All Lit Up

I got a tree from a nearby lot that is being run by two brothers.  A pretty nice noble fir for 30 bucks.
I put new L.E.D. lights on the tree, opting for the energy-efficient less fire danger version.  In the past I have been an all white lights kinda person but I opted for the multi colored lights.  I was pleasantly surprised by their brightness as you can see they ar reflecting in the floor even (giving the illusion that the floor is actually clean.)

Decorations still need to go on the tree, which at this rate will happen Sunday night when I get home from Sacramento.   It is weird to decorate the tree all by myself.  It was always a family affair growing up, so thats what I always want to re-create.  But I figured if I wanted some Christmas spirit I only had myself to conjure it up.

It was nice at 5:30 this morning, sitting in just the light of the tree eating my breakfast.

attempt

No one has ever accused me of being able to draw.

My sister and I took a drawing class together once at the community college and it was a lot of fun and going very slow.  I mean VERY VERY slow at the end of the class I drew a pretty good pine cone.  Oh and my thumb.

Mom was a fantastic artist, she could draw beautifully.

So back to cakes, you know cause unless I’m bitching about work what else do I have to talk about.

I have a cake due on Saturday morning.  Tiered Carrot cake with cream cheese icing and at the top a shoe with a 65 on it.

I started out two nights ago working with gum paste to make the shoes.  the order says one shoe, but why on a pair right….even though it’s not like this person is going to WEAR these shoes a pair is better right.  So  I start to make the shoes, oh and they need to be red.  I keep working red coloring into the gum paste, and more and more and more and they are pink…I can’t get them red.  Besides that I work the gum paste so much that it’s not really coming together very well.  I leave the bases to dry overnight and by yesterday morning decide I will start over with fondant.  I don’t have a whole lot of experience but more than gum paste.

So attempt number two was last night.  Besides making the shoes (or bases these are not done).  I made what is supposed to be a shoe box lid and pink tissue paper.

I am not completely unhappy about the new shoes but one of them did tear so I will have to fix it.  The fondant this morning was still not dry enough to move.  I will have to finish these up tonight, trim and all so they have time to set before Saturday.

I would have had to finish then anyway because I still have to grate all the carrots and make the cakes.  Oh and make the icing, I did pick up 8 pounds of cream cheese and 25 pounds of powdered sugar last night when I stopped for cake and cookies boxes so a little cobbling tonight, make 14 pounds of icing or so and grate carrots so tomorrow night I can bake, ice, decorate and pray!

Even though the shoes are not complete, they are still a better attempt at art then the damn drawing of them.

Hodge Podge

I will admit, right here, front and center that there are things about 1st shift that I like.  More opportunity to see friends is the one that sticks out most.  However yesterday I found or re-found another.

Long, long ago, I used to frequent the first Thursday art walk.   Occasionally alone, mostly with either Clair or Elizabeth and a couple times with Katherine or Joy when her husband Steven had an exhibit up.

Last night I went to the first Thursday art walk, I have not been to it in years.  Granted I mostly went to one exhibit, the lost works exhibit because Char had 30 paintings in it.  In fact fifty artists in all each had 30 paintings they had done in 30 days.

I knew this art would be for sale and I knew the openings were just Wednesday (first Thursday eve so to speak), Thursday and then this Saturday.  What I didn’t realize was that people could be and would be buying them yesterday.  As in taking them off the wall right in front of you as you are looking at the pieces.

Clearly there were people who are more used to this venue.  I got there five minutes into the event, or when the doors were supposed to open and was so surprised to find the place full of people and pieces of art coming off the walls.  One man walking around with a stack of paintings, he had to have had at lease 30 in his arms.  They all sell for forty bucks each and eventually I saw him sit down to sort through them.  The unfortunate thing is the rest of us didn’t get to see the ones in his stack, even if he didn’t end up buying them.  You can even see the empty spots already in my cell phone pictures here of one of the displays.  There was no way to get a photo of the magnitude of these paintings or the people here.  I snapped these two because in some cosmic meeting there was all of a sudden no one standing in my way.

There were lots of very cool paintings and I liked that they didn’t have them separated by artists.  I was also bummed that I couldn’t see all of Chars (or what was left of them) in one fell swoop.  But it does make for a more interesting display. 

After the art walk I went home to make “sample” sugar cookies for possibly my 1st bona-fide order under the business.  The problem with rolled sugar cookies is the amount of time they take.  Making the dough is no problem.  But it has to be cold to roll it out.  I left it in the fridge for an hour and rolled out a small amount to cut a few cookies.  It wasn’t long enough and I couldn’t pull the dough apart.  So back in the fridge they went for another 15 minutes and then onto a baking sheet.  I only baked a few and then had to wait for them to cool and made some icing for them while they cooled.  These are so labor intensive.  They are listed on my price sheet at more than other cookies and under the holiday section.  I will be happy if I get the order because really, I have half the dough made already.  But if I don’t, that will be ok also.

Since I had to run out for butter, I also picked up yarn….five sciens of pink.  Lets see if I can get a blanket done in the next two days, you know in between painting the ceiling at the studio tonight and removing my hoses from the house for winter because, hello, its friggen freezing out there.  If not, I will finish if off for someone else.

Best Intentions

Best intentions for family photos that is……

I was sure to pick up batteries for my digital camera last week before the families, my family, started arriving for the week.  Needless to say I have 7 pictures, none of them on my camera but all on my cell phone from the last two days of festivities.

Loud would be the best way to describe Thanksgiving.  Rather, screechy, barky, multiple conversations, sounds of football, sounds of tv, sounds of the dishwasher all co-mingling and trying to out do one another for the top spot.  Well the dishwasher never got any louder, it just never stopped running.

Complete over-eating would also describe the day.  Since everyone was already there I thought I would start by making breakfast since you know, dinner was late afternoon and all.  I made bacon (which I wanted the drippings for later in the day for my brussels sprouts) but besides bacon we just started to put out snacks/hors dourves instead.

Clearly enough food to not even bother with dinner.  Taylor made pistachio and goat cheese filled dates that were yummy and I had picked up more than a pound of smoked salmon at the butcher on Wednesday after work.  Along with the usual crudité, cheese and crackers, devilled eggs, chips and salsa we really grazed all day prior to “dinner”.

There is actually no picture of the bird or Thanksgiving dinner, by the time Arthur made the second batch of gravy we dished up and ate it all up.  The gravy story is the second funniest of the day.  Wanting to be a part of the cooking party and contribute he was all for making the gravy.  The first batch he used my basting stock that cooked all day with the giblets, butter, fresh sage and celery and onions.   He kept adding more and more and more flour to thicken it up.  Was surprised at how well it was incorporating but it wasn’t thickening so he kept adding more.  He said to Della, that is four right.  She she tasted it and said, nope,  thats powdered sugar.  Gravy made with at least a cup of powdered sugar, probably more.   He tried his best by adding spices and salt but it was still sweet so we tossed it and he started over.  Giving him a hard time all along, well cause its fun.

There is so much going on in these photos it’s really hard to see it all.  Osten and Char wrestling, Arther on his computer, Della on her computer, my nephews in the same picture (rare photo).  One of my favorite things about my family is the just existing in the same space is so comfortable.  My nephew reading a book while another plays a game nearby.  Rarely less than 4 laptops going at the same time.  Someone usually on the fooseball table.  Dogs in and out (and in and out and in and out and round and round) multiple conversations between everyone even while on the computers.  Various people cooking, various people cleaning.  Card games, checkers, video games, and always, always good food, far to much of it.

All of my pictures of Riblet are blurry.  She just moves way to fast to get a clear shot.  But here she is checking out what was being put on the table.

Here is Missy scooting under Arthurs hand for a petting. 

Here Missy has folded.  I think Lilianna won this game.  You would think I picked up those cards but no, they lived there on the floor for a few hours.

So I thought I would bury the funniest story of the day down here after all of these innocent family cell phone pictures.    The funniest story involves my six-year-old nephew Osten, a room full of family except two people, a silver bullet vibrator and the complete and total embarrassment of my best friend Mary.  It is a story that will live on for-ever in our family.  Forever!  We are all in the living room, including Mary sitting on Mercy’s lap, next to Tureaza on the couch.  Osten walks up and opens his hand and asks “whats this mommy”.   Tureaza asks him where did you get that, to which he answers in the bed upstairs.  Mary reaches over,  says I’ll take that and puts it in her back pocket.  No one ever answers the kid.  Mary completely red-faced says it was the slats of the upper bunk.  She had put it up there months ago, forgot it when she moved out, and will never ever live it down.  In only a manner that my baby sister can manage she say “come on Osten, let’s go wash your hands.”

Ok so maybe that wasn’t the complete and total embarrassment of Mary, but putting it here on my blog will be.  (Oh I told her I was going to, even though some of her friends read my blog and her mother)  Mary wants it to be known that 1) the batteries were dead and the kid did not actually turn it on.  2) That it was clean and an insert for something else so never actually used.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I hope yours was as fabulous as mine.