Colossal and Crisp!

I gathered these extraordinarily large Sycamore leaves from the median on Santa Cruz Ave in Menlo Park. They are beautiful when left to dry naturally.

Leave as is if you have toddlers inclined to eat centerpieces. Or follow my lead by taking them outside to mist with gold hardware-store spray. Let the paint dry thoroughly and then later/MUCH LATER if any odor lingers/scatter on your Thanksgiving table.  

Simple and sensational particularly when positioned next to pumpkins sprayed with just a hint of gold as well. Less is more.

Leaves should last a lifetime if stored in a sturdy box. 

Fab Finds

Wonderful Fresh Perspectives Meeting!  

Rather than hitting the highways after our meeting, I again chose Amazon.  I'll continue to post finds for those unable to join us today as I track them down.  Here's a start.  Stay tuned.

Connie showed up in the following FABULOUS BOOTS. Many patterns. See the flat Nomads as well. 

Here's the link.

Mouse Maestro.  Robyn, THANK YOU!  

Judi's favorite find:  after spending the week in NYC/cannot imagine/during and after Hurricane Sandy. Perfect for purse or pocket.

Jill, great recommendation! Can't wait for it to arrive.  

"Celebrate a special day, from long ago and far away. Place the angel on the stable the star lights up to guide the wise men from afar and the tune "Away in a Manger" plays. Two fence pieces connect to the stable and to the other Little People playsets. Children love retelling the Christmas story through play, and with a charming set of their very own, they might leave your holiday collectibles alone! Requires 3 "AA" batteries (not included)."

Everyone who has seen this has said that it's much better/cuter than advertised/friends are ordering for their families.  Amazon link.  Please note that I make NO money if you purchase anything I recommend.  

I've heard about the following for decades. This could be the year to go! Particularly since you can buy burritos across the street and enjoy while standing in line. More information.

You find other balance toys on Amazon.  Gumps has a great price on this one. Be sure to enter the code for free shipping. Linda, thank you.

From Kathy:  "Check out Portable North Pole online for a terrific personalized message from Santa! The kids LOVE it."  Here's the link.

Found it, Linda! I'll bet there's another source if Amazon is out.

Decorating Your Drinks

For the person on your gift list who likes to take their eggnog, latte, or cappuccino to the next level, here's a possibility. Stencils from Amazon specifically designed for drinks.  Simply sift cocoa, cinnamon or nutmeg over stencil and enjoy. 

Ten Holiday Cocktail Recipes

Not so sure we "deserve overindulgence" but I'm particularly interested in the pomegranite/champagne concept.  Sounds soooooooooooo festive and fun.

See all the recipes.

Doable, Darling Ideas From Family Fun

Here are just a few of their many, many creative ideas.

Be sure to check out their entire collection of Thanksgiving ideas.

Sources & resources

Found on a recent trip to NYC.  

Over the course of the next few days I'll expand each source with pictures.

Meanwhile, click on links to get a sense of various possibilities for holiday gift giving found in Bryant Park.  

FunnyPuppets

Creative Letter Art

Animated Closet had terrific kids clothes not shown on blog/inquire via website link

White Llama/no website yet.  I'll share pictures later in the week.  Meanwhile, here's the contact info: whitellama@hotmail.com

organicwares.com

And locally, one of my favorite finds:

Plush Pumpkin  See store locator on website for a shop near you.  In the Palo Alto/Menlo Park area, visit Emily Joubert in Woodside.  Also, thanks Linda, you'll find them at Alyse Grace and Pink Tangerine.

Finally, an online link I love for creating your own gift labels. Fairly priced, intuitive design process. VistaPrint

It's Time to Order Holiday Bulb Kits

Remember this blog?  I had to share a picture of what eventually emerged from the box I gave one friend for Christmas.

  

WOW.  

How spectacular is this?

Might be time to revisit BloemBox if you have spring birthdays or other celebrations.

Here are a few favorites I found on their site:

 Check here for stores in your area as well as other internet order options.

Almost too beautiful to unwrap

Tomorrow's topic at our FP meeting includes, among other things, a holiday wrap up. 

One of my top picks was from The Bloembox Collection. 

In their own words,

In May 2005, BloemBox shipped their first gift assortment to fine stores in the US, Canada and Europe. The hand-wrapped paper boxes are adorned with hand-crafted silk flowers made to look like the real garden flowers. Each box is carefully filled and then tied with a lustrous satin ribbon and gift tag with a poetic reference to the flower. BloemBox gifts contain the finest bulbs, certified organic lavender florets, organic rose petals and premium seeds distributed between biodegradable tissue paper for effortless planting. The paper boxes are printed in soy-based ink. All gifts are handcrafted and assembled in the BloemBox seedhouse in rural Northern California. 

Each year, the bulbs are sampled, potted and forced into bloom for quality assurance. The lavender florets and rose petals are harvested from fresh crops, and the flower seeds are field tested in an extensive trial garden.  

BloemBox brings a new approach to gift giving. These gifts are handcrafted with superior quality and are really two gifts in one: a colorful keepsake box for saving found treasures and a delightful reminder of that special day or event. The bulbs/seeds grow into a beautiful garden of blooms and the sachet releases a heady fragrance for years to come. Personalized tags are available adding that special touch to gift giving.

 

                                                 

SALES ALERT!

If you loved the concept of creating a little winter wonderland of your own next year/see this previous FP post/scroll down below bats!/capitalize on this year's sales. 

These appear to be well constructed and quite attractive.  Quite well priced, too!

Star sale! Click here for link to One Kings Lane.

6-Point Star Raised Brass Ornaments, S/4

This sale ends on 12/28 at 11am EST

 

$14.00

ONE KINGS LANE PRICE

$60.00 Retail

 Recapture the magic of holidays past with these vintage-inspired ornaments. Dangling from your tree (or anywhere else the spirit guides), they are destined to become a new twinkling tradition. With 6” Red Ribbon.

Set of four
Materials: Iron/Brass Planting
Size: 6.25” x5” x1.75"
Care: Wipe clean.

ANTICIPATED ARRIVAL DATE:
1/3-1/7

Cheers!

One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don't clean it up too quickly.  ~Andy Rooney

Give the gift of music

Is there anything better than Pandora, the free Internet radio site?  I think not.  We’ve been enjoying a steady stream of magnificent holiday music for weeks. 

In their own words:

“You start a Pandora station by entering an artist name or a song title that is similar to the kind of music you'd like to hear. Pandora compares your starting point to each song in Pandora's massive music collection, using the detailed musical analysis in the Music Genome Project. Then your new Pandora station starts playing songs from a related corner of the musical universe.

Each Pandora station is completely unique to you. What you hear on your stations will be different from what everyone else hears, even when starting from the same artist or song.”

You may know about Pandora but have you considered that Pandora One could be the perfect last-minute holiday gift? 

Pandora One provides unlimited, ad-free listening, high quality audio and much more with a one year subscription to Pandora One – all for just $36.

Check it out!

Well worth watching again and again

Bats back in belfry

Being replaced with something more suitable for the season.  Sooooooooooooo simple to do.

From the Boys Choir of Harlem/so lovely.  Enjoy.

As with our October little flying friends, you'll need:       

• ladder to reach ceiling light fixture/surround
• fish line or wire
• ornament hooks
• ornaments/stars, snowflakes/whatever/to fit the scale of your room/same-style stars or ornaments per space/I started with a little entryway thirty years ago and the concept grew

Our ladder was too short so I used a pair of kitchen/BBQ? tongs to extend my reach.  Is this making sense?  Good.  Do not electrocute yourself.

Install and then enjoy your very own winter wonderland! 

Thanksgiving, recycled

I love love love Thanksgiving leftovers.  Often better than the Main Meal.  What follows is a Very Flexible recipe that you, too, might enjoy.  What do you do with leftovers? 

Later.  Power went off three times as I was working on Thanksgiving preparations AND the blog this evening.  Lost all data/recipes each time/15 documents.   Not good.  WHAT is going on? 

I'm calling it a day. Tomorrow will, I'm sure, be much, much better.  Geez. 

OK, I've recouped and will try this one more time.

Thanksgiving leftovers are often much better than the Real Thing, don't you think?  (please do not crash)

Here is a very simple, flexible recipe that we've loved after the Big Day.  Feel free to modify/it all works.

• 1 tablespoon butter
• leftover mashed potatoes
• whatever vegetables you served/for us, this was/will be green beans with red peppers/could be anything (please do not crash again)
• 2 cups leftover turkey, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups stuffing/or less
• finely chopped parsley to garnish

OMGOSH!  AGAIN!  WHAT IS GOING ON? 

The dogs are freaked out.  As am I.  The only lighting that is successfully working is my stock of Costco programmable candles.  I'm hitting the road to Costco tomorrow.  For more.  And figuring out how to bake a turkey or two on the BBQ. 

Back to the recipe.  Butter casserole.  Layer ingredients beginning with stuffing, ending with mashed potatoes.  Bake 30-40 minutes @ 350 degrees.  Garnish with parsley.  Enjoy. 

OK/made it this far/lights iffy.  Calling it a day. 

Holiday travel tips from a top doc

Many thanks, Sally.  This is an excellent resource.

Anderson Family Favorite

Sweet Potato Soufflé

• 1 1/2 pounds yams, peeled
• 1/8 tsp. hot pepper sauce
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed, divided
• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 3 Tbsp bourbon
• 5 egg whites
• 4 egg yokes
• 1 orange peel, freshly grated
• 1 1/2 tsp. coriander
• 1/2-1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 tsp. salt

1. Cook yams until tender. 
2. In blender, mixer, or food processor, process potatoes with sour cream, butter and bourbon. 
3. Add egg yolks, coriander, salt, hot pepper sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar and lemon juice.  
4. In separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.  Gently fold into mixture. 
5. Sprinkle top with orange peel and perimeter with pecans and remaining brown sugar. 
6. Bake in 2 quart soufflé or other high-sided dish @ 400 degrees for 40-60 minutes or until firm to the touch.
7. Serves 6-8

A bit of brilliance

Random acts of culture.  I love this concept.

One final thought

About this or any other holiday.

Assuming that you plan to celebrate and/or decorate next year AND you don't want to rethink everything you spent time creating/organizing, photograph what worked.   You'll save a tremendous amount of time and energy.  The goal isn't about perfection.  It's about simplicity/sanity/starting points. All while capitalizing on what worked well.  Tweaking or total revamping, absolutely allowed.

No need to make an album, as I did years ago/though this still works for me today.  Just figure out how to organize and, more importantly, how to access those photos.

Happy Halloween, friends.

Freeform organza ghosts and goblins, tiny-toothed bats dangling from light fixtures, funny folks/Halloween and otherwise/woven into our dinners,  touches of lunacy here and there...  Yes, absolutely my kind of holiday.

I am enjoying how sucessfully the battery-operated candles light spaces that simply would not accommodate a flame.  A fairly realistic flickering cozy glow without the risk of fire.  See rat condo and door decorations.  We've positioned larger, programmable ones on our steps inside Halloween lanterns.  I'm going back to Costco to stock up for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So warm and welcoming.  Without any work.

Wonderful memories from our days in Lindenwood. 

Also included, a sample of the music we cranked up to accompany spooky outdoor scenarios each Halloween.  Great Fun!  I mean how often do you get to enjoy this kind of craziness?  Once a year.  Go for it.

So easy to download MP3's from Amazon and then broadcast. 

Halloween, Homewood-style

If you spend any time around our house during October, you'll quickly discover that Halloween is My Kind of Holiday.  I grew up in the Midwest where blustery/brisk autumn evenings provided the perfect backdrop for trick-or-treating.  And this was often a family event.

Yep, we trick-or-treated together.  My parents, at the door on their knees with their trick-or-treat bags in hand.  Wait, I just remembered that we all carried pillow cases/how cool is that? They also hosted Very Spooky Parties in our basement.  Which was a pretty scary place without any decorations.  These were really terrific events.  People still comment on those Halloween parties.

Bear in mind that I grew up on the south side of Chicago.  Our costumes?  Not too PC today.  Geez, we didn't even know what PC WAS back then.  We dressed up as, get this, Black People and Chinese Folks.  OMGOSH WHAT WERE WE THINKING?  I hate to even admit this.  But there we were with cold cream and burned corks smearing blackness over our faces OR stretching nylons over our heads then tugging at the top to create the perfect look.  How embarrassing is this?  Terrible.  But that was life back then.  In Homewood, Illinois.

Here is my childhood friend's Homewood Halloween memory:   Dr. Jensen lived on our street and he felt that handing out candy was unhealthy.  Each kid at his door was given a glass of milk to drink while he stood there to make sure we drank it.  We trick or treated in groups and one group would yell to the next group NOT to stop at Dr. Jensen’s.  The next year we avoided his house altogether. 

How much fun was that, Joan?  A LOT. 

Update on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 9:01AM by Lois

From Kathi:

Lois, loved the blog today.  Lots of laughs.  I can picture your mom and dad on their knees with their bags.  This explains a lot about your great sense of humor.  I loved the Dr. Jensen story as well.  I am still laughing about that one.  Health nut mom that I am/ was, I passed out raisenettes some years, McDonald's ice cream certificates and other tries at healthier snacks.  My kids were not proud!

Kath, nor were mine.  Particularly when I distributed a list of Alternatives to Candy to our neighbors.  My kids Could Not Figure Out why that was such a Loser Year in terms of treats.  Once was enough, even for me! 

Alternatively, our kids ate whatever they wanted on Halloween and then we/or the Halloween Witch/ traded tiny Lego sets for the rest.  Limiting the length of overconsumption was key to my sanity and their sugar-saturated highs.