A lazy, rainy Sunday

Well, autumn is certainly upon us. It's grey and rainy and chilly and there is Giants' football on the tv. A nearly perfect fall Sunday. I've been pulling out warm clothes, thick sweaters and flannel jammies; putting away summer clothes, flimsy tops and peasant skirts. It's baking season, crock pot season, mulled wine and apple crisp season. My favourite season of all.

I have just a few days to catch up. It has been a slow week. The only thing I acquired was a new curling iron, and I just made a straight trade ~ the one that died was tossed and the new one was put to work.

I do have 5 things to show you, things that have been waiting patiently, collecting dust, taking up shelf space. A pair of book ends, a bread machine that burns the bread every time, a broken food processor, a wooden paper towel holder and an iron spice rack.


These I donated to the library. They'll look cute in the Children's Room.


I regret losing these two. But I'll get a new food processor someday soon, and I'm thinking about learning to make bread without a machine. I do all my other own baking and cooking. It's past time to start making my own bread, too. Besides, I understand the kneading and punching is great for stress management. :)


I am slowly working towards no longer using paper products in the kitchen. I am moving to only having cloth napkins (not quite there yet), and using kitchen towels and rags rather than paper towels. It's my little bit to save the environment (and it's cheaper, too). So I no longer need this.


The worst place to store spices in in the open light and air. So, this is going. I love it, and it goes with my wine rack and kitchen shelves, but I'd rather have good spices than a pretty spice rack. :)

So, that's it for this week. We're soon moving into October. Happy fall everyone!

Catching up....

I guess it's time to catch up and get ready for another weekend. I have a real variety of items today (for Tuesday - Thursday).

I'm not sure how this one slipped past my notice when I went through my DVDs a few months ago (Yes, that's right, I actually went through and got rid of about 50 DVDs BEFORE I started this. What was I thinking??). Ah well, it's caught and it counts now, and it's going to my nephews. I was going to crop the pic, but Bailey wanted to say, "Hi," too.


Next I have this gorgeous candle.

Just look at the detail on the decoration:

Unfortunately, it's a scent that gives me a headache. I like the scent a lot, but have learned from past experience that it does not like me. So, I am going to give it to my Dan this weekend. I seem to recall he likes this scent ~ he can just burn it when I'm not there. :)

Next we have a cookbook that I have never used. Out it goes.


Well, that gets me through today. And just so I am all caught up before the weekend gets here, I'm adding one more for Friday. It's a small Christmas ornament, a snow globe. Cute, huh?

But my name is spelled wrong on it. *sigh*

Ta for now!

Cookbooks, yes again

Boring entry tonight. I'm tired and cranky and not in the mood.

I went through another shelf of cookbooks this morning. (Even my time between getting ready and leaving for work has become productive.)

I need to catch up from yesterday and I'll be busy this weekend, so I decided to select a few cookbooks to donate. I ended up selecting 5, one for each day Wednesday through Sunday.

Great American Favorite Brand Name Cookbook
Recipe Encyclopedia
New York Times Cookbook
Creative Cooking
BH&G Annual Recipes 1998

That's it. Bye. :)

Busting the Carbs

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am beginning to really focus on nutrition and diet. That's diet, as in what I eat and how much of it ~ not diet as in deprivation and starvation and no chocolate. I have a great app on my iPod to count calories and nutrition. And so far it seems to be working. I'm beginning to be more conscious of portion size and it's making me very aware of quality versus quantity.

So, for Tuesday, I'm donationg 3 books to the library, all on carb counting and protein dieting. (I'm getting rid of all 3 in one day because I also got my digital TV converters yesterday, so I have to discard an extra 2 things.)

And here they are:



That's it for Tuesday. I'll be back later for today's entry.

Making changes

This is my year for making changes. Positive changes. Helpful changes. Hopefully, lifelong changes.

January was the month for getting started with the organizing of my stuff. I've done well so far, and I'm in the routine of getting rid of stuff every day. I've also gotten out of the splurge and just because shopping habit. It's always right on the top of my mind that if I get something, I have to get rid of something.

Now we are beginning a new month, and I'm adding a new change. I'm going to begin focusing on nutrition and healthy eating. I added a new app to my iPod Touch ~ Lose It. (Thanks, Peter!) It's a great application! It lets you program in all of your personal data, where you are and where you want to be. Then you set a goal and it sets up a daily calorie quota. You can add in all that you eat, as well as the exercise you do, and it keeps track for you. You can use the foods they have in the database, or add your own custom ones, including recipes. It keeps track of calories, nutrients (fiber, fat, protein, etc.)It's fun, it's easy, and it's going to keep me on track.

I don't plan to keep a seperate blog for this new "resolution" I am starting, but I may give updates now and again. I am loving my new iPod!!

Thanks for listening. I'll be back to posting about Living Simply later tonight....