make it so…

ST:TCT Year three: This year: trading “planetary bodies” for “space ice”… And introducing: Star Trek Storytellers. Nearly all series represented: Nothing yet from Picard or Lower Decks, both shows being released after 2020 ornament designs were announced. Some movies are in the mix as well: The reboot movies all have ships on the tree as […]

meet the family:

Grandma Ann Marie: Grandma Ann Marie (Mrs. Bell’s mother) is the matriarch of this multi-generational household. She looks forward to the holiday baking season, continually rolling out fresh cookies for the entire neighborhood. In fact, she’s fairly certain that half of her kitchen helpers don’t actually belong here. She’ll still send them off with a […]

meet the family:

Little Nicholas: Nicholas loves sneaking treats to his best friend, Spot. Of course, he also loves kicking his sisters’ shins under the dining table. He’d rather be out building snowmen with the neighborhood children, but Mrs. Bell admonished him for wanting to ruin his new Christmas knickers. He’ll plot an escape during the post-turkey napping…

meet the family:

The Natalies: Natalie Ann delights in reminding the entire family that she is the older twin by two minutes. Natalie Marie is happiest when declaring with vigor “I’m Natalie Marie-e-e-e!!!” Their favorite shared memory is of wandering the halls of the Overlook Hotel on family vacation in Colorado. And Mrs. Bell loves that the twins […]

meet the family:

Mr. and Mrs. Bell: Mr. and Mrs. Bell love hosting huge family gatherings. Marriage was a foregone conclusion once they started adding up family members on their second date. Mr. Bell likes moustache wax, bowties, and argyle sweater-vests. He loves showering his wife with surprise gifts in front of an audience. Mrs. Bell likes petticoats, […]

therapy: day two

Holiday decorating soothes me. It is a happy place. I’d say more so than gardening, as it reflects all of those years as a floral designer. I had an epiphany yesterday. I have always enjoyed making. I have always enjoyed Christmas decorating. As a florist, I’d put in sixty hour weeks in the warehouse dressing […]

the dining room starter set

The mantle madness started with an inherited grouping from my husband’s Aunt Vertie. Livertie was an avid Christmas collector. She and I share that trait, though we never met. After she passed, her daughter (my husband’s cousin) Kimberly Sue gathered up Vertie’s Christmas figures and brought them to a family gathering. Knowing my obsession with […]

in for a pound…

No more putzing. No more restlessness. No more waiting for 2020 to pass farther by… I’m not quite ready to put up trees; still some big things to shuffle for the season. So I started with the mantle. This is the second year for our expanded collection of Dept 56 All Through the House series […]

no waffling over breakfast

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but… Trader Joe’s has a gluten free buttermilk pancake and waffle mix that is a one hundred percent sacrifice-free waffle experience. The surface browns and crisps, the center is fluffy. The flavor is pure waffle. Get a box for yourselves and try them. Just them on their […]

end of harvest soup

I harvested delicate things prior to the snow: tomatoes and herbs, planning for a batch of end of harvest soup. As the green tomato base roasted in the oven, I headed into the snow to harvest some hardier veggies: bok choy, carrots, and kale. (We opted to save the kale for something else.) Ground beef […]