Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

A while back one of our This is topics was favorite children's book and I listed my favorite story, Peter Pan. However, I don't really consider Peter Pan a "children's" book, unless you're talking about "children of all ages" because as an adult I enjoy it as much as I did when I was a kid. Then a couple weeks ago I was reminded of a book from my childhood that was, by far, my favorite. It's called Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett and illustrations by Ron Barrett.

The story is a grandfather telling his grand kids about a town called Chewandswallow where all the food the town eats comes from the weather.

It rains juice and snows mashed potatoes and peas and there are big hamburger storm clouds.


The weather comes three times a day

They have a roofless restaurant

And things were good

Until....

Things started to go uncontrollable

Way out of control

So the townspeople decide to leave Chewandswallow by making boats out of huge slices of bread

They go across the sea where they are welcomed but where they have to get used to things like grocery stores.

And they all lived happily ever after. Or something like that. It's a great story and the illustrations are alot of fun to look at. This copy is going to be a certain little girl's Christmas present because she loves books. A girl after my own heart.

O Tannenbaum!

Yesterday's Eye-spy post made me want to write up a post about our Christmas tree. It's funny, a few years back we bought a fake, pre-lit tree because we both had gotten tired of the clean up and maintenance of a real tree. In fact, last year we didn't even put up the fake one. We got as far as taking out the ornaments but never got out the tree so we ended up pinning the light, non-breakable ones to the ceiling (one of my sister's kookier ideas).







However, as soon as we saw this house we knew we were going to get a real tree. The big picture window made it nearly impossible to resist. So over the weekend we went and bought us a 7 footer (2 feet bigger than any tree we had while living in the condo).

We both have a strong aversion to the shiny metallic garland and tinsel so for many years we used this giant chenille ric rac...

Unfortunately, since this is a much bigger tree we didn't really have enough to use on the whole tree and of course, I have no idea where I got it. So, we stopped about 3 feet from the floor but turns out that was a good thing because of this little critter...

So far she's been very good. She has climbed up the trunk a couple of feet but hasn't knocked anything off yet. But I just know that if that ric rac were closer to the ground it would prove too much of a temptation and we'd come home to a horizontal tree. That's why we loaded it up with non-breakables and kept all the pretty glass or ceramic ornaments that we've collected over the years tucked safely away in the ornament boxes.


So, we have mostly cloth and metal and a couple of plastic ornaments most of which were gifts, and a lot of which are handmade...

I've always loved decorating the Christmas tree. This year even more so. I don't know why, maybe because of the new house or the new kitty or maybe all of the above.

Our audience while we decorated the tree.

Eye spy...a burst of color

This week's theme (by Flossy-P) was just plain hard for me to narrow down because of all the Christmas decorations that are floating around right now. I finally picked one of the ornaments on our tree. Made by mom. I love the colors of Christmas!

The preceding installment of eye-spy has been brought to you by BugandPop.

I spy...in my garden

Here's the new meme that all the cool kids are joining! I Spy over at Bug and Pop (thanks to Cindy for starting this!).

Today's (ok, really it was yesterday's, once again, I'm a day late) theme is brought to you by CurlyPops.

At the moment we don't really have a garden. We've been in the new house for a month now and haven't had time to focus on the outside of the house at all so here's what our yards (both front and back) look like right now...

Not much to choose from. I did try and get a picture of the neighborhood stray cat that I've been feeding (shh don't tell anyone) but she wasn't out there when I came out this morning. She's usually out there waiting for me every morning...I hope nothing happened to her.

If you'd like to play along, go on over to Cindy's blog and sign up!

Christmas Tea

A while back I mentioned that our church's annual Christmas Tea was coming up in this post. And that my inspiration was this table...

Today was the tea and here's how my version turned out...

The picture makes it look way more bland than it really was. Maybe this shot will be better...

Or how about this one...

Anyway, in person it was very sparkly. I scoured all the thrift stores in a 15 mile radius for just the right pieces. Almost all the candle holders were thrifted, except for one from Michael's and one from Pier 1. This dessert stand...

I made from plates and cups that I found at a thrift store. The things not from a thrift store were the two teapots

and a leaded crystal bowl that belongs to my sister. And the place settings

that we already had. As a substitute for place cards, which is what we've done in the past, we made these initial ornaments for everybody, they turned out ok, I think.

But the most popular thing on the table were these...

Bacon-and-cream cheese scones...yum!!!! I found the recipe here...a blog about bacon - makes me giggle. If you like to cook or even if you like to just eat, you should try it out. If you're a vegetarian, well I've never used the fake bacon so I don't know if it crumbles like real bacon but I would imagine just cutting it up into appropriate sized pieces would work. Anyway, I, and many of the woman at the tea HIGHLY recommend them.

So that's how I spent my Saturday afternoon, how about you?

Shhh...don't tell anyone

But edward and lilly is having a give away! Ok, I suppose you should probably tell everyone about it but I'm secretly hoping you don't because then my chances of winning won't go down. And I really wanna win. Check out the super cute ornaments she's been cooking up over there for the last few months...

Head on over and enter the give away!

Something arrived in the mail today...

I wonder what it is!


Ahhh a pretty little tin


from Tinnie Girl! I had my eye on the pretty flowered tin the moment I saw it in her shop.


So I broke down and bought it. I picked the "surprise" colorway and what a pleasant surprise it was! Full of my favorite color...Purple!!


I urge all you crafty folks to visit Tinnie Girl's shop. It's one of the most unique shops on etsy. And if you like grab bags, you'll want to buy a tin.

Happy Thanksgiving (a day late)!

We've been working like fiends around here to get everything ready (or as ready as possible) for Thanksgiving and our open house the day after. Basically, this consisted of moving boxes from the living room into any available space that isn't within public viewing. Which ended up being the small back porch and my bedroom - as long as I have enough room to lie down and go to sleep, that's all that matters. So here are some pics of the living room in its current state. We're working on getting some flooring but until then we've got throw rugs all over the place.

Yesterday I cooked and cooked then cooked some more for just the four of us (mom, dad, sister & me). It went off relatively smoothly. There was just one small tiff which is mild for a Perry get together these days. But overall, the food was good (if I do say so myself) and the conversation lively. The funny thing is I did all this cooking and forgot one of the most important components of the meal - the pumpkin pie. I had bought all the stuff to make it earlier in the week but when it was time to actually make it it completely slipped my mind. Mom to the rescue! She brought a pumpkin bundt cake with her so we just munched on that for dessert.

Anyway, if you're from America, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and if you're not from America, I hope you had a good Thursday.

As we were unpacking we had a little helper...can you spot her? Look closely...

There she is. Ok, Sasha wasn't so much helping as just getting underfoot and making a mess with all the packing materials. But she's so cute, how could I resist taking pictures?

Yellow

I have not been known to be a fan of yellow in the past (mostly because I look like I'm jaundiced when I wear it), but lately, I seem to be drawn to it. I love all these shades of yellow...

From the buttery to the lemony, I can't seem to get enough of this color!

Photo credits: 1. Jois Handmade on Etsy Cashemere sweater
2. Anthropologie's Sylvan Scene Cardigan
3. Leaves from outside my office
4. Lemons from my lemon tree.

One room at a time...

that's how we're getting this house done. Our first room (and we're very close to being finished) is the kitchen. It is the most important room isn't it? Here are some befores and afters to let you in on what's going on over here...

The color we painted the walls looks really salmony almost peachy in the pictures but it's actually a deeper terra cotta color. It really brings out the brown spots in the granite countertop.

I know it looks like we've finished by these pictures but really, we haven't gotten to the trim work yet, the paint stops about an inch and a half from the ceiling. There's one whole wall that we're painting a deep red, almost a brick color but that wall isn't in any of these pics cuz it's not done yet. Also, what's been cut out of the pictures is all the boxes on the counters - none of our stuff has been put away yet. Where are those darn elves that are supposed to be doing all this for us? No doubt helping put together Christmas toys...bah humbug! I guess that's what the weekends are for, right? So, the next room? I think it will have to be the garage. Cuz if I don't get the workstation set up soon I'm going to go crazy!

It's in the bag!

We are almost done packing. We hope to be all moved out of the condo and into the new house by the end of this weekend. We probably won't have a fridge or a stove but we'll have the satellite all set up and that's what counts. We got this move in the bag!

Time flies!

Has it really been a week?! Wow! Ok, well, here's what I've been up to...

packing. We finally got the official call this week that we closed on the house so now we are all in a tither trying to get inordinate amounts of junk and crap and amounts of clothing that could make you dizzy into boxes that seemed a lot bigger before I brought them home. So I haven't really had the time to do any blogging. Sorry.

Anyway, I've decided that I have just too much of everything. So as a solution on the clothing end of things I went down to my friendly neighborhood Ikea and bought 7 of these bags...

The only clothing I'm keeping will have to fit in these bags. Here's the breakdown...

1. jeans

2.other pants (this includes everything from workout pants to slacks to wear to work)

3. casual tops

4. work tops

5.unmentionables

6.sleepwear

7.misc. (this includes skirts/dresses which I have very few of, scarves, hats, gloves,etc)

That's it, no more than that. I don't think I forgot anything, at least I hope I didn't. Anyway, so today I loaded up 3 big lawn sized garbage bags full of clothes and took them to the thrift store and gave another half a bag to my mom who was kind enough to come over today to help us. When we got back home I noticed a whole shelf of clothing that I meant to give away so I'll be making another trip. It's a sickness, I tell you, having this amount of clothing. I held on to so much, telling myself I'd fit into them again some day...yeah right. Those all went. The only things that I still have that I will never wear again are 1 prom dress, 1 bridesmaid dress, 1 high school football jersey (I didn't play, I wore it when I took stats during games) and my high school letterman's jacket. Somethings just don't need to be let go.

Tomorrow...shoes...ugh!

This is...a favorite recipe I'd like to share

It doesn't look like much in the picture but if you like maple then this is the dessert for you!

I made this last week for a potluck but I didn't quite follow the directions right and it didn't set so it was more the consistency of lemon curd or an ice cream topping than pie filling so if you're gonna make this, make sure you follow the directions and measurements exactly.

Maple Cream Tart

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c pure maple syrup

1 c whipping cream

1/4 c cold water

1/4 c corn starch

1 ready pie crust

In a bowl mix together the water and cornstarch until smooth, set aside. In a sauce pan mix together the syrup and cream and the water/cornstarch mixture. Over medium heat bring to a boil. Let boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Remove from heat. Pour into ready pie crust. Let cool so filling can set. Refrigerate before serving

As far as the pie crust goes, I don't have that in the recipe because I usually buy the kind at the grocery store that you just have to roll out into your pan then toss it in the oven. I haven't tried this using a ready made graham cracker crust but I would imagine it would be really good. Basically, what I'm trying to say is the crust is up to you...if you like making it from scratch, by all means make your own, I'm just too lazy to do that.

As always, check out Three Buttons to find more yummy recipes.