The tiny happinesses of a busy life

It seems as though the busier times in my life, such as this fall has been for me, require lots of fun and happiness to keep me going. Thankfully, the busy-ness of November has simply involved a whole series of fun and happy events doing the things I love to do, spent with the people that I know and love. To be completely honest, it has felt happy the way Christmas is supposed to feel(but never does) and for that I am grateful, since we are in fact, now going into the holiday season, which I so dread. I now feel much more fortified and able to deal with the stresses and mental tiredness that Christmas brings.

November started off with the happiest of things, a visit from Parents!



This visit included a lovely tea with friends and my dear, sweet mother. It couldn't have been more perfect.






We then had a series of crazy things happen in life which required cake as a solace, so I made a happy visit to Pangea bakery and cafe, which I adore!!

I enjoyed the green tea mousse with oolong tea - this was a real treat.

And I took a few little egg custards home to share with Matthew.

The end of the month has really been lovely with celebrating Thanksgiving and simply enjoying time with friends. I've also indulged in a few little purchases: tiny pans, persimmons, funny christmas cards, etc.

The persimmon is for reference so that viewers will understand just how tiny this pan is!!



I've also been thoroughly enjoying persimmons from the Japanese market



The pan is just adorable and fits perfectly under my broiler. I always have so much trouble fitting a full sized pan under the broiler that I bought these little ones for that purpose, but also to have on hand for baking tiny squashes and other small baking jobs. Maybe I should make some itty bitty cookies on them? that might just be too cute!! =)

Well, whether I'm ready or not, Christmas is on it's merry way and I've finally started to face this fact!!

Here are a few fun cards that I thought match so perfectly my Christmas sentiments

Might be the wrong gender to be me, but the sentiment is the same =)

Hey! that's the way to make punch!! Gin Punch, that is!!

Tis the season for Gin, Gin and more Gin! =)

The Holiday display at Hillcrest Hardware - one of my all time favorite places to do my Christmas shopping!!

I can still pretend it's fall

Despite what the calendar says, Matthew and I are having a tiny thanksgiving dinner tonight. We had a fantastic thanksgiving dinner with friends on Thursday, but we still have to use up the free ham(from work) and the little pumpkin I bought for decorative purposes. I am still stuck in fall motif. Perhaps today will be my last stand for fall and the loveliness of my favorite season. (I actually already decorated for Christmas and will post photos of the darling Hello kitty tree and the darling Ghibli tree at a later date.) After today it will be all Christmas, all the time.

I was just enchanted by the delicate color and feel of the pumpkin puree. Not sure why it is so different than usual but I really liked this year's pumpkin. It was delicious with just a touch of salt and agave syrup on it for a snack.



This year, I did not make the Moosewood Cookbook pumpkin pie recipe. Instead, I made the pie with sweetened condensed milk. I've never made a pumpkin pie with SCM but since I've had a can of it in the cupboard for quite some time, I figured it was long past time to use it. I actually didn't realize how popular this type of pumpkin pie is and was surprised at the number of recipes that call for SCM.



Of course, I over cooked the pie but It still looks very good. The sweet little maple leaf and apple edging is particularly appealing. So Cute!

adorable, little, thanksgiving owls

With the increased popularity of owls over the past year, almost to the point of saturation, I've acquired dozens of little specimens. They are all incredibly cute and impossible to resist. Many of them are gifts and then others are purchased by guilty little me. Guilty, because I am spending a fortune on these unnecessary, but fun, little owl creatures.

A recent Birthday gift from my employers included a wee nest of Japanese-made cloth owls. They found this itty bitty owl family at a lovely store in New York and brought it back for me to enjoy. How lucky, lucky, lucky I am!


The little family all snug in their nest


Baby owl all alone in the nest.
Did mother and father owl go look for food?


Baby owl, out looking for his parents.
Oh dear! Baby owl, don't get lost!


Now, mother owl says, "stay in the nest!"

Just last week, I took a trip to my local hardware store and spotted a sweet little owl mug. Despite my cupboard overflowing with mugs, I brought him home. When I finally pulled it out to use it for my tea, I noticed a startling resemblance between the mug and the little paper clay owl that Matthew had just created the week before.





Hmmm...we suspect that they may have been separated at birth, although one is clearly the runt of the nest.



All-in-all, I'm thoroughly enjoying all these sweet little owls.



And Before I Forget, Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everybody is enjoying a...

Happy Thanksgiving!



A couple of sweet little birthday gifts that are perfect for the month of November and a Thanksgiving celebration.

Thanksgiving approaches

This year, for Thanksgiving, we're going to join a bunch of other people for dinner instead of having our own tiny thanksgiving. It should be jolly. I'll take a few things like sticky toffee pudding, maybe some brussels sprouts and things like that. All my favorites.



Even though thanksgiving is less than a week away, I have still found beautiful tomatoes at the farmer's market. I picked up these big tomatoes and juicy limes a couple weeks ago.



Also, I finally got around to hanging my copper birthday bowls above my sink for easy access.



I like the coppery view of me taking the photo.

"ham day"

I hate it when people call thanksgiving "turkey day." Anyways, I didn't have turkey this year(or the last, for that matter) I had ham instead. It's so much better and the leftovers are actually useful. I don't have to find ways to use up ham, it just comes in very handy during the months following thanksgiving. So, we had a sweet little thanksgiving, just me, Matthew and Matt. I had a lovely and elegant meal planned but got tired of cooking half way through the day and the more complex items were dropped. I'll make them another time.

We had a nummy meal of baked ham, garlic mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts, gorgonzola and roasted beet salad and pumpkin pie. Really, we had more than enough food and now I can make the other items for when we'll really enjoy them with out them having to compete with the main dishes.

Thanksgiving was fun and full of yummy food, but perhaps next year we'll just go out for sushi.