Where did December go?

Santa's elves were very busy at my workshop. Got a few things accomplished recently, they are wrapped, and ready to give. Been doing beading lately in between all the other pre-holiday stuff, and have been making snowman earrings and angel bookmarks as jewelry gifts for family and friends.

Because our son and daughter-in-law fell in love with the t-shirt quilt I made for our daughter, they gifted me with a bag of t-shirts, so the elves got really busy in my sewing room and crafted another t-shirt quilt, and matching pillow for them. They were really surprised by it, probably because I had stashed it so well, they got it as a New Year's present!

Busy crafting

I have been at the Bead Renaissance Show, the Sewing and Quilting Expo, and other fall craft shows, so have also gotten inspired to create more "stuff".

I just finished a necklace for a family member, and shipped it off, and it looks pretty good--I call it my Duchess Necklace.

I have to get started on a few other sewing projects now, some surging, and quilting. This is a good time for that, when the wind blows, and nights come early.

Book pages

I just finished reading two new non-fiction books, which I would recommend to everyone for their fall reading lists.
The first is a light-hearted romp through a summer camp, reminiscent of "Meatballs", wholly credible, and I couldn't stop laughing, even after I put it down. Mindy Schneider's "Not a Happy Camper" is the perfect bad-fall-weather-day book. Her antics to avoid swimming lessons remind me of mine at camp, her cabin must have been built on the same plans as the ones we inhabited in our summer camps (so is there a camp cabin design manual somewhere out there, or does old lumber kind of lend itself to such creations of horror?), and her family vacation commentaries were a total hoot. Luckily a sense of humor on the part of the narrator/heroine kept her survival instincts honed enough to write it all down for posterity, thank you very much, Miss Mindy!

The second is the heart-wrenching story of Natalee Holloway, "Loving Natalee", by Beth Holloway. This is an incredible account of this poor girl's end in Aruba, and an equally incredible account of a journey of faith and hope of her mother. Any mother would easily identify with the pain of loss of a child, as described by Beth, and my heart goes out to her and her family as they continue to cope. Read this and learn way more than you wanted to learn about law and order outside the USA, and how we are all trusting and innocent tourists without a clue when we travel abroad.

Book pages

I know, I know, swimming season in the Midwest is at an end, but if you read the book I am recommending, you can once more experience the swim season, even though vicariously, as the author narrates her swimming journal. Akiko Busch is the author of Nine Rivers to Cross, and she does indeed talk you through each one. Two are actually in MO, and the last one is a favorite destination for float-trippers. She observes life and nature while she swims, or reminisces on her swim, and you can almost feel the water currents rippling through her passages. It is a serene book, one to pass the time with deep blue thoughts while we wait for winter to freeze our own water passages. Enjoy the plunge!

Book pages

This isn't a suggested title to read. Instead, I have a suggested website to visit, for all you readers. It is a game, that stretches your vocabulary, and at the same time, earns rice for the hungry of the world. Try it, it is almost as addictive as sudoku, and I hadn't seen some of those words since I took my GRE in college for grad school. I have so far reached level 43--so I challenge you to reach beyond!

Go to www.freerice.com/index.php

More on our Fall trip

What can I say, but it's certainly been a busy fall. My mom took a spill, so we have been spending some time down in the MO Ozarks lately. We now view fall as we are coming and going--comparing leaf color progress between southern and mid-Mo. But we still have all those wonderful days to remember from up north. In case you wonder about that leaping dog, she is Jasmine, and very remarkable. This was at the Upper Dells, WI.

More trip pictures

What can I say--it has been a busy Fall so far! It is apple season here, and I have been really busy making apple dishes: German apple cake with cream cheese icing, apple/cranberry crisp, apple pies for the freezer (haven't finished with those yet), and of course homemade soup to make the house smell yummy! We spent the past weekend in Illinois, attending my hubby's 50th class reunion, great fun and good visiting times. Seeing the family was an added bonus, especially meeting the newest member, a beautiful and sweet baby girl!

The pictures are more from our MI trip--from Mackinac Island, Meijer Gardens, and the Dutch Village in Holland, MI.

Fall travels

We just returned from an 8 day/2100 miles trip up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Mackinac Island. We saw so much beauty there, and met so many nice people, during our Elderberry tour. Of course we tasted so many different kinds of foods, and visited festivals, museums and gardens too. This is just a small peek at what we were able to experience.

Fall is here!

I think we finally have autumn!

Our sweet autumn clematis is in full bloom, as you can see from these shots. And the nights are arriving earlier, and finally cooling off. So back into the house go our houseplants, sigh, they are sad to leave their porches.

It's been a busy past week. Our daughter and her fiancee arrived from the west coast for a weekend wedding here, and we got lots of visiting in with her and the rest of our family. It's so quiet when everyone goes home. But the cat-who-reigns gets her spaces back, and Molly dog goes back to acting like a big rug wherever she plops.

Book pages
I have another book to share and recommend--Lightning Rule by Brett Ellen Block. I read it at night during this past family gathering, and it really provided an escape when it got too busy. It's a sort of noir mystery, takes place in the 60's during a heat wave and race riot in Newark, NJ, and centers on a police detective who chances on a serial killing during the riot. The characters come alive, and I particularly liked the brash young black teen whom the detective has to shelter and protect from the mob. This book could easily become a movie, so let's see what happens!

More beading projects

I wanted to share pictures of my latest projects--both for my daughter, who came home this weekend for a friend's wedding. The one with brown and yellow beads I designed for her to wear with a brown dress with yellow flowers--guess what--she thought it was perfect with the dress! The other is a crystal fantasy I assembled, inspired by something I saw in a magazine. The hardest part was silver-soldering those jump rings, so my hubby pitched in, and it turned out rather well, we thought.

Autumn approaches

I think we are finally approaching fall--the nights have turned cooler, and the days are still, sigh, hot hot hot. But we will weather the heat, and watch the colors on the trees turn to gold, shades of red, and finally brown, before they drop. Poison ivy and sumac are both beautiful to see with their deep red leaves in the fall, but not something you want to use as indoor decor. Our hummingbirds are really hitting the feeders, getting ready for their trip south. Now our cat wants to help them on their way, but she is limited by the screens on "her" porch. At least we can once more enjoy our porch, instead of being driven in by the heat. Hurry, autumn!

Book Pages--I just read a purely "escape" novel, and wanted to share it--Shoe Addicts Anonymous--by Beth Harbison. If you read Jane Heller, this is another one of those witty chic-lit books. It's about four women addicted to shoes and shoe buying. Out of desperation, one of the ladies starts a club for her addiction, and they all find friendship, therapy, and finally shoe/financial success through their addiction. Read it and laugh!

Beading hobby

I have been creating jewelry for friends lately, and of course for myself, but the most fun is making something for a new bride, for her wedding ensemble. Here are some examples--hairpins and a crystal necklace. It's a joy to see these brides wear their pretties!

Book Pages

Want a great reading adventure? One you cannot put down, because the action just draws you through the book? Well, here it is, Alex Kava's newest--Whitewash. It takes place in Florida and Washington DC, and centers on a scientist who discovers the environmentally "friendly" company she works for has a big secret. Her co-worker and supervising scientist mysteriously disappears, and she notices illegal effluent going directly into the river. As it turns out, this effluent contains dioxin, and the dioxin comes from Hurricane Katrina damage delivered by the dumptruck loads at night, and churned into energy in the daytime at the plant. The plant is supposed to use the thermal conversion process to transform chicken parts into oil, an admirable cause. But in actuality, it has tapped into hurricane wastes as its main source of oil, and in so doing, has broken many barriers and laws. Of course the bad guys at the plant are now after Sabrina, the scientist, so she has to run to her brother Eric, whom she hasn't seen since her mother's death. And Eric also has some big secrets to hide. A congressman turned murderer, a retired housekeeper with tons of cash hidden in her freezer pork chop bags, a hired assassin, a group of beach bums who have hidden secrets and skills which could help Sabrina, a couple of congressional aides with secret agendas, all stir up this exciting "goo". It reminds me of Michael Crichton's books, good suspense thrillers, with a scientific lesson woven in for us laypeople. Run, don't walk, to your local library or bookstore and check this out!!!

Long hot August

This has been an extremely long hot August--the dog days won't let us go here in the heartland! So watering the garden and flowerbeds and pots is a regular morning thing every day. And refilling the bird bath is also a daily thing. And checking all the fountains and waterfall to make sure mama deer and her babies have enough to drink at night is also becoming a daily chore. I would like to take a moment to thank Thomas Edison and Willis Carrier for the inventions of electricity and air conditioning. Oh and Nikola Tesla, for alternating current, according to my hubby the engineer.

Book pages: Try your hand at The Wild Trees by Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone. It describes the awesome beauty of the giant redwoods, and the flora and fauna of their canopies. This is a fascinating glimpse of nature, and a breathtaking look at those who climb up 300 feet into the canopy, using ropes to become "spider-men and -women", flinging themselves through the limbs, the deadwood, and the air. A great summer read, and a lesson about the BIG trees of America!

Book Pages

I have another book to recommend: this is for everyone who liked/loved Da Vinci Code:
Book of Air and Shadows by Michael Gruber. It tell the story of a lost manuscript of one of William Shakespeare's plays, never seen by anyone because it was hidden away after being written. It begins with the discovery of letters by one of his contemporaries, and a secret coded series of letters which describes the lost play. The characters are compelling, the action moves swiftly, and the author weaves in the problem of how no one really knew Shakespeare, because the only written documents were his plays, posthumously collected and published by his friends. There are many "what if's" designed to add spice to the plot, and some interesting characters, including a documents historian, librarian, Russian mobsters living in the eastern US, scam artists, a copyright lawyer and his family, and several great chase scenes out of the movies. The lawyer talks about who might play him in a movie based on his adventure, and I am also curious, because I think it would make an excellent movie. Pick this one up before the summer cools--this is hot reading!

Has it been a whole month already?

Wow, I really cannot believe that most of July has been and gone! We were extremely busy this past month, entertaining family flying in and out. Eight airport trips makes one really appreciate the future of a proposed commuter rail system. We had my hubby's two nephews in for 2 weeks, and they were great, but we were exhausted when they left. All is back to (mostly) normal and Molly dog and the cat-who-reigns are both back to their favorite haunts.

We have been down to Branson, and into all points of the Big City, taking in everything a young teen might be interested in, including museums (we believe in sneaking in some educable moments in our entertainment), and the new movies out, like Harry Potter, and Ratatouille--cute. We had some hands-on experiences for the boys, like picking vegetables from our garden, climbing up to our treehouse in the woods, catching toads, treefrogs and lightning bugs in a jar, and we played board games every evening we could. They really creamed us with Uno and caught on to Mexican train dominoes quickly. We have great memories to share and lots of pictures to remember the time.

I did have some reading time in between, so I have one book to recommend for readers: The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown. It was a thorough compendium of Princess Diana's life and times, and had some very interesting observations. If only, was the constant thought in my mind as I read it. Well, that's what biographies are all about, letting us look at someone else's life, and then set back and say, if only... I am planning to read After Diana next. A good follow-up.

Book pages

I have another book to recommend, for anybody who loves a good mystery, or true crime. Those of you who read Ann Rule, Joe McGinniss or John Grisham, will be interested in this one: Scoundrels to the Hoosegow, by Morley Swingle. He is a MO writer, actually the elected prosecuting attorney of Cape Girardeau County, MO, and this book is a recounting of some of his more notable cases. He narrates some of the most hilarious and true situations, and some really serious and deadly cases he has prosecuted, and writes with a wonderful literacy, quoting famous justices, lawyers, and of course, a fellow Missourian, Mark Twain. This is a good book to read while you are traveling, or just sitting on the couch, waiting for CSI to resume from commercial break. So check it out at your local library!

Happy 4th of July!

Our garden came through for the 4th--popping out a beautiful lily this morning! These came from our spring trip to the Flower, Lawn and Garden Show. What a nice surprise!

Quilt project

I just finished making this quilt, from Uncommon Threads on DIY network, for my daughter. It turned out rather well, I think, and was so easy, with fleece on the back side, and fleece borders. Knotting in the corners of each square. T-shirt fronts and backs as quilt squares, with a few black fleece squares thrown in. To decorate the blank fleece squares, I used some of her old school patches, from activities she was involved with. Now I have to make a second one for son and daughter-in-law because they liked it so much!

Garden after the rain

We've had a lot of rain recently, 8 to 20 inches in our area, depending on how lucky we were, so our flowers are doing really well--purple coneflowers and brown-eyed susans, gifts from librarian friends in my past life, and the last bloom of the double mock orange, an heirloom plant from a great granny. Now we see the sun again, so once more our zucchini will take off.

We are having a great garden summer, so of course that means lots of zucchini. I have decided to share one of my favorite recipes, from my mom, to use up all that zucchini we pick. As Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake".

Zucchini Chocolate cake

Blend together 1/2 cup soft margarine (and yes you can substitute butter, I do),
1/2 vegetable or canola oil, and 1 and 3/4 cup white sugar.
Add 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 cup sour cream (I use the low fat), and 2 cups grated or chopped zucchini (Food processors come in handy here!).
Mix well.
Combine and mix together 2 and 1/2 cups flour, 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Blend this into the zucchini mixture.

Turn batter into a PAM sprayed 8 X 11 inch baking pan, OR 2 8X8 aluminum pans, and sprinkle the top of the batter liberally with good semisweet chocolate chips. (This time I also tried Heath chocolate/toffee crunch)
Bake at 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until center tests done.

If you use the aluminum pans, after they cool, you can then pop them into gallon ziploc bags for sharing the cakes, or freezing.

I just baked two batches today, and already have committments for 3 cakes! Hope you enjoy them as we do.

Muskogee Trip

Next day after the picnic, and supper and service at Antioch Baptist Church, we visited some sights around Muskogee. We stopped at Lavendar Hill Farm to see the lavendar plants, and smell their wonderful fragrance, and of course visit the gift shop full of equally fragrant products. Then we stopped at Hammatt's Restaurant in Claremore for lunch. The pie was out of this world! Onwards to the Will Rogers Museum. There we roamed for several hours, and were really amazed at how much this man impacted our American culture and heritage. The Cowboy Philosopher's observations about life & politics 80 years ago could be applied today as well.

Muskogee Mission Trip

Our clowns entertain the kids at the park. Our pastor is the puppeteer.

Muskogee Mission Trip

My hubby and I clown around with a few of our Christian Caring Clowns, as we get ready for the picnic with the kids in the park.

Muskogee Mission Trip

This is a bench dedicated to Precious Doe, Erica Green, at Elliot Park. Our Elderberries got the bench for the children of Muskogee, and had it installed November 2006.

Book pages

Because I read so much, and miss my reader's advisor job since I retired, I am going to start recommending books for reading. I am a mystery buff, and crafter, so you will see a mix. This week's suggestions are:

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman--this is a story about a 30 year old disappearance of two girls, at a Baltimore mall. It begins with an accident involving a young woman who runs from the scene, but is found by police. She says she is one of the missing Bethany girls, and knows what happened to her sister. The story then flip flops between all the characters reminiscing about the past, or recounting what is in the present time. This is a good gripping summer read, with a twist at the end.

For all you crafters, I recommend Bend-the-rules sewing by Amy Karol--an easy, small projects book for beginners or advanced sewers, with lots of projects for your scrap bag of fabrics. I particularly loved the old time apron patterns and suggestions, even for special pockets, and got lots of ideas for gifties for Christmas.

So check these out at your local library and Happy Reading!

More notes from my garden

Our little clematis really bloomed well this year, and I didn't expect it too, after our April frost. Our water garden is going well too. Molly dog loves tracking the scent of wild critters who explore the garden at night, when she is inside and can't chase them!

Back from Muskogee

We are back from our Elderberry trip to Muskogee, OK. When we first arrived, their FBC seniors gave us a luncheon. Their hospitality was fantastic, and they helped us with preparations for the picnic. Then we went to Kidspace to deliver stuff for the kids, then out to Elliott Park to host a picnic for kids of the community. We were then privileged to be part of an awesome dinner and service at Antioch Baptist Church. Before we left that evening, I asked Pastor Noble to pray for rain for KC, because we needed it, and OK had more than enough to go around. I joked that we could use a cloud hooked to our bus, from OK, and pull it home for rain. Well, before we arrived home last night, a storm had already passed thru our area, and rained on our gardens, and now we have more coming. So thank You, Lord, for the rain! And thank you Brother Noble, for your goodness and prayers.

These are spring flowers which bloomed so prettily after the April frost. One reason I like where we live--it has seasons. Makes you look forward to changes. The pyrecantha bush hosted a cardinal family--4 fledglings successfully hatched and flew to maturity. We think 3 females and 1 male. Now house wrens have taken this corner over. I can hear the babies cheaping for food in the evenings.

Retired life

Life is good since I got retired last August from the public library. Last summer was really tough, because we were understaffed and overworked, as is usual in a small rural library branch. So this summer when I get tired, it's because I have pulled too many weeds, or worked too long in the iris bed. Times are good. We are traveling, which I couldn't do before, and I can enjoy our pets more, and get crafty. Yes, life outside the library is good!