Custom Work in Progress

This post has been three days in the making for no good reason so let's sum up.

My "yay" for today is that my refurbed Sansa mp3 player works on my office computer without installing software, which means I can listen to something other than Pandora at work (though Pandora is wonderful!). Previously my refubed Zen required installation of software which kept me from being able to listen to my own tunes.

Yesterday I turned on the Christmas music for the first time this season (other than singing by myself in the car). Also I decorated the office for Christmas, hence why I had to turn on the music, I certainly wasn't in the mood until listening to a little Bing Crosby.

So if you wandered around my Etsy shop lately you might be thinking, "hmm, she really hasn't done much with this for the holidays." And that is sorta true. I have been getting more custom requests than anything else. A few from friends and some from Etsy convos. I'm certainly not complaining- it is enough work to keep me busy and I enjoy designing specific items for customers. So all the photos on this post are from works in-progress or ones that I have finished, but were in progress when I took the photo (sorry, like I said I have been adding to this post for three days).

Note to self - tomorrow I must watch White Christmas!

Whoopie Pies

I volunteered to make the desserts for our Thanksgiving feast this past week. After spending an afternoon browsing Gourmet and Epicurious.com I finally decided I should make some traditional pumpkin pies and then I figured we had to have some chocolate so I settled on making Whoopie Pies.

I have never made pumpkin pies or crusts so I chose from the trusty recipes on Gourmet and was very please with both the pumpkin and the pastry. Even more exciting is that the crust on the left over pie is still crispy! Although it did remind me how much I hate my tiny oven.


I began searching the internet for the appropriate whoopie pie recipe. See, there are two kinds of filling for whoopie pies - crisco or marshmallow fluff. I find the crisco filling to be the more legit filling - though in normal life I avoid both crisco and marshmallow fluff.I couldn't find any recipe that I felt I could trust. You know that feeling? None of them were from website I had used in the past and after reading the recipes I wasn't sure it was what I was going for. So I called my mother-in-law, she is a good cook and has Amish heritage so her whoopie pie recipe is to be trusted. The result was success! They were husband and Goshen/Newton Mennonite persons approved!

Deciding to be Thankful

Last night I had a bit of a drive for a work presentation, and I was in the car by myself. I forget how rare it is to be in car by myself till it happens, and then I think... "wow, this is kinda nice". So I turned off the radio and sang with all my heart.

The song I started with was "For the Beauty of the Earth" because I had recently heard that it was a Thanksgiving based song, and I found it to be so true. It also reminded me of Little Women, when one of the sisters gets married, Amy I think.

Please follow me through on this little journey through my brain here, so thinking of Little Women brought me to Christmas and then to Christmas Carols. For the rest of my drive I sang Christmas carols, and I must say I was surprised at how many second verses I know and just how many songs I know! For that I must say a huge thanks to Lowell Birkey and Waldo Mennonite Church for the years and years of Christmas caroling as a child - I can still vividly remember some of the homes we caroled at and the hot chocolate that followed.

After singing the carols and thinking how thankful I was for Lowell I was reminded to consider all the things that I am truly thankful to God for this holiday...
I am thankful for my extended family that love and care about me.

I am thankful for my husband whose silliness and love I can fully depend on.

I am thankful that there are more sunny days than gray days, but I am also thankful that the gray days come to remind me of how good we have it.

I am thankful for hobbies that bring me and others joy.

I am thankful for friendships that remind me I am an unique individual in this community of volunteers.

I am thankful for the wonder of agriculture, that our food grows up from the ground and for the men and women that work to provide it.

I am thankful that I know what it means to be loved.

What are you finding yourself thankful for?