A look back at Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day was beautiful! It started out a bit frosty out.....
Then slowly the sun warmed things up.....
to a nice November glow.
Preparations for Thanksgiving started the day before with pie making....
one apple two pumpkin.
If it were not for Dave's help, I would have been more exhausted than I was! He did a marathon of dishes all day!!
Caitlin made two appetizers, stuffed mushrooms with pecans, and a very yummy batch of humus.
Turkey is almost done....
Table is set....
food plated up...
Pierre's cousin, Marlene came to celebrate.
Time for pie!

A spirited conversation....
and a little bit of hamming it up.

I sure hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving and enjoyed their day with family or friends.

Be on the look out for Jamie Oliver's new show!

Did you know that Jamie Oliver is doing a new reality show in January? He is coming state side to reform some of the most unhealthy states to change their views on food. I loved the project that he embarked on with the UK school lunches. It should be very interesting to see how the U.S. takes this show, and him for that matter.

I'm a big fan ! He brings such energy to the food scene, and I think he has accomplished a lot in his young career.
The above photos are a revisit from our trip to Bath, England this summer, where we dined at one of his restaurants. While we would have loved to go to his restaurant in St. Ives, called "15," we had to settle for going to his Italian restaurant instead. 15 was booked solid :(
I love the concept of his "15" restaurants. Taking under privileged young adults, and training them in the restaurant biz, or as the Brits would say "catering biz" The first of the "15" restaurants began in London, and out of the original 15 people that started in the first go around, I think he said that only one or two didn't complete the course.

My most favorite is when he went into the schools in the UK and educated them on eating a better lunch,and eating better in general. It didn't surprise me that the kids would be resistant to the change, but the parents were quite shameful I think, especially when some of them tried to smuggle in fast food through the fence! I fully expect to see the same on this new show in January.
Tune in folks, I think it is going to be a good one!

10 days until Thanksgiving!

No, I didn't already cook my Thanksgiving turkey! This was from last year I think. I love everything about Thanksgiving, but mostly the yummy seasonal food to cook.
My husband and I were thinking about the most memorable Thanksgivings we have had since we were married. Two stick out, one good, and one not so good. First for the good. It was our second Thanksgiving of our young married lives, and I was newly pregnant with my first daughter. I had the worst morning sickness with her, and I really didn't think I would be able to survive hosting the day, but somehow, it came together. Everyone came up that year, my in-laws, my dad and his wife, and Dave's grandfather. We were living at the time in a very charming little cottage in Eureka Ca. at the time(top picture), and for me, that house was the best to celebrate holidays. We didn't have fancy plates and linens, but the food was great, and everyone, at the time, got along. You know how Thanksgiving can be an emotional roller coaster with family personalities coming out and feelings getting hurt etc. Not that Thanksgiving. There seem to be a special promise in the air of happy years ahead, and everyone enjoying each others company. For us, that was probably one of the best memories of our family coming together on my favorite holiday.

I don't have any cooking disaster stories, that could easily ruin the day, but instead my not so good memory is of being invited to Thanksgiving dinner where the cook decided to throw away tradition and cook Lamb instead. Has anyone out there had this happen to them before? Never until that year, which was fairly recent, have I ever had this happen. While the hostess did decide to cook some turkey breast meat, it just wasn't the same. The tension was in the air too, everyone seemed to have some hidden feelings and it made for a very tough day. Most of the people there that day, were there in my first happy memory above, 22 years ago. Like most families though, there are difficult relationships that enter when we all gather, and for me this was probably my not so good memory of my favorite holiday. The following Sunday after, I invited my daughter and her husband to our house to re-do Thanksgiving with all the fixings! While standing in line at the grocery store, I saw another lady buying a turkey, and I had to ask why. I wanted some company in my sadness of the loss of Thanksgiving dinner. She too had had a not so great experience and was also doing a re-do. I got to wondering how many people out there have had this happen to them?

This year we plan to have all the fixings and just our close little family of five here at my house. No hidden agendas, just fun and good food.

Let us all take some time this year to think about how lucky we are to have what we have, and to always be kind to one another. For me Thanksgiving seems to be a time of reflection, I know for some, it is New Years, or maybe another holiday, but for some reason, I tend to think about life more around this holiday. I like to think about the word GENEROUS, and how I can be more Generous of my time, my love, and my gifts that I bring to this planet.
In the coming days before the big turkey day, I hope everyone can take a breath and reflect on what Thanksgiving means to them. Oh, and for goodness sakes, don't stray away from tradition when it comes to the food!

Remember this?

Last year I was working on this, and hoping it would be done for Christmas time, but I didn't make it. This year, I'm on the home stretch! Right now I'm trying to decide if I want to do a wall hanging of it, and put it in the guest bathroom, or do a pillow. If I do a wall hanging, I want to find a frame that I can enhance with woodland type of twigs perhaps. I have a lot of holiday pillows already, so I'm not sure I want to make yet another. It depends I guess if I can get all the supplies for the frame.
I worked on this last month. They are little felt pockets for an Advent calendar. I got the tutorial from "Allsorts" blog. The rest of the project is to find some sort of ribbon or fabric to string them up on, then in between each one, you tie another ribbon so they stay separate. I need to go out and find some nice ribbon and string it up on December 1st.
Aside from these two embroidery projects, I'm currently sewing a top for myself. We will see how that turns out. After going to a bunch of stores and getting very annoyed with the lack of creativity and the price of things, I have decided to try once again, to sew something for myself. Sometimes this turns out well, and sometimes the item ends up folded and put away in shame, because, unlike the store, you have committed to making this thing, and you simply can't just go put it back on the rack. It is always a bit dicey to sew for yourself I think. I'm really trying to get past this though. My reference for how patterns look when they are done, is "Pattern Review." You can go on there and see how it turned out for others with similar body types and what it looks like in certain fabrics. I love this site, and it has helped me to choose wisely.

As the weather starts to turn here, I'm getting the urge to do more sewing, so hopefully there will be more to share.

Quincy update: We are starting to think that he may never like being outside of his cage. We have been working with him for several days, and he still is not happy with being out. When we had our beloved Frankie, he loved being out from day one, and this little guy has more fun in his own cage. Now I have to decide if I will get him a companion, or just enjoy him in his cage and let him be.
Anyone out there have a stubborn parakeet, that didn't want to come out?

Darn little Quincy!

Up date on Mr. Quincy: stubborn and frustrating me is the update! Sunday, I went into the store where I purchased little Quincy, and talked to the lady about finger training him. I have been patiently putting my hand in and trying to get him to get on my finger. All previous parakeets I have had, do this in about two weeks time from buying them. Not this little guy, he just keeps running away from me.
The lady at the store, told me to just let him out, and get him use to being out of the safety zone of the cage. We did, and he still ran , hopped and fled as far away from us as possible. That was day one of taking him out. I tried to settle him down by putting my finger on his tail feather, which worked for one second. Then blast off!! When I put him back in the cage, I had noticed that I was a bit too forceful with one of the tail feathers, and it fell out :( Well, shoot, I feel so terrible, and now I think he hates me even more! We have taken him out two more times since then
and just let him explore and roam. On the third day, Caitlin managed to get him on her finger. It took quite a bit though, but we felt like something was accomplished. I think He likes Caitlin better.....so, I think I will have her work with him on finger training, so he can forget the fact that I accidentally pulled out his feather!
Look at him! What a little devil :)

Been meaning to show you these

I mentioned that my husband gave me a gift that was too big, and had to be returned didn't I? Well, here it is! It is a pink tourmaline/silver ring. They really had to hunt it down, because they are a bit limited in supply. I love it, and it is my alternate birthstone, so that makes it nice too.
I took this picture while turning off my manual setting for the first time! The lighting is so, so, but not too bad for a first attempt.
Getting back to the jewelry; I purchased this key and chain with my birthday money. If you haven't already seen them go here. I had such a hard time deciding on which one to get, they were all so pretty. They sales lady was showing me how nice they look with multiple keys :) I did mention this to my husband, as a future gift possibility ;) They also have many chains to decide on as well, I chose a fairly long one, I think it is 24 inches. I loved how it was set lower with the key I chose.
I love the simplicity of Tiffany's jewelry and how it can go with anything and not over power what you are wearing, that is my kind of style.

On another note, If you haven't seen the movie "Bright Star," go now! It is the love story of John Keats and Fanny Brawn. Absolutely gorgeous film!! I can't stop thinking about it. Everything from the story to the beautiful eye candy it provided! We saw it this past Sunday at a really neat old theater in Berkeley. It was only playing there, but it ended up being so neat because of the coziness and old time feeling of the theater. Anyway.......go see this film, it is amazing!!