We've had so little rain around this part of the country in the last few months that a dark, rainy day is a joy. Especially when one doesn't want to leave the house.
I'd love to have tons of pictures to throw up here on the blog but DS#1 has dropped the camera one too many times. He says, "Oh can't you just buy another?" Oh, sure, let me just go pluck a few $100 bills off the old oak tree and run up to Circuit City problem solved.
So you must take my word when I tell you much baking is being done here at the ranch. Let's see what the total of baked goods are to date:
2 dozen blueberry muffins
3 cans of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls
1 Devils Food cake
1 batch of sugar cookies
1 batch of chocolate chip cookies
1 can of Pillsbury Grands biscuits
1 cookie sheet full of pigs in blankets(cocktail smokies wrapped in a bit of biscuit)
2 pumpkin pies
Tonight for dinner the baking continues with oven fried chicken for dinner, maybe even some pumpkin muffins.
Who knew a working oven could bring so much joy? I don't even enjoy baking that much but a fresh baked muffin or pie is so much better than anything one can buy in the bakery department of the grocery store.
Wish my stitching was as productive as my baking but I've been sidetracked the last couple of days. I have started a Christmas ornament and am beginning to feel the Christmas spirit kick in. The spirit has kicked in so much that this morning I popped in Christmas Vacation while working on my ornament. I do so *heart* that movie.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Ovens Rock!
Well I am happy to report that my oven is fixed. That means much feasting on all kinds of oven baked goodness will begin in the next 30 minutes. As soon as the gas company repairman left I mixed up a Devil's Food cake and found some vanilla icing hiding in the pantry. WAHHHHOOOOO! Now it's time to give some serious thought to the Thanksgiving menu. Thoughts beyond, "If I buy a prepared dinner from Winn Dixie can we heat it in the microwave?" Holiday cookie baking here I come! Pumpkin pie, welcome to my mucho caliente oven! Peach cobbler, get ready to get oooey and goooey and crumbly, be prepared to melt some vanilla ice cream from your oven baked heat baby!
Ok, I do realize it's just an oven. I get it. My oven has been broken for so long I can't remember the last time I used it. I want to say New Year's, but I think it might have been closer to Valentine's Day. Being that it's a gas stove and the stove top worked just fine I've been able to make dinner for the family, we weren't completely stoveless but man, sometimes a girl just wants some warm Duncan Hines brownies fresh from the oven. Sometimes a fresh baked Pillsbury cinnamon roll would just hit the spot, a stupid hot biscuit for that matter.
It's amazing how such a little thing can rock one's world.
Ok, I do realize it's just an oven. I get it. My oven has been broken for so long I can't remember the last time I used it. I want to say New Year's, but I think it might have been closer to Valentine's Day. Being that it's a gas stove and the stove top worked just fine I've been able to make dinner for the family, we weren't completely stoveless but man, sometimes a girl just wants some warm Duncan Hines brownies fresh from the oven. Sometimes a fresh baked Pillsbury cinnamon roll would just hit the spot, a stupid hot biscuit for that matter.
It's amazing how such a little thing can rock one's world.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
CMA Awards
Anyone see the CMA awards last night? I have one question, who is dressing these women? I love country music. I love Sara Evans but the first dress she had on when she sang, please, that's a dress one would wear to the company Christmas party. It looked like something off the rack at Sears. Yes, she looked nice, for a funeral. Then when they put the camera on her when she was up for Female Vocalist she had on some Wilma Flintstone looking thing. She's had three kids, lost a lot of weight, has learned to work the camera, and then dresses so blah. Come on Sara, you're a star, embrace it!
Martina McBride, great singer, beautiful, cute figure. Her gown looked like it came from the tuxedo shop in the Mall.
LeeAnn Womack, her first ensemble, 20lbs of potatoes in a 10lb sack. Her second gown wasn't too bad, much more flattering but she still could have done better. The second gown had a prom dress feel to it.
Julie Roberts, her outfit made her look like she had two bust lines.
I looked at the DH and said, " Let me tell ya, Faith Hill will come out on stage looking like a star" and of course she did. Finally proof that someone knows what works and what is glamourous. Yes, I like Faith but no more or less than any of these other women.
Gretchen Wilson is the exception. She looked great, stayed true to who she is without looking like the softer side of Sears.
Now who am I to judge the way these women dressed? Well I read InStyle magazine. I have a clue. The aforementioned women, Gretchen and Faith excluded, are clueless about style. Pick up some fashion magazines before the next award show ladies.
LeeAnn Rimes looked glamourous as did Shania Twain. The red carpet chick from CMT looked into the camera when Shania Twain walked away and said, "She looks just like a movie star". What does that mean? Shania is a star, all these women are stars. They just need people to dress them like the stars they are.
Was shocked Sugarland didn't get the Horizon award, but I'm glad Dierks Bentley won.
What was up with them not letting anyone give any kind of thank you speech? I can hear the music any time. Let people talk, that's part of the fun. Alabama was inducted into the Hall of Fame and they shut them down before everyone got to speak. That's just wrong.
I'm glad Keith Urban won male vocalist and entertainer of the year. I have all three of his CDs and all are easy on the ears.
Wish Sugarland had scored the group of the year award but that went to Rascal Flats.
Martina McBride, great singer, beautiful, cute figure. Her gown looked like it came from the tuxedo shop in the Mall.
LeeAnn Womack, her first ensemble, 20lbs of potatoes in a 10lb sack. Her second gown wasn't too bad, much more flattering but she still could have done better. The second gown had a prom dress feel to it.
Julie Roberts, her outfit made her look like she had two bust lines.
I looked at the DH and said, " Let me tell ya, Faith Hill will come out on stage looking like a star" and of course she did. Finally proof that someone knows what works and what is glamourous. Yes, I like Faith but no more or less than any of these other women.
Gretchen Wilson is the exception. She looked great, stayed true to who she is without looking like the softer side of Sears.
Now who am I to judge the way these women dressed? Well I read InStyle magazine. I have a clue. The aforementioned women, Gretchen and Faith excluded, are clueless about style. Pick up some fashion magazines before the next award show ladies.
LeeAnn Rimes looked glamourous as did Shania Twain. The red carpet chick from CMT looked into the camera when Shania Twain walked away and said, "She looks just like a movie star". What does that mean? Shania is a star, all these women are stars. They just need people to dress them like the stars they are.
Was shocked Sugarland didn't get the Horizon award, but I'm glad Dierks Bentley won.
What was up with them not letting anyone give any kind of thank you speech? I can hear the music any time. Let people talk, that's part of the fun. Alabama was inducted into the Hall of Fame and they shut them down before everyone got to speak. That's just wrong.
I'm glad Keith Urban won male vocalist and entertainer of the year. I have all three of his CDs and all are easy on the ears.
Wish Sugarland had scored the group of the year award but that went to Rascal Flats.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Waiting
Well today has been spent waiting on the gas company to show up and repair the ignitor on my oven. My oven hasn't worked in ages and finally, I have time to waste waiting on the repair person. In case you haven't figured it out already, I'm still waiting.
Is my house clean? Well for us it's down right spotless at the moment but to the average person it's still probably pretty messy. All the clean laundry is on my bed, I'm gradually putting it away. The kitchen floor needs to be mopped but I'm just going to wait until the oven is repaired to even bother. I even remembered to remove the racks from the oven so that's one step the repair person doesn't have to bother with. Am I courteous or what?
No stitching accomplished today. Spent the morning cleaning, why I bother I'll never know. I clean for hours and while it looks better it still doesn't look "clean". I have cleaned out the entry way, moved some furniture around so the living room is almost ready for the Christmas tree and vacuumed and vacuumed, and vacuumed some more. I kept having to stop and declog the vacuum as the dog hair would reak havoc on the hose. I do have two tables piled with magazines, games and junk but I can't do everything in one sitting now can I? I'll depile things tomorrow.
On the subject of stitching, I'm still working on House #9 on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I'm filling in the bottom part of the house and then all I have left is to fill in the black on the top section of the block. I think I'm going to save that for a time when I don't want to count and move on to the cow block next door. I love the cow. Why do I love the cow? Well I grew up in the country, seeing cows was nothing out of the ordinary, since we've moved down here near the Gulf cows are not common, beachy animals they are not. Horses are here and there in people's yards, yes, horses in the back yard. Chickens are pretty rare around here too. Well a while back we drove up to Florala on the Florida/Alabama state line and I saw cows. Lots of cows. I was so excited you would think I was 5. So this little cow block is very special to me.
Christmas is right around the corner, YIKES! This weekend is going to be a Christmas ornament stitching weekend for moi. I need to get in the mood and get rocking on some ornies. I'm hoping with the repair of my oven
I'll be in a holiday baking/cooking mood and then all kind of festive, warm fuzzy holiday feelings will take over. I'm reaching, I know.
Keep your fingers crossed for me that the oven repair is routine and is taken care of today, or we'll be eating turkey tv dinners for Thanksgiving.
Is my house clean? Well for us it's down right spotless at the moment but to the average person it's still probably pretty messy. All the clean laundry is on my bed, I'm gradually putting it away. The kitchen floor needs to be mopped but I'm just going to wait until the oven is repaired to even bother. I even remembered to remove the racks from the oven so that's one step the repair person doesn't have to bother with. Am I courteous or what?
No stitching accomplished today. Spent the morning cleaning, why I bother I'll never know. I clean for hours and while it looks better it still doesn't look "clean". I have cleaned out the entry way, moved some furniture around so the living room is almost ready for the Christmas tree and vacuumed and vacuumed, and vacuumed some more. I kept having to stop and declog the vacuum as the dog hair would reak havoc on the hose. I do have two tables piled with magazines, games and junk but I can't do everything in one sitting now can I? I'll depile things tomorrow.
On the subject of stitching, I'm still working on House #9 on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I'm filling in the bottom part of the house and then all I have left is to fill in the black on the top section of the block. I think I'm going to save that for a time when I don't want to count and move on to the cow block next door. I love the cow. Why do I love the cow? Well I grew up in the country, seeing cows was nothing out of the ordinary, since we've moved down here near the Gulf cows are not common, beachy animals they are not. Horses are here and there in people's yards, yes, horses in the back yard. Chickens are pretty rare around here too. Well a while back we drove up to Florala on the Florida/Alabama state line and I saw cows. Lots of cows. I was so excited you would think I was 5. So this little cow block is very special to me.
Christmas is right around the corner, YIKES! This weekend is going to be a Christmas ornament stitching weekend for moi. I need to get in the mood and get rocking on some ornies. I'm hoping with the repair of my oven
I'll be in a holiday baking/cooking mood and then all kind of festive, warm fuzzy holiday feelings will take over. I'm reaching, I know.
Keep your fingers crossed for me that the oven repair is routine and is taken care of today, or we'll be eating turkey tv dinners for Thanksgiving.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
A Couple of Finishes
Below is a pic of my finished Sirens of the Sea by Carriage House Samplings. When I first started stitching it the browns kind of depressed me. I couldn't imagine it being as pretty a piece as I thought it was, well I was wrong. The pic doesn't do it justice. I'll frame this one myself. It'll fit in an 8x10 frame so now I get to go in search of the perfect frame for it.
Here is a picture of House #5 on Carriage House Samplings Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. These houses are so misleading. I think I can crank out a block in a day or two and each of the two I have stitched has taken at least a week each. I started House #9 last night while watching Disc 2 of Season 1 of The O.C.
You may notice the border around the house isn't quite finished. Well I'm not considering that part of the block. I'm saving the border stitching for a time when I don't want to count and just want to make little Xs. Last night I started the border around House #9 and #10. I would really love to get HOHRH finished this year and I do like to think it's a reasonable goal but I'll see how the stitching goes. I'm interested to see how much progress I can make on #9 today. That should be a good guide as to how much I can reasonably stitch on a block per day.
Friday, November 04, 2005
Finally a Picture
Ok, for some reason this pic blurred big time. But we'll just go with it for the time being and I'll take another when the sun comes up. Guess I had the camera just a little too close. It wasn't blurry in my editing software. Maybe I reduced it too much?
I'm delusional where my stitching is concerned. I truly thought when I started this piece it'd only take a couple of days to complete. The joke was on me. It's taking forever. When I first pulled the colors and started stitching I wasn't very happy, thought it was going to be kind of drab, but of course I should always, always trust the designer. At least when the designer is Kathy Barrick-Dieter of Carriage House Samplings. She has yet to let me down in the design department. The colors all started coming together and I'm loving it.
Yesterday afternoon I put in two lengths of floss on Mouline Rouge. I'm much happier since I pulled it out of my 11x17 Qsnaps and popped it into a nice, light, easy to handle wooden hoop. It's much easier to see the holes in the 40ct lambswool now that I have MR in a much more manageable frame. As soon as I finish Sirens of the Sea I plan to work on MR a little more often. It's going to be a lot more enjoyable to work on now.
Also, my Houses of Hawk Run Hollow has been screaming at me to pull it out of it's plastic baggie and finish House #5. It's so close to finished, at least block #5 not the whole piece.
So end of year goals are as follows:
1) Finish Page 1 of Mouline Rouge
2) Finish Page 1 of And They Sinned
3) Start and finish several ornaments
Other than that I'm just going to fly by the seat of my pants.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Two Weeks of Discovery
Or Adventures in Unemployment
Things I've learned about myself:
1) No matter how much time during the day I have to clean house I always end up putting it off until almost time for everyone to get home from school and a few minutes before the DH is due home from work. (kind of like cramming for exams the night before the test)
2) I really, really dislike housework.
3) I hate a dirty house.
4) The two halves of my personality argue all day long. Clean, don't clean, no one notices, no one cares. Sit and stitch. No, clean. Read some blogs, no, clean. Call me Sybil.
5) I love TV on DVD. It's the greatest invention since the iPod and the laptop.
6) I really can sit and stitch for hours on end. The worst part, I don't even feel guilty.
7) I don't miss seeing people every day. I thought I might miss that part of work, the whole human interaction thing, nope. Not one little bit. What does that say about me?
8) I really like my kids. I have time to spend with them these days and am never in a hurry. I have time to listen to them. My 17 yr old is a pretty interesting guy. I didn't realize how much I missed them. Sure I saw them every day, before school, after school, but I was always in a bad mood, tired.
9) I love the quiet. I embrace it.
10) A few weeks ago I had a few projects I had hoped to finish by the end of the year, now I'm frustrated because I can't complete a project a day. Who do I think I am?
11) Yes, a person can watch too much Law & Order.
Yes, I'm probably just a wee bit crazy. All in all though with the exception of the whole money thing unemployment is the best thing that has happened to me in a while. I have needed the break. I do need to learn to budget. That is a concept that I don't embrace, but it's time to act like someone my age is supposed to act.
Hopefully some updated stitching pics tomorrow.
Things I've learned about myself:
1) No matter how much time during the day I have to clean house I always end up putting it off until almost time for everyone to get home from school and a few minutes before the DH is due home from work. (kind of like cramming for exams the night before the test)
2) I really, really dislike housework.
3) I hate a dirty house.
4) The two halves of my personality argue all day long. Clean, don't clean, no one notices, no one cares. Sit and stitch. No, clean. Read some blogs, no, clean. Call me Sybil.
5) I love TV on DVD. It's the greatest invention since the iPod and the laptop.
6) I really can sit and stitch for hours on end. The worst part, I don't even feel guilty.
7) I don't miss seeing people every day. I thought I might miss that part of work, the whole human interaction thing, nope. Not one little bit. What does that say about me?
8) I really like my kids. I have time to spend with them these days and am never in a hurry. I have time to listen to them. My 17 yr old is a pretty interesting guy. I didn't realize how much I missed them. Sure I saw them every day, before school, after school, but I was always in a bad mood, tired.
9) I love the quiet. I embrace it.
10) A few weeks ago I had a few projects I had hoped to finish by the end of the year, now I'm frustrated because I can't complete a project a day. Who do I think I am?
11) Yes, a person can watch too much Law & Order.
Yes, I'm probably just a wee bit crazy. All in all though with the exception of the whole money thing unemployment is the best thing that has happened to me in a while. I have needed the break. I do need to learn to budget. That is a concept that I don't embrace, but it's time to act like someone my age is supposed to act.
Hopefully some updated stitching pics tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)