What did I do on my day off.........

Well after having a lie-in and not getting up until 10am.  I sat and had a relaxing cup of tea, with home made whole grain bread, with hand churned butter and some of my homemade raspberry jam, while flicking through a couple of those "gossip magazines."  I then had a shower and headed to the spa, where I spent the next three hours having a massage, a facial and a pedicure; having a small break in between treatments for a light spa lunch, of baby greens and a poached chicken breast, and chocolate mousse with fresh berries for afters with a soothing cup of green tea to finish with............ 

Hang on, that's my dream day....in reality, I was up before 6am, thank you Molly for that!!   By 10am I had cleaned the bathrooms, washed and hung out two loads of laundry.  Made numerous telephone calls, submitted the recipe book to the publishers.  Sent a few emails, cleaned our bedroom and "captured" all the dust bunnies living in there!! 

By lunch time I had ironed both loads of laundry, sorted out the raspberries from the night before; made a batch of fabric softener, recipe is here.  Tidied up in the family room.  After lunch I went to my quilt club meeting, and picked up this month's pattern which is a Bear Paw Pattern  I also picked up a Christmas panel for a small wall hanging:

This is a close up shot of part of it.

I get a free fat quarter every month from this club, and for the past couple of months I have been getting this ladybug material.  What would you suggest as a contrast material to go with it?

When I got back in I made fish cakes from the leftover mashed potatoes.  I made enough for two meals so froze the rest.  Here is a recipe for them from a prior post, the are so easy to make I would never dream of buying them.

I prepared a garden salad enough for both Tuesday and Wednesday nights supper.  So that all I have to do when I get in from work on Wednesday is pop the stuffed baked potatoes in the microwave for 10 minutes and pop into the toaster oven to crisp up the outside, probably 20 minutes; and pull out the salad and within 30 minutes, supper will be on the table.

I didn't get everything done like I wanted to, but achieved the main things I wanted to get done......

I think I have got back into my groove again......and my near death experience!

Tuesday, I decided to take everyone's advise, including dh's and have a quiet day. We had a bit of frost overnight, luckily I had put garbage bags over all my geraniums.

My dad had put a shelf in the bathroom vanity, so I put contact paper on that and emptied the last box from the bathroom in there, so that was a good job sorted. I then went into the garden and picked some rhubarb as there is a huge patch of it, and I made a couple strawberry and rhubarb pies for the freezer.



The small "pie" is a pear and raspberry pie I made with the scraps of pastry. It feels so good to be baking again. The only down side to that though, I had never used my oven before on my new stove and it stunk.

I sorted through a pile of paperwork and made a number of phone calls. Pleased to say got a few things sorted out, including getting someone in on Thursday to give us a quote on the new patio doors. The fireplace guy is away so can't call him until the end of next week, otherwise I would have got him in to give us a quote.

Now for my "near death experience." I told everyone before we moved, when I was going to use the lawn tractor I would be wearing my flowery wellies and a crash helmet!!! Well today I wish I had, had my crash helmet on. So when dh came home for work he set up the lawn tractor and showed me how to use it. I ran around the front part of the lawn to practice and figured I knew what I was doing.

After supper I had to go to the garage to pick up my car, nearly $1,900 and I am going to have to take it back in, as it's making a funny noise. Dh called in at Home Hardware on the way home, so when I got home, I thought I'd make a start on mowing some of the acreage. On the left side of the house its steep, and that of course is where the dandelions are growing the most.

Now common sense tells you, to find the least steep area and go down there with your mower. So I find the least steep area, and the lawn mower just goes hurtling down the hill. I thought I was going to die, I mean I thought I was going to crash into the fence. I closed my eyes as I was so terrified. So I get to the bottom of the hill, and thought now what, so I decided I would potter along down there, but was terrified the whole time. The grass was so long it was crazy. I had my blade too low which made things worse.

So I lifted up my blade and stopped mowing and made a run for the hill to get back up to the top. I managed to get to the top, and swore up and down to dh (who had since arrived home), that I was never ever cutting that side of the grass. I mowed the area in front of the house, but it is so bumpy. When I got off the mower, my legs were all wobbly and my butt was still vibrating. I swear if I don't lose any weight with all this exercise I will scream.

So if anyone wants to volunteer to mow my five acres, go ahead, as I have decided it's not my favourite thing to do!! Fingers crossed when I attempt to mow more of the lawn on Wednesday that I don't plow down all the raspberry, blueberry and blackcurrant bushes!!!