Under a blue moon

5.31.11

I'm not much of a breakfast eater.  I generally make myself a cup of tea and then a while later I might have a piece of toast.  And I only do that because all the nutritional pundits claim your metabolism will grind to a halt if you don't eat something for breakfast. 

Since we had a houseguest this weekend I wanted to have something on hand so that when we got up in the morning I could wave my hand in the general direction of the kitchen and say "have at it."

I figured a quick bread would be suitable.  I made Nancy McDemott's pear bread as adapted by Smitten Kitchen.  

Pears are tricky.  They are like avocados in that you have to think ahead to when you want to use them and buy them a few days ahead of time.  Otherwise they are rock hard and flavorless.  I also don't know if Bartlett pears are the best baking pears.  They were okay but the bread wasn't as peary tasting as I wanted it to be.  It did smell heavenly while baking but it could have been zucchini bread or persimmon bread for all the pear flavor it had.  

I understand that the flavors of the bread develop over a couple of days so I'm hoping that in a day or two it wil be the pear bread that I was envisioning.  

Now if we only had a coffee maker I would be the perfect hostess.

 

5.29.11

Another tutorial.  I'm on a roll here.  This one was inspired by a case of mistaken identity.  I saw this picture and thought what adorable hot pads.  When I looked closer I realized they were actually coasters but I was smitten with the idea of making hot pads.

I decided to make mine out of vintage linens.  You could use old tablecloths from the 40's or 50's.  These happen to be made out of tea tray cloths from that era.

The biggest challenge I had was finding heat proof cloth for the batting.  I wasn't sure if regular old batting would work and didn't want to test it out.  Then I was wandering through IKEA and spied an ironing board cover.  Perfect!  The heat proof pad was separate from the cover and it was only $4.99.  

Here we go:

Step 1-3

Gather your materials:

Fabric and trims.  I used wide rick rack and some cotton crocheted lace.

Heat proof fabric  - either from your fabric store, or in a pinch from an ironing board cover.

Cutting mat, straight edge, scissor and rotary cutter (Tip:  If you are prone to cutting cardstock with your rotary cutter do yourself a favor and put in a fresh blade.  Ahem).  

Step 4

Cut out two 9 1/2" squares of fabric (Note: You can have the pattern on both sides of the hot pad - in this example there was only a printed image on one end of the tea tray so the other end, or side, is plain) and a 9 1/2" square of heat proof cloth.

Place the heat proof cloth against the wrong side of one of your fabric squares.  Baste together (keeps it from shifting around when you are sewing the layers together).

Step 5

Line your rick rack or trim up to the the right side of the other square of fabric, up against the edge. I find that the jumbo (5/8" wide) rick-rack turns out perfectly if you line it right up against the edge and baste it just slightly under 1/4" away from the edge.  

Step 6

Place your two pieces of fabric right sides together and sew using a 1/4" seam allowance, leaving a 4" opening.  Trim the heat proof fabric as close to the line of stitching (to get rid of some of the bulk at the edges).  Remove your basting stiches from the heat proof cloth.

Step 7

Turn your pot holder right side out.  

Step 8

Sew about 1/8" in from the edge of the fabric to close the opening and finish off the pot holder. 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites

• Oooooh sparkly!  I can't pick out just one thing from Tiny Galaxies' shop so I have to link to everything.
• Does anyone have any of the Persephone books?  I'm tempted to do a subscription and have one lovely book after another delivered every month.  You can even choose which books you want.
• Ha!  
• I thought this was clever.  For those of you that might have an aversion to glitter (you know who you are :-) ).  Here - you can order the empty shaker bottles.
• And we are back to sparkly.  I think I need this star projector for my room.

Have a most wonderful weekend everyone!  If you are the US enjoy your three-day holiday!

5.25.11

Do it yourself cupcake liners.  I saw this picture and had to try it myself.  I couldn't figure out how to download a template from that site so I googled 'cupcake liner template' and the first one I clicked on came with all kinds of dire warnings about malicious code so I quickly shut it down.

One can't have malicious with ones pretty, lacy cupcake liners.  It's just not right.

Then I figured I would just start cutting and see what happened.  No template required.  I used a regular cupcake liner as a guide and a little double sided tape to hold things together.  These liners don't have a bottom - just a little lip around the bottom edge. 

I figure you get two or three per doily (depending on the size of your doily).  Let's say you get two from each 8" doily and if a package of 20 doilies is about $5 that is 12.5 cents a piece compared to about $1 a piece for the laser cut ones.  

Oh and here is the cupcake recipe I used - only I left out the pastry cream (for lack of time).  The frosting (or is it icing?  I never know which one is correct) was easy and tastes great.  I just dipped the cupcakes into the pan and gave it a little twist.  I let them dry for about 15 minutes and then dipped them again.  The cupcakes puff up when you bake them but then flatten out nicely when they cool.  

 

5.24.11

Last weekend was spent just puttering around.  Aren't those the best weekends?  

We can't do our usual annual gardening since the deck (where most of the gardening takes place in pots) will be under construction in a few weeks.  No sense planting a bunch of stuff just to have to store it behind the house for a month.   I did get some double petunias and put them in a pot on top of a stump.  That stump is actually holding up a new Mimosa tree.  You can see the wire.  I figured it might as well be decorative as well as functional.

The other area - the driveway circle - will require a lot of landscaping but we have to wait until that is finished too.  

Here is a picture of the driveway (looking down towards the street).  That scruffy stuff in the foreground is the top of the circle.  It slopes down towards the street.  We are going to put in a natural rock retaining wall at the low end so the planting area (which is about 28' by 45') can be leveled out.  Then a focal point (the crab apple) will go in the middle with various flowering and fragrant plants around it.  

I did plant one thing in one of the pots on the deck.  A tomato plant.  We don't have any areas that get prolonged amounts of sun during the day except for the deck.  So I figured I would try growing a tomato in a pot and see how that goes.  

It is a Brandywine.  I picked it because after spending half an hour looking in the tomato aisle at our local nursery I got overwhelmed and it said it was heirloom and Amish.  Good enough for me.  We'll see how it goes.  

One thing I don't want to have to deal with are those ugly horned worms.  I have taken preventative measures.

5.22.11

I saw a picture of a glittery pink flower and decided I needed to figure out how to make a one for myself.

Here are the step by step (mostly) pictures and directions:

(click on picture to see it in its full sized glory)

Step 1:

First take a length of crepe paper streamer (mine is about 24" long) and fan-fold into eight layers.

Then cut out a double humped shape to make the petals (you will have eight of them). They don't have to be perfectly even.

Step 2:

I took a small button and smeared a thin layer of glue on it and then plunked it into the glitter.  I then took a small rhinestone and put it in the middle for added bling.

I also got the base of my flower ready.  I just cut a circle about an inch in diameter out of card stock.

Step 3:

I found the best way to glitter the edges was to pour a little pile of white glue and a little pile of fine glitter onto a piece of card stock.  Then fold the petal in half and gently dab the edges in the glue and then in the glitter.  Unfold and let dry.

Step 4:

When the petal edges were dry I scrunched up the bottom and glued it to the outer edge of card stock circle.  Do the same with the second petal, glueing it to the opposite side.

Step 5:

Repeat with two more petals.

Step 6:

For the second layer of petals I glued them a little closer to the center and off-set them so they covered two of the petals from the first layer.

Step 7:

Repeat with the last two petals.

Step 8:

Glue your glittered button to the center.  

And there you have it.  I thought it made a pretty embellishment for a present.  Or you make a napkin ring out of a strip of cardstock and glue it to that for a girly napkin ring.  

 

 

Friday's Favorites

Flickr Favorites (can't you just about smell them?)

• Gorgeous felt pillow from Etsy.  They are practically giving it away.
• Love these Summery looking earrings.  Why does turquoise always make me think of Summer?
• This is pretty much my motto.
• A whole slew of printables on this website.  It's like the Tastespotting of free downloads.
• I think these mini donuts are so sweet.  And may be on the menu at a baby shower coming up....Couldn't be easier to make - just use this pan.

Ina seems to have recovered from whatever was ailing her.  And here I thought she was on death's door and was lining up my friend Keith to come over and ease her suffering (neither Rick or I could ever do it).  Don't ever put me in charge if you are in a coma.  "Oops - Sorry - didn't realize you were just napping...."

Hope everyone has a splendid weekend.  I plan on relaxing with a side order of more relaxing.

5.17.11

 

I have to make my own Spring since ours has seemed to have vanished.  What is up with the weather??  It is cold and rainy here.  On Sunday we had hail of biblical proportions.

Kelly stopped by the other day and brought me a sweet little wicker chair.  She also gave me the tin and I promptly plopped a minature rose in it.  I'll eventually plant it outside but I like it in the tin for now.

Let's see - what has been going on around here?  We've been making plans to redo our deck (all gazillion square feet of it) and some landscaping work.  As soon as it is underway I'll post about it.  Our deck is about to fall off.  Well it's actually only about two feet off the ground but it is rapidly declining. 

Since we are basically going with the exact same layout and size I'm not overly excited about it.  Yes, nice to get it done but visually it won't look much different.  The landscaping, on the other hand, I am excited about.

We have a sloped circle in the middle of our driveway.  We are going to have a natural rock retaining wall put in on the lower end so we can make it level.  Then we will put in a crab apple tree in the center and other flowering shrubs around the tree.  I think it will look quite nice when you drive up.  And I love flowering crab apple trees. 

We are having a bit of drama with Ina.  We thought she was egg-bound, which is dire.  But now we are wondering if she isn't just broody.  She won't leave her nesting box voluntarily and when have made her she just walks around all poofed up. 

We checked and there doesn't seem to be an egg stuck up there (I'll just leave that particular process up to your imagination....). We decided to separate her from the others and when we picked her up out of the nesting box there were three eggs under her. 

Hopefully she'll snap out of it. 

 

Friday's Favorites

 

Flickr Favorites

• Every now and then Ikea comes up with something especially sweet.  Like this lacy pot for plants.
• Speaking of plants - I thought this cable tie was very clever.  Who says practical can't be whimsical?
• Why don't we take pictures like this anymore?  I think it will be my goal to have my picture taken in a moon.  I think it would make a good 'about me' picture for this blog.
• I'm not keen on extra gadgets taking up counter or cupboard space but I might make an exception for this mini pie maker
• My niece and I are planning a baby shower and I'm finding all kinds of inspiration here: Celebrations at home

Happy Friday Everyone!  My goal for this weekend is to get batteries for my camera (the cause for the lack of posts this week).  Other than that I plan on relaxing.  Hope you do the same!

5.9.11

 

Quick post - last night the guys took care of dinner in honor of Mother's Day but I brought a platter of anti-pasta skewers.  Super simple and very well received. 

I bought marinated mushrooms, little mozzerrella balls (which I also marinated in bottled Italian dressing), kalamata and green olives, cherry tomatoes, salami and I made cheese and sun-dried tomato tortellinis and marinated them in the same dressing. 

I made a few without salami for the vegetarians. 

I can't take credit for coming up with the idea.  I saw it somewhere out in the interwebs and filed the idea away.  Pretty darn clever if you ask me.