32*F Thursday

Brrrr... a bit chilly this morning! Not really looking forward to  going out to my car in 40 minutes. Ah such is life...  I will bundle up and be thankful it's not 30*F Below zero. Right?

Last night Scott and I went to Nick's and had a wonderful meal. Scott ordered a large Calzone with extra sauce and I ordered the Country Pasta. Followed by us splitting a piece of delicious cheesecake.

Then we went to World Market for coffee as it was Wednesday after all and that meant double coffee points... earn that free coffee faster! We also picked up a few Christmas gifts for the few people we will be gifting this year. I wanted to also stop at Publix over that way but we decided that we would do that another day as we were both pretty tired. All in all it was a very enjoyable evening out for the  two of us.

Better go get ready for the day!

A Project and The wind

I've begun working on the altered mason jar for the swap coming up on Saturday. Here is what I pulled together last night to add to the mason jar that I have all ready painted...



Yesterday when I left for work it was raining and apparently by the time Scott left for work the wind was picking up. So when I returned home I found a horrible accident had occurred; remember all that wonderful lumber stacked against our house... well...

NOT GOOD! And upon closer inspection I discovered this...

EVEN WORSE! One of the boards hit Greg's car and smashed the windshield so now he will have to replace that as well. He and Scott will have to go to some junk yards to get a replacement. I felt so bad for Greg and Scott. Last night Scott and I moved all the wood to the porch and laid it flat on a couple boards so it can't fall anymore.

Here is Tesla... he was so funny trying to get situated in a round clothes basket... I wish I had caught it on video.

Scott's Haul

Scott with "Treasure" - The Fireworks warehouse near where he works was throwing out all this lumber. Scott asked the Warehouse Manager and he told Scott to take ALL of it - anytime they throw something out there Scott could take it. YEAH! A new tractor shed is in the plans!

Here are the rough saw 2x6's after Scott had removed the nails.

My most recent card - a layered and stamped card. It was fun to make and I learned a LOT - next time I will use a more contrasting color between the stamped image layers.

An 8x 10-inch canvas I did for a friend. I have added gold Lumere paint around the edges since I took this photo. The gold really makes it look like a Vintage gilded postcard - SUPER SIZED.

COOKIES!

I'm going to bake some cookies to take into work tonight as some of us are working overnight to do the Seasonal switch to SPRING... bye bye Christmas. It's going fast - everything is dwindling and whats there is there... we won't be getting anymore. It's gone WAY faster than it was expected to go I think. Been CRAZY!!!

OK... back to the cookies...

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

1 cup shortening

2 cups sugar, DIVIDED

2 eggs

1 teaspoon lemon extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream shortening; add 1 1/2 cups sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs and flavorings, beat well.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture; mix.

Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls 3 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet. Press cookies with a fork to flatten. Sprinkle cookies with remaining sugar. (OK THAT PART I DON'T DO... I  DO LIKE MY GRANDMA AND GREASE THE BOTTOM OF A DRINKING GLASS AND DIP IT IN THE REMAINING SUGAR AND THEN PRESS THE COOKIES FLAT - THEY ARE FLATTENED AND SUGARED IN ONE MOVE)

Bake at 375*F for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield ; 8 dozen. more like 4 1/2 Dozen for me - they must use really TINY teaspoons


I also color the topping sugar if I want. Today I will do red or green; depends on what food coloring I have in the cabinet.

I may also make Snickerdoodles... we will see how I'm doing since I will need a nap at some point to make it ALL night.

OK HERE IS THE SNICKERDOODLE RECIPE!!!!

SNICKERDOODLES

1 Tablespoon Sugar

1 Tablespoon ground Cinnamon

(I just mix up equal parts of cinnamon and sugar  - this morning I mixed  3 Tablespoons of each together and will store any thats left over for the next time I bake these cookies or need cinnamon and sugar for buns)

1 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Combine 1 Tablespoon sugar  and cinnamon together in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream shortening; gradually add 1 1 /2 cups sugar, beating well. Add eggs; beat well. Stir in vanilla.

Sift together flour, soda, salt and cream of tartar in a medium mixing bowl. (I use a paper plate as I find it easier for the next step since I'm using a stand up mixer). Add to creamed mixture; mix well.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in reserved cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart on a lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 400*F for 6 to 10 minutes until lightly browned. Remove to wire rack to cool. Yield: about 4 dozen

Three Weeks

In three weeks Christmas will be over and Spring will have arrived in the store. Ah Retail always 5 months ahead of reality... talk about crossing your bridge before you get there huh? Ah well... thats how it is and I just go with it.

Yesterday I worked 3 AM to 9 AM and then came home and put up our little Christmas tree. This year I just added both leaves to the dining room table and set the tree at the end of the table closest to the wall. We won't be having a crowd here at Christmas so I figured we could just sit at the table and open gifts to and from each other.

I also completed another set of cards and have more in mind to make when I get home this morning. I drew this snowman and scanned him into my computer so that I could print more copies off and then color them in with my Prismacolor pencils. I think he came out pretty cute.I left the sentiment area empty on the one I am sending to Amelia so she can write her greeting in Afrikaans. I've started coloring in the ornaments that I drew and scanned into my computer. I'll finish those when I get home today.

Cards in the making....

These 2 cards I made first for my friend Amelia in South Africa

This is when I started getting smart - making one for Amelia and one for myself

I've started making the Christmas cards that we will be sending/giving out this year. I had also told my friend, Amelia in South Africa that we would swap 15 cards. 

I have 7 cards made for Amelia and 5 for myself... I better get busy. I need to get the cards off to Amelia very soon if they are to get to her before Christmas. Back to crafting!

A Walk and Leftover Dinner

Yesterday I had to work in the morning and when I got home we decided a walk by the river would be a really good thing after how horrible we have been eating this past week. I don't mean to say we've been eating nasty food just WAY TOO MUCH good food.

The view of the Capital City of Columbia from our side if the River

The river was up and we saw the remnants of caution tape that had been put up a few days ago as part of the walkway must have been underwater in a couple low spots.

With the water up so high the inlets were back filled with water and we came across this handsome fellow.  I made some sounds like a duck and he swam right over to where we were standing on the bridge. He seemed quite domesticated like he had belonged to people at one time.

Of course there were fungi to amaze me as  always and here are a couple of the photos I took to capture their glory.

On our way home Scott spotted a hawk sitting on top of a stop sign and I did a U-turn to see if we could get some photos of it. But it took flight so Scott wasn't able to get any good photos to share. It was a beautiful bird and so colorful up close like that. We also stopped so that Scott could take some photos of this old car that he found interesting.

When we arrived home I pulled out our Thanksgiving leftovers for yet another meal. At lunch time I had made up some Turkey salad for sandwichs but after our walk we were ready for a plate of food.

Thanksgiving Leftover Buffet

It was DELICIOUS!