Spring In My Heart, But Winter Outside!!

Peeper

May Flowers

Here in Minnesota we have had every imaginable combination of weather in the last couple of days. It is downright miserable out, every time you look out at the weather it is changing. Snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain, slush, wind, and drizzle. Soooo I tend to keep busy stitching when it is like this. It makes great stitching weather. My collection of Spring and Easter ornaments continues to grow. They should all be done by the end of this week.

Tommorrow is the big game between the Vikings and the Saints, so I will have to have some stitching ready to do during the game. I am one of those people who has to be doing something with my hands when I am watching TV, and stitching is better than eating snacks. You can eat a lot of snacks during a 3 hour game and that is not good!!

Tomorrow, I am going to make some of my homemade boiled ham dinner. This is a great dish for a wintery day. Besides being healthy and good for you, it is easy to make. I am going to share the recipe here with you:

Carol's Hambone Boiled Dinner

Ingredients:

Hambone with a fair amount of meat left on it.

Cabbage

Potatoes

Carrots

Onions

Place the ham bone in a large pot along with enough water to cover the bone. Bring to a boil and then turn down to medium for about an hour or until the meat falls easly from the bone. Don't trim it before you cook it.

After the ham bone is cooked, remove it from the liquid, and let cool until you can cut the meat from the bones. Remove all the meat, trim out fat skin and bone. Cut the meat into bite size pieces.

Peel and cut up about 4 medium potatoes. Chop into 1/2" to 3/4" pieces and add to the liquid.

Cut up about 4 medium carrots or two cups of the shorcut carrots and add to liquid.

Cut up one medium onion and add to liquid.

Cut up 2-3 cups full of cabbage and add to liquid.

Cook until all the vegetables are tender, add some pepper. Taste the liquid before you add salt. There is usually enough salt in to ham so you don't have to add any. You can also add extra water if it gets too thick.

This is so good, let me know how it turns out!

Happy Stitching! Carol

Spring Preview

April Showers

The weather has been great here for the last week, with temperatures in the low 30's. That is wonderful for January in Minnesota. It sure does get the spring fever going though. But I have lived here long enough to know that we have a lot of winter ahead of us yet. But, I can pretend it is Spring as I work on some new things for Spring. I am teasing you today with a little Spring/Easter Ornament or Charm, whatever you want to call them. We should have them all ready by the last week in January.
I think the winter is going pretty fast, course I spend a lot of time here in my "happy room." It helps to have something to do. We have several shows coming up and also a lot of trunk show to do, so we are basically booked up until the Minnesota Quilt Show which is in June. After that it will be time to start working on things for this fall.
Remember to take some time and count your blessings and pray for the people of Haiti and please if you are able to donate, give if you can. They can use all of our prayers and anything else we can share with them. I did hear that right now is not the time to start donating quilts and other furnishings. Right now they need water and food to survive and rest will have to be for later.
Enjoy the rest of the winter season, and will share some more goodies with you later in the month.
Happy Stitching! Carol

A Time To Be Grateful

Freindship Charm

Thank You to all my faithful customers for this past year. You have blessed me in so many ways
with all of your nice comments, your support of my products, and the encouragement that I get
from so many of you. I enjoy hearing from all of you, and it is a pleasure to meet so many of you
via cyberspace. In the coming year, we will continue to bring you some new ideas and more
"fun stuff." I can not do this business by myself, and I have to mention the gals who help me with
various aspects of the business. Thanks to Vickie, Judy#1, Joyce, Judy#2, Christi, and my
husband who run errands, makes trips to the post office, and supports me in many ways. Thanks
again to each and every one of you!!
Happy Stitching! Carol