Blizzard Preparedness. . .

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We've had a blizzard warning here since yesterday afternoon and still have another 9 hours to go!  I've been working from home, enjoying my Christmas tree and decorations,  working on my Christmas cards, cooking this {again!} and sitting by my warm fireplace with a nice glass of vino.  A glass of wine makes any blizzard better, right?

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Snow is now covering my wreath and planter.

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Happy Winter!

Holiday Planter

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This weekend I put together a holiday planter for my front porch.  It's not as exciting as the Chicago sidewalk planters my sister posted on her site, but I still like it!

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Here's what you'll need:

- Planter with dirt

- Pine boughs (mine came from the bottom of my Christmas tree; they were the ones I needed to cut off in order for my tree to fit in the stand!)

- Branches

- Red berry branches

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Here's the empty planter:

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First add the pine boughs around the base of the planter.

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Next add in the branches.  I bundled mine together and stuck them right in the center of the planter.
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Add the berry branches just above the pine boughs.

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That's it!  It's a fast, easy, and inexpensive ourdoor decoration.  I usually make one of these each winter - the pine boughs will easily last in the planter for a couple of months.

Christmas Wreath

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This weekend I put together a Christmas wreath for my front porch.  I started with a quite ugly, plain wreath I bought at Michael's for $9.00.

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I wanted to add a few things to the wreath to make it look better.  I purchased three pine branches with pinecones and red berries on it.  I also used three branches of red berries that I already had.

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I started by adding the three pine branches and wiring them to the back of the wreath.

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Looking better already!

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Next I added the red berry branches.

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The last step was to add a string of white lights and hang the wreath outside.

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That's it - it was pretty easy to make and only took me a half hour or so.

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First Snow. . .

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Last night we got our first big snow of the season.  Where I live we had at least 6" on the ground when I woke up.  Normally I don't really like the snow, but for some reason I really enjoyed it today - it really put me in a holiday mood!

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Tomorrow I'm getting my Christmas Tree!

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Apple Pie

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My sister and I made a delicious apple pie for Thanksgiving while we were out in Arizona.  The recipie comes from Smitten Kitchen.  You can find the complete recipie here.

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We made the dough for the crust the night before which saved a lot of time Thanksgiving morning and also gave the dough plenty of time to chill in the fridge.  I am really liking Smitten Kichen's pie crust recipie and directions.  I always thought I made a pretty good pie crust until I tired hers!  She has some great tips and a tutorial that can be found here.  Really cold butter is the key to making the pie crust nice and flaky.

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The pastry blender makes mixing the butter into the flour super easy.

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Ice cold water is another trick.
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Here is one of the finished balls of dough.  We made enough for 3 pie crusts - a bottom and top for the apple and a bottom for a pumpkin pie we made.

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After we got back from the parade on Thanksgiving morning we got to work on peeling and slicing the apples.

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Rolling out the dough was really easy.  I think letting the dough chill overnight as opposed to a couple of hours really made a big difference.

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All set and ready to bake. . .

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Fresh out of the oven and looking good!

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A close up of the flaky, yummy crust. . .

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I was too busy eating food at dinner and forgot to take a picutre of the pie once it was served, but it was delicious!

Flowers in November. . .

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This past week while we were out in Arizona, my sister and I planted three planters for our Dad.  We used geraniums, snapdragons, petunias, lavender, and what looks like a yellow daisy (I can't remember the correct name for that one).

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Before:

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Planting:

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After:

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We were happy with how the finished planters turned out!  It was really fun to buy and plant flowers during the last week of November!

Thanksgiving in the Desert. . .

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I just got back from a week in Arizona.  My Dad spends half of the year there and my sister and I went out for Thanksgiving.  It was a nice relaxing week spent soaking up the sun, enjoying the Fountain Hills Thanksgiving Day parade (the largest West of the Mississippi!), and eating lots of great food.  Here are a few pictures from the week.

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My sister and I with our Grandpa who turns 89 in a couple of weeks!

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