What a surprise

My azalea's blooming and I saw yellow iris on my way home! It has been such a mild fall here so far. This week is going to be our first consistent colder weather. I still have impatiens blooming in the back yard, too! Amazing.

12 Days of Christmas

I am participating in the byhandartists yahoogroup's 12 Days of Christmas Swap again this year. We have 18 participants since we were going to be two groups and a few had to bow out. So, some days I get to open TWO presents. I thought the year I did the soldered charms was challenging, but this year I think topped it. My project took a few unexpected turns. I am not exactly happy with what I am mailing but, it will have to be the best I can offer. I'll be anxious to see how they travel. Here is a picture of the happy group ready for mailing envelopes. Since the main bulk of these go to Canada they require a customs form! I printed out double mailing labels to add to the forms for sender and recipient. I am happy with the little bags. I used them for bath teas I used to make and decided they'd be perfect for this little project. I'll post the basket of unopened gifts and the opened gifts, including mine, each day I open them.

Post-Thanksgiving Farmers Market

It was a light turn out for the market Saturday. Several of the vendors take off for the Thanksgiving weekend to travel and be with family. We did pick up a nice chuck roast and these carrots and potatoes which Jim is cooking as I write! Got a couple of apples, though I was on the lookout for some more Fuji from Charles and he was not there. So not a lot of veggie stash this week, but it'll make for a delicious supper tonight.
And a few family photos from Thanksgiving for good measure ( including fun with napkin rings). The menu was boneless turkey breast, apple and onion stuffin muffins, carrot souffle, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, fresh green beans (remember last weeks FM?), rolls, pumpkin pie. So good, even if I was the cook!

I'm back and it's Farmers Market Day again!

And it is a good one! I hope someone is still coming around to get a look at this great stuff. I had not been to the market for 3 weeks and boy, have I missed it. So, EVERYTHING looked good to me. I didn't even include the whole chicken, buffalo soup bone, which is in the pot for soup now, and two packages of ground buffalo! Isn't it a beautiful array of goodness? Can you say Thanksgiving? I remind myself and tell others, how grateful I am to be able to afford good food. We are blessed beyond measure to enjoy the goods of local farmers and to be able to support them.
How about these gorgeous radishes and green beans! Green beans-in late November. I don't recall it before. I got a dozen eggs and these lovely greens for salad. One is a japanese green, misomi, which I only got a bit of to try.
Believe it or not, I was a most un-adventerous eater at a kid. I ate NO tomatoes, beans (except green), mayonnaise, nuts (still picky), cheese, and still don't eat shellfish. That excluded a lot of stuff on our dinner table and I can't tell you how sad I was to hear white bean soup was for dinner. My mother never made additional food for me, I could have my portion of anything I liked, didn't have to eat things I didn't like, and could always make myself PBJ. White bean soup night I ate a little bit of ham off the soup bone and a corn muffin.
Back to the market, after that brief trip down memory lane, I needed some honey, what could be better than local? Fennel sounded good for salads and something for Thanksgiving, I don't know what yet. These carrots were wonderful and I should have bought a lot more for Thursday. I don't know why I didn't. The vendor said he picked them in the dark, knowing they would be popular, but only probably had about 3 quarts. I got these 6 fugi apples, for eating or adding to stuffing. I watched Rachel Ray's 60 minute Thanksgiving dinner last night. I'm thinking boneless turkey breasts sound good. I'm talking to the butcher tomorrow. She had apple in most everything.
The cute centerpiece is from Claire. She has the Dixie cup arrangements and I got the ornamental cabbage from her. She also had some beautiful arrangements in pie pumpkins.
Aren't these green and purple vegetables beautiful? They are a cabbage turnip! I didn't buy any though I should have for color and texture alone. (I'm not a big turnip fan-surpised?)
Lastly the beautiful herbs from Charles Hambley. Sage for the turkey and thyme for turkey and fresh salad dressing.
My mouth is watering as I write.

Garden Surprise since no Farmers Market visit this week

Since I am at Richey's and didn't visit the FM, I saved these pics that I took last week. I found them last weekend volunteering up around my chimney. Isn't that a fun surprise on Halloween?
And here is a picture of me, doctored with my photo booth thermal image, with my new loupes for work. I really liked working with them, though there is a learning curve. I think I'll use this for my new facebook photo. Weird, eh?

How about some art!

These are the Rolodex cards I received in the swap I hosted on the byhandartists yahoogroup. Aren't they beautiful? I posted mine last month. I'm going to go ahead and add them to my holder, but not open it up to any of them until Christmas. So festive! I mailed them out to the other players on Friday. I hope some will reach the US artists by tomorrow. The Canadians always have a longer wait. Enjoy!