AND WE'RE WALKING....

There was an article on the front page of the newspaper this morning on the value of walking. Like we didn't know walking is good for us, right?

According to the article, though, walking not only keeps you fit, it keeps your brain healthy. Women who get in a couple of miles a day have a much lower incidence of dementia, and a smaller pants size. Okay, they didn't actually say that last bit, but the woman they profiled wears a size two. You are allowed a certain amount of inference, I do believe.

Also, our little dog has been gaining weight since we switched her to canned food. She has half an acre to run on, but will sleep most of the day, left to her own devices. She needs to walk, too.

So we both turned over a new leaf (I hope) and took advantage of a day of purely glorious fall weather and set out.

We have a new harness for Ceili that puts pressure on her chest when she pulls, rather than her neck. She's an eager little thing, and I have known her to pull so hard on the leash that she walks on her hind feet while her front paws paddle through thin air, so I was willing to try something different. Sure enough, that chest pressure calmed her right down, and walking with her was pure pleasure!

I took my camera. Of course. Here are some of the day's photos:

Mahogany Red

Shhh! I'm hiding.

The Curl

On the Sidewalk

Furled Again

As is my habit, I played with filters on several of these, and clicking on them will give you more detail. And do you see the bug in the one I captioned "Shhh! I'm hiding."? It's there, and you'll see it if you do click.

FINALLY! TAGS I LOVE

I have struggled with this for all the years I've been making Coffee Pot People and Tea Kettle Characters: How do I tag them?

That struggle has a lot to do with some of the tagging I've seen in the Trillium store. A lot of them were practically works of art themselves, and after seeing them I developed a severe case of raging envy. But, try as I might, I couldn't seem to come up with something both eye-catching and artful AND easy to produce.

Until Tuesday, when I had a brainstorm: Use bottle caps. Use card stock tags. Add magnets to the back!

Here are some of the new tags:

I had a number of these finished yesterday, and promptly tied them to several Tea Kettle Characters, and drove them to Mag-Big, a new store opening on Hawthorne, a very popular shopping street in Portland. The owner was thrilled with the Tea Kettle Characters, and their tags, and even consigned the rest of the tags I had to sell on their own, as refrigerator magnets!

Imagine that. A product tag that is itself a product. I AM happy!

Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts: Book Review

If I were to make a list of Favorite Things, "Books" would be right up at the top, and angling for position right next to that would be "Crafting", especially using found/recycled materials. Imagine my delight then, just reading the title, The Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts.

And then I opened the book....oooh.

Flowers from pop cans

The book is divided into six sections, Plastic, Paper, Glass, Cans, Textiles, and Throwaways. That is, by the way, all the Table of Contents tells you, along with the page numbers that begin each section. It's all right, though; you are going to want to leaf through page by page anyway. Be sure to have a stack of bookmarks handy for all the projects you'll want to do!

Pumpkins from dryer vent hoses

Each project has it's own page, sometimes two, with a photograph, materials list, and very clear instructions, with copious illustrations and photos where mere words might not suffice. Sprinkled throughout the book are extra tips, and at the end of the book are full-sized patterns.

Who doesn't have a bunch of Cd cases lying around?

This is a book I'm going to use a lot. I found myself thinking, That would really be fun for the Crafting Week with Mama! or Wouldn't that make a great gift for the grandkids!

There were projects I wanted to make as gifts, projects I wanted to make for myself, ideas I wanted to share with various relatives, and ideas that sparked the creative brain waves for new projects of my own.

My prediction: This is a book that will garner a lot of fans.

An elegant throw from recycled sweaters

SUNDAY RERUN: The Taste of Figs

My Sunday ReRun for today is a poem I wrote and blogged on another site, back in 2002.

Do you have favorite blog posts? Join the party over at Chari's blog by clicking on the Sunday Favorites button in my left sidebar! It will take you to the easy-peasy instructions for participation.

The Taste of Figs

In the dead of winter he ate dried figs,
watching through windows where snowflakes settled,
and melted against transparent warmth.
He remembered the geese,
flying overhead, beckoning,
while he lingered,
Stayed.
Outside, the twilit air was suddenly
summer-scented.
An apple glowed, rose flame
under the frost.
And, alone,
I tasted figs.

FRIDAY FENCE POST #59

I played with today's fence a lot. The gate, with the trellises to either side of it just made for, I think, an awesome background for collage, particularly now, when Fall has arrived and Halloween is just a couple of weeks away.

Feel free to take these images for your own use. Just click on them, and they'll enlarge. Use the F11 key to eliminate all the top and bottom stuff on your screen, and they'll get even bigger. Then right click and select either "Copy image" or "Save image". Press F11 again to get back to "normal". (Sorry for not knowing the Mac commands!)







In another vein, I'm planning on making this a blog party! Next Friday will (should) mark my 60th Friday Fence Post. It seems like an appropriate time to ask others to Meme-Along-With-Me, and I'd be thrilled if you did!

Crafting with two of my daughters and three of my granddaughters Saturday morning. Bliss happens!

WOOD WORK, TRULY

Fall is here, but the weather has been unseasonably warm this week. That's lucky for me, because what my schedule had on it was gathering firewood.

I've filled my little KIA three times with wood from our friend Bruce's remodel this week, and yesterday, worn out and hot, I told him, "This wood pile is like one of those bottomless milk pitchers in fairy tales, where no matter how many glasses you pour, there's still more!"

Interestingly enough, the most tiring part is hammering nails in. I've covered the cargo area of the car with a tarp, but I still don't want to risk having the nails tearing up the inside of the car.

Here are pictures:

This is where that wood in the car will go.

This is the brush pile, at the far back of our property.

Between car loads, I've been turning the brush into sticks. They're remarkably brittle, and I've been able to break even some of the fair-sized branches.

A little tag-a-long, our Ceili. This is at the very back of the property, and a place she likes, because a goat lives on the other side of that fence.

SUNDAY RERUN: Apple Cake--YUMMM!

It's Sunday, and that means it's time for a Sunday Favorite! I've chosen this one from a year ago, because it's apple season, and those red orbs are calling my name.

Do you have favorite blog posts? Join Chari's Sunday Favorites party by clicking on the button in the left sidebar!

Ceili, my constant, perennially hopeful, cooking companion

My plan, today, was to make Mama's no-bake cookies. Out came my big loose-leaf notebook of recipes. Not there. The little book I'd used for a while some years back. Not there, either. The big recipe box. The little recipe box. Nope.

I called Mom. She went hunting, and started to read one to me, but before she was half finished, we realized it was similar, but not hers. So was a second one, filed nearby. Finally, she said she'd find it and call me back.

In the meantime, all that recipe browsing had reminded me of a bunch of other recipes that are begging to be made, but the one that topped the list was an apple cake recipe I got from a neighbor friend many years ago. I no longer even remember her name, but I thank her for the Best Apple Cake recipe ever.

Here's what you'll need:

• 4 cups unpeeled chopped apples (I promise you won't notice the peels!)
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup chopped nuts
  
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teas vanilla
• 2 cups flour
  
• 2 teas baking soda
• 2 teas cinnamon
• 1 teas salt

In a large mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. Add the apples and nuts.


Mix together the liquid ingredients, and add to the dry. Stir gently until everything is well-mixed. The batter will be quite thick, but as they cook the apples will "juice up", adding the moisture needed.


Spoon the batter into a greased and floured baking pan. Mine was 7 x 11 inches, but you could also use a 9 x 13.

Bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees F, or until a knife inserted at the center comes out clean. (I actually had to cook this one for nearly an hour, because of the smaller pan, but it made for a thicker cake.)


I'd intended to drizzle caramel syrup over the plates before serving, but found we were out of it, so I served it as I had 100% of the time before--just as it came from the baking dish, no frosting or adornment at all. It really doesn't need it.

DH had a one-word description, with his mouth still full of his first bite: "Gooood!"