Back in the saddle again!

I feel great again!  Whew!  And I am done with the Christmas present making except for a teeny tiny bit of embroidery which I will do tomorrow and then it is wrap and package and get ready to mail.
Last week I received my first Christmas card in the mail (I don't get very many so they are truly appreciated!)  from Betsy...such a  lovely card.....thank you, Betsy....mine will be going out soon I hope!

Then today I got this hand painted card from Rain.........isn't it gorgeous?  I've never had a hand painted card before and I love it!  It is frame worthy!  Thank you, Rain...and Alex too for the sweet wishes....what an awesome gift......that girl is talented with a capital "T"!

I also received this from Diane from Lavender Dreamer...........do you believe it? Right up my alley.....
she knows me so well............I can't wait to go through it and try some of her recipes.  I had no idea one of my favorite authors had a cookbook out!  Thank you so much, Diane!

I am blessed to have so many good friends here in blog land.....truly blessed.  I feel so close to so many of you even though we've never met.....it is one of the highlights of my life and I thank you all!
I did manage to work on my CMB a bit today..........I have a couple more rows done and tonight I'll be weaving in ends as I can only stand so many of them for so long.

I did get the tree up but I can't find the colored bulbs that go on it......they're here someplace!  I was going to get a real tree but they were $38 at Walmart.  I just wanted a little one but they don't seem to sell little ones.  I could go out in the woods and cut one but they are cedar and I'm afraid I would bring in all the ticks that live in them.

  I did pay some bills and do some laundry and I even made a batch of cookies (slice and bake from the refrigerator cookie dough I made last week).  It's really nice for me to have it on hand in the freezer as I can just do a pan at a time.  I'm definitely going to be making more of that type of thing.

We have high fire danger again but hopefully Sunday it is supposed to rain which will make me very happy!

Happy Trails!!!

P.S.  Today is my youngest son's 36th birthday!  I cannot believe it.....I must really be old, I guess, but it seems like it was just yesterday that they were all little.......Happy Birthday Jim!

I think I'll live!!!

This is the first day I have felt decent in over a week.  Plus, get this, I have been napping for 2-3 hours every afternoon!  But it did me well as I feel like I am back among the living finally.  So, today I am trying to catch up as usual..........even when I haven't been sick I am behind so you can imagine how far behind I am now! LOL!
I had thrown together some refrigerator cinnamon rolls yesterday morning.....here's the recipe 
I was watching Maker's Haven podcast and she made some.  I am loving refrigerator recipes like refrigerator cookies etc.  Martha Stewart has a whole bunch of them here  which I will be trying out.  Great for Christmas baking too.
Anyway.......I baked the cinnamon rolls this morning..........

  Once in the pan you let them rise again...........

and then bake them off..............you can make frosting for them but they were fine without which I prefer..........I just have a small sweet tooth..........

then I put together the Andy Paulson chicken soup for sick people...lol!  I figured it would boost my immune system a bit and it is also adding humidity into the air....a little side benefit of making soup in the colder months....this pot full will simmer for several hours and then be drained off, cooked pasta added and the chicken cut up and added back in..........there's a whole chicken at the bottom of that pot!

So, now back to finishing those Christmas presents!  How is your Christmas shopping, making, cooking, baking and decorating going?  Thank you for all your good wishes too!  I think it helped!
Happy Trails!!!

I'm still around but barely!

I am so sorry I haven't blogged or replied or visited but evidently the planet Mercury is in retrograde and although I didn't know it at the time it explains a lot! I have been sick and it is the first time in 8 years!  So, how can I complain, right?  But I have so much to do and I am dragging around.  I keep thinking every day I will feel better but every night I have terrible sinus drainage that makes me gag and cough and not sleep until nigh onto morning.  I am eating chicken noodle soup, I have throat lozenges and I make myself hot honey and lemon tea to drink but it is not working as well as I would like.  It makes me feel a little better but once I lie down I'm toast again and I don't feel that great during the day either. 

I was going to make Andy Paulson's chicken soup but I don't feel well enough to expend the effort so Campbells has been my go to chicken noodle soup.
The reason I mentioned Mercury Retrograde is that this isn't the only thing going down around here.  My printer has been failing but at least it would print in gray scale but no more.....then my tablet stopped taking a charge so there went my books and patterns.  Then I got sick and I have a 6 month doctor appointment tomorrow.....timely probably so I thought I would take a nice hot bath and hit the sack early after some more chicken soup but alas there is no hot water!  I took a cold bath and decided NOT to wash my hair.  I then called the plumber to see how much a new water heater would cost (after all it is over 40 years old)  and he is out of town!  I've been trying to still work on presents but then today I ran out of some material needed to finish.  But I am going to Mountain Home tomorrow for blood work and doctor so I guess I will stop at Hobby Lobby (not really what I wanted to do but hey.....it's Christmas!)  I hope your lead up to the season is going better than mine! LOL! 
Again, I apologize for being absent but I am just barely keeping my head above water here. 
Take care and Happy Trails!!!