Sunday, December 23, 2007

Open Letter to Open Air

The internet is both wonderful and terrible. It is terrible for person with obessive tendencies, of which I may have a few.

Tonight I have been tracking you, I think. I can see your flight is in the air. I cannot tell if you are on your plane or if your luggage made it with you.

I can tell you this: I love you.

Your flight has a good 1600 miles to go and I can't track it any further tonight. I'm going to bed. I hope you have a wonderful time in LA, but not so wonderful that you move that far away from me.

Monday, December 17, 2007

You Say Po-Ta-To and I Say Yam

This post is for Gwen who posted back in November about yams. Or sweet potatoes. Whatever....

NO! Not "whatever". This is not to be taken lightly, as I discovered. Mea culpa!

To prove to her that here in the Heartland tubers are properly identified, I took this photo in a grocery store before Thanksgiving:


SWEET POTATOES!


I went back to the store after Thanksgiving and the same tubers in the same bin had the label "YAMS". ~sigh~

I don't mean to be a burr under her blanket. I love her blog. And this is the post that got me hooked.

Craft Du Jour

Popsicle Sled!

Popsicle Sled
Made with big sticks.

Thinking of Mr. Rogers

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!


Railroad Tracks




Tree

Monday, December 10, 2007

Gingerbread Nativity

Last night I mixed up a batch of gingerbread. TodayI went through my gingerbread patterns. It was like getting lost in old photo albums as there were more than gingerbread patterns to look at. It was a long, wandering trip down memory lane.

Among the lot I found a lost gingerbread nativity picture in with the nativity patterns. On the envelope that contained the patterns was the note "86 weird stable -- never again". Evidently, I was unhappy with the original stable and made up my own. Which did suck, now that I see the photo. The next nativity had a completely different stable and I had no pattern for it nor notes on how I constructed it. I hate when I do that.

What got me into looking for the nativity in the first place was that someone landed on my site by doing an internet search for "gingerbread nativity". So I was going to be magnanimous and put my patterns and instructions in a downloadable PDF file. But then I got stumped by the stable dilemma. I wanted to present the best stable possible (stable #3 being the best, IMHO) but with no pattern I was lost.

So then I went off in a different direction. I need a compass.

Anyway, I present the 3 stables in a row. You be the stable judge. I want you to know these are not my designs (except for the stable variations). They came from a magazine, I believe. If they're your designs, tell me! I'll link to you and you can sell them!


Original stable. That is one sick looking sheep in front.



The "never again" stable. Sick looking sheep still in front.



Wonderful stable with sick looking sheep removed.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Gingerbread Through the Years

I told you I could get into the Christmas spirit. One of the ways I used to do that was to make gingerbread houses. I made my first one for my niece, Baby Mac, from a pattern printed in the paper and decorated with the only candy I could find in tiny Ktown.

The houses evolved through the years. I made my own house patterns and made a permanent base that I wired with a little light so the house could be lit up from the inside. I made other things, too, as you shall see.

1982
1982



House '83
Baby Mac with the 1983 edition


Mouse House '83
Also 1983. I made the mice and their house for Baby Mac


1984
1984 - I broke away from the original pattern.


1985
Here comes Santa Claus! 1985


nativity, 1985
Gingerbread Nativity, 1985


1986
A whole farm! 1986


In the dog house
A dog in the dog house. 1986


1987
Lit from within. 1987



Da Bears. 1987


1988
1988


Details, details
Detail, 1988


Cottages for sale
Cottages for sale, 1989


1989
1989


House 1, 1990
House #1, 1990


House #2, 1990
House #2, 1990


nativity, 1990
Nativity, 1990


1992
1992


No house was made in 1991 and I think 1992 was the end of the line. From the looks of things, taking a year off did not help my housebuilding skills. The 1992 versions sort of look like Norman Bates meets a 70's cartoon. Maybe I'll try one this year and we can see if a 15 year (FIFTEEN YEARS??? REALLY??) hiatus has destroyed whatever talent I may have once possessed.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Genetic Defeciencies

Last night I dreamed that I was watching wild animals cavorting outside my window. I remember seeing several elk, one bear and lots and lots of reindeer. I remember being worried about the bear. One of these things is not like the other. One of these things could kill happily frolicking ruminants.

Is this dream a Christmas nudge? Get ready, Christmas is coming! Deck the halls! Fa, la, la! Tick tock!

Or am I the bear, ready to kill to reindeer thereby stopping Christmas from coming?

I'm afraid it may be the latter for I am missing the Christmas gene. I am also missing the shopping gene prevalent in all other females. I am genetically deficient.

Before Thanksgiving I got stuck in line in Hobby Lobby behind 2 women who knew each other. Each had a young son stuffed in the cart among garish artificial yuletide decorations. "Are you ready for Christmas?" one asked. "I think so" replied the other.

Having to wait in line was torture enough. Having to listen to THAT almost made my eyes bleed. It wasn't even Thanksgiving yet and these women were "ready for Christmas". What the hell does that mean anyway? Did you re-mortgage your house to buy crap to give everyone you know? Do you have all this crap wrapped in expensive paper (good-bye, trees) that will be admired for 2 seconds before ending up in a landfill? Do you have your Christmas goose stuffed a month and a half in advance? Is your house lit up like a landing strip?

Don't get me wrong. At Christmas I like to see Christmas trees lit up in living rooms. I enjoy giving gifts to people I love. But does it have to be so much? And does it have to go on for so long? And don't your brats have enough useless crap already?