You know fall is approaching when...

you find yourself burning fall-scented candles,
your craving roast,
and
warm starchy foods...

A recipe share of Sunday's late lunch date with the dh.

HOME MADE MAC N CHEESE

The cast of important ingredients...

Melt 1 Tablespoon butter or margarine. Add 2 Tablespoons dried seasoned bread crumbs (I use Italian flavored Panka crumbs) and 1/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese. Stir to mix and set aside.
Boil 2 cups of macaroni style pasta according to box. Drain and run cold water over noodles. Add 1 jar (15 to 16 oz) Alfredo pasta sauce
and
1 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese.
Stir all together, place in a greased baking dish and top with bread crumb/cheese mixture. Place into oven and bake when you see and hear bubbling in the center. The top should have a nice browned look to it as well. I believe this is about a 20 - 30 bake time.

A word of advise, don't eat this stuff the week of your cholesterol check...

And a quick and delicious roast for putting on the grill. It's flavor is divine and there is no prior prepping with marinating.

I use about a 2 1/2 pound rolled boneless pork roast. Rub with 1/4 c. olive oil and 3 minced garlic cloves. Season quite heavily with fresh ground pepper and sea salt...going easier on the salt. Place on an outdoor grill, using the indirect heat method. Begin cooking when the coals are the hottest. It takes about 2 hours, on a warm day to cook a 2 1/2 pound roast to 170 degree internal temperature. Use of a meat thermometer is recommended when cooking roasts on the grill.
After the roast is on the grill it's time to prepare the wonderful Roasted Onion Sauce....mmmmmm, this makes the kitchen smell so good! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Cut a medium sized vidalia onion into eighths. Place wedges in a small baking dish. Drizzle with 2 tsp. of olive oil and sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and sea salt.
Roast onions, uncovered, until browned and soft. This takes about an hour.
Remove from oven and mash with a fork.
Now for the liquid portion of the sauce...
Mix 1 heaping teaspoon of beef bouillon granules with 2/3 cup hot water. Add 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Stir in onions and heat sauce through.
When the roast is done, take it off of the grill and let it rest for 10 - 15 minutes. Resting time before carving will ensure that the juices of the meat are absorbed into the meat for a moist, cut with your fork, roast.

Slice the roast and pour roasted onion sauce over
and
enjoy!

It's a dark & rainy Tuesday morning here, I need to end this post and toodle on outdoors and get the hanging plants down from the front entrance, so they can take in some real rain water. Have a good day everyone!
Brenda

Putting my needle to rest...

Once the stitching of a new design is done,
and tweaked to my
liking,
or even re-made
a time or two,
{sigh}
I put my needle to rest...

and I take a deep breath
and move onto the photo shoot/pattern layout and instruction portion
of the pattern design process.
It is this whole coming together of this part that tires me. I begin to get behind at the home front, the dh is doing the laundry, and a home-cooked meal...what's that? Long days are spent with camera in hand, and in front of a computer screen.
The shoulders ache, the neck hurts and throw in a migraine or two...
this is when
my body begins to scream,
are those pattern covers/instructions done yet???

I do love what I do though,
and feel very blessed each and every day
that I'm doing exactly
what I love.
I also appreciate all your visits here
and the kind little comments you leave.
This is what keeps me motivated and going,
THANK YOU!

After a weekend of intense computer crunching
and playing with graphics,
the new pattern covers are done
and I can now
exhale...

And in a few days
I'll look over at my teeny little tomato pincushion
(which I love dearly, by the way)
and hear my needle calling me,
and then we'll do this
all over again...

Here they are folks...
new pattern covers for your viewing pleasure,
enjoy!
(click on photos to enlarge, for better viewing)

"A STITCHER'S PURSE"

"ANN DICKINSON 1819"


"MANSION HOUSE AT FOX HOLLOW"
Printing, collating and packaging begins tomorrow,
bright and early!

Have a good week everyone,
Brenda

Some peeks...

at a future pattern release,

"A Stitcher's Purse"...

A tiny little needle booklet

that opens to a woolly heart to keep my needle safe.

The little needle book fits perfectly into a dainty little stitching purse. A place to keep your favorite scissors and thimble as well. Purse is topped of with mother of pearl purse frame. Various motifs and stitcher's verse adorns the purse front. I've already put this needle keep and purse to use and I love it...makes me feel so "put together"!

And lastly on this future pattern is a pin keep to set at your side as you work.

An antique sewing bird clamp, various motifs and stitcher's verse are stitched in nice faded shades of floss. Vintage silk ribbon is rouched and frames the pin keep for a nice finish.

"A Stitcher's Purse" and other stitching needfuls pattern,
coming soon!

Have a good week everyone,
Brenda

Meet Ann Dickinson

She was 13,
the year was 1819,
when her needle
crossed her last stitch.

One hundred ninety two years later,
I lovingly
crossed my last stitch
in her reproduction.

Ann must have loved flowers, both earthed
and
potted in fancy urns...
there are 12 of them.

I pondered the significance the two ships a sailing had,
if any...
Ann must have liked birds.
There are big birds,
little birds
and
even a couple of funky striped birds...
15 birds to be exact.
As I was finishing up the bottom band of the sampler,
I was getting to the point
where I had the "bird pattern"
almost memorized!

A row of unusually shaped trees...
10 to be exact.
I wonder
if Ann's beginning point of this sampler
was the bottom band of the house, birds and trees.
It is fairly long,
running the width of the sampler.
This band then opens up
to the motifs
which are spaced somewhat far apart.
Did she stitch the bottom band first,
only to finish it and think,
Heavens to Betsy
it's going to take a lot of little motifs
and stitching to fill the sampler?
Did she opted for larger motifs,
spaced further apart,
as her method to fill all the space?

Whatever her method or thinking was,
I liked her end result
I love the naive look
and feel it gives the sampler.

The verse reads,
in it's form of 18th century handwriting,
"The Grass is green
The Rose is red,
This may be seen
When I am Dead.
Ann Dickinson
Work Aged 13
1819".

In keeping true to the antique,
I charted the wording in the center cartouche
using the same usage of letters
as Ann.

The sampler has two sweet little woman
with their walking sticks
and two funny little men.
One is what appears to be smoking a pipe
and the other...
well,
I'm not sure if he's blowing a horn
or smoking a pipe as well.
Or perhaps its a looking scope?
What did these two little men
in their top hats
represent for Ann?
We can only wonder...

There are two 8 pointed stars on the sampler.
One has a stem,
the other
does not...
probably a stitching error.

The omission of the stem
could have been Ann's
intentional stitching error.
It was often believed
that perfection
was left to be
for the Almighty Creator...

And here she is...
meet Ann Dickinson 1819,
the antique
from my personal collection.

And the reproduction...
lovingly reproduced
&
stitched
with thy
needle & thread
so that others
may enjoy
too.
Pattern coming soon!
I began the reproducing/charting
of the Ann Dickinson sampler
in the Autumn of 2010.
Stitching of the piece
began around the holidays.
This piece was what I call my
"in between"
project.
I would pick it up
in between
other seasonal designs
and work on it leisurely,
motif by motif,
saving the bottom band
for last.
I crossed my last stitch
on
the last day of July, 2011.

Stop by tomorrow
for a visit
to view sneak pics
of the "Stitcher's Sewing Purse"!

Have a good Saturday,
Brenda

My new eye candy...

"Mansion House at Fox Hollow"
is framed
and
has found it's spot in my home.

I sat and just enjoyed looking at it
&
really really liking it
as I sat
and
sipped my cup of coffee
on this rainy Friday morning.
We need the rain desperately
however
it did make for dark photos this morning...


Without further ado,
here she is...
worked in shades of browns, faded blues and straw
hand over-dyed flosses.
Browns and blues together,
oh dear,
that color combination
just seems to make my heart flutter...

Look at all those windows with their little panes...
fun to look at
and
to
stitch
(well maybe not)
but
not so much fun to clean,
I'm thinking...

Meet the goose and rooster...
aren't they sweet?

{sigh}
And then there is that little guy down in the corner...
you all know how much I love this little guy!
You don't see too many samplers with a fox motif.
I'm thinking he just might have his eye on that rooster,
or maybe even
the goose...
what say you?
No need to fret though,
that's what the dog is for,
right????

and the finish!
Are you thinking yet,
that's one big house.
We'll just pretend it's a mansion,
shall we?

The house is largely out of proportion
to the sampler,
but I love the charm
&
feel
that it adds
to the overall look of the piece...

And of course
we couldn't have an antique reproduction
without the antique...
isn't she lovely?

Stop back tomorrow
when you can meet
Ann Dickinson 1819!

Just a little shout out to model stitcher Susanna,
who stitched this piece for me...
thanks a million girl,
beautiful work as usual!

Have a good weekend everyone,
Brenda

I love buttons...

mother of pearl buttons,

especially.

There is something therapeutic about running your
fingers through a box of old buttons,
in search for that perfect one.
I even like how they smell...
If only these old jars of buttons could tell us their story.
Like whose shirt
or
whose dress they came from.
When the shirt didn't fit or had a hole in the sleeve,
it wasn't thrown out,
rather cut up and sewn into a quilt.
The buttons then would get snipped off
and put into jars,
to re-use when needed.
These jars of old buttons
came from past generations
that didn't waste...

We played with buttons
at my Grammie's house.
I don't recall her having any toys at her house,
but we were never short of things to play with.
Her button box being one of them
and
playing hide the thimble.
How many of you played hide the thimble?
I collect buttons.
I have them in old jars
sprinkled throughout my house.
I love just sitting and looking at them...

They are extra special
when you find them
still on their original cards...

A card of buttons
that were made
in my home state even!
These buttons were made at the Iowa Pearl Button Co.
in the year 1923.
Here is the backside of the card.
It reads...

And
the humble little factory
from which they were made...

The Iowa Pearl Button Company,
located along the banks of the Mississippi River
near Muscatine, Iowa.
Did you know Iowa
was known as the button capital
of the world?
In the late 1800's
Iowa turned out over 138 million buttons!
Buttons are still made in Muscatine, Iowa
today,
however from synthetic materials.

Notice all the mussel shells on the ground?
Iowa Pathways has an interesting documentary
on the history of the mother of pearl button making.
You can read it here.
Another interesting read about mother of pearl buttons
and
their Iowa history can be read here.
The article was put together
by a 4th grade class
as a history lesson.

Sometime ago you may remember
I spotted these sweet little mother of pearl purse frames.
It was only natural,
due to the fact that I love mother of pearl,
that I would be drawn to these little frames, right?

Remember the prototype purse from a previous post?
Well,
she is now done
and has sweet little motifs
and a stitcher's verse stitched upon her.
I knew I wanted the overall look
of the little purse
to look soft, subtle, delicate and faded with time...
a perfect look for the mother of pearl closure on the purse.
I think I've achieved that look
and I love how she turned out.
The linen of choice was Confederate Grey by Weeks Dye Works.
Want a little hint?
Think antique sewing bird clamp,
stitcher's verse
&
a small scattering
of
mother of pearl buttons...
Can you visualize it?
The "Stitcher's Sewing Purse" pattern
will also include
some other fun little sewing companions
for your stitching pleasure .
It is the perfect little purse
to tuck your favorite stitching scissors,
needle case
and even a thimble perhaps.
A fun little piece
to tuck into your big purse
and pull out
at your next stitching class or retreat...
you will be the envy of the party!!

Watch for "The Stitcher's Sewing Purse"
and 2 antique reproduction sampler patterns
coming in the near future!

With thy Needle & Thread,
Brenda

It's here...

Our trims and linen order arrived!
For those of you who had the hand dyed rick racks, chenille trims
and the
Abecedarian linen on back order,
your orders shipped yesterday!

Thanks for your patience
&
enjoy your trims
and linen!

Have a good one,
Brenda

As ye plant, so shall ye reap...

On my way to the green house earlier this spring to buy some annual

flowering plants
the dear husband
yelled out,
"pick me up a tomato plant"...
We gave up on a large vegetable garden years
ago, our yard is just too shady.
He seemed to have forgotten
that tomatoes need sun.
So I found a patio tomato already potted,
it even had a marigold and green pepper planted in with it.
I thought, I'll just put the pot in the sunniest spot
in our yard I can find...
The tomato was big and already had small
tomatoes setting on,
it looked good
so I bought it for the dh.
I would have taken a picture of the thing
but,
well,
let's say it doesn't look so good anymore...
the dh isn't the best at keeping it watered,
it has caught a blight,
thee marigold died
and so did the green pepper
but
hey....
we harvested enough tomatoes
last evening for
a favorite
summertime salad...

So this big tomato harvest of ours
calls for
celebration
&
to celebrate,
I
cut up a pound of raw bacon in small pieces
with kitchen shearers
and fried it nice and crisp.
I then drained the bacon on paper toweling.

I then whip up a batch of home made dressing:
2/3 cup real mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons vinegar
Stir until the sugar melts.

I then make a batch of home made croutons.
I know,
I know,
you're starting to think
Martha Stewart,
right??
No cheating here folks,
really,
they got to be home made kind,
they are B.E.S.T!
I take a small loaf of french bread and cut into small cubes (day old bread works the best).
I throw the cubes into a large zip lock bag and
drizzle light olive oil over them and shake the bag. I continue to add more oil, until the bread looks evenly coated. I then grind in some fresh pepper and sea salt. Toss in some garlic salt and about a half a package of dry Hidden Valley salad dressing mix. Toss cubes around in the bag until they are nicely coated. Lay cubes on a cookie sheet and bake in a 400 degrees oven for about 15 - 20 minutes.
Yummers...

I then chop up a half of an onion
and our days harvest of tomatoes...

Chop up a head of lettuce

and toss it all together....
you now have made BLT salad,
the best summer-time salad,
a family favorite!
(Note- must be eaten right away, isn't a salad you can keep)

And the tomatoes
in this salad???
They were D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S,
thanks to the dear husband
:-)

Note- we use this as a main course salad,
it's our meal,
period.
nothing else.
just blt salad.
We just eat and eat
and feel like a couple
of maniac rabbits
when the bowl is empty.
{sigh}

Enjoy!
Brenda

A surprise in the camera lens...

Sometimes you never know what you
are going to see
through the lens of your camera...
This evening I found a bokeh sunset
through the branches
of our Blue Muffin Viburnums...
Isn't that cool?

Bushes of tiny little blue berries
just waiting for large
flocks of robins
to start
their feeding frenzy
upon it's fermenting berries.

It's a real treat watching the robins
devour these berries.
They act a tad bit
intoxicated at times
and
maybe
they are!
There always seems to be
one bossy robin
in the flock.
The one
that
thinks she owns
all the berries
on all the bushes,
&
she
tries her hardest
to chase off
the competition...

I look forward to this
berry eating ritual
each late-summer,
and when the berries are gone,
sadly
so are the robins.
Time to make their journey
to warmer climates.

I hate to say this,
but it's starting to feel like fall.
I felt it during my stroll through the backyard
this evening.

The cicadas have been singing now for a couple of weeks...
you know what that means?
6 weeks until frost
according to the old wives-tale.

The days are growing
shorter,
fall will be upon us
before long...

Have a good night,
Brenda