Elizabeth Holcombe ~whimsies and words~

Fresh Inspiration

Hello, My Friends!~~~

If you are like me, after Christmas is a time to reflect on the coming New Year. And it is a time to de-clutter, clean-out, and de-stash. Yesterday, Hubby and me took down Christmas, packing everything carefully away until next year. Our living room looks so naked and fresh at the same time. It faces south and west, and the low winter sun came streaming in today. Nourishing and inspiring. I went down to my basement studio and surveyed my inspiration board which is on the wall right next to my desk.

 

I have added bits and pieces of things that I like for the past year or more. It was looking too chaotic and cluttered. Kind of like how my mind feels after the whorl of the holidays and the end of the year approaches. Time for a fresh start, I say!~~I removed everything from the board, which took about 30 minutes. Then I found two packs of scrapbooking paper which I recently purchased at Michael's for 40% off.

I love the designs by Cosmo Cricket! Even though I'm not a scrapbooker, I do dabble in paper arts from time to time and like to have fun papers at my disposal. I fashioned some of the papers in patchwork form on the board, over the fabric and cork of the old bulletin boards beneath.

I used double stick tape to adhere the papers to the fabric and each other. I also used vintage curtain tie back tacks in the corners to hold the paper patchwork to the board more permanently.

Then with care I placed a select, and very special to me, grouping of objects on my new inspiration board.

Here is a close up...

As you can see a 2010 calendar is center focus. But this is not just any calendar. I ordered this beauty from Sue and her etsy shop. It is a fabulous Junking calendar with lots of important junking dates all throughout as well as the most gorgeous junking photography! get yours NOW!~~~Now, that I have purged my inspiration board, I can settle into some serious crafting. I have LOTS of new things to share with you in the New Year! More about that later, my friends!~~~XXOO, Beth

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas, My Friends!~~~

My wish for you all is that Santa brings you wonderful gifts, like fabulous clothes...

 

And that you get tasty things to eat...

And please remember  when you get that dream gift, "don't shoot your eye out!"~~~Love you all bunches!~~~Beth

The Final Push!

Happy Christmas Eve, My Friends!~~~

Are you ready for Christmas? Do you need to do any final shopping? I am DONE! But...if I needed to go out and endure the crowds, I would love to go back in time and do my holiday shopping here...

Wouldn't we ALL love that?????~~~Have a relaxing day today, if you can!~~~XXOO, Beth

Happy Festivus!

Hello, My Friends!~~~Not only is today Festivus, it is also my Hubby's 52nd Birthday! Happy Birthday, Honey!~~~And if you don't know what Festivus is, please go here.~~~XXOO, Beth

SUPER SIZE!!!!

Hello, My Friends!~~~

I have two Super Size things to show you today.

The first one is a cake I made for Hubby's birthday (which is tomorrow, he'll be 52). He loves chocolate, esp, dark chocolate. I found a wonderful recipe, Grandmother's Chocolate Cake, in my favorite cake book: Birthday Cakes by Kathryn Kleinman.

I gathered the ingredients:

 

And made THREE cake rounds per the recipe!

And then made the icing. And piled the layers on top of each other and...WOW!

This is one super size cake!!!! It measures 8 inches across and a whopping 9 inches tall! I could have shaved down the layers and made it less tall, but what's the fun in that???? Hubby, I know, will love this for a long long LONG time....

Now here is another super size goodie in our snowy neighborhood...

This is one super size snowman! Snow shovels for arms and a traffic cone for a hat! Here is an idea of how big this frosty fellow is...

Now, that's SUPER SIZE!!!!~~~XXOO, Beth

Shiny and White!

Hello, My Friends!~~~

After getting 21 inches of snow, we are now doing the BIG DIG OUT! But of course since the sky wasa crisp post-blizzard blue and the air was redolent of frosty whiteness, I had to grab my camera and venture out.

Hubby and dog, Sheila, out for a stroll down the middle of the street.

A holiday snowman with a really tall hat!

This odd site is a Bradford pear tree which lost somehow lost its snowy boughs and made a pile that kept getting bigger and bigger during the snowstorm. At least that's our guess as to what happened, but who knows???

We headed into the park at the end of the street.

The creek bank looks like it's covered in marshmallow fluff!

No sitting on this bench today.

Back through the park and home. Once home I called the lady across the street and found out that she had no one to help shovel her snow as her sons were overseas. So, I recruited Hubby, son, and our wonderful neighbors and we shoveled out her sidewalk and driveway in less than 30 minutes. Now, I must soak my sore muscles in the tub with a good book.~~~Have a warm week!~~~XXOO, Beth

More Snowapalooza!

Good Evening, My Friends!~~~

Here are some more photos of our DC area blizzard. Hubby just measured the snow at 10 p.m. and we have 21 inches!

Snow after the third pass at shoveling! At least we have a place to walk.

The snow balances on the yew bushes here...

...And here.

Here is the snow covering flower pots on the deck at 4 p.m. Looks like mountains.

The snow is so cold and a bit icy that it balances on seed heads too.

The bird feeder is full of seed and ready for the feathered feasting.

No mail today. No surprise there. Ain't nothing getting down our street.

And there is a gnome on a swing under that blanket of icy white.

I look forward to seeing what the snow total is tomorrow morning. Until then, I'm staying inside until the thaw!~~~XXOO, Beth

Snowpocalypse!

Hello, My Friends!~~~

Yes, well, if you live in the northeast you know full well what the weather is like outside. If you are like me, you have made today a day for finishing up those Christmas cards, wrapping gifts, and doing holiday baking because you can't go anywhere! Here in the Washington DC metro area, the news folks are falling over themselves telling us to stay home. One even went so far as to say, "there is nothing so important that you need to risk your safety and your property to go out." Well, OK then. So outside it looks like the movie Fargo. Just call me Marge Gunderson, oh yah. In fact our friends from Minniesota called us this morning and laughed when I told them that no one in our 'hood has a snowblower.

So here is our deck at 9 a.m....

And here is our deck at 1 p.m....

And the snow keeps falling! The prediction is 18-24 inches. A record for December.

I did venture out as Hubby shoveled the walks for the second time. I found out that the neighborhood dogs LOVE snow...mostly.

 

This Charlie and he lives next door. He is a rescued Beagle-Corgi mix. He wanted to leave his yard and play. The snow is almost up to his chin at noon today.

And this is Cleo, a noble Greyhound rescued by our friends and neighbors, John and Caroline. She is dressed properly for the weather but I'm not certain she is digging the snow.

And here is our Sheila, a crazy Australian Cattle Dog, who acts like a doggie snowplow. She carries most of it on her whiskers!

Because there are hardly any cars on our road, she just runs everywhere, freely exploring where she usually goes on her leash.

Before I went back inside away from this blizzard, which is also known as the DC Shopper Stopper Snow of 2009, I snapped a photo of our front porch railing and mailbox (I bet the mailman doesn't come today).

 

And this was at Noon. I'll give you an update later...that is if I can get the door open and go outside.~~~Take care, and stay warm!~~~XXOO, Beth

Nutty As A...(part three and done)

Well, I did it!~~~I made fruitcake for the first time. Here they are...

 

It took 2 hours and 15 minutes at 275 degrees to bake them.

Since I had planned to give my in-laws two of them, and my mom loves fruitcake, I cut into one of them and taste tested it. (Mom will get the one I cut as she knows I did it.)  Now, I really don't care for fruitcake, so tasting was going to be interesting...

So, I tasted it and it was tasty. It was dense, moist, and fruity, oh and nutty! Mom suggested that I could soak a cheesecloth in rum, brandy, or orange juice and wrap the cake in it. I will allow my in-laws to do that to their preference.

Since the fruitcake was tasty to me, a non-fruitcake lover, I will post the link to the recipe. Just click here, and you will go to Allrecipes.com to Brenda's White Fruit Cake. I don't know Brenda but I do thank her deeply for sharing her recipe.~~~Now, to go wrap these bricks of fruity sweetness.~~~XXOO, Beth

Nutty As A (part two)...

I'm ba-ack!~~~The fruitcakes are in the oven. Allow me to share what I learned in preparing the batter and the pans. Perhaps it may help you in case you decide to go nutty and make a fruitcake!

I first whipped fours cups of powedered sugar and four sticks of softened butter into a delightfully sugary frenzy. My Kitchen-AId stand mixer is a lifesaver in this part of the process...

I admit to licking the beater when this part of the process was done. Yum!

Then I separated 8 eggs...

I broke one yolk in the process but didn't sweat it.

Then I combined 3 cups of flour, the butter/confectioners sugar mixture, the nuts, fruit, the egg yolks, but the mixing bowl for the Kitchen-Aid wasn't bog enough and the batter was so stiff that the Kitchen-Aid wasn't happy. So everything went into a bigger bowl...

And I hand mixed the batter with a wooden spoon. Then I folded in the egg whites which I beat until peaks formed.

The 3 loaf pans needed to be lined with parchment paper, but I couldn't get the paper to mold to the loaf pan. So I jammed the pans one on top of the other and then a bag of nuts into the top pan. The papers molded very well using this method.

 

So the cakes went into the oven with a pan of water for steaming the cake to keep the batter moist.~~~Stay tuned and I'll show you the results after 2 to 2-1/2 hours of baking!~~~XXOO, Beth