Wait! Before You Make That Weight Loss New Year's Resolution...

You simply owe it to yourself to make these!
I don't know if it's my friend Margie's from Clarksburg same recipe, hers are worthy of fundraising for the orphanage in Budapest, but if you are even thinkin of dieting in the New Year you might as well go out with a bang and visit one of my favorite blogs and get this recipe.
Pioneer Woman
I wanna be like her when I grow up.
I wanna have a Marlboro Man.
I wanna have her camera....the lodge...the SUV. (she can keep the snow and cow nuts)
I wanna be able to bake, blog, homeschool, and nuture chillens and animals alike.
Did I mention I wanna have a Marlboro Man?

And after you make those oh-my-dear-scrumpscious rolls, you can sit back and read all her entries of Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

(oh and note to Ree; I only stole the picture for effects...honest...really)

Now if I had any kind of kitchen like hers (tables and cabinets alike), I'd go in there and make some instead of satisfying my insomnia with reading!
Enjoy

The Boy, The Girl and the Dog

MeRrY ChRiStMaS !

The Holidays Begin for ME!!

Haley came home to help me put up the tree...(I know, I know.. better late than never!) and all of a sudden we heard our local hook and latter fire truck blasting it's horn and sirens... wuh woh.
Was it our chimney smoke? Was there a fire in the neighborhood? Car in the river?
Noo!!!
It was the BIG GUY himself...coming all the way to da Hood early to help me get into the swing of things.
Never mind the dark circles under my eyes...(you'll remember, I'm still suffering the after affects from shingles ),he sure cheered me up along with our whole Towne. What's great is we will be using our HUGE Firehouse community room for lots of other holiday gigs, too!

Holiday Jockularity!

CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Directions;
Translate the following into Christmas carols.
Cut and paste the quote and your answers into an email to me at: indahood15@aol.com
First person to get all answers correct will win some Blog Candy (aka a goodie from me!)


1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their beliefs

2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds

3. Nocturnal time span of unbroken quietness

4. An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere

5. Embellish the interior passageways

6. Exalted heavenly beings to whom we harkened

7. Twelve o’clock or a clement night witnessed its arrival

8. The Christmas preceding all others

9. Infinitesimal municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem

10. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionistic cylinders

11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males

12. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere

13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals

14. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical, masculine perennial gift-giver

15. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me

16. In awe of the nocturnal time span characterized by religiosity

17. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of mother nature’s dormancy

18. The first person nominative plural of triumvirate of far eastern heads of state

19. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted, metallic, resonate cups

20. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children’s slumber furniture

21. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation.

22. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us


Remember...you MUST email the answers to me...please do not post here!

Nothing to share or show...

Just call me "bad" blogger, "bad" mama.
I have nothing new to share or show. I have no Holiday Spirit, nor Holiday tree up yet, either!
After (and still on-going) having the shingles, I also have NO energy. It's all I can do to make it through slow days at work. (and that's the worse!).
I have bought TWO holiday gifts and only made 25 Holiday cards (I betcha you're hoping to get one of those, right?)
I'm still having bouts of insomnia, too. So here I sit at 4am, blogging.

Tomorrow (er...today) I plan to head out to Joanne's to look at fabric.
I saw a really cute lap-wrap on a gal at work yesterday and thought, "self, you could have made a hundred of them for Holiday gifts, girl! and if ya hurry, ya still can make a few!"
That's Plan A.
If Plan A doesn't work out, it's Plan B.

Plan B isn't much fun...it's NOT pulling out my little White sewing machine that my Aunt Pat and Uncle Bob gave me in the 80's that still purrs like a kitten and whipping a stitch here and there by the fire whilst Holiday oldie movies play.
Plan B is NOT in the comfort of my own home.
Plan B is NOT for the still-weak-from-shingles.
Plan B has no forethought.
Plan B has no meaning.

Well, what exactly IS Plan B?
Driving into town, grabbing one of these (IF I'm lucky which lately I have not been)
being at the end of this line....
and dreaming of one of these
Plan B scares me.

Well, certainly not the last part...let's hope Plan A works and ends with the latter of Plan B.

Holiday Score!

Isn't this the most stankin cute dish set?
A couple years ago, I scored when it was 75% off...a setting for 4 for a whoppin $9!
Gotta love that!

Believe

There once was a stamp set called 'Twas the Night Before..."
When it came out, the mother of a 4 yr old remembered this photo that she had the witherall to take on Christmas Eve.

When some family members rec'd their card in the mail, they commented, "where'd ya get a photo like that of a cute kid?"

Holiday Traditions

Now that I am feeling a bit better, I think it's time to start enjoying the holidays.

I find it interesting how different cultures have celebrated Christmas in generations past.
Since Haley was in Sweden during the holidays in 2005, I researched their many traditions and had made a lot of things and sent them over for her to give to her families there.

How ironic that when Haley rec'd her first American Girl doll, it was Kirsten, a Swedish girl.
Since I was sooo lonely for her during the holidays, I still dressed her doll in the traditional St. Lucia outfit as we had done together over the years, hence the idea for this was the card I then sent to her families.
Enjoy a little Swedish Holiday Tradition...

Feasting and celebrating begin on December 13 with Lucia Day, which legend says is the longest night of the year and a time when man and beast need extra nourishment. A Lucia (Queen of Light) is chosen from each home, club, school, etc. She is dressed in a white gown with a crown of candles in her hair. She brings coffee, rolls, ginger biscuits, and occasionally "glogg" (a mulled wine). She is generally accompanied by a train of white-clad attendants. The girls wear glitter in their hair and the boys wear tall paper cone hats decorated with stars. While delivering their precious fare, they sing traditional Lucia carols.

Here is the translation of the Lucia carol;
The night treads heavily
around yards and dwellings
In places unreached by sun,
the shadows brood
Into our dark house she comes,
bearing lighted candles,
Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia.

Oldies, but goodies, WORD BLOOMS

Since I'm limited to sitting, standing, and awake time, here's some oldies but goodies.

Quick history on these darling letter albums called Word Blooms.
They are cut out using a very expensive laser cutter, hence *no pattern* to share.
I have bought a variety of WBs and love having them on hand for quickie (well, sort of) gifts.
This one of course spells out t.r.i.p and I used Vintage Travel kit from CTMH (best dang kit by far and will soon be retired!)
What can I say about this one....
And of course, the girls who own the machine did me (and a few hundred others) a favor and made a CTMH WB without charging me a set up fee!
My type of FRIENDS....
THIS was the Swap of a lifetime...all elite to be sure.
I saw this one and just knew it would be worthy of this swap of Elite Swappers.
Since the Word Bloom spells out f.r.i.e.n.d.s., each letter has an adjective that matches that person (tried to anyways!)


the E. photo is missing, I know...




And here's some blank ones I have just layin around...(I did mention no pattern exists, right?)
leave a comment on your favorite and what you would do with it, and there might just be a giveaway!

and NOW I have....

an allergic reaction to the meds I'm on for the rash from the Shingles!
As long as the pain meds keep comin, it's aaaaallll good. (well, NOT!)