Thursday, December 30, 2010

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Happy New Year!


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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas!!

I got a NASTY computer virus earlier this week that prevented me from going on the web to visit my my bloggy friends, but tonight I'm back on again.  Thankfully I had my cellphone to access the internet to Google for help.  Funny thing was my issues weren't isolated as others before me paved the way with help.

Now I have a lot of emails to read and visiting to do! 
See you soon and I pray that you all had a safe holiday with your friends and family!



Happy Birthday Jesus!

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Light looking and Hot Cocoa!

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We had a short break in the rain,
so we bundled up the kids and went light looking
and stopping along the way for hot cocoa!






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Friday, December 17, 2010

Christmas Party

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Last night we went to my Man's Christmas Party...
The view of the harbor was lovely...
Sailboats were decorated in beautiful lights...
The food was delicious...
But the memories we made were the best...

~KARAOKE MEMORIES ~
My personal favorite was a tie between a few ladies singing "Harper Valley PTA"
and a closet singer who blew us away with "In the Midnight Hour".

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

So Sweet!

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I'm so sweet, I'd give you cavity!  ha ha
Actually all the treats I'm making this holiday will give you a cavity!

Today I'm making Peanut Brittle!
Click for the recipe I used.  By the way if you use this recipe, add 1 teaspoon of vanilla, use plain  unsalted peanuts and have a large bowl of ice water nearby to put your utensils in to make clean up a snap!


~ Here are my candy tips ~
When I first learned to make candy, I "heard" you shouldn't make it if it's raining/snowing however I had a great teacher who told me if it's raining just adjust for any humidity and/or air pressure.  My response was.... I didn't do well in Chemistry class Ma'am!  And because I used to live high up in the mountains, I was also taught to adjust recipes based on the altitude. We were at 3,000 feet above sea level (did you know all recipes are written at sea level altitude - yep, I didn't know that at the time either).

For example, water boils at 212 degrees at sea level.  Now because we were at 3,000 feet ABOVE sea level, our thermometer would DECREASE about 2 degrees for every 1,000 feet.  This is due to the difference in air pressure because air is thinner the higher you go up the mountain, hence the term "light headed".  So our water would boil at 206-207 degrees ~ crazy huh!  Then, when we would make our candy and the recipe would say cook to the hard crack stage or soft ball stage, we'd make our adjustments on paper before beginning to know when OUR right temp was reached which was always considerably lower than the recipe would say due to our altitude.  IF we had cooked it to the temps on the recipes, we'd have burned everything! ha ha

Give it a try!  Before you get started, put your themometer in a pot of water and bring it up to a good boil - remember normal sea level says it will boil at 212 degrees. See what your particular "normal" is.

But don't worry, even if it taks a couple of tries to get the consistency right, it will still TASTE yummy!

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Monday, December 13, 2010

Do It Yourself

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I'm the Betty Crocker of the family.
I bake from scratch.
I like to use GOOD ingredients.
I lurve to save money doing it.

For example, I'm preparing all my cookie doughs this week
and first on the list is my famous Sugar Cookies.


My fame extends to the end of my driveway
but I tell myself I could have my own show!
Just like I tell myself I'd lurve to have
my closet of clothes match the one in my mind!

At the store I bought a 5 lb bag of sugar
for $2.99.


Then I went to buy a bottle of sprinkles


Except they cost more than the sugar.
No, no, no..... there has to be a less expensive way.


tips as I make my own sugar for less than
.20 cents!

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Saturday, December 11, 2010

It's beginning...

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... to look a lot like my 
VACATION
has started!


Can you guess the movie I'm watching?
Here's a comic to give you a clue!




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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Mrs. Albee

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For my birthday this year, my sister Melody (whose taking a blog hiatus)
got me a large set of Avon's Mrs. Albee miniature figurines!

They are all Victorian in appearance and I just lurve them!
Here are just a few of them to give you an idea of what they look like.





 I had never heard of Mrs. Albee so I went to Avon's website and learned...

In 1886, Mr. McConnell and his wife Lucy started the California Perfume Company.  The company's first product was called the Little Dot Perfume Set, and it contained five different fragrances.


As the company became even more successful, and made more money, Mr.McConnell added on even more products and even had a catalog of all the available products printed up. Fifty-one years after its intial start up, in 1937, Mr. McConnell passed away and left the company to his son, David McConnell, Jr. The younger McConnell renamed the company Avon Products. 


He too worked and strived to build the company into a bigger and more successful venture than his father had already made it.  Mr. McConnell and his wife found that they needed help to sell their perfume early in their venture, so they hired on Mrs. P.F.E. Albee as their first saleslady. Mrs. Albee had earlier helped Mr. McConnell in selling his books. Mrs. Albee went from door to door selling the Little Dot Perfume Set, and she signed up even more women as salesladies for the California Perfume Company.

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