Random Friday Bits and Bobs

Brrrr...baby it's cold outside!  I have new flannel pj's though so I should be fine.  Vintage trailers and flamingos on flannel?  Yes, please.  I can only lounge in them, sleeping in them would be a hot flash nightmare waiting to happen.

I'm obsessed with finding new snow boots this year.  I really want white with some fur.  I'm thinking about the ones pictured below but I'm not sure there is enough fur.  I have leather boots but I do need some new snow boots.  My last pair was a gift that I received from my husband when we lived on E Street.  Our house on E Street was a 2 bedroom with three small boys.  Hubby came home and told me he'd spent money that day on some thing for me and he knew I'd say we couldn't afford it but he loved me and thought I should have it.  Of course, I thought I was getting flowers. No go, it was snow boots from Cenex Farm Store.  They really were the best gift, I'm so happy he surprised me with boots instead of roses.  Bill and Fred's Excellent Construction bought boots for their bookkeepers. 

Jodi, do you still have your boots?

 I haven't started Christmas decorating however; I am digging around in the attic and finding some treasures to do a bit of Christmas crafting.  I'm also working on making some gifts this year.  The glue gun is loaded.  Hmmm, I wonder if I need a background check for a glue gun with Washington State's new gun laws going into effect in December.  Cuz it's a weapon and smokin' hot over here.

I hope to take the ornament box and create a shadow box.  I love the piles and boxes of Christmas bits and bobs.  Wouldn't it be great to just place piles all over the house and call it good?

Who does THIS?  Who checks out Homemade Decadence  by Joy the Baker and The 21-Day Belly Fix from their library at the same time?  Sigh.  It's not going so good over here.  I've only had time to flip through both of them, not really a lot of time to read right now.  Or bake.  Or diet.

 I did make a pumpkin coffee cake late week.  It wasn't in either book.  T'was delish!

Pumpkin Streusel Coffee Cake

• STREUSEL TOPPING:
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts
• 
  
• COFFEE CAKE:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup LIBBY'S® 100% Pure Pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

PREHEAT oven to 350° F. Grease and flour 9-inch round cake pan.

FOR STREUSEL TOPPING:
COMBINE flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is crumbly; stir in nuts.

FOR COFFEECAKE:
COMBINE flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter and sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

SPOON half of batter into prepared cake pan. Sprinkle 3/4 cup Streusel Topping over batter. Spoon remaining batter evenly over Streusel Topping; sprinkle with remaining Streusel Topping.

BAKE for 45 to 50 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely.        

*I am not promoting or getting paid, just passing along a tasty recipe from the Libby and Nestle website.  I don't get paid to write this blog.  Now or ever.  Amen.       

I am fine.  I did warn you this would be random.  So stop thinking that Tami's lost her mind.  I'm all here.

Now I am going to empty my house of all decor to prep for Christmas decorating.

There may be a tree or two going up this weekend.  HAH! 

Stay cozy!

Happy Veteran's Day

All gave some. some gave all.

A special thank you to all veterans today and always.

And a hug for my special veteran, That Sam I Am.

*For clarification the pic of Sam's chest was intentional, I wanted to get a shot of all the awards.

Island Chicks

 On Saturday, Shelly and I returned to Island Chicks in Anacortes.  This time Sheryl and Chris came with us. It was a gorgeous day in one of my favorite towns.

 I love JohnBob Cool Junk.  Those guys know what they are doing with vintage.  I always love what they put together and the best part is that everything in their booth is reasonably priced.  What's not to love about that?  I went in their booth three times and bought something every time.

 This booth was another favorite with a lot of red, Santas and vintage goodness.

 Okay, let's just stack up some old silver bits and bobs and make it great.  Who does that?  JohnBob, of course.

The white sled is a great idea and a good reminder that sometimes all white is best.

 After lunch we went to my favorite store in Anacortes, Pearl Button.  Jackie, the store owner and Island Chick Show creator had a little appreciation party for her customers.

 Everything was white, except for the wreaths from JohnBob.  She took the empty retail space next to her shop and made it a temporary party space.  It was so pretty, the food was amazing, the champagne was iced and her husband was a lot of fun.  I thought it was very generous of her to host a party that she couldn't attend.  Jackie was super busy running the show.

 After the party we had show and tell.  Yep, everything comes out of the bags and is shared on the street for all the world to ooh and ahh over.  There is a lot of,  ohmylandsyouonlypaidtenbucksforthatyouarebrilliant  going on at that point.

 Then we met more friends for a drink and fries.  A brief Hobby Lobby stop and we were home.  A wonderful, inspiring day with the girls!

Cozy Up

It's Fall Y'all and I do love this season.  There is something so wonderful about all of the colorful leaves, the Fall light, and the  spicypumpkin of a pumpkin latte or a pumpkin scone.

We like to cozy up at our house.  We get as close to hibernation as a family of bears.  The wood is stacked and ready.  We lit a fire for the first time on Sunday.  The weather has been so mild that this is the latest in our history of the Stone House to get toasty with the wood stove.

 The flannel sheets are on the beds.  I have new flannel pjs with vintage trailers and flamingos on them.

Pretty much a flannel board in the bedroom...

 The summer flowers are on the compost heap.  There are a few mums and cabbages planted for winter interest.

I made a pumpkin roll.  That is one messy job.  So worth it though.

It's all good but I just can't help myself, I am thinking about Christmas and I want to start decorating.  Badly.

I know, I know.  Slow down, enjoy the moment... but it's hard.  Really, really hard.

Maybe I'll just start upstairs...

Pumpkin Carving 101

Vern and Shelly hosted pumpkin carving in the party barn, a long time tradition that our guys have loved.  Mainly because it involves good food and a lot of it.  Shelly made her chicken wings for Sam and Braden's favorite potatoes, even though he is away at college.  There were bacon wrapped tater tots, stuffed mushrooms, meatballs, sticky pigs in a blanket, Karen's baking, dips and basically food for fifty.  

It's been years since Sam has been able to attend and he was excited.  Angela now knows what all the excitement is about.  Kassie cancelled her plans to visit Max to be at the party.  And Max surprised her by showing up at the party.

 We had a few years with no kids able to attend so we were pretty happy to have kids show up.  Even though they aren't kids anymore.

Danny and Braden!  Pumpkin carving party is a really good reason to move back to Washington.

 Karen had just visited Danny and Braden in MI so we had a great picture of them.  Not the same though...

Here's a dirty little secret... some years we don't actually carve pumpkins.  Too lazy.

But this year Shelly, Kassie and I carved.  And it was fun.

 Two owls and a pretty lace pumpkin!  I think I better start a pinterest board of ideas for next year.

One of my first posts on the blog was about the pumpkin carving party.  At that point I was just trying to get photos to show up despite my technical challenges.  I have been banging out posts since 2007.  

Happy Blogaversary to moi!  Aaaand many more...

Whatcha doin'?

Whatcha doin'?

Nothin'

What you doin'?

Nothin'

Hhhmmm

I'm not really sure what happened here at the Stone House this weekend except nothing.

Hubby and I were off work on Friday and had big plans to work on the '57 Aloha.  We needed a day with no wind and since it was windy and rainy on Friday we just never got started.  On anything.

We usually fill up our days off from work bustling around here, starting and finishing projects, getting things cleaned up, gettin'er done.

Not this time.

Besides laundry, sorting through some crafting supplies and a few drawers we did very little.  I ordered new flannel sheets from Pottery Barn.  That's something, right?  Friday we read, lounged and just a whole lot of nothing.  I suggested a trip to IKEA but we just didn't get going, not even motivated enough to go find some meatballs.

I got on the lazy train on Thursday evening, while Hubby was at work.  I watched the movie, Chef and then I watched Bad Judge and Parenthood on TV.  I watched more television on Thursday evening that I usually do in a month.  Ate pirate's booty for dinner. Don't judge me.

And then on Saturday, since Friday had been so great we pretty much went for a repeat.  We did leave the house though.  We ran errands in Bellingham, went car shopping (giving me a nervous stomach ache), and went to see Sam and Angela's new place.  It's a cute house in a really cute neighborhood for our cute newlyweds.  We went to D'Anna's for dinner with Sam and Angela and then home.  It was a fun day.

And since Sunday is a day of rest you can imagine the rest... church, football, dinner, more football and bed.

{yawn}

*a picture less post as I was too lazy to take any pictures.

We will return to the regularly scheduled programming today.  Stuff to do and all...