Congratulations!

To my cousin Becca and her new husband Josh on their wedding today.  I wish I could be there...

my first real cross stitch project

A year ago...

One year ago today, Ed and I were getting up at this time to go into my Aunt Marilee and Uncle Doug's bakery, Harvey Bakery, to see a 'day in the life' of baker.   I am glad that we had a chance to experience the work side of a bakery, not just the eating side.  Ed made a flipshare video but it seems to have disappeared...possibly because of his infamous utterance "dease one need atteention".  (I realize that makes no sense to anyone but us but this is my diary!  Ask him about it) So, I guess pictures will do for now, but I intend on finding that video..

Donuts coming out of the yummy yummy grease

I'm sure this was not the most effective technique for flipping donuts, but it worked for me!

Frosting

Cutting donuts for the next day (actually Friday, the next day was Thanksgiving)

Aunt Marilee & I

Snow on the ground in November.  Just another fall day in ND

What a fun morning!  Thanks again Doug and Marilee.  Tomorrow, we will be celebrating Thanksgiving but it will be quite different than last year.  Though I will miss being with my family,  Ed & I are looking forward to spending it with new friends!

And speaking of the Flip camera, I think I will be taking it on a Christmas tour of our house.  Since Denmark is a little far for a Christmas party for our friends and/or family, I may just bake some cookies, set 'em on the table and show you what you're missing :)

A Family Project

When I was young, one of my aunts compiled a family cookbook.  She printed, assembled and gave a copy to all her siblings.  So, I grew up seeing my mom cook out of it as well as using it myself to make my favorite gingersnap cookie recipe.  Now that all of my cousins and I are adults, I thought that it was time to have a 2nd edition printed for the new generation. 

This is not THE family cookbook, but one that my mom one of my grandmas fill out for me.

I know that there are now websites where you can put all the recipes into a form and then the company formats the book and prints it up.  I, however, loved the homemade feel of the recipe book.  I plan on making all the books myself.  This is a work-in-progress...I am still collecting a few new recipes from my cousins(and taking out some old ones that were maybe space fillers in the first edition..exotic celery anyone?) and have not yet attempted to make the hard back book (though I have read about it extensively).  It is impossible to not be inspired to get in the kitchen when reading recipes so I decided to do some good old-fashioned baking recently.  I did start with my favorite gingersnap cookies but decided to branch out to something new, never done before by me: A pumpkin roll. It turned out amazingly, shockingly well. The batter went into a jelly roll pan (which is bigger than a regular cake pan), baked, dumped out of pan, rolled up with a dish towel in the middle while still warm, allowed to cool, unrolled, frosted, re-rolled and put in the fridge for a few hours.  Easy :)   No really, it was very simple. 

Adding the cream cheese frosting

Rolling the rolled cake back up, but with the filling

Hopefully, over the next couple months, I will be able to put together the new recipe books...and if not, I guess there is always the internet option!

A favorite recipe written by my grandma herself

Week in Review Part 2: Blood and Cowboy's Stadium

On Friday morning, Ed left DFW for Denmark.  He had a sleep-less trip but made it safely to Copenhagen.  While Scout and I are having a good time here at my parent's house, I am looking forward to being together again!  I keep telling myself that it's much easier for Ed to do all the little tasks that he needs to accomplish there without worrying about S & I.  So, as of today, just 24 more days-not including travel!  Maybe I will make a paper chain :)

our first week in DC in February

 Saturday morning, Heather convinced me to join her in blood donation so that we could find out our cholesterol numbers--for free (Dave would be so proud).  Yes, I realize it's a round-about way of finding out ones cholesterol but Heather likes to give blood so I decided I would join her.  I have given blood before but the last time I did, I had a little problem.  Not during but after.  I was working at PacSun at the time and went during my lunch break.  I had juice and cookies--got a tshirt..Everything was great! Then I returned to work and slumped over the cash wrap. I didn't pass out but had a light head and grey-ing vision which ended with me resting on the floor of the stock room. Well, this was years ago so I decided that I was ready for another round.  And I was!  I filled my pouch in less than 10 minutes and again had my juice and granola bars and was feeling great, sitting down.  Heather had issues with her veins so wasn't able to give blood then and was ready to leave.   I told her that I would wait the full recommended 10 minutes before leaving.  At around 8 minutes, I decided to give standing a try. And then it happened again!  I texted Heather and told her I would be a bit longer--she told me to have them wheel me out to the car in a wheelchair. Ha, yeah right.  I stood up and scurried as quickly as possible, vision greying, to the car and threw myself into the passenger seat.  After a nap and lots of water, I am now back to normal and ready to give blood again someday.  I am curious to know how living in Denmark will affect my blood-giving eligibility...anyone know?

Heathbar & I

Heather and I again headed out on Saturday night to see her school's team play at Dallas Cowboys Stadium for a tournament.  While I am not a huge football fan, I had yet to see the new stadium on the inside so decided that I could watch some football in exchange for going inside.  It was quite nice. Now if only I could get into football...

Inside of Dallas Cowboys Stadium

We kept looking for 'pictures' in what the marching band was doing...finally we spotted something identifiable. 

Heather & Lauren- Go Buffs :) 

I did just read Tim Tebow's book and enjoyed it--maybe I am coming around to football...we'll see :)

Week in Review Part 1: Marilee & the revolver

It has been a busy week!  I've given blood, been to a football game at THE cowboy's stadium, sent my husband off to denmark to begin his next assignment and done a little shopping, shooting, socializing with my dear 'old' aunt Marilee.  (i said that to my mom today and I don't think she was very pleased :)

My dad took me to a shooting range for the first time many years ago.  I remember shooting a 'long' gun  at the junk yard my grandparents owned when I was younger but didn't shoot a handgun until college.  I loved it, and still do, though I don't have the opportunity to go as often as I would like.  On Tuesday, we went with my mom, dad, Marilee, and some of my dad's friends...there were 10 of us total and a lot of new(to me) guns to shoot.  I shot a revolver for the first time as well as a couple other guns that had serious recoil.  I had cramps in my forearms that evening from using muscles that must never get any use!

The revolver and pink ear muffs.  Pink is not my favorite color, but for some things, i love it :)

Mom & Marilee

A lesson in gun safety for M & M

Me & my dad

Throughout the rest of the week, Marilee & I made our 'fancy' grocery store rounds, visited an antique store and a few regular stores. I guess the DFW area doesn't have a lot of exciting sights to see but it does have an endless amount of variety in what you can purchase.  

What was supposed to be  a spontaneous picture while walking around turned into series of pictures as someone (i won't mention who, but she's on the right :) looked at each picture and insisted a new one be taken.  How digital cameras have changed the world...

It was a fun week & weekend with Marilee and my sisters! I am glad you could make it down for one last state-side party, Marilee!!  

Oh, and before I forget, I should mention that a Pinterest recipe actually came off the board and into the kitchen this week!  I love Pinterest and have a slight addiction to it, but it seems like a place to keep a lot of ideas that never actually get done.  But not for the Red Velvet Brownies!  I thought they were really good though my mom thought they were boring.  I would share a picture but the only one I took looks like meat (possibly because I didn't use all the red food coloring that was called for in the recipe-one WHOLE bottle???  that's crazy!)

Okay, here it is anyway.  See? Kinda meat-y.  

S & P

Over the weekend, we traveled from DC to my parents house in the DFW area via Nashville (where we stayed overnight to visit Ed's family).  Traveling with Scout is extremely stressful--for us, not him.  He isn't afraid of riding in the car but becomes overly excited.  He pants, howls, paces from window to window, climbs over the driver's seat(and becomes wedged between the wall and seat-it's a circus I tell ya)...Needless to say, I was happy when we finally pulled into my parent's driveway.  I didn't take my camera out until we were a couple hours outside of Dallas on the 2nd day of driving. (which was the first time I could even relax for a few minutes..we were 2 hours from Keller--there was hope we would make it without throwing a beagle out the window)  Scout was so tired from his first day of mischief that he slept most of the 2nd day's drive, thank goodness. 

He actually slept on my lap which is a scout-miracle.  This never would have happened if he didn't have his sedative-laced treat.  Yep, he gets knocked out for road trips. 

Strange thing is that he fights sleep and never becomes is actually "knocked out". His eyes are droopier than a blood hound....but he keeps 'em open

To Scout's defense, most of our car trips are associated with moving in his mind, so I think he is worried about being left behind. He wants to keep and eye, or chin, on both of us. 

A beautiful Texas sunset.  Even Ed agrees with this statement.

Scout and Panzer, together again.

They are spoiled babies.  Panzer is jealous and Scout is selfish.  
Scout, howling at panzer over the tennis ball.

sort of friends 

 alpha dog in the chair?

Scout

my first pet ever, Charcoal.  She's an old lady now..

The Lion and the Lamb, sleeping next to each other.
You can make your own judgement as to who is the Lion and who is the Lamb.... :)

Holly visits DC and doesn't encounter rabid bat

My dear sister Holly finally made a trip up to DC to visit us.  Of all my family members, I thought Holly would surely be the first to get here since she's all about traveling...but in fact, she was last.  We still had a good time though!   We went to my favorites, eastern market and of course, Mt Vernon (yes, I did get in free with my season pass--we  took the metro then bus to get there which was another first for me :)  We also visited one museum. 

Holly @ American Indian Museum

When Ed & I arrived in DC, I had big plans to see every museum and well-known site this town has to offer. Then, I was unexpectedly able to attend Danish classes with Ed, and my plans went out the window. After I left class, I figured I would be able to pick up where I left off...except that the blazing heat and hoards of 8th graders have definitely slowed me down.  When E&I went to the Natural History Museum in February, we were the only ones in the room with the dinosaur bones...I am quite certain that if I went today, I would be alone with me and 200 of my closest middle school buddies--no thank you :) 

But back to my museum quest...  Holly and I went to the National Museum of the American Indian on Friday.  The building is amazing, both inside and out.  The café supposedly serves really good food, but we had just had lunch so did not try it. Also they have an impressive gift shop (more on that in a moment)

 I found the museum to be interesting, but the set-up was confusing.  The museum contains info and artifacts from both north and south american indians. Rather than being organized by location and giving all the information (beliefs, culture, where they are now etc) in one place about that specific tribe (seems logical to me),  each 'gallery' centered around one aspect of life--and then had all the different tribes specifics in 'winding' rooms (lots of curved walls dividing a large room into many smaller rooms).  Every time I came into a new little 'room' in any given section, I would have to find the map to see who I was reading about and where they came from..and then try to remember what I had learned about them in a different area of the museum.  Clearly, I was not meant to write reviews about places because the last 5 sentences are a bit confusing, but if you find yourself in DC, I would definitely recommend at least seeing the outside of the building if you do not have time to go in to see the whole thing. It is pretty amazing.  

Water feature that faces the mall--visit here if you can!

Bear from gift shop--I wanted to buy this bear for Ed until i found his price tag.
$115!! Can you believe that?
There were egg ornaments done in the exact same style for $15.  I asked if the price was correct..and it was.
Wow.  Special Bear.

 And here is the rest of our weekend in pictures...

Eastern Market:

Holly's picture of eastern market. fun huh?

Me and my flowers from Holly--they are so awesome!
Makes me happy to see them on my coffee table.
They are Celosia or cockscomb..Never seen them before, but when walking away from the stand I heard a man yelling about how he should have bought them when he first got there b/c he thought the vendor had sold out.
 Guess they are popular :) 

Holly & her gelato

If your metro car looks like this, on a summer saturday afternoon in downtown DC...
something is not right.
The A/C was broken so this car had become a sauna on wheels.  We sat in it for 11 stops &
it was miserable, but I left feeling slightly detoxed :)

yes, more georgetown cupcakes. ( my favorite picture pose)

Mt. Vernon:

Me with the Washingtons

Meeting 'Emo horse'....

...and "Red Bull"  (we gave them these names)

Holly's proclamation to the horse "seeing you made our trip worth it!"
haha..dork.

Holly with her camera :)  

And that was it!  Fun Times Hollis!

P.S.  We avoided Arlington National Cemetery all together--Holly has bad luck there...She may have her rabies vaccine now but I don't!

Why I Love Etsy

Have you met Etsy? Etsy.com?   If not, you should.  Don't read any further, just go to Etsy.  But back to my reasons for loving Etsy.  

-It is the arts or crafts festival of my dreams.  Rather than just seeing things from your local area..or even your state or country, you can find unique, fun things from artists and crafters from around the world.  Much of it is reasonably priced as well.  

-Whether you can sew, make jewelry, paint..whatever you do, you can be sure to find inspiration in your area of interest.  

-If you can't do it yourself, you can buy it! I have yet to see a vendor with a genius idea and zero sales.  

-If you are searching for something very specific, you can probably find it--I believe their search function has magical powers :)

There are surely a million other reasons why it's awesome but I will get on with my post. 

I was searching for art prints to buy so I could do something like this (see below) in our next house

to read the owners blow, see here

And then I came upon a print that I could easily make something similar for myself...and so I did.  But then I thought, "Why stop there when I could take care of a few more upcoming birthdays"  

So unfortunately I cannot show you what I have been working on today, but I can show you another Etsy buy and inspired craft.

These were my bridesmaids gifts--I bought them from a shop called "Steampunk cellar".
They appear to have closed down their shop so I cannot put up a link.

Then, for Christmas of 2009, I made a lot of pillows based on an owl pillow from here. 

But for my sister Holly, I made a special bat pillow since it was the year she was bitten by a bat and then had to go through the series of rabies vaccinations. 

Holly, looking thrilled on Christmas Eve. 

I am certain she will always think of that incident whenever she sees this lovely creature.  Do you Holly?  

Oh wait!  I can ask her in person tomorrow!  Holly is finally coming to visit Ed and I in DC.  Maybe she's been avoiding it because the last time she was here, she was hobbling across the finish line at the Marine Corp Marathon...but I could be wrong.  Anywhy...moving right along.  I think tomorrow I will post a recipe of Mac and Not Cheese here unless something more exciting happens :)  Until then...have a nice evening :)