My latest needlefelting project is this wall hanging for a raffle fundraiser benefiting Mujeres de Maiz Opportunity Foundation, a grassroots non-profit organization based in Sequim, Washington helping young women in Chiapas, Mexico. Mujeres de Maiz provides access to education for indigenous women in a seamstress cooperative, including literacy training, secondary school, vocational ...
Life
Autumn in the Country: A Tour in Photographs
In the rolling hills, and fields, and farmlands Autumn has covered everything like a warm colorful quilt in preparation for the winter. Gardens are harvested, pantries are full, flocks of geese are departing overhead and cheerful wisps of smoke curl out of chimneys. This fall has been magnificent with the late warm weather and sunny days. My wish to have my favorite season go ...
Mushroom Festival
In a place such as this where mushrooms grow in abundance, it makes sense that we should have a fantastic mushroom festival. Every year Mt. Pisgah Arboretum throws a major mushroom bash at the end of October, and it is an event not to be missed. Here you can buy wildcrafted mushrooms from our local forests, sample mushroom cuisine, take in some great live music, learn to dye silk and wool with ...
Fairy Pumpkin House
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Theme in Yellow
Theme in Yellow I spot the hills With yellow balls in autumn.I light the prairie cornfieldsOrange and tawny gold clustersAnd I am called pumpkins.On the last of OctoberWhen dusk is fallenChildren join hands around meSinging ghost songsAnd love to the harvest moon;I am a jack-o'-lanternWith terrible teethAnd the children knowI am fooling. ~Carl Sandburg ...
Halloween Cupcakes and Spooky Spider Eggs
No Halloween is complete without cupcakes. I'm not talking about those cupcakes from the store either. I'm talking about homemade, melt-in-your-mouth, gooey cupcakes. I think some mom brought them in for a class Halloween party one year, and I forever associated them with the holiday. I've been making this Halloween cupcake recipe for pumpkin cupcakes with orange cream cheese frosting, and devils ...
Soup Secrets
When you have a family to feed, you find yourself making a lot of soups. They're easy, versatile, healthy, and can be eaten for many days in a row. They warm your bones on a cold, foggy day. However, it is easy to get stuck in a soup rut. I think I made the exact same vegetable lentil soup for three years, and rarely made another kind. I didn't even want to eat it anymore. Some ...
If I Could Be Any Tree
If I Could Be Any Tree If I could be any tree,If I could be any tree,If I could be any tree,An oak is what I'd be.An oak is what I'd be. I'd grow so tall and my roots would grow so deep,And every fall I'd have the brightest leaves. And if you were a little squirrel,If you were a little squirrel,If you were a little squirrel,You could eat for free.You could eat for free. I would give you everything ...
Acorn Harvest
One thing I love about this time of year is that food just falls from the sky...so much, in fact, that you have to be careful it doesn't hit you on the head! All around in parks, along neighborhood streets, and at schools and college campuses, the acorns are ripe and ready for harvesting. Although people have been eating acorns for centuries, somehow they now seem to be an un-used food resource. ...
Pumpkin Butter
Have you ever looked at your sugar pie pumpkin and wanted to do something easier with it than baking a pie? Try making pumpkin butter. It's like pumpkin pie spread on your toast. First, bake your pumpkins scooped out and upside down on a baking sheet or dish at 375 degrees until soft. Then, let them cool until they're a comforable temperature for scooping out. Now it's pumpkin butter ...