Secret Ingredient

I am pretty sure that not many people I know would guess what this is.  Probably only a handful -and they would be within my own family ;)  These bottles are one of the best gifts around, in my book.  It threw me for a loop recently, too.

I was making bread for my family, which I don't always do, but this day I wanted the smell of "home" ....er, OK,  I did not want to have to drive to town to buy another loaf.  SO I went to getting my bread machine ready and found that I had run out of  agave nectar....and honey.  The next thing that caught my eye was this.  I knew it was sweet.  And this bottle was a pretty light variety.  So, in it went.   And  can I just tell you that this bread was Divine!  Just as good as any other loaf.  It smelled terrific and tasted the same.  It worked great for sandwiches and no one knew the difference. And I am delighted that I have plenty of it on hand, since the price of honey and agave is not at its best right now.

I bet you still don't know what it is, do you?

It's old fashioned cane syrup.  Not to be confused with modern day "syrup."  I was raised on this stuff, y'all.  It can't be beat.  I had never tasted "pancake syrup" until I went north on my own.  Honestly.  And this stuff....it just says 'down home' to me! -and it makes great bread, too.

My New Hideaway

Well, I can't hide from much because my sewing area is in the entry of our bedroom, but I can pretend :)  I just got down to getting it together and finding a place for the things that I keep nearby while working on projects.  It's not designer, but it is functional for now.  The cutting board is on top of an old desk which is painted pink so I just covered it with some fabric so that it doesn't catch the eye.  Hopefully one day there will be  real cutting table involved;). 

There's also my bestest Christmas gift there.  My sewing chair.  My mama made it herself.  Well, she bought the chair.  Then she refinished the whole thing and built a storage compartment into the bottom of it.  And she covered the cushion and made the ruffle, in a color that she would only choose for ME.  I love it. I mean I really love it.  I've been asking for one for twenty years.  Yep!  Twenty years.  I've been sewing for a looong time and I've always wanted to "earn" my own sewing chair.  That no one would dare touch.  It's  a love gift..a labor sacrifice...from my Mama.

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Organized Simplicity- My Kitchen

I recently downloaded a free book on kindle called Organized Simplicty and am working through it with the ladies at FIAR . These are my (way too tall for me) cabinets in my kitchen that are being used for pantry storage. Our new house has no pantry but plenty of cabinet space. My challenge in using this space well is my own height vs. cabinet height. I am only 5'4". The ceilings here are 9 or 10 feet and the cabinets extend to about 1.5 ft below that. I cannot really use the top two shelves of most of my cabinets for anything that I would need on a daily basis. So, this is what I came up with.

Reminders of Time Past

While trying to carve out a small space in our closet ( it still needs a lot of help, but I'm getting there) I came across this award.  The frame/box was broken and it was just laying there.  It felt so sad.  All that was given, sacrificed and suffered and this token was just laying broken.  I took hold and repaired it the best I could.  There was no way I was leaving it there, though.  So I had to hang it.  It was the first thing my husband commented on when he came in the door that day...and he had a smile to go with it. 

That year...so hard, so many lessons learned, strength gained,  emotions all over the place and then the reunion.  Delightful.  We've all grown so much since that  time and I am more proud of my husband as the years go on. 

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Family Meeting on Friday

As I posted earlier, I am trying to do a Family Meeting Friday.  This will also include Fine Arts.  I have yet to succeed at getting done what I want to get done on fridays for one reason or another.  I thought I would write it up and publish it and hope that helps me remain accountable ;)

*Present Memory Work progress
*Present guitar progress
*Read aloud (all reading children - non reader will "read" whatever story she wishes to present)
* Narrate spontaneously chosen subject from past week's readings and/or present past week's written narration
* Art ( as in this)
*Composer
*Poet
*Artist study