Santa Came!

What do you do when you have multiple chimneys but they all have wood stoves with fires going in them?  Santa can't squeeze out a wood stove.  You let him in through the front door of course.  And... you capture his footprints in flour.  Santa's real live footprints!!  At least that is what happened in our family farm house built in the 1870's.  My husband just can't believe that houses in Michigan don't have fireplaces.  When you live in the arctic your house requires more advanced heating technology.

Santa finally came to visit me at my own house last night.  After 11 years of trekking back home for Christmas, I spent the night in my own bed.  It's a little thing but it's nice to enjoy my home on Christmas morning.  Frank and I look forward to many more opportunities to share this morning together. 

Bronners!!!!!

A package arrived on a day that I had grad school at night.  On my drive home from class husband informed me I had a package.  I wasn't expecting anything so I aske who it was from.  He replied that he hadn't looked.  When I got home it was a giant box from Bronners.  How can you miss a Bronners box!

 Inside was my new creche that my siblings and parents purchased for us.  It's beautiful and resides on the hutch.  Only very special items get to touch the top of the hutch and the nativity is one of them.  In this photo I was hadn't put in the figurines yet.  I was trying to be patient.  Now they're all set up and look great.



Other People's Babies

Today I made this baby blanket for a co-worker who is about to pop any minute.  I love the fabric and bought extra to make nursery curtains.  I can't wait to get started on those next weekend.  You can't tell in the pic but it goes perfectly with the paint in the nursery.  If it's a little girl, there won't be much pink in her life for a bit.

Brightening Things Up a Bit

Frank started with the outside lights the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Today he continued and did the lights on the upper windows.  I have a feeling that by the time we are 50 our house will look like the Griswalds' at Christmas.

hookers and cookies

Unlike last year, I'm pretty much done Christmas shopping.  The in-laws are done.  Michigan family gifts have been wrapped and shipped.  My one goof up was my sister Meghan's apron.  Usually I just eyeball aprons and use myself as a model.  Being pregnant this wasn't such a good idea.  The apron came out much larger than my cute little 23 year old sister needed. 
Today I'm remaking it.  I even bought a pattern so as not to have the size issue come up again.  To me it looks like a naughty nurse apron.  It's so small.  What is exactly is that going to cover in the kitchen?
In other news, I woke the Frankie up at 8:00 am to frost cookies.  I had been up since 7:00 baking and decided it was time for him to come help.  Notice the can of Coke as he tries to wake up.  He's such a good guy.

Gobble gobble

Frank carves his first turkey.  He did a really great job!

Homemade cranberry sauce

This year, Frank and I hosted our first Thanksgiving.  I've never liked that canned cranberry sauce you pour out into a bowl.  Instead I made pear cranberry sauce with real cranberries.  They pop when you cook them.  The sauce was such a brillant red and so yummy!

Getting Ready for Baby

Our entire house is being upended for something that only weighs 10 ounces right now.  This whippersnapper has a healthy collection of board books already courtesy of Grandma McNary, aka Mimi.   Yesterday it received a new stuffed animal from Great-grandma Brooks. 
The crib is set up as well as the glider.  Still to go are curtains and art work.  Thankfully we have plenty of time.  4 months and 16 days.

New bedroom

We have had a a king size bed in a double bed sized house.  Houses built in the 1970's just are not made to house a king sized bed.  The solution was to find a new queen.  Oh and while we were at it the bedroom got painted.  Husband and his father painted the room today.  It frees up lots of space.

Don't you love it?

Cutting Up

I got bored.  Or I should say antsy.  It's been such a long time since I've done any garment sewing.  We found a new JoAnn's and now I'm in the process of making a new fall dress.  Now, I just need motivation to finish it.

Great Expectations

As a child, I spent many summer and fall days picking.  Picking cherries, blueberries, elderberries, apples, and whatever else the local Michigan fruit farmers could grow or what was on our own fruit trees.  It seemed to be that Dad was using us as slave labor to bring in pounds and pounds of fruit for winter.  I'm pretty sure one year, on my sister Molly's birthday we picked 100 pounds of tart cherries.  What a great birthday for a 6 year old.

The picking went like this.  Load up the truck with children and buckets.  Drive 5-10 miles to local orchard right up to the fruit trees.  Pick until your hearts content.  Pay by the pound and drive home.

One lousy bag of apple.  This will not feed us all winter.

Husband and his buddy happily picking/eating.

1925 Apple House

This is all I have to fill?  Where are my bushel baskets?

 The Mountains of Georgia offer a different take on apple picking.  I had visions of overflowing bushel baskets that we would bring home for apple sauce making.  This isn't how it went.  Instead, we parked in a busy parking lot.  Bought the smallest plastic bag for $10.  Road on a benched wagon to the trees.  Picked for about 10 minutes and road the wagon back. 
Perhaps I stole a few apples in my camera bag, due to my bitter attitude at being charged $10 for a little bag.  Where is the apple picking experience of my childhood? 

Riding the wagon up to the apples.

How should I feel?  Should I be happy that some farms have found a way to make a profit when so many family farms are failing?  Or do I feel like something so familar has been turned into a Disney like attraction? 

Camping In Michigan

 Camping at Lake Port State Park is one of my most favorite things in the world.  We did have tons of rain but it was over before we woke each morning.  The hubs got to experience Lake Huron swimming and the bikes got lots of use.

 Mom and Dad came to visit as well.  We had spaghetti.  I know, a strange camping menu, but we were expecting rain and I wanted something I could cook without the fire. 
We also got to camp without the dogs.  Heaven.  It made us look forward to a life without 3 dogs.  Thank you parents on both sides for dog sitting.


Sister takes out the trash



Michigan Adventures

Have you seen these giant marshmallows? They make the gooeyest s'mores!

Front Door before it was painted white.

Stairs use to have a painted rocking horse that said welcome.

House Work

It's the Frankie's B-day this month.  He'll be 31.  Since we were in the process of getting married last summer we did not throw him a big Happy 30th party.  This year I'm trying to make up for it.  A group of his friends are coming over to celebrate.  That means we have the motivation to fix some things up.
The list includes:
newly painted front door
new basement door
new shoe moulding
new crown moulding
new wedding pics and frames hung
newly painted red stairs

It's been awhile

I have been a canning fool lately.  This is all that is left after the 75 pounds of tomatoes, 70+ ears of corn, 2 pounds of green beans, 20 pounds of peaches, and countless canning jars.  Hubby had to make an emergency run for more pint jars last night.

The bowl is a goody, but check out the recipe box it's next to.  Grandma cleaned it up for my wedding present with her recipes still in it.  What a blessing.

Being Crafty

This month of June has really got me down. I've got the blues. I'm spending all my time doing homework and not being crafty. June and July are so important for me to recharge and I'm not getting to do it. After a hearty fit last night I decided to do some crafting today. Here is the picnic basket I redecorated. It came with this heinous red, yellow, blue, white striped liner. Tore that out, used it as a pattern and came up with this. The lid is my own design. What do you think?

Yummy Oatmeal

I'm super excited about this new oatmeal I found at Target. It's not really instant oatmeal. It's whole oats that you microwave with yummy blueberries in it. I like instant oatmeal but it normally turns into some kind of gruel and you're never quite sure what they used as flavoring.

Old but not forgotten

Remember this one? I started it back when Frank and I were dating. I cut it out then anyways. Right now I have so much grad school homework it isn't funny but I thought I'd work on this one in between homework. All work and no play makes Erin a very dull girl indeed.

My dilema right now is how big to make it? I have the material to make it a king. Teresa keeps asking me how many kings do I need for my bed. Can one ever have too many quilts for your bed?

Retirement Quilts

Elayne and Linda both have done so much for me at Daves Creek that I thought it was time I do something for them. These two ladies retired with many years of teaching experience. 30 plus years in education deserves a medal not a quilt but I don't know how to make medals.

Spicy!

This is the after math. Time to lean is time to clean.

$4.50. That's how much a jar of salsa is at the store. Can you believe it? When I bought some this spring to make a fiesta chicken recipe I about fell over. That's when I vowed to try making my own. After 4 hours in the kitchen I have 13 pints of the stuff. My fingers burn from the peppers and my kitchen is a mess but I have $60 worth of salsa.

My one complaint is that it is a bit runny. If I'm using it to cook with though that shouldn't be an issue.

Dead Dog

It's no perfect but it's fixed.

Last winter I finally received my string quilt back from the long arm quilter. I had waited for almost a year. After about a month at my house Benny found it and had a little snack. This snack left a good chunk gone from the quilt. After a year and a half I finally patched it.

New supplies

Better Homes and Gardens is making new canning jars. Called mom and dad to ask the specifics of canning corn in the pressure cooker. I'll try corn two ways. One canned the other frozen. Watch out Frank the house is about to be 100 degrees!