Presents lined up awaiting hats...

A fun skirt that needs to be worn with pants, whipped up for the holidays last night. Still trying to decide if I like it, or it I would like it more if you couldn't see my lets through it, like maybe it needs a black lining.

A fun collage from picasa, just playing, will probably be tons of posts today.

The new Kitchen work space

So things are going well in catering world and Ben got a new toy which he better love! The guys came over yesterday and helped move the 400 lb beast into the kitchen and get it hooked up. We can now cook on 6 burners and bake more cookies than ever at one time, that wasn't a true amount, but as our last oven didn't really circulate heat well, I think this bad boy will cook 4 times as many cookies in the same amount of time. Just think of how my holiday baking productivity has increased? Full sheet trays of cookies that could be 4 dozen and lots more for when making mini's I could probably get 8 dozen spritzers on there. I can't wait for all the baking to commence. I am on cookie dough duty through the weekend and will be baking next weekend.

holiday gifting

Oh, I love the holiday season. I am hoping that I haven't overwhelmed myself being too ambitious. I feel as though things are going pretty well but am starting to feel the time constraints of Christmas Eve being only two weeks away!!! Holy cow!!! Coming so soon. 14 days- that's it. Hope everyone is still enjoying the countdown. Here are a few peeks at some of the things I have been making.

The Ice Storm

Instead of snow in these parts we were slammed with some freezing rain, slick sidewals and roads and all that goodness. While the during kinda sucks, the aftermath of such an event is absolutely beautiful. It is loke everything is covered in glass, and as things move, the whole world becomes a windchime.

Makings of a Saturday Night

It was a cold,freezing rain sort of day here, I wish is were atypical for central Illinois winters, but unfortunately not. Ben got called out of work, due to weather and reservation cancellations, so we had a night at home. And we both wanted pizza, it was the type of night and day for that matter, when ordering out would have been fabulous, but we didn't want some poor delivery dude having to drive in such weather, so we decided to make dough and pizza for the first time since Asher's birth!!! Could not believe it had been so long! Pizza's always been my go to meal, I feel that I make a damn good one, so for it to have been sooo long seems ridiculous, but there you have it. Pizza dough, rolled out, brushed with an olive oil, sage, chiles concoction, topped with brocoli from our garden, feta from WI, red peppers from Jon, red onion from our garden, don't forget the salt and pepper before the final layer of cheese, also from WI.
We used the Moores whole wheat pastry flour, which is fabulous and unfortunately only had enough yeast to single the recipe, so no frozen dough for in pinch pizza making. But it was yummy gulped down with a nice bottle of beer- good eats for a night in.
And then a night of crafting: This old sheet found at an estate sale
Turned into this lovely spring feeling skirt. It is fun and a bit twirly, I love it.