Oh what a wonderful holiday! We finally got everything pulled together and finished. That is such a great feeling. I even got some help frosting the cutouts...(we ended up with about 14 dozen of those! EGADS!)



We were able to go over to my Mom's about 7:30 pm on Christmas Eve and just have a nice, relaxing family dinner. Just Mark and myself, the boys and their Grandma and Grandpa. No other relatives, no other parties. Just dinner, wine, one present a piece and some quiet time before the craziness. It was a great way to wind down after all the baking, wrapping, preparations... and to gear up for the big events to come! Thanks Mom, for the fabulous dinner and great company! It was so nice to chill for a bit.



Then came Christmas morning... WOW! My boys were SO excited about everything. It was just the BEST to sit back and watch them tear into their stacks of stuff. What a haul those two got! LOL. There were sleds and Webkinz and books and video games galore! Little Colten was SO adorable because he was really into ANY present he opened. "Look! I got NEW MARKERS!!!" -or- "WOW! I got NEW STAR WARS JAMMIES!!! WHOOOHOOO!!!" It was the greatest. I laughed more than I have in weeks. Copper got new doggy toys as well and was squeaking all over the place. It was a noisy, busy, messy, happy, fantastic time.





UNTIL - Daddy stuck an ugly, old plastic dolly of mine into a bag and slipped it in with the load of Colten's presents.



Colten opened it up and thought it was really his present! We were all laughing and he was laughing as he smacked his Dad on the arm and said it was a girl's toy and not for him. Daddy said that it must be for him, since it had his name on it! Then Coltie thought he really had to keep the ugly old dolly and we had a bit of a cry for a moment. Grandma and I got Colten aside and helped him play a trick on Daddy then. Daddy got an empty box of a Kid's toy for his next gift and Colten was tickled pink that he pulled one over on his Dad. Later on in the evening when we went to Mark's parents, we took that ugly dolly in a gift bag for Uncle Luke- another of our practical jokers. Colten was tickled again when we pulled that one over on Uncle Lukey. There were LOTS of laughs all around and even Luke declared that we must have the doll make a return appearance next year as a recurring gift for an unsuspecting recipient.



I got some great gifts from everyone this year, including a new vacuum cleaner and a cell phone! I must be the LAST Mom on Earth to get one, but I am finally cool. LOL. I also got a stack of new period dramas to watch, mostly BBC. I love the costume dramas. Can't get enough!



I still get to exchange gifts with Kayla soon. Probably this weekend. So the holiday stretches for a bit, which is nice.



I'm really excited to give her the presents I've made and chosen for her. I know she'll love them. It's especially nice to have such a wonderful friend to share life with, like her. I love ya, Chickie.



I mentioned another cookie recipe, so I'll share it with y'all. This is the old fashioned Coconut Jam Thumbprint cookie. They are also absolutely FABULOUS! You just have to try them :)



COCONUT JAM THUMPRINTS
3 sticks unsalted butter, room temp
1 C sugar
1 tsp pure Vanilla ext.
3 1/2 C flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 egg -beaten w/ 1 Tbsp. water, as an egg wash
2 bags sweetened flaked coconut
Jar of your favorite jam

Preheat oven to 350*
In electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until just combined. Add vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour and salt. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Mix until the dough begins to come together. Dump on a floured surface and form into a flat disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
Pinch bits of dough off and roll into 1 1/4 inch balls. Dip each ball into egg wash, then roll in coconut. Place balls on ungreased cookie sheet and press a light indentation into top of ball with your thumb. Fill with about 1/4 tsp of jam. Bake about 20 minutes until cocnut is golden brown.

* - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *
SO DELICIOUS! And here's a little tip- Really load that coconut on the cookie. Once it toasts and you move the cookies, much of it will fall off. Also, if you have any left over coconut after you roll all your cookies, just toss it on the sheets anyway and let it toast up in the oven. When you remove cookies to a rack to cool, place waxed paper underneath to catch all your coconut. Save it all to a plastic bag or jar and sprinkle on ice cream or desserts for the next week or two. It's SO yummy!



Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmastime!
It's been a hectic time of year for all of us! I am just as guilty as everyone of rushing around since Thanksgiving doing the shopping, crafting, cleaning, decorating, wrapping things. Unfortunately, we've also had a few sad events sandwiched in there like family funerals, illnesses and mishaps. I'm glad we're all making it to the holidays intact.



I am marathon baking right now. These are some of my Hubby's favorites. The Bohemian Crescent cookies. I just got done with 5 dozen of those little buggers.
Quite a bit of work with all the hand shaping and powdering them twice with confectioner's sugar... But, they're FABULOUS. So, here's the recipe. ENJOY!

BOHEMIAN CRESCENT COOKIES
2 C softened butter
1 C confectioner's sugar
2 tsp real vanilla extract
4 C flour
(More confectioner's sugar to taste- to pat on the cookies. But of course, the more the merrier!)

Cream butter. Add sugar, vanilla and flour. Cover bowl and chill dough for 30 minutes. Pinch off small rounds of dough (about 1 inch balls.) Dip fingers into flour and shape dough into small crescents. Flatten out slightly. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes until bottom edge is just beginning to golden. Remove to cooling racks. Pat entire cookie with confectioner's sugar once while warm, and again when cooled.

* - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *
Meanwhile, I also made some faux cutout cookies and had them in the shop in town. They were so cute! I did them up on little plates with a doily.



They were made from clay, frosted, decorated and will last forever! No calories at all!!! LOL



They have fooled more than one unsuspecting friend. We gave some to the boys' teachers, and Mom and Kayla are getting some too. Shhhh, don't tell!



They look really cute on my antique breadboard with a fly screen over top. Also on my little stand over by the hoosier. Those faux cupcakes are ones I made last year. The whole thing looks super cute!





I am trying to get the rest of the baking done today, then frosting tomorrow. Going over to Mom's to wrap all the boys' gifts later on tonight. Best to do it out of the house entirely for NO PEEKING!

So a few more packages to wrap, a few cookies to frost, then I'm ready. Bring on the Christmas CHEER!

Of course, my presents for Mom and Kayla are the ones I most want to look extra special. I wrap those first, before I run out of steam and just start slapping sticky bows on everything! LOL

Here are a few of their gifts... I went with a fuschia and green thing this year for the gals. Found some awesome paper. I always tie a little frippery or ornament on the packages, too. And real ribbon on most of them.



Here is one gift that I made for Kayla. She is always searching for a notecard frantically. "I never have any cute notecards." she'll say. I wanted to solve that for her! I searched around for lots of adorable note cards, tied each variety up with fancy yarns and ribbons, stuck them all in an adorable lined basket and then frou-frou'd it up a bit with her initial. I sure hope she likes it :)



It was really fun finding her some funky, fresh cards and putting the whole thing together. She'll never be at a loss again when it's time to dash off a quick Thank-You or How-Do-You-Do! Cute pens tucked in alongside, and she's all set.

Perhaps I'll share another cookie recipe if I have time inbetween frosting :)
Happy Holidays to all!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Yes, I still have all my Jack O'Lanterns out yet, but I did dig out my turkey cookie cutters a day or two ago and set those in the kitchen. I actually have a few cute Turkey Day decorations, but alas, they sit in their basement bin - still and quiet.


But I do love to collect cookie cutters. (Also tin molds, graters, etc and so forth...anything old and kitchen-y) so I just stuck my 3 cutters in with the rest of the Autumn leaves on the counter and I can pretend I am all Turkey'd up in here.

I am not having company, so it's ok. We are going over to my Mother's house. It's a small Thanksgiving this year. My grandma has been in the hospital and was just transferred to a care facility. She is too frail to make the trip, as she was just released 2 days ago. Colten and I are both sick, so we cannot even go visit her later on. And the two of us won't be able to go to the other family gatherings either. COlten had a fever and I am sneezing and achy and everything. We'll just go to Mom's and relax and go home. Maybe Daddy and Wyatt can go see more relatives. They're tough. They rarely get sick!



Ok, maybe this cutter is a chicken... But I have always thought it was a turkey with the huge back feathers. Either way, he's still cute!

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!



GOBBLE GOBBLE

First Snow

It's the first snow of the Winter and I have to say that everyone in the house is much more excited about it than I am. The dog was overJOYED this morning when he went out. Copper was running around like a crazed lunatic- stopping short and changing direction over and over. He totally hit the yard jackpot as if someone accidentally left steaks out in the grass.



The boys are quite thrilled as well. We have really only a dusting. Maybe up to an inch in the heavy spots, yet Colten was fairly convinced that he needed snowpants this morning. I am somewhat less enthusiastic. Maybe more coffee will help. Although, it sure does look serene and lovely out there... aside from the silly happy doggie tracks - running circles and skids.

There was such a flurry of excitement and pandemonium as we rifled through the closet for boots and such that the boys missed the bus. We loaded up in the car quickly and headed down the 2 mile hill toward town to school. We ended up coming up behind the bus at a stop! I had forgotten that it was raining late last night before it turned to snow so as I pulled up behind I was really sliding. I though "Oh NOooo my first Winter slide- YUCK!" and we held on. Then we bustled out of the car. Of COURSE I slipped and fell. Hit my knee on the car door and landed on my derriere. So, the first snow inevitably brought with it also the first freak out in the car on ice and my first bruise on the keister.



I had a slice of cheesecake for late breakfast with my delicious and much needed coffee. Why isn't cheesecake more acceptable as a breakfast item? We can have pancakes, and coffeecake. In all actuality, muffins are just glorified cupcakes without the frost. Mark's birthday was Thursday last week and I made a beautiful, large homemade cheesecake for him. Unfortunately, It's Monday and there is still a good portion left! I feel obligated to keep at it. Thank goodness I think it is a perfectly acceptable breakfast offering. Daddy and the boys, with the birthday desserts:



Yes, You can see by the cheesecake pics that we still have all the Autumn decorations up. I need to get those down and try to get Christmas up. My Jack O'Lanterns are some of my favorite decorations...I am so sad to see them go. I didn't decorate the house for holidays or seasons this year as I always do, until the Fall. As much as I've tried to pull myself out of this slumpish and depressive behavior, I can see in myself that I am still not back fully. I am DREADING the dragging out of the Christmas decor.



I am also trying to jumpstart my creativity again. I have been on a self-induced hiatus for so long... I apologize- but mostly to myself. I have felt so listless and uncreative. We know sometimes that we do too much. I have a problem in that I never say No. Things continue to go along swimmingly for quite awhile before I can notice myself drowning. When I notice it, it's too late. I had to step out and try to find me again. Any muse had long left me and I have been just floating in non-creative outer space.

This is not a "Oh, Woe is me." blog post. This is a "Boy, where I've been is crummy and I'm looking forward to leaving it behind! YeeHaw!" blog post.

We've had some big family health issues this past year. Some are still ongoing and it zaps a lot of our strength. I end up just retreating into my own head and not peeking out for a really long time. It's unfortunate. I tend to bottle up all emotion and battle it on the inside, which eats away at my emotional strength and physical health. I REALLY need to work on that. Not retreating and hiding. When that's how you've always dealt with things, it's hard to change it. (Especially as old as I am now, lol.) One bit of up news- I did have a small surgery for a lump in my chest. I'm healing and it was benign, so that was good news.

Over this hiatus (or rather, when I was sucked into the creative black hole) I've just been trying to do some little things. I made some cool garden decorations. Of course, I have no pictures of those! LOL and I also concentrated on making some jewelry for myself. The girls at work seem to like it and always check me for new earrings when I come in the door.

I'm treading water here, and trying to enter back into the pool slowly. It's kind of scary and I feel a bit lost. So much has happened to so many of you, good and bad. The art goes on and changes and I don't quite know where to stick my foot in right now! I am away from all the latest and greatest. It's just good to see some light shining again.

I think it's bouncing off the snow in the yard and hitting me in the eye :)

New hardware!

I got me a new computer! After spending a goodly amount to get the other one "fixed" - we brought it home and set it back up. Only to have it not really work. It was really frustrating, and I am trying to screw up the courage to call the place and have a little discussion with them. Meanwhile, I decided to gather all my tips and forego my thoughts of exotic vacations and frivolous expenditures and with a little help from the Family, my Mother's Day present was a new computer!

I know I have a LOT to catch up on. My studio is a disaster and I haven't created in eons... so I really need to buckle down and get my creative life and inspiration back! Computer and technical difficulties seem to suck the juices right outta me.

I am glad to be back 'home'. I've missed everyone dearly!

Once again, my computer issues have endured and escalated. **IF**  I can even get online at all, I cannot have more than one window open and open another application like wordpad or my camera, etc before I crash. Sometimes, just signing on crashes me and I cannot get back for 2 days- only to have it happen again. I keep trying to fix but I cannot stick on long enough to even get a diagnostic window open... That IT buddy of mine is has been out of town but he'll have a date with me when he gets home. I was also very sick in the middle there somewhere with Influenza/ Pneumonia/ and a throat infection (like always...)

I had just started my new job, and of course- being with the public gave me germs! I was out of commission for nearly 2 weeks, and Colten was sick also- so Grandma had to take a couple days off work and come over to the sick house to look after us. Mark got ill also shortly after Colten and I had it. Wyatt is the last one with it, and is still battling. This was a horrible bug with such staying power. It hangs on forever.

My new job is as a Server in a new restaurant chain that opened here. We had really intense weeks of training and testing before we opened. testing! As a waitress! *LAUGH* I wasn't quite prepared for that... but I am adjusting well enough. I haven't worked outside the home (aside from the teaching gig at Michael's) for 10 years and have NEVER been in the Food industry-
so it's all been overwhelming and strange for me.  If I cannot figure out these computer issues with Mikey, 
it looks like all my tips will be heading toward either a hefty fix up bill or a new computer! *whine*
All in all not much fun for me around here!



Although- I was in a little Valentiney Chinese Take-out box swap in the SSODS group, and I *JUST* could pull the pics off my camera today so I can show you. Thanks SO much to Out on a Whim Kathi for my adorable Take-out surprise. She has a great Etsy shop as well. It was a really fun swap and I had a great time finding whatever I could to tie in with the theme. These SSODS girls are all so talented that I feel intimidated and inadequate to send, so I might go a bit overboard trying to make sure mine is good enough! Happy late Valentine's Day everyone!
She made me a sweet little card-


A peek at the cute polka dotted box and precious altered ornie, with a   J   for me :)


And all the other goodies she tucked inside the box. How much fun is this?


Thanks again SO much Kathi! I was spoiled :) I loved everything!


***Tomorrow I'll TRY to show some pics of the Hearty decor we had around the house here at Twinkle Hill.

Meanwhile, 3 of my St. Patrick tags and 3 of my Easter tags made it into CardMaker Magazine. Here are the pages as shown in the magazine.






These tags and the seasonal chenilles are available in my Etsy shop right now, while they last. And every box is sprayed with Lysol before leaving so I'm not sending our germies along!!!
The images used in the tags are available for download on the Free Images page- just scroll down on the left!

I just want to thank everyone so much for bearing with me through these computer issues! Know that I *will* get back to you when I can. I always answer my emails- they just might bounce back to me and I have to do it again! I know I wrote to one of you 4 times before you actually got it, *laugh*
I appreciate your continuing support and friendship. Thanks y'all

We had a little impromptu Superbowl Party tonight. My husband has been gone for a week to Vegas on a business meeting, and he got home 12:30 -1 ish Saturday night. We were all glad to be a family again and in a weak moment of Sunday morningness we decided to send a little invite the way of Grandmas and Grandpas. Well one Grandma was very sick on the couch with 102* so that set of grands couldn't come. but the other ones came over. I made some homemade sloppy joe's and all the party fixins. I said, "This is not a gourmet party, it's a football party... so no fancy food." LOL

Food was hot and good and we all had a nice time. Wyatt and Dad were cheering on opposite sides and there was a lot of silly betting being tossed about. At one point I think switching chorse was an option until Dad said if he had to clean Wy's room, it would all just go in the garbage can, so Wy chickened out on the betting in case he actually won!

On the artistic front, some of my Valentine designs made it into the Feb issue of Create & Decorate. Here is a scan of the vignette.


You can see a pic of each of the nine designs on my Published Projects page.
And some of them are even still for sale in My ETSY store if you want to check them out!

Here are some of the very latest goodies to come out of the studio... Yummy treats!
I made some faux chocolates and faux tarts.


Some bonbons


little tarty cakes


And this is how they come to you, all packaged for giving to that special someone who just needs to decorate with some yummy looking treats, but wouldn't dare eat them! They're so cute :)


I did snap some pics of the Valentine decorations, and also the might cupcake trays the boys brought home from the party last night. Will try to get them up soon as well.
Happy Superbowl night!

Hi all~ I'm alive!
I finally got signed in without my computer shutting down. Well, ok, it did it once, but I got back on in about half an hour and at least it *looks* like this will actually publish! WooooHooooie!
Basically this post is a Happy New Year / does my computer work / testing testing / update the free image page, etc.

So, I did get the free image page updated with a few cool St. Patrick day and Easter images, as well as the free Valentine ones that were already there. Supposedly have some St. Pat / Easter tags published in an upcoming issue...will let you know when that is confirmed. And I did have nine Valentine designs in the Feb 2008 issue of Create & Decorate. That issue was confirmed and I even 
ot it to scan in tonight so I could add it to the published projects page! I am having a banner night on 
the computer! (I better not jinx myself or I won't be able to post for another month!)

I hope everyone is having a WONDERFUL  2008  so far. Valentine's Day is just around the corner... if I can keep my computer from actually just off and croaking, I will post some house pics of our Valentine frenzy around here. It's hearts, hearts everywhere!

The boys did go to a little Valentine party today at their Granny and Grampy's house. All 6 grandchildren were there for a game playing, craft making, cupcake decorating good time. It was very festive and they each came home with a large platter of cupcakes for us all to enjoy. (*wiping the crumbs off my desk... Yummm)

K, hope this posts- keep your fingers crossed.
If so, I will be back! (At least until the last megabyte poofs into the unknown!)