Mountain Musings

5 Years! 1,400 Posts Later!

Yes, it's hard to believe that we have been blogging for 5 years! But, sure enough, we received the gift of Typepad for Christmas five years ago. Yesterday's post was # 1,400!!

Happy Blogiversary to Mountain Musings!

What can we do to celebrate?

Well, part of the fun of blogging is reading comments you have left us. I know the thing that would make us the happiest is to hear from all of you...we'd love to hear from folks who have never commented before, as well as a howdy from all the regulars.

• Tell us where you're reading Mountain Musings. (Hi, I'm Deb from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.)
  
• Tell us what you're looking forward to in the new year or what was your favorite thing that happened this past year. (I'm looking forward to celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary this coming year, and my favorite thing this past year was having my mom come to live with us.)

We've loved making new friends all across the country...friends we never would have known without our blog traveling to places we'd never get to go! Thank you so much for your continued friendship and for your encouraging comments.

Happy New Year to you all from the Mountain Musings gang!

~Deb

p.s. We're also celebrating a birthday around here today, so the balloons and confetti are being put to good use! 

 Happy Birthday, Tom!

Piece of Cake!

Here are the girls holding up the quilt I've been working on for a Christmas gift for my sister. The last stitch was sewn on the name label at 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve...quite a bit earlier than past years' projects; I actually had some time to spare!

I absolutely love how this pattern turned out. The fabric is a Tranquility Layer Cake by Moda, and I purchased the almost perfectly matching border fabric from the Pop Parade line at our local quilt store.

Here's the back...an odd assortment of leftover blocks that turned out quite nicely using straight-line quilting (click on picture for a clearer enlarged view).

The Piece of Cake pattern is by Camille Roskelley, and I know I'll be using this pattern again--it really was fun and easy to make! 

Check out another Piece of Cake quilt...Sherri, over at A Quilting Life, just posted her version of this pattern using a different fabric line. Very nice!

Would you say my sister looks pretty excited about her quilt? I don't think she'll forget and leave it here when she heads back to SC this week!

Unfortunately, I don't think she'll forget and leave my mom here either; she's planning on taking Granny back to SC with her for a couple of months. It will definitely seem empty around here!

~Deb

Betty ~ In the Kitchen ~ With the Rolling Pin

No, we didn't play Clue, but yes, we did put my sister, Betty, to work in the kitchen this Christmas ...making Chocolate-Dipped Orange Logs. Yum!

The first step was to whip up the cookie dough and chill it for a couple of hours in the fridge. We left it overnight and made the logs on Christmas Day afternoon.

Here's my sister rolling out all the logs and preparing them for baking...and she used her hands to shape them instead of a rolling pin.

After the logs bake and cool, then the fun part begins. Both ends are dipped in melted chocolate and then in crushed pecans to make a very decorative log.

Here's the finished product below. Don't they look delicious? We think they would make a delightful platter of cookies teamed with Sarah's Red Velvet Cake Balls.

The orange-flavored logs were a definite hit with our resident cookie monster, Jonathan.  Thanks, Bet, for a fun Christmas cookie project!

~Deb

Merry Christmas!

From our house to yours...have a wonderful Christmas!

~All of us here at Mountain Musings

Red Velvet Cake Balls

On Saturday, when the snow was still swirling down, I decided to make a recipe that I had found on All Recipes - Cake Balls. You can mix and match cake mix and icing flavors to get all sorts of different results.

I made a red velvet cake, crumbled it into a large bowl, and added half vanilla and half cream cheese icing. Then I mixed it up until it was all mushy. :) Using a large cookie scoop, I plopped balls of the mixture on waxed paper covered cookie sheets. 

Then they went in the freezer for awhile to become firm enough to dip in chocolate. They were just a little too soft to stay on a toothpick without chilling.

While they were in the freezer, I gathered the ingredients for the next part. I wanted to dip them in white chocolate - it would have been a nice contrast to the red velvet cake. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough, so I mixed what I did have with some red vanilla flavored candy coating. 

After melting the chocolate, laying out more waxed paper, and taking out the balls, I was ready to dip. It didn't actually work too well - the balls weren't able to be covered in the candy just with a dip on a toothpick. The candy was a little thick...maybe it would have been better if it was a thinner chocolate. I ended up having to drop the balls in the bowl, use a spoon to cover it in candy, and use a fork to lift it out. A little bit messy! :)

Topping them with different Christmas sprinkles and letting them harden was the last step - then they could be arranged on snowman plates and photographed! They are quite yummy - I'll want to try this recipe out again with some other cake flavors.

~Sarah

"I would be ever so grateful..."

...if someone would please shovel a path for me."

"Thanks, I needed that!"

~Pepper

It's Looking Quite Snowy & Christmasy Around Here!

At 7 a.m. this morning we measured 17 inches of the white fluffy stuff! And it's been snowing quite heavily in the last three hours! Believable for New York...but Virginia?! This is truly a winter wonderland!

Tom was headed into work at early o'clock this morning to coordinate any outages from the storm. His 4-wheel drive work truck just couldn't make it up Teeter Hill, so now his truck is stranded on the side of the road. He finally trudged back home in the very deep snow!

Thankfully, he can work on the computer here, and the outages haven't been bad so far. The snow is supposed to last here into the afternoon....maybe the 2 foot prediction will come true!

Tom told Sarah she could stop praying for snow now!

While it's continuing to snow, I'm going to be working on some gifts; Sarah and Granny are putting together a snow scene puzzle; and Black Bean Chowder is on the docket for a hot lunch. Enjoy your weekend, too!

~Deb

A Life That Says Welcome ~ Book Giveaway

I've written so many times before about hospitality here on the blog, that Hospitality should have it's own category!

So when I read about this giveaway over at Making a House a Home, I knew I would be writing a post about this book by Karen Ehman.

Mrs. Ehman says this on her website:

"A Life That Says Welcome helps you make others feel refreshed, rather than impressed, in your presence. It’s packed with delicious, simple recipes and inspiring tips on how to:

• ensure that your family feels loved, wanted, and welcome

• decorate well on a budget

• de-clutter your home

• make the most of your space (no matter how small)

• be prepared for unexpected company

You’ll be encouraged to not only open your home but to open your life as an avenue for God’s love everywhere you go.

"The secret to hospitality is more about the condition of your heart than the condition of your home."

If you'd like a chance to enter the giveaway for this book, head over to Making a House a Home and leave a comment before Sunday, December 20, at 8:00 p.m. EST.

~Deb

Thursday Thirteen ~ Snowman Plate Collection

Since we love S-N-O-W so much around Mountain Musings, it's only natural that snowman plates would be fun items for us to collect! Here are 13 from our collection...

I love the Star Light, Star Bright snowman plate. It's one of my favorites! The snowflake napkin rings were purchased at Cracker Barrel, and the cute light bulb place tag was painted and given to our family by a friend years ago. (Instructions at end of post.)

Can you guess why I would love this next plate? It's a snowman with a red birdhouse and red birdies flying all around. Love it.
(The other 11 plates follow on the continuation page).

Sufficiency of Scripture Conference Audio

We wanted to let our blog readers know about the new release of the conference audio set from the 2009 Sufficiency of Scripture conference, held in Cincinnati, OH this past weekend. For those of us who were not able to be there, this is the next best thing. Our family enjoyed attending a similar Uniting Church and Family conference in 2007.

Grateful hat tip to Life in a Shoe.