In an email that I received from my daughter Lisa yesterday, she simply stated, "ok… so i'm getting sort of tired of the stewed prunes picture." Like Lisa, if you have been checking my blog lately, you haven't seen much going on… just the prunes for 9 days. I have been doing things. For starters, I have been…

  Oh, how I love to hang laundry outside… especially on these pre-autumn days in Minnesota when the morning and late evening/night are slightly crisp, the daytime shadows are different… longer, and the sumac has changed into its seasonal hues.

This 3/4 length sleeve top… I wear a lot… on days that it is not too hot but not too cold either… it's just right, so when I dripped something on it I was sad. I grew more sad as every attempt to remove the spot failed.   …until my friend Connie invited me to…

Recently, my friend Connie invited me to a Norwex Enviro Products presentation at her house. The sales consultant demonstrated how to clean without chemicals. I purchased a pair of dryerballs that have porcupine-like protrusions that "lift and separate laundry while softening fabrics. This reduces drying time, static cling and wrinkles – naturally without chemicals." They really do work… and…

This morning, the yard sale circuit on my bike netted me a cheerful red suitcase. I carried it home by looping the handle over my bike's handlebar. After scrubbing the dirt and scuff marks, it was ready to use as storage for my embroidery supplies. It's got elasticized gathered pockets along three sides in the bottom section to tuck some little things.    …

I have been wanting a label maker for a number of years so, when this model went on sale at Staples, I moved on it. It is a Brother P-touch Model PT-2700.  After installing the computer software included with the machine and flipping through some pages in the instruction book, I was anxious to get started. My first…

Before I went to bed last night, I thought about what my ideal productive day spent at home would look like. I concluded that it would need variety and consist of what I dubbed "4 Cs"… cook, clean, clerical, and craft, so I set out to plan my day. (I would not count making a…

I want one…   I grew up on a 160-acre farm ten miles southeast of Brainerd… surrounded by other large farms. We had a "party line" where several neighbors shared the same phone line. To make a call, you gingerly removed the phone off the wall hook so as not to disturb someone in case it was…

Inevitably, I choose the wrong checkout line in the grocery store and end up waiting for a bagger to run after a product that a customer mistakenly picked up other than the one she intended… or a price check causes a delay. I know you've been there. To pass the time, I begin to browse…

  This is me, now that Christmas is but a happy memory. I am enjoying the solitude of my own living room as the maddening crowds in the stores scramble for the remaining items of drastically-reduced gotta-have sale items. (Drawing is from my collection of vintage cookbooks titled "The Casserole Book" illustrated by Kay Lovelace and published by…