Thursday, October 31, 2013

October in my Garden


I recently read "A gardener's best tool is the knowledge from previous seasons," (Amy Tomolonis)
and it really resonated with me. If you've thought I was gifted with a green thumb, I'd chuckle at that thought because I really wasn't. I'm a bit hit-and-miss with this gardening gig, but playing in this dirt for the past couple of years, paying attention to light and shade, remembering what plants did well during the previous season, and a little bit of fussing over these babies (removing dead blooms and leaves) has helped make my garden a place I love to dwell.

What do you pay attention to and fuss over
on your piece of the planet?

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Phoenix Graffiti Art

Today I have photos! Lots of photos of graffiti/wall murals in the downtown Phoenix area. For my locals who are curious, these photos were taken near Roosevelt between 2nd and 8th Streets. It's so cool to drive (or walk) around in this part of town. It seems like every time you turn a corner there's a different painting to admire. Check it out...
 
 
My favorite painting of the day was this wall of sunflowers, and I even really love the contrast of the fence in front of it.


And I was pleasantly surprised to come across this - two young men giving this abandoned building a little facelift. Look closely and you'll see a man in a red shirt on the top ledge, and also two little boys in the lower left picking up trash. I love that this is a community project that serves to create a more pleasant view for the residents there.

 
Aren't these fantastic? These works of art are regularly changed up from time to time and were new to me since the last time I walked around this part of town.
 
I wonder, do you have anything like this near your home?

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Currently ~ Tea with Abi

Today I'd like to tell you what I've been up to lately, over a {virtual} cup of tea.
{this month's quilt square was made for Abi}

I've been baking goodies for Doug’s upcoming hunting trip.

Listening to my nephew Ryne’s new CD.

Sewing up a storm! I’m getting ready to finish putting Carrie’s quilt together.

Planning another sewing project for a certain baby girl who will be a sweet new addition to our family in 2014.

Prioritizing projects – coming up with ideas for a baby shower for said baby girl but trying to plan Christmas first…

Yelling at one little dog for darting out the front door, across the street, and in the face of another innocent doggy who was minding his own business on his morning walk. Bad Lucky dog.

Loving our cooler temps and this lovely Arizona fall weather.

Wearing tops with sleeves for a change, and also boots. Hooray for boots!

Participating in Cathy Zielske’s 30 Days of Thankful, Fiona’s Friendship Quilt project, and Miriam’s Christmas Ornament Exchange.

Preparing for a holiday party at our house at the end of November. We’re going to have live entertainment this year!

Having so much to tell my mom and missing her a lot. Here come the holidays…

Drinking tea {albeit virtually} with the lovely Abi.
{visit her here}

Monday, October 28, 2013

Weekend Recap ~ Sedona with a blog friend

Greetings, blog world.
I hope everyone had an awesome weekend.
Ours was filled with blue skies, sunshine, a trip to Sedona,
and a visit from a Pennsylvanian blog friend.
When Cheri emailed me several months ago to say she'd be in Arizona, I knew right away that I wanted her to see Sedona. So Saturday morning we headed north, and among our stops that day was Crescent Moon Ranch. This is one of my favorite places on the planet, and being there in October to see the leaves dressed up in autumn glory was just the icing on the cake. 
 

It's such a beautiful walk - right along the creek - and so cool to see so many cairns stacked all over the place.

 
I highly recommend this walk if you are ever in Sedona. And if you have a chance to walk it with a blog friend, it's even better!
 
It was a fun and busy weekend, and I'm paying the price this morning. I'll leave you with this quick weekend recap as I head off to take care of a few things this morning before I begin another exciting work week.
 
Wishing you a week full of love and laughter!

Friday, October 25, 2013

Just a Quote for Friday

 
"You're off to great places
Today is your day.
Your mountain is waiting
So get on your way."
~ Dr. Seuss

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Thursday's Missionary Meeting


When we were kids our school bus picked us up and dropped us off in the driveway of a church at the end of our country road. Instead of going straight home from the bus stop on Thursday afternoons, we’d head for the back of the church and down the cement steps, into the basement where my grandmother and her sisters were gathered for the day.


Every Thursday, for years, my Grandma Bessie and her sisters met in the basement of their church to quilt. I loved popping in to see what they were working on after school, and we also loved sampling the cakes and pies leftover from their potluck lunch.

My grandmother and great-aunts were paid to put quilts together for people, and the money they collected was then donated to their “overseas missionaries.” They referred to their Thursday quilting bee as their weekly “Missionary Meeting.”


I can still picture their set up in my mind. The ladies sat around a quilt that was suspended from the ceiling with ropes at each corner. The quilt was secured with thumb tacks to long boards on all four sides, and the boards were attached at each corner with a vice. They stitched from the edges of the quilt toward the center, and as they completed a section of the quilt, the corner vices were removed and the quilt was wound inward around the boards, allowing them to reach a new area for stitching. {I found a photo online that shows a great example, and I've included it at the end of this post.}


And when they finished for the day, the ropes were wound around each corner of the quilt boards, raising it up until it hugged the ceiling, out of reach of little cake-stained hands.
 
My grandmother and great-aunts stitched and chatted and prayed and gossiped, all while hand stitching the top/batting/bottom of a quilt together by hand. Tiny stitches, beautifully practiced, all neat and even and lovely.


Today when I work on my own quilts, I think of those days and the sense of community and fellowship my grandmother and her sisters shared during their missionary meetings every Thursday. I think of the beautiful hand work they graced each quilt with, and wonder who is blessed to own one of the quilts they stitched back then. I long for my quilts to be completed with hand-stitching like theirs, but alas I will run mine through the sewing machine and make quick work of the process.


And when I’m done I will gift this quilt to my daughter. Somewhere among the seams that hold all the pieces together are memories of Grandma Bessie and her sisters, stitched there with my thoughts of them as I created this quilt.
 
Who knew, all those years ago, that the Thursday missionary
meetings would still mean so much to one little girl.

 Not my photo, and not my grandma.
Photo credit: Library of Congress Historical Archives

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Simple Tips for Better Baking

From the time my sister and I were teenagers making
cookie dough after school, I have loved to bake.
On my list of "things to put together someday" is a family cookbook. I want to document some family recipes, and also want to include some helpful tips in the back of the book {or maybe in the front…}. So today's post will have a double purpose: to share some tips with my readers, and also to document them for use in the family cookbook that’s going to happen. Someday.

Obviously, I am not a professional baker, but in my 30+ years of doing it I’ve learned a thing or two. Take some tips from me, or follow a baking blog to pick up a few pointers and then go practice. Because, really, having baked goods turn out like they're supposed to is so much more fun than a cake that flops.



Here are some things I do in the kitchen that have helped to make my baked goods a success:
 
Use fresh ingredients.
Stuff goes stale. Stuff like baking powder, flour, powdered sugar, and more obvious things like eggs. So if you don’t bake very often but you want that once-a-year recipe to turn out really great, buy some fresh ingredients!

Read your recipe first.
Depending on who wrote it, the order of things can be different than you might expect, or maybe the ingredients list calls for a cup of milk but you’re only supposed to add part of it in the beginning and reserve the remainder for later. Read the recipe and know your stuff before you begin.

Splurge on good quality ingredients.
Like, use real vanilla instead of imitation. Living a life of frugality, my mother could never make herself buy real vanilla. It wasn’t until I was grown and out on my own that a friend brought me some awesome vanilla back from Mexico and I realized what a difference it made. I usually watch for vanilla to go on sale and then stock up. Splurge for the good stuff!


Assemble your ingredients before you begin.
There’s nothing worse than having half of the recipe measured and mixed and then realizing you don’t have enough flour. Or something.

And here’s a little trick I created for myself because I am notorious for getting distracted and coming back to my mixing wondering if I already added baking powder or not. I pull all of my ingredients out and gather them on the left side of my mixing bowl(s). As I measure and add, I move the ingredients I’ve already used to the right side of my bowl. Done.

Don’t over mix.
Again, read the recipe for this one and follow the directions! When making cookies, I cream the butter and sugar and eggs for as long as I want, but when it comes to the final step of adding dry ingredients, I mix just until the flour disappears. In fact, when I make chocolate chip cookies, I’ll add the chocolate chips while there’s still quite a bit of flour still visible, then complete the mixing once the chips are added. Over mixing ingredients changes the texture of your finished baked good.

Butter at room temperature means just that.
I figured this out through trial and error. Ok, pretty much every tip here was figured out that way, but anyway... I have a tendency to pull the butter out of the refrigerator and then I get busy and don’t come back to it until later in the day. When you unwrap the cube of butter you want it to have a little bit of body – like, still hold its shape rather than oozing all over the place. And maybe this is only an issue for me because I live where it is stinking hot most of the time. I’ve found that if my butter is too soft (close to melted) my cookie dough loses some of its body too. Cookie dough mixed with melt-y butter tends to flatten more in the oven instead of holding a cake-y shape. And I do chill my cookie dough for a bit before actually putting it in the oven.

Carrie told me the other day that she heard that cookie dough refrigerated for a couple of days actually tastes better because all of the ingredients have had a chance to mingle and combine properly. I've tried that, and I believe it. I think it's the vanilla that does that...


Know your oven.
The first time I used the oven in our current house I waited until I heard the beeping sound indicating that it was preheated, then I popped my cupcakes in there and set the timer. When the timer went off my cakes were far from being cooked through. Solution: I bought an oven thermometer {for less than $15 at Target} and learned that my oven takes for.ever. to actually heat to the desired temp - and the preheated signal beeps way earlier than it should. In order to get it to 350° I actually have to set the dial to 375°. Wow, that made a big a difference for my baking.

Setting the timer.
If your recipe says “bake 9 to 11 minutes” always set your timer for the lesser number first. Maybe your oven will do its thing in nine minutes and everything will be wonderful. You can always add more minutes if you need to, but you can never take those extras away once you’re past the point.

Mind your recipe for what to do once it's out of the oven.
Cookies left on a hot cookie sheet continue to bake. This is a good thing if that's what the recipe calls for. Otherwise, get 'em off of there as soon as possible, and allow them to cool on a rack before storing them.


I'm sure I'll add more tips when it comes time to work on my family cookbook, but this is what I have for the baking section at this time. And now, it's your turn. Do you have any other tips to share for successful baking? Were any of my tips new to you?
PS: The muffin photos in this post were made with my most favorite banana bread recipe, plus I always add chocolate chips. :o)

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Winner of Ryne's CD ~ This Tempered Tongue

Hey there friends ~

Thanks so much for the love and support you've shown for my nephew Ryne and his new solo CD. It's time to announce the winner of the autographed copy of "This Tempered Tongue."



Congratulations, Jo from Buckingham's Palace! You're the lucky winner of Ryne's new CD, This Tempered Tongue. Please email your mailing information to me at paperturtle(at)cox(dot)net and I'll send you some happy mail of the musical kind!

And because I want everyone to hear just a little bit of Ryne's music, I've included the song he wrote about my grandma in this post {thanks to Carrie for helping this old dog learn a new trick}. Just click the play button and enjoy. :o)

 

Monday, October 21, 2013

My weekend, with flowers in the house

Good Monday morning, blog friends.
♥ 
About once a month I like to combine my regular weekend recap post with a link up to Jane's Flowers in the House party.
 
Linking up with Jane in the past has been fairly simple for me. I usually have fresh flowers on our kitchen table as I have made a happy habit of grabbing a simple bunch from the grocery store along with my weekly food shopping. But for this month, I decided to challenge myself to only use flowers/clippings from my own garden.
 

Are you guys getting sick of me saying how amazing our Arizona weather has been? Oh man, it's been so awesome! Coming off of several months of scorching summer heat, we're still basking in Autumn's relief. The cooler (well, less HOT anyway) temps have been good for my garden too. Rather than struggling to stay alive, everything can relax a bit and just do some regular growing. And blooming. Hooray!

 
I knew I wanted to use some vincas for this month's flower party. The stems weren't very long, so I used a few small old bottles as vases. And I also used some sprigs of rosemary for greenery. Love!
 

You know, this blogging gig provides a ton of inspiration, and participating in Jane's monthly flower round up has afforded me with glimpses into the homes of professional flower people. The creativity is crazy, friends. I'm not sure why I never thought to use the herb section of my garden in flower arrangements, but it works! I've even taken to displaying it on its own just because I love it so much.


Anyway! My favorite bouquet from the weekend is shown in the next photo. I combined some vincas with some other lavender blooming plant, and also a clipping from the yellow bell tree that's crazy with blooms and bees in our backyard right now. {Side note: this bouquet was turned on its side this morning, on top of a water-soaked doily. The yellow bells didn't hold up well to the cat who will remain nameless this morning. Gr.}

 
Oh yeah, and I did have a bunch of {purchased} daisies on our kitchen table this weekend, and I pulled a few to make this small arrangement for our living room:
 

So, about our weekend ~ There was the usual laundry, yoga, grocery shopping, stuff-around-the-house, shopping with Carrie yesterday, and playing with flowers. Basically, a weekend so awesome I can hardly be irritated by the fact that it's Monday morning. Plus! I have flowers in my house. :o)

Before you go off and make it an awesome week, why not
 
Ciao, my lovelies!

Friday, October 18, 2013

Just a Quote for Friday

 
"You can’t stay in your corner of the
forest waiting for others to come to you.
You have to go to them sometimes."
~ Winnie the Pooh

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Simply a Moment ~ Home Alone


Doug is usually home before me at the end of a work day, so when I make a left turn onto our street and don’t see his truck in the driveway it’s not the norm. On this day, he is away on a hunting trip and it’s the beginning of a four-day run for me to be at home alone.

Lucky remains in the backyard, having not yet been let in as Doug usually does. He waits anxiously behind the glass door, trying desperately to curb his excitement as he sees me approaching to let him in. When the door opens the dog darts in – past the cat who sits patiently waiting for head scratches. Whiskers is instantly annoyed and he turns from my reach and struts away, head and tail held high. “Hmph. Your loss, Jay-cat. Your loss…”

As usual when Doug is away, the pets and I fall into a different groove. They clamor for my space, both craving my undivided attention. I continually remind Lucky to “leave the cat alone.” (Oh wait, I do that when Doug’s at home too…)

I change out of my work clothes and slip into something more comfortable: my oldest baggy pajama pants and a slouchy t-shirt - I don't even match. I smile to myself when I think about the clothes I choose when Doug’s not around. I figure he wouldn’t mind one way or another, but...well...I do step it up a notch or two when he's at home. Well, at least I try to match.

My evening meal consists of a small bowl of raisin bran cereal followed by a glass of wine – fine dining for my solo evening. I think of Doug again and wonder what his time alone looks like when I'm away. I doubt he really cares about what he’s wearing on any given evening, but I know that his evening meals are usually eaten at a local establishment with a side of cold beer. Clearly drowning his sorrows and missing me a whole lot.  :o]

When the lights go out at bedtime, noises materialize in parts of our house that never happen when Doug is at home. The cat looks nervous at the foot of my bed, but the dog snores softly in his own. It takes forever for me to fall asleep, but once I do I'm out for the night! It's not until the alarm sounds at 5:00 a.m. that am I thrust back to the reality that I'm home alone.

As I sip my morning coffee I think of Doug again. Is he drinking coffee at camp with his brothers, I wonder, or has he already made his way to the hill side to get an early start to his day? Wherever he is I bet he's thinking of me, maybe finding heart shaped rocks and secretly longing for the comforts of home.

As for me? I'll finish drinking my coffee in my mis-matched pajamas and then hit the shower. And I probably won't make the bed today...
Today I'm linking up with my blog friend, Alexa and her
monthly meme Simply a Moment. You can click here to
read more simple moment stories.
 
I am so fortunate to know so many great writers through blogging, and I have to say that Alexa is one of my favorites. Her writing style is always so poignant and beautifully done, and her digital artwork is consistently fresh and clever. I highly recommend a visit to her lovely blog.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

A new pumpkin bread tradition


My mother's annual Christmas package to us, mailed from California to Arizona, always included a loaf of pumpkin bread. Dang I looked forward to that every year. She always made the full-loaf size - the big one, you know? Not the mini's like I always make. It was a dense, heavy loaf of bread with lots of cinnamon and cloves.

By the time Mom's Christmas package arrived every year, we were usually already reaching our limit of sweets and goodies. You know how you reach that point where you look forward to not having so many Christmas sweets around the house? We would enjoy some slices of her pumpkin bread with coffee, then I'd slice and freeze the rest for after the holidays. She always liked hearing from me in February to say thanks again for the pumpkin bread. "It was awesome, Mom!"
 

I knew I'd be able to find Mom's recipe after she was gone, and I knew that it was in my Aunt Betty's handwriting and rather faded and stained from years of use. But I ended up not having access to it last Christmas so I had no other choice but to Google "pumpkin bread recipe."


My mom's pumpkin bread was awesome and my Christmases will never be the same without it. Having said that, I have to admit that I like the recipe I found through Mr. Google better than hers. {gulp. Sorry, Mom.}

So Christmas is coming up and even though my sister and I have found Mom's recipe, I don't plan to use it. It's weird, and I feel slightly rebellious, but I like the new one better.

Even though I'm not using her recipe, maybe the fact that it's still pumpkin bread redeems me. I mean, it's not like I totally switched to fruit cake or something.
 
~sigh~
New traditions.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...