Jelly Time!

Red peppers -- Love them! Red pepper jelly -- yummy! Making some treats for the holidays -- win-win. 

Not sure if I've ever done a recipe with such little effort and such high return on the satisfaction scale -- well, perhaps the Christmas Skor bar squares that are incredibly easy--but what made this session so rewarding was that Julia did most of it herself to make gifts for her teachers and daycare supervisors.

This recipe for red pepper jelly came to me from my good friend, Angela. Over the years, we've done many crafting projects, shared in the delight of crafting media studies exams that only the two of us really appreciated, and reveled in the wonder of Supperworks together. Last week, she and I did our whirlwind jelly session (I think there is a proper term for this activity -- putting up preserves -- why up?) on American Thanksgiving eve. 

My heart aches a little each US Thanksgiving, now knowing from her what a HUGE! event it is in the states for families, and here she is in Canada, often doing parent-teacher interviews on Thanksgiving or digging out from the first snow of the season.  This year interviews were earlier and real snow has not come yet to this part of country, so I was happy that we were going to celebrate with little homespun activity.

Julia was excited when she saw all the jars come home, gleaming in their red yumminess and asked if she could help make some, so we kicked off the season yesterday making a batch of jelly and a tray of the Skor squares. EASY I'm telling you -- here are the must-know steps.

Step one - wear a red shirt to match the peppers.

Step 2 - Hold on tight to that lid!

Step 3 - keep stirring and stirring while you sing songs from

The Sound of Music.

Step 4 - make sure your pinky finger is raised as you fill the jars.

Step 5 - snuggle proudly with your little red babies.

A day in the country

Lianne and I took the girls to Innerkip to Deer Ridge Farm. We were off to see the favourite craft buddy of the Southampton craft show from early July. It was a glorious day, perfect for such an adventure.

Visions of Christmas treats and decor items were dancing in my head.

The show was in a converted barn which is Buddy's workshop during the year. Lianne found out that it takes a month to transform the barn into a lovely display area.

A bonus for the girls -- who I think thought that they were doing crafts -- that there were deer to be seen.
Here they are trying to be quiet and not scare nature's creatures.
While Lianne and I brouwsed, somehow Julia got the job to look after another patron's dog.

She took the job mighty seriously -- wasn't coming when we said we were leaving. But she loved it.

Happy shoppers!

Our happy valets.

H(1)alloweeN(1)

We've been excited about celebrating Halloween for weeks now. Didn't think that the actual night we'd be struggling with even getting around the block as Julia felt awful. When I picked her up at school on Friday, she was hoarse.  She said from all the screams of fun at school.  The fever that continued to rise all night (and for the next two days) told me otherwise.

And so we had another scare of sorts to contend with - H1N1. She had many of the symptoms -- fever, headache, rib-rattling cough, dizziness, lethargy, no appetite. She woke up about 5 am Saturday morning as the Advil was wearing off, crying that her dreams were going too fast in her head. Poor thing, fever at that point was of radio-station proportions: 103.5. Through her tears, she whimpered, "Will I still get to go out for Halloween?" I knew if I said no, she'd be hysterical. I also knew if I timed the drugs right and if she had an afternoon nap, she'd probably be able to get out for a while. And she did - for a very little while.

Julia had in her mind that she wanted to be a witch and then, all of sudden, decided on being a vampire. (not sure where that was coming from -- subconscious homage to the  whole Twilight thing that I'm not a part of).

So this is what she went off to school in on Friday (healthy at this point), excited for the primary Halloween-dance-a-thon. She was particularly excited about sporting some false eyelashes for the event. And, of course, there were fangs, but she wanted no white makeup or blood on her face. I guess she wanted to be a runway vampire.

Here is my Grade 9 class -- the rule in the school -

"Green (school uniform) or Halloween!"

It was not a civies day -- 2 kids are not in picture

b/c they are in the office -- showed up in civies, saying

they were public school students. As if...

Most of the kids went along with costume fun. 

Love my little Super Mario buddy.

Here are my Gr. 12s -- more ambitious in terms of spirit--

some too much so -- I had three boys dress as

Chippendale Dancers -- they are in the back.

They got a talkin' to by the principal. 

Great costume for your party on Saturday night --

not so much for the Catholic school.

Some of my fellow English buds, getting in on the act.

From L-R -- Oscar Wilde, Sparkle Brite, Black-eyed Peas, Ipod!

Since we were tricking in our neighbourhood, and I was going to be

away from the house, I didn't want a lit pumpkin on the porch. 

So Julia painted the witch she was going to be, purple warts and all.

not sure why these next ones are sideways, but here they are --

You can better see my black eyes in this one.

 The idea for the costume came to me while listening

to my fav song of the summer, "Gotta a feeling" by

Black Eyed Peas. I like doing word play costumes, and 

loved that Julia helped me cut out and hot glue

all the letters to a black sweatshirt.

Moe and Alyse arrive for the big night.

The scarry couple. MMM-wha-ha-ha! (sp?)

It took more time to get Julia rigged up in black layers and make up

then the time she actually ended up trick or treating.

It was fortunate for her we are in a townhouse neighbourhood-

not a lot of walking between houses so close together.

More candy for your efforts.

I knew it was over for her when she said, 

"Can we just go to Patrick's house?" which is just around the corner.

Patrick came later to our house on his way home and you

can see Julia is sooo done with Halloween.

Not too big of a haul which is fine. 

Less for me to devour.

Julia's hardly looked at it since.

The fever broke Sunday afternoon - big relief to me

as a three day fever for H1N1 meant we'd have

to venture out for medical attention. She had a little more energy and

even had an appetite for supper.  But I know she's still not herself.

She's not done ONE cartwheel or walkover since Thursday.