December 20

Yummy granola destined for gift-giving

December 19

I bought  a $5 bulb at Wal-Mart just before Thanksgiving. After less than four weeks this stunning amaryllis is in full bloom. 

December 18

Ah! A Christmas door

December 17

The unseasonable warmth of our weather is making my lacecap hydrangea think it's spring.

December 16

I spent the day cleaning and cooking as we were hosting some dear friends for dinner. Here's the dessert I made from a recipe from the November issue of Southern Living (with a little tweaking.) Instead of butter cream frosting I used whipped cream to finish off this Toasted Coconut Cake with Walnuts and Cranberries.

December 15

And she gave birth to her firstborn son: and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

December 13

 

Our newest addition to the stocking family.

December 12

Presents under the tree after a wrapping marathon this evening.

December 11

Our custom on Sunday evenings, after church, is to fix a quick "supper snack" and park in front of the TV to eat and watch. Tonight our meal was French onion soup. Melt a little butter, saute some onion and pour in a can of beef consomme along with a can of water and heat until it simmers. Ladle into bowls, topping the soup with toasted french bread and some kind of white cheese. Heat the bowl of soup for a few seconds in the microwave until the cheese melts. So simple--and soooo good.

December 10

Who knew a stocking cap came with new Christmas pajamas?

December 9

Claire gets the honor of hanging the first ornament on the Morgan tree, reindeer ears/Santa hat and all.

No telling what might be used as a hat.

Hamilton had such fun playing with the nativity figures. This is baby Jesus,as he confidently points out.

December 8

It's a rare thing for me to see a sunrise. Here is the view looking out our front door this morning.

December 7

Our decorated tree is a mixture of lovely ornaments given by friends, shimmery balls, souvenirs from vacations long gone by, and treasured tokens of our children's childhood.

December 6

After a summer hiatus from feeding the birds, our squirrel proof feeder hangs full and ready for winter. Now where are the birds?

December 5

The only decorating that's done in the Taylor household so far is this wreath which I hung on the front door this morning. Cutting greens from our yard and tree patch is a perk of living in the country.

December 4

Cornerstone Baptist Church can put on a feed! A couple of times a year we have a finger food fellowship and tonight it followed our special Christmas music of lessons and carols which, as usual,  proved to be a meaningful way to usher in the season.
Everyone goes all out on fixing favorite, though calorie laden, goodies.

December 3

There she is. The 2011 Christmas tree for the Taylor family. I've been eyeing this deodar cedar since the summer as it sits beside our driveway, seeing it often while driving or walking along our path. Now if I can just get its grower, aka my husband, to move it on into the house.

December 2

With Thanksgiving over, I gathered up the gourds and pumpkins that have been on display since October to ready the surfaces for Christmas decor. One small one was a sugar pumpkin, so I cut it up, dug out the seeds and strings and baked it for about forty-five minutes. I have two cans of pumpkin on the pantry shelf but I knew that this fresh pumpkin would be just as good or better with a little effort. When the pumpkin had cooled I whirred it in the blender, taking the time to stop and start the blender many times in order to push the mash into the blades until it all had the same consistancy. Now this beautiful pumpkin puree is waiting patiently to become a pie or bread. Yum.

Photo #1

Upclose and personal

Photo Project

My camera skills are less than stellar, but I've decided to participate in the December Photo Project to encourage me to hone them a bit. So for the next 25 days I'm supposed to shoot a picture daily and post it, thereby observing the world around me and making memories through the lens of a camera.
For more info on the December Photo Project check out this link http://www.tredways.org/december-photo-project/

Thanksgiving Week

Gray and the boys arrived in Mountville on Monday to enjoy the whole week of Thanksgiving with us. Other family members are drifting in as their schedules permit. We've had such fun with the children especially since the weather has been mild and we've gotten to be outside a lot.

Hamilton's new front end loader and his old favorite, the schoolbus, see a lot of action in the dirt and in the leaves.

Aunt Linda and Uncle Billy get reaquainted with Collier.

Pops and Hamilton roll and cut gingerbread cookies.

The best part's the eating.

Fresh Photos

A trip to Hanahan to keep the boys for the Morgans while they attended a church retreat, plus a visit from Gray and the boys in Mountville soon afterwards, afforded an opportunity for me to snap some cute pics of Hamilton and Collier.

Collier is becoming very mobile these days and scoots off his quilt regularly.

 

Sometimes he gets stuck.

Hamilton continues to be fascinated with trains and trucks. He plays really well for long stretches of time with his railroad--long for a 2 year old--that is.

New Style Pumpkin

I rarely get around to doing all the crafty things I read about and think I'd like to do, but something about the toile pumpkin on the cover of October's Country Living magazine made me want to replicate that look. I had some toile fabric on hand that I thought would work just fine to use (instead of paper the directions called for) and Modpodge. All I needed was the Funkin. A trip to, new to Greenwood, Hobby Lobby, satisfied that requirement.
While inspecting the fabric, I realized the Scotchgard treatment on the material would prevent it from taking up the Modpodge correctly, so I ditched the toile idea and bought some scrapbook paper in a pattern I liked to do the job.
Here are the results.

First step was to paint the Funkin white.

After cutting the papers in one inch strips, I stuck them to the Funkin with the Modpodge.

  Then I brushed the Funkin with two coats of Modpodge, letting it dry between coats.

I grouped the faux pumpkin with some natural ones for a foyer display.

Fall is Definitely In the Air

What is more fallish to do than visiting a pumpkin patch? With the cooler temperatures and beautiful sunshiny days, we couldn't wait to take the grandboys to a pumpkin patch while they were visiting this weekend.  Gray was away at a retreat so we shooed Seth off for a bicycle ride in Greenwood while we packed up Collier and Hamilton to enjoy an outside adventure. An old friend from our Christmas tree/pumpkin selling days has a farm in Pelzer called May-Lan Tree Plantation and it has a "full service" pumpkin patch, complete with hayride, hot dogs, farm animals and scarecrows, not to mention lots of gourds and pumpkins from which to pick. We enjoyed our two and a half hours outside on someone else's farm.



Hamilton loved peeking through each opening in the photo signs.



Sewing and More Sewing

My Etsy business has been flourishing of late, but there's plenty of room for expansion. The administration folks there have been urging us to get ready for Christmas and are offering all kinds of helps to keep us Etsians motivated and focused on our businesses. So, I'm thinking I shouldn't wait until the last two weeks in November to begin my Christmas projects. Duh!
I'd like to sew matching jon-jons for Collier and Hamilton and also take orders for them to be custom made. In between the window treatments and bike baskets, I made this one for Collier this past week.

I've got another outfit in the works and several ideas in my head--now if I can just keep sewing. . .

I Recommend This Book

Just last week I finished reading a book called Confessions of a Transformed Heart by Nancy Sheppard. She and her husband are missionaries to Liberia and have been for some thirty years. They left family and friends soon after graduating from college and raised a family of five children there and in Ivory Coast, its neighbor country to which thousands of Liberians fled during civil war.
Sheppard is an accomplished writer with a straight forward style. Her effort to be transparent makes her story all the more compelling. This is no "look how sainted we are" narrative of her life, but rather a telling of how sufficient God is in the midst of innumerable hardships, some of which she brings on herself.
For a very real look at life in West Africa for one woman with a teachable spirit, read this book.
I came to know about it from one of my friends at church who works with Nancy Sheppard's daughter-in-law. The eldest son of Mark and Nancy Sheppard, John-Mark, and his young wife are awaiting the birth of their first child and then off to Liberia they go to continue the work in Liberia's interior.

Baby's Growing

Last week Gray brought the boys to Mountville for a couple of days and we got to enjoy their antics. Collier is growing and changing so fast that I feel that I just have to see him every two weeks or so to keep up. He's such a happy baby with a ready smile for anyone who'll pay him some attention. Hamilton continues to delight us with his perky personality and ever increasing vocabulary.

With a pillow or two Collier was high chair ready. 

Grandma gets in on the action.

The cool snap surprised us but Hamilton is still ready for a golf car ride equipped with Mimi's jacket.

Learning Something New

Most of my sewing projects have some measure of a learning curve to them--especially window treatments-- since rarely are two alike for any client, but just recently an etsy client of mine requested a flat roman shade with no strings to pull to make it work up and down. She pushed me out of my comfort zone. I was already
aware that the hardware existed for that very purpose, but I had never used it.
With help from the supplier of the hardware and my long-suffering husband, I created my first fabric shade that works like a roller shade. What a neat idea! Here are the results.

Fun at the Beach!

Our family convened at Edisto Island last week for some recreation, relaxation and lots of togetherness. We bicycled, kayaked, swam, sunned and ate tons of food. Too bad I'm not an astute photographer who always captures the exciting action. It seems that most of the time my camera is somewhere I am not. I did manage to make some cute pics, nonetheless.

We bartered for the house we used at Edisto, which was not rental property. It had a lovely marsh view with a 300 yard dock out to the inlet. The house, itself, was filled with beautiful antiques, which was a little scary with a two year old, a spitting 3 month old, and an active eleven year old, but we grew very comfortable as the week wore on.

Not our typical beach rental