My favorite Christmas recipes (part one)

Here are some yummy winter/Christmas recipes that my family enjoys . . . I meant to post these yesterday, but Maddie had a hard day.  She is fluctuating between feeling sick and yucky and wild spurts of energy during which she is practicing her new favorite sport - diving off the couch.  And to top it all off - James is mobile!  Yes my five month old can scoot himself all over the floor! 

Grammy's Famous Snowball Cookies

Makes six dozen (I never get six dozen out of it cause I snitch dough while I am rolling them)

Ingredients

1 pound butter or margarine
4 cups sifted flour
one cup powdered sugar
one cup chopped nuts (pecans walnuts or almonds)
1 tsp. Vanilla

Directions

Let butter stand at room temp until it gets soft. Cream butter in large bowl, gradually working in flour, sugar, nuts, and vanilla. Chill until firm enough to roll into large marble sized balls. place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Cook 350 degrees until light golden brown. (Approx. 20 -25) cool on cookie sheet for aprox. 10 min. Remove carefully. Shake gently in a bag with 1 cup powdered sugar until generously coated. may need to be re-coated. cool completely on wire rack, before storing in a tight container with wax paper between layers to keep from sticking.

Cock-a-leekie Soup

We like to have this in the days leading up to Christmas - so full of yummy goodness!

Ingredients

4 lbs chicken breast (you can use dark meat too if you like)

10 cups water

1 onion, chopped

1/3 cup barley

1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed chicken broth

7 leeks, sliced

2 stalks celery, thickly sliced

1 sprig fresh thyme, chopped (I like to use 2 or 3 sprigs, and cook them whole in the pot then chop or break them up near the end of cooking, yum)

1 TBS. chopped fresh parsley

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground black pepper 

Directions

In a large pot over high heat, combine the chicken, water, onion, and barley.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for one hour.  Remove chicken, discard the bones and skin, chop meat into bite size pieces and return to the pot.

Add the chicken broth, leeks, celery, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper.  Simmer for 30 more minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.

New fabric for Christmas projects!

I have done almost nothing productive today as I have spent most of my day entering the give aways featured on Sew Mama Sew. I did however manage to get out to M&L fabrics today as they are having their 20% off sale this week . . . I managed to snag some fabrics for some Christmas projects. Maddie went with me as she loves the fabric store. She has gone from pointing at the fabrics she wants to touch (she then holds onto the bolts as we tool around the store, but only the bolts of the fabrics she likes, the ones she doesn't like so much we put in the back of the cart) to pointing and saying "zisssone" when she wants a bolt! I am so proud. She picked out a whole sequence of Winnie the Pooh, or "Ppppohh" as she calls him, fabrics (are we surprised?) from the sale shelf. I'll be using them (I think) to make a skirt or skirts for her for Christmas. One of them is a panel that I will make into a blanket / quilt.

I am so excited, I love new fabric. I wasn't extremely thrilled with the Christmas fabric selection, so I still have to hunt down some for the stockings I am going to make.

I can't reveal all the projects these are for as some of the recipients may or may not read this blog . . . but I have fabric love and need to share. My camera battery is still dead so these were all taken on my phone.

These are great! There were a few other patterns in the line that I loved too, might have to go back and get some more . . .

Maddie's Winnie the Pooh selections (a little bit upside down)

The matching Winnie the Pooh panel

Does this look familiar? There was barely any left on the bolt, so I got another yard because I love this fabric and with the 20% I got on my other stuff it was like getting this yard for free! I don't have any immediate plans for it but I have some stuff percolating through my brain.

Meanwhile Sarah's bridal shower apron sits half finished on my sewing machine, but I still have give aways to enter!

Tomorrow I am hoping to post some of my favorite family holiday recipes - it's really time to start getting into Christmas around here!

A rose by any other name . . .

We rejoice and delight in you;

we will praise your love more than wine.

Song of Solomon 1:4(b)

Last week my good friend Sarah (a.k.a. Sarey) married the love of her life Joshua (a.k.a. Rocko) in a very rock 'n roll wedding. I was blessed to be a part of their wedding as both a bridesmaid and as a "florist" (in quotes because this is my first time even attempting bouquets, let alone 7 of them plus boutonnieres and table arrangements!) The wedding was in a sort of warehouse type space near downtown Los Angeles. We honestly ran out of time (many, many thanks to my co-florists Raymond and Melinda) but thankfully the bouquets got made - complete with feathers . . . the boutonnieres didn't fall apart (Melinda really rocked the boutonnieres in addition to talking me down off the ledge several times during the day) and enough arrangements got finished to make the space look beautiful - all thanks to Raymond the biggest superstar ever! Not only did Ray provide my transportation, he also procured the bridal runner, white roses, and so many other items it would take me hours to list. He also put the feathers on the bouquets!

Here are some pictures I've snagged off my friend's facebook pages as my camera battery died near the end of the reception and I haven't bought another yet.

Sarey and Rocko's first dance, you can see a gorgeous purple rose and sparkly "iced" curly willow center piece

Sarey, the gorgeous bride with her bouquet. I will hopefully get a nice up close pic of the bouquet off my camera . . . it includes (I think! I lost count) about 26 or so purple roses, 8 or so white roses, white ostrich feathers and lighlty "iced" curly willow.

The bridesmaids . . . our bouquets have a dozen purple roses, sparkly silver twigs, and black feathers and are wrapped with purple ribbon. The only thing I would do differently in the future is cut those stems a lot shorter!

Raymond (co-florist extraodinaire) modeling a purple rose boutonniere and Sarey.

And as an added bonus here is an iphone shot of the guestbook I made as my wedding present for Sarey and Rocko (their invitation theme was "Sarey and Rocko Getting Married"):

Thanksgiving

Now thank we all our God,   

with heart and hands and voices,   

who wondrous things has done,   

in whom this world rejoices;   

who from our mothers' arms   

has blessed us on our way   

with countless gifts of love,   

and still is ours today.   

O may this bounteous God   

through all our life be near us,   

with ever joyful hearts   

and blessed peace to cheer us;   

and keep us still in grace,   

and guide us when perplexed;   

and free us from all ills,   

in this world and the next.   

All praise and thanks to God   

the Father now be given;   

the Son, and him who reigns   

with them in highest heaven;   

the one eternal God,   

whom earth and heaven adore;   

for thus it was, is now,   

and shall be evermore.

A Happy Halloween

I've known all year that I wanted Maddie to be Boo from Monsters, Inc. for Halloween.  It really has to be done this year because she's the right age and just looks so much like the character (although cuter in my opinion).  Her costume was pretty easy - purple stretch capri pants (I just put Maddie in a size 9 months pants I got on sale from Target for $2.74, I got this idea from Ed as he accidently put her in her brother's pants and they fit except for being a bit short) and a pink oversize tshirt ($2.50 at the tshirt warehouse) and white socks.  What really sells the costume though is the pigtails and while I wasn't able to find pink ball ponytail holders (we used to call them knockers, but I guess no one else did?!?!?) I did manage to get Maddie's hair up, after several practice runs throughout the week, into pigtails . . . crazy, uneven pigtails, but pigtails none the less.

I really wanted Jamie to have a Monsters, Inc. costume as well, and several weeks ago I came up with the idea of dressing him as Mike Wazowski.  At 10 p.m. on October 30th I had a yard of green felt, and a small piece each of black, white, and blue felt, and a pair of green stretch pants from Target.  Three hours later I had Mike Wazowski sitting on my computer chair:

I really have to thank my good friend Tor in Australia for talking me through all of my random ideas for the creation of Mike, and especially for using her artist eye to help with eye and mouth placement over the webcam.  The most important part, however, was the shape.  I figured if I just sewed together two circles poor James would end up looking more like the green m&m than Mike, you know, just sort of flat.  Tor came up with the idea of three barrel shapes sewn together, and it was brilliant, I freehanded a barrel (I was obviously tired and desperate because I never freehand anything) and cut through all three layers of fabric in the most haphazard of ways.  I then sewed it together in a ridiculously hasty fashion, I am literally just lucky it came out so nice.  The eye I measured out with different size plates and cups, and because my hot glue gun went kaput I was forced to stitch it on!  So I got to practice my precision stitching and discover that my machine will indeed stitch through four layers of felt!  

James really, really loved this outfit, it was kind of funny, he kept grabbing it and rubbing it on his face like a blanket, and in the stroller he smushed it up and fell asleep on it like a pillow.  Here is a full body shot so you can see it with legs, and one of him laughing . . . the flash is a little harsh, but you can't beat that grin!  The costume is so big he could probably be Mike for at least 3 more years . . .

And last, but not least, here are my little Mike and Boo with Mommy on the porch before heading out to Disneyland (where Daddy kept wheeling the stroller up to employees and saying "Excuse me, we are looking for someone named Sully" which was usually met with a blank stare).

Happy first Halloween to my sweet little Mike Wazowski, and Happy second Halloween to my beautiful Boo girl.

Pumpkin Patch Primitive Quilt Shoppe Give Away

There is a really awesome give away of some gorgeous fabrics at Pumpkin Patch Primitive Quilt Shoppe.  Brenda is giving away a Fat Quarter Bundle of Red Rooster's Pumpkins & Spice Fabrics by Whimsicals:

Aren't they pretty?  You can enter by following the directions on her blog (just click on the link above).  The give away ends on October 31st.  Good luck!

Riding the ponies

Saturday we went to the Los Angeles County Fair and Maddie went for a ride on a pony with no mommy or daddy walking alongside! She did great, we are so proud! Her pony's name was Dr. Pepper and here are some pictures:

I'm a Pepper, he's a Pepper,

She's a Pepper, we're a Pepper,

Wouldn't you like to be a Pepper, too?

Be a Pepper. Drink Dr Pepper.