nutcracker mania

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Please stop me if I have mentioned this before, but I kind of have a thing for nutcrackers. They are sort of like the chickens of winter – you know my milk glass chickens?

Anyway ….I decided my gift to myself this year were a few new nutcrackers. I scored all these beauties on eBay.

They were tough auctions as nutcrackers can be very expensive on eBay. But I set price limits for myself, and if they went to out of bounds I walked away.

I like to cook, so I was hunting chef nutcrackers. I found a lot of three. And you can see who the other non-chef nutcrackers are.

Also in the realm of super cool, former NBC 10 anchorman Tim Lake has a website called PANewz.com . I thrilled and honored to report he picked this blog as blog of the month!!! Seriously, how cool is that??? They say (and I quote):

PaNewz Blog of the Month: ‘Chester County Ramblings’. Get ready for Christmas
Chester County Ramblings’ blogger’s knife can dip into politics, social issues, and a rising cake in the oven, with ease. @ChesCoRamblings and Facebook/Chester County Ramblings. Submit your Blog for PaNewz.com ‘Blog of the Month’

Ho, ho, ho I am so happy this blog has received such kudos from a journalist as good as Tim!

And yes, those nutcrackers are indeed sitting on a milking stool. I found that a few months back at Resellers in Frazer for peanuts – seriously $20 or less if memory serves!

I have made a bunch of cookie dough, and I have more yet to do. As it is going to snow yet again tomorrow, I think I will bake.

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the time has come……

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….to start the Christmas baking.

The problem is, I am looking at all these recipes, and haven’t quite decided what it is I will be baking. I know I’m going traditional, and I’ve narrowed it down to the three I’m starting with: gingerbread men, amaretti cookies, and oatmeal raisin.

And yes, part of my deal is I use vintage tins These tins don’t leave the house mind you, but they are the best cookie storage going. The tin in the middle came from the Smithfield Barn!

I also have a bunch of vintage cookie cutters which I love.

At the best thing about baking Christmas cookies is how your house smells. There is nothing better than the smell of baking Christmas cookies!

And yes I have some dog – themed cookie cutters, because if I have enough time, some years I do make dog biscuits.

What are you baking this year?

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the winter of it all and looking ahead

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This morning we woke up to Mother Nature’s diamonds. Otherwise known as a lot of glittery ice.

Even the screens on one side of the house were clothed in tiny, sparkly ice crystals. Ice is now tumbling off of trees and shrubs, and soon I will go out to rescue a rose bush from the heavy hands of winter and tie it back up.

We have had big branches come down all around us, but fortunately have not lost power. My neighbor’s lost a giant tree limb, but thankfully for it missed their house.

Everything in my garden and woods are gripped in the shiny coats of ice and snow. My neighbor’s cornfield looks other-worldly pale and almost shimmery.

As I look out the window and listen to one of the dogs growl and trill at a garden Buddha brought inside for its own safety I find myself already thinking of spring! And I keep reminding myself that Mother Nature’s wintery cloak of snow and ice will indeed give me a better garden.

The indoor plants are of mixed opinion. My bay leaf tree keeps threatening to call it quits on me, but (knock on wood) thus far the rosemary seems to be holding its own. The clivias are happy in their pots and so is the grapefruit tree I grew from seed. And as luck would have it, my Christmas cactus had new buds!!!

Now as the sun reaches probably what is its peak for the day I listen to more bits of ice tumble off the trees and roll down the roof. Next door I hear the faint buzz of a chainsaw. Such are the sounds of winter.

Enjoy your Sunday and if you live in Chester County, enjoy what is shaping up to be the first White Christmas in ages!

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consumer alert: think twice before doing business with SERTA and SLEEPY’S

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I don’t like to do these kind of posts. But I feel it is necessary when companies charge a tidy sum for their products and don’t honor their warranties. I gave both companies a chance to do the right thing, but they chose not to.

So I am choosing to exercise my rights and tell everyone about it.

About a year ago now, give or take a week we ordered a new bed and high-end foam mattress. We ordered one of those expensive Serta foam mattresses with the special gel. We ordered from 1-800-Mattress and the order was fulfilled by Sleepy’s.

My negative experience began when my brand new mattress arrived FROZEN in an unheated truck with an unpleasant delivery man who not only criticized my house (which has very manageable stairs), but who wanted to just dump the mattress in the front hall. (And yes set-up was part of the purchase) In the end he dumped the mattress in the second floor hall. That was the first time I did not tip a delivery man.

I called up Sleepy’s and complained. They knocked money off of the delivery. Which I thought was the right thing to do as my time is worth something, right? I was urged to call or e-mail if I had ANY other problems.

Well I have problems. The mattress which is less than a year is not holding up the way it is advertised. AT ALL.

These mattresses are supposed to hold their form for quite a few years and this one is not. There is almost a “hump” or a mountain in the middle, and when anyone lies on the bed the indent from the body never really springs back. So you also get “valleys”.

We have another older Temper-pedic type mattress in another bedroom that does do what it is supposed to do. The foam does spring back and there are no mountains and valleys.

So Serta and Sleepy’s sent an independent mattress inspector to our home this week. I understand he had a job to do, but he was also somewhat unpleasant and he REEKED of cigarette smoke. I have a smoke free house so it was very noticeable an odor and gross.

He did all these measurements and was on his way. I will note when he did his measurements you could see where the mattress was not level, etc.

This morning Sleepy’s phoned. They and Serta feel the mattress is within normal range. If this is their idea of “normal” we never would’ve bought this mattress in the first place!

Long story short, they are not honoring their warranty. Which truthfully, is exactly what I expected. But I wanted to give them a chance.

They flunked customer service yet again as far as I am concerned.

As a consumer who believes in sharing the good and the bad, I feel compelled to warn all of you out there with regard to doing business with Serta and Sleepy’s. Buyer beware if you purchase anything from them because if something ends up wrong you could get the short end of the stick too.

There are other companies out there.

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putting on the ritz

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Went to a lovely Christmas party in Philadelphia held at The Ritz Carlton.

The hotel was festive and decorated to the nines, making you truly feel holiday fabulous. It is definitely one of those places that makes you feel glad you got dressed up!

I loved their lobby as there were many Christmas trees! I don’t know what it is about the Ritz, but it is one of those pretty places that just makes you feel special. They also have amazing staff, but my favorites are always their doormen.

Interestingly enough I found out at the party that some people in New York read my blog. It always tickles me when someone tells me they read my blog.

And oh my it is chilly out there tonight! Have a great evening everyone!

(and incidentally, I did not ask the Ritz Carlton to host me and my entire family for Christmas Eve dinner in exchange for writing this post, or posting on Twitter/Instagram)

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snow rose

rose in winterIt is very cool to be seeing my garden in winter covered in snow.  Here is a lone rose hip covered in snow from yesterday. I miss my flowers, but author Suzy Bales is right about the beauty of garden in winter.

She says (and I quote):

Ironically,  winter is when we need color the most but it is the season least planned and  planted for color.  Although a lone  flower blooming in a snowy bed gives my heart a jolt, it’s the complementary  combinations of plants that make a winter landscape endearing.

Winter  is a fascinating season, a time to closely watch changes in plants. It is when  I have seen miracles and been confounded by mysteries. Everything has a story  to tell and secrets to reveal, from the design of a snowflake and the patterns  of frost, to the first flowers piercing the cold ground, their blooms resting  on a snowy pillow.