I am so excited about the bra-making class I am taking after Christmas. There are a few spaces left if you live in the Bay Area and would like to join us.
Peace,
^_^
While waiting for my flight to return home, I got to bond with my aunt.
Here she and Cinderella work on a knitting project. Tinkerbell wasn’t far away.
Her dogs are awfully cute.
Carol is the quilter, as you can see by her footstool and the chest full of quilts in the background. She was reminding me what the knitting stitch SSK meant, because it had been a while since I picked up my knitting. I’m about to finish–gasp–my first sock. I’ve only been working on it since last December. Hopefully sock number 2 won’t take as long.
Peace,
^_^
Among other things, my mom was in charge of the flowers on the table at the wedding I recently attended. I’m a bit biased, but I thought they were lovely.
Obviously some of my craftiness comes from her. She cut out large squares of a sheer material and covered the vases. One rubber band around the neck of the vase held the material in, then they tucked in the excess to make it bubbly–super chic.
My parents were lovely too. I was trying very hard to avoid the maximum occupancy sign to the right of my mom’s head, and ended up taking this skewed shot. Fun times. Unfortunately no photos were taken at the wedding besides these. I guess I just got into the festivities and forgot to take photos.
Peace,
^_^
I never really thought about making shortbread until I was at a party where someone had made honey shortbread. The combination of sweet and salty blew my socks off. I improvised with the cooking utensils I have–lining a cookie sheet in tin foil instead of using a tart pan and everything worked out beautifully.
The quantity above is a double batch. I used this recipe from Fine Cooking. Easy peasy and tasty to boot.
Enjoy!
^_^
I managed to land in Houston at 11:45am on the day they recorded their earliest snowfall on record. Needless to say, the puddle jumper that was to take me to my next destination was cancelled. I got booked on the next flight out scheduled for nine hours later. Each airline staff member I spoke with was sure to mention the possibility of it being cancelled as well. Thankfully that flight went out, and I was able to make it in time for a family wedding. Ultimately, I was able to enjoy an extra 13 hours (a few more than the nine hours I was expecting) in the airport as well as a two and a half hour wait on the runway for the de-icing line. I would like to think I got to fully embrace airport living for a day. Here are some of my thoughts.
If you have time to sit down to eat at one of the food court style eateries, you have time to throw your trash away. Apparently few people agree with me.
Gate E9 has the best place to charge electronic devices.
Google is awesome for providing free Wifi for the holidays.
Pappasito’s is the place to go for Tex-Mex.
Pappadeaux’ has good food too.
You will hear plenty of interesting conversation if you sit at the bar area of a restaurant. Especially if flights are delayed/cancelled.
One of the men that drives a people mover can make a dead-on impression of a horn. He even simulates honking a horn when doing it. Interesting tidbit–people movers don’t have horns!
Little kids are so cute when they ride on rolling bags. They stradle and hold onto the handle.
I won’t ever worry again about overpacking things to do on my carry-on. I wasn’t ever bored.
^_^
So self-photography is difficult. Especially when the only mirror in our house is in the bathroom. So if I want a full-body shot, I have to stand on the edge of the tub and duck under the shower curtain rod and angle my head just so. It really is a bit insane.
My latest sewing project is this fabulous skirt. I totally love it. I drafted the pattern from scratch–including making a KatyRenee-sized block. Which isn’t nearly as difficult as I would have thought. I’m totally kicking myself for not doing this earlier. What was I thinking?
Here’s the “gamble shot.” I essentially held up the camera and took quite a few betting one would work out. The skirt is a pretty pink rib with lots of pleats in the front.
So please ignore the obvious crazy bathroom ugliness. And the spots on the mirror–I swear it looked clean until I saw the photo. But the skirt is so cute I couldn’t give you a preview before I get someone to take better photos for me.
Check out those skills. There is an invisible zipper in the side seam and a curved intersection that matches up perfectly. I was quite pleased with myself. And I loved enjoying the party in my fancy new skirt with no one even guessing that I’d made it. Such fun. Thinking about stocking an Etsy store with some of my fashions. What do you think?
Peace,
^_^
Scotch has earned the nickname “Needy.” Now I have photographic proof of what I mean. I’d been drafting a pattern, cutting, serging, and stitching all day. Apparently Scotch felt a wee bit neglected. I finished a seam on my machine and was getting things pinned for the next step when Scotch did this.
Um, yeah. You think I talk about the cat a bit, but I don’t think you get it–he is in my business 24/7. Unless he is having Scotch Time–his alone time generally from the hours of 9am-10am.
He was soooo not moving either. His butt is wider than the machine and he’d stand up every minute or so to stretch and immediately settle back in. Crazy cat.
I thought his tail hanging down was a bit cute. At this point he’d been sitting on the machine for about 15 minutes. He was determined. I wanted to get back to sewing–I had a party to get to and wanted to wear my new skirt–and Scotch was looking a bit worn. That couldn’t be comfortable on his behind.
I bribed him with “his” blanket. It didn’t take much effort, just bringing the blanket it and setting it on my table and patting it a time or two. He jumped down, ran over and immediately took a nap. Clearly he is not made out for tree sewing machine sitting.
Peace,
^_^
Yum. The best thing about mashed potatoes is saving them for potato cakes.
Here they are before the flip. Please disregard the stovetop–it took a few days to get it cleaned after the Thanksgiving festivities–sorry Mom, I know that grosses you out.
So potato cakes are simply mashed potatoes, a little milk, a bit of flour, and an egg. I used soy milk in the potato cakes so I could drink the rest of the cow’s milk myself. We don’t buy cow’smilk generally, but some of the turkey day recipes had it. Eric scrunches up his nose and says, “Eww!!” when referring to cow’s milk. Silly boy.
Then you plop the potato mixture in a hot skillet with a bit of oil or cooking spray or whatever you want and brown each side. I’ve heard of cooking them in bacon grease–but that sounds a bit much to me. 
Pop them on a plate and enjoy. For some reason potato cakes are a breakfast food in my book. I’m sure they are enjoyable anytime of day, though.
Peace,
^_^
Whenever I come home, Scotch is generally waiting for me at the front door. Usually he’s blinking heavily because he’s recently roused himself from a nap at the sound of our car or my key in the door. One day recently, he was not there. Instead I found him here.
I have no clue what it is with those pillows, but when they are on the bed the cats are snuggling on them. I’m going to plead the 5th on how often they are on the bed–besides it is really Eric’s fault because he is always in bed when I leave in the morning. One time I even saw them snuggling on the pillows when they were strewn across the floor!
So there you have it. We’ve categorized what trumps what with Scotch–clearly we have no life.
bed pillows > space heater > his blanket > a lap on a cold day
So there you have it. Not the cure to cancer, but instead the key to Scotch’s crazy head.
^_^
Thanksgiving 2009 was a hit. It was our first year hosting and cooking and we had a blast.
We had sooooo much food. I learned leftovers are good, but there can be too much of a good thing sometimes.
I loved setting the table. So glad I made those darned cloth napkins earlier this year. They came in super handy. And the tablecloth is something I bought in St. Louis–it was going to be a new bedspread. I think I prefer it as a table cloth.
We had a last minute addition of 2 and 2 halves and were able to squeeze everyone in by pushing the couch up to the table on the end. The other random seats we used included our plastic patio chairs. It was fun and I’m pretty sure no one minded. At least they didn’t say if they did.
I think I’ll amend the previous assertion of too many left overs being bad. You can never have too many left over potatoes. I made potato cakes with the leftovers until we ran out. 
Not as good as when my mom makes them for me, but still pretty darn tasty.
I am amazed at how effortlessly our kitchen cleaned up after the feast. It did take 3 very full dishwasher loads to clean all of the dishes, but it was such a breeze. Thank goodness for everyone pitching in–it makes things much easier and more fun!
And our friends came over early to bring us a huge sandwich to share–who thinks of this?? and dress their cupcakes. They painted chocolate on leaves they found and then removed the leaves when the chocolate hardened. They made the acorns by rolling carmel squares and dipping them in chocolate and then chocolate sprinkles. It was the most amazing dessert I’ve ever seen. And it was quite tasty too! We also got some Super Mario time in on the Wii.
I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving surrounded by people you love.
^_^