August 2012

I received a very surprising, wonderful phone call last week: a photo that I had submitted to a calendar contest for our local power company got accepted!  I'm pleased to let you know that my picture of a tree trunk with moss and ferns all over it (taken at the Rock House in Hocking Hills) is the shot for August:

There are a lot of really nice shots in the calendar - I especially like the winter pictures that were chosen for those months.  So, if you don't have your 2012 calendar yet, you might enjoy one of these!  You can contact Ohio's Rural Electric Cooperatives at 614-846-5757 for more information.

The shot from Rock House was from our family vacation to Hocking Hills in 2010.  I'm so glad I brought my camera with me (seriously, would I have even considered leaving it at home!?) because some of my favorite shots ever were taken on that trip.  I think it might be about time to re-visit Hocking Hills - it's my photography-muse!

-Cheryl

Book Nook - Handmade Holiday Crafts

Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts: 225 Inspired Projects for Year-Round Celebrations:



Last week, a crafty book was featured here on my blog, so I thought I'd continue with that theme and share another holiday crafts book that I've been enjoying lately.  Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts is a huge book, filled with lots of great ideas.  There are crafts for holidays throughout the year, including New Year's, Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah & Christmas.  Each chapter/holiday has a neat title page done in some sort of creative, crafty way (for example, Mother's Day is spelled out by writing the name of the holiday in a pile of buttons - then, there are a couple of projects that use buttons, so the title page sort of "matches").

I think my favorite chapter in the book is the Easter chapter.  There are so many inspired crafts!  Maybe it's because I haven't seen a lot of the Easter projects yet, or maybe because Easter decorating and activities are pretty bare-bones around here, or maybe because I'm already dreaming of Spring, I just saw so many projects to do!  I definitely want to try the all-natural egg dyes (using ingredients such as cranberries, coffee & tumeric); I love all the egg-decorating ideas, but especially loved the botanical decorated eggs.  Such a neat idea & looks pretty easy to execute!  The envelope bunny treat bags are adorable.  And the projects with fresh Spring flowers have me wanting to skip over Winter all together.

But the same accolades can be given to each and every chapter in this book.  This is why I love Martha Stewart's books and magazines so much: new, fresh ideas that are sure to inspire you, in addition to excellent photography and clear instructions.  (On a side note, add all of the recipes that Martha has given me over the years, and  well, I'm one of her biggest fans)!  I can't help but look at all these neat, crafty projects and want to get started on one of them, and eventually do them all!

On Thanksgiving, our 6-year-old was setting the table and she asked about the napkins.  I asked her to get this book so that we could see some different ways of folding napkins.  Then, we kept the book on the coffee table throughout the day, and lots of our guests were perusing through it.  Even if you're not a "crafty" person, I think anyone would appreciate the many great projects in this book.

All that being said, I will let you in on a little tip: you can find many of these projects on Martha's website - for free.  And many of them (if not all of them) have been featured in her magazine.  So, you can get the ideas without investing in the book.  But, it is very convenient to have many of these ideas right there, in a handy book form.  The website also has tons and tons of Martha's awesome recipes.  It's the first place I go if I need a recipe for a dish I'm making, or if I need a crafty idea for a holiday or a party.  And now that I have her book, Handmade Holiday Crafts, that will also be one of the first places I turn to for inspired holiday crafts ideas.

Thank you, Martha!

-Cheryl 

{Vegetarian} Thanksgiving

I have really come to appreciate Thanksgiving over the years.  As a child, it seemed sort of boring, nothing more than a dinner.  No presents, no special songs, no real decorating.  But now that I'm an adult, I really love the simplicity of the holiday.  Maybe it could use a special carol, but I would add nothing more.  Getting together with family and loved ones just to have a simple meal and give thanks.....it's just perfect as is.

We had DH's family over at our house this year, but it ended up being a smaller group than expected.  But it was a lovely day, and after the meal we all just ended up sitting around, chatting for hours.  It was so nice!

This was my 2nd Thanksgiving as a vegetarian and I must admit that Thanksgiving Day is the only day of the year where I re-think eating veggie and consider getting a big 'ol plate of turkey.  My DH is a wonderful chef (no really, that's what he does for a living) so he is always in charge of the turkey when we host the holiday.  And it smelled wonderful!  However, I didn't budge, and still enjoyed a fantastic, vegetarian meal.  I think the key is to have lots of delicious veggie options - and we did!  I made a tasty walnut-herb stuffing that everyone seemed to love - it got a lot of compliments.  The recipe is from Martha Stewart  (I modified the recipe & used vegetable stock instead of chicken).  I usually skip stuffing altogether, but this year I had a second helping of it!  We also made mashed potatoes (DH made them and they turned out way better than mine ever do) & cranberry sauce.  Our family brought Brussels sprouts, green beans and onions and sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  Everything was so delicious!

Our 6-year-old was especially helpful, setting the table and doing little tasks for us to help get ready.  As her reward, she got to eat her meal on one of the "fancy" plates:

Little Dude found a quiet moment to sit by the fire and look through a book:

Here's a shot of the best pumpkin cheesecake ever.  I think it's going to be my Thanksgiving staple from now on - wherever I go, it goes.  The recipe is from The New Best Recipe and it is soooo good.  In fact, I had a piece for breakfast this morning (blush).

Isn't that one of the best things about having Thanksgiving at your own house......the leftovers!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!
-Cheryl

Preparing

The menu has been set by tradition.  Old recipes have been brought out, new recipes have been printed out.  The headcount is set (we think!)......

Fine china has been pulled out of the cabinet and washed.........

Ingredients have been sitting patiently until they get to room temperature........

We're having 18 people over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.  It's exciting and also a little bit.......yikes!

I hope you & your family have a very Happy Thanksgiving!
-Cheryl

Book Nook - Holiday Crafting & Baking with Kids

Holiday Crafting & Baking with Kids written by Jessica Strand:



Unbelievably, the end-of-the-year holidays are upon us.  Every year, I try to do some fun activities with the Bachsters to celebrate the holidays and keep them busy while they have a break from school.  This book is packed full of great crafts for kids - decorations, gifts and fun stuff to do.

The projects start with Thanksgiving and include things like making a leaf wreath, decorating a cornucopia and making place cards for the Thanksgiving table.  Other holidays included in the book are Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Boxing Day and New Year's.  There are also a couple of snow-themed projects just for Winter.  So there's something for everyone here!

I think the Bachsters would love to try the magic ice on page 49.  Here, you submerge a snowflake-shaped pipe cleaner ornament into a jar of water and borax.  Overnight, crystals form and make a really cool snowflake.  I also really want to try "wrap it up" on page 61, in which you take plain paper and paint holiday-themed shapes on it to create your own wrapping paper.  I think the soft felt ornaments on page 73 would be lots of fun, and would make great gifts to the grandparents from the Bachsters.  Of course, I'll need to check with them to see which projects they would like to do (I'm guessing the ones with the sweet treats)!

One thing I really liked about this book is that all of the projects are very kid-do-able.  And all of the photographs show projects that look like a kid actually did them.  They're not perfect, but as anyone who has done crafty projects with kids knows, perfection is not the goal.  It's all about having fun!  Let the crafting begin!

-Cheryl 

Playing in the leaves

I've been sick all week & I've been trying to spend lots of time in my knitting chair (where both knitting and dozing are known to occur) and less time at the office chair!  So, I'm just going to share a couple of cute shots with you now & then hopefully later this week I'll feel up to a lengthier post.  We had a really fun excursion recently & I can't wait to post some shots.

A few days ago, the 6-year-old announced she was going out to rake the leaves.  Ranger went with her and before I knew it, he was out there barking and she was out there cracking up with laughter.  It turns out that Ranger went berserk over the rake and every time she tried to rake up leaves, he tried to get it and tackle it to the ground!

Of course, when you're 6, it's just too hard to resist throwing leaves all over your puppy, which just added fuel to Ranger's crazy-dog fire.

I don't think they managed to actually rake up any leaves, but those two did have a fun time!

-Cheryl

Book Nook - Happy Day

Happy Day! written and illustrated by my 8 year-old DD.

This is a very special Book Nook selection because this is a truly one-of-a-kind book.  And since it will be more fun to show you the book vs. just writing about it, here is Happy Day in its entirety (along with some minor translations):

 Happy Day!

It was Nov. 12, so it was the day before a birthday!

We were hiding presents and decorating at night.

In the morning we took her out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

We got home and PARTIED

Then we (besides her) made a cake and blew up balloons.

She opened her presents and we ate cake.

It was a very good day!  P.S. She got a Boston Terrier.

The End

What a story!  I love the plot!  The characters aren't very detailed, but the storyline moves along and keeps the reader's interest.  And I love the illustrations - I think this book should be a contender for the Caldecott Award!

Did you know that this is actually a piece of non-fiction?  It was really my birthday yesterday!  And we really did go out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  And there was cake, as well as presents.  There was not, however, a Boston Terrier!

It was a wonderful birthday.  And Happy Day was one of the best presents this birthday Mama could ever receive.

-Cheryl