Getting ready for the holidays? How many grocery runs have you made for Thanksgiving dinner? I've done two and have another list to be filled before Thursday. I don't know how it happens. We made a huge grocery/Christmas present run on Sunday. Cart filled to overflowing. I created my menu for Thursday, broke it down into ingredients, added some Christmas presents to be purchased at that store and off we went. Hard to find: French fried onions and Bob Evans Original Mashed Potatoes. The potatoes were sold out in one location in the store but found in another. And I couldn't figure out what category French Fried Onions were in but hubs found it in a center aisle. So, we get home and we're unloading and guess what? I find out the beans we got for the Green Bean Casserole were not french style - add those to the new list. I glanced at the stuffing package as I group ingredients on the counter and discovered - it needs celery. Add celery to the new list. My family likes cupcakes - eggs? Only two - add those to the new list. Left over containers? I'm out of gallon zip lock bags - add to the list. I really believe someone is going through my cabinets while we're shopping and stealing my ingredients. I'm absolutely convinced that come Thursday morning, there will be even more things missing from my meal and another trip to the grocery store that shouldn't even be open but will be.
Which leads me to another rant... I know some of you are crazy about getting up at o'dark-thirty to shop at stores that open early on Friday morning but coming from the perspective of a parent with a child who rarely gets to spend Thanksgiving with us, I think it stinks. Three years ago her store decided to open Thanksgiving evening. No doubt people who shop there are ecstatic. But she only gets to spend a few hours with us on Thanksgiving because they work late on Wednesday to stock shelves and works Thanksgiving night late only to be at work again at 5:00am on Black Friday. I know she'd rather sleep on Thanksgiving but she comes to our house because it's one of the few times in the year we can get everyone in the same place at the same time. Families have become so complicated. If you have a divorced parent that's remarried, there's a whole host of people vying for attention - in-laws and ex-laws and step-laws. This isn't Father Knows Best anymore.
This card was a first for me, I've never colored on Kraft paper before and the Faber-Castell polychromos are brand new to me also. After seeing June Nelson's wonderful creations on kraft paper, I knew I wanted to learn to color like she does. Check back in five or ten years, I may be getting close to her talent.
Paper: Kraft, Recollections Regent Street; Stamps: Make It Crafty Annabelle, Hero Arts Flourish; McGill Floriano Paper Blossoms Punch; Distress Ink Evergreen Bough; Faber-Castell Polychromos: [Skin: Brown Ochre, Dark Flesh, Light Ultramarine][Hair: Light Cadmium Yellow, Dark Cadmium Yellow, Dark Chrome yellow][Frame: Cold Grey IV][Dress: Light Green, Grass Green, Leaf Green, Permanent Green, Pine Green, Light Yellow Glaze, Cadmium Yellow Lemon][Shadow: Cold Grey IV]
Snippet 11: Excerpt from Housekeeping Monthly - 13 May 1955
The Good Wife's Guide:
"Your goal: Try to make sure your home is a place of peace, order and tranquillity (sic) where your husband can renew himself in body and spirit."
Well, I'll be in the early morning crowd, but I get what you're saying. Years ago, I worked in a grocery store and seemed to have a shift every holiday that it was open. It used to drive me crazy...
ReplyDeleteYour coloring looks great; I never would have guessed it was a first for you!
Terrific job coloring on kraft. Love the greens you chose and this image is beautiful. Happy Thanksgiving!! :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!!! I love it!!
ReplyDeleteCome and live here !
ReplyDeletePreparing for large dinners is so much easier when you just do not have large stores/supermarkets at your disposal.
Take christmas (since we don't do thanksgiving over here)
starter - Lobster salad - caught by ourselves last month & in the freezer ready to defrost and shred on xmas morning. Throw it in a bowl of mixed lettace leaves & baby tomatos (greenhouse ) add dressing (honey and wholegrain mustard) and there's a salad which is neither heavy nor filling.
Main meal - our own home produced beef - we just put 2 cows in the freezer, 1 we left all the roast cuts as large roasts for using a *lots of people dinners* so we have a whole sirlion to roast for xmas day, potato's, carrots, cabbage (red cooked with spices, dried fruits and balsamic vinegar, is delightfully tangy and tasty) all from the garden or ordered in from the fruit merchant if we dont have any. Nothing fancy other than the cabbage, just good wholesome food at its best.
Dessert - everyone else ... chocolate mouse.. for me (I hate chocolate freak that I am and I don't eat sweet stuff anyways) I indulge in a coffee with a glug of single malt whiskey and look forward to all the washing up ... Not !
26th december.... There's oodles of left over roast beef... Make yourself a sandwhich and leave momma in peace haha.