THIS MOMENT

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Joining with SouleMama. xx

Happy 15th Birthday Alex,

It's an honor to be your Mama.

I love you!

I am off on an adventure

so I'll be away from this

space for a few days.

Have a great day and

remember to smile at

someone today!

xx

SAND AND YARN

"Are you feeling, feeling, feeling like I'm, feeling
Like I'm floating, floating, up above that big blue ocean
Sand beneath our feet, big blue sky above our heads,
No need to keep stressing from our everyday life on our minds
We have got to leave all that behind"
-At the beach, The Avett brothers

The Lovey Dovey came out
a little long. I thought it would
make a great beach cover up so we
tried it out Tuesday and it works, plus
I don't have to worry about it being
outgrown anytime soon because
from the looks of it she can wear it
for many, many years. Maybe
one day I will finally 'get' gauge.

I am still working on the next one,
but since it's in wool I didn't think
I could handle it in the heat so I
cast on  Pebble Tank in cotton.
A super simple pattern, one that is
easy to pick up and set down, perfect
a lazy day at the beach.

I first heard of A Prayer for Owen Meany
when I was visiting  Ivey's space and I am
so thankful I did, I love this book. Once I
am finished I plan on having every member
of my family reading it too.
 
Amazon says,
"In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys
—best friends—are playing in a Little League
 baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire.
One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the
 other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball
 doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany
believes he is God's instrument. What happens
to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary."

I am about a quarter of the way into the book
and find myself wishing I had more hours in
my day to just read.
What are you knitting and reading this week?

Joining with Ginny

GRATITUDE AND A WINNER

Two kinds of gratitude:

 The sudden kind we feel

 for what we take; the

larger kind we feel for

 what we give.

  ~Edwin Arlington Robinson

Thank you to all who entered.
I am deeply grateful to all of
you who stop by for a visit.
Jenny, the random generator
picked your number. Shoot
me an email with your snail
mail address and I'll drop
your stitch markers in the
mail.
Much love to all on this hot
July Monday.

WEEKENDING

I am thankful for the mess to clean
after a party because it means I have
been surrounded by friends. 

~Nancie J. Carmody

A whole weekend preparing
for a surprise party for my
baby who will turn 15 on
Wednesday.
My house has been cleaned
top to bottom,
the yard is immaculate,
lots of good food has been
prepared, and there is a
French vanilla cake with
extra chocolate butter cream
frosting chilling in the icebox
because it's his favorite.
The guests are set to arrive
soon so I now need to get
myself ready.
I hope your weekend has
been filled with wonderful
surprises.
There is still one more day
to enter my little giveaway
it you're interested.
Joining with Amanda.
xx

THIS MOMENT

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Joining with SouleMama. xx

A SOUTHERN RECIPE

"Mmmm, Southern Cooking is
 like a long walk in the meadow,
you just can never seem to fill up
 enough on it."

~Paula Deen

A little cake recipe
that we bake once
a summer.  It taste
better if you allow
it to sit overnight.
It's worth planting
a fig tree just so
you can have a slice!

FIG CAKE

Combine and set aside:

2 cups All purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix together:

1 cup sugar

1 cup oil

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Add 1/2 cup buttermilk and mix well.

Fold in:

1 1/2 cups fig preserves

1/2 cup apple sauce

1 cup toasted pecans, chopped

Gradually add dry ingredients [batter will be thin] and pour in 2 greased and floured 8 inch pans.Bake 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool on wire rack and then frost.

Frosting:
Beat together
12 ounces cream cheese softened
5 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar

Store cake in icebox.

NEEDLES AND NIGHTSTAND

Slowly at last the heavy clouds, charged with the welcome water, roll up from seaward; the air grows sultry and still; the creatures of the grove and jungle keep their coverts, as if expectant, like the surface of the soil; there is a hush over all things, as though nature herself were faint; till presently the lightning flashes and the thunder rattles, and down, as if really from heaven and from the hand of God, comes the thick and fresh rain. Then there rises from the ground a cool and penetrating aroma, the scent of the dry soil saturated... ~Daily Telegraph, quoted in A Cyclopædia of Nature Teachings, 1892

Another Lovey Dovey
this time in wool, the
other is a little too long,
but I think it will work.

I've moved on to the
last of my Mary Karr
stack and opened the
pages of Lit. This book
may turn out to be my
favorite!

A little giveaway if your
interested.

Joining up with Ginny
for this week's Yarn Along.

A LITTLE GIVEAWAY

"The secret of life is that all
 we have and are is a gift
of grace to be shared. "

 ~Lloyd John Ogilvie

While in the yarn store
on Friday picking up
needles I found the cutest
little stitch markers and
thought of you.

If you would like them
leave a comment letting
me know what your favorite
pattern is to knit.

I'll choose a winner at random
and announce the winner
next Monday [July 23].
Have a great week!

WEEKENDING

Weekending:
A verb

A weekend of:

Dinner out with just the nineteen year old
lots of laughs and great California rolls.
Downtown visit to the local yarn store
Lots of tourist in town for The Water Festival
Almost finishing Lovely Dovey and am
now hoping it fits, oh that gauge!
Making this and loving it on eggs.
Feeling well enough to start running again
Melting in the heat and humidity by
afternoon, oh summer in the south.
Swinging in the hammock and cloud watching.
A birthday for a daughter in love.
Them telling me it's a great cake.
A sister surprising me with new flip flops
Joining with Amanda.

THIS MOMENT

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Joining with SouleMama. xx

 

 

YARN ALONG

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.

~Edna St. Vincent Millay

Next month the wee one
will be turning four so I
am busily knitting away
on a Lovey Dovey put
out by Spud & Chloe. I
am not using the recommended
yarn, instead I am going
with Cascade's Ultra Pima
in Periwinkle and Sunshine.
Since my daughter and her
family will be stationed in
southern Georgia, I thought
something out of cotton
would get more wear than
something from wool.

I am reading and thoroughly
enjoying several books
Amanda recommended not
long ago, Cherry which I
am in the middle of at the
moment, The Liars' Club
which I just finished, and
next up is lit. Mary Karr 
has fast become one of my
favorite authors and I have
been telling everyone I know
to read her.
Joining Ginny for this week's
Yarn along.

A SUMMER GIFT

Each day comes bearing its own gifts.
Untie the ribbons. 

~Ruth Ann Schabacker

We spent the day noticing

all the gifts that were offered.

Are you noticing yours?



WEEKENDING

The best things in life are nearest:
  Breath in your nostrils, light in your
  eyes, flowers at your feet, duties
at your hand, the path of right just
before you. Then do not grasp at
the stars, but do life's plain, common
work as it comes, certain that daily
duties and daily bread are the
 sweetest things in life.

  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

It has been a weekend
of simple tasks...shopping
for food and discovering a
great chip,  finding the most
comfortable bra I have
ever worn, knitting away
on a top for the wee
one's birthday for next
month, picking up great
mail from the post office
[thank you ko], pampering
myself with a fun pedicure
and a much needed facial. 
Today there has been a
slow walk around the yard
and seeing that we really need
rain, clipping berries  and putting
them in the freezer to de-stem
in preparation for making syrup
next week, thinking  I really
want to make this for dessert.
This afternoon promises to be
quiet and peaceful as I hid inside
from the heat and just let the
day flow.
How has your weekend been?
Joining with Amanda for her
weekending posts.

THIS MOMENT

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Joining with SouleMama. xx

SEXY SALAD

Train up a fig-tree in the way it should go,
 and when you are old sit under the shade of it.

~ Charles Dickens

 Their season is only
for a short time so
I make sure to take
full advantage and
eat figs everyday they
are available. Besides
eating them right off
the tree, my favorite
way to enjoy figs is in
a salad [or a cake, but 
that is for another time].
Don't let the short and
simple ingredient list fool
you, this salad is divine.
Even with leaving the
proscuitto out of mine
it is still the best salad I
have ever eaten.
Do you eat figs?

JULY 4

Happy Independence Day,
may you have an amazing one!

SUMMER 2012

" I question not if thrushes sing,
  If roses load the air;
  Beyond my heart I need not reach
  When all is summer there."

~ John Vance Cheney

Last week my good friend Karen
had a lovely post about summer
appreciation and ever since I read
it I have been thinking about
just what this summer really means
to me. I have been keeping a list
on the counter to jot down
things and I thought I would share
it with you...

~ Not watching the clock
~ The a/c running constantly
~ Melting into a puddle by 2:00
~Naps under the ceiling fan
~ Humidity making my hair kink
~ Ponytails
~Picking breakfast from the fig tree
or blueberry bushes after a long walk
~Swinging in the hammock reading
a magazine
~Sending in report cards and ordering
new school books
~Lightening bugs late at night
~Dragonflies everywhere, all day
~Anticipation of the Olympics
~Canning tomatoes
~Swimming in the Atlantic
~ Sand under my feet
~an old friend in my beach bag
~ Staying up too late
watch old movies
~Knitting on and off all day
[okay, that goes on year round]
~Cold dinners from the icebox
~Tending my herb bed as the
sun comes up
~Watermelon juice on my chin
~A horrid mosquito and tick year
~Sun tea in a mason jar
~tomato sandwiches with
homemade mayo
~the smell of freshly cut grass
mixing with honeysuckle
~Preparing my heart to say goodbye
~ What does this summer mean
to you?

WEEKENDING

Summertime, and the livin' is easy.

~ Ben, A Long, Hot Summer

My daughter is back from
her trip so the wee one
is no longer here, which
has meant...
::cleaning a very dirty house
since we were too busy playing
to worry about such things as
dust bunnies or sticky cupboards
::listening to waves crash on
the shore and feeling sand under
my feet
::almost finished reading this
and getting ready to start
this [thanks Amanda].
::Knitting away on my first
Miranda hat. Want to join
a heartwarming group?
::Pizza for dinner last night
and now a pasta salad chilling in
the fridge, along with store bought
rolls since it's too hot to think
about cooking.
:: Seeing my oldest son's new
house that he just bought. I
am so proud of him.
::Watching one of my favorite
movies of all time
::Picking and eating figs right
from the tree.
:: Being ever so thankful for
the invention of air conditioning
with a heat index reaching 115 degrees
... It's SUMMER!!!
Joining with Amanda.