Before I accidentally discovered this amazing trick that I'm going to share with you this morning , I would get so frustrated trying to string green beans. More than half of the time, I either would not be able to pull the strings off at all or the string would break before I reached the other end of the bean. For a reason I can't remember, after washing the green beans, I did what I'm telling you below, and I was able to string my green beans with ease. It was amazing!  Put green beans in a bowl of water. Place the bowl of green beans in the fridge overnight. The next day, the strings are easy to pull off the green beans.  If you have plenty of green beans to string, you'll want to remove about a handful from the cold water at a time - and place the green beans remaining in the water back into the fridge so the beans won't get warm before you finish stringing them. In other words, the strings pull off better when they are colder. And the beans break better, too, if

Helping other women is something God has called me to do. That is why I started this blog over 3 years ago. I want you to realize you're loved by our Heavenly Father no matter how bleak things are at the moment. Maybe you were afraid during the pandemic - or just bored. I hope that reading this blog helped you in some way and continues to help you. Because life still throws things at us even if the world seems to have returned to "normal". Now that the pandemic is "over", troubles, pain, sorrow, and worries still lurk. I'm still going to be here for a long, long time, sharing as much as I can with you. From teaching you how to make an easy side dish to reminding you how much God, as Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit, loves you.  Today, I wrote the first of what's going to be a long memoir about our dearly loved and missed cat, Cleo. As much as my heart is breaking for her, my heart breaks more for this broken world. I wake up each morning m

In loving memory of our beautiful Cleo on September 9, 2021 when she was healthy. We miss you and love you very much. Queen of our household from February 15, 2014 - May 18, 2023. Our house feels so empty without you. I'm sorry for the delays in posts the past few weeks. Our beloved Cleo has been fighting a battle with cancer. She wasn't cleaning herself so I was trying to keep her brushed at least every other day and washing her face daily where her eye and nose were running. It appeared to be recurring upper respiratory infection. However, when the third recurrence failed to respond to a smaller dosage of  ongoing meds, I became suspicious that something else was the cause of her illness. When a mass was pulled out of her nose on Friday, May 5th (2023), my concerns were confirmed. Mass that was growing in Cleo's nose Then a knot came up on her forehead on Tuesday, May 9th (2023). That was a bad day for Cleo where she laid around all day and wasn't interested in her &q

Dancing is a fun way to burn excess calories - and to maybe even shed unwanted weight and inches. Again, some professionally guided cardio dance moves may require your doctor's approval . So, check with your physician before starting any dance or exercise routine .  The first video I have selected below is for seniors; however, I got winded following along with her, and I'm pretty active myself. This coach from Silver Sneakers is one healthy senior! Once again, some of the moves may be too awkward for you as they were for me, so just keep moving and clap your hands or snap your fingers if that happens.  I've also included a sit and dance video from Coach Alexis. So, if your balance isn't the best, but you're determined to move, this will be a good one for you with your doctor's blessings of course. And just because you're sitting doesn't mean it's easy! Ms. Alexis knows the right moves to make this challenging, bring on the heat, and maybe even some

This is one of the newest ways I have of  making a quilt . You may be asking yourself, "What is a hand-tied quilt?" And I would then ask if you have ever seen a quilt with tied yarn holding it together? If so, that is a hand-tied quilt. I know "how" to make one, but I wasn't sure I "wanted" to make one. I was actually afraid that pulling that yarn through the quilt layers would tear my fabric. After watching this video , I was assured that my fabric wouldn't tear.  Now, in the video, the couple are hand tying a machine-pieced quilt. But I decided to use this technique on some of my pretty prints instead. Here is how my butterfly print turned out. Below that, you'll see my tutorial for using 3 different yarn colors to enhance the butterfly and to add more durability with more hand-tied yarn. Click on the images to enlarge the pictures and see more of the features on this beautiful quilt. If you have any questions, shoot me an email . I'm hap

For the past few years, I've had rosacea . This draws a lot of unwanted attention to my face. Lately, this annoying rash has started burning more too. There are 4 types of rosacea, and mine is the papulopustular - or acne - rosacea that resembles acne across my cheeks and nose. So, that's the one I'll be discussing today. Although, the rash is constant, heat triggers larger outbreaks and the uncomfortable burning sensation. So, warm showers, blow drying my hair, exercising, cooking, overexertion from cleaning, mowing, other types of work can all make this face rash worse. And I do at least 3 of these things daily.  I don't want to take medication, and I can't afford many of the creams that are recommended. So, I've started using inexpensive acne medication to ease the burning and significantly fade the redness from bright red to light pink. You will need to discuss other treatments with your doctor if this doesn't work for you or if you have one of the other

Next in this  quilt series is quilt binding. As I've mentioned prior to this post, I like to make the back fabric and batting on my quilts slightly longer than the front fabric so I can use that to bind my quilt. This is my simple and easy alternative to stiff, thick, store-bought binding. The batting gives the binding added dimension that I like - just a little puff - without making the edges stiff and uncomfortable. You may prefer, as I do, to bind the 2 longer sides (when applicable) of the quilt first.  I hope you don't mind but I have several images and a couple more videos that will help you learn this technique. As with all tutorials, you will want to read through these instructions, and pay close attention to the pictures and videos below the instructions to make sure you understand the process before you attempt this. As always, if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me.  Corner of a quilt binding First, lay the quilt on your cutting mat. Second, al