Happy New year

Happy New Year!

I said to myself, "Phew I made it through another Holiday season." This is something I have said to myself for a number of years now but this year it made me stop as these words flew out of my mouth. Made it through... what a obstacle course.. a battle.. bad times. Yikes I don't want to make it through anything... okay maybe hard times.... but not life, not time with family. Making it through sounds like I had to walk through the mire, muck, bullets flying through the air. Okay that might be a little dramatic but you know what I mean.  I want to enjoy every day, enjoy what the season means, what it means to me. I want to be inspired, to be filled with love and wonderment.

The season for me begins with Halloween and last until 3 Kings day (January 6th). I know that is kind of long but 3 months never seems to be long enough. I barely get out any decorations, running last minute to the stores for either candy or presents. Never mind the cooking and cleaning. And the traffic ick! Now that is a battle LOL. But really I get so busy doing that I don't stop to actually enjoy what each Holiday means to me.

Let's take Halloween.. It's all about trickery, fun, pranks and getting a little scared. How I love going to haunted houses. I haven't been to one in years. Now for those who know me, know I don't like horror movies but for the month of October I make an exception. I'll admit, I rather see the scary Halloween movies like Hocus Pocus or Halloween High to the Walking dead movies. But you gotta admit they are kinda of fun to watch sometimes, but only in October. For me I just love decorating for this season. Creating the grave yard in my front yard. The haunted mansion look inside. That part is the best for me. There has been a number of props I have been wanting to make, the man caught in the spider web, a table made form leg bones and more tombstones. That is also what makes Halloween fun, the creation of these props.

Thanksgiving is all about the leaves, crispness in the morning air, hot apple cider. For years I've been wanting to  drive further north to see the wonderful changing of the leaves.  That is still on my list of to do's. One of the best things I love is driving through a leaf covered road and looking at my rear mirror and watching the leaves swirling in the air. Baking yeah that is also fun to do during the month of November. Apple pies, Pumpkin pies. My very first pumpkin pie I ever made at least that I can remember was with my father. We made the whole thing from scratch. From cooking the pumpkin to making the crust. It was the best damn pumpkin pie I ever had. And dad if you are reading this and if my memory is wrong don't correct me. I love this memory as is. A matter of fact if I'm wrong just tell me I'm right cause I really love this memory LOL.

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas. The smell of pine, fireplaces, twinkling lights, the first Christmas song and the first snow flake. hmmm this is making me feel like a repeat please. I love the first night, after decorating the tree, to sit in the dark with only the tree lights on. It is so magical. Listening to carolers singing. I had the experience of having Caroler come to the door once. It was at the house of a dog I was taking care of. The dog went nuts and then I heard the music coming from the outside. When I opened the door to see all these people burst into song made my heart skip a beat. Wish I had cookies to give them. Decorating for this holiday is also fun. I think is all that pine smell that I love best like being outdoors without freezing. The thing on my list for Christmas is cutting down my own tree. I'll have to look into this.

Looking over this, these things look doable. The one thing that comes to mind is pause. Pausing to smell, pausing to look, pausing to enjoy, pausing to breathe it all in. The other thing that comes to mind is setting aside time...hmm other way to say pausing... but this time to make as in props, baking, and to have quite time and setting time aside to reflect. To do this next year I will have to plan not planning as in doing but planning as is what will make it memorable for me. So I pulled out my agenda and on the month of September I wrote down. Holidays are coming What can I do each month to make it tremendous, fun and joyous.

So tell me did you make it through the holidays this year or were they tremendous, fun and joyous?

Lots of love and thanks for stopping by

XOXOXO

Esther

PS I always wanted to draw in my agenda. Pretty cool

Cowboy boots

I bought these boots for a steal at DSW. If I'm remembering correctly I couldn't have paid more than $30.00 for them. I knew at the time they were not leather but I thought they were fun. I made the mistake this past Christmas of scooting over while on my knees over a rug. As you can see the tops got worn away.

I was going to get rid of them but I thought maybe I'd paint over the tips.

These are a few ideas I got off the Internet. I decided to go with a simple design on my first try at painting shoes. 

I tried using fabric paint with my first layer. The paint was too transparent, I didn't think multiple coats would help either. I moved on to acrylic paint.  I got the coverage I wanted. Now I can wear the boots again. I don't know if the paint will last. If it doesn't I can always pull out the paint brush and do go to town again. 

Thanks for stopping by

XOXO

Esther

Baked French Toast

I was looking for a recipe on line for a brunch get together I was hosting. I ran across this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. I have seen her show on the Food Network. Her recipes are not by any means low fat. She cooks for her family that work on a ranch ...yeah I don't think low fat low calorie foods would keep them going long. I had a feeling this recipe was going to be super yummy.
I read the ingredients and I could just taste the yummies.
Now you see I wrote "I read the ingredients" which is exactly what I meant I read only the ingredients went shopping got what I needed and the day of brunch I read the recipe.

To my surprise the bread was suppose to soak for several hours to overnight. My family was coming in two hours. I almost changed my mind and not make it. But I figured I would soak the bread in the egg mixture as long as possible before I popped it in the oven.

The recipe says you can either cut up the bread in cubes or tear it into pieces. I went for the tearing.
I thought it would give the final look a bit more texture. But I don't think it would make a difference either way. If you are preparing the dish the night before like I was suppose to I guess the tearing of the bread can be rather Zen like.

After the bread soaks for a while in the egg and cream mixture, you add the crumble top.

The whole this gets baked for 45 mins to an hour. The crumble top gets a little crunchy. Just spoon it out and top with powered sugar and a side of fruit.

You don't even need syrup with it. The recipe says you can add fruit just before the crumbles. I might just have to do this recipe again with peaches or apples. YUM

Here is a link to the recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/cinnamon-baked-french-toast-recipe/index.html

Thanks for stopping by
XOXO
Esther

Potato Leek Soup

One of my go to cook books is the Joy of Cooking. I have used it so much that I had to buy a new copy since my first copy kind of fell apart from so much use. Their version of Potato Leek Soup is very simple. I decided to make the soup while I was grocery shopping and didn't actually read the recipe before I went. The recipe calls for 8 leeks whites only. But I only came home with 3.

 I decided to make the soup anyway. The recipe is quite simple 8 leeks, butter, 3 potatoes, 5 cups of broth. My favorite broth is Progresso. But I will use any that is on sale. I also tend to not buy the low sodium because it tend to forget to salt my cooking. That save me from having bland food. LOL

Saute leeks until soft.

Add rest of ingredient and boil for about 1/2 hour or until potatoes are soft and puree.

I got this hand held blender for my birthday. I couldn't wait to try it out. One of the reasons for making this soup. Once you puree, you can add a cup of cream if you want a creamier soup or thin with broth if you want a thinner soup. Guess which way I went...

Yup with the cream. It was so yummy. Try the soup it so fast to make, unless you taking photos of the process. wink wink You will be eating in less than a hour.

Thanks for stopping by
XOXO
Esther

Charm Bracelet

Last year I had bought a kit to make a charm bracelet. I learned so much from the kit. How to put together beads with bead caps and spacers. Who would have thought there were so many pieces to put together to make one item to put on the bracelet.

Early last fall I decided to try to make one on my own. Looking for all the components in the local craft stores was a challenge. Not every store carried what I needed and I was trying to make it pretty similar to the kit. In the end I had to change things around. I should have looked on the internet. I didn't think of it at the time. 

I was very happy to find these smokey colored tear drop glass beads. With the bead spacers and tiny pearls they really dressed up the bead and made it look to romantic. I learned how to make rosary chain since I couldn't find any pre-made. It turned out easier than I thought and I was able to put a strand together in no time.

Here is a look at one of the bracelets I finished.

Thanks for stopping by

XOXO

Esther

Ribbon Bookmarks

I learned how do to this ribbon bookmarks

They were simple to make once I decide on the ribbon size. 

I really wanted velvet ribbon for the book marks. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to find velvet ribbon. I did find some in a some in a sewing store but the color selection was quite limited. To expand my options I bought some trim ribbon. The one ribbon color I couldn't find was purple. At least nothing I really liked. The next thing was the ribbon clamps. The clamps are sized in millimeters verse inches. For the measuring challenged person like me, I had to keep it simple. Luckily for me the spools had both the inch and millimeter sizes on them and I didn't have to convert the measurements myself.

There were a few suppliers on Esty I wanted to buy from but because I waited to long to buy I ended up buying them from Amazon. Cuddos to Amazon prime I had my clamps in two days. Yep that meant the Friday before Christmas. Nothing like waiting till the last minute. 

The side benefit of this project I organized my beads. It sure made things much easier. There is more to get organized but I'm off to a great start. 

Thanks for stopping by.

XOXO

Esther

Saying Good-bye To My Little Man

Today I said goodbye to my buddy Gus. Of the three ferrets that shared their lives with me he was the sweetest. He was so gentle, sweet and easy going.

He loved going outside. I remember trying to put this harness on him. The second I got the last buckle fastened he was out of it. Once he understood that the harness meant it was time to explore he never fought me again to keep it on.
 

 He loved digging I had a tub full of shredded paper for him to play in. He would bury himself deep in the bin sometimes and go to sleep. Another of his favorite things to do was to play in his tunnel system. I would hide some food in the tunnels and he run to find his treasures.

One of his favorite places to sleep was his carrying case and the alligator bed. It was funny to watch him get comfy in the bed. It always looked like the alligator was chewing him

 



 Another of his favorite places to sleep was on my bed. Now I have a super high bed and it was a climb for him but he always found a way up.

Another favorite toy of his was this mouse he loved chasing it and chomping down on it. He would also try carrying it away to a hiding place.

One of his favorite pass time was trying to get to the basement. Watch this funny video showing how determined he was. Believe me he would work that door until it would pop open.

I remember the time he made snow. Take a look you see what I mean. The look on his face of pure joy. I couldn't be mad at him for getting into so much mischief.

I was cleaning up Styrofoam pieces for weeks after that.  This gave me an idea, I gave him a box of dirt to dig into. He loved it. But he came out black and cleaning him up wasn't all that fun for him or me. So we didn't do that again.

Here is another funny video of him.

We had so much fun that night. When he learned how to get out from under the box he won't stay under for long.

This last couple of months have been super tough for my sweet boy. He had a tumor removed back in June. From that operation he got a blood clot that infected his fat tissue. They had to go in and remove a large portion of his skin by his hind legs. He really never recovered from that operation. Once thing led to another. He had been in and out of the vets nearly weekly since September. I couldn't see him suffer any more. Looking at all his photos reminded me of all the fun things we did and his spark he had. I'm so glad I took so many pictures of him and his antics. My last memories of him and his suffering were so over whelming. I glad I had time this afternoon to go over all of his pictures. To realize  he did live a good full life. Take pictures my friends to remind you of your loves after they are gone. They are precious!!!

His in peace my sweet little man. Thanks for bringing such much joy into my life. You will be missed and you were so dearly loved.