I've been tagged!

Kelly over at belle ame tagged me to blog about 5 things I love the most.
1. Well, of course, my family is a given.

2. Creating. I love to create all kinds of things using all kinds of mediums. Sewing, quilting, cooking, gardening. I can't imagine going through a day and not creating SOMETHING.

3. My home. I am a die-hard homebody. I can go for days without leaving my house. After a few days of being out of town, I really start to miss all my "stuff".

4.Autumn. Oh how I love a crisp fall day, the sky full of migrating birds, the trees all aglow in reds, oranges, yellows, and browns. I love the energetic feeling that fall gives.

5. Winter holidays. I love planning meals, decorating, the excitement and anticipation of having my family under my roof, finding just the right gifts for everyone. Sigh...I can't wait.

Now I have to tag 5 people and I sure hope this works. I am going to try and post their blog links here.

http://treasuresfrommyheart.blogspot.com/

Peaches and Posh

THE B HIVE

BeadnTat

Wings of Eagles

The more things change....

So today daughter B and granddaughter Hilary came to my house loaded down with peaches wanting a lesson in making peach butter. It had been years since I had performed this task, but it was fun and I remembered almost everything without having to do too much consulting of cookbooks. We ended the day with jars of glistening gold butter seasoned to perfection just waiting for its meet-up with some good bread and liberal spread of creamy butter.

At one point as we worked, I remembered something. I asked B if she remembered years ago in our Arkansas house making jam? "Oh yeah, I remember that." I think we both had forgotten it but the fragrance of the bubbling peaches triggered the memory for me.

On that particular day 20 years ago, I had the presence of mind to write down rather quickly on a sheet of onion skin paper our experience. I am going to re-write it here just as I jotted it down that day.

"June 10, 1988
Today Kelli and Brittainy and I made plum butter from plums gathered in Papa's orchard. Kelli and B washed the plums and picked out the wormy ones for me to take care of. Then we cooked them and put them through a sieve. When we were through, we had enough pulp to make butter and enough juice to make jelly!

Kelli and B helped to stir the butter as it cooked and that was a big help because it takes a very long time(about 45 minutes). As the butter cooked, we added 1 cup sugar for every cup of pulp, a dash or two of mace and two gratings of nutmeg. Next we poured the butter into sterilized jars and sealed them. Nana came to see us and took a jar home with her. It made 6 1/2 pint jars. For breakfast we will have toast with homemade plum butter. Next we plan to make raspberry jam."

Pretty staight forward, just the facts, but I sure am glad I wrote that down and stuck it in my recipe file. For some strange reason, I stick a lot of my writing in there. Or did. Before I began to blog. Now it's all pretty much here.

In the Pink

 

 

Nothing much really going on here. Yesterday was the MOTH's 54th birthday, so we celebrated at my daughter's house. She makes really good fajitas and we always request those when does the cooking. While she labored in the kitchen, I walked around the house, chatting with Hilary and just taking pictures of different little vignettes around the house. Hilary is the queen of pink let me tell 'ya. Right down to her cowgirl boots. I guess she had her cowgirl going yesterday, because that was her footwear of choice, with shorts. Love the dresser top arrangement and the memory box packed full of littles.

the middle age woman and the yarn

 

See this pile of lovely sock yarn? My camera does not do the colors justice. They are bright, deep, and rich. And limited idition colors for what it's worth. Never again will Lorna's Laces produce these colors once they are sold out. Kind of a good sales gimmic I think. We sock knitters hit the web site the first of the month when the new colors are added and quickly snatch up enough for a pair of socks. What a tragedy if you miss that month's limited edition! That stuff pretty much flies off the shelf of the yarn shop.

Blueberry was June's color. It's beautiful blues, lavendars, purples, and rich almost black blue. I chose a lovely lace pattern for my socks. It has driven me crazy. I have ripped out, picked up dropped stitches, re-read directions until I can't stand that pattern anymore.

It has begun to remind me of the horrid story that was required reading in high school. The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemmingway. Frankly, I've always thought he was over-rated. I hated, hated, hated anything I was ever required to read of his. This is coming froms someone who loves literature and always has a book going. But back to the issue at hand. I remember it was just the old man, the boat, and the sea. That's all there was. It's just me, the yarn, and the pattern.

I had the first sock within one inch of completion when things went horribly wrong. I studied the thing, I studied the pattern and the longer I looked the greater the horror grew. A dropped stitch 6" down that I somehow never saw,and poorly written directions. So I began to rip hoping to be able to fix things. Nope. I now have my lovely blueberry limited edition yarn rewound and am seriously considering burning the pattern as a cleansing ritual of sorts.

After perusing some other sock patterns I picked up July's limited edition "Fireworks" and cast on and so far I am knitting happily, no horrible story analogies coming to mind. Perhaps "Blueberry" will be used for something else. But then again, I may be completely over the blue stuff for a while.

gifts from the sea

 

 

and my friend Amy. Amy, of Inspireco had a brainstorm and silver-leafed some seashells. Then, being the giving girl that she is, had a give away on her blog. I won! I won! Somehow I refrained from saying, "I never win anything!" Today I received them in the mail along with some grains of sand still attached. They are beautiful and are now living in a milk glass bowl on my coffee table. Good sweet Amy didn't stop there. She knew I coveted these bird charms you see and sent me some of those too! I have no idea what I will use them for yet, but that's not the point now is it? I've met some of the nicest people in the blog world and Amy is one of my favorites for sure.

girfts from mother

 

 

nature that is. This is what I harvested today from my little garden beds. I get such a huge kick out of this. The flowers are Cosmos, green Zinnias, Snapdragons and orange Cosmos all freshly cut today. And the best part is they are just getting started! I'll have a fresh bouquet everyday til frost if I mind my p's and q's and keep everything watered. And the cucumbers and beans! I only have a short row of beans so I have to pick over a period of a few days to have a "mess" as they say down here to either grill or saute and sometimes cook them the southern way. Which is to put them in a pot with some onion, a little oil, maybe a little bacon, salt, pepper, and cook the life out of them all afternoon. Probably not the healthiest way but very good none the less. The cucumbers were marinated in a sweet,sour vinegar marinade. I love peeling cukes. Within seconds of removing that first bit of skin, the refreshing, melon like scent hits my nose and immediately gives me a buzz like no other veggie can. Soon I will have tomatoes. Right now the vines are laden with green lumpy orbs that grow just a little everyday. I love the way tomato vines smell too, but not as much as cucumbers. Whenever you touch one of the vines you get a peculiar sort of moist sensation and then the smell wafts up and tickles your nose as if teasing you with the promise of sweet, juicy, redbliss to come. Oh yes! I do love to grow stuff.

before and after

 

 

This lamp was in my kitchen and I was just tired of the old dark look of it. So I changed it drastically! I spray painted it with Krylon Ballet Slipper and then needed to do something with the shade. I had this old vintage pillowcase that was in pretty bad shape but I loved the hem on it. So I cut it off about 10" above the hem, made a casing and ran ribbon through it. Voila! My new lamp. And no the tiny holes in the pillowcase don't bother me. I don't want anyone to think I didn't see them or something. I don't know where I will put this. Right now, it is in the kitchen. My favorite tablecloth has a little pink in it, so I may just leave it where it is. I am so much happier with it!

Here's the picture I was referring to..

 

Sheesh! I am having major posting problems right now. That is one of the reasons I'm not posting much. It is so frustrating!

I think this picture

[Photo]
pretty much sums up the 4th for all of us. That strawberry soda stained smile just speaks of the joy of a summer holiday spent eating good food, playing outside and topping it all off with a fireworks show. It was as hot and sultry outdoors as we waited for it to get dark enough to pull out the sparklers, the bottle rockets, the Roman candles, and things that made a loud "boom!" and sent shards of color into the night sky. The mosquitoes were out too of course and we all came inside with an itchy bump or two. All the while the fireworks were blazing, the fireflies flickered and showed off their own little glow.

Like most people, we pretty much always eat the same things, and drink the same things every year. And later, as we sit ruminating over our full tummies, someone usually starts to snigger, giggle, and then all out guffaw as they remember the year that I was the star of the fireworks show at our house.

We've always lived in the country and in years past when we all had young children, everyone bought their share of the fireworks and converged on our place for the big show. This particular year was no different. Our kids, all girls, were pretty young and a little afraid of the boom and flame so they had all packed themselves inside our car to watch the show from a safe distance. My husband and I stood beside the car while the other guys took care of the lighting of fuses.

It was all going well until someone lit a whistling chaser. I was at least 60 feet away from the thing when suddenly, with a shrill scream, it made a bee-line for me! It landed at my feet so quickly that I didn't have time to react. If it was moving at the speed of light, I was definitly in slow motion in comparison. But it wasn't finished with me, no siree. Suddenly, it went straight up the full skirt of my sundress! I was no longer in slow motion. At a distance a whistling chaser has an unpleasant scream, when it is traveling up your leg it sounds like a demon. It's demonic scream coupled with my pyrotechnically induced dance of frenzy had everyone spellbound. Every few seconds that horride piece of gunpowder packed cardboard would produce sparks as it screached its way further up my leg. I was twirling, jumping, screaming, trying to run, and get the thing off of me all at the same time. Finally, my husband came out of his frozen state of horrible fascination to come to my rescue. He mangaed to catch me and at the same time wrap the skirt of my dress around the cardboard tube and just hold on for dear life as it came to its grand fianale. Three very loud pops, each accompanied by a jump and scream from me marked the end of the show. There was a total horrified silence for about 30 seconds and suddenly my audience burst into uncontrollable laughter. Slightly affronted by this reaction, it took me about another 20 seconds to join in the fun. In hindsight it truly was very funny. But only in hindsight.

I thought only my own family would remember this incident but alas, no. It seems my reputation as the hot little July number will always be with me. We've moved far away from the original show and never see our old friends anymore. But a few years, I was talking on the phone with one of them and she said, "You know what my husband always talks about if your name comes up in conversation?" I couldn't imagine and said so. She answered, "You remember that 4th of July when the firecracker went up your dress? That is what he remembers and laughs his head off." Oh well, as least I left'em laughin'.[Photo] draft 8:13:00 PM by Lovie Delete
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