week in snapshots

1. japanese tea room, 2. steeples and light, 3. turtle eggs, 4. faith, 5. origami butterfly, 6. love, 7. mimi's flower garden, 8. hope, 9. courtyard, 10. bittersweet, 11. fragile mushrooms, 12. looking up

Oddly enough, this somewhat random selection of photos from the week seems very symbolic of my life. We stayed at a clients home this weekend, and it was such a lovely peaceful place....very inspiring.

And if you didn't see my last post, I have a giveaway going on this week.

handmade...giveaway

Things Men Have Made
Things men have made with weakened hands, and put soft life into
are awake through years with transferred touch, and go on glowing
for long years.
And for this reason, some old things are lovely
warm still with the life of forgotten men who made them.
~ D. H. Lawrence

The winner is Audrey who wrote...
"Our oldest son took 3 years of "Cabinetry" in school as an elective course. Year 2/3 he made us a blanket chest out of oak. This is my favorite handmade item in my home. It's something we will use forever and beable to pass on to him or one of his children."

Thanks to everyone who left comments and shared their most treasured handmade item. Stay tuned...we will be doing some more giveaways in the future. We added one of these natural edge servers to our shop now too. I'll be adding more things over the next week. Again thanks for playing along...


John’s been making cutting boards all week in between working on the bigger projects he has going on in preparation for the show we are doing this weekend in Pittsburgh. It seems to be the year of the cutting board. Many seem to be striving to bring more nature into their lives and in turn peace, even in small ways. I believe when people respond to our furniture or cutting boards, they are really responding to nature. John allows the natural forms and figure of the tree to guide the designs and uses natural finishes that allow the true color and figure of the wood to show through. That gives each piece a shibui nature (i.e., a natural elegance)….even the cutting boards.

There is nothing better than using a wood cutting board. I know I love using the three that I have on a daily basis. They are easy to care for and have natural antimicrobial properties. We just wash ours with warm soapy water and let it dry on end. You cannot put a wooden cutting board in a dishwashing to clean it. Well, you could, but it would end up not being a very functional cutting board and the detergents would bleach out the natural color (and beauty) of the wood. We use a little bit of mineral oil and beeswax to finish these, and every couple of months we wipe them down with more mineral oil.

So my giveaway today is… a one of a kind cutting board. It is sycamore with sliding dovetail feet in walnut. Designed by nature, built with two hands, and shared with our love…


Details: to be entered in this giveaway you need to leave a comment in this post answering this question:

What is your favorite handmade possession and why?

I will select one commenter randomly as the winner next Friday, September 4th.

I'll announce the winner on this post but be sure your email is in your profile if you want to be contacted by me.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention that we have a couple of cutting boards available in our etsy shop, along with some boxes and cabinets.

a few of my favorite things...carrie sterling mixed-media

We received very special addition to our art collection just this week, but it is already a favorite. My niece, Carrie, allowed us to select one thing from her portfolio, and this was John's selection. Carrie is headed off to art school next week. She'll be attending the Art Institute of Boston. That's going to be an awesome and exciting experience for her. And we are all proud that she made the decision to go to art school. And I am looking forward to see how her work changes as she has new experiences and learns new techniques.

Blue butterflies always show up when I am facing a lot of challenges. They are a reminder to keep looking up....to keep searching for the light. They are my wings. And this is the Proper Time.

Thank you so much, Carrie....and blessings to you as you embark on this exciting adventure in your life.

...

And tomorrow is the giveaway day.

homemade...rainbow harvest lunch

Lately, Jude and I have ventured out to the garden in the late morning to harvest what will become our lunch for the day. These are the simplest most satisfying meals to me. And I love that Jude can connect so deeply with the food that is nourishing him. Afterall he helped grow, harvest, and clean some of the vegetables that were used to cook this meal. And it created a beautiful rainbow of colors in his bowl.

Most meals I cook like this start off with some olive oil and chopped onions in my cast iron skillet over medium heat.

Then I throw stuff in that takes a while to cook with a bit of water. In this case, it was some cabbage and green beans from our garden, carrots from our CSA, and corn from a neighboring farm. I boiled some baby beets from the garden in a separate pot.


And when that is almost cooked I throw in any softer beet greens and cover with a lid for a minute or two until the greens have just enough time to wilt. I sliced the cooked beets and added them to the mix.

So, so easy...

And delicious...

Jude agreed!

moment of mindfulness...abundance

A few weeks ago, we reached a tipping point. Our garden was almost able to feed us completely. We went from eating 4 or 5 beans a piece at a meal to gathering enough to cover the bottom of my large harvesting basket.


I had so many zucchini and crookneck squash that I gladly gave them away to a friend of mine whose travels prevented her from putting in a garden this year. And just a couple of hours after giving them away, I received a call from a neighbor offering me heirloom tomatoes. The bounty seems endless.

I have a tendency to get easily overwhelmed with abundance. But I noticed this time I was just filled with gratitude and marveled at how the simple act of giving away came back to me so quickly. It is not that I haven’t been aware of that before, but it was so pronounced this weekend. Everyone was sharing.

It is these glimpses of heaven that keep me going when challenges seem abundant. And they have been lately, but for these blessed few days we received a much needed reprieve. And for that I am grateful.

In the spirit of abundance and giving, I am planning my first giveaway at the end of this week. I’m really excited to share my bounty…but no worries I won’t be giving away zucchini.

Also, I'm adding something to our etsy shop everyday this week in an effort to get into the habit of doing it. I'd love if you would take a look and let me know what you think.

week in snapshots

1. window box, 2. froggie, 3. daily harvest, 4. phlox, 5. wild black raspberries, 6. bubble beard, 7. eyes, 8. harvesting onions, 9. snapdragon

handmade inspirations...daisy janie's organic cotton fabric

Don't you love all the interesting connections that you can make through the web. I've been writing a series of articles for Tara Gentile on Handmade in PA. About the time I started writing for her there, Tara took over Scoutie Girl, a blog "with a penchant for the passionately handmade." The original owner of Scoutie Girl is my first feature for a new series that I'm going to offer called handmade inspirations.

I've been searching for some sewing inspiration, and through this tangled web o' happenstance, I found Daisy Janie's beautiful line of organic cotton prints. Jan DiCintio is the woman behind this fab line of fabrics that is offered through her website, Daisy Janie and her etsy shop by the same name. I love the bold colors and their combinations. I'm particularly fond of the brown and blue colorway named avalon.

Now...what to make? I've been searching for a fabric to make curtains for our showroom cabin, or perhaps a pillow combining a couple of the designs from this colorway. I'm drawn to elsa and boxwood. I just love the organic retro feel of Jan's designs. Now go get inspired by the projects in Daisy Janie's Flickr pool. But one more thing before you go...

What has been inspiring you lately? I'd love to hear.

homegrown and homemade...fennel and radicchio salad

radicchio in the garden

I'm an intuitive cook, to me that means, I use recipes for inspiration but do my own thing. I rarely measure unless I'm baking, then I measure carefully. This recipe from Epicurious for Fennel and Radicchio Salad is excellent; so if you need directions and measurements follow it. What I have here is a little picture tutorial of my own way for a similar salad. In fact, I didn't use radicchio because I didn't have any at the time. I substituted red cabbage from our garden that I pressed to soften.

Split the red cabbage in half lengthwise.

Chop up a half a head of red cabbage and toss with salt.

Let it sit for a few hours and squeezed the excess water out of the cabbage.

Chop up the fennel lengthwise after removing the ferny stems.

(I threw these in the freezer to use for making a vegetable broth at a later time.)

Get a cute little shallot.

Chop into small pieces.

Squeeze the juice out of half of a lemon and poured that over the shallot in a small bowl.

And pour enough olive oil over the shallot-lemon mixture.

Add several pitted kalamata olives to the fennel and pour the olive oil mixture on top.

When the cabbage is pressed, add that to the bowl and mix all the ingredients together.

Enjoy!

moment of mindfulness...in the fairy garden

We were in the sweet little village of Mt. Gretna this weekend for their outdoor art show. We did this show for the first time 4 years ago when Jude was just 4 months old. Our booth that year was just a short walk down a tree canopied path to the fairy garden, and I spent so much time there nursing Jude. It was a magical reprieve from the busy-ness of an art show for this tired mama, and it still is only this year Jude was an actively enjoying it as well.

Most people I tell about the fairy garden think I am joking, but their smiles always reveal a deeper knowing that if there were fairies you would definitely find them in Mt. Gretna. You would never find this fairy garden unless you knew that it was there. I just happened to stumble upon it that first year, and now I always look forward to revisiting.

This fairy garden is a community supported affair. The best I can figure is people in the community and perhaps visitors contribute to its making. I'll let the fairies tell the rest of the story...

And I think there were many more I wasn't able to get with the camera ;)

week in snapshots

1. lots of time looking up, 2. pony ride, 3. the view outside our booth at mt gretna, 4. buttons!, 5. mt gretna cottage, 6. jude's art work, 7. pennsylvania chautauchua, 8. mt gretna cottage lampost, 9. jude in the fairy garden, 10. swan planters, 11. fungi moss and stone, 12. seedlings for a fall garden

We had a challenging and enchanted week...our county historical society hosted its rural heritage day (more on that to come) and then we spent the weekend in the charming little village of Mt. Gretna. We were there for a show. Mt. Gretna is the kind of place that can make the rest of the world fade away...where looking up is as pleasant as looking down...where quant little cottages are nestled in trees...where a butterflies flitter about (one actually tried to get nectar from a flower on my skirt!)......where fairies and gnomes have tea in the woods. The beauty there is hard to capture in a picture. It's the feeling you have when you are there that makes it what it is....so, so special.

a few of my favorite things…Susan Faeder quilts and collage

boro boro byobu 5

If it were not for Susan I would not be so addicted to Japanese fabrics, and I probably would not have learned the term wabi sabi. It’s not that Susan taught me that term, but she definitely helped start me off on a path that helped me discover it for myself.

Susan runs a beautiful little store called the Beckoning Cat in Lewisburg, PA, a little town near us. She offers a wonderful selection of beautiful fabrics from Japan and elsewhere and lovely Japanese gifts.

what the tide brings in 2

Besides bringing so many lovely fabrics and crafts westward, Susan makes beautiful quilts and fabric collages. I love the fabric combinations she uses in quilts, and she is so supportive and inspiring to fellow quilters and wannabes like me. She leads a yearly tour to Japan called Quilters’ Express to Japan and teaches workshops.

boro boro byobu 3

Her recent work with Japanese rags is really unique. I love their wabi sabi nature. And they are on exhibit right now at Gallery Blu in Harrisburg, PA as part of a “Japonisme” exhibit which features four artists from the west whose work is influenced by the art of Japan.

hometown...fair

Last week was our county fair. The fairgrounds are just 3 miles or so down the road from us and this year our non-profit, the Blue Butterfly Fund, had a stand at the fair so we were there a lot. I love the country charm of our fair. I love how many people we see that we know when we go there. I love that there are still small fairs like this around.

The exhibit building is always one of my favorite parts of the fair. I love seeing all the vegetables, canned goods, and crafts on display. For the first time, I decided to enter 3 photographs into the judged competitions. I didn't place. Now if I would have had that picture at the top of the post, I'd probably have a 1st place sticker to show you because farming is what this fair is all about. We are in the surrounded by mountains and valleys where we live. There is a lot of logging and farming going on around here.

I loved this first place harvest basket. I'm inspired to attempt one next year, but my goodness look at those peppers. Just about everyone around these parts has a garden of some sorts even if it is to just grow a few tomato plants...so the competition is stiff.

Pretty cans of jams, fruits, vegetables, and...

display meats! I always got great amusement from that name...but John and I were somewhat disappointed to see they renamed this category to canned meats this year.

All the blue ribbon winners...

Of course there were lots of animals to visit with...

I'm getting a goat someday. I just love them. They always look like they are having a great time even when they are confined. It's almost more of a challenge for them or something.
A row of sandy colored lazy cows...it amazes me that the farmers milk even during farm week and how much of a pain that must be.

We enjoyed the piggies grunting. They really are much friendlier looking than this guy seemed to be.

We have lots of wild bunnies around our house, but at the fair we get to see that there are so many different kinds of domesticated bunnies...but this one was the 1st place male rabbit for the whole fair. The floppy eared ones are favorites of mine but it was hard to get a good shot of them.

They had lots of rides for little ones. And Jude enjoyed the galloping pony carts....

and the carousel (notice no belt or strap) which he rode on his own.

But the real attraction for most fairgoers, including my boy, were the tractors.


They have tractor pull competitions at night. And this year they brought in a special sled all the way from Ohio which was a big deal and really brought in the crowds. They are so loud you can hear them at our house. This is not the most environmentally friendly aspect of the fair, but I think it is so interesting to see all the different things people are into. And let me tell you, people around here are really into this.

Hope you enjoyed this little peek of our week at the fair.