Monday, December 28, 2009

Recently seen at a Chinese restaurant ....

Further proof that my husband and I are made for each other...


Tuesday, December 8, 2009

92 servings of hot chocolatey goodness!


I got some hot chocolate mix at the grocery store the other day in honor of our 1st snow of the season. Of course, I had to read the ingredients on all the mixes in the store.

I ended up with some from the health food section. The mix is by Canterbury Naturals and it has only seven ingredients. The only one that I'm not sure about is the xanthan gum. What's a xanthan?

Anyway, this got me to thinking that I could make my own hot cocoa mix so I headed for Google and found a bunch of recipes that included non-dairy creamer. Oh, ick.

Then I headed over to visit the Diva of Domesticity, Martha Stewart, and I found this recipe. Four ingredients. 92 servings of hot chocolatey goodness. Break out the marshmallows and peppermint sticks. I'm set for the rest of the winter!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Other people's junk



I love cast-off things. They make me happy.

These guys sit on the top shelf of the book shelves at my house. The gargoyle came from the thrift shop ($1 !!), and I pulled the lovely old bird cage out of someone's junk pile. The bird is a Christmas ornament I received as a gift - so not junk - and she always seems to be gloating a bit.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Weaving and domestic bliss

Hiya! Had a bit of a late start in the studio today since it took a while for it to get warmed up out there.  The little wood stove that could does a pretty good job, but it was pretty darned cold here this morning!

To pass the time I embarked on a semi-annual cleaning project - the book shelves. My husband and I are book people. We love to read, and we love our books. As you can imagine, they pile up around the house and with a greater number of books coming in than going out the book shelves around the house can get sort of packed. This makes dusting difficult. And since the dust that accumulates in our house quickly begins to bear a greater resemblance to top soil, one does feel the need to shovel out occasionally. So today I took all the books off of the living room shelves, dusted each one, and put everything back, less a few volumes that were relocated to other parts of the house, or put in the thrift shop pile. (Two books. That's all we could bear to part with.) Now the shelves are shiny and tidy, and look much less likely to pull out of the wall. Domestic bliss, indeed!

The bit of reorganizing gave me a chance to move this little guy to a good spot. Doesn't he look quite at home with my husband's collection of "The Hobbit?"


My wee Scotsman is a pitcher, and came from an antique shop in Floyd, VA - an early Christmas gift from a friend. I know his bonnet's got a chip out of it, but I fell in love with him anyway.

And now, since I know Lawre's waiting for it, here's this week's Green Bean Tapestry update:



Not much progress, and I may end up unweaving that bit at the tip of the bean in progress - again! I'll decide next time I work on it when I see it with fresh eyes.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Snow Shanty!


It's snowing! It's snowing!

Oh, how I love the first snow of the year. This one is proving more than adequate:
  • We've got several inches of white fluff - so, good coverage, and very pretty.

  • The roads are sufficiently slushy to discourage going anywhere - so, it's a cozy-at-home day.

  • I've got cookie dough in the fridge, and hot buttered rum mix in the freezer - so, treats are a go.
I'll be spending the afternoon working on a photo album project and pretending I live in a snow globe (but maybe without all the shake up). How about you?

p.s. Do click on the snow globe link. It's fun, in a twisted sort of way.