Happy Memorial Day!

What Memorial Day is all about...these are shots from year's past, but they mean the same!  Thank you to all who serve our country...past, present, future.

Hearts, Flowers, Chocolates...A Day Later :)

My Daddy would say, "a day late and a dollar short"!  I meant to say "HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY" to all of my lovely friends who stop by to see me here, yesterday, but it just wasn't in the cards.  I hope you all experienced a day filled with love...and chocolate!

I went out at lunch and found my honey a gorgeous orchid - he loves them and used to be pretty good at growing them, but he hasn't had any for awhile.  I fell in love with the gorgeous color of this one and decided he just had to have it!

He got me this very sweet little wire dress-shaped display! I can't wait to use it on a show table - I love it!

The pendant is from my other sweet boy, who saw it weeks ago and told his Dad that he had to get that for me. He was so excited to see me open it! I gave him a handmade certificate good for 5 iTunes downloads, along with copious amounts of candy

I have been doing some cleaning/organizing in my work space, which also contains a bunch of stuff that I just don't know where to put. In emptying some boxes, I came across some things that I brought back from my parent's house, after my sibs and I cleaned it out when my Mom died over 10 years ago.  I found this little box...

I don't know what year these were purchased, probably mid 70's, but look at the price!  12 Valentine's for $1.25!  I always loved Holly Hobbie :)  Here's what I found when I opened it up...

Weird little collection, huh?!  I picked all this stuff up off my Dad's dresser and stashed it away in this little box!  Prince Albert rolling papers - he used to roll his own cigarettes with Prince Albert tobacco that came in cute little cans...wish I had some of the countless ones he threw away over the years!  There was also an old broken pocket knife that he couldn't part with, an old whet rock, and a lead weight that I guess he picked up and was keeping for fishing, maybe?  He was a bit of a hoarder like me, and couldn't throw it away.

I can't wait to go through a few more boxes to see what I come up with!

Happy Autumn Equinox!

I am a big fan of changing seasons...those transitional days when you know the upcoming one is on the brink of appearing, but not quite!  I would be hard-pressed to choose a favorite...but I guess it would be between Spring and Autumn.  I have a love/hate relationship with summer and winter :)

Autumn Bliss - enameled filigree, agate, rhyolite, freshwater pearls, serpentine and copper

There is something that happens deep in my gut during Autumn, especially in the very early evening. I love walking out in my yard after dark in the throes of Fall...looking up into the dark sky at the constellations that are above my house. It is comforting to look up at Orion, seemingly hovering protectively over us. The impending color changes in foliage, the rich, musky smells of drying leaves and the earth as summer annuals wither and compost - all these things providing strong sense memories of growing up in the country, playing in the yard after dark, not daring to venture outside the circle of light coming from the house, looking up at a sky so filled with diamonds you could almost reach out and touch them.

Umbrella Boy...

One of my favorite photos of one of my most favorite people...from about 5 years ago!

December 8 is National Brownie Day! What's your favorite?

Everybody loves brownies, right?  Our current favorites are the Ghirardelli Double Chocolate version...we keep a big box in our pantry for whenever there is no other dessert in the house.  Costco offers a box that contains about 6 batches!  The boy likes to help make them, and this version is so easy, he can!

• I pkg Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownie mix (it has chocolate chips in it!)
  
• 1 egg
  
• 1/3 c oil
  
• 1/3 c water

        Mix, bake @ 325 degrees for about 40 minutes and eat!  We like ours just barely done, so that they are still a bit gooey, with a scoop of vanilla icecream. Yummmmmmmmy!!

   

Here is the finished product...

 

The best part?  Clean up is a snap...

Hazel's Pecan Pie...

The man went to an annual "Libra" birthday party that a friend of his hosts and asked me to make something for him to contribute.. He said  "they love your pecan pie...by the way, why don't you make 2 so we can keep one..."  So off to the grocery store I went to get a few ingredients. 

I always use the recipe on the Karo syrup bottle (in the south, most things go by the common brand name...ie, Karo syrup, not corn syrup and Coke, no matter what kind of soda it is, etc.  This is the recipe my mother, Hazel, always used as well, although she probably had it memorized and didn't have to read the bottle...in fact, she probably improvised most of the time !

• 1 cup Karo Syrup  (I always use the dark kind, just 'cuz Hazel did)
  
• 3 eggs
  
• 1 cup sugar (I actually cut this down to 3/4 c)
  
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  
• 1-1/2 cups pecans (luckily my sweet sis had sent me a big gallon ziplock bag from our old trees back home and I still had some in the freezer :)
  
• 1 (9-inch) unbaked deep-dish pie crust...I use frozen Pillsbury ones

1. 
   

   Preheat oven to 350°F.

   
   
2. Mix corn syrup, eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla using a spoon. Stir in pecans. Pour filling into pie crust.
   
3. Bake for about  60 minutes. You can stick a knife in to see if the custard is done...the knife will be relatively clean)
   
4. Try not to burn your mouth on the first bite because you can't wait for it to cool off!

I forgot to take a before photo...this was gone within about a half hour of this shot.

When I was growing up, I was an extremely picky eater and wouldn't eat the pecans, so I would pull them off the top and give them to Mama...I always asked her why she couldn't just make me a whole pecan pie without the pecans. 

Mama, I hope you and Aunt Daisy are eating pecan pie where you are! :)

Autumn in Frederick

Yikes, summer rolled by so fast this year!  Autumn is here...I think my favorite season of the year, although Spring will get mad at me for saying that!  There's something about the crispness in the air and the changing colors in the garden that always gets to me.

One of the harbingers of autumn in Frederick is the Great Frederick Co. Fair.  We went this past weekend and had a great time, albeit spending almost  $50 bucks for just a couple of hours!  Parking - $5, admission - $10 (the boy was free), fair food (2 corndogs, 1 sausage, 2 sodas, cotton candy, ice cream) - $12, rides for the boy - $18.50, pure joy on a 7yo's face - priceless!   The sights (and smells!) of walking through the livestock stalls and tractor exhibits, then the excitement of finally getting to the midway with the rides and games brought back great memories of fairs past my siblings and I piled into my Daddy's truck and we went to the West Alabama Fair...I always wanted to play all the games of chance, but my Daddy wouldn't let me...I did win a goldfish one year by tossing ping-pong balls, but unfortunately, it was dead the next day, poor fishie!

Another very cool thing about this particular Autumn is that I have gotten off my behind and signed up for several selling events in the area.  In an effort to create some local exposure, I committed to attend the remaining Frederick Arts Market events.  The Arts Market is held on the last Sunday of the month from May through October, culminating with a holiday-themed market on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  The cost was minimal, and it is limited to 25 juried artists, so I am hopeful that this will be a good venue for my work.   I am having to give up my Sunday singing gig on market days so I need to at least break even with that. Keep your fingers crossed!

Frederick Artist Market 
Date - 9/28/08
Location - Cultural Arts Center of Frederick County
Contact - 301-662-4190
The Frederick Artist Market is a monthly event that features the work of up to 25 local artists, including jewelry, pottery, art, photography, and other hand-crafted items.  The event, which is free to attend and open to the public, runs from 1:00-5:00 p.m.

Then, on October 4-5, I will be participating in the Medieval Festival in Mclean, VA.  It is sponsored by St. John the Beloved Catholic Church and School, where I sing weekly.  I will be positioned along side a religious art exhibit, so am hopeful that I will be successful with my higher end pieces and rosaries there.

Any of you in the area, please stop by at one of my venues and say hello!

Sense Memory...

I walked into my office's kitchen this morning at 8:30 for coffee, and was overwhelmed with the aroma of vegetable soup.  Normally, I would be annoyed at early morning microwave aromas.  Initially, I thought "who eats vegetable soup for breakfast?"  This morning, however, a feeling of calm and well-being wafted over me and I was transported back to Myrtlewood Elementary school in 1967, where Mrs. Graham, Mrs. Phillips and Mrs. Beck stood smiling behind the cafeteria counter, ladleing thick, hearty homemade soup into big melamine bowls sitting on lunch trays with little compartments for everything.  Usually accompanying this bowl of yummy goodness was a homemade yeast roll and a huge, chewy homemade peanut butter cookie.   Heaven!