Bits and Bobs

Mixed with a few hours alone with flickering candles and some Christmas music, and what do you get? Apparently, a folksy Christmas tree.

This December (for me anyway) is starting off to be one of those "merry messy Christmas" years when all the seasonal reminders of hope and joy and peace don't hide the fact that the daylight hours are getting shorter and there are some pretty dark clouds hovering on the horizon. It seemed a good night to hit pause and let my mind do some creating while my heart did some reflecting.

I'm keeping the decorating to a minimum this year, but somehow with the carols ringing out and this beautiful light ball (a wonderful gift from my mom) shining on my desk,

it just seemed like a little something else was needed. Specifically, a tree! With some inspiration from the odds and ends of things in my craft drawer (from ribbons to pieces of other abandoned projects) , I attached a few things to a piece of fabric with embroidery thread and pinned it onto a picture frame already hanging on my wall. Makeshift and festive! Despite my need to make it "now, now, now" without measuring or thinking too much, it turned out rather better than it might have done, if I do say so myself.

Sending up a prayer that your Decembers are filled with joy and peace and that your hearts are overflowing with hope as you face your own "Happy Messy Christmases."

A Couple of Snaps from PA

Recently had the opportunity to go on a bit of a tour with my parents and my grandmother, now age 93, to see a few places in the Goodville, Pa area.

Here is the home where my grandparents, Moses and Verna Weaver, set up housekeeping more than seventy years ago.

On days when my grandpa went to work, my grandma would walk the mile and half to spend the day with her grandmother who lived on a nearby farm. Her grandparents were Clem and Mary Martin.

Two Brothers

Unwritten posts...

Thought I'd kick off the new decade with a list of posts I intended to write in the new year, but somehow never got around to in the past months. (I've been "helping" my mom and sis get their new blogs up and running, and I realized my poor little blog has been sorely neglected.)

For starters, I've added two new baking instruments to my collection that I have been using, using, using... A stock pot and a baking stone.

This has been used often for making one of my favorite comfort foods--chicken noodle soup.

The baking stone has been particularly useful for making things like pizza or recipes out of the cookbook Healthy Breads in Five Minutes a Day. Like the cinnamon raisin bagels and loaf of whole wheat bread pictured below.

Then there were the photos from projects like:

- my first attempt at homemade buckwheat noodles-very floral tasting and didn't really fall in love with the them. It was fun to make the noodles though! I will have to try my hand at "regular" pasta noodles sometime. Here is the dough getting to rest overnight so it could "bloom"

-my 2010 knitting project inventory -with two to many super secret unfinished projects to actually post

- the vanilla update when I added a third vanilla bean in an attempt to speed things up. And yes, it WOULD be easier to just add store bought vanilla to "finish" it, but I am getting stubborn that this batch of homemade vanilla extract will actually one day turn into vanilla extract. Next step with this project is to see if I can fish out the the beans and slice them lengthwise. Maybe if the insides of the beans can get out and mingle with the vodka... Photo from when I added the third bean on the fifth of Jan and today;

-the mini caramel sticky buns/cinnamon rolls (just enough for one) in my little Ikea "tartlet" baking dish. to give you an idea, the baking dish has somewhere in the neighborhood of a four inch diameter