Can You Spot the Creeper??

He spends most of his time on the trees and he blends in well. He's not that easy to see, so I zoomed in on him for you. Keep looking....

I really like how I captured the creeper and the chickadee in this shot. At first I thought it was just a picture of a chickadee until I zoomed in. They are similar sizes, the chickadee is just puffed out a bit.

Bread!!!!

Ooops! Kind of doing this backwards, but here is the end result-oatmeal bread with butter and soon grape jelly-very good after a little run on the cross country skis. Yes, we finally got out on them.
My loaf was little flat on top due to the fact that my towel stuck while it was rising. Oh well, it still tasted good!

It's rising!!!!

My French baguettes ended up looking more like big fat breadsticks. We ate one right away with the dipping oil mix that Mom gave me a couple of weeks ago and that was good. We'll have more in just a few minutes with the Italian chicken/vegetable soup that is also Mom's recipe. I will try this bread again and only use two loaves and stick totally to the recipe. I changed some of the white bread to wheat and that was my problem. Next weekend I will try again or maybe this week if I am inspired.

Our Winter Birds

Our winter birds are one of the pleasures of winter. There is more time just to sit and watch them at the feeders and marvel at their hardiness in the frigid temps. Here is the Brown Creeper. His job is to wind around the trees from top to bottom looking for any eggs or larvae that he can eat. He is very beneficial to trees and a very sweet little forest bird.

Speaking of sweet little birds, here is my favorite bird the chickadee.

The Slate colored Junco is a northern resident who will return to Canada when it's nesting season.
Here is a Hairy Woodpecker-much larger than her cousin the Downy. It's a female due to the lack of a red spot on the back of her head.
This Nuthatch sat here one snow day for about 10 minutes giving me plenty of photo opportunities. He was probably just taking a break on the calm side of the tree and conserving his energy. Not sure if it is a male as the females look exactly the same.

Avatar

We saw Avatar last night-I liked it! Dan thought it was 30 mn too long but thought it was good. The visual effects were stunning. I wish I had some glowing flowers, wouldn't that be gorgeous in the evening?
Speaking of flowers, here's a lovely bouquet I found at Anna Griffen's website, yes, I am ready for spring.
Look at this drying rack? Isn't that neat? I'm trying to think of a way to have a little line in the laundry room that doesn't get in the way and looks decent. I suppose I could just drag the wood rack I have from the basement. I think it's still down there somewhere.

I am being domestic today, trying to bake a decent loaf of bread, washing floors & ironing. Dan took care of the laundry as usual. My first attempt at French baguettes was so-so. Now I have a batch of oatmeal bread rising. I used the mixer to knead it and it was very slick. We shall see.... Think I will try to get Dan out on the cross country skis today, haven't used them yet and running out of time. :)

The ugly side of tile

In my spare time I have been sealing grout lines. This photo was actually taken before the grout was in. So now that the grout has dried properly, I can paint all the grout with a tiny paintbrush. If I skip a line, the grout would absorb the stain and heaven forbid we would ever spill red wine, chocolate cake batter or spaghetti sauce into an unsealed spot-we would have that stain forever. So, it's kind of a pain and I do it for 20 mn here and there, thus I've been working on it for 5 days now. Two coats are recommended for areas that may receive water or cooking areas. I put three near the sink, just to be sure to avoid water damage, two above the stove area. Then I read it should be done yearly-yeah right. I'll be on top of that. I would much rather write about sealing grout than actually do it. :) Good night-off to watch my DVR'd Idol with my new wool blanket.

Loving Frank

Last night, I finished reading Loving Frank by Nancy Horan for book club. It's historical fiction based on the 7 year affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and his client's wife, Mamah. He leaves his young family behind as well and they caused quite a scandal in their Chicago suburb of Oak Park. It was a very compelling story (along with the tragic, real life ending) that will make for excellent discussion. She was a modern woman, trying to have it all at the turn of the century. I highly recommend it!

"I have been standing on the side of life, watching it float by. I want to swim in the river. I want to feel the current." Mamah Borthwick

Old Wool Blanket & Cats

When I was working at the BB on Saturday, this blanket was all rolled up and it caught my eye but I never got a chance to take a good look at it, plus it was $15. I stopped in today after school and unrolled it to check for damage. Besides one small spot,( that doesn't even go through) it's perfect and it's reversible. I was very happy to see the rosy brown color and pretty blanket stitch. The cats weren't supposed to be a part of this post but what can you expect?!
So I brought it home for the cats' approval. It took them about 15 seconds to lay on it once I spread it out for photo purposes.
I did a little research online and this company started making blankets around the turn of the century. They also donated 250,000 blankets to soldiers during WWI. It's a brushed wool (full sized) that has a very nice weight and is super soft. Similar blankets seem to be going for $85-125 on the web. Mine will not be for sale, we can put it to very good use in our house, not to mention the kitties.

Shadow would like it to be a rug.

Big Kitty inspects the label.

I thought Big Kitty might be under there.

Bargain Bazaar Treasures

I worked at the Bargain Bazaar on Saturday with Shirley, Marilyn and Florentine. It was a fun time and Shirley and I both found lots of time to shop while working of course. Among my finds were the Nigella cookbook (which I would be happy to give away), the Michael Phelps book (for Jamie), crocheted bedskirt, oval platter, cup and knitted scarf/kerchief whatever it is.

Books to read and share.

Clothes for Grant-Gracie could wear the jacket too

A shirt for Andrew (Ruff Hewn-like new)

A cool pale green jar for me-no lid, I see it full of pale pink peonies in June, what else could I use it for?

Frosty Mornings

Mother Nature has some amazing displays this past week.

More kitchen pictures

I'm going to try to keep it clean/clutter-free.

So happy to have it finished-time to do some cookin'!

I found this nifty pan at the Bargain Bazaar. I actually let it sit in the store for about a month before I finally convinced myself I might use it. It's like a mini fluted bundt and it worked perfectly with the Scandinavian cake recipe.
We moved the microwave over here. It's seems so big-where else could it go......

Backsplash finished!!!!

Here it is!

I actually like it better with nothing on the counters.

This is Amber. She did the project all by herself in two days.

This is how it looked after the first day.

Stuff

The Westminster Dog show is tonight and I'm excited to watch it. Some years I miss it and am bummed but we have the DVR set up so it will record tonight and tomorrow. Someday we will get a dog, for now, cats work well with our working schedules.
Tomorrow our subway tile backsplash starts to go in! I can't wait to see how it looks. I should have an after picture for you by Thursday. If all goes well it will only take two days, Amber will be installing it herself with her dad's help. I predict that when my kitchen is complete, I will be transformed into a cooking machine. Wouldn't that be great?!

We had my parents, Warren, Ann and Andy over on Saturday night for Dan's birthday. I was not exactly a cooking machine as I burnt the glaze. Ann goes, "Something is really cooking in the kitchen!" It sure was! Anyway, the ham, potatoes, broccoli and everything else was just fine. Mom brought cous-cous salad, is that how it's spelled? It was very good and I plan to make it this summer. The recipe is in the new Trinity cookbook. We also have a lot of ham leftover, it was a spiral and Mom said that it's better not have a glaze on your leftovers anyway so it was a good thing I burnt that glaze. We are having scalloped potatoes and ham for dinner tonight. We had soup with ham last night and of course ham and cheese omelets for breakfast on Sunday. I love ham leftovers almost as much as turkey.

Today was a comp. day for conferences so I went to Alex and met Annette and Becky for lunch at DMB's. Very fun. Did a little thrift shopping and made some color copies of some very charming vintage bird cards and French labels for decorating bottles. It will be fun to do some crafting with them. Ann, I found the new thrift store and bought a top there. The thrift store downtown is not nearly as fun as Kvil's used to be. I hope they will reopen somewhere.

Have a great week!

Happy Valentine's Day

Love this kitchen! Our subway tile may be installed as early as this week-can't wait.

This vintage summer home on Lake Carlos (I think) is on the market for 880,000. It was on the vintage cottage tour 2 summers ago and looks the same as it did a century ago. Sadly, they included no interior pictures but I will keep my eye out for some if they add. (I may have some of my own-will check!) The wrap around porch full of hanging beds (like hammocks) and iron beds was the best part. The owner sold the empty lot next door for a million last year and if this property sells, I wouldn't be surprised if this classic summer home is demolished.

I'm telling you, moss is IN!!!

Enjoy your day!

Ahhhh

Isn't this so cheerful and springy?! I need more images like this in my brain right now. This picture makes me feel happy so I'm sharing it with you too.

We have conferences tomorrow night and then I should be done. It will be so nice to have that busy night over. Now I kinda wish we would have had them on Monday and I'd be done right now. Busy planning the 5th grade Valentine's party too-ice cream sundaes and free time in the gym is what they voted for. Pretty easy! Dan's birthday is also on Friday and Valentine's on Sunday, a day off on Monday for President's Day-which is actually a teacher comp day for conferences. Yes, another 3 day weekend is just what the doctor ordered. Well, that and sunshine with temps in the 80's but that is unlikely to occur for a while.

Snow Day #2 2010

We have a LOT more snow than this picture shows. This is from a few years ago but the icicles

are almost exactly the same. We were supposed to have conferences in addition to school today but that was moved to Thursday. We are already 2 hours late tomorrow and I see that Minnewaska totally called school off tomorrow-wow! They must anticipate drifting as the snow should be over.

It's been a week since I posted, I've been cooking and baking a lot. We had the Andersons over for the Super Bowl and that was fun to see them again. Mom made it home from St. Marten and had a wonderful time with temps 85-90 everyday.

Today, I used my snow day to make biscotti, valentines for my class, read more in Loving Frank for book club, shoveled the walk and walked down to the point in almost waist high snow (that is a calorie burner!) and made Paula's roundsteak for dinner in the crock pot. Dan was working at home so I couldn't even waste time on the internet. We watched the HBO movie Temple Grandin this evening, it was great , starring Clare Danes. Thinking about inviting coworkers over to see it sometime. I heard Temple speak years ago in St. Paul about her autism and her work with cattle. Dan enjoyed the movie too. The Star Tribune gave it 4/4 stars.

Well, we will see if we have some school tomorrow-hope so, as it's hard to make too many up. Be careful out there.