Looking for Love

Our foster guinea pig from Dakin is still looking for a forever home.  He's gotten into the spirit for February and took out a personal ad:

Single older male, seeking long term relationship.  I love cuddles in front of the TV and gourmet dining (strictly vegan).  I'm low maintenance, enjoying the basics in life, like hay, pellets, and a brown paper lunch bag.  I'm a sucker for veggies of all kinds, except for cilantro.  In return for affection (and treats) I will be steadfastly loyal and will occasionally sing you the song of my people (at full volume).  

I Like Thursday: All Sorts of Cookies

A quick little I Like post full of cookies to share with Lee Anna's I Like Thursday.

This year Thanksgiving weekend was focused on cookies.  I made cookie dough before Thanksgiving, baked cookies the day after Thanksgiving, then attended the family cookie swap party on Sunday.

I dusted off an ancient recipe for date filled cookies to swap.  I remember the cookies were always really big, so I worked to make three smaller rolls.  I had to make extra filling to accommodate the larger surface area - but they came out quite nicely.  The other goodies will be gifts - stuffed figs, caramels, berger cookies and white chocolate dipped ginger molasses cookies.

Halloween Happenings

We had unseasonably warm weather on Thursday for Halloween.  I thought I would be going on a solo mission to the town center.  But last minute, my sister was able to come with her partner and brought our mom.  I also convinced Rob to come, so we were a crowd!  

I'm always so impressed with the decorations.  This buffet was my favorite.  A ghostly twisted Mad Hatter tea?  Down the street from them is a rocking graveyard which is always fun to see. 

I Like Thursday: October Occurrences

October has slipped by - it's time to share some of my joys with LeeAnna and friends at  I Like Thursday.

I enjoyed the fall colors, as muted as they were.  Leaves dropped almost as fast as they turned.  There was a lot of green well into the month but at this point it's rusty or bare trees.

Rob and I finally made a trip to The Clark, which we had planned weeks before, but life kept getting in the way.

I managed to squeeze in two trips to the pond to kayak between the rain and windy weather.  My sister joined me last Friday (with amazing 75° weather!). Not nearly enough paddling this fall, but I was happy we got the chance to go out.

I Like Thursday: End of the Year

I always have a bunch of posts at the end of the year with finished Christmas projects, my blogiversary and year-in-review.  Whew!  It's hard to find the time to write them all; I never think to do them earlier.  So the last week of the year is always chockablock full of happy things.  I have plenty to share with LeeAnna's I Like Thursday.

Even with all the rain on Friday we had a white Christmas.  Our sump filled from all the rain runoff, froze, then was covered with sparkly snow.  It was really quite pretty, and I liked the patterns around the edges (the water level must have gone down as it froze).

I Like Thursday: A Busy Season

Time to link up with LeeAnna's I Like Thursday for my weekly likes.  I need to focus on some good stuff, since the short days, rainy weather and being pulled in a dozen directions is fraying my calm.

I put up our Christmas candles in the sunroom.  I had to work around a tomato plant and some kale that just keep right on going!  I've never had a tomato last this long - there's at least five of them still on the plant (although I may need to bring them in for any hopes of them ripening).  Ha!  Maybe I should put Christmas lights on the tomato plant?  Wouldn't that be festive!

I Like Thursday: Halloween Festivities

Welcome to this week's likes!

I had a jammed packed weekend.  Went to a Halloween dance on Saturday night.  Some fun costumes.  My favorite was Baba Yaga's house.  He actually danced in it for a short while which was pretty funny to see in the line.  One couple came dressed up as Punk n'Pi (one person in fantastic 80s punk and the other in orange with π on the front and 3.14 on the back).  I threw on my basic goth outfit - I didn't have time to pull together anything else.  There was a Laura Ingalls - in pigtail braids and wearing her mother's old Gunne Sax dress (I remember those!)  A wolf in sheep's clothing.  Heidi.  Witches and skeletons and winged creatures.  All good stuff.

Pumpkin Show With Lights!

Stormy weather threatened our second trip to the Pumpkin Show.  Good new is, it wasn't a repeat of last year!  No downed trees, all the electricity on.  

The lights were amazing as we approached the estate.  Lots of orange, green and purple.  I enjoyed hearing all the exclamations from the little kids as the took in the jack-o-lanterns and the lights.  Look at this one!  See the owl?  See the bunny?  Is that a cat?

Chinese Man With Abacus

I've veered away storybook characters for this year's ornament.  Instead, my inspiration comes from the classes my nephew is taking at the Chinese Immersion school.  

I had made a Chinese man many years ago for my godson and initially thought to do something similar.  Both ornaments are Chinese characters, but went in different directions.  I'm quite happy with the end results, even with the struggle to get there!

I had a terrible time with body proportions.  Feet are too big.  He ended up with a short torso and is kind of fat.  Plus his hands are huge!  The big floppy sleeves were an unexpected challenge.  Plus, as I stated in the prior post, this is head number three.  I had all my technical issues with the basic body - after that, the rest came together.

I really liked his hair bun - I wanted to do something more elaborate, but was afraid it would break off.  I put a twist in the hook so it wouldn't interfere with the guy's hair stick (it seemed a shame if I made that detail, then hid it behind the ornament hook).

I Like Thursday: Some Holiday Prep

Another week has flown by, with several small good things to like.

I liked the snow on Saturday.  It was pretty, but heavy and sticky (and froze solid, which was extra work on the driveway).  I finally put up the candles, which look so festive against the snow.  I haven't put up any more decorations.  I need to dig out some more lights. 

Isolated Candy Making

I was going to trim down the participants for candy making this year, but I hadn't figured on paring it down quite this much!  Just me.  Working solo required a smaller number of recipes.  I picked items that would freeze or would ship well and could be scaled down easily.

The counter was a mess as I melted butter for the toffee, chopped white chocolate for paves and dark chocolate for ginger nut clusters.  Stuff scattered all over as I tried to organize what I wanted to work on first.

I Like Thursday: Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day. 

I finished my sister's quilt!  Just in time to bring it to our family's Christmas celebration on Monday.  So I was under pressure to get good photos on Sunday before giving it away.  The photos of it took some creativity and work (thanks, Rob!).  I should be posting more about it in the next few days.  (There's always a flurry of blog posts at the end of the year.)

Needless to say, my sister is thrilled!

Christmas finally guaranteed me a few days off from work.  Huzzah!  I certainly like that.

Mr Tumnus

Merry Christmas!

It was a close call, but I finished this year's ornament just in time.  I went back to a classic:  Mr Tumnus from the Chronicles of Narnia.

Yeah - I reread his description after I had done the legs to discover he's got black fur.  Oh, well.  Brown looks better (especially since his umbrella is black).

Oh, so much new stuff to learn and I really don't do this often enough.  All my clay is drying up, and I'm not motivated to buy more.

I Like Thursday: Bits and Pieces

Lots of little things this week.

I like the new diffuser for the stove.  The lowest setting on the smallest burner was still too hot for rice and oatmeal.  This works great!

Ooh - and for cooking this week.  Not what I did, of course, but check out these Gingerbread houses.  Beautiful!

I Like Thursday: A New Year

I have a bunch of likes from Christmas.

Get a load of the little Calvin and Hobbes.  My nephew made them.  The detail is terrific - there's even little pads on the bottom of Hobbes' feet.  You can't see his tail - but that's great, too.  The whole thing stands about two inches tall.  He does such small, detailed work.  I know how hard it is - I'm so impressed.

The background?  Those are new llama pajama bottoms my sister gave me.  I literally squealed, jumped up and down, and tried them on over my jeans when I got them.  Llamas!  I llove them!

Christmas Baking Mishaps and Successes

I did a little last-minute Christmas baking.  First was a chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake for Christmas dinner.  This has been bookmarked for some time - originally earmarked as a Game Day experiment before I decided to bring it to my family's Christmas.  The recipe is for a massive cheesecake, so I made it half sized.  According to various sites for pan conversions, half of a 10" springform pan should fit into an 8" round cake pan that was 2" deep.  Well... not quite.  I had to add sides to it to make sure it didn't overflow, because I clearly had more than two inches of batter.

I successfully halved the recipe but the rest was a comedy of errors.  Reconstructing the pan required redoing the crust.  Then I mixed sour cream and cream cheese in the wrong order, over-beating the batter.  Recipe clearly stated that will cause a crack.  Which it did.  Made for anxiety-free baking knowing it was going to crack regardless!  Then I layered it wrong, mixed in the chocolate chips too early.  Seriously? 

I ended up with extra balls of cookie dough because I made a section that was dough-free (anticipating family preferences).  I used the extra cookie dough as decoration.  It also identified the cookie dough-free section of the cheesecake - thus the uneven placement.

Good news is, it popped right out of the pan once it was chilled.  Made a  nice presentation, too.  Only one tiny wedge came home with us - the rest disappeared.  So it's a hit!  I will certainly make this again (and hopefully do a better job following the instructions).

Will Treaty - Ranger's Apprentice

It's Christmas!  Time to show off this year's ornament, based on the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan.  I read The Ruins of Gorlan to get a feel for what to make.  Not a bad book.  Definitely up my alley - knights, rangers, castles.  It's a big series (plus there's a spin-off set of books with Vikings, too).

This is Will, the apprentice.  He's a classic ranger.  I haven't created a D&D/fantasy ornament in many years.  Ah, this was a lovely project and so much fun to make.  Originally I had planned to do Will's horse, Tug, as well.  But as I worked the clothing and wondered how to assemble a cloak, I decided Will would be enough.

I enjoy the research.  I wanted to add the details of his saxe and throwing knives, but the blades turned out to be difficult to shape (and who would wear a bare blade on their belt?).  Instead I focused on his oak leaf pendant (I made it as a cloak pin) and his arm brace.  I needed something to put in his right hand, so decided he could carry his quiver.  The arrows were a fun addition: toothpicks and tissue paper.  I stuffed as many as I could into the quiver once it was baked.  The bow was also baked separately (it's actually burnt, which added more color and shine), then strung before I glued it in place.

A Fun Photo Shoot

We had a long-awaited photo shoot two weeks ago with Salem Pet Photo.  Working with Joey is always a blast.  I had been worried if Wedgwood would be up for it, but she was perky and happy on that Monday (and she's still doing well!).

Are we wrapping or unwrapping?

Candy Making 2018

Happy Easter!

I was apprehensive about tackling candy making this year.  Work has kept me preoccupied the last couple of months; I feel like I'm always on the go and slightly behind.  I attended an experienced contra dance Friday night.  I stayed later than I intended (but not as late as I'd have liked).  It's hard to turn down good dancers and a great caller.  I awoke Saturday morning with stabbing pain in my neck/shoulders and a half-functioning brain.  Not an auspicious start!

But some ibuprofen, a large cup of tea and a chatty, lovely group of gals in the kitchen made all the difference.  The day flew by.  I plunked down on a chair after everyone had left and thought:  what a wonderfully satisfying day.  A lot of hard work, mind you, and a lot of standing in the kitchen.  I logged nearly 1.5 miles between 11am - 4pm going back and forth between the stove and the table.

Every year it's an adventure.  We've made most of these confections for a decade and yet, no matter how many notes I take, there's still gotchas.  You'd think as a crew we'd have it down pat.  But it's only once a year and little things change. Or I forget to record something that's obvious at the time, but not so much so a year later.

I Like Thursday: A New Year

Happy New Year!

I had so much going on last week, I skipped I Like Thursday.  This week things are a little calmer.  I guess that's my first like!  Ha!

I like the annual Cookie Party.  At one point we were all packed in the kitchen, cousins all decorating gingerbread houses and the aunts all laughing.

It was mayhem.  Happy, loud mayhem.  A good way to spend the afternoon.