soartful Challenge

Well, I actually got the Soartful Challenge done! I had no idea what to do with the image but once I got going it seemed to come together and as I always have loved blue, I'm quite happy with the way it turned out! I have yet to learn how to work with text so, a very simple NOEL was added.

Below is the image given, the rest is up to each individual!

I'll catch you up on the weekend later

New tree stamp for domino pendants

I just last week received a couple of new stamps I ordered, I was just sooo wanting to do some bare branched trees! I had some inked backgrounds waiting. What do you think? I just love the look! There are also a few others I thought I'd share with you that I like....the smaller squarish ones are made with rummy tiles.....rummikub tiles?

These were a few I dropped off yesterday at the consignment shop......I had saved a picture that I found somewhere on the interenet quite awhile ago of a domino mounted on a card. I figured it out and for the shop I mount them as they are more easily displayed. The ones I make into pins I  pin onto the outside of a little organza bag. When they are hung, they sit nice and display well.

One of the many things I'm up to these days! Have to go out this evening to a surprise 40th anniversary party. I have to go dig around in my closet now for something to wear.

Hope all of you USA people are enjoying your holiday today.

Bye for now!

UPDATE

MY FINGERS ARE INKY!

but I love how these turned out!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American friends who celebrate tomorrow. Ours is long past already. Stay safe, don't eat too much, enjoy your families and friends.

Magpie on the Wasp Nest

If you look back in my blog, you'll see some better pictures that I took of the wasp nest high up in the trees at the back of the yard. Well, just as I'm about to rush out the door this afternoon, I see a magpie sitting right on top of the nest! So, run for the camera and just stood on the deck and took as many pictures as I could before he (she?) took off. My zoom is not quite long enough to get in as close as I would have liked.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

The bird was pecking at the nest from above and below. I'm sure that nest will get alot of attention from the magpies, they are very strongly woven into the branches and will withstand alot of wind and weather before finally falling apart and to the ground.

There is also a big buck (male deer) hanging around at the back, always a little too far away for a picture, but I'll eventually get one I know! Have a great evening!

Lovely! Soartful Challenge

I just had to take a little time for myself and do this challenge piece for Soartful Challenges.The lovely lady was the image provided. I used a background of my own photography of the lace and sheet music. The bird and flower frame came from Painting with Brushes on Flickr, the bits of handwriting, I just don't remember where they came from!! Anyway, it was fun to do, hope you like it!

Family fun and rescue horses

It has been crazy busy around this house lately! I have out of town company coming for a couple of days this week too, so it's not over yet! I'm enjoying it all but am craving to get back at some digital artwork and take part in a couple of challenges!

The end of last week saw our sweetie Kiera having a sleepover at our house! Fun, fun....she keeps us hopping! We played, crafted, baked, played, created, inside, outside...all over the house and garage...non-stop! We are exhausted when she goes home!

We had a housewarming to go to Saturday night, then on Sunday, Kiera had a ringette game so we all went to cheer the team on. That was all three daughters and their spouses, besides my husband and I. All 8 and 9 year old girls skating their little hearts out, ....too cute...and they are very good! Ringette is sort of like hockey but instead of a puck it's a ring that looks like a donut, and their stick is straight, they have to place it in the hole to "shoot" the ring across the ice.

Here's Kiera after the game, minus her helmet/mask that they all must wear. We all went back to our house for chili and buns and strawberry/raspberry shortcake and alot of fun!

Wondering about these horsies? Well, our oldest daughter Sherri, (Kiera's mom) has always been a big animal lover and when she was young had a horse and a colt and loved to ride and be around horses as much as possible. Maybe at some future date she'll be able to have her own again, but for now, she has been looking for an opportunity to be around horses without actually owning and having the full responsibility of one.
Well, she has found through an ad a horse owner that needs someone to ride and excercise one of her horses and she also has in her care, 2 Paso Fino horses, rescue horses, a mother and daughter, who were badly neglected and taken in by this kind lady. Sherri took Kiera to meet them on Sunday morning and of course Kiera was thrilled!
Both horses are quite nervous of humans, but surprisingly took to Kiera, no problem!
Sherri and Kiera will be visiting them at every opportunity!

Kiera loves animals, she was certainly not nervous around the horses and she's little.....could that be why they were not fearful of her?

Such lovely animals, it's hard to think how they can be neglected the way they were.

I'll be back when I can get here!

What a lovely weekend we had!

We had a surprise weekend as far as weather was concerned. It was beautiful! Perfect for spending time outdoors! The leaves were dry enough to burn at the back of our yard so we spent some time playing and burning the leaves and enjoying the day!

The late day light was amazing!

All of these leaves were burnt by the end of the afternoon plus a zillion more!

Don't you love the smell of burning leaves in the fall?

A willing helper, our 8 year old grandaughter Kiera. What kid doesn't love a fire!

Ladybug, ladybug....fly away home........we found lots of them nestled under leaves in the garden. We rescued them of course from the fire!

The day wouldn't be complete without a climb up on the little barn roof to sit and enjoy the view and the wonderful weather.

Have a great day everyone! Today looks to be as lovely as the weekend so I'm going to enjoy it! Snow will be here too soon!

Neat nests!

Just thought I'd share a couple of pictures of wasp or yellow jacket nests taken in my yard. I couldn't find one of the pictures I was looking for, it was a nest in the middle of the apple tree, hidden by the leaves until they started falling!

The pictures of the pieces of nest are from the nest that you see pictured attached to the soffit (sp?) of our house. You wouldn't believe how secure it was to the surface of the soffit and it couldn't be removed in one piece. I kept a couple of pieces, they are fascinating to look at.

Last two pictures are of the nest currently at the back of the yard. I posted a picture last week that wasn't very close. These are better.  I'm wondering how it will survive the winter!

Click to enlarge the pictures

I took the above picture last year. Seems every year I have a nest to photograph!

Our current backyard nest.

Amazing work by those little pests!