Hello 2017....Please Be Kind To Us!

It's nice to see 2016 in the rearview mirror.  I'm always afraid to have positive hopes for the coming year cause each once seems to deliver a kick in the teeth at some point or another.  

New Years was quiet.  We were in bed and asleep by 11!  Such old fogies.  When my parents were my age they could party me under the table.  They were way more social than we are.  We like to stay home, order pizza and watch TV.  

Doesn't the shadow of our TV and photo frames on top look like a Dalek?  EXTERMINATE!

Since I gave away almost everything from the pre-Christmas baking extravaganza, I was out of sweets for myself.  Val & Ryan gave me this cookie kit in a jar and all I had to do was add eggs and butter.  It's white chocolate cranberry oatmeal.

I'm not sure why they flattened out so much and ran together, but they are wicked tasty and so soft and chewy.  Delish!

Our daughter in law's grandmother sent me some cross stitch kits last month to cheer me up after Pepper died so I did one of them over the course of a few days.  They are my first and second finishes of the new year.

I'll save them in case someone I know has a baby.

January 2 was Sagan's 11th 'Gotcha Day'.  I can't believe it's been that long.  He was only 9 months old.  I wonder if he has any memory of our house in Washington or if he thinks he's always been here.

He was so small and skinny, poor thing.  Now he's a big fatty love bug.

I started my very first latch hooking kit too.  Marsha gave it to me for my birthday.  It seems that everyone I know did this as a kid.  Despite being very craft-kit oriented, I never got one as a kid nor was I shown how to do it.  It seemed to me to be really hard to do and I was always scared to try it.  I have always had trouble with crafts that involve knotting of any kind.  But the design she bought me was pretty strong motivation to learn, so I looked up a You Tube tutorial and it was surprisingly easy.  I don't go fast and I'm all thumbs at times, but it's fun.

I kinda got a bit obsessed about getting it done fast, so it took me 2 days from start to finish.  Now that you see the finished design, you understand why it was motivation to do it.

So far we've escaped any real snow but there's some in the forecast, and freezing temps too.  I remain hopeful that 2017 will be much better for everyone.  

Taking Some 'Me' Time

I've finally had a few days to myself where I could spend the day in pajamas and vegetate.  Well not really vegetate...I was really productive doing fun things alongside the chores and errands.  I really needed this time too.  

This is another Mill Hill beaded cross stitch kit.  This one was hard because of all the light coloured floss against white paper.  And then stitching all the white beads on it too.  

I have OCD (shocking), so when I finished the polar bears, I realized I had 23 finishes for the year.  23 is not as aesthetically pleasing as 24, so I did this ornament over the course of two days.

There was an amusing conversation on Facebook that revolved around a stocking for Russell.  I offered to get one for him him and write his name in glitter if he wanted, and our daughter in law chimed in with, 'make it pink glitter'.  Challenge extended?  CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.  

I promised myself that I wouldn't go nuts with the Christmas themed altered art like I did last year, mostly cause we just don't have the room.  I'd seen something similar to this on Pinterest and I really wanted to do one for myself.  I'm a real sucker for the 'vintage look', even though decorations in the 40s and 50s didn't really look like this.  You can find all the vintage-looking items online...I got that ballerina (which is supposed to be a skater for this project) from the Tiny Things Are Cute website last year.

I unearthed a set of 30 mini coloured LED lights and thought they might look good on a winter tree scene.  My first attempt, I did a silhouette tree with the lights.

But you can't see the tree at all and when you look at it, all you could see were the lights.

So I spent a few hours, fixing the tree by adding green and snow.  I made the ground white and added trees in the background, then used blue, green, silver and crystal glitter paint all over it.

It's still dark but at least the tree and ground stand out better.

Whipped up a quick Christmas gift.

The grocery store was out of my fave Lofthouse sugar cookies so I made a dish of cheesecake bars. I'd never made this before and it was so good I was eating it right out of the dish!  I gave my stepdaughter a huge hunk of it just to get it out of my house!!

And then I made a batch of my own sugar cookies.  More baking to be done later this week.

I do love the dark winter nights and Christmas lights.  It's so cozy in our livingroom.  (I was watching 'Big Bang Theory').  Sagan's in Pepper's bed, which I washed.  He seems to be using her bed more than he's using the couch, which is a surprise.  Sometimes I see him coming out of my craft room, where Pepper's ashes are, and I would like to think that he's gone in there to visit her.  

I have the most thoughtful friends ever.  My friend Sarah sent me this Sasquatch ornament.  She's a believer, like me.  

Again on Facebook, I'd happened to comment on my friend Ami's decorations post (really just in passing), that the little blue misfit plane was my fave and how cute he is.  Imagine my utter shock when this showed up at my house from Ami!  I so appreciate my friends.  I am truly humbled by their gestures.

I expect to be somewhat busy this week.  I have a lot of baking I'd like to do, and of course cleaning the house and trying to eradicate some of the glitter that's ground into the carpet.  We'll be hosting the kids on Christmas Day and doing deli platters which we (read: I) assemble ourselves.  It costs a little more and takes a little work, but they are so much better than the ready-made platters from Stop & Shop.  Their large size which allegedly feeds 16-18 people is a joke.  Yeah, 16-18 if every person took just ONE slice of cheese or ONE slice of meat.  

I hope everyone has a good week!  

Worst. Cookies. EVER!!!!!

We are both trying to make some healthier choices when it comes to food.  I saw a cookie recipe on Facebook that looked like it could be good, even though it lacked eggs, flour, sugar and butter.  

The ingredients are seen here, but for the 3 mashed bananas that are in the bowl already.  I had my doubts about a vegan, gluten free, sugar free recipe but what the heck right?  Bananas, apple sauce and raisins are sweet....well, OK I bought unsweetened apple sauce, but still!  I wasn't sure about the coconut milk as I'd never had it, however in my mind I'd always assumed it was sweet, like condensed milk.  The original recipe called for almond milk but I'm allergic to almonds.  Then oats, cinnamon, vanilla and raisins.  

I combined all the measurements and then popped them into the oven.  I had my doubts.  After I shut the oven door, I tried a little of the batter and it was pretty gross, but I thought maybe once they cooked, the oats would fluff up more.

Fresh out of the oven, I took a bite of one.  OMG soooooooo GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  No sweetness unless you hit a raisin, still very mealy and bland. I gave one to Russell and he said, 'Well.....it's.....interesting anyway.'  Such a kind hearted man....doesn't want to hurt my feelings. But I told him that it was OK to say they were horrid because I already admitted it.  Surprisingly he got a couple more and asked me to finish baking the rest of the dough because he'd eat them.  My friend Chip saw this pic on FB and said that even the spatula looks defeated.  lol

Maybe this recipe would have turned out better with the almond milk and sweetened apple sauce. I am never making them again though. My friend Angie said, 'Sweetie, life is short.  Eat real cookies'. Good advice!  

Pin Win: Banana Bread Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Been meaning to make this banana bread chocolate chunk cookie recipe ever since my FB friend Carol-in-Omaha posted it right before the holidays.  She'd won first place in a baking contest for them.  Then I gave the recipe to my dear friend-and-college-roomie Angie when she needed a recipe that utilized bananas because she had a bumper crop of them in her freezer, so I sent it to her.  The next day she told me that she and her daughter ended up eating a quite a bit of the batter because it was just so darn good.  

I finally had enough overripe bananas so I went ahead and tried them.

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2-3)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups quick or old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 375° degrees F.

In medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In large bowl beat butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add brown sugar and then beat additional 2 minutes. Beat in banana, eggs and vanilla, just until combined.

Stir in flour mixture.

Stir in oats, nuts (if desired-I excluded them) and chocolate chunks.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet. 

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for one minute before moving to wire rack to cool completely.

I got about 63 cookies, and I also used walnuts instead of pecans.  Also, I put the blobs of dough on the baking sheet and they stayed that way.  My first dozen were overdone because I had to mash them down and leave them in a little longer because they never spread out on their own.  

They taste much better than they look.