Saturday

More Finished Christmas Projects

I made placemats and coasters as gifts for friends and a little wall hanging for myself.

Visitors

Look what I found in my garden this afternoon. My first reaction was to get the outside cats in, just in case, the turkeys might get some ideas. ;) Then I got my camera and then I got Miss K. to the window to show her the birds. She had this look like "what now, first all these cats and now BIRDS!?". That was something she had not seen in all of her 16 years. I guess I better go and tell the neighbor his birds got away (once again).

Ornaments

For various reasons, the main one being not enough time for everything I want to do, I decided to switch from quilted redwork ornaments to simple crochet ornaments for the swap. I don't think I will do another big swap like that, it feels like mass producing things.

And I found a cute and easy pattern for some tree hearts. I am going to make a few more for my own tree this year. I decided the theme for our Christmas decorations will be "Critters and Colors" this year.

Food

With the temperatures getting lower my cooking mind turns to comfort food.

Shoo Fly Pie

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Garlic Corn Muffins

Gnocchi with Bacon, Mushrooms and Tomatoes

Late Harvest

I was feeling a bit off today, I think all the things we have been doing away from home recently derailed me a bit. Yes, they were fun, but I think being out and about more than usual has thrown me out of sync with myself. But after digging around in the garden a bit I feel much better, as if I had re-connected with my home, and the weather is beautiful too. Here is what I found.

Parsnips, hot peppers, carrots and some oregano that was hidden behind the raspberry bush.

Fall in the Kitchen

Chili with meat balls and corn muffins.

Spice cake with caramel icing.

Corn Shucking Frolic 2010

We had a wonderful time yesterday at the Horne Creek Farm. The weather was perfect, there was music and dancing, craft demonstrations, food and a glimpse into farm live about 150 years ago. There was apple drying, apple butter making, quilting, knitting, making dolls from corn husks, dyeing with natural dyes, molasses making and of course, corn shucking. I bought a big jar of molasses for some Fall baking I will be doing soon.

Stuff for Sale

I just listed a few items in my 

Blog Shop.

Progress

The quilt for nephew #1 is coming along nicely.

Caps for Good

This is my contribution to Caps for Good, Save the Children's campaign for newborn babies. I used a very soft yarn and the pattern provided on their website. The background is a wallhanging I am currently hand quilting.

At the Farmer's Market

We went to the craft fair at the farmer's market this morning and after looking at all the crafty things that were offered, we wandered through the rest of the market. As always at this time of the year there were pumpkins, pumpkins and even more pumpkins.

 And colorful vegetables.

This little guy came home with us from the craft fair, he will look great on our Christmas tree this year. And he has already been inspected and approved by Miss Kitty.

Weekend

Saturday we spent most of the day ripping up the somewhat questionable carpeting the previous owners had put down in the enclosed porch because we have some water damage from the heavy rains last week. Now we are trying to dry out the wood floor in the porch so we can reorganize everything. The house is a mess, most of the stuff from the porch is now in the living room and I don't function well in chaos. We also had water dripping from the bedroom ceiling during the rain storm we had Wednesday night so Thursday we climbed into the attic to find where the water had come in - a small gap between roof and house of which there are several but only one let in water because either the wind drove the rain against that side of the house or the gutters could not handle all the water and it found a different way. We sealed the gap and now we have to wait for the next storm to find out if we got it done right.

On Sunday we went to the Farm Fest on a local sheep farm There was a lot to see and touch, all kinds of fiber and yarn and the animals who produce the lovely products. We came home without having spent a penny, I am very proud of us.
Here are some pictures of the 'fiber' animals.

Sheep

Angora Goats

Ram lambs of different breeds, Navajo Churro, Corriedale and a Corriedale cross breed

Alpaca (love those big eyes)

Fiber for spinning