I really want to make these...

I saw these beautiful candied apples on one of the blogs I follow. I really want to do this with the apples we picked off our tree this year...

26

Yes, 26.

That's how many layouts I have completed in the last week. I scrapped with Julie and Kristin last Saturday, and with Erika yesterday. I'm on a roll!

Wanna know what I did today?

No.... not scrapping.... I canned! It's been over 5 years since the last time I canned (when we lived in Iowa!) and I'd forgotten how fun it is! Erika came over and we canned. She canned salsa and I canned apple butter and orange marmalade. I make apple butter every year, but this is the first time I've ever made orange marmalade. I sort of did my own thing with it, but it's good! And would you like to know what I did with the orange peel? If so, just take a peek here and see. Oh. My. Goodness. This is the most heavenly thing to do with an orange peel ever!! Amazing. And the best place to store these little confectionary marvels? In your belly. :)

I also dehydrated apples and made some orange infused syrup and roasted a pumpkin and started drying pumpkin seeds for toasting. Then I left and went to church to teach a Christmas card class for our ladies' night out. It's been a busy day!!

The Paperless Crafter Strikes Again!

My daughter received a dress in the mail the other day from her Uncle Robert. It is this cute little pink and white number that goes with a hat he made and sent her earlier in the year. My plan was to have her wear it to church this morning, and so she did. But first I had to crochet a collar (or "necklace" as Eliana keeps calling it!) to dress up the neckline a bit, with permission from my brother. So yesterday afternoon at Sweet Pea I left Eliana with Leif for a spell and trekked on downtown to my favorite yarn shop, Stix. There, with dress in hand, I found some yarn that matched nicely (as well as a few skeins of other beautiful yarn I just couldn't resist!) and I headed back to Sweet Pea to listen to music as my busy hands worked. I didn't have a pattern, or even a picture in my mind when I started, so I just crocheted. Every so often I'd pull Eliana aside and make sure the collar would be the right length for her neck, and then I kept on crocheting. It took me about an hour and I had a cute little scalloped collar! I was pretty happy with it, but felt it needed one more thing... So again I hopped up and trekked downtown to the bead shop, where I purchased 17 white beads (along with some other beauties I couldn't resist, LOL! See a theme??) to finish the project. And here is what I made:

I am very pleased with how it turned out, and it complimented the dress wonderfully! Here is my little girl in her cute ensemble from Robert, with the collar/necklace around her throat. (DISCLAIMER: This picture was taken AFTER church, not before, so the collar had loosened some in her playing. I didn't try to fix it before I took the pictures, because she was getting fairly cranky. So while it looks big here, rest assured that when we walked into church it was adjusted appropriately and did, indeed, follow the neckline of the dress.)

And I realized today, what with the crocheting (and knitting today since I had new yarn to play with!) and all, that I am getting ready for Fall. I love Fall. And all Summer I have not been ready for it, but today I am finally getting there. Bring on the spiced cider and scarves!! (But feel free to wait until September, because I know I will need the next month to soak up all the sunshine I can and squeeze every little bit of goodness out of the rest of summer!)

Thanksgiving 2007

Simplicity. It's a beautiful thing. Because I chose simplicity over perfection this year, I looked like this:

happy, calm, collected, and relaxed instead of like this:

which I look like most years. In case you can't tell, this is the "get out of my kitchen before I stab you with this little paring knife" look. I'm often a little more than on edge when I'm preparing a nice meal and trying to get it all on the table, hot and perfectly presented. Especially when there are extra people in my kitchen. I often want to wield a threatening paring knife and menacing scowl at those who step foot in my kitchen uninvited on a day like today, but I'm too nice. So I swallow the menacing scowl and rename it stress.

But not today. No, today I relaxed. Dinner was 5 minutes late. And I forgot to add the cranberries and almonds to the stuffing. And I smiled. It did help, though, that I didn't have extra bodies in the kitchen. It also helped that I'm learning how to make things ahead of time so that I have less to do the day of. I'm also learning how to ignore those who mock me for setting out the dishes the night before. But because I planned ahead and relaxed today, the paring knife stayed in my hand in not in them. So they should be thankful. They should also be thankful that they got to eat pies like these:

and sit at a table like this:


Yes, simplicity is a good way to go. I'll have to try it again next year.

Pumpkin Party!

On Thursday, Taylor and I had a pumpkin party! We pureed pumpkins to freeze and use in pies and soups and bread. Mmmm. Anyone have a marvelous recipe for pumpkin soup? We're thinking of having a pumpkin soup fest next...

How do you like them apples?

Let me tell you about 'them' apples. Glorious. Wonderful. And all but rejected.

You see, last week Ellie and I went to Rocky Creek Farm for a bit. And while we were there, I asked if they had any apples for sale. The girl said she'd check and then came back to say that, yes, they did. For $.50 / lb I could dig through the apple bins outside and pick out whatever I wanted. So, armed with a bag, I headed over to the bins. The apples weren't puny, as most seconds I've seen are. They were nice apples. Some had cosmetic blemishes, but nothing that I could see would affect their flesh. So I picked out some apples.

I picked out 8 lbs of apples, to be exact. They were Jonathan apples, with the exception of one smaller green Jonagold that I decided to add at the last minute. I felt sorry for the little guy.

You see, all of the apples in these bins were going straight to the juicer to be turned into cider. These were the apples who were rejected as firsts, or even seconds. Poor apples.

BUT... when I got home I learned that they were not only decently sized, they were crisp and delicious, too! They were glorious. Even Ellie thought so. So I took my $4 worth of apples and I made a batch of crock pot apple butter for Leif. Then I filled the dehydrator with apple slices for drying. With the apples I had left, I made a homemade apple pie that we ate for dessert last night.

So how do I like them apples? I like them a lot. And now I'm sort of curious to know how the cider at Rocky Creek Farm turned out.

I. LOVE. FALL.

Seriously. Isn't this the cutest mini bundt cake ever??? I've seen these mini bundt pans at Fancy Flours before and not known what to do with them. Now, I almost have to have them.