Scented Sugar

A fast easy way to make scented sugar is to layer lemon peel, orange peel or candied ginger in a quart jar of granulated sugar. After a few days, the flavor and scent will infuse the sugar and makes a decadent sweetener for hot or iced tea. Putting a bow around the rim adds to the festive look.

Thankful

Nov 27, Thanksgiving. Every day I am thankful, not just on a Thursday in November.
I'm grateful and thankful that Jeff and his daughters love me and accept me.
I'm so thankful that my two sons Jason and Randy love and are loved by two fantastic, beautiful women, Amy and Jenn.
I'm grateful that we are all healthy and sound.
I'm thankful that I can try to make things easier for others, and have opportunities to continue.
I have everything I need, family, love, health.
Thanksgiving blessings to everyone. Happy Thanksgiving.

Holiday Home Tour update

Its getting closer, the Holiday Home Tour to benefit Roosevelt and Alliance School in Neenah, Wisconsin is December 6th. Lots of preparations going on to make this the best ever! Tour times are 10-2 and 4-8 and there are 4 beautiful homes decorated in holiday splendor.

Appleton Wisconsin Christmas Parade

Tonight is the 38th annual Christmas Parade, downtown College Avenue. We here in Appleton take this parade very seriously. When I came downtown this morning, at 8 am the street was already lined 5 rows deep, full of lawn chairs and tarps, people set up early to stake out their spots on the Avenue. The parade starts at 6:00 with the Santa Scamper, runners trot down College Avenue, many dressed as reindeer, elves, Santa etc. At 6:20 the parade officially begins, there are 80 marching bands, floats, walking units etc. Should be a great night for the parade, decent weather in the low 30s.

Update - Roosevelt home tour

Yesterday Jeff and I hung fresh mixed roping at the home we are decorating for the Roosevelt Home tour. The front is decorated with 2 large urns filled with fresh mixed greens, pine, long needle pine, spruce and curly willow. The roping is made of incense cedar, long needle pine, balsam and fir. There are little bits of lichens mixed in, its stunning. Since the home is from the 1880s, it has lots of Victorian influence, and the colors are putty and mustard, with cinnabar red accents. I will be putting cinnabar red bows with lots of long streamers to add grace and to pick up the accent color, and clusters of large pine cones as a nosegay by the bows . We also wound fresh mixed garland around the light pole and a side porch railing, and accented the wrought iron mail box pole with a pretty swag of mixed greens offset to one side. One more urn will be placed in the yard, to welcome guests to the front door. I'm glad we hung the roping yesterday, as this morning we were greeted with a couple inches of fresh snow.

In the mood for baking Sunday

Saturday November 22, 2008 downtown Appleton has planned their annual open house from 9-5. Over 60 shops offer cookies, cider, and beautiful music to help set the holiday mood. I have decorating Kindred Spirits, and in the front window is Jeff's 1967 green Stingray with a big red bow. I baked sugar cookies on Sunday and froze them. Thursday night I have a date with over 400 cookies, frosting and lots of sprinkles to decorate them! Whew! I love to bake and it will be fun to frost cookies, hopefully it will snow a little to go with the winter mood.

Squirrel!

I got a phone call from Jeff last night, he is at deer camp in Upper Michigan with his cousin Paul. Up near Hermansville, this 40 was once part of Jeff and Paul's grandparents farm. Paul bought it years ago, and for the last few years, Jeff has been going there to hunt, but mostly to spend time with family, his cousins, aunts and uncles. Anyway, a squirrel chewed a hole in the wall and went zipping past Jeff and Paul! Jeff said they were calling around looking for someone to lend a live trap so they could bring the squirrel back outside, but weren't having much luck. For safety reasons, they thought it prudent to keep the food in the truck, they bought a nice pumpkin pie and didn't intend to share with their new friend.