twohensandtheirchicks

  Hello, My Friends! Although the weather has cleared up and the sun is sort of back, there is a nip in the air and the wind gusts through our valley with a bit of an icy bite, and it has put me in the mood for some homemade chowder. I am a huge fan of clam chowder, and my mom made the BEST! Try as I may, I cannot get my clam chowder to taste like my mom's. On occasion, I will use the following recipe, simply because I can get this one to taste as near to Mom's as I can. I say "on occasion" because I have the pickiest eaters on the planet in my family - they don't like the "white stuff" - they only like the "red stuff".  I do have one son (and a sister) who prefer this to the "red stuff". I have fond memories of coming home from school on a cold winter's day and smelling the wonderful aroma of mom's clam chowder. Clam Chowder (aka: the White Stuff") 1 cup finely diced celery 1 cup finely diced car...

​   I loved my Grandma's button tin! She would bring it out for me to play with whenever I visited her. I learned how to count using the buttons in it.  I never knew where the many buttons came from. Grandma, to my knowledge, was not a seamstress; although, she did do a lot of knitting. There were new sweaters every year, and perhaps the extra buttons found their way into the button tin. Now that I think of it, the tin was fairly old, and I wonder if it had b elonged to her mother before her. I do know that the button tin eventually came to reside at our house. I don't know what became of it and that makes me sad. ​ There were a few other things in the button tin besides buttons. There were buckles, an army lapel, and several scraps of faded fabric - all telling a story of a family's life. Over the years, my mother, my sister, and I all added to the collection. Whenever there was clothing designated for the rag bag, all buttons and buckles were removed and...

We have had such an unusual winter for our neck of the woods and it is getting a tad depressing now. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy a good snowfall and I have lived through worse - I just want to get outside and dig in the dirt now. I was looking through some photos that I have taken over the last few years, and noticed a bit of a theme in some of them. It made me think a bit about things in my life that sometimes I take for granted - like the weather and seasonal adj ustments we go through. For some reason, the transition of summer into autumn came to my mind. Harvest time, the last trip to the beach for swimming, new school clothes and school supplies all crowded into my memory bank. Those things are such a personal mark of the changing of the seasons. My favorite part of this time is the early morning weather. The subtle change from clear blue skies to a mysterious, sometimes ominous feeling brought on by misty mornings, can bring a bit of a shiver o...

  Here I am, starting on a "new" me. Got a bit more bad news from my doctor this week and I am feeling a little down. I am on medication now and hopefully things will be put to rights shortly. I don't as a rule take medications, at least I try not to. Anything stronger than an extra-strength tylenol knocks me out and makes me loopy, so I avoid meds like the plague. So, I joined a ladies only gym. I used to go to this one before My Man's healt h took a drastic turn for the worst, which came as a tremendous shock to everyone and changes needed to happen while physical, emotional and financial adjustments were made. I was doing really well at the gym. I felt great and positive changes were beginning to happen. Four years of a lot of stress seem to have taken their toll and I am back to where I was years ago. I am hoping this adventure of "finding myself" brings about more positive accomplishments. Two years ago, I rediscovered my creative side ...

​​I am a shoe addict. I have been for as long as I have been on my own, making my own money to spend how I please. I only have memories of one pair of shoes, and one pair of boots from my school years. I bought a pair of wedge sandals for my high school grad banquet, and yes, I wore them to my graduation ceremony as well. The boots, given to me by I don't remember who, were white go-go boots. I wore them out during my junior high years. When I finally was in a position to replace my wardrobe from my high school days with more "grown-up" clothes, I refused to shop at department stores and opted for the more fashionable boutiques. Of course, it didn't help that one of my best friends, at the time, was a professional model, seamstress and worked in the cutest little boutique in town - and they had layaway!! I spent hundreds of dollars in one day on a fantastic wardrobe, and a few hundred dollars more on fabric and patterns to round out said wardrobe. Tha...

Birthday parties are such awesome celebrations. I vaguely remember some of my birthday parties mostly because my Mom would make me a wonderful cake. The two that I remember must have been spectacular in my young mind, so much so that I recall what they looked like some fifty years later. I don't remember which birthdays they were for, the guests, nor the gifts, but the cakes are etched in my mind and heart. They are classic designs that probably everyone has had  for one of their birthdays at one time or another and possibly created for a loved one. The first one was the Barbie Doll cake. That is how I got my first (and only) Barbie. Her dress was more than likely a homemade cake and was blue with pink embellishments. The second one was in the shape of a butterfly, iced with yellow frosting, jelly beans and licorice whips. One of our grandaughters is celebrating her birthday this month. They live in an area where having a party outside at this time ...