Monday, December 24, 2012

Best Wishes!



From our house to yours, we wish you a safe and festive Christmas and 
a New Year filled with Joy!


And from our furry family, they wish you lots of treats under your tree!


                               Phlash
                               Daisy
                       Muffin
       Spunky















Prickles

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Is It Time?




Think I'm ready for the holiday!! Packages are wrapped, house is decorated, baking done! Now I can sit back and knit a bit and sew on the Christmas projects I didn't finish!! But what would I do if I finished everything? That would take all the fun out of it.

I didn't do lots of baking, just a couple of favorites and a couple more  for Sweetie to take to work. Drug out the pizzelle iron after several years.They are so good I should make these every year. The iron is beginning to show its age--my Dad brought it home one Christmas season after a friend gave him some to try. He liked them and my Mom thought they would be a good addition to the cookie plates my Grandmother gave to all her friends each year.  Anyway, I made pecan sandies--great with morning coffee, loaded bourbon fudge--from Pinterest and REALLY tasty, bacon caramel corn (don't judge till you've tried it--swoon worthy) and maybe the best cheese crackers I've made. I have an ongoing search for the perfect cheese cracker. I'm going to have to make a batch of my other top pick to make a final choice.

Now on to some decorating.

Just about every ornament on the tree means something to us. If it isn't handmade it came from a vacation or represents something special. We have several of the Hallmark ornaments from back when they were metal and nice, that we now know would be worth lots if we still had the boxes, a couple are still boxed, but most of the boxes have fallen apart. The tinsel stops just out of cat reach--they like to eat it--not a good thing! Every morning I come out to find and ornament on the floor that was the "chosen" one to bat around all night! On the plus side, Spunky has not climbed the tree this year!!
A few years ago on Christmas morning we found these cutouts of all the cats that my Mom made and set in front of the fireplace. They always make me smile and I set them out each year. She did a great job at capturing each one's look and personality.




My ongoing love for all things penguin. I got the big one last year, and when Pier 1 added the little one this year, I had to have him too. Then I made the mat.

Stitchery pillows are so much fun--they fit in anywhere.

I brought these patterns out of retirement. I have made several of these, but never kept any for myself!

It is my intention to knit more stockings for the banister. I made the stitchery stocking years ago, but it is still a favorite!


Oh, I almost forgot--I still have 3 Christmas cards to send out! I always do my cards at the last minute--maybe I'll make that my 2013 resolution--cards out early.
Spunky's worried we're out of food.

 He's laying it on thick with that sweet look, "I've been good"... but behind that sweetness lies the sparkle of a naughty little cat.


Hope you Holiday's are Merry and Bright!







Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Hill Country Get Away

It was a couple of weeks ago, (time is zipping by) that we took a little weekend get away to get into the holiday mood.

Sweetie suggested the Texas Hill Country--it isn't too far, and it takes us through San Antonio and an excuse to stop for our favorite  burgers at Chris Madrid's.
You're probably getting tired of my hamburger pictures, but these are just so good I will always have to stick in a picture when we go there!

After our late lunch we went to the big outlet mall which was fun,  but didn't provide much inspiration, just a couple pair of jeans. 

The next morning we went to Comfort, TX, a small town known mainly for antique stores and home of The Tin Smith's Wife yarn store.

We had a nice brunch at 814 Texas Bistro.
Then we decided to check out the local wineries. The number of wineries in the Hill Country has really grown over  the past few years. A small amount of grapes are grown in the area, but most of them  come from the Texas high plains and California. They are getting better at their wine making and we enjoyed all three.

We came home with 3 bottles of wine, a jar of exceptional peanuts and a bar of really tasty Espresso Chocolate made in Comfort. The peanuts are "Jump's Gourmet Almonized Peanuts" from Dayton, Ohio. Almonized-ing is some process they do to the peanuts, resulting is a peanut with more snap and crunch and they really do taste better than regular peanuts--go figure!

I  couldn't go before sharing the best find on my most recent visit to Trader Joe's --

                                           
Way better than any other chocolate mint cookie I've had. Guess they are a seasonal thing, I'm very glad I got two boxes and I'll look forward to them next year!

I'll be back real soon with some holiday decorating pics!