T Stands for The Post Christmas Post

 Hi everyone. It's s time for T once again over at 

If you celebrated Christmas, I hope yours was merry and bright. Our family celebration was on the 23rd and 24th since my daughter was spending Christmas Day with her in-laws.  We had our Christmas dinner on the night of the 23rd, and then we played Monopoly. I  was the first one out 😡, but it was a fun evening. If you're familiar with monopoly you can know the game can go on forever, but my son-in-law was a real land tycoon and ran everyone out of the game after a couple of hours. 

 On Christmas day we had a big breakfast with our traditional prosecco and orange juice mimosas.

This is my ticket to T this week over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's.

I wasn't very good at getting photos this year, but I did remember to get a photo of the traditional British fruit cake I baked back in November and have been feeding with some whiskey weekly. This type of cake has been on my baking bucket list for a few years, and I always forgot about having to make it early so I never made one. Last year I put it on my calendar for early November of this year, and here it is after I decorated it. .

The son-in-law and I enjoyed it. It was much better than American style fruitcake with all the bright colored preserved fruit. The one I made had raisins, dried currants, orange peel and walnuts in it. I frosted it to make it  more festive and added some lemon extract to the frosting.

I'll also share a few holiday cards I received. Thank you everyone who sent one along.

I put cards up on my dining room hutch, and I photographed them hanging so they may not be 100% straight.

Elle, your card did arrived on time as it was here on the 23rd.

And this beauty was from Jeanie at the Marmalade Gypsy

This lovely card was from Carola

And finally this card is from Dorothy at the Frog and the Penguin.

Thank you again my friends. I should also mention I received a great on-line card from Valerie too. I'm not sure how to show that here however. ︖ 😄

I thought I would also share the card I received from one of my cousins. He always makes it own linoprints each year, and this year his card was gorgeous. (Actually they are always very special, but this year his print was way more complex than they often are.)

And wow, this is our last T for 2023. I hope everyone's year ends with bright days. 

"See" you all for T next year.

Twisted

Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. 

Today Rain's Art and Dinner Date is TWISTED. I thought today I'd share some photos with you on this theme.

The most obvious twist is rope.

As is this yellow waxed thread twisted around the cardboard spool.

Then there's this seaweed on the beach which ended up somewhat twisted around itself when waves washed it onto the shore.

These spiral stairs at the Peabody Essex Museum are twisted too. 

And this past Tuesday, the 25th, was DNA day. It was the day in 1953 when James Watson and Francis Crick  published their DNA paper ( as well 2 other papers by Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin), and the world of biotechnology really took off. Here's a couple of journal pages I made in 2021 that show some DNA with its famous double helical twist.

And finally on the twist theme for today,  I have a new journal page to share. I wanted to use one of Elizabeth's favorite words since she, as well as her sidekick Bleubeard, have been hosting over at Art Journal Journey this month. Since April is wrapping up, here is my penultimate journal spread for her challenge. You probably know the challenge this month is recycle, reuse and repurpose. 

The sentiment  of the quote goes right along with the word twisted.

I used a stencil, a dried out baby wipe and ink pads to create the background.  The images are from an Art by Marlene punch out  booklet.  And finally the quote is recycled from an old magazine page.

Since it's been a cloudy and showery week, I had some inside time. I did a bit of baking and made this lemon poppyseed bundt cake. 

I have this fancy bundt pan, but I haven't  always had great luck with cake coming out in 1 piece. It worked on this cake though, so I was excited that it even looks  pretty. 😀 Would you like a piece?

Have a super day and the rest of your week also.

 

Primary Colors

 Hi everyone.

Today I am posting a page for Valerie's Anything Goes challenge at  Art Journal Journey. This challenge ends tomorrow, because it will already be the last day of March. Wow. This month has flown by, although  the beginning of March seems like a long time ago.

This is also my page for Rain's Art and Dinner Date. Rain's theme this week is primary colors. I'm really not fond of these colors when they are all together  without any other color (or black or white) to break them up, although each individually and when used in various tones and shades are great. You can see various shades of the 3 primary colors on today's page. Scattered around  are some reds, some blues and some yellows. 

I bought a roll of the new color chart tissue paper by Tim Holtz, and I was giving it a try on this page. I added an old photo (also another TH item), a piece of acetate, some art bits cut out of an old magazine page as well as a few stickers to title my page. I used a blue gelato watercolor crayon around the edge to finish off the page also.

I love the idea of art camp, and I must say I wish I was going to one this summer. I bet these ladies had lots of fun creating and sharing ideas.

For food this week, let me share the Victoria sponge cake I made last  weekend.

I actually wanted to try out this King Arthur Flour yellow cake mix. I was wondering how much easier it would be than making a cake from scratch. I knew it was a good tasting mix because  once I was at an event where someone had made cupcakes from it, but sometimes I wonder if mixes are really all that much easier than making from scratch.

 (Sorry for the shadow lines in the photos but it was raining, and I had all the kitchen lights on.)

I still needed to add butter, oil, milk and eggs, but I decided using the mix was a bit quicker and made fewer dirty utensils than making a cake from scratch. 

Since I didn't have room to store the cake in the refrigerator, I modified the Victoria sponge and  filled the center  with only jelly. Then I sprinkled powdered sugar on the top. I had a squirt can of  whipped cream that I used for the whipped cream when I served the cake.

Not fancy but still very yummy.  Maybe not quite so good as having some cream in the middle between the layers. And I liked how the mix tasted too. More like a homemade cake than some of the big name mixes.

That's all for me today. Have a great rest of your week.

Drinks and Outside Time in Florida

 Hi everyone. Happy Thursday.

I'm back with a  new page from my trip journal that I recently made. I like to make travel journals, and this one is from when I went to Florida in January.   I also have a couple photos from the trip that go along with the journal to share today.

Since  Rain's Art and Dinner Date theme this week is drinks, let me share this tropical cocktail.

I can't even remember what it was called, but it was made with orange and pineapple juices and was delicious. 😀

I enjoyed mine even more because we could sit outside on the treehouse deck of the restaurant.

This is a great post for today since we're  getting  snow at home.  I'd have to bundle up to enjoy a drink outside today, but at least the ice in the drink wouldn't melt very fast. Smile

And here's the page in my travel journal about this drink too.

The little wooden hearts were the skewers that came in both my husband's and my drinks. The smiley fruit are some fun stickers from my stash, and I added the burger sticker because that's what we had to eat with our tropical cocktails.

And the other day I had some bananas to use up, so I made this new muffin recipe.

These muffins have bananas, peanut butter, chopped dried dates and a few chocolate chips I decided to toss in  because chocolate makes almost everything better. They're a yummy mid-morning snack. The recipe is in an old cookbook I have, but if anyone wants it let me know and I'll dig out the book and post how to make them.

That's all for me today.  I hope everyone is having a great week and has a nice weekend ahead also.

Veggies

 Hi everyone. Happy Thursday.  

Happily we've been having some milder weather after last weekend's deep deep freeze. With the wind chills we hit a low of -32 degrees F (around -35 degrees C) on Saturday; it was too cold to even go outside. I don't mind the cold, but that was too cold for me.  Thankfully that type of weather didn't last very long. I am really enjoying not having to feed the woodstove every couple of hours. Smile.

Today it is time for Rain's Art and Dinner Date. And today's optional theme is Veggies.

Here's a journal page I made last November for Art Journal Journey on that theme. I'm reposting it for Rain's challenge today.

And for the dinner date party of Rain's challenge, I did make some homemade pizza and also so American chop suey last week, but I never managed to snap any photos of them. 😒Instead let me show you the maraschino cherry and walnut pound cake I made at the end of last week. I know it's not anything to do with veggies, but this is a special cake for me.

This cake was my Dad's favorite. And today is his birthday. If he was still alive he would have been 99. My Dad was a gentle, even tempered man who I can thank for my interest in art. He was an architect, loved to fly fish, and was someone who just adored his lawn. 

I used to make my Dad this cake for his birthday once I was old enough to be let loose in the kitchen. Even as a teenager I really liked to bake.

I found this recipe online (pecan and maraschino cherry pound cake). Usually I just make a basic pound cake and add chopped maraschino cherries and walnuts. This recipe made a cream cheese pound cake, and I substituted walnuts for pecans. (Even though pecans would taste yummy, I know my Dad specified he liked walnuts in his cake so I was trying to be true to him.) I really liked the addition of the cream cheese. I've seen lots of cream cheese pound cake recipes, although I don't think I've ever tried one before.  The only thing I would have changed was I would have added more cherries, but since I only picked up one jar at the grocery store, it worked. 

And if you want a little more color, you can add some cherry juice to the cake and make it pink, but my dad wouldn't have wanted a pink cake.

That's all for me today. I hope you're having a great week, and have a great weekend ahead also.

 

Friday Face off

Hi everyone. Happy Friday. I hope you have something that makes you happy on your agenda for this upcoming weekend.  

Since it is Friday I am joining Nicole at  Friday Face Off , and I am also joining Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break.

And since it is Friday the thirteenth, I thought I would share the following journal page I made.

I'm not superstitious, but I hope the black cat crossing your path doesn't freak you out.

 I know the face in this old photo is pretty small too, but as you can see, there is a face.

I am also linking this post up to Mia's Add a Photo challenge at Art Journal Journey. I made this page on watercolor paper. I added some printed tissue paper, used some spray inks to color most of my background, and added a Tim Holtz photo image. The cat is a chipboard shape I painted. I then added some TH label tape, a piece of lace that I colored as well as some old buttons.  I also add the quote that I had stamped on white paper.

And here is a face for you from one needy pup. I was having a late day try-to-read-my-book moment on the couch when she decided I was to have other plans.

Also a few of you asked for my hummingbird cake recipe for the cake I showed on this past Wednesday's  post. Here it is; the only thing is it isn't scaled so all the measurements are in cups. I wish most US recipes came scaled because once I started using a scale I hate going back to cups. Food Network Hummingbird Cake. 

That's it for me this week.  Have a great MLK weekend if you're in the US, and if you aren't having a holiday weekend, I hope yours is still very nice too. 

Midweek Musings

 Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week to you.

Today I'd like to share an art journal page for Mia's Add A Photo challenge over at Art Journal Journey.

This slightly out of focus face was in a magazine, but I liked the fact it isn't 100% clear. I cut out a photo and made a background (on watercolor paper) using some scraps of green and tan paper. Then I used matte medium to glue down the face. Once that dried, I decided the background was too busy for the face, so I sponged a bit of white gesso around it. I then added the 2 scraps of ribbon that came off my Christmas gift from my daughter and used green paint to make some circles. When that all dried, I used some large sticker letters to make the word laugh.

I am also linking this post up to Rain's Art and Dinner Date. This week's theme is Aerial View.  Here are a few photos taken in 2013 when I went  on an immersion trip to Costa Rica. The trip was sponsored by my school, and it was a teacher version of the annual trip that some students go on during the school year.

 When we arrived, we flew into San Jose  and took a chartered bus down to Puerto Jimenez which is in the Osa Peninsula, home of the largest tropical rainforest in Central America. On our trip home we flew from Puerto Jimenez back to San Jose before catching a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina and then on to Boston.

Here's some photos from our flight to San Jose.

When we arrived in Charlotte there was a thunderstorm in progress and the storm created a plane back up. We had to wait on the tarmac for the plane to get its gate. When we got off the plane we literally had to dash through the airport to catch our final leg of our flight.  We were the last passengers to board on our Boston bound plane, and after spending a day in hot and humid and non-air conditioned Puerto Jimenez, sitting in the airport in San Jose as well as running through the Charlotte airport, we must have smelled just "divine". Not. I felt sorry for the passengers sitting around us.

And for the dinner date part of this post, let me share some dessert with you.

Costco had bananas at 3 pounds for $1.39, and 3 pounds is a whole lot of bananas. To use some I made a hummingbird cake, which is a spice cake with bananas, pineapple and pecans. And I frosted it with cream cheese frosting. Yummy! 

That's all for me. Thanks for visiting.

Wishing You a Wonderful Holiday

Hi everyone. This is my last post for a few days since tomorrow (the 23rd) I need to get a lot of things finished. That is as long as the heavy winds during the big storm that arrives  tonight don't knock out our power. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't happen. (And luckily we're going to have a short warm up so it will be rain coming in rather than snow, but like the temperatures so many of you are getting, the  bitter cold is coming in right after the storm.)

My daughter is coming tomorrow night, my son-in-law is coming first thing Saturday morning, and Saturday will be our family Christmas. It's a little weird  to celebrate on the 24th since we've always celebrated on the 25th, but now that my daughter is married, we need to be a bit more flexible.  The hubby and I plan a Die Hard movie marathon on the 25th, and we'll be making a nice holiday dinner for just the 2 of us.

I have an art journal page for today which I am linking up to a whole bunch of challenges.

First of all, my page today is for Rain's  Thursday Art and Dinner Date, where the theme is a Christmas scene. As I'm not posting anything new tomorrow, this is also for Nicole's Friday Face Off and I'm also linking up to Gillena's Friday Lunch Break. 

And last but never least, I added some snowflakes and I am linking up to Jo's Snowy Winter challenge at Art Journal Journey

The Santa was on the cover of a Vermont Country Store catalogue I received in the mail. I used my printer/copier to copy him onto  heavier paper, and then I fussy cut him out. I used some spray paint and a stencil to make the background. Santa made me think of children, and even though these 2 vintage cuties look like they are a little afraid of Santa, I added them and made a pile of snow for them to stand on. Perhaps  once Christmas comes and they get a few new toys, they'll  smile. 

I die cut the snowflakes and added them so my page also would work for Jo's challenge at Art Journal Journey.

And I have been doing some baking. Last week I made this Scandinavian advent bread from a cookbook I borrowed.

It's made with some butter and milk, as well as white and spelt flour. It actually called for some whole wheat flour, but since I didn't have any on hand I substituted the white. The topping is a maple glaze which was easy and tastes amazing. My maple syrup is on the browner side (the maple sap gets browner as the season goes on) and comes from my son-in-law's family syrup house. His parents gave us a few quarts of fresh maple syrup as I'm not fussy about the color.

I soaked the dried fruit in some vanilla vodka first rather than the sherry the recipe called for. This bread is really moist and delicious. I may have to see if I can find a copy of this cookbook since this bread is so good I want to make it again. Plus there are several other recipes I'd like to try.

I've also been on a cooking baking binge. I know I showed this photo for T this week, but here it is again.

Last Sunday I made a bunch of cookie doughs, and then earlier this week I spent an afternoon making  cookies from the doughs.

From top to bottom in this photo (above) are spritz, festive pecan sandies that I forgot to put the pecans on top, hazelnut balls, sugar cookies and some lime icebox cookies.

I also made some gingerbread dough, but for some reason it just crumbled, and I couldn't roll it out for the cookie cutters. I might have to make that one again because it's my daughter's cookie of choice. 

I really would like to also make some gingerbread (in cake form), but I'm not sure if that will happen or not. If I feel like it maybe on Christmas I'll whip one up in the morning.

(FYI: I'm writing this part Friday morning. We have severe winds right now, some of them over 50 mph, so if I don't get to your blog it's because I've lost power. So far it's hanging on, but it has blinked a couple of times. Keeping my fingers crossed it stays on. I just want to apologize in advance. )

And let me end this post by wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season, whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanza. 

 

T Stands for English Muffins and More Babble

 Hi everyone. 

Another week has flown by, and it is already T Day once again over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog. It's time to share your drink related post. My drink this week goes with my lunch one day, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Last week I decorated the house for this holiday season. I'd decided to go minimalist this year, but like every other time I decide to only put out a few things, I start having so much fun that  I don't end up being very minimalist at all. 😏

I also went to see a holiday play with some friends one afternoon last week, which was lots of fun as I haven't done that in a long long time. And the play was quite festive and well done too. 

The Musical Hall is a vintage performing arts center in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. They work closely with the Ogunquit Playhouse from Ogunquit, Maine. (Ogunquit isn't very far north up the road from Portsmouth as Portsmouth sits right on the border of Maine.) Elf was actually being presented by the Ogunquit Playhouse, but since their theater isn't winterized, it was being performed at the Music Hall.

I'm always fascinated by the sets, lighting and how they can change the scene right in front of you while you are totally engrossed in what the actors are doing. They didn't allow photos or videos during the performance, which only makes sense, so above is the stage before the play began and below is the photo at intermission.

You can see the stage area better here. I love the old private booths (no longer used for guests). I should have taken photos of the wooden seats (no  cushions) and the wooden floor. There's also a balcony on the sides and behind us. Last time I was at the Music Hall I sat up there during an evening when author Amor Towles  talked about writing and his books. Over the years I've been here for small venue concerts, to see other guest speakers and even watch films. 

 I'm not trying to be weird, but I have to show you the bathroom, which reminds me of a Hobbit House. It is definitely unique. Also, if people had been in the bathroom, I wouldn't have taken any photos.

The doors to each stall were decorated for the holiday, and notice the walls and the curve of the floor tiles.

And here's the common area where you can wash your hands.

Someone walked in right after I took these  2 photos so that was the end of my photos.

 And for T this week, let me share one of my lunches. 

One evening last week I made some homemade sourdough English muffins. (Recipe is here: KA Sourdough English muffins). I've made these before, but not for a long while.

And during my last trip to Trader Joe's for some groceries, I discovered this spread.

And so I combined the 2 with a bit of cheddar cheese for my lunch one day. You can also see my drink, which is a  Diet Coke I'd been drinking over a couple of days. 

Please excuse the clutter on my coffee table. I was actually reading as I ate that day, but stacked everything up to get a photo for T.

That's all for me this week. Hopefully it wasn't another too long post. Have a great T day and week ahead.