Nell Hill

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So I am a schizophrenic decorator.  As I tell my dh there are a looooot of houses in my head. : )  Some lovely images locked inside there come from Mary Carol Garrity’s Nell Hill’s  shop and the books she has written showcasing her signature style. Back Porch Musing features a photo tour of the Kansas shop  Pat at Back Porch has a very similar style herself. Her home was just nominated as best decorated for Christmas by the Old Painted Cottage. 

 
You can see a picture of a table setting using a covered sugar bowl as an individual soup tureen.  Mary Carol is a big fan of using traditional pieces in unconventional ways.  You likely deduced that is a huge draw for me. <g>  A favorite holiday title of mine is Nell Hill’s Christmas at Home.  Any of her books provide lots of inspiration however.   

Green and thrifty gift wrap etc

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I am not such a hot gift wrapper. I have a hard time getting excited about something that is destined to be torn to shreds.  It is compounded by the fact that we generally end up rock-paper-scissoring who has to finish up the Christmas wrapping late into Christmas Eve….

I am not too fond of gift wrap from a visual perspective either. Much of it fails the cheesey test. I prefer brown paper packages tied up with string. Or ribbon.  Or burlap.  Or….  really anything! I have seen a couple additional wrap options in recent weeks that had me excited about wrapping once again. Or as excited as I am likely to get. ; )  Here goes:

Wrap_br
Brown paper packages. I have saved our grocery bags and laid them flat under my mattress to iron them out. Tie options – burlap strips, raffia, dried flowers, pinecones, tissue paper flowers, decorator ribbon. Brown paper makes really nifty flowers as well.

Blueprint_paper
Newsprint. The plain black and white pages look stunning with bold red ribbon. This image is from Danny Seo, the eco-editor from Country Home magazine. His blog is a wealth of green decor ideas!  While you are at it you can use that newspaper to make very cool paper snowflakes.

Magazine pages as wrap. Ooohh very pretty! But then I would have to cut my magazines…. : /  Ok maybe just the yucky ones. Again – visit Danny Seo! 

finger paint paper.  What else do you DO with all those abstract-ish artworks anyway? 

burlap bags or fabric gathered into a bunch with ribbon at the top. Great for remnants and perfect for those of us who like to be done with our wrapping of odd shaped gifts right quick.

Homemade tortillas

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Tort
I am not a foodie which explains why there are maybe five posts under Chuck Wagon here. This one is an exception however. I got the recipe from a friend over a dozen years ago and made them a few times then stashed it. This year we have resurrected the recipe and treated ourselves to countless batches of warm soft whole-grain tortillas which rival those at the health food store:

2c flour (I use half whole wheat)
1tsp salt

Cut in:
1/2 c shortening (I use oil)

Add:
1/2 c warm water

Knead until smooth and flecked with air bubbles. Now at this pt the recipe says to place in a greased bowl and refrigerate for 4-24 hrs. We have done this chilled and fresh. Actually they are easier to just roll immediately imo.  If you chill the dough then return it to room temp before rolling as thin as you can. Bake on a super hot ungreased griddle for about 20 seconds each side.
Makes 8-10 tortillas.

Home

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We are grounded today. On a Divine Time-Out.  The children have taken turns erupting since Saturday. In a weird way it’s ok though. It forces us to be here and be settled which is my goal anyway. Seems God has a way of pulling us back to our center when we start to scurry. He ‘makes us lie down’.

While on our imposed quiet time I have been devouring the Down to Earth Blog. I have been chewing over Rhonda Jean’s description of the steady pace of her days. She knows what to expect when she begins her days and ends them with hearty satisfaction, looking forward the challenges of a new day to come. About home she says:
"…my home is like my work of art. I hope it will become my masterpiece. I
believe that I have done the best work of my life at home. I might not
have been paid for it, but it paid off in many ways money never could
have."

Indeed it does. How often we look for fulfillment and purpose elsewhere.  How rarely it is to found anyplace else. We have been given such a gift. It is my goal to keep that gratitude foremost in my mind and make the most of it.

Christmas Symbols

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My second Christmas confession – I have yet to finish a Jesse Tree devotion with the kids. We have made it to day 4 or 5 many years but can’t seem to get the thing done.   It was never lack of motivation but rather life intervening. I have more or less abandoned the idea of ‘getting it done’, not in this season of life anyway. That’s ok. This isn’t a race and our preparations are for our own hearts only. We will continue to add to the tree as our decorations are finished. (the gingerbread clay will take another day or so to completely dry) 

We will also talk about what all the Christmas trappings symbolize.  This unit study has tons of explanation and links. Maybe it will be a banner year and we will get to all 24. More likely we will hit them as we can and be happy to cover several. That’s ok, too. No one is keeping track. Hopefully the conversations we have will remind us to think a bit harder about what this season means for our family. Then it will have been a success.

Wishing you a peaceful,  prayer-filled first Sunday of Advent.

Cornmeal Flapjacks and other Saturday treats

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Started the morning with Cornmeal flapjacks.  We adapted the recipe from Marilu Henner’s Healthy Life Kitchen cookbook:

I cup flour (we used barley)

1/2 cup cornmeal (I often replace with millet flour)

3 T sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup milk

1/8 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup yogurt

2 eggs

1/2 stick soy margarine (wouldn’t touch it if you paid me – we used full fat goat milk yogurt with no extra oil)

You no doubt figured out we tripled the recipe. : )  Serve with maple or blueberry syrup. These were exceptionally light.

While we were in the mood we mixed some coconut milk with goats milk, sweetened it and froze it in popsicle molds for dessert later.  Then, put some vegetable barley soup in the crock pot:

1/2 cup pearled barley

1/2 lb ground meat (we used half beef/half venison)

14oz diced tomatoes

clove garlic

7 cups water

1/2 cup ea: celery, carrot, onion

2 beef bouillon cubes (we skipped since I am allergic)

bay leaf

frozen vegs (had leftovers from last night)

the meat was leftover so already browned. We tossed it all into the roaster oven on low and it’s quite good already. The original recipe called for basil and I would have been much happier without it. I really only like to visit basil in spaghetti sauce and never any other time however.

We are kneading some whole wheat bread dough for dinner to accompany the soup and chilling some yogurt that set through the night.  Pretty typical weekend food prep around here. What’s on your menu?

Knitting podcasts

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Tol
Lion Brand yarn has some podcasts available here. The new catalog came by mail this week.  Oooooooh Aaaaaah!  Absolutely gorgeous colors and the backdrops were incredible too for that matter. The most impressive to me was the Tree of Life afghan.  A work of art. Nothing I could swing.  Maybe Rebecca! : ) I love the tone on tone pattern.

Nature Inspired Holiday decor

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I confess I stress over the Christmas tree.  Stupid I realize but given how much I cringe over cheesey and how enticing breakable ornaments are to both our pets and our children it is usually a dilemma each year this time.My goal this year is to toss anything no longer in decent shape and replace with natural decorations. The floral section of Walmart/Target/Michaels etc has a variety of ‘vase fillers’ that would make perfect ornaments with the addition of a eye screw as holder. They are much less expensive than the ornaments available. A bin of vase filler feather balls came out to less than a dollar each for instance.

In keeping with our goal of using our hands and hearts to fill the house, we are stringing popcorn and berry garland and picking up some burlap for the tree skirt. There is dough chilling for the faux gingerbread ornaments we hope to roll out tomorrow night. In the coming weeks we will pick up some oranges and cloves to make pomanders. Planning to dry some orange and apple slices to hang on the tree as well. Here are a couple resources:

Natural Christmas: A Madderlake book

Natural Christmas

Colonial Williamsburg
Natural Christmas 2
Country Christmas