Happy Valentines Day

It seems the only time I post any more is on a holiday. I had so much fun decorating for Valentines Day, I wanted to take pictures and post so I have them for inspiration next year. My table decorations were inspired by my longtime good friend Suzanne.
You've read about her many times here. She is the retired owner of my favorite quilt store Strawberry Patches. She moved to Kansas last summer and I miss her more than I can say. We have been friends since college. She dated and married a high school friend of my Mr. SS's. We married these friends the same year, had our baby boys about the same time, cooked, sewed and shopped together. She has been my inspiration for most of my adult life in more ways than decorating and sewing. Her love and zest for life, her determination, courage, and strength have always been a shining light.  I could go on, but let's get on to Valentines Day. Love you, Suzanne.

This is a glance at my hutch. There are a few Valentine's specific decorations, but mostly just everything I could find red and white in my cupboards.

The three tiered stand is new and I found it at Home Goods. I love it because it looks like tart pans and fits my country farmhouse, cottage style. Again, most everything here came from my cupboards.

Here's another view.

Suzanne had posted her 3 tiered stand and cookie jar on face book and I totally copied. Who knew it would take so long to place each cookie in this jar. It won't take nearly as long for them to come out. 

All together.

I even tried to make the back of the stand look good.

See the scrabble X O. They were given to my by a good friend Ruth.

A little dark, but this decoration sits on top of the stand and was made at friend Sandi's house last year. She is sitting on a favorite thing of mine, a wooden spool.

I wanted to add pictures of a Valentine's pillow I did, but I'm having technical issues with this dinosaur of a laptop accepting pictures off my new phone.  I get a new phone so I can take pictures again and now can't get them on an old computer.  

On to happy days. We celebrated Mr.SS's birthday with all but one of the grands on Super Bowl Sunday, as we always do. The one missing is our college boy, Kyle who now lives in Oregon. The young man with the dog is our Drew's new friend, Evan and our new friend too. My son's old 1958 red pickup was not only seats on the tailgate for football watching but my favorite photo prop.

Hoping to post next about our weeks of camping. Mr. SS has been on a job in Ventura since before Christmas and we have endured many rainy days in a campground, but you know how I love my little blue trailer.

                                               

Happy Valentine's Day

We are in the middle of a three day baseball tournament for grandson Cade in Fontana, but it's still Valentine's Day and I couldn't resist just a quick post.

Before I left home, I snapped a few pictures of the little bit of Valentine decorating I did.

I love red and white, can you tell?

A couple of treasures. The framed picture, my friend Sandi made. Hope you can read it. The heart in the background I got last year from Suzanne at Strawberry Patches at Bernina club.

I made one pillow for my white wicker chair out of some of my favorite Pam Kitty stash of fabric.

Three pillows I made for my friend Sandi a few weeks ago. She still had some Pam Kitty fabric from pillowcases I made a couple of years ago for her., They are so happy!

Wishing you a sweet day, friends and as always:

                                               

Apples and a Little Fall Decorating

Last week in preparation  for a "Farewell" Girlfriends dinner for a good friend, Linda, I did a couple of things I hadn't done for a long time.

First, after finding apples on sale for .69 cents a pound, I decided to can Apple Butter. I have not done that since way back in the day when I picked apples at an Apple Farm in Tehachapi. where we lived for years.

This is the recipe I have always used. It came with the Waring Blender I received for a wedding gift 46 years ago and you can tell from the splatters of  boiling sugary cinnamon apples that is has been used many times.

Washing apples bought in a store opposed to picking them is a little more work. See all that wax. Because I blend them with the peelings that wax has to go.

They are cored, blended and put in a pan with sugar, spices and cider...YUMM!

(If you don't have one of these apple corers, it's a must. The only waste is that little core.)

Simmer in the pan until it thickens.

Put it in jars and put in pan of water to simmer for 10 minutes.

Each batch makes 7 jars and I made a total of 21, so if you know me...guess what you might be getting for Christmas.

Oh, and there is nothing more satisfying that the ping of a lid when it seals. Mr. SS and I were having breakfast during the canning process and every few minutes I called out a number. He asked what that was about and I said I am counting as the jars seal. After 7, I can sigh and say "Job well done". Being hard of hearing he had no idea what I was talking about. Ya gotta hear that "ping"

Now, the second thing I haven't done in a while is set a table for company. Although I had family over for "picnic" type meals while in our RV tiny cottage, I had no place to set a pretty table and entertain friends.

I really missed that.

A dear friend that has been (and still will be) part of a group of my girlfriends that meet once a month for dinner and to celebrate birthday is moving to Utah this week. Even though we often go to a restaurant for these occasions, I wanted to have it in my new home. 

When we left our last house, as I have told you, I got rid of, gave away or sold almost everything, so except for a few things I was starting from scratch decorating my table.

I raided my fabric stash and found  backing and borders pieces I had purchased before I retired from Strawberry Patches...pre 2000 for a leaf quilt that never got made...imagine that. Anyway it wasn't long enough, so I pieced it...sort of like in a quilt.   

This gorgeous turkey fabric was only about 4 years old and I made a topper out of it for the center of the table.

A candy jar, cloche, a few candles, a couple of pumpkins, a fall leaf garland and the centerpiece was done.

I borrowed back some of my dishes my DIL has.

This plate I had kept because my sister made it for me the year before we lost her.

Dollar store glasses (What would I do without the Dollar Tree?)

Each of the guests got a jar of Apple butter.

You may remember my blessings quilt I made two years ago. I never really had a place to display it in the RV small cottage, but it has a perfect spot on my dining room wall. (Covering up some temporary holes, Mr. SS made while installing a pocket door to my sewing/laundry room.

I really enjoyed the process of preparing for this dinner, but most of all enjoyed the fellowship of some of my special friends. Sally, sorry you couldn't make it. You were missed.

We will all miss you Linda, and there will always be a place for you at our get togethers and in our hearts when you come back for visits.

Where Did October Go??

Honestly, it was just September and school was starting. How is it that it is almost the end of October?

I found this picture on Houzz some time ago and wanted to share. It has so many of the things I love.

Pumpkins (and gourds)
Fall color
Rocking Chair
Red and White Quilt
Pillow
Vintage table and chair
Vintage tool box
Porch
Radio Flyer wagon
Shutters
Click on Houzz above and there are lots of other autumn porches to admire, but if I had a porch, I would want it to look just like this one.

Besides dreaming of  fall porches, October brought with it busy and fun times.
The first weekend, as I mentioned in my last post, we took our little blue trailer to the coast.
Grandson Cade had a baseball tournament.
We watched lots of baseball.

Cousin Kyle, the college guy came to see all of Cousin Cade's games.

 We got to our favorite little RV park in Santa Maria a day early, so I had plenty of time to play house and do a little decorating.
First thing was to put my checkerboard tablecloth on my little vintage table.

 Of course anytime there is game playing going on there has to be snacks.
(Got to use my little refrigerator jar and blue mason jar from target)
I lined a little basket I had for the the buttons  checkers.

 I displayed some new finds from the last coast trip in my little corner cabinet.
along with the towel my friend Carol gave me.
Can you see the little trailer ornament on the top shelf. Friend Gail gave me that.
Guess I should have lemons in the bowl instead of bananas. I was going for yellow and that was what I had.

 I even had time to sew two more curtains. One for each side of our slideout that holds the table and chairs and our comfy rockers.

 Just as I knew they would, Cade and Kobi sat down for a game a checkers as soon as they got there.

 We managed to find time for a visit to Avila Barn and oh my! There were pumpkins and more pumpkins. These were a row of some of the unusual ones.

 I picked out three for the picnic table at our camp site.

One of the best parts of our trip though, was getting to meet up with one of my best blogging friends,sweet Annelies of Sew Blessed. We met at Quilting Cousins and had a lovely lunch with her husband afterwards.  

 While at Quilting cousins, I snapped a picture of this quilt. The border has little camping trailers on it, but of course the fabric was all gone...a girl can dream.

Besides two grandsons playing fall baseball, it has also been busy times watching volleyball, basketball, and soccer. No one playing or coaching football this year though. Can't remember that every happening before.

Lexi ask me to help her make a poodle skirt for Halloween. I agreed, only to find out that 3 of her sisters wanted one too. I asked Lexi if she would do all four. You know what...she did. They are all done. She cut them out and all I did was supervise and help out when she got into trouble. I also did the poodle appliques and basted the zippers. She was a trooper and came up every spare minute she had.

 She got to be the first to use my new scallop scissors. They made the perfect edging for the bottom of the skirts.

 I also made a Dorothy from Oz dress for granddaughter Kobi and a Roman queen costume for a school project for her. I couldn't get the patterns I needed in her sizes, so I winged it.
They turned out pretty good.

I also attended a wedding yesterday. I intended to get more pictures as I got to help with the reception decorations, but the only picture I got was of this beautiful tree, the couple was married under.
It is out by the Kern River (dry river bed you can see behind tree)

I love to leave with something to make you smile, and in my world that is always our Emmy Lou.
She got to ride by herself for the first time. She usually has Daddy leading the horse or is riding with a sibling.
Belle is such a good horse. She is as old as "dirt" as they say, but so gentle and just took her around and around the corral. Miss Emmy Lou thought she was such big stuff.

I will be back to show you pics of the Halloween costumes.

Then next week I fly to Kentucky to visit my aunt who is having some health issues. Hope to get some fall color pictures to post and some barn quilts...how I love barn quilts.



God is Good!!
Life is Good!!

Happy Memorial Day

The day really got away from me, but I  wanted to do a little tribute to all the men and women of our Armed Forces who have or are currently protecting and fighting for our freedom. 

Flying our American flag is one way of doing that. 

I have a little flag out, but no one can see it unless they are in my garden.

We used to always proudly fly the American Flag on our house.

I found some pictures on Pinterest  with flags, so thought I would share a few.

google.com

freshwaterdecor.blogspot.com

joysthoughtsandthings.blogspot.com

caitcreate.blogspot.com

bearcreekledger.com

thevintagesparrow.blogspot.com

1890gablehousemusingsblogspot.com

After a day of  hanging out with family today and getting some things done I have been working on, I went to a friends house for dinner to celebrate the birthday of our friend, Linda.  

We always joke that this is the longest decorating season of all.

I started putting out my Red, White and Blue this week for Memorial Day and as I add more, I will also be decorating for Flag Day, 4th of July and Labor Day before I start thinking about fall.

So even though I showed you pictures from Pinterest,  I will be taking some of my own soon.

I love red, white and blue, so I should have lots to share once I get started.

I hope you had a great day with family and friends.

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!