We made it! It was a long day of driving, as we didn't get on the road until 10:30 am which was much later than we had hoped. It turned out to be harder than we thought to put the car carrier atop the Pathfinder and load it up when we had only shoveled the driveway to the exact width of the car's body. Ooops. Perhaps we should have been a bit more industrious and shoveled the whole thing.

Anyway, the roads were pretty icy so it was probably best that we left earlier than later. Maren exceeded all our expectations for behavior, which were admittedly low. You try being a wiggly 21-month-old strapped into a carseat for 10 straight hours! Really, she did remarkably well and that made the trip SO very much easier and more pleasant. We hit bad weather in Wyoming and for some unknown reason traffic slowed to about 5 mph, which we maintained for about 20 miles, no kidding. Lost a lot of time in that little snafu, and we finally made it here at 9:00 pm. Glad to be home! I may post on and off while I'm on vacation this week, no promises, but here's something fun to get you in the mood. Big thanks to Jen over at The Simple Things for explaining to me how to insert a YouTube video in my post...I never would have figured it out on my own!

Digging out

Thank you all for your good wishes and thoughts! We are so thankful to have a warm house and plenty of food and diapers and all the other necessities. Other than the inconvenience of having our vacation delayed, we're fine and we're safe, which is the most important thing.

When I woke up this morning I could hear that the howling wind had finally quit, so I though perhaps a miracle had occurred and the storm was over--no such luck! It was still snowing hard, although yesterday's winds had calmed down so the snow came down vertically, not horizontally! It finally quit snowing about an hour ago (2 pm MST) and I can see that the clouds have really lifted. There are even clear skies showing around the edges of the horizon. The weather guys are predicting that the clouds will break tonight but unfortunately that means it will get really cold and all that snow that's on the roads will turn to ice. We are going to try hard to get an early start in the morning so we'll have to see how that goes.

This morning while it was still snowing we put Maren down for a nap and went out to tackle the snowdrifts. All the other neighbors were out at the same time so it was kind of fun! The neighborhood kids are just about delirious with excitement--school's out, Christmas is only 4 days away and there's 3 feet of snow on the ground--could it get any better than this? There are enormous snowdrifts all over that are just perfect for being made into snow caves and sledding hills and the like. I think maybe we'll get bundled up and take Maren out to play for a while.

I've posted some photos that I've taken around the house today to give you all an idea of what kind of snow we're dealing with. Yes, this is Colorado and we're supposed to be used to dealing with snow, but storms like this are definitely the exception and not the rule! Three feet of snow and sustained 30 mph winds will bring any city down, I don't care how used to snow you are! The top photo is the view of up my front walk this morning, and the next photo is the same snowdrift from the inside looking out. The drift at the front door was almost as tall as me! I stuck my yardstick in so you could see how tall it is.

The next photo makes me laugh! It's what the driveway looked like when we opened the garage door this morning. The flat area is the part that was blown up against the door. You can kind of see my yardstick poking out of the middle of the drift. That's how much snow we had to shovel off the driveway today! Quin did most of it; I did the front door and part of the driveway. And last is a closeup of the yardstick so you can see exactly how much snow there was. I guess it was closer to 2 1/2 feet than 3, but it really depends on where you were because of the drifts. I still don't know how much snow we truly got because I can't find a place that wasn't affected by the wind to be a true representation. All I know is that there is A LOT.

Anyway, I'm off to fold the last of the laundry and drag my suitcase up from the basement so I can start packing. Maybe I'll take Maren out for a spin on her sled first. :)

Snowed in

The weather folks have been warning us about this storm for several days now, but I think even they were caught off guard by what has hit today! Denver is SNOWED IN. And I mean that in every possible way--the airport is closed (and not projected to reopen until late tomorrow), I-25 is closed from the Wyoming border to the New Mexico state line, I-70 is closed from Denver to the Kansas border (probably 200 miles) and numerous other roads throughout the state have been shut down all through the day. The Denver Nuggets basketball game that was supposed to be televised was canceled, the US Postal Service pulled the plug at about 2:00 pm, most local malls were closed by 1:00 pm and the few schools that were still in session were closed as well.

The governor has officially declared a Disaster Emergency, which means the National Guard will be mobilized to go pull stranded motorists from their cars. The road that leads from Denver to Boulder was closed off and on today. Currently there are cars stuck on that road where the people have been at a standstill for 4-5 hours. At one point when I-25 was still open, truckers were being required to put on their chains just to drive through town!

I heard a reporter broadcasting from the airport saying that she spoke to some people there who were stuck ON AN AIRPLANE for 8 HOURS. They are from the same suburb as me, so they'd arrived at the airport at 5:30 am for their 7:30 flight. The plane pushed back from the gate and then got stuck in the snow, a mere 100 yards from the gate! Those poor people were stuck on that airplane for all that time, only to be let back into an airport that is closed until who knows when. What a nightmare! No one can even get to the airport to pick up stranded travelers because the only road to and from the airport is closed. The last time the airport was closed like this, all of the restaurants ran out of food. It was not a pretty sight.

Me? Well, I had hoped to run a few errands sometime today but those quickly got canceled. Quin had the day off already and he left early this morning to go on base to PT and get the oil changed on the car. He was back by about 11 am, before things got too hairy. My plans today were to get us packed and ready to go because we had planned to leave tomorrow morning to drive the 9 hours to Salt Lake City to spend a week with our families. However, this storm is supposed to continue throughout the night up until about noon so it's very possible that we will have to move our driving day to Friday while we dig out tomorrow. We can't go anywhere until I-25 is opened anyway, and there's a good 2 feet of drifted snow in our driveway, with more being added by the minute. Just getting out of our neighborhood will be a feat.

Today I've been doing laundry and wrapping presents, interspersed with lots of looking out the windows and checking the growing snowdrift outside the front door. I'm thankful we have plenty of food and a warm house to stay in on this cold, blustery day which will only turn into a colder night. I feel so bad for those poor people stuck in the airport! Our plans may be delayed, but at least we have a warm, cozy house (and way too many holiday goodies) to enjoy! Let it Snow!

Mmm, cupcakes...

Isn't this guy cute? I saved the picture from last year but I can't remember where it was from--maybe the Kraft or the M&M website? Anyway, I love how they've used the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and a broken piece of pretzel to make the little ornament hanger. Clever! And any time you get to use Reese's cups is more than welcome by me.

We're going on a field trip today. First stop is Hammond's Candy Factory, to take the factory tour and check out the shop. I've wanted to go there ever since we moved here. We actually went last Saturday but it was a zoo (they were having a Candy Cane Festival) so we left without going on the tour. Hopefully it will be better today. After that, we're continuing north and crossing the border to the People's Republic of Boulder. Everybody have their passports? Honestly, it's weird up there, but there's a store Quin wants to visit so we're braving the crazies. I'm hoping to duck into the cute little store where I bought my Wendy Addison "Winter Dreams" garland last spring. Hoping maybe they have some new glittery goodies to add to my collection!

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Christmas meme

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

Santa doesn't wrap presents. They are usually on the sofas in the living room.

Colored lights on tree/house or white?

We currently have white on the house but I like colored too. I think I like colored best on 'everything' trees and white on themed trees.

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

Monkey bread for Christmas breakfast.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

We were allowed to open one small gift. I think with my kids I'm going to do special pajamas that they can open on Christmas Eve.

How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?

I have a vintage aluminum tree and it's decorated with vintage glass balls in turquoise & pink. I have a small green tree that I put our miscellaneous ornaments on but it's not out this year because it's just the right height for Maren to destroy it.

Snow! Love it or Dread it?

Love it, as long as it's not before Halloween!

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?

Anything chocolate! I love cookies and candy.
What is your favorite Christmas Song?
It varies from year to year. Right now I love "Snow" by Loreena McKennitt

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?

Eh. I like candy cane ice cream though (especially when it's atop a brownie!). Or those Cherry flavored candy canes.

Favorite Christmas Tradition growing up:

Christmas morning breakfast

Least Favorite Christmas Tradition Growing Up:

Christmas tree shopping. Yuck. We went artificial a while ago and I've never been sorry!

Breakfast or Presents First?

Stockings and Santa gifts. Then breakfast and after that I think we open the wrapped gifts from family.

Cloche Encounters

Thanks for the comments about the button tree, everyone! Sarah, I agree with you that it is seriously lacking in bling...that is actually one of the things I thought about when I tried to figure out the problem. I thought I had a lot more sparkly stuff in my stash but it was all in the wrong colors and I didn't feel like buying anything more, so I just went ahead without it. I do think that it would make a big difference, so I'm going to keep my eyes open while thrifting throughout the year and I can add to the tree as I find stuff. Have you ever seen those Christmas trees made out of old costume jewelry? They border on the tacky, but I'd love to find one! And VaxGirl and Jennifer--you are probably right in that I've just looked at the darn thing too long! Maybe once I get some distance I'll be more objective. And Peta--oh yeah, it took forever! :)

For today's show-and-tell, I must tell you that I giggled when I read Sarah's post from yesterday. Apparently we were having some sort of Vulcan Mind Meld about cloches, because I had just finished photographing mine when I saw hers. I love how Sarah's turned out, with the darling little pink house that her husband (!) made for her and the trees and the little felt base! So sweet.

The is the precious cloche & plate that I thrifted last week for an amazing $8.99. The bottle brush trees were colored using Sarah's bleaching and dyeing technique, and the little house is from Target. The snow is from Dept. 56 and is recently thrifted as well.

The trees: I bought a big package at Michael's for $8.99 (on sale, reg. price $14.99). There was a pretty good assortment of sizes. They were dark green to begin with and were flecked with white fake snow but that dissolved when I did the initial bleach & hot water treatment. Mine took a while to bleach out completely and required a water change because when I put them in initially the water immediately turned brown and the dissolved snow made quite a layer of gunk in the bottom of the sink. I think I could have actually left the big white one in a little longer because I notice it still has dark tips around the bottom half! For dye, I used Rit in Rose Pink and Teal. Love the pink but I was hoping the teal would be a little more blue; it turned out very green. Ah well, I still like it and I have to say that I was tickled with the results. Thanks for sharing, Sarah! I can't wait to make more.

I mentioned that the little house is from Target this year. It's actually a Christmas tree ornament from the range that's sort of vintage-looking and pale blue and red. I had planned on making my own little house, as I have the December 2000 Martha Stewart Living with the patterns for her glitter houses. When I saw this one, those plans went out the window. For $4.99 it was worth saving my time and sanity. It's cute--red doors, little white bottle brush trees, pale blue roof, glittery snow. It even plays music! Couldn't have done it much better myself.

And with that, I believe my Holiday crafting is DONE. I bought a couple of neat wool sweaters at the thrift in hopes of making stockings like these and these, but I don't think that's going to happen this year unless I give up sleeping all together. I still have to do Christmas cards, Christmas goodies, and round up a few more gifts and I have exactly one more week to do it, as we're leaving on Thursday the 21st. Maren is sleeping so I've got a few hours to hurry and cut paper. Gotta go!

O Button Tree, O Button Tree

You may have noticed in yesterday's post that there was a picture of my button tree. The idea for this came primarily from Sarah's tree, but I saw one posted later here. I like Sarah's best, though! I bought the supplies way back when Sarah posted her instructions, but finally finished the darn thing yesterday.
I used a 4" x 9" styrofoam cone for my tree. I didn't have any pink fabric so I bought a fat quarter from JoAnn's for $1.49 and just pinned it on like Sarah suggested. I also did a base layer of white buttons held on with straight pins, and I had to use a bead on almost all of those because the holes on the buttons were larger than the pin heads. Then I started the top layers.

I loved Sarah's pastel color scheme and I had already been kicking around the idea of a pink & turquoise Christmas decorating theme so that made my color choice easy. I thought I had plenty of buttons in those colors, but I was wrong! I had to go to JoAnn's and buy a couple of bags of buttons. The large bags of pink were the very bold hot pink rather than pale pink, and I wasn't able to find any turquoise so I had to settle for a very pale aqua, and I don't love how that turned out. I think it would have looked better overall if the blue had been bolder, or the pinks softer. I used hot pink & turquoise pearl-headed pins and some larger white pearl-headed corsage pins as well. I also found a bag of really pretty turquoise fake pearls at Wal-Mart so I used those instead of the white pearls I bought at JoAnn's. I also had some bright pink faceted iridescent beads in my stash that I used but I'm not sure how well I really like them. Plastic faceted beads have a tendency to look too "crazy church bazaar craft" to me, so I'm not sure how I feel about them on my tree.

I filled the tree as full as I could--there is literally no place left to stick a pin! For my topper I used a snowflake-shaped pin from JoAnn's that is set with little turquoise gems. I secured it with a couple of the corsage pins through the pin bar. The skirt is this cool ruffled trim that Lisa-Gabrielle sent me in the craft swap. It's perfect for this! I pinned it into the bottom of the tree with a few more straight pins. The base for my tree is a very cool Haeger pottery planter that I thrifted for just $.50! At the dollar store I found this handy little piece of floral foam that's shaped to go in a pot with a tapered bottom and flat top, so that's sitting in the planter and the tree is sitting atop it. Looking at the photos it looks like it needs to be raised up about a half an inch because the ruffled trim is getting squished!

So that's my button tree. I have to admit that I'm not sure how I feel about how it came out. There's something about it that's just a bit off that's keeping me from really loving it, but I'm not entirely sure what the problem is! Maybe I need to use some white buttons on the top layer, or maybe I need to ditch the pink faceted beads, or find some bolder turquoise buttons so they balance the bright pink better. Not sure, but the good thing is that I didn't use any glue so I can just pull the pins out and rearrange all I want! I do think a red and green tree would be charming, or even an all-white one with lots of different shaped buttons. Those will have to wait until another year however, as this year I am DONE with the buttons! No more!

Christmas decor

I think the decorating is finally done. Whew! I took it easy this year and didn't get out all of my Christmas decorations. In my house growing up, we always had an 'everything' tree and all kinds of decorations; nothing color-coordinated or themed. I love that and that's how I've decorated my house for the last 4 years, but this year I decided to try something different. I already had pink and turquoise vintage glass balls for my aluminum tree, so I used that as my jumping off point. The only problem is that I don't have enough stuff those colors to decorate my whole house, so the theme doesn't exist past my front room; the kitchen and family room still have red & green decorations (so I can use Rebecca's gorgeous tablecloth!).

The pink & turquoise looks a little incongruous in my front room that has 20-ft. tall scarlet walls. I actually considered doing turquoise & red instead of pink, as I actually prefer that color combination, but I'd already started that darn button tree in pink so I felt like I was stuck! Turquoise and red wouldn't have clashed so bad with the red walls but oh well! Too late now.

Here is the top of my china cabinet. I have a tall white feather tree that I bought on clearance at Tuesday Morning a couple years ago, a crazy vintage homemade centerpiece in the middle, the button tree I just finished today and a pink tinsel tree from Target. The tinsel at the base is actually the prettiest platinum color and was from one of the Martha Stewart lines at Kmart a couple years ago. I love it!

In the last photo you can see my glass glitter "Winter Dreams" garland. It's by Wendy Addison and I just love how the glitter sparkles when the afternoon sun hits it! You can kind of see the contents of the china cabinet if you look close. It's tricky to photograph because the back is mirrored so there are always funky reflections. I have various glass and silver bowls and vessels (most thrifted) filled with more vintage balls in pink, turquoise and silver. I love how it turned out! I'm already thinking ahead to next year. While I adore turquoise and pink and turquoise and red, I think I'm going to do either bright primary colors or traditional red and green. It fits better with the rest of my decor. The pink has been fun, though!

The Goblet of Fire has spoken

Well, a winner has been drawn--actually TWO winners! When I got to looking at all my stuff, I realized that I have enough for two boxes! I had Quin do the drawing, so you may all visit him on his Guardian Gear blog (link over to the right) and blame him if you didn't get chosen. :)

I wrote the names of everyone who commented (even the latecomers, Shonda and Lisa--how could I deny the person who put up with living with me for several years or the Sender of The Squirrel Dress?) on little slips of paper, folded them equally and put them in a bowl for Quin to choose from. He referred to it as "The Goblet of Fire". Funny guy. :)

So, the two lucky ladies are.......Heidi and Sarah! If you will please email me at fraulein_h at hotmail dot com with your addresses I will get your packages in the mail post haste!

This was such fun that I will definitely be doing random package sending more often. I need more reasons to justify all the stuff I've been thrifting! Dana and Dawn, I'm so glad you de-lurked yourselves--welcome! And everyone else--thanks for reading my ramblings. It made me feel good to read your comments! Have a lovely night--I've got boxes to pack!

A Box for me and a Box for Thee

This week I received the most delightful package in the mail from Miss Rebecca. It was completely unexpected and absolutely wonderful! I am now the lucky owner of the most gorgeous vintage Vera Christmas tablecloth! It's linen and it's in amazing condition. I absolutely gasped when I pulled it out of the box--it's that great! I can't wait to get my table cleaned off so I can put this beauty to work. Rebecca also sent me one of her darling handmade felt ornaments, a crazy cool glittered Santa, and the neatest little ring made with vintage buttons! Here I am modeling it for the camera. :) It is awesome--in addition to being crafty, Rebecca is apparently psychic as well, as I've been stalking these for months, and now I have one of my very own! I'm absolutely thrilled. Thank you, Rebecca!!!

In the spirit of giving, I have a little box of mostly vintage but some new also Christmas goodies that I would love to share with someone! If you are interested, leave a comment (now would be a great time to de-lurk yourself!) and I will pick a person at random to send the box to. Let's say by tomorrow at noon, MST? Cheers!

Thrift scores, Monday

I promised yesterday that I would have some thrifty goodness (if I may borrow a term from the lovely Rebecca) to share today, and I'm keeping my word!

Ornate old heavy frame, $2.99. Don't have a use in mind for this right now but I know an idea will come. It's pretty! You can also see a vintage Christmas tablecloth ($2.99) peeking through from behind the frame. Box of vintage bell ornaments, $.89. Love when I can find them still in the box! Box of vintage turquoise ornaments, $1.39. I'm going with a turquoise/pink decorating scheme this year and although I already have a ton of ornaments in those colors, for some reason I felt the need to buy more. The two little round things ($.29) are old and have Santa on the front and are marked Hallmark on the back, but I have no idea what they are! They came in a box with a bunch of other things that I can't identify. They'll be good for an art project of some kind.

This was a big score for me! Hard to tell from the photo, but all of the garlands are the old glass bead variety that are hard to find. This is actually the first time I've come across any in all my thrifting. They were in a big bag with a bunch of other plastic beaded garlands ($3.99 for all) so I had to look close but I'm glad I did! There are a few broken beads here and there that I might just try to remove completely so I don't slice myself but mostly they're in great condition! There are 2 strands of the turquoise, 1 of the blue, 1 of the silver and 2 of the silver with colored balls. The glass ball ornaments are all vintage Shiny Brites that I picked out of a larger bag.

And last, my best find of the day! It's a huge glass garden cloche and a plate that it sits on, $8.99. The plate feels like it is made out of slate and it's very heavy. The cloche itself is huge (16" tall and quite wide) and it's in perfect shape. I've been wanting a cloche for a long time now but knew that the shipping would be killer because they're huge, heavy and fragile. I couldn't believe it when I saw it on the shelf! I'm not sure where I'll put it--it's so big that I really don't have an ideal place. I'm definitely thinking that I need to make some of Sarah's bottlebrush trees to go inside with some glittery fake snow and I don't know what else. I'm so excited to make an arrangement!

Today I stopped by the thrift store on base on my way to the commissary. It's tiny, but the prices are usually super cheap. Today I grabbed a 2001 December MSL mag for a dime and 2 Muppet Show DVDs for $3.00. Not bad! They do consignments so one of these times I'm going to find out how it works and I think that might be a good source for some of my eBay rejects. They'd just end up going back to the thrift anyway, so if I can get even a few bucks out of them (to turn right back around and spend in the store!) it would be nice. One of these days!

Beach Baby

Photo taken last week in San Diego, just down the beach from the Hotel del Coronado. This was Maren's first trip to the beach and it was COLD but she loved it! The sunset that evening was gorgeous and we enjoyed walking down the beach to see the hotel's lights. Maren ran the entire way there and back even though her little jeans were stiff with the cold salt water and sand! I think she'll be a beach baby for sure!

I had a zillion things on my To Do list for today and I did about 3 of them. Instead, I went thrifting! I haven't been in a couple of weeks and seeing everyone's cute thrifted Christmas decorations gave me the itch something fierce! Quin took Maren with him to run errands so I was able to spend as long as I wanted and it was wonderful. I found some neat things and hopefully I can post some photos tomorrow.

Ribbon wreath

...And I'm back again! Whew. November was such a busy month for me with my trips to NYC and San Diego, the preparations for said trips and ensuing exhaustion, and my family's visit for Thanksgiving. All really fun stuff, but I'm ready to get things back to normal for a few weeks at least, until we leave to spend a week with our families for Christmas. Gotta enjoy the normal while it lasts, I guess!

I was able to read blogs while I was gone but commenting was a pain because I was on DH's laptop with no mouse. I hate those darn touchpad things, and I hate typing on laptop keyboards because the keys are so close together that I make lots of mistakes. So I will try to catch up on leaving comments, as I saw some wonderful stuff out there! You all are some clever folks.

I do know from my blog reading last week that I am way behind the power curve in Christmas decorating! There wasn't time the week of Thanksgiving and then we were gone for 5 solid days. I still have some cleaning up around here to do before I can drag the boxes up from the basement but I hope to get things done by the end of the week. I think I might take a different approach this year and not get out every Christmas decoration I own. I don't have tons and tons but I do have a fair amount of stuff and I just don't feel like getting it all out. Then next year it will feel like I have all new stuff because I haven't seen it for 2 years, right?

I still have my Thanksgiving decorations up and will hopefully get it put away tonight or tomorrow, but I wanted to share one last picture of something I made. In my Ribbonrie book there is an image on the last page of a wreath done using the same technique as the ribbon topiaries, but there aren't any instructions specific to the wreath. I had lots of leftover ribbon when I made the ribbon garland for Shanna's Thanksgiving swap and I didn't want to make another topiary, so I tried the wreath instead. I used the same technique and the same length for the ribbon, only I used a styrofoam wreath form for the base, the kind that is white and flat on the back. It was pretty easy but there was one slight difficulty. The wreath form was quite thin so I had to be careful about the way I angled the pins when I got close to the edges, otherwise they poked right through the styrofoam! Youch! Found that out the hard way, I'm afraid.

Apologies for the rotten flash in the photo, but I hung it on the back of the front door (didn't want it outside exposed to the elements) and that is a place that never gets much natural light. You get the idea, though.

I'm glad to be back and I feel like I have lots to blog about. So much in fact that being the Type-A crazy list-maker that I am, I've made myself a list of topics because there was so much I wanted to remember! Yeah, I'm a dork.

Gobbler, gobbled.

I fell off the blogging horse again! I think I'll blame it on a tryptophan induced stupor that prevented me from posting for a few days. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! My parents and my two brothers drove over from Salt Lake City to spend the weekend here. This was the first time I've ever hosted a holiday at my home and it was such fun. They drove in on Wednesday, we did the big dinner on Thursday, hung out on Friday and then they left yesterday morning. A quick visit, but we had a wonderful time!

Here are a few photos of Maren taken right before the big dinner on Thursday. The first isn't a great photo technically, but I love it because you can see my brothers and husband on the couch watching football, the beautiful sunset as we sat down to eat, the only shot of my table (duh! how did I forget to take a better picture of that?) featuring the tablecloth sent to me by Lisa-Gabrielle, and Miss Maren performing the time-honored Thanksgiving ritual of eating black olives off her fingers!
Maren had an adorable dress for Thanksgiving, also courtesy of the lovely Lisa-Gabrielle. You can see it better in the second photo. It's smocked with the most darling little squirrel and fall leaves and acorns around the collar. Seriously the cutest thing ever, and unless she goes through a sudden growth spurt I think she'll be able to wear it once more next year. Thank you again, Lisa-Gabrielle!

Tomorrow morning we leave for San Diego for the week. Quin has to go for a work conference so Maren and I are tagging along. He'll likely be in meetings during the day Tuesday-Thursday but there is a trolley stop near to the hotel so I'll just strap Maren in the stroller and we'll go exploring! I need to do some serious walking to work off the ridiculous amount of Chocolate Trifle I've eaten this weekend. We're also hoping to take Maren to the San Diego Zoo, and Sea World has a deal that lets military families in for free so we're hoping to take advantage of that as well! Quin will have his work computer so I may be able to blog from the road! Gotta get back in the habit.

A Thanksgiving turkey, all right

So the turkey I'm referring to in my title? That would be ME. Ugh. Let me explain:

Back in October I signed up on Pink Trees to participate in a Thanksgiving decoration swap round robin. I made and sent off my package to Shanna (the ribbon garland). The blogger sending to me, Heather at Scarlet Tanager, posted back in the first week of November that she was sending my package. So here it has been weeks and no package and I have been getting a little worried that maybe it got lost in the mail.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon. On most days, my front room looks like Shipping & Receiving in a small warehouse. DH has a small side business and is constantly getting packages, and my eBay crapola is usually piled up as well. I've actually had people come into my house for the first time and ask if we just moved in! I'm not proud of this fact, but it's just where things first land and tend to stay. However, we have family coming to visit this weekend so in an attempt to clean up the disaster and make it look more like a front room than a mail room, I cleaned up the boxes. That's when I found one in the way back addressed to me!

I knew immediately it was my swap, and felt just terrible because I had no idea how long it had been sitting there--it was in the back with the address facing the wall and I just assumed it was one of DH's boxes. By checking the Delivery Confirmation, I found that it was delivered on the morning of the 9th--the day I left for NYC. I'm fairly certain that I asked DH when I got home on the 13th if anything had come for me (since I was expecting my swap package) and he said no. So I'm including HIM in the Turkey category, too!

Once I opened up my package and saw what Heather had made for me, I felt even worse! She made the most darling pillow with a fat wool felt gobbler appliqued on the front. He is just adorable! He adds a lot of life to my otherwise boring neutral couch. She also made the cutest little tissue holder (which I've turned around in the photo so you can see the precious fabric better) and a really cute banner using those big round letters that I just adore! She included a sweet card as well with a wee quail on the front.

I've already apologized to Heather for my total idiocy and supremely bad swap manners, and I hope she'll forgive me! I really do love what she made for me and was just tickled to open the box. Moral of the story: keep the front room clean!

Gobble-cakes

Tore this out of something a while ago and it's stashed in my files should the occasion arise that I need Thanksgiving cupcakes. It looks like they used those wide, flat candy corns for the tail but I think regular ones would do just fine. Cute!

Back in the saddle

Boy, when you've slacked off on blogging it seems really hard to get back into the swing of things! I've been gone for a week and a half and suddenly I feel like I have nothing to say. Part of my absence was for vacation and part was just sheer laziness.

My mom and I spent 5 days in New York City as a fun "girls' weekend" and we had a blast! Neither of us had ever been there before and neither of us have husbands who'd be the least bit interested in going, so we decided to jet off and have a little adventure of our own. We talked about it for months, finally started planning and before we knew it we were getting off the airplane at La Guardia!

We did and saw as much as we could possibly pack into those few days. I was the trip planner and my sweet mom was game for anything. She let me drag her up and down that island and never complained! She's a fun traveling companion because she's usually up for about anything.

We saw three Broadway shows: "The Lion King," "The Drowsy Chaperone," and "Hairspray." Chaperone was definitely my favorite, although the others were definitely entertaining. It was my favorite because it was everything I would imagine a Broadway musical to be. It was hilarious, there was a tap dance number and even guys in vintage aprons. Perfection, I tell you.

We shopped, of course! My favorite places were Pearl River Mart in SoHo and Tinsel Trading Co. in the Garment District. The former is basically a department store filled with Asian imports. Neatest stuff! I bought Maren two pair of satin brocade slippers and a string of the prettiest little paper lanterns with peonies on them. The latter is a store that I've seen featured in Martha Stewart for years now and it did not disappoint! If you have the December issue of Home Companion, that's their stuff on the cover and there's a big spread inside. It was magical! I spent a bundle there and could have spent much more! Can't wait to decorate for Christmas with my goodies.

Anyway, there's much more but I need to go make my grocery list for tomorrow. I'm hosting Thanksgiving here at my house so I need to figure out what we need for the big dinner & the rest of the weekend. Hopefully the commissary won't be a total madhouse tomorrow; I'm going as early as I can in the week because I know things will just get worse as the big day nears. Tomorrow I'll share some of my recent thrift finds! It's good to be back!

Ribbon, Ribbon, everywhere

I participated in a Thanksgiving decoration swap over on Pink Trees and Shanna received my package on Monday! Here is what I sent to her--her photos are way better than the ones I took before I sent the package, so head over there to look! I made a ribbon garland that I found in the Making Memories Ribbonrie book--the same book that has the ribbon topiaries that I made earlier.

This garland is made by cutting a whole bunch of ribbon into 3.5"-4.5" lengths and sewing in on both sides of a longer piece of ribbon. It's super easy and comes together really quickly. Then I used those curtain rings with clips and tied them onto the ends of the garland and one in the middle, and made little painted mat boards with Thanksgiving-themed rub-on words and little jewels. I also found some chandelier crystals at a lighting store and just clipped them on in between the other stuff. I love how it turned out! I even made one for me and one for a gift for someone else. I also did a couple of hot pads, and I'll talk more about those in another post.

I am so pleased that Shanna liked my swap, and even more tickled that she took the garland idea and made this darling Christmas garland and a door hanger to match! So, so cute! I love the ribbons she used and the snowflake ornaments instead of the little plaques. And I LOVE the door hanger version she made! I have some ribbon leftover from the garlands and I was thinking of doing a wreath like the topiaries, but I may be changing my mind and doing this instead. LOVE IT!

And speaking of the topiaries, look what Lucy did! She made her own ribbon topiary, and it turned out beautifully! I love the different colors and textures she chose--gorgeous! She's right--those things do take a lot of ribbon, so watch for sales. Lucy has some simple instructions for the topiaries in her post, so be sure to take a look in case you missed them the first time around. Check out the super cute cornucopia centerpiece she did as well!

I'm just tickled pink that someone liked what I did well enough to do it themselves. Not that I can take credit for the original ideas--I got those from the book. But I love seeing the spin that both Shanna and Lucy put on their projects. Beautiful work, ladies!

Sweet & Sticky

Well, it's all over for another year. As predicted, I'm completely sick of my Halloween decorations and am looking forward to packing them away. I have a few things for Thanksgiving so I'll get those out--better hurry, Thanksgiving is only 3 weeks away! Michael's has big feathered turkeys for sale and I'm trying to decide if I really need one.

The cold kept most of the trick-or-treaters home last night. I could swear it was warmer when I was a kid but perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me. We gave out most of our candy at Trunk or Treat and had enough left over for a few groups of kids at home, and that was it. Fine by me as I don't want that stuff hanging around anyway.

One of the things we gave out were Tootsie Roll Pops. Last night Maren got hold of one and immediately jammed it into her mouth. It must have been instinctive as she's never had a lollipop before. Normally I would have taken it away but in the spirit of consuming too much candy, I let her keep it. She got sucker everywhere--her coat, her hair, my pants--but she really enjoyed it and her sweet, sticky little face was worth it.

Happy Halloween!

Didn't get around to carving the pumpkins this year, so here are last year's designs:

That would be Napoleon Dynamite and The Cheat. I found the Napoleon Dynamite stencil online somewhere and used the little saws from one of those pumpking decorating kits you can buy. It turned out really neat!

My little brother did a really neat pumpkin this year, but I can't get the photo to load. It's Steve Irwin (the Croc Hunter) and it says "RIP STEVE" on the side. Pretty cool.

It's starting to get dark here and it's about 35 degrees out. I'm expecting our first trick-or-treater to ring the bell any time now. Our church is holding a Trunk or Treat so we'll head there in about 40 minutes and stay until we can't stand the cold any longer. Then it will be home, bed for Little Miss No-Nap-Today, and pop in the "Shaun of the Dead" DVD.

Have a SPOOKY night!

Retail therapy

This afternoon I was able to slip out of the house sans-bebe for a few hours so I headed to Old Navy. I've found that shopping for clothing with Maren in tow is an excellent way to work on giving myself an ulcer, so I try to do it by myself. I need a couple more pairs of pants for fall/winter and I can usually find something at ON that is cute and not too expensive. I probably tried on 10 pair of pants today and not one single pair fit me well enough to consider spending money on it. Man, that was depressing.

Instead, I bought a few clothes for Maren and 3 super-cute tees for myself. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the one to the left with the chandelier on the front! You can't tell from the photo but the white part is actually sort of pearly, like an oil slick (bad description but you get the picture). It's so pretty! There are 2 other chandelier styles and I'm half tempted to go back and get them both.

Old Navy has their Christmas wrap out and they had sheet wrapping paper and boxes in white with black chandeliers all over. I bought some of the wrapping paper, which I think is really only 3 sheets but I thought it might be good for some kind of art project--no way am I wasting that cool stuff on a gift where it'll just be ripped and crumpled! I even saw a pair of pajama pants with the chandelier pattern! So very cool. Reminds me very much of these, which I think are incredibly gorgeous and funky.

I also got this shirt which I love and another one with gold foil designs that I couldn't find pictured on Old Navy's website. That one is brown. It's funny, up until just about 3 years ago I HATED the color brown and refused to buy anything brown other than shoes. The silly thing is that brown looks good on me because of my coloring, but still I thought it was yucky and only boring people wore brown. Then brown came IN again and suddenly, I love it! Now I have several brown tops and at least 3 of the pairs of pants I tried on today were brown. Funny how tastes change.

Conveniently located next door to Old Navy is a huge shoe store so I headed in and bought the cutest pair of round-toe ballet flats--in gold leather! Yikes. They really are adorable and they were on clearance--hooray! Do you think I could wear them with the white shirt, or is that too much gold going on? Fashion advice gratefully accepted.

Now I have shirts and shoes and nothing in between. A new Ann Taylor Loft is opening up on Wednesday so I'm hoping to sneak away when Quin gets home from work and do a little more shopping, for pants especially. Wish me luck!

Swap goodies

The snow has melted almost completely, though there are still a few sad little patches here and there. Today was sunny but quite windy, and that wind was cold! Tomorrow for Halloween our high is only supposed to be in the 40s, and by Trick-or-Treat time it will be down into the 30s. Brrr! I wish I'd checked the weather forecast before I bought candy. I'm afraid the cold will keep the kids away and I really, really don't want to be left with extra candy around this house. The lucky ones who brave the cold to ring my bell will be getting sweets by the handful, I believe.

I took the weekend off from blogging so I am a little late in posting that I received my craft swap from Lisa-Gabrielle over at Jungle Dream Pagoda. She sent me the most delightful box! It came on a day when I really needed a lift, and her box most definitely provided the boost my spirits needed. Lisa-Gabrielle included 4 absolutely adorable outfits for Maren. Let me tell you, her girls must be little fashion plates if what she sent is any example of their wardrobe! You can see the little outfits in the top row of the photo. My favorite was an adorable little smocked dress with a squirrel and fall leaves--Miss Maren will be wearing that one for Thanksgiving dinner! She also included the cutest little ponytail holders! Love the little deer!

Lisa-Gabrielle also sent me a fall tablecloth, which is just what I needed! I was actually thinking earlier that I have a Halloween tablecloth but no general 'autumn' cloth to use in September and November. Now I do, and somehow she even knew I have a rectangular table so it fits! Yay! Lisa-Gabrielle included a huge stack of vintage embroidered and appliqueed linens, so I am going to get up all my courage and actually CUT THEM UP (eek!) to use in other projects. First I think I'll just admire them for a while, though. :) She also sent a cute little Chinese pincushion and a huge pile of ribbons, thread, rickrack (my fave!), sequin appliques, buttons, and all manner of bits and bobs that I will squirrel away like the little raccoon that I am until I have the perfect projects for them. Lisa-Gabrielle sent such a wonderful package, and I am thrilled to have taken part in Rebecca's swap! Thanks for organizing it!

Speaking of Rebecca, I got a package from her on Friday! Two good mail days in a row! Rebecca sent me a fun package and included wonderful vintage linen tea towel, a table runner with leaves (this matches my bedroom, so I may use it there), a darling pillowcase which will be perfect for a pillowcase dress for Maren, a pretty pink linen hankie, wonderful buttons, cute ribbon with oranges and lemons, and a stack of really neat origami paper (how ever did you know that I like origami)! What a fun package it was to get, especially since it was "just because"! You're right, Rebecca--we definitely do have similar tastes! :) Thank you so much!

Winter white?

This is my front door as of about 2 hours ago. Hard to tell from the lack of depth, but those are 12"+ drifts up agains the side of the house. We are on the tail end of a blizzard, folks, with a National Weather Service Blizzard Warning and everything! The news folks have been warning us for 2 days now about this storm and they were right. The storm hit during the night and made the morning commute a disaster. I think the roads through the mountains are still closed, in fact. Lucky for me, my morning commute is from my bedroom to the kitchen! I would have liked to go to the grocery store today as we're out of bread and nearly out of milk, but even if I wanted to venture out onto the wet, slushy roads, the Air Force Base where the commissary is located is shut down due to weather. Okay, then, I'll just be staying here. Quin is hoping to fly in from Salt Lake City this evening but we'll have to keep an eye on the flights; many were cancelled or delayed this morning during the worst of the storm. For now, it has stopped snowing and blowing, leaving us with 7" of wet, heavy snow to deal with. Yuck.

Book report

I recently read a most fascinating book: Who Are You People? by Shari Caudron. I first read a review of this book in Entertainment Weekly and it piqued my interest enough that I put it on hold at the library. It was a fun read and the Sociology-major nerd in me found it fascinating. The premise is that the author felt that she lacked passion, so she went around the country spending time with different groups of people who exhibited a real passion for what they did, collected, etc. From pigeon racers to rabid Josh Groban fans to Barbie collectors to people who dress up in furry costumes and more, she explored each group and what it was that made people so drawn to it, and why they had such passion for these seemingly bizarre things. At one point she even visited a Social Psychology professor to talk about the psychological reasons behind all of this fanatical passion. It all comes down to belonging, to fitting in, to finding your place. The social psychologist, Anne, said:

“That sense of rapture you talk about? That’s related to connectedness, to meaning. It’s important for people to feel connected, to feel they’re not alone in life. Whether that sense of connectedness comes from God or spirituality or their ice-fishing buddies almost doesn’t matter. People can find meaning in a myriad of ways. What does matter is that they’re not alone, that they’re part of a tribe, and that they’re doing something that’s deeply satisfying.”

That quote very accurately describes how I (and I’d venture to guess, many of you) feel about blogs—for me, thrift blogs and craft blogs most of all. When I discovered the world of crafty blogs, and subsequently the world of thrift blogs, I was absolutely blown away to find so many people who could get excited about finding a great piece of vintage Pyrex or an old children’s book at a thrift store or yard sale. It’s been so much fun to find people who think the way I do, who like the things I like, who understand my desire to drag home other people’s junk—because don’t we all seek understanding and acceptance?

I don’t have many friends in real life. Oh, there are plenty of people that I’m friendly with, but no one who shares my interests; who I can call up to share my excitement and thrill when I’ve found something great or finished a really cute project. However, I know I can post on my blog and there will be people who will read it and see the pictures and get excited along with me and leave encouraging comments just like I do when I look at their blogs. This whole blogging thing (both reading others’ and writing my own) has been so very fulfilling for me in so many ways.

So anyway—check out this book! The author’s style is fun and easy to read. I got through it really quickly, partly because the whole theory just struck such a chord with me. Try it—you’ll like it!

Get shakin'

When I hit that dreamy yardsale last weekend I picked up this set of salt and pepper shakers for $3. It's hard to get a good photo of them, but the white tops where the holes are is made of mother of pearl and is very pretty! I thought perhaps the rings might be silver and attempted to polish them with no success, so they're some other type of metal.

We don't use salt & pepper shakers here--I prefer to keep my S & P in Pyrex refrigerator dishes on my counter for easy access when I'm cooking. However, I couldn't leave these little cuties behind and when I got home I remembered an idea I'd torn from a magazine long ago and tucked away in my files.(Apologies for the bad photo--the scanner's not hooked up--but you get the idea.) I believe this was a Better Homes & Gardens Christmas publication from a couple of years ago.

The instructions don't specify what gauge of wire to use but assume something around 20 or 22? It needs to be stiff enough to stand up straight but pliable enough to be made into loops and swirls. A few turns of the round-nose pliers and -voila!- you have a darling little vintage-y photo holder. I think it would be even cuter if you put rice or even German glass glitter in the body of the shaker to hide the wires. I think these would make cute little gifties.

I checked eBay this morning to see if I could find any other shakers with the mother of pearl discs and found a few at reasonable prices. Uh-oh, do I feel another collection coming on? Danger....

Victory!

The results of the pie contest are in...I took first place! Woohoo!! I know it wasn't the Pillsbury Bake-Off or anything more than a little church contest, but I was pretty darn excited. My other pie actually tied for 3rd place, to boot!

After all the rhubarb mess last week I ended up going with a couple of recipes from a book I've been reading about a woman who drove around America looking for pie. I only chose the recipes because I had all the ingredients to make them and didn't need to run to the store! The winning pie was Pumpkin Apple and the 3rd place pie was Lemon Pecan. Funny, because I don't like pumpkin, apple, or pecan pies! Actually the Lemon Pecan pie was pretty darn good, but I think it was because of the addition of the tart lemon. One of the guys from my church told me that night that it was the best pecan pie he'd ever had! There was only a small slice left of that pie to bring home. That's ironic because even though the Pumpkin Apple was the winner it must not have been popular with the crowd-- only half of it was eaten (and I threw the other half away! Told you I don't like pumpkin or apple pie).

This morning I made another pie. I know, I know--enough already! I had actually planned to make three pies on Saturday for the contest, since I had 3 crusts still in the fridge. The third was to be a chocolate pie from the same book as the others and called for a prebaked crust. Tragically, I forgot to dock the crust with a fork and when I prebaked it, it shrank terribly and pretty much collapsed in on itself. Whoopsie, especially since I had already mixed up the ingredients for the filling. I hated to let that go to waste so I just stuck it in the fridge. However, I was out of shortening and I don't shop on Sundays so I had to wait until today to get to the store. I ended up just buying pre-made dough and made up the filling this morning. I prebaked the crust and took it out of the oven so I could pour in the hot filling. I then took leave of my senses, apparently, and grabbed both handles of the pie plate with my bare hands, completely forgetting that the pan had just spent 15 minutes in a 450 degree oven. OUCH! I managed to get a couple of good blisters from that brilliant maneuver to add to the cardboard papercut I gave myself yesterday from the granola bar box. Sheesh.

After all that, I just had a piece of the pie and I am underwhelmed. I think it will be better when it is chilled but I was impatient and had to taste it NOW. I made a chocolate pie last Sunday that was also mediocre. I think that perhaps this tells me that when it comes down to it, I just prefer the run-of-the-mill Jello pudding pies in a graham cracker crust. How very unsophisticated of my palate, but at least I can say I know what I like!

Fike's Lemon Pecan Pie (from The Best of Ruby Jones cookbook, by way of American Pie)
1 unbaked pie shell
3 whole eggs (unbeaten)
1/3 cup melted margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup of pecan halves or pieces
1 tsp of lemon extract
juice of 1/2 lemon
a pinch of salt
*I added about 1 tsp. of lemon zest

Mix ingredients for the filling with a fork. Do not use an electric Mixer. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes.

Pumpkin-Apple Pie (fromthe December 1965 issue of Kitchen Klatter magazine, by way of American Pie)

Cider crust: (makes 2 crusts)
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shortening
1/4 cup cider
*I didn't use this recipe but it sounds interesting!

Filling:
4 large tart apples, peeled and sliced
2 Tbsp apple cider
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup mashed pumpkin (canned or fresh)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup light cream (I subbed evaporated milk)
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves

In a medium saucepan, combine apples with cider, sugar and salt. Cook 10 minutes over medium heat or until just tender. Allow to cool. Pour cooked, cooled apples into prepared pie shell. In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin, salt, cream and egg. Add sugar and spices. Stir to blend well, then pour over apples. Bake pie at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes. Serve at room temperature. **use a deep dish pie plate if you have one, as this makes a lot of filling.

Ribbon Topiary, version two

I made this topiary for my grandmother's birthday last week. Now that I'm sure she's received it, I can post the picture. I used a cute little green pot I got at JoAnn's on clearance and ribbons in shades of greens and pink. My Gram loves those colors and has decorated her house with them, so I'm confident she'll be able to find a place for the topiary.

The topiaries are fun and easy to make. For anyone who missed my first foray into ribbon topiary-making, I found the instructions in a book by Making Memories called Ribbonrie. You need a styrofoam ball, a dowel, straight pins, a pot and lots and lots of ribbon that you've cut into 4.5" lengths. Make the ribbon into loops of varying sizes and use the pins to secure them to the styrofoam ball. Cover the ball with ribbon, poke the dowel rod into a piece of floral foam in the pot, glue on a little moss and you have yourself a ribbon topiary!

We woke up this morning to about 3" of snow on the ground. Ugh. No yard sales for me! I think this just about puts the final nail in the coffin for the season--I'll be shocked if there are any sales next weekend. At 12:40 we have an appointment to get Maren's photos taken in her cute little Broncos cheerleader outfit. That's right during naptime, so her behavior could be iffy but I'm hoping to get her down for an early nap. That was the only appointment time they had left when I called a few days ago, so it will have to do.

The Fall Festival & accompanying pie contest are tonight, so I'll be making pies this afternoon. I think I'm going to have to scrap the rhubarb idea for the time being, but have found a few other recipes that sound promising: Lemon Pecan, Rosy Raspberry& Pear, and Pumpkin Apple. I have three crusts still in the fridge so I can make all three; the catch is that I won't be able to taste-test them before I take them tonight; wouldn't be very good form to show up with three pies, each missing a sliver!

Pie and pumpkins

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions and the sympathy about my poor little pies. The recipe did call for 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch but I guess it just wasn't enough to counteract all that liquid. My grandma (who gave me the rhubarb) said she makes her pies with frozen rhubarb and doesn't have that problem. She's sending me her recipe but alas, it won't be here in time for the contest. I do plan to try it however, because I'd like to get to the bottom of this mystery and I've still got plenty of rhubarb in the freezer. For the contest, I'm going to have to switch gears. I did buy a graham cracker crust at the store yesterday and I think I still have enough key lime juice left in the freezer to make a pie. We'll see; I'm waiting for ins-PIE-ration to strike!

And for a Friday afternoon--gratuitous cute baby pictures! These are from our trip to the pumpkin patch on Monday afternoon, before the weather turned and the snowflakes fell. Apparently it's been a terrible year for pumpkins here in Colorado--the drought really did a number on the crops so most of the pumpkins are still very green. We went to this same farm last year and I was astounded by all of the pumpkins in the fields. This year, I was astounded at how empty the fields were! We did manage to find a few good 'uns, and I got to take a few photos of Maren before the wind made us too cold.

Enjoy your weekends, everyone!

Howl-o-ween

If you need a good laugh (and who doesn't), check out this link to PetSmart's Halloween pet photo contest. It's a hoot!

Rhubarb pie update

I'm beginning to think the rhubarb thing isn't going to work out.
This is today's pie. When I took it out of the oven it looked nice and firm but when I cut into it (after it had cooled for a good hour) it is another soggy mess. Boo! You can see in the photo above the little puddle of liquid that filled in the place where I took out my slice. I couldn't even use my pie server--I had to use a spoon to scoop out the innards because they were so wet and gloppy. The bottom crust didn't get crisp but I suspected that might happen as the recipe didn't call for any pre-baking. I don't like soggy crust!

The flavor of the rhubarb was good, nice and tart, and was a good foil for the scoop of vanilla ice cream I topped it with. But no matter how good it tastes, I can't enter a pie like that in a contest! It looks terrible. I'm pretty sure now that the problem is the frozen rhubarb. The only other thing I can think to do is thaw it and then drain off the juice but I'm not sure that will even work. Perhaps 2006 will have to be the Year of Rhubarb Crisp, not Rhubarb pie. I knew there was a reason I've always preferred cream pies over fruit pies. Grrrr.

Autumn in Colorado

Well, I'd say that's about the end of the geraniums.

Pie in the Sky

I've just put a Rhubarb Custard pie in the oven, and I'm on tenterhooks to see how it will turn out.

Been making a whole lotta pies around here lately. On Saturday night we're going to a Fall Festival at church, and one of the activities is a pie contest. I tend to be a *wee* bit on the competitive side, so I'm trying out pies right now to see which one will be my official contest entry. I have lots of frozen rhubarb that I'd like to use up, so I thought I'd make a rhubarb pie of some sort. Rhubarb is unusual, and that could work for or against my chances--it could be a good thing because there likely won't be any other rhubarb pies, but a bad thing because not everyone likes rhubarb. I'm convinced I lost last year's contest because I made a Key Lime Pie. It was an awesome pie, but I think the judges didn't choose it because they didn't like Key Lime, not because it wasn't good. My 2 Key Lime Pies were completely eaten after the judging, unlike some of the other entries. I think the winner was some sort of cheesecake or some similarly pedestrian creation *sniff*.

So 2006 is the Year of Rhubarb. I started out the pie-making on Monday, when I did a Chocolate Cream Pie to get my fingers flexed, so to speak. I hope that pie wasn't a portent of things to come, because it was horrible! The chocolate filling wasn't so bad, but the crust was terrible. Easily the worst pie crust I have ever made. It was a recipe I know I've used before so I'm not sure where I went wrong, but it was BAD. So bad in fact that I threw the whole thing away. I'm not going to waste dessert calories on substandard pie.

Yesterday I made a new batch of piecrusts using another recipe and they turned out much better. I found that my pastry cutter was leaving the shortening and butter in too large of chunks (one of the fatal flaws in Sunday's piecrusts) so I used my bare hands and I think I got a much finer consistency. Last night's pie recipe was from the good old standby, the red and white gingham BH&G cookbook. It was the only rhubarb pie recipe in the book. I used frozen rhubarb that I thawed first, and I think that was a mistake because the center of my pie is completely watery. I think the eggs in the recipe set, but the extra liquid from the thawed rhubarb threw the whole thing off. I haven't even cut into it because it's just a boggy, soggy mess.

That's why I'm hoping this current pie will be better. I used frozen rhubarb again, but only slightly thawed--just enough to get the ice crystals off. I just checked it and the center is still loose, so we have a ways to go yet. If this isn't a winner, I'm going to look for a Strawberry Rhubarb pie recipe. Oh, and to prevent 'pie thighs' I'm sending all my rejects to Quin's office. Bless their hearts, the guys there will eat anything!

For my Sweetie :)

Walk alongside me, Daddy
and hold my little hand.
I have so many things to learn
that I don't yet understand.

Teach me things to keep me safe
from dangers every day.
Show me how to do my best
at home, at school, at play.

Every child needs a gentle hand
to guide them as they grow.
So walk alongside me, Daddy -
We have a long way to go.

-unknown-

Technical difficulties

Things look a little different around here, I know. I just had to choose a new template for my blog and I decided it was time for a little change. If you visited my blog anytime in the last 24 hours you might have found either lines and lines of code or a completely blank page! I have no idea what happened. Yesterday morning everything was fine. Then later in the day DH noticed that all that showed up was lines and lines of code! Weird, and while I was posting on a few message boards looking for help, the whole thing completely disappeared and was replaced by a blank screen.

I kept hoping maybe it was a Blogger problem that would work itself out, but this morning it was still blank and most of my template was missing. I went looking and found help on the Blogger site--apparently I'm not the only one that has ever happened to! To remedy the problem I just had to choose a new template and -poof!- everything was back! Blogger says that I must have somehow deleted important parts of my code (like, ALL of it) somehow, but I maintain that it was FINE yesterday morning, when all I was doing was using the link to Rebecca's blog. I touched nothing! I deleted nothing! But whatever. The good news is that I get a shiny new template. I've been liking the white ones lately--photos seem to stand out better.

My laziness served me well in this instance, because in choosing a new template you lose any customizations you've done--and I've been too lazy to do any! Hooray for sloth. Maybe now that I have all this white space I'll be motivated to finally read the instructions I have saved somewhere on how to make a customized banner up there at the top. I'll be sure to save a copy of my template if I do. Ironically, laziness my have saved my hiney, but industry will be rewarded with sorrow if I lose everything!

Introducing...

My husband! He's jumped into the blogging world with a blog for his business, Guardian Gear Equipment & Consulting. I've put a link over in my sidebar, if you get curious. Love you, sweetie!

Yard sale of my dreams, day 2

Saturday morning, I was ready to go shopping! I packed Maren in the car and we drove over to our favorite yard sale at about 9:00 a.m. The owner had told me the day before that he hoped to get lots out first thing in the morning, and I was late by yard sale terms but when I got there they were just pulling stuff out of the garage. There wasn't much that I hadn't seen the previous afternoon but I did get three old blue glass canning jars and a Krispy Kan for $1 each. One of the jars had a broken lid but they're hard to find for that price around here. I promised to return later in the day when they had more out.

From there, Maren and I drove over to a small scrapbooking expo where my friend Beth was teaching a class. Beth and I knew each other when we lived in Savannah; our husbands worked together but we actually found each other through a scrapbooking website! She and her DH left Savannah shortly before we did and they are now stationed in Alaska. I haven't seen her in more than 2 years and it was such fun to visit with her again! We weren't able to visit long because Maren had reached her limit for being strapped in (carseat, then stroller) so she was making her displeasure known in various naughty ways. We tried to take a photo with Maren but she would not cooperate. I bought a few things from one of the vendors and then we were on our way.

The place where the expo was held was just a few blocks from the Salvation Army store where I bought this stuff a couple of weeks ago. I am rarely in that area so even though Maren was being a stinker I stopped. I shopped quickly but found a few goodies: The large blue glass canning jar to the right was $1.50. It's missing its zinc lid but someone replaced it with a homemade lid that is cross-stitched with cherries. If I can't have the original lid, that's about as good a substitute as I could hope for! I also found a little frame for a dollar (not pictured) and a .25 gray teacup to match the aqua one I found before. Still don't know the maker, but it looks so familiar. (The red tin in this photo is the Krispy Kan from earlier in the morning).

We headed home, poor little Maren's head bobbing in the carseat as she struggled to stay awake. She took a long nap and I puttered around here for a while. Finally at 3:30 (she went down for her nap at just after 12:00) I got Maren up and we headed over to the yard sale one last time. The weather was turning a little ugly and I was hoping to shop more before he packed up for the day. There was lots more out than had been there in the morning, including jewelry and linens. I spent another $10 and got a whole bunch of stuff. This sterling silver and black enamel (I don't think its onyx) necklace and earring set was .75! It's cute and the necklace is the perfect length (short!). It's marked "Mexico" and I know it's not old but it is sterling, nice and heavy and I can wear it with a lot of things.

At $3.oo, this ring was the most expensive thing I bought. It is set with a rhinestone and I think it is some type of old plastic like Bakelite. Not sure and I'm out of 409 so I can't do the 409 test but it definitely looks old.


Love these little guys! They were $1.00 for the pair. They're little pins and are made of some kind of old plastic. The little loops make me wonder if there was a chain between them and perhaps this was some type of a sweater clip? I don't know, but they're charming! Love the little sailor hats.

This neat bracelet was .50. I know it has to do with either Brownie scouts or Girl Scouts, but I'm not sure which. It's in the shape of a trefoil and has "Be Prepared" stamped into it all over the front and the back in different languages! It's really pretty neat. I think this one's going on eBay.

And the last of it. I'm not sure how much the Scottie dog towel was--maybe .50? It's missing a few stitches so I'll keep it for my use, but the pattern that makes up the dog is really cute! The little Colorado tea cup and saucer were $1.00 and they will go up in my guest room that's decorated with vintage souvenirs. The necklace is made of yellow, orange and coral-colored glass beads and it's not as heavy as the big green one I bought last week! Don't know how much it was. And the salt and pepper shakers are really pretty, but you can't tell from the photo. The part of the lid with the holes is actually made of mother of pearl and they are really neat! I have plans for those that I will post about later.

So that's all of it. I spent $24 total at that sale and I think I got some great stuff!I know he's bringing out more today but I don't shop on Sundays so that's it for me, and I'll just have to try not to think about all the goodies that are over there! I do know that next time I see a garage sale sign pointing down his street, I'm going without a second thought! And I've got to get in on this auction thing--the stories he was telling me had me licking my chops! With yard sale season largely over, I've got to find another source for junk to get my fix!