december 31 blizzard cookies (aka snickerdoodles)

I bought this gorgeous 2009 calendar from Jen Altman's Etsy shop. I love her beautiful blog, Nectar and Light, and thought that this would be a nice way to enjoy her photography throughout the year. I haven't yet decided exactly how I'll display it... for now, January is on the fridge. I'm thinking of doing something on the wall, but haven't developed that thought yet.
Someone with chubby little hands really likes these cookies. Someone other than me, that is. I've made Snickerdoodles before, and had forgotten how delicious they are. And easy, too. When Phillip's a bit older he can really help with them; for now, he had his own little bowl and whisk with some flour and "cin-min". (One of his favourite things to play with in the pantry is the jar of "cin-min kicks"). Anyway, it's an easy dough, rolled into balls and then in cinnamon sugar. You can see a few more pics and the recipe here. What better way to start a new year than by eating buttery cookies?
I guess it could be eating buttery cookies in the midst of a blizzard. We have a blizzard warning for tonight, and this time I'm a bit more prepared for a power outage than I was last week. I bought a crank radio / flashlight this morning. The radio was really the only thing I was kicking myself for not having last week. Hopefully we won't even need it and we'll have power, but just in case - I like to be prepared. Have a safe and happy new year; see you in 2009!

chicken bones

I just realized that everyone in the world doesn't have access to my favourite holiday candy. They're called chicken bones, and they're made by Ganong, here in the Maritimes. The outside is a hard cinnamon flavoured candy, and the middle is chocolate. They are lovely. My tongue is bright pink and has been for most of the past week. The ones pictured were at the bottom of a bag, and are a little bit broken and crumbly, but every morsel is delicious. They're in a gorgeous pottery bowl I picked up at Handworks in Saint John at their seconds sale on the weekend.

christmas, part 2

A boy who had fun building a snowman (with chocolate eyes!) and riding a toboggan with his Papa.

Christmas morning!
And the remnants of Christmas dinner.

We still haven't finished Christmas - we have yet to party with my folks, which we'll do later in the week. The house is slowly coming back to a somewhat livable state, it's a beautiful sunny day, and I think I hear a sweet boy waking up. It's a good afternoon!

christmas, part one

We had a lovely holiday and are home again. We visited lots, ate lots, and have lots of laundry and cleaning to do, especially since we didn't have power for a few days before going away. Adam took a few pictures I'll share; more are coming when I unpack my camera. The PJ's were an early gift from Phillip's aunt (my sister) and uncle, who will be having their first wee one in 2009. I'm going to be an aunt, yay! I really am super excited.
Adam gave me this gorgeous handmade wooden ladle, specifically for crockpot use, so the surface doesn't scratch. I love it, and so does Phillip!
And this was a gift I gave to Annie, which I made from a beautiful 100% wool Frenchy's sweater. She uses a water bottle every night, so I knew that she would appreciate it. And I thought it was quite clever, since Toast sells similar ones for 44 pounds. Too bad I didn't get a better picture! I'll be back soon with a few more pics of some beautiful handmade goodness.

Merry Christmas!

My 'Merry Christmas' post was supposed to be one of those short and sweet messages with a single lovely picture, but I'm going to do a bit of rambling. We had a snow and wind storm at the end of the weekend, and had no power for a day and a half. Luckily, we have a wood stove, so we were fine. We were also lucky that we didn't have any damage to our house. Lots of trees are down, a car was burned out by a power line on our street, and we're very lucky indeed. I haven't verified, but I heard that the gusts were up to 120 km/hr. Overnight on Sunday, I actually thought that the wind could have blown through out windows. It was wild.
To catch up on a few other things, Annie and Ingrid came over on Saturday and opened some gifts. Ingrid got that nifty roll-up needle holder from Annie, from this shop, which I think is adorable. We made some cake and generally had a lovely visit.
Oh, and those crazy knitters fluffed a rodent. (That's Annie's Ravelry Christmas t-shirt from Ingrid). I won't say anything else about the rodent, as it's a Christmas gift having nothing to do with me, but it was an entertaining way to pass the time.

So, I'm signing off for a little holiday. I hope that you all have a lovely break with lots of rest and happy times. Merry Christmas!

christmas reading cont'd

Adam took this picture of P and I doing some parallel reading this morning.

"you'll shoot your eye out, kid"

Good Saturday evening to you! I hope you're cozy and warm, snuggled up and ready for some snow. I have a cup of Aveda tea and a piece of cake waiting for me, and a new magazine to "cuddle read", as Phillip says. Ingrid brought the tea this afternoon, and it is just as good as my Egyptian Licorice Yogi tea. Both have licorice root, the source of yum, in them. Phillip's snug as a bug (or 'nug bug', as he says) in his bed, the washer and dishwasher are humming away, and it looks like it will be a quiet evening. My favourite kind. Oh, and we might finish watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It's right up there with A Christmas Story in the holiday hilarity department. If you've got a few minutes, take a peek at a couple of my favourite clips from them, in order. Heh heh.



Did you notice I changed things up here on the blog yet again? I couldn't take the cluttery background any more, festive as it was. I think this is much easier on the eyes. Hope you have a lovely weekend!

christmas reading

Guess where I found this for 20 cents?

I like to read Little Women at Christmas time, and I found this tiny, perfect little unabridged edition with shiny gold pages today. For 20 cents.
And this is a fun book from 1972. Also 20 cents. One thing I would like to learn is how to read a sewing pattern. My favourite parts from it so far are highlighted:
That's me!
"You know how your husband feels about his car?"
I am a small woman, though, so I should be careful. Oh wait, Phillip weighs that much. I think I can handle it.
And these, too. I am planning on doing lots of reading and resting and nothing. We'll see how it turns out!

i love pia more and more every day

The handle of a glass pitcher I found at Frenchy's not too long ago.


Pia posted about Poladroid today, and I think I just might like it as much as she does. I took pictures with my camera, ran them through Poladroid, added text in Photoshop, and voila! Poladroid is a free, adorable magical little tool (for Macs only, right now) which converts images into looking as though they were taken with a Polaroid. The little tool looks like a Polaroid camera, makes the sounds, and you have to wait as it 'develops'. FUN!

pharmacien de 1re classe

Santal Midy. L. Midy, First Class Pharmacist. Dose: 10 to 12 capsules per day.
Paris. Pharmacie, 113, rue de Faubourg St-Honore. Sold wholesale to: Maison Grimault & Cie, 8, rue Vivienne.

I picked up this little bottle at an antiques shop downtown at lunch time today. I saw it there a few months ago, didn't buy it, and kept thinking about it. Since I was on my way by today, I stopped in to see if it was there, and it was. So I bought it. I looked up 'Santal Midy' and this was the only information I could quickly find, from a fellow Maritimer, no less. The bottle is labeled as 'huile essentielle de santal citrin', and it was apparently, used as a treatment for bladder, liver, and venereal ailments. Syphilis, eh? No thanks. It was the French label and 'huile essentielle' that drew my attention, and I'm glad that I picked it up. It will cohabitate with my other small bottles.

cookies, cardinals, and a bloomin' Christmas tree

I made some delicious cookies on the weekend. Once again, the recipe was from Everyday Food, and you can find it here. I made the basic recipe with no frills, and rolled the dough in chopped pecans before slicing and baking. Mmm. They really are very, very simple and delicious.
Part of my Christmas gift from Ingrid was this sweet little cardinal ornament, made with gorgeous Martha glitter. It smells deliciously of cinnamon and glue. Mmmm. I think it's adorable.
And is your Christmas tree ready to bloom? Ours is! Happy Wednesday!

christmas podcast from TOAST

TOAST, kings and queens of all things beautiful, have a Christmas podcast for us common folk. You can watch it here. They also have a few free wallpapers here. Mmmmmmm.

Images from TOAST, here and here.

ellenwood walk

Yesterday, we went to Ellenwood for a beautiful walk. It looks considerably different than it does during camping season. Come have a seat and enjoy the morning!

At the lake's edge, there were blades of grass completely encased in ice. And still green.
And a light dusting of snow to make things sparkle.
Along with a happy boy in his stroller, who made the walk even nicer.

Adam took pictures, too,
and consoled P when we wouldn't let him run into the lake.

P at Ellenwood

And speaking of having trouble staying upright...

"Help, help, help up, okay."

early Christmas gifts

So, it turns out that we have a knack for breaking dishes. The dishes we registered for and received as wedding gifts were stoneware, and were a very sorry sight after 6 years of use. So I started picking up odd dishes like the ones above here and there (mostly at Frenchy's, of course.) Which seem to promptly end up broken. So after much deliberation, I decided that Corelle dishes are the most sensible solution, as they're light (very nice after those heavy stoneware dishes) and break and chip resistant. I've been keeping my eye out for them on sale, and the open stock pieces were half price today. So we picked the pieces we wanted, in white, of course, and since they were open stock, we didn't end up with any extra useless pieces (like mugs). Since we've also been breaking glasses, we picked up a box of those, too, which were not on sale, but are fabulous. I'll post about them soon. Yay! The cupboard is a much happier place now. I kept the dishes above to use as plant saucers or whatever else strikes me, as well as P's beautiful wooden bowls.
And lookie here! Ingrid knit me these gorgeous fingerless mitts and a matching cowl for Christmas! I love them. Thanks, Ing!

wrapping

A wee bag with no gift inside (as of when I took the picture). I love brown bags and red beads. They're similar to red berries, now that I think about it. Actually, I love a bit of red in every room. I think some designer said something like that once. Wait, our entire living room is painted red. I guess I just like it, in small or large doses.
I spent a bit of time wrapping today with some traditional and some non-traditional wrapping paper. The pink Martha polka dot paper with fuzzy dots was right next to the...
brown paper packages, which were alongside the...
pink and gold (although it looks peachy in the photo) fancy-dancy Martha paper for Ingrid's gifts. Which we imprompu-edly exchanged this evening. Fun! I decided that I am not going to buy any more wrapping paper or embellishments, but use what I have on hand. Hence the jumble of papers. Eventually, it will be brown (recyclable) paper all the way. With some red berries for good measure, of course.

I have both of my guys with me this weekend, and we're going to do something fun, whether it keeps raining (like it has been all week long) or not. Have a lovely weekend!