Are we there yet?

It's the day after Christmas and Mr. Paisley and I have been in the truck all.day.long. In fact I am blogging this from my heated seat.

We got a late start this morning...seems Mr. P. Has picked up some kind of crud that is going around. Great! Amazingly traffic has been fine. It just started snowing again. Big chunky flakes!

We did take a break around 1:00. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch...along with everyone else. 25 minute wait for two people! Crazy...

They had their Christmas stuff 50% off. Would have thought it would be more...didn't buy anything other than lunch. I had that yummy grilled chicken orchard salad.

We are currently about 30 minutes outside of Knoxville and the snow is coming down nicely. The digital display in the truck says it's 29°. I think it's colder...I'm pretty sure the heat from the engine throws it off a little.

My awesome brother just called from the Paisley Cottage - he went to cover my plants since it's dropping below freezing tonight in Orlando. Super glad he did because he said the hot tub was uncovered. Well half open. Wonder which neighbor kid did that...I know it was covered this morning when I did the last load of laundry. Time to put the locking clips on it I guess.

Just wanted to do a quick post since I downloaded Blogger-droid. Figured I should try it out. All I can say is thank God for SWYPE. Never could have thumb typed this post on this bumpy road.

Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Fall in Florida? What?

Yes...it seems that we are actually having a FALL here in Central Florida this year. Granted it's the end of December, going into January, but holy crap the trees have all up and gone red, orange and gold on us! It's crazy - and gorgeous! I mean, sure, there is still way more green than anything else, but we never get fall color like this.

Here are a few shots I've taken over the past week...pardon the less than fantastic photos. Most were taken from my car with a point and shoot camera that only has a 3x zoom and I snapped them while I was waiting at red lights and whatnot so there was ZERO planning involved to try and remove things like red lights and sign posts, other drivers, etc. Tree + red light = opportunity LOL.

 Outside the courthouse downtown Orlando on 12/16

 I-4 and Lee Road in Winter Park  on 12/23

 The oak trees turning gold - parking lot at my office in Maitland

 Cypress trees turning orange - pardon my elbow - these are in the office park where I work in Maitland

 The office park across the road

 The lake in the office park - around 3:30 in the afternoon on 12/23

 Same lake at the office park... 12/23

 Same lake at the office park - this was around 5pm on 12:23 - setting sun was lighting up the orange trees for sure!

 Same lake...5:00pm

And again at 5:00pm

Gorgeous...add the real fall color to this chilly weather we're having and I think it's safe to say that Fall has arrived in Florida. Better late than never!

Season's Greetings

MIA...yes I am.

Let me just say...I am NOT ready for Christmas this year. I'm ALWAYS done shopping in November and have everything wrapped and ready to go within the first week of December. I like to have my trees up and all the packages underneath so that I can sit in the living room with my cup of hot cocoa in the evenings and admire all the prettiness...not this year. 

One tree. It's not even decorated the way I wanted it. I wasn't in the mood...the first ornament case I opened was my Florida Gator box...so yes indeed, our Christmas tree is decked out in blue, orange and green ornaments, filled in here and there with different sizes of shiny royal blue and copper Christmas balls and white ribbon running thru the tree with a giant fluffy white bow on top.

Here's the tree  in all it's glory. Actually, it looks like this was before I put the other ribbons on it. Such is life...that seems to be the way things are going this time of year at the Paisley Cottage!

 I used to get these handmade clay ornaments at a local Fall Craft Festival, but I haven't been there in years...this little gator is under his favorite palm tree on his Florida Gator beach towel.

 One of two gorgeous stained glass pieces...

 One of this year's additions from Danbury Mint.

 Last year's Danbury ornament - it has a multi-color LED light in it (it's blue in this shot - look in the "holes") at the top left of the ornament)

 One of my favorites - a gift from my mom many years ago. Old school Albert! He's 24k gold plated.

 Another from the craft fair lady - baby gator in a wreath.

 Picked this one up on our trip to the cabin in November. I bought it at Christmas Place (which is amazing if you've never been)

 Hand painted...not by me.

 From Gatorland in Kissimmee, FL...

 Gators on the move...

 Simple little wood Gator with a blue and orange holly necklace of sorts...

 What Gator tree would be complete without Gator candy canes?

 What can I say...it's blurry.

 This is one of the few oblong shaped ones...they're hard to find. Almost always round.

Gators cheer bear! This was from the series Cracker Barrel used to carry (I think I have 4 or 5 from the series)

 The 2nd Danbury ornament this year - they cheaped out (shocking) and just made a hole in the bottom of the ornaments this year - you have to hang them where you can stick one of the tree lights into it.

 Stained glass #2!

Albert flying high in his Gator plane...

These are not all of my Gator ornaments, just a few I snapped some quick shots of...there are plenty more. Enough to cover a 6.5" tree anyway!

Christmas Breakfast Traditions...

As far back as I can remember, my mom has always made the same thing for breakfast on Christmas morning. Since I have a fairly firm grasp on the English language, i'm going to go out on a limb and say that makes it a tradition.

Mom makes the infamous honey puff pancake. I guess since it's kind of a cake and it's made in a pan, that qualifies it as a pancake...frankly, I consider it more of a souffle. Call it what you will, it's easy and it is really good. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 6 eggs
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons butter
• powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Heat Oven to 400 degrees. Lightly scoop flour into a measuring cup. Level off. In blender, place milk, eggs, honey, cream cheese, flour, salt, and baking powder. Let stand while preparing skillet. Grease 10" oven proof skillet with 1 T butter. Add remaining 2 TBS of butter to skillet.
2. Place skillet in oven and heat until butter sizzles, about 2 minutes. While skillet is in oven, blend ingredients at a high speed for 1 minute. Scrape the sides of blender and blend at high speed for one more minute until smooth. Remove skillet from oven.
3. Immediately pour batter into hot skillet. Put back into oven and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and dark golden brown.
4. Serve immediately with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and fruit. Other toppings can be blueberries, peaches, or sliced bananas with maple syrup. 

Mom and I both make this in an old cast iron skillet. I line mine with foil because i'm lazy and hate cleaning an iron skillet. 

When the timer goes off everyone is required to run to the kitchen to see the honey puff pancake as it comes out of the oven...this would be the "puff" part...like I said, it's more like a souffle - it starts to fall as soon as you take it out of the oven. Never mind that...it still tastes fabulous! If you want to get all fancy for the holidays you can throw a paper doily on there and dust with powdered sugar and make it look like a snowflake. Let's get real though...we live in Florida. We just serve it plain and everyone adds their own toppings. Jam, jelly, powdered sugar, honey, sliced fruit, syrup...

We also have bacon and sausage, as well as fresh fruit on the table - maybe even a hashbrown casserole. Honestly, i've become a HUGE fan of "breakfast potatoes" lately. I dice up potatoes and fry them up in olive oil and a little butter. The butter makes the brown up and get crisp...(maybe it's just me, but they never come out like that if I use just the olive oil). Add a little salt and pepper and i'm good to go. If I were a fan of onions and peppers, i'd add those too. Knock yourself out if you want to add those when you make them. 

Christmas morning we all drive over to mom and dad's house and we dig into our stockings. That was always the rule growing up. We could go thru the sock, but we had to be quiet and we couldn't wake mom and dad up until 7am (or maybe it was 7:30). So now that my brother and I are in our 30s...well, neither of us is up at 7:30 on a day off! And the stocking is still fair game. Mom is usually in the kitchen and has breakfast in the works. So we all open our stockings while the pancake is puffing and when it's done we all sit down to breakfast in the dining room - the table set with mom's Christmas china of course. After breakfast we gather 'round the tree and usually it's my brother who plays the part of the elf..distributing gifts as they're pulled from under the tree...or rather around the tree and eventually under. 

Here are a few shots from Christmas in the past...

Please excuse the laundry basket - that was my transport of gifts from my house to my parents'.

 The gifts are creeping toward the hallway...

 Yes...it's always this crazy...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Just Peachy

I lucked into getting an hour or so to browse my favorite antique mall on our trip to TN - simply because we got off to a bad start. 

We were supposed to leave when I got home from work that Friday night...however on my drive home one of the radio traffic reports informed me that there was a fuel spill on the Florida Turnpike northbound due to a tractor trailer accident. They had it shut down to one lane getting by and traffic was backed up to the 429. Not good. Walked in the door, told Mr. P (who HATES to sit in traffic) and of course he had to verify that for himself (because I might just make that up so I could finish packing). It was indeed a fact. So I did do a little more packing and then we went out to eat. When we got back home, we went to bed and set the alarm for 2am. We were on the road by 3. Ouch.

Our first stop was the Florida Georgia visitor's center / rest stop. Mr. P was sure that the few hours of sleep he got were fine. Evidently, he has forgotten that we are both rapidly approaching 40. All nighters are a thing of the past...I think he's in denial.  So after a 45 minute nap in the truck at the rest stop, we drove 30 min or so down the road and hit up Cracker Barrel for an early (for us) breakfast around 7am. Back on the road and a couple of hours later he was yawning again. Time for another nap? Excellent - we're coming up on my FAVORITE place to wander...and one that he is always hoping that I am asleep when we pass by. The Big Peach Antique Mall in Byron, GA. Check out their website for info and if you're in the area - do drop in...

Here are a few photos from that trip while I was inside shopping and Mr. Paisley was napping under a big tree in the parking area.

Could be the ugliest pair of pants on the planet...I'm happy that I was born after these were popular. Lord have mercy...

GORGEOUS old dough bowl. Not willing to pay $54.75 for it.

My beloved iced tea glasses...I believe they are Fostoria. I've been coveting them for awhile now. Not willing to pay $5 each for them. *sigh*

Lovely vintage butterfly quilt...

Vintage Christmas baubles!

You know me...I go right to the Americana stuff for the cabin - for $90 I left it there. (really? $90? No...)

The vintage china that I want so badly...look at this huge set!

Love the fall colors...my mother tells me that my grandmother (my dad's mom) had this and she left it at the last house she moved out of...along with a bunch of other stuff that she didn't mention she was just leaving for the next owners. WHAT?! *sigh*

These creepy feet salt and pepper shakers totally gross me out...

LOVE. Time three...

Awesome vintage china chandelier with pink roses - shabby chic at it's finest!

LOVE this vintage snack set - how cute is that?!

Had to take a picture...raise your hand if you spent hours dressing this weird flat plastic "doll" in scraps of fabric like I did!

Frankly, I think this should say husband...

and last but not least...this wicked cool vintage hanging light fixture. 

On a side note - on the last row of booths...near the very last booth before I would have turned the corner to walk out the door. I found.... MY ICED TEA GLASSES! Set of 8 for  $20! I all but ran to the front to grab a cart to load them up.  No chips, no haze from the dishwasher...8 perfect tea glasses in amber. 

I also picked up a black and white speckled enamel cake pan (simple round) for $1 and a Chinese abacus for $5 (marked $10, but everything in the booth was 1/2 off).

You can kinda see the abacus in this photo - on the far left of the shelf - in front of the juggling pins.  Bad photo (well, for the abacus LOL), I guess I didn't take a close up of it. It has Chinese symbols down both of the long sides and on the bar separating the top and bottom rows. It looks old...but who knows. For $5 I thought it was a great piece for my shelf.

Party Time! Check out what's going on over at these blog parties - sooo many creative bloggers out there!