Introducing Quinn!

I got home last night from a fast trip to Michigan (must go back up there in summer) where I picked up the newest member of the clan.  Everyone meet Quinn!

Checking out the floor vent blowing hot air.

The patio door is very interesting!

She is 10 weeks old tomorrow and weighs about 5 pounds.  Her breeder expects her to be about 17 pounds full grown.  She was a trooper on the drive home yesterday, did not get car sick (a worry of mine as Charley and Kelsey did for so long), slept a lot, etc.  I had intended to take two days to come home but she was doing so well I decided that we'd both be happier if we didn't have to drive today.  She is busy showing me where I need to puppy proof!

On other fronts, I put up all the trees, except one before I left and the house is nearly decorated for Christmas-I'll put up photos on Sunday, link up to Karen's blog party.  The house needs some tidy up and the dryer is yet again awaiting a part (the last repairman broke it fixing it) so unless the part comes in soon it's back to the laundromat! In other words life is returning to normal after Thanksgiving.  I am nearly finished shopping for my immediate family, still have some extended family and friends to find or make gifts for but it isn't even December until tomorrow and I have a stack of Amazon.com boxes in my room ready to wrap!

I'm on a roll!

Thanksgiving Day!

Well, after all the hard work (with more to come) it is here,  Thanksgiving Day.  One of my faves-oh wait, I like them all!  A holiday that is often lost in the Christmas frenzy to follow.  I find that sad.  I also think it is too close to Christmas-perhaps we should follow Canada's lead and move it into October?  I don't really mind the work, it's just cooking-which I love-and cleaning-which I don't love although I attempt to remember this poem I have stuck to my refrigerator (author unknown):

Thank God for dirty dishes.

They have a tale to tell.

While others may go hungry

we're eating very well.

For by this stack of evidence

I shouldn't want to fuss.

With home and health and happiness

God's been good to us.

I wish for all the joy of family and feasting.

Happy Thanksgiving!

                       

A Day with Brayden--getting ready for Turkey Day!

Brayden did not have school today due to Thanksgiving holiday, rather than spend the day at the school's day care he asked to come here.  I said sure but that he'd have to help cook.  Our day in pictures.

While I did things he couldn't help with (making rose apples, cooking giblets and cranberries, etc.) the Author/illustrator set to work on a new book.  Entitled Earth, it featured (among other things) a cruise ship fighting the people who were poisoning the ocean.  (Various forms of fighting feature large right now.)   Then after discovering "red hots" (aka Cinnamon Imperials), which he later declared to be quite "suckable" and sampling some brown sugar he had to go a little crazy on the kitchen floor.

Next he (and Tanya) tore up the bread for the stuffing.  Then he helped knead the dough for the rolls tomorrow!

He declared this to be "very sticky" and could he please wash his hands.  Then it was on to the pie crusts.

He rolled out the biggest part of the crusts for FOUR pies!  Guess it wasn't so sticky.  I told him that after a few more years I wouldn't have to make the pies, I'd just let him!

Then it was outside to help Rob with the Christmas lights.

AFter all that a game or two of Candy Land was played.  He had a very full day, me too.  I'm tired.

More cleaning!

So remember last week?  The week I spent three days cleaning my office/sewing room?  I did get it clean, I could see my desk and everything.  Unfortunately that is not the case now, sigh.

I think I should change the name of the room to "The Dump!"  As everything has just been dumped in here, again.   I have finished cleaning the rest of the house (well, if you don't count the other dump- my garage workshop) in preparation for the holidays.  Not a small task I can tell you as it hasn't been properly cleaned since I began the kitchen remodel.  So glad that's behind me.  Just wish this was!  I should learn to keep a creative space tidy--that could be an oximoron.

A little sewing!

A little back story.  Brayden loves, loves, loves the denim blankets with the Mizzou fleece on the back.  He always wants to sleep on, or under one and is very disappointed when it happens to be in the truck!  He asked me if I could make him something from the Mizzou fleece so we came up with scarves for the cold weather that is sure to be here soon.  Of course, Kolby needed one as well!  I love having a project that goes from start to finish in a short time!  I cut them out one day and put them together the next--I had to buy gold thread to sew on the initials or it would have been done in one afternoon!  They love them and my leftover fleece box is much emptier!

I've been cleaning house getting ready for the holidays.  Made pumpkin puree for pies and pumpkin bars yesterday and today-always makes a huge mess but I'm ready for that baking day.  The living room is clean (for at least today) and I made inroads on the kitchen so I accomplished something today, at least.  After dinner, cross-stitch!

To Honor and Serve.

A huge Thank You going out to all our service members past and present.  Remembering those lost:

Msgt. Larry L Fines, Ret USAF

1949-2009

We still miss you.

Sewing room/office

It's a pretty well known fact around here that my sewing room/office is a disaster!  Mostly because I use a 10 ft by 10 ft room with two windows and 2 doors for 2 BIG purposes.  During the recently completed kitchen overhaul it got even worse!  Especially after I cleaned the playroom before the boys came for the weekend.  In an effort to tame the beast (and pay my bills--lost in the mess of my desk) I brought in yet another piece of furniture.  Crazy, I know, but it seems to be helping.  I hung a three shelf bookcase on the wall at the end of my desk.  All my notebooks for the Town of Kansas and my notebooks for bill-paying, gardening, planning, etc (you get the picture) and a few reference books are now located at my fingertips.  I usually postpone (read procrastinate) the re-shelving of books, notebooks etc until the pile is beyond  belief and then I have to spend an entire day (as I did today) sorting things out!  I'm hoping having the things I use the most really close will help there.  Plus, I'm learning new habits in the kitchen so why not in here as well?  Moving those notebooks and some other shifting set three shelves on my other bookcases free so I could put project boxes there and as soon as I trek up to Old Tyme Pottery and buy them, baskets for true fabric scraps (as opposed to leftover larger pieces which go into the fat quarter boxes.  All that means that there are fewer things whose home is the floor (not just a temporary storage space but the actual place that they belong!)  I'll post some photos when it is complete, and I can see the tops of all the flat surfaces!

Beyond that I spent two days working at cleaning the shed and storing things for winter.  Hank the Hulking snow thrower, gas for said Hank and the snow shovel are out.  Hmmm, need to fill him up and crank him up to make sure he starts.  The bench and all the planting pots are stored, the tube bags of sand are in the back end of the truck for weight, etc.  Then I raked the flower beds (have decided I need another leaf blower-I've already burned up two so I need to do research) and mowed the leaves.  This is the first year of not having as many trees, down to four from eight, and mowing is all I really need to do-the mower just mulches them right up.  I may need to pick up a few but no where near the 30 bags or so that was normal in the past.  I will have to deal with acorns, which is really why I need a leaf blower-to blow them together so I can pick them up easier.  Lots of people just leave them but they are kind of dangerous when you walk on them and I get tired of pulling up trees in the spring!

While I was in the shed I got out the dog crate.  Why? you ask.  Because I am getting a puppy!  Sometime soon after Thanksgiving I will pick up a Sheltie puppy, I can hardly wait!

At last! Final Kitchen photos!

In case you've forgotten here's what it looked like to begin:

And here is what it looks like now:

There are still details to attend to and a few thing to finish.  I need to finish making these:

Plus some decorator stuff, white spoon rests, etc.  But I'll just finish those things up quietly.

I don't know if you can see in the pics but the crock pot is sitting on the counter.  That's because I'm making Pumpkin Butter from the little pumpkins the boys acquired for Halloween.  Those pumpkins are the reason I'm sporting two really cool Spiderman bandaids.  I really must buy some grownup bandaids-or at least princess ones!

Ann asked for a photo of the jar lids I sprayed, on the right is an old zinc lid and on the left the one I sprayed.

Not exactly alike but not too bad either.

So my new Kindle came today, only broken thing left is the dryer and we are still waiting on a part, ;(

The beautiful weather left us today as the temperature fell 40 degrees in just 2 hours.  Now it's raining, pretty hard too, and snow is forecast for tonight and the morning!  That's Missouri for you!