The Friday Five Good Things

2021 Christmas Day Family Photo

 1. Saw the female cardinal in the honeysuckle vine watching me through the kitchen window. She left and then the male showed up. Ma and Dad checking on Christmas Eve preparations

2.  The Eldest's flight was cancelled for Sunday, but she was rebooked for Monday 12/27 early morning. Whew! When the Young One did a project semester in California, her flight was cancelled due to weather and it took 5 days before she got a flight out.

3.  The Eldest is here!

4.The Eldest and I have been binge watching Gundam Wing, one of her favorite anime series

5.Had fun with the family toodling around town looking at Christmas lights

How was your week?

Words for the Year

 

I came across this fun, little game last year. Look at the picture. The first 3 words you see are you words for the year. 

The words I saw were creation, gratitude, and alignment. What 3 words did you see?

Whatcha Doin?

 

One of the things the Eldest loves is coffee. Well, not just any coffee, but flavored, foo-foo coffees from Starbucks.  We call these beverages La-di-dahs. There isn't a Starbucks where the Eldest lives, but there is one two miles away from my house. 

Santa brought both girlies Starbucks gift cards. After the Young One gets out of work, we'll go for La-di-dahs. The Eldest likes the raspberry chocolate coffee. I usually get a Chai Latte, and the Young One will get a Chai Latte or a hot chocolate.

Whatcha doin?

T Stands for Cookie

 

The Young One was in the mood to bake and was craving orange spice cookies. Several years ago, she had baked an orange spice cookie as a gift for a friend. She said the cookies made the house smell like Christmas.

Who am I to argue when someone wants to cook or bake? She couldn't find the recipe she had used, but found a similar one. Orange Spice Cookies 

The baking cookies made the house smell like Christmas and were insanely delicious. The sugar coated outside lovely and crisp and the molasses made the inside soft and tender.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

You Better Watch Out

 

While the rest of the world celebrated Christmas Eve last Friday, we're waiting for

No, not Santa! The Eldest! After her flight was cancelled yesterday (Sunday), it was rescheduled for early this morning (Monday), and she's finally enroute. 

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Early morning and the moon was still out.

Full moon rising, but outside lights make it look like day

Christmas Eve snow on the tundra

A little visitor

Icy rain didn't stop the business at the bird feeder

Frozen tears

176 days until the First Day of Summer. How does your garden grow?

From Our Home To Yours

Quill

Calli

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. The new storm door was installed

2. The leak in the basement wasn't from a pipe. Whew! The plumber thinks the leak is coming from the corner of the shower door. He gave it a shot of silicon. Hopefully, that will work.

3. Had a nice chat with two cousins

4. Quill was diagnosed with stomatitis. He had to have 13 teeth removed, but came through the surgery just fine. Hopefully, the rest of his teeth can be saved.

5. Errands and Five Guys.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday

Santa and CJ (5 years old) - December 1960

A Friday Five post from 23. December 2011

Five Christmas traditions we did, usually on the same day, when I was a kid.

1. My mother would make us dress in our Sunday best for a trip to Boston. If Dad was taking us, he'd drive to Woodland Station, park the Dodge or the green Studebaker wagon, and we'd take the streetcar to Park St. If Ma was taking us by herself, we'd take the bus from the end of our street to Park Sq. Ma would hurry us through the Combat Zone (red light district)  on lower Washington St. to the store 

2. From Park St. we'd walk a block over to Washington St. where Ma would do Christmas shopping at Jordan Marsh and Company. (In 1996 Jordan's was bought out by Macy's)

3. When her shopping was done, she'd take us upstairs in the store to The Enchanted Village. While waiting in line to see the Big Man, we'd be entertained by a huge Christmas display of mechanical dolls, lights, and electric trains.

4. After, we'd get to have lunch at Kresge's lunch counter, a baloney and onion sandwich though I had mine with yellow mustard and no onions.

5. Before going home, we'd get to walk around Boston Common looking at the Christmas lights and the skaters on the Frog Pond.

Did you do anything like this when you were a kid?

Whatcha Doin?

 

I completed half of the garden pot project, a toy soldier made from large, terra cotta pots. The soldier stands 4 feet tall. His brother soldier is still in the workshop.

Whatcha doin?

T Stands for the Teaching Assistant Brunch

With the last chem lab completed, Himself invited his 3 teaching assistants (one for each lab section) to brunch as a thank you for their hard work. I got to tag along. Himself chose The Flying Rhino Cafe and Waterhole on Shrewsbury St. in Worcester.

There were lots of choices and on the back of the menu which I forgot to photograph there was a selection of appetizers.

I started with a Mimosa (orange juice and Prosecco). Himself had a Coke.

There were chicken fingers with a Buffalo Rub which the waiter said weren't very spicy. He lied. 😺

We also ordered Crab Rangoons

I ordered Stuffed French Toast with Mixed Berry Cream cheese. It wasn't plated as I thought it would be. I thought the cream cheese would be between two slices of thick bread which would be dipped in egg batter and fried and not on top of the French toast. It's plating might not have been very pretty, but it tasted delicious.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.

Happy Mail

This time of year is always great time for Happy Mail. Elizabeth and Bleubeard sent this lovely creation. I like the non-traditional colors.

Inside, they're dreaming of a white Christmas. Not me! Sunny and warm would suit me better.

On the back this handmade tag which includes Bleubeard's paw print.

From my teacher, friend, and mentor, Gerry, this stunning creation. When I grow up, I want to be just like Gerry.

At first, this card was a puzzle. The return address was Theodore with a Westchester, NY postmark. Who do I know that's Theodore. Years ago I had a boss named Ted, but this can't be from him. And then I laughed when I opened the card from Anne's Creative Cornucopia. It seems Anne's photographic assistant and model was getting up to some shenanigans

Holiday mail is being postmarked with this gorgeous cancellation mark of Santa and his sleigh

My Enders Island classmate, MB sent an envelope stuffed with goodies. I couldn't capture the shine of the iridescent medium MB used for the lettering. 

She also included this sweet, watercolor robin.

and a bookmark. Again, my photography doesn't do the piece justice.

Thank you all for brightening my mailbox.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Red sky

The Watchers

Storm position

Dedo went inside

The calm before the storm

Yay! No snow!

How does your garden grow?

Saturday Morning at the Library

When I was 5 years old, I was forced to take dancing lessons while the Brother was forced to take accordion lessons. I hated dancing class. The Knights of Columbus Hall where the classes were given had no heat or it wasn't turned on. I hated wearing the pink beginner tights. I liked clacking around in the tap shoes, but Ma wouldn't let me practice inside the house on the wood floors. I spent most of my time in class being miserable and crying. Eventually, I was taken out of class.

While the Brother still had to endure accordion lessons, Dad took me to the library. He would leave me upstairs in the children's library where I could look at the books and choose to take some books home with my own library card. As I got older, I would go downstairs to the adult library and wander among the stacks enjoying the scent of the books before going to find Dad in the reference area consulting the law books and catching up on his work.

So for the next several weeks, a list of my favorite books, some I have read as a child, others as an adult and some  I have read more than once.

This week, The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The three books the make up the series are

The Fellowship of the Ring

The Two Towers

The Return of the King

The stories are an epic tale of ordinary folk trying to save their world from falling into the clutches of evil. If you haven't read these book, you can find them at your local library or favorite bookstore.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. The Neem oil seems to have killed off the annoying fruit fly like bugs on the Peace Lily

2. The insurance company sent the check for the water damage to the bathroom/basement caused by Quill

3. Himself took his 3 teaching assistant out to lunch as a thank you for their hard work this term. I got to tag along. No cooking!

4. Found PVC pipe that will work for the joint pot project.

5. Started assembling the pot project pieces.

How was your week?

On the Front Door

With a few baubles and some hot glue, the swag went from this

to this. There. That's much better.

Whatcha Doin?

Himself bought this diamond swag from a fundraiser at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) where he is teaching. We liked the idea of the different shape for the front door. We picked the swag up on Monday.

I'm going to go through the Christmas box to find some baubles and a bright ribbon to make the swag look festive instead of the house is in mourning.

Whatcha doin?

T Stands for Christmas Tree Gift Tag

Last week, my colleague and blog buddy, Jean from Pushing the Envelopes posted what I considered a steal-worthy design to decorate my Christmas card envelopes. Jean thought her idea was ho-hum, but I thought it was brilliant. 

She wanted me to post an example of the envelope, but I thought I would show how to use the design to make a gift tag. Besides, it provided a T Day topic and a chance to procrastinate. Who wants to keep searching through piles of paper looking for a misplaced tax document?

Making the tag is a perfect opportunity to use up your scraps. I used the Scan n Cut built-in design to cut a tag from index weight, decorative paper. The tag measure approximately 2 inches wide by 4 inches in height. You don't need a cutting machine for this project. Just do a search for free printable tag templates. You'll find lots of shapes. Print, cut, and use to trace onto your paper.

I used the paper cutter to cut a rectangle from plain cardstock approximately 1 3/4 inches wide by 3 inches in height. I also used a punch to round the corners. 

I used a pencil and drew a line along the bottom about 1 inch in length. I eyeballed the center of that line and drew a vertical line almost to the top of the rectangle. I left enough space so a foil star sticker would fit as the decoration on top of the Christmas tree.

I used an ultra fine point, green, Sharpie marker to draw the tree. You can use any kind of marker, colored pencil, or a pointed pen and ink. 

Jean had done some random flourishes to draw her tree. Her technique reminded me of the Lazy 8 drills we did in penmanship class. The Lazy 8 also looks like an elongated cursive L.

Since I'm a Southpaw (lefthanded), I turn my paper so I don't drag my hand and smear the ink as I write.

Try to keep the space between your Lazy 8s as even as you can and the loops a kind of oval shape. Gradually increase the size as you go down the triangle to create the base of the Christmas tree.

I used red, green, and blue Sharpie markers along with a gold Uniball gel pen to randomly color circles and make dots for the tree ornaments.

Give the markers several minutes to dry before you erase your pencil lines. Use glue stick or double sided tape to glue the Christmas tree design to the tag. Add ribbon or yarn for the tie. I used Baker's twine.

Ta-Da! After all that hard work relax with a cup of tea or your favorite beverage. You can also use the gift tag as an unbreakable ornament as a test to see if the kitties will bother the Christmas tree.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s blog to find out what the rest of the T gang is up to. If you want to play, include a beverage or beverage container in your post. Don’t forget to link your blog from Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s page.