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September 26, 2012

yarn along ♥ making a beard & baking

yep...making a beard, out of yarn!  Saturday we greeted the turn of the season, with a day at the apple orchard.  Happy fall, everyone!  I baked 2 apple pies.  I made the crusts, 1 with unbleached white wheat flour and 1 with gluten-free flour (made of rice, tapioca, potato starch, guar gum).  And last week I posted that I was looking for some gluten-free recipes.
The first batch (on the right) I made (just using almond meal instead of flour in the recipe) was yummy, but too gooey.  The second batch (on the left) turned out nicely, I used the all-purpose flour from gluten free pantry.  We topped them with whipped cream and raspberries!
These are the 2 recipes I used...made savory crepes with salami and swiss, yellow tomatoes from our backyard and chives atop.
 While waiting for friends to come at the apple orchard...tree climbing.

This is about 20 pounds of melrose apples at my feet.  The price has gone up this year to $1.00/pound, in the past we paid half that price.  Then, we picked some golden delicious.
We paid a total of $49 for all these apples. 49 pounds...I counted all of them 99.
Anyhow, if your face is cold, keep warm with a yarn beard (my husband has a handsome beard that God gave him)...I'm using these crochet instructions:  http://www.jjcrochet.com/blog/crochet-beard-hat-free-pattern/ 
I sewed 4 buttons onto the corners so that I could attach it to a hat and take it off.  I know I look like a spy...my daughter said I need to wear sunglasses, too.

September 21, 2012

silhouettes of my girls

Portraits of the 18th century in the 21st century.  I enjoy connecting with old traditions and techniques.  What a unique portrait!  Can you tell who is who?
We traced the silhouettes on 9 x 12 inch black paper and then cut them out.  If you want to do it yourself, you can take lamp (I removed my lamp shade to get better light, but if you have a spotlight that would work better) and positioned it about 4 feet from the wall...then taped the black paper to the wall and had my girls sit right next to it and traced, using pencil, then cut it out using scissors.
I put them on the wall above the little couch and then made a frame using the black and white polka dot washi tape. 

September 19, 2012

Yarn along & seeing the Nina and Pinta

I finished the wool peach shawl (Olivia is wearing it, but it is for my niece, who is younger)...next up more little lanterns made by crocheting the outside of glass jars!  Tomorrow is a friend's birthday and I'm looking for just the right recipe...needs to be something gluten-free! 
Over the weekend, we went to see the replicas of the Nina and Pinta that sailed up the Ohio River, from Louisville, KY.  Next stop is Pittsburgh, PA...
They were looking for more volunteers to travel with them, I would do it if it weren't for my family.  What an adventure!
We played "Go Fish" in the backyard yesterday, nice cooler weather...the chickens were very interested in what we were doing!

September 17, 2012

a Shutterfly card...

5x7 Folded Card
View the entire collection of cards.

September 14, 2012

Fragments...

This week I accidentally broke 2 clay bowls that my husband made before we were married...we could glue one back together, the other is not great, but okay.
Instead of having my soup in them, we will use them for something else, like holding tomatoes from our backyard?
A little piece of fabric I stitched on...  You know the rest of this phrase.  We hope to go pick apples soon!  Fresh crunchy, sweet juicy apples, everything is always best when it's in season.  I bought delicious ones at Trader Joe's yesterday (most of them were from Chile, these were from the USA, a farm in NY).

September 12, 2012

a "yarn along" and a "stitch along"

3 years ago I made crocheted this simple shawl for Hannah (she was just 8 then)....now Olivia wears it ♥  I got some old peach wool from my husband's grandmother and am using it to make another shawl...I'm reading A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson, not a book that I recommend, but I just picked it up off the shelf at the library because I liked the picture of the dress and apple!  Never judge a book by its cover.  I plan to read Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon  & then, The Happiness of Pursuit by Davis Phinney next.
A friend when to Russia this summer and brought back that beautiful dress that was hers, about 20 years ago!  And Olivia is giving our chickens, Nutmeg, Cinnamon and Pepper, little bits of cheese for a treat.  ♥  You can see our Jerusalem artichoke is abloom with yellow flowers.  I plan to dig up some of their tubers to eat after the first frost.
Hannah (who is now 11 years old) and I are going to join in with the stitch along here, which officially starts September 22nd, the first day of fall!  ♥  Will you join in?

September 10, 2012

the sweet place ♥

 
Yesterday was Dad's 62nd birthday.  Dad ♥s sweets.  I do, too.  My girls used to ask me which tooth was my "sweet tooth."  Like Dad, I am also a morning person, rising when the sun is up, sometimes before.

One of my sisters gave him a beautiful painted ceramic bowl that her girls made. 
She also got him a t-shirt which 7 of the grandchildren have put a painted hand-print on...and she will take it to Canada this week for Elizabeth's hand-print (who is a month old now and will be baptized next week), then, Dad can wear it. 

Another sister gave Dad a box of sweet pastries from Bon Bonerie, a Cincinnati shop.  I remember having their scrumptious scones with clotted cream at the Celtic festival about 15 years ago.  It reminded me of when my grandma (my dad's mom) took my sister and I to Scotland when we were kids, for a month in the summer. 

We got Brooklyn style pizzas to eat for dinner with Dad and Mom.  Then the my girls wanted to play "Cincinnati" the local version of Monopoly, they have Aglamesis ice cream as one of the properties you can buy, Kroger's grocery or the Cincinnati Red's baseball team, for example.  I sat in Dad's walker as a chair. 
I went with Dad and Mom to an awesome Parkinson's Symposium on Saturday, we listened to Dad's doctor, Alberto Espay, talk about the myths of Parkinson's (one was "stem cell research will help those with Parkinson's"...and I am pro-life, do not think it is morally right for anyone to use a fetus to do research).  There was one doctor who talked about caffeine and how it makes the levadopa (medication used to maintain the Parkinson's disease) more effective!  Dad had 2 cups of coffee right then at the Oasis. 

Linda Armstrong is a woman who has Parkinson's disease and makes jewelry.  She spoke about my dad's first doctor, Fred Revilla, who is down in Bolivia climbing to the summit of a mountain in honor of his patients.  She said "We are all on a climb, looking for a cure."  I love her frosted glass pieces with little beads around them.

Cammy Dierking biked (although she doesn't have Parkinson's) the 40k, I ended up not doing it, but next year, I WILL.  She is the local evening news anchor for channel 12 (CBS) and what a wonderful, warm and inspiring person!  She called up a young boy, Benji who is perhaps 10 years old, who also biked, he has had numerous back surgeries and his father has Parkinson's disease.  We applauded him.  It brought a tear to my eye, seeing this young boy. 

Davis Phinney is a professional cyclist.  He was diagnosed as having Parkinson's disease at age 40.  He is now 53.  He wrote a book, The Happiness of Pursuit,  about how he is reaching back to what made him so successful on the bike and adjusting his perspective on what counts as a win.  He said a smile brightens his day and that is a victory!

September 5, 2012

Garden color wheel

Olivia's favorite color is red.  She worked on making a color wheel yesterday, not just the primary and secondary colors, but the tertiary colors as well.  I went into the backyard and found one pear had fallen off our pear tree, then harvested some other colorful delectables...

September 3, 2012

Pura botanicals...

I recently won a giveaway from Pura Botanicals through The Beetle Shack!  I just got it in the mail and it is wonderful...
The "Sunday Love" natural perfume oil is just what I wanted, a citrusy scent mixed with lavender for a beautiful blend!  The owner, Lane, is a mom of 2 and wanted to be able to spend more time with her husband and children, so she started this business.  All products are made in Canada.  I just ordered the "New Mama" blend of rose geranium, bergamot, and lavender oils for my sister who just had a baby, Elizabeth.  ♥