Crocus! Welcome Signs of Spring!

Good morning,

It has been sunny this week, but very cold.  I was delighted to see these pretty signs of Spring in our front garden!

When the crocus arrive, the daffodils aren't far behind!

So pretty!

Enjoy,
Lois

New WIP Waiting Room Knitting

Good morning,

This was my take-along project on Monday for waiting room knitting while waiting for an appointment.

That's the beginning of a wrist warmer and is a custom order.  I loved the huge windows in the waiting room that let in bright sunshine for counting stitches on this dark blue project.

What are you making today?

Lois

February Sunshine

Good morning,

Beautiful sunshine spilled into our dining room this week.

But don't let all that light fool you!  The temperature outside was 27 F. 

The pups love to be in the sunshine.  If you look carefully, you can see Penny's reflection in the bottom of the left door. 

We're eagerly waiting for Spring here!

:),
Lois

A Dose of Elsa Cuteness

Good morning,

Here's today's dose of cuteness.

Our breeder, Alicia, sent us this picture of Elsa today.  Elsa will come home to us on March 8.  

We are so excited!

:),
Lois

Gravlax Treat

Good morning,

My Honey took this picture of me holding gravlax and scrambled eggs on a cracker last night. 

What a yummy dinner!  Those Valentine's Day flowers are still beautiful, too.

Kjell's Gravlax recipe and my Gravlax Sauce recipe are here.

Enjoy!

Lois

Pink Lily

Good morning,

This gorgeous pink lily and its twin bloomed more than a week after Valentine's Day.  The lily is part of the flower arrangement we bought for each other to adorn our dining room table on February 14. 

How pretty that this blossom arrived a week later while we are still enjoying the rest of the bouquet of roses and carnations.

Happy Saturday!

Lois

Childhood Memories

Good morning,

My Honey, Kjell, grew up in Norway and I grew up in the United States.  We enjoy comparing various things that we experienced as kids and have discovered our experiences are more alike than different.

My Mom often made meal balls;  Kjell's Mom made meat cakes.   My Mom made mashed potatoes;  Kjell's Mom made boiled potatoes.  My Mom served peas;  Kjell's Mom served mashed peas. 

What you see in the image above is a combination of the Norwegian and American meal we each enjoyed as a child.  Above you see the meat cakes/balls prepared with nutmeg Norwegian style and served with "American Sauce" - catsup.  The peas aren't mashed, but the potatoes are.  The gravy/brown sauce is the same on both sides of The Pond. 

It may be a little different, but it is more the same when we compare what our moms made for us.  This is fun.

All the best,
Lois

Peppered Salami

Good morning,

If anyone ever gives you some of this, be sure to have a fire extinguisher nearby for your mouth.

You have been warned!

Lois

Waiting Room Crochet

Good morning,

I took a small project with me for my waiting room project yesterday.  From 80 tiny circles does a Large Afghan Blanket come.  :)  The pretty circles above are the beginning of a Colors of the Sea Afghan Blanket.

My larger sweater project was to a point where I need to count stitches and put them on a stitch holder so I'll do that at home instead.

What are you making today?

All the best,
Lois

EvensensProductions.com

Elsa vs. My Shoelaces

Good morning,

While we were visiting with Elsa on Sunday she discovered my shoe laces. 

I've uploaded a short video here so you can see her in action:

Elsa vs. My Shoelaces

She is so much fun!

:),
Lois

Elsa at Six Weeks

Good morning,

Catherine and I went to visit Elsa at her breeder's yesterday.  She has grown so fast!

We stayed for about an hour and played with Elsa and her siblings.

We had Elsa out for awhile and played with her while she played with (chewed on) my shoe laces and her toys.  Then Alicia let them all out to play.  It was like the great escape as they all ran around the room chasing each other, us, and their toys.

Alicia is a fabulous breeder.  Not only does she breed for the best physical attributes, she gives the pups all kinds of opportunities to learn and experience the big, beautiful world from the beginning.

More puppy pictures coming soon!

Lois

It's Not Just for Thanksgiving Anymore

Good morning,

I had an extra turkey in the freezer from Thanksgiving so decided it was time to thaw and prepare it.  We also purchase extra fresh cranberries each November and freeze them to use the rest of the year so I made cranberry sauce, too.

It was marvelous to have another Thanksgiving in the middle of February.

It will be fun when the weather warms up and we can enjoy more time outside!

Yum!

Lois

So Much Love in those Eyes

Good morning,

Our Penny turned 14 years old a couple of weeks old. 

There is something so very special about the love of an old dog.

We love you, Penny.

Love,
Mommy

Valentine's Day - The Day After

Good morning,

How was your Valentine's Day? 

Ours was lovely with flowers and candy, a trip to the wood store and lunch out, followed by an evening at home with the pups. 

Retirement is GOOD!

All the best,

Lois

Happy Valentine's Day!

Good morning and Happy Valentine's Day!

The bud in the image above is ready to bloom in our dining room.  It is so very welcome on these cold winter days!

I hope you're having a wonderful day with those you love.

All the very best,
Lois

WIP Progress

Good morning,

I'm making progress on the basket weave tunic sweater that is my waiting room project.  When I snapped this picture yesterday I realized I was also wearing one of my basket weave sweaters.  You can see a tiny part of the blue tweed sweater at the bottom of this image.  That blue sweater was made about 2005 while we were aboard Majesty of the Seas.  These sweaters last forever!

I switch back and forth between knit and crochet to give some relief from repetitive movements for my fingers as I've mentioned earlier.  My home project afghan got too big to carry around anyway so it wasn't a candidate for the needlework waiting room project. 

What are you making now?

All the best,
Lois

The Science Channel

Good morning,

We are news junkies.  We follow the national and international news closely.

But, lately, we get our fill.  We listen to the news and a few of the opinion programs, then change the channel.  If you get tired of (fed up with) the news these days, we highly recommend the Science Channel if you haven't already become a fan.

We've always enjoyed the Science Channel and recently have found ourselves looking forward to switching over to it after seeing the news of the day.  I took the image above of our TV screen last night during "How the Universe Works."  Fascinating!

On Sunday nights there is a new series about Vikings in America.  We watched the first episode this week and found the historical information interesting, but the presentation was over dramatic.  We'll watch again next Sunday.

More family fun....

What do you watch when you get sick and tired of the news?

Lois

Here We Go Again

Good morning, 

After a couple of days of temperatures in the 50's and 60's F, we suddenly had a 40 degree drop to the 20's and here comes more snow.

Welcome to the Ohio River Valley.  We are generally on the border of weather systems from the Gulf of Mexico and from Canada.  I think the Canadian weather won again today.

Lois

A Long Cold Winter

Good morning,

It's a cold winter here in North America.  We're going through the firewood faster than most other recent years.

Our storage racks were full last Fall.  I've gone through about one third of it already.  It's hard to see here, but we have eight racks of wood, all from trees we've taken down on our property.

I sure hope Spring comes soon!

Lois

Elsa on the Balance Board

Good morning, 

I tried to upload a video here to my blog, but the file was too large.  So, I uploaded it to YouTube and here is the link:

Elsa on the Balance Board

The balance board is a learning toy for puppies and Elsa is having a ball with it!  It's so much fun to see her in action.  I took this video at Alicia's, Elsa's breeder last weekend.  In the image Elsa is four weeks old.  She will come home to us next month. 

Enjoy!

Lois

Work in Process - Stained Glass Flower Garden Afghan Blanket

Good morning,

The current crochet work in process is a large stained glass flower garden afghan blanket.  This one will be available in the shop when finished.

The current knit project is still the basket weave sweater I showed you a week or so ago.

I alternate between knit and crochet projects to avoid repetitive movements for my hands.  Busy fingers!

There are other large afghan blankets finished and ready to ship worldwide in our on-line Shop, EvensensProductions.com.   Gift wrap option is available at checkout.

Here's the link for the direct route to the Afghan Blanket Section of our shop.

All the best,

Lois

-------------------------------------------

Original and Traditional Hand Crafted Designs

EvensensProductions.com

-------------------------------------------

Again?

Good morning,

This sweet girl was in my bed before I could get there last night. 

I just rolled her over so I had space to join her.  She didn't seem to mind. 

;),
Lois

Elsa at Four Weeks

Good morning,

We went to visit our newest baby, Elsa, last Sunday.  She was four weeks old and as precious as she could be.  I had just held her while she slept for about a half hour, then I handed her to Catherine so I could take a few pictures.  Above she's chomping on Catherine's thumb.

This little pup is as sweet as she can be. 

Here is one of Catherine's pictures of me holding her.  Pure heaven.

We put Elsa back with her siblings and she immediately began playing with the toys while her siblings slept.

 Elsa will come home to us in March.  Until then, her breeder Alicia has told us we can stop by to see her whenever we wish. 

I hope you don't get tired of seeing pictures of Elsa!  There will be many more to come.

Stay tuned!

Lois

Another Fish Soup - Tomato Base

Good morning,

Here's another of My Honey's fish soup creations.  We never get tired of fish soup here, especially on these cold winter tday.

This time he made it with a tomato base.  I asked him about the recipe and he said he had no clue.  He just added things until he liked it.

Nice!

Lois

Sleeping Beauty - Cold Day Nap

Good morning,

I never get tired of these sweet pictures.  Wendy climbed up next to me on the couch again and immediately fell asleep.  She was so close that I had to lean back to take this picture.

What a sweetheart!

Lois

Cold Weather Comfort Food

Good morning,

This is much more tasty that it looks.  It's lamb and cabbage served on crushed boiled potatoes.

This is comfort food My Honey enjoyed in Norway since childhood.  It's just wonderful.

Kjell made it in the crock pot so we enjoyed the wonderful aromas all day.

Yum!

Lois

Needlework and Wood Working Update - February, 2019

Good morning,

I'm beginning this month's Update with the newest items from Kjell's wood workshop.  The box above is similar to one we sold in the shop recently.  Kjell is reworking the design and will have another in the shop soon.  The box shown above already has a home.  There are many other beautiful wood items available here.

This is something super fun!  This LED lighted sign has a remote control so you can turn on/off, change the color, make it blink....  Both the furniture quality cherry wood base and the acrylic sign are designed and engraved by Kjell.  The sign can be ordered to say so many other things, too, and artwork can also be included.  Ideas:  "Mary's Night Light" for you child's room;  "Sign in Here" for your office, club, or organization;  "Bill and Sally's Bar" for your recreation room;  "Bill and Sally's Wedding - (date)" for their wedding rehearsal dinner, reception, and anniversary parties....   I'm sure you can think of more.  Click here to see the signs. 

This has been a busy month for afghan sales.  I'm not surprised with the very cold weather we are experiencing in the USA this winter.  I showed some images of the afghan above while it was in production;  a reader wrote and ordered it so as soon as it was finished it was delivered to the buyer.  There are more pretty full size afghan blankets, lap blankets, and baby blankets available in the shop to ship now.   Here's a link to afghan blankets available in the shop now.

Of course, I'm working on another!  The one I'm working on now is a stained glass flower garden and will be available by next month. 

This little fellow was a custom order and has been delivered.  There are more turtles sold separately and some with baby blankets available in the shop. 

These two Luggage Identifiers are also restocking some recently sold.

They're $5 for a set of six in the shop and invaluable when you have them on your luggage in an airport or cruise terminal and your luggage is in stacks of thousands of others.  Check them out here.

These two Find It Keep It baskets are also to restock those sold recently.

They are the perfect size to hold your keys, glasses, phone, etc., so that you can find them immediately when you are ready to leave the house.  Only $8 each.  Check them out here.

Here's a cloche hat to restock the shop, too.  Of course, with Valentine's Day coming, it's PINK!  We have more than 60 Cloche Hats/Chemo Caps available here starting at $8.  These are super for bad hair days and as night caps, too

I'm not sure why, but our Toilet Tissue Toppers were all the rage this month. I have a feeling they might have been featured on a blog or elsewhere because we certainly sold quite a few of them.  So, of course, I made more.

Click here to see the ones we have in the shop now.  They're $8 each and we have them available in many colors.  If you don't see the color in the shop that you'd like to have, let me know and I'll make up a custom order for you.

Here is a parade of this month's colors:

Pink

 Gold and Cream

 Emerald

 More Pink!

Gray

Brown Tweed

 Scarlet and Gray

 Lavender

 Pure White

 Green

 Blue Tweed

 Another White (the first one immediately sold when I listed it)

 Light Blue

So, that's it for another month.  We hope you'll stop by the shop and take a look:  EvensensProductions.com.   There is still time to order for Valentine's Day.

We ship world wide and gift wrap option is available at checkout.  We have extended our Free Shipping for orders over $200 to USA addresses.

Thanks so much for your encouragement and support of our small business. You are so very appreciated!

All the best,
Lois

------

Hand Crafted Original and Traditional Designs

EvensensProductions.com

------