Last Day of December

It's hard to imagine that December is drawing to a close. I hope you had a blessed Christmas and that you have enjoyed this week between holidays. Since I never had the opportunity to share any of my  interior décor this year, I thought I would show a few pictures today. Due to circumstances, I minimized the number of trees this year and mostly concentrated on the main level of our home. I was able to begin on everything the day after Thanksgiving and had it all in place in time for the season's first gathering (book club) on November 28th. 

I will try to share some pictures of the decked-out kitchen soon. Until then, enjoy your evening. 

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve!

Merry Christmas!

We send you love this Christmas Day!

Blessings to you and yours.

A Little Bird "Tweet"

I'm always interested in little homemade projects and have a simple one to share. I happened to find the recipe for this online, but a little birdie could have told me just as easily! These homemade birdseed cakes are not only good tweets for our feathered friends, but are perfect for hostess gifts, stocking stuffers or even as adornment on packages. They go together easily, so don't be chicken to try them! You will need gelatin, water, corn syrup, flour,  wild bird seed, spray oil and pans/forms.

The only thing to consider when making these is that you need to factor in a day of drying time. I realize spare time is scarce as hen's teeth this time of year, but remember that the early bird gets the worm (or, in this case, seedcake)! 

Birdseed "Tweets"

1 envelope of gelatin mix

1/2 cup warm water

3 T corn syrup

3/4 cup flour

 4 cups birdseed

spray oil 

Bundt pan or "open" (on both top and bottom) cookie cutters to form cakes

In a large bowl, whisk together an envelope of gelatin mix and 1/2 cup warm water. Slowly add in corn syrup and flour, making certain there are no lumps. Stir in birdseed, a bit at a time, until all is well coated and everything is fully incorporated. If using a Bundt pan, spray before pressing in the birdseed mixture. If using cookie cutters, lightly spray before spooning in and then firmly pressing in the mixture. Insert a small piece of a drinking straw if using cookie cutters so that you will have a place to insert your twine or ribbon later. 

Birdseed cakes take at least 24 hours to fully dry. I placed mine in the refrigerator for a full day. The surface should be so hard that you are unable to leave any indentation on the cake before gently removing from pans.

Hang your wreath or ornaments with twine or ribbon. 

You may want to try these and, if so, they'll be 
something to crow about, I'm sure! 🐦

Deck the Halls...

We are glad that we were able to do our outdoor decorating the day after Thanksgiving because the weather was cooperative. It's always more enjoyable to deck the halls when the temperatures are mild and the sun is shining!

This old family sled seemed the perfect accent to use this year. 

I added an advertisement for sleigh rides that I created last year from a gift bag. Click here to revisit that post.

This year I decided to fill the planter with evergreen boughs, dried winterberry and magnolia branches.

Speaking of decorating, I want to share a product endorsement for something I used at my parents' home to secure their wreaths to their windows. The giant suction cups they'd used for years were losing their power so we decided to get new ones. During the search at the hardware store, however, I came across these.

Have you used them? Specially designed by Command for use on glass, they are doing the trick! 

Deck the halls with boughs of holly! 

National Cookie Cutter Week

This is National Cookie Cutter week. These kitchen tools, of course,  are used to cut out dough in a particular shape. Do you make cutout cookies? I bake a few recipes of this type and I do possess a small collection of cutters. I don't actually use these, but love to display them. They belonged to my paternal grandmother and were used to create sweet treats for my dad and my aunt as they were growing up.

Many of those which I use are plastic since that's been the modern-day trend and, in fact, this is the style I used growing up baking at home.

I also have some made of aluminum.

Considered to be a part of the cookie cutter family is a cookie press. This is mine and has an interesting little story. I requested and received this as a Christmas gift when I was a junior-high Home Ec. student. (I think that sentence dates me since today we would say I was a middle school family and consumer education student!)  I already enjoyed baking at that time and when this new electric version of an old gadget was advertised on television during the holiday season, I thought it would be great to have. Decades later, it still serves me well for spritz cookies. Yum!

This is known as a cookie press, too. After rolling a ball of dough, a design is pressed into the top with this terra cotta tool.

A balanced diet is a cutout cookie in each hand! 🍪

Tuesday's Tablescape

Today's tablescape is our setting used for the annual Advent by Candlelight evening at my parents' church. Open to the women of the church and community, it's a refreshing affair. The program serves as a wonderful reminder of the season's true meaning. My mother always hosts a table, so I am sharing pictures of the table we did.

We decided to use the dessert plates from my  Twelve Days of Christmas set. Manufactured by Better Homes and Gardens, they were carried by Walmart last year.

The colors and design appeal to me. We coupled them with olive chargers and bronze napkins and table runner. 

The matching cake plate served as a perfect base to the bronzed nativity set I hand painted. 

Each of our guests were given a bookmark telling the Christian meaning of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

It was such an enjoyable night and it's fun to see how the 35 hostesses decorated their individual tables.

How about you? Are you ready for Christmas?

Lights!

As you are likely aware, we put up several Christmas trees and so  it takes a little bit of time to plug and unplug each one daily. That's why I was excited to find this handy indoor remote set. I have considered this type of product in the past and decided to give it a try. 

Each of the plugs goes into an outlet near your Christmas tree and the Christmas tree gets plugged into that.

As you can see, up to three trees can be remotely operated per keychain. There is the option of turning on each individually or all three simultaneously. I was so satisfied with the system that I purchased additional so that all of our trees could operate this easily. I love just pushing a button to turn on and off our trees. This particular brand is from Aldi and sells for $14.99. I am sharing so that if you're interested, you can snag one before they're sold-out because seasonal merchandise is limited. 

A Precious Gem

A ruby is a precious gemstone which is a symbol of pure love and loyalty. The name comes from the Latin word ruber, which means red. 

When you think of a ruby, I'm sure a beautiful red stone comes to your mind. To us, it means a beautiful red Boston terrier.

Nine years ago, we were able to adopt this sweet little girl. When we first met her, we found her red coat to be not only beautiful, but exceptionally soft. Although she was four years old, she'd spent her entire life in a puppy mill with little human interaction. Valued only for producing babies, she slept outside and did not know her assigned name. We had the privilege of not only giving her a forever home, but also her forever name. After much consideration, we decided that calling her Rubie (unconventional spelling) would be just right. Almost immediately, we all fell in love. She bonded with us and her new Boston "sister" who was already a part of our family. Always timid, our little cutie preferred the security of her home and family. In fact, she was our shadow. Never more than a step behind us at home, she kept track of our every move. It's the way she liked it and so did we. She was happiest snoozing while being held or snuggled tightly next to us.

Equally connected to her sibling, she loved cuddling with her, too! 

I always enjoyed sharing the pictures I took of the girls each holiday and many people have come to expect to see them. You could tell Rubie was often bored by my silly ideas! 😉

Our Rubie was perfectly mannered, sweet, quiet, petite and loving.  We adored her. If you have ever had a pet as part of your family, you understand why we were heartbroken when she passed away two weeks ago. She had recently undergone eye surgery and, in fact, you saw her recuperating with her little Elizabethan collar in their Halloween picture. Ironically, that day was the last time I had worked on my blog. Many of you are aware that this year has been filled with trials for my family and, despite my best efforts,  I don't have the opportunity to work on posts with regularity. If you had told me that would be the last time for me to show one of the girls' holiday pictures, I would not have believed it. She was healing nicely from her operation when she suddenly got sick and grew weak. We rushed her to the emergency clinic in the wee hours of the morning, but she was septic and passed away that evening. She had wonderful care from compassionate and competent vets and techs. We miss her terribly and are very thankful that we were able to have her as part of our family. She was a blessing to us. 

Do you know what? As it turns out, the name we gave her was absolutely ideal because she was a precious GEM of a girl who was, indeed, a symbol of pure love and loyalty. ❤