Oh yes, they WILL be MINE (insert evil laugh)

Do you hear that noise? Shhhh. It's these boots, calling my name.
We were meant to be together. Which means we are sole mates. (insert shameless giggle)

I CAN and I will.

Lesson #5: I will resort to the can opener a little more often.

Meal planning is without a doubt my least favorite Domestic Duty. I'm always searching for variety while trying to please the fam. I prefer to make from scratch, with fresh ingredients, but I also want it to be fast and easy. I hate to grocery shop. Wha wha, wha.
So after a weekend of Thanksgiving left-overs, no cooking, and no groceries, I asked my husband: "What would YOU like me to make for dinner?" I never ask, and he never complains.
He was quiet for a minute and then he requested
CHOW MEIN OUT OF THE CAN.
OK. I can do that.
So I hauled it to the store, shelled out- what- nine bucks, and purchased a lovely blue can of chow mein, a red box of quick rice, and two different kinds of crunchy noodles. Whole thing, top to bottom, was ready in 10 minutes.  We were both nodding while we ate. Nodding in approval of the meal's effortless/economical/nostalgic values. We ate it often when we were first shackin' up and we both grew up eating it, so it gave us both a little bit of the warm and fuzzies.
I felt like the world needed to know about this. How easy it can be.
But you already know this. And you practice this.  And I will too, a little more often.

Little Full, Lotta Sap

Lesson #4: Cutting your own Christmas Tree is fun!

Every year we talk about cutting our own tree. Then we see a cozy little tree lot and pull right in, pay the boy scout, load up and drive home. Once again this year, we talked about doing it- like for real- and images of Griswold's Christmas Past began to swirl through my head.

But this year we drove right past the boy scouts and headed out to the  old Brewery Hill Tree Farm.

After a brief chat with The One and Only Santa Claus, we grabbed a saw and headed out.

And there was nothing Griswold about it. 

Very similar to the "pick your own apples" experience. Fresh air, pretty scenery, and lots of  families taking pictures. After a while the trees all started to look the same, and then we found it.

And then we posed with it like it's an item up for bid on the Price is Right. 

 Our family Lumberjack cut it down for us.

Our family Cutie Pie supervised the situation. 

And we were off. The kind tree folks gave it a shake (to eliminate excess pine needles as well as critters-eeek!) We handed Santa our cash, and loaded that bad boy up (the tree, not the Santa).

 A fun family memory, and maybe a new Klehr family tradition.

Taming My Stinker

Lesson #3: You and your 5 year old will not make beautiful cookies but that is okay.

I have this nasty little stinker that lives inside of me that always wants the outcome of a project to be perfectly lovely and quaint. I just discovered that a wonderful way to tame that little bugger is to make sugar cookies with my little Sophie.

We always end up with weird, flat, misshapen wafers iced with unappetizing colors, and way too many sprinkles on the cookies...  and the floor. 

But it's fun. Nobody gets hurt. Sophie gets to call some shots. It requires some serious effort on my part not to let that nasty stinker out of its cage.
Instead of perfectly lovely and quaint cookies, we had a perfectly lovely and quaint afternoon.
 And hopefully she won't end up with her own nasty stinker someday.

Cozy Sunday

Cold, rainy, and icy on the Sunday afternoon.

Husband napping, princess taking a movie break

 

Fire blazing, boots drying.

 

Soup bubbling, stomach gurgling.

Spirits bright.

So happy to be chillin' at home.

Fab Foto Friday

My grandma and her sister. My grandma's the one with the "this is a buncha BS" look on her face. Now that I think about it, she pretty much always had that look on her face.
Love the shiny car, the amount of time those curls probably took, the matching outfits, and how the photographer instructed each of them to put one hand on a headlight. Cuteness.

Noticing a Pattern

As I'm sittin' and knittin' this Black and White Stripey Blossom baby hat baby hat for an order, I realized something. I think I might have a problem. With Stripes.


Black and white stripes like the ones on the shirt I'm wearing today.

And like the stripes on my sofa pillow.

And our upstairs bathroom rugs.

 

 

And Sophie's sweater. 

There's even more, and not just black and white. This house is filled with stripes! 

I'm thinking I love them because my head is filled with all kindsa' crazy colors, shapes, patterns, sandwiches...(like your's isn't?). The stripes, especially the B&W's, offer some sort of peace. A little down time for the brain box. You know what to expect. What comes after that black stripe? A white one of course.  It's simple, but still exciting and bold. I wonder if they planned it that way...

Next time we'll examine my obsessions with vintage rose patterns, houndstooth, and herringbone.

Monday Treasury

I just created my first treasury on Etsy...
{check out the wintery goodness}
f i r s t * s n o w f a l l

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61843073/cashmere-vanilla-cream-dahlia-reclaimed?ref=tre-4ce15c54adf56d91674046e2-1

First Snowfall

Brown dog may be goofy, but brown dog wise...

This was an awesome First Snowfall!

The power went out a while ago.

And when we don't have power, we don't have water. Or heat.

But we can still have fun!

It's Coming

I just noticed goofy brown dog sitting in our front yard. He looks like he's standing guard. Waiting for the arrival of something. What's he waiting for?

Then I noticed the how the grass has turned yellow. The field across the gravel road has been plowed. The sky is a heavy, thick, gray.

The forecast has flurries. There's a pile of wood outside. I'm knitting a cloche for my niece to wear with her vintage wool coat. Tonight we're venturing out to buy snow gear for sweet Sophie. This weekend I'm listing holiday items on Etsy.

I know what he's waiting for. This ain't his first rodeo.
It's winter. It's coming.

Fab Foto Friday

Vintage Photos.
They are so good,  and I have A TON.

When I look at old photos my imagination takes off.  I want to know the story. It wasn't the age of point, shoot, blink, and delete. If you were taking that picture, using that film, developing that picture, and putting it into an album, it must have been a moment of significance. You wanted somebody to see this someday. There was something about this moment that you felt the need to document.

Every Friday I'll share a Fab Foto or two with you, and do my part to breathe a little life into those significant moments. These images span from about the 1920's to the 1970's.  Some photos have family, places, or stories that I know about. Others leave me totally clueless. But I love them all the same. I love to decide for myself what was going on in that picture or what the day was about.

I'll start with the picture that made me realize my obsession  with old photos,  old houses, and the idea of home. Who lived here, what kinds of things happened inside?  What did it look like inside? Was this a pride of ownership moment? Or was the person taking it leaving it and wanted to remember their own idea of home?

Is this place still standing? What's going on in that spot right now?
And WHO sat in those chairs?

Who's hungry?

I'm always throwing wet spaghetti noodles of wisdom at my life. Some stick, and some don't.  This one stuck...

Feed what you want to grow.

I've heard this so many times, but in other forms : what you focus on expands, OR you get out what you put in, etc. But speak to me in terms of eating/food/feeding, and I'm able to process, apply, and retain.

This one's for real. Works like magic.

I just look for a part of my life that needs to grow. And then I feed it (duh?).

Or if I have something growing all wild and out of control,  I stop feeding it (double duh?). Or I feed it what it needs instead of what it wants, or what's easiest.

Yesterday I thought I'd spare these two geraniums and bring them in for the winter. If I feed them what they need, they'll grow, right? Right?? 

Anyway, looks like it's time for lunch.

Fall Back

Lesson #2 Children do not observe daylight savings time.

Ahh. Gone are days of  fall back meaning one extra hour of sleep.
The good ol' "Ma-om, come and get me u-up!" alarm clock doesn't care that it's technically 5:55 in the morning. I tried pushing the snooze button but this model doesn't have that feature.

So. Instead of more pillow time we get an extra hour of this sweet Sunday. French toast and turkey bacon. More time for coffee. An extra load of laundry. The dog gets fed earlier. We see the sun come up.