A Glittery Christmas, Banana Salad....and Some Thanksgiving Advice...

Happy Saturday, all! Hope you're all having a great time with family and friends today!

Just a few things for you today...how about some extremely glittery Christmas cards? These are both beautiful images that I purchased from Every Thing Creative...

I just love this peaceful, wintry village scene...I want to live there!

I cut out an oval shape out of some cheap cardstock to make a "mask"--then used spray glue (my new favorite thing!) on the outer edges of the image...then added Martha Stewart "snow" glitter--very chunky and marvellous! Another spray on top of that to add some fine, diamond sparkle--kind of a vignette-type of look.

I used SU! felt snowflakes, and did the same thing with them--a couple of coats of spray glue, and the two types of glitter. A little crystal rhinestone in the middle of each, and it's sparkle-tacular!

I love this velvet ribbon...it's a bit of a bear to tie a decent bow with it, though...oh, well!

Here's the other:

I really love this image--feels very Dickens, doesn't it? Beautiful faces, beautiful coloring, just...beautiful! Just typed up my own sentiment on the computer with one of my favorite fonts, "Christmas Carol". A little Snow-Tex and glitter over the lovely front door...

I used my new Martha Stewart pine bough edge punch--fun!--on the green paper edges--spackled on a bit of Snow-Tex, and some fine diamond glitter, of course! I popped up the pine bough-edged paper a big so it didn't cover the image as much...

Ah, vintage Christmas images....does it get any better than this???

I've been working on my menu planning for Thanksgiving dinner--how about you? Every year I try a new recipe or two, but this recipe I'll share with you today HAS to be included every year!

When I was growing up in North Olmsted, Ohio, our good friend down the street, Carolyn Smith, used to make this traditionally for her family. Somehow, we had it--can't remember what the occasion was, but it then became a tradition for Thanksgiving in our family. The few times it wasn't prepared, the head chef really heard about it!

I don't have a photo of it today--I'll share one next week, though, when I make...

Banana Salad

Custard:

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup light brown sugar

1 1/2 heaping Tbsp. flour

2 egg yolks, beaten

2 handfuls of mini marshmallows

Beat egg yolks and add to sauce pan. Add flour, milk, brown sugar and mix until smooth. Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly until mix is thickened--be careful not to burn. When hot, add the marshmallows, stirring until melted.

Remove from heat, cool, and store in the refrigerator. Custard can be made a day or two ahead.

1 jar roasted peanuts, broken

6-8 bananas, sliced

In a trifle dish, layer the ingredients--custard, bananas, peanuts, repeat...until dish is filled. Can top with more peanuts, marshmallows, and maraschino cherries, if desired. Regrigerate until ready to serve.

My mother and I usually quadruple the sauce, just to make sure there's more than plenty--don't want a skimpy banana salad! Try it--I think you'll love it!

***So, now I need to know...what are your family's favorite Thanksgiving dishes? What can you NOT do without on that day of feasting and bursting at the seams??? I'd love to hear about your favorites!***

Lastly, a little advice from my Uncle Eric...I hesitated showing this picture, as it showcases me with some really bad "80's" hair, but--what are you going to do?!

This is me, about 1984-85, with my Uncle Eric and Aunt Janet...the card Uncle Eric holds is a turkey that says, "You are what you eat..." Good to remember with Thanksgiving less than a week away, huh?!

Have a wonderful Saturday, and I'll see you tomorrow!

A Sweet Christmas Caroler....and Nature Girl!

Hope your Sunday has been lovely! We've had a nice, quiet day...Church then home all day--hardly even a phone call--perfect!

I've got a couple of cards to share with you today, and then I thought I'd tell you a little about my "day job"...not a typical job, I might add! Hope you don't mind me getting personal once in a while--we're all friends here, right?!

First off, another wonderful image courtesy of Every Thing Creative:

The "Merry Christmas" sentiment is from Pink Persimmon's "Little Christmas Cottage" stamp set--one of my favorites!

I'm really having fun with these beautiful digital images! They have a lovely selection of them--not many, but they're all just lovely--great quality! So easy putting this together--perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon!

I don't think it picked up well in the photo, but I printed the image twice, then cut out the lantern and popped it up on the card--I love a little dimension! A little glitter in the lantern, and that's about it! Isn't she sweet?!

Next, a darling little vintage image from Crafty Secrets' "Christmas" Creative Scraps--another quick one tonight--

The buttons at the top are very old from my husband's grandmother's stash--I'm lucky to have it and sometimes find just exactly what I need in her carefully kept little button boxes. Thanks, Grandma Gorrell!

For this card I used Graphic 45's beautiful new paper collection "Christmas Past". Just gorgeous stuff! Included in the paper pack are the two pieces at the bottom of my card--the calendar date and Santa's face. Lots of German gold glass glitter, a little diamond glitter in the fireplace (doesn't really show up here...) and some fun trim and we're done!

So, in my other life...the life that doesn't involve paper, beautiful stamps and tons of glitter, I work in our county park as a naturalist...in the spring, I--along with 3 other women--teach local school children about our native plants and animals, and the Ohlone Indians that lived here until the Spanish came and changed their way of life...I promise I'm not going to start a lecture!

We take the kids on a 45-minute hike through the woods, teach them about the plants, look for animal tracks, etc., and then in our classroom, filled with freeze-dried animals, including a mountain lion, golden eagle, turkey vulture, owls, etc., we teach them various classes on birds of prey, the food chain, etc.

In the fall, however--now--we go TO the schools to teach...take our show on the road, so to speak! Here's me on Friday in a 3rd grade classroom teaching about birds...

Wow--doesn't that little boy just look SO excited about what I'm teaching???

Getting a close-up look at our owls...

How do you like my glamorous naturalist uniform??? I always feel SO pretty! Love when I have to run errands right afterwards...!

Hawks, quail and blue jays...just a few of the poor birds that have to stay in the back of our cars during the fall--my girls don't love it too much!

Well, that's just a bit of my "other life"! Thanks for letting me share! I'll be back tomorrow with something glittery, and something VERY tasty!

Sweet dreams!

A Sweet Christmas Village, Little Dorrit.....and Shoofly Pie

Good evening, everyone! Hope it was a fabulous day!

I had another lovely surprise today...got a small package from the U.K....I love ordering things, but hadn't ordered anything from there, so I was puzzled! It was a sweet gift from Joanne (Angelnorth)! A week or so ago, I had commented on a beautiful card she had made on her blog, Ambrosia & Iron, that had a beautiful little tea rose on it--I had never seen those before...Well, in the mail today was a little package of them, with a lovely handmade card!

I have been so blessed in the last couple of months with the loveliest new friends...this blogging experience has been such an amazing one! I was just commenting to another wonderful blogging friend today about that very thing. It's so amazing that with just a few strokes of a keyboard, we can reach out across the earth, experience a little of each others' lives, what we're working on, things we love, our families, etc...and once in a while, someone thoughtfully reaches out in a tangible way--that's pretty wonderful!

Joanne, thank-you for your thoughtfulness--you made my day even better today!

I have a few things for you tonight--two are semi-connected, and one is just plain old delicious!

I only finished one card today, but I'm very happy with it. I ordered some beautiful digital images a week or so ago from the lovely ladies at Every Thing Creative. They have a lovely blog and an Etsy shop where they sell their high quality, gorgeous vintage images. This was the first time I've done this, and I enjoyed them so much, I just ordered three more images tonight! Here's the first card I've finished using one of their images--

(I have to apologize for my pictures tonight--forgot to take them earlier in the natural light, so we're dealing with kitchen lights and a flash...maybe I'll fix it tomorrow...!)

Isn't that such a beautiful little village? I couldn't resist this! There was all this wonderful snow on the roofs, so of course I had to add plenty off glitter...

The ornaments are from Crafty Secrets' "Christmas Joy" stamp set--one of my favorites! I added some Snow-Tex and glitter to the top to make them look like those wonderful vintage
Christmas glass ornaments--I love those! A few SU! felt snowflakes covered with glitter and a little Swarovski crystal rhinestones in the center...those just make me happy!

This sweet image reminds me of a village out of a Dickens' novel--nothing better than a Dickens' novel! That made me think of one of my newest favorite movies..."Little Dorrit"...did you see it this last winter? Mobil Masterpiece Theatre made this beautiful version and released it on PBS in in March or so this year.



I had never read this novel before, and didn't know much about it, but let me tell you, it knocked my socks off! My daughters love it, too--just an amazing film. Part of it's allure, I suppose, is Matthew Macfayden--he's just fabulous, isn't he?!

Trust me--if you haven't seen it yet--DO! I'd love to hear what you think about it!

You'll find this out about me...I LOVE British period drama...especially from the classics--Dickens, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, etc. I watch them whenever I can, and have quite a collection of them--they just make me happy!

Last, but certainly not least---who's had Shoofly Pie before??? Oh, I just love it! A neighbor friend, when I was growing up in Ohio, would make it for us every once in a while, and it was just so delicious! Not a typical pie--no fruit, cream, etc., it's hard to describe...Kind of like a gingerbread pie, I guess! LOTS of crumbly topping...flaky, buttery crust...Oh, my!

(I shouldn't have used my deep dish pie pan for this one--makes it look like there's too much crust....wait...that's just not possible!)

I hadn't found a good recipe for it...until this summer, when I found the most delightful cookbook while on vacation--"Heirloom Cooking with the Brass Sisters". It's just LOADED with vintage recipes, images, stories, etc.--just a joy to look through!

Shoofly pie is a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch or German pie, and here's the recipe:

SHOOFLY PIE

For Streusel:

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ginger

1/4 cup cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice

For Filling:

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup water, heated to just under a boil

1. To make the streusel: Place sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger on a sheet of wax paper and add to sugar. Work in butter with fingers until the texture resembles coarse sand.

2. Use your favorite single-crust pie recipe! Coat a 9-inch ovenproof glass pie pan with vegetable spray. Roll out pastry dough. Fit into bottom of pie plate and trim off excess. Chill in refrigerator.

3. Set the oven rack in the middle position. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

4. Place molasses in a bowl. Dissolve baking soda in water and add to molasses, stirring with wooden spoon. Pour into prepared pie shell. Sprinkle streusel over surface of pie and bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake another 25 minutes, or until a tester inserted into pie comes out clean. Place pie on rack and cool completely before cutting. Store leftover pie loosely wrapped in wax paper in the refrigerator.

I just want to thank the Brass Sisters, Marilynn and Sheila, for giving me permission to share this recipe with you! Their book is just wonderful--any of you who love all things vintage would really love it!

(Reprinted from Heirloom Cooking With The Brass Sisters by permission of Black Dog & Levinthal Publishers, Inc. Copyright 2008 Marilynn and Sheila Brass).

Well, that's all for tonight--sweet dreams to all!