Smiles and Confusion

Last week I made an apple pie.  From scratch.  Well, sort of.  I bought the crust - but I had to unroll it so that's nearly homemade.  :)  But the filling really was homemade.  Some of you are saying "what's the big deal?"  The big deal is I've never made one.  Apple pie isn't my favorite, or wasn't.  I think that's because I don't care for other people's apple pie - mine was delicious!  It made me smile, and apparently my pie liked it too.

I cut a few slits and this is how it ended up!  :)  I followed Madame Samm's directions exactly....I put a tablespoon or so of tapioca on the bottom crust, then put my thinly sliced apples in.  I had mixed them with some cinnamon and a little brown sugar and after they were in the crust I sprinkled nutmeg on top and a few thin pats of butter.  Then the top crust went on.  Oh my goodness it was delicious!

My Christmas cactus must be a bit confused.

It bloomed early last year too so I'm renaming it from Christmas cactus to Thanksgiving cactus.  :)


I had a little oral surgery today.  Yuck.  I had a tooth that was abscessed and fractured...they cut it out and did a bone graft.  In about four months I'll have an implant and then four months after that they'll put a crown on it and I'll be back to normal.  Except I'll be minus many dollars.  :(  For the next three weeks I can have no carbonated drinks, can't use a straw (I'm like addicted to drinking with a straw!), and have to eat soft foods.  The doctor smiled and said thank goodness at Thanksgiving you can have dressing and mashed potatoes with gravy!  Which reminds me, have you ever bought Bob Evans brand mashed potatoes in the deli?  I hadn't until today.  My husband picked up some for me and oh my goodness - they taste real.  I have no idea if they are or not but when I woke up enough to eat something late this afternoon they were wonderful!

In between naps I'm doing some stitching and oh I love this!

It's going to be a pillow and is going to be so cute!  I found the pattern in a Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine.  The background is cotton and the ornaments are wool.  I appliqued it with a blanket stitch and the pine branch is embroidered.  I used Valdani wool threads on all of it.  This will look so good paired with the Holiday Lane pillow I made for a blog hop a year or so ago.

I liked Jingle so much I prepped two of them so I could send one to a friend.  Since I'm going to be down for a couple of days I might get them both finished!  And speaking of being down I've just taken another pain pill so I'm off to take a nap!