Farmgirl Sisterhood Fall ATC Swap

Well, Being a member of the MaryJane Butters Farmgirl sisterhood gives one a opportunity to reach out and meet online and in person  with like minded women.   Women that have things in common and perhaps share ideas, recipes, hobbies,  laughs and tears.  One of the things we do a lot of is Swaps of all kinds.... ( no husbands, boyfriends or significant others involved here!) I just finished and have ready to send out Artist Trading Cards... all a little different from eachother but with the same theme and charistics.  This Theme is What does Thanksgiving mean to me.... and this year, we have lots of changes in our Family.  Husband retiring, moving, baby boy of 5 kids is Graduating from High School.  So, I chose... the Season of Change, Family and falling leaves in a fall color theme with leaves and of course a bird... ( I love birds). These little babies took a while as there was a collage in each piece... frames with copper tape.  Cant wait to see what comes back to me... I love these Farmgirl Sisterhood Swaps.        

Family, Falling Leaves its a Season of Change. 

Front view...

Well, weve talked about moving to Idaho for 5 years now.  or maybe even longer. My wonderful husband fell in love with Idaho on several camping trips we've taken here over the years with our kids.  He has allways wanted to have a farm/ranch out somewhere in Idaho.  So, now that he is retiring next month... we brought ourselves out on a little trip for 5 days.  We had a realtor show us about 22 homes on different size acerage... and today. He put in a bid for a house that he loved.  Im leaving the decision up to him mostley the only thing I care about is that we are together, happy and able to go on adventures.. and I have a sewing, crafting room.  I am excited that the place he picked has acerage and the house is not some old broken down farm house that will be in need of a lot of repairs.  Yes, we will be building fences, putting in fruit trees and painting the interior... but in the mean time we will live our next 9 months in California.  We will focus on what we need to do there at home before we even worry about the Idaho house.. and we know that the seller accepted the offer, now we need to wait to see if the lender on the house will accept the bid as it is a short sale offer.   wish us luck. Hopefully, Idaho here we come.   2 acres. Near town, but in farmlands... Nampa outskirts.

Room for livestock, chicken coop, large garden and fruit trees. Back View

Phil Vassar and I on my Birthday.

I got to Meet PHIL VASSAR on my Birthday, and I diddn't have a camera... but this nice lady whom I've never met before captured the moment and emailed me the pictures.   Sometimes a stranger can be nicer than anyone you know.... The lesson I learned in this is NEVER GO TO A SMALL VENUE CONCERT AND FORGET YOUR CAMERA.... YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU'LL MEET!

I'm glad to meet you Phil, No, I'm glad to meet you... Thank you for coming
No, Phil... Im glad to meet you. Its my Birthday... Well, have a fun night, and really I'm glad I got to meet you!
He was funny!

My Homage to Gardening... Collage art

I just turned 52. Its a tough pill to swallow, but I have two choices. Celebrate, or crumble.  I decided to celebrate.   I have so many blessings. Nothing is perfect and There are a lot of things I wish I could change... the things I can change... I will. But more than anything my 52nd birthday is a huge milestone for me.  I know from this point on that every day is a gift, a diamond... and a celebration.  My happiness is dependent on my attitude.  One of the things I love is doing my art work. So on my birthday I decided to make something and I wanted it to reflect something I love. I found a paper mache dress form.  Layers and layers and layers I have my HOMAGE to GARDENING.  Now I want to make a HOMAGE to sewing, and one for chickens and farm life, one for photography, and so on and so on... you get the idea.   
This was fun making... and very relaxing and inspiring.  

On my birthday I got to meet PHIL VASSAR and he sang " my next 30 years" ... and when I listened to those lyrics... I realize... this may be all there is for me now... I need to make the best of them. I need to not worry about the small stuff and be happy. 

     My homage to gardening.


Side View and Front - Dream

Back view.... BLOOM. I love the butterfly and the leaf vine ribbon accent.

Front view... The skirt is made from pages of the shakespear classic

Midsummers Night Dream.   This was a fun project. Looking foward to my next one.

It really feels and smells like fall at my house.

Well, this morning we had to run outside to move the wood patio furniture and all the cushions and pillows because it was RAINING.   It was the first rain of the year and I have to admit... I loved the smell and the feel of the rain.  I watched and took it in for a bit, and then it stopped, just like it came.... but luckily enough it came back.  after reveling in the change of season, I came into the house and there on my kitchen island sat a big box of beautiful green organic apples that my dear friend Laura gave me.. I knew I wasn't going to be home long enough to make pies which was my first idea, so I pulled out one of my most favorite recipe books and found a easy recipe to make APPLE CRISP.   It is soooo very easy.  Being the scrapbooker, family historian and scrapbooker that I am.... I had to take photos and thought I would post the recipe and photos to share.  

Out come the Apple Peeler Corer Slicer

Probably one of my most favorite tool in the kitchen.

Then place the apples in a  glass baking dish. Like this...

8 Cups of Sliced Apples

Sprinkle apples with 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and 2 Tbl cinnamon

then sprinkle with 1/4Cup Water.

Mix with hands in medium bowl:

1 1/4 Cup all purpose flour

1 Cupgranulated sugar

1 stick butter *not margarine

sprinkle evenly over apples

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes

cool and enjoy with vanilla ice cream or whip cream

guaranteed to be delicious

and fill your home with the warm smells of FALL

Is it Fall Yet?

Well, here it is September 24th and its finally feeling like fall may be setting in.  It was actually 96 degrees earlier in the day and now at 7:30 pm... it is 68 degrees and breezy.. we are hoping that we are saying hello to fall, we are looking foward to our first fire in our fireplace, snuggeling under quilts and hot chocolate....   And I love doing my stitching work when its cold outside.   I lay the quilts on my lap and lovingly do the binding or the handmade stitching for the quilt.    Don't get me wrong... we love summer and all that goes with it.  BBQ's, camping, beaches... but its been too hot for to long.  Please don't tease us Fall, and stay for a while.  

Here is one of 24  Fall Harvest ATC card that I made 24 of for a Farmgirl sisterhood swap. I will get 24 different ATC cards from all over the country.. cant wait to see what they look like.

Pie Crust lessons from the Kitchen

Today was a amazing day that I got to share with my Dear Friend Laura Bevilacqua.  I don't get to spend much time with Laura.. both our lives are so crazy busy.  She has two tiny kids one with special needs and a little preschooler both whom take a lot of time, energy, love, patience and tenacity.  She also has a husband that is fighting Lymphoma... and doing well at it while being a active honoree for Team In Training Marathon runners to raise money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society... Today however was all about reconnecting and what better way to do that than to Bake PEACH pies.   We attacked 3 cases of peaches dillegently... and learned that pie crust works best with butter that is of salted sweet cream... not of the Trader joes Unsalted variety.. you know the pure healthy butter.  The crust was impossible to roll out and we had to piece one pie together.. we baked it and it still tastes great..It did however fall apart.  We were able to put the Unsalted healthy butter aside and save it for cooking other dishes and brought out the Salted sweet cream butter for my pie cruse recipe.   Its a recipe from Virginia from a friends great grandmother.  I use this recipe instead of the older recipe that uses crisco shortening.. The rich butter flavor is so wonderful.   To follow are pictures of our day. We laughed our guts out and had a wonderful day and enjoyed a piece of pie together after cleaning up our horrible mess. 

Pie Crust
4 Cups Flour
3 1/2 Sticks Butter
1Tblsp White Binegar
2 tsp Salt
1Tblsp Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
1egg white to coat the pie top crust before baking

raw sugar  as desired  sprinkled on the pie before baking.