Merry Christmas to all…

and to all a good night!

The 2012 tree:

The 2012  mantle:

Chickie after all the gifts were opened:

My dinner:

My feet are killing me after being on them all day. I got wonderful gifts from Emily. I will tell you about it in another post.

Merry Christmas!

I have someone for you to meet…

Meet my new best friend:

She’s trying to convince me to go away for a few days- she’s an evil bitch she is.

Presents!

We had our yearly stitching group Christmas party last week. We went to Longhorn Steakhouse first, then back to Jeanne’s house for dessert. I forgot my camera – for shame!- but dinner was excellent (steak tips & mashed potatoes for me- YUM!) and Jeanne really outdid herself- gingerbread cake,  and 4 kinds of cookies- a peppermint topped shortbread, nutmeg logs, cranberry orange cookies & these thin crispy lacy sugar cookies, and Joanne brought the most colorful fruit salad I have EVER seen! Everything was delicious- thank you both for such a wonderful evening!

Deborah, from Cranberry Samplings, was my  secret Santa. She gave me a beautiful needle book:

Inside:

Outside:

I love me a pretty paisley and this one is gorgeous!

She also got me a bag of assorted trims from Victoria Motto Sampler:

which is totally sweet because I won one of Nancy’s drawings over the weekend for a chart of Christmas ornaments! I know what I’ll be stitching on next year, and I have all the trims for finish- finishing them!

Thank you Deborah!

I found several photos on my camera- enough for a few more posts so hopefully, I’ll get off my keister and do something about it!

Off to do dishes- it’s late for me!

You say Repurpose, I say Recycle…

Not your typical ribbon wreath:

But I like it!

Christmas Decorating…

someday I want to make one of these:

The directions are from this website. It seems pretty easy, and if I was really smart, I’d buy the bulbs after Christmas on sale.
These are cute too:

Link here.
And a bulb wreath too:

Some Progress….

of the non-stitchy variety. The tree is up, with its lights. The wreath is on the front door, and I put up my icicle lights, and they all work! I still have to ornamental-ize the tree, but I can do that in the evenings after work.

Is anyone out there sick of turkey yet? I can’t say that I am. I gave Brandon quite a bit, and Em took a meals’s worth. I’ve been eating mini turkey sandwiches made on dinner rolls for lunch, and then at dinner, having a bowl of stuffing, potatoes, gravy & veggies. I think I need to start eating more turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Emily came over this afternoon after doing the outlaws. We served ourselves a feast:

Here’s how my turkey looked (after carving the breast off one half):

And dessert:

These are the chocolate cupcakes- I made an equal amount of vanilla frosted the same. The be-sprinkled ones have a filling of dulce de leche. All the others are unfilled.

It was very good, but over very fast. I feel like I’ve been on my feet all day, but really only since noon when the turkey needed more basting, and the sides needed to be put together.

But it’s all done & cleaned up, and I’m off to the couch finally with (another!!) glass of wine & a cupcake or 2.

Happy Thanksgiving all! Thank you for all your kind thoughts and support, and wonderful comments. You all keep me inspired every day. Thanks!

Planning….

My menu:

Roasted, brined turkey & gravy

Crockpot stuffing

mashed potatoes

sauteed green beans

roasted cauliflower

carrots and parsnips: either mashed or roasted

dinner rolls

cranberry sauce

chocolate & vanilla frosted cupcakes

I Breathe, therefore I Pin…

So I have that little “Follow me on Pinterest” button over there>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

You can click it if you’d like and see what shenanigans I’ve been up to. I started my Pinterest account around Christmas last year and was amazed at all the holiday-themed ideas, recipes, gifts, decorations, etc. that were popping up. So if you need some inspiration or even just some holiday cheer, now’s a good time to check it out.

Here are some things I found today:

Butter Pecan Cupcakes

Bite Sized Baked Brie

Budget Friendly Christmas Tree Decorating

Pixie Stix Quilt

Mozzarella Sticks

Pink & White Peppermint Swirl Bark

According to Live Writer and Pinterest, I can embed pins in my blog, but it doesn’t seem to be working properly, or, more than likely, I’m not operating properly.

Saved by the bell! I’m cooking a quiche, and I always forget that less is more when it comes to quiche. So I overstuffed the pie shell, and it’s taken an extra 30 minutes to cook and I’m SOOOO hungry! (ham, broccoli, cheese & sautéed onions)

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope your day is blessed with sunshine as we remember those who’ve given the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

This is the first Memorial Day weekend in 3 or 4 years  that I’ve had “off” off, because of my barn owner’s show horse having colic surgery. KoKo is recuperating well, with no problems (quick knock on wood). Next weekend she can be turned out into a small pen; she’s been out of her stall only for brief periods to  hand graze 3 or 4 times a day for the past month. She’ll have a month of “pen” rest, then another month of pasture rest, which will bring her to the beginning of August before she can go back to work.

Here’s my progress on Beacon House. This is 2 weeks worth of stitching and it really doesn’t look like much, but I’ve dipped into the water:

I’ve been procrastinating on doing all the snowflakes scattered in the sky areas. There are 3 different size Smyrna Crosses to do and I’m dreading them!

I made a Peanut Butter sheet cake for snack at stitching last week:

I thought it was excellent. Jeanne had the idea of Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Sheet Cake with the Peanut Butter sheet cakes’s frosting.  A must-try for sure!

Have a nice quiet holiday tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

I’m pooped! But I had to share that my wicked awesome daughter got me a Keurig “Elite” coffee maker and a ton of assorted accessories!  I’m so excited- I can’t wait to try it tomorrow am.

I hope everyone has had a marvelous day with family and/or friends. Thanks for  visiting and all the wonderful comments you leave- I truly appreciate them all!

(Image from the Green Mountain Coffee website)

I made an apron for her:

It’s reversible- “evil” side and “good” side.

I also finished this pillow, and made a second:

I have to get a bigger form for the top pillow.

I made this for Michelle at the barn:

“Barn Yard” by Bent Creek I think. Here’s the back and a 3/4 side shot to show the thickness:

 

The horse I tried to emulate Molly, the horse Michelle rides. She’s a chestnut Appaloosa, although the only white spot is low on her belly on the left side, and she has two white socks on the rear.

Off to the couch for me. Merry Christmas and good night!

Almost there…

I finished this for my barn owner:

Here’s the backing fabric:

I think my obligatory cooking is done. I made this:

- a cheesecake for Tom. It came out perfect!

These:

Almond Poppy Seed Breads from Our Best Bites

and this, from Joanne of Thursday Stitching group:

White Chocolate Popcorn with Craisins. So easy! Pop 3 bags of salted-only microwave popcorn. Pour into a huge bowl. Melt one 12 –oz. bag of white chocolate chips- 2 to 2-1/2 minutes on high at 30 second intervals should do it, stirring each interval. Pour chocolate over popcorn and mix to coat evenly. Add one 5-oz bag of craisins and mix again. Spread out on baking sheets to set for an hour or so if you’re packing it up for gifts or start eating- your done! I melted about a 1/4 cup of semisweet chips (the same microwave method) and drizzled that over the spread out popcorn.

Tomorrow I have to brine my turkey, and make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning, and a batch of chocolate chip cookies because I’m out. Almost all those cookies I made last weekend are gone. I’ve gone thru 5 lbs of sugar, a dozen eggs, and 3 lbs of butter. So far.

Time to wash dishes and have supper and finish another stitchy gift.

Why do I do this to myself???

Every year!! Craft projects right up to the last minute! One down, 5 more to go (that I can think of right now):

Meet LaLa:

The pattern came from Riley Blake Designs, but I realized on my way to work this morning that her pattern is for a two-legged elephant. What 2-year-old wants a two-legged elephant????

So flying by the seat of my pants, I made my own gusset for the belly. While I can now see where my gusset design went awry, it does allow for LaLa (as opposed to Layla) to stand upright on her own. So I suppose I’m somewhat successful.

Five different types of cookies have been baked, a batch of chili on Saturday and a batch of beef stew on Sunday. My feet are killing me! Two batches of baklava, some white chocolate & craisin popcorn, a cheesecake, and possibly almond poppy seed loaves left to do. Plus the craft projects….

At Last!!!

Last day of NaBloPoMo!

last turkey sandwich:

That’s on Portuguese bread, with a light  smear of mayo, some cranberry sauce, some Havarti cheese and a bit of stuffing for the flavor, toasted.

Last bowl of soup:

With carrots, onions, celery and corn and fresh thyme, and egg noodles. (actually I still have a least a bowl left).

I didn’t have the soup with the sandwich- they were separate meals.

I managed to post every day, and one day I even made two posts! Congratulations to all my fellow NaBlo-wers (as Stitch Bitch calls us!)

And thanks to all who visited and put up with some very lame writing, and special thanks to all the encouraging comments!

And I’d like to thank the academy….oh! wrong acceptance speech!

I’m SO done!

Happy Thanksgiving Again!

Here’s my de-luscious bird:

It came out perfect, if I do say so myself.

Dinner for one:

I packed up about half of everything for Bob, who had day-surgery yesterday on his elbow & didn’t feel up to traveling.

Dessert (round one):

Sorry about the smudges- I had to roll the slice upright. But it tasted good!

Happy leftovers!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Google Turkey doodle

Click on the picture and it re-mixes itself.

What’s Next?

My fingers are starting to itch for Christmas designs. I picked out the following designs for my own pleasure, as well as some gifts:

Top: “Peace & Quiet” by Erica Michaels and “Joy Sampler” by Lizzie Kate

2nd row: “Merry Ho Ho”  and “Winter Sampler” by LK, “Barnyard” by Bent Creek

3rd row: “Sleigh Ride” by BK and “Sweet Nothings” by JBW Designs

Bottom row: “Think Snow” by The Sweetheart Tree and “The Holly Berry Sampler” by Bent Creek

“Barnyard” I’m going to stitch for a barn person. I can personalize the horse to look like her own. I think I want to do “Sweet Nothings” for my barn owner, or maybe one of the squares from “Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow”. She gave me that chart a couple of years ago. I think I want to start that next as my BAP, when I get Garden Grew done.

Procrastinators ‘R Us…

You do remember that I’m a charter member of Procrastinators Anonymous? I waited until 3:00 this afternoon (Sunday) to start putting up my Christmas lights. Of course, in the manner of ALL house-fix-it projects around here, to put up the lights requires that I MUST clean the gutters first. No fun until the work is done. Thank you Frank McMorrow.

I was done by 5:15-ish, which is actually kind of quick for me. While cleaning out the back gutter, I moved my over-turned wheelbarrow (which has a flat tire- which is why it hasn’t been moved in a year), and discovered the camouflage for a rodent motel! Under the wheelbarrow, little critters of the furry variety have been amassing a big pile of dirt, enough to fill the wheelbarrow. Mixed in this was the old blue tarp I had set the barrow on, so that it wouldn’t blow away. I hastily shoveled all that away. Luckily, I didn’t have to look at any of the furry things.

On a down note, though, I noticed a couple of my dormer corner boards are really rotted- that the trim paint from the last paint job didn’t hold up well at all.

Here’s a photo of my efforts:

The string that runs above the door is a brand new set, so the curl has to straighten out on that part.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Despite all signs to the contrary, my feast was prepared at about the time I had planned. I made a significant strategic error by baking my chocolate cake this morning- as I was about to put it in the oven, I realized that its baking time would conflict with putting the turkey in. I crossed my fingers and hope my bird would roast fast this year. You know how sometimes it just cooks faster (or slower) that expected?

After I put the cake in, I decided to use my 32 minutes by running down for a coffee & paper, gas up the car, and stop at Walgreens for tissues & trash bags, and ended up back home 7-1/2 minutes late. And don’t you know one of the instructions was “Don’t over bake!” Crossed my fingers again, and lo and behold: it was delicious.   Very tall and fudgy. I gave 2 hefty slices to Bob & his son in their care packages.

And my turkey came out yummy as well. I left the legs loose, and it came out a bit obscene, though it’s a bit hard to tell from the angle of the photo:  

Remains of the day:

Now I’m stuffed!

I’m a Happy Girl!

That Cabernet on the right? That’s the BIG bottle! They didn’t have the smaller size. So I guess I’ll just have to drink more! Poor me!

And seriously, I am totally finding all other kinds of things to do rather than pre-cook vegetables (squash, carrots & parsnips) and bake a chocolate cake. And I’m not too concerned about it either. I even bought rolls from the bakery at the supermarket instead of making my own. I think I’m having some kind of delusional PMS/pre-menopausal episode.