Thimbleanna – Page 61 – My little online diary.

Christmas Knitting

30 Comments / January 6, 2013 June 22, 2013 / Knitting

Well, how is the weekend going? I’m trying to enjoy my last few hours of the Christmas break — sadly, work will resume tomorrow. I’ve been trying to clean up some computer files and just clean up stuff in general. I’d rather be sitting in front of the fire knitting!

I’ve been on a knitting streak lately — I think because it’s portable and I needed a lot of portable during the fall months. I managed to get a little Christmas knitting in too.

I made some headbands and wrist warmers for my cute nieces. CuteNiece1 got the gray set and CuteNiece2 got the tan set.

The patterns were freebies when I purchased my yarn. The headband is available HERE on ravelry, and the mitts are available HERE.

CuteNiece2 posted this fun picture of a snow heart on her instagram.

She’s wearing my mitts. I think that means she likes them!

XOXO,
Anna

Happy New Year!

36 Comments / January 2, 2013 June 22, 2013 / Holidays, Recipes

Happy New Year!

And thus endeth the Holiday Triad (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years) that keeps us busy morning, noon and night. Are you all recovering from all of your wild partying??? We’ve had a fun and busy week. Capped off by our annual New Year’s Day family dinner. It’s the kids’ favorite meal of the year. Our menu is always the same:

Awesome Standing Rib Roast
(really, I see all kinds of standing rib roast recipes that look so fussy involving meat thermometers, etc. — you should try this recipe — it’s SO easy and always turns out perfectly!)
Twice Baked Potatoes
Carrot Puff
Green Beans Almondine
Overnight Seven-Layer Salad
Perfect Dinner Rolls (Thanks JuniePeep for telling me about this fantastic recipe)
Creme Brulee (MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s Specialty!)

Yum Yum! It was fabulous and today we’re all stuffed.

I was looking through my recipes and realized that I haven’t ever posted the Seven-Layer Salad in my archives. The boys’ LOVE this salad and I love it too ’cause you make it the day before, so the day-of meal preparation is just that much easier.

Overnight Seven-Layer Salad

1 medium head iceberg lettuce, washed and chilled
1 bunch green onions
1 8-oz. can water chestnuts
1/2 red or green bell pepper, seeded
2 stalks celery
1 10-oz. package frozen peas
2 cups mayonnaise
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3/4 lb. bacon, crisp fried and drained
3 hard-cooked eggs
2 tomatoes

Core and chop lettuce into thin slivers. Spread lettuce over bottom of a wide 4-qt. serving dish. With a knife, thinly slice green onions and part of the tops. Scatter slices over the lettuce.

Drain water chestnuts and slice. Sprinkle over onions. Chop bell pepper and sprinkle over water chestnuts. Chop celery and sprinkle over bell pepper. Break apart frozen peas and spread over celery. Spread mayonnaise evenly over peas. Sprinkle with sugar, Parmesan cheese, salt and garlic powder.

Finely chop bacon and sprinkle over salad. Coarsely chop eggs and sprinkle over the bacon. Cover and chill for 4 hours or as long as 24 hours. Just before serving, cut tomatoes in wedges and arrange around top of salad. To serve, use a spoon and fork to lift out each serving, which should include some of each layer.

And, now we’re off and running! A New Year. A Clean Slate. Happy, Healthy New Year Wishes to all of you — I hope your year will be full of joy and fun! (That means lots of sewing and knitting and making LOL!)
XOXO,
Anna

Gingerbread Houses 2012

36 Comments / December 30, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Gingerbread Houses

Thank you for all the sweet wishes for TheSecondChild’s speedy recovery from his cat bite. He’s gone home now and all seems to be back to normal — or so he tells me. It was certainly a memorable Christmas for us — I’ll always remember it for the chaos. I was even so distracted that I forgot the dinner rolls for Christmas dinner. The shame! We got a beautiful snow on the 26th — and to prove that bad luck comes in threes, SweetiePie capped off our string by having a little fenderbender in the storm. All these pesky little inconveniences — but everyone is fine, so we really can’t complain!

How is your between week going? Are you finding any time to relax? This is one of my favorite weeks of the year — we have snow, no work, and I even had time to go take a fun little knitting class — more about that later. In the meantime, I’ve made it through pictures of our 2012 Gingerbread competition.

Team 5: TheSecondChild, CuteNiece2, and BestFriendofFirstandSecondChild. I’m not sure what was going on with this team, but I can say that we had to censor part of their house. Too political for our happy little blog here. As you can see, the topic involved taxes — very timely for the fiscal cliff mayhem going on in Washington now. They did have some very cute touches — unfortunately, you don’t get to see them all LOL!

Team 4: TheFirstChild and TheManoftheHouse. What is it with these men? These guys almost had to be censored too. They decided to tease the aforementioned BestFriend about a blurry picture that was taken of him dancing with a girl a few weeks ago. They blew up the picture and recreated the bar — changing the bar name from 8 Seconds Saloon to 8 Sexonds. Naughty Naughty. They did have some fun touches though — a disco ball hanging from the ceiling, a bucking bronco in the corner, a raised “wood” (ahem, shredded wheat) dance floor, and horses hitched outside.

Team 3: MyDadLovesMeBestSister, CuteNiece1 and BigDaddy. MyDadLovesMeBestSister is always very creative with her candy. They started out by creating a nativity scene with a manger and horses in the center of the house. Then, something happened and they changed their plan. Maybe making a statement not to worry about their house? They created the Don’t Worry Be Happy House. I love the sprinkles on their roof, the dog with his pile of dog bones, and their cute little people with the wild, colorful hair!

After the first round of voting, there was a tie for the Team1 and Team 2 houses.
Team2: CrazyBIL, CuteNephew, and CuteNephew’sGirl. CrazyBIL always decides to create alternate shapes with his houses and he ends up carving up the gingerbread pieces. They created a prison this time. Where did that come from LOL??? Maybe, everyone is getting tired of trying to think up new themes??? Anyway, they were very clever with the details. Note the spaghetti window bars and rails for the fences. And orange jumpsuits for the prisoners. They even had an escaped prisoner who ended up in a pool of blood. Very fun!

Team1: SweetiePie and Me. In honor of our trip to the UK this past summer, it seemed only fitting that we would make a UK house, don’t you think? We briefly thought about crumbling a bunch of gingerbread to make a mountain with exhausted climbers in the snow on the top. But then, we decided to go more decorative instead. That’s Big Ben in case you can’t tell, LOL. We tried to make The Eye out of pretzels, but it wouldn’t hold, so I piped some frosting on a cookie sheet and baked it at 200 degrees for 10 or 15 minutes. I was quite surprised when it worked. Anyway, SweetiePie very cleverly created the rows of bobbies and a double decker bus. Then she created a river and we made a mini London bridge.

Can you guess which house won in the run-off? It was Big Ben — Yay! I’m starting to think people vote for my houses as a reward for all the time I spend baking the gingerbread parts before Christmas. Either way, it’s very nice of them!
So, that’s it for another year. Thanks for your visit — I hope you’re ready for New Year’s and that you’re having some fun this week!
XOXO,
Anna

Merry Christmas!

31 Comments / December 25, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Holidays

Merry, Merry Christmas! It’s that quiet moment in our morning before everyone is up, so I thought I’d quickly pop in to record our mayhem for posterity. The ovens arrived right on modified schedule — just in time to spend all day the 22nd making cookies. It’s a good thing too — I desperately needed my traditional Christmas Eve morning breakfast!

TheSecondChild arrived home on cookie making afternoon, bringing his travel companion, Moofie. The kitties have been having a grand time.

Moofie is the naughty kitty in the upper left. He got spooked on Saturday morning and bit TheSecondChild. So, late on Saturday evening, with a swollen hand, there was a visit to the ER for a little IV antibiotic therapy. I waited at home and tried to catch up on all the wrapping and cleaning — I’ve been so terribly behind schedule all fall. We all finally fell into bed at 5:30 a.m. The 23rd kept up busy with the annual Gingerbread Competition and suddenly, Christmas Eve was upon us! We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner and managed to open a few presents before sending TheSecondChild back to the ER, that nasty infection seems to be spreading. More IV antibiotics and luckily, due to the holiday, the Dr. said he could come home overnight. We’ve modified our normal Christmas morning schedule while he’s gone again this morning for yet another round of antibiotics. Hopefully, they’ll send that infection packing!
So, it’s been eventful to say the least. Must run and get the traditional breakfast ready. And then Santa can visit!

If there’s anyone out there, I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday! We sure are — even with the crazy schedule and manic disorganization!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
XOXO,
Anna

Oven, Oven, Who’s Got the …

27 Comments / December 17, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Holidays

Like many of you, I’ve found this last week to be a blitz of sadness, hope and busy busy. And can’t keep up-ed-ness. If normal holiday madness wasn’t enough, it appears we’re getting new ovens this week. It’s the last step of the kitchen update. Finally. Last week was the big week so we removed our old ovens. (Well, ok, the week before Thanksgiving was the big week. And then it was the week after Thanksgiving. And then the week after that.) See my new ovens?

What? You can’t see them??? Yeah. The cabinet people screwed up the cabinet and got the measurements wrong. So now it’s a big rush job. And hopefully the new ovens will be here on Friday. Four Three days before Christmas. It’s Cookie Baking Week with no cookies! So, I entertain myself by wistfully reading about the cookies I would be making if I had an oven. And, of course, now I’m kicking myself that I’ve never posted about the Christmas turkey. You know, just in case the ovens don’t make it again, and I need to console myself by reading another old post!

Moving on, I’m making good use of that gap in the kitchen.

I’ve made the annual little soldered ornaments.

They’re always fun to play around with and they make good package tie-ons.

Also…
I’ve been learning a little bit about Ami Sims Art Quilt Initiative. She’s been working hard since 2006 to raise funds for Alzheimer’s research. If you’re looking for a charity at this giving time of year, this looks like a great choice.
And…
I’ve been included in a list of 40 homemade gift ideas. I’m in great company — have fun reading some of the fun ideas!
Have a stress-free week. “It” will happen whether you’re ready or not, so you might as well have a wonderful, fun time of it. And bake some cookies for me!!!
XOXO,
Anna