Family Fun

I had most of my family, a few grandchildren were absent, here last night. What a treat for me! Ezra and Amy put the pizzas together using vegetables Amy and I prepped in the afternoon along with the fruit kabobs and salad. You can't beat a Ghiradelli brownie for dessert. Ezra watered the plants and picked some basil for the pizzas. He had a great time playing photographer for the event with my camera. I thought what he chose as subject matter was interesting- a lot of himself!
He loves his Uncle Brian and hadn't seen his brother Ethan for a couple of weeks and spent a lot of his time rough-housing with him. The bottom 5 pictures were taken by Ezra, budding photographer.
A good time was had, wish we did it more often!

Saturday!

I thought my daughter would be joining us at the market today, but she didn't have a lot of time to visit with her paternal aunt and uncle at their family dinner last night, since Ezra was monopolizing her time, so she met them for breakfast.
I went with apples on my mind and got red delicious, yellow delicious, jonathan, winesap, and another that I forgot. We ate all I bought last week.
I got this little pumpkin to carve out and put a tea light in tonight. I still don't know what we are having for dinner but I'm thinking we'll make pizza. I'll cut up all the stuff and the kids can put them together, add a salad with this red and green leaf lettuce, some fruit skewers, and brownies for dessert. I got out all of my halloween/fall stuff last night, including a little halloween costume for a little stuffed dog we have named Raisinette. So Ezra should be happy.
The eggs were a thought while shopping for some pork chops. Some of the vegetarians like hard boiled ones, so I'll cook a few and have the rest for breakfast this week.
These tomato 2nds looked pretty good so I may whip up some bruschutta, too.
The sunflowers and eucalyptus looked so great this week that I decided to do a repeat. My tuberose finally quit blooming and scenting the room, so I picked up another of those. I made the little vase up with left over eucalyptus and flowers from my yard.
We had finally used the mountain of potatoes i'd gotten earlier, so I pick up a box for this week.
An immediate care center was giving flu shots at the market so I got mine while I was there. Gotta love one stop shopping!
On the way back we decided to eat at Sweet and Savory.

Market Day

Are you tired of hearing about how I love Saturdays? I went shopping for my vegetarian daughter's visit. She'll be here Tuesday so I like to have lots for her to choose from and I like to have flowers in her room.
Corn is easy to prepare on the fly and so I bought plenty for the week. I figured that if Amy doesn't want much I'll cut off and freeze some more for winter use. Cumin Gouda with apple, yum, that tastes like fall to me! These little tomatoes at Charles' table will be great in a salad featuring this great leaf lettuce or for a snack. I love the little yellow pear-shaped ones.
These little carrots, (remember my attraction to all things differently colored this year?) were too good to pass up. I've been wanting to roast some fennel for a long time and I think Amy will love it! Aren't those bulbs beautiful? My okra guy just eats them like celery. I also plan to saute some radishes if they aren't all used up in the salad.
Oh, the apples! I love that my favorite apple guy cuts samples of his apples, I think I tried every one. I bought red delicious, which mind you- I would NEVER buy in the grocery store. No flavor at all there. But, these little jewels are hard, crunchy and flavorful. The golden delicious were a surprise, too, another apple I never touch at the store. These are great! I forgot what the last one was. I did get to sample one of his Honey Crisp though they aren't producing enough to bring to market.
Okra for a great rice and okra recipe (sans bacon this time) for Amy. She ate the whole recipe last time.
Sunflowers for the dining room table with eucalyptus (I'm adding a stalk to the shower for aroma therapy).By the way, Ezra asked if they were plastic last night at dinner. They do look perfect, eh?
The little vase of zinnia and miscellaneous greenery is for the guest room.
Next Saturday all of the family is coming over for dinner! What will I get at the market NEXT Saturday? Stay tuned!

Found Treasure

When my mother-in-law, Jerry, died a few years ago and the family was going through her possessions, I took a bunch of things no one else would want, earrings without a mate, old white gloves, board games and pieces,etc. Among the things I took was a somewhat heavy pallet that I thought I would use for a cushion when my grandson slept on the floor. I could tell it probably had an old quilt on something hidden inside the sewn together sheets And I do mean sewn together! It was almost quilted in some places which probably kept me from exploring it sooner.

Today I needed to do some laundry and while in the basement I needed to get some empty plastic bins for my friend to use to haul dishes to her daughter's wedding this Friday. Thankfully, I had cleaned out some stuff, and was reminded of how much more "stuff" I need to go through and do something with. Ah, 4 empty bins! Which got me looking to at least do a little organizing. A quick "what could I get rid of?". I stacked up the baby car seats that await another grandchild and came across the "pallet". Hum. I have some time this morning and for the first time, I saw the hint of something turquoise, the new color of my bedroom! I just happened to have a pair of scissors that was heading upstairs that I grabbed and cut a piece of the sheet covering.

Wowie Zowie! Look at this cool quilt! I love, love, love the colors and while it is not all in good shape, I think a good bit is usable. I'm taking it tomorrow to church to show to some of my quilter friends for consultation. I hope it will soon rest over the back of my wicker chair in the bedroom. Won't it look great when my Woodie painting is framed and hung in that corner, too?

I'm so excited! I wish I knew who made it and the history. It is hand quilted. I'm sorry my MIL isn't here to tell me. I'll check with the sibs but Jim had no idea.
Don't you love a found treasure?

September Art Fair @ Mellwood

This weekend was the first annual September Art Fair @ Mellwood, a former meat packaging facility that has been transformed into shops, small restaurants and artists' studios. One of my favorite art fairs was the Ursuline Art Fair sponsored by the Ursuline Sisters. They gave up their sponsorship so I'm glad Mellwood took over. It was a nice venue, not quite the gently rolling hills of the Ursuline Campus but a nice mix of fine art and crafts. I was shopping for a stained glass piece to hang in my kitchen where the old refrigerator used to be. It looks like an empty space where a refrigerator was housed. Hanging some art in the space above an old kitchen cabinet that was Jim's mom's will be a nice way to fill in the blank area between it and the cabinet that was above the refrigerator.
But, alas, no stained glass piece that fit the bill. But, there were plenty of art to look at. I was completely taken with these encaustic altered books, and had I felt rich and been rich, I'd had given in for sure. They were spectacular! This is the artist's website. His name is Ray Papka. I didn't get to meet him as he was taking a short break when we came by. This pictures, as always, don't do the art justice.
The bottom photo was of a "pocket book" and had added to the top the metal frame, snap closure and metal chain handle from a vintage pocketbook. Clever.
The other art I loved is the marbled paper paintings. Paper marbling taken to another level where a picture is painted with the floating paint and picked up on the paper. They are truly spectacular! She has some lovely marbled paper note cards but the ones that are scenes, like this under water one and flowers, are special. I'm sorry I didn't pick up this artist's card. She was a regular at the Ursuline Fair. My husband gave me a hand bound book of hers for Christmas one year.
I did buy some soap and bar shampoo and a gift for my DIL for her birthday. I'll post that in October after the big day.

Valentine's Day in September

I was digging through my stash to gather materials for this month's atc swap. I had a lot of atcs from previous months in this particular drawer and want to get them put away with my other numerous ones. I also ran across the Valentine tag swap we did on the byhandartists yahoogroup, a tag for each letter in the word "valentine".
I had never put them together as I had planned. So, instead of working on brown and birds. I worked with my valentine tags and came up with a fun little book I'll enjoy putting out next Valentine's day!
I used a rubber ring from Home Depot that you can find by the Behr paint samples which will hold several paint samples together for referencing. I cut the little tag from some background papers that I think Wanda may have sent me. I stamped "valentine", added a heart shaped eyelet and hung it on a jump ring with a locket, key and lock. They're are all held by a vintage lingerie holder(?). I tied a lot of ribbons,lace and fibers to the rubber ring and voila! A treasure was born.

Farmer's market 9/12

Did I say fall is present at the market already? The nice yellow-brown sunflowers were in abundance and darker vegetables.My three same variety sunflowers are on the dining room table now.
I spied a return of radishes, don't they look great? And I couldn't pass up the variety sweet peppers. The one in the back right of the pepper photo is called "Sweet Chocolate" -sweet! I got my lettuce from him, too. A sure sign of fall-the return of cool weather crops. I love the red sunflower with the little buds hanging off the stem. It got a small vase of its own and is in the living room. Ah, fresh-picked leaf lettuce!
The corn was plentiful at the vendor next to the pepper/radish/sunflower/lettuce guy. I got 6 ears and plan to cut off the corn from 4 and freeze it for later use.
Remember the heirloom tomato guy who used seed from his dad's plants? I bought these from him. He thinks this is the last week for tomatoes from his place.
Our free range chicken guy was back from Ethiopia and had pictures of his 5 month old son, Abe. Cute, cute, cute! We (ok, we all know that means Jim) are cooking a whole chicken this week instead of a cut-up one.
I managed to snag an apple dumpling this week as we got to the market earlier than usual and the crowd was light. Got a loaf of Theresa's bread, too. Bruschetta is definitely in my future.
I missed out on Tuberose last week but bought one stem this week. It smells good for a whole week. I put it in my bedroom. Won't it be nice to go to sleep and wake up to that sweet smell?
Today was omelet day. We didn't even have to wait in line! The omelets had beets, potatoes, basil, goat cheese, Kenny's cheese, a bunch of other yummy veggies and were topped with chopped tomato and fresh sliced radish.
There was a message when I got home from my mother who wanted goat cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves for her book club meeting Monday. So, back to the market for another purchase. There was quite a crowd by then.
It's a beautiful farmer's market day.

Remember my flower boxes and morning glory?

Here is it 4 months later and look at these! I can't even see the fence anymore and the morning glory has fallen over my neighbor's side of the fence. I hope it looks pretty over there, too. The vine is even starting to creep into the oak leaf hydrangea!
I thought my window boxes looked so lovely when just planted. But, wow, aren't they spectacular now? I learned a few things about what will do well and not do well in the top and bottom boxes. The Goldilocks is a definite keeper as are the impatiens but the orange daisy-like ones didn't do well, not enough sun. I like the tall purple spiky flower (not blooming here) and little purple vine flower, too.
I have just planted the coleus from the market yesterday in the 2nd floor window boxes. Almost everything I planted didn't do much in those boxes, they are shadier. So, next year I'll try the same thing I planted in the lower ones.
I'll take a picture of the newly replanted boxes soon, it's raining!