The Good, the Bad, and the Pretty?

Driftwood Statue of Liberty on cover of local guide.
I love it!

Hi!  I didn't do a Memorial Day post. I was feeling sad that I couldn't leave a little flag on my dad's grave. My parents' ashes were buried, unmarked, on a windswept promontory overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, in the  garden of a  Cape Cod church we called the Moby Dick/ whaling church because it dates from that era.[1845?]. It's the perfect spot but somehow putting his flag out on my deck isn't the same as being there. I don't  know why.  So along with truly frigid temps it was a somewhat sad weekend here.

I kept busy with projects: I made the Shower Melts, recipe:   HERE   You can also browse through my Bath- Little Luxuries file on Pinterest, though the general gist is always the same.

Cornstarch, water, essential oils. 

The result is like very hard to handle drywall spackle. And it gives that creepy chalk on the blackboard feeling as you mix it, eew.

I doubled the recipe, 2 Cups of cornstarch.

Drops of essential oils: bergamot, lemon, lemon verbena, eucalyptus. I subbed the eucalyptus for peppermint oil from the recipe because peppermint gives me migraines.

You don't have to pack the spackle into the ice cube trays. It sort of settles in a minute or so. The water on top can be wicked off by laying a paper towel on top.

I had the red heart molds on hand, a gift from a young man who was a house guest one summer. He'd make pink lemonade hearts in them for our drinks.

The trays go in the freezer. No clue why this works, but it seems to do the trick. Bring the trays out and let them warm up for only about 90 seconds. Pop out and let the cubes dry, then pack into jars.

Pretty!

BUT they have no scent whatsoever. I used way more scented oil than the recipe called for, but nada. Maybe my oils lacked scent because they are all natural and organic? We're used to bright artificial scents instead? But really. Nothing. Too bad because I wanted to make them for little gifts for friends.

And then there is the drywall spackle issue. I kept imagining this stuff clogging my drains. Permanently.

...........

Since it was so cold I went ahead and made Kelley's Roasted Veggies Pasta. I did cherry tomatoes for about 4 hours at 200*. They came out nice but cooked away to nothing much. I think big beefsteak slices or Italian plum tomatoes would work better. 

Then I roasted 1/2 a bunch of asparagus cut in 2" sticks, 1 summer squash  cut into half moons, a sweet onion cut into moons, garlic, and [just because] pine nuts. Single layer, bit of olive oil and lemon pepper [I use one of those grinder mixes.] They should roast 35 minutes at 400*. I overcooked them due to some little quotidian distraction/ crisis . But they were salvageable. 

Toss with rigatoni and a little butter or olive oil, cubed Brie. Parm on top.

The look is not foodie mag perfect but the taste was delicious on a a drizzly cold night. Easy to do too, except the watch-your-timing issue.

......

And the pretty: This quilt is back from the quilter! 

My quilter did a gorgeous job. There's a lot more work to be done now, first bind, then wash and dry. Then  eyes for birdies, 60 + rosettes to sew, beads for stamens. This is a huge, king sized quilt, for no obvious reason. 

I used flannel instead of batting to make the post-quilting handwork easier, maybe. An experiment. The quilter used the flannel with no comment. We'll see how it all washes.

.....

Mo is always a happy little guy! He loves the cool grass.

Have a great week.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Happy Thanksgiving ~ Home and Away

Happy Thanksgiving, dear friends!

This year we are invited to our friends' home for Thanksgiving! I am very excited, if a bit sad my beloved Turkey plates will not be used this year.
[Do they notice? Or do they slumber on, uncaring?].
Last month someone asked me if I keep my bright orange, yellow, and cheddar quilts out all Fall, til Christmas, and the answer is a resounding No. Much as I love those colors I don't like to live with them too long. November 1st, the jackolanterns are put away, as are the brilliant orange quilts and the bright cobalt pitchers.

This year I kept my blue and white color scheme and added grey linen throw pillows; and quilts in faded tones of rose and brown and beige.

I keep my mercury glass pumpkins in the silver only,

and I add mercury glass Mason jars,

 and  a turkey here and there.

Crocks are filled with the last of summer's hydrangeas, now dried to rose, tan, and olive, no longer brilliant sky blue.

Things look a bit spare maybe. Knowing I would not be entertaining for the Big Day, I kept my decorating to a minimum, going for November colors, serene blue, grey, brown.

Just a few pops of autumn leaves peek out,

and a beloved English pitcher filled with bittersweet.

I love bittersweet and hate to discard it when December arrives.

The other pitchers are mostly white ironstone or soft autumn shades, many stained tobacco brown.

Wasting time a bit, I painted my tiny pumpkins with chalk paint. Harder than it sounded--and not at all chalky!?. I am hoping they might be sealed by the paint and last til next year! We'll see.

Mo watches, and waits...poor Mo, no turkey this year

....
My friend and I have been planning the meal. I dug out tablecloths to audition, lent vintage water goblets and my mom's silver gravy ladle. We had fun grocery shopping. Look at these weird Brussels sprouts.

And cute curly butternut squash.

My assignment--my contribution to the dinner Thursday --will be homemade Cape Cod / orange cranberry sauce.

Oh my this is delicious. So sweet. My taste buds swooned, I realized how rarely we eat anything made with real cane sugar. Yum.

And I made creamed onions today; tomorrow I'll make the stuffing. We all prefer our turkey unstuffed, so I bake the stuffing in a big pan: cornbread cubes, seasoning, chestnuts, bacon, apple diced, onion diced, sauteed, cranberries. Fresh sage and thyme. All held together with broth and butter. My house will smell like Thanksgiving even if the day is not celebrated here.

Maybe I'll have pictures to share, we'll see.

Remember my mom's words of wisdom."Put the turkey in the oven, and have a couple beers!" She meant relax and enjoy! So I wish that for each of you and your families too,

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

PS If you're out and about: garden center, grocery store...now is the last time to stock up on paperwhite narcissus bulbs for January blooms. I had to order mine on Amazon.