Merry Christmas - This n That

Yuck - look at our weather today. And tomorrow will be 80% rain but the weatherman is calling for a slight chance of rain for our Christmas day (that is so far - subject to change). It is rather warm for this time of year but the cold front is coming down to cool us down over the next day or so.

I hope you all are having a nice day even if the weather is nasty where ever you are. Are you ready for the holiday? This is a busy time of year and with it often comes stress due to just trying to so much. I used to worry about making sure my kids had enough presents of the things they asked for and things I thought they needed. Always thinking are they equal. Wouldn't want to do more for one than the other. My stress consisted of getting dinner on the table. Trying to see everyone I needed to. Since the children are grown I don't worry so much. It is what it is and that is all I can do. And that is how I see it now.

I was thinking of doing something different than the traditional Christmas dinner we ALWAYS have. Was thinking of grilling steaks and all the fixins. Maybe.

I stopped in the local Goodwill and I was happy to find these plates. They will be perfect in my red kitchen when I get it done. I am going to hang them on the wall.

I ended up with lots of pecans this year. Roasted these and they are very good. Melted 1/2 stick of butter, mixed in 1 tea of sugar and poured over the nuts. Sprinkle with salt and bake at 225 for about 30 minutes stirring every 15 minutes. Increase the heat to 250 and bake for 40 more minutes stirring every 10 - 15 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.

I have done lots of baking and candy making this year. Loving the memories that is coming with the baking this year. Haven't done this much since my kids were home and my kids would get in the kitchen and help me out. My butter cookies with the icing on it - well let me say they taste way better than they look. Butter cookies, shortbread and PNB cookies. Butter cookies here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/the-neelys-butter-cookies-recipe/index.html  - Gina and Pat Neely's recipe. Of course Gina has these cute little piggy cut-outs. I sliced mine. Gina loves her little piggys I tell ya. The icing on the cookies is a first for me. The cookies turned out ugly with absolutely not color so I decided to add some. Needless to say it didn't turn out the way I wanted but they taste super good. I flavored each of the three icings with lemon and butternut and third with caramel flavoring. The shortbread cookies here http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/shortbread-cookies-recipe/index.html and Ina makes some good cookies. I added butter flavorings to all my cookies in addition to the vanilla.

 Fudge, Martha Washington Balls, PNB fudge, Snowballs.

 Took this sky pic last week and just wanted to share a prettier sky pic than the one at the beginning of this post.

I just had to share my house babies. Sorry about the poor pic quality. These two don't sit nicely for photos. In fact Buddy will hang his head when he sees the camera. go figure.

 This one still doesn't have a name but I think Kitty will do. She answers to Kitty and nothing else - well she does answer when I shake the cat food bag. She is running toward me.

Wishing each and eveyone of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Hope you have the best family time this year. Be safe out there. I will be traveling on Friday and Saturday and I'll be watching my speed. (got pulled over for speeding yesterday and talked my way out of a ticket and got a warning. I was doing some smooth talking too and pleading for him not to spoil my perfect record).

Fall Blooms

I'm still here ya'll. I know I've been MIA and don't really have an excuse other than I just am. Anyway not much going on in my world. I took these pics a few weeks ago and just haven't gotten around to posting them.

Bougainvilla is doing great considering the time of year. I am falling in love with this plant.

 Kitty Cat loves the garden.

Have ya'll seen the new 'skinny houses'. I really don't know what they are called but they appear very small. I first saw these on HGTV during one of the reality shows where they each had to decorate one of these type homes. Notice they are long and narrow. This is how homes were built a long time ago and were called 'shotgun' houses'. They got that name because you could open either door and shoot strait through to the other side. These are the only 'skinny homes' I've seen. It will be interesting to see how these fair in a hurricane.

 I bet they are designed for efficiency and storage. Probably making use of every inch of the home including the ceiling and attic if it even has one but I bet it does. These two homes are facing each other as you can see.

 

I just thought they were interesting so I wanted to share them.

This is what fall looks like here on the gulf coast. Very little color but the weather is so nice. Our weather has been seasonable for the most part with hi's in the 60's/70's and lows around 50 or so.

I've been doing some baking and still loving it. This is Sand Tarts and the recipe is can be found by going here: http://beccascookingspot.blogspot.com/

Hope you all have a fabulous day.

By Ivan - Welcome Kitty

Good FRIDAY morning everybody. Not much going on here thus the lack of posts. We are having some gorgeous fall weather. We had some cooler weather move in last week and we are in the seasonable range of the low 80's and low 60's at night. It just makes me feel good when the seasons change.

I know that I introduced ya'll to Ivan the dog two weeks ago. Well Ivan didn't make it in my home. He was a very good dog but I was too worried about him visiting the neighbors too much. Plus he wouldn't stay out of my gardens. I work too hard on the gardens to let a dog tramp through it all the time.

The Kitty may or may not work out. I'll have to see with the neighbor. But still she'll be confused too... I just don't know. But she sure is cute and cute with Buddy.

Well I'm trying this sweet little one out here. She is about 3 months old. The kitten belongs to my neighbor but she has taken a liking to Buddy. She got to the point that she would come up to him, even though Buddy is barking and just want to love on him. Well I took a liking to Kitty. If she likes Buddy then I like her too.

The kittens were so bony and underfed. I hate this about my neighbor and I am gonna have to say something soon. Neighbor has 4 cats and 3 dogs and none are fed well and I know none have ever had shots.

I'm trying her out in the house and have already checked with the vet if I decide to keep her and get her shots. After feeding her for a week while she went back and forth next door she is fattening up nicely. A plump little thing now. Buddy and Kitty are here nose to nose. I love it. I let her stay indoors last night. By the way the neighbor doesn't miss her so I knew it would be OK.

She is beautiful and has some nice markings on her. She answers to Kitty so I will call her Kitty.

Found a few blooms this morning.

I told ya'll I don't do pansy's well. There is only one live plant out of 6 here.

 

Wish all the pansy's would have lived - oh well.

Help me out here. This thing is big and it is heavy. It is made of clay and came from Mexico 30 or so years ago. I have no place for it inside and it doesn't go with anything I have. I had an idea of placing it in a garden but I'm afraid that the clay would disintegrate. Any ideas? Maybe I should just take it to Goodwill. What do you think? What would you do with it?

I thought I'd taken a more recent photo of the dead Rose of Sharon I transplanted 3 weeks ago. It didn't make it. Sad face.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. I bet there are lots of fall festivals or sorts going on this time of year.