Blog

~ Out of Hibernation ~

May 17, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

Eek….I haven’t blogged in two months! I told myself that “I haven’t had anything to say”, which may or may not be true. Trust me I have said plenty over the last eight weeks! I’ve even written some things down…in my journal. But, I did however take a breather from the blog world, posting myself and reading others. But I’m back, at least reading what others have to say, and maybe adding my two cents here and there.

Spring has finally come to the Northeast, and I think I can speak for most of us…..we’re thrilled, relieved, excited and very thankful! I’m sure this Winter wasn’t that much different than the ones of my childhood, but frankly that’s been awhile and I guess I’ve become a wimp. I was among those saying “UNCLE” this year!

So here’s what’s happening in our little world…..

We had three hives of bees that survived the long cold winter. We ordered in five more packages, they’re in the hives and doing well, and we have four more nucs coming soon.

Spring around here reminds me of when the movie The Wizard of Oz goes from black and white to color. Such a happy, hopeful, magical (not that I really believe in magic) moment. Likewise, we too have color again….YAY! Our Magnolia tree was beautiful this year, such a welcoming sight in the front yard, along with the Forsythia as a backdrop.

Lots of new plants “springing” out of the warm ground….Sunflower seedlings (from fallen seeds last year), I need to thin these and find new homes for some…Rhubarb (so cool looking)….peas just starting….and kale, that will produce through the late fall (gotta love that!)….and those sweet little survivor Johnny Jump Ups, that pop up even in the stones between my raised beds.

Riley and I have a lot of work to do!

We’ve been busy buying and reorganizing the shoppe, lots of fun new things to see.

I’ve been playing around with these wood blocks, leftover from one of the Beekeeper’s projects.

I finished this little afghan (thinking of lining the back with fabric, we’ll see). This is the same pattern as Angelina’s baby afghan.

This is my current project. I started this on the drive back from Florida. I think I have ripped out as much as I have completed. For some reason this pattern was tweaking my brain. It really isn’t difficult. I’m on a roll now. The pattern is called Daisy Garden, from this book, Crochet Afghans by the Pound .

This is what is taking precedence in my world right now…..my daughter and granddaughter flew in from Florida for a two week visit. I’m enjoying having all five of my children and three grandchildren in the same state. God is good!

This post contains my affiliate links

Filed Under: crochet, Family, Fishers Beehive Shoppe, Honey Bees, My Potager

~ Writing it All Down ~

March 7, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

Winter is a good time for journaling, whether just writing, drawing, or combining both in a visual journal. For several years I wrote in a journal daily, life changed and I got away from that morning routine. A few months ago I discovered art or visual journaling. Although I sketched a little in my journals before, the idea of a journal filled with not only words, but drawing, painting and ephemera, limited only by your imagination, was very intriguing to me.

I’ve actually found myself doing both lately, a writing journal again and a visual journal. One seems to help the other for me. I started reading The Artist’s Way and doing what is referred to in the book as morning pages. The idea is to clear your head of random thoughts to make way for creativity. I’m enjoying getting back to this in the morning with my coffee and Bible time. Plus, I bought a really nice Italian leather journal that I love to hold and I have a couple of great wooden pens made by the Beekeeper. It all adds to the fun!

I found this new book (new to me) that I am really enjoying, about keeping a visual journal. It is actually two books in one.

You can get it as a combo book, The Complete Decorated Journal, or as individual books The Decorated Journal and The Decorated Page.

It is filled with information on visual journaling, supplies, tips, examples…etc.

I’m loving all the ideas and pictures of other people’s journals. Very inspiring read!

These are a couple of example journals, from the above book, that I felt the need to have in my own library….

I LOVE this book, Muriel Foster’s Fishing Diary . I’m amazed at the detail, and the love that went into this journal. So thrilled that it was printed for others to enjoy.

This is another example of a beautiful thoughtful journal, In and Out of the Garden.

~ and….here is what I’ve been working on in my journal lately ~

Happy Journaling!

This post contains my affiliate links

Filed Under: Art Journaling, Creating Every Day, Visual Journal

~ Vintage Camera Love ~

February 24, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

My collection of vintage cameras has been growing. I finally have them all in one place, thanks to the Beekeeper.

This is actually a lighter I found at an antique store. I don’t smoke, but it looks cute in my collection.

My beloved Nephew, James, my Nikon man.

My newest camera.

This is my vintage film Nikon. It came with a great 50 mm lens, which works on my DSLR. This photo was taken with the vintage lens on my Nikon D90. Of course it means manual focus, but I can deal with that for a great lens.

So now my little collection is over my desk, in the living room, where I can look at them whenever I want. The only problem…I have already filled all the old wooden boxes the Beekeeper used, and the “hunt” is the fun part. What’s a girl to do!?!

Linking up with Sunday Snapshot.

Filed Under: Antiques, Vintage Tagged With: cameras

~ Birthday Snow ~

February 6, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

Yesterday was the Beekeeper’s birthday. I had been planning a surprise two day trip, with an overnight stay at a lovey B&B. There is a little restaurant that we like in Saratoga Springs NY, called Hattie’s, that is one of Bobby Flay’s Throwdown restaurants. So a fun road trip, good food, antiquing, and checking out a new B&B (I have a Bed and Breakfast fetish…I not so secretly want to have my own). But, alas, the weather did not cooperate with my plan at all! This is what the Hubs spent the entire morning doing….

And although everything looks beautiful with this fresh covering of snow, it continued all day and messed up my plans.

So when life gives you lemons….well, I wouldn’t exactly call this pretty new snow lemons and I didn’t try to make lemonade, but I did make the Beekeeper’s favorite cookies (he prefers these to birthday cake) and I did take him out for dinner (which in thinking about it was a gift to myself since it meant I didn’t have to cook). Although, I did pay so, maybe that wasn’t the best plan!

Anyway, I thought I would share the cookie recipe with you.

Spiced Crackle Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, chopped

3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

1. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and molasses on medium speed until blended. Beat in egg until blended, scraping down side of bowl.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon and white pepper into clean bowl. Add to butter mixture; beat on low speed until blended. Stir in crystallized ginger. Cover; refrigerate 1 hour.

3. Heat oven to 350. Lightly coat 2 baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

4. Roll dough into 1 inch ball, then roll in confectioners’ sugar to coat completely. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

5. Bake for 12 minutes or until they have expanded and flattened; the tops will be covered with cracks. Let cool on baking sheets 2 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack.

(This recipe was found in Family Circle Magazine years ago)

Enjoy!

Filed Under: In the kitchen, The Catskills Tagged With: cookies

~ All Aboard ~

February 4, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

The Beekeeper is also “The Conductor”, at least of his vintage HO scale Marklin train set. His Dad bought this train set in the early 60’s, and now the Beekeeper has begun to add to the original set. Of course, with only vintage pieces! I’ll take some pictures of our set for a future post. A couple weeks ago we took a field trip to this train shop. They have quite a train display set up, but mainly Lionel. The first pictures are of the smaller HO scale train which was on a shelf under the big set up so it was a little dark for pictures, still fun though.

It amazes me how much thought, time and effort (not to mention money) that train collectors put into these displays. They really are quite impressive up close. So, on to the larger scale Lionel.

This doesn’t even begin to do this set up justice, this is one corner, they have a very large display. It was fun to see it set up and running.

Filed Under: Vintage Tagged With: Marklin, trains

~ A Burst of Color ~

January 30, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

It has been very cold in NY. We don’t have much snow, just single digit or below readings on the thermometer. So truly, it really isn’t even pretty out. I’m feeling the need for a reminder that Spring will come again. With that in mind I decided to search the archives of my photos and put together a colorful post. Here are the results of my search….

Well that made me feel better. How about you? Time to start ordering from those seed catalogs that have been arriving daily.

Think Spring!

Filed Under: My Potager, Nature, Photography

~ Gift From The Beekeeper ~

January 12, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

One of my Christmas gifts from my hubby was a new lens for my Nikon. He bought me a macro lens, AF-S DX Micro Nikkor Lens 85mm, very cool!

Truly, I don’t know what I am doing with this lens yet, but it is very cool. Time to play and learn! Gotta love the “keeper of the bees”! He seems to find gifts that challenge me to keep learning. So if you do know anything about this lens or macro photography I would love to here from you.

Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: Macro, Nikon D90

~ Visual Journal ~

January 9, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

Creating Every Day….

I’ve been working in the journal that I made from the old children’s book, I talked about it here.

I added watercolor paper mainly in this journal. So it’s ready for whatever type of mixed media techniques I want to play around with. I do love watercolor paper! I have journals with other types of paper and I like the feel or look of it, but the bleed through that results sometimes I find very frustrating. I have just been adding whatever strikes me at the moment in this journal (as you can tell), no rhyme or reason. The previous owner of the children’s book had glued comic strip pages inside. I left them for character marks. You can see them in the background in the first picture.

I made a spot in the living room for my “auction find” paint table. I love my Inspiration Room in the back of the garage, but I really enjoy being a little closer to the wood fire in the winter. Although my stash is getting bigger and bigger inside. I keep going out and bringing more in. Using two spaces can get tricky. Our living room is pretty cozy this time of year though and January is my hunker down month…ahh enjoying!

Filed Under: Art Journaling, The Inspiration Room, Visual Journal Tagged With: auction find, watercolor

~ Up To Speed ~

January 5, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

It seems I took an unplanned break from blogging. It’s really been on my mind and I’ve been taking pictures. I guess the holiday busyness just got in the way. But I’m back and ready to share a little of what happened over the last month. So here we go…

Not too many inside pictures I realized after, the lighting in our house is a challenge. We live in what was my grandparents 1930ish Sears, Craftsman style house (with an addition to fit a family with 5 kids), which I love, but it is a little on the dark side for picture taking. We still have all the original unpainted woodwork, which I also love, but it is dark. Here, by the way is a link to a book I found on Sears houses, in case anyone is interested. Houses by Mail: A Guide to Houses from Sears, Roebuck and Company. Back in the day they had a catalog of house kits you could order from. The train use to run down the center of our little village and that is how our house came to be. I like that, it’s fun. While hunting this link I found a children’s book on Sears houses also The House in the Mail.

So we’ve had a lot of cold weather. It snows, then turns a little warmer and rains… melts the snow…turns cold again and leaves us with ice! Life in the great northeast!

We went to a couple of Christmas parties. One hosted by my very talented sister and niece. Above is just a sampling of the deliciousness that was there to tempt us.

We also attended a Christmas wedding for the son of some very dear friends, a beautiful evening.

A couple of Christmas pages from my journal. The Beekeeper wrapped all my gifts in coordinating paper, so I glued a piece of each in my journal with a note of what gift was wrapped in each kind. Kinda goofy looking, but a good memory! He is a good gift giver.

These are the Christmas pictures of my grandbabies. Love my three sweeties!

Here are a couple of cookies recipes that I made this year. The raspberry almond shortbreads were a big hit with the Beekeeper. The red velvet crinkle cookies are super easy and just looked Christmasy.

So now that I’ve said all that…let’s move into 2014!

Filed Under: Art Journaling, Family, Grandchildren, In the kitchen Tagged With: christmas, cookies, Sears houses

~ Watercolor Christmas ~

December 6, 2013 by Patricia Fisher

Some watercolor play and journal pages from the past weeks. Oh, for quiet moments to create.

I found this silk quilt square at an antique store. I love it! I’m thinking it would make a great journal cover, maybe my next one. Hope you are finding some quiet moments this holiday season.

Filed Under: Art Journaling, Creating Every Day, The Inspiration Room Tagged With: christmas, watercolor