Pin it/Do it - Week 1

During October, I will be posting each Thursday with my progress in the Pin It/Do It Challenge sponsored by Trish @ Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity.  I accomplished two pins this week - the two easiest on my list because it was a short week.  

Pin #1 is a small ironing board from Texas Freckles.  It's an inexpensive ($10) wooden tv-tray padded with quilt batting and covered with upholstery fabric.  Just the right height to sit next to sewing table and reach from a seated position.  Just the right size for ironing small items such as quilt blocks or doll clothes.  Saves space and steps from the machine to the ironing board.  Still folds up for storage.

Left: Original pin        Right: My version

Pin #2 is a simple Fall decorating idea from Your Decorating Hotline that only requires three components - a trifle dish, candy corn and a candle.  My version used a candle in a jar rather than a pillar candle because it had the best scent and was on sale.  When I discovered the buckeyes in the yard, I remade mine using the buckeyes in place of the candy corn.  

Left: Original pin - Center: My first version - Right: My second version

There's still a lot of October left to join the Pin It/Do It Challenge and check some pins off your to-do list.

Where Lilacs Still Bloom

German immigrant and farm wife Hulda Klager possesses only an eighth-grade education—and a burning desire to create something beautiful. What begins as a hobby to create an easy-peeling apple for her pies becomes Hulda’s driving purpose: a time-consuming interest in plant hybridization that puts her at odds with family and community, as she challenges the early twentieth-century expectations for a simple housewife.  
 
Through the years, seasonal floods continually threaten to erase her Woodland, Washington garden and a series of family tragedies cause even Hulda to question her focus. In a time of practicality, can one person’s simple gifts of beauty make a difference?  
 
Based on the life of Hulda Klager, Where Lilacs Still Bloom is a story of triumph over an impossible dream and the power of a generous heart. (publisher blurb)

Many years ago, my sister, Teri, and I created our own book club.  The details have changed off and on, but the general idea is that we take turns selecting a book to read each month and creating an activity based on the book.  September was Teri's pick, and she selected Where Lilacs Still Bloom by Jane Kirkpatrick. 

This is a lovely story that wasn't so much about plot as about questions.  Like most of us, Hulda's life did not play out like a perfectly paced thriller or romance novel, and to add those elements would have distracted from the real story of her life work.  Consequently, this book is one to make you ponder and question.  

One of the questions I asked several times was "If the river is going to wipe out your garden every few years, why don't you move your garden farther from the river?"  I never got an answer to that one.  But part of our book club assignment was to write a blog post based on one of the discussion questions at the end of the book and I do feel that I have an answer for this one.  

Do you agree with Hulda when she tells her sister, "Beauty matters...It does. God gave us flowers for a reason.  I think so we'd pay attention to the details of creation and remember to trust Him in all things big or little, no matter what the challenge.  Flowers remind us to put away fear, to stop our rushing and running and worrying about this and that, and for a moment have a piece of paradise right here on earth."

I settled on this discussion topic because it immediately brought to mind two ideas that I firmly believe.  First, we are created in God's image, so we all have an innate desire to create - to be creative.  Some of us sew or knit or bake. Some express their creativity in a spreadsheet with formulas and calculations. Some write, some garden, some sing.  Some build houses, some repair cars, and some completely deny that they have any creative tendencies.  But they just aren't looking.  

My second thought was a resounding, "YES, beauty matters!"  If you've watched my evolution since moving to Green Acres (our two-acre patch of Eden), you've seen my awakening - for lack of a better word - to the beauty of nature.  God's creation is full of detail - the variety of colors, shapes and sizes in a flower bed, the intricate "wood grain" in a buckeye, the changing colors of Autumn leaves.  None of these details are really necessary to sustain life.  He could have made a much simpler world - one type of tree to produce oxygen, one variety of animal or grain to eat, one climate, one landscape.  But He didn't.  He made an intricate world, full of variety and detail, yet all connected.  Surely the reason for this intricacy is to show us that He cares about our details as well.  To remind us "to trust Him in all things big or little" and to sometimes take the focus off the details that have us running and worrying, slow us down and remind us of all that is good in the world when all we can see is the bad.

Lilacs have always been one of my favorite flowers. We have them spread around Green Acres, but they have been untended for many years and are out of control. I appreciated the educational side of this story that taught me the proper method for pruning overgrown lilacs.  I also appreciated the historical aspect. I found it interesting that during the Great Depression the government instituted programs to encourage the arts because they (whoever "they" were) knew that, especially during such dark times, people needed to find beauty. What a contrast to current school budget "depressions" that are being solved by cutting the arts.  But mostly, I enjoyed Mrs. Klager's dedication and inspiration to create and share beauty.

To check Teri's homework, check out her post on Where Lilacs Still Bloom.

They're All Together Ooky. . .

I'm haven't been a big fan of Halloween since I outgrew Trick-or-Treating (if you're curious, you can find out why in this post), so October is usually just one more month of lead-up to Christmas.  But this year I have three special events on the calendar for October and I'm slightly giddy.  First up is Murder, Monsters and Mayhem (or Mx3) - a month-long celebration of all things spooky, mysterious or macbre.  You can find out what I'll be reading and watching, in this post.

Dewey's Read-A-Thon is scheduled for Saturday, October 13th - twenty-four hours of reading, blogging, entering challenges and meeting new bloggers.  This will be my fifth read-a-thon (it's held every April and October) and it's one of the most anticipated days of the year for me.  






And when I'm not reading, reading, reading - I'll be crafting.  In hopes of getting lots of Christmas gifts made, I signed up for Trish's Pin It/Do It Challenge.  The challenge encourages Pinterest users to stop making plans for "some day" and start accomplishing some of those pins.  The projects don't have to be crafts - they can be recipes, decorating, personal goals, traveling, gardening - whatever you have marked as something you hope to accomplish.  You can view my board of potential projects here.

For more information or to join any of these fun events, click on the icons in the sidebar to the left.  And have an "All together ooky"* October.

*Can you name that tune?

I love to play at photography - in fact, if I had it to do over again, that might become a career.  But at this stage of life, I'm just developing it into a hobby for my own enjoyment.  So, from time to time, I will be posting pcitures I've taken and especially like.  Mostly this is for my own benefit - an easy way to remember my favorites and perhaps get a little feedback on what others like - so I can choose what to enter in next year's fair.

"End of the Line" 

Marigold

"On the Line" - antique clothes line

Hows that for an action shot?

"Some Pig"???

Playing with perspective

Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire . . .

Many of you who read this will wonder how I got to be this old without noticing more of the world around me.  I must have been busy cooking, cleaning, raising kids or reading a book.  But since moving to Green Acres, I have become fascinated by the flora and fauna. Case in point, the Horse Chestnut trees in our front yard.  Didn't pay a bit of attention last year, but this year Dave pointed out the not-so-subtle signs of squirrels preparing for the winter.

Seriously can't believe we both missed this mess last year when we had to mow every other day because it actually rained.  Maybe the squirrels knew last winter would be mild and didn't stockpile as much?  Is this a sign that we should store up canned goods and buy a generator before snow flies?

Anyway, Dave found one of the chestnuts among the empty hulls and when I saw how beautiful they are, I decided I wanted a bowl of them as living room decor.  (Hey, if that is a bad idea - if chestnuts attract ants, or rot and smell like tofu, or turn lime green and stain your good bowl - someone please speak now.)   For the rest of the nature-oblivious among you, horse chestnuts are a member of the buckeye family.  They are not edible like real chestnuts - even when roasted on an open fire - and they are toxic to dogs and cats.  Although they have a nasty taste that will usually cause pets to avoid eating them, it's wise to rake up the shells and keep the nuts out of reach in the house.  Which raises the question of why squirrels eat them in the first place.  Do they have unrefined pallets or are they just too cheap to buy some Skippy?

If you want to harvest some horse chestnuts for decorative purposes - or to feed your pet squirrels - you are going to need 4 things:

1.  One or more horse chestnut trees

2.  A husband with a good throwing arm

3.  A dog that likes to play fetch

4.  Chuck-it brand Wonder Ball* for dogs

Arguably, you could omit the dog, but then you would have to buy dog toys to use for just a few minutes and that would be wasteful.  Also possible that you could omit the husband if you happen to have some throwing skills yourself.  For clarification, it doesn't have to be your own husband - this is a perfectly respectable reason to borrow someone's husband.  You could even use an unmarried man or, for that matter, a woman if you choose to be open-minded that way - whatever shakes your particular tree.

You are looking for ripe seed pods like these:  

                                                            

Politely request that the husband throw the ball repeatedly into the upper branches of the trees, causing branches to rustle and chestnuts to fall to the ground.  Be sure and stand away from the trees during this portion because those little buggers hurt if they - oh, say -hit you on the back while you're bent to look for chestnuts on the ground . . . I'm assuming.  This is where the strong throwing arm comes into play because, contrary to the popular belief that squirrels are hard workers who toil diligently to store enough food to last an entire winter, they are actually very lazy and will collect the nuts from the lower branches, thus avoiding excessive climbing, then sit back and laugh while humans try to access the few remaining nuts up there in the cheap seats.  (Run-on sentence much?)

After the pods have fallen to the ground, simply remove the soft outer shell.  If they're really ripe, the shell may crack open or fall off completely when they hit the ground or the pickup or your back, depending on what's underneath the tree at the time.  Inside you will find a treasure.  Smooth, shiny gems that look like they are carved from wood, right down to the intricate grain:

The wonders of God's creation never cease to amaze!

*Chuck-it brand Wonder Balls are the #1 ranked dog toy according to an informal poll of the administrators of this blog.  Guaranteed to be indestructible by fetch-obsessed Springer Spaniels, Big Red Idiot Dogs who can/will eat anything, and cows.

**It has been brought to my attention that these may be Iowa Buckeye (also called American Buckeye) rather than Horse Chestnut trees.  Either way, the harvesting procedure remains the same.

In My Best Pinterest . . .

Are you a Pinterest addict?  If so, it's time to stop making "wish lists" and start making those wishes come true.  Trish, of Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity is sponsoring the "Pin It/Do It Challenge" during the month of October.  The concept is pretty basic - make or do some of the things you have pinned; give/receive encouragement from other pinners, and maybe get some ideas for future projects.  If you want to give it a try, visit Trish's blog to sign up (link above).

Trish offers three levels of participation to coincide with your level of enthusiasm.  I am signing up for the "Pin Obsessed" level, which is to accomplish 8 or more pins. I created a "Pin it/Do it Challenge" board with all the things I thought I might actually try.  There are twenty-one pins on it and there's no way I'm going to get to them all, but my hope is to get some Christmas gifts made, try a new recipe or two, and finally hang some bedroom curtains (we've only lived here 18 months).  Here's what I have lined up:

Sewing: 

• Book marks
• Coasters
• Business card holders - to hold all those "rewards" cards stores give out.
• Potholders
• Casserole Carriers
• Placemats/table runners
• Coffee Cup Cozies
• Bottle "aprons"
• Bedroom curtains

Cooking - low calorie/low fat recipes:

• Ranch Dressing
• Strawberry Muffins 
• Skinny Monkey Cookies
• Weight Watchers Taco Soup

DIY Projects and Other Crafts:

• Spoon Ring
• TV Tray Ironing Board
• Curtain Headboard
• Christmas Gift Tags
• Gratitude Journal
• Book Page Christmas Trees

Decorating:  Candy Corn Candle

Activities:  Nature Treasure Hunt (with kids/grandkids)

If you want to try any of these projects, you can find them on my Pinterest Challenge board.  

Six Word Saturday

A Fair is a Veritable Smorgasboard . . .

My fair entries

This week I made my first attempt at entering the County Fair, and I would say we had a reasonably successful year.  I received 3rd place on my Wild Plum/Apple Jelly, 3rd on peach pie, and 3rd on apple pie.  I also got 1st place for my chili sauce, entered in the "Homemade Catsup" division - but there were only two entries, so I'm not sure that really counts.  Dave placed 3rd in the Animal Photos competition with his picture of Gabby, the Big Red Dog and her following of heiffers. 

We learned a lot about the subjectivity of judges' opinions.  They didn't award a ribbon to my chocolate chip cookies 

because they "needed more chocolate".  That would be because I like a larger cookie-to-chocolate ratio so I only put in 1/2 the bag of chocolate chips rather than the full bag called for in the recipe.  To each his own, I guess. I also entered Snickerdoodles made from a recipe which won a Grand Champion ribbon for a friend a few years back - but this group of judges deemed them "too thick".  Obviously not Snickerdoodle connoisseurs! :)  My flowers didn't win, either - but every group of "5 brown marigolds" entered looked identical to me, so obviously I'm not up on the finer points of marigold standards.  

I'm thrilled with our ribbons and the $7 in prize money we've got coming.  It was hard work getting everything ready, but also a lot of fun.  Already brainstorming ideas to enter next year.

In case you're not familiar with my 6-word phrase, A Fair is a Veritable Smorgasboard is a song from the animated movie Charlotte's Web.

Six Word Saturday is sponsored by Cate at Show My Face.  Just describe your life, or something in it, in exactly six words.  Visit Cate's blog and play along.