The Frosting

I didn’t make this up or anything, but per Robin’s request the frosting:

In a big bowl put 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar with three large egg whites, then beat until really frothy. I put it all in my kitchen aid and set the sucker on high until it got like that. Slowly add in powdered sugar until you get the thickness you want. We used about 3/4 of a 2lb bag on each batch. I would say 1 batch is good for three people who want to stick lots of candy on their houses.

Hope that helps!

*edited to add, this is safe to eat (trust me I had about 15 cups last night), when you whip up the eggs with tartar you are essentially cooking them.

That’s the Spirit!

Thank you so much for all your kind words. I just had to do that little vent, need you think that my life is all gumdrops and roses! Here’s another thing that will make a down girl fill much, much better: friends! And lots of candy! Tonight was the annual ex-crew girl ginger-bread house making and gift swapping happy fun time (we’re still working on the name). I whipped some lights on the tree, cleaned up a bit, added leaves and chairs to the table, set out lots of empty dishes, filled a bit barrel with pretty old-fashioned cokes on ice, started a fire, set cider on the stove, and whipped up some frosting (okay Sciarrino may have helped on those last two). I also finished my Santa swap present moments before the girls got there (not bad for some one who was still in paisley pajama pants and her "I only want juicy" T a quarter to noon):
House_village

That insane roof back there is my Rainbow Bright house:
Me_with_house

Haircut coming next week (yikes!). Attempted a few group shots:
Group_at_table

Sorry girls I don’t know what I was thinking with the 50mm lens, duh!
Group

Lauren brought her puppy (awe!). It was a fabulous night and I love those girls, so so much! Oh and per Beachwood’s request:
Gnome_santa

The advent tree I keep forgetting to show (I’ll try to get another picture of it). Gnome Santa watches on. Found him at a little antique shop in town, so heavy!  My mom got us the tree,  it has candles on the ends, and Bj and I split the numbers in half to get tiny silly gifts for each other. We already have a nice pile going on under the tree, I’ll try to get a picture of that soon. And tomorrow I get to see Michele and V, so you know, I think all WILL be right with the world!

Grumpy Old Man… Or why I can’t get into the Christmas Spirit

Just a note, I’m listening to Christmas music while I write this, so as not to come across too grouchy.

I visited grandpa for the first time in a week today. I took a self-imposed vacation from Mr. Grouchy after he sent me crying from his room last week. Luckily Bj was around to take him to the doctor’s last week, because I was so not taking him. I had another appointment anyway. The eye one, which has yet to result in new eyeglasses, blah! Quite a few things got me roweled up last week, but the main one was grandpa’s intolerance. I’m sure you know the, "old people are set in their ways," saying, and this totally applies to him. I do my absolute best to understand where he is coming from and be polite but there are things that I will not tolerate, and one of them is prejudce and being just plain mean spirited.

Now before you get on me and say how could I not be anything but sweet to an 87 year old retired military man, let me just make sure you understand that grandpa’s mind is totally in tact. An example: when Bj and I got iPhones he asked us how much they were. We didn’t want to tell grandpa because we had saved up for them, and knew he would flip at the price. The next day we come over and he opens with, "So how are your $600 phones?" How the? What the? He flipped the channels on his TV and read the local paper until he found out. So he’s not dumb, and he’s not loosing his mind. He is however getting on my nerves.

Grandpa is nice to most everyone he meets, but here is the thing, he talks dirty later. Like about their skin, where they are from, what they believe in, etc. I have a huge problem with this because not only is my own sister black, but one of my dearest friends as well. He’s been complaining because I can’t find him a white, older (must be 45 plus), male doctor. Last week I lost my cool and told him that I needed him to be nice PLEASE especially this time of year. He’s all, "Christmas is just another day of the year." I told him not to me. I know that grandpa is atheist, and I’m fine with that, hey whatever, everyone believe what you want. I honestly don’t think there is any way to prove anyone is more right about religion than anyone else, so the more ways people find happiness the better. So grandpa asks me why it’s important, and I say that, "I get to see my friends and family." He says I see them all the time (um grandpa has this weird idea that I have like a million friends and go to parties and get-togethers all. the. time). I told him that wasn’t true, and that "I respected his beliefs and he needs to respect mine."  Then grandpa tells me, "anyone who thinks Christmas is real is touched in the head. Mental." I kissed him on the cheek, told him I loved him, but that I could not stay. Then just up and left.

I started crying outside the room, I was so upset. I think mainly because I’ve been so nice to him for months, MONTHS, and have been trying to show him how everyone has good in them, something he does not believe, and then he slams me like that. I went down to reception and ask that they check in on him in an hour. They called me later, of course he was fine. I typed up this whole post about it right after, and deleted it, I was so raw from it, I knew it would be incoherent rambling. The other reason I didn’t put it up was because I really don’t want people telling me grandpa is some horrible human being. He is old. He is set in his ways. He is driving me crazy. What I need are real, concrete ways to deal with this. He is still so sad. All he wants to do is be with his Billy (Bj’s dad… yes it stands for Bill Junior, I’m sure some of you were wondering about that :). He has no goal in life (besides living to be 92 and thus surpassing any other member of his extended family), no hobbies, save watching baseball, which is over for the year. Nothing to do. I like surrounding myself with happy people and this is driving me insane. He has two doctor’s appointments next week, and I’ll be around him alot, as those are longs days for us. So any advice?

Now I feel I do need to lighten this post a bit…
Card

Ha ha. I let Bj pick out our holiday cards. LOL Love them. Had to get some other goodies from Knock Knock as well. Using one of those weird stamps for the X. I’m working on a newsletter type insert as we’ve had a {cough} crazy {cough} year. I’m also working on Christmas presents. As my lack of blogging a while back brought all the local readers to my attention I don’t think I’ll get away with posting many pre-present-opening pictures. But I might try to sneak a few crafty things in. One gift in particular has been taking up all my time… at the library. I get hard core about giving the right presents, which is why I have to go download the excel spreadsheet friendly librarian Rebecca just sent me.

My teeny tiny nose

Oh my goodness people. Who thought getting glasses would be so difficult? I am seriously having the worst time trying to find any in my size, which is a 13 bridge, 47 eye. Really the only criteria I have is that I want plastic frames. With no nose piece. Guess what? They don’t even make most children’s glasses that small. I’ll put it in perspective, most glasses go as small as 16/50. I had one picked out that I was going to order that was so freaking cool (see it here) but got talked out of it because it was just too wide for my face. I asked the lady helping me today, after looking in the kids section, "so do noses not really grow as you age." "I don’t know how to answer that," she said. Oh snap, what? I have tons of pictures of myself up on this site, I’m not that small, I swear! I guess it’s a combination of my small eyes and low/tiny nose that’s the main problem. Lord help Emilie if she ever needs glasses, she’s smaller than me.

So let me boil this down: I want plastic frames, no nose piece and a cool color. I totally don’t care if they are children’s glasses. I don’t want round glasses. Oh and the whole reason I want plastic frames? I was told yesterday at the doctor’s that my eyes have been trained to not focus properly because I was wearing my glasses all day long. I’m not supposed to wear them at the computer or reading any more (and I have to do really dorky exercises with a pen). So I figure plastic frames I can just pop them up on my head (you know al la sunglass style). Try this with nose pad glasses and your hair is in a world of hurt.

Finished Object: Cheveron Scarf

This chevron scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts was so much fun to knit… when I started. I added an extra repeat in the middle to make it wider because I like to wrap scarfs around my head in the rain. It’s such a mindless easy pattern, with only one pattern row out of four:
Finished

And now a picture of me with my secret identity. Did you know I wear glasses? Probably not because I avoid wearing them at all costs. I used to only have to wear them when I drove, but I have been having killer headaches lately. So I’m off to get a new prescription today. I want to find some bigger plastic frames, but I always have such trouble, I seriously have the smallest head ever. I’m surprised there is room for brains in there sometimes, remember

(which are also prescription) from Booth and Bruce. And ideas? Cool places around here to look?

Finds

I should totally be asleep by now but I’m still on a high from the best episode of Bones. Ahhhh love that show. Just a little post to tell you I’m finally finished with that scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. It’s
You know a book is good when you are thinking of how you’ll work on 15 projects at once… no joke! Oh and those little paper clips. Couldn’t resist the coolness, even if it is like fake sign language.  Oh wait to click around on that site. They also have emoticons! Must have!

Easy bookbag tutorial

I have been starting my Christmas present happy fun time making. 🙂 I thought I would share some of my new favorite things: book bags!
Bags
I was going to ask if you wanted a tutorial, then when I was sitting down to stitch more together tonight I had to figure the mental puzzle out again on how to line the thing with out a hole or funny stitches. I thought I would write it all out, that way I can have a reference for next time. I made up this pattern myself, it’s so simple. The measurements I’ve been using are: outside (14 x 16) cut two, inside (13 3/4 x 15 3/4) cut two of fabric, two of interfacing (medium weight, or thicker if you prefer and make it easy on yourself, get iron on stuff) handle (6 x 25). You can change the measurements to your liking, simply make the inside/interfacing layer 1/4 inch smaller both ways. To change the width of the handle multiply the width you want by four to get your cut measurement. The handles are way easy. Fold and iron the fabric in half long-ways, then open up and fold into the center fold. Fold back into the center and iron again. Then just stitch really close to the edge on both sides for a nice finished handle.

To make the bag line the outside pieces with interfacing before stitching the right sides together. I stitched once with a half inch seam allowance, then trimmed that down to 1/4 inch and then did a zig-zag stitch all the way around. That might be over kill but I wanted the bags to be really sturdy since they are book bags. The liner is the same, just with out the interfacing.
With_interfacing

To attach the handles lay them out on the outside section of the bag with the right side facing out. Pin and stitch down really well, making sure not to stitch past 3/4" from the top of the bag:
Handles2

Next comes the part that always makes me second guess myself. It just seams so weird, but trust me it works. You want to put the outside of the bag inside the liner, and pin it like this:
Pinned

The right sides are facing each other. Then stitch around twice. Once right at the top while pulling out the pins, then again at 3/4". You have to leave a hole to pull the bag through the right way. I found it was easy to pull through when I doubled back on the edge of the opening (you know hit the reverse on your machine). That way the seam I had just made didn’t start pulling out.
Stitch

(this was the first one, note that I didn’t do that and the stitches started to rip when I yanked the back open).
Pulled_through

Then you just push the liner into the bag and I iron it all flat. Stitch very close to the edge:
Top_stitched

And no one will be able to see where you didn’t stitch the two sides together the first time. I found that the easiest place to leave the hole was between the handles, fyi.
Bag

And done. Don’t you love the fabric? Look familiar to anyone? 🙂 Let me know what you think of the pattern and if you have any questions. I’m making up a ton of these, so if you want different views/detail shots let me know! Oh and if you don’t have enough fabric for the front might I suggest piecing something together?

I know, I know!

Where have you been? It’s bad when you get called out for not blogging in real life. So I thought I should update. I wish I had one really amazing thing to tell you that I have been up to that has kept me from doing so earlier, but really it’s lots of fun little things. First off Thanksgiving. Despite V getting a bit sick and her and her parents not being able to come everything with out with out a hitch. I put a turkey in the over at 9:30, whipped up a couple of stuffings, and made the gravy. Bj worked on the appetizers, everything else came potluck style, second year in a row I did this and it worked great.
Thanksgiving_group

Then the next day was Emilie’s sweet 16. I can’t believe my little sister is 16!
Emilie

So sweet indeed. Before her party I walked around with her and her best friends to take a few photos of them:
Jumping_girl

They were totally into it, really fun. Then I helped out at her party. It started at a hotel down town with pizza and french fries (ah to be 16). Then Bj and I were the chaperones to walk them seven blocks to the movie theater to watch Dan in Real Life. Walking with 30 teenagers made us feel a bit like we were in a parade. Man 16 year old boys can be hyper. I had to break up a candy throwing fight on the way back ("boys stop, that’s littering!!!"). Then we had dailies) and they played electronic catch phrase (super fantastic game).

The rest of the weekend was clean up, crafting, sleeping, etc. No shopping for me. I’m trying to do mostly homemade gifts, as always. We’ll see how that goes. Updates sooner, than later, I swear!