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!