Tis the Season...

I love the holiday season just as much as the next person... probably more than the next few people, even. But I've always found it offensive when stores like W*lmart and T*rget shove the commercial end of it down my throat a month before Thanksgiving. It's all for the purpose of expanding that window of time when they can sell us that holiday "stuff".

So here I am... starting a little artisan shop of my own with a friend. We actually had to begin thinking about Christmas in...August! And about five weeks ago customers began to ask if we had Christmas items and Christmas wrap. Really?! We did, and so we began hauling it out. Shame on the old me. The new me is pushing holiday "stuff" weeks before Thanksgiving. Atleast I didn't decorate until this week. *sigh*

A few images below taken from my iphone tonight as we cruised a garden center we've never been to before that puts out a terrific holiday display...probably beginning in October.

Thankful

In my life’s experience it seems that once you’ve lived for a while, and sometimes when you haven’t lived very long at all, you’re inevitably handed some of life’s hard knocks. It’s a corny cliché, but turns out to be true… “Into everyone’s life, a little rain must fall”. Why for some people that rain is more of a monsoon is beyond explanation or any sort of fairness. Sometimes it has to do with stupidity or recklessness, but most of the time It’s just LIFE, the way the chips are falling. And I’ve learned.. No matter what the outside of a person’s life looks like, you just really can’t know for sure what’s going on inside. Everyone has their cross to bear, some are just more obvious than others.

This Thanksgiving, and hopefully from this day forward… I am making a conscious effort to be truly thankful for all that is good today. My life’s path has taken me through a monsoon or two, but through it we are…. and I can look back now with so much more appreciation for so many things.

What I am most thankful for:

Good health

Two healthy children who even think I’m cool sometimes. But mostly not. Especially when I sing in the presence of their friends…

A good man who swam through that monsoon with me, actually he was the life vest.

Good Friends

A job I enjoy

Family who cares

Food on the table

Health Insurance

My new blog and artisan friends, for sure… you’ve opened up a whole new creative world for me, and I thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings. I hope you get to spend Thanksgiving in the company of good people and great food. Tell me what you’re thankful for, I’de like to know ….

For those of you who are local.. I bet you know where these turkeys live... went to pick up the bird this morning and took this shot at the turkey farm. Atleast these guys are spared another year.

HATE when that happens...

I'm looking at this impression left in my kitchen window and I'm thinking that bird had to be going at a pretty good clip to leave his BEAK and EYE BALL prints. That had to hurt.

Ben isn't sure I'm really making his breakfast so he's checking it out for himself. He is now big enough to do so.

Just like his mother...

This is what my son is doing right now in the backyard. My initial reaction when I caught him dragging out the lights was something like.. "WHAT???.. it's not even Thanksgiving yet?!?"... and he said something like .. "Aw, come on, mom.. just one tree?..."

I'm a sucker for a tree-lighting fool, and in this particular case the apple really hasn't rolled very far away from the tree. And Mom, I know what you're thinking ...

"Paybacks, you know..."

Work on the house moves at a much faster pace when the frame work is new. This is the case with the master bedroom addition and the screen porch off the back. With the exception of the foundation stones and the old beams in the cathedral ceiling, it's the "new" addition to the old structures.

Jeff is working on putting notches in old beams, and we've painted the front door green and distressed it to give it an old look.

Cookie Dough Truffles

I've been looking for something to serve for dessert in addition to the usual apple and pumpkin pies this Thanksgiving, and my friend Mary A. let me know about this recipe from Paula Deen. I rarely pass up a chocolate opportunity. The best part about this recipe is it doesn't need baking - no competing for time in the oven with everything else.



Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup semisweet mini chocolate morsels
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 1/2 pounds chocolate bark candy coating, melted

Instructions
In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in milk and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour, mixing well. Add chocolate morsels and pecans, mixing well. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place on wax paper; chill 2 hours.
Using 2 forks, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. Place on wax paper and chill to set. Store in the refrigerator.
Makes 5 dozen

Bull's Eye Glass and Progress!

Hallway to master bedroom. Large beams will be exposed in cathedral ceiling.

View looking out of bedroom to back fields...sliding door will open to screen porch with stone floor.

Steve S. working on side entrance into mudroom and kitchen.

The original front door of the house was beautiful, but had too much rot to be salvaged. We decided on a double front door, with a transom above and bullseye glass for panes. The following information is taken from an article written by Scott Gibson, a knowledgeable man in the business of old houses.

"Bull's eye glass has quite a history. Until modern techniques were developed, one way of making window glass was to spin a blob of molten glass at the end of a tool called a pontil. Centrifugal force flattened the glass into a sheet, and when the tool was pulled away it left a characteristic bull's eye mark. The relatively flat glass on the perimeter of this glass pancake was carefully cut into pieces and sold to the high-brows who could actually afford windows.
What was left, the stuff with the bull's eyes, went into lesser locations, like barns and sheds.
Bull's eye glass is often fairly robust because it's thick. That bodes well if you're thinking of putting the pane in a door that will get slammed from time to time."

That's a good thing... because doors certainly get slammed around here....from time to time.

Thanks Give-a-way and a Hysterical Cat fight

Friday, November 13, 2009

Click highlighted below to go to Mickey Johnson's blog site and enter an awesome Nautical code necklace give-away from Nicholas Landon Jewelry. Mickey's jewelry is very popular in our store and this new addition is awesome!

Then below the giveaway watch a hysterical cat fight video.

Thanks-Give-Away... From Nicholas Landon....

We are giving away ONE of our nautical code necklaces to celebrate our new store!
here's how to enter,
1-first entry, leave a comment of a neat way that you celebrate the Thanksgiving season or share a sweet blessing that you have received.
2-second entry, blog about the thanks-give-away…
3-third entry, follow as a treasure...
...thanks-give-away will end at midnight on November 25th...and is open to the world!
...everyone has a place that they treasure in their heart…perhaps the location of a wedding, a proposal, favorite vacation, birth of a child or homeland…now you can wear that treasured place close to your heart in nautical code…so it can remain as special and unique as you remember it…


Now on to the video... click here for a good laugh :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih6W19KTlZo