Annual Christmas Cookie Fest

Whew, finished except for the delivery.  Fortunately, J and A take care of delivery each year while P and I finish up wrapping and sweep the crumbs off the floor.

The caramels come first, because they are wrapped individually and stay fresh on the cool side porch.   Caramels are strictly a P and J affair.  They require a lot of patience, standing and stirring. It's the wrapping that is especially time-consuming: little pieces of parchment paper cut into little rectangles, then twisted at each end.  A couple of years ago I bought one of those paper cutter things with the swing arm and the measurements on the cutting surface.  Indispensable. The recipe for the caramels is from Martha Stewart..

Pictured above you see the cookie sheet full of fudge.  The recipe makes 3 pounds.. smooth and creamy.  You eat a piece and then head for the ice water, so if you have trouble getting your daily quota of 6-8 glasses in each day, then eat a lot of fudge.   Ellie's health tip, free of charge.

The cookie selection this year was rather random: Lime Sables, (Martha, again), Maple Sugar Cookies,  Cranberry Pecan Noels (also Martha),  and Espresso Toffee Bars,  The fudge recipe is one my mom used to make and which my my brother Dan also makes at Christmas time to woo friends, family, and office mates.

Once all the treats are made, they are packaged in little white muffin cups and gold candy cups, then packed away for until they are all ready in tupperware containers.

A cutting rounds of paper for-
yes, the round tins.. 

Cranberry Noels, lower tight, and the rest are Pecan Balls.

Once we think we have enough stuff to fill the 15 or so boxes, we stop.  And then we start preparing the boxes.  Each box must be fitted with parchment paper. So, out comes the paper cutter again.

J with the "cutting machine"

the factory..

Finally, it's time to assemble the boxes.. The boxes themselves vary from year to year depending on what I come across, how early I start thinking about it, etc.  Some years they have been wonderful, some years sort of ho hum, as in tins from Target.  This year its a mix of Target tins, white boxes from the paper store, and some red faux leather-y looking things left over from a batch I bought last year at the flea market for fifty cents apiece.  I need to start paying more attention to boxes.  The round tins are a pain to tie a ribbon around..

A filled tin..

So, the assembled tins are ready to rock and roll. I made gift tags from a photo of A's featuring a girl on a swing wearing red boots.

Merry Christmas from our house to yours. 

Ta da. 

So, from my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Shopping at Home...

There are a million online shopping "clubs" and I am afraid I am a member of at least half of them.  Not really.  But it is embarrassing how many of them flood my mailbox each week.  My go-to of course, is Ebay.  It is only about 8:30 in the morning and I have already knocked a few items on my Christmas list, still, of course, in my jammies and go-to-cozy fleece.

My first purchase this morning - and I will only reveal a few things I have actually purchased- is a "need" voiced quietly by my dear spouse.  I had noticed that our son has been sporting my husband's black cashmere overcoat lately, purchased years ago in Filene's basement or somewhere in Boston on a trip (it was freezing there).  Now it is not that often that it gets cold here- BUT IT'S COLD NOW!

It's a 45% cashmere blend, and comes in black, camel, or gray.  I got the black.  It's $120.00.  If you just want the wool blend (it's 70% wool, 30% viscose) it's $95.  I guess I should know what viscose is, being the fabric connoisseur that I fancy myself to be, but honestly, viscose sounds  a lot like mucous to me.  I mean seriously, couldn't they do better than that? 

I am eyeing these handcrafted little throws that I found on Gilt Group. Should be Guilt Group. 

www.giltgroup.com

There is currently a Geren Ford sale on there.  hmmmmm.  But what I am looking at is much less citified and a lot more in the handcrafted category.. It comes in a variety of about 5 different patterns.. 

Kantha Throw Original price $180: Gilt price $78

Another go-to site is Ruelala.  www.ruelala.com.  Again, interesting choice of site names.  It is like "rue the day I ever met you?"  There are a number of sales on the site now, and as I may have mentioned people in my family have a thing for small leather goods: moleskin journals (do they ever actually journal in them.. dunno, mine is not to wonder why, mine is just to do or die)  So, here are some small leather things:  a small leather journal for $25, a feather America's Parks Atlas , $29 (for the sophisticated RV 'see America' set?) and a leather envelope for $29.  I am guessing you don't post letters in this thing. 

Graphic Image Medium Leather Envelope

It's handmade of French goatskin leather. They say its for papers and photos. It's really pretty.. it comes in black and tan.. I like the tan.. But it's only 7" by 4.5" and it doesn't seem large enough to be of much use.  Perhaps if I were a coupon clipper... or maybe if I carried a stash of large denomination crisp bills around with me.  I could slowly draw it from my sleek Chanel bag, lower my sunglasses, adjust my not-so-politically correct mink wrap, and say "what did you say you wanted for that daaaahhhhling...?"  

But the best site of all for ease of shopping, price and speed of delivery is Amazon.  I think I need me some Amazon stock right now.  I mean P. bought a LEAF BLOWER from them a couple months ago because the shipping was free and he loathed to go to the Sears store which is a MILE FROM OUR HOUSE at the mall.  A leaf blower.  It's his Amazon account, but I know the password. I buy a lot of books, just last night sent my brother and his amour in Massachusetts a Christmas gift of books.  Since I know he won't read this, here is what I sent. 

For her: Steve Martin's new book. 

And for him:  Michael Lewis. Don't know if you can read it but the sub sub title is "Inside the Doomsday Machine".  Described as "fast paced, straightforward, conversational and salty".  Its the story of not HOW the financial meltdown occurred, but sort of an insider story of "who knew?"and how the "great financial storm developed.  Steve Martin's book, I am currently reading.  I read "Shopgirl", Martin's novella of about 4 years ago, and found it lacking in depth.  But the intrigue of the new book is, for me, the context, which is the NYC and international art world, starting from Sotheby's and emanating out.  

Here are some other easy-breezy shopping ideas: monogrammed shirts for the guys in your life from Joseph Banks (all from the armchair), yummy cozy Patagonia fleece pullovers from the Patagonia site.  They had a nice little chat person on the Patagonia site who helps with sizes, other questions of warmth and such, Eric Clapton's new-ish releast "Clapton" and "Crossroads" Festival 2010.

But the best gifts are homemade, I still contend, so I will be writing about our annual all-family-cookie-candy-box-creation-assembly next week....

 Cheers. And a little song.  "oh, the weather outside is frightful, inside it's so delightful...."

Consumerism 101- An Experts Guide to Trouble in the Marketplace

I wish I could remember where it was, but recently I read a little article about how to make shopping more... wonderful.. this year. The article was advising shoppers to regard their fellow voyagers as friends and neighbors (as in don't tear the truck from their hands, don't bite, don't pull hair??) and to treat the sales people with patience and respect.  As in: don't scowl and make unseemly, inflammatory remarks when she will not get off a personal phone call to come and help you, do not mention incendiary devices above a whisper, smile, treat everyone like family and you will promote a spirit of conviviality and cheer and WA LAA! you too will be a spirit-filled shopper and, yep, you guessed it, we can make the world a better place for you and meeee.  (digression: The only reason Michael ever sang about this stuff is because he never actually had to deal with any of it.  He lived in a castle/paradise/zoo surrounded by a moat and 500 raging bull security people who would bring him whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it.. and his very own self was left to ride the rides with little kids, cover his kids up with veils, shawls and masks, and have someone else buy their Christmas gifts).

Today, it being a dreary day and needing to clean up some pesky details, I decided to make myself a super duper reservation at the spa at Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC.   Check it out.



The spa has an indoor grotto with a lap pool, a heated salt water pool, and a couple of hot tubs, one of which features a nice waterfall.  Another hot tub outdoors, where you can get your massage if you like, and then steam rooms, a sauna, a soaking tub, and various spa amenities and services: Swedish massage, aromatherapy, River Stone massage, facials, etc etc.

I like to splurge when we go each December during the first weekend for a conference with one of P.'s long standing (22 years plus) clients.

 So, I get Ruth on the phone in the Grove Park Inn Spa.

R:  Are you staying at the Inn?
Me: Yep, back for the 23rd year..
R:  Well, before we can reserve a service for you, I will need your confirmation number.
Me:  Well, I don't have that.  My husband may, but I doubt it.
R:  Well, I will hold while you call him on another line or text him but I will need that.
Me: Why?
R: To make sure you are a guest at the hotel.
Me: Don't you serve people who are not hotel guests?
R: Yes, we do, but now that I know that you are a guest I will need your reservation confirmation.
Me:  I don't have that. Let's just pretend I am not a guest.
R: But you already told me you are. Can't you just ask your husband
M:  Well, he is not standing here next to me.  He works during the day, and allows me to make plans and reservations without his comforting presence.  I have been doing it for years all by myself...(growing a bit testy here...) Can't you just look us up to see that the Academy is coming this weekend with several hundred guests and that we are on the list and registered?
R:  Oh, yes.  I see you here!  But we will need your confirmation number. Can't you just call your husband?  We are not allowed to divulge the names on the registration list because sometimes we have very famous people here who want to have their identity protected.
Me:  WE ARE NOT FAMOUS. YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO I AM BECAUSE I TOLD YOU. YOU SEE MY NAME THERE. I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR 23 YEARS. AND I AM STILL NOT FAMOUS.
R: I am only doing what I have been told to do. Maybe you could call your husband. ....

Me:  ring ring ring ring (deep sigh, heavy exhalations, etc)  Hey, can you give me the confirmation number for Grove Park Inn?
P:  I don't have it.  The Academy makes the reservations for me every year.  I am on the master list.
Me:  (other ear).  Ruth, he didn't make the reservation. He doesn't have a number.
R: Oh, you mean he didn't make his own reservation. Oh, ok.  I didn't KNOW that.   I see your name here, and your address. I guess I can just treat you like you are not a hotel guest...
Me: But I am a hotel guest. You see my name.
R: Well, we can make an exception, I suppose.

Eh?  Why should it be hard to make a reservation for an expensive massage? 

Go figure.  Where did I go wrong?  Where is the love?

I told her, at the end of the convo, thank you for making me feel so special and welcomed at the Grove Park Inn.  Aannnnd, what is your name?

 She will get a little cheer from me later.  I have my ways.

Wonderful Blogs

My whole family blog-watches. We share blogs, pass on links, exchange interesting photos, talk about them.  P's personal favorite is The Selby. Here it is. /http://www.theselby.com/

Anyway the Selby (is in your place) is a really voyeuristic look into people's homes. http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/
Who doesn't like that?  Posted on November 21, 2010 is a peek inside the home of Kate and Andy Spade. Andy Spade seems to have a lot of collections like P does little boxes, pens, books books books.  Have I told I finally found some new bookshelves from Restoration Hardware?  They are coming in December... I digress.

See all those little silver boxes? P has boxes too: silver, wood, brass, glass, you name it. He has a lot of the wooden ones back in the bedroom, ostensibly to keep stuff in.  The ones on his desk are mostly silver and are purely decorative.  He keeps them neatly aligned, sort of like this though not so numerous.  He also, at the moment, has a little tiny glass vase near them filled with violets.  Maybe I should take a photo of HIS desk.. P has books stacked up on the coffee table, just like Andy does, but P's have overrun the place, towering in stacks from the TV cabinet, stacked waist high in about five stacks on the floor. It's like a fortress.. Wonder what he is protecting himself from (or whom..?).  Nonetheless, it's an impressive library filled with financial books, political books, thinking about thinking books, political satire books, political expose books (ie Karl Rove, the Architect) etc etc. Catching a theme here?

A. Likes Scott Schuman's The Sartorialist (as does P)    A. just wrote a paper about blogs, I think.  Scott and his girlfriend Garance Dore travel around to Milan, Australia, Paris, London, etc, but call NYC home. They take photos on the street, and it seems they make a bunch of money.  I could do that for a living, if I could take decent photos.  It's all about fashion and lifestyle..

http://www.garancedore.fr/

Now isn't this a lovely photo- Scott has these in abundance, on any given day.  He took this one in Paris.  He also blogs about cool places, such as the Clic Gallery and Bookstore in NYC and I gotta admit it looks like a neat place. His girlfriend, equally successful it seems, Garance, also does some fashion, some lifestyle, and even some silly commentary.. She seems to be in Istanbul right now, checking out shoes and such. And interesting books.  Ahhh me...

.  

So, there are other favorites, too.  I wish my linker was working.. 

But here are a few.. http://www.stylelist.com/,  http://www.bluetramontana.com/2010/01/in-street-helen-levitt.html,http://www.nomagazine.co.nz/good, http://dossierjournal.com /http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/22-incredible-photos-of

Closing with a lovely photo for the day..from my modern met (above) taken by Steve McCurry, the National Geographic photographer who took that haunting photo of the green eyed Afghani girl with the shawl covering her head... 

World War II Photographs

Looking through old family photo albums, we have two delicate old albums with treasures from the past.  Delicately patched inside these albums with their thick black pages are photos taken by Gerald Johnson Maynard during his years in Europe during World War II.  He was commissioned as a photographer, spending most of his time in England and in Scotland during those years.  We have no idea what kind of "action" he may have seen, because there are no photos included that he would not have wanted his family to see.

There are hundreds of them, and J. has scanned a few of them. I thought they were worth sharing.

The best clue to location and timeframe is this photo of Queen Elizabeth, mother to Elizabeth II who currently reigns and was born in 1926, assuming the throne in 1952.  She was the wife of George VI and died in 2002 at the age of 101.  Known as the Queen Mother, Elizabeth frequently toured to visit troops, and medical facilities during the Great War, always decked out in a fancy hat of some description.  Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne when George VI died,  because she was merely a Consort and the throne passes to the the daughter.  She was lauded by her public when she stood her ground rather than fleeing England when Hitler's bombs began to fall.

Queen Elizabeth circa 1943

This amazing shot of a soldier is haunting.  The lighting is especially beautiful. 

probably taken in Scotland.. 

WACs?  Is that what women in service were called then? 

The photographer, Gerald Johnson Maynard, and his bride,
Mary Lou Wall Maynard probably in 1950 or so. 

New York Photo Expo and an Aspiring Photographer

This is Photo Week in NYC!  Anna has packed up portfolio, copies of her resume, 4GB flash drives of her portfolio, and some serious night-on-the-town clothes and is catching the plane tonight.  The Photo Expo that she will attend features hundreds of exhibitors of all manner, and 103 seminars on everything from photoshop to marketing your work.  She has a Gold Expo pass which gives her priority admission to just about everything, including the "bash" Friday night aboard the Intrepid, pictured below. The party will feature some world premier videos, and lots of elbow-rubbing. There are several expos and conferences in the city this week.  Anna said I could post some of her photos, so.. I did! 

http://www.newyorkphotofestival.com/

http://www.photoplusexpo.com/

Jess

Lindsey

Kyle

Madison

Lindsey

Samantha

Still Singing After All These Years..

My little title here is supposed to be a riff on the Simon/Garfunkel song, Still Crazy After All These Years, but I realize that those of other generations may not be as plugged into songs from that era so I felt a need to clarify.

I have known Paul Tegel since we were in high school.  He was always the one with the guitar, although he was not alone in that regard.  We all hung out together, everyone had a talent (except me).  Singers, musicians, poets, photographers, philosophers, artists.  About the only thing I had going was a penchant for using big words. A sesquipedalianist, I believe it's called.  It was an effort to keep up with some of the extraordinarily literary folks amongst us.

But this is not about me, its about Paul.

Paul is now the parent of four grown boys, and even a grandparent. He has been living in Michigan along the upper peninsula where it is both beautiful and very cold for many years.

Still singing.  The CD baby website describes his work as "contemporary acoustic/electric, instrumental songs with lyrics.  One of his reviewers puts it like this:

Music of Paul Tegel is greatly reminiscent of Chris Rea and Mike Knopfler. Between Knopfler’s melodious “nostalgie” and near-perfect harmonic logic and Rea’s virtuoso and joyful rock, this music also contains vehement nuances of blues that remind of Leonard Cohen. However, the very originality Paul Tegel offers is sufficient unto itself.

Here is his latest album: Ya gotta love the little humor dose. (Paul Tegel and the Gardeners) 

 

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/paultegel3


This is his third album, here are the first two.. You gotta love the titles and the covers, and if you give him a listen, (you can purchase the album for $8.99 or download the songs on the CD baby website.. ) I bet you will like what's inside as well.  


Paul, keep singing for another couple of decades at least... 

Shopping for.. SCOOTERS. Really.

So, Spencer wants a scooter.  Why he chose me as a shopping buddy is anybody's guess, except that I do have a faint tattoo on my forehead that reads something like "mall rat" or "born to shop" or something like that. I can't see it, but I think it is visible to others.  However, it is usually bargains I am looking for, and never in scenic Garner. Now, I know Garner may have some positive aspects, it's just that I don't know what they are. The short trip to Garner is on the dreaded 70 South, which is, um, not so scenic.

We found the Honda place and I learned that scooters come in all shapes and sizes, or at least I thought I learned that until I was told that a lot of these things are for other purposes: all terrain biking, beach riding (where is that legal?) and other sort of army-like, manly-like activities that involve a certain type of clothing which mostly makes you look very scary.

The helmets themselves can be rather scary.  Sort of Darth Vader-ish.  In my mind, its all designed to be somewhat intimidating.  However, the scooter that Spencer has in ming, the Honda Ruckus, is not at all intimidating.  It's rather cute.. Here is what we saw:

Spencer playing it cool with the sales dude

I sort of liked this sporty yellow number.  Plus, I have
a yellow JPK bag that would match perfectly. 

Barbie Pink.  

Multiple accessories for the rider

Spencer did not get his scooter. It seems that even thought he had been on the phone with them throughout the previous day completing paperwork, they did not begin to actually SEARCH for an available Ruckus (not pictured here, cause they didn't have it) until we got there. Three hours later we said hey, call us when you find it.  So, scooter-less, we headed home. Hopefully, Spencer will have his scooter before too long. But at least I got my scooter education.  I still like the yellow one best. And here is a photo of my JPK bag.. see what I mean?

Wedding Wrap-up.. Last one..

We just had so many photos of the wedding fun-ctions that I have to do one more blog on Amanda's wedding.  Fairytales do come true..

(Thanks to Kathy for these photos!!)

Mark and Amanda

Cake made by Mark's mom

Gaines and buds from the hood

Amanda and MOB, Wilda

Gaines and Wilda, couldn't be happier...