In the blink of an eye...

I posted the houses yesterday and already the little Musical house is sold. So fast! I'm going to miss it on my desk, but I know it's going to a good home.

Tale of Two Houses

October, how I do adore you. The leaves are just starting to change on the red maple just outside my bedroom window and soon they will be a bright vivid orangey-red like you can see on my blog banner.

I love the warm weather we're having right now. Just the right temperature to go outside and pick the last of the tomatoes and flowers from my garden. Also the perfect time to start decorating for Halloween. Tomorrow I'll probably start stringing up my purple fairy lights in the bushes. Last year one older neighbor looked at me like I was crazy and asked me if I wasn't a bit early to be decorating for Xmas already. Nope, sorry - you're next door to a Halloween lover. I like to decorate for Christmas, too, but Halloween is my first, best love.

So far all I've done is added the scaredy cats to my pumpkin wreath:

Ahhh - NOW it's Fall for me. ;)

Another week speeds by fast as the blink of an eye. I meant to update over the past few days, but was under the weather. A Fanciful Twist had a great Autumn tale on her blog a few days ago and it had the little Literary House she bought in the pictures. The witch that lives in the house seems very happy to me.

So now that I'm feeling a bit better and the weather was so nice outside I'm finally able to present my two new houses:

In the tiny grove of a nearby woods lived a fairy with a cheerful purple Polka Dot House. It's been worn by time, but the roof doesn't leak and the windows let in plenty of light.

Nearby lived another fairy in a far more musical house with a dark red roof:

Everyone knew just where to find it - the address is clearly printed above the door - Melody 79. (The same as the sheet music she used to paper the house.) I'll be posting these houses on my Etsy store very soon. They are the same size as the previous houses I sold, but I do also plan to post a smaller house and possibly one of my larger houses as well in the future.

And in other news - the Halloween Blog Party is this Friday and I can't wait to post some cool stuff. I'll also be doing a give away that day - something very Halloween-y to decorate the lucky winner's home so be sure to check out this blog and join the fun!!

Studio 58Cherries

I'm dreaming of a studio right now. We bought our house about 4 years ago and are just now getting around to gutting and redoing the den downstairs which will then become a studio and I can't wait til it's done! Right now I just work on a table in the living room and stash my supplies under the table of in the bottom half of a dvd cabinet. I can't wait to be able to stretch out and organize my stuff better. At the moment the room is totally gutted except for a new ceiling - we still need walls and a floor so I'm impatiently dreaming up what I'll do with it when I finally get to decorate/set it up. I bought a magazine to drool over - Cloth Paper Scissors Studios - special issue at Jo Ann's today.

So beautiful! I love comparing the different studios and figuring out how much counter space and light I'll need. It's the perfect inspiration and if you like looking at artists' studios I highly recommend this issue. It even has a fantastic prim style studio on the cover - lovely.

I like a mix of primitive and shabby chic, myself. A bit more on the light and airy colors and old vintage mix of knick knacks.

I plan to also use the studio as a spare bedroom when needed or just as a place to get away from it all so I'm going to set up my lovely white (heavy!) metal daybed with some nice shabby chic style covers and pillows which I'm sure my cats will enjoy while I'm working down there. ;)

The three musketeers:

At the foot of my bed you can see the old chair I had as a child that I painted black - I keep it because it is so cute and reminds me of sitting on it with my dolls and playing with my cousins and friends, but also because it makes a very handy step for the two older kitties that need a bit of help up.

And sometimes they just want to sit in it and watch TV...

Mmmm...Gooey Sweetness...

It's fall and that means it's time for caramel apples!! I don't much like those happy apples they sell with the little chopped up peanuts, but my mom does. We both agree, though, that the Bionic Apple sold at our local Dierberg's grocery store is the best - it's a bigger apple with richer caramel and the best part - pecans - yummmm.

Unfortunately, they are nearly 5 bucks a pop and a wee bit expensive for the budget. So we decided to make our own this year.

Mmm..mmm - they were good. The big one in the back of the picture is my version of the big bionic one - I bought a Honey Crisp apple - expensive at about $2.40, but so good and big enough for all of us to share. The rest are Macintosh apples, I think. Not quite as good as the Honey Crisp, but still better than most. Next time I'd make them with Granny Smith's, though, so they are more tart the way I like 'em.

And why should I stop there? I decided to make more - but this time not quite so big...

What's that you say? They still look big - nope - they are pretty small, actually:

Did I happen to mention I like to make miniatures?

So I decided not to stop there and dug out my miniature making supplies and also whipped up a cake - this time from the cover of a magazine:

The table is set - would you like a piece?

So while you can see I was gone a bit from my blog (sorry, medical problems causing me quite a bit of pain right now) - I decided to make up for it with a big post with lots of pictures. Please let me know if you like them. I've sold miniatures on ebay in the past, but haven't yet added them to Etsy yet - I'm unsure if they'd sell, but I'd like to try. ;)

Today's Post is brought to you by the Tomato...

Time to ketchup on a few things that I've been given or made based on the tomato...

My sugar bowl:

Given to us by Auntie Mae last year and now she's given us a funky little tablecloth to match...

But even more importantly, today I made Fried Green Tomatoes. Yummmmm...

They are super easy, make it just like you would fried chicken, but with green tomatoes:

Flour, eggs, green tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste - so simple, yet so good. They are hot and salty and crispy on the outside and tart on the inside. The perfect fall treat.

Happy Monday...

Just a little picture of some beautiful Hydrangeas freshly picked from my garden the other day. I love the pretty lilac shade they turned with just a hint of green to them.

I sold another item in my Etsy store last night. I was tickled pink to find that the stylish Vanessa of A Fanciful Twist bought my little Literary house! I'm packing it up right now. I'll miss it on my bookshelf, but it'll be going to a good home, that's for sure.

I added a new item to my shop just now, too. Just in time for fall - a beautiful set of prim boxes for Thanksgiving. I just love the rich color and style of these and I hope someone else will like them, too.

There are more pictures of them at my Etsy store, of course. And here is a picture of the door knocker I bought my mother for Mother's Day a few years ago - it's on our front door and it is so cute:

It's a Nantucket basket and the best part is that you can actually put things in it, like a flower or a note. It's very handy.

This past weekend has been very tiring as there was a big move and lots of relatives and cooking and cleaning involved. I'm too tired to do much today, but eat some of the leftover spanikopita we made and do a little crafty work to recuperate.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

It's that time again...

It's definitely feeling a bit cool around here and I'm feeling the need to break out the Fall decorations already. I've seen on other blogs that I'm not alone and that makes me smile. I love it that other people love Halloween just as much as I do. Too bad no one that lives around me seems to feel that way. So last night I dug out my decorations and I'll be spending the day poking around them. I don't want to go overboard just yet, but a few decorations never hurt anyone, right?

So first I'm starting on the door - just an innocent pumpkin wreath. Believe it or not - my mom made this from deconstructing a store bought wreath that had even MORE pumpkins on it - lots more, but litte else. She took the best pumpkins and added little bittersweet blossoms and leaves and some other type of fall berries and made this beautiful wreath from it. I love it so much - every year it graces our front door through Thanksgiving. I almost hate to take it down for the Christmas wreath.

And then, last night, I decided it was time for some pumpkin muffins. Yum! The smell drives the whole house crazy as they bake. These are Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins. Now, if that sounds weird, I totally understand. A friend of mine gave me one a few years ago and I thought it sounded gross until I took a bite. Whoa! Delicious. I put a little less chocolate in them and added nuts and they are now even better.

Here's my recipe:

3 cups flour

2 t baking soda

2 t baking powder

2 t cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

1/2 t salt

4 eggs slightly beaten

2 cups sugar

1 can pumpkin

1 cup veg. oil

2 cups chocolate chips (or less according to taste)

1 cup walnuts

Mix the dry ingredients together in medium bowl, set aside. Mix the eggs and sugar together, then add pumpkin, then oil - mix well. Then add the dry ingredients until well mixed. Add chocolate and nuts. Use paper liners for the muffins and fill about half way or 2/3 way in cups and bake. Makes about 36 muffins.

These taste even better the next day as the spices seem to get stronger. Mmm...

Random Note...

The Extreme Makeover Home Edition show is in my town just now. They've roped off the whole neighborhood where they are currently building the new house while the family is on vacation in Disney World. It's part exciting and part irritating for all the fuss and hassle it creates, but when it is all over I'll have to drive over and take a look. You can go and watch them build if you are willing to stand (no sitting allowed).

Underneath the floorboards...

live the Borrowers. Did anyone else read The Borrowers when they were a kid? I loved the idea of little people beneath the floorboards. I used to 'borrow' things to make my own little Borrowers den and imagine a family using it when I wasn't looking.


I just bought the 50th Anniversary Edition from Amazon and I'm so glad to finally have a copy of it. It's cuter than the normal children's version at the bookstore - if they even have this classic, which most don't. I think my favorite bit is when the are describing the different Borrowers that used to live in the big house before it got so abandoned and they had to scatter. The Overmantles, Harpsichords, Bell-Pulls and Stove-Pipes with their last names corresponding with where they lived. Arrietty and her parents aren't all that interesting, really, but the idea behind the story still fascinates me and as a child I read lots of stories that were similar in theme - like the Ralph S. Mouse stories by Beverly Cleary or the Beatrix Potter story of Two Bad Mice, etc. I also vaguely remember watching the cartoon The Littles' which was a lot like the Borrowers only they had tails for some reason.

So whenever you are missing a pin, a scrap of fabric, or a spool of thread from your sewing basket, just remember - it might be a Borrower.

A New House

I sold my first Etsy item over the weekend and I'm so happy. It was the Musical Fairy House. It's been shipped off to its new home and I've added a new house to my shop already. The Literary House. It's made with turn of the century German text taken from a vintage music book. Check it out!

If I was a fairy or a Borrower - I'd move right in. ;)