Showing posts with label Cocktails. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cocktails. Show all posts

Monday, October 29, 2012

Party Time

I've been home for 3 weeks and have managed to get 99.9% of the summer crap stashed away.  I won't let myself do any of the fun stuff, like sew, hike for no reason, play with trains, or throw a cocktail party for the girls until the junk is under control.  So now it is, so this Thursday will be Cocktails with the Girls night.  Since most of my friends are either still working and/or caring for the 'rents and/or grandkids, and/or they have real lives, it'll just be a few of us, and I hope you're one of the girls!  Sorry fellas, but next time it'll be for boys and girls.

The real reason I'm having some friends over is because I have to clean the house anyways... DD's class is coming over on Saturday for an outing.  All of the kids in his class have special needs, and few of them have any clue how to behave in social situations.  As parents, we tend not to take our kids to parties because some fracas involving our kids always breaks out.  Subsequently, they often lack anything approaching 'guest' skills.  So we throw a monthly event to try to teach them some, but most importantly, we do it so they can act goofy and nobody cares.  Being stared at in public because your kids are nutty is a pain in the ass.  So we don't go out much.


Anywho, I turned to my dear friend Martha S. for some party ideas. For the kids. . .


Shrunked Apple Heads in cider for the kids.  Easy to make: peel, core, and halve the apples.  Carve faces. Bake at 250 for 90 minutes. Cloves for eyeballs.

 For the girls on Thurs, we'll have this:

Ingredients

  • Fine black sanding sugar
  • 1 lady apple, chopped
  • 1/2 lime, cut into wedges
  • 1 ounce maple syrup
  • 1 ounce apple cider
  • 2 ounces vodka
  • Ice
  • Club soda
  • 1 thin crosswise slice lady apple, for garnish

Directions

  1. Moisten the rim of a martini glass with water. Place sanding sugar in a saucer and dip rim of glass in sanding sugar to coat; set aside.
  2. In a cocktail shaker, muddle together apple cubes and lime wedges. Add syrup, cider, and vodka; fill with ice. Cover and shake until well combined. Strain into prepared martini glass; top with club soda. Garnish with apple slice and serve.
 and this:
Nearly any drink, just add ice cubes made with black food coloring....... gunna have to hit the gourmet kitchen shop today, too bad for me.....

I made the Cider Cocktail last night for practice. My oh my oh my.... I loves my sweet drinks and this one is now my fav.......It's so sweet that I could get seriously tanked on this one.... at least I don't have to drive home on Thursday, which is yet another reason to be the hostess....



Other news is that I'm hoping all of you East Coasters are safe and sound, and high and dry.  My Mom grew up on an island in Tampa Bay, and loved when the 'canes rolled in because everyone gathered at the fruit packing warehouse to ride out the storms.  She recalled these times as big parties.  I'm wondering how my Grandpa felt the year a storm completely soaked the island (Terra Ceia) in salt water and ruined his farm.  They had to move to the mainland after that one.

We'll just get strong winds here in Ohio... so far (Monday morning) we're just at sustained 15 mph winds, which is not at all unusual.  We'll run over to the the Lake Erie shore either this afternoon or tomorrow morning to see the waves crash in.  Lake Erie is so shallow that when the wind blows, especially from east to the west, it pushes all the water up.  Fun to watch! And safe, too.

FTD on the Lake Erie Shore on a nice quiet spring day.  He loves to be by himself.  This is one of the few times that he's content.


Again, thanks for wasting your valuable time reading along with me.  I've been catching up on your blogs now that I have time, and have missed your virtual company.  Nice to be back together.



Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Birdies, Quilts, and a Couple of Parties

A new birdie season has begun here in the Midwest.  I don't think we'll have many more Snowy Owl reports from here (I missed them all, drat), but the spring migration has begun.  The Woodcocks are back putting on their awesome Sky Dance. Buzzards are all over again, though sadly the roost just up the road from us is no longer used as it once was.  For a good many years, we would have upwards of 300 Buzzies roosting for several days.  Somewhere I have my 35mm prints of them sitting all over the neighbor's house, holding their wings out to dry off, before continuing north.  Awesome sight.

The 75 or so Pine Siskins that ate us out of house and feeder this winter are gone, so our resident Chickadees, Nuthatches, and Downies have the run of the feeders now.  But for excitement, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper are back. DH spotted the Missus carrying new sticks in her beak, while the Mister sat and preened.  Yesterday, the Mister was back, just hanging around waiting for who-knows-what.  Oddly, the little birds didn't seem to mind his presence.  Usually, when the hawks are around, the woods go still and silent.  Not so yesterday.

Mr. Cooper, greatly cropped.
The fun part about seeing Mr. Coop yesterday was that FTD spotted him first. Last week, DD saw the Pileated and went berserk.  He could not believe how big it was!  We might make a birder out of him yet.


Party Stuff
Speaking of DD, we had his party on Sunday.  The weather was phenomenal~~70 degrees, sunny, and no wind.  Holy cow, we could get used to that! ('Course last night we were hammered with fierce thunderstorms... a small home nearby was hit by lightening and burned the whole roof off.)  Today is fabulous again!

I cannot begin to fathom the generosity of our friends and family.  They showered DD with gift cards and cash, and several really thoughtful, just-for-him gifts.  Before the party, he kept telling us that he was going to sit in the basement and watch the race.  We said fine. (Also meant we got soooo much work done down there.)  We went with an open house idea, so every time someone new arrived or someone left, he was right there. He isn't often speechless these days, but every time he opened a card or gift, he was just.... speechless.  By the time it dawned on him to start adding up the numbers, he was completely bowled over. And so are we.  We told him he can't spend any of it, until the thank you notes are out, and we need for him to settle down before blowing it all.  He has so much that he wants... When we had FTD's Eagle Scout party, he had a tough time trying to figure what to do with his take.  Not so DD.  Any who, the party was grand and fun and I'm sure glad we did it for him.  Later on, in another post, I'll run down how last week's IEP meetings at FTD's school have left us laying on the floor, once again, as the rug has been pulled out from under our feet.
 

Quilty Stuff
Next up, I did get some sewing done last week, but haven't had a minute to post, so here 'tis!

First, I participated in my first quilt swap.  It was called New Beginnings, and it was for mini-quilts.  I figured I might be able to do this.  My partner, Marsha, is from Mississippi and suffered through Katrina, so her quilt for me is called Three Waves, and it's a beauty!  It arrived yesterday, along with some swag, and I'm giddy! Check out Marsha's Blog, Anything with a Needle.




It was sunny and dry enough to hang it on the back deck for a picture!  And the cool part for me is that this is a pattern I decided I should try last week. I'm taking the free BoM Craftsy class and this month shows how to do this.  Win win for me!!!!!  Now I have a real one that I can look at, while trying to figure out how to do it!  Woot!

And since I'm running a little slow on sewing projects (like I still have one of Feb's BoM blocks to do, in addition to both of March's), I'll be mailing Marsha's quilt tomorrow morning.  So here 'tis:


It's a Thimbleberry pattern (for a bigger quilt) that I found at one of my LQSs, The Quilt Foundry in Maumee, Ohio.  I didn't care for the colors used in the pattern, so I really switched them up, much brighter.  And I can tell you now that I either need to spend hours and hours of quality time making triangles, or give up on them!  On the bottom row, below the bird house, they aren't too bad, the ones at the top really suck.  I also realized, after I got my beautiful quilt from Marsha that I didn't add a way to hang it.  I read just a last week about a way to put corner deals on a quilt, and presto!  Marsha did that for mine!  Now I know what that should look like. Next time, I'll do better, I promise.  Anywho, I'll get it in the mail tomorrow.  

Also last week before the party-cleaning-blitz, I finished the mini-quilts for the West Yellowstone Whack-a-doodles silent auction.  The W-a-D's are a Relay for Life team, and each of the gals is fun, so when you put them together, look out!  My special peep on the team, Miss Molly put out a note on FB that for $20 the W-a-Ds will put a purple toilet in your yard!  Or better yet, the yard of one of your friends. Why do you ask would you want a purple toilet in your front yard?  To show folks that you want to FLUSH cancer!  Both of my parents succumbed to different cancers, so I'm all for this.

Or you can bid on a purple quilted toilet!  I sized it to fit right over your current toidy, which I guessing isn't purple.  (If it is, I soooooo want to see pics of it!)

The applique stitching doesn't show up very well in this pic, but it's there, honest.
I mentioned in my title 'a couple of parties.' The other party will be this Friday, my place (or hopefully yours if you're not here in my local patch) and it's a Cocktail Party Girls' Night Out!  DH is in South Carolina this week, playing golf or something, the boys are in school, and the house is clean.  That can only mean one thing~~another party!!!!!!  With DH gone, and me hounding the boys, the house will stay clean.  Yesterday, I spent most of the day in my bedroom chair, enjoying the clean-ness, and today I'm in the family room, enjoying the clean-ness of it and the kitchen.  (Yes, the kitchen is clean... the boys and I will be eating out a lot this week, heh heh heh.)

So that's only a partial wrap up of the past couple of weeks.  The business with the boys is actually taking lots and lots of time.  More on that later. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget:

Friday, March 16, after work till whenever
Girls' Night Out Cocktails!!!!!
Be here!!