Life in the Bristolwood

Wow…two posts in one day!  But before I address the title of this post, here is a look at one of my beautiful “Valentine Day Cactus flowers”!  Okay, so it is really nothing more than my (confused) Christmas Cactus! I still have a few more flowers left, too.

Soooo, I went to Bill in Scotland’s blog a bit ago, and was amused to see his latest post regarding “reflections”. This brought to mind the last photo I had taken…last Friday, as I was getting ready to go out shopping for Ben’s party,  I looked in the mirror and laughed aloud. I was wearing a plaid jumper, a patterned Norwegian sweater,  and my little “granny boots”. (as my Dad refers to them!)  I decided I should show my dear readers and friends just how eclectic my dress is.

I actually took three shots in this self-portrait attempt, but none showed my clothing very well. This particular shot doesn’t show my boots, either, but as I enlarged it, I found it rather amusing that inside “me”, I could see through the glass into the living room!  If you look closely, you can see a Scottie picture by a dear friend and artist, Marion Krupp. You can also see a wheelchair in the center of the room.  As I sat staring at this photo,  I realized that I had actually given a little glimpse into my heart!

As an aside to my clothing……that jumper was one I had wanted after someone on one of my Scottie lists told about it. It is, I believe, a pretty stewart plaid and at the time, it was well over $30.  And, at that time, $30 might just have well been $300.  About a year after seeing it in a catalogue, we stopped at a Salvation Army store.  Curious about what was inside (a friend told me they had the most beautiful clothes for practically nothing!) I wandered in to poke through the racks. As I spotted bright red jumpers and dresses, I  walked over and there was *my* jumper! It looked like brand new…the tags inside looked as though it had never been worn.  The price was $4.99! Needless to say, the jumper went home with me!  Oh, and the Norwegian-style sweater is one I knit when Benjamin was a wee baby.  My neighbor had encouraged me to start knitting, and after I started, I would awaken in the middle of the night to work with no distractions!

And, totally off topic, I thought I would share a photo of tonight’s dinner!

When I got up this morning, I looked through my little paperback Crockpot cookbook. I had planned to make meatloaf for dinner, but when I spotted a Hamburger Soup recipe, I became interested as I read the ingredients. I pulled out the Crockpot and placed all the goodies inside. As it simmered throughout the day, everyone made comments on how good it smelled! This afternoon, I  placed the ingredients for dinner rolls in my food processor and within two minutes, I had a ball of the most beautiful looking dough!  I have already written about that Kitchen Aid processor I picked up for a song, but now I think I am loving that machine! So, here is some virtual soup and a roll for YOU!