Thursday, March 13, 2014

SPRING INTO SUMMER...

So comfortable for warmer weather, this skirt from Boden USA is destined to be a summer favorite. Top it with a sweater set (there's many blues to choose from) or pair it with a striped t-shirt for a trendy look. You will be the hit of the "Boardwalk."

To shop, follow the links below...



SKIRT - Boden USA  $98.00
FLATS - Mod Cloth $29.99
SWEATERS - Talbots $39.50 - $62.50
STRAW BAG - Dillards $198.00

 Add a personal touch to your wardrobe with a custom made initial necklace or bracelet from Tom Design. Debbie, the owner makes each piece by hand. They start at $15.00 +

Click on TOM DESIGN




Tuesday, March 11, 2014


THE BOOK THIEF



 by Markus Zusak

DON'T read this if you haven't read the book or seen the movie.  I don't want to spoil it for anyone.












Within the first few pages, when I realized that "Death" was the narrator, I was hooked. What an interesting approach to the Holocaust. I have witnessed death up close and personal three times. First as I held my infant son and then as I walked my father and later my mother to it's door.  I am not afraid of death, but the look of it always disturbs me. In that moment the body is just a shell. It is always sad... so when Death describes Rudy's passing, it tore my heart out.

"On many counts, taking a boy like Rudy was robbery—so much life, so much to live for—yet somehow, I’m certain he would have loved to see the frightening rubble and the swelling of the sky on the night he passed away. He’d have cried and turned and smiled if only he could have seen the book thief on her hands and knees, next to his decimated body. He’d have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty, bomb-hit lips."

"Death just has a job to do... even Death has a heart."

I loved the characters in this book, especially the sweet relationship between Liesel and her papa and the conflicted relationship of Hans and Rosa Hubermann... there was so much more than what appeared on the surface. Love sometimes has a strange way of manifesting itself. It was touching that the mayor's wife, in her pain, was actually allowing Liesel her thievery and of course it was sad that Rudy and Liesel never got the time for their romance to blossom.. But isn't that the way life is? We shouldn't put things off.

It was about 2:00 AM when I finished the book. I cried of course, as Death did his job. I thought it was poignant that they were taken in their sleep, no fear, no pain... whisked away in the night.  But more than that I was angry. I got out of bed and threw the book in the garbage. My reaction surprised me. I knew, going in, that this book would have a sad ending so why was I so upset? I couldn't put my finger on it.

Then... about two weeks later, after I had retrieved my copy of the book, and was thinking about something completely different, the answer suddenly bubbled to the surface...

It doesn't matter that Death has a heart or that he has a job to do.  It doesn't matter that he gently lifts our spirits upward and that the sheer numbers of people dying was exhausting to him. He is no respecter of persons and he's coming for us all.  We don't know when and we don't know how but we do know he will come. I guess as I tossed the book I was saying...

"Not yet, not now. I plan to dance in the rain a few more times."


THE BOOK THIEF... the movie

It is not often that a movie is as good as the book.  This one comes close. We trade the richness of Zusak's writing for the depth of character in the actor's portrayals.  I can not pick a favorite. I gasped when I first saw Rudy... what a beautiful boy and Liesel's eyes, they spoke without words. Hans was the grounding force but Rosa was his perfect counterpoint. I'm sure I will watch this again and again. It is destined to be a CLASSIC.


 LOOK WHAT I FOUND...

I was going to save this post for the weekend but this beautiful "silkie" jacket is flying off the shelf at Anthropologie. It will be GONE soon so better check it out... follow the links below.


"SILK" JACKET   Anthropologie  $118.00
NECKLACE   Nordstrom  $28.00
HANDBAG   Dillards  $248.00

AN IRISH FEAST...
Corned Beef and Cabbage (baked!)

Recipe from... http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/corned_beef_and_cabbage/
Corned Beef (baked)
  • 3 lbs corned beef (in package)
  • 10 whole cloves
  • 1/4 cup hot sweet honey mustard
  • 2 Tbsp brown sugar
Cabbage (sautéed)
  • Olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • 1 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 large head of cabbage, sliced into 3/8-inch to 1/2-inch wide slices
  • Salt

METHOD

corned-beef-cabbage-6.jpg corned-beef-cabbage-7.jpg

Corned beef can be very salty, especially when baked. To remove some of the salt before cooking, cover with water, bring to a boil, discard the water, add fresh water and bring to a boil again, discard the water again. Then proceed with the directions.
corned-beef-cabbage-4.jpg1 Preheat oven to 350°F. Drain the corned beef from the package and discard the spice packet. Lay corned beef, fat side up, on a large piece of heavy duty, wide, aluminum foil (you may have to get creative with the way you wrap the beef if your foil isn't wide enough). Insert the cloves into the top of the slab of corned beef, evenly spaced. Spread the top with the hot sweet honey mustard. Sprinkle brown sugar over the top.

2 Wrap the corned beef with foil in a way that allows for a little space on top between the corned beef and the foil, and creates a container to catch the juices. Place foil-wrapped corned beef in a shallow roasting pan and bake for 2 hours. 
3 Open the foil wrapping, spread a little more honey mustard over the top of the corned beef, and broil it for 2-3 minutes, until the top is bubbly and lightly browned. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then place on cutting board and cut at a diagonal, across the grain of the meat, into 1/2-inch thick slices.
Serve immediately.
Cabbage Sauteed
 
1. Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil on medium high to high heat in a large wide pot or saute pan. Chop the onion and cook for several minutes and add the garlic.
2. Add a third of the sliced cabbage, sprinkle with a little salt and stir to coat with the oil and mix with the onions.  Spread out the cabbage evenly over the bottom of the pan and do not stir until it starts to brown. When the bottom is nicely browned use a metal spatula to lift it up and flip it, scraping the browned bits as you go.
3.Once the cabbage in the pan has browned on a couple of flips, add another third, mix it in with a little more olive oil and follow the same process. Add the remaining third and repeat.

Serve with baked corned beef and fluffy mashed potatoes.

Monday, March 10, 2014


MEET ALTHEA CROME's small world!
 knitting in miniature


Becoming a "blogger" has made me brave... NO BOLD! When I stumbled upon Althea's work I was absolutely captivated. I had never heard of her nor met her. There was, however, a phone number at the bottom of her web page page. I CALLED IT.

"Hi, you don't know me from the man in the moon, but..."

That would be the BOLD part! She was gracious and very interesting to talk to!

Knitting is Althea's passion and has been since college. She finds comfort and joy in the process, but this kind of minuscule knitting requires a special touch. She reflects, 

Most of her sweaters sell for $8,000.00 and up.

"The texture of the yarn, the smooth rhythm of the needles and the emergence of a pattern in my hands as I work has always been quite magical to me. Adding the challenge of creating an object for a physical world that is so small as to be almost beyond our grasp, is to add a new thrill to an already beloved art form."

Althea started knitting tiny objects to give herself a challenge. She was bored with the usual knitter's fare of sweaters and scarves. 

"Things kept getting smaller and smaller. I liked socks and gloves and baby booties, and little baby things. Before I knew it I was really off the deep end, going very small."

Sitting with her project and magnifying glasses, she will sometimes knit for eight to ten hours at a stretch. When I asked her where she got her patience. (she has used needles the size of hairs)  She laughed and said, "Actually I am a very impatient person and that is the reason I can do this."  She wants the result so badly that her impatience propels her to finsh the project.

Althea was the knitting brains behind the tiny, amazing star sweater worn by the little girl in the movie CORALINE. The costume department contacted her after they found her website www.bugknits.com. They were thrilled to find someone who could knit on such a small scale...70 stitched to 1 inch.
She is a respiratory therapist, often working 10 to 11 hours a day and the single mother of a 19 year old musician and triplets that will soon be turning 16. This puts a whole new perspective on a busy life. Even though there is not a lot of time for knitting right now (each sweater takes about four months) her passion is still very much alive.

                                        

Her DREAM is to one day live in a cottage by the ocean, where she can knit full time and breath the salt air!  

Althea, a truly remarkable woman of a certain age!


Here is some work from her online gallery...   www.bugknits.com

Thursday, March 6, 2014


TASHA TUDOR... 
illustrator, author, remarkable woman
1915 - 2006

Tasha Tudor, the beloved children's book illustrator, was born Starling Burgess in 1915. For her, that was almost 100 years too late. Living in New York City until she was nine, she moved to her aunts in rural Pennsylvania after her parents divorced. The freedom of country life agreed with her and her desire to live an 1830s lifestyle began to grow.

While in Redding, she met and married Thomas McCready. He helped her to fulfill her dream when they purchased a 17 room house on 450 acres without running water or electricity. There, her four children were born and Tasha's creativity blossomed as she began to write and illustrate her own stories.

She often drew pictures of her children, dressed in period clothing. Her daughter Bethany recalls feeling like they were living some of the wonderful fairy tales and stories their mother read to them. She also enveloped them into her world of fantasy, passing on her love of acting and playing with dolls. They devised many activities for the dolls, holding fairs and parties and making miniature Christmas presents. 



They even sent letters and parcels through their own special mail service called the "Sparrow Post" All of this served as inspirations for Tasha's drawings.



During this time, her husband encouraged her to publish her first book... 

PUMPKIN MOONSHINE

Fifty years later it was still in print.


Because of the success of her books, Tasha was able to realize her dream of living in Vermont. In the 1970s her son Seth built her a home modeled after a nineteenth century farmhouse, using only hand tools in the construction.  With her beloved Corgis for company she tended her beautiful garden, continued to draw and lived happily in a time and space of her own making. She was legendary for her pies.                                            
                                                                                         According to Richard Brown, an editor at Biblio, "It was a magical place, east of Vermont and west of New Hampshire, caught in the year 1830. A handful of floppy eared goats grazed in the barnyard, doves strutted and preened along the roof ridge and a brightly colored flock of chickens wandered about."
Watch the video below and enjoy her amazing garden. The narration is in Japanese (the only copy I could find) but you will get to hear Tasha speak.



Tasha Tudor wrote and illustrated over 100 children's books, leaving a legacy in art of a much, much gentler time. I sat with her one afternoon when she came to speak to a group of women. She was not only delightful but very funny and a savvy business women. She told us that when she finds small birds and animals that are dead she puts them in her freezer. Thawing them a little, they make excellent models. She laughed when she recalled her refrigerator repair man's shock as he opened her deep freeze.

Later we sat in the garden and I watched her sketch.  She drew two adorable rabbits lying on their tummy's with their noses touching. She sold it to my friend for $250.00 I will always treasure that afternoon, it was "magic." 

Tasha passed away in 2006 at the age of 92. Here are some of my favorite pieces of her work...




Wednesday, March 5, 2014

ALL COOPED UP...

Tonya's adventures in raising chickens


This is excerpted from Tonya's blog   www.tonyalemone.com

Twenty six years ago we moved to Utah to experience the “country life."  Our children were young so having the country experience was something we thought would be good for everyone and living on a half acre seemed like a dream come true.
                                                                       
pictures from... http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/my-mid-life-crisis-coop
The “right of passage” to owning a piece of ground in our area was to buy a goat. All of our neighbors had them, tried them, then got rid of them. We seriously considered a goat so we could fit in with the rest of the city folks who had come to the country but instead we chose chickens.

A month before my birthday my husband stretched a large blue tarp between the two English       
walnut trees in our back yard and gave me very strict orders not to peek.  For weeks I heard hammering, sawing, pounding and an occasional “shoot” come from behind the tarp.
When the masterpiece was unveiled there stood the most incredible chicken coop I have ever seen. Every extra hour of daylight had been spent in creating this new home for the “girls” ... that would be the chickens, not our daughters.

When you purchase baby chicks there is no guarantee you won't be raising roosters. There is also no guarantee that your neighbors are going to enjoy the sound of your rooster before daylight. These are two lessons we learned early on. 

Then Leroy senior came into our life... a beautiful French coco Maren rooster with black and white feathers and a comb that stood up so bright and red it looked artificial. A gift from my brother.
      
Turns out...Leroy senior was not a very willing participant in the egg fertilizing process. It took a year before we finally got 3 fertilized eggs. 
I placed them carefully in the incubator and impatiently waited. Pecking their way out of their shells was a long process and to my great disappointment they were the ugliest creatures I had ever seen. 

Thankfully, days turned to weeks and the new baby chicks feathered out and joined the rest of the flock. As luck would have it, one of the three was a rooster... we named him Leroy II. He strutted an "attitude" that quickly let the rest of the brood know that he was in charge of the coop.

 When I say everyone I don't mean just the “girls” and Leroy senior, he also took control of those that fed him. That would be my husband Lynn 

One afternoon Lynn came home from work with some rather bad news and when he went to feed the chickens he was in no mood to do battle with Leroy. The moment he stepped into the coop Leroy flew and my husband grabbed a pitchfork. 

As pale as a ghost he came running through the back door to report poor Leroy's demise. Shaken and a bit remorseful, Lynn returned to the yard to give him a proper burial and THERE, strutting around as though he had been magically reincarnated and was back to continue his reign, was Leroy, King of the Roost.


Fortunately for Leroy II the tongs of the pitchfork only grazed his neck, not one drop of blood was shed and if you know chickens... they fake dead when they are frightened. 

On that fateful day Leroy II had an extreme attitude adjustment. He never crowed again, a good thing for the neighbors, and he never attacked his keeper, a good thing for my husband. 

We love our “little bit of country”

Chicken coops for sale...
http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/my-mid-life-crisis-coop

LEMON THYME COOKIES

A favorite at Perennial Gardens


1 cup butter softened (don’t cheat)
1 ½ cups sugar
2 ¾ cups flour
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons lemon thyme

Mix butter and sugar together ,add eggs, flour, lemon thyme,(if using dried lemon thyme use 1 tablespoon).Remove leaves from stems and chop fine, add to mixture. Roll in small balls the size of walnuts, and then roll in sugar. Bake 400’ for ten minutes. After cookies are cool you may or may not add a lemon glaze made from fresh lemon juice and powdered sugar.