Monday blog love

As I write this, I am waiting for the new Martha Stewart show to begin - I love Martha. Or rather, I love the craft and cooking ideas she has, is probably more like it. (And I do like Martha herself a bit better since her stay in The Pokie - I think her on air persona has loosened up a bit and is less snooty and pretentious and oh so icy cold.) I've been missing the show all summer and am so curious to see if there will be any apparent changes, now that she's moved to the Hallmark Channel.

Ah phooey - the show just started and they're talking about other shows on the Hallmark line up today. ARGH! I was hoping for fun Halloweenie crafts and Fall recipes. The show appears to be exactly the same as before, so hopefully a return to all things crafty wonderfulness will soon happen.

Anyway, here's a boat load of blog love for you this Monday. Wishing you a lovely week!

A Foothill Companion
All Norah's Art
all the luck in the world
Amanda Atkins in a Canary Forest
anja mulder
BeerlalaBlog
Blue Cupcake
Bringebaer & Himmel
Collage Contessa
Colorfullthings
creative blessing
Demoiselle Libellule
Die Welt in Pink
digs & bean
Dos Family
for the visionaries
ginger and george
H is for home
Hello Neest
Hold Dear
in punta d' ago
ingthings
Jurianne Matter
Junk Garden Girl
Las labores de Mercedes
Liefgeval
lillalotta
Linda Jo's Obsessions
little black crow studio
luzia pimpinella
maine mama
My Heartstring
My Life - My Loves
Ninainvorm
Oh My Bag
petalplum
Red Shoes
Septiembre
Smooth Pebble
that cheeky urchin
The Felt Fairy
The Hunt For Vintage
the pink couch
Vintage Palette Art
wood & wool stool

End of the season Rednesday

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

I've sure missed blogging and my blog pals! I'm so grateful and relieved to say that my dad is home, doing well and he hit the ground running! I think he must be related to the Energizer Bunny.

(I apologize, my white bowl appears a very unappetizing BLUE in these photos. ACK!)

I'm sharing a dish that we quite enjoy with you this Rednesday, Creamy Polenta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes. Our tomatoes are sadly winding down (and looking oh so sad!) but I was able to pick enough for this and thought I'd share it with you. Pull up a chair and enjoy!

The polenta recipe I use is from Emeril Lagasse's Green Planet Show. It's the third one I've tried and I like it the best so far. I previously tried the one on the back of the Bob's Red Mill package (the polenta came in) and also one from Giada De Laurentiis, but I personally didn't really care for either of them.

Emeril's Creamy Polenta Recipe

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:
Salt, to taste
5 cups water
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
4 ounces cream cheese or mascarpone, at room temperature
Milk or water, if needed
1/2 cup finely grated Pecorino cheese

Method:
In a large, heavy saucepan, bring 5 cups of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the butter, cream, salt and pepper. Whisking constantly, pour the cornmeal into the water in a steady stream until all is combined. Continue to whisk until you are sure there are no lumps of unincorporated cornmeal. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook 20 minutes, uncovering frequently to stir.

Stir the mixture until thick and creamy, with no taste of rawness, an additional 20 minutes or so. Season to taste with salt and pepper, add the Pecorino and mascarpone and serve, garnished with the grated cheese.

The recipe I use for the roasted cherry tomatoes is one from Real Simple Magazine. Please note that there are a gazillion and one recipes out there for both creamy polenta and roasted cherry tomatoes, so feel free to pick whichever one that fits your taste buds best.

Roasted Cherry Tomatoes from Real Simple Magazine recipe

Serves 4

Hands-on Time: 10m

Total Time: 30m

Ingredients

• 2 pints cherry tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup packed fresh basil leaves, torn if large

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine all the ingredients except the basil in a roasting pan. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are just bursting. Carefully transfer the tomatoes to a bowl and set aside.

2. Place the roasting pan on the stove over medium heat (or transfer the liquid to a small saucepan) and reduce the liquid until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Toss the tomatoes with the basil. Drizzle some of the thickened balsamic sauce on each serving.

The patient is home

Thanks again everyone for all of your support and kind words, thoughts and prayers for my dad and myself! My father was able to go home yesterday afternoon. YAHOO!

He drives me crazy - he had his girlfriend drive him to a business appointment this morning - not one day of rest at home. He's quite the dynamo!

Speaking of losing one's mind, I am trying to organize my embroidery floss. OMG! Talk about the thing that won't end!!! I keep thinking I have all my thread out and it's in numerical order, and then, I find yet another bag or box and there's a ton MORE. What on earth possessed me to buy so much floss??? For Pete's sake (wonder who Pete was teehee!), I never do anything in a small way ... ay yi yi.

Sending you wishes for a lovely week from under my mountain of floss - send out a search party if you don't hear from me soon!

Sally

A little setback

We went to the hospital earlier today. My dad's girlfriend (yup, not only does he work at 91 but he has a girlfriend too!) said that my dad now has an arrhythmia - I asked her if it was different from his usual wonky heartbeat and she said yes, that he has "atrial fibrillation", which is different from his usual extra beat thing he has - so they are trying to figure out what that is all about and have put him on meds for it. He also seems to have picked up a "bug" and they've put him on antibiotics for that. They are giving him a high level of oxygen too (he has emphysema) and want to get that down before sending him home - his girlfriend said maybe in a couple of days, he might be able to go home.

Thank you again for all of your support, sweet comments and concern for my dad.

Hope you're enjoying a great Labor Day weekend!

Sally

Oh! We've got a munch box in our tree for the squirrels and it's so much fun to watch them! My husband said that one day there were five in the tree at the same time, cavorting around. We go to this great store, Wild Wings, for our bird and squirrel supplies and they sent us this fun video to watch. Enjoy!

My Dad is in the Hospital

Edited to add, 11 am Friday: Sorry to have left you hanging here! I've been going through everything in my craft supplies and closet and I strained my back, lifting boxes up to the upper shelves. OUCHERS!

I spoke with my Dad this morning and he said "they're making noises about his going home on Saturday". WAHOO! Thank you again for all of your sweet comments and being so kind and dear.

Happy Holiday Weekend to everyone!

Edited to add, 10 am Wednesday: Yippie! I just spoke with my dad and he said they had taken the tube out and had given him a glass of water!!! Yippie yippie yippie. I'm sure it's the collective energy of eyeballs crossed out there in bloglandia! I'll be going to see my dad this afternoon and find out more. (When I called, he was on his cell with a customer - yes, he still works at 91!) Thank you all for your sweet comments, care and concern, you are very dear to me.

Edited to add, 10 am Tuesday: I just spoke with my dad and he said the doctors said he is "a little bit better" this morning. Hooray hurrah! Thanks for keeping all those eyeballs and appendages crossed that he continues to improves! (We saw him yesterday and he was in good spirits, which is so important.) Thank you again for your support.

Edited to add, 3:00 PST, Monday: They are trying a tube down my poor dad's nosie and no food or drink for today and they will see how he is tomorrow and reevaluate then. Thank you so much for your kind words and good thoughts for my dad and myself!



Just a little note to let you all know that my father is in the hospital and I'm not sure when I will be able to resume regular blog posting. He has an intestinal blockage and they are debating this morning whether or not he will require surgery. He's had two surgeries for the same thing since 2008 and both recoveries were long and frustrating. (The first surgery took such a toll on him that he was greatly debilitated and he lost the strength and ability to swallow food and drink! He's a very determined chappie and he was able to relearn to swallow without aspirating. He'll be 92 in the Fall.) I'll hope to return here shortly with some good news. Thank you for your friendship and care and concern.

Sally

Tweet Tweet Birdies for Vintage Thingie Thursday

(Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

This Vintage Thingie Thursday, I am sharing a very much beat up and down trodden, bird guide that I picked up at a yard sale a couple of months ago. The front cover is a mess and the back cover is completely gone but inside lies treasure! 190 pages of charming vintage birdie graphics to admire. Wowie!

Wishing everyone a lovely Vintage Thingie Thursday!

Fun On The Farm Rednesday

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

Wishing everyone a lovely Rednesday!

This Rednesday I'm sharing a book with you that belonged to my uncle when he was a little boy. The book is entitled "Fun On The Farm" by John Y. Beaty, published in 1933. It's pretty beat up, so I gather it was much loved by my uncle and by his siblings that followed.

Isn't the bookplate darling? I love that he signed his name. Is it just me or does the cottage and flowers make one think of Mary Englebreit?!

It's full of the most charming photos ...

(The text reads "One day Grandma let Frances play with some baby chicks. You can see these chicks were not afraid, no matter where Frances put them.)

(Now that's car pooling!)

(Another cute caption, "Hugh Prentice Aikman and his Jersey calf are both happy. You can easily tell why. The calf is getting his supper and Hugh is getting his picture taken.")

Monday blog love

Happy Monday to everyone.

WAHOO! I won a giveaway, I'm so excited! I'm all smiley and happy skippy over here. I won an original painting from darling Pam of Yoborobo. Thank you thank you thank you Pam!

Saturday Night by Pam Smallcomb

Thank you so much to everyone for your kind words and concern the past week! We're still waiting to hear the results from both my biopsies and our poochie pies. Both patients are doing well but waiting is so hard.

Regarding the burglars, our neighbor who witnessed the break-in told my husband that they had heard that the men were arrested. The police had told my husband that they would let us know but we haven't heard a peep from them. I keep looking at the LAPD crime maps every day but they haven't updated them since the day before the incident on our block. ARGH! I know it's silly but I just want to see it with my own eyes, in print, that they've been arrested - I'm so anxious and don't feel comfortable just hearing "so and so was told by so and so that such and such happened".

Thanks again so much for your words of comfort and holding my hand!

Ambitions Design
Art Quilts by Kathy York
Balzer Designs
Bonehead Studios
Cornelia O'Donovan
Digging
every single day
Hububbery
I Love Denim
JaneVille
jenny loves benny
kris's color stripes
Laetitia Maklouf
London-Wul Fibre Arts
Myko Bocek
ninon
Painted Threads
primdolly
Secrets of a Butterfly
SoBinique
The Doll Farm
The Pixie's Thimble
The Vintage Polka Dot
Works of Whimsy

Cookie Jar Vintage Thingie Thursday

(Update: One of the officers told my husband that they believe they found the two young men and have arrested them, somewhere else in the tract. WHEW! Still a large police presence over here, they told my husband that they will be around for awhile.

I'm so upset and rattled! The two robbers had to have walked right past my window and also past the open window, in the room where my husband is painting, and neither of us heard or saw a thing. So very unsettling!)

(Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

I found it! I found my cookie jar!

This is my beloved cookie jar from my childhood. It was always filled with homemade Congo Bars (a chocolate chip bar cookie) or Peanut Butter Cookies. I loved baking cookies with my mom. I loved eating the Congo Bars best but I loved making the PB ones more - pressing the tines of the fork into the cookie ball tops was so much fun!

My mother heard about a woman who made cookie jars and had this one made for her. My mom loved English cottages and I think this is a perfectly cozy and yummy one, don't you? I wish I could lift the lid and find some freshly baked (by Mom!) cookies inside.

I love that it has an inscription on the bottom and the year it was made, so wonderful. It lives in my curio cabinet now, I'm too afraid to use it and hurt it. I'm a total klutz and breakables, well they break quickly around here.

(cookie jar in front of my new wall unit that is driving me insane! ACK!
I am hiding the disarray and chaos from your eyes bwahhahahaha)

Missing you so much Mom!

Oh good googly moogly!!!

I was preparing my Vintage Thingie Thursday post and all of sudden everything went whacko around here!!!

Our next door neighbor's house is surrounded by police and helicopters and they told my husband (a half hour ago now) that they think the robbers are still inside!!! WTH?! Thank god our neighbor, catty corner from us, saw them break into the house and called the police. We heard nothing, nada, zip, zilch. So terrifying.

Here comes more sirens and loud voices now!!!

Remember this incident, only a two and a half weeks ago?! I'm never going to feel okay in my home again. EVER!

Geez, now I hear people laughing. I'm scared witless and people are laughing. Ay yi yi.

I'll update later when I know something more ... any spare "protective" mojo, banishment of meanies prayers, that you have will greatly be appreciated.

Shall We Dance on Rednesday

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

It's also the Mister's birthday today, Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Please think a good thought for my doggie and me today. I'm off myself to the Dermatologist shortly to have a couple of things removed and biopsied - I'm a bit (a lot!) anxious. And then our doggie will do the same, I found a pea or bean sized lump on her muzzle yesterday. Hopefully it's just one of those cyst things older doggies get. Please please please.

(Edited to add: My doggie has to have surgery to remove the growth on Thursday morning. The vet was concerned since it popped up very quickly, it was hard and sensitive, she didn't want him to touch it. He kept mentioning cancer, facial melanomas being very common in Golden Retrievers. WAH! He did say that it might be nothing but then he'd say it was of concern again. SOB! She's our baby and we love her so very much!!!)

Oh gosh, I really had to root around for something red that wasn't Christmas. I love red but I am rather bereft of red things in my largely "green" home. So I went digging and hopefully came out triumphant. I'm just barely squeaking by this Rednesday with a small twinge of red.

I was looking for my grandmother's red velvet photo album but of course couldn't find it (good gosh, I'm so sick of my unorganized self!) but found these instead which I think are fun - hope they aren't too much of a snooze for you all.

(I'm guessing this is either my grammy's High School Graduation photo or around that time.)

(She is also pictured above in my banner, on the far left side.)

First off, my grandmother's dance program from 1918, with darling itty bitty red pencil. I wonder if this was for her graduation night dance since it says Class of 1918? So sad to think she only had partners for five of the dances. And what do the check marks mean? Did she dance them and the young gentlemen not sign their names or???

My second, slightly red thingie I'm sharing is a quotation book from 1903, given to my grandmother's Aunt when she was 16, by her teacher.

(Sorry, hiding relatives name behind obnoxious yellow post it for safety sake! S/B a red post it for Rednesday!)

I was only going to scan the page above but continued to thumb through and found this page with pressed foliage. Wonder what delightful memory it evoked? Was it picked on a nature walk or picnic with her beau?

Monday blog love

Hoping everyone is having a very Happy Monday!

I'm over here struggling with organizing my new wall unit for my craft stuff. ARGH! I thought I had it all figured out and it all just fell apart. Somehow I underestimated and I can't fit everything. whimper whimper sniffle sniffle SOB!

I now have a pounding headache.

grumble grumble OUCH my aching head

Time to leave it alone for awhile and see if inspiration strikes when I'm fresh ...


A Simple Life
adventures of a quilting diva
Amy's Creative Side
Artful Spirit
Brambleberry Cottage
Faded Plains
Faded Prairie
Fat Quarterly
hands + notions
Janet Hill
jaybird quilts
Old Red Barn Co.
Pottery and Everything Else
Quilt Dad
Red Twig Brown Twig
Such Pretty Things
Tea with Lucy
The Experimental Farmer
The Pottery Papers
Three Buttons
Tootsie Time
Whispering Christmas Dreams

Family Genealogy for Vintage Thingie Thursday

(Please visit Suzanne at Colorado Lady for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

I had planned on sharing my childhood cookie jar with you this morning, but I couldn't find it. ACK! The house is still very much in disarray and chaos ... and unlabeled boxes, so this lady of the house doesn't know where she put anything. Ay yi yi.

While I was hunting (grumble grumble kicking oneself in the patootie) I did find something to share ... the book of my family line, on my mother's side. It was researched and published by a family member in 1932. What a wonderful resource!



I had seen and been gifted with a later reprint, so I was familiar with the book (my mother also talked about it often) but it was so much fun to find the first edition, in it's hand tooled leather slip cover. And if that wasn't exciting enough, I found this treasure inside:

Two handwritten notes. I am guessing they were written by my maternal great grandmother, since this was her copy of the genealogy.

The first:

(front)

The Ludlow family derives it's name from the town of Ludlow, in Shropshire, England. In 1349, Sir Laurence de Ludlow founded the Monastery of St. Mary White Friars (note, s/b Whitefriars) in that town.

The emigrant Gabriell (note, s/b Gabriel) Ludlow, who came over to New York in 1694, was issued from a branch of the family _____ (can't guess the word, possibly "lived"?) in XIV century at the Hill Deverill in Wiltshire.

To the same family belonged Lieut Gen Sir Edmund Ludlow of Maiden Bradley (what a fun name!), who died in exile in (1693) for having voted the death of Charles I.

The Earldom of Ludlow (extent 1842) was in the family.

A complete pedigree to date, exists in the archives of the New York Ludlow family.

In the older engravings the animals changed on the shield have always been Martens not bears.

Regarding the family shield/crest
(back)

The second is a list of family members that served in the military during the Revolutionary War. How exciting! My mother always told me that we had two relatives that qualified us for membership in the DAR but this list names five, if I am understanding correctly. (My mother and her mother never sought membership in the DAR due to the DAR's treatment and barring of singer Marion Anderson in 1939 at Constitutional Hall.)

(front)

(back)

Tomato Tart for Rednesday

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

I finally got my tomato tart made last Thursday
and thought I'd share it with you this Rednesday.
The recipe was made up of our favorite things:
puff pastry, pesto, goat cheese, caramelized onions and of
course our home grown cherry tomatoes. It was YUMMY!
And quick and easy peasy. Enjoy!

(It looks like I burned it but that's the pesto that I accidentally got on the edge. WAH!)

(Recipe from ilovemygrub.com)

Carmelized onion, cherry tomato and goat cheese tart


Cooking Time:

30 minutes

Serves:

4 people

Preparation Time:

15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 packet of puff pastry
1 large onion, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp green pesto
250g/10oz cherry tomatoes cut in half
100g/4oz soft goats cheese
black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 190C, 375F, Gas 5. Roll the pastry out so you can cut out a 24cm x 32cm/ 9 ½”x 12 ½” rectangle. Put the pastry sheet onto a baking tray, brush some water around the edge of the pastry and turn in 1cm/1/2” on all four sides, and press down to seal. Fry the onion slowly in the oil until the onions are translucent, add the sugar and turn up the heat to caramelize the onions. Keep to one side.

Spread the pesto over the inside of the folded edges of the pastry. Spread the onions over the pesto and place the cherry tomatoes on top of the onions and crumble the goat’s cheese over the tomatoes. Grind some black pepper over the tart and cook for 20 - 25 minutes until the tart is golden brown. Serve hot with a green salad.

Monday blog love

Sorry I'm a bit late with this. We're back to painting and fluffing up the house again and it's pure chaos over here. The hall closet and linen closet nearly drove the husband around the bend, so we took a breather for a few days. And then ... it hit me that I wasn't ecstatic over our new window treatment color. ACK! Thank heavens the realization came before the order was sent it. So now we're waiting for the new paint choices to dry and the sun to come out (can you believe the sun has been such a stranger in Southern California this summer?! well, along the coast at any rate.) to see if we can stick with the original choice or pick a new one.

On top of that I bought a wall unit at Ikea for our "extra" room (inspired by darling Alicia, of Posie Gets Cozy) ... the catchall room ... and I'm trying to put my craft stuff in it and so far, I'm not happy with it. WAH! Tweaking to commence today! I so envy people who get things right the first time - it takes me forever to hit upon the end result. I'm not a quick study at all, I'm a long, drawn out, tortured one. Woe is me. (if you scroll down Alicia's post, you can see a pine cubby hole wall unit ... I got it in white)

We had some fun over the weekend ... we saw two Shakespeare plays in the park. What a wonderful thing to put on plays for free for the public! On Saturday night we saw Julius Caesar. We generally go out to breakfast on Sunday mornings and we found out about the series from a young man who waits on us nearly every weekend. Turns out he was Caesar in the play. So much fun to get to see someone you know on the stage! And then Sunday night, we went back and saw "Twelfth Night". A tragedy and a comedy. Lots of fun. (But sooooooo cold. I was all bundled up with two sweaters on and a blanket and I was still too cold.)

Bloomin' Workshop
Fowl Single File
Inspiration in Action
Kittredge Mercantile
Over Good Ground
Roxy Creations
She Dreams Big
Sparkly Green Knickers
Stitches and Scissors
Stitchlings
Sugar Stitches
Swirly Designs
Talk Crafty to Me
The Olde Country Cupboard
twin fibers