A Favorite Chair.......

This is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. We bought it while living in Bordeaux, France. It is a little, pretty, telephone table. I just love it. And, I think it looks like Autumn. The woven fabric is heavy and beautiful. The little drawer is just plain cute and we do use it. Instead of a telephone on the little side table, I have placed a beautiful pumpkin that someone gave to me several years ago. And, as luck would have it........

.....I just came across the HOW-TO of this amazing, crafted pumpkin. I was so surprised. I had no idea what went into making one of these.


Check it out here.... htpp://www.favecrafts.com/Halloween-Crafts/Playful-Pumpkin-Patch#

Harvest Cake!

I tasted this at our church potluck and just had to have the recipe. It is a new Fall Favorite for our family. This is a winner of a pumpkin recipe.

Time to choose. You can either use a yellow cake mix or prepare your cake from scratch. I just used a basic spice cake recipe and changed it up a bit. So, either put your dry cake mix in a bowl or the dry ingredients to a homemade cake into a bowl. VERY IMPORTANT.... Take out of your bowl, one cup of your dry cake mix and save for later. Now, another choice.....I used 3/4 cups applesauce and 1 egg. Mix well into your dry ingredients.. Or, you can use 1 egg and 1 stick of melted butter.


Spread cake mixture into the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 cake pan. Oh...because I like nuts so much, I mixed in some chopped walnuts with my cake mixture....pecans would have been good, too.



Next layer.....Mix 3 eggs, 3/4 cups milk and one large can of pumpkin...ready for pie pumpkin in the can...... not the plain pumpkin. If using the plain pumpkin, add to the pumpkin, the eggs, the milk and 2/3 cups of sugar and pumpkin spice. My store had 3 cans of ready for pie pumpkin and that was it! So, that is what I used.

Mix well and pour over cake in your pan.

So pretty. Now for the topping.

Take the one cup of your saved cake mix, and add to it 1/4 cup sugar and 2 Tablespoons of melted butter. Mix.

Sprinkle over the pumpkin.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Finish baking at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not over cook.

This is my husbands man-size portion of Pumpkin cake. HA! It is delicious hot from the oven.

This is such a crowd pleaser and did not last long at our house. Also, it packs very well in lunches, once cooled and in the fridge for a few hours.
Enjoy!

Fall Favorite......Sun Catcher Project!!!

Took a Fall walk around our property!

Gathered up a bunch of this and that...ya know...Fall yard stuff! Leaves, flowers, herbs, etc.



You're gonna love this...I think! Get out the ole wax paper. I used two large pieces of wax paper, for this project. Make sure they are both the same size. Drape your ironing board with an old light weight towel or cloth. You don't want anything to spill out onto your ironing board.




Next, display your colorful Fall leaves and such, all over one piece of the wax paper.




Then, get out your crayons and a pencil sharpener.

This part is so much fun! Just start shaving the crayons and spreading the colorful pieces all over your leaves and wax paper.

Set the other piece of wax paper over your beautiful piece of artwork. Line up the edges. Set your iron to a very low setting. When ready, barely tap around the edges of the wax paper to melt them together. This will keep your top piece of wax paper from moving off of your bottom piece of wax paper, and will keep all your yard contents in between the wax paper. You are basically sealing the edges shut, by lightly melting the wax paper together.

Gently drape a cloth or light towel over your art piece. Turn your iron to medium high. When ready, begin to iron the entire piece of art so that the crayons melt. DO NOT use your steam setting.

It will look something like this......when done.

Hang your new piece of artwork in a window and let it catch the sun. It is magical, to say the least. Loving all the beautiful colors.

Thanks to Mrs Marshall, my Kindergarten teacher, where I first did this project many, many, many years ago....and have continued to do for many years since. And, to my Mom, for always being cheerful and positive as we children brought much of the wonder and the curiosities from the outdoors, indoors. She has always been my best teacher---- ever!
xo

Mary Jane Slippers, Skirts and Photos

I love slippers. Or socks. Anything that keeps your feet warm. Growing up in the midwest you always wear socks because most of the time it's chilly or snowy. But here in the desert I'm the only one who goes to bed with socks on. So the Mary Jane pattern for slippers seemed to be the best fit, with my feet being covered with holes open to breathe.

I made them last fall here, too. So these are for my sister on her mission. And there might be another pair in the works for my other sister although I won't comfirm it, Aly!

As you can see, the same foot model was back to model these :) They are so easy to put together, the instructions are clear and the stitching is basic.
(Although I confess, I did have to look up what one of them was but it was easy to master.)

They are a great Christmas gift for those of you already scheming ahead of schedule!
Pattern HERE!

Another project in the works is this skirt by Sewing in No Man's Land.

I just love it because it's a little high waisted but not so much that you have to be toothpick thin to make it look good. For those of us girls with hips you know what I mean.
Anyway, I wish I had her gorgeous yellow fabric but instead I have this white fabric with two shades of brown flowers printed on it that I think will look good. The only fabric that matched was a white cotton but it was too much white so I decided to dye it:

I love that you can see the steam from the water in this shot! I boiled 4 cups of water for every yard I had. When it comes to a boil, add 2 tea bags for every 8 ounces (or cup) of water and let it steep for about 5 minutes.

I let my fabric sit for an hour, stirring occasionally and the result was this light sand color

It's s semi-permanent dye but I put it through the drier and ironed it to lock in some of the color. If I'm honest, I don't launder my church clothes as often as everyday wear so it should last a while! Hopefully I'll finish the skirt today and show a pic of the finished product!

Last week our little family got the hiking bug and ended up hiking three different trails over two days. I filled up my camera's memory with photos and am sorting through them all to weed out the best ones. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Ok well this isn't on of my favs but it's me up at the top of Cathedral Rock trail

And here's a little preview of the Renaissance Fair we went to on Sat which I'll post about, again, after I sort through my pictures. It was very interesting to say the least!

Dinner is Lunch....the next day!

Most everyone is pulling or has pulled the last of their garden veg's. Cold nights are here, so, we are trying to use up our garden veg's. This was a favorite in late September, which I have made again, since. It may look like your typical summer pasta salad....and most likely can be. But, I served this hot with Parmesan and it was so good.

I used whole wheat pasta. When the pasta was near done, I drained it, plopped it back into the pan, added chopped zucchini and chopped tomatoes. I carefully warmed this all together for a couple of minutes. Added a little bit of salt, pepper and garlic powder--- to taste. Served it up and topped it off with some Parmesan cheese.

As you can see below, it was also what was for lunch the next day for my hubby and son. Left overs from dinner, make super great lunches for the next day.

Yum! Good food!

When Life is Beautiful

The baby is asleep, the husband is in bed early for an early day of work. The apartment is littered with toys, blankets, a nursing pillow, sheet music, a paper towel, odds and ends of a busy day. The dishwasher churns soothingly from the kitchen washing away dirt and grim and making our dishes clean again. Finally, I have a moment to myself. Finally I can do whatever I want to do, whatever I've been trying to get to all day long but just couldn't. There's the piano song I'm supposed to perform on Sunday for church but haven't picked out (or practiced!) yet, the apartment needs picking up, those dishes will have to be unloaded. Then there's the skirt I've been trying to make, the purse I've been heckling with to just 'lay smooth!' and the characters from my story running around in my mind waiting to spring forth onto paper.

With so much to get done, so many 'have-tos' and 'should-dos' and 'want-tos' it's so easy to get discouraged. So easy to look at others who are doing it all and more and wonder if you just don't have "it". And that rain cloud of inability, self-doubt, and nay-saying follows you for a while until soon, all you can see is everything you don't do. And soon you will believe that you are just someone who is unable or unequipped to accomplish anything.

But every once in a while you get those moments when none of that matters; the night comes with the churning sound of home, the comfortable clutter of a place lived in and the silence of a family sleeping quietly in their beds. And you don't see the undone but the actual lives that are being lived and growing while you're so busy trying to make sure you're doing everything right. With stunning clarity you see what is most important of all. And for that small moment, life is perfect. It doesn't matter what is accomplished or left undone, what calls for our attention or looms dreadfully in the distance. For that short window of time, everything is good and All is well.

Fall Giveaway Results...and a guest!

So, here we go! Thanks for entering and good luck to you all!

I have put the first initial of those who have entered, onto little folded pieces of paper....and put them into the Trick or Treat bag.


And, here we go! Picking a paper out of the bag.

The winner... G is for GENEVIEVE!

Thanks everyone for entering our little Fall Giveaway. Genevieve, I will get your winnings in the mail this week. And, as an added bonus to you gals who did not win the big giveaway...I will be sending each of you two crocheted dish cloth's. Give me a little time to crochet them. We just appreciate each one of you and your fun comments. Thanks so much and congratulations, Genevieve! xoxoxo