From A Winter Past

I found this sweet shot of Stuffed with other saved photos and can't imagine why I didn't share it before.  It is from February 2012.  He looks like a kitten here but was around thirteen years old at the time.  Could he be any more adorable!?!  I can't imagine how he could have been any cuter when he actually was a kitten.  ♥  (He was a few years old already when Mike saw him for the first time, and he was around eight when I met him.)

Ohhh, my heart, he's the dearest, sweetest thing. 

'Love, love, love this little puffball.  The perfectly-curled tufts of white fur that stick out of his ears!  The half-black/half-white face!  He's perfectly designed, a work-of-art of an animal. 

The alternating black-white-black-white of his body!  And that he holds himself like this while he sleeps!  ♥ 

Truly like a favorite stuffed animal come-to-life, he's just such a precious little soul.  (And the pink toes. . . !  Gah!)  Sweet Stuffed.  ♥

Today's Walk

I have been breaking in a pair of new shoes today, with five-and-a-half miles walked and a couple blocks run.  After a completely unimpressive pair of Nikes about six years ago, I gave them another chance and treated myself to their "Air Zoom Pegasus" shoes today.  And woo hoo!  These are some of the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn.  I love them.  LOVE them.  After a morning walk in pouring rain, this afternoon's was only dry and brisk, evidence of this past weeks' snowfall all but gone, the sky a cliché January blah above me, and the pink of my shoes the only color on the road below me.  I found not the usual heart, but instead a smile, during my brief trial run too, brightening the day a bit more. 

If You're Ever Sad, Just Remember. . . .

A New York Times commenter by the name of Méz responded Monday to the news of David Bowie's death by eloquently advising, "If you're ever sad, just remember the world is 4.543 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie or Springsteen or Paul Simon, Mick Jagger. . . ."  Oh, yes.  We would each personalize our own lists, of course, but theses thoughts--and that they were shared in response to an artist's passing--touched me and likely resonate with all of us who have loved so deeply.  

Balsamic Roasted Carrots

Tonight I tried this recipe from Kim over at "Cravings of a Lunatic."  Oh!  So good!  So good!  The sweetness of the carrots with the tartness of the vinegar. . .  .I roasted these for about an hour, and they were perfection.  I've never really liked the taste of cooked carrots, but I eat them anyway, but these--these!--roasted--are truly good.  Thank you, Kim.  :)

Nut Roll

'Not the most appetizing picture, I'm thinking, but since I didn't think to take one after the nut roll was baked, this is the only shot I have of it.  Mom loves nut rolls but hadn't had one in a few years since going gluten-free in 2011 for various health issues, so I decided I'd bake her a gluten-free one and "Priority Mail" it to her for her birthday this week.  It reached her about twenty-two hours after I'd taken it out of the oven, which was the best I could have hoped for, and she loved it, but may I just say what a messy process this was!  I used this recipe but with a different gluten-free flour mixture, and while it did taste quite good, it seemed like surely, this was twice the amount of filling needed?!  I was smart enough, at least, to have decided from the start the other day to divide the dough and filling into three nut rolls, considering the first my trial one and whichever was the best of the other two the one I'd send Mom.  'So glad I did it that way--three cheers for thinking ahead, yes--because the filling I added to the first roll seeped through the dough and stuck to the baking pan I used.  The nut roll I ended up mailing with Mom's other birthday gifts was not messy-looking, but even though I'd spread a little less filling into that one and tried to wrap it more tightly than the first, and even though I'd rolled the dough between sheets of parchment paper too, the dough remained so sticky (as gluten-free dough always seems to be), it just didn't roll up into the beautiful log I'd envisioned.  (And by the time I baked the third roll, I hardly cared, since Mike doesn't eat many sweets and still had Christmas morning cinnamon rolls here anyway and I'm not a fanatic about these the way Mom is.)  Mom loved it, regardless, and was tickled with the tea pot address labels and stickers I'd included with it, as well, so all's well that ends well, and happy birthday, Mom.  :)  Of course, a few days after I'd made and mailed it, I found a magazine article that suggested using ready-made gluten-free pie crust and the same walnut filling to make gluten-free rugelach, which tastes--to me, at least--just like this nut roll did anyway, and yesssss, that will likely be the way I do this next time.  Given the large amount of dough that this recipe makes and the cost of the gluten-free flour mixture, and since it's a just-at-Christmas treat for (really) just one person anyway, going the easier route may be the way to do it next time.

For My Ballet Teacher

Winging its way across the state in today's mail are a letter and photos for my former ballet teacher.  One contact led to another a few months ago, and I finally learned the last name of the beautiful lady who taught ballet in my elementary school cafeteria thirty-four years ago.  Now that the kind and lovely Karen of my kindergarten memories had a last name and then an address, I was able to put words to paper finally and thank her for this sweet part of my childhood.  After school however-many days a week in 1982, my classmates and I would meet in the school cafeteria in our most basic workout clothes and ballet shoes and dance in a circle around ever-smiling Karen.  She is one of a number of people who graced my life as a child who was just undeniably Meant to Work with Children.  She was just so good with us--and you can see it in her face in these pictures. 

I still remember the basic ballet positions, although the classes now seem to have been at least as much a time for us all to run around the circle giggling and performing Disney soundtrack-accompanied "Mousercize" as they were an opportunity to learn to dance.  We thought we were all prima ballerinas, though, I'm sure, especially after all the lessons in long-sleeve t-shirts and sweatpants culminated that winter in our donning pink and silver satin sequinned leotards and tutus for our holiday performance at the high school.  My ballet shoes got lost in the shuffle at some point, but I still have my leotard and tutu--and they smell and feel exactly as they did when I first received them, I noticed while sorting some things at my parents' house this past fall.  There is nothing about me that will have made me memorable to Karen--she owned a dance studio in addition to offering these introductory classes in the schools, so I am just one of the hundreds of people who have enjoyed her teaching and sweetness over the years--but she and the joy of her after-school lessons have been fondly remembered by me --and by my mom, who also thought my instructor was fantastic ("Just to be able to coral all you girls, let alone teach you to dance. . . !")--all this time, so Karen will soon be receiving a thank you card and these pictures.  And I hope they find her well. 

♥

Then Stuffed Came Along

If we had a couch, Stuffed would somehow manage to take that over too.  :) 

I've Waited All Week for This

Ahhhh!  I made it through the past two nights at work, treated myself to both this pretty Primrose and a bottle of ZzzQuil before heading home and climbing into bed this morning, and slept the sleep of the ZzzQuil-drugged:  I woke at 4:00 this afternoon, nine sweet hours later.  Bliss!  A cranberry bagel with cream cheese for breakfast, a salad and almonds for lunch, and later, chili with cornbread for supper.  For the first time since the night after Christmas, my head and eyes feel good enough to let me read again, so I've spent this evening curled up in a blanket-nest in my chair with J.K. Rowling-writing-as-Robert-Galbraith's Career of Evil.  'Am off for the next few days and fully intend to rest as much as possible, alternating books and movies and naps, to get this cold out of my system. 

A Lavender Christmas Breakfast Table

I woke up with a sore throat Christmas morning--The Christmas Cold revisited for the second time this month, a new record for me!--and am still battling it, the stuffed-up head, the runny nose, and the complete fatigue a few days later, but this Christmas was lovely.  As has been tradition each year we've been married, I made our Christmas breakfast cinnamon rolls late Christmas Eve (or in the wee hours of Christmas morning, since I went to bed at 2 am this time), but instead of setting the table in this year's color--last year the table was orange, 2013's was a buttery yellow and cream, 2012's was pink, and 2011's was aqua--I just frosted and covered the rolls and went to bed. 

I woke up at 7 am with the sore throat that didn't let me sleep any longer, so I got up, set the table in lavender, and made all the casseroles and side dishes that were to go with our supper.  'A good thing, as I would fall asleep almost seconds after eating that night. 

These two purple-winged cherub bookends are always on my shelves, but they struck me a few weeks ago as perfect for our Christmas table, so a lavender Christmas, it became.  The tiny cupcake and ball ornaments beside them were from my aunt Heidi years ago.  

Mom gave me the lavender napkins, candle, purple tinsel-garland, and the gorgeous Chickadee card this year with my Christmas gifts, since I'd mentioned the lavender table idea to her while home last month.  

The snowflake-shaped candle holder below was a gift from Aunt Laurie this year. 

The snowflake spreader was only twenty-five cents on clearance at Walgreens years ago, and I've used it every Christmas morning.  Mom found me the beautiful lavender snowflake ornament and hobnail ramekin-that-served-as-a-butter-dish below.

I'd forgotten until Christmas morning that I had thrown our usual snowflake-patterned lace tablecloth into the hamper a couple weeks ago when I'd noticed a stain on it, and since I wasn't up to doing last-minute laundry Christmas morning, I used a piece of leftover white kitchen curtain material over one of our lavender-patterned flat sheets.  I've spent most of the weekend sleeping and reading in bed and in my chair, but it's still been a sweet holiday.  As I was getting ready to leave for work last night, my supervisor called to tell me I didn't need to come in--BLESSED surprise!  ♥--so that gave me an extra night off to recover.  'Two more days off, so I'm confident I'll be starting the new year in better health.  And I wrap up this Christmas with a relieved "Whew! I pulled it off!" as I head back to bed.  :)  'Hope you've all had a sweet weekend.

Merry Christmas Eve

My favorite day of the year.  This Christmas Eve feels strange both because of my sleep/work schedule and because of the weather:  I just woke up a little after 4 pm after having worked last night, and it is still 51° outside as I write this at 7:30 pm.  We have a fan on in here and all the windows  wide open and I have yet to turn on the stove or oven for supper-cooking and cookie-baking.  Odd day.  Mike and I both got to see our families this past week although each visit was too brief.  And yes, Mom and Dad loved their "Alice Otter."  Mom squealed and squealed while pulling the white tissue paper away from it as she opened the package, and she was as tickled with Alice's doily-cap as I was.  :)  Mike and I also made her and Dad a cd of "their" songs from 1968 when they finally met for the first time when he was on leave from the service and a few others of their favorite songs--"Wichita Lineman" by Glen Campbell, "Crimson and Clover" by Tommy James and the Shondells,  "Both Sides Now" by Judy Collins, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Marvin Gaye, "For Once in My Life" by Stevie Wonder, "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young, "Cherish" by Kool and the Gang, and a few more--and that was a big hit with them too.  ♥  I managed to get tomorrow off work, as well, so it will be a late and happy night of cooking, baking, Emmet Otter-watching, and gift-wrapping here.  I eagerly await the moment it will suddenly--just like that!--feel like Christmas.  So far tonight, it feels more like just a happy and festive night off from work, but the moment is coming. . . .A merry Christmas to everyone celebrating, and a peaceful night and weekend to you all.  ♥