Perfection: Garage / Guest House

I love this structure except for the garage doors as I would be using it as a home. I must save this photo as a favorite architectural design. Do you love it too? I hope you are as warm and cozy today as this dwelling looks. I am always partial to all the lights being on at twilight, especially if there is snow on the ground. xo via Instagram

January Dreaming

I found this on Instagram today and love it.

"Anyone who thinks that gardening begins in the spring and ends in the fall is missing the best part of the whole year. For gardening begins in January with the dream."

This is so true for before I saw this I was trying to figure out how to build a moveable garden that I can roll around to follow the sun. See you later. xo

Instant Pot Soymilk Yogurt: New Batch

My favorite thing to make in my recently purchased Instant Pot is Organic Plain Unsweetened Soymilk Yogurt. I cannot remember how many batches I've made and I can't tell you how much I love it. It is made using only two brands: Edensoy and Westsoy. Both are made with only two ingredients, filtered water and organic soybeans. No fillers, thickeners, preservatives, or sweeteners. Edensoy is the more expensive and it has 12 grams of protein per cup. Westsoy has 9 grams of protein. There is no difference in taste so I've been using the Westsoy and it comes in an economical carton with 64 ounces. It is not sold in the dairy cooler but is a shelved product. At Whole Foods it is across from the cereals. You don't have to boil it to make yogurt like you do cow's milk. All you do is pour it into the Instant Pot, add 2 tablespoons of your previously made yogurt per 32 ounces. Stir, hit the Yogurt button, adjust the incubation time and come back when it's finished to jar it up. I had to buy a carton of vegan yogurt to start my first batch. All I could find was plain coconut non-dairy yogurt and that worked just fine. I have experimented with incubation times of 14 hours, 12 hours, 10 hours and 8 hours. I liked all of these batches. The longer the "cooking" time, the more sour t(tart) the yogurt. Every morning I have 1/2 cup of Ezekiel Golden Flax Cereal that I buy at ShopRite or almost any supermarket including Whole Foods. Today I had a sliced banana on top and a container of my yogurt on top of everything. This cereal is amazing. You have to buy a box and read all about it or stand in the market and read the box. There are other varieties of this Ezekiel cereal but ShopRite only carries this one and it's right around the corner from my cottage. They make a delicious bread too, good for anyone looking for products containing NO SUGAR. Sometimes I just have it plain with yogurt on top if I am out of fruit. I have used chopped apples too. So good. 

Food for LIfe

The vintage milk glass containers are leftovers from old Salton yogurt makers I have owned. I grew tired of making small batches and having to boil the milk and wait for it to cool, etc. I still have the devices in my garage and I am so glad I saved them so I could use the 6 oz. containers with lids for my current healthy endeavor. I also like not having to throw away/recycle individual yogurt containers so making my own is good for the planet too.

North South East West, Home's Best!

The wind has died down but the temperature is failing to go up very much since I arose this morning. At 9:30 it's only 9° but the sun is shining brightly. I took a photo earlier from each exposure of my cottage and as you can see, we didn't get much snow. I am happy to report the fireplace wrap worked perfectly and it's much warmer inside, finally!

North south east west,
Home's the place I love the best.

Made Me Laugh

So far, so good with my resolution to drink more water.

Doxie raincoats, how cute!

Images from Pinterest.

Cozy Snow Day at My Cottage

I am all set for a lovely snow day. My cottage is right on the line between 5"-8" of snow and 1"-4" of snow. I think we have about 2" so far but it's hard to tell because of the wind blowing sideways. I added another blanket to the top of my fireplace and I'm all set with a stack of DVDs from the library and a good book. I went grocery shopping yesterday too. I hope you are all safe and can stay indoors until it stops. That's my plan. I live on a county road and the snow plows come by really often. My roof got finished yesterday so I am all buttoned up and can report the blanket is working nicely to keep the heat in my room instead of up the chimney. Why didn't I think of this sooner? I actually hired a plumber to put in a gas line so I could get gas logs and have a fire anytime I wanted. But you know me, I have to research everything to the Nth Degree and I learned a lot. You have to install a clamp that keeps the damper open a little in case you forget to open the flue when you want a gas fire. Actually, it was highly advised to keep your flue open ALL the time if you have a constant pilot light burning. So I talked myself out of this notion and canceled the plumber. The money I saved was applied to my new roof which turned out to be a better investment. See you later. xo

Blanket Around My Firescreen

Warm at last and it doesn't look too bad. I wrapped a wool blanket around my firescreen to keep the heat from going up the chimney and it worked. Yes, my flue was closed but the big hole was still stealing my heat. The cottage is much warmer as I await yet another snow storm beginning at midnight. Fingers crossed it's not too deep. Stay warm. xo

Unsheared Sheep

I wish I had a shearling coat like this! I put a blanket over my fire screen to keep the heat in my cottage from going up the chimney and the house finally seems warmer, thankfully. The only time I am truly toasty is when I am in bed under my eiderdown comforter made in W.Germany. More snow is predicted this week too. Wow, what a winter we're having. Stay warm. xo