And the winner is.....

Into the basket went 20 names for the fall themed giveaway.

Yngwie reached in and selected........

amy- lifes small treasures!!!!!!!

Thanks to everyone for signing up! Amy, I hope you enjoy your prize!

Have a wonderful Sabbath.

Linda

Friday Show and Tell & A Give Away!

Each Friday Kelli ihttp://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ host Show and Tell. Wonderful things can be found so head on over and join in.

Today is honor of my 100th post (how on earth did I find that much to talk about?) I am giving away an Autumn themed gift!

A wonderful apple cook book, a quilted fabric pumpkin, some scarecrows, and lots of other things. If you would like to sign up for the give away, just say so in your comments! I will draw the name of Sunday.

Now for my Show and Tell. One of the many reason that I love fall is the second blooming of my roses. The nights are getting cooler and the roses love it!

I wish everyone a wonderful and blessed week-end!

Linda

Happy Birthday Mom

Today would have been my mothers 67th Birthday.

My mother passed away in 1977 after a hard battle with Leukemia. She was only 37 years old.

The last year of her life was spent in the University of Virginia medical center. Back then, they did not have the ability to do chemotherapy in our area hospitals. If was so hard having our mother 4 hours away. I was 16 years year old and my sister was 11.

They say "time heals all wounds". I say it doesn't heal them. It just dulls them.

I still miss her every day.

Linda

Its Apple Butter Season!

Every year about this time, my thoughts return to when I was growing up and the family across the road from me always made apple butter.

I loved apple butter time. The night before many of the ladies in our neighborhood would head over to the Patsell's house to cut and peel the apples. The men would sit out on the porch while Mr. Patsell peeled the apples with an old cast iron apple peeler. Then the dishpans of apples would be brought into the house for the women to cut up. Let me tell you, if you have never cut up bushels of apples you can't imagine what your hands look like the next day! They are brown, like an apple gets when it's cut and left out.

Us kids would play "Ghost in the Graveyard" a sort of cross between "Tag" and"Hide and Seek", or sit out in the yard and tell ghost stories, then dare each other to walk to the barn at night! Or sometimes we would climb the apple tree (yes in the dark) and just sit and talk.

The next day was really fun. Even before I woke up Mr. Patsell had made the fire and set the huge copper kettle out. A penny was always place in the bottom of the kettle before the apples and sugar were added. I have no idea why? By the time I got over there the apple butter was well under way. The ladies of the neighborhood would be in the kitchen washing and sterilizing canning jars and fixing lunch. Outside, we would beg to stir the kettle with the huge wooden stirrer. We would always sing a song Aunt Carrie taught us. "Once around the pot, twice through the middle, If you hit the rim, you have to kiss the kettle". Us kids always added "while its hot!) to the end of the song. I can clearly remember Aunt Carrie standing over the kettle, dipper in hand to scoop out any leaves or ash that would go into the pot.

Everyone took turns stirring the apple butter all day long and we ate lunch in shifts, with the women eating last and sitting around talking. then Mr. Patsell would call for a small plate, he would dip out the apple butter and check for consistancy and taste. We would watch anxiously while he tasted. Then he would make the decision whether to cook it longer or call for the jars.

We were so glad when the call for the jars came! That meant that our first taste of the apple butter was soon! Once all the apple butter was poured into the jars, Mr. Patsell would dip out a little and put it in a bowl and hand it to us. We would either eat it with a spoon right on the spot or run in the house and get some bread to eat it on. Nothing ever tasted as good as that hot apple butter.

I really miss those days. Many years later I watched as the applebutter kettle was auctioned off, after Mr. and Mrs. Patsell had died. An antique dealer bought it for $250.00. Yes, I cried.

Now days I still make apple butter, but on a much smaller scale. This is the recipe I got from my Aunt Nadene. It's quick and very good. Not as good as the applebutter from my childhood, but very close.

Aunt Nadene's Quick Apple Butter

8 cups applesauce

5 cups sugar

1/2 cup cinnamon red hots

1/2 cup vinegar.

5 teaspoons cinnamon powder

2-3 drops of Oil of Cloves

Bring applesauce, sugar, red hots, vingegar, and cinnamon powder to a boil in a large pot, (use a large pot because this mixture "pops" really bad). Boil for 15 minutes or until red hots dissolve. Add Oil of Cloves and boil for another 5 minutes. Fill hot, sterilized jars (I use pint) with mixture. Seal and turn upside down to cool. Serve with hot homemade biscuits on a cold winter day! Yum!

Linda

Some Fall Decor

Even with our record high temps this week, I decided to go ahead and put out some of my fall decorations.

This crock is one of my favorites and I use it all year round, just changing out the silk flowers as the seasons change. It always sits on the island in our kitchen.

I ordered this for my husband for Christmas from L.L. Bean one year. The house on the front is ours! (the smudge over the house is our last name, smudged for privacy!)

The year I got it for him he was having major cravings for filberts. I filled this crock with filberts. He had mentioned to his brother how much he loved filberts, and his brother got him 5 pounds of filberts for Christmas! We ended up with 10 pounds of filberts! LOL!

Have a wonderful day

Linda

It's Fall! Or is it?

Yesterday was the first day of fall according to the calendar. You know, fall with it's cool temperatures, foggy morning air, crisp evenings. Well apparently someone forgot to tell Mother Nature because yesterday it was 92 degrees and humid! It is 70 degrees this morning with an expected high of 87 today.

Saturday morning I planted some giant allium and some daffodils like these:

I can hardly wait till spring so that I can see them bloom. It takes a great faith to plant an ugly bulb in the ground and know that in the spring it will produce such a beautiful bloom!

Yesterday, we decided to go out of the lake for the afternoon. Yngwie and his friend "tubed" almost the entire time we were boating.

They learned that it is almost impossible to stand on a tube when it is in motion and that it is quite possible to make one fly!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Blessings

Linda

Friday Show and Tell

Kelli at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ hosts Show and Tell on Fridays. Click over there and join the fun!

Today my show and tell is about my flow blue collection. It started when my great aunts cousin (whatever kin that makes me to her, I don't know) gave me a few pieces when I was in my early 20's. I was hooked. Over the years we have collected several pieces, though now they are becoming too expensive to buy :(.

Flow Blue dinnerware is called that because the cobalt blue in the paint leeches into the white porcelain, all the way through to the back of the piece.

This is the plate that started it all. I really love how the blue seeps into the white on this piece.
These two pieces are very blue (though this photo makes them appear "bluer" than they really are). I use the pitcher mostly for flower arrangments as it has a small chip on the spout.
This isn't a very good photo of this plate, but this is my very favorite because it belonged to my great grandmother. I have 6 plates, the creamer and sugar, a covered vegetable dish and a gravy boat. My grandmother gave me this set of dishes about 20 years ago. I actually use them on very special occasions.

This is a shot inside my corner cabinet that shows the vegetable dish, sugar and creamer and gravy boat. (gravy boat, that's just a weird combination of words, don't you think?)

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Blessings

Linda

Recipe Thursday!

Pumpkin Swirl Bread

Filling:

1 cup Land O Lakes Sour Cream

1/4 c. sugar

4 ozs. cream cheese, softened

1 egg

Bread:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teas. baking soda

2 tea. ground cinnamon

1 tea. ground ginger

1 tea. ground nutmeg

1/2 tea. salt

2 cups sugar

1 cup Land o Lakes butter, melted

1/3 c. water

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin

4 eggs

Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 (9x5) loaf pans. Set aside.

Combine all filling ingredients in small bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed. Set aside.

Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt in a medium bowl, set aside.

Combine 2 cups of sugar, melted butter, water, pumpkin and 4 eggs in a large bowl. Beat at low speed, scrapping bowl oftem, until smooth. Continue beating, gradually adding flour mixture and scrapping bowl often, until well blended.

Spoon 1/4 (about 2 cups) pumpkin batter into each prepared loaf pan. Carefully spread half of filling mixture over batter in each pan. Top each evenly with remaining pumpkin batter. Carefully spread pumpkin batter to edge of pans.

Bake for 65-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minute; remove from pans. Cool completely.

This was soooo good! Great for a fall morning treat with a cup of spiced apple cider!

Blessings!

Linda

Memories Monday

Revee at http://olderthanthecheese.blogspot.com/ is hosting Memories Monday. Pop in over there and take a peek!

This somewhat grainy photo of my family was taken at my Grandmothers house on Christmas morning in 1969. I am the one standing holding the big walker doll.

I remember this Christmas because this was the year that we went to my grandparents house instead of them coming to our house. See the little Charlie Brown tree in the background. My Grandfather had cut it the day before and since Grandma had given my parents all their ornaments, Grandma cut up Christmas cards and punched holes in them and put them on the tree.

But this memory isn't about the tree or Christmas, it's about the doll.

Her name was Lori Walker and I absolutely loved her! She went with me everywhere. She could wear childrens clothing and I would go to the Goodwill or rummage sales and get her "new" outfits.

One day I decided she needed a new hair style. So I washed her hair and then I did something that would change her appearance forever, I rolled it up with curlers and stuck her under the hair dryer. She had nylon hair, guess what happened? It burned up! It was a frizzled mess! I was so upset!

I worked and worked with her hair to try and get it looking better, after much styling, I had her hair looking a little better. My dad worked 2nd shift so he wasn't home during the day when I was, so I left Lori sitting on the kitchen table with a note attached to her asking my Dad how he liked her new hairstyle, still apprehensive about the "frizzled" look. The next morning when I got up, he had put a grocery bag over her head!

I cried and cried about her hair, but there was nothing that could be done.

I still have Lori Walker, she now resides in my attic, without the paper bag.

Blessings

Linda

Friday Show and Tell

Kelli at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ hosts Show and Tell each Friday. So go on over and join the fun!

This weeks show and tell is actually quite shameful! Last night while I was looking around for my fall decorations, I found this pop-up haunted house.

When I was in the 2nd grade ( 1969), my teacher Mrs. Udell told us she had a special prize and showed us this haunted house. I knew from the minute I laid eyes on this haunted house, I had to have it. No matter what it took! To win the haunted house, Mrs. Udell told us to put our heads down on our desks and close our eyes while she hid several construction paper pumpkins.

Well you probably have guessed by now that I cheated. I just squinted my eyes and watched her hide all the pumpkins! When she told everyone GO! I ran right to all the hiding places and found the most pumpkins, so I got the haunted house!

The sad part of this is that I felt no remorse! I HAD TO HAVE THAT HAUNTED HOUSE!

38 years later, everytime I get this haunted house out for Halloween, I remember how I won it and feel just a little guilty. But not much!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week-end.

Blessings

Linda

Garlic Cheddar Muffins

I found the recipe for these muffins in this months issue of Southern Lady magazine. If you have never seen this magazine, try to find it because it is beautiful. Lots of decorating ideas, tea times ideas, and recipes.

Everyone in my family gave these muffins a thumbs up!

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 c. butter

1/4 c. chopped fresh chives

1 1/2 tea. minced garlic

2 cups baking mix

1 cup extra sharp grated cheddar cheese

1/4 tea. garlic powder

1/4 tea. black pepper

1 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan with olive oil. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add chives and garlic, and cook for 2 minutes; remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine baking mix, cheese, garlic powder, and pepper. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk and butter mixture. Add buttermilk mixture to baking mix mixture, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened. Let batter set for 5 minutes.

Evenly spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown (mine only took 20 minutes). Cool in pan 5 minutes before removing.

These would be really yummy served with a bowl of chili or soup.

Blessings

Linda

Finally some rain!

We are finally getting some much needed rain today. Not alot, but every little bit helps.

Speaking of helping, the deer "helped" my hyacynth bean vine turn into sort of a topiary! There are not so many of the leaves left near the bottom and all the blooms and pods are at the top, I guess they can't reach that far.

When I was growing up, my grandmother always called this the "Thomas Jefferson" bean vine. She said that was what they were always called when her mother grew them. I haven't done any research on this plant. Maybe Thomas Jefferson brought the seeds to America from one of his trips out of the country.

By the way, the seed that I use to plant my TJ bean vine has been passed on from at least my great grandmother to me. Each year I save seeds from my plant for the next. I would hate to be the one to forget to save the seed! Not after 4 generations!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Blessings

Linda

End of Summer Fun

We are trying to get in as much lake fun as possible as summer winds down and the cool days of fall begin. Yesterday evening we took the boat out so Yngwie and his friends could get in a little more wakeboarding before it got to cool. We also drove the boat down to "The Cliffs". The cliffs have been an attraction since I was a young girl. You climb up the rocks then jump! There used to be a rope swing, but it isn't there anymore. I used to jump until I was sore.

Speaking of days getting cool, here is the pumpkin swap I sent to my swap partner on a holiday message board I am a member of. I made the pumpkin tote bag, the bracelet, and the pocket treat bag.

I absolutely love the hot cocoa mix. It has the "Peanuts" characters on it and when you pour hot water into it, it turns orange! I really love Halloween. I know many people who do not celebrate because it is supposedly a Pagan holiday, but I celebrate it just for the fun of dressing up and getting candy!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Blessings

Linda

It's about that season!

It seems after Labor Day I really get in the mood for the crisp, cool mornings of Autumn.
I got these apples at the farmers market in the city last Saturday. I love walking through there and seeing all the wonderful produce. Apples, blackberries, squash, all things that remind me that fall will be here soon.

There is something magical about waking up on a cool fall morning, with the morning fog still on the ground, and the smell of woodsmoke that fills the air. This is my favorite time for morning walks to the lake, watching the geese gathering and planning their trip south. I love the fall wildflowers in the woods near our house, looking splendid in the warm fall sun.

I am sewing a tote to send to a swap partner on a Christmas message board that I belong too. It has fall pumpkins and is trimmed with a contrasting green. I will get a pic up as soon as I am finished.

Stephanie over at http://nightquilter.blogspot.com tagged me to blog some random bits about me using my middle name. It's Sue so it is easy.

S- Stubborn. Yep I can be, especially when it comes to doing something that I feel is immoral or unethical. This can be extremely trying in the business world.

u- Unicycle- I have always wanted to learn to ride one of these but it scares me to death. Maybe one day!

e- Entertaining. I love to entertain. I love the whole planning, cooking, decorating process. I make up events just to entertain. By the way, Monday, Sept 10th is National Hot Dog Day! Perfect for a party!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Blessings

Linda

Crazy Cat

Here is the "crazy cat" I made from the instructions from a great magazine I found at the bookstore the other day. The magazine is called Create and Decorate. I have fallen in love with that magazine. It is packed full of projects to paint, sew, scrapbook, etc. very little advertising and full size pattern pullouts.
The cat is made from muslin and then painted orange to give it that "primitive look". I've got another one cut out that I will paint black and will use them as part of my Halloween decorations. He was very easy and fun to make.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

Blessings

Linda

Friday Show and Tell

Each Friday Kelli at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ hosts Show and Tell! Head over her way and check out all the wonderful treasures!

I have been wanting to show this for weeks but it was just finished this week-end. This is my new sewing/craft room!

I dismantled our guest room and my husband built the cabinets! The cabinets are oak and the counter top is a laminate called "Butternut". I have under the counter lighting which I LOVE!
Now I have easily available spaces for my craft supplies. I was forever re-buying things that I already had but couldn't find.
I have all my scrapbooking and paper crafting supplies in one area and all my sewing supplies in another. The lady in the picture is my great aunt Clara. She taught me to crochet and tried very hard to teach me to sew, but I was more interested in climbing trees and playing football. My mother in law finally taught we to sew when I was about 22.

This is one of my favortie things in my new craft room! The built in ironing board! No more wobbily (is that a word?) ironing board with the iron falling off everytime I used it! Plus it just folds into the wall and is out of sight!

The bookcase holds all my craft and sewing books, along with some Mary Englebreit, Martha Stewart Living and Country Living magazines. My In-Laws gave me the old timey radio for Christmas one year. I think it goes great in this room.
Last but not least is my cutting table. This table came from my Grandma's attic when she lived in the country. It was in the attic when she moved into the house in 1947. I used this for my kitchen table for almost 25 years, then when we remodeled the kitchen and put in a bar to eat from, I moved the table to my sewing room. I love this table. (The Strawberry under the table belongs to my great niece! and the bowl and pitcher is something I just have'nt found a home for yet. It belonged to my great aunt Clara.

Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday weekend!

Blessings

Linda

Lemon-Lime Chiffon Pie

Thanks so much for the well wishes yesterday. I am feeling much better with no pain today!

I only worked a couple of hours yesterday before I started getting a little dizzy and decided to go home. I am fortunate that I can take my work home with me and work from home if I need to. I usually get my work done in half the time that it takes me if I'm in the office because of so many interruptions. Anyway, after I finished I decided to make this yummy sounding pie!

It is really a great pie for a hot summer day. It almost tastes like a lemon-lime milk shake! The recipe comes from a 1950's cookbook called Fabulous Pies from Pillsbury. I wish I had taken a picture of the book because the photos in there are so neat!

Lemon-Lime Chiffon Pie

1 9 inch pie crust baked and cooled

Chill 1 cup of evaporated milk in ice cube trays until ice crystal form around the outside. (I just stuck the whole can in the freezer for about an hour and a half). Chill bowl and beaters

Combine 1 package of lime flavored jello with 1/3 cup sugar. Add 3/4 cup boiling water and stir until gelatin is dissolved. Add one 6 oz. can of frozen lemonade concentrate. Stir until lemonade is melted. Chill until thickend but not set.

Beat chilled milk in chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold milk into gelatin mixture gently and thoroughly. Chill 10 minutes.

Turn mixture into pie shell and chill until set. About 3 hours. If desired garnish with gumdrops and small green leaves. (I didn't have any gundrops)

The recipe also says you can substitute lime jello for orange and use pineapple juice instead of lemonade. I am going to try this because I love anything orange and pineapple.

Have a blessed day!

Linda

Trigeminal Neuralgia

Ever heard of that? I hadn't until Sunday. For a couple of weeks I have had the sensation on pin pricks on the left side of my face. Nothing too painful just annoying. Then Wednesday, I thought I had a toothache and went to the dentist who did x-rays and found nothing wrong. Still I was having some pain on my left side of my mouth.
Sunday during breakfast I had a sharp stabbing pain on the left side of my mouth that would only feel better if I applied ice inside my mouth. All day Sunday I kept ice in my mouth until about 2:00 when I looked through some old medication and found some Darvecett my husband had used. (I know! You shouldn't take someones else's prescription) I was desperate and took some. That relieved the pain for about two hours, then the pain returned. Took some more but this time it did not work at all. At 9:30 that night decided I had to get some relief so my husband took me to the E.R.

E.R. Dr did some poking around in my mouth and said he did not think this was a tooth problem, but his main concern was to stop the pain. He gave me morphine. This did not ease the pain at all. He gave he more morphine. Still I had pain, he had been researching my symtoms all the while and thought maybe I had Trigeminal Neuralgia. This is treated with an anti-seizure drug. He gave he some of that. Still in pain, so he administered the 3rd dose of morphine. This time I passed out. Not sure if it was from the pain or the amount of pain medication.

I really don't remember anything much until Monday night when I woke up in a hospital room totally confused about why I was there. I remembered being very sick and throwing up. My husband said they gave me phenagren for nausea and apparently I am allergic to it as I broke out in a rash and started itching all over. Then they gave me benadryl to counter act it. I sort of remember my Dad bending over me telling me he was leaving and that he loved me, and I remember my sweet mother in law rubbing lotion on my arms and legs trying to keep me from scratching so much.

Tuesday morning my Dr. came in and explained that I had been over medicated because they could not find anything that could relieve my pain. They put me on an anti-seizure drug that dulls the trigeminal nerves in the face. After sending me to the dental lab to rule out anything dental, they did a MRI and a MRA checking for tumors or anuresyms that could be causing the nerves to act up. Thank God, both of these reports came back negative.

I finally got to go home last night at 9:30. I tried to go in to work today but only lasted a couple of hours until I became very weak and dizzy. I guess all the pain medication has not been purged from my body yet. The good news is that while there is no cure for this, it is treatable with antiseizure medications that I will take a very low dose of daily.

I learned one thing, never "google" your disease! I did and when it came up on wikipedia it said this problems was also called the "Suicide" disease because of the amount of people who had taken their lives because they couldn't stand the pain. Good Grief!

So far, I have very little pain left. I have so many wonderful friends who have been praying relentlessly for me and it is working!

So no time for pity parties, let's move on!

Blessings

Linda

Friday Show and Tell!

Each Friday Kelli over at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ hosts show and tell. Click on over there and join the fun.

This week I would like to show you two cake plates that I made! I saw these while surfing around some craft blogs and thought "What a great idea".

They are very simple. All you need is a pretty plate, a glass candlestick and some glue that bonds glass. Find the center of the bottom of your plate and mark it with a marker. Spread the glue on top of the candlestick and just stick it on and let it dry 24 hours. That's it! This is what I am going to make to put my Christmas goodies on this year. I got the plate and the candlestick at a thrift store for .50 each. So for $1.00 you have a lovely gift!

Of course you will want to decorate them with Double Decker Confetti Brownies! YUM!

1 1/2 sticks of butter softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 tea vanilla

2 1/2 cups self rising flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon melted butter

1 cup semi sweet mini m&m's (I can't find these any more so I used regular M&M's)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan. Set aside. In a large bowl cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy; beat in eggs and vanilla. Add 2 1/4 cupsflour a little at a time and blend ito creamed mixture. Divide batter in half. Blend together melted butter and cocoa powder and stir into one half of the dough. Spread dough evenly into the bottom of the pan. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup of flour and 1/2 cup M & M's into remaining dough. Spread dough evenly over cocoa dough in the pan. Sprinkle with 1/2 M & M's. Bake 25-30 minutes or until edges start to pull away from pan. Cool completely and cut into bars. Store in tightly covered container.

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Linda

Childhood Photos

I found these photos in my Grandmothers album the other day and thought they were so neat.

All of these were made at my grandparents farm in White Gate, VA.

The first one is too funny. I had broken my arm that summer while playing "War" in a tree. One of my "friends" pushed me out of the tree and I landed on a rake handle and broke my arm. I don't even want to think what would have happened if I had landed on the pointy part of the rake. Anyway, I climbed back into the tree and slugged him before I went and told anyone that my are hurt. The dress I am wearing is homemade from my great aunt Clara, I loved that dress. Check out the injured doll. This was my favorite doll. She was cloth with a thin plastic face. The whole forehead part of the doll is punched in. She was very loved. The little girl with me is my sister, obviously hogging the Bugles. There is also a lovely shot of the cow "patty" beside me.
To get to my grandparents farm, you had to cross a swinging bridge. That's me at 6 years old, hanging on for dear life. If the water was low enough, you could drive through the ford in the creek, but not always. We crossed that bridge in sleet, snow, wind, you name it. There was also a nice little hike through the woods to get to the bridge. It was a real pain to carry groceries to the house this way, but we did what we had to do.

This is a picture of my whole family including my grandfather. This was made at the edge of their property that bordered Bland Correctional Farm. At the time it was a low risk detention center that put inmates to work on a farm. My grandfather was a guard there for 35 years. My mom is standing beside my grandfather. I have very few pictures of my mother as she was usually the one behind the camera. My mom died from leukemia about 3 years after this photo. She was 37 years old. I am sitting on the far right on the fence. I was about 13 years old. My Dad and sister are sitting on the fence with me.

I love looking through old photos of our family, I love to see how the clothing styles have changed, how the interior of homes have changed, but mostly just looking at the people that I love brings such a warm and comfortable feeling in me.

Have a blessed day!

Linda