Suzy Homemaker

Well, although my photo-taking abilities seem not to have improved with the New Year, hopefully my cooking skills have. On Sunday, I proceeded to actually cook (this is a rare thing, indeed). I made a French Onion Tart. I made the crust from scratch, and it has onions and bacon in it (as well as the egg filling). I used my tart pan for the first time, and my pie weights! It was yummy. Eric made lovely steaks to go with it. Also, while I was making the tart, I was also making a King Cake in honor of Twelfth Night (which was on Saturday). The King Cake required me using yeast and letting dough rise – which is another new one for me. It has a cream cheese filling, and the dough itself (which is actually bread-like rather than cake-like) has nutmeg and lemon zest in it. The icing which was drizzled over it, was made of lemon juice, powdered sugar and a little bit of milk. It turned out well too…I am so impressed with myself!

I have been wanting to really take more time in my life to incorporate and acknowledge the changing of the seasons. My sheep blankets (strangely enough), were a start to this. They allowed me to pay attention to each changing of the month, and I have changed the look of my mantel (where my sheep sits) with each month. I tend to spend a lot of my time indoors, and in the past I haven’t been really present with what Nature is doing outdoors. Turkey Feathers is one blog where I just am in awe of how she incorporates the seasons into her daily life and her crafting. I want a life like that – where I am aware and incorporating the seasons into my life and cooking or crafting accordingly. In the nine months I’ve been married, I’ve been taking a big look at my traditions for the holidays, and looking at Eric’s as well. I stumbled across this website called School of the Seasons, that deals directly with my idea of getting in touch with the change of seasons, and holiday traditions (new and old). This is what inspired me to make the King Cake in honor of Twelfth Night.

So, on with the stitching…

As promised, here is a photo of my Queen of the Needle piece I have been taking “on the go”. This was an exclusive Silver Needle piece over the summer, and I haven’t touched it much until the past week or so. The colors in this are so much prettier than this photo would suggest. The greens around the edges are more a sage green. I did no stitching last night due to migraine, and I start back to class tonight – so probably no stitching tonight either. I have, however, decided (in my infinite planning) to attempt a rotation. I am hopeful that this might allow me to accomplish more this year. Here’s hoping. My tentative rotation is as follows:

Mondays & Tuesdays: Lemon Meringue Sampler

Wednesdays: HAED Water ACEO QS (yes, I started it – couldn’t help myself)

Thursdays: Lemon Meringue Sampler for now (Barnabee SAL beginning 2/1)

Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays: Mystery 9

My RR obligations trump all of these, of course (especially since I should have received the thing a couple of weeks ago). I intend to start on that on Wednesday and hopefully it will stitch up pretty quickly. I am hoping that by committing myself to stitching a smaller piece during the week, when I don’t have as much stitching time, and then working on a larger piece on the weekends I might see some good progress on everything. Here’s hoping.

Walk to Rivendell: Currently I have entered Tookland and am almost to the Green Hill Country. (Total miles walked: 6)

I am grateful for continuous learning.

18 thoughts on “Suzy Homemaker”

  1. My Mouth is watering just looking at your pictures! You will be well served with the study of the changing seasons and implementing traditions when little ones arrive at your house 🙂 Anything to make the day special for them is a gift to yourself 🙂
    All your stitching looks wonderful! I’ve been rangling with the idea of a rotation…but my stitching especially with 4 kids is sporadic at best and depends on their activities.
    Your walking is going well!

  2. My Mouth is watering just looking at your pictures! You will be well served with the study of the changing seasons and implementing traditions when little ones arrive at your house 🙂 Anything to make the day special for them is a gift to yourself 🙂
    All your stitching looks wonderful! I’ve been rangling with the idea of a rotation…but my stitching especially with 4 kids is sporadic at best and depends on their activities.
    Your walking is going well!

  3. That’s better – I tried to leave a message yesterday but Blogger wouldn’t let me go to the comments page! 🙁

    I love the seasons thing and I’ve bookmarked that link. I’d never heard of King cake either – so interesting 🙂

    Isabelle (Kitty Couture) has just linked to some cute monthly freebies that will come out this year – a house per month. I thought I might do them separately and display them each month like your lovely sheep 🙂 One day I intend to have a seasonal wall with framed pieces I can change each season. One day 🙂

  4. That’s better – I tried to leave a message yesterday but Blogger wouldn’t let me go to the comments page! 🙁

    I love the seasons thing and I’ve bookmarked that link. I’d never heard of King cake either – so interesting 🙂

    Isabelle (Kitty Couture) has just linked to some cute monthly freebies that will come out this year – a house per month. I thought I might do them separately and display them each month like your lovely sheep 🙂 One day I intend to have a seasonal wall with framed pieces I can change each season. One day 🙂

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