Happy New Year!

We're staying home tonight...it's all been lovely...but I'm tuckered out.
Last night was the last hurrah of the holidays, and a big hurrah it was!
Fab friends, fab food...oh my.
I stole this photo of hubby and I off of my pal Tami's blog.
Pop on over to her place to get all the lovely details...bliss!

Tomorrow?
Back on track with the wrecking bars and drywall.
Wishing you all a Happy and safe New Year...
Cheers to a New Year full of never ending projects!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from this old farm.
In this holiday season may we celebrate our blessings
and share our joy.

Somebody's Gotta Do It!

So it might as well be me.
Tough duty, I know...testing the holiday cocktails.
My new favorite?
Champagne with a healthy splash of St. Germain...oh goodness gracious, I like it.
I've always had a fondness for champagne and a new version of a champagne cocktail was offered to me by my pal Lynne, thank you my dear friend...this is definitely a keeper...as are you.

Lynne added some of her hand foraged huckleberries, they literally danced in the glass! I don't know how she got them to do that but I intend to find out.

Just so you know, this champagne cocktail goes well with everything...
especially a selection of fabulous desserts.
Yes indeed...it was a very good week.

A Garden of De-Lights!

If you love Christmas lights as much as I do and you live in the Seattle area, the Bellevue Botanical Gardens has a display that just gets better every year.
Last night it was brrrrr cold but we bundled up and walked through the gardens...it was so much fun.

This is a shot of the mixed border, every year they add something new...I can spot sunflowers, daylillies, hyacinth, tulips...the details are amazing - can you imagine the effort that goes into this?


This spider and the fly cracked me up.


This arbor was yellow wisteria, there was another one done in purple...so pretty.


This walkway leads down to a tropical garden, my photos of that area are a little sad...chilly girl = shaky camera.


Maybe someday I can have a little display in my own garden like this one...
I'll add it to the list of "stuff I wanna do".
Oh dear me...that list is getting long.

Conversations about Santa

Conversations at the family Christmas party today.

Clara asks Shelly some questions.

Clara: Where did you go when Santa was here?
Shelly: I was over there by the punch bowl..next to Brad.
Clara: Huh uh....
Shelly: Sure I was, right over there...see? Here's my punch cup.
Clara gives Shelly a stern gaze.

Then Riley has a few questions for Uncle Ron.

Riley: Were you Santa?
Uncle Ron: No silly, I was right here...remember?
Riley: Oh yeah, so who was Santa?
Uncle Ron: Santa was Santa.
Riley: No really....who was Santa?
Uncle Ron: Why don't you think Santa was Santa?
Riley: Cuz Santa had hands like a lady.

Hmmmm....I guess next year Santa should wear gloves.

Merry Merry!

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's snowing as I write this, it's going to be a white Christmas here at this old farm.
We're digging out the driveway with a tractor so that they can get in with a cattle truck, there are a few big mama cows here that have to move to the other farm before they have their baby calves...looks like there will be some Christmas calves!

Whoaaa...here comes another tractor. Hmmmm.
Guess I better get out there and lend a hand.
I'm off to bundle up in my snow boots, scarf, ski coat and hat.

I want to wish you all Christmas blessings!

Thanks for stopping in at this old snow covered farm.



* the photos were taken Monday night at a holiday dinner at my friend Tamis house....it was bee-uuuuu-teeee-ful! And yummy!

Pretty Enough to Post?

Just popping in to say hey there.... and yes...I'm kinda missing my blog pals.
Having a great time here decorating and visiting with old and new friends.
Almost finished shopping, the house is stocked, the recipes are lined up and the social schedule is just busy enough to keep me amused but not send me down CrazyLane.
This morning I finally spent a little time making the chest in the living room look festive.
It's just an old glass column, some leftover ornaments that didn't go on the tree...and a few greens and sticks from the yard.
I like it, twas simple, easy and cheap...makes me so happy.
I like it so much it it inspired me to post...woohoooo!


Next up? The dining room table...hmmmmmm....I think I'll go find that old chipped punch bowl.
I hope it's pretty enough to post, wish me luck!

whoopsie....thought I was done

Okayyyy..so I said I was done with Christmas. Whoops. Onne mooore partyyyyy.
I've been celebrating Christmas with an "After Christmas" party with my Seattle gal pals for a few years now. We used to go to the Metropolitan Grill for dinner, when I quit my job and was spending much less time in the city we all decided it would be a nice change to meet in La Conner for a casual meal and some shopping. This year we're headed back to the Met...it's always a great time. One of my girlfriends has worked there for several years so it seems like we get the royal treatment. Loooove that!!!
We do a gift exchange and sometimes we've made our gifts, Diane knits and makes jewelry, Lynne is an artist and Susie is crafty but is also our go-to girl for teckie stuff. Below is a photo of some Limoncello I made this year. We've all been to Italy together and so I thought it would be nice to make something traditionally Italian. I made the labels with a Zig Painty pen, it was fun and easy. What a coincidence! We're meeting for pre-dinner martinis at Zig Zag Lounge.

It was a good idea...at the time

Does anyone else remember that Lyle Lovett song? Part of the lyrics are - - -
"She wasn't good, but she had good intentions" That can sum up my blogging behavior for the last ten days. I had sooooo many good ideas, but nooooo energy. Hey kids, I've seen blogs out there that haven't had any entries for months on end. Some of them had even been nominated for "blog awards" ...go figure.
So...back when I was germ free, I had ideas for blogs running around in my head like elves on Christmas Eve...and then....the germs came.
My world was a vortex. No ideas, no energy, no nothin'.
Today I thought...what the hay....better late than never! I have the photos, why not do some belated blogging - make up for lost time.
Check out the cheese slicer from Appel Farms. I grabbed it when The Husband and I went to the cheese store to buy their yummy goudas and cheddars for my Christmas gift baskets. I used it today and really like it, gotta love a good kitchen gadget. It's simple and pretty but that's not enough for me...pretty is as pretty does...and yes... it slices quite nicely. Yay!

Speaking of Christmas baskets, I love making them. I like to fill them with all kinds of goodies....cheese, sausage, cocoa, crackers, chocolates, candy canes, candies, apples, oranges, Christmas blend coffee, sparkling cider - goodies galore. One goes to The Husands boss, one to our renters, the in-laws...sometimes more people...it's always so much fun to deliver them. This year the fun of basket delivery was a little lost in the sneezy haze...I thought I would assemble all of them on the dining room table and take a lovely photo - uhhhh - didn't happen. This is the last one to be delivered...and yes...I snapped the photo of it in the front seat of my car.
Lovely photo composition...doncha think?

Sickie No Bloggie

So, I've been told by my blog pal Tami that I am
a very naughty blogger. No posts for dayyysss!
Sorry kids...I caught that nasty plague that seems to be running rampant. Instead of whining on-line I thought it best to lay low and focus on wellness. Besides...that's what I always do when I'm "broken", I get quiet...lay low..and mend. I thought of giving Disney a new set of dwarfs...Dopey, Sneezey, Coughie, Sniffy, Cranky, Sweaty and Droopy. I could play all the parts...not a pretty picture...I know.

Speaking of pictures, I have so many! Here are just a few from the last couple of weeks. Even though I wasn't in top form I sure had a great time!
Christmas coffee at moms with her neighbor
ladies. She still lives in the neighborhood that
I grew up in so it was really fun to be able to
see them all.

My pal Susie had a 50th birthday party! It was
at the restaurant Mission in West Seattle, great place!

Here is Susie ( in brown ) with some of the regular Sun Valley ski gang. The Husband went with me to the party...that doesn't happen very often. He can rarely attend functions in the city due to his work schedule (and let's face it...he's not much of a party guy ). It was great to have him there with me, he was almost as popular as the birthday girl since the gang hardly ever sees him. Pretty funny.


My trip to Friday Harbor was fast and furious and lots of fun. I went house shopping (dreaming) with my Favorite Friday Harbor Realtor, otherwise known as my dear pal Deb.

Check out the view from the deck of this place...wowwww. I loved the view but didn't like the layout of the house....good thing...this baby
is wayyy out of my price range. Who am I kidding,
what price range? It's fun to dream.





Love it that you can't see another house or even a rooftop!


The whole reason for the trip to Friday Harbor was to attend a 50th birthday party that Debs husband threw for her. It was really quite something. He rented Vinny's Restaurant for the evening, there was a band, a yummy buffet...heck...there were girls in gowns and gloves! Nooo...not me..I wore my Holiday Uniform - the outfit that you will see me in every photo that required dressing up.

That's Deb on the dance floor giving her hubby Pete a big smooch for throwing her such an incredible party.

OK...there are many more photos but I need to
focus on too many other things around here
that are sorely in need of attention. Like a very
messy house, putting away Christmas, loads of
laundry....annddd...spring being just around the
corner....this gardener is surfing the seed catalogs
for the best beans and peas and corn and lettuce.
Yum!
No more dreaming of a White Christmas, this
gal is dreaming of fresh garden produce.

Try and Try Again

The old saying is true...."If at once you don't succeed..try and try again". Yesterday I was not successful posting a photo, got a little crazy/cranky with the new digital camera and the computer and the blog. I know that they were all in cahoots to see if I would either swear a blue streak orrrrrr...throw something. I did neither. I WIN. HA!
My friend Tami is right about manuals...they don't tell you squat. What they do tell you is a whole bunch of babble that makes absolutely no sense at all. My take on the whole scene is that the computer people and the camera people write lousy manuals that you can't understand so that you will go buy something else and keep consumer spending spiraling out of control, it's a conspiracy theory...ya...uh huh...you know what I'm talkin' about. Granted, I'm not a techno-geek by any stretch of the imagination but I have been known to find my way out of a cardboard box.
I'm going to keep gardening as a hobby, dirt doesn't need a manual. Oh...the photo...merry merry...the tree is making me very happy. I have the lights on two switches - we have options options options! You got yer "happy bright tree with lots-o-lights"... orrrr...yer "subtle evening dim-the-lights twinkle twinkle". Guess it's time for the wrap-a-rama, looks a little naked under that thar tree.