Month: February 2013 (page 2 of 3)

February 17, 2013 / 1 Comment

A Saturday Date

Yesterday afternoon I met some friends in London to see Singing in the Rain. It was tremendous! I felt like I was seeing an old-fashioned show. The singing, the acting, the dancing, was all wonderful. We all left floating out of the theater. I could have gone right back in and seen it again.

Mr. Michie picked me up after my little afternoon soiree and whisked me off to a dinner date at one of our favorite hangouts: The Diner.

We feasted on burgers and fries and I got to drink root beer, which is a true treat as I only get root beer when I am there!

It was the perfect Saturday to start our 1/2 term break off with. This week, I plan to read, sew, redo/re-organize the pantry, just be with Mr. Michie, go to the movies, enjoy long walks in the fresh air, not wake up to an alarm. It will just be Heaven!

February 15, 2013 / 1 Comment

The Day After Valentine’s

We had such a lovely Valentine’s Day Evening. I finished up dessert when we got in from work and Mr. Michie started getting his dinner ingredients ready.

I had made a chocolate cream pie for dessert. My poor beaters made it just till the cream was perfectly whipped and then sputtered, coughed and died. So I will be getting new beaters over our half term break, which is next week.

One, day I shall have a KitchenAid Mixer when we have more space, but for now, beaters it is. KitchenAid mixers are just kitchen dreams right now and you should always have something to dream about!

Mr. Michie made the most delicious garlic butter infused roasted chicken on a bed of roasted red peppers and pasta with homemade pesto. It was heaven!

My cream pie was extremely tasty, the perfect chocolate to cream balance, but unfortunately my crust did not cooperate, so it didn’t slice very pretty, but it tasted delicious-e-oso! It just didn’t do justice to Mr. Michie’s fancy Valentine’s plate presentation.

I am so happy that today is Friday, that it marks the beginning of the weekend and the beginning of our 1/2 term break!

{The recipe I used was from the King Arthur Flour Company – it is definitely worth trying, it tasted like a truly old-fashioned diner kinda pie – however, I did make my whipped cream as I normally do and I used store bought pastry, so I didn’t follow their directions to the letter}

February 14, 2013 / 4 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I spent last night working on my dessert for dinner tonight. I am making a chocolate cream pie.

I also made almost 3 dozen doughnuts. Some as my Valentine’s breakfast for Mr. Michie, some for work and some for our neighbors.

Mr. Michie surprised me last night with an early gift, he came home with a posy of flowers just for me, I love it. They are perfect!

I hope that you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day today, wherever you may be!

February 13, 2013 / 2 Comments

A Valentine’s Day Round-Up & Lenten Thoughts

This will be a post in two parts today since I just have so much to say! Firstly, today we walk into the first day of Lent. I know that this is a period of reflection and abstaining. I have spoken about this before and I shall speak about it again this year.

In my family we had the tradition of adding something to our daily lives, instead of subtracting it. We still gave up things (and if you chose to give up chocolate, what a blessed morning Easter Sunday was because it meant you could finally touch it again and oh boy did you hope that the Easter Bunny left you plenty in your basket!), but my parents always made sure that we added something to our daily/weekly lives that would be to the benefit of others.

I am going to get on my soap box for a moment here and say that I have always felt it is wonderful to give of oneself; it is marvelous that Church organizations and charity organizations help so many people around the world. I grew up in the South and I was always amazed at how many churches in my town took trips to Mexico, South America, Haiti, Cuba and Africa. Those were extremely valuable trips for all involved, but I think it is just as important to know where we are from, to teach your children and others what is around them as well.

You don’t have to go far to help someone in need. Not only were there people who needed help within my own community, you only had to drive a few hours into the mountains and there were families that would have benefited from a little extra help as well. Start in your own backyard, so to speak and branch out.

I had the great fortune to meet Mother Teresa when I was in High School and I read an article recently that quoted her; it sums up my thoughts, better than I could:

“Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. … You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society — completely forgotten, completely left alone.”

I want to make it clear now that I am in no way demeaning the work that others do, to give of your heart and of yourself in any capacity is a wonderful act. I just think that sometimes we might need to be reminded we can still make a difference just where we are right now, we can make a difference in the place that we call HOME.

Secondly, we sit on the Eve of St. Valentine’s Day today and I thought I would do a last minute Valentine’s round-up. I have breakfast planned for Mr. Michie, I will be making homemade doughnuts tonight and working on my dessert for our Valentine’s dinner, but I will share more of that later.

In case you need a few last minute ideas, this is for you:

These cookies from the lovely Sweetopia Blog are just too SWEET! Learn how to make them here:

For those classroom Valentine’s where teachers won’t let you give out candy, Inchmark has come up with adorable bookmarks instead:

The House that Lars Built, shows you a cute way to make your own wrapping paper, to make that special gift, extra special:

The lovely I am Baker blog, shared these Neapolitan Spritz Cookies this week and they look like a very scrumptious box of goodies for a Valentine to receive:

These “Sealed with A Kiss” waxed lips from Oh Happy Day, are a sweet and funny way to pass out Valentine Cards. Who doesn’t have fun playing with waxed lips?:

And last but not least, via Martha Stewart, you can give your Valentine a tied posy in a flower cone. These would be sweet to give to friends at a little Valentine Day Luncheon:

{all images are copyright their respective blogs}

February 12, 2013 / 1 Comment

Just Another Manic it Tuesday

This was my calendar page today:

It made me smile! There is still snow on the ground and it is pretty nippy outside. Our cheeks were very rosy by the time we got on the bus this morning.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and I have a couple things up my sleeve. Mr. Michie is cooking dinner for me and I am making dessert for him. I have no idea what he is making, it is a surprise, so I am going to stick within the realms of something chocolate-y, because you just can’t go wrong with chocolate!

We ran errands on Saturday and then
went to see Wreck It Ralph. It was tremendously cute! The “Sugar Rush” game that he ended up in, was like a car racing version of “Candy Land”, I loved that game and played it endlessly as a kid.

Being two people who grew up with the novelty of arcade games we found this movie highly entertaining. Mr. Michie knew most of the characters. He played “Street Fighter” a lot when he was little, I was more of a “Mrs. Pac-Man” kind of gal.

Before the movie started we were treated to a Disney short. It was the perfect short for Valentine’s Day and I thought I would share it with you here:
Hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday.

February 11, 2013 / 0 Comments

A Snowy Monday

It began to snow last night, coming down in thick fat flakes and soon the street was covered. We awoke this morning to a good 2 inches (3 in some places) of snow and it is still coming down.

But my cozy snow day was not meant to be spent at home, so off to work we went. I think everyone is sad at the prospect of working on a snow day. Only because I feel snow seems to be nature’s way of telling you to slow down, to be, to take it in and not go outside, or if you do, it is for walks and playing, or getting more soup and bread supplies.

It was beautiful this morning. We watched the snow silently fall as we waited for the bus. The school was quiet when we entered, we were one of the first people in. I always enjoy those few quiet moments before the day begins and the noise never ceases. It is freezing in the cupboard today, I have yet to take off my coat and scarf. I might just unthaw by the time I go home.

We have chicken soup and homemade bread to look forward to tonight. I tried a new bread recipe yesterday, it is called, “peasant bread” and it is delicious. I discovered the recipe on Alexandra’s Kitchen. It has been on my “TO DO” list for ages and I am so happy that I finally made it.

I think we ate half of the loaf, standing over the kitchen counter like greedy little piglets, 5 minutes out of the oven, smothered in butter. Happiness is!

Even though it was cold, my giraffe wanted to go outside and taste a snowflake on his tongue. So we did, now he is bundled back up in the cupboard and drinking a hot cup of chocolate. With marshmallows of course!

Have a lovely Monday!

February 10, 2013 / 0 Comments

Happy Chinese New Year

February 8, 2013 / 0 Comments

Orange You Glad?

Orange you glad its Friday? I am!

I had a glorious plan to make fresh cinnamon rolls this morning with orange cream cheese frosting. Hence this gorgeously packaged orange that Mr. Michie bought me.

What is it about fruit that is beautifully wrapped? Who knows why, but it does something for me. There somehow is this essence of nostalgia hidden and tucked within the crinkled waxed paper wrapper. You could imagine buying this 60 odd years ago from a market stall, your white gloves daintily picking it up as you marvel at the luxury of buying an exotic item such as an orange.

Sadly, the cinnamon rolls did not get made as I chose to sleep 10 more minutes, so tomorrow morning fresh cinnamon rolls and a pot of coffee will start our Saturday morning off.

And, if the weather forecast is correct there will be heaps of snow coming in on Sunday, so I just might get that one more longed for snow day off from school.

Have a wonderful weekend!

February 7, 2013 / 2 Comments

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

“Brown paper packages tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things!” I don’t care how old you are, Julie Andrews belted it out correctly when she sang that line in The Sound of Music, packages are wonderful scrumptious surprises.

There was a package waiting for me yesterday. It was from my adorable sister and some extra treats hidden inside from my very sweet mom. I am telling you, that just made my day!

Yesterday was a day and a half! My Monday misadventures seem to be carrying me through the week. I have my own little uniform that I wear to work, because I normally come home covered in paint, dust, dirt… you name it, it is probably somewhere on me. So, I never wear anything that is that nice, because of course, it will get ruined. But, yesterday I wore my favorite pair of mustard colored pants with a little white top (white in the Cupboard, what was I thinking?) and a cute green with white polka dot sweater I got when I went shopping with my sister at Target. She got the orange one and I got the green one, that is just plain simple sisterly shopping happiness!

I was setting up for Life Drawing and when I walked back into my room, I noticed that right across my upper legs were two perfectly huge lines of thick black paint. I scrubbed and scrubbed and sprayed and washed, but it is still faintly there, only now it is the color of charcoal. I have one last hope in some magic stuff my mom uses, but if all else fails, I shall cut them up and make something out of them. I haven’t made anything from my stuffed animal book yet, and the pants would make a cute tiger or cat or pony.

It is a sorry thing to be sad over, I know. I am not materialistic, I just really loved these pants. But, the package that was waiting for me, definitely improved my mood! Inside it was a plethora of pink and red and cupcake designed paper. It was Valentine’s in a box!

There was candy for me and for Mr. Michie. There was a cute cupcake tea towel and adorable sweet treat erasers, that I think Gigi and Foxy might just enjoy playing with and heart garland ribbon and a Valentine framed picture of my sweetie pie niece, who I could gobble up and a cute Valentine’s storage container. It made me so very happy. Even better, I got to open it and talk to my sister at the same time via Skype! I am very blessed!

I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this:

One of these little candy dishes jumped in my cart at Target to live at my sister’s house and she surprised me with one. So now one is living in my house too:

The goods:

No package from my sister’s house would be complete without a Luna hair or two. Luna is the most beautiful Lab lady in the world. She is a black Labrador that could be an Eddie Bauer model:

As always, my family was too generous! That package made me the happiest lady in the world last night! I munched on Dove chocolates and read a most delicious book!

February 6, 2013 / 1 Comment

You Wanna Dance With Me?

Long before Allie and Noah wandered along the road to dance under the moonlight, Mr. Michie and I walked down that very same street.

We went on one of our first official dates to that very same movie theater and as he walked me home we crossed over King Street, where he proceeded to take my hand and dance with me in the middle of the road.

All the while I was protesting that we would get run over by someone, but he just laughed and kissed me and then I laughed too.

He sent me this last night and it made me smile.

He still asks me to dance and I still say, “YES”. I hope that he never stops asking.

{The gif is from the new site: Gify}