Feeling Crafty

I guess I've been feeling a little creative lately.
I used to feel that way on a weekly or daily basis.  But that's when I had more time- time to think, time to dream, time to draw and create.

Then I was busy REALLY creating- conceiving and bearing children. 
What a  fulfilling, wondrous phase of life to be in.  
Talk about inspiration and imagination flowing through your veins!

That carried on through my children's babyhood  and continued...pretty much until I had several teens.

Don't get me wrong- I love teens.  They are great!  They just consume so much more of my energy.  Their needs are so much greater.  

So for a while now, I've been reeling a bit.  Trying to figure out how to be a good mother to teens while still finding time for myself.   'Cause I'm not always sure I should be a mother to these almost-adults!  How did I get to this point?

I'm still trying to figure it out. 
All I know is the time I put in is very worthwhile.  You don't always reap the benefits right away.  But I'm starting to.  Starting to hear from my older children that they appreciate me.  

 I'm finding some time to be creative:

I made a blanket for my youngest daughter,   

And

A cool (if I do say so myself) birthday cake for my new son-in-law.

 

 

And the smiles are my reward!

 

The cool cake idea was from the book 'Hello Cupcake!'

You can find it

                                          HERE

Wonderful story to share

For a heart-warming video to share with your loved ones this Christmas season,

visit 'Lessons I Learned as a Boy'  here

Christmas is Coming...

Christmas is in the air!

We headed downtown to our local Christmas festival.

 

Stopped and visited with the Grinch & Cindy Lou Who

 

Saw real live reindeer

 

And my last little child interested in sitting on Santa's knee, did.

And declared he might be the real thing.

 She inspected him rather closely, as lately she has become rather jaded.   

She told me, while waiting her turn, that she would like to ask for an ipod.

I told her I was pretty sure Santa wouldn't think ipods were appropriate for children her age.   So she changed it to a Teddy bear.

(she has a thing for stuffed animals)

The boy in front of her went up for his turn. 

He was about six.  

He asked for a cell phone.

Santa's helper asked him how old he was, in disbelief.  

My girl went next and asked for a Teddy bear.  And got smiles of approval.

I think she felt relieved about the ipod thing.

 

We wandered around and even sauntered into the library

to return a couple of books and check out a few more.

I can't ever pass up a library run. 

I love small towns!

Pioneer Woman...and Disappointment

Last summer I heard about Pioneer Woman for the first time.
I was mentioning to a complete stranger about my search for the perfect Basset Hound puppy.  
I had wanted a Basset for about a year and a half. 
I had a Basset mix as a kid- Toby was his name.   He was so sweet.

But The Man of the House wasn't so sure.  So we waited.  And waited.
Finally, I was able to begin my search.
I already had a list of name ideas:  Toby (again), Charles (after Charles Ingalls), Huckleberry and Copper (thrown in by the kids).  

I somehow mentioned the Basset and how my husband had grown up in Oklahoma in the same conversation. 

This inspired the lady to tell me about Pioneer Woman.

Ree Drummond is Pioneer Woman.  And her blog is fabulous.

At this same time, I was trying to figure out how to start a blog of my own. 

And had written my first couple of posts.

When I visited Pioneer Woman for the first time, I was amazed by how much we had in common- homeschooling, children, farm life (although hers was humongous ranch  life), and basset hounds.

I loved her blog!   

But then, the following week, when I picked up my baby Basset, I was torn.

I had already pretty much settled on Charles Huckleberry for a name.   Charlie and Chuck for short.  

But Pioneer Woman's Basset was named Charlie, I had found. 

 If I ever blogged about him, would that be copying somewhat?  

I tried out the other names on him....but Charles/Charlie/Chuck still fit.  

So I went ahead and named him. 

And love him.

But- back to Pioneer Woman's blog.

I checked in on it occasionally- when I wasn't busy with life and school and animals and....you get the idea.

I loved reading her posts and loved even more her recipes and Tasty Kitchen site.

So when I  heard that she had a cookbook coming out and that she would be in my area, signing books,  I wrote it down on my calendar.

How fun it would be to meet her in person and have my own, autographed copy of her book!

The weeks went by and suddenly the day was here.

I mapquested  directions to the book store.

It was going to be a long drive- well over an hour from where I live.  

And in a part of Denver  the Man of the House had always warned me away from.

I would have to find my way, in the dark, in a rather bad part of town.

And I was taking my little girls, who begged to go.

I made dinner and debated.

I had pretty much made up my mind either to not take them or not go at all.

I had had a long day and driving that length of time didn't sound very appealing at that point.

But, my little girls came into the kitchen, dressed to go.

Dressed in the western shirts, cowboy boots and cowboy hats.

  (They love that stuff!)

So, we went.

We drove through bad areas, in major traffic.  We found the building....and not a single parking space for blocks.  

We tried the parking garage that wound like a spiral staircase up above the building.  Packed.  And we almost didn't make it down, there were SO many cars coming and going, trying vainly to find parking.   

That gave me a bit of an inkling into how popular Pioneer Woman's book signing just might be.  

We drove around the blocks several times.  Turned the wrong way on a one-way street and got severely honked at.  Hey, it was really dark! 

Finally, miraculously, just as we were about to give up,we  found a parking space.

We made it into the store and followed other women to where the line was.  

And it was quite a line.  We were on the second level, Pioneer Woman would be on the bottom level.  The stairs were packed.  The entire building was packed.  And we were early!  

So we waited.

A gentleman from the bookstore handed out copies of Ree's book that we could purchase when we got below.  

I had it in hand, ready for her to sign.

The girls and I waited.

The girls got tired and sat down on the floor.

They were so patient and hopeful.

We waited for over half an hour- not budging.  

Suddenly, we could hear that Pioneer Woman had arrived and was below.  People were cheering.

We saw nothing.  I sent the girls ahead down the stairs to peek around the corner, thinking maybe they could see her.  Nope.

About twenty minutes later, still in the same spot, and being told by some that the huge room downstairs was absolutely packed, I began to think of going home.

I was already frazzled about the drive there and knew I didn't want to fight crowds to get out of there, through the bad part of town and onto familiar roadways.  

I looked at my girls.  They were tired.  

I asked them if they wanted to just go home.  

They said yes.

So, sorrowfully setting the cookbook down on the nearest table, we left.

I got lost on the way home (those darn non-connecting one-way roads) and  had to call home for mapquest help. 

I had major anxiety and even shed a few tears.

My girls fell asleep.

 See the tear blotches on my directions below?   Kinda pathetic, huh.

A disappointing night, to say the least.

Not Pioneer Woman's fault, of course.

And I would still love a copy of her cookbook!


You can check her site out here

Grandma's Thanksgiving Fruit Salad

My grandma's Thanksgiving Fruit Salad.  I make it every year- and usually for Christmas,too!

 Simple, great textures and not too sweet; this is a wonderful dish.

You'll need bananas.

Normally I prefer unspotted bananas....but I couldn't get them this year.

In any case, these were just fine.

You'll also need mini marshmallows, heavy whipping cream

and red/purple grapes.  Seedless, if possible. 

  For some reason, this year I accidentally got seeded grapes.  This brought back many memories of removing the seeds at Grandma's house.  It was a privilege to be considered old enough to sit at the table with the grown ups and help remove the seeds and make the salad.

Because back then it was hard to find seedless grapes.

  They were a luxury and very expensive.

 

I told my little girls all about it.  

And recruited them for the special honor of  doing the grapes.  

 

While your sous chefs are doing the grapes, start your whipped cream.

I made extra as I use what I don't need for pumpkin pie and the like.

Pour your cream in a bowl

 

Add about two teaspoons of vanilla.

 

Add sugar- about a cup.  

You can taste it after mixing and see if  you want it sweeter. 

Mix until it reaches the right consistency for whipped cream. 

Just don't over mix, or you'll have butter!

 

Slice up your bananas and add them to your grapes.

You don't want to slice up the bananas until you're ready to combine everything.

Otherwise, they may turn brown. 

 

Thrown in your marshmallows.

 

Now add your whipped cream.

Fold it in and incorporate everything. 

 

Done!  

Wasn't that simple?  

 

Cover and refrigerate until serving.

And enjoy!

Content copyright © 2009 by Jessa at Graceful Landing