A Day Off...

I took some time to repair a few things on a rug I hooked for my daughter 7 years ago. She had a new puppy last year and it has been sitting in my closet waiting for me all this time.

This is not a good picture but you do see the pattern in the wool.

It does not have any color variations but is a straight light cream color. I am in complete love with this wool and I want more. I was on a self induced spending freeze this year for wool so this is the first I have bought all year and boy oh boy is it good. It would be wonderful dyed.

I have been decorating off and on since Thanksgiving I am declaring it done!. this is a tiny part of my little paper house village.

This is over my kitchen sink so I get to see them all the time.

my little gnomes. 

Sweet little faces.

I was also lucky enough to win a relaxation raffle basket from the Library. Inside is a gift cert for 1/2 hour massage and lots of lavender products. Very exciting! Since I caught my husband's cold and had to take Friday off and lay low for the weekend it was a nice call to get.

I did make some Pumpkin scones this morning they came out pretty darn good if I do say so myself.

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My sweet B and her skiing buddies were chosen to be in the flyer and the magazine for the mountain they ski at. Very exciting!

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Her parents took her to the police station to drop of some homemade cookies they made. I am so proud of her parents they both work very hard to make sure she understands the joy of giving and respect.

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Now for the winner of the giveaway!

Saundra it is you! email me your address I will get it in the mail in the AM.

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We are in for crappy weather (rain) you know the ground is frozen so we will be slipping an skidding all over the place. ICK

Have a great week! 

A House Tour And A Giveaway!

This is the Lucknow Castle also known as Castle in the Clouds.

Yes I have been here several times and shown you lots of pictures. 

But this was for Christmas.

Each room was decorated by theme not that impressed to tell the truth. Until I got to the maid's room and all that wool! (sorry upside down)

There were ornaments and roping made from wool..

Wreaths and ..

Trees made from wool so sweet..

And this tree oh this tree be still my heart. As you can see it is a candle holder and the center is threaded so you can move the individual pieces as you want. It was old, it had that old wood just yummy.  I have never seen one but oh I would like one, but I am sure it will be out of my reach.(this one was not for sale)

They even had music. The way he was dressed he looked like an elf. but his music was lovely.

This is what I always come for the view. We hung around for sunset.

The original owner Thomas Plante went bankrupt and lost this place. I always think how sad I am for him. To never have had it you don't miss it but to have it and have to leave would be soul crushing. It is such a peaceful lovely place still. (I believe he lost it in the stock market crash)

My daughter called me and said have you heard about the best gingerbread cookies in the world? It is located around the lake from us about an hour's drive not far from the castle. So husband and I went for lunch and stopped at the Yum Yum shop to taste the best gingerbread cookies in the world! As you can see husband and I dove in. It was warm from the oven and few to take home. They ship them anywhere you want. I am no expert but they were pretty good and they had lots of other bakery items too. It smelled just like Christmas when we walked in. I love visiting bakeries.

I decided to purchase Doreen Frost's (Vermont Harvest Folk Art) news letter for the month of December. It is lovely and the pattern can be used anyway you want to. There are stories and recipes, Plus it is nice to get mail.

I have had a LLBean gift cert hanging around so I decided to purchase some really nice sheep wool lined leather slippers.

They were 25% off plus they emailed me a 10.00 gift cert. I have never purchase really nice slippers. What a difference like walking on a cloud and toasty warm. These will come in handy we have been very cold and there is a storm that will last about 38 hours on the way. The crazy thing is the large totals of snow will be in the south! very very different for us. We are 4-8 inches and the south could get up to 16  inches I say good for them!!!

I hit the library on the way out Sat. I picked up this show that was on PBS that we had never watched. It was really good as everyone had said it was, And he is pretty handsome. 

If you are not using your library you are truly missing out. We get free passes to parks and museums and DVDs I also got a couple of Christmas magazines to thumb through.

About one or two Sunday's a month I cook us a big breakfast. 

I thought I would pass on how I cook my bacon. I use a broiler pan I have sprayed and lay out the bacon and into a 375 oven for about 10 minutes but keep an eye on it. All fat drips down below and you have nice and crisp bacon. Now I know it is not healthy but once in awhile is OK. And I feel I am doing a good thing by cooking out of the grease. 

If you are still reading along I am giving this pattern that was a freebie with purchase last year at Cushings. I did the one I got but I got this in a swap and in order to get things moving out instead of in I am giving it away. Just leave a comment no need to share or anything I will pull a name next Sunday, Dec 8th 

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Have a wonderful week and happy December.

Pine cone Instruction

I had a few people email me that they would like to know how to make the pine cones

Very easy just fiddly.

Because I am doing these for a book store I used old book pages.

These are 2 inch square, and some straight pins.

I just fold one end.

Then stack them starting at the small end of the Styrofoam egg and making the first 4 come almost together on that end. Then stacking them all the way up the egg shape until it is covered. pinning them by the straight corners.

I used an egg shape Styrofoam (this is a ball so not quite the same)

https://www.offray.com/diy-pinecone-christmas-ornament_573

This is a link on how to make it with ribbon. The size of your book page squares would depend on the size of the egg. Mine are pretty large.

I hope this helps any questions email me. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Power Outage...

 

I hosted my women's group's Thanksgiving on Wed. We had a total of 14 here. I cooked the turkey they brought everything else. It was delicious and it was so nice to see everyone. I really could not have done it if it wasn't for my sweet husband. He helped clean and put the turkey in the oven before I came home from work. How I love this group of women I feel very blessed to be part of them.

This is the season for baking and not even a mile beyond my house is a farmer selling fresh eggs. You just knock on the door and they will get you your eggs. In the summer it is on the porch you just put your money in a coffee can. 

Because we have been chilly and the house closed up I decided to make a brew of sorts in a large pot of water to make the house smell good and to give it some much needed moisture in the air.

I had rosemary, lemon and a tsp of vanilla. It worked great.

Yesterday we went to see our daughter,son-in-law, and sweet B it was so nice to see them. We did a bit of shopping before we went to their house at Christmas tree shop. I got new curtains, cheap, and a few other goodies. 

The new curtains look like the old mattress ticking and about the same color. I had had my old curtains for years. So a good change plus I wiped down the window trim before I put them back up another plus, cleaning as I go.

I have been working on my Christmas window at work. I really like the pine cone idea from book pages. (We are a used bookstore.)

A little decoration and they are good to go.

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We were in the middle of our beloved Patriots football game and no power! We have had bad weather all day and it is bad out there. But husband got the out truck and we headed just a couple miles away to a restaurant with power and the game. 

It was very frustrating as I was in my pjs and hooking happily.

But the power is back on and I am very thankful for that.

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I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. It is always quiet for us but that really suits us as I have to work Friday and we spend the day decorating the house for Christmas. 

Gobble Gobble.

Bread yum.....

We had The full Beaver moon also called the Frost 

moon but we are way past frost we have a light coating of snow.

I love the  full moon on the snow but it makes it very hard to sleep. 

I have been cleaning as I am hosting our women's group Thanksgiving this coming Wed. I think about 14 of us will be here. I cook the turkey and each of them bring the all the fixings. But while I was cleaning out I saw my bread machine and decided to make herb bread and oh is it good! 

Sat I met up with my best friend and my daughter and we had a morning of spa treatments. We do not do it often but oh how wonderful it was! my daughter gave me a whole bag of magazines which I love and this book that I am enjoying it a lot.

I finally gave up on the rug I pulled out that was a UFO and then I found this free little pattern by Kelly at http://kankerdoodle.blogspot.com/ I love her primitive style.

It really is the time of year that I tuck in and read, I reading a mystery right now by Louise Penny an wonderful author.

So a busy week ahead with my women's group coming and other  friends have invited us to dinner. 

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On another note husband went for a follow up appointment with a specialist this week. The verdict is he is good for now and no other appointments needed unless he has trouble again. 

fingers crossed for a smooth sailing.

Have a wonderful week!

Decorating for Turkey Day

I know most of you have moved on to Christmas but I have some 

cute Thanksgiving decorations so I will enjoy this season first.

I hooked this very small mat years ago very funky but I still like it.

I got a large lot of these candles for little money at a thrift store a few years ago. 

And my poor little Indian's feet are bumpy so he does not stand

very well but I have him tucked in with the others. 

My aunt gave me these two probably 35 years ago and out they come each thanksgiving. They are made of paper ribbon. 

I worked 6 days in a row (50 hours ) and am beat. I am way to old for those kind of hours but they were short handed. So my one day off Husband and I took a ride an hour north to Littleton NH. 

Such a sweet town with a wonderful Main St. Lots of small wonderful stores and we ate lunch at the counter, on the old red stools, of a local diner.

Our White Mountains were just glorious today, well really any day. 

This is just as we entered Franconia notch. I feel very lucky to live in the mountains.

After we shopped our way along Main St. We stopped for dessert at the largest candy counter in the world! Chutters! This is just a small portion of it and in the center is all kinds of high end candies such as fudge, nice chocolates etc. We spent the best part of 20.00 and snacked our way home. 

This is a sweet fence that was across the front of their local library.

Of course I hit their little local thrift store. These little knives will be put to good use when I give bread with compound butter for Christmas gifts.

This is a bamboo knife. I will use it when I have soft cheese etc.

I also purchased these Santa shot glasses. They are vintage made in Japan each has their original sticker.

It was nice to have a day with nothing to do but enjoy. 

I am deep into the pumpkin bread. I am making them for the Thanksgiving baskets that they giveaway at a local food pantry. 4 dozen this year. I am making and freezing right now. they need to be passed in by the 23 of November. I love baking and they like the bread so a win win.

 Freezing temps and snow in our future this week we will see how much snow but we will be hugging the wood stove for sure.

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Have a wonderful week