December 2009 – Page 2

Moving Right Along

32 Comments / December 15, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Chat, Sewing

Well, how did the weekend go? Did you all get tons of stuff done? My holiday mojo finally kicked in and I got all my decorating done (well, sort of, I scaled back a bit this year) and half of my shopping done. I even had time to help MeMum and BigDaddy with their big Christmas tree. It was lots of fun, although they probably didn’t think I was having fun — I’m pretty slow stringing those lights and it’s not real fun up on the ladder. But, we finished the tree and it’s very pretty!

In between the decorating, I squeezed out a little smock apron for my MIL.

It’s very similar to the one I made for my Aunt last summer. These smock aprons are so comfy and they cover lots of area for sloppy cooks like me — I need to make some for myself!

Also, on Saturday, after a looooong day of shopping, I was super happy to find a Straight, No Chaser special on PBS. If you don’t know about them, they’re a men’s acapella group that met at Indiana University about 10 years ago. They became “famous” on the internet a year or two ago where an exec at Atlantic Records found them and they’ve now made an album (or two.)

You can go here to play a video clip of them singing The Twelve Days of Christmas the song that made them famous. (I sure wish the embed command at YouTube would work with wordpress!) The video clip isn’t the greatest quality and certainly doesn’t do them justice, but it gives you an idea of what they’re all about, if you’ve never heard of them.

Anyway, it was a 90-minute special, well worth the watching. If you’re a Straight, No Chaser fan, I’m sure PBS will repeat it again before the holidays are over (it repeats on Christmas Eve in our area).

Ok…off to bed! Hope you have a great week — fun times are just around the corner!

XOXO,
Anna

Puttering

44 Comments / December 11, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Around the House, Crafting

Just popping in to say hello and Brrrr! It’s COLD out there. Old Man Winter arrived this week and it hasn’t been pretty. We didn’t get much snow, but the wind has been bone-chilling. We’re actually having a heat wave today — it’s 20F (6C) out there now. I’m staying in today!

I didn’t get much done this week – mostly just going to work and trying to stay warm. I did finish one little project. When I was a freshman in college, one of my roommates brought a family book to show us. Her mother had taken all of her five children to see Santa every year and had compiled a book of Santa pictures. I loved seeing their family grow right before my eyes — from the very first little baby on Santa’s lap to five big grown children crowding around Santa for a picture. That book had a big impact on me and I knew I wanted to have one someday when I had a family of my own.

So now, after many years, I finally have one. (Well, two – one for each boy.) It was a lot of work over the years to remember to go and see Santa (we forgot one year — I remembered on Christmas Day and by then Santa is all packed up and resting for the next year). And getting teenage boys to go and sit on Santa’s lap wasn’t easy either, but they’re sweet boys and they don’t like to see their mother cry. They’re very simple books — I didn’t want a lot of embellishments to take away from what’s really important — those Santa pictures. I love looking through them, but it does bring a tear to my eye as I know that having completed books means that the boys are all grown up now. {Very Big Sigh}

Ok. I’m outta here. Must. Decorate. Today. You should see the front porch. The glitter bells are hanging on the front door and the snow frosted pumpkins are on the steps. Classy.

Have a Great Weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Glittered Bells

50 Comments / December 7, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Crafting

Thanks for all the great comments on my cookie bake-off post. I had a great time reading them all and I even got a few new sugar cookie recipes to try – you guys are fabulous. And apparently even Martha read my post, ’cause not twelve hours after I posted, she sent me her sugar cookie recipe LOL. (You can subscribe to get Martha’s cookie of the day e-mail here.)

Anyway, speaking of Martha, did you notice that her December issue had a main cover and two alternates? One of the alternate covers (for me at least, it might have been the main cover in your area) showed two glittered bells, hanging with some greenery.

I looooove Christmas bells, so when I saw them, I knew I’d like to make them. Lucky me, out of all my Christmas decorations, I’ve never had a wreath for my front door, so I killed two birds with one stone. Mine are a little different than Martha’s, but I still think they turned out super cute. You can find all the instructions for making these bells Here.

This was my first glitter experience and I’m hoping for lots more. I love Martha’s glitter — not even close to the type of glitter we used when we were children. And look at Martha’s glitter:

Inquiring minds want to know the purpose of those little metal handles on the glitter container lids. Any ideas? I’m thinking Martha planned ahead — if you decide you don’t like glittering the bells (it’s so fun, I’m not sure how that would happen) you can always hang the glitter on your front door. No???

Before I go, I found two other fun things this week. I got an e-mail with lots of really good cookie links from Woman’s Day recipes. How cute are these peace shortbread medallions? You should snoop around among their cookies — there were some pretty good looking ones! And I thought this fun little gift bag might come in handy during the Christmas season too — you’ll think you have the wrong video, but stick with it.

I hope your Christmas preparations are going well. I’ve done almost no decorations, no shopping and no cards. WooHoo! It will hit me soon and then I’ll be in a panic. Have a good week!

XOXO,
Anna

The Sugar Cookie Bake-Off

59 Comments / December 4, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Family, Holidays

Boy, thanks for all the Advent Calendar Love! I love this time of year — it’s so fun seeing what everyone is working on. There have been a ton of advent calendars online and it’s been very inspiring to see them all. I’m ready to make a new one!

This is also the time of year when all the Christmas goodies come out. We had so much fun in October when we had our Chili Cook-Off that we decided we should continue the tradition. This time, with Christmas so close, I thought it would be fun to try different cut-out sugar cookie recipes. MeMum has had a wonderful recipe that we’ve made every year since I’ve been a little girl, but I’ve seen so many other recipes out there and I’ve always wondered how they stack up.

The instructions were to come to the party with the dough already prepared. Then we would cut-out, bake and decorate all together. We had six different “teams”, therefore, six “recipes”.

Team 1: Moi. I tried the recipe from Cookie Craft with their royal icing recipe because their cookies are so pretty. Their recipe had no baking powder or baking soda which helped these cookies do the best job of maintaining their shape. With the royal icing, I suspected these cookies wouldn’t taste very good and I was right — cardboard has more flavor. Blech.

Team 2: MeMum. She used our tried and true recipe. It has a hint of lemon. She had a little trouble with the dough this year though.

Team 3: MyDadLovesMeBestSister. Her recipe contained cream cheese. I love cream cheese and I’ve always figured if a sugar cookie had cream cheese in it, you couldn’t go wrong.

Team 4: My nephew and TheFirstChild. They totally cheated and brought a roll of Pillsbury Sugar Cookies and canned frosting. Boys. Men!

Team 5: CrazyBIL. I think he got his recipe from his mom — it was for a soft sugar cookie. He had a little mishap, in that he added a little too much lemon to his frosting. I personally loved it, but it was too tart for most everyone else.

Team 6: My two nieces and SweetiePie. They tried a recipe containing buttermilk. Aren’t their cookies cute?

After the cookies were all made, I convinced everyone to have a blind taste test. They weren’t so sure, but I reasoned that you also taste with your eyes, so it was the only fair way. This part was lots of fun — you should have seen the faces when that sour lemon cookie hit their tongues!

So, who won? Well, in theory:

Gag Me.

I have two words: Chemical. Aftertaste. I think this cookie won because of the frosting. The rest of us pretty much fell down in the frosting department because we were concentrating on the cookie dough so much. MeMum’s cookie and the buttermilk cookie came screaming into second place. They both have great potential. I thought the cream cheese recipe was pretty disappointing. And way at the back of the pack were the lemon and cardboard cookies. Cardboard was dead last. Let that be a lesson to you — don’t judge a cookie by it’s cover.

Of course, now that the contest is over, I’ve seen several new recipes that I want to try, so there will be more experimenting. It’s just too bad they can’t all be tried at once! Oh, and we’ll be looking for more bake/cook-off ideas after the new year — any suggestions?

XOXO,
Anna

Month: December 2009