This week's topic is:
Autumn has now officially begun here in the States!! What is your favorite thing about Autumn/Fall? Why?
I really do LOVE fall! But my favorite thing would have to be the colors.
I love fall colors and now is when we start seeing them not only in
nature but also in seasonal decorations and also in other areas of
shopping like sheets and dishware and clothing! My outfit today for
example is brown corduroys, an orange and brown print top and a tan cable cardigan sweater. I've switched our tablecloth out to an orange and white floral print, harvested the first pumpkins (seen here!) and will soon be putting the red slipcovers on the furniture for the fall and winter months. All those lovely, warm colors!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Oc-Tute-ber
I have an exciting announcement! All month in October I will be posting all sorts of tutorials and instructions. You are guaranteed at least 10 new tutorials! Some to watch for:
Thaumatropes
Spiral felt ornaments
Ranger cookies
A necktie for your furry family member
Why am I doing this? Well, according to those half-believable calendars with all sorts of made-up sounding holidays like Pickle Day and National Kiss-A-Ranch Hand day, October is National Bake & Decorate Month, National Cookie Month, and Self-Promotion Month. It also contains Getting the World to Beat a Path to Your Door Week and Sweetest Day. What better way to self-promote and get the world to beat a path to my blog than to be sweet and offer cookie baking and decorating tutorials? I'm also very excited to be hosting the October Swap at Create A Connection! So I'll see you all in Oc-Tute-ber! Not that I'm going anywhere, I'll still be here and maybe this week I'll post a pre-Oc-Tute-ber preview tutorial!
Thaumatropes
Spiral felt ornaments
Ranger cookies
A necktie for your furry family member
Why am I doing this? Well, according to those half-believable calendars with all sorts of made-up sounding holidays like Pickle Day and National Kiss-A-Ranch Hand day, October is National Bake & Decorate Month, National Cookie Month, and Self-Promotion Month. It also contains Getting the World to Beat a Path to Your Door Week and Sweetest Day. What better way to self-promote and get the world to beat a path to my blog than to be sweet and offer cookie baking and decorating tutorials? I'm also very excited to be hosting the October Swap at Create A Connection! So I'll see you all in Oc-Tute-ber! Not that I'm going anywhere, I'll still be here and maybe this week I'll post a pre-Oc-Tute-ber preview tutorial!
Monday, September 24, 2007
Club Little House arrived!
I've posted pictures of each item I received over on my Flickr if you'd like to see. This picture is my own contribution, Adirondack chairs. And the knitting basket is from Maggie.
I wish I had room for my doll house here but I really have no place but the basement to put it. It's at my parents' farm, wasting away. I will have to devise some sort of shadow box to display my favorite little items so I can at least enjoy a few at a time.
I wish I had room for my doll house here but I really have no place but the basement to put it. It's at my parents' farm, wasting away. I will have to devise some sort of shadow box to display my favorite little items so I can at least enjoy a few at a time.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Mmmm, donuts!
This weekend we made biscuit donuts (basically cut a hole in a biscuit, fry and roll in cinnamon sugar) and they were darn tasty! I cut the holes with a heart cookie cutter because I love just that much!
Today I two wonderful swap packages! One from Emma's Blogger Book Swap. My two books came all the way from Ireland from Beccy. I'm really looking forward to the weather getting cooler (which is has started to already) and curling up indoors to start reading these! A mug of Chai, a corgi on my lap and the sun going down a bit earlier every day which makes me feel ever so much more lazy in the evenings.
The second package was from a Swap-Bot swap for altered wooden letters. I requested a Z, of course, to add to my collection! Lisa sent me the most wonderful Z inspired by my love of vintage cookbooks and one of my fave color combos, pink and brown!! And she included extra goodies like a notepad and ribbon spool in the same colors! Awesome!
Today I two wonderful swap packages! One from Emma's Blogger Book Swap. My two books came all the way from Ireland from Beccy. I'm really looking forward to the weather getting cooler (which is has started to already) and curling up indoors to start reading these! A mug of Chai, a corgi on my lap and the sun going down a bit earlier every day which makes me feel ever so much more lazy in the evenings.
The second package was from a Swap-Bot swap for altered wooden letters. I requested a Z, of course, to add to my collection! Lisa sent me the most wonderful Z inspired by my love of vintage cookbooks and one of my fave color combos, pink and brown!! And she included extra goodies like a notepad and ribbon spool in the same colors! Awesome!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Club Little House
I got my package today and WOW, I am blown away!! I set the stage at lunchtime when I came home for lunch and saw the box on the stoop. I went outside and picked a bouquet of Zinnias to set on the table. I poured myself a glass of lemonade. I spread out all my little packages on the table and one by one I relished them! Now I have each of them sitting on a metal tray on the dining table so I can walk by and enjoy them. I don't know which I like better, the adorable little rabbit made from pipecleaners, the cupboard complete with little craft books, the Christmas decorations! There are so many wonderful little lovelies to choose from and they're all mine! So I don't have to choose!
Fall Into Autumn Topic of the Week
This week's topic is about knitting preferences.
When you knit or crochet dishclothes, washclothes or face clothes, what do you use? What size needle or hook? Wood? what type? Metal? Plastic? A specific Brand? Why do you love that needle or hook so much? Is there one you are dying to try? Is there a particular yarn you love and use all the time for clothes? What is so special about it?
Simply stated, I use whatever the pattern tells me. I use the yarn they say and the size needle or hook they say. I have seen what veering off the path can result in and it's a waste of my money and effort to produce something "creative" that turns out to look terrible. As far as wood/plastic/bamboo needles, I prefer the plastic "baleen" needles with a good pointy tip. I dislike wood for working on anything but socks and other double-pointed projects and I dislike metal because I hold my needle like I hold my pencil-very firmly and incorrectly so that it presses into my right ring finger near the nail.
When you knit or crochet dishclothes, washclothes or face clothes, what do you use? What size needle or hook? Wood? what type? Metal? Plastic? A specific Brand? Why do you love that needle or hook so much? Is there one you are dying to try? Is there a particular yarn you love and use all the time for clothes? What is so special about it?
Simply stated, I use whatever the pattern tells me. I use the yarn they say and the size needle or hook they say. I have seen what veering off the path can result in and it's a waste of my money and effort to produce something "creative" that turns out to look terrible. As far as wood/plastic/bamboo needles, I prefer the plastic "baleen" needles with a good pointy tip. I dislike wood for working on anything but socks and other double-pointed projects and I dislike metal because I hold my needle like I hold my pencil-very firmly and incorrectly so that it presses into my right ring finger near the nail.
Cupcakery
After just discussing with Mike what will happen to all the cupcakeries when the trend is over, I see we are getting one here in town. Cream and Flutter will be opening downtown and they're hoping for the night crowd from bars. Unless trendy cupcake places make a name for themselves doing other things like decorated cakes and cupcakes for special events, I don't see them lasting very long after the cupcake bubble bursts and hipsters are on to the next best thing. (Maybe sliced bread shops?) And with the awesome Pekara bakery right downtown if you want stellar pastries and cookies and the Cake Artist's Studio if you want a gourmet cupcake-sized cake treat, I doubt they'll hold their own for very long. The bar crowd won't be keeping them afloat for long.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Retractable(brain) Leashes
This morning Sully and I had a run-in with what The Willa Woman calls a "Stupid "Pet" Dog Owner With a Flexi-Leash". I think there are definitely different levels of dog ownership and "pet" people are those people who have a dog, for whatever reason, but are not actively involved in its care beyond feeding and maybe walking it. They may know their dog has some bad habits but have no idea or no gumption to find out how to fix them so they just live with it or get rid of that dog and start over with a new one. These people are a major pet peeve of mine and a major reason I could never professionally teach dog training or be involved in any other business that deals with these people. At least right now. I know I should want to educate them and help simplify their lives and their dogs lives but they just annoy me and I don't have the patience.
So lady walking two dogs on two seperate flexi leashes. How in the world do you hold two flexi leashes and then pick up dog poop/carry poo bag/treat dogs for being good or anything else that would require hands? Answer-you can't. She fumbles with keys/poo bag/flexi leashes and drops one, dog rushes at us, I grab the dog's harness and return dog to her.
Then she drops it a SECOND time! At this point I am probably noticeably disgusted but make nice because accidents happen. But they wouldn't happen if people didn't insist on using those darn flexi leashes.
5 reasons not to use Flexi leashes:
1-As demonstrated by this lady not once but TWICE, they can severely cut your hands if you grab the leash part when trying to restrain a dog. Which you will invariable do because you will NOT be able to grab the handle while it goes flying after your dog. And the handles are VERY easy to drop/slip out of you grip.
2-You have no control over a dog that is 20 feet in front of you. If your dog sees a squirrel teasing him in the street, you will NOT be able to stop him from darting after it and possibly getting hit.
3-People like them because it lets their dog run a bit without them having to really work. Maybe if the dog needs more exercise than you can provide, that's not the right dog for you. And maybe the right dog for you is a cat.
4-Dogs walked on Flexi leashes learn to pull when on a walk. Try to transition them to a normal leash and you'll have a terrible habit to break and most people aren't willing to spend the time to break it. Who in their right mind thought up a leash where the DOG is in charge of how far they go and how fast they get there? Does that sound like a recipe for a healthy, obedient pet? I will acknowledge that if you have a large area with no one you might bother and nothing to get wrapped around, the flexi leash is admissible. But a 20' training line would work just as well and it's much less gadgety and much less likely to slip out of you hand and go careening after your dog, scaring it to bits.
5-A flexi leash is not a substitute to training. A lot of people get them so their dog can roam free on the side walk and not tear their arm off pulling after every little thing. It takes much less time and effort to pop into your local pet supply store and pick up a flexi or for that matter a halti, an easy walk harness, an anti-jump harness or any other substitute for proper, positive training than it is to work with your dog consistently and intelligently.
Pet dog people and their Flexi leashes, just two of my many pet-related pet peeves. Also on the list- dog parks, people who don't spay and neuter their pets, the "disposability" of pocket pets, dogs tied out in back yards, people who buy puppies at pet stores, people who always carry their small dogs, and designer mutts. I'll try not to rant about them all at the same time.
So lady walking two dogs on two seperate flexi leashes. How in the world do you hold two flexi leashes and then pick up dog poop/carry poo bag/treat dogs for being good or anything else that would require hands? Answer-you can't. She fumbles with keys/poo bag/flexi leashes and drops one, dog rushes at us, I grab the dog's harness and return dog to her.
Then she drops it a SECOND time! At this point I am probably noticeably disgusted but make nice because accidents happen. But they wouldn't happen if people didn't insist on using those darn flexi leashes.
5 reasons not to use Flexi leashes:
1-As demonstrated by this lady not once but TWICE, they can severely cut your hands if you grab the leash part when trying to restrain a dog. Which you will invariable do because you will NOT be able to grab the handle while it goes flying after your dog. And the handles are VERY easy to drop/slip out of you grip.
2-You have no control over a dog that is 20 feet in front of you. If your dog sees a squirrel teasing him in the street, you will NOT be able to stop him from darting after it and possibly getting hit.
3-People like them because it lets their dog run a bit without them having to really work. Maybe if the dog needs more exercise than you can provide, that's not the right dog for you. And maybe the right dog for you is a cat.
4-Dogs walked on Flexi leashes learn to pull when on a walk. Try to transition them to a normal leash and you'll have a terrible habit to break and most people aren't willing to spend the time to break it. Who in their right mind thought up a leash where the DOG is in charge of how far they go and how fast they get there? Does that sound like a recipe for a healthy, obedient pet? I will acknowledge that if you have a large area with no one you might bother and nothing to get wrapped around, the flexi leash is admissible. But a 20' training line would work just as well and it's much less gadgety and much less likely to slip out of you hand and go careening after your dog, scaring it to bits.
5-A flexi leash is not a substitute to training. A lot of people get them so their dog can roam free on the side walk and not tear their arm off pulling after every little thing. It takes much less time and effort to pop into your local pet supply store and pick up a flexi or for that matter a halti, an easy walk harness, an anti-jump harness or any other substitute for proper, positive training than it is to work with your dog consistently and intelligently.
Pet dog people and their Flexi leashes, just two of my many pet-related pet peeves. Also on the list- dog parks, people who don't spay and neuter their pets, the "disposability" of pocket pets, dogs tied out in back yards, people who buy puppies at pet stores, people who always carry their small dogs, and designer mutts. I'll try not to rant about them all at the same time.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Doughnut recipes?
I was doing some research, trying to find inspiration for the Krispy Kreme recipe contest. The only recipes I am finding are for bread pudding (naturally, but boring and overdone) and fried Krispy Kremes as in pan-fried after buying them. Gag! Oh, and of course the classic hamburger with Krispy Kreme for a bun. You don't have to use the original glazed that comes to mind so I'm thinking maybe an apple tart with a cake donut or sour cream donut crumble topping. Does that sound good? Or sticky and gross?
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Show us Your Sarnies!
I don't think I ever posted about the recent sandwich swap I hosted at work. It was based on this Delicious Sandwich Social held in Brooklyn. Seven people came to swap sandwiches and we had some great variety, some homemade and some purchased! We had a seafood wrap, spicy roast beef with jalepenos, a salami, cheese and yellow pepper sandwich on rye, a Penn Station mushroom and artichoke sub, an Atlanta Bread Company roast beef sandwich, grilled pesto, tomato and mozzarella on ciabata and chunky peanut butter and banana on wonder bread. I made peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes and others brought chips to share. It was a nice little lunch group and I'm pretty sure we'll do it again.
Speaking of sandwiches, Marie is hosting a Show Us Your Sarnie blog event over at A Year from Oak Cottage. So here is my contribution:
The Delectable Grilled Cheese
This sandwich is inspired by a sandwich at a restaurant here in town, but with some modifications. The original sandwich is made with ingredients I don't normally have on hand so this version is a little more every-day.
2 slices thick white bread, or Challah bread if you've got it
Sharp cheddar cheese
Edam or Gouda cheese
Granny Smith or other tart apple
Strawberry, fig or blackberry jam
Slice the apple thinly. I like to chop the cheese into small 1/4 inch cubes mainly because I don't like to dirty a grater. If you leave it in slice form, it may heat and melt unevenly. Warm a pan. Spread bread with butter or margarine on both sides and place in pan. Once the first side is toasted, flip and spread jam onto one slice. Over the jam place the apple slices to cover the whole slice. Over this, sprinkle both cheeses and top with second slice of bread. Toast evenly to melt cheese and warm apple slices. Savor the tart apple, nutty-smooth Edam, sharp bite of the cheddar and the sweetness of the jam. Delicious!
And as a little bonus, another recipe for those really brave souls!
The Dairy Bar
This sandwich is named after the ice cream shop I worked at for several summers during high school. You were allowed, of course, to eat all the ice cream you wanted while you were working but at some point you stop wanting ice cream and want some real food. We also sold hot dogs and barbecue but I don't eat meat so I devised this sandwich as my savory lunch/dinner option while at work. The squishier the hot dog bun, the better! The pecans add protein and fat to keep your pumping out ice cream cones and milk shakes all day long.
1 hot dog bun
1 squirt mustard
2 TBsp sweet pickle relish
3 TBsp chopped pecans
Squirt the mustard all the way down the hot dog bun, spread relish onto one side and sprinkle pecans on top of both. Close and eat! Or heat for 5-10 seconds in the microwave if you'd like. The pecans mix nicely with the mustard and the relish adds a sweet note to compliment the mustard tang.
Speaking of sandwiches, Marie is hosting a Show Us Your Sarnie blog event over at A Year from Oak Cottage. So here is my contribution:
The Delectable Grilled Cheese
This sandwich is inspired by a sandwich at a restaurant here in town, but with some modifications. The original sandwich is made with ingredients I don't normally have on hand so this version is a little more every-day.
2 slices thick white bread, or Challah bread if you've got it
Sharp cheddar cheese
Edam or Gouda cheese
Granny Smith or other tart apple
Strawberry, fig or blackberry jam
Slice the apple thinly. I like to chop the cheese into small 1/4 inch cubes mainly because I don't like to dirty a grater. If you leave it in slice form, it may heat and melt unevenly. Warm a pan. Spread bread with butter or margarine on both sides and place in pan. Once the first side is toasted, flip and spread jam onto one slice. Over the jam place the apple slices to cover the whole slice. Over this, sprinkle both cheeses and top with second slice of bread. Toast evenly to melt cheese and warm apple slices. Savor the tart apple, nutty-smooth Edam, sharp bite of the cheddar and the sweetness of the jam. Delicious!
And as a little bonus, another recipe for those really brave souls!
The Dairy Bar
This sandwich is named after the ice cream shop I worked at for several summers during high school. You were allowed, of course, to eat all the ice cream you wanted while you were working but at some point you stop wanting ice cream and want some real food. We also sold hot dogs and barbecue but I don't eat meat so I devised this sandwich as my savory lunch/dinner option while at work. The squishier the hot dog bun, the better! The pecans add protein and fat to keep your pumping out ice cream cones and milk shakes all day long.
1 hot dog bun
1 squirt mustard
2 TBsp sweet pickle relish
3 TBsp chopped pecans
Squirt the mustard all the way down the hot dog bun, spread relish onto one side and sprinkle pecans on top of both. Close and eat! Or heat for 5-10 seconds in the microwave if you'd like. The pecans mix nicely with the mustard and the relish adds a sweet note to compliment the mustard tang.
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