Christmas Decorating Pictures at Last

I so need to find a tutorial on how to work this new blog spot picture thing. It's driving me crazy. I thought I would finally post pictures of the house decorated for Christmas. Once again I only decorated the front room. It took 2 days instead of several and I'm pretty happy about the results. I made a collage using old family photos, some photos found on the internet and scrapbooking stuff. It was a lot of fun. You'll see pictures of the frame before and after.

Also I realized what a procrastinator I am and that there was no way I would post every day. So not me. LOL. So next Tuesday I will post pictures of all twelve give aways for the 12 days of Christmas. Just leave a comment and that will enter you into the drawing. There will be several goodies. If there is a particular goodie you only want then leave a comment for that one. Check back Tuesday. Hope your New Year is great. If you're out having a good time please be careful. 

Christmas Aprons

I made Christmas aprons for all my coworkers. I also made their gift bags. It was late at night when I finished their gifts and I didn't have time to run out to get gift bags. So I just used scrapbooking materials and brown paper lunch bags that I had on hand. The gals I work with our very special and I just treasure their friendship. I think their aprons turned out darling.

12 Days of Christmas Give Away

I've been so busy these past 2 months between work, kids, homeschooling, and side jobs. I really wanted to get better at blogging or at least more consistent. I do hope that everyone is having a great holiday season. Our weather here has been unbelievably cold at least very cold for us. We don't usually get frost until later. Usually January/February and occasionally March but that's it but we've had several days here lately. I'm sure the citrus farmers are not happy.
The gang and I have decided since we blew right past our 100th post that we would do something really special for 12 days of Christmas. We'll begin on the 25th of December, Christmas Day and go through the 12 days. Every day there will be a prize and all you will have to do is leave a comment. I'll post a picture of that day's prize  and draw out the next day. I'll have Christmas Day's prize posted on Christmas Eve. Oh this is going to be so much fun. I've been planning all kinds of goodies to give away. I'll be rather busy making those goodies over the next several days along with other gifts for friends and family but be sure to peek back Christmas Eve. I'm off to be a busy little elf sewing and baking. Bye for now.

A new post coming soon. I promise.

Winner, Winner

I can't believe it. I won the e-zine deluxe edition over at the Homemaking Cottage. I'm so excited. Everyone have a great day!!!! See the sidebar for a link to the web site.

Sunrise at the Park

 Seth and I took the boys to a local park yesterday morning. We walked and took pictures of the fall we're having here. We don't get a spectacular fall like we used to have back in Virginia, but we do get some trees that are gorgeous. When we first got to the park it was hazy/foggy. We get a lot of fog here, Tule fog to be exact. It can get really thick. If you Google, it will bring up numerous pictures. The boys were more interested in the ducks and wondering how they could catch them.

Personally I think the palm trees are a nice counter point to the blazing Chinese pastiche in the background. Where else but California? Hope you enjoyed our walk through the park.

Playing Catch Up

Okay, wow I've been away forever. I've got lots to share. But first here's a great new website I found. I think most of you will like this. Check it out. Homemaking Cottage is also offering a giveaway. Hope someone I know wins.

October was ridiculously crazy and I've gotten way behind on visiting my friends. But I'll catch up soon with all of you. Thought I would share some photos of what's been going on.

During book fair week at work we had a read out loud event one evening. Students came in their pajamas and we enjoyed Mexican s'mores and Halloween stories. My favorite the Hallo-Weiner by Dave Pilkey. I love this story. This was a kick.

Tina was involved in a melodrama that I volunteered to do the cooking for both nights. It was a blast. The play was set in a 1940s night club involving a murder of the owner. Kids all had fun and even did dancing for us that would have been popular in the 40s. Here's some of the cast outside the building.

Inside. The girls are waiting for the event to start.

Here's some of the servers. They actually served and acted in the play.

Here's Tina on the right and another of the cast members.

The vintage market was a blast and I even made new friends. Here's another of the vendors booths. Things got so busy after set up that I never got another picture. :-(

This was the beginning of our booth. Once the day got started there was no more time for pictures. :-( So it's just the set up pictures. Hope everyone is doing good and I'll be around to see what you've all been up to.

Just A Quick Note

Wow!!! We've reached 125 posts. It doesn't seem like we've been blogging that long and I know we're not very faithful, but I do try. So we'll have to celebrate somehow.
The Vintage Market was fabulous and I had a blast. I did get a few treasures so that knocked a little hole in my profit area. I got a rug which is really great but sadly too small for the area. I'll use it this winter until I can purchase a larger rug for the dining room. Then I'll have to find a new home for it. Isn't that sad? LOL. I made some new friends and I'll be sure to post pictures later. Right now I have a pie in the oven and dinner to get on the table.
Hope you all had a fantastic weekend also!!!

Deluxe Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

Okay, I promised a recipe and here it is. This was wonderful. We still have strawberries here where we live at decent prices even though it's fall. The coast has them pretty much all year long. This was really quick and easy.

Deluxe Strawberry Shortcake

1 package yellow cake mix

1 cup water

1/2 cup sour cream

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:

1 package cream cheese

1/3 cup sugar

8 ounce carton of whipped topping

3 cups chopped fresh strawberries

In a large mixing bowl, combine the first six ingredients; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in whipped topping. Place one cake on a serving plate; top with half of the cream cheese mixture and strawberries. Repeat layers. Store in refrigerator. 12 servings.

I deviated a little bit. I didn't put the cool whip and cream cheese together. I layered the cream cheese and sugar, then the cool whip topped with strawberries. But it did occur to me that you could do the filling layer and leave the strawberries off to pour over the top once served. Anyway you serve it, it was good. Enjoy!

Also for some great recipes try Joni's site.

Cooler Weather at last my friends, cooler weather at last

This California girl is so over the hot summer months and has been enjoying these two past days of cooler weather. I've been so busy that all I want to do when I get home is just sit on the computer and play my games. Mindless games that waste time and require no thought. Last week at work was just ... difficult. You wonder about humanity when you see what the next generation is doing and you question where the direction of that humanity is headed. So enough about business let's have some fun.

I have been busy, busy decorating for fall. I love fall. It's my favorite season. I suppose you could say we don't get a true fall here. We do get some color but not for awhile yet. I suppose it's more that long sigh after all the summer heat before fog season starts. I really shouldn't complain because our winters are very short and very mild. So.... After doing much thought this past year about my seasonal decorating efforts I decided that it was time to scale way back. I only decorated the front room buffet area and the china hutch. I used to take everything down and redo the whole main living areas of the house. But between work, homeschooling and various other activities (read here cooking, cleaning, laundry, taxi service, etc., etc.) I didn't have time and it felt more like a burden than a pleasure. It was taking a month or longer to get it all done and then it was time to move onto winter. Besides hubby and the kids could have cared less. The kids used to get excited when they were smaller, but not anymore. So I do this just for me. I actually got done in two days and I felt so great. I thought it might annoy me that the rest of the house didn't flow or match, but it doesn't and I'm just pleased with it. Here are my fall efforts.

This old salt glazed crock is a family piece.

Some pictures I took in the morning and some in the evening with ambient light. Did I get that right, the kind of light I used?

So after cleaning one evening I thought our little sitting area off of the kitchen looked really nice in the lamplight and I took a few pictures of that.

without flash

with flash

The other project is the on going arbor. Seth has all the cross members up and will do the support members next.

Here's the carpenter and his creation.

Last but not least I've been busy chasing this little guy around. Monday he went to the vet and got a little procedure. I'm sure he didn't think it was little. More life altering if you know what I mean. :-) He's doing great. Little goober figured out how to get the collar down far enough to lick and chew at himself. So forget the collar. He's doing great and acts like nothing happened.

So I've been busy and I haven't been visiting. I promise to get around to all my pals and leave a little message. I'll try to post a recipe tomorrow of one we had a couple of weeks ago. Sorry this is long but that's what happens when you get behind, you have to cram.