suziebeezieland

book recommendations for winter

Have you read anything good lately that you would recommend to us?

not a "should" in the bunch

My first order from Amazon (using those glorious gift certificates) arrived today, and I'm feeling so excited. I didn't buy a single book I feel I "should" read. I just bought books I "want to" read. :)

I always have a nightstand full of heavy stuff, and then end up turning on the television to relax because all my reading looks too important and thought-provoking. 

I'm excited to just go to bed early-ish all this winter and read, read, read.

I don't think a single thought shall be provoked. :)

I'll let you know how I like them all. (Please don't give me any spoilers on any of these, or I'll cry.)

we are most amused

Prince Charles turns 60 tomorrow. I can hardly believe it.

Today is his birthday party at Buckingham Palace, hosted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II ("mum"). On Saturday, he is having a smaller party, hosted by the Duchess of Cornwall ("Camilla"), and attended by his praetorian guard ("friends"), with music performed by a Prince's Trust ambassador ("Rod Stewart").

I do hope he is having a nice birthday week. I have to say that I myself am having a perfectly lovely birthday week. I turned 43 on Tuesday. On Sunday, we had a party with my family ("my family"), and on Tuesday my sister ("my sister") came over and we drank coffee and watched a fun movie.  That evening I enjoyed a nice dinner with my husband and daughter ("Bob" and "Claire").  This coming Saturday, I will enjoy a lovely birthday breakfast with my friends ("my friends").

Happy birthday, Prince Charles. I hope you feel as blessed as I do.

green bean bundles

My mama, who is a suziebeezieland lurker :), sent along the recipe for the green bean bundles I showed you on Monday.  They are delicious (bacon, sugar, butter . . . what's not to love?!?!), and I'm salivating as I type this. :D  The note below the recipe is also from mom.

Green Bean Bundles

3 cans whole green beans

8 slices bacon, halved

1 c brown sugar

1/2 t garlic salt

1 c melted butter

1 t soy sauce

Drain beans and put into bundles of 10 beans. Wrap each bundle with 1/2 slice bacon, securing with toothpick. Place in baking dish. Cover with marinade of sugar, butter, garlic salt and soy sauce. Refrigerate overnight.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes uncovered. approx. 15 servings

Note: I tried this with fresh green beans, steamed, thinking that would naturally be better, but it didn’t work. Sometimes it’s hard to find the canned whole green beans, and even then they aren’t really nice and long, but they work.

georgette heyer

Hey! Have any of you heard of Georgette Heyer (16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974) before, or read any of her novels? I just found out about her from a friend on Facebook, and am completely intrigued.

Apparently (I was just reading), she kind of invented the Regency romance genre.

I don't think I've ever read a book in the Regency romance genre before. I don't even really know what that is, actually. What is it? I steer clear of the romance aisle in bookstores.

But I'm fascinated because of the good editorial reviews on Amazon.

Heyer's books sound like light and fun, but pretty well-written and without junk, and if you might recall, I am looking for light and fun, but pretty well-written and without junk. (One of the reviews from Black Sheep says one of the characters has a guardian because her mother "created some unidentified indiscretion." That's what I want. Books with unidentified indiscretions. I don't want identified indiscretions.)

Listen to this description from The Reluctant Widow:

What starts out as a simple business arrangement soon becomes much more complicated as housebreakers, uninvited guests, a shocking murder, missing government papers, and a dog named Bouncer all contribute to this lively, frequently hilarious tale of mistaken identities, foreign espionage, and unexpected love set during the Napoleonic Wars.

Mistaken identities! Foreign espionage! Unexpected love! Napoleonic Wars! A dog! Hilarious! Doesn't that sound perfect? (I've been interested in the Napoleonic Wars ever since I plowed through Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell a couple summers ago on vacation. Remember that? I got in trouble for reading when I was supposed to be looking at the splendors of the California coast.)

Or look at this, from an official Amazon.com review for Cotillion:

No sooner does Kitty arrive in London than she becomes embroiled in the romantic difficulties of several new acquaintances. Kitty's French cousin, Camille, a professional gambler, has won the heart of her new friend, Olivia -- who also happens to be the object of Jack Westruther's dishonorable intentions. Meanwhile, Kitty's doltish cousin Lord Dolphinton has fallen in love with a merchant's daughter who's embattled with his mother and needs his help. Finally, there is Kitty herself, who begins to wonder if the dandified Freddy might not be the man for her after all. As in all of Georgette Heyer's books, Cotillion transcends genre -- it is, quite simply, wonderful literature.

I think a few months ago I decided to avoid any recipe that had the word "meanwhile" in it, but I really like it when novels have the word "meanwhile," because that means there are subplots, and I love that. (I just don't want subplots in my recipes.) And look! There is a dandified Freddy and a doltish cousin, and so many people that it's hard to keep track. And they said "wonderful literature." Wonderful literature!

If you go on Amazon and search for Georgette Heyer, you can see that her books are all being rereleased right now, and into 2009.  She was really prolific! So I'm kind of confused about where to start. Which ones are good? I'm really hoping one of you knows and can recommend her to me and tell me which book to read first. (I'm also asking my friend on Facebook, and will report back to you if she gives me some recommendations.)

I got some most excellent Amazon gift certificates for my birthday and they are burning a hole in my Inbox. :)

my mom's kitchen

My mom and dad lived with a very old kitchen and two very old baths in their home for over twenty years, but have in the past couple of years been able to redo them all. I still get excited to see the new rooms.

We were all out there last night for a fun party, and I took a few pictures. I'll show you one of the bathrooms later. I didn't want it getting mixed up today with the kitchen. :D

The kitchen is warm and cozy, with beautiful white cabinets, dark wood floors, a dark brown table and china hutch, and splashes of red everywhere. It feels French. Some wonderful food comes out of this kitchen.

Here's a wooden chef we bought in Krakow.

I like how the little t.v. is tucked in.

I love the warmth of the copper molds.

I love the white lace curtains and the warm table lamps.

The red accents against the white backsplash just pop.

Mom's got her recipes up on the fridge as she works.

What's cookin'? We started with roasted red pepper soup . . .

. . . and then shish-ka-bob, served on warm yellow rice . . .

. . . and green bean bundles wrapped in bacon . . .

 

. . . and salad, and rolls. And then cheesecake and coffee to end with, which I did not photograph because I was too busy eating it right up. :)

Yay, sweet mama! Yay, mama's kitchen! :)

another little questionnaire for you

Here is another little questionnaire for you to cut-and-paste into comments and answer, just for fun. :)

1. Are you reading anything for pleasure right now? Do you recommend it?

2. What is something you remember getting in trouble for when you were a little kid?

3. How do you get your world news? Do you watch the news on t.v., or read the newspaper, or get it online, or do you kind of just wait for somebody to tell you what is going on? :D

4. Did you formally learn to type when you were in school, or are you self-taught? If you learned in school, do you remember anything about your typing class?

5. If you had to teach a class to suziebeezieland, what would you teach us?

10 random

1. I don't really trust anybody who never freaks out about anything.

2. My plan to eat some of Claire's hallowe'en candy hasn't really worked out, because she has it all memorized. I got busted for snagging a Reese's the other day.

3. I'm reading The Holiness of God for our Bible study, and have never in my whole life felt so convicted about how I'm spending my time each day, and what I'm putting into my mind with my entertainment. You know I always struggle with this, because I just want to read and watch fun stuff that makes me relax and laugh or feel thrilled or excited, and be one of the girls, but some of the really popular stuff is seriously trash. It's hard to swim upstream, or miss out, but then I think, if I really believe I'm going to spend eternity with God, with this holy God, why would I spend any time now putting junk in my head? It's just dumb. No, really.  So I'm trying to find stuff that's fun but not junk.

4. I cleaned out my dryer vent today (I unscrewed something and stuck the dryer hose down there) and couldn't believe all the lint stuck in there. I think my house was probably ready to burn down! I cleaned it because the clothes haven't been getting all the way dry in their cycle, but now they are. I'm not what you'd call a detail-oriented housekeeper sometimes.

(I think that when you start talking about your dryer vent it's probably time to stop blogging. I hope someone reading this is interested in dryer lint.)

5. Wahib's Middle East Restaurant is down the street from us and we've never tried it out, although we want to because everyone says it's great.  It's supposed to be fantastic Lebanese food.  But what is really intriguing me is the big sign in front for Wahib's Dinner Theater, which is currently Dude! The Musical. I notice it every time I go through the drivethrough at McDonald's, which is just across the street. What could that possibly be about?

6.  Also, while we're discussing signs that intrigue me, south of us there is a sign pointing down a little road for TomatoBank.  Since I've never seen the building, I thought maybe it was just a sign going to nowhere, or just a joke, or maybe a scam. But I guess TomatoBank is a real thing.  It would be kind of fun to have a credit card with a tomato on it.

7. Mark and Valeria, if you are reading this, I am praying for you every day. I hope Luke can come home from the hospital soon. xxoo

8. It is still in the 80s here, but I bought thermal underwear today because we're going to Germany and Austria later this month for a week's vacation. I hate having to buy cold-weather clothing that we won't get much use out of, but I hate freezing even more, so thermals it is! :) We also have new snow boots and mittens. You can get some pretty great deals on thermals, boots and mittens in southern California in November when it is in the 80s. :)

9. My Uncle Keith and Aunt Lucy are coming out from Kansas City for Thanksgiving. I'm so excited!

10. Bob is out tonight seeing some shoot-'em-up movie with his friends, and I spent two really nice hours plopped on the sofa with the dog and cat scrunched up next to me, watching HGTV.  As soon as it starts getting dark earlier and signals that it's autumn, I turn into a television fiend, even though I've not been terribly interested all summer.  This is why I have to make sure I'm not watching junk, because once it's actually winter I am seriously glued to my sofa. :)

the suziebeezieland monthly newsletter

The suziebeezieland monthly newsletter for November will mail out this weekend and Monday.

If you would like to subscribe to this monthly newsletter, please sign up using the form towards the bottom of the right sidebar over there --->

If you don't like it when you get it, you can unsubscribe by following the directions at the bottom of the newsletter. :)

The old newsletters are archived here.

The newsletter mails out in two separate batches in alphabetical order by first name, 24 hours apart. I have to do it this way because I have a cap of 50 mailings per day with my free WebAsyst account. :)

turkeys

Last year, Bob and Claire mentioned that it was kind of a letdown in November after I removed all the Hallowe'en decor, so this year I got some Thanksgiving placemats and a runner and napkins from PB Kids. They had this stuff in their store for about a week before they replaced it with Christmas. I don't think Thanksgiving is very lucrative for the big retailers.  But it's my favorite holiday and I'm happy to have some special placemats for it. :)

 

november in the suziebeezieland bookshop

Here are my nine picks for November. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I am pleased to recommend these books to you. (I'm also very excited about Alicia's book coming out!)

(If you click on that link above you are going to have reading deja vu in a second. :D Sorry about that, but I figured why rewrite what I want to say when I've already said it the way I want to say it?)

designed to sell

{image from hgtv.com}

Do any of you watch Designed to Sell on HGTV? (I only watch the L.A. and Chicago teams.)

I got home from voting on Tuesday and sat down to eat lunch, so I decided to watch a saved DTS (I TiVo the show) that had aired two days before.  It was called "Phoenix Bound," although the website calls it "Making Upgrades to a Kitchen, Laundry Room and Bathroom in an Arts-and-Crafts Style Home".

Do you know which one I'm talking about? They had a ton of cabinets in their kitchen, but the stain was unattractive so Lisa painted them white. Their fridge wouldn't fit in the kitchen so they'd been keeping it on a service porch, and Lisa had the guys enlarge the space so the fridge would fit in there. She also redid the service porch and little bathroom.

Clive was doing the intro and said "here in San Gabriel, California," and I almost fell off the couch! And then they showed the house, and I REALLY almost fell off the couch! The house is about two blocks away from my house, and exactly two houses down from the school where I had just voted! It was surreal.

I imagine they had more than one open house when the house was for sale, but I almost stopped at one of their open houses (my friend Pam has got me interested in attending Open Houses recreationally . . .) but I had icecream in the car and couldn't stop, and I never went back. Do you think I missed the open house with Clive? I bet I did. Rats.

I'm kind of bitter that Lisa LaPorta and Clive Pearse were in my neighborhood and didn't come over and redo my bathroom or something . . .

pink gingham

I have several pieces of black furniture in my house. Our bedroom nightstands are black, and the end tables and coffee tables in the living room are black, and my desk is black.  In dusty, smoggy southern California, black furniture almost never looks clean. It drives me crazy. Especially my desk!

So last week I found a gingham curtain panel on sale over at Pottery Barn Kids. It's width is exactly two times the depth of my desk.  So I just folded it in half and laid it on down, like a runner.

Now my desk is exactly as dirty as it was before, when it was black, but I CAN'T TELL. :D

the suziebeezieland weekly poll:television habits

Here's our latest suziebeezieland poll. (I know they're not really weekly, but "the suziebeezieland every-now-and-again poll" seems like a clunky name for it.) But note that all polls close one week after I post them, whether or not I post the results immediately.

Please choose one. :)

Here are the results from our last poll! Interesting, huh?

1 timothy 2:1-4

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior."

a little questionnaire for you

Here is a little questionnaire for you to cut-and-paste into comments and answer, just for fun. :)

1. What's your favorite breakfast to have in the autumn when it's chilly outside?

2. Do you have a favorite place to shop for gifts?

3. Are you worried about anything right now?

4. What is a project in your house you've been wanting to tackle but haven't gotten around to?

5. If you could have a cup of coffee tomorrow morning with a celebrity, who would it be?

lazy saturday morning

Happy November, ladies!

After a very busy week, I'm having a seriously lazy Saturday morning. It is actually now 12:06, and I'm still in my jammies. Claire and Bob have gone off on a mystery shopping errand, and there are several things I could and should be doing. Instead, I have watched two decorating shows, looked at some photos on Flickr, and eaten a cookie. :)

My dad's surgery went well, and he is home recuperating for a couple weeks. It will be some time before we know how successful it was.

I was one of the parent chaperones on a kindergarten field trip this past Thursday. We saw a production of Sleeping Beauty at Citrus College, and then had lunch at a park.  My little group of six kids was so sweet and fun. They absolutely cracked me up.  Very high energy, but very good.

Last night we had a houseful over for our annual Hallowe'en party.  I really enjoyed myself.  It was the men's year to take the kids trick-or-treating, so the womenfolk stayed home, chatted, and ate chili and cornbread. Then everybody came back, and the kids sorted out and traded their candy with each other, and the grownups drank coffee and ate dessert. (And the guys got their chili.)

Our friends are funny, kind, and have great kids.  I feel really blessed.  Our Elizabeth M.'s youngest, who will start kindergarten next year, thought one (but not both) of our fish looked bored. "It needs a 'ticker," she said.  "Then it won't be bored." So she gave them a 'ticker.  I think she was right. They're into their 'ticker.

This morning I feel like a creaky old lady, because I've been house-cleaning and baking like a lunatic for the past couple of days, and staying up too late.  I'm old and can no longer do that without consequences.  So I'm going in slow motion today.  Each passing hour has seen me shorten my to-do list (low goals are attainable), and I'm currently resolved to (a) get showered and dressed at some point, (b) do the dishes, (c) make the beds and (d) plant some cyclamen I bought earlier this week. They're going to replace some dead impatiens in the pots out on the back patio that I can see from the kitchen door.

But at this rate I may end up settling for (a). We'll see. :D

happy hallowe'en, suziebeezieland!

ding-dong spiders

I made the spiders from Matthew Mead's awesome Halloween Tricks and Treats book tonight for our annual Hallowe'en party tomorrow night.

They're not at all difficult to make, but they're "fiddly."

The bodies are Ding-Dongs, the legs are Pocky (these are chocolate-covered stick cookies from Japan; our grocery store has them in the Asian food aisle), the eyes and fangs are mini-marshmallows with melted-baking-chocolate pupils (Matthew's recipe called for candy googly-eyes -- which I couldn't find, but I have to admit I didn't look very hard -- so we improvised) and everything is held together with melted-baking-chocolate "glue." (Two melted squares of semi-sweet Bakers -- I just put them in a bowl and zapped them in the microwave for maybe 90 seconds -- was a bit more than enough to glue a total of 80 legs, 20 eyes, and 20 fangs onto 10 Ding-Dongs, and to make 20 pupils.)

I bought an extra box of Pocky because they break easily (there are about 20 to a box) and, eerily, I must have broken exactly 20, because we used them all exactly up.

We all keep giggling when we look at them. :D

côté maison

My parents lived in Évreux, France, for the three years right before I was born.

Consequently, I grew up in a home full of lovely books and music and art and food from France, and a mom who sang sweet French songs and cooed sweet French endearments to me.  (I remain, to this day, her little cabbage.)

My entire childhood was bathed in a warm, streetlights-on-cobblestones glow of Francophilia.

Not surprisingly, I myself also fell wildly in love with everything French, and grew up and went to college and minored in French and spent a semester in Paris.  I planned to return and live there forever, but somehow, I didn't.

But! I have a secret French life, that runs like the river Seine through my overactive imagination :) wiping out the concrete and graffiti of southern California and replacing it with beauty.  I horde pictures of France inside my head -- a catalog of thousands and thousands of images -- and I flip through it whenever I need to pretty-up the very often Ugly Greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area (or "Uglama," as I have come to think of it). 

I go to the grocery store, and shrink it down to market-sized.  I replace the big plastic milk jugs with small cardboard boxes or curvy glass bottles.  I wipe out the fake American bread aisle and replace it with baguette and brioche and pain de compagne and bâtarde.  I snuggle some cartons of crème fraîche in next to the sour cream.  The butter case reaches to the ceiling: trusty Échiré butter in little wooden baskets, and Isigny butter with crunchy bits of rock salt in it, and Sevre Et Belle Goat Butter, and creamy Surgères butter from Poitou-Charentes.

There are sweet onions from Cévennes, and cherries from Céret, and other fruits and vegetables I have forgotten how to cook, but buy anyway, because they look so lovely. You can spend the ENTIRE DAY in my pretend French market reading off the names of all the cheeses. I never make it to "Z" because I stop at "Port Salut" and start eating. ("Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux cent quarante-six variétés de fromage?" asked de Gaulle.) 

And the wine!  And the patisseries! I move into my pretend French market, and sleep on the floor.

I do this to everything, this Frenchification, whenever it needs doing.  The ugly plastic play area at our local McDonalds has been replaced with a formal French garden, complete with two parterres, a fountain, wood-and-iron benches, and a central monument to Delacroix. :)

When I'm bored of my own imagination, I have outside sources to restock the image library in my head. For instance, I like looking at the Côté Maison website to see what's going on in French homes. :)

 

I am not in love with these thickly striped slipcovers, but I am in love with this room's open floorplan to the kitchen. And I love that accordion reading lamp coming out from the beam.

 

Look at the pretty glass in the door. The transom curves in an arch! And I love the wooden top on the table, with the bottom painted white. And that ladder hiding behind the door.

 

Look! Actually French french doors! :) Aren't the sidelight and transom pretty?

 

This linen shade is so lovely. I am drawn to all these monochromatic rooms in shades of white/cream/tan/brown.  (I'd probably wreck the serenity by plopping down a big vase full of colorful flowers or something, because eventually all that calmness would get to me. But it sure looks appealing in magazines.)

 

Look at those pinecones in the windowsill, and the lamp with the ruffly galvanized shade and the topiaries flanking the door, and those wellies.  All windows and their views should be so interesting.

 

This room in general does not beckon to me (the big tree and lamp bug me), but I like those baskets lined up under the bed thingy. I also like that folding chair over at the left.

 

I like this armless sofa, although I lean on the arm of our sofa so much that I'd fall off the end of this.

 

Look at those skylights. I love all the light in this room.

 

If by some miracle I made it across the rope bridge to that treehouse, I'd never make it back, and would be forced to live out the rest of my days over there.  I'm afraid of heights, and swinging bridges, especially.

 

This would be my treehouse bedroom. I'd pretend to be a French version of Heidi.

 

Again, I'm not drawn so much to this decor, but the openness and light are very appealing to me. And so are those muffiny-looking things on the table. Yum.

 

In this photo, I like the word "amour" on the mirror, and I love the modern monitor on the antique desk.

 

 

Do you remember when I recently went for a walk and showed you photos of a house that is being restored not far from my house? I think they should do it like this house, with the turquoise shutters. Should I print this photo out and tape it to the front door of their house anonymously? :D

Or they could do it like these, with blue shutters and stonework. Aren't you glad I don't live in your neighborhood and have opinions about your house?

 

I love this floor runner!

 

If I lived in this house I would jump off the side of the stairs onto my bed. I wonder if that cat does that.

 

This is kind of neat looking and different. It's a seaside home.

 

 

I LOVE this courtyard area. I just love topiaries. And climbing roses. And again, those galvanized lamps that hang down.

 

Look at how gently and beautifully the staircase in this photo curves.

Dragonfly taps! I love them.

Here is that white/cream/tan/brown color scheme again. So restful.

 

I always like hardwood floors in bathrooms, although it must be work to keep them from warping. I like everything in this photo.

 

I like that basket hanging there holding stuff. French shampoo and whatnot. :)

 

I really like the word "etre" in lieu of a bathroom mirror. Sometimes I look in a mirror to make sure I'm still there, but having "etre" there would remind me that I am, if I am thinking the word "etre." 

"Je pense donc je suis." No mirror required.

:D

always remember there was nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name

I've been meaning to post the music video for The Avett Brothers' song "Murder in the City". They just stuck it on YouTube at the beginning of October.

It's not about murder! It's a very sweet love song about family. You will like it. :)

ps Remember to hit the pause button on the Project Playlist music player over in the sidebar at right first, or you'll get a cacophony. :)

welcome, luke thomas!

Our Valeria and our Resident Dude Mark, who were expecting their third boy on December 2nd, had a very big surprise today!

I recommend that you check Mark's blog again when he has a chance to update the info, to hear this sweet, wee preemie's incredible story.

Congratulations, Valeria and Mark. I started crying when I saw those sweet photos. Your whole family is in my heart and prayers. xxoo

early evening

Last night, right before I made dinner, I walked around the house for a couple minutes with my camera, because the house was a mess and I wanted to find something nice to look at in the midst of the maelstrom.  There are some of these geraniums outside the craft room window that still look pretty.

If you look out the front window, up to the right, you can catch a glimpse of some red leaves on our neighbors' tree. There aren't too many red leaves around here, so that's kind of a treat.

Bob was home with the stomach bug going around (he's feeling better and back at work today) and Claire was playing bookstore with him to cheer him up. Apparently there was a sale on Harry Potter.

I picked up some clutter as I walked around. Like this random cat.  (The house got a thorough top-to-bottom cleaning today.  I have some closets I need to clean out some time soon, though. How does everything get so messy so quickly?)

Tonight we're having my favorite pot roast for dinner. I love my crock pot. The whole house smells good, like my mama is here cooking for me. Except I'm the mama now.

I'm going to take a little blogging break here for a few days.  My dad has cancer surgery on Monday, and my sister and I are going to go out and visit my folks the beginning of the week.

Have a nice weekend, ladies. :)

the friday news

What have you been doing this week? Do tell us!

If you're new to suziebeezieland, please sign our welcome post, too!

potato tortilla with chapata

Tonight I made a potato tortilla with chapata, and it was good and warm and filling. The next time I make it I'll use my mandoline to slice the potatoes and onions so that they are thinner and cook more quickly and evenly, but I think that's my only suggestion. It's straightforward, cheap peasant food, which is always my favorite -- potatoes, tomatoes, onions, eggs, bread, olive oil, salt, milk. Yay.

Bob loved it. Claire liked it okay, too. (She investigated it first, but it passed.)

ps I made this pumpkin pasta last night, also out of the Yum-O cookbook, and blech. I may have messed up somehow, but I don't think I did. Whole lotta nothin'. But it sounded so yummy, on paper.

spice cleanup

I cleaned out the spice cupboard to the left of my stove yesterday. I was inspired by my new organizing class, but I was also inspired because I got beaned on the head by a tin of paprika and needed to clean it out before I got hurt again. 

I took everything out of the cupboard, shook out the shelf liners, made a few labels, condensed some duplicates of spices into one jar, got stuff alphabetized and organized in a way that made sense, and discovered I own three containers of McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning (one open, two new) because I didn't know I already had some, and just kept buying it.

The whole thing took maybe 30 minutes.  I always imagine projects to be much bigger and more complicated than they are, and then when I do them, I think "why didn't I do that sooner?"

"oh, canada! oh, wednesdays!"

Invented in Canada: Making the World a Better Place (Part 1 of 3)

(excerpted from So, You Want to Be Canadian:
All About the Most Fascinating People in the World
and the Magical Place They Call Home
by Kerry Colburn & Rob Sorensen)

Imagine a world with nothing but buttons. Then, thank goodness for crafty Canadians, who invented the zipper, not to mention a long list of other essentials that would be impossible to live without. Here is but a small sampling of Canuck ingenuity at work.

• The Abdominizer
• Air hockey: Naturally.
• Antigravity suit
• Basketball: Invented by James Naismith of Ontario
• Canadarm: Cleverly named to ensure the proper country received credit, this fifteen-meter Remote Manipulator System is an essential tool on the space shuttle and brings the maple leaf logo to alien life forms everywhere.
• Chocolate bar: A fishing trip prompted chocolatiers Arthur Ganon and George Ensor to invent a chocolate nut bar, which they began selling in New Brunswick in 1910.
• Dental mirror
• Documentary film: Canada's Nanook of the North (1922) was the first film ever termed a "documentary." And perhaps, the first film that ever offered you a much-needed nap in grade school.
• Five-pin bowling
• Frozen fish fillets: Believe it or not, it took until 1929 before someone -- namely Dr. Archibald G. Huntsman -- had the brilliant idea to sell "Ice Fillets" to the public. Alberta housewives celebrate by bringing trout in off the back porch.
• Fuller Brush Company: Mr. Fuller, the father of door-to-door sales, was born in Nova Scotia.
• Ginger Ale: Invented in 1904 by University of Toronto chemist and pharmacist John J. McLaughlin, his "Pale Dry Ginger Ale," featuring a beaver sitting atop a map of Canada on every can, was the predecessor to Canada Dry, still the "champagne of ginger ales."
• Plastic garbage bags.
• Goalie mask: Naturally.

Stay tuned for next week's installment of "oh, canada! oh, wednesdays!" when we enjoy part 2 of Invented in Canada: Making the World a Better Place .

another little topiary

 
"There's rosemary; that's for remembrance.
Pray, love, remember."
William Shakespeare in Hamlet

I found a little topiary at Smith + Hawken that fits in my little kitchen windowsill.

It must be topiary week at my house. :)

polls are just a fancy wayof systematically predicting what will happen

I don't discuss politics in suziebeezieland. You may have noticed this. :D I care about politics, but they are divisive*, and one function of suziebeezieland is to serve as a peaceful retreat from "real life" for tired, hard-working women.

But I thought it would be fun to see how the suziebeezieland community is planning to vote, or would vote if it could. If you are an American citizen, for which candidate will you vote in the coming election? If you are not an American citizen, for which candidate would you vote if you could, if you have an opinion on this topic? (I am not making the assumption that you all care about the American elections!)

I'm going to turn off comments on this post for the sake of suziebeezieland unity, but invite you to extrapolate your political convictions on your own blogs. :)

I'm listing the options in alphabetical order. Also, I'm not voting until later in the week, so the first voter could be anyone. :D

And finally, in case you're concerned, I cannot see how you vote when we do these polls.

Here are the results of our last poll. Yay, blogs!

 

*I do discuss Jesus, who is also a divisive subject, but by limiting my discussion of divisive subjects to this one subject, I hope you have come to understand that my goal is never to cause a commotion for the sake of causing a commotion.  I want to show women the great redemptive love of Jesus, and the great glory of God.  I don't want any other divisive issues to detract from that. :)

buffalo chicken chili

I know some kids really like strong flavors and spicy foods, and are adventurous about new foods. 

I don't own one of those kids.

Claire is Extremely Very Particular. I routinely introduce her to new things, and while I try not to make it a habit of serving her foods she dislikes, sometimes she just has to go with the flow and eat what is served. I don't want her to grow up with the mistaken notion that the universe revolves around the idiosyncrasies of a five-year-old. 

Claire's pickiness could be more of a problem than it is, however.  The things she dislikes tend to be the "extras" of food life (or what most adults would call the "pleasures" of food life), such as sauces, spices, and condiments. She'll grow into them.

She loves fruits and vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains, so we're okay there.  She's your basic "strip it down to the basics" eater.  So she eats healthily, but she has many, many, many exemptions. (I tried to pass some mayonnaise off on her awhile back by calling it "white sauce." She poked around at her egg salad suspiciously for awhile, and then looked at me blankly. "This is mayonnaise, mom," she said. Busted!)

I grabbed a couple new cookbooks at the book fair the other day and am hoping to get a lot of use out of them in the next few years.

One is Lunch Boxes and Snacks: Over 120 healthy recipes from delicious sandwiches and salads to hot soups and sweet treats by Annabel Karmel, who also wrote The Healthy Baby Meal Planner: Mom-Tested Child-Approved Recipes for Your Baby and Toddler, which I loved and used a lot when Claire was a baby.

The other is Yum-o! The Family Cookbook by Rachael Ray.

Rachael Ray must run with a pack of very sophisticated children.  I decided to make her Buffalo Chicken Chili from this cookbook last night, and it contains hot sauce, fire-roasted tomatoes, and blue cheese.  Bob took one bite, looked at me, and mouthed "Claire is not going to eat this." "I know," I mouthed back.  She took two small bites (followed by two big gulps of milk) and then I gave her something else.

It was HOT! But very good. Bob and I will have the leftovers for dinner tonight.  If you're lazy (you know I am) you can buy a cup of already-diced Mirepoix from Trader Joe's and have a head start there.  (I didn't do that this time, but those shortcuts are always in the back of my head floating around.)

Bob and Claire helped prepare the blue cheese chips that go on top. Claire laid out the chips, and Bob topped them with blue cheese.  (Claire won't touch blue cheese, and she was plugging her nose with one hand and putting down chips with the other until Bob made her stop.)

 

Sadly, I had the baking sheet too close to the broiler, and they caught fire.  It was a pretty spectacular fire, actually, and we had to douse it out with flour. I don't think I've had an oven fire before that I couldn't quench just by quickly closing the oven door and turning off the heat. 

 

But after we put out the fire, aired out the kitchen to keep the smoke alarms from going off, shut the door to the kitchen, and after Claire got her two bites out of the way, we had a really enjoyable dinner. :D

So . . . Buffalo Chicken Chili. Give it a try if you think the recipe sounds good. (And just so you know, tortilla chips straight from the bag and some blue cheese thrown on top of the chili works pretty well, too, if you have any, you know, dramas.)

psalm 96:1-9

Oh sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth!

Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!

Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!

----------------------------------------------

*In case you are distracted from the content of these verses by the capitalization of LORD, or have noticed that before in your Bible and wondered "What's up with that?", here is a good explanation from John Piper (because if I try myself it'll be twice as long because I'm a very confusing and circuitous explainer of things):

The most common and the most important name for God in the Old Testament is a name that in our English versions never even gets translated. Whenever you see the word LORD in all capital letters you know that this name is behind it. In Hebrew the name had four letters -- YHWH -- and may have been pronounced something like "Yahweh". The Jews came to regard this word with such reverence that they would never take it upon their lips, lest they inadvertently take the name in vain. So whenever they came to this name in their reading they pronounced the word "adonai," which means "my lord." The English versions have basically followed the same pattern. They translate the proper name Yahweh with the word LORD in all caps. 

This is not a very satisfactory thing to do, because the English word LORD does not communicate to our ears a proper name like John or Michael or Noël. But Yahweh is God's proper name in Hebrew. The importance of it can be seen in the sheer frequency of its use. It occurs 6828 times in the Old Testament. That's more than three times as often as the simple word for "God" (Elohim -- 2600. El -- 238). What this shows is that God aims to be known not as a generic deity, but as a specific Person with a name that carries his unique character and mission.

So (this is me again, Suzanne), whenever you see the word LORD capitalized in your Bible, you can remember that it's referring to God's name, and not any of his titles. He's a personal God. :)

pure blog

{photo from the monthly Pure Style online newsletter}

Jane Cumberbatch is my favorite professional designer, and her Pure Style was my first-ever decorating book purchase. It remains my very favorite! (And look how cute she is above, wearing a cardigan over an apron. I am going to start doing this. Next time you see me, I will be wearing a cardigan over an apron.) (A hardback compilation of both Pure Style and Pure Style Outdoors has just been released, called Pure Style Home & Garden.)

I have been enjoying her Pure Style Online website for awhile, and love that she has reformatted her little Notebook so that it's now PureBlog. I love every single photo in it.  (Even the bucket of fish.) It's just gorgeous, and clean and airy, and makes me want to do that thing where you walk around your house and choose twenty things in each room to remove, to make things gorgeous and clean and airy. (But then when I start to do that, I always think, "Hey, I like my stuff!" and end up not removing anything.)

{photo from PureBlog}

And I love how she says wonderful British things like "beastly draughts this winter" and "there are a surprising number of English country gardens that possess the quince" and "a blue and white checked tablecloth is an important part of my kit, whether it’s to spread out at a picnic on the beach, or to make the table look jolly for an everyday meal."

When you see me wearing my cardigan over my apron (over my pajamas)(because it is necessary to not mimic someone else's style directly, but to personalize it and make it your very own), I will also be saying "beastly draughts" a lot.

:)

our hallowe'eny dining room '08

{This wee ghosty is my favorite. Claire made him in preschool last year out of some type of squishy clay-like but very light substance.}

{More preschool-made decorations! I love these.}

ikea

I went to Ikea this morning with my friend Becky, and we had a very leisurely stroll around the place. Swedish meatballs may also have been consumed. :)

While I was there, this little mouse jumped into my shopping cart. And then this little bag flung itself in there, too.

(They were only $2.99 each, so I said they could stay.)

beads & sandwiches

We have a group at church that meets every third Thursday morning of the month.  It's called "Mosaique". It used to be called "The Mission Guild" (or something similar to that).  It's a time when women of all ages in my church get together to pray for the missionaries our church supports, and to enjoy being with each other. Sometimes we have work days where we make things to put in packages that go to missionaries or community service groups.  Sometimes we do a craft together.  Today we made bracelets with our friend Sunny. 

For me this time feels like a little preview of what heaven will be like.  I enjoy these women so much.  That picture up top is my friend Tura working on her bracelet.

This is Joy working on hers. Her beads were shaped like little teapots.

Just imagine the delight God had in creating women, and making them who they are, to His own glory.  Imagine Him giving women different gifts, and different personalities, and different types of beauty, and loving and knowing them better than anyone else ever could.

"And above all these put on love,
which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do,
in word or deed, do everything
in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:14-17)

This is my bracelet in progress.

Afterwards I went out to lunch with Paula and Faith, which was a real treat. We went to The Fresh Gourmet, which has yummy sandwiches and fruit and -- the main thing -- a big cookie. :)

I guess it used to be an ice cream parlor.

The seasonal decor is comforting when it is 94 degrees out today.  We need pumpkins everywhere to assure us that it's really and truly October.

I've never been there for dinner, but it looks like I need to. Would you care to join me? :)

quick + simple clutter control

I was thinking about signing up for the Quick + Simple Clutter Control workshop over at Simplify 101.  I have always had problems with what those in the organizing profession call "clutter hotspots," and what I call "big messy piles of paper and whatnot". :D

I clean it up, and it comes back. And I clean it up, and it comes back . . .

Does anybody want to take the class with me? It costs $30 and it starts this coming Tuesday, October 18, and runs through November 18th.  There is a description/explanation of it here, and a little video sneak-peek of how their online workshops work here.  Have any of you taken any of Aby's workshops before? I haven't, but I thought it would be fun. :)

love loveth best of all the year

My heart did a little skippity-loo tonight when I saw this poster over at the Library of Congress Shop. I wasn't excited because I want to buy the poster, although I think it's pretty neat.  I was excited because the line is from a poem I have loved for a long time. 

The poem is not very well-written.  It is old-fashioned, and wildly sweet in its sentimentality.  But that was the popular fashion when it was written, when people were still starting poems with the exclamation "O!" and waxing eloquent about flowers and lovers. (We hadn't yet crashed into the twentieth century, with its Great War that made such frilly writing seem obscene next to the starkness of the trenches.)

I have always loved it because of that wild, sweet sentiment.  You can almost imagine Anne of Green Gables reciting this poem. :)

It was written by Helen Hunt Jackson, who lived from 1830 to 1885. (She wrote Ramona.) (Not this Ramona. This Ramona.)  She looks plump and approachable. I like her.

If you're going to wander back and dig into American Romanticism, you're probably best sticking with Dickinson and Melville, but I don't think there is a thing wrong with loving a mediocre poem. :)

October's Bright Blue Weather

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
        And flowers of June together,
    Ye cannot rival for one hour
        October's bright blue weather;

    When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
        Belated, thriftless vagrant,
    And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
        And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

    When Gentians roll their fringes tight