Hippie at Heart

I wasn’t around in the 60s, so what is it about the country that brings out the hippie chick in me? It must be something about the proximity to nature, the ‘getting back to basics’ of it all that has me braiding small sections of hair and wearing layers of beads…
Everything about this house sparks creativity.

Put Another Log on the Fire

It’s a cold day out on the prairie today, foggy and slightly snowy and absolutely perfect for laying about with hot tea and a good book. Try as I may, I simply cannot muster the gumption to sew a single stitch…
Luckily, I toted in enough wood yesterday to last me till tomorrow, so it won’t take much ambition to keep the fire blazing.
*sigh*
Today, I’m a giant human slug.

German Chocolate Frosting

Before leaving for the country today, I hung out in the kitchen with Skye while she made her first ever batch of homemade German chocolate frosting for her friend’s birthday. See, German chocolate is our favorite, but not the junk they sell in plastic tubs at the grocery store.
This is my husband’s aunt’s recipe, and I’m nearly certain that once you try this you’ll never go back to store bought again!

2 sticks butter
1 can evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed)
1 cup sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup shredded coconut

In a large heavy skillet, melt the butter.
Stir in half the milk and half the sugar. Keep stirring until it gets thick like hot pudding, the add the rest of the milk and sugar.
Stir constantly until this gets good and thick again and has a more caramelly color.
Remove from heat and stir in coconut and pecans. Frost cooled cake with hot frosting (if you let frosting cool, you’ll never be able to spread it!)

A Quickie With Photos

Today I’ve got lots more stitchin’ to do, so I’m gonna make this short and sweet.    Here are some pix of what I accomplished yesterday afternoon at Skye’s request, and of course, pictures of the kitty cat teapot.  Please click on the thumbnails for larger views:

Without leaving the house or spending a dime, Skye and I covered the old couch and loveseat with painting drop cloths and slipcovered all the old pillows with fabric from my stash.

Picture of the now cozy couch – the lighting is better for this shot than for the loveseat on account of the window.

Just the tiniest hint of what we were working with. Freddy picked out this hideous furniture all by himself a few years ago!

Meow baby! Every time I see this teapot, I smile.

Notice how rotund this kitty cat is! Must’ve been LOTS of cream in her tea.

Stuck on Stupid and Reasons to Smile

Sheesh, what a nutty day!  Have you ever been absolutely stuck on stupid and have no idea why?  In my case, I’m fairly certain that sharing my bed with 2 dogs and a full grown hairy snore-beast contributed to a lack of sleep which caused my addle-headedness. 

First, I went out to feed the chooks, filled a water pitcher and a food pail, took the pitcher with me but left the food on the porch.  Not a fun morning when you’re outside on a snowy day and didn’t feel the need to bother with a coat.

Next, I found out I have no fewer than 73 cooties on my pc.  As if ONE cootie isn’t enough, I’ve got 73 hanging out and botching up the works.

I lost my cup of coffee.  Seriously.  Lost it.  Which is funny only because I lost it on the spotless kitchen cabinet right next to my elbow.  I was looking around, turning in circles, saying, “What did I do with my coffee cup?” when Skye took mercy on me and said, “Um, Mom… it’s right there.”   

Yeesh!  I’m a walking talking disaster area!    Anyway, good things that happened today:

I found some SUPER cute pink plaid fabric for a pittance – $1.50 a yard!  So, I got 3 yards because it was a funky sort  of morning and I felt spendy.

I’ve got green chile started on the stove and flour tortillas in the making – my friend Kim gave me a mix for tortillas at Christmastime and my family has been hooked on tortillas ever since!  (thanks a lot, Kim!)

The kitty-cat teapot my mom discovered at the thrift store yesterday was sitting on the counter when I got up this morning and it totally made me laugh again (which is precisely why I bought it in the first place).

My darling daughter just swept the kitchen floor without being asked to.

I have bottled a batch of 2009 beet wine and once I have batch #2 bottled, I will have about 12 bottles of beet wine – I drink less than twice a year but I love this stuff, so there is no such thing as too many bottles.

See?  There’s always something sweet to add to the lemonade when you’re feeling particularly lemony!

Quirky

For lack of more interesting subject matter, I’m just going to post a few oddities about myself. Hopefully this will help the public at large, if only to show everyone how utterly normal they are in comparison.

If my husband makes the bed, I secretly remake it right before I go to sleep. I wouldn’t hurt his feelings for anything in the world, but I can’t sleep if the sheets are all janky and not even tucked in.

I don’t wear sweat pants because their unflattering fit makes me look mannish which makes me feel like I’ve given up on being a chick. However, I have no such issues with yoga pants. Go figure.

I will literally go 2 miles out of my way to avoid a particularly nasty lefthand turn across there lanes of traffic in my town.

When no one is with me, I listen to the cheesiest music and sing along. Loudly. (rock me gently, rock me slowly…)

When I pull on my socks, I make sure the foot print on the underside of the sock matches the corresponding foot. And if the seam doesn’t sit exactly the right way at the top of the sock, my shoes feel funny all day. Freddy thinks its funny to pull my socks so that they are slightly askew, simply to see how long I can stand it before I fix them.

I have actually attempted to kill someone with kindness. She never did die, which seems like a good thing in retrospect, but at the time it was just annoying.

I think whoever created The Gilmore Girls is a genius. I love everything about the show, but most especially the decor in the Girls’ house.

I don’t watch scary movies anymore. Too many years of weighing the risks of being attacked by zombies in the dark on the way to the bathroom, even if I really, really have to pee, have left me less than excited about being scared out of my wits. Doesn’t matter that I have never once encountered Hannibal Lector in my closet during daylight hours. Doesn’t matter that I’ve never personally met the boogeyman.  Doesn’t even matter that at my age, a gal shouldn’t be afraid of the dark.  All that matters is the magical monster-magnetism of nighttime and the fact that I have an overactive imagination.

I turn EVERYTHING into a song, which the kids loved when they were little and which my dogs still love now.  “We are washing the dishes, and there are lots of bubblesssss…”  I don’t tend to bother with making things rhyme for these little ditties.

Speaking of kids and songs, since the girls were little we have played games with existing songs by changing their lyrics. Gypsy and I are both particularly gifted at this, and we’re especially fond of our version of Keith Urban’s “You’ll Think of Me” with “shaved your cat and made a sweater to keep me warm in icy weather…”  Yeah, we realize it’s silly, but that’s why it’s fun.  I’m pretty sure it’s games like this that gave my kids such great senses of humor.

I love to discuss politics and/or religion, because I have very different philosophies than your Average Jane.  However, some people tend to think that I’m being argumentative when really I’m only curious about WHY folks think and believe what they do.  And since I hate to argue, it’s just easier to discuss these hot topics with like-minded friends, rather than with relatives or strangers.  That said, I totally think gathering ideas and views from people who DON’T think the way I do is WAY more interesting.

I firmly believe that lumber and power tools is a perfectly wonderful Christmas present for a woman.

I believe that texting is going to be the downfall of the written language as we know it.  I’m actually pretty sure it could be the downfall of verbal speech, too.

If you have anything remotely interesting on your person or in your grocery cart, you can be certain that I will strike up a conversation with you in line. 

While I know that women are as able as men to do pretty near anything besides writing our names in the snow with our own urine, (ick) I stick to more traditional gender roles for tasks in our home.  But, I think EVERYONE should learn how to do just about EVERYTHING they possibly can because you never know when a skill is going to come in handy.  Freddy knows how to do laundry, and I know how to solder copper pipe – we just typically try to get out of those tasks and leave them to the other whenever we can.

Okay, that’s enough about me – I’m boring my own pants off!  LOL  Have a great day, all!

By the Light of the Silvery Moon

Wow! What a pretty night! It comes about an hour earlier on the prairie than it does in Denver, so it feels almost like cheating, enjoying the moon so much sooner…
Next on the agenda: got cuppa tea with a spoon of heavy cream and a good healthy dose of Gilmore Girls. Nights like this, I don’t miss my youth or parties. At. All.

Goin’ to the Country… Not Gonna Eat a Single Peach, Though

If you’re unfamiliar, there is an extremely annoying song about moving to the country and eating a lot of peaches.  Pretty much that’s the extent of the whole song, so apparently that guy was really into peaches.  And moving to the country. 

Be that as it may, every time I’m heading out to the future homestead, that silly song gets stuck in my head and repeats itself over and over with little reprieve.  So today, that’s what’s playing on my own personal jukebox.  How about you?  What’s going through YOUR head this fine Friday?

MmmmmmmmmmmmmmMayo!

Today, I made mayo.  Real, honest to goodness, homemade mayonnaise.  And it was easy and pretty good, too (and thanks to Julia Child, I was able to confidently use my food processor).

Now, here’s the catch.  Sure, it’s yummy if you have the benefit of a food processor, but I have to tell you – if it came down to having to make this stuff with a whisk and homemade was the ONLY way to get mayo, well, my family would be using a lot more butter.

Thinkin’

What a great day it’s been!  I bought a few groceries, snow isn’t coming till tomorrow and I managed to sew a few more things for my shop.  My head/hair model, Skye, isn’t here right now so I can’t take pictures/post items until she is.  I baked rolls for Freddy (after much hinting around on his part) and I’ve got a delectably fragranced pork tenderloin roasting in the slow cooker.  Ahhhhh, life is good!

Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting both Erin AND Denise for coffee, one for lunch and the other after work, so I’m totally looking forward to some girlfriend time.  I’ve got the fabric store calling my name so I can get more swami bags underway, and this weekend I should be able to whip out a few more aprons to post, too.  One nice thing about drawing my own patterns is that some of my old bills are turned into something that make me smile instead of something I want to scrunch up into tiny balls and toss into the fireplace!  Electric company, meet my new pocket hen! 

Oh my poor, busy brain is on overload with all my ideas for new creations – it’s actually hard to sleep at night without lemon balm to assist!