A few days ago I told you about the sourdough culture that our granddaughter, Anna, brought me from Alaska.
Well, for the past few days I've been growing that good stuff and am almost ready to make bread out of it. This is how it looked last night. It's getting all foamy and smells great.
I think today just may be a bread day!
:),
Lois
Last Friday we celebrated two birthdays at J. Alexander's Restaurant: our friend Bill's and mine. There were five of us: Bill, Catherine, Les (who happened to be in town), Kjell, and me.
The company and conversation were wonderful as was the food! I look at these pictures and can still imagine the wonderful taste. Kjell and I had our favorites, steak and a fully loaded potato.
Such fun! And, it is a pleasure to still be having birthdays. It sure beats the alternative!
All the best,
Lois
It's that time of the year that we enjoy our fireplace. We seem to have enough firewood each year from trees that come down in our yard and wood that our friend Bill brings to us.
My only problem these days is carrying it inside because of my bad back. Fortunately, I have a lovely family who will bring me buckets of wood so that I can keep the living room toasty warm.
Happy December!
All the best,
Lois
We are SO proud of our baby Lily and her trainer, our daughter Catherine! Lily has just achieved her first Qualifying Agility Run at our AKC Queen City Dog Training Club.
Lily is now on her way to achieving Agility titles. We are sure her great, great, great Aunt Penny is looking down from doggie heaven and proudly wagging her tail!
Here's the video of the run:
All the very best,
Lois
Yesterday morning I woke up to this on the dining room table. My Honey knows EXACTLY how to wow me on my birthday.
Thanks also go to Kjell's secret shopper, Catherine.
The day yesterday was wonderful. Relaxing all day, then a lovely dinner out with family and friends. The best part is I didn't have to do the dishes. More images to come.
All the best,
Lois
Awhile back I showed you the back of a sweater I had started for our daughter Catherine.
Well, the front and the back are finished, so it's time to design and make the sleeves.
I'm writing this new pattern as I go so it takes longer than my designs I've made many times over and over.
So far, so good!
Stay tuned!
Lois
I have set up a wrapping station in my second floor hallway. The two gifts in the image are birthday presents that I wrapped yesterday and will be giving in a couple of days, but I'll soon be wrapping Christmas gifts. I like doing this with the light coming through the large hallway window.
So, here we go for another season of gift wrapping and giving.
Happy December!
Lois
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here!
I took this image yesterday morning through a window and screen from my bedroom window.
Appointments were cancelled for the day giving us a little extra time to do other things.
Enjoy!
Lois
Our granddaughter, Anna, stopped by with something very special for me!
Anna and a friend had visited Alaska and when she saw this, she knew it was for me! As my regular readers know, I make bread often and, until recently, made sourdough bread. The sourdough I used was started here in Cincinnati so had a very good, local flavor.
It will be fun to revive this Alaskan sourdough and make bread with it!
Thank you, Anna!
More to come. :)
Lois
We stayed up late last night watching The Accountant movies back-to-back while the girls had a slumber party in the middle of the living room.
The Accountant movies aren't what one might expect from the titles. They are actually action flicks about an accountant who launders money. The movies get pretty loud at times which caught the interest of baby Lily, but the other girls slept through most of it.
If you haven't seen them and you enjoy action movies, check out the original and newest versions of The Accountant.
And, Happy Cyber Monday! If you've read this far and would like to come over to the shop here's a discount code for our blog readers. Get your holiday shopping finished the easy way and enjoy a discount while you do it!
Our shop is here: https://evensensproductions.etsy.com
Details of the discount for our blog readers:
20% off, orders of $50 or more, offer good December 1 through December 6, 2025.
Use this coupon code at checkout: 1225SANTABLOG20
All the very best,
Lois
Kjell has his tools and supplies all labeled in cabinets in his basement workshop.
I got a big kick out of this one!
;),
Lois
I took this image through my car window (I wasn't driving) while we were on our way to an appointment at UC Health.
If you look carefully at the center of the image, you can see a helicopter landing on the roof of University Hospital.
We are so glad we live within minutes of one of the premier health facilities in the country.
We pray the patient recovers quickly.
All the best,
Lois
To accommodate all the family schedules, we celebrated Thanksgiving Dinner on Wednesday this year. Catherine grilled the turkey outside and our friend Bill carved the turkey.
This is my plate. Not very neat, but it sure was good! There is green bean casserole on the plate as well as turnips and carrots that didn't get in the other images. Of course, the cranberry sauce I made the day before.
Thanks to our friend Erica, we had yummy pumpkin pie!
Catherine did the biggest job making this dinner. But everyone else helped, too. Thank you to everyone!
Love you all,
Lois
Happy Thanksgiving!
Wendy, Elsa, Lily (pictured), Kjell, Catherine, and me.
I hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving with family and friends!
Happy Thanksgiving Week! Yesterday I made cranberry sauce and the house smelled wonderful!
I make the cranberry sauce, beans, and buns. Catherine will makes all the rest for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.
More to come....
Lois
What do you first see in that image? A lady holding a Canon camera? I did.
Kjell said this image popped up in his feed on line and it was so cute he forwarded it to me.
I love it! That Canon camera looks a great deal like our Erik.
So cute!
Enjoy,
Lois
I snapped this image when we took the pups out for last call before bedtime last night. These are only two of the four we have this week. We have our three Labs plus Erica's Border Collie while she is at a dog show with her other dogs.
This is a section of our back yard that is very well lit. We have cameras on it, too, so can see the pups outside and also have a record of anyone who might be stupid enough to come into our yard. We have a sign on the gate: Warning! Do not open gate! Dogs in yard! The pups will actively defend their yard. So far, so good.
So, that's it for another day. I hope all is well wherever you are.
All the very best,
Lois
Last night we enjoyed Family Movie Night by watching The Wild Robot.
Lily was fascinated with the movie! It was so much fun to watch her reactions to the characters and the noises they made.
Precious!
:),
Lois
Catherine made her famous crock pot Cream of Potato Soup for us yesterday.
Yes, it was delicious!
It was the perfect thing for dinner on a rainy, busy day.
Thanks, Sweetie,
Love,
Mom
Elsa made sure I didn't get up from my recliner while I enjoyed my morning coffee.
This is the sweetest, most devoted dog anyone could have.
Precious!
:),
Lois
This project is going to take awhile. It's a crochet sweater for Catherine. I'm designing as I go to her preferences. She just loves the yarn so I think we're good to go. :)
Our daughter Catherine does so very much for us. In addition to all the things she does at home (cooking, grocery shopping, etc.) she takes most of the shop sales packages to the post office for us. This sweater is a Christmas gift thank you for so much that she does.
Are you crafting for Christmas?
All the best,
Lois
This lovely display is on the wall in Giovanni's Restaurant aboard Brilliance of the Seas.
Uh, does this remind you of some other restaurant? Cracker Barrel, maybe?
Hmmmm....
;),
Lois
Catherine fired up the grill last weekend to prepare a lamb leg. I had already thawed out chicken breasts to make over the weekend so she marinated and grilled them at the same time.
We have left overs for another meal, too!
The meal of salad, really yummy mashed potatoes, lamb, chicken, and mushrooms was delicious. But, what made it even more special is it was made by Catherine and shared by all of us.
All the best,
Lois
Catherine sent me these pictures while on her Canadian Fall Foliage cruise last month.
This is where the yarn comes to the port!
Enjoy!
Lois
We've been busy since the last Needlework and Wood Working Update.
Above is a Sorbet Pastels Lap Blanket for all ages. It's super soft and the stitch texture is warm and comfy. $60. Only one available. More images and information here.
We have dozens more Cloche Hats/Chemo Caps in a variety of sizes from $8 here.
We have more Tissue Toppers in a variety of colors in our Home Living Entertaining Section here.
So, that's it for this time. We sincerely appreciate your encouragement, comments, likes, shares, pins, favorites, and purchases, too! We hope you'll shop https://evensensproductions.etsy.com for yourselves and for gifts. Come take a look!
All the very best,
Lois
Good morning,
What beautiful skies on an Autumn morning!
The Northern Lights have been visible in our part of the world for the past few evenings, but we are in the city where there is too much artificial light (street, house vehicle lights) to be able to see them well, much less photograph them. There are lovely images of Northern Lights this week on Facebook from friends who live further out from our city lights.
I remember my Dad taking all of us into the country where it was very dark to see the Northern Lights when I was a child. Of course, we have seen them in Norway, too.
One of my favorite original afghan blanket designs is inspired by the Northern Lights:
All the best,
Lois
This sweet little African Violet was having a hard time this past Summer. So, I placed her in a window where I could watch her daily and carefully water her to bring her back to life.
I had a great feeling of success when I spotted this blossom! Soon I'll groom her and put her in a bigger pot. I don't want to stress her with a move quite yet.
Yes, it's time for winter indoor gardening.
:),
Lois
Ah, yes. Warm homemade bread on a cold day. This one is Light Whole Wheat.
I wish I could share the aroma with you!
All the best,
Lois
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Shopping for the holidays? Come look!
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It's just too early for snow!
Perhaps we'll have a white Thanksgiving. ;)
Stay warm!
Image credit to Kjell.
All the best,
Lois
Veterans Day
United States of America
Thank a Veteran Today and Every Day
This little tug reminds me of children's books. So cute!
This is the Mister Bean and crew who were helping cast off lines of Brilliance of the Seas in Sydney, Canada.
Image credit to our friend, Erica.
All the best,
Lois
Here's a fun image courtesy of our friend Erica. She and Catherine came across this huge "fiddle" while strolling around Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.
How very cool!
Thanks, Erica!
All the best,
Lois
