Toasty Warm

Sometimes as I am leaving the house in the morning I slip my camera in my jacket pocket just in case I feel like taking a few pictures on my two daily walks on campus. Here are three pictures I took at 8 a.m. this morning...

Grey sky, grey ocean, grey grass...

... but everything oh so beautiful.

With this morning's extreme cold temperature I have to dress up so toasty and warm (check out the red nose).

Keep warm everyone and enjoy your TGIF tomorrow.

Nest of eggs

Here are the Easter Eggs I made from all natural homemade dye on Sunday. The three dark red were soaked overnight in beet juice, yellow is tumeric, blue is red cabbage and the pink one is beet juice for an hour. This was a very fun project.

Recipe

Here is the recipe for the homemade marshmallows

Prepare a 9X9 baking pan by greasing it with butter and sifting powdered sugar over it to coat the bottom and sides.

Put 3 envelopes of Knox gelatin and one-half cup cold water into the bowl of stand mixer to allow the gelatin to bloom for 10 minutes (or any bowl if you are going to mix with a hand mixer).

While gelatin is blooming, measure out 2 cups sugar (I used cane sugar), two-third cup light corn syrup and one quarter cup water. Boil this mixture to 250F (hard-ball stage). Remove from heat. Be very careful.

Run mixer at low speed while pouring (very slowly) the hot sugar syrup in gelatin. Once the syrup is mixed in, turn up the speed slowly and add one-quarter tsp. salt. After a while you should be able to mix at high-speed. Mixture will start to fluff up. Once the volume of the marshmallow stops increasing add 1 tablespoon vanilla. The entire mixing process takes about 8 minutes.

Pour the fluffy mixture into the prepared pan.

Let the marshmallow cool and set uncovered overnight. Invert pan over a cutting board covered lightly with powdered sugar. You can easily release the marshmallow by pulling from a corner and working it loose from the pan.

Cut with a pizza wheel. (If you find the sides too sticky you can toss the squares in a bowl of powered sugar, I did'nt have to do this).

Optional - drizzle with melted chocolate; topped with nuts.

Delicious ! Perfect for making S'mores at the campsite.

Marshmellows

I might as well forget about store-bought marshmellows for when we go camping...

Sunday evening I made homemade marshmellows (my first time) and it is very easy. They turned out 100% perfect. I will make a batch next summer, just before we leave for camping.

And of course, what is a marshmellow without milk chocolate and chopped nuts...

I wish everyone an excellent Tuesday and keep warm !

Curtain

I don't really enjoy having curtains at my windows - I prefer having full view of Nature. I admit, some windows you can't go without curtains but others... nope, not for me. This kitchen sink window was naked for the past two years. Today, after I had finished washing the window I decided to put up this cute little curtain that I made up from a table runner. Nothing too fancy (you know me, no frills or lace) it was hand-crochet with cotton thread.

I suppose dressed up looks better then naked !

Dye-ing

Looking at the calender I realized that Easter will soon be upon us. So, that being said - I am working on making homemade dyes for Easter eggs. This one is made from purple cabbage. The color of the dye is amazing ! The deepest purple you've ever seen. And guess what - the eggs dyed light blue. I also used two different methods with beets and one with tumeric.

I am not posting pictures of the dyed eggs yet as they are drying and I have to buy straw or hay to display them in a basket.

Thank you

Tomorrow (February 25) marks Frenchy Addict's first blogging anniversary. Yup, one year already. I can't even find the words to express the gratitude I have for each and every one of you for making this an experience I will not soon forget. Blogging has kept me in touch with family and friends (actually that is the reason I had started blogging) and without knowing or planning it - I made new and wonderful friends that inspire me each and every day.

Thank you to blogging, my creative self has emerged and now I see sewing and knitting in a totally different perspective.

Thank you to those that read my blog, to those that leave comments and to those that read but don't leave comments - you are ALL so very special and dear to me.

I will leave you with random pictures I took 30 minutes ago in our backyard. Thank you to Mother Nature for sending us this beautiful sunshine these past two days. What a gorgeous anniversary gift...

February Funks

I've been feeling the February Funks lately. February has to be my least favorite month of the year... still too cold to do any dirt digging outside and still not enough sunlight in a day to perk me up without help from supplements. I know, I know, things are looking up - soon Spring will be in the air and I will be one happy, perky girl.

This is what I've found myself day dreaming about lately :

Picnics
Dirt digging.
Yellow tulips.
Walks on the beach.
Getting ''Ruby'' out for a spin.
Sunlight late into the evening.

The trail.
Our bright orange wheelbarrow full of organic composted matter.

BBQing bare feet.

Blueberries.

What have you found yourself longing for after these long Winter months ?

Hope all is well with everyone and I wish you a very pleasant Friday tomorrow. I'm off to check on Ruby.

Overflowing with beauty

Dave and I went to Yarmouth earlier this afternoon. He had an appointment and I went along to keep him company while he waited.

We dropped into the Old World Bakery. I had never gone before, everytime we tried to go, it was closed - WOW ! as I told the very friendly lady that served us ''We'll be back... soon''. We bought homemade hummus, a baquette and molasses cookies. Everything is made from scratch with NO preservatives. I can even compost the hummus container.

I also briefly went into the Health Food Market for a few items we needed - raw cane sugar and oats. Then we headed home, taking in the view oh ever so slowly. We side-tracked over at Mavillette Beach to see the very active ocean (we have been having abnormal heavy winds lately and that sure stirs the ocean).

Here are a few random pictures taken at the beach :




The two following pictures were taken from the side of the road as we were leaving the beach. The road had to be closed for a few days on account of floading.

Frenchy's - Easter, Christmas and a happy hubby

Dave and I dropped into Frenchy's tonight (those that are not familiar with Frenchy's, see my side bar for a brief explanation). Found this Easter Egg candle... which reminds me, I have to go up in the attic to bring down the Easter ornaments.

... this set of the 3 wisemen (Christmas tree ornaments).

And my husband found himself a suede-leather jacket (like he really needed another jacket, right).

Wishing everyone a good middle-of-the-week day tomorrow !

Belated Gift for a special friend

My very special friend in Ontario, Louise, celebrated her birthday on February 5th. However, by the time I finished knitting her gift and mailed it to her she had already left for vacation (somewheres very warm). So now that she has seen her hand-knitted scarf I can post a picture here. The wool was soooooooo soft.

Surprise

Wait... what do I see there. Are those sun rays... can it be.


Thank you Mother Nature for sending us such beautiful sunshine. You knew that we needed a few shots of sunshine did'nt you.

We had to buy two more cords of firewood to finish the season. This is the routine every year. In the Fall we can only put 6 cords in the basement then in February we buy 2 more.

Easy bread

I decided this morning that I would love the house to smell of yummy baking bread but I was too late getting started on this recipe so I went ahead and put together the ingredients for a ''bread machine bread''. You'll notice the top is shunken... result of a bigger then the machine bread so it stuck to the lid of the bread machine.

I already have taste testers and they've reported back that is is DELICIOUS !!!!!

Hope you are all up to something delicious today.

Frenchy's Tid Bits

Those that know me pretty well, know that I love gardening and that all my gardens are organic. So imagine my delight at Frenchy's tonight when I found this 1972 The Organic Gardener manual.

I also found a nice piece of ribbon, a giant paper clip and another book about Martha Stewart.



Ahhhhh, to dream about gardening !!!!!

(Edit - I forgot to mention that I paid a great big $1.30 for everything)

Calm before the storm

Taken yesterday afternoon around 4 p.m. - it was gorgeous.

Lordy, lordy... what a stormy day we had today. So bad that I never managed to take a few pictures for this post. It was -12 this morning and now at 8 p.m. it's +10 and pouring rain with scary winds out there.

Let's all stay in and cosy up to the fire with a nice cup of tea and a couple of orange pecan scones that I baked 30 minutes ago. This recipe is from Homespun Living and they are delicious and I love this blog. This is the second time I bake them in 3 days... they just don't last.

Expect Winter Conditions...

... but did they mean for a week.

Don't get me wrong, I love Winter and I need the Winter season but at this time of the year I start getting anxious to dig in the dirt outside.

Seems we haven't seen the sun in a long time !


Soon we'll be able to do this again with our little fire pit out back.

Hope everyone is enjoying their snow day Monday !

Spring ahead

Although the temperature outside is below zero and the winds are blowing a little stronger then usual I am looking through my seed catalogue and placing my order of seeds - with my winter gloves on. (Gloves were on because I just came from outside with Tabi and thought it was a little wacky to be ordering seeds on a stormy day).

Snow Day Sunday