Loved The Turkey & 25 Days of Christmas

We had a lovely Thanksgiving. Lots of friends, family, and football. I brought my camera, but forgot to take pictures! oops.

I've spent every free moment I have working on my apron for the apron swap... now, you must realize this is the first apron from a pattern that I've completed on the machine. Patterns are a little annoying for me. The first time I thought I'd pieced everything together right, but you couldn't even tie it around your waist! So, I had to get my new friend (the seam ripper) and redo what I could.

Here's a hint, but I won't reveal until the Apron Swap Party Day- next Friday. That's the day we get to open our packages and read our new recipes to try.

I really like sewing, and since it's my latest "thing" I have at least 6 projects going on. Next week we're having a bazaar at work, and I'd like to contribute to that. Also, I have some big projects starting next week at work...

Which is why I'll take a blogging break until the Apron Swap Party! I just need to get off the internet, avoid online shopping for at least one week (I especially need to stay away from online fabric stores).... you know, all that stuff we did before the Internet came along.

I would like to propose a fun blogging thing- I don't have much response when I propose recipe swaps :( (that's ok), so I'm hoping to this time. I'd love anyone to join in on this one...... pretty please?

How about a 25 Posts of Christmas? For each day, share/post an ornament, card, photo, memory, etc. for each day of December from the 1st to the 25th, or 25 total posts. I hope you'll think about it and join me. Be so kind as to leave a comment if you will join in on the fun.

Have a good week!

Thanksgiving Postcards and the Turn of the Centuries

The weather is crisp, the leaves are gone, all guys talk about is football, all us girls talk about is food... it's definitely Thanksgiving! We'll be here, eating with other coaches and their families at my parent's house. I can't wait to eat tomorrow; definitely my favorite meal of the year.

I love my collection of postcards. Only a few have I purchased, but most have been sent or given to me. When I was in college, I waitressed (of course) and one lady I worked with gave me a bag of postcards from the early 1910's-30's. Another large collection of postcards were given to me by Jeremy's parents. One of his grandmothers saved her cards and postcards, starting at a very young age- at least 1900, if not some Victorian Valentines.

I've never taken the time to read them all, but a while back I did find one whose message interested me. A girl wrote to another woman about her new school in Brownsburg, VA (right down the road) and her new teacher, who had the last name Wade. Well, that school, a 4 room building has since been closed, but I can image exciting it must have been for this girl and this tiny town to have a new school. And, since I knew lots of people with the last name Wade, so I made some phone calls and found a niece of hers. She had passed about 2 years ago, but they were happy to have it. I hope one day I return an old postcard to its owner from years back, so they can go back in time just briefly.

Anyway, I love postcards and letters, but "snail mail" seems to be a dying art. I don't really like email, and I've never really had my phone glued to me either. (Actually, I usually don't answer my phone, and hardly ever do I check my voicemail.) I have tons and tons of stationary so I can write letters, when I have the time. This time of year is exciting for me because it's the one time of year people take the time to WRITE, and I love seeing their pictures, too.

We have a friend (Kirsten S.) who also seems to love the stories that are of times past. She lives in the most glorious of all cities here in the East- Savannah, GA! We visited last spring (that's a whole other story) but she was kind enough to show us around that beautiful city(thank you!). I want to live there (again, a whole other story), but for now, I'm happy to live vicariously through her. She works for an architect, and she has had the chance to go in the mansions and homes that have been left behind, stuck in another time. She has found wallpaper from turn of the century. We first saw her use photographs of these interiors with collaged wallpaper... see?

Well, now she has her own shop: Turn of the Centuries, and it's just fabulous! I love, love, love her chandeliers, and I do want one of everything! She's got some Christmas cards that I want to send to everyone, and I love her sketches.... Especially the marionettes. I can't wait to see what's next for her, she's so talented!

I'm off to work on my apron. I've changed my mind so many times and now I will just have to go with it. Swap partner, you don't know who you are, but I'm hoping you love it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

How To Candy Orange Peels (EASY!)

I mentioned I would share an easy recipe for candy-ing orange peels. I'm sure you could do the same with lemon peels. You could use these to top cakes, pancakes, maybe something chocolate or such....

Candied Orange Peels

-zester (not a microplane)
-2 or 3 oranges
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 cup water

1. Zest long, thin strips of the orange peel. Zest only the colored part of the peel, avoiding any white. The longer the strips, the better. Do this to all of your oranges.

2. Place peel strips in a small saucepan and pour in just enough water to cover the strips.

3. On medium-high heat, bring water to a boil. Allow to boil about 30 seconds, and then pour out the water, being careful to save all the strips.

4. Return strips to pan and repeat step 3.

5. After you have poured out the 2nd batch of water, return strips to pan and cover with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar.

6. Bring this mixture to a constant boil, and reduce the liquid to about 1/3 (of the original).

7. Now remove strips and place in a bowl, clumping them all in the center. Dont' use a paper towel. Let them sit for a few minutes to "candy" and then they are ready to eat!*

*You can use the syrup mixture that is leftover in the pan for pancakes or cakes.

Fabric and other issues

I currently have way too many sewing projects going on:
1. Apron, and it should be for the swap, but I just can't find the right fabric for my swap-reciever. But I have taken a break from it because I just don't really like it. There, I said it.

2. Quilt, as I made a few mistakes that I don't know how to fix. I love the fabrics too much to give up on the project.

3. Strawberries, which I can't seem to make enough of. I just keep going.

4. Floormats, the newest of my projects. Someone dropped off a big bag of old tapestry samples, and Lindsey, the girl I share a room with, asked me to make her a little mat for by the kitchen sink... The problem is that the fabrics are very thick, and I'm no expert at piecing them together the right way... so there are issues. I'm crossing my fingers.

I could be doing so many other things... but instead I choose to sit and sew. I haven't been feeling very well, and it's nice knowing that we don't really have to "work" next week (2 workdays, no kids).... so I'm not all that motivated to do. We just watched the final season of Arrested Development this week (I'm still in shock that I've seen the last episode, I need more!), and Jeremy's excited for a day of football.

A day like this is fine with me. A blanket, a cup of tea, sewing, nothing major besides THE BIGGEST FOOTBALL GAME EVER :)... what a nice way to spend a fall day.

We've got our Thanksgiving plans. Seems like lots of people are heading out of town. We'll be here. I cannot think of a Thanksgiving that I've spent away from my family... It would just feel so weird! I'm always assigned mashed potatoes and an appetizer, for some reason.

I wonder, what are your Thanksgiving plans? What will you make? Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Our Newest Additions

I'd like to share our newest pets with you...




Tree frogs! Officially, they are classroom frogs. I mean, they're in Jeremy's room. But we'll still be taking care of them a loooong time.

Have I mentioned that I share custody of my classroom bunny? Murphy is our classroom bunny, and he comes home with us sometimes, mostly in the warmer months, and the girl I share a room with takes him other times.

Let's see... Lulu the dog, Moby the cat, McGee the bird, an unnamed snail that used to be in Jeremy's classroom, Murphy the bunny, and 5, possibly 6 (if he didn't get eaten) tree frogs.... For once in my life, I don't think I want anymore pets right now!

How Many Days Until Thanksgiving Break????

What a nice weekend I had! Thanksgiving Break will soon be upon us... and we can't wait! Tommorow, we start having 1 o'clock closings (until Friday); next week, we do have workdays, but no students!!!!! Do you even have to ask if we're more excited than the kids? I personally can't wait for some time off.


I sort of had some time off today. This morning I had a super-fun Dr. visit-- my first visit to the Dermatologist to be exact. And I'm very fair-skinned so I got a lot of lecturing.... I even had to get a shot (EEEK!) and have surgery... ok, a mini one, which I won't describe in any detail, but I survived. The Dr. gave me all kinds of scary stuff about skin cancer, and I have to go back in a few months... I hate going to any doctor. I always have. They really know how to scare me. Have YOU been to the Dermatologist yet? You should really go and get checked out, especially if you've got fair skin and had bad sunburns.

I left feeling a little sorry for myself. (Cue to the violin music) Hey, I just had to spend 2 hours in the waiting room. I just got lectured for half an hour and THEN had to get a shot and THEN she made an incinsion and THEN (well, NOW) it hurts really bad. If you think I'm bad, wait until Jeremy goes! He's a really whiny patient, but it's cute!

So, since it was mid-day and I was AT LEAST an hour from home, I thought I'd cheer myself up if I did a little Christmas shopping... ok, I'm not really ONE OF THOSE people who gets all their gifts before Dec. 1. What I am in one of those people who buys lots of stuff to make other people's gifts... this year, my addiction of choice happens to be yards of fabric... anyway, I buy all kinds of stuff but never really finish all those projects so around Dec. 22, I scramble to find cool stuff that somebody else made.

Here's some of the stuff I've been working on. They still need their tops and some other fun details. Some of these I'll sell at our school's bazaar, but some will be little package toppers for gifts..... can you guess what they are?


Yup! Strawberry Pincusions. Some of them are gingham, some are polka dot, and the solid colored ones all have beaded seeds (red has black seeds, green has green seeds-- like unripe berries).

I have been working on lots and lots of little Christmas projects. Some I can show, but most will have to stay secret until after the holidays. I do want to bake a few gifts, so...


Ashley, Hillary and I decided to go to a Holiday Baking class out at Wade's Mill. What a fabulous way to spend a Saturday! Don't think you'll go to the class and just sit and watch her do all the work! Georgie (one of the owners) explains the recipes the class will make, giving you a few tidbits from the beginning. She assigns a recipe to each team, and then sets us loose! It's a little crazy because only a few people know where everything is, and you have to work in a small space you've claimed for your team (think Survivor :) )!


So, the three of us teamed up to make a Christmas Tree Cake. It was hard work, but totally worth it! It was sort of like a Stollen, and some mentioned that it reminded them of a Fruitcake (but I dont' know what that tastes like). Basically, you're making a simply spiced cake stuff with dried fruits, topping it with a simple orange sweet glaze and candied oranges (I think I'll share that step with you!).


It really was yummy! The picture does it no justice.


While our cake was baking, we got to see all the other recipes in progress. There were lots of old recipes-- one was over 150 years old- Mary Moore's Cheddar Walnut Wafers. Here's a little blurp about her that accompanied this picture at this website:

In 1784 Mary Moore, aged eight, was captured by Shawnee Indians and sold into slavery in Canada. When she was 15, she was rescued and returned to Virginia. Years later she suffered insomnia from the memories of her experiences, and this adult-sized rocking cradle was made to help her sleep. The cradle is one of the prized items in the Rockbridge Historical Society’s collection, and may be seen at the Society’s Campbell House headquarters.

Here and here are some websites I found that describe her story, if you're interested.

Anyway, after all the baking was done, we prepared simple salads and tea to go along with a Roasted Tomato Soup that one of the teams made. We sat down to a lovely lunch that we all made a part of... really a cool experience. We met lots of cool people; some came from Richmond or Charlottesville.


It was good for me to practice teamwork in the kitchen. I generally prefer to do it on my own, but I had a really good time working with my buddies! Let's do it again girls!



Oh, one last thing. Ashley's housesitting and showed me the coolest old home renovation-discovery I've seen in a while. They took down layers of old wallpaper and discovered that the room was once a nursery. Someone had handrawn and watercolored circus characters--- a seal, elephant, lion tamer, clown, giraffe. The homeowners left that portion of the wall just the way they found it. I want an old house!

I Might Just Be A Crazy Bird Lady, Part 2

I was so excited to get my Vintage Bird Swap package! The funny thing was, the person who I had, had me! She sent me such a lovely package full of birdie goodies! Check out the embroidery from the 20's or 30's...




I hope she loves the bird stuff I sent her as much!

Here's the package, and one of my favorite things I found for her was this box of bird stickers. Hundreds of old stickers (the kind you had to lick).... I got them as a lot on eBay of old stickers I'm guessing a teacher had or something. Her name was Miss McBride. From the lot I won, there were 4 little boxes full of this tiny stickers- stars of many colors and birds.

Any guess as to how old these might be????


I found more evidence that I have some kind of strange thing for birds...

Yes, that's a Posie Cagelet! I love that one.

Even here, at the sink.


Look where else I found birds! On our dinnerware! I never even noticed.


Well, I guess I do have some kind of weird thing for birds. At least it's not something really, really, really out there! Who would want that many eyes looking at you all the time? :)

Hope everyone is doing well!

To Blog or Not To Blog

Sometimes it's weird to blog. I've written on this blog liked I'm updating a good friend or family member, but then, I've left out some important things. I should just say that some very sad things have happened around here lately. (I'm ok-- don't worry! I'm just sad for some friends and family going through hard times.) I haven't felt much like blogging, and I've been doing things that make me feel better.

We all have our sad days, and I wonder what do most people do to make themselves feel better? Lots of people I know are really into doing athletic stuff to cheer themselves up. Me, anything athletic needs to be rewarded, so it doesn't feel like I really did much at all. (Example, I will run for an hour if we can go get donuts or pastries! Or, I'll go for X hike, if we can go pig out at X restaurant!) Some people write in their journal, but that is a lot of writing for me; I can't seem to say enough on 6 or 7 journal pages. Doing something productive usually helps me feel better. Working, cleaning the house, doing laundry, but especially, finishing one of the many projects I have lying around.

So this week, I worked on a quilt. I had purchased the quilt squares a long time ago, from Ebay. They're from Amy Butler's Charm series of fabrics. I just recently got a sewing machine, and I've given up the idea of making every person I know an apron... my previous idea... as I can't seem to finish the first one. I just don't like working with patterns. Yuck. So, I started this. I debated whether I should separate them, and sort them by groups of similar color, add in extra fabrics, etc. I decided to just keep them all together for 2 reasons: 1- they are all from the same line 2-I felt lazy and didn't want to look for more fabrics. Also whether I should have a solid color backing, or splurge on some more Amy Butler fabrics. You can see I did.

In my splurging, I also got some of this fabric to use later. Love it!
If you're interested in some splurging of your own, check out Diana Fayt- I love her work, and especially this calendar!

What else has been going on? Not too much. We did go visit Jeremy's sisters last Saturday after a sad, sad soccer game on Friday. We had a pretty nice visit with them, the new boyfriend, and the charming (but very sad looking) niece...



and afterwards we drove on the Parkway, which made for a relaxing afternoon.




Hope everyone has had a good week.

Am I The Crazy Bird Lady? Part 1

I ran into someone the other day who only seems to see me when I have necklaces with birds around my neck, and this time they said, "What are you, like, the Crazy Bird Lady?" Exploring the issue of whether I'm crazy... well, that's a whole other issue we don't need to explore today. :)


What is my deal with bird stuff though? But where did all this bird stuff come from??? A few months ago I started shopping on ETSY and noticed I was always drawn to bird images. Since then, I catch myself all the time picking up postcards, plates, collages... everything birds! I walk around my house and see ... bird stuff everywhere! It's strange because I never realized I had a thing for birds.

Well, okay I have had birds for most of my life, but I've also had dogs. I don't have dog pictures up all over the house. And, for the first time in my life, I have cat, and I'm not all into cat stuff. No "I love my ...." t-shirts for any of my mammals!

My first birds were parakeets. My dad took me to the Pet Store in town when I had to be about 7 or 8. We were supposed to get a furry animal-- maybe it was a hamster or guinea pig, but they were sold out. I remember we started walking out of the store and he stopped and said, "How about some birds?". So we went home with a parakeet. Darrell was the birds name, because I used to think it was so funny that on the Bob Newhart show there was more than one character with that name (Who rememebers?). We had that bird trained, but I believe my dog Ollie tried to bring it to me one day, gently in his mouth, no biting, but the poor thing just didn't survive. I know I had 2 or 3 more. A crazy one named Tarzan died of an fever. Another one, Pepper, got let out of the house and sat on a tree across the street for a few days, and then...? That was the last of my birds until college.


In college, I moved into an apartment in Silver Spring, MD. I had 2 roommates, but they'd be gone for the summer. We were on the 15th floor in this high-rise building, and the neighbors weren't too friendly because we were college students. Mostly families lived there. Anyway, it was just too quiet. So, I got 2 little parakeets . They sang all day, which I loved, but my roommates HATED! I could keep going with a history of birds I've had, whose names slip my memory, but I'll stop.

I've just always enjoyed their company. I'm not so strange that I'm going to walk around with one on my shoulder or something, an old Pirate lady with a patch and scream, "What do ya want?" I just love to hear the birds.


They're beautiful creatures, too.

Ok, some more than others. This one's not even mine!

Anyway, once my package arrives from this swap, I'll have more to add to my bird collection. I'll share more bird stuff then, but I hope everyone had a great week! Today I'm taking a personal day and will soon go watch the soccer team play in the semi-finals of their conference tournament! Excited and nervous!!!!