Easterness

In which I appoligize for my general lack of blogging and commenting and show you some pictures of my Easter.

Oh, please ignore the blaaaah-ness of my blog's look. It feels the need for a change, you see. I'm trying to convince it to go yellow, but it seems to like grey. I don't like the grey. We have been bickering about it. And it hates having the header centered....but I HAVE To HAVE IT CENTERED! *Sigh* My blog is having a mood and I'm just trying to make it behave. You know how it is. ;)

Anyway, on to some pictures!

So, on Good Friday I made some hot cross buns. They turned out very yummy. (Be warned, more than half of these pictures center around food and the dinner table. :)

Holy Saturday I went over to the Parent's house and we did the necessary cleaning, egg dying and baking. It was a really nice day. I always get insanely excited about Feast Days and was littleraly giddy with anticipation. I woke up at 6 am. On my Saturday. *Nods.* I proceeded to lay away and talk to my semi-conscious sister until she was ready to strangle me. *Grin*

I used my cookie press for the sugar cookies and my sisters had a blast decorating the little suckers.

I also made almond biscotti and they turned out bellisimo!

After all the littlies went off to bed, the elders of the family stayed up and did a bit more cleaning and I got to get the table looking all purdy. We all have a 'special' tea cup for Sundays and special days.

It was a little bit sad. I was going to wake up early and go down to the meadow that's close to our house and watch the sunrise. Because how cool would it be to see the sunrise on EASTER MORNING? I know, right! So awesome!
A few of my sisters we going to humor me and come along and I even had those travel mugs ready so we could bring coffee with us.

But God decided otherwise.

It rained. *Sniffe*

You can't really watch a sunrise when it's all wet and grey and drizzly outside.

But oh well. We had coffee and biscotti before anyone else woke up just to make ourselves feel better. ;) It worked.

Then we had a delicious breakfast.

After that we got ourselves all spruced up and went to church.

This is what I wore.

Complete with my 'North and South' hat. 

Mass was beautiful.

My sisters and I are essentially the choir at our Church and we were a little nervous because we'd learned a bunch of new music--a whole Mass, in fact--and we wanted it to sound good.

It did. :)

Treskie and I on the way home.

And Katrina. :)

Then there was the general business of happy hour, dinner preparations and visiting.

Oh, and Easter basket hunting.

We hide all the Easter baskets and do an egg hunt later on.

Yum.

Making place cards. :)

Dinner preparations.

Easter toast!

He has Risen!

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia. 

For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia. 

Has risen, as he said, alleluia. 

Pray for us to God, alleluia.

Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia. 

For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Did you all have a nice Easter? I hope I didn't scare you all away with all those food-y pictures. *Wink* I know how overwhelming it can be. ;)

That's all for now. God Bless!

Again, I'm sorry for my lack of commenting and blogging. But thank you all for your comments! <3

Cheers!

Amy

Foodiness

Wow, it's already Wednesday! Which means tomorrow is Thursday...which is close to Friday. Then Saturday and Sunday. You see? I know the days of the week!

It just seems like time is going by really fast in a tangle of Mondays and Thursdays and Sundays. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It means I'm busy and it means Lent is sort of whooshing by. *Smile.*

Easter is going to be here in a flash, people. And I'm looking forward to it.

We had a few weeks of lovely, bright weather, (I'm not going to lie, I loved it!) but winter has decided it isn't quite done with us yet and we got snow today. The sky is grey, it's cold, and there is snow. Tea and muffins, anyone? Seriously, that's what I really want right now.

What do you do when you're board? Well, currently I have this thing with recipes. I love recipes and food-y blogs.

Like, doesn't this look f-aaaab-ulous?

And I've never been one for Pot Pies, (More, I don't eat them very often rather than don't like them,) but I'm pretty sure Pot Pie is going to be on my menu very soon.

And I like mushrooms, so...

I'm always up to trying out new dishes and this one looks pretty yummy to me.

And then there's dessert...

*Dies*

I could go on and on for hours. There are so many fun things to cook and eat! It awesome. Are you salivating yet? Your welcome.


All the images came from my Pin board--which in turn link back to the original source. No copy-right infringement intended. :D

This site is quite, quite lovely...The Italian Dish

There is nothing like Italian food. You should go check it out.

And my new favorite place to hang out, Sally's Baking Addiction

It's as wonderful as it sounds. I freakin' LOVE her blog. She creates some of the most amazing things. And her pictures are first class. So, really, go take a look. You'll find yourself in your own kitchen, equipped with apron and spatula, whipping up something decedent for dessert. Just see if you don't.


How many of you love to cook/bake? Please tell me I'm not the only one who's idea of a good time is to spend my Saturday making this and that in my little kitchen while I listen (and sing to) good music. How sad would that be?

God Bless!
Amy

Saturday Style~

I was thinking, it's been months since I did a Saturday Style post and I thought, "What-ho! I think I'll pull it together and do one today." :)

I'm going to afore warn you that the pictures are not the greatest quality, but I think they're good enough for you to get the general idea.

So, first, just divide your hair in half and do two french braids.

Then your going to take one of your braids and pull it across to the other side...

Now, gently tuck the end up under the other side.

Find the end with your other hand and pull it through.

Now, use the leftover bit for a bun.

Then do the same thing with the other side.

And that's that!

I didn't use a mirror at all and my buns turned a bit lopsided. I was in a bit of a hurry. ;p

Oh well.


It was a really cold day today. Like, really cold. Wind can be a cruel thing. But I had this grand idea of going to the lake and taking a few pictures. I can't decide if it was a a good idea, or a really bad idea. The wind coming off that water was un-bee-lievable. *Shivers*

And being the clever person I am, I thought, "What a good time to take a few photo-shoot pictures. Hang on, let me take off my coat so I look better." 

Can anyone spell pneumonia?

Still, I was a really beautiful setting for some pictures. *Cough, cough, sneeze.*

Something I like about this hairstyle is, I can wear hats with it. I love my little red beret. It's my 'Lebeau hat.' Brownie points if you get that. *wink.*

And since I was freezing a little by this point, I threw on the shawl my Mummy made for me.

(My arms froze this way.)

And then I went home and made muffins for tomorrow. They turned out quite nicely.

Almond poppy seed! Yum.

Have a lovely Sunday, everyone!

God Bless
Amy

Plumbing, cookies and movies.

It's amazing the things we take for granted. Seriously...

Like good plumbing. There is nothing quite so lovely as a properly draining bathtub.
I live with one of my sisters in a very cozy little cabin and for the most part I have no complaints with this set-up. It's fantastic.

But it is a very old cabin and the plumbing in the bathroom is pretty rotten. I hate to say that, but it is so.

There seems to be a continual contest between the toilet and the shower to see which can clog more. They never do it at the same time, either, which makes it very frustrating when the plumber comes because he'll fix one thing and then a few days/weeks later the other has to prove it too can be a bother. And then the plumber has to come 'round again.

Now, I can handle a slowly draining shower much easier than a clogged toilet for reasons I'm sure you'll all be able to figure out. :) However, I don't really enjoy the way the water just sort of pools and laps around my ankles. Still, I've lived through worse things. No biggy.

But for the past week/week and a half, the shower has been un-bee-lievably slow. It took the blasted thing three days to drain. Not cool.

So the plumber came, fine fellow that he is, and fiddled around in the bathroom for about 10-15 minutes and proclaimed the 'all-clear.'

So then I showered. *Aaaah!* Bliss.

A draining shower is a truly remarkable thing.



Also, food. Yes, I said that. Food.

 I love food all the time. I have a great appreciation for good food and I absolutely love baking and cooking.

But I usually only realize this during Lent.

Lent is a time of penance before Easter and as such Catholics try to give up things they like, maybe make some extra sacrifices or say a few extra prays.

That usually means no sweet things...no baking cookies. (Though Sunday is a day of rest, a day 'off' so to speak and cookies are definitely in on Sundays. Just so you don't think I'm super-human or anything. LOL.)

Anyway, I was making a batch of cookies for a friend of the family as a sort of 'just because' thing and I was merrily whistling and measuring the sugar, butter and peanut butter into a bowl. I creamed them together into a grainy, fluffy mass. Then I pulled out the oatmeal and measured in a nice amount of that in as well. And I paused, looking at the way the golden sugar and the oats complemented each other and I said, "You know, oatmeal is a beautiful thing." *Nods* I actually said that. I thought about what I said for a second and snickered. "You know it's lent," I added, "when you say things like, 'oatmeal is a beautiful thing.'"

My sister, siting out in the living room agreed and put in her two cents. "You also know it's lent when you can smell the ingredients being put into a bowl and think, 'my! That smells fantastic!'"
It is definitely Lent.



I am forced to admit that I may have another 'favorite' actor. :D I want to point out first, that I went for years without ever having any actors that I was all that partial to.

That has changed. I have a handful of 'favorite' actors now.

I'm just trying to show you that I don't like lots of boys. I'm not boy-crazy. *Snicker.*

Anyway, last Sunday a few of my sisters and I settled down and watched 'The Eagle.'

That. Movie. Is. Awesome.

I am a tiny bit infatuated with it. Don't believe me? Check out my Movie Board on pintrest. ;)

I really liked Marcus. He was a cool Roman soldier and all that. There really wasn't anything un-likeable about the fellow.

But the second this fellow came out I was on his side. :) Jamie Bell. You, Sir, did a great job as Esca.

Jamie Bell. New favorite actor.

This movie has a really good friendship story, and I'm very pleased to say, there is absolutely no romance. There isn't one female character. Don't get me wrong, I like a bit of romance. What girl doesn't? I just like my action movies to concentrate on the mater at hand. *Wink*

There's loads of riding. *Happiness!*

"The invasion of the hot Italians." 

Since I'm a bit rubbish at doing movie reviews other than saying how awesome I thought they were, I'm going to make this easy and just post the trailer. It sums things up quite nicely.

There is some swearing, (though I don't remember there being much) and it's a bit violent, but tactfully done violent. Kind of like the Lord of the Rinds battle scenes. And there is one kind of strange bit with the Picts doing a dance thing around a fire. Not bad, just weird. :)

Sorry for the rather alarming length of this post. It kind of got away from me a bit!

Don't forget to check out the Giveaway!

God Bless.
Amy