Pink Yarrow

Photos of the trees outside my father's home. Snow fell after rain had turned to ice on the trees.

I feel as though one might encounter a faun if she wandered this white forest long enough...

This year I decided to keep it simple when decorating for Christmas. We put all our ornaments on the tree, but for the rest of the decorating I went with a red and white theme. I did, of course, make a few exceptions for some of our favorite Christmas treasures...

The Pixies, peering down from the top of the china cabinet.



The winterscape that I purchased last year from a senior citizen craft fair at our church. I just find these irresistible!


Vintage angels that are supposed to spell N O E L, but mine spell L O O N.

As gifts for teachers. Based on this tutorial: Nordic House Ornaments by Orange Flower: Sketchbook - I used the templates for the roof, windows and doors. However, I wanted to make them look more whimsical (and, I was avoiding embroidery because time was an issue), so the final look is inspired by Tallgrass Prairie Studio's Little House Table Topper (a very loose interpretation!) I let the girls choose fabrics from my scraps (I pulled out reds, greens and whites to keep things simpler). Also, for my 3-year-old (who has 3 teachers) I gave her white backgrounds for her houses to prevent too much craziness!

These might be my best garbage-pick ever. I don't really pick through people's garbage, but I live in a city with alleys (and I used to live in Chicago, too) and when people put things out in the alley, separate from their garbage, they mean for someone to take it. Especially in Chicago, where it is very difficult to move all your stuff! These, however, came from the house directly behind me on the other side of the alley. A young man moved into his grandmother's house after she passed away and he cleaned everything out. I spied the box when pulling into my garage and just knew it contained something good! I ran across the alley, kids still seat-belted (and hollering) in the car. I made sure the guy who works on cars next door was out of sight and I dragged the box into my garage. Later, after I sneaked it past my husband into the basement, I found these wonderful figurines. They've seen better days, but they're delightful none-the-less. They live in the winter village and brighten up our Christmas! I believe they're Barclay toys, just from looking around eBay.

I had a little trouble with the shape of my daughter's cake this year (read, I had to cut off the, um, crispy outer layer...). I was going to make a version of the Betty Crocker "Let's Party" Cake and the cupcakes turned out perfect. So, instead of a tower, I lined the cupcakes around the perimeter of the cake and added a tree cookie forest for height. Looks like I planned it this way, I think! The perfect December birthday cake!

Finished and mailed today (thankfully, the deadline wasn't too strict).

Mama To Mama

The Caps to Cap-Haitien Project: A partnership with Konbit Sante

We get to have two Thanksgivings this year - one that we are hosting at our home on Thanksgiving for our Chicago relatives and one on Saturday at my sister's home for the Wisconsin relatives. The gathering at our house will be rather small - 6 adults and 4 children. Of that group, only 6 eat meat (my children and I are vegetarians). I do, however, prepare turkey on Thanksgiving for omnivorous loved ones. This year I'm preparing a bone-in turkey breast, rather than a whole bird. Our Chicago relatives often travel here by train and don't like to take leftovers. There is only so much leftover turkey meat my husband can eat on his own, so this year I decided to cook what they'll actually eat! The family prefers a more traditional feast, so here's our menu:

Right now most of my crafting revolves around some charity projects I have going. Above is a scarf I'm knitting for the Special Olympics. The principal at my daughter's school wants to donate a bunch from the school, so I thought I'd knit one (or two, if I'm lucky!).

Also working on cutting fleece for blankets for Project Linus. This is a Girl Scout project. Myself and one of the other leaders are cutting the fleece and the girls will do the tying.


Finally, I hope, hope, hope to be able to complete a few hats for the Mama To Mama Caps to Cap Haitien Project. I haven't started this yet, but will be looking for some colorful shirts from the thrift shop tomorrow. By all accounts, the hats sew up fast so I look forward to contributing a few (though there's not much time left...!)

This has been occupying too much of my time lately. My troop (of 4 girls!) are working on their Sew Simple badge and will be making Fast & Easy pajama pants. First, I needed to whip up a pair for my daughter just to make sure it really is fast and easy. Well, it probably would be fast and easy if you sewed the four simple pieces together the right way. But, if you sew them together upside down and then rip out the wrong seams, it's not so fast anymore. And, it doesn't feel so easy. And you decide that you need to stay up all night until you get it right. Only you're so tired and bleary-eyed that putting together Fast and Easy pajama pants seems like some sort of ancient brain teaser that only graduates of MIT could figure out. And then, you just get it and sew them together and wonder what your problem was. Oh, well, lesson learned. Now I know to pay extra attention when the girls are sewing their pieces together!

Thank you, Dad and all other veterans, for your sacrifice.

An election day cake for the family and cupcakes for the bake sale!

I came home from work Saturday night (I work as a waitress, so it was late) to find these beautiful paper dolls sitting on the dining room table. I quizzed my husband, "was she bored and you told her to draw something?" "No." "Did she find the idea in a book?" "No." "Was she looking at pictures of people in costumes?" "No, she just sat at the table and made them." Amazing... (the one on the far right has leaves for hair and on the bodice of her dress)

My 7-year-old was bored and demanded that someone suggest something fun to do (because, of course, most of my original suggestions involved chores). So I told her to go outside and gather some leaves. When she came in, I showed her and her 3-year-old sister how to do leaf rubbings with crayons on paper, as I had seen on this post on maya*made. (we skipped the watercolor part)

Well, little miss 3 didn't have much patience for this rubbing sort of craft, and soon settled on making something completely of her own imagination involving two of her very favorite activities in the whole entire world - gluing and cutting. She created quite the work of art, I believe. It had to be put in the window, too, just like big sister's leaf rubbings!

Here's what was left on Tuesday of the dozen and a half of Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins I made on Sunday night. The family loved them. It's a recipe from Simply in Season, a cookbook I don't own yet (I'm borrowing the Milwaukee Central Library's copy). This cookbook will definitely go on my Christmas list - it's the cookbook I've been looking for my entire adult life! We are vegetarians and this book is not a vegetarian cookbook, but most of the recipes are vegetarian or easily made that way. It is divided up by season and offers healthy recipes for using produce that is in season. Such a simple concept! Also, I sometimes have trouble with "healthy" recipes not suiting the tastes of myself or my children, but I've tried five recipes already and they were all outstanding! Below is the recipe, as I made it - it is called Nutty Pumpkin Bread in the book (there are some other options for some of the ingredients in the book, too). I made it as muffins to appeal to the kids. I would like to make this with bananas, too.

Nutty Pumpkin Muffins

>1 1/2 cups flour
>1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
>1 cup wheat germ
>1 cup sugar
>1 cup brown sugar
>2 teaspoons salt
>2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
>1/2 teaspoon each ground ginger, nutmeg
Mix together in a large bowl and make a well.

>1 1/2 cups pumpkin (cooked and pureed - I used canned)
>4 eggs (lightly beaten)
>1/2 cup oil
>1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)
>1 cup dates (chopped)
Add into the well and mix just until all of the dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into muffin tins. Bake in preheated oven at 350F until toothpick inserted in center of loaves comes out clean, 40 minutes. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

My 3-year-old drew her first ever (recognizable) face - on her pumpkin Friday night. She then checked it against the face her sister drew on her pumpkin...

and returned to make the eyes bigger on hers as well.


Then she sat down and drew her first ever, umm, human figure. Of course, I think she's a prodigy ;)

Actually, a dairy farm with a pumpkin patch! We took our Girl Scout Troop on a hay ride to a pumpkin patch on Sunday and enjoyed some very much needed outdoor time. We had a beautiful, brisk day and enjoyed some gorgeous Wisconsin countryside scenery and cows.


The pumpkin patch had all sorts of heirloom variety pumpkins in addition to the traditional orange.

Did I mention the cows?

How can they be so huge and so cute at the same time? (and so photogenic?)

I always scout out vintage children's books when thrifting. I am selective in what I buy, however, because my true love is the illustrations. I can't describe exactly what I'm looking for, but these two books exemplify my favorite types of illustrations. I also love wacky titles and stories, or story lines that are dated and quaint. (I found these books at the Kane County Flea Market, as referenced in my previous post). First is No Good the Dancing Donkey. I haven't read the story yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what it's about from the title alone! Love the title, love the illustrations! It's in very poor condition (as far as the binding is concerned), but the illustrations still look wonderful and that's what's important to me!


Next, A Television Book of Some Day. It is missing the "television" disc that was attached to the front cover. The only reason I know that is because I looked for other copies that were for sale on eBay and Amazon and found only one. That one is priced at $28 and is missing the front cover but has the "plastic disc". Now, if it was priced at $1 I'd buy it and marry the two copies, but $28 is a bit beyond my budget. It does make me think, however, if the economy ever improves I might be able to sell this one for a handy profit! (Although, it is in pretty poor condition). Anyway, this book fits my criteria of dated and quaint storylines - it's about what children want to be when they grow up. Of course the girls want to be teachers, mommies and singers and the boys want to be train engineers and cowboys! Great illustrations, too!

Last weekend I went to the Kane County Flea Market (outside of Chicago). My general feeling about flea markets is that they're sort of like antique stores - you pay the going rate for anything you find. I'm more of a bargain hunter and I usually enjoy thrift stores and garage sales more than flea markets and antique stores. My first impression of the flea market was exactly that - linens for $15 and up, quilts started at $35 for the shabby ones, childrens books started at $4 a piece (these are the things I generally look at). I'm not a collector, I just like interesting things. I was only looking at linens because I wanted a vintage tablecloth for my new look in my dining room. Just when I thought I'd have to shell out $15 for a vintage tablecloth (I hate spending more than $5 per object...) I happened upon the Iowa Junk Gypsies and their travel mates. Wonderful vintage items at wonderfully low prices. I purchased almost everything I bought that day from those two venders (including the small apron from my previous post). I'm posting about my finds in three different posts. This first one is the linens post. Like I said before, I do not collect linens, but... these were irresistible! The photo above is my new dining room table cloth. I will take a picture of it in the dining room when we finish the room. It is stained, but I haven't tried to take the stains out yet and they are faded. I also plan on using the tablecloth so I'm sure it will get stained more! A bargain at $5!

Below, Saturday towel. I tried not to buy this, but the stitching is in orange. I love orange. Orange looks great in my kitchen. Sigh.

Below, in poor condition (stained around the edges, but the stitching in intact!), needlework from the $1 bin. I think it's precious - look at the teddy bear angel!

Below, my most treasured find! I'm in love with this child's shoe bag. The puppies are adorable! I can't believe I own this! When I looked for the price I fully expected to see at least $15, but no, I paid less than $10 (although I broke my $5 rule)!


Below, a very faded tablecloth that is more faded than this picture makes it look. I bought it because of the vintage Mexican images - something I don't see very often.

I also won this beautiful apron (called Breeze) from the talented Pretty Ditty's blog giveaway. It is sooo pretty and looks sooo beautiful hanging in my kitchen (I'll take a kitchen photo if we ever get a sunny day!) The fabrics used are from Sandi Henderson's Ginger Blossom Fabric (which Pretty Ditty sells in her fabric shop, Phat Fabric). Also, before receiving the package I bought the apron pictured below at the Kane County Flea Market, for $2! I've been having a very lucky week! I'll be posting about all the wonderful things I found at the flea market in the coming days, but for now let's appreciate how well these 2 aprons compliment each other! The vintage one is quite small and my daughters will be using it. The problem is, I have 3 daughters, so I think I'll need a couple more beautiful aprons!

I've actually won two (2!) blog giveaways! This one is a vintage quilt block from this giveaway on Giddy Goat. It turns out that she doesn't live too far from me (or, more accurately, I live rather close to the ballpark!) so she dropped it off in my mailbox. What a wonderful surprise! It is really beautiful with gorgeous vintage fabrics. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet, but I like really like this pillow idea from Tallgrass Prairie Studio.

Fall is not the vegetable garden's most beautiful hour. I'd bet many gardeners wouldn't dare post photos of the messiness of the end of the season. But I love it in all its over-grown, jumbled craziness. I actually leave my garden standing throughout winter and clean it all up in spring, when I'm itching to start it all over again. I love the winter interest of the garden covered in snow. The sunflower is very important to the winter birds. I see Goldfinches on it year 'round!

Fall is also when gardeners reflect on what they did wrong and what they did right. So here are my "Lessons Learned"
1. Don't grow it if you won't eat it (unless it's really pretty). For our family that means turnips, cucumbers and cabbage. The space would have been better used for spinach, lettuce, peas and beans.
2. Our family can't have enough of: peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, lettuce. Grow more!
3. Plant outside earlier. I always like to start seeds indoors, but honestly they never do well once transplanted. This year I planted everything from seed directly into the garden and I had great success. I could have been more successful had I planted earlier (I'm still harvesting my first ripe tomatoes - it's October in Wisconsin! way too late...) I have raised beds so next year I will experiment with plastic sheets of some sort pulled across the top of the beds.
6. Thin your seedlings! Ugh, no more itsy-bitsy carrots and radishes!
7. Reseed the lettuce and spinach after harvesting.
8. Harvest the broccoli before it flowers! (although the flowers are really pretty)

And my "I'm so proud of you" list:
1. Gourds - really hard to grow and I have a bumper crop!
2. Tomatillos - but they grow like weeds in my yard, so nothing to be proud of except that I was able to reign them in a bit
3. Corn - I managed to harvest 2 ears, but they look so dramatic in the garden!
4. Square Foot Gardening - it's not a gimmick, it really works, although next year I will plan better.

I can't wait for next year!