I Think I'm Going On Hiatus

Well, as we count down to the big holiday, and Husband, kiddos and I prepare to make our visits to family, I think I am going take a little bloggy break.

I may jump once or twice in the next two weeks to say, "Hi!" if I get the chance.

I hope and pray that you all have a wonderful and blessed Christmas and New Year!

Merry Christmas!!!

Bon Bons and My Lightbulb Moment

So I've gotten my first batch of Bon Bons dipped and ready to go. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to do another batch. They are the only thing I'm making this year....however, it just occured to me that I could do a batch of fudge in order to supplement goody gifts and that would be a whole lot easier than making another batch of Bon Bons. Yeah, I think I'll do that.

ANYWAY...as I was saying I just finished dipping my Bon Bons and I had some melted chocolate leftover. I hate to let chocolate go to waste(...that's a mortal sin isn't it?) and I was contemplating what to do with it when I had a light bulb experience.

BING!!!

Dip some marshmallows and plop them down on some graham crackers. Wala! S'mores! And happy children and husband. I drizzled some of the last bits of chocolate over the whole thing. They were absolutely yummy!

So if you have some leftover melted chocolate and some marshmallows and graham crackers hanging around...well these take next to no time to make and they make you look like a gourmet extraordinair.

Oh and by the by...if you are feeling ambitious here is my Coconut Bon Bon recipe! Enjoy!

Coconut Bon Bons

1 large bag of Angel Flake Coconut
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 - 2lb. bag of powdered sugar
1 Cup of margarine
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 Cups of chocolate chips ( I use Nestle Semi-Sweet)
1/3 cube of kitchen parafin (The kind used for sealing jelly sometimes. It can usually be found where canning supplies are in your grocery store.)

In a large mixer, cream together milk and margarine. Add vanilla and coconut. Now slowly add powdered sugar (This can be tedious and messy, I frequently end up mixing in the last of the powdered sugar by hand.) When thoroughly mixed together, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night.

The next day cover some cookie sheets with wax or parchment paper. Form coconut mixture into small walnut sized balls and place on cookie sheets. When finished filling a cookie sheet cover and put back into the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours.

Next comes the dipping. In a double boiler put chocolate chips and parafin. Heat until melted. Prepare surface next to stove top by laying foil or wax paper down. (I use foil.) Now it's time to dip the coconut balls. Plop them gently in the melted chocolate one at a time and use a dinner fork to lift them out and put them on your prepared surface. Allow the bon bons to cool and firm up for several hours. When they are firm, enjoy! Give to your friends to enjoy because this recipe makes about 120 of them!

Lots of Linky Love

The Lemonade Award

Which recognizes blogs that reveal great attitude and/or gratitude.

I want to thank Robin at Be Still and Know... for honoring me with this little blog award. Robin showed up at my blog last spring on a post for which I received a couple of really ugly comments (that was before I reviewed my comments). She offered me encouragement and consolation and renewed my faith in the blog reading public. And now she's gone and made me blush!

Now, the directions with this award are that I go on and honor some more great blogs that show great attitude and/or gratitude. But like Robin and Skoots1mom before her I'm not going to do the full count. However, here are a few blogs that fit the bill for me.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

Lynn had me when I first saw the name of her blog. She is a faithful wife and mum who writes honestly and openly about her life in England. I love going and finding out what lovely thing she is up to each day.

Red Wellies, Rainbows and Cinnamon Whirls

Tina is a bright ray of sunshine right out of Scottish moors (you do have moors in Scotland, right?). She just went through a kitchen re-do and such a good attitude about it too!

Grace and Glory

Jen is my friend in real life. And everything about her is real. She and her husband have open hearts and an open home. Just go read the wonderful things she is thinking about and praying about!

We Lift Our Eyes Up

Shawna is also my friend in real life. She and I are kindred spirits in so many ways. Her writings are always helpful and challenging. Her latest post is about time management, it offered me not only a challenge but a tool to meet that challenge.

Simply "Jenn"sational

Her "sub-title" kinda says it all, "Because my life needs it's own word." I see a happy, loving, sunshiny person in her blog. She is also real about her life. And she loves to decorate!

Grace for Gayle

I just recently found Gayle via her other blog The Grocery Cart Challenge. She is witty, funny and just has a great attitude about things in general. She also manages to keep her grocery bill to between $200 and $250 a month. She's my hero.

So there are my nominees for The Lemonade Award. I hope you will visit them all real soon.

Now for the rules that go with this little award:

• Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
• Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
• Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
• Share the love and link this post to the person from whom you received your award.

Blessings to everyone who stops by here!

Relieve Some Christmastime Stress

By now you are probably like me. In the midst of Christmas preparations and in need of a good laugh. Well check out these two sites, lolcats.com and i can has cheezburger then take a look at Son's version. He is very proud of his handiwork. :)

I was laughing out loud at some of the pictures....remember laughter is great stress relief!

A Little Walk Down Memory Lane

My Mom loves to sew. When I was younger she did a lot more clothes sewing than she does now. Now she is a quilter mainly. Though she has been known to make some clothes for Daughter.

My Mom is also a saver. I think she has saved every pattern she ever bought and the fabric as well. As I dug through boxes under the stairs at my folks house this past Thanksgiving, I was taken on a trip down memory lane. There were fabric scraps that I distinctly remembered from various clothing items either my Mom or I wore.

And let me tell you there were boxes...as in multiple boxes. One could almost classify them by decade, based on the print styles. It was...amusing, because that "I can't believe I wore that" thing comes up.

But, you know, there are styles that are classic...they don't suffer too much in the translation. Especially now when people dress not to conform so much as they do to define who they are. And since I'm kind of a traditional sort of retro sort of girl, and the patterns my Mom had are in my size so I thought, why not use them!

So without further ado let me show you what I found. And this isn't everything. Blogger would only let me post five pictures.

The blouse on the left reminded me of some of the tops you see in the stores right now. Made in a knit fabric I don't think anyone would know the pattern was from 1964. My Mom and I had matching dresses made from the pattern on the right...well her dress was made from that pattern...mine was from a smaller pattern I didn't find. I do remember they were a light pink, double knit polyester fabric. Somewhere there is a picture of us...but that was another hunt.

I don't think my Mom ever made either of the above patterns. The contents to both are still in tact. I could probably make a killing with them on e-bay! They are priced .75 and .85 cents. My how things have changed!

Now the pattern on the right above is one of those classic ones. McCall's classifies it as "Easy, Recommended For Beginners". It is priced at .50 cents U.S., .60 cents in Canada. I think I will actually be using that one. I might even be brave enough to make the one on the right as well...it's not that outdated is it?

More classics, the pants make me think of Laura Petrie (aka: Mary Tyler Moore) in The Dick Van Dyke Show.

I think I will be making both of these as well. The drawings make look dated but really, the styles are simple and, once again, classic.

So there you have it. Well, not ALL of it. Like I said I could only post five pictures on this post. These are just the sewing patterns. I still have to show you the knitting and crocheting stuff I found! But I'm going to save it for another post. :D

You know there are draw backs to saving everything, but in this case I'm really glad my Mom didn't get rid of anything. And she was glad that I will be able to make use of them again. Ooooo, it just makes me all frugally and warm inside!

Walking Faithfully - The Whiner Edition

So here is how it has been going for me. I have a cold, a UTI and Aunt Flo came to visit (and if you don't know who Aunt Flo is you are either not a woman or you are too young to be reading this).

Yeah, it's been great.

For most of the week I've felt like I've been hit by a Mac truck and left for dead. Daughter has been wanting to decorate the house for Christmas and little by little we've been getting it done. Poor thing, she's so excited and her Mama has been so wiped out.

I actually feel better today. The cold symptoms are subsiding. All I'm left with now is an over abundance of mucus...and I'm running out of tissues....both in the box and on the roll.

I started on some antibiotics for the UTI yesterday. They also gave me a medicine to relieve the symptoms...that was a welcome relief! I've drunk enough cranberry juice this week to support Ocean Spray for the rest of the year. Not to mention water...oy!

And Aunt Flo, she packed up her bags and more or less left yesterday. That was the biggest relief of all.

So....just to let you know, I did find some cool stuff under the stairs at my parents house. I'll get some pictures taken this weekend and post them on Monday. I'm sure I'll be feeling better by then! I hope!

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying your Christmas season. I'm done whining now.

Excuse Me While I Collect My Thoughts

I'm coming, I'm coming....oh just let me get my thoughts together...excuse me...oh I dropped a page....heh, heh...