New Year, Maybe More Blogging?

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Well, looks like I fell off the blogging wagon again.

Work has been soul-crushing; I won't bore you here. I was so looking forward to the holidays, and then three days before Christmas, I came down with the flu. This meant I had to miss Christmas Eve services (my favorite thing all year!) and Christmas day with my family. Fortunately we were all together on New Year's Day, so I at least got a kind of makeup Christmas. :) Michael got it after Christmas (plus bonus bronchial infection!) and it has continued to kick our butts for weeks and weeks.

The good news is that we took our 14-year-old niece/goddaughter to Disney World for the first time ever before I got sick, and she loved it. I won't lie; I was worried...after all, she IS a teenager! But after about 3 hours at the Magic Kingdom, she said, "I think I'd like some ears..." and my heart grew three sizes. ;)

I have not been stitching at all; I signed up for Loopy Academy again, AND decided to make my sister a shawl for Christmas, so it's been all knitting all the time. I do have a lot of finishes to share...it looks like I haven't talked about Loopy Academy since Freshman year, and I just finished the first semester of Junior year!

One stitching finish I had last year that I never blogged about was...the second of Nora Corbett's Christmas Eve Couriers!

Named, appropriately, Dancer. =)

At the rate I am going, I will be done with all eight when I am 70 years old.

Of course, I immediately started Prancer.

Aaaaand, I haven't touched it for six months. Prancer's going on a weekend retreat with me, though! Not an "official" retreat, just a very kind friend who has a vacation condo and lets some of us girls come crash every now and then.

JiffNotes
Good thing I never make resolutions or do year-end wrap-up posts...

Where in the World...

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...have I been?? You know, I was wondering why I haven't been blogging, then I started writing this summary and realized how busy my weekends have been, and I remembered why! Of course, that's no excuse for this month, except that maybe I have needed a few weekends of doing nothing to recover. When I looked at all the pictures I'd taken in May, June and July, I felt a little faint, so I told myself I'd do the "pick just one picture" thing again. Maybe if there's some interest, I'll share some more. ;)

So here's what I've been up to...

May

• Took Michael's parents on a Mother's Day tour of gardens, followed by Comedy of Errors at the Shakespeare Tavern

• Had a nice Mother's Day lunch with my family
• Took my niece to see the Atlanta Ballet and the Gardens

June

• Went to Savannah and Amelia Island for our anniversary
Breakfast on our verandah!
• Took Michael's parents to the brand new Delta Flight Museum for Father's Day, followed by my first ever golfing attempt (emphasis on "attempt")
You can't make these people stop for a picture...
• Celebrated Father's Day with my family
• Spent a whirlwind three days at a family wedding event...seeing relatives from all over the country, visiting the World of Coke, the Aquarium, attending a fiesta...and fortunately I was spared the golfing!

July

• Hosted my family for Independence Day, including hot dogs, fireworks and plenty of food!
Yummy salad my sister made...and so festive. ;)
The view from our deck!

I'll try to be a little better about posting!

JiffNotes
Time with family is the theme this summer!!

Epic Holiday Catch-Up Post

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Sorry I've been so absent! It was difficult to find time to blog during the holidays...I'm so busy in preparation, and then after Christmas I was just exhausted.

But enough excuses! Here are some random moments from my December....

The week before Christmas began with my favorite annual Christmas concert. A friend at work is in his church's handbell choir and they do a service every year that is nothing but congregational carol singing and handbell pieces. It's gorgeous, and I adore singing carols...no wonder it's my favorite.

 

I had the additional wonderful surprise of my DF Teresa coming in to town for work, so she got to come with us and go to dinner afterward.

 

Even though the weather wasn't very Christmassy, the crazily decorated Marietta Diner provided a festive mood.

 

Then it was all about trying to get the cookies done in time to give away. In other words, turning these raw ingredients...

 

...from this...

 

...into this.

 

That's seven different kinds: Buried Cherry Cookies, Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies, Eggnog Thumbprints, Scandinavian Almond Bars, Peppermint Cream Bars, Snickerdoodle Cups, and Mexican Chipotle Chocolate Bites. I estimate that I rolled over 300 cookies, not including the approximately 96 bar cookies.

The Wednesday before Christmas Michael and I sang in a Festival of Lessons and Carols. It was a wonderful, worshipful evening, even though my body was trying very hard to get sick!

You may be wondering about this random squirrel picture...

 

I just had to give a shout out to Bloom Woodworks. In my usual last-minute fashion, I ordered a couple gifts (along with this squirrel for myself. Jodi and her dad were great; she responded to my desperate email right away, her dad made a special trip to the post office, and she even remembered I'd entered a drawing and had gotten an (expired! my fault!) coupon for free shipping, so she only charged me a few dollars for Priority Mail. Fantastic customer service, and the thread keep is BEAUTIFUL. It's so light, too. The gifts were also beautiful, but I can't show them to you because both of them haven't been given yet. ;)

 

We headed over to the Georgia Aquarium on the 22nd because our annual passes were expiring and we wanted to see the dolphin show one last time...with the addition of the Weeki Wachee mermaids!

 

On Christmas Eve, we went to lunch at my sister's house where we got to hang out with my nephew. He got surprise leave (at Christmas!) from his service on the USS Eisenhower (where he flies a jet). It was fantastic to see him (and the awesome in-cockpit videos he took of his takeoffs and landings)! After lunch, we headed over to Michael's parents' house for Settlers of Catan and general festivities. He was put in charge of pancakes for dinner...

 

...I can't even believe I got that shot. These weren't just any pancakes, either. These were Grandfather Lott's Famous Apple Pancakes!

 

Boy, were they good. Especially alongside the rest of the feast...sausage bake in phyllo, egg casserole and asparagus!

The next day was Christmas! After a gorgeous church service, we went to my parents' house for presents and feasting. Look at the beautiful package my sister gave me! I almost didn't want to open it...almost. =)

 

She's SO good at shopping for me. She gave me the most gorgeous scarves, earrings, hat and dress!

I brought some Christmas crackers for us to pull before dinner, and they went over even better than I'd expected.

 

Everyone immediately donned their crowns and we had fun chortling over the ridiculous jokes inside.

The rest of the week we pretty well hermitted. I did go out on Boxing Day, thanks to my sister and niece who wanted to go to the sale at Anthropologie (and thanks to my in-laws, I had a nice gift certificate to spend). It was so fun to shop and have lunch with them! The next day I had lunch (and did a bit more shopping) with DF Jean.

I'll leave you with a bacon angel Michael made me for breakfast. I love it when he cooks; his food is always so much prettier than mine!

 

JiffNotes
I love Christmas!!

The Geekend that Was, 10/14

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I think the post-vacation lack of stress is wearing off. Today my project manager had to ask me if I was OK after a meeting. I try so hard to control my "I want to kill someone" face, but it gets to where I forget what neutral, non-scowling feels like.

But I digress. Saturday we went out to see Michael's parents and they took us to Stone Mountain because it's time once again for...

 

This event has been put on by ART Station for 27 years this year! You walk through the historic village portion of Stone Mountain by lantern-light, hearing storytellers tell ghost stories (most of which are humorous, so it's very kid-friendly). I love this event; you never know what stories you are going to get, or what's going to happen. We had the added "feature" of the fireworks going on during our tour, so it was fun to see how each storyteller worked the loud BOOMs into their stories. =) (A lot of them also worked in the number 27 in honor of 27 years...but I don't think they all did. I'd love to hear if you can confirm or deny if you go! Advance tickets are only $12 and proceeds go to support live theater!)

You weren't supposed to take pictures during the storytelling, but I did hang back at the end of one of the stories told in the cookhouse (most are outside) and got our lovely storyteller to mug for the camera. =)

 

Sunday was errands, church, football (what a crazy Falcons game...yes, sadly we've taken to watching professional football since college football's been so atrocious this season), choir, etc....but we did find this (at Target, of all places):

 

SQUIRREL!!!! Michael calls him "Stealth Squirrel" because he says he's rendered like the Stealth Bomber (it makes sense to me but I'm sure I'd understand better if I'd spent more time in CAD programs!) I have a feeling Stealth Squirrel will not remain stationary in the Lottloft....

JiffNotes
Go see A Tour of Southern Ghosts at Stone Mountain if you're in Atlanta! =)

The Geekend That Was, 7/29 (Winner and Spoiler Edition)

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Thursday night, I slept for 10 hours, and I could have easily slept more if work panic had not roused me. I told the hubby that I'm pretty sure I was in shock on Sunday (about my dad's hospital stay), and the rest of the week I was incredibly tense. I was exhausted all week; I'm not sure how my mom and sisters are doing it, being at the hospital all day. My dad is doing much better; he's on solid foods now, but he still has a long way to go. Thank you again for all the prayers.

Friday, I wanted to go spend the day with my dad in the hospital...Michael even came home at lunch so he could shuttle me over there (we only have the one car, and although I could have easily made the 20-25 minute walk, it was HOT). Unfortunately, from the time I woke up, I was working. So, I hauled my computer to the hospital and worked until 6. =(

Of course, Friday night we watched the opening ceremony. I hear the NBC commentary was horrific (I try to tune it out); I blame Matt Lauer. While most of we Americans did need the connection between healthcare and children's literature explained, for instance, we did not need the inanity of Matt explaining that Mary Poppins was coming to save the day. I seriously doubt that fewer than 95% of Americans know who Mary Poppins is!! I also blame the extreme editing it seems NBC did; I hear we missed a lot of the ceremony. Boo, NBC!

Saturday, I earned a bronze medal in the Lottlympiad! Ohhhh...sorry for the spoiler with no spoiler alert preceding it...event results before my Lottlympiad report? Just call me Brian Williams. Yup, we were out with friends for dinner Saturday night, and the one time my spouse looked up at the TV (during the 6pm-8pm Olympic showing break on NBC), he saw the results of the race that wouldn't be aired, for those of us who are cable-free, for three more hours. Double boo, NBC!! We stayed up until 2am catching up with everything we'd recorded while we were out visiting my dad and going to dinner. *yawn!*

Sunday there was more Dad-visiting, more Olympics-watching, some tomato-roasting (if you have not made "sun dried" tomatoes...YOU MUST!!) and not much more sleep.

Finally, I didn't forget about my scrapbooking software giveaway! The winner is CalamityJr!! Congrats!! Please email me at heather at lottloft dot com and I'll send you information about how to get the software!

JiffNotes
This is not the first time I've wished I could watch BBC. I must say, though, that with all my NBC-bashing, I still <3 Bob Costas in a giant way. Also, I apologize in advance to my non-US readers...my (upcoming!) Lottlympiad coverage is heavily parodied from NBC coverage...so although you may not get all the jokes, I hope it's still entertaining.

Quick Dad Update

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Thank you all so much for the prayers and good thoughts for my dad. Last night when I went to see him, he was awake and sounding one third like his old self, one third disoriented and one third forgetful. Poor guy; he kept apologizing for causing everyone trouble. I told him I was just so happy to see him awake, there could not possibly be anything to forgive. Today the goal is to get him up and walking!

JiffNotes
Dad's in the hospital, but he's improving greatly!

The Geekend That Was, 7/22 (Failure to Hermit)

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First off, let me say...reading your comments on my 33 MORE THINGS post really made my day! There are actually a few of us that make up stupid songs?? Fabulous. We should all get together and sing our way through an entire day in harmony. =D

Soo...the weekend...it didn't start well...and it didn't end well, either.

Friday (normally my day off), I had to work the whole day. While my team, in the office, was skipping out in the afternoon for "teambuilding" (i.e., seeing The Dark Knight Rises). Not a great start.

Saturday was fun; in the morning I took my first sewing class. I SO wish I had remembered my camera (but really, trying to get somewhere at 9:30am on a Saturday...I was doing well to have shoes on and speak coherently). The class is held in a storage facility (!) and you feel kind of like you're going to a sewing rave. I managed to remember how to get thread on my bobbin, so I wasn't at the bottom of the class. We were making napkins and tablecloths. I made one very small napkin, because I didn't want to ruin my fabric with my complete lack of skill. The class started with an hour of describing the projects' construction and helping those of us who were complete newbies (you don't have to take the classes in any specific order). After that, we cut our fabric (my sister gave me some great pointers when I was telling her about the class!) and I pinned together a couple napkins. That took me about an hour! Since I was making napkins, it was a lot of cutting. I didn't want to do the tablecloth because I didn't think I had space to deal with that much fabric, plus I don't think I really want to make a double-sided tablecloth.... So I had about 30 minutes left, in which I produced one pretty good seam. We put two pieces together, right sides facing, sewed a seam and turned it right-side out. Then we were supposed to topstitch a seam (or two). She had us leave a very generous seam allowance, so the topstitching was too far out for my liking. So far, so good...I had one seam that was a little crooked, but not too bad. I thought I would do another smaller seam around the outside. That...didn't go as well. I thought I'd do a third one to even things up...so, anyway! That was a good learning experience. =) And I am now the proud owner of a cocktail napkin that looks like it was sewn in the dark by an otter who'd had a few too many mojitos.

After the class, Michael picked me up and we went to a great tea house where we shared a fantastic goat cheese pesto salad and a great chicken salad sandwich (not too much mayo...perfecto!) We took home some of the white ginger orange peach tea...yummy! After that, we went to see The Dark Knight Rises. It was...long. The movie was a little spoiled by the couple in front of us who were looking at their BLINDINGLY BRIGHT cell phone, and got..vocally abusive when Michael asked them to stop (I had to go out and get security), and the fact that drinking a pot of white tea before a three hour movie is a Very Bad Idea. At least, if you want to sit through the whole movie.

Sunday started off "normal"...Michael had to be up early to run sound, and after church we went grocery shopping. When we got home, there were TWO messages on the answering machine. This NEVER happens on a Sunday...TWO?? It was indeed bad news...Dad was in the hospital with complications from his gall bladder surgery on Tuesday. A stitch popped and he had a hernia. No one seemed very concerned...until we got to the hospital just after he came out of surgery to fix the hernia. When they intubated him, he aspirated some stomach fluid. This means he inhaled acid. This is not good. Suddenly, he was on a ventilator in ICU (intensive care) and chances of recovery were 2/3! I'll skip the drama and tell you that he is doing much, much better today...he is awake and responsive, but still much in need of prayer.

And that's why there was no International Hermit and Stitch weekend for me.

JiffNotes
Dad in hospital (improving). Work still bad. Sleep...not so much.

And to All a Good Night

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Look what I got for Christmas!

 

This crappy picture was taken with our point-and-shoot camera, and I did practically nothing to arrange it or frame it. I'm going to have to up my game for this baby! It's a Sony NEX-3C and it's like a DSLR, but it does not have a mirror (the "R" is for "reflex"...aaaand, now I have Duran Duran in my head). It's such a new concept there's not really a nifty acronym for it. Sony calls it a "compact interchangeable lens digital camera". I call it a DSLM.

So usually on Christmas Eve, Michael and I, my parents and my oldest sister and her family go to a church service together, then we go back to my parents' house for a Christmas Eve buffet. The church they wanted to go to this year was much closer to me, so I offered to host the buffet. I didn't know whether it would make things easier for my mom or if she would feel like I was trying to take something away from her, but she was happy to give the job to me! So we cleaned up a little.

 

Here's the full stitched ornament garland. I don't know what I'm going to do next year; they don't even all fit on here now. I have a few sprinkled around elsewhere.

We went to the service at Church of the Apostles, and while it was a nice service, the first 30 minutes gave me musical whiplash! We went from a Michael W. Smith jig to frenetic jazz to full-out gospel to country to O Holy Night sung by a high tenor! We only got to sing one hymn as a congregation until the very end of the service. They made up for it then. The message was excellent, though.

Aside from a little traffic snafu that caused our guests to wait for us while we tried to get home, everything else went great. My nephew the former sous chef cut the oh-so-yummy-but-oh-so-hard-to-cut peppermint bars and plated all the Christmas cookies:

 

Clockwise from the center top along the outside edge, White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Brownies, Blueberry Almond Bars, Pumpkin Spice Buttons, Peppermint Cream Bars, Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread (on edge), and Buried Cherries. I also made one more cookie which you'll see later. =)

I didn't get a shot of the spread, which included French Onion dip, cheese and crackers, hummus, hammie sammies, green beans with toasted almonds, and my mom's strawberry salad (congealed). But I had to get a picture of my sister's amazing rosemary Parmesan pull-apart bread. YUM!

 

Oh, yeah, my sister brought pumpkin eclair cake, too! NOM!

Ah, here's that other cookie atop some white chai tea. =)

 

This is a Dutch Stroopwafel, which is two pizzelles sandwiching some caramel. Setting it on your hot tea (or coffee) melts the caramel just enough so it's soft. It's also great for dipping...mmmmmm....

The next morning we all gathered at my parents' house for opening presents, eating and playing games. From this point on pictures were taken with the new camera! =) Here I am playing with its color filters during a game of cards.

 

Messing around with soft focus. This is a temari I made for my mom years ago!

 

The next day Michael's parents came over. I still need to read the whole manual on my camera, but I couldn't resist running around taking more shots. This is one of the stitched ornaments that moved to the tree because it was "in theme" (white and gold). =)

 

Closeups of ornaments on the garland. These were some of my oldest sister's favorites. I'm so excited because next year we are going to exchange ornaments!

 

She says she already knows what she's stitching me! I can't wait to see what it is.

One more color filter shot. Michael's parents brought this lovely poinsettia when they came over.

 

They took us to see Odysseo, the new Cavalia show. It was fantastic!

Random cool Christmas things:
1) I was totally behind Santa in traffic on GA400. I pulled up behind a pickup truck, and the license plate was "HOHOHO". "NO WAY!" I shouted, and eased around to his left. Sure enough, Santa was driving!!
2) A nice lady at Target gave me two quarters to go down 400 with...I was totally out of cash and trying to get the checkout lady to charge me fifty cents extra and give me some quarters. Thank you Christmas angel!
3) Alongside 400 there are small pine trees, and each year someone decorates one of them. Well, at least the bottom few branches are covered in tinsel, shiny garland and baubles which always look like they were thrown on hastily. This has led us to believe that the GDOT does not do this, but it's some guerrilla Christmas spirit going on. This year we were headed home late, and we spotted a guy doing it! Sure enough, he was just throwing decorations in the general direction of the tree. We're now sure it's on the down-low, because his car headlights were off. Believe me, you don't want to be on the side of 400 in the dark with your headlights off unless you're in stealth mode. Now that we're sure it's "just some guy," we love the tradition even more.

Hmmm...those were all related to 400, weren't they? That almost makes up for the TWO TIMES I have had to get out of the car at the toll plaza...once to go back and put ANOTHER quarter in because the machine said one was "invalid," and once because I could hear one quarter just spinning somewhere in the machine. A nice whack on the side made the quarter drop from wherever it was. Good thing, too...that was one of the angel's quarters and I literally had 8 pennies on me.

Hope your Christmas was great!

JiffNotes
Hopefully the picture quality around here will improve!!

Fall Tea

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The last Saturday in October, we had tea at my sister's house. My sister hosts fabulous teas, and this one was no exception. Michael and I were given a cute little love seat to sit on while we had tea. Perfect for snuggling together and enjoying tiny delicious treats.

 

The view from the love seat. Don't you adore the flowers? And the red fall leaf that is protecting our sparkling black cherry water? And yes, the pansies in the wee tussy mussies by our places are real!

 

First up, cream scones with chocolate chips and gingerbread cinnamon scones.

 

SO GOOD. And get a load of the teeny scoops of ginger butter in the pear dish! Also, my sister makes THE best clotted cream and lemon curd on the planet. I used to not like lemon curd because it tastes too "eggy" to me. But hers is perfect!

Next course was hot apple soup, replete with oak leaf crouton and little cinnamon muffin with crumbly topping, just perfect for nibbling between sips of soup.

 

Then, the Tower of Yummy Goodness came to the table.

 

It was hard to ignore the sweets on top and start with the savories, but we managed.

 

Clockwise from the top: pumpkin leek tart, Brunswick stew puff, curried egg salad moon, and pecan chicken salad shell. NOM.

Time to switch from black tea to herbal...and dive into the sweets. Not literally dive. But I wanted to.

 

Again from the top: pumpkin bread pudding with rum cream sauce (omigosh), rum-soaked acorn pound cakelet (zomigosh), fig jam thumbprint (best. cookie texture. EVER.), orange cream brownie petit four (OMIGOSH), and the classic Bakewell Tart.

Just take a look at the teensy layers in the orange cream petit four.

 

Yeaaaaahhhhhh....

JiffNotes
Nobody, but NOBODY, does tea like my sister! And hey, if you're in Atlanta, she has upcoming Christmas teas on December 3rd and 10th. Check out her blog for contact info. Scroll past the Fall tea menu and you'll see the invite with dates and prices.

Better than Cake?

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Birthday doughnuts from Sublime Doughnuts. NOM.

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Happy birthday to my wonderful husband!!

Tea, Glorious Tea!

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Just before Mother's Day, my sister hosted a wonderful cream tea. I've been to tea at her place three times before...once, I forgot to take pictures, and the other two times, well...I just never got around to posting. I promise you that you have never been to a tea like the one my sister puts on.

First of all, the interior of her home is practically a Victorian wonderland.
In another post I'll have to show you pictures of her ceiling, which is papered with William Morris prints in her own custom layout. These lanterns greet you when you enter her front door.
Here's a closeup of the mantel you can see through the doorway.Back in the front hall, a forsythia branch on the way into the parlor......and more forsythia on the stairway to your left.And we haven't even gotten to the placesettings yet!!My sister tailors each table to its occupants; she at least finds out what your favorite color is, or what your favorite flower is, or your favorite memory, so that you feel special...
The china, teacups, tablecloths and glasses are different, creating little separate oases for each set of guests.
This was our table for two. I love the ruby colors!You can see our personalized "Welcome" card on the table. Check out my gorgeous teacup, and the menu, if you can make it out...
The first course is traditionally scones. Today, we had two kinds: Cinnamon Chip and Strawberry Lavender.
I douse mine with a generous helping of clotted cream (my sister is always experimenting, and this tea's recipe was OUTSTANDING!). The pretty yellow dollop is lemon curd, and the pink? Yeah, it's homemade violet jelly. That my sister made. With violets from her garden!! Can you believe it?? It was so yummy...sweet and very subtly flowery; not "perfumey" at all. And there's no artificial color in it. Apparently, it's more lavender until you add the lemon juice, then it turns that lovely shade of pink.

The next course was soup. I had the Potato Celery Root...
...Michael had the Old-Fashioned Chilled Strawberry. We had to run out early, so we didn't get to hang out afterward to try the Chilled Springtime Sweet Pea.
Here I am, about to happily devour my soup. Look at all the cute little ruby-colored dishes! Our ruby goblets hold sparkling black cherry water. Yum!
Next is the savory course.
Here we have (clockwise) a Cheese Calla Lily, Cornbread Cup with Sherried Chicken Salad, Roasted Lamb on Toast with English Mint Relish, and Chervil-dill Egg Salad. Hope you saved room for dessert...
Aren't these the cutest? These Chocolate Cakelets would melt in your mouth. If you've ever had Eclair Cake, you get the idea...but Eclair Cake never looked so elegant. But you still haven't seen anything yet.
Behold, the Hummingbird Cupcake, Madeleine, Frozen Black Cherry Cream, and Bakewell Tart! And yes, my sister made the crystallized pineapple topper for the Hummingbird Cupcake herself.

Every meal should finish with an after-dinner mint. Here's my sister's version:
A wee scoop of peppermint ice cream coated in pink mint chocolate. The purse cookies were our favors to take home.

One of the guests asked me if she could be an adopted sister. Can you blame her??

JiffNotes
Nobody does afternoon tea like my sister. Nobody.