Learning new tricks . . .

I've been on a bit of a learning curve this week.  I decided that this Dinosaur needed to come into the 21st century and went shopping for a smartphone.  I did get one six years ago, but could never come to terms with using it and so it ended up lanquishing in a box in a cupboard for most of that time, whilst I was locked into a contract and using a much simpler phone. 

I decided though, that since I am quite versant now with my iPad and all the things that it can do, a smart phone actually could be a very helpful tool for me and I would now be able to figure out how to use one properly.

Taking a step like this is a really big deal for an older person.  Young people, it seems, are born with technological know-how running through their veins.  Us oldies on the other hand seem to really struggle with it, or at least I do at any rate.  I can fix a vacuum cleaner but don't ask me how to get onto my e-mail using technology I am not familiar with!

 

I had done a bit of research online first, and so we decided to go to Carphone Warehouse.  They seemed to have the best prices and deals.  I have to say I was VERY impressed with the service we got.  The girl who waited on me did everything she could for me as far as picking out the phone which would serve me the best.   I told her I wanted a phone which was easy to use, but which also took really great photos because I wanted to start using Instagram and my iPad took really crappy bad photos, not to mention was awkward, bulky and not so easy to carry around.  I thought she would say an iPhone but nope, she recommended a Samsung,which she said took great photos and was a lot cheaper than an iPhone, and actually she said took better photos than an iPhone.  In fact she said it was the phone she used herself.

AND, she got me all set up with it, showed me how to use it, installed the programs for me that I wanted to use, and made sure that when I left the shop I was pretty conversant with it.  The instruction books they put in with these phones/cameras, etc. are really pretty poor nowadays.  I can never figure out anything from reading them, but then I am much more of a tactile learner.  Having all the help that she gave me was a huge help and almost as good as having a young person in the house at home.


 


I have had it for several days now and I have only had to go back to the shop once to ask questions.  I call that a result!  I had clicked on a video on FB and couldn't get it to go off my screen.  Every time I clicked on FB it was there and I couldn't look at anything else.  Simple solution.  I now know how to get rid of such things.  There was a little return arrow down in the corner that you touch.  I hadn't noticed it.  It was the same with messenger.  The people's faces that messaged me kept showing up with little circle faces and I didn't know how to get rid of those.  She showed me how to do that.  One other biggie was how to access the wifi at home so I didn't need to be using the wifi included with my phone plan.  Again she showed me how to do that.  All of these problems had very simple solutions and were sorted lickety split!

 Yesterday I even managed to change my ring tone and download a game for free.  WOW!!   I even impressed myself!

Another thing I had worried about was that it would be expensive, but it has ended up being just as cheap as my old regular phone was, and I got the phone for free.   I am in a contract for two years, but that's no biggie as I would have had a phone anyways for two years.  My phone useage isn't over the top really. I am not attached at the hip to my phone.  I don't go out and about a lot.   So my wifi usuage will basically only be from the house, or church.  Also I get unlimited texts and voice calls, which is a plus.  With my old phone and plan I had to pay for each one.

I have even managed to take a photograph and upload it onto Instagram.  I was impressed with myself.  You can follow me on Instagram here.  Who knows what I will get up to next!

 

Sometimes you can teach an old dinosaur new tricks!  What's next?  Self pouties?  Nope, I don't think so.   I may be a dinosaur but even I know that wouldn't be a good thing.   LOL  (It took me years to realise that didn't mean lots of love.)




A thought to carry with you through today  . . .

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It's difficult to think anything 
but pleasant thoughts
while eating a home-grown tomato.
~Lewis Grizzard
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Spiritual Enlightenment



In The English Kitchen today . . .  a very delicious Blackberry,  Apple and Almond Crumble!

Have a great Saturday!  Whatever you get up to today, be safe and don't forget . . .


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And I do too!!

My Friday Finds

A few of the things I find each week which pique my curiosity or inspire me to want to do something, create something, cook something, or become a better person! I hope they will pique your curiosity or inspire you in some way as well!



The new scent from Yankee Candle. Witches Brew.   I got a candle melt in this scent yesterday and it is absolutely gorgeous.  It smells rich and exotic with almost an incense smell.  I love it.  Like the smell of patchouli.  I used to wear Patchouli oil as a perfume when I was about 17.  We all did!

 

A compendium of five vintage books on pickling, war-time recipes, household tips, etc.  Tis the season and all that!  From The Homestead Survival.   I love these sorts of books!





From Pretty Things for You.  Free pretty mason jar tags to print out.  Love these too!  There are lots of beautiful printables on that page.

 

Again, from The Homestead Survival,  Fire Cider.   For colds and flu and whatever ails you.

 

How to make Brown Sugar.  This could come in handy if you are baking and suddenly find that you are out of brown sugar!  From Imagine Acres.

 

Making your own extracts for cooking and gift giving.  From Learning and Yearning.  I have always wanted to do this.

 

* Frozen Lemon Trick * Freeze the entire lemon, peel and all. Once frozen, using a grater, add bits of lemon (yes, the entire lemon!) to all your dishes. It will enhance the flavor and aid in digestion besides other things. 

 

How to can your own homemade baked beans.  From Canning Homemade.   Oh, I do so love baked beans, especially home baked beans, but you don't always have time to do them from scratch do you.  This solves that problem.  ☺ 

It will soon be back to school for the kidlets.  I found a whole passle of  Bento Lunch Ideas.  From Happiness is Homemade.  I wouldn't mind a Bento Lunch myself!

 

From Thistle Bear.   A beautiful Crochet Pillow Cover.   I love it! 

 

Some really cure Felt Christmas Ornaments from Crafts Beautiful.  There is this reindeer, a bird, tree, etc.



Lacy Waves Poncho.  A free pattern from Creative Knitting.

 

Here is a very worthwhile project.  Twiddle Muffs.  These are sensory sleeves that you can make for patients with Alzheimers.  Most hospitals and homes are very grateful for them, or even family members.  You can find loads of free patterns for them and they are a great way to use up bits and bobs. This one is from  Tales from Spring Cottage.

 

13 foolproof ways to  improve your life and become a better person.  From Nialogique.

And that's my finds for this week. I hope you found something to inspire!

A thought to carry with you through today . . .


⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰
After silence, 
that which comes closest 
to expressing the inexpressible . . . 
is music.
~Aldous Huxley
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Spiritual Enlightenment 




In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Toffee Banana and Toasted Pecan Loaf!


Have a happy Friday! Be blessed!  I have a very busy day ahead.   Making a casserole to take to a friend who is moving house, just a meal so that is one less thing for them to worry about.  Taking some books I am getting rid of to Ariana's.  (She is looking for cookery books, yay!) and then we are going to go and sit with a friend who hasn't been well so that her husband can go out and get a few bits done that he needs to do.  She can't be left on her own.   Whatever you get up to today, don't forget . . .

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And I do too!!

A few of my favourite things . . .

 

These are a few of my favourite things . . .

 

The Great British Bake Off.  This years competition began last night.  I haven't watched it yet.   I was very late coming to the table with this show.  I only really began watching it in earnest with the last season.  Mostly because Todd doesn't like cooking shows.  But we were both interested in that one and I was thrilled when Nadiya won!  She really deserved it.  I had been impressed all along with everything she had done!  I wonder who will win this year.  That remains to be seen, but I can promise you I won't be posting any spoilers!  People always say I should try to go on it.  I always tell them, I am too long in the tooth for that kind of thing now and I couldn't handle all the standing around with my arthritis.  Nope, like armchair athletics I enjoy this show very much from the comfort of my armchair and its going to stay that way!  ☺

 

Playing in the button box.   I love LOVE buttons and the older the better.  I could sit and play with them forever.  As a child I loved to play with my mother's button box.  I would look at all the buttons and imagine where they had been, what they had been worn on, who they had belonged to . . .  things like that.  Buttons have stories too!



Vintage toys, especially the old tin type ones.   I used to love the little tin things which came in a packet of Cracker Jacks, especially the little tin snapper things.  I especially loved the toy exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  It was fascinating.  There were sooooo  many things to discover and look at.  That is a fabulous museum!   You can spend hours in it and still not see everything!

 

This fabulous Chihuly Chandelier is in the entry hall.  It's beautiful.  The whole museum is beautiful.   Museums in the UK are free to go into, although you may  have to pay to view certain exhibitions.  When we were at the V&A there was a special fashion exhibition which you had to pay to view.



Hand blown glass.  I find it to be very beautiful.  There was a time when there were glass blowers in a lot of the shopping malls in Canada, or at least in some of the larger cities.  I used to love watching them at work.   I always wanted a blown glass figureine . . .  a wishing well or some sort of thing.   They are so lovely.   Very fragile though.

I love glass anyways.   Going to the Swarovski Crystal Museum in Austria was one of my favourite bits of the trip!  It was totally fascinating!

 

Glass paperweights.  I love them.  If I could have only one collection of something on earth, it might be these  . . .  but then again I also love salt and pepper shakers, cream jugs, sugar dishes, cherubs, angels, fairies, china tea cups, chickens  . . .  oh heck.  I could never make up my mind!   I just love and appreciate all artsy craftsy stuff!

 

Matilda Mouse.  I Love Matilda Mouse.  She has been helping me in the kitchen.  She helped me with these gammon steaks the other day.



Adding Maple Syrup to the sauce was her idea.  You can take the mouse out of Vermont, but you can't take Vermont out of the mouse!

Speaking of Vermont  . . .

 

Autumn, it will soon be upon us and it is my most favourite season of all.  I love the changing colours, the cooler nights, the smells, the sights, the sounds and textures.   It has always been my favourite of all the seasons, alhough I truly do love each season for what it brings to the table.  I am with Anne Shirley when she said  . . .

 

I cannot imagine living anyplace that they don't have remarkable differences in each of the four seasons.  I am a "Season Loving" girl!



The smell of apple orchards and freshly baked apple pie in the autumn.   I used to live in Meaford, which is a prime apple growing district in Ontario, Canada, as well as having lived in the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia.  Apples are in my blood!

 

Farmer's Markets, especially at this time of year . . . the fresh fruit and vegetables are phenomenal!

My tomatoes are turning red!  And . . .  we have a flower on the one pumpkin seed that we planted.  Our church Bishop gave each family a pumpkin seed to plant and we are all to bring our pumpkins to our Autumn get together.  Fun, fun!

Which leads me to the last on my list of favourite things for today  . . .



My church, my faith . . .  The Gospel of Jesus Christ . . . and all that I get from it.   It has been life changing for me and brings me untold joy and peace.  I cannot imagine a life without it.

 And that is my favourite things for this week.  What are some of yours?  I really want to know!


 A thought to carry with you  . . .

⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰
Expect to have hope rekindled.
Expect your prayers to be answered
in wondrous ways.
The dry seasons in life do not last.
The Spring rains will come again,
~Sarah Ban Breathnach
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Spiritual Enlightenment 



In The English Kitchen today . . .  Chicken and Pepper Rice.  Delish!


I hope that you have a wonderful Thursday! Be happy and be blessed! Don't forget . . .

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 And I do too!!

We are off to the Vets with Mitzie this morning.  She has a very sore paw and won't let us touch it to find out what's wrong.  I hope it is nothing serious and that it doesn't cost us a lot of money, but what will be will be.  We will pay whatever we have to pay.  I only want her to get better.  It hasn't affected her appetite, so that's good!  Please pray it isn't too expensive and that it isn't anything too awful.  Poor wee baby.  It is at times like this I wish we could afford pet insurance!!!

 

Wednesday thoughts . . .

Hiraeth Hiraeth beckons with wordless call,
Hear, my soul, with heart enthrall'd.
Hiraeth whispers while earth I roam;
Here I wait the call "come home."

Like seagull cry, like sea borne wind,
That speak with words beyond my ken,
A longing deep with words unsaid,
Calls a wanderer home instead.

I heed your call, Hiraeth, I come
On westward path to hearth and home.
My path leads on to western shore,
My heart tells me there is yet more.

Within my ears the sea air sighs;
The sunset glow, it fills my eyes.
I stand at edge of sea and earth,
My bare feet washed in gentle surf.

Hiraeth's longing to call me on,
Here, on shore, in setting sun.
Hiraeth calls past sunset fire,
"Look beyond, come far higher!" 
~Tim Davis, 2007  

A friend of mine posted this on facebook yesterday and I was immensely touched by it.  As the child of a Military man, and the ex spouse of one, home was a place I spent most of my life longing for.  Home for me always was and is . . . quite simply . . .  people.  I suppose that is why I don't get "homesick" for places, but only for people.

Most of my childhood homes, or houses that we lived in do not exist any more.  There is no place I can return to and see the house I grew up in.   Except for one house which still stands, the rest are no longer in existance.   There is no place to return to.

 

They exist only in my memories and old black and white photographs . . .  and in conversations with people who lived in those same places and had similar experiences.

The place I lived the longest was a place called Greenwood in Nova Scotia.  And even our time living there was broken up.   We spent several years on one house, which was pulled down in the years since I moved over here to the UK, and a couple of years in a house in Middleton and then the remaining years in a house that still exists to this day.  These are the only two houses of my growing up years that are still in existance and they both look very different than they did back then.

Even in my last marriage, I was pulled from pillar to post . . .  forced to carry my home on my back like a turtle carries its shell. We moved 16 times in 22 years.  All of my children, with one exception, have chosen careers and lifestyles which afford them the opportunity to stay in one place . . .  places where they can put down roots.   Of my own siblings, I was the only one who failed to find roots.  Both my brother and sister spent most of their adult lives in one area.   I am the only nomad.

 

So that is why home to me is people and not places.  Home is where my mother lives, even though I have never lived there myself . . . it holds a huge chunk of my heart, a chunk which lives with her and my sister.  Home is with my father and my brother and his family.  Home is also contained in the small chunks of my heart which rest where each of my children and their families live.   Home is here, in this little terraced house with Todd and Mitzie.

Yes  . . .  there is a piece of my soul that longs to go back to those shadowy halls which exist only in the channels of my memory . . . a special yearning to return to a place that is no longer there.

But I find myself wondering  . . .  it is a yearning to return to a place . . .  or is it a yearning to return to a time.  Perhaps I will never know.

A thought to carry with you through today  . . .

⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰
If you find someone who makes you smile,
who checks on you often to see if you're okay,
who watches out for you and wants the very best for you,
don't let them go.
Keep them close to you, 
and don't take them for granted.
People like that are hard to find.
~Unknown
⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰⊰✿⊰

Spiritual Enlightenment



In The English Kitchen today  . . .  a delicious "Green Peach Salad."   It's fabulous!


Have a wonderful day today!  Wherever you go and whatever you get up to, don't forget . . .

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And I do too!!

The Simple Woman's Daybook . . .

FOR TODAY, August 23, 2016

Outside my window ...
The sun is well up, but I have noticed the days getting shorter.  It is now completely dark by 9:30 at night and the sun isn't waking me up until about 5:30 in the morning.  I know it is a process which has been going on for weeks now, minute by minute, day by day . . .  funny how it sneaks up on you all of a sudden though!

I am thinking ...
We are driving to Rhyll today for a Zone Meeting.  It looks to be a sunny day so we will have great weather for it.  Bonus!  I am thinking about how much I love serving a mission and how much I enjoy the many ways we get to stretch ourselves in doing so.

In the Kitchen ...


Leftover Meat Escallope.   A delicious casserole created using the leftover meat and vegetables from our roast dinner.   It's fabulous!

On my "To Cook" list ...
 

Pizza St Louis Style, found on Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice.   I have wanted to try this for a while now!  It looks great!

I am creating ...
 

I really like this peasant top.  I can see it in all sorts of colours and it has three quarter sleeves.  Long enough to hide the bad bits, but short enough to keep me from feeling claustrophobic!  Found on Sew Different UK.

 

I also like this Alice Top, which you could very easily wear a longer sleeved t-shirt under.  Like a tunic.  There is a dress version as well.  Found on Sew Tessuti.

 

I also really, really like this one.  Found on  Wiksten.

 

Cat embroidery anyone?  From  Craftsy. There's dogs too.

 

Sweet!  From Flickr.   No pattern, just inspiration.

I am reading ...

 

The Sister, by Louise Jensen

Grace hasn't been the same since the death of her best friend Charlie. She is haunted by Charlie's last words, and in a bid for answers, opens an old memory box of Charlie's. It soon becomes clear there was a lot she didn't know about her best friend.

When Grace starts a campaign to find Charlie's father, Anna, a girl claiming to be Charlie's sister steps forward. For Grace, finding Anna is like finding a new family, and soon Anna has made herself very comfortable in Grace and boyfriend Dan's home.

But something isn't right. Things disappear, Dan's acting strangely and Grace is sure that someone is following her. Is it all in Grace's mind? Or as she gets closer to discovering the truth about both Charlie and Anna, is Grace in terrible danger?

Oh, I do so love reading a good thriller novel!

I am looking forward to ...
We have a Ward (church) BBQ on Monday and they are having a GBBO cake competition!  But even better The Great British Bake Off starts this week on the telly!  Yay!

I am learning to ...
Still working on my calligraphy.  I keep meaning to take a photo to show you.  I will try to remember soon!

Dreaming about ...

 

Red and white cosy . . .



Flowered mats  . . . (source)

 

Old logs being used as garden planters . . .  sweet.



Pretty table linens  . . .

 

Red and blue kitchens  . . .

A favourite Quote for the day  . . .  

(¯`v´¯) `*.¸.*´Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ ¸.
   •´¸.•~♥♥♥~•.~ ღϠ₡ღ¸.
              ✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ. ( ¸. ❀⁀ ⋱‿✿“` * .¸.*
                                         ✻ღϠ₡ ღ¸.✻´´¯`✻.¸¸.Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ..

 Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it,
because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy
is to seek happiness for others  . . . 
~Martin Luther King Jr. 

 Makes me smile ...
 

One of my favourite things ...
  

Old cake tins. (source)   This one reminds me of one my mother had.  I think a Dundee Fruit Cake had come in it.  I expect she still has it somewhere . . .

Corners of my kingdom ...
 

Freshly laundered pillow slips and afghan . . . they smell so nice.  His 'n Hers.  I love my wee scottie dogs.


And that's my daybook for this week!


 ⋱ ⋮ ⋰
⋯ ◯ ⋯ Take time to enjoy the small *´¯`.¸¸.☆
 ⋰ ⋮ ⋱ blessings in life.*´¯`.¸¸.☆

✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿ ✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿ ✿¸.•*¨`*•..¸✿
╬♥═╬╬═♥=╬╬═♥╬╬═♥╬╬═♥=╬╬♥═╬
░░░░░░░░░░░░░ ░░░░░░░░░░░░░


Wherever you go and whatever you do, I hope there's a great day ahead of you! Don't forget!


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And I do too!!