Today I've updated the website and decided to start blogging on the site, I've blogged a personal site in another location but wanted to share more of my day to day life. I have so many interest and thought it might be fun to share them.
Today was the continuation of a major cleaning spree that I had. The family has been sick with some nasty stomach bug for the last while so its been a while since I could actually get some deep cleaning done. The kids and I took down the Christmas tree and took all the santa decorations down. I've made 2 batches of french bread today. I'm hoping to make some sandwiches from a new cookbook I bought. The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond; I have really enjoyed it. It has the kind of recipes my farmer of a husband will eat; he is a meat and potatoes kind of guy and the kids are not adventurous at all..
This is a picture of 1 of the 5 sleighs I painted up for Christmas gifts. The design is by Nancy and DeLane Designs from the Dec 2009 PaintWorks Magazine.
December 16, 2009 Candy Candy Everywhere; but ugh I don't even want any
My cure for candy addiction; make so much of it the idea of eating it makes you sick :-) Since I'm currently not working I decided to try my hand at making/selling candy this year. Why not put all the years of candy making for family and friends to good use. So I had my hubby take a list to work and try to get some orders and also a friend offered to try to sell some at work . . . the result? So many orders that I could barely keep up. If I had many more I would have to have recruited some help, other than the kids (who were big helps by the way). All in all this is a tiny portion of what I ended up making. I made a total of around 35 dozen buckeyes; 20 dozen turtles; 10 dozen chocolate covered caramels (by the way I think that they are a waste and should just throw on the pecan and have a turtle; but an order is an order); 15 dozen Oreo balls (or as my son likes to call them Reindeer Poop), 3 dozen rocky road. Luckily, hubby (who is OCD about the house) was very understanding and it took only a week and a half for him to start complaining about the mess in the kitchen and dining room. All in all it was a great season and I had a lot of fun making candies and hope to do the same if not more next year.
Gourds Gourds
January 14, 2010
I have started several gourd projects that I'm very excited about. I am working on a gourd nativity inside a larger gourd. A scarecrow painted on a kettle gourd, a heron painted on an apple gourd, a small vase made of two gourds.
Plants and Seeds
January 18, 2010
I have ordered my seeds for this spring. For me this is a bittersweet duty. Exciting because of the thoughts of nurturing those seeds into life and dreaming of how my flowerbeds will look with new life and colors. Sad though, because its mid-January and I still have several months of white and brown outside. One thing we did this past growing season is to work on the flowerbeds around the house. We moved two verigated dogwoods up by the house and enlarged the flowerbeds around the house. We removed a huge maple that was around 50+ years old and that opened up the whole area to the sun. We went to an auction and bought 4 more weeping cherries, 4 veriagated weiglia, and 5 nest spruces so I have to wait until spring to see how they do.
This is a picture of the very front of one of my beds. The pink flower to the left (mallow like a miniture hollyhock) is one the self seeded and grew there I just didn't have the heart to yank it. The yellow is a marigold and the pink in the middle is an ice plant.
Cara's Thoughts on things . . . not just painting ;-)
