AMANDA'S BASKETS: BEAUTIFUL DAY, EASY TREE ORNAMENT, MORE PICTURES FROM VERMONT

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

BEAUTIFUL DAY, EASY TREE ORNAMENT, MORE PICTURES FROM VERMONT

BEAUTIFUL DAY

It was a beautiful day today. Sunny. Warm (70's). Light breeze. This is a picture of the water taken across the street from my apartment. I was out for a walk and to move Lady J. (I was lucky enough to get a Friday parking spot. I only saw one in three blocks. Fortunately, I am getting really good at backing in on the diagonal.)

So did you think about something to be thankful for today? Today is talk day for me and that influenced my choice...I was thankful for the other ladies that take the time to listen and talk with me. Gotta love Skype. It's so much better to see folks at the same time as talking with them.

EASY CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT
I have been looking for ornaments to make and I found one that's so easy it's almost unbelievable. I saw it first on Pinterest. Wanting to give the original post credit, I followed the link to the post by Brenna at Life After Laundry.which you can find here.

The instructions are easy. Cut a circle. I took a small plate and cut out a circle (about 9 inches)...

Next fold in half right sides together...

Sew the curved edges leaving space to turn, then turn and iron...

Top stitch around the curved area and then fold as shown below...

I am going to secure at the top with a bead and attach a loop to hang. This ornament is about 5 1/2" long. I was wondering that if I began with a much smaller circle, could I make a cute pin? What do you think? I think it would be a nice addition to my winter coat. Going to try that this evening.

By the way, I have another tree ornament which I will share tomorrow.

MORE PICTURES FROM VERMONT
The theme for this set of photos would probably be things...

If you like to walk around old cemeteries, well, New England has a ton of them. You can see the headstones are very old.

This is a an old church which at one time was a Norman Rockwell Museum. The neat thing about it was that the volunteer staff were folks or relatives of folks who posed for Rockwell's paintings. Lots of interesting visits were spent here before it closed. I do think the museum is now located at the edge of town (Arlington,Vt) and connected to a farmer's market.

A river large enough to contain lots of fish...

This is a nursery between Bennington and Manchester which always puts out a halloween scene

What a beautiful horse...

One of the many empty barns ready to fall down...

That's the last of my Vermont photos for now.

I see that the Christmas Shops at Byrant and Union Square Parks are being put together. They're tiny little shops probably no more than 10' square, chalked full of stuff. I always enjoy walking around to see what's out there and what's trending. They should be open very shortly, so if you're in NYC, check them out.

That's all for today folks...
It's been nice talking with you...
See you tomorrow...

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?