Fresh Vegetable Relish...

Fresh Vegetable Relish...

Easy to make...
a great accompaniment to any meat, vegetable,
and potato or rice meal!

The recipe is as follows...

Fresh Vegetable Relish

Each ingredient is 1/4,  1/2,  or 1 cup,
depending on how much you want to make.

Cut up:
white onions
green bell pepper
red bell pepper
celery
mushroom
black olive
green olive
black beans,  drained and rinsed
chick peas,  drained and rinsed

You can add other veggies to your taste.

Next add 1 part olive oil,  1 part Japanese spiced vinegar,  salt and pepper.
 Add a little Lawry's Salt-Free chicken seasoning and mix it all up.

So good,  so fresh, and so delicious!
I hope you'll try it and that you like it!
'Til next time,
Love ya,  Jean

Dusty...

This is Dusty...

Just doing his job...guarding the house.

He does an excellent job!

'Til next time,

Love ya,  Jean

Dessert...

This was me...
stuffing myself with goodies since Christmas.

I swear,  after the holidays,
I will get back on track!!!

I hope everyone enjoyed Christmas as much as I did.  My whole family was here for dinner and the presents and it was a wonderful time for all!  Now I am looking forward to winter, and the New Year!  I have lots of ideas for things that I would like to do.

'Til next time,
Love ya,  Jean

Elves...

I have elves on my shelf...

An original Elf from the late 60's...
Who knew they'd be revived
and are so popular today!

He can't wait for the big day...

He's so loving...

She's so happy...

Vintage Santa...

In memory of my sister,  BeeBee...

Mickey hats made by another sister...

I made a bunch of these mushrooms
a few years ago.
I love 'em!

And,  of course,  some fake trees...
And lots of poinsettias...

I love decorating for Christmas.
Only a few more days to go!

'Til next time,
Love ya,  Jean

Oh, those cute little faces!

They are here...  just waiting for Santa to come,  

so they can help him with all the presents!

I just love my little elves!  

And I'm quite sure that they love me!

'Til next time,  Love ya,  Jean

Shopping...

Yummy breakfast!

I had to fortify myself before I went out there to shop today!

I went,  but didn't get much done.  I swear,  every year gets harder,  as the grandchildren get older!  I love to buy them stuff that they will really like and I can't always think of what that is.  I have to keep trying!  I usually wander around in the stores until I see something that I think is perfect for someone.  I will persevere! I need to get this done!  lol

'Til next time,  Love ya,  Jean 

Friends

Just hanging out with some of my friends...

I hope you are having a great day!

'Til next time,

Love ya,  Jean

More decorating...

I added some hand painted wooden candy pieces 

to the front of the house.

I made these pieces for the candy store 

when my daughter and I owned it.

This is the first time I put them out for Christmas.  

I like how they look.

 So cute!

I added another "tree"  out there on my side yard. 

 It's really my garden obelisk under the lights. 

This is a neighbors house.  We really light up the street!

I am enjoying the decorating this year.  

It's been a lot of fun for me.

I can't wait for my kids to see it!

'Til next time,

Love ya,  Jean

Christmas lights...

Lots of lights outside this year...

All LED's so they don't use much electricity...

Mickey says "HI"...

It is so much fun decorating for Christmas...

It brings out the kid in me... lol

I have added some hand painted wooden candies to my shutters since I took these pictures.  I will show on my next post...

'Til next time,

Love ya,

Jean

Happenings...

Where have I been the last three weeks?  What have I been doing?  

I painted this birdhouse...

I put up all the Christmas lights...

I got the Christmas tree out and decorated it...

I totally organized my garage storage closet...

I worked on my postage stamp quilt...

I made 2 pies,  sweet potato casserole,  and green bean casserole for Thanksgiving...

I did a little Christmas shopping...

I raked umpteen bags of brush and leaves from my garden...

I winterized my pond...

I filled my compost bin up to the top...

I made the floral arrangements shown below...

Front of bird house...

side...

back...

floral arrangement at the top of the driveway...

My old ice skates...

front door wreath...

another floral arrangement near the front door...

I think I got a lot accomplished!
(I just didn't document it at the time.)  lol

I will be showing my outdoor Christmas lights next.
It looks so pretty out there...

Also,  in the first picture of the bird house, if you look behind it, you can see the progress on the new house.  It is coming along nicely.  They started the siding yesterday.

I will also be showing my postage stamp quilt.  It is progressing faster than I thought.

I also had another trip to DisneyWorld for Halloween.  That was soooo much fun!!!

I love retirement! It gives me lots of personal time to do what I love!  (And a few things that I don't really love.)
So,  that's it for now.

'Til next time,

Love ya.  Jean  

New kid on the block...

This house is being built across from my side yard...

They tore down a small ranch to build this.  

It was actually the first house that was built

 in this neighborhood in 1956.

This is the dirt that they took out
for the foundation and basement.

This is what we have so far...

4,000 square feet,  way too big for the lot!
Notice how it dwarfs the house next to it.

That's progress!!!

'Til next time,  Love ya,  Jean