I Dislike Curves and Periods

Contrary to what you may have thought this post was about when you read the title, it's really about this...
I was asked to make a little blanket for my newest grandchild who is patiently awaiting her birth-day. She's got about five weeks or so before she makes her grand debut.

I want to show you how much trouble this dot gave me. AAAAhhh! I'm not sure I can let that stay that way. I may have to rip it off and re-do it.
Look at how hard it is to go around the curves! Hard, hard, hard.
More curves. Hard curves.
See? Straight. Nice and straight. The straight and narrow is the place to be!
This period is a little better than the first one. I'm really thinking I have to rip that first one out.
More curves, but this time, let's see if I can improve. Take a close look at this "a."
I did all the pink words first. I guess "practice makes better."
This period is almost acceptable!
When I get it finished later today I'll take another picture and show you the whole thing. Unless I spend all day ripping out that first period. I definitely dislike periods.

The Iceman Cometh

This is the little snowman that hangs outside our front door.
It's been SO cold here the last few days that even the snowman is freezing.
What was really funny to me was that I took these pictures and then less than an hour later, my b-i-l came by and snapped all the icicles off the snowman!

My grandson, who lives in TN, has been getting enough snow that he's on his third snowday! I guess they don't really know what to do with it down there. I'm not sure that my son even owns a snow shovel. I think he uses a regular shovel!

It's Here

After several phone calls and a little tracking down, my canvas print is finally here and "installed."


I like it, but I think the wall still needs a little something more. I just don't have any idea what that might be though.

What Are Friends For?

Last night I got a call from a friend of mine at about 6PM. She wanted to know if I wanted a homemade pizza for our dinner. Was that a rhetorical question? Duh! Of course I did! Bud didn't get done working until 7PM and it was SO nice to not have to figure out what was for dinner. All I had to do was pop it in the oven. She even provided us with a salad. Can you see the individually packaged parmesan and croutons? Thanks, Jenny. You are at the very top of my hallelujah list!

Today has a cool date- 1-11-11. Do something great today!

Game Night

I invited my sister and b-i-l to come over last night to play games. Her first question was "what do you have for treats?" I said I had leftover caramel popcorn, and she said that was good enough, but I figured I'd better up the ante a little so I whipped these up. They were tastyriffic!
And now they're sitting here on my desk at work, taunting me, and it's only 9:30 AM. Too early to start eating cookies, isn't it?

Again for the family recipe book holders- it starts with the sugar cookie recipe on page 295, but with a few changes.

I'll call these Snowmint Cookies because when there's just a dusting of snow outside, I think it looks like powdered sugar.

Snowmint Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 egg
a few drops of green food coloring

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp peppermint extract (I only have peppermint oil, and about 4 drops of it was sufficient)

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 - 1 cup Andes chips (depending on how minty you like your cookies)

1 cup chocolate chunks (or chips)
extra powdered sugar for dusting

Mix butter, sugar, egg, food coloring and extracts together. Blend in flour, baking soda and tartar. Stir in chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls (I used my small cookie scoop) onto a Pammed cookie sheet. Bake at 350°F for about 8 minutes.

Cool slightly, then dust with a little powdered sugar.

P.S. Cheryl was the winner of game night.

Pretty Jell-O

These are fingerable. I know, that's not a word, but I'm using it anyway. You can pick these up and walk around with them. Like jigglers.

I got the recipe from one of my very favorite food blogs, Our Best Bites. You can go there, or stay here, whichever you choose.

Glass Block Holiday Jell-O

4 (3 oz) packages assorted Jell-O (pick pretty colors!)

2 packets unflavored gelatin (Knox)

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

Spray four containers (I used Snapware) with Pam (the idea here is that you are only making a small amount of each of the four colors, so a small container is fine at this stage). In the microwave, boil one cup of water in a glass 2 cup measuring cup. When it's boiling, remove it and pour in one color of Jell-O. Stir until it's dissolved. Pour into prepared container. Rinse out your measuring cup and repeat with other three colors of Jell-O (do I have to say "one at a time?" I didn't think so). Refrigerate until well-chilled, four hours or overnight.

In a medium-sized bowl, sprinkle 2 packets of unflavored gelatin into 1/2 cup of cold water (this softens the gelatin). Let that sit for about four minutes. Meanwhile, boil 1 1/2 cups of water. Pour that boiling water over the gelatin and stir to combine, then add the can of sweetened condensed milk. Stir it together well, then let it come to room temperature.

Lightly spray a 9x13" pan with Pam. Get out your colored Jell-O and cut it into about 1/2" squares. Toss all the squares into the 9x13" pan. Pour the cooled milk mixture over the colored Jell-O. Make sure the same colored squares are not all hanging out in one spot. You don't want a whole clump of blue in one place. Let all the colors be friends with all the other colors. Also, you want the colors to be submerged below the white mixture, and level.

Refrigerate until firm (overnight is best). Cut into squares or rectangles or break out the cookie cutters and make shapes.

Now your Jell-O is super pretty. I heard that some people who have made this have poured their colored Jell-O in layers. Can you imagine how long that would take? I'm not willing to wait that long. Squares it is for me!