in order to help with global warming, my sister and i have learned to use space and utensils to their fullest.notice the puzzle being glued, the orchid just ready to be repotted, and the noddle machine (not electric) on the table--the dinner table, i might add. on the the island we have home made noodles drying and the cookbook being held open by the drill. the ladder is for reaching the light fixtures, which we painted a coppery color instead of buying new ones; we thought the fixtures were truly ugly. you can find that particular model in any light store--it is the bottom of the line. we took off the gold rims around the bottom of the glass and covered the cheap gold finish with brownish acrylic paint. if anyone truly likes the gold they can just wash the acrylic off. also, notice we are using energy saving light bulbs. the drill is for the ceramic pot that was made without a drain hole. orchids do not like wet feet, so i drilled holes in the pot (out on the deck waiting for another hole to be drilled).
i saw this cute little stuffed mouse a wally world. brought it home and dennis adopted it. i didn't see him play with it much, but in the middle of the night i would hear this mournful meooow. dennis would be sitting in the hall right by our bedrooms doors. if i would say good kitty....good job catching the mousie, he would quit. however, during some time when no one was looking he was doing more than carrying the mouse around. my sis is sure that dennis is the one who has done the damage, but i think cc may be involved in this escapade. the picture shows the second mouse.
the first thing to go are the eye decorations. then the sides, then the underbelly. poor mousie. only part of the stuffing is shown. the rest is scattered like snow flakes over our black rug downstairs. yeah...if your going to do something, bad make sure it is really noticable. silly kitties. 
this is the third mouse. it is a little bigger. pretty cute mouse. he has a slice ofcheese in his paws. dennis likes it well enough even though it is bigger. he still carries it around. and does other things.
you can see that he is already wounded. really can't sew it up. claws will just catch in the threads. i am considering making one out of canvas. of course it won't have the nice soft furry feel then. but.... i think they must soak the stuffing in catnip. maybe if i put catnip in the inside it will be okay. dennis did not ever tear a toy before we moved here. hence i suspect cc's involvement. i have seen her hold a stuffed toy in her feet and scratch it madly with her back paws. so, sis blames my cat and i suspect her cat. it could be both of them in cahoots. the two cats behave in similar ways and one would think they were related except one came the rez in new mexico and one was born 12 years later in belle.
these are the two fawns we watched grow up this summer. there is a little hay field behind the house as yet undeveloped and the fawns and their mother spent time there this summer. most of the time we see the twins by themselves but the other day there was a group of five. the picture was taken just outside our back deck. as you can see in the picture below they have found a spot where the grass is green under the snow and they have pawed through to reach it. it is our neighbor's newly planted side yard. one of our neighbors put a tall chain link fence around her yard to keep the deer out. i wish she would have put up wooden fence. her yard is a tangle of things. like fake deer and windmills, and funky raised beds. 
just as tradition dictates---there was a kid's table stretching from the dining room into the living room, but this time the adult table was not quite big enough so the 'grandma's and two other adults sat at the kid's table. the adult table was the nice table and the kid's was made up of the kitchen table and a card table. they should have just switched. there was turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and broccli cassarole. my sis and i brought the relish tray. we made way too much. it is a week later and we still have pickles in the fridge.
my sis
this is my mother's relish server. she loved her bob white dishes from redwing minnesota. it is strange how we get stuck with dishes. she had fiesta ware from my grandmother. i don't think my mother liked it much because she wasn't the one that picked it out--hence the bob white. however, at the end of her life after she had given my sister and i (traded my sis the bob white for her fiesta) the bob white and what fiesta she had, she asked for a small set of fiesta ware. so maybe she did like it a little after all. i finally have a set of dishes that i like. misaka italian countryside (nice and thin). it is all white with a raised pattern. my kids are not close by, but i get it out whenever my sis and i have company. sometimes so many come over that i have to fill in with another set. (there are eight place settings) i managed to break one of the dinner plates so i will have to look on line for a replacement. 
this is my sister's christmas cactus. she said it hadn't bloomed for several years. when i moved in, there was much moving of items around and the cactus wound up with my small one in the south facing basement window. it is cooler down there. anyway both cacti decided to bloom this year. the only problem is they are going to be done blooming by the time christmas rolls around. i guess we should be glad they are blooming. we brought them upstairs to enjoy, but they will go back to the basement window when they are done showing off.
it is a tradition in our family to have three huge mums on thanksgiving day. it started when my dad gave my great grandmother a vase (now with my daughter) with three football mums. my sister and i try to always have three large mums on thanksgiving day even though it seems to be harder to get the really huge ones.
this summer our porch was filled with potted blooming plants. we decided to try and keep the geraniums over the winter. i have heard that you can actually dig them up and hang them by the roots in a cool place and then just replant them in the summer. we opted for just bring the pots inside and putting them by the east deck door. we have one traditional firecracker red (which my grandmother always had) and one martha washington whitish/pinkish geranium. the martha washington is in full bloom right now. looks better than it did outside. it too, will probably be in a dormant stage by christmas. guess we will be 'forced' to buy a pointsettia. oh well. maybe we can over summer it in the basement and get it to bloom for the following christmas, but with our luck it will bloom for thanksgiving.
brrrr. well, it wasn't really that cold. most of it melted off the streets by ten. and it was very pretty and very white.
