It's a Wrap

Christmas traditions. Some old. Some new. It's good to be back home in Iowa where I belong where I can enjoy flour-covered afternoons with my kids.

 

 

Sara and I love the whole frosting-thing.

We sort of lean toward non-traditional colors and designs.....

 

We STRONGLY lean towards a very traditional style of eating......

....I fondly refer to as "The Four Bite Christmas Cookie"

 

And just in time for Christmas weekend...............



Yep. The ol' man still knows how to make

the little girl in me smile.

 

Meanwhile, hours away my granddaughter had Christmas fun with

her Dad who flew to the coast for a couple of days....

 

 

Maybe next year, Victoria. But I love the good time you and Dad had together. And thanks for the pictures you two sent Grandma Debbie. Best Christmas present ever.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, back in the snowy Midwest......your Iowa family is preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse.......seriously, I don't know much about the whole thing but I am warned by them that ignorance is no excuse and I best get my Zombie-defense act together, lest I lose a hand or a foot or something in the first round.....I tend to get my bad-guys mixed up but just in case, I think I'm supposed to wear garlic around my neck to be safe...???

 

Or not.

Aunt Missy ruthlessly wiped us all off the map.

She looks all innocent and stuff but watch your back.

 

 

Ho.Ho. Now let's melt all that snow....

get on with the new year!

 



Lace Lanterns for the Big Wedding

The bride-to-be wanted some dressy, lacy lanterns to "float" over the room where she and my son were getting married. After a whole bunch of trial and error, we nailed down a process and they sure turned out pretty!

It works best as a 2-3 person project because the materials you are working with are just so darn slippery! It can be done alone but it takes lots more time.

    

We picked an off-white lace and dipped circles we'd cut from it into a fabric stiffener and applied it to a large, inflated laytex balloon. We tied a string to the finished lace-covered balloons and hung them wet from a pipe in the basement. They drip! We had plastic down to catch the extra stiffener. The stuff is expensive and we wanted to save those drips for more balloon lanterns.

Once we had them all hanging to dry we took a couple of fans and set them on low to send a steady breeze to the bottom of the lanterns. The stiffening solution runs down to the bottom before it drips off so it's thickest there and takes longer to dry. They were dry within 24 hours but we left them hanging for several days, deciding the easiest way to transport them as around the balloon and then deflate and remove it once we got to the site of the wedding and reception.

Precious cargo!
Get me to the wedding on time!!!!!

A very tall son with an even taller telescoping pole comes in very helpful. The ceiling of the venue for the wedding was steel so the decorations had to be hung from it with magnets ~ easy once you figure out how to get the magnets up there.


We dropped a tiny, battery-operated tea light into each of them before hoisting them up to the ceiling.
The tea lights glowed very gently through the lace over the reception.

Ready for the party.
Now. Can I get showered, dressed and back here for family pictures in an hour.....

Advice from experience: use laytex balloons and a fabric stiffener product called "Stiffy". I bought it online for about six bucks a bottle. They carry it at Hobby Lobby but they only keep maybe 4-5 bottles on the shelf and we could only get 3-4 lanterns out of one bottle. Trust me, we tried wood glue and wallpaper paste instead of the stiffener ~ as suggested by several blogs we read ~ and our lanterns were a disaster. Varying products, temperature and humidity can all be factors I would suppose. Start experimenting early! The finished pieces are just gorgeous and looked absolutely beautiful glowing over the party. Wish I'd thought to take pictures but I was too busy having fun!

Return to Civilization

No internet. For several days. Yikes.

This, of course, is the man of my dreams. Jack, I think was his name. Opened my laundry room doors, poked around the wall a bit and shook his head. "Nope, you're not connected." I kind of knew that, it's why I called him and all. He went straight to work. A few beeps later, the slight rattling of a toolbox and some wires lying around and...the green light came on. Literally. The green DSL light which invites me to throw a scarf around my neck, jump on the 'net and start cruising the web with the wind in my hair again. A return to civilization as I have come to know it.

Honey's, I'm home!!!!

The Daffodils by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the Milky Way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced, but they Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee: A Poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed—and gazed—but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

Ten Years Later.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
(Abraham Lincoln)

Moving Day

Moving day. My life in a trailer.

Correction. OUR life. Mr. Binks is a veteran mover and yet he still faces the day with a bit of trepidation expressed as only Mr. Binks can ~ gutteral, truckstop meowing ~ a widdy-biddy little paw reaching out through the carrier bars. He woulda preferred to ride in the back window.

There. Is. No. Food. Here. Who picked this place, anyway??????

Home.

Not quite sweet yet.

But it's home.

Packing.

Every crew needs a supervisor.

Exhausting.

New in Town

I love this happy lady dancing against a South Dakota blue sky with unbridled abandon. I too am pleased with the day. With the decision to move. With my new town. My new job. My new home. It's all good. So incredibly good.

I'm a bit wrapped up tight too, it's a great picture of the way I feel when I'm learning so many new things all at once. New town. New job. New faces. Names to remember. Passwords. Processes. Where to buy the best pizza? Who gives a great haircut? Library? Car wash? Is there a Starbucks on my way to work??? Will my cat like his balcony perch in our new apartment???

Is there a food dish within 10 feet? Yeah. He'll like it.

So. How about a quick tour???

You're noticing the metal, right?

That's handcrafted steel work with a magnificent patina ~ we make garden planters and stakes and sculptures and ornaments and picture frames and recipe boards and holiday pieces and....and....and.....

Well. You get the picture.

The store carries the work of countless American artists and also features our own line called Prairie Dance. I love rustic pieces, have always leaned sort of in the direction of the well-worn and shabby look in furniture pieces and art. Can't tell you how much I adore these pieces. Love. Love. Love.

Break my heart, these pieces are the last of a series ~ discontinued. Love these whimsical and delighted garden stake children. I've gotta have one before the last one goes home with a customer. Someone to keep my Binks company while he's ruling the balcony.

The artists create all this amazing work right on site, in a studio in the back of the store.

I understand why customers can't help but peek back there to see what is going on.

I love watching, too!!

Of course there are lots of other beautiful things to see in the store too.

Tons of fabulous handcrafted jewelry made by American artists. I have to say fabulous again.

And again: F A B U L O U S.

Just a peek for now.

More pictures to come.

We have adorable, unique gifts for children too.

New girl in town, you know how it is.....

Very easy to be charmed by the first walrus sock puppet who smiles and says hello.

Check out my new home away from home:

www.sticksandsteel.com

'Tis the Season

Sugar, flour, some oil and some coconut and a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And pretty soon we'll have bread.

Sweet, sweet and amazing bread.

If I was contemplating becoming a vegetarian, just knowing I could still eat

my favorite homemade zucchini bread would help me decide.

Yum.

Where Did All this Stuff Come From???????????

Moving day looms. Where on EARTH did all this stuff come from??? I've only lived here 8 years. I must be some kinda pack rat. A garage sale was inevitable. I'm leaving a 2-story, 2BR/2BA townhouse with garage for a 1BR apartment with a little stall in a cozy underground parking garage. Whittling down my worldly goods to a manageable volume that will fit into my new place is akin to tucking the contents of my purse into a pill bottle. Ahhh, but I do love a challenge.

Who can live another day without this fine bag, I ask you??????

Now that it's is all over, time to fill these for the big move.

                                                                                                                           Two closets emptied. Four more, twelve drawers and 14 cupboards to go. I could so use a Mary Poppins right now.

Lemonade Stand

Grandma Debbie's garage sale day. The perfect opportunity to sell lemonade.
First we must make a proper sign.

We'll decorate our favorite Winnie-the-Pooh table just-so.

And make sure everyone gets a fancy little cocktail umbrella. This is a classy joint.

Cousin Ava is one of our first customers.

A nice stack of quarters at the end of the day and we're hooked. Several customers suggested Grandma Debbie could pour a little extra something into that cup with it's nice umbrella and make Garage Sale Day lots more fun for them. Probably not. But maybe next year we'll add cookies.