Saturday, October 31, 2009

Fall Farmers Market 10/31






It's a windy, gloomy day here. Rather Halloween-ish I suppose. We left for the market around 9 and found ourselves to be among only a few out this morning. I have been disappointed not to have more red spinach available at the market. I love it so much for salads, and today was no different. Not one leaf! I got precious little today. Didn't need a lot either.
My sweet tooth couldn't pass up Theresa's cinnamon rolls, though I have GOT to get off the sweets train. I have been eating WAY too much lately. Charles had about a 1/4 bushel of green beans so I got enough for us this week. I can't pass up apples in the fall. I got two Arkansas Black (the name I can never remember of the hard, long keeping ones), a Stayman Winesap, two Granny Smith for Jim and a Golden Delicious. Finished up with a package of 4 to 1 buffalo patties and whole cut-up chicken.
We stopped off at Sweet and Savory for breakfast on the way home. We had our usual- two scrambled eggs, bacon and a biscuit. I noticed that the beer brewery right next door started offering breakfast. Interesting.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Window boxes and pumpkin




I'm just crazy about the pumpkin I found this year. Isn't it a spooky looking one? I happened upon it at Meier's in Indiana when I went to get a sandwich in between classes I was teaching. Here are the current window boxes. I have no luck keeping cabbage looking good. I don't know if I water too much or not enough, but I have always had trouble with the bottom leaves yellowing and dropping. Maybe that is just what they do.
As an added treat, this is E at the Tailgating Treats at church. I kept trying to get photos of him next to festively decorated vehicles which he didn't want to do. As we walked to the inflated jumpy things (what is the name for those?) I told him I wanted to get a picture when we got over to them. As we walked on the sidewalk, he said just take my picture here by the"old people" sign. What a hoot! Richey thought this was a nod to her. I assured her it was his request.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Saturday's market on Thursday!






Where did the week go? It has been an incredibly busy one. But, we did make it to the market Saturday and had a wonderful time as always. Aren't these photos just a "picture" of fall? The two little pumpkins are in my window boxes with the ornamental cabbages and the dying Goldilocks, which I thought I had "witchy" look for Halloween. I'll post those later. The bread is pumpkin yeast bread that Theresa made. I get the other bread that I use for bruschetta from her. I had it with peanut butter and apple butter for breakfast this week. Yum! More apples, I MUST remember the variety this next week, but they are supposed to keep for months. Don't these pork chops look delicious? The cabbages have been huge but I found this little guy, just the right size for the two of us. Lastly a new variety of cutting chrysanthemums that the flower people are growing for the first time. They have been beautiful this week and opened up perfectly. The fall colors have been spectacular, though we are past peak now. Only one more day before the next market day!

Saturday, October 17, 2009

A cool Saturday market







This morning is like a late November day. Very cool, overcast , windy. The leaves are falling all around. I'd like for them to stay on for a little longer, they are just beginning to turn color nicely.
We were at the market before 9:00 AM and evidently others thought it was a good day to sleep in as the market crowd was sparse. We had NO wait for an omelet which had beets, kale, potatoes, goat cheese, Kenny's cheese, watermelon radishes and eggs, of course, thought the guy in last week's video stealing cheese, got his sans eggs, just sauteed veggies and cheese on the side! I topped mine off with tomato jam. Yum.
First stop was the spinach, it isn't the red, but from the same guy and is going to be sauteed as a side dish to the chicken you see here. Our chicken guy is taking orders for goose for the holidays. Anyone ever had a goose out there? I haven't but it sounds so "holiday-ish" does't it (unless you are vegetarian like my Amy)?
The potatoes looked good today. Jim roasted some last night with olive oil, onion and rosemary. My very favorite way to have potatoes. When they are cooking, the aroma makes me happy! A surprise were the nice green beans, we might get one more green bean potato salad in before winter. These two nice tomatoes may be in our last bruschetta of the year. I still have a little basil in the yard. There were lots of green tomatoes, and I LOVE fried green tomatoes, but I nor Jim have ever made them.
Stew is sounding good, so buffalo stew meat and ground buffalo for some spaghetti this week, too.
I stuck with my same purple flowers this week and added two stems of dark snapdragon and got one little stem of tuberose, just for the scent for my bedroom. I had a sweet tooth when I went, it was all I could do not to buy a pie (which would have been eaten all by me!) but I did get the apple cinnamon roll with cream cheese icing and a jar of apple butter. I'm crazy about apple butter. It will be good on my whole grain waffles and peanut butter I usually have for breakfast during the week.
Not in the photo, but will be later are four (I think I need two more) ornamental cabbage for the window boxes on the first floor. I'm taking out the impatiens today. They are very tired looking and the peachy-pink isn't too fall-like. I'll put them in later today.
The rest of the day is house cleaning and paper work, my reward is a late afternoon of reading outside with a fire in the chiminea.
Happy Fall!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Sad Day

I was so sad to hear of Woodie Long's death today. You may have visited when I posted about him in May. He was one of my very favorite artists and just an all around cool guy. I'll miss my visits with him when I'm in Destin. My heart goes out to his wife, Dot, who is a treat herself. I'll cherish my two crayon drawings and painting that Jim is giving me for Christmas. It isn't even framed yet.

Christmas/Winter Rolodex Swap



I'm hosting another Rolodex swap on the byhandartists yahoogroup, this time a Christmas/Winter theme. I've really enjoyed flipping through my Rolodex to look at different art as I pass by it. I keep it in the living room. This is my card for the swap. I did alcohol ink background on glossy cardstock using Red Pepper and Lettuce and my Krylon gold leafing pen. I cut the cards 2 1/4 x 4 " and punched the holes for the holder. I stamped this cool Merry Christmas snowflake stamp from Quietfire Design with embossing ink and used White Pearls embossing powder which is a shimmery clear. It gave the card texture and if you hold it to the right light, you can ready the lovely "Merry Christmas" calligraphy. The holiday greeting is a Penny Black stamp using Archival Ink Black. I stamped Shrinky Dink sheets with the Merry Christmas stamp, which because of its tiny detail allowed little room for error. I wasted about half I stamped by not being able to be perfectly still while pressing and lifting, so I decided to go with another stamp as well. I like the little Bethlehem scene as another choice. So some swappers will get one design and some the other. I punched 1/8 inch holes in the Merry Christmas Shrinky Dinks and left the Bethlehem ones solid. The solid ones are attached with Glossy Accents and the button ones with a pink waxy floss. I love Shrinky Dinks! Watching them shrink is just the best fun. The back of the card is stamped with the same Merry Christmas snowflake in red dye ink and green chalk ink. I'll post the others when they all arrive.
Thank goodness my eyes can't see the little flaws that show up in the photo! It was hard to edge the Shrinky Dinks with the Krylon pen without getting a little on the front, rats.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Halloween ATCs

I got inspired today to do my halloween atcs (just click on the link) for the byhandartists yahoogroup swap. The splatter background is the Tim Holtz one that I've used before with some halloween inspired colors. Office Depot is going to start questioning by extensive use of computer spray cleaner! I used the bat cutouts Mary-Beth sent me this month and either a Martha Stewart web and spider stamp or the bare branch stamp I got from Impress Rubber stamps. The webbed background I received from Wanda at a giftie in a swap package and it just "screamed" Halloween! I used Tim Holtz Harlequin Alpha Grungeboard for the big letters. I colored it with archival ink, souffle pens and Krylon Silver. Two of the atcs are napkin art I did last year and saved. These were great fun and perfect for a chilly fall day.

Saturday's Farmers' Market- It's a MOVIE!

My sister, Richey, gave me this cool FLIP video camera and I made a LONG video of the whole trip to the market for her, but thought you might like the short movie of our purchases. It is a crisp, cool, windy day here in Louisville. My kinda weather.
Enjoy!

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Fall Farmer's Market






Can you feel the fall air blowing the slowly coloring leaves under a clear blue sky in KY? Ah, I love fall! We took our leisurely walk to the FM today. First stop: peppers for the chili I smell cooking downstairs right now. I got these lovelies-remember the Sweet Chocolate variety? The greens came from this farmer, too, leaf lettuce and chard with a little bronze fennel! I stuck with the sunflowers today but picked the variety with some brown variegation for a fall change-up. I got 6 ears of corn, 4 I'm cutting off the cob for the freezer and 2 we'll have for dinner tomorrow. Jim loves Granny Smith apples and they were at the market today! He'll be having cheese and apple soon I think. I couldn't pass up one of Theresa's cinnamon rolls. Doesn't it look yummy? The cream cheese icing is the crowning touch! Jim decided it was time to do a roast in the crockpot. Yum, can't wait!Here's a little Jack-o-lantern I made out of a tiny pumpkin last week. I used it just as a luminiere Saturday night and then cut the face. I plan to enjoy more of these cuties this month. Very easy to scrape out the insides but doesn't last quite as long as a larger pumpkin. I have loved seeing the wide varieties of pumpkins at the market. There was a beautiful white one that had orange variegation. It was spook-tacular.
Isn't fall grand?