My Craftroom

Pie Day!

Thanksgiving is two days away and with Ellie's four month checkup tomorrow and family coming into town tomorrow, too, I'm making my pies today. I've got two pumpkin pies in the oven right now and they smell SO good. We'll see how they turn out, since I used my own pumpkin instead of the canned variety. It's not as smooth as a canned puree would be (I made it in the blender since I didn't have a food mill yet - but now I do!!), but I think it will be fine. I'm not sure I've ever made pumpkin pie completely from scratch (puree, crust and everything) before, but I have now. I'm not making my own whipped cream, though. I could, but that's just one more thing to do. Canned whipped cream from Costco it is!

Okay... now for my pie crust recipe. You asked, Tam! It looks uninteresting, but don't knock it 'till you've tried it!

PIE CRUST
makes one 9 inch double/lattice crust or two 9 inch pies

2 C sifted all-purpose flour
1 t salt
2/3 C shortening
5-7 T cold water

Mix salt and flour together. Mix shortening into flour with your hands. Do not use any utensils. When the shortening is all mixed in and is somewhere between cornmeal and peas, add the water. Adding a T at a time, mix the water into the flour mixture with your hands. Form into a ball. Roll out into pie crust. For unfilled baked pie crust, bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown.

I just have to add a little note here about how great my mom is. A few years ago she took all the recipes my brother and I grew up on (and a few of her favorites found after we were grown) and put them into a recipe book for us. I use that book more than any other cookbook in my kitchen, hands down. I know the recipes are tried and true and they're all right there. Thanks, Mom.

Pie Crusts

Make pie crusts. Check.

Thanksgiving Preparation Schedule:

Monday -

• Clean house
• Thaw pumpkin puree

Tuesday -

• Make pies
• Crush pretzels
• Crush pecans

Wednesday -

• Thaw turkey
• Thaw ham
• Make yambake
• Make strawberry pretzel salad

Thursday -

• Make stuffing
• Make green beans
• Make potatoes
• EAT!!

Two Worlds Collide...

One of my favorite new shows is 'Ugly Betty' on ABC. It's one of the few shows you can watch online. Anyway- Martha will be guest starring on Ugly Betty tonight. Life just keeps getting better and better.

It's Turkey Day!

Today is the day I'm cooking our turkey. My favorite thing about turkey day? The smell. The whole house smells delicious. My least favorite thing? I can't eat it until next Thursday. So tempting, and it smells so good.

Thanksgiving is at our house this year, and we have guests coming in on Wednesday, as well as Ellie's 4 month checkup on Wednesday, too. So I'm trying to make sure I do everything I can ahead of time. Thus, the turkey gets cooked today and is frozen until Thanksgiving. It's one of those tricks my mom taught me - the wonder woman who makes Thanksgiving dinner for twenty some college students each year.

I've had my menu planned for forever, and I've stocked most of the ingredients, though I'll go through and double check that I have everything early next week. Here's the menu...

Turkey Breast
Ham
Yam Bake
Green Beans Almondine
Mashed Potatoes
Stuffing
Rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Relish Tray
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Pie
Million Dollar Pie

What are you having for Thanksgiving??

Christmas Cards

I've finished making my Christmas cards! AND they're even signed. Now all I have to do is write our Christmas letter and print out the labels and send them out!

One more thing crossed off the list.

How are your Christmas cards coming?

Three Bugs in a Rug

I went to the LSS today to get some paper and I came away with a bunch of Three Bugs in a Rug stuff. Some Holiday papers and some of their Spicy line. And some rubons. I've got four pages planned and started with the stuff I got (waiting on pictures, though!), including one of Ellie in her cute little Christmas outfit, when we finally get around to taking a Christmas photo. I'm guessing that won't be until after Thanksgiving, because the Christmas tree won't go up until then. But when it does, I've got the LO done and waiting for her pretty picture! And I got to see the new Basic Grey Christmas line today. WOW. It just arrived, but will be on the shelves and for sale when I go back to teach my class on Saturday... and I'll have to get some. Beautiful, beautiful stuff I tell ya.

Anyway- so it appears that the 3bugs papers did the trick and my scrappin' motivation is back in full swing. I'm even motivated to finish those pages I started in Texas. Now if I could only clear some workspace on my desk....

Demotivated

I have had zero motivation to scrapbook lately. None. I finally went down to the craftroom today just to make Thanksgiving invites and even that was sad because I found out my embossing gun is broken. =( Nothing like having to spend craft money on a tool you already have just because it broke. I don't even know what happened to it. It worked before I took it to Texas, and now it doesn't. So... I'm guessing something happened to it while it was in my luggage. Grrr. And unfortunately, it's not a tool I feel like I can live without. I had to use my clothes iron to do the embossing on my Thanksgiving invites. Now THAT takes me back a few years... back to when I started embossing over my toaster and eventually graduated to the iron before getting a bona fide heat embossing tool. Yeah. I'm sad mine died and I'm still not motivated to scrap. Oh mojo.... come back please!

MIM Challenge #4!!

Okay... two weeks for this next one. And because Halloween just passed, I know you have plenty of fodder for this one! Your challenge (compliments of Tam) is to...

USE A CANDY WRAPPER (or ten) ON YOUR LO!

Get to it and I promise we're back on track now! This is a good one for those cute halloween pictures!

MIM Challenge #3 Results

Finally! Here are the results from last month's MIM Challenge #3. Turn something ugly into something beautiful. I used a thread scarf and Tam took an ugly memory and turned it into a beautiful LO to memorialize a friend. Thanks!

Welcome Back, Flylady!

Well, I got with the program and followed my Flylady routines today and last night. It was great to wake up to a shiny sink and clean kitchen, so when I woke up this morning I made my bed first thing and it made me smile. =) I was out running errands pretty much all day, but it was nice to come home to a still-clean house. I didn't leave my breakfast dishes out, and I didn't have things piled on the counter. Woohoo! Routines really do make things so much easier for me... I don't know why I fall away from them, but I do. Today, however, I stuck with it and it feels great.