How Do You Gift Wrap A Live Chicken?

It's not too early to start looking for boxes, bags, containers or cages for those hard-to-wrap items on your list.

No Fog in A Long Time Here at The Cottage

I love a good foggy day if I'm home to enjoy it but I know it's dangerous for those on the road. I wake up each day feeling a little better than the day before so I think I'm winning. Any days you can trim from the back side of the normal duration of a cold is good. There is an old saying that if you nurse a cold it will last 2 weeks and if you do nothing and let it run its course it will last 14 days (haha). I think that if you catch it early enough you can get over it much quicker. I have to go out today to run a few errands and preview several houses for showing tomorrow. Today will be a dry run for how I really feel. Wish me luck. image

Be Patient

Patience is definitely a virtue. I was cranky today so that must mean I'm getting better. I actually got dressed too and took Webster for a walk out back. He was ecstatic. I'm going out into the real world tomorrow. Thanks for all of your kind get-well notes. via

A Perfectly Elegant Setting

This really is a perfect setting with beautiful understated decorations, right? Sit me down in that chaise, cover me with a nice throw, and wake me up when it's Christmas. via

Heavenly Coffee

My first cup was heavenly this morning. I moved from the bed into the living room to drink my first cup. I loved the way the sun was shining translucently through the rim so I grabbed my trusty iPhone. Today begins day three of the sickness files and I'm feeling better thanks to the Neti pot and gargling with Bragg's unfiltered vinegar from the health food store. I dilute it with water because it's strong medicine! Thanks for all of your notes with get well wishes. Katie mentioned Bragg's so I thought I'd better tell you it is also on my holistic list of sore throat busters. 

Did I Mention That I Am Sick?

I woke up on Tuesday morning with a vicious sore throat and I took to my bed.

While rummaging around in one of the bathroom cabinets looking for something to relieve my symptoms I discovered this very Neti Pot and packages of a saline mixture. I had forgotten all about having it. I immediately started irrigating my sinuses every couple of hours and I think it has had a marvelous result. I've been able to breathe and I think this little device is going to keep the cold from traveling into my chest. Fingers crossed. It has been years since I've had been sick and I blame it on this warm weather. 
Other things that are helping: watching movies in bed and drinking plenty of liquids. I was glad I could bring my laptop into the bedroom so I could still manage my blog. I hope I can stay awake to watch Revenge tonight. See you tomorrow.

Wonderful Bookplate

This is great, isn't it?
via

Too Gorgeous for Words

Could anything be lovelier?
via

Three Dogs Hamming it Up - Hilarious

The expression on the wiener dog cracks me up.
Each one is trying to out do the other.

Miniature Period Room Doll House on a Bookshelf

I love this open ended box that became a period room on a shelf with books of the same period. Made by sweetington .. see more photos of this shelf room on flickr. Found on Book, Paper, Scissors

Duchess of Devonshire with Her Chickens

The duchess with her beloved chickens at Chatsworth in the 1990s. Photograph: Christopher Simon Sykes/Getty Images

Wait For Me: Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister
by Deborah Devonshire

I've been saving this article and book review from the Guardian until I could sit and enjoy it and this morning was the perfect time. If you are looking for the ideal Christmas gift for a friend who is a dyed in the wool Anglophile, this is certainly a book to consider.

Day is Done at My Cottage

What we saw on the wonder dog's after-dinner walk. Mine is still on the stove cooking and it smells delicious. It is so handy having my iPhone in my pocket.

Delightful Cabin Bedroom

I love this cabin porch conversion to a children's bedroom. Especially if the grandparents have the cabin next door. I think a family compound would be delightful--togetherness with privacy. via

Laundry Day in Winter

I am glad to see someone else thinks it's never to cold to hang out the clothes. By Alec Soth, Sleeping by the Mississippi. Peter’s Houseboat, Winona Minnesota 2002

We are still having unusually mild weather and I have already put in my first load. Monday is the traditional laundry day after all.

Five iPhone Fotos from This Afternoon's Walk

Webster was lost in thought about something and stood still for me.

Down in the wetlands on the bridle path. It is usually much wetter.

These mushrooms are growing horizontally on an old cut on a large tree. Something has been nibbling at them.

I was holding this piece of horsetail grass in my hand and focusing on it.

This is the house diagonally across the street from me photographed from my land using the zoom.

This Photo is Completely Magical

Agreed? 

via

'The Look' we all loved has been Royally Passed On

How cute. It's in their DNA
via

An Amazing Kitchen | Architectural Digest

Antique beams crisscross a Nantucket kitchen. Painted diamonds span the wood floor (love, love love this detail), and the counters are butcher block. via Architectural Digest This kitchen is #6 of 13 in a slideshow on Rustic Kitchens. Click here to start at the beginning. One of the kitchens belongs to Diane Keaton.

Stove Top Saturday Night Supper

Everything cooked on top of the stove in stages in the same vintage cast iron wok: one split Cornish hen, stuffing and brussels sprouts. Easy and delicious. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert. I love one-dish meals because of the quick cleanup. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Baby in the Mailbag | Special Delivery

This city letter carrier posed for a humorous photograph with a young boy in his mailbag. After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples. via Smithsonian Institution

Who Knew Seals Could bBe So Friendly?

Charlie Bird meets elephant seals while travelling through Antarctica following the route of explorer Tom Crean's final expedition alongside Ernest Shackleton aboard the Endurance in 1914-15.

Two Recent iPhone 4S Photos

We have had the best weather since Thanksgiving Day. This is a perfect blue sky photographed as the perfect backdrop for my giant black walnut tree.

I drove my friend Karen to the mall to pick up something that was being held for her on Black Friday. I dropped her off and was prepared to drive around since there were no parking spaces in sight but got lucky and found one. These parking lot lights were the only thing of interest I could find in a sea of parked cars.

Antique Bird Prints

I love this mixed media image I scanned from an old copy of Town and Country magazine. I have always admired these antiquarian prints from The Natural History of Birds, by Eleazar Albin, published between 1731 and 1738. These large scale hand-colored antique bird prints are favored by decoupage artist John Derian. When reproduced and laser printed they make wonderful trays. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson House with Friends Quote

There must be lots of happy houses this weekend. I scanned this image from an old address book and added the type. I was honored by being a guest at a lovely Thanksgiving dinner last night in a happy home. 

Life's Little Instruction Book | Volume II, page 49

More great fatherly advice from H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Decked out for the Thanksgiving Day Hunt

Tally Ho
Happy Turkey Day :)
via

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

It's a little too nippy to have an outdoor Thanksgiving feast here at the cottage. Hope yours is lovely, inside or out. via Country Home

Martha Stewart

Lauren Bush weds David Lauren = Lauren Lauren

The bride wears a dress, designed by the father of the groom (also in Ralph Lauren), of antique tulle hand-embroidered with Swarovski Elements, beads, and pearls.

Hair, Julien Farel for Julien Farel Group; makeup, Bobbi Brown.

Photographed by Norman Jean Roy

Read the article and see the slideshow at Vogue.com

Be Safe if You Travel Today and Tomorrow

We have rain on the east coast. Be careful on the wet roads if you are traveling home for Thanksgiving. Think pleasant thoughts about those anxiously waiting for you to arrive safely -- humans and pets alike. via

Beautiful Cat

I couldn't resist this beautiful animal. I don't think I've ever seen a more stunning photo of a cat. Those yellow-orange eyes forced me to do it. via

Butterscotch Shortbread Cookies [Recipe]

Lee's Butterscotch Shortbread

Recipe adapted from Lee Schiring and an ancient Jane Austen Society of Puget Sound Newsletter

yields: 2-4 dozen, depending on size

keeps: 3 weeks or longer, in an airtight tin

The only slightly tricky bit to these is judging doneness, as the dough is already brown from the sugar. There's quite a time range given, below, as I'm terribly uneven in rolling my dough. A few tips, then, to aid: note the sight and scent cues below to determine doneness. Also, note that the oven temp is unusually low, giving you more wiggle room than most cookies—if in doubt, give them a few more minutes. Finally, these biscuits are best slightly overdone than underdone: the end result should be crisp, not yielding. And if, after cooling, they're still tender in the center, a return to the oven (5-10 minutes) will correct that, spit-spot.

1 cup salted butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

Heat oven to 300°. Cream butter, both sugars and salt, then add vanilla to combine. Scrape sides, then add flour, mixing just to combine.

Dust a clean surface lightly with flour, and roll dough 1/4" thick. Cut with desired cutters, and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, 1/2" apart (these cookies spread very little).

Bake 20-30 minutes, until cookies are fragrant, edges and bottoms are slightly darkened, and tops have lost their glossy look and taken on a matte finish. Cool cookies on sheet 15-20 minutes, then remove to rack to finish cooling. Cookies will firm up while cooking, and not be fully crisp until an hour or so after baking.

Recipe found @ remedialeating with lots of photos of children rolling and cutting these delightful cookies.

Hermès Bag may top $80,000 at Dallas Auction

DALLAS – An Hermès Diamond Birkin, with Diamond and White Gold hardware – a beautiful example of one of the most exceptional handbags made – is expected to bring $80,000+ when it comes across the block on Dec. 6, as part of Heritage Auctions’ Handbags and Luxury Accessories Signature® Auction at the auction company’s Design District Annex, 1518 Slocum St. ~ Read more~

Happy Thanksgiving

I scanned this graphic from my antiquarian book of crests and added the type. This is my Thanksgiving card to all of you.

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. ~ Aesop

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.~Erma Bombeck

image #3 here and #2 here

Red Barn in Need of Repair

Red Barn in Wood County Ohio by dbthayer
I hope someone saves it soon.

Webster is Already Down for A Nap

Now this is what I call the end to a perfect morning for any dog. Webster really knows how to relax.

All About Dogs in A Nutshell

They never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation.

~Jerome K. Jerome
via

Tower Castle of Chatillon-en-Bazois in Burgundy

The garden at Château de Chatillon, Bourgogne
© collection Jean-Baptiste Leroux 

Absolute perfection.

Extraordinary Giraffe Photo

I hope you are having an equally lovely time today enjoying the scenery. via

Durable Outdoor Furniture

I love outdoor furniture like this that you can leave out all year long. It would look great covered with snow. That faux bois table is amazing and would be a great place to sprinkle bird seed for winter bird watching. via