Oh Joyful Day!

It is amazing what a little sunshine can do for your soul! This weekend we were gifted with two beautiful days, what a nice way to start the month. So what is a mama to do with such a gift? Throw caution to the wind, pull on some puddle jumpers, fill a backpack with water and snacks, tumble into the car and head to the country with my girl.

Alright, so not way out into the country, but only a 20 minute drive (both of us singing along to pop songs on the radio with great enthusiasm the whole way) to Sauvies Island. I was thinking Nature Walk, I was hoping for Whooping Cranes, but whatever the day might hold in store was fine by me as long as we got out there, out into the sunshine!

Though many of our "go to" wildlife areas were closed for the season, we were not deterred, the drive was beautiful and we were on an adventure! We stopped to view the geese, searching for the all white snow goose. However, we did not linger long for we were feeling a bit too silly and some of those bird watchers take the watching of birds very seriously indeed and tend to frown upon general silliness.

We ended up down by the river for a walk where we chatted with local fisher folk and played in the sand. Pony Girl found the perfect stick companion right at the beginning. We discussed it's merits as a possible fishing pole, alas we had no hooks and granola bar makes less than ideal bait.

The trees were still wintering, skeletal against the bright sky, the air was fresh and warm, the water sparkled and we chased our shadows across the sand.

We walked and talked and examined moss and tree bark. We saw cranes and herons and hawks and bunnies. We wrote our names in the sand with hearts and smiley faces. Then Pony Girl took over the camera and captured some fine photos!

And then we got really, really hungry! We walked back to the car, stomped our puddle jumpers free of extra mud and sand, threw "Sticky" the stick in the back of the car as it had been such a fine and useful friend on our adventures that Pony Girl insisted on bringing him home. And back we went over two bridges...

...ate a tasty lunch and agreed that we deserved to splurge on a strawberry milkshake!

Oh joyful day!

The Simple Things

I just received some pretty exciting news! The folks responsible for Mollie Makes Magazine, are set to launch a new magazine this September called 'The Simple Things'!

It looks simply lovely!
Lyndsey Mayhew over at Mollie Makes sent me a little description of the new mag:

"A little bit about The Simple Things ...

The Simple Things is a new monthly print magazine celebrating the things that matter most. It’s about knowing the greatest rewards come from the simplest things, that there’s no satisfaction like that at the end of a long muddy walk, no pink so pretty as freshly-cut rhubarb, no perfume to compare with your own home-grown flowers. It’s about making warm inviting homes – big or small – sharing food with friends, growing your own vegetables. It’s about shopping for a coffee table only to find you’re happy with a tea chest. It’s keeping your dad’s old typewriter just because it’s beautiful. It’s an empty beach on a sunday morning. It’s backpedalling."

She also sent along a sampler link for me to share with you, hooray!

I am pretty excited to see the magazine in print, it seems to tick all the boxes and so pretty to look at! It will be available in the U.S. on the same schedule as Mollie Makes in many of the same places you find Mollie Makes, like Barnes and Noble for instance. It launches in the UK this September, so we should see it in the states the following month!

Here are all the links to like:

The Simple Things
On Twitter
On Facebook

Congratulations and best wishes on the launch of your new magazine! Can't wait!

In The Kitchen with Lola

What's for breakfast?

'Tis the season for muffins and these little beauties make a lovely breakfast treat. Wholesome and chock full of goodness; with options, I love options. Not too sweet, but definitely tasty!

Applesauce Apricot and Berry Muffins

Makes 12-15 muffins

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups oats
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped nuts
3/4 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper cases or spray with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt,cinnamon, nutmeg, apricots, nuts and berries. In a medium bowl combine applesauce, buttermilk, sugar, oil, egg and vanilla. Make a well in dry ingredients and add applesauce mixture. Stir until just moist. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full.

Bake for 16-18 minutes.

And now for those options I mentioned:

You can use all whole wheat flour if you desire.
Try substituting the apricots and berries for any of the following:
Dried Cranberries, Walnuts, and Orange Zest
Dried Dates and Almonds
Chopped Apples, Raisins and extra Cinnamon
Any other yummy dried fruit and nuts you have on hand!

Enjoy!

The long weekend: a post of random goodness

It was a long weekend, a holiday weekend, it was busy, raucous, sweet, colorful, fun, and did I mention long? I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

Random goodness #1
The photo above is of our first potatoes of the year. They were the most amazing color of magenta! They were also delicious for breakfast; potatoes from our garden with eggs from our hens, and toast with homemade strawberry jam. The spoils of our labor are truly enjoyed and appreciated.

Random goodness #2

My beautiful (and very colorful) sister was in town for a couple of days. It was so nice to have time with her. We spent most of it sitting on the back yard swing relishing the gorgeous summer weather. She is such a unique and precious woman, I love her madly!

Random goodness #3
I have finally figured out what to make with all of The Engineer's old work shirts that I have been squirreling away. You know, it's really amazing what all can be made from men's shirts. A picnic blanket in blue will be just the thing.

Random goodness #4

Meet Hazel!
(and yes, her feathers are naturally that color of green!)

I hope you have enjoyed my snippets of Random Goodness. I will return after the fuzz has cleared from my brain, the mountain of laundry whittled down to a mere hill, and the pieces put back together.

Have a sweet day

Engineer's got a brand new bag

I first heard of Wood & Faulk when I spied a piece on Matt, the man behind Wood & Faulk, over on the sfgirlbybay Blog. You can read the piece HERE. It just so happens that Wood & Faulk is located here in Portland, actually just up the street from me.

When I saw the Wood & Faulk Carpenter's Bags, I knew I had to get one for the Engineer. Matt was very helpful when I contacted him, reassuring me his bags were definitely made for the craftsman, for the heavy duty carrying of tools. So, I ordered one as a late birthday present.

It's a thing of beauty this bag. Made wonderfully and just the right thing for transporting all of the Engineer's special hand tools. There is one tiny problem, I wanted to keep it for myself.

It's a great feeling to buy a well crafted piece from a local artist.

Wood & Faulk also has a cool blog to check out, with the tag line, "Documentation of experiments, style and craft." Go have a look see.

Box of Happy

Not too long ago, a friend and I decided to do a trade. I had some things and she had some things and we agreed to send the things to each other. O.k., first let me say that this was an awesome idea! Secondly, oh what a box of happy I received! I am overwhelmed with silly happy goodness.

That gorgeous fabric is just screaming to become something wonderful for Pony Girl. It is from Nic of luzia pimpinella and it's called LOVEchirp, so lovely! And ribbon trims of happiness in all their glory.

Some goodness for Pony Girl included a much adored polka dotty tea set...

...the cutest wind up mama duck with 3 ducklings, which seem to have waddled off somewhere unknown, and a super fantastic skirt of Nancy's Studio Tantrum Laguna Skirt design.

And for me, more stupendous gifts of the vintage persuasion! Check out this vintage strawberry cannister, which looks to be from a soda fountain...

How cool is that? Also this beautiful vintage purse which now proudly hangs in my bedroom!

Oh, there was also some chocolate but, you can imagine what has become of that.

Dearest Nancy, I can not thank you enough. Everything was so perfectly perfect and brought us such joy! I am truly blessed with amazing friends. Such a lucky lady am I!

I hope you all have a groovy weekend, I'm off to contemplate a first day of school dress for the one and only Pony Girl.

Tea in the Garden

Oh how I love a sunflower!
Just a few pictures of the garden today, my words are few.

Some of you asked after my Tangerine Tea recipe from my last post. First, I will give you my traditional herbal summer vitamin C recipe. We eat a lot of tangerines during citrus season, I save the peels and leave them to dry to be used in tea blends. Here is one of my favorites:

Vitamin C Tea:

2 parts dried Hibiscus flowers
3 parts dried Tangerine/Orange Rind
1 part dried Rose Hips
1 Cinnamon Stick

Place ingredients in tea strainer. Place tea strainer in a heat safe container (I use a large canning jar). Heat water as you would for tea and pour into container. Let steep for 10 min. and remove tea strainer. Let cool and store covered in refrigerator for up to one week. You can add sweetener if you like.

Picking blueberries

For a really easy Tangerine tea that I have just discovered, Celestial Seasonings came out with a Tangerine Orange Zinger that makes beautiful iced tea! I haven't seen it at all the stores so, you may have to look around.

Tomatoes gone wild!

Sundry Veg and flower

If you prefer a black tea, just steep your normal blend with tangerine peels (fresh or dried) and make into iced tea!

Chooks in the garden

Volunteer Sunflower tall as the house.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hello Monday Delicious

Delicious, fresh from the oven, triple berry muffins!
So good, so very good.

Recipe:
adapted from The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

4 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter softened
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
3/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon plus a pinch of salt
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup of berries (you can use fresh if you have them. I use a frozen berry mix of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries slightly thawed)

Line a 6 muffin, muffin tin with paper or foil liners.

Preheat the oven to 375 F. (190 C) with oven shelf at the middle level.

In a large bowl, with a wooden spoon, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Spoon half of the flour mixture and half of the sour cream onto the butter/sugar mixture and, using a rubber spatula, fold in until most of the flour disappears. Repeat with the remaining flour and sour cream, folding in just until the flour disappears. Gently fold in the berries.

Fill the muffin cups by spooning in batter almost to the top. Dust the tops with a little sugar.

Bake the muffins for 25 - 35 minutes or until the muffins spring back when pressed lightly in the center with your finger tip and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Unmold the muffins from the tin and turn right side up on a wire cooling rack until you can't stand it anymore and eat! Makes about 6 muffins. you can double the recipe very easily for 12 muffins.

A metric conversion can be found here

Happy Monday!

Kickin' out the jams!

This weekend was a busy one. The most important business on the schedule was The Making of the Jam! It is a yearly event that The Engineer and I look forward to, knowing that we will be provided with luscious tasty jam for the coming year. Now, if you don't happen to make your own jam, I'd like to take a moment to encourage you to do so. It makes great gifts, it tastes like heaven, and it is one of those satisfying accomplishments that make you feel proud. I'd like to say that making jam is easy but, it isn't. No, there's no actual math or science involved (not really), just the time and effort it takes which is considerable, and it is all the more complicated by a tiny kitchen. It takes a certain commitment, focus, and dedication.
And dishes, there are lots and lots of dirty dishes involved.

Over the years the Mr. and I have developed a streamlined production that sails us through the process with relative ease and we also have a pretty good time. The first order of business is to put on some tunes. We require up-beat tempos to keep our energy from flagging and a little dancing about between batches keeps us smiling. This years jam session was brought to us by the seemingly odd choice of Tenacious D Do Not Click on the link if you are easily offended or fear explicit lyrics, they are truly not for everyone. It ended up being perfect music for laughing, dancing, a little "air guitar" and of course "kicking out the jams!"

There is a certain order to things when it comes to jam. Open up those windows deary, it's about to get steamy in here. There have been years that the outside temperature competed with the boiling water bath on the stove, now that is unpleasant. This year we had a cool morning and it helps when you have your face in a bubbling pot of jam, a scalding canning tub and a warm oven.

There are tools of the trade that I find indispensable. The most crucial being the produce. Fresh locally grown berries are a must. We get a Mt. Hood strawberry; small, sweet, juicy and shiny with goodness. Oh my! In the making of jam you must never stray from the path, never falter in your attentions, do not walk away from the jam...EVER!

In the end you will be rewarded with jam the color of jewels and with a taste of fresh fruit that is not too sweet (very little sugar is added to our jams compared to commercially available brands), a jam that with every bite reminds you of summer and the sweetness of life!

We ended up with 34 jars of ruby goodness! How sweet it is! This is only Part 1, a second jam will be canned later in the summer when the Marionberries are ripe.

So there you have it, jam = goodness.
That is all.

PS. Just realized this is my 250th post, hooray!

Time to Pay It Forward!

Happy Friday friends!

I will start today's post by telling you that sometimes, I can be a 'Forgetful Jones'. I have the best of intentions but, they can be slippery little suckers, you know? I have been embarrassingly remiss in my blogging duties, so I am this minute going to put this to rights.

Have you all heard of the "Pay It Forward" phenomena that has made it's weaving way through blogland? Well, thanks to the very lovely Pomona, from Little Cottage Comforts, and to the incomparable Vic, from Punky & Me, I am to be the recipient of some hand made goodness by them - through the 'Pay It Forward' fun. In return, I am charged with Paying It Forward myself, which is a wonderful thing.

If you are feeling a little lost, don't worry, all will be revealed shortly.

While technically, I should be doing twice the load, I will have to stick to the original rules so as not to completely overwhelm myself. So here is the scoop...

How it works;

* I will make a little handmade Lola-like something for the first 3 people who comment on this post who would like to play along.

* I have a year (365 days) to complete my mission and send off the goodies! That should be enough time.

* There is no telling what those things might be, or when they will show up in the post, it's a mystery.

Details, or the fine print;

Since this is ‘Pay It Forward’. You, my dears, must do as I have done and post a similar blog entry yourself, hence Paying the handmade bloggy goodness Forward and keeping the meme, and the fun, going.

Would you like to join in? Of course you do. You have an entire year to make whatever you want, it can be something small or tall or short and stout, even something round. And you will receive something made by me! Ooh, the possibilities!

Now, go on and do it!

On a Lark

Lark - A carefree or spirited adventure.

Last week, The Lovely Miss K emailed me a listing from a soon to open fabric store in a neighborhood just a short ride away from my home. They were looking for sewing instructors of all levels to teach classes. At first, I was simply excited to know that a new fabric store was on it's way. I told The Engineer about the listing and he simply said "Go for it!" No, I couldn't really, or could I? On a lark, I emailed a response, they emailed back and an interview was set up at a local coffee shop for this morning. Now, it looks as though I will be teaching a couple of classes next year! This is going to be a whole new adventure!

Not surprisingly, today I am a woman pressed for time. I had a whole list of other things I was going to prattle on about but, turns out this is going to be one of those short and sweet posts.

The only other odd bit I have to tell you is that I am a woman under the influence. It is inspirational all the clever folks out there, and I find myself being influenced by the very creative loveliness I encounter when I go poking around. I see echos of it in my work too, sometimes not realizing it until after the work is completed and I stand back and look at it. This weekend I put together another one of Lola's journals for the shop

a sweet little deer under the moon to tell your secrets to, he wont tell a soul, but he may whisper it to the moon.

As I was taking the photos, it occurred to me that something was familiar about it. The color scheme, the woodland creature...then it dawned on me. It reminded a bit of this photo by the very imaginative Dottie Angel.

So, here is to all of you lovely and inspiring folks out there, I hope you don't mind if some of your cleverness sneaks into my brain and leads me to new discoveries.

Day Tripper

"We're on a road to nowhere..."


With the hustle and bustle of the last couple of weeks, I was feeling the need for an old fashioned Sunday drive. On a whim we packed ourselves into the car and headed out onto the open road. With just a hint of an agenda, "Go West!" We rolled along HWY 18 stopping for breakfast at a long time favorite joint. The best hash browns and freshly baked molasses toast you can imagine. From there we made our way to a new road. New to us I should say, considering the road we took was called Old Woods Road. Winding through coastal dairy country, passing Jerseys, Holsteins, and Guernsey cows on the small farms that dot the verdant green countryside. Many of these dairy farms are part of the Tillamook Dairy Cooperative.



The road brought us to the ocean, which was shining brilliantly under the sun. A bluebird sky and just enough wind to cast our kite into the air.




After our beach frolic, we pulled out the Atlas and looked for another new road to try. It's all part of the adventure you know, to travel the unknown; to discover something hidden; to be in no particular hurry and to really see what lies beyond. Our road took us through the tiny town of Beaver, Oregon. Don't be fooled by it's blink and you've missed it size; it has all the modern conveniences, such as one stop shopping...


We traveled the back roads through the deep dark enchanted woods next to The Nestucca River. We stopped to climb the bank down to the water's edge. Under stands of Maple and dappled sunlight we gazed into crystalline pools and secret waterfalls (oops, left the camera in the car). Little Nova said, "I wish we had our fishing poles." Indeed.

As we cleared the pass we came into the fertile valley of rolling hills and fields of bundled hay. Old barns and horses next to vineyards that grow that fickle beauty the pinot noir grape. Wine country! With a 4 year old aboard we thought it best to save the wine tasting for another trip. Soon, we found ourselves on the familiar road back home.

So, we visited farm, beach, woods, river, wine country and more. All this and we were home by 5:30 pm. With our bodies refreshed and our souls rejuvenated. Man, are we lucky or what? To live here and have the best of everything at our fingertips is a dream. How I love a good old fashioned Sunday drive!

and to you I say...
Go fly a kite!