Tuesday, September 29, 2015

AUTUMN SUPPER

Had my son tonight for a little Welcome Autumn supper, styled the Paleo way..

Baked Acorn Squash

Ingredients:
2 acorn squash
1 # hamburger
4 strips bacon
1 onion
1 large apple
Rib celery
Sage
Salt
Pepper
Worcestershire sauce
Red pepper flakes

OVEN TEMPERATURE: 350°

In 8 x 10 baking dish place halved, seeded squash pieces in water 1 " deep. Cover with foil and bake 1 hr.

In skillet brown and crumble hamburger. Drain if needed. Add chopped  cooked bacon, vegetables, apple, and spices to taste. I used a couple T. sauce.

After  1 hr.   Drain water from squash and flip over. Fill each cavity with hamburger mixture. I drizzled thinned tomato paste over the top. Bake 30 minutes more uncovered.

It was a fun, new dish that we all loved. It just hollered Fall Y'all...

Monday, September 21, 2015

Last Post of Summer...

Whimsy and Hugs!  This will, no doubt, be my last post until Fall arrives on Wednesday. The only to do on my list before then is to pick up a real Pumpkin at the Farmer's Market in town if I get to fly in on my broomstick before Midnight Tuesday night.

The house is as decorated as it will get for the upcoming season. I think this is all we have, but usually I pop open a tote at Christmas and find a whole lot of laughing pumpkins. With the recent rearrangement of some of the rooms, I obviously put things in all new places this year.


I gave in and got a new coffee maker for company and for days when I simply know it is going to call for more than one cup. My Keurig is fantastic, but the regular pot of coffee just can't be equaled. Costs less, too, I'm thinking. Mom bought me a very basic Mr. Coffee. He's just the fellow for a chilled rainy morning when I'm programmed to do housework all day. Okay. Okay...  I have used him once in two weeks....  haha...  I may have to use him even when I'm not so programmed!  I can't use it all the time, or I'll be too caffeinated.



Of course, Fall brings with her a bunch of pests. I just killed in diabolical battle a huge, two-inch dark spider who was quietly smiling on my crystal cake plate filled with soaps and lotions...  I was probably only four inches from it when I looked down and thought, "I don't decorate with spiders." To be honest and fair, there are a lot of Halloween things, including my famous POTIONS sign...  He probably thought he was going to be honored. Well, he was finally squished with a third try and a big hunk of tissue...  Mom thought I was brave. I so thought he was going to get away. Spiders are hardy.



We have at least a pair of fat ground hogs who live in our yard. They have a couple burrows to duck into, including underneath the new deck, down a hole where an old well once was, and under the barn/garage right by my room. I was watching one this morning, and he was positively ticked off when he noticed a glint from the house and decided he wasn't alone. He stopped a few times coming toward the window and glowered at me. One of them also stood his ground with my sister/cousin the other evening. Ground Hogs aren't cute I don't think, and they are super fierce...  I'm kind of scared of them.



I made some brownies this morning, and I've been working on more organization ideas for this old space. That kind of thing and laundry keep me as busy as I need or want to be most mornings. Then in the afternoon, it depends if it's a work day or a recuperation day...  I feel like I have to work in order to deserve to recuperate.  haha..


All that may change as I get it together to start some kind of business. I'm going to have both an online site and some periphery items in the upcoming Studio downstairs. Got to get some health issues on Mom's and my part taken care of to do it right, but even if I do it wrong, it will be something fun to work toward, I'm thinking.


Are you Dancing With the Stars people? I am not, but I've watched almost every one of them in the past eight years because Mom likes it. This year is simply unbelievable. There are at least six stars there who dance only a tiny bit better than Mom could. Walker and All...  I kid you not. I was sad to see Paula Deen so pitiful, crying and acting classless. I couldn't believe how stupid the Jockey was in his imitation of a dance. Add to that Shaka Khan, who I thought was told to carry on the torch byPatti LaBelle, but she could not dance! Then that real housewife of Atlanta was beautiful, booby, and horrible on her feet...  But...  the truest crazy dancer of them all has to be Gary Bussey. Oh, my. He and I share a birthday, June 29. I almost want to change my day! And his mental state is not any better than his dancing. Scary stuff. I miss the British older judge, Len. Oh, well...  it's just TV.


I hope you have accomplished more today than I have---  if you desired to. And if you took a relaxation day, then I hope you enjoyed every idle moment! Have a great week...  See you next Fall!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

An update

Just so you know...

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Whimsy and Hugs...

Whimsy and Hugs!

This morning is simply beautiful. To all my dear friends who love summer, I am about to apologize because this is not the post for them. I am totally in love with the season I'm in. I decided a few years back to give it a go to love every season, since we are alive in each one for a good quarter of our lives. And I do love the absolute joys of summer. However, Autumn is just my favorite. And we have a few more days before the real Autumn arrives. One year I was so bedraggled and ready for the cooler temperatures I took a huge pumpkin and a candle and had a little celebration to usher in the beauty of the season. I heartily recommend that. For every cycle of our lives, whatever the cost, whatever the changes... I know it is impossible to welcome some of them. However, acclimation is something to consider.

I have added some touches of turquoise to my usual Autumnal palette, and I'm loving the cooling effect it has on my spirit. In this top photo, taken before the sunshine was really ready to add any natural light, my scrumptious aqua throw beckons us for a little afternoon nap. I love the way it looks stretched out on my bed, and I'm loving the little greeting the bed gives me from my new room upstairs.

I had this topper from a few year's back, and I've discovered it's a match to the quilt I just bought last week. How amazing is that? I'm just that organized!  haha..  Everyone who knows me will get a laugh on that one. This little angel sends her light and rainbow of colors through the room most of the night. Ever ready, my little oils and diffuser and my little jar of pens and markers. Give me pens and markers, and I'll give you sweet release from stress. I used to doodle constantly at school. I had to really watch out or I'd decorate some kid's paper. Believe it or not, they didn't like that.  haha...  What they did love was if I'd make them a heart and swag with certain initials calligraphy style etched into the mix. Ah, young love. I do miss that. However, after a few weeks of my colleagues back in school I have to admit it is fun to stay cozy every morning, drinking coffee or watching the grass grow!

This week my little car has been back in disrepair. There is something definitely wrong with it. If you start it after it's tired, it just won't run unless you give it lots of gas....  I hope to get it completely fixed this time. Ugh... Who knows what evils lurk in the costs of that. But...  I do need wheels with which to fly through Autumn's colors...  I don't love my car as I've loved others. Never did. But it has been very good to me, despite the fact little mice know how to get into it and do evil things. Please, oh please, never let a little ole mouse run over my foot or up my skirt while I'm driving. Oh, no...  not that.


Antique bowl, aqua battery candles, and lit pumpkins...  My mother looked at the mantle and quietly said, "It's different." I don't think it's her cup of tea. She isn't into those glitzy candle stands quite. I certainly AM into them...  haha..

I also tucked some purple mercury glass into a basket of leaves. Now, I'm loving that color combination almost as much as the aqua and orange.

~~~~~~~

Those little antique dolls are naughty as they can be. They have enticed sooo many little visitors into trouble. They beckon at toddlers to come over and play, yet they are totally breakable and entirely off limits. Poor little tykes get into deep trouble with their mamas. We put them away one time for months, and not a single toddler entered the home. So...  back out they slipped. Voila! Bunches of babies...



My sweet cousin who I also call sister because we are both only children and have been through so much, both good and not so good.... She gave me these sweet little figurines a few days ago. I love the little witch who perches on a pumpkin table with her buddies, the Autumn gnome and the little prince frog. I put them in a little dome that is from Valerie Par Hill, a decorator I adore from QVC. Seems like they are apart from this world in their own little aura...  I used to have a poster that said, "I'm in my own little world. They like me there." Although I think any world would welcome this trio.





At least ten years ago I made the little hat and found the sweet witch graphic for a tag. I love the look of it on my Authenticity Journal...  Turquoise again, I see.  I'm amazed how many places it's popping up all by itself.

 

The last two pictures of my dreams will lull me into action. Wouldn't this place be a magical retreat. I found it on Facebook, and alas! I do not know whose it is. If you do, please let me know so I can give credit and even ask permission to repost it. I would love a little garden nook like this, but I do almost zero outside any more. I do love it though. If I had a working magic wand, this would definitely be mine! haha..  So for now, I'll be content with the pumpkin patch below glowing beside my bed through the early night. Have a lovely summerly/autumnal week. Enjoy every minute we can.

Monday, September 14, 2015

This and that

Wonderful. That's the song playing this beautiful pre-fall week. We were able to talk to and see so many dear friends this week...

Fall was definitely in the air with chilled nights and lovely, cool days. We took a little jaunt to visit a special store for their Fall open house. I found some awesome candy corn candles and this beautiful quilt. I had gift certificates, so it was all free. Even a couple jars of delicious bread and butter pickles.

Today was a neat meal and games, a few chores. Time to start another week.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Party!!!

Finally we had my son's birthday. I fixed a big taco salad bar. We had two of his friends join us for a great day. My mom won Spinner by a mile.

I took my son's picture twice. The first time he thought he was smiling... The second he was laughing because he could see he wasn't.

He has been on a neat vacation to the Ozarks, so it was a super birthday weekend for him.

I made a paleo coffe cake. It was simply awful. I threw it in the trash, and I think it fell on through the floor to the basement. A combination of rock and sawdust and ... Well, awful stuff... Boo.... I'm grateful only I tasted it.  Ugh.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Labor Day

Hope your Labor Day is a fun one. Ours will be kind of quiet but we'll be celebrating my son's birthday on Monday!!!! 

I started a new afghan today. No. I did not finish the other one. I don't care. You're not the boss of me. Ha ha ha... I just felt like doing something different. I will go back to mine after Christmas. This might be a gift. For 2016 probably... Or 2017... This is why they call it a hobby.

Have a good weekend.

Thursday, September 3, 2015

On the fly...

I'm doing the best I can to just add some fall touches and wait until after Monday...  and wait until October for the Halloween. However, I haven't seen any Decor Police, so I'll irrevocably just do as I wish...

We've had some wonderful visits with my son, sister-cousin, and friends. 

The weather is unpredictable. I'm truly ready for crisper days... Touches, kisses really, of Autumn red tinge the tips of the forest... Mom and I have been looking through recipes and talking about lots of fun get togethers of the past and hopeful future.

THE BLUE MOON CAFE is open!!!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Happy September

Just thought I'd drop in and give a shout out to one of the most beautiful months, September.

The full moon was amazing and hard to catch as she laughed through the clouds..

Seems we are nearly covered in stuff right now. Much digging, stuffing, sorting, and pitching is required.

Enjoy September!