Instant Pot

My new adventure.  For Christmas, we got me an Instant Pot.  I joined a Facebook group called "Instant Pot Community"   On black Friday, the price was too good to pass up.  I kept reading all the posts and getting excited for mine to arrive.

http://instantpot.com/

Mine showed up and I had a lot going on, so could not try it out.  Then I got sick.  Still looking at it......husband said lets do the water test.  My mom was doing hers at the same time.  Done.  Did not have ingredients to make something and not feeling up to it.  Mom did in hers and had success.  So jealous. 

Last night I saw were someone had done artichokes.  It reminded me that I had artichokes.  So followed there directions.  Was ok, need to adjust my time.  Thing was I was afraid of the thing.  I kept thinking about Boston, even though they are safe.  I did not stay in the room with it.  The second time, it went better and I was feeling better using it.

I watch all these great meals, cheese cakes, breads, yogurt, Dulce Le Leche, home made vanilla. 

Can't wait till I get to feeling better, so I can get to really using it.

As I learn more and us my oils, I want to learn more.  I see the difference they are making in our lives and those of our friends.  I am amazed. 

I have made diffuser necklaces for others and to sell.  I recently found this site that sells these wonderful bracelets.  I think they would be perfect for my grandkids.  Camo of course

WOOCS 1.1.7

  

No products in the cart.

https://essentialbracelet.com/ref/349/

They also make wonderful essential oil tags to put on your pets.  Yes, my dogs love the oils also.

My golden is getting older and is crying at times and breathing heavy with pain.  I make and give him Tumeric Paste.  This helps a lot, but on days like today.....calming oils in the diffuser and a raindrop treatment with Young Living essential oils is the trick.  He is sound a sleep and not panting or wimpering.

It has been a busy year.  Diabetes diagnosis, travel, doctor appointment after another, quilting, teaching water aerobics, learning and teaching about Young Living Essential oils.  A garden.  A new roof and car repairs after someone hit my car in front of my house.

One day it is so hot here.  Then we are dealing with cold weather.

Today is the last day to get in on this deal.  $10% off one of the premium starter kits.  I love these oils.  When you purchase your starter kit, you will be able to order more oils, when you want to at wholesale pricing.

When you purchase the kit through me, you will also get a wonderful free gift from me and $10.00 rebate.  I will be hear to answer your questions.  Get you hooked up with training.

Sign up here :  http://bit.ly/1NgJUM6

New Cookware

I have been wanting new cookware for a long time.  Since I have been on the road to healthier things, I have learned how bad the Teflon cookware is.  So I set my sites on Ceramic Cookware.

We purchased T-Fal cookware set and matching Griddle at Macy's closing sale.  Big Mistake.  Not the product, but where we bought it.  Macy's was a rip off.  After we got home and started looking for pieces to go with it, we found we could have purchased this set $50 cheaper at several different places.  Including Macy's online.

As for the cookware....amazing.  Things I learned.  When you first get your cookware, wash, then heat on the stove.  Remove from heat and season the pan (oil it) just like you do with your cast iron cookware.  You have to re-season the pan every 10 washes.  This cookware can also go into the oven.  I have loved how they clean up.  Using the sprayer cleans off everything, no matter what you cooked in the pan.  No scrubbing.

I look forward to purchasing more pieces to join my set.

Managing Pain Without Pain Pills - Kombucha and Golden Paste - Health

Sometimes you need to take control of your health!

I learned this several years ago, after back surgery.  I woke up one day to find that I could hardly get out of bed.  No energy.  I went back to bed.  I got up to teach water aerobics and then back to bed.  I was in sorry shape.  Not from my back......but toxic from all the drugs that they had been trying on me before surgery and following surgery.  My mom introduced me to someone who helped me get healthy.  I detoxed my body.  I learned about how cleaning your gut solved a lot of issues.  Dr. Axe has lots of info on this topic.  http://draxe.com/?s=gut%20health . 

A few years later, I started having pain in my feet.  Was hard to walk.  My toes hurt and would sometimes get locked when stretching.  The pain was horrible.  Every time I had to go to the Dr. for one virus or another, I would tell the Dr.  He would look down at my feet and say "nothing is wrong with your feet.  That was it.  I don't really remember how I came upon Kombucha Tea.  Somewhere in my research.  I had never purchased it in a store.  I decided to make my own.  I got a Scoby from someone in town and started making it.  I had fun trying different combinations.  I love this stuff.  Plus the pain went away in my feet.  A friend who had pain in his feet, started drinking it and had the same results.  I learned lots from a Facebook group.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/KombuchaNation.CulturesHealthHealing/  Wonderful info on Kombucha.  I also learned about fermented food.

I started using essential oils to help with my immune system.  I began to get healthier.  No more visits to the Dr. for a shot or drugs for something I had caught from someone else.  It worked.  When I had to visit my Dr. for annual, he said where have you been.  I told him what I was doing.  He said oh.  I told him how my feet where so much better, hardly hurt.  He then wanted to look at my feet.  Really, now that they were better?

I then discovered Tumeric Paste. (Golden Paste) I had back surgery several year ago, but do to getting the flu 2 days after surgery it did something to my right side. So I was living on 3 to 4 ibuprofen a day several days a week. My Golden retriever started showing signs of arthritis. After starting the Tumeric paste, I don't take ibuprofen unless I have a real bad flair up. This has only happened 1 in over a year. When I do have a flair up, I use Deep Relief essential oil by Young Living.   http://www.turmericlife.com.au/  Read up on this site, to see all the benefits.  You make this in your own home.  Several ways to take it.  Make little frozen tablets, using miniature ice trays.  Put it in a cup of warm water and drink.  Add to a smoothie.

I have several friends, who start using the Tumeric paste, with much success. One friend started taking it for his pain.  As a wonderful side effect, it rid him of 3 warts he had for 8 years. The doctors had tried burning them, freezing them and injecting them with chemo. Another friend had lesions that disappeared. Another has the disease where the pigment in your skin starts going away....there is no cure. Her pigment is coming back. Another friend has Parkinson's and the turmeric paste is helping him sleep.  Another gentlemen said his prostate numbers are finally down, since taking the Tumeric Paste.

I am not a Doctor.  Just sharing what I have learned and what has worked for me.

Young Living Essential Oils

Well it has been a long time since I posted.  Life got me.

I started making some health changes in my life.  One of the things I have been doing, is using Essential Oils.  I love this company and its products.  We have been slowly replacing our household products with ones that are chemical free.  These has made a definite change in our health.  We have been able to fight off what everyone around us is catching.

Since I  believe so much in these products, I love to share them with us.  I have been doing vendor events, the fair, and classes.  If you would like me to do a class for you and your friends, let me know.  If you would like to start making changes for 2016, this is a great opportunity to get started.  Here is a link to get started http://bit.ly/1NgJUM6

Look what I found down my mother's top.

While we were taking pictures, a bug landed on my mom.   She swatted at it and we lost it.  Trying to find it, I checked inside her top and there it was.  I got it out and noticed how beautiful this beetle was.  I put it on a rock so that my dad and husband could take photos of it.  I teased that I was going to take it home and make it into some of my resin jewelry I make.  But alas, I can't even find it in me to hurt even a bug, so I left it on the rock.  I keep thinking I really wish I had kept that bug.  I told my dad and brother to try and find me some.  They could not.  I googled beautiful beetles on saw many beautiful beetles, but none like this one.

What do you think?  Do you know what kind it is?  When you look at the picture blown up, it's colors have a metalic fleck about them.

I had posted on Facebook that this is a year of God showing me beautiful things.  I have been seeing ones I have never seen before.  First it was the painted turtle I found.  Did not know they existed.  Then it was the wonderful experience of watching the Decorah Eagles hatch, grow and fly.  Then it was the Blue-tailed lizard (skink) in our backyard.  I have lived her for almost 20 years and this is the first I have seen or heard of them.  Now it is this beetle.  What have you got next, Lord?

A couple of quilts

Just wanted to share a couple of quilt pictures.

The monkey quilt is one I made for my grandson Koa.  The other quilt is a Quilt of Valor that my friend Sharon made.  I did the quilting on it.

4th of July

What a fun day we had.  We drove up to my brother's house, were my parents, grandmother and her sister were.  We played games, had a BBQ and took lots of pictures.  For desert, I baked a strawberry rhubarb pie.  I decided that I wanted to make it more patriotic, so I used food coloring and a paint brush to paint the flag and some stars on the crust.  I also made these eagle cookies.  Here are some pictures of them and one of our 5 generations.

Duane and the kids went home, but I stayed.  Mom and I joined Nana and aunt Val at there hotel suite and had a great time.  Was enjoying myself so much, that I decided to stay another night.

What a wild but fun weekend.  Started out with Relay for Life on Friday night.  Sat hit a couple of garage sales and then took my parents to Elk River Falls for a day of hiking and picture taking.  Then into Elk River for the best nachos around.  While in Elk River, we saw a wedding start.  It was an outdoor wedding on the air field.  There was an arch with antlers that they would be married under.  The procession started from the lodge, with the groomsmen and bridesmaid paired up and ridding in on four wheelers, also the flower girls and ring bearers.  Then came the bride with her dad in 2 seat off road vehicle.

Got home tuckered out, but woke up early Sunday to lightning and thunder.  Some were quite close.  When I looked out our front windows at 6am, it was to find our street flooded and everything in mud.  Had to get Duane up to get our cars moved and he and our neighbor Brian began dig and wash away the mug.  One of the fire trucks came up and hooked a larger hose to the fire hydrant to wash it down.  As the rain poured.  What a mess.  My parents had also stayed the night and I had to wake them up so that we could move their van.  Clay street was even worse, and they will be working on it for quite some time.  There was quite a bit of damage done to streets and hills and driveways.  A few houses also.

Then it was off to church, and around town for the art walk.  Then home for a nap and not much more.

24 Day Challenge Update

Well I am on day 14.  I am doing good.  The chocolate meal replacement shakes are sooooooo yummy. 

I have lost 11 pounds and 3 inches from my waist. 

I love the products so much, that I have decided to sign up with them.  My site is https://www.advocare.com/120534212

If you want to learn more about these products for weight loss or for energy and fitness, email me or read more on my Advocare site.

Memorial Day and QOV Quilt Block

I was hoping to be quilting a QOV on Memorial day, but had a customer's quilt still on the frame.

So instead I decided to do a little sewing.  I worked on a quilt block I have been wanting to make.

It is a paper pieced eagle and I intend to use it in a Quilts of Valor Quilt.  Now I just need to design a quilt around it.  I may try to make it square before I do or work it in as a rectangle.

Great Weekend of Church, Kyaking & Storms

What a fun weekend.
On Saturday, we picked up our fruits and veggies from our Bountiful Baskets drop.  Then we headed to a park in Pullman for some picture taking.  This is a couple of my favorite pictures, I took.  I laid down on the grass under the purple flowers.  Convinced my husband to do it also.  He did not want to.....but finally did.  I suppose to shut me up.  I know his pictures probably turned out better....but I had fun.  Then off to get other groceries and some more flowers for my yard & containers.  Then home to relax while hubby went flying with his brother.

On Sunday we had another great day at church.  We are doing a 60 days of dreaming challenge.  If you want to learn what God's dream is for you.....check it out.  Then hubby and I went Kayaking.  Last year we only had one kayak, so I only went once with him and stood on the dock when he paddled around and then I paddled around.  This year we now have two, so off we went.  We went to Bonnie Lake.  You have to go up a creek to get to the lake.  At first I was nervous, but then started to have lots of fun.  Quite the exercise.  It was a little overcast, but warm.  Seeing the wild life was great.  The water lilies are getting ready to bloom.  We saw lots of turtles and beautifully colored birds.  Would see a fish jump or a turtle head pop out of the water next to the boat.

You are not suppose to be out on the lake if the wind picks up.  So we were out on the lake and I said, I think it just got kinda dark.  Then the wind started blowing like crazy.  So we hauled it out of there as fast as we could.  It started to sprinkle on us, but was not cold.  We made it back to the creek and it settled down.

It was fun, but I was so tired when I got home.  I can't wait to get a life jacket for my little Morkie (Harley).  I think she will like going with us.  Will try taking her mamma, but don't think she will like it.  MerSadies gets a little nervous.

Then during the night we were woke up by loud thunder.  Man it seemed close.  This went on for a little while, then it began to poor.  My hubby said "the avocado plant is still outside"  I said oh well.  He got dressed and I said what are you doing.  He said he was going to go get my plant, since I had worked so hard to finally grow one.  What a sweetheart.  Sometime during the morning, we must have lost power, since everything is blinking.

New Journey to Health

Well since my daughter and grandson came to live with us for 3 months.  Things changed in the house.  The schedule changed, the food changed, the stress levels changed.  Loved having them here, but what she was going through caused stress for all of us.  Unfortunately I am a stress eater.  I know better.....but......  I try to keep things out of my house that I should not eat.  But my daughter likes lots of processed foods and bad foods.  So there were pop tarts and cereals, goldfish & donuts, etc.  So as I got stressed I turned to comfort food.  All the while telling myself, "you know that is not good for you.  You know that you are not going to feel good after eating that".  So now they are gone and so is the junk, but, I have gained lots of weight and am tired all the time.  I have no energy.  I have no excuses.  I knew better and I did this.

So now to get healthy again.  I watched a friend on Facebook go through a program and saw how great it was.  I went to the websites and learned about it.  Then she was so thrilled with the products, that she started selling it.  She offered her friends and family a great deal on the program, so I jumped on board.  I am taking the 24 Day Challenge.

I am on day 2.  They say by day three, you should be feeling better and feeling a difference.  I look forward to feeling better and looking better.  I will post again as I progress.

Here is my friend's website:  https://www.advocare.com/120319228/default.aspx

Quilting it out!

I love longarm quilting.  I have so much fun deciding how to quilt each customer's quilt.

Sometimes quilts come to me with problems.  Sometimes I can.......sometimes?

Here is one I did recently.  My customer knew that her borders had issues.  She hoped I could quilt it out.  I am and she was happy with the results.  Here are some before and after pictures.

Someone wrote a very funny song about it.  Not mine.....her experiences  The song is called "You Can Quilt That Out"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzoL7ddTEnA

Avocado Plant

As a child, I watched my mother try to start an avocado plant from a seed.  I have tried for years and years.  I would sometimes (rarely) get just one root started and then nothing.  One time it started to grow from the top, only to die.

I have finally succeeding.  Only took me over 40 years.  Yes I am old.  I am very proud of my plant.  Why the obsession to grow one?  I don't know.  I guess my mom started it.

I proudly showed my 25 year old son.  He said "mom, why?  Don't you know how big that will get?  They are trees."  I don't have an answer except because I finally could.

Found a Painted Turtle

So I was coming home from water aerobics tonight. I saws something in the road on main street. As I went over it, I noticed it was a turtle. Not a good place for a turtle to be running around on a hwy. So I turned around and just stopped a car from hitting it. I picked it up and brought it home to show my little grandson. The picture does not do justice for how beautiful the orange markings are. His shell is 7½" long and 6" wide

So I did a search on the Internet to find out about the turtle. It is a Eastern Painted Turtle. Reading about it, it seems likely that this is a female. Hopefully today we can get her someplace she will stay and not cross the street again.   http://wildlifeofct.com/eastern%20painted%20turtle.html
 This morning we took here way out to a creek.  Soon as she heard the water she started flailing around to get to it.  She ran through the grass and dove into the water.  Never saw her again.

Pet Corrector

Have to tell you about this new product that I just love.

It is called the Pet Corrector.  With 4 small dogs in the house, the noise can be stressful.  They want to bark at every noise or car outside.  When we come to the house or my husband gets home from work, it is horrible.  I also have been embarrassed with the noise when a customer comes over.  A friend who does not have a dog....sent me an advertisement about this product.  So I looked online to see where I could purchase it.

I purchased my first can at Petco.  The salesman tried to talk me out of it.  He said it would be best if I bought a shock collar.  That this stuff would not work.  I thanked him and purchased it anyways.  I got a immediate good response from my dogs when I got home.  It just makes a hissing sound.  No smell or anything.  They don't like it.  Unfortunately, my little morkie (who is not one of the noise makers) shakes and hides when I have to use it because of the others.  I shortly used up the can getting them trained with it.  Then I only had to show the can for the most part.  Then my daughters female Yorkie came to live with us also and she is the biggest mouth.  Barks a lot.  She got everyone started again.

I did not want to pay $14.99 for a can again, so started pricing them on line.  I found a place that I got 3 for $22.00.  I could not wait for them to get here.  Had to wait a month.

They showed up yesterday.  Great response from the dogs again.  Still having some trouble with my daughter's female Yorkie, but much improvement.  I take the can with me when I leave the house.  When I start to open the door and they are barking, I tell them to stop and if not hit the spray.  My husband was able to come home to a much quieter house as only my daughter's dog was still making noise, but quieter.

This morning I will be able to test it out when a new customer shows up today.

More Jewelry

My sister has been quite the salesman for me.  Wearing the necklace I made her has brought me more orders.  Here are a couple I made.

My friend who is in charge of Quilts of Valor in this area, just finished a big fund raiser.  She is also in charge of the fun run in her area in a week.  The money from that will raise money for QOV.  I found this picture of an eagle on the net and made a necklace, thinking of her.  She love it.