A Brand New Year

Happy New Year to all!!!

New Year's Day is one of my favorite days of the year.  It's the start of a new year of course but also I always make my traditional food for the day and somehow folks always show up to get their yearly dose of luck!  My menu always includes the following:

Ham - Pork symbolizes rooting into the new year (chicken is not to be eaten on new year's day, it symbolizes going backward to the old year because of chickens scratching backward... pigs root forward... get it?)  this year we are having honey ham with pineapple

Black Eyed Peas - for luck of course!  I cook mine with hog something or other usually a piece of something we have cooked on the smoker or country ham... something with flavor.

Cabbage - symbolizing good fortune or wealth.  I don't know about the wealth part but I eat it anyway.  I make my cabbage in the crock pot with broth and caraway seeds.

Cinnamon Apples - I usually open up canned apples either grocery store bought or canned by me, add some brown sugar and a tiny handful of red hots.  This symbolizes "red hot love" and sweetness for the year and I made it up.  Either way, apples go good with the meal.

Cornbread - So that our home will not know hunger.  Sounds good doesn't it.  Bread is a traditional gift of a new home for folks along with wine so the new house never knows hunger or thirst.

Pie - In case you didn't get enough to eat. 

I am getting hungry thinking about the smells of my kitchen on new year's day. 

I also read another superstition that says:  Using a knife during the first days of the New Year "cuts off" all the good luck for the coming year.   And that all knives must be put away.  I wonder if this means before or after you eat the black eyed peas?!?!  This one is a Chinese tradition.  I'm not Chinese but I may try this one just for fun.  That means that I'll have to chop my cabbage and onion early and make the pie and cut it early.... use forks to cut the ham... sounds like too much trouble to me.  I think I will start the knife tradition after my black eyed peas are eaten. 

What are some of your traditions and superstitions associated with the new year??










These are journals that I made for my guests a few years back.  So easy to do.... HERE.

Happy New Year!

I truly hope everyone has done their end of year preparing and are ready for a new year.  I have tried my best.  I avoided a few chores and did some others but all in all I feel I'm pretty ready.  Yesterday the kids got in the mood to help me with chores at the day care.  I was half in shock when three of them asked me if they could help.  I happily said yes and happily rewarded their efforts with Smarties!  For the end of the year in blogging for me I thought I would share a trick the Miss Katie Bug likes to do.  She has trained me well I tell you.  We mainly play this way when I am in the kitchen cooking and can't use my hands.  She's such a smarty!  My friend Melia was over this past weekend for some catch-up girl time.  We had a blast together and she got a kick out of Kate doing this.  Love to all and Happy New Year!

 



Let the clean up begin

 



I'm not one of those folks who leaves their Christmas décor up until February.  I strongly believe in leaving the old year in the old year and not bringing any of that into the New Year.  I spend the last days of every year dusting, sweeping, cleaning and putting up Christmas.  Actually, this morning I set a goal and prayed to stay focused on my task at hand.  I figured with a small bit of organized planning I could have my decorations down in less than two hours.  As of two hours later I have everything up and in new labeled boxes and in the attic except for the main tree.  I only lack taking the lights off and the tree down which won't take but a few minutes.  Hey... I got hungry and I need to finish off the Christmas ham and grape salad too!  I started to take pictures to show you my mess but didn't want to loose focus. 

Now comes an afternoon of putting things back where they go and possibly a basement straightening.  That has got to be done before the end of the year too.  I am a tad superstitious at the end of the year.  I don't want that pile of garage sale items dropped as I came in the house and cardboard boxes for packaging shelves left sitting there when 2014 rolls in for fear that I will use this spot the whole year as a catch-all.  Which is one of my resolutions... to de-use that spot.  I wind up leaving things sitting there for eternity. 

One year, my resolution was to break my habit of using my oven as storage for pots and pans.  I successfully kept that resolution and know I can keep this one.  It's just got to be cleaned up first.  Blah scrumbug!  Luckily I have a few days between work to get it all done and thankfully the energy to do it.  There's a lot of sick going around... I know.. I had the stomach bug a couple of weeks ago and it liked to did me in! 

I will share a favorite blog of mine that I will be using for re-decorating after the holidays.  She and I have similar taste in home décor anyway.  Here's her home pictures and blog... RootsandFeathers.

Have a wonderful weekend!

yes

i finally said 'yes' to making time to offer painted bathtub shelves.

i have white wash and green wash shelves available at peppysis.

i am so tickled at how pretty they turned out. 

the pictures just don't do them justice.

much prettier in person.

pass it on.

 

 

 



She's Home!

Well... our new puppy has finally come to live with us!  We picked her up Friday evening and our hearts are just filled with all of her sweetness!  She slept all night, except when we woke her up to go outside, for three nights now.  She plays, eats, sleeps, plays, eats and sleeps some more, just like she is supposed to.  She is so smart it seems even for a seven week old pup.  When she plays, she will fetch and bring it back to you and follows us around the farm and even helped us plant the garden yesterday although she mainly helped from the shade.  She is so incredibly spoiled and fits right in with us, however Miss Kitty isn't as thrilled as we are but she'll come around.  And Tommy, our house cat, says she can stay. 

 

 

sleeping

bucking

jumping

running

loving

resting

 

 



Headed Our Way

Well folks... I have great news.  We have a puppy headed our way!  After trying to adopt a rescue dog that was two years old, and it not working out, we decided that we needed to start fresh with a puppy who will know us it's whole life.  Shaun has been looking for puppies and a dog for a couple of months now and Thursday I came across an add in the Tennessean-online.  I made a phone call and it turned out the lady was just one town over from us!  All of the other places were going to require a road trip.  This trip was only about fifteen minutes.  When we got there I was very relieved that it wasn't a puppy mill.  You just never know.  The couple had both parents there and they were extremely friendly and well mannered dogs.  We somehow picked which puppy we wanted from a litter of eleven!  Tough choice because all of the puppies were friendly and everywhere!  We chose a little girl with pretty standard markings of a Border Collie and she has the cutest freckles on her nose.  We get to pick her up in two weeks.  The agony of waiting!!! 

 

 

Rolly Poley Sweet Baby Girl.

 

We don't have a name for her yet and are open to suggestions!



Two New Friends

We have had a shortage of chickens for a little bit.  Miss Pepper has been the lone hen for several weeks now and I although I never heard her complain about being an only child.. chicken.. we needed more laying hens.  Pepper, after recovering from might near having her head torn off by a coon, has begun to lay eggs again... bless her heart.  She is one tough chicken y'all.  But we had lost a couple due to raccoons breaking in our coop and hopefully have that problem fixed now.  It seems like we have more critters around since Dottie has been gone, Lord rest her soul, and it has been costly to our flock not to mention our trash.

 

On Friday, our friend Jeff brought us two of his birds because he and his wife have been getting about 11 eggs a day and he figured he could spare a couple.  They are the prettiest girls.  I have named one of them Cotton because of her soft fluffy bottom and the other one Fiona mainly because she is bigger and because we have been watching a lot of Shrek at the day care and Princess Fiona is a bit bigger when she is an ogre but still pretty so she won't be offended.  Like she has seen Shrek. 

 

Yesterday, for the first time in months we got more than one egg.  And boy... did we ever get some eggs.  One of these girl, I am assuming Fiona, is laying monster eggs.  They are the biggest I have even seen.  I wonder if Jeff realizes yet that he gave us the chicken that lays the big eggs because he brought us an eighteen pack and there were a few in there so this is normal for this chicken.  Wow. 

 

Here are our new girls.  Pepper is the black and white one.

 Cotton

Fiona

See why I call her Cotton bottom?

Dang!  The carton would barely close ... I am not kidding.

Shaun's chicken magic trick.

I believe he taught her a dirty trick.

A New Year

The first day of the year is one of my favorite days.  I always make a big lunch that includes all the traditional dishes of cabbage, black eyed peas, pork, apples and cornbread.  I am a country gal and I do cook with lard and am very proud of it.  This year our lunch included country ham (pork) from our pigs symbolizing rooting in to the new year, cabbage cooked in the crock pot in broth with onions and caraway seeds for money, black eyed peas with hog fat for luck and cinnamon apples for spicy love.  I made the last one up and it usually is made with red hots for "red hot love" but sadly I was lacking in the red hot department in the pantry so I made do with spices.  Still fantastic.  My New Year's lunch is always accompanied by guests because I also believe that the luck and such must be shared and somehow a different crowd is here every year.  I am just glad to share.

After lunch, I put my coveralls and rain boots on and Molly and I took a walk in the woods. We checked on the garden, looked for flint rocks and walked down the old trail on the edge of the woods. I also had to take care of chores outside myself because I have given my nasty cold to my darling husband.  If you can't share with the ones you love who can you share with?

I have thought about resolutions and actually thought about not making any.  However, I have come up with a couple of things that I love to do but with busy-ness have fallen short in doing.  So my two resolutions so far are to walk in the woods once a week and  make suet this winter for the birds.  I have done both today so I am off to a good start.  I also believe that what you do on New Year's day is what you will be doing all year.  So no fretting, no kicking myself for no reason and lots of love for what I have been given in life. 

What resolutions have you made for yourself so far?

The Dirty Dirty Part 3

Among several spots in our home that need a good cleaning out, this is the third one that I am sharing with you!  Let me tell ya, it's not easy to show the world what a slob I can be.  But I am playing "show and tell" as a sort of incentive for myself to get it done and also for you.  Maybe you have an area that needs straightening, a "catch-all" spot... don't you?

Well, also,  the end of the year is coming and I am particularly funny about taking un-necessary dirt and clutter into the new year.  In fact, I once read in a Feng Shui book that you need to sweep out all the old dirt,  from the previous year, right out the door.  I got what they meant and every year I begin to do weird stuff the last few weeks of the year.

Here is the tacky spot in my home that I tackled today.  The linen closet in my hall.  I have a thing for vintage sheets but I use the softest of soft flannel sheets during the winter and from about October until March that is what we use.  So what's the point of keeping them in this tiny spot when they can be bagged up for a few months?  I wound up keeping two sets down and a spare set for the guest bedroom.  Just in case they aren't fond of the flannel sheets for that room.  Mostly, the towels needed to be sorted, refolded and put in their correct spaces and everything else for that matter.  All in all this re-do took about twelve minutes.  And that is just silly because I have been putting it off for months. 

Before... not terrible but needs help.

 Flat sheets in with the towels??? Have I gone MAD???

 What a lazy slob.  This is how I kick myself when I look at these pictures.

Why is my Fourth of July flag even in there???

 Spread it all out to decide what goes in the attic and what stays.

 Stored extra pillows up top instead of on the floor.

Flannels on the right, looking forward to warmer weather on the left.

Gosh I love that old poppies flat sheet.  I want a dress made out of it.

 Refolded and refluffed.

I use the ones on the right, Shaun likes the ones on the left. 

We are quirky about the wash cloths too.

 I am beginning to be able to breathe again.

The fan stays.  It is still needed in the kitchen at times.

 And as for you vintage pillowcases... this doesn't mean Mommy doesn't love you.

See you in the Spring!

New Shop Items

New shop items... in both shops!  Mainly spent shotgun shells and rusted.... I mean rustic stuff I found in a bucket in Shaun's shop but it will all be of use to someone!  My main shop has new handmade items that I have had a lot of fun making including employing the help of my darling husband.  He is so handy!  Especially since I truly don't think I should be trusted using a table saw. 

Please take a look when you have a minute.  You can click on the links to my shops on the left > 

 

Peppysis & ShotgunsAngel

I cannot help but say "why yes... my neck is red."

Why do you ask?