Snow!

Tomatoes anyone???

Neighbors crab apple isn't doing so hot this morning.

That's a five foot tall burning bush under that snow, or it was anyway.

My beloved red oak, the branches are nearly touching the ground when they should be up another ten or so feet in the air.  It's this tree that I'm the most worried about at the moment, hopefully the wind doesn't bring it down!!!

Oh Christmas Tree!!!

Now some wool batting around the base to protect my vintage fabrics and lace.

A vintage slip (pettifore) that I found in the first wifes stash of yummy fabrics that I split up one side and draped over the wool batting.

Very pretty, and delicate!

Some crochet vintage panels draped over the vintage slip, I may rework this tomorrow but right now my raging head cold is saying "go take a nap"!

Yes the tree is in my studio, aka formerly known as the living room!

We will put the ornaments on the tree this Sunday, which will give the cats time to adjust to the tree.

Waiting

Angel waiting while I work on a sketch.

Bat Catching Device

We had a couple of bats fly through the rooms formerly known as the dining and living rooms this evening, aka my studio.  We were sitting in the family room, formerly known as the "library" watching the dog show on NBC and out of the corner of my eye I spied two bats flying gracefully past the family room door. 

If you use a fishing net to catch bats make sure to purchase one that has the ultra fine nettting so as to not harm the bats!

You Can't See Me!

Thomas nesting atop John's Carhart jacket, somehow he thinks because he's three feet from the ceiling we can't see him.

Smoked Turkey

John smoked the turkey on the grill today, it took about eight hours for a 17 pound bird. It's cooling on the stove, the juice will soon be poured off and the fat removed for tomorrows gravvy, the bird cut up, deboned, and ready for tomorrows dinner and for a large batch of turkey and noodles!

Thomas Again

Barely a year old.

Thomas

Summer coat, no bib, no mane and no ear tufts, almost a medium haired cat at this point. August of 2010

Winter coat, mane and bib and all fluffed out.  February of 2011.  He did grow his ear tufts back in and longer, much longer ear hairs, but alas the little bugger won't sit still for photos.

 

These are his feet in August, they are way hairier in the winter!

Thomas

What do you mean you can see me??? 

Pepper

Pepper being himself~!

Ranch Dressing

My first ever attempt at making ranch dressing.  I used the recipe from All Recipes

It's in the fridge chilling!

Pepper

Pepper and his chair! Right now I've parked my bookwork in the chair, on which he's decided to sleep.

House Redux 080512

And an hour later it looked like this!

The Gate Keeper

Angel keeping me company while I work on a painting out on the front porch.

The Scaffolding Shuffle 072912

Trim colors, finally, on the east windows!  Now to move the scaffolding so that the lower portions of the windows can be finished and the remaining east windows can be painted.

Dinner 072712

Another hybrid dish somewhere between ragu and colache!

Horseradish and mustard encrusted baked chicken served with quinoa. I've taken some notes on tonights dishes for future changes for instance there wasn't near enough mustard on the chicken!  Oh and don't forget to salt the chicken next time.  I'm still getting used to quinoa, it's wonderful but my brain keeps telling my tongue that it's cream of wheat when in fact it is not.  Next time I'll add some fresh herbs to the quinoa at the very end.

Salsbury Steak

Salsbury Steak - well sorta since it's made with ground beef is it really salsbury steak???

Wind Damage 072612

Bye bye redbud tree!

House Painting 072112

John - painting the trim over the upstairs window.  We're back to working on the east side of the house, up until today he's been working on the soffit and the trims way up there where you see the pale blue.  This afternoon we took the storm windows out and now the task of repairing the wood, priming it, and the painting it and all of the window trim colors and then onto fixing the storm windows themselves. 

Inset Panel for Window

Had to wait until the sun went down but here's the inset panel, I covered it in a natural cotton muslin on both sides.  I plan to paint some fabric tomorrow for the next inset panel that will be going into the dining room window.  After we finish that window we have one more window, an oval window, to work on and we are done.

Window Insert

John is on vacation this week, for the rest of the month actually, and we are working on some projects around the house.  Here he is measuring the window in the stairwell to make a frame for an upholstered insert, when it was finished the temperature of the stairwell dropped a good 15-20 degrees right away!

The frame, was made with the intention of being upholstered and then fitted into the window using friction fit method.  Frame was made out of reclaimed hardwood from an abandoned futon.

First layer of muslin stapled to the back side of the frame.

Second layer of muslin, on the face of the frame, is layed on the table and the back side of the frame is up.  Lots of stapling and pulling is needed to make the piece look professional!

Fabric is folded under and pulled over to the back side and stapled into place.

Here it is snugly in place!  Now to get some fabric painted, dyed, and other wise surfaced, drapes made and those installed!

Bird Bath

I put a fat brick into my bird bath so that the smaller birds could have a place to stand and still get to the water.  The crows just stand on the board and lean over into the pan, but the smaller finches now use the brick as a perch for drinking from.

Making Hamburger Patties

John making hamburger patties using our LEM hamburger press, I really prefer my mom's old three piece tupperware press but alas that was the one thing I didn't get after she passed.  Dad says he has no idea where it made off to as  he really liked it as well.

Waxed paper is a must or you'll never get your patty out of the hamburger press.  John makes 6x6 inch pieces of waxed paper, he says it also helps to keep them seperated when frozen, and he's right they are WAY easier to seperated.

Thirty one five ounce meat balls waiting to be pressed into patties! A ten pound tube of 85% yields about 32 patties more or less.

And this is what they look like before they are put into freezer bags.  If you wanted to keep them a very long time then I recommend vacuum sealed bags, instead of freezer bags, to prevent freezer burn.