Turning Thoughts Towards Spring

I can't believe it's been over a year since I last posted on my blog.  Surely any readers have long since thought I fell off the face of the earth.  Indeed rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.  I'm still breathing last I checked.

2010 was a whirlwind year and it came and went like nobody's business.  I have no idea where it went.  Life has a way of doing that....sneaking passed us quietly. Very unobtrusive at times and all subterfugean.  (Yeah I made up that word!) 

I find myself in the midst of winter when life has slowed its frantic pace.  My mind has begun to wander to old pursuits of interest and I've gone into planning mode.  Gardening may be my thing again this year as I've dusted off my manila folder entitled "Veggie Gardening" and taken a gander at some grand plans made long ago.  I went a step further though and ordered seeds of lettuce, radish, corn, cucumber, squash, and watermelon.  I plan to buy plants of tomatoes, peppers and select herbs and put out seed potatoes and onion sets in a few weeks.  The only thing I'm still trying to get my head around is timing.  I have this nifty planting schedule all worked out and my potato and onion planting needs to occur while I'm in Mexico with the family.  I figure I can do them when I get back as long as the weather is cooperative.

In addition to the vegetable gardening, I've started placing orders for some old favorite bloomers.  I have a frightening number of lily bulbs coming and some odds-n-ends like sedums, dicentras, and peonies.  These are all through the Yahoo gardening co-op and all look likely to happen except the peonies.  (Wasn't really sure where those would go anyways.)  I'm hoping to not go too overboard on ordering and just modestly plan to fill in some bare spots and work a little on the southern pool fence border.

So another year begins in earnest and I with well-laid plans begin a new gardening season.  Hope springs eternal during this time of year.  May I do it justice and reap the rewards of beauty and bounty this summer and fall.

Christmas Cut-Out Cookies

It was time to do the annual roll and cut-out of sugar cookies this holiday season. I was dreading it as I had tried a new recipe last week and when I went to roll out the dough I might as well have been trying to roll out and cut butter. The dough was way too soft.

I decided to go with the tried and true Better Homes and Gardens recipe and it proved difficult to work with on the re-roll out. I ended up tossing a bit of the dough as it was not cold enough anymore to be worked with. I think my house might have been a tad bit too warm yesterday.

But I ended up getting just over 2 dozen cookies baked.  The girls, Leah and Sarah, and I went to work decorating them right away and because I didn't have as many cookies as usual the decorating went quickly.  Lasted long enough for the three of us to have some fun and chuckle over our decoration of the cookies, but not so long that no one wanted to finish the last cookie. 

Above is a sample of the cookies we made.  They won't last long although we must save one or two for Santa since they are his favorites!

Happy Holidays to all my dear readers.

A Little Stitchery Magic

Made this little lace bookmark for Leah's 2nd grade teacher for Christmas this year. 

This makes my second actually finished piece of cross stitch.  The other was a bread cloth that I use regularly.

Along with this little piece I purchased a canvas tote bag with a cute saying about teachers and her name personalized on it.