Country Living Fair South 2011

I braved the very chilly weather and went to the Country Living Fair at Stone Mountain, GA bright and early this morning.  It was as fabulous as it was last year!  Right across from the entrance was Earth Angels and there was eye candy galore.  Such creative artists and art - enough to make your mouth water.  Then on to the other 150 or so booths back along the trails under the trees...French Laundry Home, Mill Branch Bar Soap Company (with the most fragrant olive oil soaps and creams you can imagine - Ginger Lime was the one I bought), Au Gres Sheep Shoppe, Barn Trash, Serious Whimsey, Farmhouse 1807, Necessary Excess, Sassy Trash, Splinters and Rags, Three Birds Studio, With Heart and Hand, just to name a few.  Oh and of course the food booths - the best of which was Annie's Baking - breads and goodies like you wouldn't believe.  One booth - I can't remember the name - had wonderful crafting goodies.  I found two clergy collars and they will be turned into crowns.  If you live anywhere near Atlanta, there are still two days of the Fair left - do go - you'll love it.  I'm already going to start putting my pennies away for next year!

Was It A Bird...Or Is It A.....Frog???

Jack and I have multiple bird feeders in the front yard - in fact our front yard is mainly birdseed "grass"  LOL.  We love to watch them feed - even the squirrels keep us entertained.  Yesterday we were standing out on the driveway and along the herb garden in front of the house is a small fence covered with Carolina Jessamine - so pretty in the spring with all of the tiny yellow flowers blooming.  I saw something on top of one of the fence posts and thought - DARN THOSE BIRDS - if you know what I mean.  LOL  As I got closer I realized it was the most beautiful tiny frog - black and white.  It looked like a primitive crackled frog and it was just sitting on that tiny little fencepost with it's front feet crossed like it was praying.  Since I can always use an extra prayer or two I imagined it was deep in meditation.  I'm not sure how exactly he hopped up there or when he left, but it was a special beautiful piece of nature that made my day.

Enjoy!

Quick and Easy Bean Soup

Here is a quick and easy bean soup.  This makes two good sized bowls so increase ingredients as needed.  I served it tonight with cornbread and YUM!  It was so good.  I'm really glad soup weather is here again!

1 15 oz. can navy beans (I use Eden organic - they are the only brand I can find who has a BPA free can lining)
onion (as much as you like - I used 1/3 of a very large Vidalia)
2 medium carrots
1 stalk celery
2 garlic cloves
4 slices Canadian bacon (or ham if you'd rather)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chicken broth

Dice onion, carrots, celery, and Canadian bacon approximately the same size.  Heat olive oil in medium saucepan.  Add onion, carrots, garlic cloves (whole) and celery and saute until tender (about 10 or so minutes).  Remove the garlic cloves.  Add Canadian bacon, drained and rinsed navy beans, and chicken broth and stir well.  Let simmer another 10 minutes or so.  Enjoy!

And don't forget to put those onion skins, carrot peels, etc. in your compost pile - now is the time to start one for spring planting. 

Flat Betty and the Halloween Ball

You asked for it... you got it (and Georgina won her in the giveaway)...another installment of the Flat Betty Tales.



Now Tweed Town was having it’s annual Halloween Ball at the Jim Bob Yoder VFW Hall and Flat Betty was determined to be the belle of the ball. You see there was a prize for the best-dressed couple and she just knew she and Bubba could win. Flat Betty and her best friend Georgina had gone shopping and found the most perfect outfit with just a dab of glitter that wouldn’t be too shocking if Betty happened to run into Rev. Flugle from The Holiness Church of the Sacred Glade on the way to the ball.

Flat Betty was at work at the Ding Dong Dinner Diner the night before the ball and who waltzed in but Mary Lou, her old high school rival. “Oh Betty”, said Mary Lou. “I found the most bee-u-tiful costume for the ball. No one will ever recognize me and I’ll win the best dressed prize for sure honey!” Flat Betty just stood there with her mouth hanging open because she hadn’t realized that it was a costume ball. On her next break she tried to call Georgina.

Flat Betty and Bubba were double dating with Georgina and Honey Hunk (as Georgina liked to call her boyfriend, Elmer Clyde Diggins) and Georgina could surely come up with SOMETHING. Georgina’s mother, Verbena, answered and hysterically told Flat Betty that Georgina and Honey Hunk had eloped to Las Vegas the night before.

When Flat Betty went home that night she thought and thought until her hair positively frizzed. Then she went out to her mother Maude’s big vegetable garden and picked a beautiful pumpkin. Why I’ll just carve that sucker out and wear it – it IS a Halloween Ball after all. And surely no one will guess who I am.

What she hadn’t counted on was how yucky that punkin was even though she dried it off inside…and also that once on her head, she couldn’t get it off! And I do believe Flat Betty would have won the prize that night but her hair (which stuck out the top of the pumpkin despite everything she did to stuff it back inside) gave her away.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Thinkin’ too much can be bad for your hairdo

How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Day #1

It’s day #1 of a long needed vacation from work and days two through eight will be spent at home but thankfully so. Now on to the exciting tale of my first day. Most of you know of the every other week treks I make to North Carolina to check on and do for my stepfather. It’s about a six hour round trip drive (not counting the times when he has doctors appointments which are at least 45 minutes away from his home). In any event, I left this morning at the crack o’ dawn so I could get to the other side of Atlanta before the rush hour really began. As I drove into the driveway and saw that the shade on the door was still down and the door locked, I began to worry a tad. He’s usually always up before 9am. Luckily the sliding glass door was partially open (there is a cat door in the sliding screen door for Miss Kitty who is a whole other story) so I was able to get in. I quietly tiptoed to his bedroom door watching the sheets to be sure he was still breathing (thank you God!)…he is 87 after all. While he slept I gathered up the bills, bank statement, and checkbook and had them almost done when he awoke. On to the pillbox and refills while he drank his coffee. Oh wait – I promised exciting didn’t I?

Frank’s little house is very compact – a tiny kitchen/dining/living room, two small bedrooms, and a bathroom. One of the bedrooms is used for storage – it used to be where my mother kept all of her yarns and threads – she was a weaver. In any event, while I was at the kitchen table I kept getting this faint whiff of something not too pleasant. When I went into the spare room there was a horrible over-whelming smell and I thought Miss Kitty had either deposited a gift or brought in a gift (which she does on an almost daily basis). Ole Frank said “Oh yes, I’ve been smelling that but didn’t see anything.”

OK, hold your breath (I certainly was by that time or at least breathing through my mouth) here comes the exciting part. On the wall shelves where extra canned goods, etc. were stored….well…..have you ever smelled or seen a bag of potatoes that was mostly juice? I thought I was going to pass out from the smell! Finally got that sucker into a big garbage bag – not very gracefully either…then had to scrub the wall and floor where they had dripped, clean off cans where they had run, WASH bottles of BOOST that had been dripped upon.

Oh no, we aren’t to the exciting part yet….really! These shelves are the rubber coated wire type and Frank had put a very thin piece of some type of wood over the top one – I guess so things wouldn’t fall through. Well I knew that lovely potato juice would have soaked it through and it needed to go. So off that shelf came everything (along with a bag of flour that, shall we say, was beginning to look like it was inside out. Not sure what was happening with that but it went in the garbage bag with the potatoes) and I lifted up that thin piece of wood – are you ready? Really ready? For the exciting part?

Can you say maggots? Ewwwwwwwwww ewwwwwwwww ewwwwwwwwwww! I’m telling you I nearly died, very vocally, as I ran through that tiny house to get that thing out of the house and onto the garbage pile. And then I had to clean the ones that were on the wire shelf off – ewwwwwwwwww ewwwwwwwww ewwwwwwwwwww. I don't DO maggots - I don't even want to LOOK AT maggots!  Anything not in a can is banned from that room!

Now tell me – could I have had a more perfect vacation day? Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

Another Flat Betty Tale - Only This Time You Can Win Her!

Lucky #4 - Georgina - has won Flat Betty.  And I've emailed you Georgina.  Congratulations!

Y'all remember the Flat Betty tales don't you?
Flat Betty & the Snowball 
Flat Betty & Pressley 
Flat Betty & the Fourth of July Parade 
Flat Betty Plays Bingo

Welllllll - so many of you had asked for more tales that I'm working on another one.  This one will be my giveaway #4 and the only hint I'm giving you is....Autumn.  You'll receive Flat Betty as well as a teeny storybook with her story.

One comment per person please.  I'll draw a winner on Saturday, September 3rd (yup, I know it isn't still August then but what can I say - I must have started a week late on the giveaways LOL).  Good luck!

Giveaway #3 - Got the Blues?

Gee I'm feeling kinda lonesome!  I guess that six months of non-blogging during my big work project took it's toll LOL  Well it was a 50/50 draw and Debby, you are the winner of the pillow.  I'll be emailing you for your snail mail addy.  Congratulations!

Oh dear, my camera or my printer download program - one of them, isn't working right.  Instead of pictures I'm getting something else (DCPs?) and can't download a picture.  So I'm using the one from when we had the "braiding around rug hooking" class here with Kris McDermett and I made the pillow.  Not a great picture of the pillow (or me on the left LOL) but enough that you can at least see the pillow. 

The pillow is hooked with hand-dyed wool in yellows, blues, and greens.  And yes it is as bright as it looks LOL.  Around the edge is a braid of hand-dyed wool in blues and greens.  And then around the outside edge of the braid there are tied lengths of a wonderful Italian wool roving yarn in various shades of blue.  This was the most wonderful yarn to use for many things and I bought many color combinations of it.  Unfortunately it isn't made anymore so I hoard it to use for very special things. 

What you won't see in the picture is that the very center of the pillow is loaded with all types and sizes and colors of beads.  So that will have to be the surprise when the winner receives it LOL 

Leave a comment (one per person please) and I'll draw for a winner on Saturday, August 27th.  Good luck!