birthday girl + ping pong cake

 another birthday, another fun request for a birthday cake! my how my niece has grown up, even in a years time. love you, little lady!

one last fall post

 happy belated thanksgiving! we had a lovely thanksgiving with both of our families. extending into the weekend, were we saw about 10 wild turkeys strolling about.

 right before the holiday we got our wood burner fired up! we are now heating our house and water with just wood! we are beyond happy about this. the temperature inside these days is cozy- very warm ( just because we can)

lots of other exciting things happening. more to be shared in the next little while!

another update, being, we took down our falling down ceilings in the living room and dining room. we also demoed our attic, put up more insulation, got a new back door, leveled the floor in the laundry room and hung up some more gutters outside. it  has been a very productive season for us. jason being responsible for pretty much all of it!

Wedding Cake

here's a wedding cake i did this past weekend! pound cake with cream cheese frosting! everyone loves the cream cheese lately! it is so very tasty! 

i am off to do a cake decorating class for creative gifts, which is a part of peaceful living. my good friend works with them and thought her clients would really love cake decorating. i'm really excited for the opportunity!

hello november + creamy yam and sage pasta

 the leaves continue to be brilliant these days. the chill in the air has increased. and cooking in these parts has been a more frequent thing! not working four nights a week has revived my passion for making a little more labor intensive meals. i wouldn't have it any other way. my newest little dinner adventure was:

 yam pasta sauce:
 perfectly fall.
i had some left over from another meal, so i pureed the rest of the yams, heated it up, added cream, sage, nutmeg, salt and pepper and topped with parmesan cheese. so good!

our fall table

squirreling away for winter

 we have been busy in these parts, preparing for winter. this year we hope to have a little warmer winter indoors. having an old house means lots of drafts and loss of heat. we our doing our best to remedy that by installing an outdoor wood boiler, insulating  wherever we can and hoping for a better outcome. other little things have included planting a whole bunch of bulbs for a beautiful spring display. bringing some plants indoors. the oxalis pictured above and bringing the amaryllis out of hibernation so it can bring some blooming cheer to the winter months. its also made me want to plant more bulbs in pots to have indoors. i love the blooms all year round!

 jason working on our wood shed  behind the garage!

loving list

 a short list of things i'm LOVING:

• fall porches
• stirring up the compost pile in hopes of a rich soil for spring
• this free plumes printable 
• finding loads of inspiration in ripped out magazine pages ( cleaning out is very good )
• pinterest
• equal parts red wine and glogg ( a swedish spiced drink you can get at ikea ) it makes the most delicious mulled wine
• light ( candles, string lights) in these darkening days
• feist's new album metals
• a handknit, from a sister most dear.
• this lovely blog 3191 miles apart
• kinfolk
• knitting baby things for friends and "one day"

a good reminder that distractions need to be dealt with...

sometimes technology sucks the time right out from under us. we let it. i definitely let it. this caught my attention. i hope it catches yours as well.

a few more from september

 elmo & zoe

another wedding cake for another beautiful wedding. jeff and nicole chose pound cake with pumpkin filling and cream cheese frosting and chocolate cake with cherry filling and cream cheese frosting. great flavors for an autumn wedding!

foods i like

 the other evening i had some peppers that i wanted to eat before they got too old, so i thought of stuffed peppers. digging around in the cupboards and fridge i started thinking of reinventing the stuffed pepper, so i made a greek version. turkey sausage, olives, hummus, feta, rice and roasted tomatoes... they turned out terrific.

 just a pretty still of our fall table the other night.  breaking out even more candles for these days that are getting shorter.

lastly, a new recipe tried! caramel stuffed apple cider cookies. and that is exactly what they taste like. best right out of the oven or heated again. whats not to love about a gooey caramel stuffed in a cookie? not to much. the recipe can be found at the cooking photographer! a little more work to stuff a cookie but oh so worth it!

another corner of our home

 i often feel reluctant to share spaces of our home  here. i love/ hate our home. its in a constant state of repair and disrepair. even though this space ( my creative space) is still going to get renovated one day... it has felt more "finished" and cozy lately. so here is another part of our home. i feel blessed to have this extra space to call my own.