T Stands for Snow, A Birthday, and Other Things

 Hi everyone. Happy new week and Happy T day also. 

Winter has made a  return to New Hampshire.

In this next photo here's the snow gauge this past Friday after all the little snow events we had  last week.  This photo was taken  before the big Friday night into Saturday snow.

You can see we had 14 inches (over 35 cm) before the big storm. Here  is the snow gauge  after the big Friday night into Saturday storm:

 I guess it's not as bad as some of the places in California where they've had enough snow to practically bury houses. And it sounds like they're going to get some more too. 

 I still hope this is it  for any accumulating snow in New Hampshire. One never knows in March though.

And this week for flowers let me share the bouquet of white roses my husband brought me home for my birthday. He brought them home Friday night after work since my birthday was Saturday, the same day of the big snow storm. 

White (with all the snow) was an appropriate color for my birthday this year.

My birthday was pretty quiet, but it wasn't  a bad day. I spent some time on the phone with my friend in North Carolina and even got an invite from my brother that he would take me out to lunch this week. That's a first. 😀

My daughter and her husband were going to come to my house for my birthday, but with the snow, those plans were scrapped. Instead we planned to meet half way between our homes for a Sunday lunch. (We live around 2 hours apart.)

Here's my link to T day over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.

For T day this week, here's my drink, the one on the left. Only one is mine; the other one is my husband's.

We were back in Manchester at the Puritan Back Room, and yes, we both had mudslides similar to what I showed you a few weeks back. My daughter and her husband arrived a couple minutes later, and since we didn't have to wait for our table once they arrived, they also ordered mudslides once we were seated for dinner.  I never took any photos once they came as I was too busy chatting. As I mentioned last time I posted mudslides, the dinner speciality of this restaurant is their chicken fingers, which is what we all had.  This time I went "wild" and ordered half plain and half coconut. (smile) The best part is they give you so many that there are leftovers. That's what dinner for tonight (if you read this Monday) or last night (if you read this Tuesday).

That's all for me. Have a great T day and rest of your week.

T Stands for Birthdays and a Second Look

 Hi everyone. Happy T day and Tuesday!

This week for T, I have a couple of birthdays to share.  Last week both my husband and my daughter celebrated their big days.

Even though my husband's birthday is the day before my daughters, we celebrated hers early as she was going to be away for her big day.

This year she turned the big 3-0!

Her favorite dessert is key lime pie. Last year I topped her pie with whipped cream and fruit, but this year I tried a meringue. Just to shake it up a bit. 

Everyone's pieces cut nicely except my husband's as he had to insist he only wanted a sliver. His piece was such a thin sliver it came out as a big mush on his plate.  This time the filling  I made was a creamy one, more like a cheesecake but not quite so heavy.

I didn't remember to snap photos of any pieces of pie except for the last piece which was my husband's. 

I also meant to take a drink photo for T, and I only got a part of one in this photo.  You can just see it on the right hand side of the photo. For dinner my daughter's beau, Zach, brought a growler of his parent's homemade hard cider. I really liked it, as it was dry and not very sweet.

Don't forget to stop by  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog  where our weekly T meet up happens.

My husband had a slightly more traditional birthday cake. He had a banana cake with bits of pineapple tossed in and cream cheese frosting.

In the next photo you can see the mess on my kitchen counter, and my half drunk bottle of Diet Coke. There is also a full bottle of what used to be Coke Zero and now is the new Coke version of it that my husband left for when he got home from work. These also work for this week's T.

And here's my husband and his cake. Nothing fancy, but the cake was yummy!

These photos are also my art for Day 2 of Art Every Day Month over at Leah's blog.

My second look for Second on the Second  takes us back to early November 2018. Here's the link for this month:Second on the Second over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.

Since it is Tuesday, and for many of us, T Day, I'm using an older T Day post for my  second look.   This post goes back to pre-covid times where one of the things my husband and I used to like to do was go to hockey games at our Alma Mater, the University of Maine.  Sadly the team that year wasn't as good as we had seen in the past, but it was still fun to have a little roadtrip north as well as have some pizza and beer at one of our old haunts. 

This  time the pizza place was packed with people because of some stormy weather and the power being out just about everywhere in town except for Pat's Pizza. They have their own generator big enough to run at least 1 pizza oven.

I also chose this post as it has a weather story, and since a new month has started, we have a new weather themed challenge this month at Art Journal Journey, hosted by Chris.

Here's the link to the original post: T Stands for No Power.

With covid, we haven't  actually been to a game in forever. I'm not sure about this year, but they are requiring proof of vaccine or negative covid test (within 72 hours) and masks, so maybe. I'm not sure I am comfortable in such a big crowd yet, never mind it means an overnight trip. Let's see not only how covid goes this winter but also if the team is playing well enough to spend the money to travel for a game.

Thanks for visiting. Have a great T day and week ahead.

Happy New Week

 Hi everyone. I hope you had a nice weekend.

I had a good weekend, but it was busy since my daughter and her beau came early Saturday afternoon and left later Sunday morning. They invited me  with them to go for a walk at University of New Hampshire where they both went to school and met. It was a nice afternoon and a much needed walk. My husband was off putting his boat away at his Mom's house; he came home very tired at almost dinner time. His mom is  getting to be quite a handful; hopefully she will be moving into his sister's house (not a great situation either) soon. It least when she moves it takes a little bit off my husband's shoulders, but obviously not his sister's.

 We did have a yummy birthday dinner Saturday night, even if I had to make the popovers twice. I greased the pans to the max for batch one yet I couldn't get them out of the pan. The second time around I greased and sprayed and that worked. Hurrah. 

 One gift I gave my daughter for her birthday was the Harry Potter version of the game Clue.  If you aren't familiar with the game Clue, you move around the game board visiting rooms, and you have to figure out who the killer was, what weapon they used and what room was where the murder occurred. This time you had to figure out using some Harry Potter, villains some deadly items from the series as well as some rooms at Hogwarts. The game also added another level with these discs you turned which opened and closed doors to each room and changed the secret passages. Plus there were Dark Arts cards that could make things tougher for any player.

We played until quite late, but it was a fun evening. And a good visit too.

I want to share another My Favorite Colour is October page for Tracey's challenge at Art Journal Journey

This is a page in Halloween journal. I stamped the quote in the background on my dirtied yellow paper. Then I painted the big moon. The witch is fussy cut and the kitty is a sticker. Good thing last week's Hunter's Moon isn't on Halloween this year.

 I also have another tag for Michele's All Hallow's Eve challenge at Tag Tuesday.

It's not the most complicated tag I have ever made, but it works for the challenge. Plus, I like it!

The background is this great piece of 6x6 paper I cut down and attached to a rectangular tag.  The zombie and the pumpkins are die cuts. I shaded the zombie a bit since I wanted him to stand out, but  he was a little too orange. I stenciled the words and then added a small metal pin moon head.

Have a great new week.  And thanks for visiting my blog.

T Stands for March Birthdays

 Hi everyone.

 T Day has rolled around again, and today I am going to share some celebration baking from the first week of March. This week I also have a  bit of a longish post.

There were 2 birthdays in my house that week. The first one was Pete's 7th birthday. We don't know exactly when he was born as he is a rescue dog, but do have an approximate date as he was still a puppy when my daughter adopted him. She picked March 1 as his big day, so that's his birthday.

I had recently picked up this box of make your own dog biscuits at Trader Joe's, and Pete's birthday sounded like a good day to make both dogs a treat.

I decided to use my star set of cookie cutters since Pete was the star of the day. Just before I baked them, I put a dab of peanut butter on the top of each cookie as well as a few colorful sprinkles.

They were a hit. And since a drink is required for T, let me share the dog's drink with you.

Smile. (The water is not really green, just the shadow off my kitchen cabinets that are green.)

The second birthday required a bit more of a celebration cake, as it was my birthday. cake My husband volunteered to buy me a cake, but I thought it would be a good time to check another box off my baking bucket list for 2021.

I didn't have this cake on my birthday, but instead we celebrated over the weekend after my birthday, when my daughter came home for an overnight visit.

I wanted to make a vertical layer cake. In this kind of cake (if you aren't sure what I mean), the layers, when the cake is cut, go up and down, instead of the standard horizontal way.

To make this cake you make a jelly roll/Swiss roll style sponge. Then you roll the layers of the cake around each other, standing the who thing on end.

You can see on the right the inner layer (standing upright), and this one of the cutting board will be wrapped around the standing on.

My cake was a chocolate sponge, and I filled it with whipped cream. That's what you see gobbed onto the layer above.

Here's the finished roll before I trimmed it. Then I frosted it.

I don't like super sweet frosting so I made a coffee flavored Swiss meringue buttercream. All butter, not much in proportion of sugar.  I put on some chocolate sprinkles. I was going to pipe a few swirls, especially along the bottom, but I since I needed to make more frosting, I decided this was probably decorated enough. Good thing too.

My daughter decided I needed a candle for every year. 

Lighting them took a awhile and caused a huge blaze.

My husband didn't think I could blow them all out, but it was easy-peasy.  Ha-ha to him.

And after we pulled out the candles, the cake looked like someone was using it for archery practice.

My layers didn't end up quite straight and you can see where a wrap ended,  but it didn't matter. The cake was delicious. Good thing my daughter took half of it home with her too. 

I just hope this year in my life won't be as challenging as the last year was. I'm still waiting to go out to dinner to celebrate last year's BIG birthday, which didn't happen because right after my birthday I got really sick for 5 days and then Corinna (covid) hit and life came to a screeching standstill.  I'm not complaining though because at least I didn't catch covid.

Don't forget to stop by   Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog  where we share our drinks. You can see my glass of milk  and my daughter's water bottle in  one of the lighted cake photos. You can also see my empty dinner wine glass in the photo where my daughter is lighting the candles.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope you have a happy T day too.

T Stands for Weekend Baking

Hello ladies (and any gentlemen who stop by). I'm going to start my T Day post with my last dream piece for Eileen's challenge at Art Journal Journey. Thanks Eileen for the great inspirations this month.

These ladies are ready to head off to a party.

I did a bit of stamping and inking on my page. I wanted to look like evening/night, but not so dark I couldn't stamp this fun dancing couple, so I gave the page a little wash of waterdown down black paint, kind of the way night is slides in at this time of year. Then I added the hand doodled, painted and cut out flowers, as well as the 2 party girls. I put a pink background around the girls ( I glued them on some pink paper first and then cut around them) so they would pop off the page a bit more than they did otherwise. I also added some silver Stickles dots, but they don't sparkle too much in this photo.

I bet they are off to a birthday party, like I had this weekend for my husband and daughter who both celebrates birthdays this week. 

So for T this week, let me offer you a piece of birthday cake.

You'll have to wait until they blow out the candles first. (smile)

I can offer you either milk or water to drink as you can see them behind the cake. They are my T day drinks for this week.

I did a bit  of baking this weekend to make their cake. Those of you who have read my blog regulary for while know I love to bake, so this is a homemade treat. 

My daughter's favorite dessert is key lime pie so I made a key lime curd for the cake. 

And my engineering husband just likes plain straight vanilla cake, so that is the base of the cake. I finished it off with a bit of real whipped cream.

Which, sadly for our waistlines but happy for our taste buds, we managed to gobble down over a couple of evenings. Smile. (I will say it is not a huge cake, but big enough).

Stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to see what the T Gang has been up to. Or better yet, join the T party. 

I had a long day yesterday and it's off to work again, so I am keeping this week's post on the short side. I will probably not get by most people's entries until tonight, so don't think I am ignoring you. I just wanted to get this post up before I headed out.

Hope you're having a fabulous day.

And as always, thanks so much for visiting.

Cheers For Another Year

Happy Tuesday and T Day Ladies. Today my drink related photos are about celebration.

All about having fun with your immediate family.

 (Eeks, there's that double chin pose again!)

All about having fun with your in-law family. And your immediate family too!

All about a fun hockey game when your teams wins against your rival team.  And when your daughter, who went to your rival school, is really OK with the results.

And then your team gets to move on to the next round of playoffs.

And T Day is all about celebrating your birthday. This past Sunday was mine. It was a fun birthday weekend this year. And another highlight is something I can't photograph, but my mom, who has no short term memory, did remember it was my birthday and gave me a call.

I wanted chocolate cream pie rather than a  birthday cake.
Cheers for making it  healthy and happy through another year of life!

So T day is the day we link up our drink related photos over at  Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog             to have a little Tuesday drink related fun. We'd love to have you join us.

And cheers (as well as thanks) that you visited my post today.