Author: Lisa -Southern Patches

Hello everyone, my name is Lisa I am a southern girl born and raised in East Tennessee. I love discovering new places and things to do. I have a lot of favorites, shopping, traveling, knitting and photography are all at the top of my list. I am married with my fur babies my only children. This blog is actually named after my beloved basset hound Patches. She passed away a few years ago but will always have a huge part of my heart. Come with me and we will explore some wonderful places and discover some really fun things. Are you ready?

A Startling Discovery

Last Sunday I was searching for some yarn. A particular yarn that I wanted for a shawl pattern that I thought of during the night Saturday night. How it came to me, maybe in a dream, I am not sure. Things often come into my mind at odd times. I only knew that I wanted to knit this particular shawl with this particular pattern with this particular yarn. Easy right? Not so much for me.

I started my search for the yarn early Sunday morning. I have a den upstairs where I keep most of my knitting and sewing supplies. I looked through the closet in the den. Well when I say I looked, I opened the closet doors and peered in. I poked around a little to see if I could locate the balls of yarn I was looking for. Well actually I was hoping the yarn would mysteriously fall out of the closet and into my hands. No such luck. Kitty Kitty had a wonderful time jumping into the closet and clambering over every basket of fabric and yarn and everything else that was in there. I will admit the closet is pretty stuffed. I am almost embarrassed to tell you how full it is. It contains mostly “stuff” from projects that have been abandoned for one reason or another over the 20 years we have lived in this house. Some of the things in the closet I had totally forgotten I had.

I decided there was no way the yarn was in that closet so I went to some other locations to look. It still bothered me that I hadn’t gotten to the back of that closet. To be honest I just wasn’t that brave. I couldn’t find the yarn so I settled on some other yarn that I had. It wasn’t the yarn I wanted but the shawl was a particularly hard pattern and I would practice on the yarn I had. Yes that would work.

As I was knitting on the shawl I glanced around the room. I also hoard books and fabric and yarn. I have several collections, wooden spools and they are pretty large, my milk glass collection, my knitting needles, small butter plates, brass bells, antique flower frogs, and lord lets don’t forget about the butter crocks. And they take up a LOT of room.

I love milk glass and anything that resembles it.

This is just a tiny portion of my yarn. I could probably open my own store.

And of course with yarn you must have the knitting needles.

Love my books. I have several cases like this.

I have several of these thread spools. Aren’t they cool? I started collecting them several years ago. I have them stacked like this in a couple of different places.

Antique flower frogs. I don’t have a lot of these yet but I love them.

I probably have about 25 of these crocks. Some are old some are not. I love them and I will continue to collect them. I just can’t pass them up.

If only I stuck with the collections and my hobbies that would be one thing. But I tend to continue to bring things into the house and not take anything out. Hobby Lobby has nothing on my basement. Every time my family needs something for decorating, wedding shower, baby shower, you name it, I have it. All these years I have been harping on my husband for bringing things in and stacking them around the house but GASP!!!! I may be worse!!!! I AM WORSE!!!

I decided that I had to do something about this clutter. I just can’t take it anymore!!! I have way too many things that I continue to bring in and there is just a limit to how much one house can hold. Right? I think I will pick three things I want to continue to collect and I will get rid of the others. How will I pick? I am not sure but I will. Yes I will!!! YES I WILL!!! Ohhhh look at that adorable flower frog on EBAY!!! I’m hopeless!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Friday Favorites 7-10-20

Hello friends and happy Friday!!! It has been awhile since I have done some of my Friday favorites. I hope your week has been great!!! I am going to share a few of my favorite things I have been loving lately.

First of all this hair wand thingy.

Don’t let it scare you. I know it looks a bit intimidating but it is really awesome. If you want those beach waves in your hair this is perfect. It was a bit of an Amazon impulse buy for me but for only. $39.99 why not give it a try. O.k so this thing clamps sections of your hair and just gives you those gorgeous waves that you often try to get with a curling iron or wand and just can’t seem to achieve. Or maybe that’s just me HAHA!!!

Lash Primer? Who would have known that this makes all the difference in the world. O So first of all put this primer on your lashes just a few minutes before you put your mascara on. I put mine on while I am doing the rest of my make up and then go back and put the mascara on. It really does make a difference in how your mascara attaches to your lashes and stays. Try it!!!

And this is the mascara that I like to use with this primer. First of all I will tell you that the brush is a little wiggly and it makes it hard to push back into the mascara. I haven’t quite figured that one out but you just have to show it who is boss and deal with it.

If you haven’t tried these little 4×6 mini canvas photos from Walgreens you are missing out. They are awesome!!!! You can watch the Walgreens specials and sometimes get them for 50 and 60 % off. I did these two and I think I paid about $7.00 for each of them. They also come with a stand to put them on and they just fit in anywhere!!!! I love them!!!! They’re different and unique. You could also do an entire wall collection of them.

AndI have to share with you some of the books I am reading. I love Abigail Thomas. I read her book A Three Dog Life a few years ago. I read it again recently and added two more of her books to the pile on my nightstand. Can’t wait to read them.

And last but certainly not least I have to tell you about these shoes I am absolutely loving. A friend at work had a pair and she loved them. They are Adidas. I ordered these from Kohl’s. They were on sale when I got them but I just checked and they are currently not on sale. Right now they are $64.99 I got them for $57.99 so not a big difference but they will probably go on sale again if you want to wait. Adidas always runs about a half size larger. I usually wear a 7&1/2 so I got a 7 and they are great. So comfy.

These are from my Hydrangea bush, it is doing great this year.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my favorites. Let me know if you have any questions about any of these.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Just Another Day

Hello friends. Happy Wednesday. I am at the Express Lube waiting on an oil change for my Mother in law’s car. We still drive it from time to time. We actually have thought about selling it since she won’t be able to drive again. The car is a small compact car and it only has about 15,000 miles on it, and we have put most of those on. It is literally the car a little old lady only drove to church and back. However it is the only vehicle that we have that she can still get in and out of easily when we take her anywhere. So for this reason we hang onto it.

I am going in to work a bit later today because I am working later. I have my knitting here with me while I wait for the car but I just felt the need to catch up with you a bit. We had a very quiet Fourth Of July holiday. I went into town on Saturday morning and took pictures of flags around the local courthouse. Every year the Downtown Association does a Parade of Flags tribute to the veterans past and present. You purchase a flag and a certificate for that person and all of the flags are on display around the courthouse. It is quite a beautiful site. I love walking through the flags and reading all the names and of course taking pictures. On Sunday I cooked baby back ribs in the crock pot I did a post about it. If you missed it check it out here.

Our Courthouse is very old and beautiful and I love taking pictures of it.

For the second time, I recently had to be tested for COVID. Again someone I had been in contact with tested positive. I was negative. I have heard of a lot of people getting false positives on the tests so I have my doubts about the tests. The thing is I work in a public place and I have to abide by the rules to keep my job. Enough said about that. I did write a haiku about it the night before I got tested because I was feeling a little morose and down. I was also contemplating having to possibly be out of work for two weeks or God forbid more and also my biggest worry is for my husband who takes immunosuppressive drugs. So things could be even worse for him. So here is the haiku:

Out of work two weeks?
COVID you hold the answer
Am I positive?

So just another day but yet a wonderful day to be here and be healthy.

Have a wonderful rest of the week and always remember:

Love your day your way!!!!

Continue reading “Just Another Day” →

How To Make Yummy Baby Back Ribs

Hello friends and happy Monday, How are you how was your week? I know I have been a little inactive but my job right now is taking center stage in my life. More about that later.

Yesterday I was off and I did some cooking. I made pecan pancakes for breakfast and then I decided to make baby back ribs in the crock pot. I have made them in the crock pot several times. I love them this way. I bought a rack of baby back ribs at the grocery store.

This is the best way to make baby back ribs in my opinion. First of all I make a rub to put on the ribs. I use, 8 Tablespoons of Brown Sugar, 3 Tablespoons of kosher Salt, 1 tablespoon of Chili powder, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of onion powder and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder. This is the amount of rub you use for a double rack of ribs. If you are only cooking a rack of ribs you will only use half of this. Put the other half back for next time or just use double on these and it will still be yummy.

This is a picture of the rub.

First of all I got a rack of baby back ribs. They are a little pricey but sometimes you can get them on sale. Splurge. It’s worth it!!

This is a rack of baby back ribs and it is plenty for me and Mark.

Next I make the rub. See the recipe from above.

I always cut the ribs in two so that I can place them in the crock pot easier.

Next you need to pull the membrane off of the ribs. It is not pleasant but you need to do it. I know that you don’t have to pull the membrane off but it does make them taste so much better. The rub really gets into the meat if you remove the membrane. There are several videos out there helping you to learn to do this. Google it.

Turn the ribs over so the rib part is showing. Take a butter knife and slip under the membrane make a pocket and slip your hand or the knife under the membrane and pull it off of the ribs. Some of the membrane comes off easily, if you are lucky, and some of them don’t. Yesterday I almost had a melt down because I couldn’t get the Fu/c8ing membrane off!!!!! I finally got most of it off.

The trick to cooking these ribs in the crock pot is that you must put them up on their sides so that they are not lying in their own juices because this tends to make them mushy. Don’t add anything to them at this point. Just let the meat cook and use it’s own juices.

Cook the ribs for about 6 hours in a crock pot on low. Check them after 6 hours and see if they are getting done. I think 6 hours is usually plenty of time. My recipe called for 8 hours but that is usually too long. I always check them after 6 hours.

After you take the ribs out of the crock pot place them on a pan and brush them with barbecue sauce and put them under the broiler in the oven for just a couple of minutes and they will taste yummy!!!!

So the ribs turned out pretty well. They were tasty. I have made better but these were good too.

Try them!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!