So this is Christmas

Something beautiful to start off the Christmas season.
I hope you enjoy this!

Okay, so writing a 50,000 word novel is one of the many things that has been occupying my time in November. Before November 1st, I didn't write an outline, didn't develop characters or anything. It was just me writing by the seat of my pants.

The novel is entitled The Bag Lady Stories. It is LOOSELY based on a newspaper article that I read some months back about a woman who had a fall from grace. She was once one of the British upper crust and she ended up in a Texas jail.

In my story, we find her living on the street; a bag lady, in the year 2020. A young reporter meets her and over the course of a year or so, she tells him her story. There's a twist ending of course, but to tell the truth, even though I hit 50,000 words, because of what was developing at the end, I probably could have come up with another 10K words.

However, this book was written only as a personal challenge of reaching 50K so I won't add any more.

And now I will concentrate on getting ready for a Christmas Craft Sale next weekend and decorating our home for Christmas. I shall post some fun Christmas-y stuff in the coming days!

Peanut Brittle anyone?

The Christmas season is fast approaching, and I am trying to do some pre-seasonal baking.

For the past several Christmas seasons, I have made homemade peanut brittle. It is yummy and always disappears very quickly. Today I made peanut brittle and I had a confectionery disaster ~ almost.

I decided to make a quick and simple microwave version of the peanut brittle that I make. Everything was going splendidly until a breaker switch turned off all the power items in my kitchen before the time was up for the peanut brittle to be taken out of the microwave.

The thing about making good peanut brittle is that you have to work fast, especially when you add baking soda at the end. What is supposed to happen, is that the mixture gets all foamy and you pour it immediately onto a cookie sheet. Well I tried to work quickly, but I because of the breaker went off at precisely at the wrong time; my brittle didn't get foamy, and ultimately ~ well let's just say the brittle wasn't so brittle. It wasn't hard, it was gooey. Drat!

So, in the end, I formed little balls and created a new recipe which I call Peanut Brittle Balls.

Look it's Woody!

Finally I can share this photo of my other son in his costume. He's a huge Pixar fan, so he asked me to help him assemble a Woody costume. He was going to a Toy Story 1,2 & 3 marathon over the weekend, and wanting to surprise the host by showing up in full costume, he asked me not to post any photos until the marathon was over.

His costume had all the necessary parts, yellow plaid shirt, red bandanna, cowboy hat, jeans and cowboy boots. But it also had a few extras such as the sheriff star badge, a pull string (think: "Reach for the stars!), Andy's name on the bottom of one of his boots and even a snake in his boot.

I think he looks pretty smashing, don't you? "Mrs. Incredible" was obviously impressed.