Category: Living The Day to Day

Sunday Thoughts

Hello friends happy Sunday, it has been a very full week. We are still on kitten patrol over here. Feeding and caring for the kitten babies takes a lot of time. I always do the morning feedings and most of the evenings too if Mark is working. It is so much fun to go out in the mornings and see all the little kittens running and jumping they remind me of little popcorn kernels popping around everywhere. I was talking to my nephew on the phone a couple of days ago and he said so ” I hear you have become the crazy cat lady”. I said ” well I don’t know about that. Just because I now have six cats and am sitting here knitting a sock, Oh wait!!!! maybe I am!!!”

I get up early anyway and this helps out a lot because Molly, my big old girl, is still having the liver issues and she has to have a pill one to two hours before she can eat. So I get up, give Molly her pill, let Scruffy out to pee, feed Scruffy and Kitty Kitty and then feed the outside babies and mama kitty. Yep that’s eight. I usually do all of this even before I have my coffee. I just can’t bear to think of them hungry. I then get my coffee, breakfast, and get ready for work. By that time an hour or so has passed and I can feed Molly.

Orange kitty has won my heart he is such a playful goof ball. And what an eater. He is twice as big as the others.
This little guy seems to be the runt of the litter. He is very small but still very playful.

Molly is getting around a lot better. On Wednesday I was starting out the front door with my purse and keys. Molly comes to the door like she needed to go back out. I let her out to pee. She made the rounds of the front yard and just as I thought she was heading back in she veered to the side of the house and trotted off into the woods. This wouldn’t normally bother me except I was close to being late for work as it was. I ran back in the house and got the leash. I didn’t dare leave her out because she can’t handle the heat of the day. Back outside and no Molly!! I yelled for her, of course she’s almost completely deaf so that was a waste, and nothing. I went to the back of the house and no Molly!!! for an old lady who can barely walk because of stiff arthritic legs she had gotten away pretty quick. The temps were already high and the humidity felt like walking through water. My hair was frizzled beyond belief and I had sweat running everywhere. My makeup was history. I knew she would be back as soon as she had made her rounds through the woods and sure enough about fifteen minutes later she came wandering back. By this time I had already messaged my co workers and let them know I was running late.

Look at Molly feeling quite proud of herself after she made her mommy late for work. She know she’s still in charge.

Work was a full week of being busy. Our visitation has slowed but we are still fairly busy. This upcoming weekend will be Labor Day weekend and after that we will see shorter work hours and much fewer people. I am always ready for this breather.

I have been knitting on the blue stripped socks. I did almost an entire sock yesterday and today. I am almost out of yarn and trying to finish this sock without having to start another ball. I do have an extra ball but I hate to start one in the middle of a sock because it seems like you can never get the stitches quite tight enough. I remember telling another knitting friend that I finished an entire sock once in one day. She said yes you can do that but you will get nothing else done. This is so true. I get consumed with the stitches and nothing else gets done. It’s o.k. it’s sort of mindless therapy.

Will I make it without having to start another ball of yarn? I don’t think so. I still have several inches to go.

I also started another granny square afghan. I saw a picture of one I really liked on Instagram and I had almost all the same colors of yarn. I am using the same color sequence. Lord knows I do not want or need another afghan I may give this one to one of my nephews. But I just love making them. I realized I have become that aunt that knits and crochets things and gives them to her family whether they want them or not. HA!!!

I am loving this afghan. I throw all of it into a big green canvas bag so I can easily carry it with me when I go from room to room.

When I was growing up my grandmother made afghans for us all the time. Through the years they seemed to disappear one by one until we had very few of them left. My parents house had an old basement and part of it was a root cellar where my mama kept things she had canned. When my parents died and my sisters and I were cleaning everything out of the house we went down into the basement and found one of the afghans stuffed into the corner of the dirt cellar. Vines had grown through the afghan and it was covered in dirt and mud. My sisters refused to try and salvage it but I cut the vines away and it was actually in pretty good shape. All the stitches were still in tact. I took it home and cut the vines out piece by piece and washed it several times. It looked just like it had when she gave it to us. I still have it and treasure it because it was made by her.

This is the afghan my grandmother made. I think it looks pretty good to have been rescued from a root cellar.

I am glad to have the diversion of my fur babies. It keeps my mind off of the bastardly Covid virus. Not completely, because it has been hitting closer to home lately with lots of people I know and love getting sick and even having to be hospitalized.

I hope your weekend is going well and you will take a minute to say a prayer for the people in the path of hurricane Ida, The people who lost their lives in the airport attack in Kabul, The fires in the western states and all the people suffering from Covid. These things have been weighing heavy on my mind and heart this week.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

And She Came In On Little Cat Feet

About a month ago I noticed a strange colored kitty cat in the back yard near the woods. She had some really unusual markings. I tried taking a picture of her from the back deck but it was pretty blurry. We thought she might be part bob cat or even a baby bobcat. As we were able to get a little closer we decided that she was not a bobcat but a dark colored calico.

Every time we tried to go near this kitty she would run into the woods. We started putting food down at the edge of the woods and then creep outside and peep around the corner to see if she was eating it. I did get a couple of pictures of her while she was eating and to be honest she looked pretty scary. I will even admit that when I showed the pictures to my sisters they tossed around the name demon cat, wild cat, etc etc. Of course my mama bear protectiveness took over and it just made me love her even more.

I will admit she does look a little scary here. It’s amazing what a few weeks of food and kitty loving will do.

After several weeks of putting food out and getting closer and closer to our little multi colored baby, she started coming closer to us. You might as well go ahead and call my husband the crazy cat “man” he loves this kitty and worries himself to death about her being in the woods at night. I reminded him that she had been in the woods for a while before we got to her but that doesn’t seem to appease him.

She is making herself at home. If I had been smart when I looked at this picture I would have noticed what was peeking out from her belly. But I didn’t. I can be clueless like that sometimes.
I love this annoyed look. It’s like she’s saying get your butt out here and feed me!!!!
Isn’t she pretty? She is very vocal and feisty.

So in the last four weeks or so we have broken some of the unfriendly barriers of the wild kitty. I don’t really think she is a ferrel cat because she will let us get close to her. The only problem is she will quite literally scratch the living daylights out of you if you are not careful. She also does this little hissing thing every time we walk near her even when we are feeding her. But she is getting better.

I started working with her every day giving her Kitty treats and trying to pet her while I was wearing a large padded glove. After a week of this and her snuggling next to my gloved hand I tried petting her bare handed. She let me. But she was still a little skittish. She would also disappear for most of the day and only return for food. I told Mark if I didn’t know better I would think she was returning to kittens. But by this time we had been seeing her for about five weeks and hadn’t seen any signs of kittens.

Whoops. Spoke too soon. Friday afternoon Mark went out to the garage and there were three rather large kittens scurrying under his truck. Obviously they had followed their mama back to our house.

This little guy is the bravest so far and ventures out from under the car more than the others.
Just hanging out with mom.
is this not the most adorable face you have ever seen???
And as you can see there’s not three there’s four!!!!!

So far we have only caught a glimpse of them. They have taken up residence under one of the cars on the driveway that we don’t drive a lot. Now we are terrified to drive it until we can get all of the kitties away from it. This could take awhile. I know we will have to give most of them away. I would like to keep mama cat. We named her Allie Cat when she first came so we have really bonded with her. We may keep one of the babies. The next step is to get them tame enough to get them to the vet and checked out. Mama Allie is becoming quite friendly so I think the kitties will follow her lead before too long. You know I want them all and have already started naming them.

I can’t tell you how much fun we have had with these babies. Mark and I are constantly in conversation about all the babies. How much did they eat, what have they been doing. It’s become quite a zoo around here. Of course the inside babies are still a handful. Molly is having to eat several times a day just small amounts because of her tummy. She is doing much better and she has even gained a little weight. Molly does not mind the kitties at all. She usually just steers clear of all of them. Scruffy does not like the kitties and when he goes outside he chases mama cat every chance he gets. I really have to work with him on this. Of course Kitty Kitty stays in the house all the time and is oblivious to what is going on outside except for what Scruffy tells her. And he is keeping her updated.

Scruffy is giving Kitty Kitty the lowdown on what is going on outside.

So that is what is going on in my life. What is going on with you?

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

Easy Weekend

Happy Sunday, how was your weekend? I didn’t really have a lot to do except the usual grocery shopping and laundry. I had planned to take my mother in law out for a ride but she called a couple of days ago and said they were on lock down at the assisted living facility. This is to last for two weeks, apparently someone in one of the nearby buildings has COVID and they are restricting visitation for awhile. Mark had to work so I felt so strange with nothing really planned. It was wonderful!!!

For several weeks I have been wanting to just get out and drive and see the countryside and take pictures. You know how much I love taking pictures of church steeples and I also love the little country church signs that pop up near every stop sign. So that is what I did I took pictures of these signs I think they are just precious. I will be doing a post on them soon probably on Wordless Wednesday. They do speak for themselves.

The beautiful countryside near my house takes my breath away.

I was also on the hunt for blackberries. We have a huge patch of bushes down on our road. I watched day by day as the red berries started turning. Of course it’s not really our road it is a county road so I guess the blackberries were public property. But I watched them every day waiting for them to ripen. My plan was that I would go down with a container and get just enough for a blackberry cobbler. Mark loves blackberry cobbler, I do not. But I do try to make one for him every year.

But a strange thing happened, no sooner than I would see the big plump blackberries ready for picking than they would disappear. What??? I had an idea of who was getting to them first. I assumed it was a woman who lived a little closer to the blackberries than I did. She is at home every day so I was sure she had plenty of time to get them. I thought about calling her and asking for just a few for a cobbler. But it was not her. As I was driving home one day I saw a teenage girl out walking her dog. I had noticed her before. She has beautiful long read hair and she is always taking such good care to watch her dog on our crazy roads. As I got near the blackberry bushes I saw her with a plastic container in one hand and the dog leash in the other. I knew she had those berries in the container but you know what? It made me feel really good that this young girl was picking blackberries to make a pie or perhaps to give to her mom to make a pie. You don’t see that every day.

So there I was in search of blackberries as well as taking pictures. I decided to visit the Mennonite market near my house. No blackberries there but they did have some amazing looking okra which I had also been wanting. I bought the okra and continued on my way.

I can’t wait to try this okra

I got a lot of pictures and bought groceries and went home to take care of the babies. We have added another baby to the family I will have more on that in a future post.

A beautiful steeple on this very old church in nearby Tellico Plains.

On Sunday I watched a couple of movies on Netflix and started knitting another sock. I did laundry and went to feed and check on my nephew’s cat while he is gone for a few days. I ordered a pizza on the way home and went home to finish laundry. A relaxing and fun weekend.

I am loving this blue and white striped yarn.

So how was your weekend? I hope you did something fun and relaxing!!!

Always remember,

Lover your day your way!!!

How To Make A Wedding Cake, The Easy Way

A few weeks back we celebrated my sister and her husbands’ fiftieth wedding anniversary. So that is a super big freaking deal. We had to celebrate big. I wanted to make a special cake. I decided to do a wedding cake.

I hadn’t made a wedding cake in many years. I didn’t even know if I could remember how to put everything together but strangely enough it all came back to me.

I ordered a cake topper from the glassblower at our attraction where I work. He does really amazing work. I ordered it weeks before the anniversary so I would have it in plenty of time. I told him what I wanted it to look like and he had it ready a few days before the celebration. I wanted 50 in gold with birds and bells. I think it turned out amazing.

My sister has always loved the basket weave design on cakes. Anytime that I make a cake for her I use this design. Although it is a little time consuming, especially for a three tier cake, it can actually hide a lot of flaws. HA!!

Several years ago I bought this floating cake stand. It is called that because you place each layer of a cake on a different level and because the stand is in the back it almost looks like it is floating. This way you don’t have to fool with the dowel rods and stacking the cake etc etc. Also this stand can be used for many different things. I have used it several times for desserts, cupcakes, finger foods. Lots of things.

I have had my stand for many many years. I can’t remember what I paid for it way back then but it wasn’t too bad. I just looked this one up on Amazon and it is $161.00. But as I said you can use it to serve so many other things.

I bought new Wilton pastry bags for the icing, mine were pretty much worn out. I already had several cake tips and I had the round pans. You do not have to use round pans you could use heart pans. Or even cupcakes.

So I made the cake a day before the Anniversary party. The first layer is quite large.

As you can see this is the largest pan that fits on the bottom of the stand. With all the cake batter it was so heavy.

I am going to give you a few tips about the cake. I use cake mix. It is the easiest thing in the world. For cakes like this I use the white cake mix, usually Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines. I am not ashamed of it because it makes the best cakes. I think I used about five or six boxes of cake mix for the three different sizes of cake pans. Never fill the pans more than half way full of batter. Another thing I do, when I take the cake out of the oven I put a paper towel over the top and use a small saucer or flat plate to press down the top of the cake. This makes it flat and smooth and easy to put the icing on.

I do however always make my frosting myself. You will never catch me using canned frosting. With the cake mixes you can always add an extra egg or oil if you feel like the cake needs to be a little more moist. But with the frosting in a can you pretty much have to use it just like it is. I will share my frosting recipe for you below.

Remember when I told you the cake pan with the batter was really heavy? Well I am also upper body challenged when it comes to muscles. As I started to flip the cake over onto the pan, that part turned out great, and I was just starting to think I was danged near perfect at this, I dropped the cake pan on top of the warm fresh cake and it knocked a piece out of the side. After much cursing, ranting, and pacing several times across the kitchen, the voice of reason which belongs to my husband called out from the living room and said I am sure you can repair it with some icing. Well it was either that or make another layer. About another hour of baking would have to be done. I decided I could fix it and I did. Sort of like a jig-saw puzzle lol.

This is my frosting recipe it can be used for cakes with a stiff consistency or made softer by adding more milk.

1 teaspoon Wilton Clear Vanilla Extract (Be sure to use the clear so your icing will be perfectly white)
2 tablespoons milk or water (you will need to add more depending on the consistency, I also use Half & Half)
1 cup of solid vegetable shortening (yep the kind in the can)
1 tablespoon of Meringue Powder, (I have been known to skip this if I don’t have it)
2 pounds of sifted confectioners’ sugar
Butter extract, this is optional but it adds such wonderful flavor to the icing. Sold right next to the vanilla extract.

Sift confectioners’ sugar and the meringue powder into a large mixing bowl, set aside. Cream shortening, flavorings and mild or water, I never use water, or the Half & Half. Gradually add sifted dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. This is where you want to decide how stiff or creamy you want the icing. A good consistency is when you stick a spoon in and it is soft but the spoon will not topple over. You can always add extra Half & Half or whatever you are using or extra powdered sugar to get it to just the right consistency.

I always start out with a thin coat of icing to help set the icing on the cake. Remember you are going to cover this up with the weave design so it doesn’t have to be too neat at this point.
This is where I had to do my repair work. I put the piece back in and used the icing like a glue and put that side to the back and I don’t think anyone even noticed.
I loaded my pastry bag with icing and used the basket weave tip #1D.
I know these lines look a little messy but that is o.k. because you will be going back over them doing the weave design. You just take the bag and go across the top of the lines using a staggering or ladder type of design. You are weaving one row over the next. Once you get the hang of it it is really quite fun. The icing should not be too stiff when you use this design because it will cause your hand to cramp from holding it in one position for too long.
You can see the detail on the top cake. I pulled off for a minute to work on the middle layer because my hand needed a break from the pastry bag.
The finished cake. I decided to use chocolate covered strawberries to dress the cake up a little but you could use flowers or just leave it plain.

So if you are in need of a wedding cake or anniversary cake and you want to impress your friends and family, you too can make a wedding cake. Let me know how it goes.

And always remember

Love your day your way!!!!