Assortment

Bookish, Too

   

 

Yes!  A delightful paper-folding project, an overnight dry, and we have a paper sculpture!

And, get this, after I posted the beginning of this project yesterday, I was visiting Design*Sponge, perusing their latest, and wouldn't you know, there before my eyes was a post about the very thing I was making, only with a brilliant twist! 

How does this happen, this little hum of an idea coming to life one side of the country, then brr-ring!, there it is, fully alive on the other side of the country, and somehow, those two delights cross paths in the same day?! 

Simply delightful, lovely little coincidences, that's what they are.  

And while I contemplate such lovely coincidences, I'll be sitting here, wearing my horn-rim glasses, my wool plaid skirt, tights, and cashmere cardigan, with a stack of tattered volumes by my side.

Bookish

Just have to see...

 

If I can take this falling-apart book,

And make it into a sculpture...

Similar to the ones I saw as part of a display at Anthropologie a year or so ago.

Yes, a bookish fall day, here.

 
 
 
 
 

Room to Learn

This, I love. 

When, after the assigned learning is done, there's still room enough for them to take off with their imaginations and a few simple supplies, just to see what might happen.

A pinch-pot for a stash of sweets.

A thumb-tack robot. 

  

A set of hand-drawn blueprints for a model airplane, an imaginary craft called a P-1075 Strafer.

This is room to learn.

 
 
 
 

Raising the Bar

Below this glass dome, lies the answer to a request.

Someone with dark hair, chocolate brown eyes, and a scattering of freckles across his nose, boldly requested the other day, that I make a "new kind of dessert." 

Got me to thinking, and I realized that, somehow, (I think in an attempt to not have too many sweets around to tempt) we've trucked along and have missed the delights of sharing some of the best sweets together. 

I think I'll fix that.

And, I'll start with these:

Pumpkin bars. 

Fitting for the season, wouldn't you say?

These sweeties are not of your pumpkin bar cake variety, but of the creamy-smooth-and-spicy pumpkin pie variety, with the crunch of nuts and the chewyness of oats and sugars, top and bottom.  Dressed with a fluff of fresh whipped cream, thery're about perfect for any October day. 

You know, I think you should go make some of these right away.  Didn't you say that you've been needing to try a new kind of dessert, too?

Pumpkin Bars

Crust:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup quick oats

1/2 cup brown suar

1/2 cup butter, chilled

In bowl of food processor, pulse together flour, oats, and brown sugar.  Add butter, cut into chunks, and pulse until butter is coarse.  Spread into bottom of greased 9x13 inch cake pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

Filling:

2 cups canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!)

1 12 oz. can evaporated milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon cloves

In the bowl of a kitchen mixer, mix the filling ingredients together until combined.  Pour filling over hot crust and bake 20-30 minutes.

 

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped nuts

2 tablespoons butter, cold

Mix all topping ingredients together in the bowl of a food processor until coarse.  Spread over filling and bake an additional 20 minutes, or until done.  Cool to room temperature, and serve.

And, like I said, they're delicious with a plop of whipped cream, or even a slosh of cold milk.

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

What Was it Again?

What did I do this weekend?

I...uh...

I...um...

Let's see, I...hmm...

Did I sweep (and/or mop) the kitchen floor?

No.

Did I put the clothes away that are in the laundry basket which is still sitting in the middle of the floor in the boys' bedroom?

No.

Did I vacuum, dust, or clean crusty bathrooms?

No.

Did I make my bed?

Only once.

Did I do laundry?

Not nearly enough.

Did I paint the boy bathroom and hall?

No.

Did I organize the files and closet in the schoolroom?

No.

Is it terrible that, after a weekend alone, with the house all to myself, and with no demands on my time, my mental capabilities, or my physical well-being by the other people who live in this house, I am hard pressed to put forth something that I accomplished?

Should I be troubled about this?

I haven't decided.

I do know one thing I did... 

I ate popcorn. 

I must have, because the bowl sitting on the counter is half-empty, and as far as I know, I've been the only one here.

So, I did that. 

And, I did spend a lot of time gleaning creative inspiration here and there, and as I did, I strung a train of thoughts together that was so long, it would have reached coast-to-coast and back. 

And, somewhere along that track, hatched the idea for this year's holiday card design.  It involves that fabric way up there.  I'm loving the idea in my head, and can't wait to see if I love it as much in my hands!  

Many other things hatched as I swayed to the movement of that train of thought.  We'll see what happens there.  Interestingly, that's sometimes how it goes with my creative process, I have to give myself room and time to build those trains that go down those long, long tracks.

You know, a wonderful thought just came to me, about me and this weekend.

This was a heart/mind weekend, not a hand weekend!

Now, should I feel troubled about that?

Nope!  Not one bit.

Funnies on Sunday!

 
 
 

These Boys

 

Gosh, I love 'em. 

I love to see them across the dining table.  I love to watch how they eat their breakfast - bacon first, always bacon first.

I love to listen to their boy voices floating down the hallway at night after they've been tucked in; silly poem recitations, conversations about knives, Poker, and chest hair, belly laughter in the dark from bunk to bunk to bunk, sometimes for an hour. 

I love to watch them in the woods, climbing, searching, completely lost - in imagination.  

I love to watch them near the river, decisively cutting the devil's throat. (A must-do activity for boys where very thin rocks are thrown on edge, straight into the air, then upon their swift descent, they slice the surface of the water, the devil's throat, with nary a splash.)  

  

I love this one.  He's precise.  Very precise and orderly. 

 
Need to know the time?  He'll tell you exactly, sometimes even down to the second. 

After explaining to him one day that it was okay if he just wanted to round the time to the nearest five minutes, he replied, "Mama, I'm an exact type of person."  That he is, and good thing, too.  Imagine, for a moment, just where this world would be if there were no precise, exacting people in it. 

Uh-huh.  I sure love this boy.

I love this boy, too.  He usually looks like this, triumphing in great accomplishments.

 
Most other times, he looks like this, triumphing in great silliness. 

Now, I wouldn't say that this boy is especially precise.  But determined?  Maybe just a little.  Okay, a LOT!  And when that determination is channeled in the right direction, amazing things happen.  I mean, can you imagine for a moment, where this world would be if it weren't for very determined people?

Uh-huh, I love this boy.

And this boy?  I love him, too. 

He's not determined, except when it comes to changing his clothes several times a day, and he's not precise, except when he's wearing a hooded sweatshirt.  If it has a hood, you must wear the hood.  This is written in his little book of laws. 

One other thing about this boy, I'm not sure if he can have his picture taken and chew gum at the same time.  We've got the closed-mouth chew going on up there in that shot, now let's try it again.

Try it again and see:

Nope, can't do it!  But, that's okay, because can you imagine just where this world would be if there were no gum-chewing people in it, who wear their hoods up on a sunny day? 

Yep, I love him, too.

These boys. 

It's not every mama who gets to have three.

 

Impressions

 

  

 
 
Kids + clay + leaves + paint + paper

More to save forever.

Autumn Woods

  

 
 
A bit different from last year's autumn walk, wouldn't you say?

 
 
 
 
 

Sweet Autumn

After thinking it over for a few days, Winter decided it was a good idea to pack it up and come on back in a month or so.

 
 
Day by warm day, all the snow melted until it was gone, and now Autumn is once again flouncing her colored skirts in all the hills and coulees for a bit of a fall show, though I do believe Winter slipped some of her color with his early visit. 

She's decided to go on as if nothing's amiss.  

I sure like that about her.