Thursday, July 24, 2014

All on a Summer's Eve...





A hot air balloon
gently floating by 
the farm.

Reminding me that
these are the days of Summer.











Sunsets streaming through
the back yard arbour on
freshly mowed grass.

Summer evenings (and 
monster mosquitos).













A garden doing it's 
best to produce
fresh edibles in spite
of a late start and sparse germination.

Summer's promise...










Summer blooms .....



Sweet stir fried snow peas 
from a friend's luscious garden.

Summer's treats.

Happy Summer's Eve to you .................









Saturday, July 19, 2014

Bench Memories

It's been a busy, full and fun week!
There was a lot of shopping and
an unexpected "Tea Party"...


Beautiful quilts....


An interesting Amish Sale Day
consisting of homemade everything from
donuts to quilts to baking to kettle popcorn
to almost anything you can think of!
The children caught my "lens" - they are so
adorable with their ice-cream stained faces ...
and oh, the horses - amazing!







I loved this vintage
threshing machine with it's  
folk art painting.












There were rows and rows
of "treasures".














Rows of horses and 
buggies!










But one of the best treasures of all
were these church pews that my friend Jan spotted!

They are the pews from our old church!
Apparently the congregation that had purchased
the building have replaced them with new ones.

We were so excited and waited hours till
the auctioneer finally came to that 
special row - because we just had to 
have one or two of those.


The skies were threatening but
we used our best bidding strategy
and were able to acquire a few at 
a very decent price.

Like the farmer said, "Now what do we do with them?"
Time will tell, but we just couldn't leave without one, right?

These are the benches of memories where we sat for our
weddings, our baby dedications, baptisms, summer bible schools,
four part harmony, where we shared our most sacred moments.


Did I tell you - it's been a busy, full and fun week?
Thanks to our dear friends Dave and Jan, Larry and Debi and Bill
It's been terrific!


Bench memories made?


Till next time ...... our hearts are full.






Friday, July 11, 2014

Week of Blues


There's been a bit of blue stuff going on this week!
Mulched the flower beds around my blue house....




Started making a "blueish"
table runner for my
friend who is coming for
a visit next week....

The piecing only took me a few
hours - but the quilting
is going very slow....

What was I thinking!!!!??





It was a blue rainy Monday
that got me started on
this project....

I really have to learn how
to "machine" quilt!
Even after watching umpteen
Youtube videos on how to do it,
I'm still afraid to try it on a 
"real" project - ugh!

The best blue thing that happened was
when the farmer found me this awesome
bike on Kijji!!!

I love it and am on the hunt for a sweet little
wicker basket parcel carrier.
It's my new blue touring vehicle....



What's blue in your life these days?
Hope all is well where you are "blueming"

Here's to a new week with blue skies and wonderful visits with
dear friends from Kentucky .....



Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Happy Canada Day!


Canada Day is starting off a bit soggy today.....



However, we need the rain and with all the
hot and humid weather of late,
the crops and gardens have been flourishing
and growing by leaps and bounds!

It's the perfect day to chillax on
the deck with a banana cupcake and a glass of milk....


I love long weekends!
And, I think I finally found the banana cupcake
recipe that works for me.....

It's a "Taste of Home" recipe
The only thing I changed was the frosting.
I used my mom's old fashioned 
brown sugar icing.

BTW - perhaps the trick to getting this recipe to work
might be that half way through mixing the batter,
I remembered that I was to take a snack to the church
for the morning Vacation Bible School children?
I turned off the preheating oven, covered up the half mixed batter,
grabbed the cheese and whisked off to deliver it.
1 hour later I returned to my cupcake task
and it turned out great, 
in spite of me.






The cupcakes baked
nice and rounded and didn't drop while cooling.


















I think I'll keep
this recipe....









Here is the "Easy Brown Sugar Icing" recipe - it's yummy on any kind of cake or cupcake!

Easy Brown Sugar Icing

1 Cup packed Brown Sugar
¼ Cup milk - I used coffee cream
½ Cup butter
1 ¾ Cups Icing Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
Melt butter and add the brown sugar.  Cook over low heat for 2 minutes stirring constantly.  Add milk and continue stirring until mixture comes to a full boil.  Remove from heat, cool slightly and then add the vanilla and  icing sugar– mix with electric beater till smooth - add more or less icing sugar as needed until the right consistency to spread. Spread on cake immediately while the icing is still warm.


Till next time ............ Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends and family. We are truly blessed to live in this great country!




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