Thanksgiving fun with gingerbread...

The Thanksgiving break was too short!  It was very nice to slow down, eat tons and tons of yummy food and work on crafting projects.  (Many of which I will share soon, and some of which will have to wait until after the holidays, so family and friends don't accidentally find out their gift too early!)

One of our little traditions that my hubby and I have started is to get our friends that don't go home for the holiday together to eat with us.  Then after, we all make our own gingerbread creations.  You may remember some of the fun we had last year from this post. We got pretty carried away!

This year, since there were only 3 of us doing the decorating, we decided to do one big one together.  We made a gingerbread farm...dreaming of what we wish we had. (A farm, not one made out of gingerbread, hehe.)

Ok, so it is no crazy masterpiece, but it is so much fun!  We baked all the gingerbread and cut out the shapes we wanted.  Thus....many things are not proportionate. hehe

Here is a close up of the rendition of my hubby as a gingerbread farmer, and the barn (it went through a gingerbread storm and blew down but was then repaired) and our gingerbread crops on the patch of green.  You can totally grow crops in gingerbread world.

And below you can see a close up of the giant bunny that is our friend, as well as a funny llama/camel thing.  There are sheep in there, too, but they are hard to see.  Oh, and the giant dog is watching them all.

And the thing I worked on the hardest was the little house that we gingerbread folk live in.  With holiday lights, even!

Whatever your traditions are, I hope that you had a great time!  

Ash

Beautiful Silver Falls, Oregon

Several people asked me what I did over the weekend, and when I said worked, they gave me that 'what? why?' look, and then said sorry.  But then I told them it was out at Silver Falls, drinking wine, eating yummy food, staying in adorable little cabins and hiking the falls, they asked me how they could get a job where I worked. I love that!

On Saturday I trekked out to an area in Oregon just east of Salem, up rolling hills to the Silver Falls Conference Center to hold a retreat for my hard-core volunteers that I head up to make plans for what they wanted to work on this year.  

In the dining hall we made plans for world domination by the fire in the huge fire place, drinking wine and eating yummy food.

The next day, after sleeping in and having a late breakfast, we took a hike down to the water falls.  So full right now because of recent snow, we enjoyed hiking behind one of the falls and feeling the spray hit us.

How awesome (in the true sense of the word) is that?

And, to top it off, I will be visiting the area again next week for another retreat for work.  Hard knock life for me.

Ash

Beer making...

I am so excited.  While I did not get many of the things I thought I'd get done last weekend, we did manage to go over to a friend's house and make some beer!

Mmmm....in 3 weeks or so we will have a yummy oatmeal stout to share with friends!

Maybe I will be more productive this weekend on the things that I said I wanted to do....

Happy Friday!

Ash

PS - If you'd like the recipe pictured above, comment and let me know and I will get it to you!  It is not my personal recipe, it is from a local shop, but it is really good and I am sure they would be ok with sharing.

End of summer...

I love Oregon.  But I am not so in love with the summer that we had this year.  It was so very, very short. But we are still trying to get outside while we still can.  Last weekend my hubby, our friends and I went out to enjoy one of our last nice weekends of the year.

Even though I got us lost and didn't find the real hiking spot...we still found a neat little area.  

Hope you get a few more days of sun to get outside!

Ash

Loving having a weekend off!

I have been enjoying having the weekend off!  I am sometimes so torn between wanting to work, work, work, and wanting to play around the house....

Yesterday was mostly cruddy outside, so I spent much of the afternoon baking.  I love baking, but since it often takes some time, I do not do it as often as I like.

Here are a few of the yummies I baked....

Big ol' loafs of fresh bread....my fav!

German chocolate cupcakes!  I love using parchment paper for the liners. 

Yum!  I also made blueberry muffins, but those were gone into the family's belly in a matter of an hour...

Today I am off to play in the yard, run with my friend and work on the mess that is my house!

Talk to you soon!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Ash