Dinner is Served

Nine Kittens

Two Moms

One Dad

One Zoo

One Mrs. DoLittle

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Flying Fish

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The sky was full of goldfish tonight!

"I have as much privacy as a goldfish in a bowl!" ~Princess Margaret

"No one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish."~Kin Hubbard

"I've got a new invention. It's a revolving bowl for tired goldfish."~Lefty Gomez

"There is a natural hootchy-kootchy motion to a goldfish."~Walt Disney

See other sky photos at Sky Watch Friday

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Vintage Washboard Repurposed

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Our laundry room got a fresh coat of paint yesterday! The same favorite, lovely grey I had done in our bedroom. :) I thought it would be a good time to give it some fresh decor, too. I picked up this damaged washboard in the auction leftovers a couple of weeks ago. I cut out a piece of cork shelf liner to fit the top part and hot glued it into place. Now I have a spot to display my vintage sterling silver nautical-themed brooch collection. Hey, how did that bird get there? ha ha.

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I have custom-made white painted shelves in the attic that used to be in my dining room. I'm hoping to sweet-talk The Mister into putting them above the washer and dryer for me. If he scowls, I'm getting out my girlie tools and doing it myself! I hurt my wrist last week, so maybe he'll have pity on me and help. :) More of the laundry room redo to come soon!

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Christmas Angel?

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I was making a fruit salad on Christmas Eve and found this

in the package of strawberries!

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Partridge ~ A Creative Tuesday Post

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The theme at Creative Tuesdays this time was to choose one of The Twelve Days of Christmas. I hope you like my little partridge perched on a pear!

To see other entries, click HERE.

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Merry Christmas

inside lights, outside branches

"My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the history of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about him."

Charles Dickens

Merry Christmas, dear friends!

I'll be back Tuesday with a festive Creative Tuesday drawing.

In the meantime, I hope to visit all of you with the best of

Christmas wishes and some holiday kisses.

xxoo

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Key Lime Fudge

I tried this new recipe and it's a keeper!

I'm posting it especially for Brian, my twin of sorts, who loves Key Lime. :) And isn't the plate pretty? I picked it up at the thrift store today while out and about with friend Julie. And yes, Pat, I washed it before using it. ha.

Key Lime Fudge

3 c white chocolate melted with one can of sweetened condensed milk.

Stir in 1 T lime zest and 1/4 c lime juice.

Spread in a buttered 8x8 pan. Chill 2 hours.

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The Best Gift I'm Giving This Year

Yep, that would be my hair! Sometime in 2012 a child with cancer or one with an incurable hair loss disease will be wearing a wig made from my ponytail!

That just makes me smile.

Do I miss my hair? Well, yeah...but it will grow. In fact, it's already a little longer than when it was cut this morning, right? ha. In fact, who knows, maybe I'll do it all over again!

Since I was donating my hair to Locks Of Love, my haircut was free! But I was happy to give a generous tip. :) They even had the form I needed to fill out and mail in with my hair.

Please watch the 51 second French advertisement below. It's SO sweet!

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December Beauty

Golden ornaments and red accents.

Nature does it better than we do, don't you think?

More Little Gifts

Colored canning jars with wire handles make great lanterns!

I filled them with dried beans to hold snowball candles

and added little wood home-sweet-home signs and ribbon.

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Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

We were too busy scarfing these down for photographs, so I've used some from onesavorylife.com

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

These pancakes were SO good that we've decided to have them Christmas morning! I used my regular buttermilk pancake batter, recipe HERE, then did the steps listed below.

Cinnamon Swirl Mixture

2 t cinnamon, 5 T melted butter, 1 c brown sugar

Mix together. Can thin with a little milk. if needed. Put in a squeeze bottle, pastry bag or you can even use a Ziploc and cut the tip off of a corner. You just want to be able to squeeze the cinnamon mixture out onto the pancake batter.

Frosting

2 T soft butter, 2 oz soft cream cheese, 1/2 t vanilla, 2/3 c powdered sugar and a little milk to thin frosting to the right consistency. Mix all together. I made it thick but still able to drizzle with a spoon.

Make pancake batter, cinnamon swirl mixture and frosting all before starting. Pour batter on griddle as with any pancakes and immediately swirl lines of the cinnamon mixture. Continue making pancakes as you normally would. After they come off the griddle, drizzle with cream cheese frosting. I served these with sausage and red seedless grapes. Yum!

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Corn Cob Pipe

We are having snow flurries today!

Now all we need is enough for a snow man.

I'm all set to dress him in style!

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Russian Tea Cakes

What do you call this Classic Christmas Cookie?

Snowballs? Russian Tea Cakes? Mexican Wedding Cakes?

Whatever they are called, they melt in your mouth!

Recipe

1/2 c powdered sugar

1 c softened butter

2 t vanilla

2 c flour

1 c finely chopped pecans

1/4 t salt

Blend sugar and butter, stir in remaining ingredients.

Form into balls. Bake 15-20 minutes at 325 until set but not

browned. Cool slightly and roll in additional powdered sugar.

and visit HERE for Lisa's blog and more yummy desserts!

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Follow The Leader

I watched this scenario unfold while sitting at my desk yesterday.

Have to admit, it was quite amusing!

Mr. Jay didn't seem to feel threatened and kept

his perch throughout the whole escapade.

Can you see him? He's in the top right corner of each picture.

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What I Did Wednesday #17

1. Put my little pink auction bowl on the pink table and filled it with Godiva Strawberry Cream Filled Truffles.
2. Made the last batch of sour cream cut out cookies.
3. Had some new insulation added to the crawl space under the house and up in the attic. After 23 years, we needed a new layer! Not the best group of men to work with though. They took a smoking break in the crawl space directly under my desk in the kitchen and the tobacco smell filled the house. After a kind request NOT to do that, they stopped. Then they left quite a mess in my workroom where the attic entrance is. Most businesses that come in clean up after themselves. The Mister is making a phone call this afternoon. Good grief! :)
4. We had a new front door installed last week. (those men vacuumed up their mess! just sayin') I just got around to wiping it down and cleaning the glass today. Very nice! Although, you know the sounds of your home that are so familiar, like the way the front door sounds when someone comes and goes? Well, this door is silent! Not a squeak, pop or click! Nothing! I've been startled a few times by my men walking about and I didn't even know they had come home! ha.
5. Enjoyed hazelnut creamer in my coffee....and wearing my favorite grey woolly sweater.
6. Caught this cute little kitten from the new litter looking at me while I sat at my desk.
7. Scheduled THE haircut. Oh yeah, it's time for my ponytail to be sent to Locks Of Love. I guess that story will be a part of What I Did Wednesday of next week! :)
8. Cleared out a bunch of old phone numbers from my cell. Several of my friends have cancelled their land lines and only have their cell now.
9. Removed the border in the laundry room. Friend Kris is coming next week to paint.
10. Have this red wooden sleigh and it's kind of plain. I have plains to make it look a little more special. Details to come at a later day. First coat is drying as I type. :)
11. Misted my pine wreath on the front door. Will that make it last longer? I hope so!
12. Enjoyed the view of the Christmas tree from the kitchen.
13. Put a batch of pecan bars in the freezer.

I hope you're having a wonderful day!

What did you do?

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Decorated Marshmallows

A Wilton Food Writer marker turned these marshmallows into

something a little more special.

This wintry gift basket was SO fun to make!

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Alex

When I ask him to try to say a word, he gives that little smirk.

I love that he loves my cooking.

Sleeps in that headset and I sneak in around midnight,

slip it off and kiss his forehead.

When he's feeling shy, he looks up at the ceiling.

Baby of the family by 30 seconds and a mama's boy.

Sweet young man of mine.

♥

Pink

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Random Thoughts

1. Made some Christmas cards yesterday. Once I figured out how to draw a realistic pine cone, they are showing up every where! :) Silver and blue seem to be a recurring theme here this Christmas.
2. We woke up to a temperature of 12 degrees this morning. Blue sky, no clouds and beautiful sun. The snow flurries of yesterday didn't stick and the grass is green! ha.
3. My favorite part of the day was when Spencer kept going over to the stockings and peeking inside them. :)
4. You know, I never did find my Christmas spirit! Maybe it will elude me altogether this year. It's been a sad year for me on several levels. Real life doesn't change just because it's a holiday, you know? But I'm still thankful for a thousand things and have too many blessings to even count.
5. Spencer has had a bad cold all week. He missed school Monday and Friday. How do you teach a child with autism how to blow their nose? If you hold a tissue to his nose, he sniffs. lol. I've tried everything without success.
6. The triplets need haircuts. Oh boy, was the bedhead funny this morning. Actually, it still is...I never combed it. Come to think of it, they are still in their jammies, too! :)
7. I kept my Christmas Cactus alive all year but there aren't any blooms! I did have one large bloom in September, though. Maybe it got Labor Day confused with Christmas?
8. I have 4 different kinds of Christmas cookies in the freezer so far. The gingerbread men never made it, though. They were gobbled up before they got into the Ziplock bags. ha. Sugar cookie dough is chilling as I type. I'm thinking fluffy icing and red sprinkles will be nice. There sure are lots of yummy recipes floating around the blogs this week. I've enjoyed browsing through and picked a few to try.
9. What is error 404? Blogger keeps saying it to me. ha.

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Betsy's Pastry Swans

This is by far my favorite Christmas dessert. I have a tray of these sitting on the dessert buffet every year. They look complicated but really aren't difficult.

Pastry Swans

Bodies ~ Pate a Choux

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Pinch of salt

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 large eggs

1 large egg white

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside. Combine butter, salt, and 1/4 cup water in a small saucepan, and place over medium heat. Cook until butter is melted and the water just comes to a boil. Remove from heat, add flour, and stir rapidly. Return the pan to the heat, and cook mixture, stirring constantly, until it comes together and pulls away from the sides of the saucepan, about 5 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat, and let cool for 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating until they are completely incorporated and the pastry is smooth. Transfer the pastry to a bag fitted with a small coupler. Pipe about 1/2 tablespoon of the pastry into an oval mound on the prepared baking sheet; continue piping until 12 'bodies' have been made, spacing pastry about 1 1/2 inches apart. Then pipe 12 long "S" shapes for the heads/necks on a separate sheet. Combine egg white with remaining 1 tablespoon of water, and brush the top of each mound and the necks with the egg wash. Bake until golden brown all over, about 20 minutes for the bodies and 10 minutes for the necks. Watch closely to prevent burning. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely.

Cream puff shells can be made in advance, and frozen in resealable bags. When ready to use, defrost and warm in a 350 degree oven for three minutes until crisp.

Filling

3 oz cream cheese

1/2 c powdered sugar

1/2 t vanilla

6 oz Cool Whip

In mixer, blend softened cream cheese with powdered sugar and vanilla

Stir in Cool Whip with a spatula.

I put my filling in a pastry bag, which makes it easier to fill the

bodies, but you can just spoon it in just fine.

To Assemble (just before serving) ~

Cut tops off of bodies and divide the tops lengthwise to create 2 wings.

Fill each body with a large dollop of creamy filling

Arrange neck and wings to create swans by sticking ends into filling.

Can serve each in their own 'pool' of chocolate sauce, or drizzle chocolate on top.

Yield: Makes about 12

Seven Swans A-Swimming!

I'm joining in with Lisa and Sweet As Sugar Cookies.

Click HERE for more great recipes!

And also Mrs. Fox's Sweet Party HERE!

♥

Little Gifts

I needed some little thank you gifts for the boys' church helpers and teachers. I found these little bottles of hand soap shaped like fruit and thought they were really cute. But...they were kind of boring! So I got out my glue gun, ribbon, tiny ornaments and bits of dried berries and leaves. After a little makeover, I think they look much more special, don't they?

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And, shhh...don't tell anyone that I only paid $1.50 each. You can't beat that, can you! They look much more festive now. I wouldn't mind getting one myself!

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What I Did Wednesday #16

1. Added a little Christmas cheer to the pot of ivy on top of the frig
2. Put out some candy in the crystal ice buckets I picked up from the auction trash.
3. The little Homer Laughlin Christmas plate is from the auction trash, too. It fit perfectly in my vintage metal stand. Now it sits in the foyer, offering candy to anyone who knocks on the door.
4. The last of the gift baskets were shipped today. I love that you can now print labels and pay postage online and even request that the post office pick up your packages from your home. How easy is that!
5. Finally finished decorating the Christmas tree!
6. Watered the little pink variegated poinsettia that jumped into my grocery cart last week.
7. Tried my hand at baking shortbread for the first time.
8. Brought out Mr. Penguin. See, Pat. It really is a zoo here!
9. Watched a little dusting of snow fall this morning.
10. Baked a few dozen ginger bread men.
11. Let Tiger come in for a visit. He sat like a prairie dog beneath the bird cage most of the time.
12. Noted the new extra large yard lake from days and days of rain!
13. Baked and decorated snowflake cookies.
14. Enjoyed putting out my glass bird ornaments
15. Hung a big shimmery star about my desk.
16. Noted a petrified slice of banana on the floor in the foyer. Yep. I need to stop making gift baskets and clean the house. ha.
17. Fed kittens this morning. Two large kittens (Whiskers and Tiger) and 5 little kittens (new litter who 'found' me). I thought it was funny how they lined up on opposite sides of the bowls. ha.
18. Put a little bird tree in the kitchen. Because, if Susan Branch can do it, so can I! :)
19. Set out my vintage Christmas postcard collection.

I hope you had a wonderful day!

What did you do?

♥

Hot Chocolate

I usually top it with a spoon of marshmallow cream, which can give you a really good and gooey mustache. :) But I had leftover whipped cream tonight. Of course, it was perfect this way, too!

And a little splash of Kaluha didn't hurt, either.

Yum.

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Mistletoe ~ For Creative Tuesday

please click on drawing to enlarge

Mistletoe is the theme at Creative Tuesday!

Looks like Mr. and Mrs. Bird are keeping warm with a little smooch under their mistletoe! I'm not even sure they notice the beautiful snowflakes falling around them! I think I need to hang some mistletoe in my house! Harry is the man around here always willing to give a kiss. Maybe he'll give mom a little peck if I stand under it. :)

If you'd like to join in, this theme is due by Tuesday, December 6th.

Click HERE to see other entries or join!

No talent required...just come have fun!

So when you kiss, do you keep your eyes open or close them like me? Or does that depend on who you are kissing? ha.

♥

Christmas Spirit

Have you ever started out the holiday season without feeling the holiday cheer? Some years I do this and just about the time I start to feel a panic of, 'Oh dear, where is the Christmas muse?', it finally hits. Then I feel like Santa's elf and enjoy the decorating, creating, baking and giving. But so far, the Christmas spirit hasn't arrived! The tree is up but the decorations are still in the boxes! I pulled out a few things and they are sitting in piles on the floor. I have a gift list completed but only 4 of them are purchased! Uh oh!

Maybe I need to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" or crank up the "It's A Charlie Brown Christmas" CD.

Am I the only one feeling like this?

How do you get in the holiday spirit?

♥

PIcking Through the Auction Trash

I worked an auction on Wednesday and looked through the discarded items left for the trash. No $80 Rowenta toasters this time, but I did bring home a few things.

1. A stack of old linens. I collect them! I need a fun idea on how to use them.
2. A glass pedestal cake stand. Always nice to have extras for my baking business.
3. A large conk shell, which I'll gladly add to my shell collection!
4. Two snowy bottle-brush trees.
5. A pretty antique plate.
6. Loved the plate, but it was the little tag on the back that I found most interesting. Aww! Didn't anyone want great grandma's old plate? Even it if was Bur's mothers? The family didn't and neither did the bidder that actually won and paid for it! Well, I wanted it and I'll give it a nice home! Whenever I use it, I'll think of Bur's mother. :)

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Christmas Gift Baskets

This particular order of baskets is from an attorney friend who delivers them to his bigger clients. I've had this account for about 10 years now. Since they are delivered to the same people every year, I try to come up with something new and fun. This year I used wood crates instead of baskets or hat boxes. They are still, as always, filled with gourmet foods per his request.

I put together some items to make the bow look a little more interesting.

If you do this, make sure you don't use your hot glue gun anywhere near your coffee cup. ha.

I had six of these to make and they are finished and ready to go. They are to be hand delivered. I have another six to make that will be packaged a little differently. They will be shipped to clients out of state. I have to say, I'm really hungry for yummy snack foods after looking at this stuff for several days now! I need to start baking some Christmas cookies!

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Frost

December 1st

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What I Did Wednesday #15

1. I worked an auction today. Four days of rain turned into a dusting of snow over night. The sun was trying to break through the clouds at the horizon while I was driving this morning.
2. Xenia, Ohio is decked out in holiday spirit!
3. This man reminded me of a Disney character. Any guesses?
4. It was a nice auction, but nothing really fun to report. I did pick up a few things. I may share another day.
5. So did you guess one of the seven dwarfs? Dopey, maybe? :)

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