Lovely Tea Collages.....

One of the ladies who attends my Teas quite often took some very

nice pictures of my Winter White Tea and had her husband

make a collage......I think he did a very nice job!!

He did the same with her pictures from the Christmas Tea!!

Thank you JoRene!! What a lovely gift to share with me!!

See you at the Valentines Tea!!

Celebrating Friendship!!

Before Christmas I attended a very special Christmas

Party. It is a group of ladies I meet with once a month.

It started out as just a group of ladies meeting that

did Civil War re-enacting together and has become

a group of near and dear friends.....

It was just decided that we shall continue meeting until

we are very old and when we cannot get around ourselves,

we will commission one of the daughters to collect us

all and get us to our meeting place! How fun is that!

We all brought cookies and had a cookie exchange.

We also drew names and exchanged gifts. My friend gave
me twolovely white aprons for the girls to
wear who serve at my teas.
Look at all our LOVELY daughters!! What is really
wonderful.....not only are they all beautiful as you see
them in this picture!! They all love Jesus with all
their hearts, soooo, they are beautiful on the inside
as well and such a BLESSING to all of us mums!
As we began one of the ladies read to us the
"Cup of Christmas Tea" then we settled in
and watched Tasha Tudor's Christmas video.
So peaceful, so relaxing.......

Some worked as we watched and visited....
Oh, see that cute little scarf on the young lady
holding the doll? That is what my daughter
made for her gift to exchange......
And then, I have to tell you about these dolls.
One of the young ladies made these doll dresses
for I think two or three of the girls who
collect these dolls. She does awesome work,
don't you think?? She takes after her mum. :)
Well, sorry that was a late post, we have really
had troubles lately with our computer, so
has been hard to do anything.

I best get off and do "Tea things"...that
will be here before I know it!!

Catching up.......

WOW! Sorry to be gone so long! Lot's going on here on the farm! :)

Seems I am in a whirl again, "undoing" Christmas and "doing" Tea!

In less than two weeks I am having a "Winter White Tea"

in my home, I am so happy to be doing this one in my

home, it is so much easier for decorating and such.

But more on that later......let me catch up......

We had a wonderful Christmas with all our children here

Christmas Eve. We had lot's of snacks and a nice dinner together,

then we opened gifts and spent time together. Such a blessing.
My husband has been out of work and this Christmas we had no

money. It was such a blessing to see God provide....just like above

in the picture, we were able to have fruit and peanuts among

our snacks to ad a touch of "goodness" to that menu... :)

Dinner was lovely as well and God made it possible for us

to have a very nice feast, from what we had

in our pantry and even my children pitched

in buying things.....

Christmas Eve Dinner Menu

Shrimp Cocktail

Yummy Cabbage Pea Salad

Bean Sprout Almond Salad

Oven Roasted Salmon

Oven Roasted Root Veggies

(yams, carrots, turnips, rutabaga, etc)

Rice & Bread Stuffing in an Acorn Squash

(you slice this and it is really pretty)

Pumpkin Pie

and of course Plum Punch again! :)

My son is the only one not living here, so he slept on the couch

as a special Christmas morning breakfast was to come!

Christmas Morning Breakfast Menu

Shrimp/Salmon Quiche

(made an extra crust when doing pies)

Butterscotch Rolls

Morning Star Sausage Links

(we have a vegetarian and we all like these)

Fresh Pineapple

Have you ever made these Butterscotch rolls or "Monkey Bread"

some call it???? It is awesome for holidays as you do all the

work the night before and in the morning all you do is

stick it in the oven! Wonderful!

Monkey Bread Recipe
1 pkg frozen dinner rolls (24)

1 box Butterscotch Pudding Mix

Cinnamon & Sugar

Nuts

1/4 to 1/2 Cup melted butter

You let the rolls unthaw enough to cut them in half

or quarters (I have used a pkg of 36 and that works, or use 24 of

them and have the rest for dinner :) Then you layer the rolls

with the other ingredients (but not the butter) in a bundt pan.

I usually only do the pudding mix and skip the cinn/sug and

nuts....and that works too. When layered you pour the

melted butter over the whole thing, cover with wax paper and

let sit on the counter overnight. In the morning you pop it

in the oven and you have a huge bread ring. It rises up

and over the pan during the night.

After breakfast we all packed up and went to my husbands

Aunt and Uncle's for Christmas dinner. My whole family

went along....it was soooo nice. I have not had a feeling

at Christmas like that since my parents were still

here. We always had Christmas dinner at Grandma's or

them with us and we just hung out all day, each doing

different things and all enjoying the company of the

other. This time most were enjoying basketball and my

daughter and I who do not enjoy that so much, just sat off

to the side, by the fire :), and did handwork. I had some

stitches to take out on my sons quilt and then I

helped her with her quilt. Very, LOVELY day.

God is so good in our very "leanest" of times to fill

our days with such JOY and PEACE.

So, my son is a Portland Trailblazers fan (understatement).

I have always wanted to make him a Blazer quilt and this

year I did it!! It is just a small lap size, but he

probably will not use it anyway, he is just using it

to look at!! lol. Above is their symbol and their colors

are red, white and black. So, I was able to buy just a few

"fat quarters" on sale for 99 cents to make it all work.

He loves it!!!
For my husband I found some fabric that I had bought
awhile back for something else and made him
some much needed and wanted pj pants.
I also had in my pantry everything I needed for his
all time favorite...."Rocky Road Candy"......well,
we did have to buy marshmallows, and I did have
to tell a little lie.......when he asked what they
were for......"ummmm, I think those
go in a salad........" :{ He was surprised :).
My oldest daughter had spotted some animal print
fabric once in my stash and loved it, so I made
her a lap quilt out of that.....pics later, I still have
to do the binding on that one.
My other daughter who sews up a storm and does
wonderful work......I cheated, I bought her fabric
to sew herself! lol. Actually, she had pointed out
some fabric on sale one day that she wanted
for a skirt, so when she wasn't looking I ran and
bought it, since it was on sale for $1 / yd. !!!

Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and are
having a good start on the New Year.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings

of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city

of David a Saviour, which is

Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:10-11

Christmas Blessings........

"What do you do? You're just a housewife and slave, aren't you?

A nursemaid to a bunch of kids?" ~ "NO. I have a

fantastic job, a terrific career! I am a curator in a

museum ~ a museum of memories!!"

~Edith Schaeffer, What is Family. (Very good book by the way:)

That is what I have been up to....a very, very busy

week creating memories!!

Even though my children are all grown, it is fun to still
make memories. I have been sewing up a storm!! Making a
couple lap quilts, PJ pants and I am about done. :) We
basically have no money this year for gifts...so it has been
such a BLESSING to see God provide just what I needed out in
my "stash" of fabric. God is so Good and I feel richly Blessed!
I will show you some pictures of what I have done after
Christmas, just in case anyone "peeks" at this blog before
tonight. :) Our children are all here tonight for a very healthy
fish dinner....mmmm, can't wait!!..... and gifts and tomorrow we
go to my hubbies Uncle's house for Christmas dinner. We were
just going to hang out here at home and not do a big dinner
Christmas day, but with the snow and the storms, his aunt
and uncle will be alone since they cannot get anywhere and
their family cannot get to them. :( So, we are happy to spend
the day with them, they are the only "aged" family we have left
that are like my children's grandparents, we
have many happy memories with them.

Hope and pray for you all today.....Peace to you as you

go about your preparations....May Love and

Joy and Peace abound in your homes

tonight and tomorrow and always!!

Jesus is the Reason for the Season!!!

May your days be filled with the Glory that shines around us

because Jesus came, He died and

He Lives Today to bring us that Peace

and Joy that passes ALL understanding!!!

Christmas Kitchen

I love how that little light reflects a star on the wall!!
The last few years I have not had a place for my little houses.

So this year I put them in the kitchen!! Most
people collect beautiful Vicotorian house. Not Me!! Mine is this
very fun barn and look at the little lady feeding her chickens
and behind her there is a chicken coop!! Oh yeah!! Love that!!

And MY beautiful house is made of LOGS!!

One other thing I always want to do is have a Christmas tree in

the kitchen.....to decorate with popcorn and cranberries and

gingerbread.....well this year I decided to put this tiny tree in

my kitchen and adorn her with cookie cutters, dried orange

slices and my wooden garland that is sliced

apples and gingerbread men.

And of course....no Christmas kitchen is complete without the

wonderful smells of baking sifting through the air,

warming and cheering the whole household!!

Hope you are all enjoying these days leading up to

the celebration of our Saviour's birth!!

My Lazy Afternoon.....

Last Saturday a friend and I went to Lark Gardens......

it was the Grand Opening of their little store!

There chef (who, by the way, had a very ENGLISH accent:)...

was tossing things around in the kitchen and

giving us samples in order to taste

the vinegars made at Lark Gardens.

I bought one small bottle to try. He had it on kale with shallots

and garlic (also available in the store).

We tried it the other night and it was GOOD!! You just splash some

vinegar in a couple times during sauteing....

YUMMY!!
They had different vinegars on plums, potatoes, strawberries.....

WONDERFUL!!

They also have little starts in there greenhouses and in the

winter will have fresh greens for sale in the store.

And speaking of greenhouses!!! One of them had citrus

trees!! There was a lemon just about the size of a football!!

We all decided we needed a greenhouse like that attached to our

house that we could just leisurely wander in to, but with glass

ceilings in order to see the sky......maybe your hottub could be in

there or just a spot for tea and reading!!

I also brought home Organic lollipops for those who

stayed home that day. :D

The Store......

At the Nutcracker Tea.....

All my ornaments that didn't sell are soon to be in my Etsy shop.

I LOVE this paper!! It is from a grocery bag!!!!

Soon I will have my daughter's link on my sidebar.

She has been busy making some very fun things for winter!!