Holiday Party Appetizers, Cute Candy Cane Owls.

Oh, it can't be Christmas season already,

can it?

This photo is not mine.  

Aren't these cute?!!!

I found them on Pinterest 

and the link for them led here.

http://felt.co.nz/listing/69570

  I'm going to try sewing my own version

of them for our grandkids.

 With Christmas coming up on us

so fast, I'd better get started with them.

I'm still feeling like it's Thanksgiving time.

At least in my  own little tiny blogging world.

Because I wanted to post some of the 

recipes I tried for Thanksgiving...

I think they would be good for Christmas 

appetizers, or for football watching,

or for New Years Eve.

  We had Thanksgiving

dinner late in the day, so we made

an assortment of appetizers for our lunch.

My daughter snapped a photo of her 

plate and it shows the only photo of 

the Caramelized Onion, Mushroom

& Gruyere Tarts that we have.

Oh goodness, this recipe is a keeper.

The mushroom tart is on the upper right 

one o'clock position on her plate.

The recipe is 

HERE 

on the Brown Eyed Baker blog.

 

  The recipe for these Cucumber Bites

 with Herb Cream Cheese

 and Cherry Tomatoes is 

Here 

on the E-recipes card blog.

These were good,

 and the herb cream cheese 

would also be good on top of a cracker

or stuffed into cherry tomatoes.

Those cucumber bowls are just one inch tall

with the centers scooped out with a melon baller.

The filling is easy as can be.

It's just a block of cream cheese, 

1/4 cup ranch dressing and dill weed.

You can make these about an hour

ahead of time, but I found the 

cucumbers got a bit watery after that.

Cranberry Brie Bites

Another winner, and the recipe is

  HERE

on the Tablespoon blog.

Now I don't have a photo of my

Brown Sugar Maple Pumpkin Pie,

but if you want to try the best pumpkin pie

I've ever tasted ... well you can.

You just have to bake it yourself.

It's made with the good stuff,

like cream, and real maple syrup, 

with warming spices and vanilla.

It smells delicious when baking

and it's one of those pies that you 

can't stop thinking about even weeks

later.  I'm going to have to make it again.

It's HERE_

on a blog called Simply Scratch.

It's darker than your normal Libby's 

pumpkin pie recipe because of the brown sugar

and people will wonder just what kind

of pie it is, because of it.  

Just shove a fork full of pie at them,

and they won't care one bit about the 

darker color.  It's just plain good.

Okay, I'm  off to cut out some 

fabric for those cute owls above.

Where There's Smoke...

On a previous trip to Mt. Shasta

to see our daughters family, I stopped in

Shasta Retreat, a neighborhood in 

 Dunsmuir, to capture a bit

of the newly emerging fall colors.

It's a special place to my own

family. One that my cousins and I 

to return to now and then.

It's the neighborhood

where our moms grew up.

As kids they (our moms) 

helped Grandpa build 

their home there.

I like having the opportunity to stop 

there once in a while on my way to 

and from our daughter's home.

  I have no photos for the rest

of this post...

~~~

Last Thursday we went up to Mt. Shasta

to help our daughters family in anyway 

we could.  Their house caught fire

and it burned about a third of the house.

The rest of the house is severely smoke 

damaged and most everything is lost.

Anything plastic expands in the heat

of the fire and it gets permeated with

the smoke.  Once cooled it all contracts

and there's nothing you can do to remove

the smell. All their electronics are gone.

Just about everything is damaged beyond

repair.  The restoration company tested

their clothing and the smoke damage

is too extensive to clean and it's cheaper

in the long run to just purchase new clothing.

Beyond the loss, 

there's also the emotional damage

to deal with. 

At first the shock of the fire

 helped to mask the feelings.

After that,

 there's  a wild range of emotions

to deal with.

Everyone but Jon, our son in law,

was on their way to school.

Jon tried to fight the fire for a very 

short time trying to get a handle on it

after calling 911.

He received some burns which 

are not too bad thank goodness,

and  then there was also smoke inhalation. 

He was treated at the hospital

and is okay.

Wiring or a porch light

 was damaged when a company

delivered firewood to their home.

It's delivered in  wood and wire

structures that resembles large 

closets with roofs on them.

Each one is large enough for 

half a cord of wood (I think).

They're delivered from a truck using

a fork lift (I believe) and the structures

were set up along the front of the house

against the garage door. 

One of those structures hit the porch light

and then a week or so later the

damaged wiring started the fire.

The garage, a music room,

and a workshop room where Jon's 

works for his own electronics business

burned. The rest of the house

is blackened with soot and smoke

and I can't even explain the smell

that permeates everything.

They do have insurance.

It's going to be a struggle for quite awhile.

Temporary housing is in short supply

up there because of the wildfire that

swept through the town of Weed a couple

months ago. That fire burned more

than 100 homes.

Kristine's family needs

 to be close to their schools.

There's five different schools 

that everyone goes to because of their

age differences. There's preschool for 

Katelyn, elementary for Conner,

AJ in middle school,

Isaiah in high school and Kristine

is taking courses for nurses training

at the college in Weed.

They need a place to live temporarily

while their own home gets repaired.

It's going to be tough to find a home

for 6 people, 2 dogs and 2 cats.

Right now they have a place to stay

until the day after Thanksgiving.

After that ~~~ we'll see.

So anyway,

I'm going to be away from the blog

for a short while.

We're getting ready for company

that's coming for Thanksgiving.

Kristine and her family will be here.

Our son and granddaughter

will be up from Los Angeles.

Plus we have Rick's mom and her 

husband coming over from Brookings 

as well. 

We'll have a full house

and a heart felt THANKSgiving.

We're grateful 

that everyone is okay in spite of the fire.

Kristine's family will be strong.

It's just going to take some time

for anything to feel 

somewhat normal again.

Take care and enjoy your Thanksgiving.

I'll be back sometime the following week.

I hope!

2014 American Cancer Society Think Pink Tea

This years Think Pink Tea

might have been the last one.

Unfortunately there were only two

of us hosting a table that weren't 

part of the volunteers who work

at the ACS thrift store.

This year, there were even fewer tables

than last year.  Just four tables.

It wasn't hardly worth the work it took to

put this tea together for the ACS volunteers

or the hostesses.

This year I used an 

Autumn Sunflower theme.

I started getting everything together

in late September 

 as the ACS didn't let us

know if we were even having a tea

until then.

We were wondering and waiting.

I didn't want to go to the expense

of buying everything I needed,

if we weren't going to have the tea.

This year I reused the tablecloths 

that I had sewn for a previous tea.

I also reused the chargers, 

but the matching napkin holders

were used for the first time

along with new napkins.

 You can't really see clearly

what's inside the gift box,

so I added this sign to entice everyone

to use their raffle tickets on my centerpiece. 

The tea was held at the

 Win River Resort and Casino. 

 They supplied the room as well as the 

tea and food served.  They didn't charge us

for the room or the tea service, so 100%

of everyones entrance fee and raffle ticket money

went to the American Cancer Society.

They also let us use their chair covers.

You can see the difference between these

two photos with the chair covers

off and now on.

We got to choose between black and white.

  

The gift bags hold coupons

for the ACS thrift store, the program,

and a sandwich zip baggie 

in case my guests want to take  

 leftovers home.

 I also included extra napkins 

and a thank you

note for each of my guests.

The tea plate included four 

 little sandwiches of egg salad,

 ham and grainy mustard,

smoked salmon and a cucumber sandwich.

There was also a tiny scone.

The sweet side of the plate included

a chocolate covered strawberry and

a nut cookie.

We had to work around the table legs

for place settings so that's why

the chargers aren't spaced evenly.

It really shows in the above photo,

so I wanted to explain why it looks

a bit off.

 

Joyce is my husband's cousin,

but we've always called her Aunt Joyce

because she's a generation older than us.

This is her Gingerbread Man Table.

She used  gingerman cookie cutters

for a napkin holder.

  

The last two tables were put together

by the lady who took over the Think Pink

Tea after someone else retired from the job.

She used a Candy Land Game theme for this table.

I like the clear plates that let the placemats 

show through.

Her centerpiece was a collection

of candies from a local candy shop.

Her other table was a garden  theme.

Those windows in the background

let in a lot of light, making taking photos 

in this direction a bit difficult.

That's it for the tables.

Kinda disappointing because

there used to be from

 28 to 34 tables in previous years.  

 Getting to see everyone's ideas for the tables

was what I really enjoyed.

I miss that.

Here's the sales table

they set up with items from the thrift store.

This is were the ACS volunteers shine.

I think they set up beautiful displays

of the merchandise.

Everything here was donated

 to the ACS thrift store.

They also put on a terrific fashion show,

using models of all sizes and each was wearing

clothing and shoes that were from the thrift store.

That was a lot of fun to watch.

Afterwards Joyce and I talked with

a member of the ACS team.

She said that the tea would be canceled 

next year if they were unable to get

12 people to host the tables.

I think that's for the best.

It was disappointing to see only four tables.

So, it's going to be a wait and see

if we can do this again next year.

That in itself leaves me in a bind,

not knowing whether to prepare for

next years tea or not.  I'd like to try for

a woodland Christmas theme

using whites and browns.

Now's the time to find the stuff 

I need for it, but I also don't want

to be spending money unnecessarily.

We'll see what happens,

but I do think it's time to give it up.

Sigh,

I can't believe

 I've never watched this

until  now.  

Especially since

I've seen Sleepless In Seattle

more times than I care to admit.

If you're familiar with Sleepless...

then you know what I mean.

Test Post

This is a test post 

to see if I can get the e-mail subscription

option to work.

I've deleted the old one

and reinstalled another.

So... we'll see if that solved the problem.

I've subscribed to my own posts

so hopefully I'll get this post in

my own email.

I'm not sure if the posts

will continue to those of you 

who had already subscribed.

 Hopefully this will work for me. 

Edited to add:
It's been several hours since
I posted this and have been
waiting to see this post forwarded
to my email account.
So far nothing.
Would anyone know how long
it takes to get an email after the 
post has been published?

Manton Apple Festival

 Saturday we drove 45 miles up to Manton

to attend the apple festival.

  This was our first time to attend

even though we've lived here for 

13 years.  We used to attend the 

Sebastopol Apple Festival 

when we lived in Napa, CA.

 I loved that festival. 

Manton's Apple Festival is a much 

smaller version, but still fun.

It's held in a field near the museum

in a valley that was devastated  with 

wildfire in 2005.

The hillside in view on the other side

of the festival was bare of trees as the

fire went through that area

burning 1,830 acres.

 

I don't know what they were baking 

in the Dutch ovens, but it did include

gallon cans of apples and bottles

of caramel sauce.

Too bad they weren't using fresh

ingredients and making the dessert

from scratch. I guess though,

when you're feeding crowds

of apple enthusiasts you take the

shortcuts as needed. 

Yummy looking apple hand pies.

Lots of jelly and jams ....oops,

those are body scrubs.

There was even some wine grapes

available for sale.

Olive oil tasting.

Lots of jewelry for sale also.

Ready for the pie baking contest.

Mike Krueger

 (our local television meteorologist)

was one of the judges.

Cute tote bags for Halloween candy.

 Blue Grass / Country music 

The music was wonderful.

Gourds

I have about 4 gourds that I've 

purchased from this vendor.

They've been at several craft bazaars

that we've attended over the last few years.

 I'll probably see them again at the 

Christmas bazaar next month.

I usually buy one when I see them,

but the space on top of the Hoosier hutch

is already full of gourds now.

This pumpkin/jack o'lantern 

was very tempting.

Thinking of storage space

and that green stem were the deciding

factors against purchasing it.

 I wish they had left the stem

in it's natural color.

I liked it's toothy grin though,

and that you can turn the gourd

around to it's plain side for 

displaying the rest of the autumn season.

What a cool wrought iron garden gate. 

Burlap and lace totes.

I've seen burlap and lace combinations

quite a bit in the last couple of years.

Loved these cutting boards.

I  have two similar ones,

 that our son made in high school woodshop.

More pies and jams.

Looks like some serious business there.

They were still tasting pie 

when we passed by again later.

The guy with the red sash ~

he's the mayor of Manton.

I don't know who the other two judges are.

How about a scoop of vanilla ice cream

on that serving of pie?

I love this photo.

I think it's her hands

that evoke stories, or memories...

We loved this photographers photos.

This one of Mt. Lassen

 was seriously tempting.

  

~~~

Note to Mother Nature.

Enough already...please.

It's October and it was 101 degrees

yesterday.  That just isn't right. Okay?