The Very Best Of Times....

....this Christmas. I had tried to find time to do a pre-holiday post, and like everyone else, life got crazy with little things that needed finishing up, plus our area has been preparing for a blizzard, which may or may not hit today. We're right on the demarcation line, so I'm holding my breath, but the snow blower is ready as is the operator. (Moi)

It was a good, GOOD Christmas here. I could not have asked for better. I learned that hanging around half the day in Jammies and hand knit socks is QUITE GOOD, but sticking a bow to one's fuzzy head is QUITE BAD, as removal of said bow removed hair too. OWIE!!! (live and learn...lol!)

Even the Miser Brothers decided on a few minutes of Peace On Earth to send out happy wishes! Hey, if they can, can't the rest of US??? The posts on Face Book of late have just been beyond my ken. Mean. Fear-mongering. Things are split in a season that we should all be coming together.

A little KINDNESS please.

We did our usual non-traditional meal of New Orleans influence and I can honestly say I am so stuffed from crawfish and shrimp, I don't care to see either for......oh, a day or two??? ;-D Things were definitely YUMMY as we rolled quietly into the evening.

Another learning experience:

While these little guys smell like HEAVEN cooking, leaving the empty shells till the following morning is a BAAAAAAAAAD IDEA! Oh my. Yeah, I was having a Vieux Carre moment.....walking down Bourbon Street in the morning with the smell of, well, NOT GOOD wafting through the air.

I tended to the chores quickly.

And to cap off a lovely evening, as the sun dipped, with clouds rolling in, there was color for a brief moment.

Winter makes you run to catch those bits of amazing atmospheric change. Wait too long and it's all gone.....like a dream, wondering if you saw it.

And so Christmas 2012 is wrapped up, today, Boxing Day, should prove interesting too. I await 2013 eagerly.

Sometimes the very best times you have are the ones you think may never be seen.

I know that well.

Here's hoping you and yours were given sweet moments to remember and that you'll have many more to come!


Pax....

One step closer........

(obviously I am the colorful one on the left........SNARF!!!)

....to a day of normalcy! I should be *hopping along* soon, though the enigma of the sewing machine usage is still perplexing me.  That is going to require some reworking of the tables and a lot of extra thought, which it is receiving but with no results to date. And I still cannot move things, so there it all sits.

Yesterday I was able to cook, stay awake all day, and finally have a good night's sleep, eventhough I am up earlier than there is human need for. If I was able to go down to the wet studio, it might be a different tune I am singing but for the moment, I just wait and peck at the keyboard.

Soon enough I will be getting back to a more normal schedule and activities. Poor DH will be able to quit following me constantly to see what I am into.....he does have a tough job of it! Soon enough I will be sitting a bit more normally and painting and sewing and being an artist again instead of just existing in the ether here having much too much experience  of what limbo is like.

I have, however, been able to knit, thus the *Scarf-From-Hades* progressed a bit more and it is now so heavy (at least for my current less than Wonder Woman state of existance) that it may be relegated to a UFO pile temporarily. I never, I repeat NEVER, do that with knitting because sometimes the items don't escape the UFO pile; I have too much money and time tied up in this one. But in the interest of retaining what bit of sanity I have left (and pitiful muscle tone), and it's not much, I started a pair of arm warmer/mitts last evening and have the bulk of one knit and should start the other today.

Hopefully.

Crossing fingers.

When I can remember all the right combination of items---camera, scarf, arm warmers---in one place at one time, there will be photos. I seem to only manage to have one thing at a time, after I have plopped like a great whale into the chair and then the desire to get up and retrieve the other items is gone. Period.

So my gentle readers, be patient with your limping blog mistress and soon I will have photos of some sort of hand work.

The wet studio is still calling as I can do small things (I think) but I am waiting until I am sure I feel well enough to sit, or to rearrange everything to accomodate the right leg. Maybe tomorrow.......or New Years Day......a good way to start the new year.

As for this morning, after a good nights sleep, I am feeling somewhat back to myself and need to deal with a pile of e-mail and other assorted drudgeries of life. Which, after all is said and done, is rather nice.  ;-)

Have a good creative day, and.......

Pax.

Late Morning....and a Walk Down The Road a Bit, Chatting

Today is officially a *couch day*. Had a guest for dinner last evening, spent all day in the kitchen and paying for it today. The food and company were most delightful....I ate entirely too much and frankly am ashamed of it today as I sit here feeling like an over stuffed Jabba the Hutt. Anne....have some control!!!! But New Orleans BBQ Shrimp and pimento cheese buttermilk biscuits, even without the other items....oh, no control what so ever. OINK. Utterly heaven.....I love Southern cooking, especially anything from New Orleans! You should taste my gumbo.

And did I mention I did exactly what my poor mother lectured me for years NOT to do? I was putting the beaters in the hand mixer while it was plugged in. Have done this all my life. Well, my right fingers got stuck in the blades and let me tell you---IT HURTS. I shut the mixer off trying to figure out how to extract them, the thumb slipped again and WHAMMO! Further in. (you know, if you're that dumb, maybe you just should wear the mixer as an odd hand ornament for a while.......)

Today I still have useless fingers and red welts. I am indeed a walking disaster area. Humorous, but disastrous none the less. The hand works......it's just really mad.

Thanks to all of you who have promoed the box of supplies give away. The response has been amazing and I am excited about getting to actually pull a number to see who wins! What fun! Maybe I should put together a second smaller box so I can pull two numbers......believe me......I could do that. I still want to win Mr. Skelly at yoborobo's give away.....he would be soooooo loved here! ;-)

Also, big and hearty WELCOMES to a couple more followers!!! Glad to have you aboard and I promise, the content will improve......not today, but it will! ;-)

When I have some more time, I will count how many entries I actually have. That's for another day though. Today is feet up, knitting, bad movies and trying to get everything from the hip down back in working order. Oh, and dinner for tonight as there were no left overs. You must be joking.....

The photos were from one of my rambles the other day; the pin oak is in my yard and the morning light sure was setting it afire. I was out in nightclothes, as usual, shooting pics of it. Thank heavens I live in the country. Obviously me behaviour would get me kicked out of a subdivision quickly!!! And we wouldn't have pretty photos to share, so this is best!

Until tomorrow, when I can have something more than brain-dribble to post here.....have a creative day, enjoy the cool and shortening days of Fall and to all of you,

Pax.

Some things speak for themselves......

........just give me a big honking dose; DH now has exactly what I had/still have and Anne is not quite sure how much more of this sick room status she can take and muster a calm demeanor. I'm exhausted from simple tasks, am impatient to just SIT and KNIT, and absolutely have to find the strength to grocery shop or it's going to get reeeeeeeeally interesting in the eating department around here.

I so hoped that maybe Hubby could avoid this, but when he came downstairs yesterday and said, "How did you feel when you first started getting sick?" I thought someone had smacked me with a 2 x 4. So I put him on meds immediately and now in my moments of being up, am trying to cook so we can have something without trying to stand through a whole meal prep.

HE thinks he will be going to work all week. I am thinking otherwise. This should get interesting....any bets on who is right? ;-)

At any rate, I see no studio time in the crystal ball of my life, but I do see a lot of kleenex, jello, soup and dirty dishes.

I think it's time to take the sledgehammer to the crystal ball.

Or me.

And definitely, to the BUG.

Have a good one...make something...have fun...

I keep trying to tell myself this is all a bad dream, and I'll wake up working in the studio with the banners done. But that appears to be just plain mental illness. Again, maybe a dose of the above pictured chemical would help realistic thinking.......

Pax.

Delicious Creativity!

In my book, there are two types of creativity; the artistic type (which covers a broad range of subject matter) and then there is my Southern cooking. If you are of Southern blood, then you know it is a prerequisite to be able to produce an absolutely perfect pound cake, rich with butter, crunchy properly browned top and last but not least, the absolutely perfect crumb inside. If you've not baked a pound cake from scratch before, then none of this makes sense. If you have, then you know the sheer delight of taking a razor sharp knife and slowly working it through the still warm cake, gently sliding that piece out and indulging in a portion of pure heaven.
This was my project yesterday, and I am sooooo glad I made it. It is wonderful---the comfort food of the gods. To heck with Ambrosia or those gooey salads---give me a large chunk of pound cake and I am happy and beaming.
Serve it with coffee or tea of choice and experience rapture.
Have it for breakfast. Yes. I do.
I truly wish all my gentle readers could be here to share this with me, and enjoy for themselves what we cooks strive to achieve; the combination of dense and light, rich but not overly sweet, melt on your tongue decadence.
Hmmmmmmmm..........
Well, maybe not! (that leaves more for me and I do need to bribe the gentleman who does my PT...)
Now go do something creative--whatever you do well. And if it's cook, drop a post on what wonderful yummy you have whipped up!
Life is too short for beige clothes, bland lipstick, bad food or lousy wine!
Cheers! :)

P.S. I might add, this did take all the oomph out of me, so today I need to kick back and take it easy. After PT. HA! And again......HA!