Sea of Memories by Fiona Valpy

I recently finished reading "Sea of Memories" by Fiona Valpy. Because we have a Prime membership I was able to get my Kindle copy free with Prime Reading. Thank you for that Amazon! More that free shipping, more than Prime Video I love the chance to read books for free. I will say this book in my opinion would have been worth paying for and I plan on reading other books by this author.

"Sea of Memories" takes you through the years just before WWII to the modern day. Through the words of Ella and her granddaughter Kendra you are presented with themes of love, marriage, loss and life with a special needs child. I enjoyed every page!

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Cranberries to Craisins

I tried something new this week. I have a lot of cranberries in my freezer and I love dried cranberries but not the sugar used on dried fruit most of the time. I found a sugar free way to make them myself so I will now have a supply for putting in my oatmeal or tossing into salads.

I used about 12 oz. of frozen cranberries cut in half. Next they were coated with 2 T. of avocado oil and tossed in 1/2 cup of Splenda. After that they spend a couple hours in a 200 degree oven on a parchment paper lined pan. Keep an eye on them so they turn out like you want. I made a mistake with this first batch. I think it is very time consuming but valuable to make sure all the cut sides of the cranberries are facing up! I didn't do that and those that were facing up and those that had the cut side down dried at different rates. Another problem was that those berries with the cut side down stuck to the parchment paper I lined my sheet pan with. I will know better for next time and there will be a next time.

Ready for the oven!

Craisins after a few hours in a 200 degree oven.

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A Finish and a New Project Started

I finished my blue and white mini shawl. I say mini because it is really more like a triangular scarf. This piece was knit in garter stitch. I love garter stitch when I want to create a fabric that feels squishy. I think this is a very versatile shape to knit. If you wear the point in the back you have a nice accessory to keep your neck and shoulders warm. Is it just me or do you know that sometimes that is all you need to feel comfortable and keep you from tensing your shoulder muscles and getting sore? If you wear one of these mini shawls with the point in front under your coat on a blustery winter day you can keep the wind out and stay nice and cozy while "walking in a winter wonderland".

So moving on I have started a new baby afghan. Have to have something on a hook or needles at all times. It is how I get through life without hurting people. LOL. This is the third time I have made this pattern and certainly won't be the last. This time the yarn is a cheerful, sunny, you just gotta smile yellow. The pattern for the knit Free Sunny Baby Blanket can be found by clicking here. I like this pattern for its ease. It makes for great tv knitting. I also like solid rather than lacy patterns for baby blankets. This is so that little fingers and toes don't get caught. 

My triangle mini shawl all done.

Rows and rows of squishy garter stitch.

The next project (a baby afghan) cast on last night.

I have to end with a rant. I had a new version of blogger show up last week. It may be older than that but I didn't post for a couple weeks. I hate it. formatting with pictures stinks. I can't easily arrange text and pictures like I used to. Setting up labels for posts is not as easy as it used to be either. Before you typed your label and a comma, next label and a comma and so on. Now you are supposed to be searching labels. It is just clunky and wrong. Look Google, I do like learning new things, I really do but I don't see how you have made things better so I want to learn them. What are the wonderful benefits of this new design. These changes kind of remind me of Etsy and some of you may know exactly what I mean.

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Some Things To Smile About

Yes I do have things to smile about. In this time of worry and concern so far no one in my family has been touched by the virus keeping us all distanced from each other. My African Violets are blooming.

I saw a cute little boy singing "Don't Worry".

If you haven't found a reason to smile yet today watch the video. It is worth a minute of your time and I dare you not to feel better after watching.

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Covid Map

I am putting this map biglocalnews.org on the blog for those like me who tend to have a real problem with FOMO. I would say enjoy but that doesn't seem right.

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Netflix Watching At Our House

Like so many household today we are watching a lot more Netflix. Jim still works at the hospital Monday through Friday. Weekends seem forever long now especially for him and there is only so much news any of us should be watching for our mental heath. Many, many weekends before this virus became a problem we would leave town on the weekends. Typically he wanted to go to a town with a casino like Fort Hall, Idaho or Riverton, Wyoming. That wouldn't have ever been my first choice but they were his weekends so I would pack a book and a project and tag along. Other times we would go visit family in the Salt Lake area. That has come to a screeching halt and our weekends are now filled with Netflix.

It can be hard to find shows or movies that we both want to spend time watching. I do find it amusing that Jim is not real fond of intense thrillers or anything with violence in it at all. I had been watching Bates Motel and he didn't seem to like it at all. I kind of like the occasional science fiction show as well and he is not into those either. He also is not interested in shows like Supernatural or Vampire Diaries. I realized finally that he likes people stories. Think of shows like The Ranch and Friends. So with that in mind what are we watching together on these cabin fever inducing weekends? The latest series we have finished watching was Frankie and Grace. He loved it and so did I. We have to wait now for the final season to come out. 

Moving on to something new we have begun to make our way through the 15 seasons of Grey's Anatomy available on Netflix. He likes it. I had watched several seasons already but I am enjoying watching again from the beginning.

What is on your screens these days? Share in the comments. Would love to hear about any favorites from Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+.

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