Food Network Overload

This weekend I've watched Giada in Aspen, Ina in London, Sandra in her white winter wonderland, how candy canes are made, how honey-baked hams are glazed, how Sara Lee makes 4.5 million pumpkin pies a year, not to mention Aarti's vanilla and black pepper pork loin. I think I gained ten pounds just watching tv! So you would think I could have made sugar cookies and icing from scratch this afternoon. But, no, Betty Crocker was my go-to girl for the cookie mix and the icing. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being absolutely delicious), I would give Betty's sugar cookie mix a 2.

The icing tastes like birthday cake icing from the bakery. My problem with the icing is that it doesn't harden. So, I have several plates full of cookies with soft, gooey icing which, if covered with foil or wrap, will be ruined. How many cookies can I eat this evening?  The other cookies on the plate in the photo are cheese straws. I made those on Saturday.

I wish I had some needlepoint to show you but there has been so little progress made on any of my projects that it wasn't even worth a picture. It would pretty much look like whatever I showed you last week. My second lesson for the Noel mystery project arrived this week. All of the letters will be beaded. Lots of beading - 3 tubes worth - but from what I see of the finished 2nd lesson, it will be well worth the extra work. As for the Haunted House, it's been too cold to work (at least that's my excuse). I have finished the balustrade on the left side of the house and can now start the wall area below it.

As I am writing this at about 6:30 PM EST, our outside temperature is right at 32 degrees. At 2:30 this afternoon it was 54 degrees. It was already windy today but now that the cold front has moved through, the winds have really increased. These colder temps have really slowed down my stitching at night. All I want to do after dinner is get under my down blanket with the Kindle and read until I fall asleep.

Hope you all have a good week - stay warm and get that shopping finished!