Bittersweet

On Friday most of the surviving members of our local miniature club met at our recently departed friend's home to sort through her supplies, stash, and tools so we could purchase what we'd like from her husband. There were many tears and lots of laughs during the hours we spent combing through her treasures. Lots of memories were traded back and forth too. And lots of questions like, "what do you suppose she saved THIS for?" 

Honestly the whole day was overwhelming and I didn't make it through every section and bin before my brain was totally numb. We're talking about decades of collecting that was extremely well-sorted in labeled bins. And that wasn't even her quilting supplies. Those were on a different floor. On and the needlework supplies. Sometimes we'd find something that we knew should stay with the family, so we made room on a shelf for all those things.

These are a few of the treasures that came to live with me. I could spend all day photographing what I brought home, so these are just the highlights. 

I'm already putting together things of hers to build a scene around the sofa bed. I'll have to clean my studio (don't even get me started on that fresh hell) so I can supplement with things from my stash. I've also got some rough plans for the Japanese miniatures. I've been collecting some similar pieces over the years and will be combining them. Somehow. No clue how yet.

Other than that, the rest of the week seems pretty mild. Mercedes got a bath and I baked cookies.

That's all for today. I need to go try to be useful somehow. See you next week!

More of Me to Love...

...I blame the baking.

Chocolate sponge sandwiched with marmalade cream and dusted with a snowman stencil.

You could resist the creamy, orange goodness in the center, but why?

Four ingredients: lemon cake mix (with pudding in mix), 1 egg, an 8 ounce container of whipped topping, and powdered sugar to roll balls of dough in.  Bake about 10 minutes at 325F.

They are insanely good.

 My final baking for the year (and probably until February when I play hostess to guild groups) is yet to come.  It will only be three, maybe four batches of cookies and they're all for gifts.  None shall remain in the house.

I remember now why I stopped baking.  It's because I put on weight quite easily... the extra 15 pounds I picked up since September are making me feel blah.  Therefore there will be no baking without specific reason for a while.  If it's not here, I can't eat it.

I'm going to go roll down the hill to today's guild meeting now.  Ugh.

And People Wonder Why I Don't Loose Weight

I just keep finding new ways to have it stick around. 

Monday night I whipped up some Snickerdoodles to take to Guild, so of course some came back home with me.

Today I tried out a recipe for blueberry-lemon scones.

 

FH isn't much help either when he makes lovely dinners like this: 

 

 Moroccan beef over couscous with stir fried broccoli... it may sound healthy, but only if you can manage to control how much to eat.  ;-)

Happy Halloween!

For a good time...

and some "worth it" ounces on your waistline, pop over to Boulderneigh for an awesome cookie recipe! I just made two batches of the Cranberry-White Chocolate and they are fantastic.

Thanks to Michelle for being generous enough to share it. :-)