Friday, December 19, 2008

I Have Gobs To Talk About.......and SNOW

Gobs and gobs....so sit back, pour yourself a warm cup of coffee, or hot chocolate and let the blabbing begin♥♥♥!

I just love those hearts and thanks to T over at Purple and Paisley, she posted a wonderful tutorial on December 12, and in her words "a tutorial for spicing up your text."♣♠♦•○..just a little sampling of some other fun symbols. T's blog is always so much fun and loaded with tons of eye candy, and oh those cute grand kids!!!! Then I discovered there was a online virtual cookie swap going on ...how in the world did I miss this one!!! Frannie of Cute Stuff Inside (love that name) hosted this swap and there is a list of some of the yummy recipes over on her blog. Here's a plate of cookies I took to my quilt group Xmas party this week and I thought I would share this easy recipe.
Cake Mix Bar Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
5 tablespoons water
1 egg
1 package yellow cake mix
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup butterscotch chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 X 13 baking pan. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in water and egg, then stir in cake mix, Finally mix in nuts and chips. This is a VERY stiff dough. Spread mixture into pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool completely before cutting. Very fast, easy and good!!!

Now to the SNOW part. Wednesday night was Nutcracker night for my girl and myself. The day started off really, reallly, realllly cold, wet and rainy with some sleet thrown in. Hey wasn't it 90 degrees here about a month ago?, brrrrrr, shiver, shiver. I was not expecting to be driving in snow on the freeway, but sure enough I was. The Nutcracker was wonderful, and if you are ever in need of some holiday spirit, I highly recommend you go. Anyway, driving home that evening I got a call saying I might have a bit of trouble getting up the driveway because of the SNOW!!!! Yipeeeee! We usually only get one or two snow days where we live so this is BIG NEWS!!!! I know, compared to our friends in the East and other parts of the world, this is laughable...but this is pretty much a blizzard for us!!! I love how the snow covered the mailbox, and my frog bird bath is a miniature ice rink!! Here's my Santa flag, frozen up tight!!! Well we enjoyed it, and all the neighbors were out snapping pictures and the kids were throwing miniature snowballs. So I suppose this will be our "snow day" for this year!!
My luck continued this week. I was one of the lucky winners at Fredas Hive. The prize I picked is a kit for the baby quilt that was featured in the new Fons and Porter Baby Quilt magazine! I am so excited. I had been emailing Nanette about it when I found out she was one of the winners in the contest, and woo hoo I now will be able to make the quilt! Thanks Nanette!!!!!

Did anyone say SALE?!!!!! Fat Quarter Shop has been having some amazing sales this month and then a friend emailed me information about another tremendous sale. Sew Unique Creations has ALL their fabric on sale till December 31st......$5.00 a yard or less. Tons of Civil War reproductions - woowzers!!!!

Tomorrow is our family Christmas party!! Such fun.... great food and great company! We do one of those present stealing games with the whole family and it gets pretty wild and crazy, so I better get to bed so I will be in my best present stealing form!! Have a great weekend everyone and spread some Christmas cheer!!

18 comments:

Mrs. Goodneedle said...

Let's hear it for snow days! Hip, hip, hooray. Not that I've seen the first flake here, mind you, but it's exciting nonetheless. Nothing like a little white stuff to get one in the holiday spirit. I love attending The Nutcracker!

Unknown said...

I can see how you folks out west get excited about snow. However, we got about 10 inches dumped on us, here in good old New England, yesterday. More coming tomorrow and then again on Christmas eve. Well, you get the picture. I get tired of it after about, lets see the 1st snowfall. Oh well, that is life in the east. By the way, congrats on the win from Nanette, you are one lucky gal!! I am glad that you are going to be having a fun party coming up. Enjoy all your Christmas festivities! Merry Christmas Cheryl!!

Unknown said...

No snow here in TN :(. Looks gorgeous coming down in your pictures. Have a fun time at your party.
Teresa

Sherri said...

We got snow in Las Vegas as well...many people had never seen it in their entire life (lots of Nevadans came from southern Cal.)! It's been fun, but a nightmare for traffic!

Carol said...

Oh how very, very fun! SNOW! Everyone her would just go crazy if it snowed. Have lots of fun at your family Christmas party..sounds like a blast!

Carla said...

Nope, I don't miss the snow. I like your photos though!! Love hearts. Thanks for showing the tutorial! I'd like to learn how to change the colors of text in a post. How lucky you were to win one of Nanette's gifts. I envy you.

PamKittyMorning said...

Merry Christmas!!!

happy zombie said...

I share your feelings that it's BIG NEWS! How stinkin' exciting!

I cracking myself up, Cheryl... because you mentioned to me you had snow, and I turned into this little kid who just heard the word "candy". Happy snow and I hope it doesn't melt too fast! xoxo-m

jen duncan said...

The house looks so pretty in snow. And those cookies!!! I'm makin' them this weekend!!

Chookyblue...... said...

so I take it it will not be white by the time xmas day gets here...........
I will be hunting out the air conditioner as we are probably going to be 100.
Have a wonderful xmas.......

Red Geranium Cottage said...

WOW you really did babble didnt you? LOL I am sooo jealous of that snow. And your house is sooo pretty. You really need to have me over there. Or I'm going to start stalking you. I'm just sayin!! You've been warned.

Calamity Jane's Cottage, Bonnie said...

Hi Cheryl,
Isn't this weather something. I remember snow when I was younger, but it has been awhile.
Congratulations on the win, can't wait to see the baby quilt. Wasn't that a fun giveaway.
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas,
Bonnie

julieQ said...

Love your snowy goodness! Thank you for sharing the recipe, I will have to give that one a go! Merry Christmas.

Rosemary said...

Do you live in victorian house too? ITs so pretty! Mine is that same color beige.
We got snow in houston for a few hours a week or so ago, so i totally get the excitement :)

Anonymous said...

Hi! Thank you for the kind words at my new blog. I followed you back here and also looked at some of your pictures on Flikr. You have some beautiful quilts! I love how cheerful they are. I'm a big fan of a happy quilt.

Oh, and I have a little Luke, also (a son, not a grandson). He is 2-1/2 yrs. old and until he's big enough to make us stop we are calling him "LukeyDukey". :-) Your Luke is very cute, too.

Ginger Patches said...

Wow SNOW??!! I am jealous!! It feels cold enough for snow here and in fact it was in the 20's the other night but no snow :( Hope you had fun at your family party and Merry Christmas!!!

Margo in Maine said...

Not sure how I got to your blog...but saw your receipe for cookies and want to try it...looks yummy....Oh snow...we have our share....nice blog.....Maine

Nan said...

I am trying to catch up on my reading! Your house is beautiful in the snow! It is snowing here again today, and hopefully it will stop soon. Hahahahaha.....
Thank you for the bar cookie recipe! Yummy!
I'm glad you and Katie had such a good time at the Nutcracker, and how perfect to go on a snowy evening.