A Tad Bit Chilly

Posted on January 6, 2014 by The Sugarlump

Oh hey….it’s like cold here. Like, REALLY cold. I thought I moved to the south for a more moderate climate? I think I accidentally brought the northeastern weather with me. Actually, you know what? My sister just returned to Nashville from Boston on Friday by some sort of miracle considering every other flight on the planet was canceled. I think I’ll blame her for bringing the snow and frigid temperatures. I feel warmer already.

It is so cold, in fact, that I had to use all of my Xena-warrior-princess strength to open Eugene’s car door last evening.

This is my bedroom window. Hooray for single pane glass! Not.

The driveway is covered in ice, which makes for especially exciting picture-taking/ice-skating in flat boots.

This almost looks fake to me, like when they frost the windows on movie sets in Hollywood. I wish I were in southern California at the moment.

Time to invest in some firewood.

Off to make gallons of hot chocolate,

Sugarlump

J’adore Holiday Decor

Posted on December 29, 2013 by The Sugarlump

I was glad to have a house to decorate this year for Christmas. The only thing is that I forgot how much work is involved. Not that I’m complaining! There is nothing that warms my heart more than a house adorned with greenery, poinsettias, candles and shiny things. Top it off with a Frasier Fir or Holiday Bayberry candle, and I might just explode with joy!

I took advantage of having family in town the weekend after Thanksgiving to get the tree put up. We selected a mighty fine-looking (and smelling) Frasier Fir. Thank goodness my dear sister Eugene has herculean strength and could lift the tree to an upright position as my dad secured it in the stand.

The tree had a beautiful shape with impressive uniformity…

…except for this one little branch here in the back that stuck out like a tail. It cracked me up so I left it there. Who wants a tree without a little bit of character? If I had it my way (and by my way, I mean if I won the lottery and could justify spending 4 figures on live greenery), I would have one of those miniature, spindly, misshapen Charlie Brown trees in every room because I think they are hysterical and precious. Fortunately for anyone who comes to my house, my holiday decor fund has a limit.

AFTER my dad and I had strung the lights on the tree, I realized that my transition from the LED lights purchased last year for my tree that was half the size of this one to the new incandescent lights that I purchased this year to bridge the gap was not so smooth.

See the annoying blur of the white LED lights against the soft, warm glow of the smaller incandescent lights? I could not stand the sight of it so yours truly went out the next day to get some more of the 200 light strands of acceptable Christmas tree lights. When I got to Walgreens, where they were running a 2 for 1 special, I noticed that this location had 300 light strands for the same price as the 200 light strands. So instead of buying 2 more 200 lights strands, I bought 2 300 light strands, thinking I could get away with adding just 1 300 light strand to my existing 200 and then keep the “free” 300 light strand for another purpose. Perhaps for an unsuspecting shrub.

I got home and took the wretched LEDs off the top 2/3 of the tree and began stringing the regular, lovely, perfect, warm lights from the top. All was going swimmingly until I reached the point where I needed to connect the 300 light strand to the 200 light strand. I would like to tell you that these are the EXACT SAME LIGHTS FROM THE EXACT SAME MANUFACTURER. I held up the 3 prong connector of the 300 light strand ready to plug it into the receptacle of the 200 light strand only to discover that the 200 light strand’s receptacle had only 2 holes. JOY TO THE WORLD!

After contemplating poking my eyes out with the 3 prong connector so I couldn’t see the darn lights on the tree anyway, I collected myself and began taking the 200 light strand off the BOTTOM 1/3 of the tree so that I could make unexpected use of that additional “free” 300 light strand. I was concerned that my math wouldn’t work out and the lights would be too dense at the bottom of the tree, but the result was passable for my OCD self.

I was pleased with the end result, even though my camera doesn’t pick up the delicate glow of the lights very well in low-lighting.

As if that wasn’t enough light-enduced drama for one year, I decided to put electric candles in the windows. All 44 of them. I thought I might get crafty and use the battery operated LED lights (did I learn nothing from the tree episode?) to save (cause) myself some trouble. I put one in the window and didn’t really like the looks of it. It was too white and kind of dull. To see if I was imagining this, I put a plug-in incandescent candle next to it in the window and went out in the yard to compare the two from a distance. NO COMPARISON. I really wanted to like the LEDs for their energy savings and convenience; however, there might as well have been no candle in the window if I had opted for this route. It was pitiful, really, next to the arc of warm light radiating from the incandescent. More work for me, but I knew it would be worth it. 4 hours, 2 trips to the hardware store, and 16 extension cords later, it was totally worth it. I promise. It’s really a crime that I couldn’t get a good picture of it for you. I haven’t mastered night photography yet. Or day photography.

After all of that electrical excitement, I moved on to a few more basic decorating assignments: the front hall, the front door, the porch, the mantle, and the kitchen island.

The nice man at the farmers’ market gave us a good deal on this Frasier Fur wreath. I found some of that wide, mesh-like ribbon at Hobby Lobby and finished it off with a big ol’ bow.

I also stumbled upon some large faux wreaths at 50% off so I got 2 of those for the large windows on the porch. They got bows, too. Please disregard the expired mums that I had yet to remove as of the date this photo was taken. Please do note the snow on the roof! Too bad this wasn’t Christmas Day.

My dad had to trim a low-hanging branch off the tree to fit it into the tree stand, so I used that to fill out the mantle. My gold pears from Pier 1 a few years back gave the mantle a nice, rhythmic touch. First, I prepped the mantle with some saran wrap to keep the sap from creating a hot mess on the woodwork.

The final step was the stockings, which took a little bit of time and imagination. You see, I had found the most perfect faux fur tree skirt and pair of stockings at Homegoods. The only problem is that there are 4 people in my family, not 2. I called all of the surrounding TJ Maxx/Homegoods locations and non of them had more of these treasures. I had to get creative and settle on an eclectic look with the addition of another type of fur stocking and a fabulous sequined one, which I made my dad’s. He was confused and probably a little disturbed by this. It made me laugh.

On the topic of confused and disturbed, for my holiday arrangements in the kitchen and foyer, I spray-painted some branches gold. But not just any branches. Branches that came from 12 foot tree limbs that fell during an intense wind storm we had here in Nashville on Halloween. I drug these branches out of the yard and into my garage. I’m sure my neighbors thought I was crazy. You’d be amazed by what a little metallic gold spray paint and a small hand saw can do.

When it comes to holiday decorations, I think simple and natural is best…

…until I have to take it all down.

Covered in pine needles,

Sugarlump

No Mo’ Nemo

Posted on February 10, 2013 by The Sugarlump

Cabin fever has set in. We have watched far more of the weather news that I would recommend, cooked and baked (and consequently overindulged), played multiple games of scrabble, blogged, edited pictures, watched several basketball games and a movie in the past 24 hours. The travel ban is lifting in 4 minutes as I write this and I couldn’t be more excited about dining out this evening.

Since I was confined to the house, I thought I might as well track the progress of the storm. Here is my coverage of the storm (on a 24-48 hour delay):

Backyard around noon Friday.

Front yard around noon Friday.

Backyard about 2 hours later.

Front yard about 2 hours later.

The deck around 2PM Friday. Keep this image of the overturned table handy.

A backyard-deck combo around 2PM Friday. I was getting a little carried away. There was nothing else to do.

Front yard around 4PM Friday, just as the travel ban took effect. I don’t remember ever being under a travel ban before. It makes you really want to travel.

Backyard around 4PM Friday. The snow was beginning to bury things.

The kitchen island around 4PM Friday. Time for some wine and cheese.

I also made some German chocolate bourbon pecan pie bars. I’ll post about those later.

Back to the snow coverage (day 2):

Approximately 9AM Saturday morning. We had officially been snowed in. Travel ban still in effect as snow removal teams tried to clear roadways.

Front yard Saturday morning. There is an Adirondack chair under all of that snow somewhere. Anyone feel like a cup of coffee on the front patio?

Winter wonderland.

The deck was almost completely filled in.

The front walk/tunnel midday on Saturday as the snow tapered off.

No amount of snow will keep my family from grilling. The first thing my dad did outside was shovel a path on the deck in case we needed some steaks for dinner. Those are the table legs sticking out of the snow.

As I mentioned, the travel ban was lifted at 4PM on Saturday, so we ended up going out to dinner. The highways had been salted and were almost completely clear of snow. Some of the back roads and smaller roads in the city were still quite snowy, but that didn’t stop us. Here we are exiting the restaurant. The snow was up to the top of the parking meters. Karma for the cranky meter maids if you ask me.

Y’all be careful,

Sugarlump

I found Nemo

Posted on February 8, 2013 by The Sugarlump

I made a somewhat last-minute decision to fly back to Boston for a long weekend. It figures that I picked the weekend an “epic” blizzard is due to hit New England. I think it’s karma for me calling Nashville silly for canceling school due to the threat of 3 snowflakes.

I’ll have you know that I left unseasonably nice weather in Nashville. I felt kind of ridiculous heading to the airport yesterday in my fur vest given that it was about 65 degrees.

I was supposed to fly out from Nashville this morning, but, given the rumblings of the impending storm, on Wednesday we scrambled to change my flight and I ended up flying into Providence last evening. Good thing, considering almost 4000 flights have been canceled because of this storm, including the one I was originally booked on, which would have been arriving about now in Boston. That would have been a dicey landing.

Thankfully, I was able to reschedule my plans for tomorrow to this morning. I headed out at 8:45 before the snow began and found it very challenging to obey the 55 mph speed limit coming from 70 mph speed limits in Nashville. All I’m going to say is that I kept it under 75 and I made it back in one piece.

Now I can enjoy a lazy couple of days by the fire. I don’t have a fireplace at my place in Nashville so I feel like I’m at a ski resort at the moment. Maybe I can talk my mom into making me some hot chocolate…this will be a good test of how diligent she is about reading my blog…

Although I love the weather in Nashville (minus the tornadoes at night), I hadn’t realized how much I missed a good snow. It’s really beautiful.

Hopefully there won’t be any major issues with this storm. Not only was school canceled, but many offices and businesses as well. Travel ban in effect as of 4PM. This is serious. Think positive thoughts.

Y’all be careful,

Sugarlump

Cause for Alarm

Posted on February 1, 2013 by The Sugarlump

This week has been full of surprises. Tuesday evening, I went to ladies’ night at a shooting range and got second place in our bullseye competition. Everybody watch out.

Early the next morning, at approximately 3:00AM, I awoke to tornado sirens. This was the first time I had heard them in person since moving to Tennessee so it took me a minute to figure out what was going on. My weather channel alerts on my phone confirmed that we were under a tornado warning and needed to take cover immediately. I grabbed my phone, the cats, two cushions from the sofa, and my laptop and closed us in the bathroom as I set up a little fort with my cushions in the bathtub. I then decided I needed a flashlight and a bottle of water. Maybe I should have thought through my tornado plan a little bit more. In my defense, it was JANUARY(!) and tornado season doesn’t usually start until spring.

Anyway, as we waited out the very strong winds and tracked the radar on my laptop, the cats could not have been more confused/annoyed. They kept looking at me like I was crazy and tried to dig a hole under the door to get out of the bathroom. Apparently tornado safety does not apply to them.

Thankfully, other than some seriously violent winds, we were alright. There were, however, a few tornadoes within 50 miles of us that damaged several buildings and pulled roofs off of homes.

Less than 48 hours later, the temperature had dropped nearly sixty degrees from the low seventies into the teens and it was snowing.

It’s a beautiful, sunny day here as long as you’re indoors. It’s a whopping 17 degrees at the moment and with the wind chill, it feels like single digits.

There is still snow on most roofs and school was canceled, which I thought this was pretty silly, given that we got about 2 inches of snow. New Englanders wouldn’t bat an eye at that kind of snowfall. But then I discovered that there was still some dangerous ice lurking around as I tried to speed out of the gate at my apartment complex earlier this morning. I spun in place for about 10 seconds until my Jeep finally slid forward, narrowly avoiding the gates as they began to close.

Like the weather, my garbage disposal has been acting backwards this week. The other day, as I ran the water and turned on the disposal, instead of the water easing the food down the drain as the disposal ground it up, all of the food and water spun violently up and out of the drain and onto me and the counter. The maintenance man just found a metal spear approximately the size of a chopstick jammed in the pipes, courtesy of the previous tenant.

It’s been a strange couple of days.

In other (likely related) news, I’m back to drinking coffee, but just a small cup. Hopefully, things will now return to normal.

Y’all be careful,

Sugarlump

What Next?

Posted on January 15, 2013 by The Sugarlump

This weekend, it was over 70 degrees on Saturday and part of Sunday. A cold front moved in and by Sunday afternoon we were under a tornado warning as it stormed violently. Yesterday, it was sort of snowing/sleeting with a winter weather advisory in effect. Today, we are under an ice storm warning. It wouldn’t surprise me if tomorrow brought a heat advisory or pollen alert. Hang tight.

It started to get icy in the afternoon. Schools closed early. I had the day off and have spent most of it under several blankets on the sofa, catching up on months’ worth of the food network. It was the laziest I’ve been in a while and it was great.

The cats are so confused that they have been snuggling with each other in the same cat bed even though there is one for each of them, SIDE BY SIDE. I’m not sure Gus is as pleased with situation as Scarlett is.

Oops, she heard me. Not pleased with my commentary.

I think I’ll go out for a Mexican dinner to spice things up a little bit. I lived in the Northeast nearly my whole life, so I’m not afraid of venturing out in the wintery weather. (I apologize to my grandmothers if you’re reading this. I promise I’ll be careful.)

Stay tuned for the next spell of bizarre weather. Get your bikinis ready.

Y’all be careful,

Sugarlump