New look for Noël & some rockin' ponies

No, not a new look for me, I still have the same raggedy-ass look I usually do!

But our living room got a bit of a makeover earlier this year, with new carpet, new paint, new baseboard and ceiling moldings, and some new decor (well, not really new, we just shuffled stuff around between rooms so it feels new!). I thought I'd thrill two birds with one scone by including photos of our holiday decorations as my "after" photos. :-)

Summer 2008

December 2010

AdventureJo made the beautiful quilted star pillow! :-)

It's not easy to see, but many years ago I'd stenciled a pretty vine with red berries around the top of the two living room walls. It was a lot of work and I really loved it, so it was painful at first to paint over it. But once I'd gotten started I loved the new green wall color so much I was able to paint over my stencil rather ruthlessly. :-) Hey, out with the old, in with the new, right? Besides, I still have the stencil kit, so I can recreate it some other time (and place!)

I know that colors don't usually look all that true and can vary widely on computer monitors. The actual colors are deeper, darker and more subdued (with more gray tones in them) than they look in the first two photos, but look truer in the next ones, at least on my computer. We used Sherwin Williams' Duration (low VOC) satin paint in "Coastal Plain" for the walls and "Basil" for the trim...

Some of you may have noticed the Santa's Workshop on the stereo cabinet. You'll get to see it in detail in a future post... probably on Christmas Eve when we can sneak in and look around while Santa is otherwise preoccupied with his deliveries.* ;-)

Look, Molly! A latchhook rug from my crafty past! ;-)

*BW, my UPS-man husband, made up a little ditty that he and his co-workers now all sing as they load and sort their package cars at this time of year. Sung to the tune "We Are Santa's Elves" from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, it goes:

We are Santa's elves, filling Santa's shelves...

we do the work but he gets the credit, we are Santa's elves!

Oh, go ahead and sing along, you know you want to! ;-)

I think BW needs to re-write the rest of the lyrics. :-)

Now that we've enjoyed that festive musical interlude, here are a few non-holiday living room decor details...

You may have noticed this little gallery hanging just to the right of the hallway in the above photo. I bought the butter prints cross-stitch pattern and the ceramic bas relief butter print goat plaque above it in either Maine or NH about 20 years ago. (I entered that cross-stitch in my local county fair the following summer and won a blue ribbon for it, yay!)

In addition to my fondness for goats, I've loved foxes since I was very little and have a few foxy goodies (<-- that should make for some interesting Google search hits, lol) scattered throughout the house. Here is an ensemble consisting of a tiny original Claudia Hopf scherenschnitte ("paper-cutting") fox picture my mom commissioned her to make as a gift for me a long time ago, and a cross-stitch illustration of the Aesop fable The Fox and the Grapes that Mom did in 1987, upon whose frame I've perched two wee fox figurines and a little wood carving that also depicts The Fox and the Grapes fable.

The antique lawyers bookcase to the left of the bay window originally belonged to my grandparents, but was decorating my bedroom by the time I was in high school. When BW and I brought it here from Mom's where it had been stored all those years, we put a new back on it and lights in the top section. The top shelf houses what's left of a pretty extensive miniature rocking horse collection that Mom and I started when I was in junior high. We'd noticed that between all her miniature displays and my miniature horse collection, we had quite a few rocking horses. So we thought, "Let's put them all together as a collection and add to them!" After a while, when it got truly ridiculous, we agreed, "Only unusual rocking horses from now on." As you can see, that caveat didn't really narrow the field much so our collection continued to grow like kudzu. What you see in the following photos is what remains of our fairly heavily-culled original collection.

The bookcase's second shelf holds my little Beatrix Potter and Tasha Tudor books from childhood, along with the last of my once vast herd of miniature (non-rocking) horses. As a tot and teen, I glommed onto anything horsey! In recent years I gave a lot of them away and sold some others, so now my collection is distilled down to my very favorites, some of which I've had since kindergarten. (The third shelf holds more books and little odds and ends, but I decided it's not closeup worthy). :-)

Here are some rocking horse closeups... I'll give you a little tour of my favorites. :-)

The large rocking horse in the back corner, standing on a toy drum with other toys at his feet, is a music box. The stained wooden horse on the right near the back (between the spotted and terra cotta horses) is one of my very favorites. He was made by a man in Virginia who made exquisite dollhouse miniatures. I wish you could see the craftsmanship in that rocking horse!

The gold one in the middle near the front is an old Avon sachet holder. His saddle is hinged, and when you open it there's a little stash of sachet - a perfumed wax you're supposed to dab on your pulse points. Given that it was fresh back in 1973, I wouldn't advise doing that. ;-)

Just to the left of the gold horse and behind the red one with the bright yellow mane and tail is a clunky little rustic wooden horse. His name is Ned (I'm not kidding, it's even written on his belly), who was carved by a man in Canada. I just love Ned!

Favorites in this group include the patina-green rocking horse on the left, which is made of some kind of metal that's heavy as hell; the red and white glass one behind him; a plain little wooden one near the front right that my mother made out of basswood; and the fuzzy little brown one just in front of him.

And here my faves are another music box in the back corner; a red horse with fancy embroidery and bells who's looking back over his shoulder (made in China long before the days when everything was made in China); and a cute little merry-go-round of rocking horses that spins. (But none of them, in my opinion, hold a candle to Ned). :-)

I hope you enjoyed your visit and our sing-along! ;-) Now help yourself to a freshly baked muffin and some tea. Speaking of which, Mountain Rose Herbs is having a fantastic giveaway this week for all you tea lovers out there! Deadline is Sunday at a stroke before midnight (PST). Cheers and good luck!

Friday KISS - Sprouter

This Friday KISS would need an oversized stocking to qualify as a stocking stuffer, but it will let you graze on fresh, nutritious greens, grown in the comfort of your own kitchen, in the depths of dormant winter!

We're novices at sprouting, having only experimented once growing wheat grass. After learning how nutritious fresh sprouts are, buying broccoli sprouts at the Billings food co-op, and viewing various blogs, articles and YouTube videos on sprouting techniques, we bought the Easy Sprout Sprouter from The Sprout House. We started the process (which really is quite easy) on Thanksgiving Day, and munched from our first crop of broccoli sprouts on the following Tuesday...

Don't those fresh greens look good against that snowy backdrop?

We've been enjoying them in tossed salads and in tempeh and "tun-not" salad sandwiches.

We bought our organic broccoli sprouting seeds from Mountain Rose Herbs. (No surprise!) So smitten am I with this company and its products that I am now an affiliate. So now if you click on my ads or text links to Mountain Rose Herbs and make a purchase, I'll get a wee commission. Yay! So head on over and do a little shoppin' (and maybe a little sproutin'), why dontcha! :-)

Enjoy your weekend!

P.S. Rift left a comment asking a couple of good questions about sprouting, so I've replied with some additional info and links to several more web sites that have very helpful information about the Easy Sprout Sprouter in particular and sprouting in general. So if you want to learn more, please visit the comments section!

A Nice Cuppa Tea

Seriously? It's December already?!

With the calendar change came a drastic change in our weather, from yesterday's warm and sunny to today's Severe Winter Weather Advisory. And with that came a free ticket to Migraineville (not as fun as Margaritaville!) for me. So now I'm behind, but I got the Fall decorations packed away, the laundry done, and my first batch of Elderberry syrup made and bottled! And lots of tea brewed and enjoyed, including some with freshly grated ginger this morning. Mmmm...

Along with our dried elderberries we got some beautiful organic loose teas from Mountain Rose Herbs last week. The Easy Day, Evening Repose, and Dream Blend teas are just lovely, and the Dream Blend tea not only brought me nice dreams, I had my first cup while watching the PBS Nova program What Are Dreams?

No foolin'! :-)

I don't believe there's anything more soothing on a snuggly winter day like this than a big mug of freshly brewed tea!

So why not join me? Go pour yourself a cup...

Find yourself a cup of tea; the teapot is behind you.

Now tell me about hundreds of things.

~Saki

And I will tell you some of my favorite quotes about tea (I promise there aren't hundreds!) :-)

Drink your tea slowly and reverently,

as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves -

slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time

the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company.

~Author Unknown

A good friend of mine is a cup of tea, indeed.

~Richard Llewelyn

How Green Was My Valley

Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.

~Tien Yiheng

You can never get a cup of tea large enough

or a book long enough

to suit me.

~C.S. Lewis

We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.
~Rudyard Kipling

Here at the frontier, there are falling leaves.

Although my neighbours are all barbarians,

And you, you are a thousand miles away,

There are always two cups on my table.

~Anonymous

T'ang Dynasty, A.D. 618-906

Flummox the Flu with Elderberries!

Let me just begin this post by saying that I think flummox is one of those many words that is underappreciated and underused. So I'm giving it some props. :-)

I had a hard time adjusting to BW being back to work today, and still can't believe his vacation is over! The week went by fast, as vacation weeks always do, but I'm glad he got to have a week off before heading into the nightmare that is the holiday season at UPS (and, apparently, FedEx!)...

During this time of year especially, BW works very long hours, gets far too little rest, is in and out of cold, often nasty weather all day, and is exposed to countless germs. Given that he delivers to several schools, two hospitals, a nursing home and most of the doctors' offices, clinics and surgical centers, it's a wonder he doesn't come down with every variety of plague and pestilence and bring them home to me! We don't get flu shots, but in the 9+ years since we became vegan we haven't had colds or the flu. No doubt, our healthy, nutrient-dense food and regular exercise keep our immune systems in fine fettle (another fun word we see too little of, IMO). It also helps that I avoid town, and the sick people therein, as much as possible (and not just during flu season, lol). But BW doesn't have that luxury, so keeping "Typhoid Mary" germ-free is a bigger challenge. We're diligent about hand washing and he uses alcohol wipes and hand sanitizer* during the day when he can't get to soap and water, and we take two teaspoons of Sambucol syrup every day. We discovered Sambucol (made from elderberries) about three or four years ago and have been impressed.

Though we've not suffered from the flu in years, if we get really worn down (like BW can during UPS "peak"), and start to get that yuk feeling in the head and/or throat that's usually a sign you're coming down with something, we've taken the appropriate dose of Sambucol and wham... the germs are flummoxed and surrender within a day or two. It's amazing. So we've been keeping this stuff on hand during every flu season. This is the first year we've been taking the preventative dose, though, so we're going through it faster and the stuff ain't cheap (still a bargain compared to getting the flu, though!) So I was delighted to get my latest newsletter from Mountain Rose Herbs, sharing this video for making your own elderberry syrup!

Since we don't use honey, I'll be making mine with delicious, honey-like agave nectar. The reason I haven't made any yet is because I need to procure dried elderberries! Tomorrow my friend Robyn and I are planning a shopping trip to Billings (MT), home to a couple of great health food stores/food co-ops, so before ordering some from Mountain Rose herbs, I'll see if I can get some up there.

The homemade syrup isn't exactly the Sambucol formula so the required maintenance dose is a bit higher, but even so - making it yourself is a lot less expensive.

(*You can also make your own hand sanitizer by mixing 1 tsp of vegetable glycerin and 1 cup isopropyl alcohol. Not as thick as the store-bought kind, but just as effective).

I just can't think of elderberries without the French knight's taunt from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" popping into my head! "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!" Oh yeah? Well, hamsters are cute and at least dad probably never got the flu! ;-) (Apparently being told you smell of elderberries is an insult because, according to Botanical.com's A Modern Herbal, fresh elderberry flowers "have an odour scarcely pleasant.")

So here's to a healthy flu season with no delivery vehicle crashes, unpleasant odours, or taunting French "kniggits." :-)

Wednesday Update: Robyn and I had a fun and productive day with her sister Rhonda up in Billings. I had a wonderful quinoa dish for lunch at the Good Earth Food Co-Op that I must try to replicate, got a few great deals and brought home a LOT of foodstuffs (including some of the prettiest organic kale I've ever seen!), and am feeling a wonderful sense of abundance with my well-stocked pantry. But alas... there was nary an elderberry to be found in all of Billings! So I'll be ordering some from Mountain Rose as soon as they get in a couple of out-of-stock teas I want. Meanwhile, I bought three things I've never tried before: Hungarian Paprika, Lemon Curry, and Chia Seeds. Oh, and I took a good, deep whiff from the bin of elderberry flowers so I could report just how nasty they actually smell (honestly, the things I do for my blog!), but I didn't think they smelled unpleasant at all! I certainly had a lot of fun entertaining myself in the bulk foods section! :-)

Nov 30 Update: I received my elderberries on Friday, and made my first batch of syrup today. It was very easy, and made the house smell wonderful while it simmered. But the flavor... oh, my! It tastes like a dessert topping! (When BW took his first dose he said, "Are you sure this is GOOD for us?" lol) I'm going to cut back on the agave nectar next time, it was sweeter than it needs to be. But those spices really make this delicious! What a yummy way to keep the flu at bay! :-)