December Photo Project 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th

Back in 2001, when I turned 30, I decided that I was going to take one picture every day of my 30th year and put them in a journal. I actually used a poloroid camera so that I could have the picture immediately. It turned into a pretty neat project for me. My birthday is in August so I had only been doing it for a little over a month on September 11th.

Aside from capturing my own impressions of that world event which is priceless to me, it also made the mundane times of my life that year memorable. There is a really nice dinner out with old co-workers I would have never remembered, the day I bought a large pottery bowl that I still use, a French themed dinner at Deanna's old house, me, holding Baby Liv in my arms on New Years and for some reason I have beautiful hair in many of the pictures. (I would not have ever described myself like that and it's nice to know at one time I did, indeed, have good hair. I usually leave that up to Jen.) Who the heck was doing my hair at that time??? Where is that person??? I never have beautiful hair. It's long and thick looking (in the photos.) Was I wearing a wig? I think I was using velcro rollers back then when I blow dried my hair..... (Christmas Idea for anyone who is wondering what I would like-VELCRO ROLLERS!!!)

But I digress.....

I always thought that idea would make an interesting blog.

View From The Prairie Box is Having A December Photo Project where people are doing just that! I've decided to participate.

I'm a few days late to the party on this so I'm going to play catch up.

You can consider my 1st picture that new blog header. It's my front door. I love Williamsburgh style decorating and my aunt bought that for me a few weeks ago on a girls day out. I love it.


The same aunt surprised me with some Antique German Glass Christmas Ornaments a few days ago.





My antique school desk with a pile of Christmas Videos from the library that my girl watched all day today as she languished on the couch with a 103 fever. She hardly moved all day long and hardly ate a thing. Poor baby... She wouldn't even eat the gingerbread cookie her grandma bought her yesterday. I don't think she has ever watched that much consecutive TV in one day. And I don't think she really enjoyed it... She even missed a birthday party this afternoon that she cried and cried over.




Blogging with fire and eggnog this evening.....

Roadside Finds In The Dark or Where I Have No Shame

This evening I had an appointment that ended around 8 pm. On my way home, I was driving down my favorite street.

Ok, so the appointment was nowhere near this street. I was "doing the ride" alone.... I do that sometimes. Drive around with the music on....Look at the houses, think, sing out loud, loud..... So picture the following story happening to the tune of The Who's, "Behind Blue Eyes" (I'm kind of crushing on Roger Daltry despite the fact he's older than my dad, I'm talking circa 1977 Roger...Damn!)

Anyway, so there I am driving along, minding my own business, when I see a small couch, or rather, a settee, sitting on the side of the road. It's actually next to THIS HOUSE. I have no idea what it looks like because it's dark but it looks promising. So I stop the car and in my excitement, do not turn down the radio. And leave my door open. The street is dark and there I am, like a beacon, all in my haste to examine a possible treasure. And treasure it was! (or will be anyway.)

It's heavier and larger than it looks. I had my Explorer so at first I tried shoving it in the back seat. When that didn't work I decided to put the seats down and load it from the back. This would be fine except that I have a load of returnable bottles/cans back there that I have been procrastinating on returning.. So first I had to move those. While messing with the bottles some fall out of the Wegmans bag they are in and clatter all over the road..... Finally, I heave it into the back of the truck (Did I mention it was pretty cold out tonight?) and of course, the back door won't close. Ok, fine, I'll just drive slowly. I get in. turn down the raido and turn on the truck... Did I mention I need a muffler? It's not usually that bad because I can't actually hear it with the windows up (and music on) but with the back door open it sounded really LOUD....So there I am, once again, on the nicest street in my town, acting like total trash..... Not only do I look like Fred Sanford, I also sound like him... Really, if you see me in the halls at preschool I seem pretty normal...You really would not suspect this latent love of other people's garbage. I bet I have a syndrome or something.....

I really like it. It will make a good winter project and needs only a small amount of repair to the back. (Michael??) I'm thinking that I'll either paint it white and upholster it with tan burlap or black and perhaps leopard print. I'm planning on putting it in my front hallway so I may go with the white.

Sundy Soup On Friday & General Musing

So I'm sitting here with my rocker pulled right up to the fireplace. I have my feet up on my daughter's little chair and I'm warming my toes. (and I fully realize I would NEVER let my child put her chair this close to the fireplace ) It's cosy. And quiet. Everyone else is sleeping.

I made my Sunday soup on Friday. We wanted a light supper and my husband suggested French Onion Soup and something else. We never got to the something else. This soup was so good and so easy. I also added 1/2 cup white wine and simmered the soup with fresh parsley and thyme and a bay leaf, all of which I removed before serving. I used homemade bread and Gruyère cheese. I used mayan sweet onions and cooked them until they were golden and soft. Over an hour at least. That is really the key to the whole thing. Butter and onions. You can go wrong.

All in all this is a really inexpensive soup to make. If you don't want to purchase Gruyère you could use swiss but I prefer the Gruyère. I used Wegmans culinary stock for the beef stock and it's rather good. I'm all about making my own chicken stock. And while homemade beef stock makes this soup AMAZING, I find it rather cumbersome so use store bought.

I am so over turkey. So over it. Even a thrifty gal like me needs to stop with the leftovers at some point. We had leftovers for dinner and I threw away the rest. Enough is enough with Thanksgiving food. I am luckliy, not one of those people who has turkey for Christmas.

Which brings me to Christmas. I did not partake in any kind of Black Friday madness. I'm not about the crowds, getting up early (ever), the rushing and spending lots of money at once gives me hives. I'll probably order things on line this week.

This time of year brings out one of my inner struggles as a parent. Too much.....Too little, which way to go? On one hand, I feel like the Christmas season brings with it too much food, too many parties, too much Santa and WAY too many gifts. On the other hand, maybe I need to lighten up.

I'm generally not comfortable with excess (unless it's butter, clearly) so Christmas can really press my buttons.

And Christmas decorations. What is the DEAL with these. I like Christmas decor and have my fair share. I like things to look nice. I like crafts. I get it.

What I wonder about every year is doesn't everyone already have enough already??? Do we all really consume enough to justify stores filling themselves to the brim yearly with brand new decorations? Where does it all go? How many rubbermaid tubs full of Christmas decor can this world handle??? I know that sounds scroogey but really.. It's only one day.... Or at least, one month....

That said, I did put up my favorite Christmas tree today. I have one in my dining room full of vintage looking ornaments. It's a tall skinny tree. I tried to put it in the antique looking firkin next to it but that just was not working out.

I miss fall already....

Thanksgiving Elves

Remember this:


Take a look now!!!

My sweet little brother and his wife were done early with their Landscaping jobs today and they came over and cleaned up the yard as a surprise. Holy Cow!!! They even edged and cleaned up the vegetable garden.... I was so overwhelmed! I took the picture through the window because I think my brother would find me taking a picture of him raking rather odd.... Don't worry, they didn't rake the whole yard, they have blowers and professional equipment. He just raked the garden because I needed the leaves on top of the actual beds but not in the paths. What sweethearts.


I also had a little girl here today that wanted to pick the herbs for the Thanksgiving meal so I let her do that. I want her to learn about the garden so I'm pretty relaxed about her picking stuff and playing with it. It's an herb garden and she likes to carry them around and smell them and learn their names. The only ones she can remember are chives and lemon balm. She kept running in and out of the house with bunches of herbs and bringing them to me and putting them around the house to make it "smell good" so now I have sage and chive potpourri hiding in nooks and crannies.




Other items of note today:

1) I made this cake and IT WEIGHS 3 1/4 LBS!!!! I weighed it. I realized after it was in the oven that I forgot one of the 6 eggs, so this cake only has 5 eggs in it. Steph-I also used salted butter and thought that batter tasted a little salty. The cake, which I broke a small piece off the bottom seems to taste fine though.

2) I am feeling rather sick from eating stuffing and raw cake batter right about now.....

New Moon

So Kristin and I went to see New Moon last night.

I'd like to clarify something for a moment.

I DID read the books. I am NOT one of those 30 something-year-olds wearing a Twilight tee shirt to the movie and I do not have couragish longings for teenage vampires. (And besides, I am quite SURE that you have to be at LEAST 40 to be considered a Cougar anyway.)

That said, I have to mention that when Taylor Lautner took off his shirt for the first time there were AUDIBLE (not from me) gasps and giggles in the theater. Audible. From a lot of people. I've never heard that before at a movie. I think I blushed but it was too dark to tell. I spent much of the time that he had his shirt off, slightly embarrassed that I was looking (intently).

Anyway, the movie was good. Much less hokey than Twilight and Bella didn't look like she was suffering through a stomach bug through this entire movie. I have to say, I think I'm one of the few people who find the Jacob/Bella story more compelling than the epic love of Bella and Edward. I can clearly see how being with a werewolf would have distinct advantages over being with a vampire (abs notwithstanding).

Oh, did I just say that out loud???

Theres a Whole Lotta Chopping Going On

Around here...


We've got a pretty delicious Thanksgiving meal planned this year. However, it seems that it has a lot of pieces. Vegetable pieces that is. So my Dad picked up my daughter this morning so I could spend the day chopping. Tomorrow we can start the actual cooking, but today I'm just working on getting the food to the point where we can cook it. On my list of things to chop-Shallots, Leeks, Garlic, Butternut Squash, Brussels Sprouts, Mushrooms, Bread (which I need to first bake for stuffing), herbs & bacon.

I really like this kind of meal prep when I have the time. If I do it this way, then the cooking goes much easier for us. Tomorrow I will bake desserts and assemble the side dishes that I can. By Thanksgiving much of the work will be done and we can just pop the stuff in the oven. My husband is completely in charge of the turkey, although I just made a pancetta sage butter for the outside of it. My fridge is filled with lots of butter and enough heavy cream to give anyone a heart attack.

Today I've got a fall scented candle burning and Christmas music (uugh, I KNOW) playing and I'm in a Zen chopping mode. I'm thinking of my family who will eat this food and thinking of it all as an act of love. I'm not at all bothered by the fact that I'm spending days on this meal that will be consumed in 30 minutes. That's the complaint of so many a woman who has slaved over something all day long only to see it completely devoured isn't it. I think if I was rushing to get it done and had to produce it in one day then that IS how I would feel. This way I get to enjoy the process of it without that feeling.

I Love Talking About You, But Occasionally, I Want To Talk About Me.

Ok Friends, enough about you. I want to talk about me.

Forget for a minute that this is actually my blog and it's mostly about me anyway.....


Now it's your turn. Since I've been so kind as to think about you and present you in the kindest light I can think of, while still showing the world your funny or sensative sides as well, I think it's time you repaid the favor. So (Jen, Paul, Kristin, Jacquie, Leighanne & Deanna) everyone, it's your turn. Please leave your comments in the comment section and please keep them G-Rated!! If you are not one of the people I wrote little dittys about still feel free to comment.