The Perfect Treat

 Now that the holiday season of 2025 is almost over, we are all giving a huge sigh of relief.  Now it time to take a few moments of personal time. It’s also the time to get yourself a special treat that you can use all year long.  After years of searching I have finally found my perfect slippers.  I kid you not.  Somewhere around the mid 1980’s a lot of slipper brands switched from natural fibers for slipper liners to polyester.  Since I am allergic to polyester this made decent slippers hard to find.  I was using candles for years as slippers. 

I have been wearing Haflinger clogs for quite of few years for my winter shoes.  They are nice and comfortable.  It takes at least 4 or 5 winters to wear out.  They are also stylish.  I wear the clogs with both dresses and pants.  The Haflinger Clogs are my go to travel shoes too.  This is how I found my love for the brand. 

Fast forward to October 2025. I left my black traveling shoes at my daughter’s house, because I was also using my red clogs as slippers.  I just told my daughter that I would pick up the shoes on my next visit. I also said that I would come up with a slipper solution.  

While I was looking for a replacement pair of black clogs I saw that they also carried slippers.  In my size too. There were just so many styles to choose from.  I picked out the navy slippers with colorful butterflies.  They are a felted pure new wool top and shoe insert.  They also have a rubber sole, so they do not slip and slide across the tile floors.  I ordered my usual size and the slippers fit perfectly, there is even room for warm socks or a foot brace.  

After a couple of weeks wearing the slippers, I ordered a pair to keep at my daughter’s house.  You can find the complete line at Halfinger. There is also a very limited selection on Amazon or a number of independent shoe stores. If you like to support local businesses in your area check out the shoe stores in your area.

The opinions expressed in this blog are my own. I have paid for all of my Halfinger shoes and slippers. I have not been paid by the Halfinger company to write this blog post.  I will earn a very small commission if you click on the link on this page.  

The Yarn Left the House

 Today my friends and I gathered together to celebrate and share mostly homemade gifts.  I say mostly because most of the 8 cubic feet of yarn was not hand spun my me.  Some of it was lace weight, which my hands can no longer work with.  Other yarn the colors were not right for me anymore.  Everyone was very happy with their yarn. 

I also put together a random bag of small gifts for the staff. They are so kind to us during the year, that it only seems appropriate. 

I will say that I really did over do it in the cleaning out of the yarn room. I can say redistributing the yarn made me feel a lot lighter.  Although hit me today like a brick wall.  I could do nothing but rest for 3 hours.  I was even too tired to pick up knitting needles.  

After an early shopping trip to pick up dinner and some essentials.  I plan on resting most of the day.  

Mentors

 I love the idea of mentoring.  My dad was a very good mentor. My daughter followed in his footsteps.  Mentors must be chosen with care.  A recommendation from a trusted friend or teacher is a good place to start.  I personally don’t recommend that everyone should be a mentor or teacher.  A bad mentor can leave you cleaning up the mess that they taught you was absolutely necessary for years.  If a mentor pushes more is better in terms of supplies turn and run away as fast as you can.  Don’t get me wrong, especially in the arts you need a certain amount of resources also known as supplies. 

More is not better. Let me explain why. Do you have so many supplies that you spend more time searching for the supplies to start your project than it takes to make your artwork?  Do you find it’s faster to rebuy what you need to use rather than take the time to look for them? How many rooms are filled with supplies for the art projects? Do you have extra supplies stored in the garage or basement up to the ceiling? Do the amount of supplies you have, cause you anxiety? Do you spend too much money on your supplies?  Could you survive an epidemic or the Zombie apocalypse with no problem?  If you answered yes to one or more of these questions you picked the wrong mentor. The great part about the solution is that you don’t need a mentor to fix the problem.

All you need is a few good friends willing to help you out. Take my friend Louise for example. Louise on more occasions than I can count has willingly come to my house and filled her car up with yarn.  Her family lives in an area with no local yarn or craft stores. Over 2 hours from a Walmart. So she has brought a lot of my for no better word for it is a horde of yarn home with her. Her family is enjoying the bounty. 

I have donated to my local knitting guild. In fact I filled up the back of a Ford F150 pickup truck with yarn and still had too much. I have donated odds and ends with leftover yarn for camp projects. Had more friends pick out yarn for their next project and still had too much yarn. I have mailed yarn to random people who could not afford yarn. 

What I am politely trying to say is this will take time.  Each time you give away more of your yarn or other art stash it will hurt. You will berate yourself for spending so much money. You will berate yourself for not completing the projects you planned. You will feel like you let yourself and your family down. You will have second thoughts about giving all those supplies away. This is all perfectly normal.  You will also find more supplies that you totally forgot about. This is normal too. 

In the end after more than a few years of going through this process please know that your family will be very appreciative of your efforts. I have helped clean out enough family members homes to know that this is true.  

I brought this up because in talking with my taller half we talked about my former mentor. How it took 3 Goodwill trucks to haul away her stash of yarn. It took them months of selling random 66 gallon trash bags stuffed to the brim with yarn at $5 a bag to get rid of it all. My goal is not to be that person. To get my yarn supplies into one room   Then leave the multi purpose room to its original design. To be a sewing, jewelry making and guest room rolled into one neat and tidy space. 

As I am writing this, I have filled up bags of yarn to the tune of 6 cubic feet.  Then I found 2 more boxes that I had forgotten about to go through. Well after I finish this post, you know what I will be doing. 

All this while resisting the urge to buy more yarn.  

Finishing Unfinished Objects

 It’s been a very rough week physically for me.  Even with all that going on I managed to finish one project, a Tunisian Crochet Scarf for me.  After trying it on, I decided that it was not right for me so it will be leaving the house. I also will not be writing a pattern for it like I planned.  I will not be writing a pattern for every bespoke project.  I have also gone back to the 5 of cleaning.  The five of cleaning is always one of 2 things.  Putting 5 things away or cleaning for 5 minutes.  I know it’s a little Squirrelly in cleaning methods, but it works for me.  

Also when I finished the scarf I actually did not start another project.  My goal is to finish a few more projects before I start another project.  The exception will be charity work.  I know I have at least 6 scarfs in various stages of completion. When I get down the last short scarf or no long scarves

, you know to 6’2” scarf, I will start a new scarf.  So far so good.  It’s hard to pick up a project to finish that has repair work midway or something that I got bored with.  Perhaps the season changed and if I finish it now I can’t wear it for 6 months.  So boring.  So not me.  I have however determined that this will be the only way to avoid the clutter of a massive pile of UFO’s.  This will allegedly lead to less clutter. I will believe it when I see the results or lack of less clutter. 

I also did get some stitch markers finished.  I still have a box full to finish.  I am also working on my sewing repair pile.  I am doing the easy stuff first. This also means for right now the little loom will not be weaving new straps for a few shopping bag repairs.  This also  means that I am also working on my multi purpose room.  My multi purpose room house the guest room, the sewing room and the jewelry making room.   

All of this sounds quite exhausting.   

My Latest Sewing Project

 If you need a really good bandanna for your next sewing project or just a nice soft bandanna against your skin, I would highly recommend The Peacock Crew bandanna’s. The fabric quality is really excellent. I would even consider piecing a shirt or skirt together with these bandannas. The bandannas sew up very nicely. 

The bandannas are the perfect size to piece together a quilt. Even soft enough for a baby quilt. I just ordered a few more for another project.

                                                        . 

A New to Me Cleaner

 I found a new cleaner that I really like. It’s great for small jobs. It cleans and sanitizes. Best of all it scrubs off the grime. I needed some new cleaning wipes and this one had a couple bonuses. First, it was on sale at Safeway. Secondly it had a 50 Cent off coupon from the manufacturer. The savings for me added up to $1.50. Enough of a discount to give something to try.

So far, I have tried the Lysol dual action sanitizing wipes on a number of surfaces. The first surface I tried was the floor. There was a spill that needed to be wiped up.  The wipe not only cleaned up the floor, but left that spot on the floor cleaner then the person who comes in monthly to help us clean has gotten it. I know this means I will now have to get the steam cleaner out, to get the rest of the floor clean.  I certainly wasn’t expecting that from a hand wipe. Now I need to buy more distilled water. 

The second time I used, it was on my sink. I had noticed my sink getting a little dinger over time. With some spots, never getting quite clean. The first time I used the Lysol dual action Sanitizing wipes on the sink even the old hard spots came out without much scrubbing on my part. I find this amazing, because I didn’t have to use a lot of spoons up to clean the sink. The sink looks better than it has in a long time.  The sink came close to looking brand new again.

I would like to personally take the time to thank the chemical engineers and the product development team for coming up with such a great product. It now has a permanent place in my cleaning supplies for the house. 

As I had said before, I bought the Lysol dual action sanitizing wipes on sale at my local Safeway. I will be adding these wipes to my regular shopping list on my phone.  This is my personal experience with the product. I have not been paid for this endorsement. The opinion is my own. If you decide to click on the link in the blog, I will get credit towards payment. I would like to say also that have been writing this blog since 2009 and have not received any payment for writing the blog as of the date of this blog.

Almost Sugar Fee Apple Pie

Almost Sugar Free Apple Pie Recipe 

1 quart thinly sliced Cosmic Crisp Apples. I do not peel my apples.

1/4 cup Spelt flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 pre made pie crust. I used the Pillsbury pie crust 

Cinnamon Sugar to sprinkle on top for decoration 

Bake at 325f for 45 minutes or until golden brown 

1 Pie pan or 9 inch square cake pan

The first thing that I always do is cut the apples in half. Then I remove the seeds and stems. Slice the apples very thin. You may cut the apples in chunks if you wish. I then place the sliced apples into a quart sized bowl. When the bowl is full I know that I have enough apples for the pie filling. Add the Spelt flour and cinnamon, then fold in the flour and cinnamon. 

Place your pie pan on a cookie sheet lined with foil. This serves 2 purposes.  The first is to keep you cookie sheet clean. The second is to cover and leftover pie once the pie is cut. Please refrigerate any leftover pie. Place the bottom crust in the pie pan. Add the apple filling. If it seems you have too much filling just build a small mountain with the filling. Dampen the pie edge with water. Place the top crust on top. Gently roll the bottom edge over the top.  Pinch and crimp the edges together. We are not going for perfection, we are going for a good seal. Dampen the top with water and sprinkle with your cinnamon sugar. I use a glass pie dish so I bake mine at 325f for about 45 minutes. 

Please note that this pie will be on the dryer side than your typical sugar laden pie. I know the sugar creates a very sweet syrupy filling. Also remember that just 1/4 of a cup of sugar contains 4 tablespoons or 12 teaspoons of sugar which is approximately 120 extra calories. Most pies contain over 1 cup of sugar which adds 480 extra calories per cup per pie.  If you use just one cup of sugar you add 80 non nutritional calories per slice if you cut your pie into 6 slices. For those same 80 calories you can have a plate full of  vegetables or a piece of fruit. 

If you would like to lighten the carbohydrate load just skip the pie crust and bake in a well greased 9 inch square baking pan or small casserole dish. 

This will make 6 to 8 servings.  Top the pie however you like. Just remember that whipped cream, cheese or ice cream will all add extra calories.  

I forgot to take a picture of the whole pie. This is my after dinner dessert  slice which was 1/6 of the pie.