I've been caught

by the productivity bug. I've been busy busy working on new things and posting new items, and getting down to home pre-schooling the Peanut. All of which has meant that the blog has been a little neglected.

It's a tough situation this blogging to support your online store and wanting to keep the online store fresh and interesting. Over the last six months PeanutButterPie has been a very neglected enterprise (mainly because I've been re-thinking the direction of the shop and also just as mainly I've been putting more focus on TMCPhoto). I know I'm not alone in the problem of having blogging time cut into creating time, trying to find a working balance between the two and keeping up with the Peanut is what I'm now working on. This could mean more sporadic posts or shorter posts or wordless posts or any number of post types until I've reached a working balance.

Personally I'm leaning towards mostly wordless posts. I've gotten back into shooting on a regular basis again and I'm creating a nice pool of photographs to pull from.

in the meantime I'm once again spending time over at Mrs. B's 31 Days of Halloween. She's got some pretty cool giveaways today:

Giveaway #1 is a copper wire embellished wand: perfect for the Peanut to use at night to magic away the scary night time monsters

Giveaway #2 is for a beautiful pair of Whisky Quartz earrings. I don't have a US mailing address so I'm out of the running for that prize :(

Giveaway #3 is for a bat covered handmade tarot bag with handcrafted spell candles and a bag of Witches britches all natural herbal divination incense.

there are also two guest bloggers today and of course another spooky stop on the haunted blog tour you can see all of it here

Giveaways Galore: The Whimsical Cottage and Mrs. B's 31 days of Halloween

We're holding our feast tomorrow for Canadian Thanksgiving and I'm putting off the inevitable bathroom cleaning and living room dusting before the prepping for cooking the bird tomorrow. How is this done you ask? by checking out what's new in my blog list.

It's day 10 of Mrs. B's 31 days of Halloween (where is the month going?), today I've got my eye on the DVD version of Mad Monster Party but there are more spooky items to enter for here. Not to mention the guest blogger and the Haunted Blog Tour destination, with all the great guest posters and blog tours my follow list is expanding faster than my tummy will tomorrow after our turkey feast.

Also on the menu today is The Whimsical Cottage's first ever giveaway. I'm pretty excited about this; the prize is for a Jack Splat Halloween ornament; a hand sculpted, hand painted, jointed polymer clay ornament. He measures in at approximately 4.5 inches from the top of his pumpkin head to the soles of his shoes.

Whimsical and cheery, he's sure to be a grand addition to all of your autumn (and non-autumn!) decor!

Each Jack comes with a green ribbon for hanging. If I win he'll get a place of honour in the kitchen window where he can watch the crows and black squirrels in the back yard and keep us company when we wash the dishes... Speaking of dishes; those have to be done too...

Now to find a few more things to check out before the attack on the bathroom... or maybe I can talk the Husband into taking it on......

Turkey Time

Before I get into all the turkey talk I thought I'd let you know that I'll be offering free shipping on all photographs in TMCPhoto this weekend, get a head start on your holiday shopping! As I've been getting our home ready for guests and cooking our Thanksgiving Dinner, this weeks artist feature is on hold but next week's artist is enough to make up for this little break.

This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving and I'm cooking. Up until three years ago turkey dinner was something my Mom cooked and I ate. Up until three years ago the idea of roasting a turkey was an anxiety filled one. I mean that's one big dinner and growing up cooking a turkey seemed like a huge undertaking. I have memories of my parents getting up in the middle of the night to put the bird in the oven. That's a lot of work for dinner; interrupting sleep to get dinner on the table the next day, well not technically but you get the idea.

Every family has their own menu traditions for feast days: cabbage rolls and perogies for those with Ukrainian backgrounds for example. In my family these are the things that are always done:

We baste the turkey with a beer; growing up it was a Pilsner; the super colourful can. My spin; because I like to add my own dash of flavour wherever I can; is to use the husbands latest designer beer of choice or a rich dark stout.

Carrots and turnips are mashed together as a side. This dish is usually added to the plate and only rarely eaten by anyone under the age of 25. I have only recently acquired a taste for it, but I'm not sure if it's nostalgia based or a maturing palette.

Sweet Potatoes are one of those dishes that seem to have regional styles. Up until my mid teens my mom baked them, then mashed them covered them with mini marshmallows and baked them again. Then she topped them with pecans and brown sugar. Up until my mid teens I didn't really like sweet potatoes, once the change was made I changed my mind. I mash my yams with a little orange juice and top with a butter brown sugar mixture that caramelizes nicely.

My Mom stuffs her birds with a simple bread stuffing (onion, celery, bread crumbs, poultry seasoning, and broth) down the neck and store bought uncased sausage meat up the turkey butt if I may put it like that. This year I'm shoving a pork and apple sausage that I had at a friends house a few weeks back; up that butt. There's something so yummy about pork sausage that's been basted and roasted inside a turkey; my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it.

Thanksgiving dinner is not complete at my Mom's without what we call Marshmallow Salad. This is a dish that my younger sister would pile onto her plate with a small piece of white meat, a spoon full of potatoes and the bare minimum of vegetable. The ingredients for this dish are 1 bag mini marshmallows, 500ml of sour cream, 1 small can each pineapple pieces and mandarin orange slices with juices drained.

So I'll be cooking dinner this weekend and I'll be making some of those dishes above and leaving some out and putting my own spin on some and making new ones and I won't be getting up in the middle of the night to cook the sucker but I will be putting a lot of love and gratitude into it. It's Thanksgiving after all. What food traditions do you have? Whether your cooking this weekend or next month; will you be trying something new for your feast this year?

Thousand Words Thursday

as soon as the sun rose the fog rolled in

Mrs B's 31 days of Halloween

The party is still going on over at Mrs. B's blog, There are so many giveaway's today I'm aflutter with excitment also a little jittery, I have places to be today and want to get them all in before I head off for pumpkin fun with the Pumpkin Princess Brigade:

I'm loving todays prizes, even more so than yesterday and the day before if that's possible; go and check them and the party out here

giveaway #1 comes from the fancifully wonderful Olde Dame Penniwig! The lucky winner will receive their choice of Colonial style Earbobs from Penniwigs!

giveaway #2 has me salivating and drooling is from artist Aunia Kahn! The lucky winner will receive a pack of postcards that contain 10 assorted Aunia Kahn art postcards! I'm coveting I'm coveting

giveaway #3 is a wonderful Kaleidoscope Kat Halloween Glass Tile Pendant come from the whimsical mind of Wicked Mama's Emporium!

giveaway #4 is from the creative mind of artist William Bezek of Wormwood Hallow. You can also find him at PANS GARDEN. It's a Halloween Witch Hag Candy Container! Very Haggy

giveaway #5 (are there a lot of giveaways today or what?) is for a spooky-cute Ghost Pin comes from the artist Jennifer Sneddon of Sneddonia Designs!

and last but not in the very least

giveawat #5 is a handcrafted, one-of-a kind piece comes to us from Into the Dawn! It is for the ELECTRIC ELEMENTAL PENTACLE BOX

Also on tap for today: Guest blogger and Haunted Blog. So get on over there!

I couldn't wait any longer

especially since this weekend we'll be hosting Thanksgiving and no Thanksgiving is complete without a skeleton hanging in the front door.

This time last year the Peanut couldn't wrap her head around the whole word so she told everyone about the Skelet that was hanging on the closet. It's a little sad that she's past that stage so soon, but on the other hand this year she is old enough to help with the decorating and really looking forward to dressing up and getting lots and lots of candy treats

House Keeping and new Business

Back in July I held my first give-away,, in some ways it was a great success, I received lots of great feedback gained some new followers and I learned a lot from the process. I had lots of entries but the winner of the draw never replied to any of my messages regarding her prize.

What's a blogger to do? well I waited just in case a little time was needed but I can't wait any longer. Using the random number generator at Random.org I've drawn a new winner and that winner is Julie! I've contacted Julie via her email address and I am waiting for mailing information so I can get those photographs in the mail.

In other news I've been a busy little artist. I have started adding Artist Trading Card sized photographic prints in TMCPhoto. I'll be including my favourite prints from the shop in this size and adding any requests from you too. In fact I've added a poll here for you to pick which prints you'd like to see as an ACEO, please take a moment to let me know which ones you like.


I'm also working on a new project involving glass paints, microscope slides and solder. Here are a few examples: