Show and Tell Friday

My Grandmother gave me this ornament when I was a little girl. It has always been my favorite and remains so to this day. It hangs in a place of honor on my Christmas tree every year. There is a hitch... my DH thinks it is the ugliest thing he has ever seen and will move it to a place on the tree where no one can see it. We have this revolving game... I hang it, he moves it, I find it and move it back again. Good times! LOL! For more Show and Tells go to http://kellishouse.blogspot.com

In a Shoe Give Away/Vision Forum Free Shipping!

Perry C. over at http://www.inashoe.com/ is having a give away of Vision Forum merchandise in order to promote Doug Phillip's Vision Forum and their free shipping offer for merchandise. The offer was supposed to end on Wednesday but they have extended it one more day- until midnight tonight! Take advantage of it people. They have good stuff. Check it out at http://www.visionforum.com/ . I received my order from VF just yesterday- Prompt and efficient- way to go Perry! (He is the warehouse manager.)

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesdays go to http://www.wordlesswednesday.com/

Should I be afraid?

My three year old daughter built herself a "drum set". Three different surfaces to hit the top of (a tinker toy pail, a plastic storage container lid, and the top of her plastic atm toy) plus "drumsticks"- tinker toys. She plays surprisingly well. I hope this isn't a sign of a future talent. I always pictured my kids with more refined and quieter musical choices.

When a mess is made...

Last night my son had the unfortunate circumstance of tipping over a cup of soda that I was about to drink. I had placed it on the kitchen counter and left to do something else. In the space of a minute I heard it spilling. Now, it was an accident and no mischief was involved, but I decided that he was old enough to apply the "you made, you clean it" principle. So, not only did he need to sop up the liquid, he also got to scrub the floor- soda would have left a nice layer of "stick".

At first he was really enjoying it.

"Mom can I scrub the floor every week?"

I was amazed and answered, "Why yes! Yes, you certainly may."

Then he found out he needed to go over the floor with a rinse and wipe the floor down/drier with a rag and he decided that he did not want to do it every week.

Oh well, that's fine. The kitchen doesn't need it every week, but he did well enough that he gets it added to his chore list on an "as needed" basis. I think he will be a bit more careful from now on.

Christmas decorations are up

As is our tradition in the Lewis family, we started putting up our Christmas decor the day after Thanksgiving. We did our furniture moves, cleaning and put up our Nativity scene and our Christmas village on Friday, brought up all the rest of our Christmas decor on Saturday and put everything else but the tree up and on Sunday after church put up our tree. It is nice having the kids be a bit older as they are able to help rather than hinder. We also took our picture for our Christmas cards.

Christmastime rejuvenation/ gift ideas

Meredith, over at http://likemerchantships.blogspot.com/ whipped up a homemade sugar scrub. I thought I would throw out a couple of other "spa" treatment recipes for yourself or for a gift. These are "fresh" products that require quick use and refridgeration when not being used so they are not meant to be mailed or stuck under the Christmas tree. (There are no preservatives in them.) My husband and I ran a body care business (Bamboo Falls Body Company) for seven/eight years. The recipes are from that. Feel free to use the recipes for self or gifts but if you are going to make them commercially we ask that you change them up a bit. Meredith will have no trouble with that as I know she will be seeking more frugal choices for some of the ingredients.

Winter Foot Rescue:

4 tblsp. used coffee grounds

1 1/2 tsp. cornmeal

2 tsp. olive oil

1 tblsp. heavy whipping cream

1 tblsp. flour

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

mix, scrub and rinse

Sweet Body Butter: (For all body parts)

1 over ripe banana

1 over ripe avocado

1 stick of butter

a few tblsp. of whipping cream

mix in a blender or food processor, apply in bath tub/shower, wait a few minutes and rinse off.

A Little Bit More!

Enough to break out the snow gear, do snow angels on the driveway and throw a few snowballs. Still waiting for more!

A little Thanksgiving excitement

Here are my pies and pudding salad in all their glory! What you don't see is the haze of smoke lingering through-out the house.

I was toasting coconut for the top of the coconut cream pie and thought "broil" would do it most effective. Ahhhh.... yes.... a tip: don't go and do something else and forget about your coconut on broil.

I happened to spy a curl of smoke coming up out of the oven... ah, yes... the coconut... it must be just right! I opened up the oven to full fledge flames. My coconut was a bit more than toasted.

I quickly shut the oven, turned it off and called for the husband. "Honey, there's a fire in the oven."

"Flames?"

"Yes!"

"Big flames?"

"Yes, HELP!"

He came to my rescue and managed to get the aflame cookie sheet out and into the sink. As he's squirting the flames with our sink sprayer nozzle all I can think is, "The house is going to burn down and I wasn't even deep frying a turkey!" I so hate being part of statistics.

He got it out fairly quickly and the only thing damaged was the coconut. Upside: our smoke detector works!

After that fiasco I appointed the husband to toast and watch carefully a new batch of coconut. He turned the oven on about 350 degrees (not broil) and it came out beautifully.

That espisode brought a little bit of excitement into our day. Now we are off to our Pastor's house for dinner. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And remember... don't broil your coconut while doing other things!

A little more snow... still waiting for more!

I was hoping for inches but it's more then last time. I love snow! Still I wait! Happy Thanksgiving.

Frugal Children's Entertainment

Mrs. U. over at http://makingahouseahome.blogspot.com/ asked what others do to keep young children busy rather than just sitting them down in front of the t.v.

Today I had to make two pies and a pudding salad for upcoming Thanksgiving dinner celebrations. I came up with this idea for my three year old after contemplating Mrs. U's post.

Three empty boxes became a cupboard, a fridge and a stove. She "cooked" and "waited tables" all day while I was busy in the kitchen. She didn't care that I merely drew knobs and burners on her "stove" with a marker. She was pleased as punch every second.

$$ spent: nothing
Time not spent in front of the t.v.: priceless!

Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesdays go to http://www.wordlesswednesday.com/

Lovely Little Ladies

Ladies who "tea"

Cake courtesy of Costco

The birthday girl is a bit lost!

Pinata fun

Pinata chaos

Little ladies in hats

My daughter had a wonderful birthday party. All her friends showed up dressed very lady like and brought their favorite dolls. We introduced each other and the dolls and then played a guessing game of unique kitchen and tea related items. The girls all recognized the tupperware orange peeler but the the pie bird left them puzzled. We had "tea" (really different types of juice) and cake and treats. We also had a pinata and decorated hats. The girls enjoyed the time of being real girls and doing femine things.

Our Pastor's wife, Jill Hendrickson, deserves a big shout out for hosting it for us! You're the best Jill!

A word to the wise: Stay out of the way of "little ladies" when there is a broken pinata spilling candy. They'll take you out!

Kids at play

Rem with Legos

The hippity hop

Reagan with Fisher Price people in a box

Seven drawing

The three "Hams"

Go... Reagan!

Grandma Lewis asked for pictures of the kids playing. These are a few shots I got this evening.

A Few Flakes!

No, I'm not talking about family members! LOL! We had snow in the air yesterday afternoon. A few flakes stuck on the deck. I'm still waiting for more. I'll take trace amounts at this point.

Still Waiting!

I love snow! I love to watch it fall. I love to see it accumulate. I love to take long quiet walks in in it. I love a good snowball fight, snow angels, sledding down hills and making forts and snowmen. I especially love coming inside after playing and sitting by the window with a steamy cup of hot cocoa. Every year about this time (when we live in places that it actually snows- San Antonio, TX was not a snow spot.) I start watching the weather reports diligently, waiting... hoping... wanting!

So far we've had one day with a few flakes in the air. Today we might see a few more in the air. (Yes, my nose has been pressed against the glass trying to see any.) But thus far my waiting has been in vain. The weatherman says that the end of November might see some snowiness. I can't hold my breath that long!

Transparent candy-cookies

My daughter saw these type of cookies in the November/December issue of American Girl Magazine. She decided to make heart shapes for her birthday teaparty coming up this weekend. You can use any sugar cookie dough and cookie cutter shapes. You'll need a big shape and a smaller version of the same shape.

1. Make and roll out your dough.

2. Use the larger cookie cutter and cut out the shapes, placing them on a foil lined cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray.

3. Use the smaller cookie cutter and cut out the center of the dough shapes. You can reroll and reuse this dough or bake these as regular cookies.

4. Bake the cookie cut outs at 350 for 4 minutes and pull out of oven.

5. Fill the cut out with crushed hard candy (unwrapped Jolly Ranchers and a hammer work well- tip: put the unwrapped color sorted candy in small baggies, put those baggies in a big baggie, wrap in towel and hammer on a cutting board.)

6. Put the cut outs back in the oven for 5 minutes.

7. Let cool on cookie sheet for 1/2 hour.

They are really yummy and very pretty!

Hostess Gift Update

I had a reader want more info on the links to the Martha Stewart cook's helpers I had talked about a few days ago so here are the specific links.

http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/pdf1/0505_piechart.pdf
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/pdf1/cookshelpers.pdf
http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/pdf2/keepsake_recipe_cards.pdf

Have fun ladies!

Decorating Exercise

Here are a few things I picked up in the field and woods behind our house. How would you use these items for your holiday decorating? I just picked up one or two of everything so feel free to imagine using however much would be needed for your idea.

Frugal Fridays

I found these great templates on http://www.marthastewart.com/ . For the kitchen helps, you can print them out, laminate them and add a magnet and you've got a great frugal gift for a home cook. For the recipe cards print them out on card stock. Wrap them with a ribbon. Finish off the gift with a card filled out with your favorite recipe and the supplies to make it. To find the templates, go to Martha's site, click on crafts and then clip on templates/clip art.

For more frugal fridays go to Crystal's blog at http://www.biblicalwomanhood.com/ .

Show and Tell Friday

My husband carved this "ball in a cage chain" from one solid piece of wood. No glue or special openings. I think he's quite talented and I love to show off his carvings.

For more show and tell Fridays go to: www.kellishouse.blogspot.com