how I love thee

Kettle Corn, my sweet.

The best, the perfect, the ONLY popcorn.  Yes, it's an odd obsession.  But it's true.

Try it and you will never go back to the microwave kind.

Directions for delicious kettle corn:

Take a big pot with a lid, turn the burner to medium and fill with 1/4 c canola oil.  Then put in 4 itty bitty kernels.  When they pop the oil is ready.  Dump in 1/4 c. sugar and 1/2 pop corn.  Put the lid on and shake it like a polaroid picture for 3 seconds.  Then wait three.  Then back and forth.  You get the picture.  Until it stops popping. Dump it right away into a big bowl so it won't burn.  You may want to shake on a little salt.  And you can leave off the sugar and just make regular popcorn. If you must.

Insanity, thy name is Gingerbread!

Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday have been completely absorbed by one thing and one thing only...OK not true at all. But amid the puree-ing, dancing, and a bunch of churchy-stuff, I have managed to squeeze a little gingerbread making in. SO freakishly fun. I think mostly for me, really. Here Mandee and I are working on our houses (and here is my super silly apron).

You know how when you eat m&m's you divide them into colors before consumption...this is like that but instead of spending 50 cents it's more like 30 bucks. (Isn't part of the joy of the holidays to be ridiculously indulgent?) Finally an excuse to play with food!

I have some fun tips to share. One being the hard candy windows and the other being the gooey candy cut outs.

For hard candy windows:

After you roll out the dough (onto aluminum foil) and cut out your piece you fill window with broken candy bits...not too full or it will over-flow. I have tried many different ways to do the candy windows and this way definitely comes out the best because the dough forms a seal with the foil and no candy leaks out.

For gooey candy cut outs:

Take tootsie rolls, starburst, or saltwater taffy. Microwave for 5 to 10 seconds if needed. Roll out with a rolling pin. Cut with a cookie cutter or knife. Go Crazy!!! It's super fun.

Tomorrow I will post all the glorious details...

back to life, back to silliness

These days instead of gearing up for a semi-cold weather run I have been donning pj's and practicing Pilates. Bentley thinks I am his personal play yard. One day several months ago, Mandee came over and literally forced me to craft. This was somewhere in the September - October period when I was a little girl interrupted. Before she left she gave me the makings for this little doll. Well, yesterday we finally made her. Isn't she lovely. As of late I am no stranger to yarn hair. And my new favorite trick for yarn hair is just to stick a wad of yarn in the sewing machine and sew it together (to what you ask, to nothing, just to itself)! Then you have your own nice little part that you can very easily hand stitch onto the head. Trim up the hair and and stitch it down to form a cute do. Not the best instructions I guess, I could do better if anyone really wanted to know. {Oops, in adding that link I just noticed your comment, Mindy about making a mermaid for Z. All I did for that was draw a silly mermaid and then cut it out about 1/2" larger. Then I just cut the picture in half and used those as patterns for the fin and body. Not the best way to make a doll, but it worked I guess. This doll below is from the Martha Stewart Kids Mag Sept/Oct 2004 issue, just incase you have that lying around the house. It's not online, but I did find this. It may not be the best instructions if you don't already know what you are doing. I have gotten myself into many a crafting disaster attempting to follow MS instructions. I find they are a little too vague for the novice. One such disaster involved my sisters and I attempting to make a sugar cube house at Christmas. Very funny. It ended up looking more like a demo site than a serene winter scene. Well, that's not much of an instructional, but I'm not a doll making expert. I am dying to do a little instructional on something fun though. Like building a stretcher for a painting or canvas rug making. hmmm}
Today we had another fun visit from Mandee and crew. We cracked up watching the excitement on Bentley's face over this lolli-pop. And even more funny, Bentley's interest in the sign Ellie put on the playroom door. (not intended for him)

I had fun chatting with friends today about Christmas preparations and traditions. I liked Sarah's idea of reading the kids a Christmas story every night by candle light. I think I'll try that this year. That means a trip to the library tomorrow! I love the library! And since Chris is MIA tonight, I have a stack of Martha Stewart Holiday issues to keep me company. Yay! I'm so excited for Christmas. I'm so thankful that I'm finally unpacked and settling in, emotionally and physically. So glad to be back to the real me. Happy me!

Movie Night

The first night we were all together on vacation we had a fun cookout and movie night outside with an old fashioned film projector. Mom got the idea from Martha Stewart, I think. They have been doing it for a few years now. Dad even made a huge movie screen. They order movies online. We watched Underdog and a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Aren't my nephews cute!

Later, when we were all inside scratching at our mosquito bites, Rose was sitting at the table with aspirin and a cup of water. She rubbed a wet aspirin on each of her bug bites and several days later I still had all of mine but all of hers were gone. It worked so well, I thought it was worth sharing.

So what fun things do you all do as a family?

TGIF!