I want to ride my bicycle...

We bought a new bike for me a few weeks ago and have reaquainted myself with an old love...bicycling. My daughter and I went for a ride yesterday after the fog cleared..

Snow Day

We decided that after Christmas we wanted to head up to the Sequoia's to see the snow and boy did we see snow, it was so beautiful up there, we decided to purchase an annual pass to the park because we like going up there for day trips because it isn't too far from us (about 2 hours).

We met a very nice family from Paris who was there visiting their parent's who are living in L.A. and they all decided to drive from L.A. to see the mountains. I heard the mom speaking French to her young son who was about 4 years old and I was so excited because I am teaching Mikayla to speak French. I realize it isn't a very useful language around here but I love the way it sounds. Anyway, I asked for their e-mail and home address so that we might correspond and perhaps I can learn the proper way to speak French and when we visit Paris (yeah right) I will know someone there!

You really can't take a bad picture here.

Another beautiful view

Mikayla hugging the "snowman" that she and Greg built (mom was in the car getting warm after her cheap tennis shoes got wet).

On our way home we pulled off the road to get this shot, unbelievably gorgeous!

Christmas Outside of Our House

Greg was in charge of the Christmas decorations on the outside of the house, as he is every year. He always does a great job!

Christmas Around the House

Here are some pictures of our house decorated for Christmas.

This is the nativity scene in our entry way

Our mantel

A close-up of the stockings on our mantel

This is in the entry way on the opposite side of the nativity scene

This is in the hallway

This is in our guest bathroom

This is another one of our guest bathroom

I love this sign!

This is my favorite of all of my Christmas things - Santa kneeling at Baby Jesus' manger

Homemade Savon de Marseille (soap)

I saw an episode of Martha Stewart crafts on DIY where she was making a soap called "Savon de Marseille". I decided to try it myself and it was really easy. I ordered the ingredients online from Majestic Mountain Sage http://www.the-sage.com/. All you have to do is melt the soap on your stove top and the trick is (I later discovered by e-mailing customer service) to keep stirring, especially after you add the french clay as it will stay clumped if you don't. My kitchen smelled so good as I was making this. I added a little Rosemary essential oil to it to give it even more scent. After I mixed and melted, I then poured the melted concoction into a soap mold that was designed for small guest soap bars.

After they cooled off, I wrapped the bars in unbleached parchment paper and packaged them for Christmas gifts. I also kept some to use in my bathroom and the guest bathroom

Eggs in the city

Well my girl Pearl (my Silkie Bantam chick) has finally decided to start laying eggs. She laid her first one on Nov. 25 and has been cranking them out ever since, almost daily (she takes a day off every 3 or 4 days).

I can't believe what joy there is in going out every morning and looking in the nesting box of the hen house and discovering the gift of an egg. Sometimes I even happen to look outside and notice that Pearl is in the hen house and I wait about 10 minutes and go out and there it is - a fresh, warm, beautiful egg. The Bantam breed of chickens is smaller than the average chicken and therefore have smaller eggs but I don't mind. I have been using two of Pearl's eggs to equal one large store bought egg and it seems to be working out just fine. I have farm fresh eggs right here in the city.

I found a wire egg basket on ebay. It had been barely used and the seller said she purchased it from an estate sale of a couple who visited Europe often and had a lot of vintage items. This basket is actually from Italy which is etched in the bottom of the basket. I think it looks like a flying saucer.

Rocks

It is amazing to me how simple little things like rocks can make such a BIG difference. We purchased some from a contractor who gets them from a local river and brings them down to sell. They still have moss on them which adds a unique color to the rocks. The contractor told us that we can pour buttermilk on them to grow more moss...who knew?

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