Thursday, December 14, 2017

I like Thursdays: December 14, 2017

It's Thursday and another day to feel positive and find goodness in the world!  Hosted by LeeAnna you can find more happy posts here

We had our first snow and I have to say that I liked how pretty our backyard looked:


And how pretty our neighbor's yard looked.  This is Katie's swingset.  It actually started as another neighbor's swingset, then it was gifted to our next door neighbor and their four kids.  But it is mostly beloved by the youngest next door, Katie. 
Katie and her girlfriends would sit on this swings for hours chatting with each other.  Somewhere upstairs, I have photos of Helena,  feeling very important playing with the "big girls" and swinging on it.  Katie is 17 now but I would guess her parents keep the swingset up at her insistence.   I still occasionally glimpse Katie and her friend Natalie on the swings talking and laughing during the summer.

I like new recipes!
Jenny is my 22 year old cousin (yes much younger than my son I was raised with my aunts and uncles as siblings).  She loves cooking and she is always sharing new recipes online.  This is one she found it is called "Christmas Crack" and you can find it here.   I made mine with gluten free saltines so my husband could enjoy this!  I mentioned to my neighbor that I had just made some crack and she gasped (thought I was referring to drugs although she knows me better).  Now a bunch of our neighbors are baking "crack" 😆  We all seem to be using different toppings instead of the candy used on the original recipe.  I used toasted coconut; Carol used some toasted coconuts and pinenuts.  It's a great little recipe.
We are still enjoying all the wonderful Christmas displays in our neighborhood, this week our favorite is our elderly neighbor's arrangement.  It's adorable!

I like sewing but I also enjoy other crafts.  I started with just wanting to make some favors for Christmas and then two of my neighbors wanted to join in.  Then my Mom got interested.  We had a lot of fun doing this!  

Last summer I collected salt shakers at yard sales and dollar stores to make photo holders.


 Some we painted and then in November we had a get together and used up old jewelry and doo-dads to decorate the shakers.

I used vintage cards to put into my shakers and then embellished the cards too.  I  hope our guests enjoy them.  

I made two for our own home as well.  I didn't have to do anything but stick the pick in these shakers, the colors and shape were perfect!

We woke today to more snow:

I'm sure the kids in the neighborhood are happy about that; there is a two hour school delay!

I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy some holiday spirit!











7 comments:

Mary in Peoria Handmade said...

I love these photo holders! I've not seen these before and look like fun. So does the snow. Stay warm! mary

Home Sewn By Us said...

Hi Michele,
Oh I remember spending hours on my swing in the backyard! I loved it until my parents had the garage sided (my dad hated painting) and that was the end of the swing. :( That was a sad day. Such a cute repurpose on the salt shakers - I love those! And the cards you embellished are cute too - I love the little girl feeding the birds! That makes for a happy table scene. ~smile~ Roseanne

Siouxzq64@gmail.com said...

Gorgeous photos. What a great memory of the swing and watching the neighbor girl grow into a young woman. Great salt shaker repurpose. They are so pretty. LOL The 'crack' recipe I have seen some for hulless popcorn which is pretty good also.

PaintedThread said...

That crack looks delicious! The snow is pretty. We just got a fresh coating this morning. Scout looks like she's begging you to go out. Please??

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

Your salt shaker card displayers are wonderful! Looks like they were fun to make. I love Scout's coat in your previous post! What fun to see her reaction to the snow!

Sandra :) said...

This is a pretty post! And yummy too - I want to make the crack as well (my kids will get a kick out of old mom making CRACK :D) and I think toasted coconut will be my topping of choice :D BTW - Scout's picture would make a lovely Christmas card :D

Jocelyn is Canadian Needle Nana said...

Such a great post! I enjoyed it all...snow has this special way of beautifying everything I find. What a great recipe...I made one last year that made a hard caramel layer with the crackers and chocolate on top and Hubby loved it...ate every crumb. I've never seen the photo holders and admire them very much...fun and creative. Sweet Scout!