I’ve been going in to my office at work this week – a change from the work-from-home mode I’ve been in for the last 18 months or so. In my desk drawer I found a handful of coins from our last trip to the Bahamas – a bareboat sailing charter through the Abacos. A fabulous trip.
I’ve never really looked at the art on the back of the coins before. They capture the nautical life of the islands … fish, sailing, starfish.
So, it’s stuck in the 30’s here all week, and I’m now dreaming of the islands.
We celebrated the evening with friends. The murder-mystery theme was fun. It was set in 1969, so the costumes were a bit … far-out, man. I was Enya Goddard-Daveeda, high priestess of the Church of the Vacant Mind. My costume instructions were to wear all white: gogo boots, flowing robe & miniskirt. Can you believe I found knee-high white platform-heeled gogo boots that laced up the back?!! Thank you Goodwill!
It is fun to get a little silly. And we did.
As is the custom, Monte played Auld Lang Syne on the saxophone at midnight, and everyone sang along. We also played an encore out on the front lawn just to make sure noone was asleep.
I don’t exactly know what my resolutions are. I do know that I want 2013 to be a year with a little more peace, love and understanding. I guess we’ll have to figure out what we each should do to make that happen along the way.
We went for another sail yesterday. It was a beautiful, mild day. I took this shot as we were leaving our marina’s cove. It’s a giant cross out in the middle of nowhere on Graveyard Point. It’s at least 15′ tall and made out of steel beams that appeared out of the blue one day a year or two ago. No small feat for whoever put it up overnight. The guys at the marina like to refer to it as the “immaculate erection.” heh heh.
Anyway, it’s hard for me to sail past it without thinking of Him. I thought it was appropriate to post this pic today, on Christmas Eve. A reminder of what it’s supposed to be about.
I felt like playing around a bit, so I created an animated gif to capture the transformation of this year’s Christmas tree from bare to decorated to twinkling.
To make the animated GIF, I used the web-based tool Picasion.com. Note: before I created the gif, I reduced the size of the original images down to the size I wanted (i used the width of my wordpress theme as the target image width). Then I created the gif w/ Picasion.
After work today, Noreen and I met up with Francine to watch one of her soccer games — they can play year round in a really nice indoor facility. Fran’s been playing soccer since she was a wee lass. 30+ years later, she’s still playing, and turning her kids onto it as well. Pass it on…
We went for a sail today, the winds were 10-15 knots. A nice sail up towards Lakeway, and then down to Arky South, where we dropped a hook and ate turkey sandwiches. Then back to the marina before sunset. Julie and Joel joined us. A very nice day. I wonder why they call this Black Friday?! 🙂
A day of thanks. And family. And friends. A feast. And fun.
Every year my birthday falls near Thanksgiving, and every few years it falls on Thanksgiving. So, when I was a kid, my birthday cakes and decorations always had pilgrims on them. This pair of pilgrims are ones that my mom sent me several years back. I just had to break them out today. I hope each of you had a wonderful day.
We certainly had a great day. Julie, Marty, Sue, Laura and Joe joined us. The menu included roasted (brined) turkey – 2 of them, to make sure we had leftovers, absolutely heavenly mashed potatoes, delicious and sweet squash fest, cranberry relish, green beans, the (awesome) brussels sprouts dish, and homemade yeast rolls. For dessert we had monte’s apple tart, a birthday cake, and homemade vanilla icecream. Woof!
After the delicious and nearly debilitating dinner, we had to move around a bit, so we played games inside and out until the cows came home.
I am thankful for all the blessings I have been given, great friends and family. I am truly blessed.
And, one more thing to be thankful for: thanks, Marty and Sue for the pretty vase!
Birthday tulip from Monte. Birthday vase from Sue & Marty. 🙂
We hit the grocery store early today with our Thanksgiving shopping list: turkey: check….potatoes: check…green beans: check. Then I spied this spire and couldn’t pass it up. So we’ll have 2 green veggies on the table this year. 🙂 I love brussels sprouts and found this recipe from smittenkitchen.com earlier this year. I tried it once…with pork chops i think, and it was delicious.
Dijon-Braised Brussels Sprouts
Serves 4
1 lb brussels sprouts
1 T unsalted butter
1 T olive oil
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup broth (chicken or vegetable)
2 to 3 shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
2 T heavy cream
1 T dijon mustard (or more to taste)
Peel several of outer leaves off each sprout and halve lengthwise. In a large, heavy 12-inch skillet heat butter and oil over moderate heat. Place sprouts in skillet, cut sides down, in one layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook sprouts, without turning, until undersides are golden brown, about 5 minutes. If sprouts don’t fit in one layer, brown them in batches, then add them all back to the pan, spreading them as flat as possible, before continuing with the shallots, wine, etc.
Add shallots, wine and stock. Once simmering, reduce the heat to medium-low (for a gentle simmer), cover the pot and cook the sprouts until they are tender can be pierced easily with the tip of a paring knife, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the lid, and scoop out sprouts (leaving the sauce behind). Add cream and simmer for two to three minutes, until slightly thickened. Whisk in mustard. Taste for seasoning, and adjust as necessary with more salt, pepper or Dijon. Drizzle sauce over brussels sprouts and serve immediately.
Over 2 years ago I posted a picture of the catboat wind thingie that monte made me (here’s the original post). It had sails made out of ripstop nylon which I had sewn and installed on each little boat. It worked great, and I LOVED it. As the wind blew, the boats started turning and the sails tacked and jibed as they went around.
Then last summer, I posted a picture of it after it had been attacked by squirrels (here’s that post). One of them went nutso in the heat of the summer and ripped up the sails. And just like that my catboat wind thingie was out of service.
Til today! Monte made new sails out of copper sheets, and fastened them to the mast with copper bands and replaced the string mainsheets with little pieces of metal chain.
It’ll take a stiffer breeze to make it go round, but it’s back! I love the new, improved version.
I was inspired to make this wreath by a do-it-yourself project that I ran across on pinterest (original link here) and pinned it in my “DIY: wannado’s” board a month or so ago. I immediately knew that I was going to try to make one – not just because I loved the way it looked, but because I have been hoarding corks for 10-15 years (much to monte’s bemusement) just waiting for a project I could use them in. The hot-pad-trivet-made-out-of-corks projects I usually run across just didn’t do it for me.
I love wreaths, and with Thanksgiving and Christmas around the corner, I knew I’d better get started if I wanted to finish it before the holidays. I love how it turned out. Here’s how I did it.
What you’ll need: straw wreath body, straight pins, glue and lots of corks.
I bought an 18″ diameter straw wreath body (from Michael’s) a box of 1 1/4″ dressmaker pins (longer is better) and some craft glue (from Joanne’s). Then I dug out and dusted off several bags/boxes labeled “corks” from the garage and started sorting. I didn’t keep track of exactly how many I used, but I’m pretty sure it’s on the order of about 400-500 corks. I can’t help but do a little math here…. if i estimate that on average I spent $12 a bottle… that means this wreath cost in the neighborhood of about $5000. (heheheh… sigh) Anyway, as I was sorting, I tossed corks that weren’t 100% solid cork. Many were made up of lots of little pieces of cork molded in the shape of a cork. I also wanted to mix up the red wine (stained) & white wine corks and mix in a champagne cork every now and then. So I picked out bunches of them as I went along.
Sort your corks.
Stick a pin into each cork – get a good bite but leave as much of the pin hanging out as you can.
Stick a pin in the end of each cork.
Then put a line of glue on the pin.
Apply glue to the pin to help it bond with the straw wreath form.
Then stick the cork into position by pushing the head end of the pin into the straw wreath form. I inserted them all at an angle, where one row laid on top of the last one. Sometimes the pins went into a gap between the straw and didn’t stick well. So try to make sure you poke the pin through some of the straw when you push them in. Between the pins and the glue, the corks were surprisingly stable in the wreath when finished.
Push the head end of the pin into the wreath form at an angle.
I must admit that it was a little daunting getting started, but after the first row or two, it really was easy and went a lot quicker than I expected. Here is a close up of how the layering turned out. Some of the corks had years printed on the end or a unique logo, which added a nice touch to the detail.
Mix ’em up.
I hastily added the ribbon as an afterthought, to dress it up for the holidays. I know the ribbon looks a bit hokey, but I wanted to hang it up on the door to take a picture, so I was in a hurry. But you get the idea. After Christmas I’ll remove the ribbon and hang it on a wall in the house dining room or kitchen.
Today the US celebrates Veteran’s Day. My flag is flying out front. And my mind is especially on the veterans in my family. My father, my father-in-law, 2 of my uncles, a brother-in-law, my cousin and his son – who just enlisted in the Air Force. It’s an amazing thing, to give part, or all, of your life in service of your country. It wasn’t even yet my dad’s country when he enlisted shortly after immigrating to the States from Ireland.
To all US Veterans and their families: I thank you.
We raced the beer can today. This time Mark joined us on Nirvana. Wally & Joe sailed on Soul Healer, so we had another 320 to match up against. Lori & Doray sailed on Camelot, and Kurt & Kevin on Dancer. The winds were strong out of the south, which made for a fun sail. We didn’t come in last! Though, we very well could have if it weren’t for Camelot accidentally dropping the main on the last leg (argh!)
Afterwards, we dropped Mark off on E-dock and headed right back out to anchor up in Arky south for the night. We made it in time to admire another sunset in our favorite cove. Lovely.
Wally joined us after dinner on Zen, tying up to us for the night, and we chuckled our way through the evening.
I ran across a DIY post online showing how to tie a Celtic heart knot. So, I tried it and made this little chachki. It needs some work to emphasize the heart shape, but I like it!
If you want to see how to make one, this YouTube video shows you how and is easy to follow.
The other day when my sister and I spent an afternoon running around and playing in downtown Austin, I mentioned that we stopped into a bead shop (Bead It on South Lamar). Over the years, I have assembled a nice set of jewelry-making tools that I use to repair miscellaneous of my favorite purchased pieces that have broken. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at making earrings, bracelets, necklaces, etc, but have never taken that step.
So, when I came home last week with several baggies of beads and earring posts & hangers, I was excited to make a few pairs. These are my very first pieces. Not bad, i think. Hmmmm, could there be an etsy storefront in my future? 🙂
P.s. I’m wearing the purple/amethyst ones as I’m posting this…
Sheila365 