Felt & Stitch-Part 4

Anything to avoid getting ready for Thanksgiving!!  I need to clean the junk out of 2 bedrooms...I know one will be needed and the other may be needed.  And I need to start cooking.  I could make the brandied cranberries now...or the pimento cheese...or the walnut gruyere crackers...or the citrus rosemary olives...or even dinner.

But instead I waste time reading blogs and playing with my projects.  This is the latest result of my playtime.

Felt & Stitch-Part 3

Santa Napkin Rings?  Yeah, I thought they were cute, but I'm not really into cute.  But I was showing the projects to a friend and she just loved these.  So I decided to go ahead with a set of them and make it her Christmas gift...shhhh, don't tell.

They aren't quite finished.  I ran out of ric rac..so I need to add that a pompoms to two of the napkins.  I hope she likes them.

Thanksgiving!!!

We love Thanksgiving here!!!  This will be the 7th year in a row  that we have celebrated at home with some combination of friends and family.  Our friends and neighbors, the Bott's have been here all of those years.  My parents were here a couple.  My brother and niece a few.  Tyrone sometimes.  Molly five of those years.  A boyfriend a couple of times.  And a few others sometimes.

This year Cara will be home (she lives in Greensboro).  Jo is staying in Cleveland...to avoid traveling and to spend time with friends and family there.  All of the Bott's...Karen & Alan, Victoria & Alex (they are also Cara's and Jo's bestfriends for all of their lives)...and Vic is bringing Ben (he has no idea what he is getting into).  My brother, Dick, and niece, Rachel, are coming...and Tyrone and maybe Tyree will be here.  Cara has also invited a friend...so somewhere between 11 and 13...I think...it doesn't matter.

I do most of the cooking, but the Bott's bring dessert...which will be pies from SweetiePies Brooklyn (which is actually Victoria...she's so talented).  They also bring the jello shots...you just wouldn't believe the jello shots.  They are amazing and fun.

There will also be fun cocktails, snacks, turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans cooked some way, and usually spinach-artichoke casserole but we may change that this year.  We also have Wendy's (that's my mother-in-law) brandied cranberries.  I will start cooking on Sunday...a little at a time...and will have almost everything done..except the turkey, of course, by Wednesday night.

The centerpiece is done.  Now if I can just keep Bill from moving it during dinner.  He wants to be able to see the person across the table from him...and he's not tall enough to see over it :).

Maybe I'll share some of the preparations this weekend and next week!

Favorite Things-Part 2

I love my house...or should I say home.  It's not big...actually it's kind of small...but there are only two of us now so it is big enough.  Getting to only two of us and dealing with a small house is another story.

There are so many "favorite things" here.  Some are pretty obvious.  But I don't think this one is...I doubt that my family has even noticed it. 

This sits on a shelf right at the front door.  I see it every morning when I go out to get the newpaper.  First, I love the bowl.  It is one of several carnival glass pieces that I have.  The bowl is filled with deodar cedar cones that we saved from a tree that used to be in our front yard.  It was a beautiful tree and produced beautiful cones...they look like flowers.  For a while it was just the bowl and the cones. 

My dad died in February 2009.  He was special...in oh so many ways :).  He was a wood carver, among other things...and the bird in the bowl was an unfinished piece that I took from his workbench.  It just seemed to want to be here.

Barbecue!!!

I was born in Reidsville, NC...home of Short Sugar's Bar-B-Q.  This was the standard for pork barbecue...and a pretty high one I must say.  I have lived in Virginia most of my life...it is hard to find barbecue that even comes close....Big Daddy's on Jahnke Road in Richmond makes a pretty good showing.

Bill and I have decided to try to find the best.  Two weeks ago we travelled to NC...specifically to watch our older daughter compete in a roller derby bout...another story entirely.  Our Saturday stop was Allen & Son in Chapel Hill.

It is actually outside of Chapel Hill...I think...Chapel Hill is not like the cities that I know.  A barbecue plate was  more expensive than I would have thought...which turned Bill off immediately...don't you just love a cheap husband?  But it was just heavenly barbecue...just the right "spice", the slaw was perfect, and the hush puppies even more perfect.  I usually shun the sweet tea of NC...but I think it is the perfect "thing to go with" barbecue.

Our daughter lives in Greensboro...home of Stamey's BBQ.  We had lunch there on Monday...ohhh, if I hadn't been to Allen & Son on Saturday...  The barbecue is great...but not highly seasoned.  The slaw is, what I think is called, red slaw.  I don't like it.  It is hot...and not much else.  The hushpuppies were still great...can one make a bad hushpuppy?  Of course Bill thought it was better.  I can't help but think that price had something to do with that...Stamey's is about half the price of Allen & Son.

So the verdict...so far..imo...is Allen & Son is the best.  But the search goes on...not only in NC...but in Virginia...and wherever else I might be that prides itself on barbecue.

http://www.ncbbqsociety.com/trail_map.html

Any suggestions?

Felt & Stitch-Part 2

Must-do tasks suffer so that I can play.  These are more projects from Betz White's Felt & Stitch Holiday Workshop.  They are fun.  They are pretty...at least I think so.  And I have absolutely no idea what I am going to do with them.

I am thinking that this "gift topper/brooch" will adorn my mother-in-law's Christmas gift.

 

And these?  Who knows?  Any ideas?