Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a cold front blow in early this morning which I am very thankful for! I am tired of the Texas heat, given, it is not nearly as hot as it is during the summer. But, it would be nice for the weather to actually feel like holiday weather. Yesterday it was almost 80 degrees and now it is in the 40's! Ah, I love it! So, this morning, I did what I do ever Thanksgiving morning, I turned on the Parade! After a bit of morning relaxing, coffee drinking, and parade watching, I got to cooking. I volunteered to cook rosemary biscuits and a pumpkin cheesecake. Now, biscuits...that is not too difficult to mess up  but a cheesecake can be dicey. I have never made a cheesecake before. Things were going so very well too but I soon realized 2 very important things. First, never ever make a cheesecake with store brand cream cheese. It will turn out lumpy. Second, never ever ever ever ever take the bottom of the spring form pan off the cheesecake. This is a risky move which will ultimately end up in disaster. As I was flipping the cheesecake (I am sure those of you who are avid cheesecake makers are gasping at that very thought) 1/4 of it fell right off. As I started having a mini melt down and on the verge of tears, Jeff rescued me and I was able to patch it together. But, not the less...the poor little cheesecake looked quite unsightly but...everyone graciously ate it anyway.

The biscuits turned out great!  Those are pretty hard to screw up. I did not have shortening so I used butter but it worked great!  I cut rosemary from my garden a few days ago and hung it to dry. Oh, I love the smell of rosemary and it is great in biscuits! 

Happy Thanksgiving to all! 

Cheers! 

Thanksgiving Is Around The Corner And Christmas Is In The Air!

This weekend I started doing a little Christmas shopping.  I am getting better and better at getting the shopping done early every year. I really don't like to be running around like crazy the day before Christmas, it makes me miserable and I don't want to be miserable this holiday season.  Plus, I live about 1 mile from a mall and one of the busiest streets in the area. You can get stuck in so much traffic this time of year and I really would like to do my best to prevent all that.  I got stuck in the mall parking lot on Christmas Eve once for one hour! So, get the shopping done so I have have some crafting fun is my motto this year! I love to make stuff and crafting around the holiday season is so much fun! I am a bit short on time but, there are a few quick projects I want to do this year. 

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is this week!  Jeff and I will be going over to my Aunt's house for Thanksgiving and this year. Since I am not on-call for work (that was miserable), I am able to cook a few dishes to take. I am being a bit bold, I must stay, because I am making a pumpkin cheesecake.  This is a challenge that I have never attempted before. I have never made a cheesecake period!  I know, strange. But, I accumulated a spring form pan at one of my wedding showers and I busting it out and giving it a whirl! I am also going to take and some biscuits and am thinking I may add some dried Rosemary to them for an extra kick of flavor.  The recipe I am going to use is from Tammy over here. I will certainly post about this cooking endeavor! 

I went to a craft fair this weekend. A co-worker of mine was selling some of her goods. Her booth looked so cute! And if I do say so myself, it was one of the best ones! Good luck Rebecca! It has been a long time since I have been to a craft fair but it was fun.  I liked seeing what everyone had to sell. 

The crafting bug has bit me. I was in a bit of a funk last weekend but this weekend I am feeling it!  My Aunt emailed me a link to some really cute yarn wreaths. So, I did an online search on yarn wreaths and apparently it is the in thing.  There are tons of really cute yarn wreaths out there.  Of course I ran out to my local Jo-Ann's and got some supplies. 

I picked up a little Styrofoam wreath, yarn, and some red 100% wool felt. Stay away from crafter's felt.  It just is not of the same quality.   

I started by tying a knot in the yarn around the wreath.

Then pinned the yarn down to make sure it would hold.

Then I wrapped the yarn around and around and around and around and around and around, well you get the picture.  This took about 5 hours! Next time, I will select thicker yarn so it will go faster! But, I managed to get it all covered. 

Then I took some festive red yarn to make an accent design.  I pinned it down for a good hold and then wrapped a little design.

I made some cute little felt flowers and pinned them down on the wreath.  

Now, I am in the process of mass producing felt flowers to decorate the wreath with. This could take a while so stick around! I will post a picture of the finished project! 

 

Cheers and Happy Holidays! 

Victoria Yarn And Fun Little Yarn Shops

You know, I went to that cute little shop in Victoria but I never showed what I purchased!  I picked up some merino roving and wool locks. Right now I am spinning it up!  I also just found their blog! 

I don't have carders to card out the locks so I decided to just spin it into the yarn. The nice guy at the shop offered to let me come back and use their carders but we ran out of time and I was not able to go back.  I regret that! 

Here are my locks in their little brown paper sack.  They are so soft! 

I am not quite sure what I am going to knit when I am done spinning but, I know I am going to knit something for myself so when I wear it I will be reminded of Victoria! 

When I travel a favorite thing I like to do is find knitting shops and buy roving in hoards. Stores to purchase roving are few and far between where I live. New Mexico has a great roving selection!  Here are 2 stores that are among my favorite finds in NM:

Taos Sunflower:  The storefront is not there anymore but she has an online store.  I went gaga in this place.  It was wonderful!  There was so much to choose from and the prices of the roving were the most reasonable that I have ever found! I feel fortunate that I was able to visit the storefront before closing!

Miriam's Well:  The lady that owns this place is very helpful.  I actually purchased my spinning wheel there a little over 3 years ago. She is quite liberal and expresses her views...which I like...but I was concerned about what my dad might think.  But, he sat down with her while I was inside shopping and they had a very nice conversation. It was great! 

 (that is Miriam out front of her store moving around her geraniums)

This was a poster hanging in her store (I was not kidding when I said she was liberal, ha!). So, I took a picture of it. You really could not get away with hanging a poster like this in a store in Texas...well, unless the store is in Austin I guess. 

Anyhoo...happy weekend everyone!

Cheers! 

A Few Wedding Pictures

I really do not like to post pictures of myself on my blog but...this is for my wedding so why not! I will post more in a few days.  I owe these lovely wedding pictures to Thatcher Photography.  Josh is a fantastic photographer.  He made sure to capture every special moment and detail. I highly recommend him, so very talented. So, all of the following were taken by Thatcher Photography.

  Picture courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography.

The rings and flowers.

Photo courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography 

The cake topper my sister made! I love it! She did such a terrific job. 

Photo courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography

The cakes were made by Erika Bridges.  They were so delicious. The wedding cake was almond with butter cream frosting and the groom's cake was chocolate mint with ganache. Oh, it was delicious! Can you se my Just married banner? 

Photo courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography

My brother-in-law is a wood worker. He made this little piece of wood with our initials carved on it for part of the wedding decoration. In the background is the Rose Chapel, where we were married and had the reception.

photo courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography

The Rev. made me laugh here. It was right before we were meant to kiss. Our Rev. did such a great job. We found him here. If you live in the DFW area and need a Rev. use them!!

 

photo courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography

My cousin Phoebe made these signs for our chairs. Mine said "Lizzie" and Jeff's said "Jeff." I have them hanging in my house now. They were really sweet. She is such a little artist! 

Photo courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography

This is a little shot of me pinning on my veil I made.  There was a bit of drama surrounding this.  It accidentally got left behind at my parents house.  About 30 minutes before the wedding was to start we figured out there was no veil at the chapel.  We had to send my dad home to find it. Luckily he found it in time!  

Photos courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography

My biggest regret, not tasting the food!  Everyone said how great it was. There was just so much going on. This was my plate that I never touched. Brides, always taste your food, don't let anything get in the way of that. The most horrible thing is, this fantastic caterer, made us a basket of food and champagne to take back to our hotel and we forgot it! Oh, such a huge regret. But, it is what it is. 

 Photo courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography

And then my favorite. Dear Kyle, the life of the party. He taught me how to do the stanky legg.  I even caught my Uncle in the background doing it too! Good times!

Photo courtesy of Josh Thatcher Photography

My Aunt started a conga line. Oh, that was too much fun!  We just danced, danced, danced. It was a great time.

I will post more pictures later. Good times!

Cheers! 

Ice Cream Challenge

Thanks to everyone for all of your suggestions on ice cream flavors for my friends birthday!  I am very pleased with the response! 

Crafty Mummy:

Rum and Raison and Butterscotch

Rebecca: 

Rose

My Aunt Melinda:

Snickerdoodle

CK:

Chocolate (can never go wrong with that)

Tammy:

Peppermint and Chocolate Chip Mint

You all have helped me to create a little challenge for myself. I was too scared to try anything outside the box (basically anything that was not a recipe in the manual that the maker came with). So, I kept the birthday ice cream pretty simple and made Cookies n' Cream.  It was soooooo simple (and delicious I should add).  It was so simple in fact that I need to challenge myself to go outside of the box a bit. So, I have decided that I will challenge myself and attempt to make all the flavors you guys suggested! I will blog about each flavor and let you know how it turns out.  I think the biggest challenge may be the Rose ice cream but I am eager to try it out! 

So, stay tuned over the next several months (and I mean several because this will probably take a while, that is a ton of ice cream!) to check out the upcoming ice cream posts! 

Cheers! 

Oh Feather-top Mattress Pad...I Love You

Now I know this is not really a post about anything, so prepare yourselves.  No wedding stuff, no crafty stuff, and not even any cooking stuff. But, today I find the need to share one of the most wonderful things in the world that I discovered. Yes. The MOST wonderful thing. Are you still with me or do you think I have lost my mind? Ha, well it is Thursday, been a long week, and I have to finish it up tomorrow....so, maybe I have lost my mind.

OK, bear with me. When Jeff and I were in Victoria staying at the most lovely little B&B (which I still dream about, yes...I do. Just had a dream the other night that I was there.  I need therapy) we slept in the most fantastic bed.  The last day we were there the Innkeepers told us it was a feather-top mattress pad. Yep, it was that simple. Not a fancy feather bed or anything. Just a mattress pad. This bed was fantastic. So fantastic we coined it the "magic bed" because the minute we laid down we went right to sleep! Ahhh, the best sleep I have had in years.   

So when we got back home I started doing my research. Fortunately from those many generous individuals that gifted us with gift cards for the wedding, I was able to purchase a feather-top mattress pad! The best part was free shipping and it was on sale and I got 20% off on top of that! Wa-hoo!!

Well, it arrived today! I put it on immediately and got everything all ready to hop in.

(not that you can really tell anything from this photo anyway but, it is fabo!)

I watched TV for about an hour, turned off the light, and feel asleep with a huge smile on my face. Oh, it was even better than I had expected. And, I think I probably dreamed about Victoria too!

Cheers!