It was cold and a little drizzly, but we went outside anyway.

And,

Fig blew bubbles...

I watched Daddy hang lights

And Pookie...

Chased the cat!

The girls were up at 6:15AM again, so there was no sleeping off the Thanksgiving feast! It was a nice relaxing day though. I spent the day working out a pattern for Christmas stockings for the girls. So far it's coming along pretty good. Everything is stitched up, so now I'm just working on adding the embellishments--sewing on some holly and adding some white lace trim.

I also tried out taking some pictures of the birds that I've been making. It was a bit late so the lighting was bad, but here's a sample of one of them:

I'll have to try some more when the light is better tomorrow. For now it's time for bed, for all I know it's going to be another early morning tomorrow!

Let the Cooking Begin!

Steaming hot chestnuts, ready to be shelled.

Thirty cups of diced bread ready to become stuffing.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy, busy day! I'm enlisting husband to help me finish the stuffing so that I'll have time to watch some of the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. Drinking cider, cracking/eating nuts, and watching the parade are a family tradition. And afterwards it's off to my Aunt's house for the feast!

Staying Warm!

Tomorrow the Thanksgiving preparations begin! I've volunteered to make the pie crusts (love this recipe) and stuffing (I made this last year and loved it!) I love cooking warm yummy food when it's cold and frosty outside. There's nothing like something toasty and tasty to take the chill away.
And it is chilly! It's cold enough to snow, but sadly they're still isn't any in the forecast for us. Mom and I bundled the girls up in their snowsuits and took them for a walk in the thirty something degree weather. There were lots of rosy red noses and cheeks after the walk, I need to get a picture next time!
I spent the rest of my day inside with hot chocolate working on a new Bunny. Bunny's body came out fine, but Bunny's eyes have been a disaster! After three failed attempts at eyes I called it quits for the day. I think I'll go back to my birds for awhile and then attempt Bunny again. I need to get started on the girls Christmas stockings too. Gee Christmas is right around the corner....!

It was warm and sunny the other day, so we packed up the girls and headed to the beach for a walk. Sadly there was no beach when we got there, but the view was incredible!

So instead of walking we sat, took in the salt air, ate/drank our Dunkins and Pookie threw bread crumbs at sea gulls for awhile. It was the perfect end to our day, so relaxing!! And it was a good thing we went when we did, because now it is nasty, cold, and wet!

Brr! It's cold outside!

At last an update! After the long move back east and lots of packing, unpacking, and repacking, I think we are finally settled in...for now. And just in time, because I need to start thinking about Christmas presents for the girls!

I need to run out to the store to get supplies for presents, so in the mean time I've started tackling Christmas ornaments. I thought it would be fun to have the girls hanging on the tree, so here's little Fig!

Next I have to make a little Pookie. I'm thinking that Pookie will need a hot pink snowsuit...!

For the past couple of days I've been working on a doll for Pookie. Originally it was supposed to be a baby doll, but I went nuts adding hair and so as my husband says "she's too hairy to be a baby anymore--so now we have just a doll. Here is one side of her (a very blurry picture because I had to take it in a dimly lit room while Pookie was sleeping, I'll post clear pictures of both sides later):

If you flip over her hair she has a sleepy face on the other side. This is her red day outfit (not yet finished. She will also have a pink night gown for bed time. Pookie loves playing with and pulling her hair (such a relief, it means she isn't pulling out mine which she has recently been doing by the handful.)

Now I have a huge ball of brown yarn leftover though so I'm thinking up ideas for what to do with that. I'm thinking maybe a crochet teddy for Pookie...something I can work on during the long car ride east as we move.

More pictures of bunny as promised.
Bunny was created after some white cotton I was ironing was ruined by some black smudge on the iron. Rather than toss the ruined cotton I thought I'd try out making my own pattern and a make a little something for Pookie at the same time.
So first bunny was constructed out of paper, then cut out of fabric, sewn together, and dyed brown using coffee grounds and tea bags. Then we added a little white tail and belly and embroidered some eyes and a nose. And tah da! we have bunny. Pookie loves bunny! She crawls around the house with him, smooshing him into the carpet as she goes, and last week she had fun at church grabbing him by the ears and hurling him into the next pew (thankfully nobody minded.) So thinking up new ideas now...a puppy, maybe something more exotic like a giraffe....we will see.

Meet bunny!

Today we did not have to go looking for the geese. Look who was peeking in our window this morning!
We've had a busy graduation weekend, so as soon as we are all caught up on sleep and cleaning we'll be back with more posts.

Today being another warm sunshiny day, Pookie and I went out for a walk in search of the baby geese. Pookie just loves to wave and talk to the baby geese, but sadly we could not find them on our walk today. We tried to just sit and enjoy the sunshine and the pond, but the grass was still to damp from last nights rain and soggy shorts are just no fun, so back inside we came.
Pookie and I are working on the spring cleaning. While vacuuming the floor and cleaning the bathroom should have been top priority, after looking at this Pookie and I decided to re-fold the entire linen closet instead. My fitted sheets look amazing!! infact the whole closet looks great now, but I'm not sure it makes the apartment any more noticeably cleaner. I guess Pookie and I will still have to pull out the vacuum and wash cloths...

After a long, long, delay in posting--I'm finally back! Spring is here and there is lots and lots for Pookie and I to do. The weather being so nice and sunny Pookie and I just wanted to sit in the sun and enjoy being warm and toasty, but alas we have no blanket to sit on and have had to use a bed sheet instead. And so it is time for a picnic blanket! For the first time ever I bought fabric online and they are so cute! This is my absolute favorite that I bought (mine is in green though, but I don't see that listed anymore.) Since the fabric's arrival I have been busy busy busy ironing and cutting. I now have a nice stack of squares, two more prints left to cut, and a whole lot of white cotton to deal with. As soon as I have something stitched together a picture will be posted.

Pookie and I have also been busy running here and there picking out plants for our container garden and for our little plot of shady shady dirt. We both appear to have allergies though and so our flower search has been accompanied by much, much sneezing! The little collection of flowers we have going on now is rather nice, but I can never make up my mind where I want each plant. So here is a little picture of Pookie's and my patio oasis (ignore the gardening mess in the background we'll be cleaning that up tomorrow).

Today Pookie and I got up, got ready, and had some breakfast while watching Martha on TV. Today's Martha was boring--it was on weddings so there was really no cooking or crafting which is the reason we tuned in. So sadly we had to resort to yesterday's Martha show for some inspiration for today's project. Yesterday's inspiration--brownies!
The brownies made yesterday looked oh so good that after an midday nap Pookie and I pulled out the Valentines Martha mag and pulled out the recipe for the brownies. We melted the choclate, butter, and cocoa in our self-designed double boiler system and then had a moment of panic when we realized the baking powder was MIA. After pulling out half the contents of the cupboard we FINALLY found the baking powder (and we checked three times to make sure it was powder not soda because that is a very bad mistake to make) and could thankfully continue with our cooking. We mixed all the ingredients together and Mmmm did that brownie batter smell good! I'm sure Pookie wanted some--I know I did! but raw eggs are bad for little growing Fig so I had to resist the urge (which is so hard when you inadvertantley end up with a big glob of batter on your finger!)
I surfed the net while the brownies baked (and ooh mommy wants a little Octavius for Pookie!) while Pookie perfected her raspberry sounds and high pitch squeals. Then we whipped some cream--threw it on top of our not quite cooled brownies and ate ate ate!

Today Pookie and I made crepes. Well...I made crepes and Pookie provided the soundtrack for crepe making (best described as the sounds of a steaming tea kettle.) We got the recipe here. A very easy recipe seeing as I could mix it all together while holding Pookie to watch. We filled the crepes with raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries and sprinkled them with confectionares sugar. The crepes were super delicious, but the fruit was only so-so. It's not the season for those fruits I guess, they were either super tart or blah bland. Pookie and I were happy with the end result though and will definetly make them again--they were very pretty, take a look!
After it was time for Pookie and I to dance to some zydeco and mariachi music (Pookie is a very good dancer!) What a fun day!