Tipsy bakers and other Christmas gifts!

I collect cookbooks.  I especially like cookbooks where the recipes are for scratch cooking things most folks buy.  Scott and Bri, I think, like to by me books off my list with odd names.  Last year it was The Human Powered Home,   this year it was Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese.  Jennifer's blog is on the sidebar as The Tipsy Baker!  She's amusing and evidently fearless in her cooking endeavors-as well as being a fellow cookbook collector.  I'll be trying some of these recipes-the only downside I've seen so far is that she's from California and they tend to add bizarre ingredients and twists to things which should be left alone-in my opinion.  Also from Scott and Bri I received a tome called The Principals of Knitting, every question I could ever ask about knitting should be answered in this book!  I used to knit quite a bit, got out of the habit when the children were small and I had neither time nor money, but I'd like to take it back up and this should help fill in the gap from my Great Aunt Daisy teaching me how to cast on, knit, purl and bind off when I was 12 until now!  They spoil me (all the children do) and also got me a lovely silver and blue bracelet--blue being my favorite color, I might have mentioned that a time or two.

More stitching done by me--Braxton's Travel memories quilt, a simple brick pattern in brown and orange flannel backed in fleece (forgot to get a picture!) with his first 5 patches sewn on.  Those patches collected on my trips last summer.  I also dressed a bear for him, as I have all the grandchildren.  That I did take a picture of!

A little recap!

Christmas was a lovely day, I'm just sitting here drinking my morning tea and thinking about it!
Speaking of tea, I don't drink coffee.  Larry drank coffee, my parents and grandparents drank coffee, so I drank coffee-for about 40 years!  For years I tried to find a really "good" coffee, no luck.  Finally, I realized that I just don't like coffee and went back to tea-which I love! Always have, even as a very young child.  I have to wonder what took me so long, I think it's the fact that coffee smells so amazing! I received some lovely "Tea"related things for Christmas: an electric tea kettle from Scott and Bri, a perfect tea maker (by Tevana) and a pound of Keemun tea! (from Steve, Candice and Nora)  I'm all set now, perhaps I'll actually use some of the tea pots I've collected over the years.

I'll tell you about my other gifts in installments!  Maybe that will keep me posting!

Scott and Bri came up Christmas Eve, being the first to use my new guest room!  On Christmas morning we descended on Beth and Lucas!  It's easier to go to them than for them to haul the boys and gifts here and they have a bigger house!  Although, it took a great many trips to unload all the cars (and then re-load them in the evening-a bit lighter.)

Amazingly, I completed all the sewing projects I decided to make for gifts!  I wish I didn't decide at the last minute to add projects to the list!  Brayden wanted his room decorated in University of Missouri (MIZZOU) stuff and I decided to give him that.  Buying sheets, blanket, a big 3x5 foot flag and other wall art then I made the curtains and a valance that has the chant the boys made up apliqued on it.  It was cool that Brayden recognized the chant as soon as he saw it!  Did I mention that he reads chapter books now?  In the first grade!  So cool, another bookworm in a family of bookworms!

More about other gifts later!

Happy Christmas!

Where in the world have I been?

Home!  I can't think why I haven't posted, possibly because I can't think of anything to post!

Really, I've raked a small mountain of leaves.  More this year than usual I think.  The oaks are shedding more of their leaves in the fall when they usually hang on to some of them until spring when the new leaves push them off the tree.  I'm done for now though, it's been two weeks since I raked the front and it still looks ok.  I could mow leaves but I don't think I will.  Poor plants are so confused-I have peonies with buds pushing up through the ground.  The weather just has things messed up.  It is colder today, but we really haven't had a killing frost that hung on for more than a day or two.  It should be colder and wetter.  We are still well below normal in precip for the year.  I'm concerned.  Without serious cold all the bugs will be worse AGAIN next summer, and ticks have been especially bad this fall.  While the warmer winter is nice for my heating bill, if it also means we have another HOT, HOT summer then the cooling bill will more than make up for it.  I don't think I can take another HOT, HOT summer.  I guess it's like the "fiscal cliff", absolutely nothing I can do about it except deal.

I read a great deal, more than I should if I want to get things done!  I just finished up a series by S.M. Stirling called Stories of the Change.  Science Fiction where suddenly machines just simply do not work, nor do guns etc.  They were interesting books full of lots of  sword fights, etc.  But they made me think of what I would do if suddenly the electric grid just went out without warning.  (A good book is one that makes you think "What if.")  Scary idea no electricity (among other things, no electricity means no air conditioning-see above paragraph!)  I've always been interested in learning the old ways of doing things and I've always thought that I'd have NEED of them.  Not just to be frugal but to survive!  Perhaps there are some life-changing ideas in there?

I've done some little sewing-really must get a fire lit under me!  Most things right now are for silly gifts so no photos.  In fact I think I'll head for a comfy chair to stitch, I'm already wearing my comfy pajamas!  Some TV and I'll be good--I think there's a new Hallmark Christmas movie coming on, gotta run!  (need to see it now in case there is a huge event that shuts down the electric grid and I can't see it later!  HA HA!  As if missing it would even occur to me in such an event!)

After Thanksgiving thoughts

While this will likely always be remembered as the year Lucas open a new bottle of Ranch Dressing only to have it "explode" all over his face, clothes, the table AND the living room curtains, the year the always dependable rolls failed miserably, the year we left the green beans in the microwave and Zoe, the golden retriever, stole a piece of turkey off the platter, it was without a doubt a great day.  I was, and am, tired, the cooking isn't so bad the clean up is pretty rough when all I want to do is sit around, chat and drink wine!  That's the downside to using my Mother's bone china-can't put it through the dishwasher.  I know that going in but I still use it!  To have the family gathered in love (And relative peace) is a gift.  Then they all left taking their children and dogs with them and that was a gift as well. "VBS"  I wandered through my house shutting off lights and locking up last night thinking that the finished space in the bedroom improved the day by spreading us out and that made all the work worth it!  Then I walked into my room and found one of my measuring cups lying on the floor by my bed and had to smile!  Brax gets around!

It's finished! Mostly.

I'm sure you all thought I'd fallen off the edge of the world!  Really, I only fell into the basement.  Once Rob and Tanya moved into their own place their old space looked like this:

 Half carpet half mastic coated cement floor!  Ugly color on the walls!

 Under stair area closed off!  No place to hide in a big storm!

Now it looks like this:

 New floor tile, all 436 tiles laid by me.  New paint on ceiling and walls.  Trim along floor added (also new door to laundry room-old one had a cat door in it I no longer need.)  A big toy for the big boys!  My Dad's pool table.  Boy was that fun to put up, NOT.

 TV viewing area!  I nearly have a chase lounge there on the end.

 New place for the children's books, puzzles and toys! A place for game playing. (Now I can have a guest bedroom upstairs!)

Under stair opened up, for a hide-away in case of a tornado, or for the boys to play in!
There are a few things left to be finished up but it's waiting until after the holidays, I'm beat.

Tomorrow, it's time to prep for Turkey Day!  I do hope to get some time in the sewing room/office, although it will mostly be clean up.  That needs to be done so badly!  I plan to sew all day on Friday with one dvd movie after another on my little tv.  I'll take time out to walk with Quinn and eat but that's about all.  I need a break!

A tale of three acorns.

Every year I complain about acorns!  So here's why---

Most acorns lose their cap when they fall off the tree, either they leave it on the tree to fall later or it comes off when the acorn hits the ground. (Sort of like a child's cap does in the winter!)  Any way you look at it you have two pieces of acorn on the ground.  It isn't a problem in small numbers but after a while you begin to slip on them as they roll under your feet!  Mowing, or raking,  the leaves is necessary every week and this past week I started slipping on acorns so I had to rake them up -couple of 5 gallon buckets I expect just in the front.  The ones that land in the gardens have a tendency to sprout come spring and then I get to dig up little oak trees, it's easier to deal with them now!

There are three kinds of acorns around here:

On the far left are a couple of Burr oak acorns, I pick these up in the park on our walks, these are somewhat small due, I think, to the hot dry summer.  The middle ones are Red oak acorns from my front yard,  I finished cleaning them up on Saturday, there are more today.  The ones on the right are from the Pin oaks in the back yard-I have three.  I looked and looked for some with the caps on but no luck! These guys don't rake and are so small you just can't pick them up!  They can cause you to slide down the terrace, an exciting ride to be sure!  Squirrels love all three as do the deer-glad some one does.  I've heard you can make flour from acorns, perhaps I'll give that a try someday-NOT!

I've been busy but I have nothing to show yet--by this time next week I hope to have the basement room finished!  There will be photos!