Ice Ice, Baby

That's what we've got at the moment. Along with blizzard winds and a forecast involving up to 8 inches of snow. Joy and rapture.

Anyhoo, we've been busy with traveling for the holiday. We came home early because of the storm... so glad we did. We were able to get groceries stocked up yesterday before the rush too!

Michelle asked about the cheesecake recipe I used last week. I had planned to use this recipe from Fischer nuts, but I couldn't find it in my bookmarked links. I made it two Christmases ago and it was awesome, if a little sweeter than it needed to be. What I found this time was this recipe from Taste of Home, which is almost the same as the one from Fischer. Also great, but a tad on the sweet side.

In both cases, I made my own salted caramel sauce starting with this recipe, but using 10 tablespoons of water and a small squeeze of light corn syrup to help prevent the sugar from seizing.

I think I personally prefer the nutmeg that the Fischer recipe uses in the crust. I used Gala apples the first time, per the Fischer recipe, but this time I used Cripps Pink (Pink Lady) apples. I think the Cripps apples retained more crunch through baking, giving you a lovely texture difference in the cheese mixture.

Next time I will be trimming back the amount of sugar in the crust, trying for the Cripps Pink (Pink Lady) apples, remembering to use nutmeg in the crust, and still using the homemade salted caramel sauce.

Now that the recipe bit is out of the way, I've been a busy bee today!

We've said goodbye to an old dresser that was in the guest room and in its place installed two curio cabinets and moved a small bookshelf to that wall.

In a perfect chance of fate, our groomer needed a dresser so she came and picked it up today!

I've got more miniature scenes that I'll be moving out of my studio and into the cabinets soon.

The furniture shuffling continued...

And we we have a huge empty space in the dining room!

Victor bunny will have his house moved into that space to make life easier when taking care of his needs. He won't have to be downstairs in the sewing room anymore. Plus he's unphased by linoleum, so it won't matter that he won't be on the carpet anymore. And it will be easier to keep the area around his house clean too!

I need to get back to finishing up the cleaning aftermath of moving furniture and do more laundry. I'm hoping to not only do some more baking in the next week, but also get the Yule decorations up. We'll see how that goes though.

Stay warm!

Running Late

Barely going to get this in for Sunday, but I'm feeling much better. Finally finished the antibiotics and the side effects were mostly gone by Tuesday night.

Wednesday night I went to an open mic night at our favorite bookstore. Had a lovely time and met some wonderful folks. I did read a few of my poems, which was less terrifying than I thought it would be.

Thursday was the last day for setting up Festival of Trees. Since it's all said and done, here are two of my favorite trees from this year.

Fuzzy Husband went camping Friday night (in the snow) so I got to plan out my day of baking.

Saturday I made two salted caramel apple pecan cheesecakes for a party today.

Hence why this post is so late. Himself made sausage stuffing and hummus to take along as well.

I need to go collapse so I can take Mercedes for her spa day in the morning. Then I need to start reviewing my recipe for potato bread dinner rolls to see about starting those for Thursday.

Have a safe holiday!

Feline Filler Post

I'm still under the weather.... these antibiotics are such a doubled edged sword. Last dose is Tuesday. Will be so happy to have this nausea gone. Have some cuteness for now!

Blergh

I'm currently under the weather, and have been most of the week. This is round 2 with a bladder infection that we thought was gone and has returned in force.... which also means it's not going to play nice with the antibiotics that I finished before. So I'm on stronger ones that make me carsick and require me to eat large meals with them to protect my stomach. Joy.

We knew I was fatigued, just like before with the initial infection so FuzzyHusband and I decided to take advantage of the last early voting day in our state. That's how we figured out I'm getting carsick. Happily I've now voted before the side effects really start kicking in.

Before the infection popped up again, I was happily getting things done around the house and spending lots of time writing. Now it's playing games on my phone, writing, and napping with kitties.

We're almost done with Festival of Trees for the season. Next week will be packing the shop and the week after is set up! I'll be glad when it's over so I can spend my time with quilting and miniatures again.

I think next year I'm going to scale back the amount of time I give Festival so I can focus on some other interests. I've been chatting with the owner of a local, independent bookstore about starting a creative writing poetry group. I'd really like to focus on that more, as well as having more time to sew commissions.

That's all for now. I promised FH that I would try and help him with a couple of things. We'll see how successful I am in that endeavor.

Hi! Hi!

Dis bees Ellie Bean! Mama an' Daddy went to a place with lots of chili an' Mama said I could do da blog.. but I forgotted an' went to sleepy. But I woked up!

I go back to sleep sleepss again! Nice nights!

Busy, But Not Boring

We've been busy this week. There was a fundraising event for The Center For Prevention of Abuse at one of our favorite local bookstores that FuzzyHusband and I attended.There was an open mic where survivors were invited to share anything, so I read a couple of my poems. We won some lovely items from the silent auction and a doorprize as well.

I wish the needle artist would've signed this piece.

Stupid camera didn't rotate.

Lovely doorprize won by FuzzyHusband who gave it to me... after determining that the chain was too small for him. ;-)

Otherwise we've been cleaning, doing chores, and other boring things for most of the rest of the time. Also we're getting down to the wire for Festival of Trees this year. Only 2 more large trees to decorate, possibly 3 if another one gets sponsored. 

I did get to take Mercedes on a long walk and play some Pokemon Go though. She enjoyed herself.

And got some cuddles in with Pixel Pea.

I've got a bunch of laundry that needs doing, so I've got to get off here. 

Yet Another Weekend of Traveling

Another two friends were married this weekend. And again they opted to request we all let the pros do their jobs when it came to photos of the wedding and performances. Yes. Performances.

Because what happens when two beloved performers get hitched, and MANY of their friends are performers in their own right, is a festival atmosphere that includes: Lyra and other aerial acts, dancers, fire spinners, and singers.

The BEST part though was the event was pet friendly, so Mercedes got to go along and make new friends!

Photo credit goes to "Jet's Dad." Jet is an adorable corgi that I was too busy playing with to remember to photograph. Also I was too busy wrangling Mercedes to get my own picture of her. 

Everything was fun and amazing and I hope to have some shareable (with proper credits) photos soon. We'll see what the happy couple's ruling on that is though.

The trip was a great way to cap off a weird week where is snowed. In October. In a place where we're usually going between jeans and shorts this time of year.

That's all for this week! See you next time!

More Travels

Tuesday a friend and I went south to pick up some curio cabinets from my sister. We also did some shopping.

My birthday gift from my in-laws was waiting for me when we got back.

Friday it rained buckets as we drove to Kansas City for a wedding. The event was "cell phone free" so no photos of the gorgeous gown or incredible food.

But I did have some fantastic cheesecake on Saturday. And because I'm stylish, that's a titanium spork.

See you next weekend!

A Photo Adventure

So Busy

Late Filler