Are You a Doggie for Christmas Kind of Mom (Infographic from Uncommon Dog)

Sci Fi Saturday-A Geeky Garland

My husband often teases me about being a bit obsessed with my favorite TV shows and perhaps caring a smidgen too much about what happens to fictional characters in a fictional world.  He's not wrong!  When I like something I tend to get a tad obsessed and I've always liked the sorts of television shows that inspire fanatical devotion (though I like to think I'm somewhere in the middle ground of fans, snug between the casual viewer and the fully costumed convention attendee).   While I was trying to decide what sort of Christmas garland to make for our mantle I got to think about the geeky valentines from geek crafts and decided to use photo shop to make a garland of Christmas cards from some of my favorite shows.

I'm not very good with crafting, to say the least, and I'm not much good at photo shop either but it was still very easy and I really like the end result.  To make the garland all you need is a cheapo Christmas foil garland that is not to thick, I  used a 2 dollar silver  garland from Target, card stock, a single hole puncher, scissors, photo shop, and a color printer:

To make a card all you do is select an image from the internet and drag it into I photo from there you can copy it into photo shop and then create a colorful background and add your desired text.  The geek crafts valentines post explains more about how to do it.   After making a card you just print it out on card stock and cut it out.  In making my cards I was greatly helped by earlier geeks who had created cards with my favorite characters, for example  all I had to do was google Star Trek Christmas to get a dizzying assortment of trekmas themed cards.  

 I made Trek cards from Kirk and Spock and Uhura and the Next Generation Crew

Supernatural cards from the Winchesters and Castiel

MST3K cards from Joel, Mike, and The Bots

 Twin Peaks cards from The Log Lady and Agent Cooper:

And cards from Mulder and Scully of the X Files and the Futurama Crew (the X Files art work was created by some other sci fi nerd I just copied it onto the card):
 

Once I had my cards I punched holes in the top of each card and strung them on my garland and taped it to my mantle.

 The whole project took less then an hour and my Christmas helpers napped in their PJs the entire time.

See Beautiful-Vintage Christmas Photos with Dogs

I've always loved looking at old photos.   While vintage photos of stars from the golden age of Hollywood are nice, its pictures of ordinary folks that I really love.  If the photo has a dog in it then so much the better. Curious to see what vintage dog Christmas photos I could find I did a search on the net and here is what I came up with:

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 I really didn't find that many images, but I love each one I found.  In every photo you can see that the dog is an important part of the family, included in the holiday celebration by helping open presents under the tree, sharing in a holiday feast or being featured on a families card .  I love how relaxed and happy the people  in these photos look, even if some of the dog handling techniques might be questionable (the poor dog in the last photo looks like he might be getting his eye poked!), you can tell these people loved their dogs. 

In fact seeing these photos made me a little sad that I rarely print out my own.  I might have to start doing so because I really like the idea of someone stumbling across a stack of my dog photos someday and wondering who that crazy lady reading to her dogs was.

This is a photo from about five years ago.  I can't believe how young Tubby and Ping look (as well as myself) and the third dog is dear Bingo who passed away four years ago.

Lemon Cake

Every since the Victorian age when wealthy children received oranges in their stockings

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and well off families hung clove studded oranges from their trees citrus fruits and Christmas have gone together.  That is why I am sharing this recipe for Lemon Syrup Glazed Loaf Cake.   I like to make it with Meyer Lemons, they are sweeter then regular lemons and regularly available this time of year, but plain old lemons will do just fine.     Now I actually burned my cake this year, I think my oven has temperature is a bit off and is running hot, but that is more an argument for the cake then against it because it was still good!  If you follow the recipe below you will have a delicious, non burned, lemon cake to enjoy.

Meyer Lemon Loaf Cake with Lemon Glaze

For the Cake:

1 1/2 sticks salted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 
1 tsp baking powder
zest and juice of two lemons
1/4 cup milk

For the Glaze:

1/2 cup sugar 
juice of 4 lemons


Preheat the oven to 350 and grease and flour a loaf pan.  Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat and scrap the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition.  Sift in the flour and  baking powder and fold in gently.   Combine the milk, lemon juice, and zest in a small measure cup and slowly add to the butter mix gently until a smooth batter forms.   Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake one hour.  Allow to cool slightly

To prepare the glaze heat the sugar and lemon juice over medium low heat until the sugar has dissolved completely.  Pour the glaze over the still warm cake.

Did you know you can make like a thrifty retro housewife and find many uses for inexpensive lemons :

• Cut a lemon in half and sprinkle it with kosher salt and use it to scrub counters or dirty pots.
• Rub cutting boards with lemon to remover odors.
• Place cut lemons in the refrigerator to remove orders. 
• Use a mixture of lemon juice and hot water to remove pet odors from litter boxes or dog accidents (this mixture will cause bleaching so don't use on fabric).
• Apply lemon juice with a q-tip to lighten dark spots on your face or hands. 

I'm sure there are dozens more.

Union Square Holliday Market

Christmas in New York means lots of crowds and special events one we visit ever is the Union Square Holliday Market.  This is an expanded version of the regular Union Square farmer's and I love that its outdoors and dog friendly.   Since its so crowded its a one dog only affair and we brought Weasley because he is the families best traveler and we had to take the path train from NJ to Manhattan.

By Now Weasley is a seasoned commuter

 We got their early  but the market was packed to the gills with crowds checking out the craft stands and food stalls.

A tree of dangling vintage pocket watches

 

This stand is my favorite, Hazel village makes adorable hand crafted stuffed animals.  I bought a raccoon for a small child.  They sell all their animals online as well.

There is a lot of food as well, we had Belgian Waffles

Weasley was very eager for a taste but the waffle had chocolate on it.  A rather odd man came up to us and insisted that we should give Weasley a waffle.  When I told him that chocolate was bad for dogs he then insisted that as he had squirrels who ate chocolate that must not be true.   He argued his point for several minutes while we avoided eye contact, ahh New York.

 After shopping and eating we took Weasley to the Union Square dog park where he played with the Manhattan pups for a bit,

Silent Film Sunday-The Night Before Christmas

This film version of the famous poem was made in 1905 by Edwin S. Porter who made many films for Thomas Edison's production company including The Great Train Robbery.

Hobbit Names

Over here we are big fans of The Lord of The Rings. Mom and Dad both love the books

 and one of our Christmas Traditions is to watch the extended addition of the movie on Christmas day while we open our presents.    Now if you are up on LOTR news then you know that the Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is in theatres now.

  Sadly, dogs are not allowed in our local movie houses so we will have to wait for the DVD release date.  In the mean time we amused ourselves by finding our Hobbit names on the Hobbit Name Generator.

Tubby=Sancho Proudfoot 
Norbert=Falco Proudfoot
Ping=Beryl Proudfoot
Bob-Mongo Proudfoot
Weasley=Bingo Proudfoot

See we are a proud familu!  We particularly like Weasley's hobbit name since its the same as that of our departed brother--Bingo!  

He passed away 3 years ago and mom is always saying that Weasley has some behaviors that remind her of dear old Bingo.  He was a very hobbit like fellow always appreciating the plain and simple but brave when the need arose, he loved to bark at the door if he  heard any commotion outside.   

Mom and Dad wont be seeing the movie until mom's Christmas break from work but if your peeps do we hope they enjoy it, or better yet tell them to read the book!