The House on Our Kitchen Table

Since October 7, my kitchen has been a construction site. The dining table, covered in a plastic tablecloth, has been host to knives, blades, rulers, squares, three cans and one jar of paint, paint brushes, sanding blocks, a hammer, saw, putty knife, glue, tape measure, painter's tape, and shingle dye. We started out with a very orderly work space, but, as time went on, it has turned into a little bit of chaos, with boxes of materials migrating to the floor and the counter tops. We have been using a card table for our meals.

Hopefully, by Wednesday, we will be completing the project, relocating it to the living room floor, near the Christmas tree, and cleaning up the construction site kitchen. What we have built, over these two  months, is a beautiful dollhouse - Clara's Christmas present from Grandpa and Grandma. I'll post some photos of it later this week, when it is finished, but for now, here's a close-up teaser of the front door, Christmas wreath and all.

We are nearly finished with the most difficult and time-consuming part of the entire project, shingling the roofs. After that we have a little bit more trim to put on top and some touch-up painting. Then we'll be done!

Dan was the general contractor/builder and project manager. My part was the painting and shingle-dying, assembling the shutters; standing beside Dan and handing him the glue, the flashlight, and tools, as he needed them; and being the "gofer".

The house has three floors plus a little tower above that. We will not be decorating the interior because that will be part of the fun for Clara and Kelsey. They can paint, paper, finish and furnish it however Clara wishes. The floors, however, already have finished "hardwood." I anticipate buying dollhouse furniture for gift-giving occasions for a long time to come. Stay tuned for the final pictures later this week.

52 in 2013 - #38 Theme of the Week: Work

Dan and I are going to a Austin tomorrow night for his car club Christmas party. We are supposed to bring either a dessert or an appetizer. I went out early this morning to get all of the ingredients to make Santa Hat Brownies. I spent a long time this morning baking the brownies, cleaning the strawberries and putting together these little treats. Yes, it was a lot of WORK. Here's what they looked like after I put them together.

And here's what they looked like an hour later :-(  The strawberries wouldn't stay atop the brownies. The white "stuff" is marshmallow creme, which slid off the brownies like melting snow, taking the strawberries along for the ride. Seeing this disaster-in-the-making, I changed from marshmallow creme to regular white frosting for the remainder, but that wasn't successful either. The strawberries seeped their red juice into the frosting, and it, too, started sliding off the brownies. I guess we'll have to buy a dessert to take tomorrow night. How disappointing!

As a side note, I did use a new brownie recipe for this failed experiment, and those brownies were NOT disappointing. They were very good -- moist, dense, rich and chewy. Even though these little Santa hats will not be going to the party tomorrow evening, they won't go to waste - or maybe I should say they WILL go to "waist", somebody's waist anyway. Dan always appreciates my failed baking projects.

52 in 2013 - #37 Theme of the Week: Winter

A cold front is moving into Central Texas. Tonight's forecast is for temperatures in the 30s with a chance of freezing rain. Snow is also a possibility in the next couple of days. Nothing combats winter's chill better than a sparkly Christmas tree and a warm fire. Care to join me, in front of the fire, for a nice cup of hot cocoa later tonight?

A Visit with Family

Yesterday Dan's cousin-who-is-more-like-a-sister, Marci; her son, Caleb; and grandson, Miles, dropped by for a visit. (Caleb's wife, Tammy, didn't make it.) They were in Waco, visiting Tammy's family for Thanksgiving, and since they were so close, they came down for the day. 

After a nice lunch at B.J.'s we took a drive out to Oenaville. Oenaville is a little spot in the road, six miles northeast of Temple. It was first settled in the late 1860s, and had its own post office by 1872. At its peak, in 1890, the community numbered 200 residents. 

Oenaville holds significance for our family, since Marci's father (Dan's Uncle Wiley) and two of his brothers, were born there between 1909 and 1923, while their father (Dan's grandfather Baker) was farming there. It was only after moving to Temple that we realized how much Baker family history took place here, in Bell County. Someday I hope to spend some time in the archives room at the library to see what I can learn about the Bakers and their connection with Bell County.

Miles took no time in discovering Robert's cars in the toy box. Miles is about six months younger than Robert.

It was a little chilly, but warm enough to play ball in the back yard.