Saturday, November 12, 2011

This Week's Blog Post!

New Dangles!
This bead is dyed mountain jade. Its color is a dark blue…almost purple in some light. I love these Bali ear wires! The earrings are available at Miss Val's Creations.

Spoiling The Cats!
I had accrued some credit card points and decided to spend them on my feline friends. Since they are only indoor cats I try to ensure they stay entertained and get their exercise! So it was a fun week for them!

They have a couple of new wand toys which Emmett loves.

I got some funny colorful things for Alice which are what she is into. She is still apprehensive like she is with anything new in her life but I am sure she will warm up to her new toys.

This toy is cool which they have had. It is filled with balls and mice (artificial). They are challenged by trying to remove them from the holes. This is funny to watch as a human.

Quick Soup Idea!
With this I chopped up 1 sweet potato and 1 baking potato and covered them with a can and vegetable broth and water (to keep the sodium count low). I brought that to a boil with some spices like crushed red pepper and bay leaf. I added a can of crushes tomatoes and left the soup to simmer.

When the potatoes were in an edible state of being I added a bag of frozen pea. Once the peas were ready I topped off the soup with a can of cannellini beans. So easy, healthy and tasty! Onions would be great in this but my stomach does not like onions!

Furnace issues!
Friday morning I went down to the basement and discovered a bit of water surrounding my ancient furnace! Yikes! I had a plumber temporarily take care of the problem but it is definitely time for a new unit. The house was built in 1960 and it is believed this is the original. Talk about long lasting!

It costs thousands of dollars for a new one but with the costs of heating oil these days it should pay for itself within a handful of years with today’s efficiency. When I bought the house 3 years ago I knew this day would come! In retrospect I should have been more proactive and taken care of this in the summer before a problem occurred!!!

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

11 comments:

  1. Mmmmm...the soup looks really yummy! It has all my favorite ingredients. Must try this out soon :)
    Thanks for sharing.

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  2. The earrings are beautiful and the soup looks quite good. I do understand about the furnace issues. My home was built in the 60s too. I had a gas tank and as the price of gas continued to become outrageous (even though it was sooo warm and cozy) and my AC got all weird, I decided to replace everything and go all electric. Coming to the finish line on paying off the unit but I've been super pleased along the way.

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  3. Love the earrings!
    I am making soup today too. It is a beautiful but very chilly Fall day here.

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  4. Val, The earrings are very pretty. Isn't crazy to watch cats play with new toys they can be so funny. Hope all works out with the furnace. The soup look yummy.
    Therese

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  5. I love watching cats play. I miss mine, but hubby says no more, lol
    Debbi
    - ourhometoyours

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  6. Lovely earrings, what a great color! Your soup looks really tasty, and sounds really easy, thank for sharing the recipe. Looks like your cats are going to have fun with all their new new toys.
    Valerie
    Everyday Inspired

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  7. I am into trying new recipes these days! Thanks for sharing.

    I loved that you specified that the mice for your cats are "artificial" you put a smile on my face there!

    Hope you have a great week!

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  8. haha - love your cat photos! they look adorable. and the new earrings too!

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  9. These earring are beautiful Val, and what lucky little kitties you have! I am still trying to teach mine to play, but not having a lot of luck. I think she had just been abandoned for too long to think about things like that. Will keep working on it though!

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  10. Pretty new earrings!
    And I ♥ the kitty photos :) I bet watching them play with that game is a riot!
    Sorry to hear about your furnace...definitely not the time to be going out!

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  11. what beautiful kitties! wish I wasn't allergic to them - it would be so nice to have a cuddly little pet like that.

    soup looks so yummy!!

    We had furnace issues over the summer! Not fun. especially when trying to sell the house. had to have it fixed ASAP LOL Hope you guys will be good to go and put all that hot water leakage behind you.

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Thank you for stopping by! I love reading visitor comments! ~Val