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Next time I'll keep my big mouth shut about not having enough snow!

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I never dreamed I'd one day be buying pork fat.

stay tuned at moonlit hill!

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the calm before the storm . . .

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a winter walk

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I am pretty amazed at how well these branches are staying, with no water - since the beginning of December.  They look and feel fresh cut still. Is that normal?

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I can't wait to delve into this.

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Lambie waiting to be cleaned. She smells like basement. I thought I lost her in the move, but The Husband found her for me the other day. This was the first stuffed animal I owned, from my dad.

fifty-one

Lot before Further in Utica

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forty-nine

forty-eight.

Did you know a replacement handle and screws for an oven cost 54 dollars and takes 7-10 days to get to your house?

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forty-six

What's this? A child of mine getting wood without being asked ?!

That is picture worthy.

forty-five

Sunday. Valentines Day.

I worked 12 hours. My husband brought me in my favorite dinner (broiled scallops!) from my favorite resteraunt (Pier 57 for those local). Of course, I forgot to get a picture. So this is what you get instead.


I don't understand Vera Bradly. I don't get the big fuss about over priced bags and ugly patterns.

But I love this bag. My MIL got it for me for Christmas, and it's fabulous. I don't hate the design - and the best part is it's so sturdy and huge and the freaking pockets man! - I couldn't have made/dreamed up/asked for a better bag. I use it for everything. For carting stuff to and from work. For groceries. For the farmers market. I pretty much love this bag.

 

  

oh, those pockets. 

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Saturday was busy - we were gone from morning till late night. Farmers market - helping a friend get ready for a baby, another friends sons birthday party.

This is the beginning of my cheesemaking adventures. Oh boy.

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The kids are growing their own cookbook collection

forty-one.

I've never, ever, ever liked ramen noodles. My husband loves them. I don't get it. I had some today though, and this cold must be messing with my head, because I actually quite enjoyed them. A gazillion milligrams of sodium and all.

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I have ugly hands. It was surprisingly hard to get a picture of my hand.

I never paint my nails. My mother in law treated us to a manicure/pedicure over Christmas, and I liked having polish on so I did my own about 2 weeks after. This is why I don't wear nailpolish. I'm not good at taking care of it, then I walk around with my nails looking like crap for a month or two before I take the polish off.


I don't know when my hands started looking old. I wish I remembered what they looked like when I was young.  It's strange sometimes to look at my hands and see what looks like my mothers hands.

I wonder they'll look like in another 10 years. Twenty. I try and moisturize them everyday like my face.


When I was 10 or 12 or somewhere around there I fell off my bike. This wasn't the time I got a concussion, this was the time my hands skidded across the spring gravel (do you neighborhood kids remember that? The street cleaner and the smell of spring/dirt/roads)? Anway, I fell and skid and ended up with several not quite rocks but bigger than pebbles embedded in my palm - the palm of that hand pictured actually. I had to go to the doctor cause my parents couldn't get them out.


I have a scar on my middle finger of that hand and I don't know where it came from.

On the index finger of that hand, I sliced the corner of the tip off when I was cutting fabric one day. I was home with the boys and my husband was out. I'm horrible in emergencies. My then 6 year old called my dad for me (since I was pretty much hyperventilating) and went around the kitchen cleaning up the blood. You can still see where it healed because it's slanted and there is no part of my fingerprint there.


I've cracked my knuckles since I was probably 5. I crack them at least once a day. My first grade teacher used to yell at me about it and tell me it would make my fingers fat. It might have, I do have fat knuckles. I don't have slender hands/fingers. They are short and fat. And also, my fingers are crooked around the knuckles. So maybe she was right. She's also the one who yelled at me about my posture way back when and I do have terrible posture.


I notice hands on other people. When I'm interested in a guy, one of the very first things I notice is his hands. I notice them on friends and on my children. What the shape is. How large they are, if they're soft. I don't know why I notice that, I just do.

But yesterday was the first time I had noticed my own hands in a while. So, I took a picture.

thirty-nine.

I feel like I've been sick forever. I'm such a baby about it too. I rarely buy lunch (anymore) but I haven't been prepping for work with my cold. So I bought a sub yesterday. Wegmans, how I love thee. Best subs, ever.

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thirty-seven.

I don't normally purchase things non-locally/out of season like this. But when I saw these the other day, I had to have them. It's February, I'm sick. I had no choice but to bring them home.

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Grocery shopping, planning.

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My house, right now.

My husbands band (boots n shorts) practicing.

I literally held the camera up and took a 2 second snapshot, didn't really aim or anything. I don't want to be too pesky ;)

Now that I've been taking more pictures, I know how I would have done this differently if I actually took a minute or two to get a picture. By moving the soda (yuck) and laptop for starters! I would have waited until they were closer together and moved towards the camera. I'm half tempted to go take another picture, but I'm snuggled on the couch with a quilt and a glass of wine and listening to them play. Way too cozy to move!

So instead you get the same picture in a different effect.

Ta-da!

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Out of 5 shots this was the best :/ I really need to read my manual.

I've been frying a lot of foods lately. Chicken for buffalo wings with homemade pizza every Friday, now homemade french fries, mozzarella grilled cheese and not one single itty bitty vegetable for dinner. Not very good for the waist or arteries, but sure is good for my soul right now.

thirty-three.

Thought I didn't take a picture yesterday, but there it was on my camera. Must have been sicker than I thought!

Will post details on what this is over at Moon lit Hill in a day or two!

thirty-two.

I haven't crafted with paper in a while. I have something small in the works.

thirty-one.

Sunday. Twelve hours in this office.  

This is what our office looks like after I cleaned it last week. I share this office with another woman, I work Sunday-Wednesday and she works Wednesday-Saturday. I'm not a fan of this office. It's cluttered, dusty, dark. But she's been here longer and there's not much I can do since it's not wholly my space.

thirty.

I took a picture for thirty. I did. But then my 11 year old was using the camera and somehow erased the 4 shots I took. Nothing else, just those 4. I have no idea.

So I was going to post one from last week that I didn't use. Can't find that one either. What the heck?

So, here's this. It's from January at least.

twenty-nine.

Friday morning. I was going to clean. I was going to bake. But after waking up to the back door wide open, the house at 42 degrees, delayed tax return and 1500 dollars in car repairs, what I really needed was to use this tub.  And I did, for almost 2 hours, refilling it with hot, hot, hot water every once in a while. Bliss.