French Sand Cookies

The French Sand Cookie is a classic French butter cookie.  It is also called a "Sables" which is French for sand and refers to the crumbly sand-like texture.  This recipe was adapted from The Budget Cook Book by Ida Bailey Allen dated 1935 (also a Depression-Era cookbook). 

1/2 cup of margarine

1 cup of granulated sugar

4 egg yolks

1 teaspoon almond extract

11/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

  

 Cream together the margarine, sugar, egg yolks, well beaten, and the extract.  Sift together the dry ingredients and work them into the first mixture. Cover and chill the dough for a few hours.  Then transfer to a slightly floured board.  Roll to one-fourth inch in thickness and shape as desired with a cookie cutter, keeping the cookies small.  You can dust the cookies with plain or colored sugar crystals and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 11 minutes.  This makes about 2 dozen.

In doing a little research on this cookie I discovered it froze well.  I thought this was perfect for American cooks this week who are looking to make the holidays a little easier.  I thought it would be nice to bake a batch of these cookies this week and then pull them out in a few weeks and decorate them.  That way half of the work will already be done before the Christmas season.  I froze several and then pulled them out of the freezer to thaw and decorated mine with a white chocolate tinted red and some crumbled up peppermint.

How do they taste?  They taste like a mix between shortbread and a crisp sugar cookie with the almond flavor.  I love the almond flavor in a crisp sugar cookie with coffee or tea.  It is a great mix.  So have a little tea and enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Home at Rose Chintz Cottage

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 

Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties

The Teaist Tea Talk Link Up  

Sunday Funday Blog Hop at WTFab 

Your Great Idea Link Party  at Or so she says...

Our Stair Rail is in!!

Our iron stair rail went in and I wanted to share some pics with you.  I spent a lot of time pouring over images of railings and figuring out just exactly what I wanted.  We worked with Tom Owens of Herndon Ironworks and his railing is truly beautiful.  It's really special to be able to work with true craftspeople on our home and to be able to do things that are a bit outside of the "box."

 {Tom Owens- bottom left- & his team of craftsmen. They are all so good at what they do!!}

For our railing, I wanted something that felt both modern & old at the same time.  It's simple & clean and spare and has a beautiful patina. 

When I visited Herndon IronWorks (literally a mile away from our old house) Tom & I looked around the shop so we could determine the finish I was after. 

We soon found out that I was drawn to the metals that had aged naturally over time vs. any faux aged finishes.  Everything I liked was outside & had weathered to a rusty black. 

To get the finish I wanted, Tom set the new iron for our railing outside & let it weather for a few weeks. 

{We used 1/2 inch square pickets for our rails, seen at the top left of the above photo}


The end of the top rail is a lamb's tongue that gently swirls into a sort of vine around the post:

 

It's the slightest bit of curve & "pretty" & quirk in an otherwise very spare & clean design.  I love little elements like this & it's sort of a microcosm for how I like rooms to feel. 

You might remember that our stairs were originall very steep, and so to make them a bit more manageable for our boys (and us! ;)  CarrMichael Constrution put new stairs in.  I wanted to be able to see the sides of the stairs & to have the drywall go right into the steps themselves without a stringer, so Mike Carr (owner of CarrMichael) made it happen.  Here's what the stairs looked like before:

{Justin, my very sweet little man}

...And here they are now:

{two other sweet ones- Dave & Ashby} 

 The temporary door at the top of the stairs & the wooden horizontal old railings will both be removed & we've got lots of cleaning up to so (walls, woodwork, etc.) but we're on our way!!  I love how the pickets attach directly into the drywall.  The curve into the drywall and are out farther than the stair treads, so they actually make the stairs even wider than before because there's so much more usable space on them. 

I'm so happy with how everything turned out & I really can't thank everyone who was involved enough.  It takes so many hours & brains to really come up with something good & it's definitely worth it!!  To read more about my stair inspiration, click here.




If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Prepping for Christmas

Having a little tea under the Christmas tree while decorating this week.

Aren't these pretty chintz tea cups.  They are by Grace China.

I found a recipe in my vintage cookbooks for a French Sand Cookie.  They are simple and delicious.  They also freeze well, so you could make them this week and pull them out at Christmas to decorate.  I'll talk more about that and share the recipe tomorrow.

Wishing you a fabulous week! 
Sherry

 I will link this to:

 Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage 

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life 

Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites

Tea Cup Tuesday at Artful Affirmations

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life 

Friends Sharing Tea at Bernideen's Tea Time Blog 

Tea Talk at The Teaist

TCOH Thanksgiving

I have one more quick change to the buffet to show you today.  I took the centerpiece from the Thanksgiving table and used half of it to make this arrangement on the buffet.  The chalkboard simply states "Grateful for U."

I love the deer paint-by-number I found at a local antique store.  I just placed it in an easel to show it off.

I also made a video of all Thanksgiving looks for the last three years from TCOH.  If those of you with hand held devices have trouble viewing this, here is the direct link.
I wish each and every one a wonderful Thanksgiving! 
May you be blessed each day!
 

Sherry

I will join:

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Cottage Style Link Party  at Lavender Garden Cottage

Mod Mix Monday  at Mod Vintage Life

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper

Sunny Simple Sundays  at Sunny Simple Life

Share Your Cup Thursday  at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

My Monday Muse at Carter's Cottage

Home Sweet Home #93

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!  This week I styled a Thanksgiving Table.

I baked some holiday bread and had a Coffee with a Past.

And, I shared my recipe for Cranberry Orange Bread.  It's delicious!

Now I would like to highlight some of the posts that caught my eye last week.

Carlene of Organized Clutter created this vintage look snowman.  Didn't she do a great job!

Jennifer of Decorated Chaos turned an ordinary glass based lamp into a mercury glass lamp!  It turned out fabulous!  Check out how she did it.

Cathy at My 1929 Charmer transformed and styled this beautiful drop leaf table.

Many great links every week!  Keep it coming!  Thank you to everyone who joins me at Home Sweet Home!  It is wonderful to have you here!

Sherry

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I will join these ladies today:
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Home and Garden Thursday  at A Delightsome Life 

Inspiration Friday  at The Picket Fence

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense 
Strut Your Stuff Saturday at Six Sister's Stuff

I have a special request:  If you pin another person photos please go to their site and pin from there.  If it is my work you can pin away I won't mind.  Thanks!

 

 Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:

Attention: To link up with inlinkz you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or they will not allow you to link.  

Link up anything in your home or garden.  I love seeing neat shops too!

My button is on my sidebar for the party, if you want to use it.   If you are new here I hope you will become a follower. Please don't link up more than two posts.  No Etsy link ups or direct advertising, please.  Please visit some of the other blogs and get some great inspiration.  Thanks.:)

Now let's see your beautiful homes!

Explanation & Norman Bates' Mom

Yesterday I posted about feeling like I was barely treading water...  Thank  you so much for the kind notes & emails & phone calls and I'm so sorry to have worried anyone!!  I really am doing fine, I'm just a little overwhelmed with having so much on our plates right now.  I'm not sure if I can explain in it any other way other than that I'm (and it's not just me, it's my husband too) stretched really thin right now but that I'm truly excited about everything we've got going on.  I'm so happy with how our house is turning out and my boys are at such a fun age...  I wish I could spend every moment with them...

I just feel like there aren't enough hours in the day & I feel like I'm dropping balls left & right.  I'm trying so hard for the balls not to be work balls but it doesn't leave much time to take care of things at home and with our house. 

This year, Christian entered kindergarten & I am getting my first taste of how much involvement schools want/need from their parents.  We want to be involved & all of the things the school's putting together are amazing, but we're finding it really hard to keep up...   ESPECIALLY without a kitchen. (Bakesale goods on Friday? hahahahahah  I will most likely be employing the I Don't Know How She Does it Method,which consists of a grocery store dessert that's been lovingly "distressed" a bit ;) ;)    (I'm not sure if I'm kidding or not.)  It's hard enough to get a lunch together ("Lunchables" for today & more days than I'd like to admit.. uggg) and a clean kid out the door, let alone anything else. 

{I WISH this was Christian's lunch.}

I am so behind on phonecalls & emails with my friends & family & blog friends, and feel like I'm not really there for anyone, even though I want to be.  I find myself thinking of everyone and that I'll call them or email them "after work" but by the time I finish up at night, (I've been working late a lot) I just need to be with my kids who are dying for some attention.  (I can think of no less than 20 friends/family members who I need to get in touch with.)  In the grand scheme--- I KNOW these are normal problems to have, and I really am fine... It's just sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming.  I don't want to let anyone down.  I am running around like a madwoman & probably shouldn't even be spending this much time complaining to you ;) ;)

SO...  Here's the post I've been trying to post for over a week or so now, with  maybe 5 minutes at a whack.  (When I sat down to try to finally finish it yesterday, something came up at work so I quickly threw the dog treading water pic up to let you know where I was at.).....

Whenever I look at houses, I find the one element that really makes me love a space is good natural lighting.  In our new (old) house, I loved all of the large windows throughout the house & knew that if we added more, it could be just right. 

{before}

{after:  we added two floor to ceiling windows and widened the space between them for a larger fireplace wall}

In the kitchen, we added a second window to balance out the assymetrical location of the first window, which i love!!--

In our master bedroom, we took out the entire wall and replaced it with a massiving sliding glass door for a view into our courtyard.  (My computer isn't letting me attach pics from our network right now so just imagine it, sorry!!)

...AND....

I can now say that I am a window addict.  I want to add them wherever possible.  In our upstairs loft, I orginally wanted to add one window in between the two existing ones so that we'd have a better view.  Here's what it looks like now:

{The loft"----  our current living room, kitchen, dining room, everything.  Our clothes are in the dresser under the microwave.}

I sit in the swivel glider (which will be going in the baby's nursery when the house is finished) and turn it so I can see outside into our back yard...  The boys will sit on my lap and the baby falls to sleep whenever it's his turn.  Every weekend morning, I sit there like Norman Bates when he's dressed up like his mom, looking out the window:

{hopefully I'm slightly less creepy about it}

But it's really helped me find some peace inside & I love it.  This is the view:

We have deer in the area behind our yard & if we wake up early enough, we can see them playing on pretty much most mornings. We found a tick in the baby's ear over the weekend which is a bit worrisome.  :(  Its entire head was embedded in Luke's ear lobe and it took at least ten minutes to pull it out with tweezers while he screamed.  :(  I felt so terrible. (It had broken in half and the head was still stuck inside.)  After we got the tick out, I just held him and rocked him in the glider and he fell asleep clutching me & trying to catch his breath.  (We've taken him to the doctor and will be watching him for the next 3 weeks for signs of lyme disease but so far, he seems just fine.)


So now...  I think I might want to take out the wall and make it an entire wall of windows for a bigger view outside..   Could you imagine this as a wall of windows??:

We have to decide how low we want the windows to go because it's on the second floor but I am really leaning towards adding this on to our already too-many-projects list. 

Anyway, I'm off for the day- and thanks so much for bearing with me.  Big hug.  (And I'm sorry I worried anyone!!)




If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Cranberry Orange Bread

This is one of the recipes from the Depression-Era cookbook I have been cooking from.  I tweaked it just a bit by replacing the raisins for dried cranberries and it made a delicious loaf bread for the holidays. 

The recipe was titled simply:  Orange Loaf

Place in a bowl:

1/2 cup orange juice

grated rind of one orange

1/2 cup boiling water

3/4 cup of raisins ( I used dried cranberries)

Add:

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tbsp. butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg, beaten

Mix well.

Add:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup nuts, chopped  (I used pecans)

Mix all, pour into a loaf pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Ice with a thin powdered sugar icing if desired.

I just mix around 4 tbsp of powdered sugar with milk till I get the consistency I want.

Yield: 1 loaf

I am still surprised when I make one of these recipes.  Some seem very lean but, there are many tried and true recipes that are really a delight.  The boys loved this bread so, this is actually the second loaf I made this week.  The first one wasn't fit to photograph after the children starting snacking on it!     
Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Home at Rose Chintz Cottage

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties
The Teaist Tea Talk Link Up 
Folk Magazine and Blog Link Party 
Sunday Funday Blog Hop at WTFab 
Your Great Idea Link Party  at Or so she says...