Between (and sugar on top)

The week between Christmas and New Years is always a unique one. A week filled with a bit of reflection as we absorb the events of the past year, mixed with a sense of anticipation and renewal, as we await the new year. Kate, of Marmalade Moon recently wrote about these days, the "days in between," or “mellandagarna,” in her native Swedish. I love the idea of giving this week "in between" a name and celebrating it.

When you think about it, most of us do celebrate it, in our own ways. This year, we have been celebrating mostly with food (our very favorite way to commemorate occasion). Cooking and eating some old favorites and trying a few new recipes, too.

Banana bread has always been a favorite, but it was taken to another level after a friend told me what she recently ordered at a diner: banana bread toasted with butter and powdered sugar sprinkled on top (!). So we baked a loaf, using our preferred recipe, thickly sliced it, slathered it with butter and sifted the sugar onto it and, wow. The sugar dissolves into the melted butter, becoming something reminiscent of frosting (which is always good for breakfast. My mother would be proud—and I am being completely serious). This may be a fantastic new tradition for us—ringing in the new year with some good ol' sugar coated bread.

Wishing you a peaceful new year!

A thousand thanks for stopping by this little place and commenting. This blog has been a wonderful avenue of artistic expression and you, the readers, have motivated and inspired me to continue on a creative path. I look forward to sharing so much more in the new year. Best wishes for the new decade!

The Ten-Year Gift

You may remember that we celebrated our tenth anniversary a few weeks ago. I made a special gift for "A" that I have been meaning to share with you.

Ten years was a big one, and it seemed so significant, personal, and gratifying. It also seemed to go by so fast. I wanted to timelessly capture our children while they are still small. I wanted to package them up and deliver them to him in a heart warming way. We have so many photos of them, and I have already given him a Remembery Capsule on another occasion, so I made silver silhouettes of the girls and placed them in a copper container.

The shapes of our girls and cat, and a tiny "ILU" heart (which is the way our 5-year-old daughter abbreviates "I love you") occupy the small round box.

A straight-from-my-soul message was written on the inside of the lid.

I'm thinking of adding my silhouette and his, as well, to preserve our family as we were in 2009. Things are changing so fast—the girls are growing like weeds and the grown-ups in our house are finding stray gray hairs every so often (ahem). Hopefully someday we'll hold up those silhouettes to compare what we use to look like and laugh. Maybe ten years from now.

One Season, Two Parts

There seems to be two parts to autumn. First there is back-to-school, apple picking, the garden harvest, pumpkins, and Halloween.

After that it's all leaf raking, gourds, baking and, of course, Thanksgiving. I can't decide which I like better. Both parts evoke such strong feelings and memories.

What better way to celebrate this, our second phase of autumn, than with a little turkey and some pumpkin pie?

Crochet patterns found here

Monster Mash, Home Style

There was a Halloween party yesterday that the girls had confirmed they did not want to go to until, of course, five minutes before it was to begin. By then, I just couldn't fit it in. Other plans had been made, much to their dismay ("Why can't we just go right now?").

To ease their seemingly excruciating suffering, I promised them we'd make our very own party at home. This was going to need all the elements of a spooky bash if they were to be convinced. Lucky for me, the girls are only five and seven and I can still get away with alot. So I streamed some Halloween music, turned off the lights and broke out the glow sticks, made some face paint, served a special treat, got out the costumes and poof! we had our very own "Monster Mash."

We started with some leftover anniversary cake

...then moved on to the homemade face paint. We mixed cold cream and cornstarch until we had the right consistency (there are many variations of this recipe online so we just mixed until it seemed right).

Next came the drops of food coloring (Be sure to make your colors dark)

Our clown/makeup artist attempted to transform a sweet face into a scary one

...then did a few touch ups to her own makeup for good measure

There are so many social obligations—birthday parties, games, seasonal events, and school functions, that sometimes it gets overwhelming. We try to keep a balance between life at home and our social lives but we just can't do it all, so at times we pick and choose. I must concede that this is probably going to become more of a challenge as the girls grow older. For now, I'll get away with what I can and keep my "babies" close to home. And use smoke and mirrors—or glow sticks and face paint—when desperation calls for it.

I have to warn you that the face paint is greasy. The girls put it on using cotton swabs and it went on in globs (as you can see above). Later, we applied it with a paint brush and it went on much smoother.

Looking Back, Looking forward

We pulled it off. The surprise 40th anniversary party for my parents was a success. The secret was even kept by 2 small girls who love to drop hints. The celebration had it all—roughly 40 guests, 3 courses of food galore, and a tropical storm (which we welcomed, after being downgraded from hurricane).

A kind friend loaned a very large tent to the cause, which filled our entire yard and gave the guests a dry place to get a little elbow room. Our backyard big top was a comforting refuge from the wind and rain, and twinkling lights and candles gave it a cozy ambiance.

Would you like to see photos of this celebration? Yes, me too. But somehow, between keeping up with the food, catching up with family members, and peeking out back to make sure the tent hadn't blown over, I forgot to take pictures. Shame, I know. But I get comfort in my memories of the day, and know that I will get a glimpse of photos from family members to look back on.

For now, I have these images to share—the remnants of the celebration that linger in our home.

Two weeks of home and yard preparation and 3 solid days of cooking may explain why our crafting and cooking for fun came to a screeching halt.

Today, we look forward...to our last two days of care-free summer pleasure, to eating all those party leftovers, to the start of a new soccer season, and to the gears of my metals shop cranking once again.