Archives for October 2013

~ My Creation Weeks 4/5 ~

I know, I missed week 4!  Well, I didn’t really miss it, I just didn’t get it posted.  The last two weeks have been a blur of Fall activities.  Here’s a visit to the farm where we bought our winter supply of hay for our four-legged babies.  They had a great Fall display and lots of pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn and all different types of winter squash for sale.pumpkin patch

creation week 4/5

creation week 4/5

creation week 4/5

creation week 4/5

creation week 4/5

 

pumpkin patch

Fall brings on that “nesting” feeling for me.  I want to move back inside, crochet by the fire and make Fall foods.

blueberry banana bread

blueberry banana bread

Blueberry banana bread

pumpkin bread

pumpkin breadPumpkin bread

I bought a new loaf pan that makes 4 mini loaves of bread.  It works great, but I’m still adjusting my recipes for the right amount of batter.  First time not quite enough, the second time a little to much.  My boys don’t seem to mind eating the mistakes.

Pasta Fagioli

Pasta Fagioli soup w/ “rustic” meatballs…haha!

This soup turned out so good, (I was wishing my brother hadn’t been a duck and headed to Florida already, he would have really liked this one).  One of these days I’ll start putting my soup recipes to pen and paper!

Potato Leek Soup

Potato Leek  soup 

Here is a similar Potato Leek Soup recipe to what I made (I made a really large pot so I don’t have exact amounts for mine).

The Beekeeper has been busy taking the honey boxes off the beehives and getting the bees ready for winter.  We have about half of the honey extracted, looks like a good honey year for us.

pure raw honey

Catskill Mountain Honey

And then there was the grape harvest….just when I thought I was done making jams and jelly!  I forgot about the grapes.

grape jelly

I did get a new scarf crocheted and a little doodling in between the fall chores.

Tunisian crochet scarf

creation week 4/5

creation week 4/5

creation week 4/5

creation week 4/5

Time to get started on the next week!

P.S. Here are the bread recipes:

Blueberry Banana Bread

1 cup blueberries

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup margarine (I use butter)

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup mashed banana

Toss the washed and drained blueberries with 2 tablespoons of the flour.  Sift the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together.  Set aside.  Cream the butter and gradually beat in the sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the mashed banana, stir in the blueberries.  Bake in a greased loaf pan in a 350 oven for 50 to 60 minutes (this is different of course if you are using a mini loaf pan like I did).  Makes 1 loaf

This recipe is from a great cookbook  I use a lot, The Country Inn and Bed & Breakfast Cookbook.

Ruthie’s Pumpkin Bread 

3 cups sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

4 eggs

1 cup oil

Mix well.

Add:

1 cup pumpkin

2/3 cup water

Blend in:

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

Bake in 3 greased and floured coffee cans (you need the kind without a lip), filled 1/2 full, at 350 for 1 hour.  This can also be done in a loaf pan.

This was my Mom’s recipe.  I’m not sure where it originated from, but pumpkin bread in a coffee can reminds me of my childhood…happy memory!

~ “My Creation Week 3” ~

We went camping again last week. The same spot back up to the lake in the  Adirondack Mountains, but this time with the Beekeeper’s family.  Finding time to create was a little tricky, I did work on a few pieces that may end up in my journal and I took a lot of photos.  Since photography definitely counts for creating in my book… I’ll start with those.

leaf on the water

creation week 3 3

 

geese

blue heron

 

young loon

young loon

four young loons

Creation week 3

fisher with a fish

creation week 3

sunset

watercolor

creation week 3

 

creation week 3

watercolor

So the leaf on the lake is my favorite, I just love the way it turned out.  Sunsets on the lake are always beautiful and a great photo opportunity, as is the wildlife.  The geese that were using the lake for a stop off point on their way south didn’t like our kayaks passing through.  I’m not even sure how many picture I took of this blue heron, who usually evades me and this trip decided to pose for me.  I was so excited to see the young loon again that I wrote about in this post, but this time I discovered that there are four of them now.  I think they make their migration trip together, anyone know ?  The Beekeeper did lots of fishing, as did the fisher in the picture under the hubby’s hands on the reel.  If you look close that little black creature (the fisher) has a fish in his mouth.  The fire was one of “my creations”, and then the artwork I was able to get in, not a much as I had hoped, but some anyway.  It was a good week, but I’m glad to be back home.

~ “My Creation Week 2” ~

Well here we go…week two. I’m a little obsessed right now with my art journal, bear with me.  First I just made new pages for the little one I started.

art journal page

art journal page

journal page

journal page

But that wasn’t enough so I had to create a whole new journal….

art journal

art journal

art journal

art journal

 

 I’m taking  this online class with Mary Ann Moss.  I really like it.  Mary Ann is a great teacher and a little quirky (I love that!). The Beekeeper says the same thing about me, I find it endearing.  This is the first journal from the class.  My plan was to make a journal with only watercolor paper to take with me camping for Columbus weekend, but I couldn’t seem to stick with that once I got started.  I had this old children’s book in the store that was the right size for my paper.  The cover was coming off anyway, so I figured it would be a good candidate for this exposed spine journal.  Plus I loved the cover.  But when it came right down to it my antique loving self had to keep the inside of the book with the cover.  So now I have just complicated my first journal making experience.  My seven, three page  signatures have to each include a signature from the old book.  I ended up with two signatures of just watercolor paper and five with a combo of watercolor, ledger paper and the old book sections.  I’ve started putting clear gesso on the book pages to strengthen them and prepare them for watercolor (I plan to watercolor the black and white illustrations).

 

The rest of my creating time has been spent building a website to move my blog to.  Just a switch from wordpress.com to wordpress.org, my URL will stay PatriciaFisherDesigns.com.  So, Coming Soon, a new look!  Here’s a little preview…

blog

~ What I Learned in September ~

Today I’m linking up with Emily Freeman at Chatting at the Sky to share what I learned in September.

art journal page

1. Art Journaling – I’ve had many journals that I’ve written in… I’ve doodled… I’ve made “art”, but never thought to combine them all together.  Now, I have seen nature journals, and people’s sketchbooks that they write notes in, but the idea of an art journal was new to me,  and I must admit fascinating!  I stumbled upon them on a couple of blogs like here and here, and I wanted to know more.  I told my sister, sister-in-law and niece one day that I was going to strongly resist the urge to start a new thing.  What a joke!  They know me better than that.  Within a couple of weeks I had immersed myself in blogs about art journaling, ordered twice from amazon, been to Hobby Lobby and found two classes to take here.  I’m gone…lovin’ this “new to me” thing. You can find me in “The Inspiration Room” with mod podge on my fingers.

2. What gesso is – This was an art journaling discovery.  Found this stuff that artists use to prepare their canvases or paper. It makes a rough surface, comes in clear, white and black.  Very fun stuff!

3. How many wonderful pens and markers are out there –  Also part of the above discovery.  Wow, how do you choose?

4. And last on this subject…I somehow learned of this sweet girl and her blog –  I’m not sure how I came to her spot in the blogosphere, but I just love these little videos of her calendar pages.  Check it out here.

5. How to make apple butter –  I had never made this and our apple trees are loaded this year, so time to learn something new.  I searched on Pinterest for apple butter recipes (there were many), read through some and gave it a whirl.  My Dad was my guinea pig, so to speak, and trust me he will tell you if it isn’t right.  The first batch was too thin.  You have to cook this for a long time, so go with the slow cooker recipes.  Here  is one to start with.

6. How to build a website – This one is an adult continuing education learning curve.  I need to move my blog to a self-hosted website, so I have begun this process.  I think the learning is definitely going to continue well into October and maybe November, so this will be on my list again next month.  I have the hosting, I’m on WordPress.org, I have framework, a new theme, and now to decorate it to my liking and transfer over from WordPress.com (keep me in your prayers)!