festivities

we decided to spruce up our store windows for the holidays... since you know, we have store windows in the first place. it would be kinda a shame to waste all that potential space. it makes us smile whenever we leave or come back home, to see the cozy glow!

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.

autumn salad

apple butter frolic

we had a busy weekend. a wedding to attend, 2 cakes to make, friends to visit with, a fall party to attend, a frolic and a birthday party. this post is just of the apple butter frolic we attended. its a yearly event focused on the traditions and everyday life of the mennonites. since it is held in the fall time, the big event is apples. apple fritters, apple butter, apple dumplings. there was also yummy chicken potpie, pulled pork, scrapple, ham and potatoes, etc. demonstrations on farming, keeping house and crafts. here are a few highlights from the day.

CD release party

 last evening i had the pleasure of attending and providing the cakes for a cd release party for some dear friends. they put out a beautiful worship cd, recently. you can check them out at shores music if your interested. shores music label is a sister to shores of grace ministries. shores of grace ministries are doing a great work in brazil, ministering to prostitutes in hopes of setting them free, through restoration. showing the love of God our Father to the broken. it was a great night of worship and celebration with this couple pictured below and other bands on the shores music label.

Aquarium via my phone

i recently went with a friend to the baltimore aquarium. here are a few shots of the many fish we got to see. it was fun to go again, since i can't remember the last time i was there. her kids loved it, since they've never been to an aquarium, their excitement was contagious, so i thought i'd snap a few pictures to share. the manta rays, sharks, dolphins and sea turtles were to hard to capture, but were a very big part of pools there. a perfect way to spend a rainy day!

Birthday Boy!

we love birthdays here! we love having people over, eating yummy food, and celebrating life in general! this past weekend, jason had a birthday! i really wanted to have a little gathering outside this year, so we cleared some space, spruced up our lacking yard a bit and built a fire pit for the occasion. the day turned out lovely, a great way to send the summer off with one last party outdoors. we ate snickerdoodle cake and homemade vanilla bean ice cream, made our first bonfire and played with sparklers and fireworks! a very good day!

Lobsters and Labor Days

 Here is the project of the week! It was a fun one!

Happy holiday weekend!

Jason and I... well we will both be working so we can take off a day next week for his birthday!In the spirit of working hard, here are some things that have gotten done around here of late.

• cleaning out the garage
• cleaning up the storage part of our house ( mostly)
• cleaned and organized my craft space
•  made some knit socks
• seasoned my cast iron pans
• made my own scrubbies for doing dishes out of bags that oranges and lemons come in. fold. sew. done. they work excellent as a non abrasive scrubby
• hung some new artwork
• made panzanella ( summer bread salad)

Cake in a jar!

Wedding Weekend!

here is the most recent cake i've done! it was for this lovely couple pictured below! they are dear friends of ours and we were so happy to be apart of their special day! jason being best man and my cake contribution.

 and it was so great spending a whole weekend with these folks. their company with us was truly the highlight of our summer! oh and possibly a road trip... but we sure do love these two couples a whole lot!