Valerean

It seems that the younger generations have just discovered that you can prepare and store meals by freezing prepped and/or cooked food in silicon molds that create bricks you can nuke and eat. They're calling it the " Lego Brick trend" and marveling over how wonderful, convenient and time-saving it is. My generation is just watching this and chuckling fondly. I have always frozen foods that are prepped or cooked for later use. My mother did and my grandmother did. Now granted, mine are in reusable containers and not silicon molds, but that's the only difference. My small freezer is full of them. Here I pulled four at random to show you. I use masking tape and a Sharpie to label the contents and the date I froze them (or the date to use them by, depending on the contents.) I usually label soup or stock with the use-by date because that I keep for a while. The rest I use the date I froze it. The lemon juice on the left is 4 tablespoons (I will ...

I'm currently rewatching My Little Happiness , a romance c-drama that I've already seen twice, and I have to admit it never gets old. From my first review: the romance begins with childhood friends Cong Rong (Xing Fei) and Wen Shaoqing (Tang Xiaotian). Rong is a fiesty little girl who can't stand seeing shy, chubby Shaoqing being bullied, and stands up for him. They quickly become best friends, but then Rong's father passes away, and she leaves the school, promising to return and see Shaoqing again, but never does. Twenty or so years later, a very short but quite cute Rong returns from abroad to China for an internship at a law firm, and is assigned to the hospital where the towering and now very handsome Shaoqing works as a neurosurgeon. There's a lot going on in this drama, from Rong's mom not wanting her to become a lawyer to Shaoqing's poet uncle being unable to move on after being dumped by his first love. Rong also has a rich best friend who is...

What Things Don't Work Out in Reality the Way They Do In My Head Reason #999: the deconstructed canvas tote is too small for what I want to use of the curtain fabric. I'm usually a pretty good judge of size, but this time, nope. This is how long I want the tote, with plenty of space above the flowers for appliques. So I will make the bag entirely it out of the curtain fabric, which is linen and of which I have a lot. That means using a foundation fabric for the applique and embroidery I have planned, so I raided my fabric stash for some leftover muslin. The first of two panels for the tote, batted, backed and pinned. These are the embroidery threads I pulled for the tote. I'm waffling a bit about the dark red; I might switch that out or just go with the brown alone. Stay tuned to the blog to see my progress.

For my calendar project tote in March I'm set on a theme of green via repurposing. I'm going to try to use only vintage or thrifted fabrics for the patchwork that were originally something else. My first two candidates are this tablecloth and curtain, both of which I thrifted last year. The green fabric I thrifted doesn't quite go with either of the repurposing pieces, so I might save that for something else. The tablecloth is really interesting -- probably from the seventies -- and I don't think I have the heart to cut it up (it fits my kitchen table, so maybe I'll use it for that this summer.) I have no problem cutting up this pretty curtain, so this will be my primary fabric. I found an old Bath & Body Works tote in my stash that I can also repurpose as the foundation for the tote. The first step is to rip the seams so I can get it to lay flat and see how much fabric I'll need to cover it. It's not gigantic, but I can ma...

The Chinese movie Just for Meeting You (badly translated, my guess is it should have been Just to Meet You ) has a delightful little old-fashioned romance between two high school students. This is very G-rated, and there isn't so much as one kiss, so you really watch it for the characters. The premise: Yang Si Huo (Sonh Wei Long), a high school boy who longs for outer space but is otherwise a slacker and a goof-off, and new transfer student Xu Nian Nian (Liu Hao Cun), a lovely, smart but somewhat mysterious girl who becomes the object of his pranks. This evolves into a close friendship as they discover they're kindred spirits, but then college opportunities separate them. A few years later they reunite after Nian Nian finds a hidden letter Si Huo gave her before they graduated. I won't spoil the rest but the ending is particularly satisfying as it reveals the mystery of Nian Nian's character and why they used this title for the movie. This is a feel-good wa...

At the local farmer's market last weekend I bought this jar of raw honey and a bunch of organic carrots (not pictured; we ate them) with what cash I had in my wallet. They are what I hope to be my only buys in March. At the end of February I paid for my March medical insurance premium, which still has not gone up, and paid off my credit card bill as I do at the end of every month. I am currently at zero on my credit card and have no more cash, and hope to stay that way until April 1st. This is just a genuine effort on my part to see if I can go 31 days without spending any money. I wanted 2026 to be a no-spend year for me, but when my premium didn't skyrocket I thought "Why do it?" Still, I need to save up for some other things, particularly some dental work, so I'm going to back pedal and try one month. Since my guy is giving me a much-need financial break by buying our groceries every month, and I've paid all my bills, I should be fine. I have lear...