A Morning Surprise

I probably told this story here a long time ago. Since I am sharing hot air balloon products on X from amazon today, I remembered something from the summer of 2011. I very nearly had a hot air balloon land in my backyard. It certainly wasn't a planned landing. The folks in the basket were looking forward to floating along looking at the Teton Mountains and the Snake River. That changed and for them it may have been a bit scary, but no one was hurt. The balloon was bundled up and put on a trailer and the tourists were loaded in a van and taken away I hope to get refunds but who knows.

Check this out...

Those trees were in my backyard. The fence posts you see marked the edge of my yard. The drop was controlled and the landing soft. I kept hearing the burner going off. Evidently it was able to slow the descent but not keep them in the air. 

I was amazed at how fast the situation was taken care of. As the balloon collapsed the trailer and van showed up. The whole event was over in less than half an hour. 

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Take care and stay cozy!

National Polar Bear Day & Other Stuff

It is national polar bear day. No matter what you think about climate change (and I believe we have f***ed things up and I hope it's not too late) you have to admit these are some majestic animals. They are having a hard time in a place where life is always hard anyway. I am thankful that there are people and organizations looking out for them.

The other stuff? Jim and I spent 3 hours getting to and from the nearest military base so that I could renew my dependent's ID card. Evidently this was the last time I will ever need to do this. My card is now indefinite. Driving was the longest part of this. The actual time at the desk of the friendly guy who helped me was about 2 minutes. It is done. I am registered on the DEERS system which means my Tricare for Life Medical Insurance is active. This is such a wonderful benefit. Without it our retirement could be very different. It makes 20 years of military service worth it.

My sisters are coming for the weekend. We have some tentative plans. Will share more about the visit next week.

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Take care and stay cozy!

Head in the Clouds

The image above is from Bing's Image Creator. It fits my thinking today. My sisters and I are considering forming a company to sell what we make. We all make things using different materials and styles and techniques. We are thinking of finding venues to sell in person. We are creators, all three of us and it gives our lives purpose and meaning that sometimes our significant others don't understand.

I am wondering if I have my head in the clouds thinking that we could make enough money to make it worth our time. The link is from a site giving the history and meaning of the phrase. What I wonder is if we sisters are being delusional? Can in person sales give us what we need to keep making? I have pretty much decided that for a small time hobbyist like me that Etsy is a waste of time. It has become a wasteland of POD t shirts and resellers with thousands of items who don't spend time and heart and soul to bring a customer hand crafted works or vintage treasures. 

I am also considering a web site for myself and maybe selling on eBay which doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is unlike Etsy. Head in the clouds, maybe. I guess we won't know until we try. 

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Take care and stay cozy!

Sunday's Stitches

I am not the greatest with making and keeping schedules but I want to try a new thing here. I am always making something. That is a big part of who I am and what gives me purpose every day. I want to start a series here on Sundays called as you can see by the title above Sunday's Stitches. Sometimes there may be a lot to talk about and sometimes, meh. We'll see how this goes.

This Sunday I am sharing an afghan I have started. Started twice and had to tink a row also but I am determined to get this right. I put makers in to guide me through the 10 stitch repeat so I can stay on track. With each trial I feel more confident. I even figured out how to undo a S2KP (slip 2 knitwise together, knit one, pass the slipped stitches over) double decrease. Figuring that out lead to the makers to help get all the yarn overs and double decreases in the right spots. I feel more confident about it now.

As you can see, this is the Serafina Afghan. I bought the kit when it was on sale from Herrschner's. I have the pattern now and if this comes out as pretty as I think it will I may order the yarn when it is on sale and hope for free shipping too and have some lovely afghans to sell online or with my sisters as we get started with our own hand maker's company we want to start.

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Take care and stay cozy!

Birds in the Backyard

The bird house was a gift from my sister. We have had it hanging from a tree in the backyard for a few months now. Until this week there were no visitors. I guess with spring coming the birds are back in our area again. It is nice to watch them. I don't know what kind of birds they are and to me it doesn't matter. I just want to give them a treat and try to keep the feral and outdoor neighborhood cats out of the yard. 

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Take care and stay cozy!

Annual Smooshing

Today was my annual smooshing day. That sounds more fun that mammogram, right? With a grandmother and two aunts having had breast cancer it feels important to keep up with the routine. I will get a letter in about 10 days to let me know if everything is okay. From what I understand I am coming into the years where the chance of cancer increases for someone with my family history. 

Image made using Bing Image Creator.

As a reminder, have you had your checkups when you should. I want all my vast number of readers 😉 to take care of themselves.  Make the appointment, go get smooshed, stay alive and healthy.

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Take care and stay cozy!

Watering Cans

If you happen to follow me on X (formerly twitter) you know that I post a few items each day from Amazon. Those are affiliate links like the one I put at the bottom of each post here. Do you know how affiliate links work? It is easy to understand. If you click on an affiliate link to go shopping on a website a cookie is placed in your browser. That cookie lasts for 30 days. That is standard for nearly all affiliate links and the companies that use them to get more customers to their sites. If in that 30 days you make a purchase the provider of the link, in this case me, will get a small commission of maybe 2% to 5% or so. These links and cookies add nothing to your price. If you click on multiple links for the same site while browsing the last affiliate link you clicked on will get the commission. I will tell you quite honestly it is a pitifully slow way to get rich, pennies at a time but I enjoy looking for things to share. It keeps the old brain active.

So, today my theme for no apparent reason is watering cans. This link (here) will take you to my search. I sorted the search by average customer reviews. I don't want to send you guys to items that aren't well received after all. 😊

Here are a few examples for my search...

I really like the copper one and if you do too here is a link that goes right to it. (link)

Did you look? Did you find a new favorite? If you shopped with my links thank you!

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Take care and stay cozy!

Just Finished

I finished reading Liz Cheney's book yesterday. It was an interesting read. Even though I am very much a Democrat I wanted some first hand accounts of the day, January 6th, and some background on how the Committee investigation was handled. I will be looking for other books to learn more. If you would like to read about this time in our history like I did here is an affiliate link for you. > https://amzn.to/3wnEUVl

No matter what I like or dislike about her conservative politics, which I dislike mostly, I greatly admire the stand she took to investigate as a member of a team to help Americans learn more about the truth of the day. 

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Take care and stay cozy!

Travel Tips for Vietnam

There are millions maybe of travel blogs and vlogs with lots of information for travelers for anywhere in the world you wish to go. I am not a travel blog although I share my travels here. These opinions and tips are from a lady who is lucky enough to go someplace very special one or two times a year.

Today I have a couple tips for traveling in Vietnam. 

The first one is of a personal nature, and I also found this on our tour company's website. It is this: stock up on travel packets of tissues and hand sanitizer that easily fit in your purse or backpack. You may and we did a couple times, find yourself in a restroom that has no toilet paper and if they don't have that then they don't have paper towels for drying your hands either. 

My second tip is to buy a couple fans from a street vendor. I did and when you find yourself in a very warm crowded market or anywhere on a warm day a bit of fresh breeze you can do for yourself can make it more comfortable. We bought two and I am glad we did. Jim was not a fan of them like I was, so I found myself with one to share with someone who was struggling with the heat and needed some water and to cool off a bit more than once. I was happy to be able to help.

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Take care and stay cozy!

January 26th, Last Day in Vietnam

This is what out last meal on our last day in Vietnam ended with. I'm not counting the grab and go breakfast at the hotel at 4 am the next morning. This group of desserts tasted as nice as it they looked. Of course, I love chocolate, so the brownie and ice cream were my favorite. 

Do you think food tastes better when it is presented in a beautiful way? I am starting to think so. Just look at the plate below. So lovely and so good!

This random park scene is not so random to me. My Aunt Doris was a surgical nurse in the US Army and served in Vietnam. This park is the site of the 3rd Army Field Hospital in Saigon and where she was during the late 1960's. The building as you can see is gone now.

Our last excursion was to the site of some infamous tunnels used by the NVA to retreat to when hiding from our troops. Some members of the group went a short distance through the tunnels but I didn't. There were enough displays above ground to satisfy my curiosity.

The next morning as I said earlier, we left for the airport. Flying for the next 24 hours was hard but we made it. Saigon to Tokyo to Denver to Phoenix. The first thing I did when I got home was brew a pot of Earl Grey Tea, decaffeinated of course. 

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Take care and stay cozy!

Pots and Plants

No football. Nothing needing attention. Dinner planned. 

We made a trip to the local nursery. Jim got some geraniums for the back yard. I got some pots for my house plants. They are ready for bigger pots and I found some pretty ones. Each of them is different in color or design or both. I am not real fond of matchy matchy looks so the differences are pleasing to me. I'll get all of them changed over to their new pot later this week. Hope they will be happy and grow bigger for me.

If you are a football watching family, what are you doing with your Sundays now? 

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Take care and stay cozy!

Cheesy Bread!

Isn't everything better with cheese?

I had some lasagna in the freezer that I got out to have for dinner. I had some mozzarella cheese in the fridge. I haven't made any type of bread in quite a while. A quick search found Homemade Garlic Cheesy Bread from Budget Bytes. Homemade Cheesy Garlic Bread - Budget Bytes

It was the perfect thing to have with my dinner. She used a mix of cheeses and a sprinkle of parsley. I used mozzarella and a bit more garlic. She cooked this on a sheet pan, I used cast iron. It was just what my dinner needed. This is a great and easy recipe to add to your bread baking. I know I will be making this again and again and again.

Baked anything lately that you want to share? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear all about it.

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Take care and stay cozy!

January 25th, A Day in Saigon

What is it about city skylines that always gets our attention? I took one on arrival and one at night from our Sofitel Hotel room on the 15th floor.

This huge chair was great for looking out over the city. The birdcages has small lights in them and could be used for night lights. I thought that was cool. I put the hotel sign in here to help me remember. The elephant was part of the outside decor at the entrance to the lobby.

Next two are scenes from our walking tour of downtown. One is of a government building and the next is just one of the many ways the city and surrounding countryside was getting all dressed up for the New Year celebrations in February.

We, our group and about a million, not really, school children toured the former presidential palace. We say conference rooms, offices and personal living spaces. 

Lunch was at a noodle soup shop made famous because Bill Clinton ate there in 2000. We and I am sure he had a nice lunch of Pho.

This evening, before another wonderful family style dinner, we saw a water puppet show. The mechanics of the show were fascinating. 

The sad part for me anyway was that not understanding the language we couldn't follow the stories being told. It would have been nice to have a program explaining each scene.

So, there it is, a day in Saigon.

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Take care and stay cozy!

From Can Tho to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

This was a travel day. We started out on a boat that took us to a place on the river to have a snack of local fruit and some live music. We found some magnets while there and they now have a place on our fridge. We also saw the area where our guide's family lived from the water and made a stop at a candy and rice paper factory that he said was run by his cousins.

Lunch was elephant ear fish as a main course. The fish was brought to the table whole and standing upright. Our waitress broke down the fish and used it to make rice paper rolls for all of us. Can I just say it was delicious? Too repetitive? Sorry, not sorry. We all know now why I am not a food critic. I don't know enough adjectives but once again I want you to know that one of the best parts of this trip was the food.

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Take care and stay cozy!

January 23rd, Another Day in Can Tho

We started this day on a boat ride. We got to the boat by walking to the hotel's riverfront. We are on the Mekong River. I remember hearing the name of this river as a kid, connected to the war back then. It seemed that every part of the river and the land around it are being used. There were lots of shrimp and fish farms. We also floated through a floating market. Folks in the group were able to get a coffee and we all sampled freshly cut pineapple.

The boat ride ended at an open air market. Fresh veggies, fish and meats were in vivid displays everywhere you looked. We did have to be careful because motorbikes are allowed in the markets. They beep at you and expect you to get out of the way on the crowded paths through the stalls.

Back on the boat we went to our next stop which was lunch. As usual for Vietnam wherever we ate the food was delicious. My favorite at this meal were the pumpkin flower fritters. I wish that I did a better job of documenting our meals on this trip. So many of them were beautifully presented and all were delicious. The problem was that the food ended up in front of me and I just ate and thought of taking a picture when it was gone. I can honestly tell you that I was not served a meal in Vietnam that I didn't like. The food there is that good!

The day was heating up and we headed back to the hotel by bus for a lazy afternoon and dinner at the hotel.

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Take care and stay cozy!

Victoria Can Tho Resort, January 22nd

The 22nd of January found us traveling again. We took a bus from Hue to the Da Nang airport. Our plane too us to Can Tho where we stayed for the next couple nights at the Victoria Can Tho Resort. The style of this hotel reminded me of the French colonial days.

There was lots of beautiful dark wood. Asian themed art was everywhere. The grounds were beautiful and ended on the river front. For the first time ever in all the hotel rooms I have ever stayed in, there were 3 live houseplants in our room. It was such a nice comforting touch. This hotel also has 2 pools! Everything was so nice without being over the top. The staff interactions we had were very friendly and yet efficient and professional. That included front desk staff, doormen and restaurant staff. The view from our balcony was so calming. At this place you feel far away from the big city life that we were surrounded by when in Hanoi and later in Saigon.

if you would like to learn more about this special place here is a link to the hotel's website > 

Victoria Can Tho Resort - Victoria Hotels & Resorts

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Take care and stay cozy!