Pre Thanksgiving Rocks Once More!

Oh, the holiday season has been officially kicked off. I have already been knitting presents stocking up on fabric for gifts, combing through ideas but our Pre-thanksgiving celebration with the friends we love so dearly truly is the first official celebration with many more to come. This is the forth Sunday prior to thanksgiving that we have had "our" holiday. This year to add to it, I got to spend some extra time with my most fabulous niece, Kaylin before she had to return to WI, so this is a rundown of the whole perfect day.

First for those who don't know I am on a huge baking kick, I am on a quest to become better, love making cookies (not that I need them) have been loving making baked breakfast items (my scones are starting to kick ass) and also I absolutely love pecan pie, it is a must have this week, and not something that I have really any other time of year. In the past I have been delighted to make my pecan treats with friends families farmed pecans, this year I had to rely on Schnucks, which didn't disappoint. I tried to involve the kids, they are great at watching the mixing process, and like mushing the dough, but than I had to take over and let them play on their own.
This is how the cookies looked prior to baking them. Oh how they smelt of pecan pie. The recipe was simple and straight forward and sure to be a hit for anyone. I didn't know how many cookies I could expect, so I ended up with 40 for a double recipe, but the recipe states that you can get 3 dozen out of one confirming that yes, I could make this cookies more bite size. I would also like to put a plug in here about how much I love my sil pat, such a wonderful thing.

And the cookies looked great with the indian corn, all done, pecan pie looking and oh so delicious.

After the cookies, we had to bid farewell to our guests and move onto more serious business. A nap for Asher, cleaning for the parents and the spice rub for the turkey, bacon fat, garlic and herbs from outside. And the decorating of the table, a very important step.

Upon Asher awake, we made stuffing in a massive bowl.

And had enough down time to enjoy an afternoon beer....

Before heading to the park and enjoying the slide.

And then our guests arrived. Although some hadn't had such an enjoyable weekend as us and they weren't able to join, we missed them a lot and hope that all of the kiddos are doing okay today!!

The dessert table looked great.

Ben made a chocolate hickory nut (his b-day present from the Madison farmers market) tort and Eric's mom brought a pecan apple pie. And the cookies, oh so good!

The Glessners were able to join us a bit later and add to the fun for Asher, he was lonely as the only kid under 11. Luca double fisted his dessert:

And the table this morning full of empty bottles, lots of glasses, scraps of dessert, a great reminder of all we have to be thankful for.

The Serger Lives!!!!!!!!

What a day and evening. Sarah has deflowered my serger with it's wonderful new power cord and petal. It has been now used in this house! Hooray for White having replacement cords, pretty much costing almost half the price of the machine, but hey, I get a serger for half the price, and as a present to me for by b-day. So Sarah got to make some cloth wipes and find out just how wonderful the serger edging is. If anyone needs any wipes made, you can now just come to my house. Even Matt can make one, so you can too!

Some food pictures, Ben had a food drop off today, I got to make the pizza, it was so hard to not lick it for a quick taste. Ben made a pine nut chocolate tort, so yummy looking, I didn't lick it though, just the bowl with the filling and am riding on the promise that Ben will be making another tomorrow for our prethanksgiving celebration! Oh how I am dreaming of the wonderful Moore free range turkey! Slathered in some organic bacon fat (healthy, it's organic) rubbed with lots of garlic and herbs! Oh and the stuffing, don't even get me started on that, good sausage in it and nice and moist. I am quite particular about my stuffing, it has to be just like grandma Mary's and ben has fancified it a bit, celery root, additional herbs and of course the good sausage makes all the difference, definately not a kosher thanksgiving at this Lubchansky household, but oh so yummy! I am drooling now.

Off to eat ice cream with some Milo sprinkled on top.

The New Space

So with things going well in catering world for Ben, I have partitioned off a section of my craft room to make room for an office. The closet was a great choice and allowed more space than just the little computer desk we originally intended. A few magazines from the library helped make the most or our small space.
Our beautiful cork board from our corks collected while in southern illinois, plus some restaurant fillins.
The trim that I bought years ago, you know to be cool and decorate the bottom edge of some pants in college, fyi- I now know that I am not cool and trying to be so isn't worth the effort- so the trim edges some shelves, making them look less like the menards scrap of particle board that they are.

And of course the desk, fashioned from the original piece of particle board, very dense stuff so for 5 bucks we went with it. Mod Podge and momentos later it is a great collage to enjoy.

The State of Things

at our home. I love this time of year. The squirrels have finally discovered mr. happy and are gnawing at his mouth. I put my recycled tin can flower out handcrafted by the lovely hands of ms. stacey

and was admiring the blooms of our calendula. With this warm weather we were lucky to get some blooms, which were quickly thrown into the cauldron to make Asher's diaper cream.

And who doesn't love a good melting pumpkin... our last remains of Halloween, now in the compost with the chickens.

Quilt Finished...

...not a moment to soon. The final hand stitching on the bias tape was complete on the final curve of the road on 127 as we aproached Von Jacob Winery on Saturday evening. The card completed in the parking lot and a huge sense of satisfaction over actually giving a wedding present to someone, handcrafted the week before, at their actual wedding! You can see that Asher was really attached to the quilt, more probably good ridence from his perspective. He did have the opportunity to leave his mark on it though, some nice tugs on it as I was sewing, making for some decoratively un-straight lines- who likes straight anyway?

So the evening was lovely, roaring fires on the outside patio, a great touch.

While we are not good at taking pictures at weddings, and a few were out of focus, Ben did catch Natalie with Asher. She looked fabulous, her bridesmaids had some of the best dresses I have seen at a wedding, and it was so wonderful to see her after way to long of a time of not seeing her.

And a lovely day spent in the area the next day. On Natalie's suggestion we hiked the Little Grand Canyon- loads of fun, good hike.

We visited some vineyards and had two great meals in Carbondale. One at Harbaughs Cafe, a great little breakfast joint and

Longbranch Coffee house. The second was absolutely fabulous, vegetarian, local and organic. All things that we love. Ben had some great dumpling dish, I had a fantastic pizza and Asher had a beautiful plate of banana and brown rice. A couple of lattes to go and we were on our way home.

Some Artsy shots of the 30 Yr. old Mama & her Boy

Yesterday was my 30th birthday and it was awesome. I really have nothing but good feelings about being 30 and am so excited to see where life takes me over the next decade. Ben surprised me with a babysitter and dinner at a newly opened old restuarant, good food and of course company. Still made it home in time for a craft evening with the ladies and then cozied up to the first fire of the season. Oh, our house is so toasty!

Let's Try the return again

So we are now a home online! Hooray. So hopefully more crafting to come. As a last minute girl at all times I have given myself 6 days to make a wedding present quilt. after some investigation of the couples registry, three color combo swaps, today began the cutting and piecing together.

Things are going great. I had a wonderful weekend of programs in Busey Woods, Here is my collection of fall photos there. We just fell back, so my extra hour was well appreciated after an incredibly loooong couple of days. Ben catered, Asher sick/teething, fussy regardless. So anyway here is the lovely fall that we are enjoying. Thank goodness for cold evenings, the maples are stunning.

And me out by my lonesome, enjoying the fall weather.

The new Shower

So as an anniversary gift, Ben worked his ass off, ripped out our old surround and retiled in the bathroom. I was in time to see his detailed edging finished. All this over a weekend, when the boy and I were up in WI, plus he worked two shifts at the restaurant! I love when we are a super productive family!

The Mom Cut?

Well, while Asher may have played subconsciously into the decision, the heat and need for a change from the Willie braids really played a bigger part. It was time to cut it off, send the braid to locks for love and be done with it. Ben did the deed this time, I trimmed things up a bit more, adding appropriate layers and there you have a free hair cut. I am liking the shortness, I haven't returned to this length for such a long time, if ever. Now I get to buy some cute new barrettes :)

Hope all is well in your world.

Hoping for a Come Back

As I am settling into balancing motherhood with work, I hope to get some more time for me and crafting and blogging about things other than Asher. My craft room is organized and I have been plugging away at things, but not a ton at once, typically I have a project that takes 5 times as long as it did before baby... so bear with me, I have however done somethings.

The Wallet

I have been in dire need for a new wallet for a long time, last week was my day. With borrowed sewing machine in tow (thank you rd) I whipped out a project in one day. Loving the air conditioned room (only one in the house) I did some sewing and it felt great!

I also need to get back into the swing of taking pictures of things other than the boy... more to come soon.