Winter Weekend

I love snow! In my opinion it is one of the best things about winter. If the weather is going to be cold, it might as well be pretty and sparkly too! Snow transforms all the dull grays and browns into a winter wonderland, its magic. It started snowing here on Thursday evening, snowed through the night and stuck around for most of the weekend. Then it snowed again last night! I love waking up and seeing a fresh coating of snow everywhere, so untouched and quiet. I love being outside early, before all the boot prints and tire tracks muck things up, just a few cute kitty footprints around. I love not having to scrape your windshield - brushing snow off is so much easier! 

We had a lovely wintery weekend. Pete & Hannah came to visit from Seattle. We hung out, drank awesome coffee, visited a bookstore, I cleaned the house (which felt great!), had more friends over for dinner, drank lots of warm beverages, made a fire and kept the house toasty, baked some pecan pies, wore thick sweaters and I busted out my down slippers, read books, played quirkle and listened to oldies on Pandora. Such a nice, relaxing weekend!  (until the part where an uninsured drunk driver smashed into Pete's parked car, which then smashed into our car... just another chance to remember to turn to the Lord!)

Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend too!

Recently.

I finished working a five day stretch. The good news is I think they are finally going to change my schedule. Which means only two more long stretches and I can kiss working five twelves in a row good-bye! That is super exciting for me! 

Also I've been

... trying to squeeze in as much fall stuff as I can before winter gets here.

... drinking hot tea, hot coffee, and fresh apple cider from Greenbluff.

... to Walter's to pick out a pumpkin.

... taking walks in the park.

... watching all the poor kids running their cross country races accross the street at the park.

... putting Cholula Chili Lime on everything.

... to visit Joe at work and hung out in the shop.

... making lots of chocolate chip cookies for the college kids.

... dreaming about finishing some projects.

... hanging out my cat, he's been around more since it's getting cold outside.

... excited about my "Mister Malcolm" book that finally showed up!

Fall is here, I love this season! (Well, I love most seasons actually). The leaves haven't quite turned yet but they are well on their way. This year I'm ready to say good-bye to summer and embrace fall with all its cozy loveliness. I've spent my last few days off doing "fall" stuff. Hoping to go up to Greenbluff tomorrow. Yesterday, I went for a walk (and side note, ending finding a lovely green trunk at a garage sale). Anyways, this time of year is fun at the park, seeing all the squirrels scurrying around, finding acorns and what not.

Ever since I was little, my mom would take us on walks in the fall to look for bright leaves. We would take our favorites home and press them between wax paper. 

Today, my sis and cousin invited me over to make fall wreaths with them. It was so much fun. I had seen this fun fall wreath on Elise Blaha Cripe's blog earlier in the week, tutorial here. It got tucked into that "Wow, That's Cool, Maybe I'll Get Around To Making One Some Day" folder in the back of my brain. This was perfect timing, now I have my own hanging up by my front door instead. Some times you just need someone else to help kick start your crafty side into gear.

Here's mine all finished. (Of coarse I couldn't wait for decent lighting to take pics, so impatient.) I love how it's so not a typical wreath. Today brought back fun memories of making wreaths with my grandma when I was a kid, still remember my first hot glue gun burn.

This cornucopia has been at every Thanksgiving I can remember, after being moved, removed, box to bigger box to garage sale to my trunk, it had lost most of it's innards and was pretty pathetic looking. It deserved better than that, so when the new Hobby Lobby opened up, I got it some sprigs to spruce it up a bit. ... much better. Also busted out my favorite "Leaves" candle, smells perfectly of fall. And one of Gram's electric candles to finish it off. I still miss her so much. Thanksgiving this year is going to be hard...


And it wouldn't feel like fall with out a good piece of pie! Kicking off pie season with some pumpkin pies! There is something really therapeutic about making pie crust. Also made a batch of spiced cider to finish off the first weekend of fall! Off to enjoy the last glass!

These Days

It's been nice having some extra days off this week. Got a chance to catch up on some sleep and now actually getting some stuff done around the house, hanging out with friends, relaxing and enjoying the now nice weather that has finally decided to show up. This is going to be a little picture heavy... 

Starting inside...My curtain material turned into a body pillow cover.

Kitty being interested in everything, per usual.

Hemming the curtains finally, 2 down, 4 to go.

On the fridge :)

Sleepy kitty

Getting back on the chapter a day thing, figure I have til the end of summer to finish.

Moving outside...Alliums, such cool flowers!

Neighbor's yellow roses growing all over our fence.

Cilantro growing.

Dill plant, took the flowers off to see if it will grow better.

Mint doesn't even have a dent in it, after a good trimming/harvest. Hooked on the T shirt skirts, they are awesome!

Hostas leaves are gigantic!

So many buds on the hydrangea this year! Yay!

Window box with pink geraniums and bacopa starting to fill out.

Lovely pastry celebrating the start of summer!

Out and About ... Finally getting some SUNSHINE around here!!

Joe hitting some sweet jumps at Beacon Hill. I hiked in and took pictures :)

Perfect "northwest" smell here! Warm dirt and pine needles. Ummm... makes me smile.

Embrace Autumn

Well, it's back to work for five days tomorrow. So today I decided to enjoy fall by making some pumpkin pie. It makes the house smell so delicious! Now, I need to find someone to help me eat the rest...  Also hit up yoga class today, had dinner with Sarah and Nathan and cleaned up part of the house :)

*Two regular size pumpkin pies, plus a mini pie*

Also, doodled some pumpkins and a squirrel on the to-do list window today. On that note, anyone have suggestions for photographing glass without getting all the glare and reflections? 

Happy fall everyone!

Bridal Shower

Little late, but I thought I post a few pictures of my sister's bridal shower. While showers can be a little stressful, they're also a good excuse to do some creative projects and bake some goodies! My friend Amy and I came up with a bunch of fun ideas for the shower!


My mom, sister and I by the "Ice Tea Bar". Amy found the oversize mason jars at Wal-Marche, they were perfect for this! I picked up three bunches of flowers at Safeway, and my mom did all the flower arrangements. I just picked out different shaped bottles I had around and some vintage blue canning jars.


This is an idea for an easy game I came up with, I loosely based it off the game Apples to Apples if you've ever played that. Make up a couple of categories (and label containers as such). Have slips for the guests write their answer on. The bride reads all the entries and picks the one she likes best.

For the food, we had chips & hummus, and some veggies and dip - need some healthy food to balance out the sugar :) I threw together the "Menu" below with an old window I had in the garage (I think it was an original to our house). I wrote up the menu on craft paper and taped it to the back of the window.

Instead of cake, we decided to go with fruit desserts. Amy made apple crisps, I made peach kuchen and berry cobbler. The mixed berry cobbler is a recipe from Bon Appetite, found here. The peach kuchen recipe was handed down from my great grandmother. We also had madelines and pie-crust cookies. (To make pie crust cookies, just cut out pie crust dough with a cookie cutter, sprinkle with sugar and bake! They're really tasty over fresh fruit with ice cream!)

Lastly a group picture of all the girl's in the family!

Yummy Cookie Bars

Peach Melba Shortbread Bars adapted from recipe printed in Southern Living magazine. My father-in-law sent this recipe to me. They're pretty tasty! (I still need to make him a batch)

Makes: 1.5 to 2 dozen bars

Hands on time:  20 minutes

Total Time : 2 hr, 20 minutes

Ingredients: 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup cold butter

1 cup peach preserves

6 tsp raspberry preserves

1. Preheat over to 350 '. Combine 1st three ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until crumbly. Reserve 1 cup flour mixture.

2. Lightly grease an 11 x 7 inch pan. Press remaining flour mixture onto bottom of prepared pan.

3. Bake at 350' for 25 to 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

4. Spread peach preserves over crust in pan. Dollop raspberry preserves by 1/2 teaspoon fulls over peach preserves. Sprinkle reserved 1 cup flour mixture over preserves.

5. Bake at 350' for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool 1 hour on wire rack. Cut into bars. Garnish if desired with almonds or powdered sugar. 

October 11 - Mushrooms in our front yard, I came home from work for lunch that day and snapped this. The VA Cafeteria is closed on Holidays and Weekends. Does anyone pay attention to Columbus Day? I never remember...

October 12 - Mal's food bowl that I fill up before leaving for work. It reminds me of eating off of my Grandma's blue china, you don't get to see the picture until you eat your food!

October 13 - The Finished Sidewalk! No more worrying about twisted ankles, possible broken legs or concussions.

October 14 - The best Cherry Apple Cider from Hanson's at Greenbluff, love this stuff!

October 15 - Tiff and I made apple butter, it's a 24hr process - here's the after photo - all finished, canned and "gift wrapped".

October 16 - African Daisy in the flower box out front, the frost is starting to take most of the flowers.
October 17 - Kitty rolling on the kitchen floor. Despite his mischievousness, he is probably one of the best things that has happened to us so far in 2010.

October 18 - Amy came over to learn how to make pie crust, we made 2 apple pies and a pecan pie. Lattice crusts are difficult, I always cheat and just overlap the pieces.

October 19 - New Plants for out front, I don't remember all their names. I should start a little folder to write all that stuff down. The gal who helped us pick them out is the owner of Judy's on Northwest Blvd - she is super helpful! Yay for sales and clearance plants at the end of the season!

October 20 - Malcom watching House MD with us

October 21 - Country Living Magazine, I love getting things besides bills in the mail!