I have a project...I am happy!

I found this small chest of drawers at Goodwill in Georgia and have brought it home.

I didn't get a photo of it with the drawers....but after chalk painting and finding pretty knobs...different ones for each drawer...it has a new life!

I am also painting to be ready for another outdoor art event, Art in the Park!

September 17th at Dave Peel Park in Bentonville. 8:00-3:00.

Also working on 5x5 small paintings for Art Center of the Ozarks.

 

 

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One thing I found this summer that I love is coconut shrimp from Mojito's Grill!

 

It is the dipping sauce which is amazing! Coconut milk, coconut, mango and cilantro!

I make this at home too, sometimes. I bake the coconut shrimp on a rack in the oven! [ My last blog post showed my "girls" enjoying the shrimp from the oven!]

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This past Saturday I went to a quilt workshop. It was about diagonal design in quilts. I started a fun scrappy, strip pieced quilt.

My friend, Paula Mariedaughter was our teacher. Her quilts are exquisite, and she is a good and patient teacher!

Lori had this beautiful antique machine which I enjoyed seeing! A New Home. The company is now called Janome!

This was a wall hanging one student was working on! Bright batiks!

Another friend worked on this split 9 patch block. Fun, lots of small pieces!

I chose something fast and scrappy....it will take about 5 or 6 of these chains, sewn together with contrasting strips,to make a quilt top....

 

Since Paula's birthday was the following day, I made some carrot cake cupcakes! Carrot cake is Paula's favorite! The recipe was published just this week by Susan Branch on her FB page...

http://www.susanbranch.com/carrot-cupcakes/ ( this may not be a live link...but the recipe is below)

Here are a couple of the ones I baked....

Here is one of Susan's beautiful handwritten recipes...for Carrot layer cake...which is exactly the one I made but baked in cupcakes! [ and I added chopped crystallized candied ginger! To her recipe]

 

The latest current project is rearranging and decluttering my sewing space...doing this is like doing an archilogical dig...through 2-3 generations of my family who sewed and saved scraps!!!

The view from the basement stairs, at the moment....my sewing and painting....the big bookcase is headed out to the yard sale!

That's enough for tonight...

 

Back from Idaho....baking...Dump cake ---- gluten free, pumpkin.

I spent the weekend in Boise, Idaho visiting my son and his family!

Here we are at a super outdoor restaurant in downtown Boise Friday evening! What perfect weather!

 

While there, we did something outdoors everyday....not just sitting and eating! LOL!

We hiked through the green space in town, along the Boise River. Cottonwoods and other hardwoods...the maples are turning, were at their peak, I think....reds and oranges! ..there were lots of small locust trees with yellow leaves!

I did not take any kind of camera...just wanted to BE!
Sunday afternoon, we hiked a footpath in the steep, arid foothills just north of town.....

 

The ground slopes dramatically down (and up!)from the footpath, below is a dry creek bed with shimmering aspen trees. Lots of bushes of Idaho sage brush lend a wonderful fragrance as we brush past them.

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Later that evening, I got to read a bedtime story to my "boys"!
this was "Bring the Rain to the Kapiti Plain", which I used to read to our son!

 

[We are sitting on The grandson's "big boy bed" on a quilt which I created for him!]

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Coming home to my birthday...and more great weather! Out for a lovely b'day dinner at Emelia's.

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Today is try to bake a dump cake day! this recipe is HERE!

...and many more online! So I went for it! Using gluten free cake mix!

 

I baked it in several smaller pans so that I could freeze and enjoy at different times!

In a ramekin, I baked my sample serving! It was great! But the cake mix, being GF, didn't created a nice sponge.....I think GF cake mixes, with xanthan gum, need some mixing to make things "springy" and not gritty....to dissolve the sugar and to let the xanthan gum start working. Sprinking it on the top, dry was not a total "wow"....but it was still great! Especially with whipped cream???

 

sometimes things just happen......

These May Day flowers were meant to go to our daughter for her birthday tomorrow...May 1st. However, they were delivered here today by someone's error. So we are enjoying them and are happy to share them on the blog.

[Now, for the energy to paint them!!!!...I'm still a little tired from all those hours of watching the wedding! LOL! and knitting while watching!]

A wonderful annual event!

Thursday evening we attended a silent auction of donated paintings and other art. The format had to be 5 inches X 5 inches. This was a wonderful evening, and Mr. Pear's birthday too! The room was filled with artists and art lovers, all enjoying catered goodies and wine from a local (Wiederkehr's) winery! We could bid on these small works of art while watching to see if our painting drew any bids. There were over 300 paintings! I did not get one of the pieces I bid on.....it featured Greek doorways (I may have to paint one myself!). Most are done in oil or acrylics. I did find this abstract watercolor and love it! The artist is Richard Nicholson, whom I know as "Nick"! [Living in a fairly small art community, many of us know each other so that makes the party even more fun!]

My donated painting, below in an almost finished state....and the photo from which I painted it. I didn't get a photo of it in the final version....now it is gracing someone's wall.

I always go a little bit crazy around my birthday, feeling like I need to buy something to celebrate, SO, it didn't help me to "resist" when my daughter sent me on a quest to help her find some boots. To make a long story shorter, I hunted for hers with no luck, in the mean time, she located some. So I could put them out of my mind.....yes????

Today, I was making a quick run to the mall for a charitable donation and passed the shoe/boot section in Penneys.

There they were, the only size left being MY size and ON SALE. So I quickly became my favorite charity and added the boots to the items I was getting for the donation. [BUT I AM KEEPING THESE!]

How should these comfortable boots be worn??? With skinny jeans, or skirts.....for more great looks, check this post.

It also occurs to me that the boots could be featured in a still life with some chrysanthemums and autumn items.

The end of a perfect birthday.....

Thanks to all of you who shared this day with me, through cards, e-cards, best wishes and even dropping by in the last day or so. This card shows peaceful slumber with fairies bringing sweet dreams. I can hardly wait to fall into my cozy bed, sleep for hours, and then get up tomorrow....as Emily Dickinson wrote, "Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door*" [..just not too early please!]

The illustration is by artist Cicely Mary Barker and was sent to me by my friend Cheryl.

Not knowing when the Dawn will come,I open every Door,

Or has it Feathers, like a Bird,

Or Billows, like a Shore — Emily Dickinson

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This will be where I post for the next week or so.[I think!] I will add to the bottom of this post, so that more can comment here to be in the drawing...

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Lila's Birthday Giveaway.....


On October 15th, I will have a birthday! To celebrate, I will give away a framed original watercolor, "Autumn Song". This painting has a fall theme featuring mums, pears, and a nightingale. I will post more about it soon! If you leave a comment anytime in October, through my birthday, you will be entered in the drawing!
[added later] The painting is 16 X 20 in the frame. Yes, I am the artist. It is signed, though you can't see that here!!

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Saturday October 4th...

I have decided to sew for my granddughter. There are so many cute things to make and since I have a machine and a serger, I really MUST do this. [Besides I enjoy it!]

The first is a cotton flowered jumper with orange-red contrast bands.

Next will be a "swing" jacket from pink and brown houndstooth corduroy. It will have large brown buttons.

Off to the cutting table now!...

October 7th....the jacket is finished! (see photo) Off to post office and on it's way to Lilia!

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Sunday was a partly couldy day in Tiburon, CA. The surprise 90th birthday party for Mr. Pear's Aunt Hanni was held in a restaurant with a view of Angel Island and the San Francisco skyline. Here we are before the event.....

(note the green tissue package I am holding, it will be in several of these photos!)

At the party, to celebrate her life, were several photos including this one of a lovely young woman on her wedding day!!!!!

After feasting on delicious Mexican cuisine, enjoying a slide show, and toasts and tributes, we moved the party to a nearby home.

Here is Hanni reacting after opening the green tissue package....I think she really liked the socks which I knitted for her!!! Our son and his lovely bride looked on from another corner of the sofa!

It was truly a fantastic day!

Visiting a 70 year-old and a surprise b'day for a 90 year- old!


This bridge (photo from www.dailynugget.com) is 70 years old now. Mr. Pear and I will see it for the first time this weekend. We are going to a surprise birthday party for his 90 year-old aunt. The party is in Tiburon, CA, just across the bay from San Francisco.

I am very happy that we will also be seeing my son and his new bride!!!! We haven't seen them since the wedding in August!

My daughter's family is not able to come so far with the new baby...we will miss them.
[I can't really believe that I am leaving on a jet plane in the morning...so I'd better get that suitcase down and start packing!!!LOL! I did finish the hand-knit socks for the aunt!]

It's time for fall color!!!!

My three hundreth(300th) post!
......I am a "maple"..........A quietly "colorful" character!



Celtic tree lore has a tree for whatever month you are born in.....here is the one for this week....which is also my birthday week!


October 14-October 23: Those born on this date also fall under the lesser influence of a secondary tree...the Maple, whose motto is "Combative Angel" or "Independence of Mind." Maple individuals are far from ordinary and never completely satisfied with standard replies. They admire those who clearly assert themselves and rise eagerly to any challenge. Maple people are full of imagination and originality, inclined to stand out in a crowd due to their willpower and sense of committment. Though appearing shy and somewhat reserved, they are truly ambitious, proud and self-confident. Maples hunger for new experiences and have a desire to impress. They enjoy what is unknown, strange and even hostile. The inherent Maple need for independence often clashes with the need to be surrounded by a community. With a tendency to be nervous, Maple people have many complexities. They possess excellent memories and easily learn new things. The love relationships of Maple individuals tend to be complicated affairs.

I would go along with most of this.....especially the "independence of mind"! Which sometimes conflicts with the need for community.
Blogging has helped me to enlarge my community and I am truly grateful to all of you who visit and comment! I have been able to feel connected to a community even when away from home! [BTW, a very synchronistic event happened this afternoon! I was taking Mom to her primary care physician's office and who did I see but Annie of Little Rock Daily photo....who had stopped briefly in the waiting room, to get directions....
What a small world even the blogging world can be!]


Read more about your Celtic tree zodiac here.

Wishing Julie Marie at Celtic Woman, a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

(illustration of a watercolor by Elizabeth Blackadder.......
simple but it "sings")

Mary Timme has posted about celebrating your potential accomplishments...."Fall in love with potential accomplishment".

My potential accomplishment for today is to sew this dress for granddaughter Lili's 8th birthday....and maybe even get the package ready to mail....of course, that means leaving the computer! so, I'll be back later.....

[I have made dresses for Lili for years...( and I often like to work in 2's...making just one is not enough sometimes) ..a few weeks before her 3rd birthday, we were talking on the phone and I told her that I was making her "Two new dresses!" She called out to her mom with delight, "Grandma Lila is making me tuna dresses!!!!"

...so I often put a label in the dress I make for her which says..."Tuna Dress for Lili"!]

The second scan is of the finished dress being twisted to establish the wrinkled, crinkled look of fashion....I am posting a photo of the finished dress.

I'm so glad that I didn't give up chocolate for Lent...

this is the dessert from the birthday dinner we had for one of my friends,Tracie, tonight.

She is also a friend who loves the moon, so we presented her with a moon doll and a small moon quilt.

You could say we had a very good time, and Tracie was really surprised to receive one of our dolls!