Quilt.

I finally got our new quilt put on the bed!

Here's a closer shot of the star:

And the sides...I'm not super crazy about the swags, but they do hang nicely. And the corners are quilted in a kind of fan pattern which makes them drape really well. Lots of nice detail in the quilting.

I was taken aback by the extra fold at the top for folding over the pillows--neither of us noticed that when the quilt was spread out on the stage at the auction. I don't really like making a bed that way, I like stacking my pillows on top of the quilt and against the headboard, for a pillow nest effect. So I'll have to figure out a way around that part.

Other than that, I love it! We've slept under it for a couple of night now and it's ever so soft and warm. It's fun to sit and look at all the different patterns in the big star, too. I love quilts with lots of different little patterns in them. When I was a kid, I had a baby quilt made by the ladies' sewing circle at either my mom's church or my dad's church, not sure which one...anyway, it had a pale green border and then square patches with tons and tons of tiny squares in every pattern you can think of.

When I got to kindergarten age and had to take a blanket for naptimes, my mom embroidered my name on the side in red thread and I would lay on it at naptime and stare at all the tiny little patterns, all different from each other. I still have the quilt--it's so beat up but still pretty.

Doings.

Well, I certainly didn't intend to vanish from my blog for days and days. There hasn't been too much going on here as of late.

I overdid it with the organizing and sorting and hoisting of boxes, and had a small setback in my surgery healing process, so I have been taking it easy and reading a lot of books and finishing my unicorn needlepoint along with the boring necessities of laundry and cooking and whatnot. No big projects for the last little while.

I really didn't anticipate weeks and weeks of soreness and restricted activity after this surgery. I can do most things, it's just lifting heavy stuff and reaching up high that has proven too much. Also I think I started sleeping on my chest too soon, so I have had to get very strict with myself about sleeping on my back again.

Anyway, that has all proved as dull to live through as I'm sure it is to read about, so not much blog inspiration there.

Last weekend we headed out of town to see my brother's family and go to the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale in Harrisonburg. All the money raised from the auctions and food sales goes to Mennonite Central Committee.

The big money maker at the sale is usually the handmade quilts. Todd and I have attended the relief sale several times in the past ten years or so, and have always wanted to buy a quilt, but the ones we really liked always went for more than we were prepared to pay.

I didn't realize it, but Todd was bound and determined to buy a quilt this time. So we did! It's a gorgeous Lone Star quilt in dark blues and greens. It was all very exciting.

Natalie and Marissa could not stop talking about riding with "Sonny and Cher," the horses who pull a wagon around the small county fairgrounds where the sale is held. You can see the anticipation on Marissa's face as the horses come up.

I don't know how many times they rode the wagon Friday night and Saturday, but it was a lot! Here they are riding with their friends Adam and Luke.

I wish I had a profile as cute as this. Love the way her nose turns up at the tip:

The sale serves dinner on Friday night, which we all partook of, and breakfast on Saturday morning, which Todd and Jeremy and I went early to enjoy. We had to stand in line a bit (the line runs far into the big barn:)

But it was fun. Here's me and Jeremy after omelets and sausage:

Yet another ride on Sonny and Cher...that's my sister-in-law Tracy, our little friend Luke, Marissa, Natalie, and me:

I got to catch up a little bit with my friend and cousin Trina:

My cousin Dan and his wife Lynley were there too, but I didn't get much time to talk with them, as I had to go off on another horsie ride.

Here's Marissa getting her face painted:

And Natalie and Tracy enjoying some homemade potato chips:


I'll post a picture of our new quilt once I get our bedroom all neat and tidy. I also bought homemade apple butter and stone-ground cornmeal. The donuts, alas, sold out before I could get to them. Just as well, I suppose.

The girls have a new kitten named Luna, who is the sweetest, most laid-back kitten I have ever met. Case in point:


She will sit and hang out on a four-year-old's lap.

She likes my brother, too.

In fact, she likes everyone, and the feeling is quite mutual. How I do love kittens!

Punkins.

I've had a stash of felted wool sweaters sitting around for ages...finally decided to make something and use some of them up.


Aren't they cute?


The pattern is from Blanket Statement by Vicki Haninger. Vicki also writes the wonderful blog Turkey Feathers.

Black and white thinking.

So I was thinking about racism today, as I guess a lot of people are. Jimmy Carter says that Joe Wilson's outburst during Obama's speech last week was racist, and there are lots of accusations of racism being thrown at the protestors who amassed in Washington this past weekend.

I talk about politics (or I used to, now I mostly just listen) with a large group of women on a forum...the core group has been talking politics together for more than five years. There's a good mix of Republicans and Democrats from all the shades of the spectrum. The outrage some of the conservative women feel over being called "racist" reminds me very much of the mouth-foaming outrage I used to feel from 2002-2008 when I was called "unpatriotic." One epithet is more distasteful than the other, but both are far too simplistic.

I voted for Obama and was very pleased that he won, but that doesn't mean I mentally rubber-stamp everything he does with a big smiley-face. I'm very unhappy with the vast amounts of money his administration is throwing around like confetti. And I'm not at all convinced that this is the proper time for the government to step into health care, much less that we should run a health care bill through in fast motion.

And although I think Rep. Wilson was rude in his outburst, sometimes I think Congress and the President could benefit from some of the no-holds-barred discussion that you can watch in the British Parliament on C-SPAN--those guys are masters of theatrical disagreement.

And since "my people" could exercise their rights to protest the war in Iraq, I have absolutely zero problem with the other side protesting government spending. Protest is good; it keeps the powers-that-be on their toes, or it should, anyway.

Is Rep. Wilson a racist, since he comes from South Carolina? I have no idea. Were there racists in the crowd in D.C. this weekend? Probably. Are there people in the U.S. who hate Obama and everything he stands for simply because he is a black man? Not much doubt about that.

But protesting against and disagreeing with a President who happens to be black doesn't automatically make one a racist. And voting for a black man to be President doesn't automatically make one non-racist, either.

Right now I live in a neighborhood and a city that is far more racially diverse than any place I've ever lived. And it makes me uncomfortable almost every day. I never had racist thoughts when I lived in lily-white communities. Living in this neighborhood that I none-too-affectionately call "ghetto" (which is both inaccurate and also racist of me) has brought out some feelings in me that I have really had to struggle against. I am so not proud of that.

So a disinterested observer might look at my voting record and my beliefs about social issues and stamp me as a bona-fide open-minded and tolerant liberal. But I know the truth about myself.

That's why I can't look at the typical conservative voter who hates big government or health care reform or whatever else Obama does, and call them racist. (The nuts with the threatening signs, yes, I think we all know how they feel, and they are terrible and very wrong.) But not the people who merely (or loudly) disagree with me and the guy I voted for.

This topic, as it's bandied about on all the talk shows and blogs right now, fits in with the general drift of the past ten or twenty years: it polarizes people and divides them even further. The media loves this, because it helps them sell ad time. But it's not reality, and we are foolish if we believe it to be. Racism is real and very wrong. Throwing labels around willy-nilly is also wrong.

Sunday ramblings.

Ah, what a lovely day for cleaning out the linen closet! Which is what I did this morning. Also sorted Todd's clothes, and dusted our bedroom. I guess I'm in fall nesting mode. I sorted out a bunch of books for disposal on Friday...it's truly scary when a person can remove 150 books from her shelves and it isn't really a noticeable difference. Yikes.

Todd is pressure-washing the house in preparation for some trim painting later this fall. And after my burst of activity this morning, I'm hanging out in my study pondering fall craft projects and cruising the Internet and chatting with my cousin Roland on Facebook. And blogging.

Tomorrow it will be eight weeks since my surgery and I'm doing just great. I have a haphazard method of taping up my incisions as recommended by the plastic surgeon, and massaging the incisions with Palmer's Vitamin E lotion, as recommended by the nurses at the breast health forum I read. Hopefully the combination of the two methods will result in a reduction of the Frankenstein effect I'm sporting right now.

Other than the tape/massage, and still not doing any strenuous lifting or tugging, I am completely back to normal and working on losing some more weight. Baking pumpkin scones and cinnamon rolls is not contributing to that effort much, but those are things that feed the soul, so I'm making allowances for them, at least until my Tuesday weigh-in when I can see how much harm they've done!

One unforeseen, and slightly frustrating, element of my reduction is that very few of my old clothes fit well--but now that I am raring to buy some new clothes, there is nothing in the stores that remotely appeals to me. In fact, the last few places I've looked, the fall fashions have been actively hideous, like the designer was trying to offend the eye on purpose! So I'm waiting it out. Sooner or later I'll find something I like, and till then, I'll just keep trying to go down another size.

My friend Beverly has started writing a column for a local news site. She's covering mortgage information right now, but hopes to branch out into other topics. There are tons of articles on the site, on every topic you can imagine. She's an excellent writer--go check her out!

I re-read a very sweet book from my childhood this week called Miracles on Maple Hill. I know I read it back in the day, but I had almost no memory of the story as I re-read it. It has a tremendous amount of detail about the natural world, especially wildflowers, and it made me feel a little bit sad to think how few people today would have the wealth of information about the natural world that the kindly neighbor in the book, Mr. Chris, has, and that he imparts to the main character, ten-year-old Marly.

What made me even sadder is the thought of how few people have the opportunity to amass such knowledge--the knowledge that comes from living in a place your whole life, and that your parents and grandparents lived in, and having their knowledge in your bones as well. Mr. Chris is out every day walking through the fields and forests and observing and working in the natural world. When the book was written 50 years ago, it was already an endangered lifestyle...now it seems almost archaic.

Fall seems to be truly here-some days are quite warm, but that breathless, sweltering humid feeling is gone now. And the nights--and most days--are cool enough to have the windows open again. This time of year is so wonderful in Virginia.

Off to make some turkey meatloaf for dinner.

Pumpkin scones.

We've had a nice Labor Day weekend. Todd's done some fishing and some working on our new mantel. I had a yard sale and did laundry and went on an excursion with my friend Beverly. And today was cool and rainy, which was kind of nice. It felt cozy, even though we still had the air conditioning on to keep the damp out.

A friend gave me a recipe for pumpkin scones last week, and today felt like a good day to make them. Talk about delicious!

Starbucks Pumpkin Scones

Scones:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 7 tablespoons sugar
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
* 6 tablespoons cold butter
* 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
* 3 tablespoons half-and-half
* 1 large egg

Powdered Sugar Glaze:

* 1 cup powdered sugar
* 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
* 2 tablespoons whole milk

Spiced Glaze:

* 1 cup powdered sugar
* 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
* 2 tablespoons whole milk
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* 1 pinch ginger
* 1 pinch ground cloves

1. To make the scones:

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

3. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Using a pastry knife, fork, or food processor, cut butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly and no chunks of butter are obvious. Set aside.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, half and half, and egg. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball. (Lizzie's notes: I refrigerated the ball of dough for thirty minutes before patting out and cutting)

5. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1-inch thick rectangle (about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide). Use a large knife or a pizza cutter to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. Place on prepared baking sheet.

6. Bake for 14–16 minutes. Scones should begin to turn light brown. Place on wire rack to cool.

7. To make the plain glaze:

8. Mix the powdered sugar and 2 tbsp milk together until smooth.

9. When scones are cool, use a brush to paint plain glaze over the top of each scone.

10. As the plain glaze firms up, make the spiced icing:

11. Combine the ingredient for the spiced icing together. Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

I used my largest round biscuit cutter and got ten scones from the recipe, so the amount varies depending on how you cut them.

These would be good with some Pumpkin Ginger Tea from Republic of Tea. Or some milk. Or coffee, Starbucks or not. Or you could just not wait for any beverages at all.

Quite, quite good.

In a Hallo-weenie mood.

I have done ZERO crafting since Christmas, but like clockwork, our heat and humidity blew away on September 1, and like clockwork, my brain gears turned toward "making stuff!"

So I'm throwing a line out to see if anyone would like to do a vintage Halloween Artist Trading Card swap. Artist Trading Cards are little pieces of cardstock measuring 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches (or if you have a brain fart like I did last time I participated in one, 2x3 inches...oops) that you make art on. Then you sign the back with your name, the date, and your e-mail/blog address if you wish.

I would like to have at least five people in the swap...so if you're interested, let me know. What you'll do is make an identical card for each person (actually, I don't even think they need to be identical, but sometimes it's easier that way) and then mail them to me with a SASE enclosed. Then I'll divide them up and you'll get one of yours back, plus one from every person in the swap.

You can use absolutely any technique or combination of techniques you like on your ATCs: scrapbook supplies, stamps, markers, paints, colored pencils, inks, textures, vintage pictures, you name it. The only rule is that they have to look "old" in some way and they have to be Halloween-themed. The deadline for getting these in the mail to me would be October 15, that way I would have time to send them on and get them to everyone by Halloween.

Here are some ATCs from a swap I participated in a year or two ago, for those who aren't sure what they look like. You can see that anything goes, and that these are all completely, wonderfully different from each other:


And here are a couple I made just for fun a while back:

ATCs are quick creative fun because they're small and manageable. The canvas you have to fill up is so small that before you know it, you're done!

Drop me an e-mail (jscrappy(at)cox.net) if you're interested, with your full name and address. If I don't hear from at least four other people by this Wednesday, I'll scratch the idea and find something else to make!

Happitudes.

Happitudes: things you're happy about and feel gratitude about at the same time.

1. Went to the plastic surgeon yesterday for my follow-up and he says I'm healing just great. I'm over most of that awful exhaustion, too.

2. My cousin Janine gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Isaac on Wednesday.

3. My niece Natalie had a stellar first week of first grade.

4. My gorgeous 6-year-old niece Evelyn became a gorgeous 7-year-old this week. (And your slacker Aunt Janelle is going to call you this weekend, promise!)

5. My husband went to the grocery store with me (number 13,000,000 on his "favorite things to do" list) and loaded the bags into the car and then carried them into the house for me.

6. It's supposed to cool off next week. (Hallelujah!)

7. I've read two good books in the past week...after months of duds.

8. My brother's dreadfully infected toe is all healed up.

Got any happitudes to share?

Goods and bads.

Todd and I briefly discussed Senator Ted Kennedy's death at dinner this evening. Todd has absolutely no use for the man because of Chappaquiddick. I have more ambivalent feelings--knowing that he committed negligent homicide and got away with it, and yet knowing all that he did for this country and the groundbreaking laws that he worked to pass, it's pretty hard for me to say how I feel about the guy.

It's been interesting to read and hear from people who actually knew him as a friend and who testify to Kennedy being someone who wanted desperately to help other people and to give his friends and family anything they needed that he could give.

I said to Todd that I certainly wouldn't want to be remembered only for the worst things I'd done in my life. Of course, I haven't committed anything quite as egregious as some of Kennedy's sins. (Not yet, anyway, but hey, I'm still young.)

I've wondered before, and thought of it again today, whether the biggest sinners out there might not also (if they've experienced grace and taken it to heart) be the most compassionate people out there, too. It's easier to have compassion for other people's failings when you're all too aware of your own tremendous failings. It's easier to see people's pain and regrets when you carry around a huge pile of your own. Maybe it's easier to see people as human beings who deserve rights and respect when you've been in situations where you had to take an uncomfortable look at your own humanity.

I certainly don't know if any of this is true of Senator Kennedy, but some of what I've heard and read today makes me think it might be. The Kennedy men have always interested me--such inspirational public lives, such degraded private lives. It fascinates me to read a biography and look at a life and try to balance the good and the bad in it, and Senator Kennedy's life has much larger goods and bads than most people's, that's for sure. If it's not fair to laud him without remembering Mary Jo Kopechne, I also don't think it's fair to condemn him without remembering civil rights, voting rights, rights for the disabled, OSHA, COBRA, FMLA, Title IX, AIDS research and care, Head Start, WIC, Meals on Wheels, and a host of other things that have made the U.S. a better country.

Just some stuff I was thinking about today while cleaning out the closet and listening to NPR.

I've always found this eulogy he gave for his brother Robert to be extremely moving.

Random thoughts.

Why is organizing such a satisfying thing to do? My garden looks terrible, like a freaking jungle, so I sublimated by cleaning and organizing my fridge instead, which was much easier (and cooler.) My wheat germ and oat bran and flaxseed and dried fruit sacks are now resting neatly in plastic shoeboxes instead of piling up at the back of the fridge. What a feeling of accomplishment from two plastic shoeboxes! The jungle still awaits, though. Unfortunately, I am not up to yanking weeds just yet, I don't think my still-healing incisions would like it one bit.

I have had to retire two beloved pieces of clothing this week--a big comfy t-shirt that I bought at a yard sale 7 years ago which finally developed too many holes for decency, and today my wonderful cool cotton pajama capris completely fell apart, ripped right across the leg where the fabric had gotten thin. And of course I can't find any appealing petite pajama pants at all online now, let alone petite pajama capris, which don't seem to exist any more. So sad!

We went to see "District 9" last night and while it was an okay movie, it has replaced "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" as the most gooey, oozy movie I've ever seen. Body fluids (both human and alien) of every color oozing from every orifice (both human and alien.) I was sorry we'd eaten dinner beforehand...although one wouldn't really be in the mood to eat afterward, either.

And I think I may have to either stop going to movies, or else start entering the theater late, if they don't stop showing horror previews before every darn movie. "District 9" was not a horror movie, it was just a sci-fi alien thing--and yet 6 of the 7 previews beforehand were for horror movies. I don't LIKE horror movies! I don't want to be scared even a little bit! And some of those previews are really disturbing! It doesn't make me look very cool to be the only person in the theater with my eyes squinched shut and my fingers in my ears, like a frightened toddler.

Don't you love it when you go to the post office, or the bank, or an eatery, and you walk right in at the head of the line, not a soul in the place, and then you turn around two seconds later and there are 10 people behind you in line? I just love it when that happens--it makes me feel so special, like I have some supernatural sense of timing.

The only good thing about August is delicious peaches. And the fact that my grandma, my dad and my niece Evelyn were born in August. Those are August's only redeeming qualities. Let's have some fall now!

Fairy tales.

I picked up two very old books of fairy tales at an estate sale a few weeks ago. They look like two from a larger set, because each book is slim, with just four or five tales in each one.

The pictures are just stunning. Here's "Little Red Riding Hood:"


And "Rumpelstiltskin":

"Jack and the Beanstalk"...I love the funky design on that beanseller's pants:

These are from a story called "The Goose Girl," which is not a story I remember, but which seems to be about a passive-aggressive princess with golden hair:

We also have "Tom Thumb":

And "The Frog Prince," soon to be Disneyfied in a theater near you, I believe:

"Puss in Boots"--look at the cool windmill in the background:

And "Bluebeard," with his fetching wife poking her nose in where it was best left unpoked:

And here are a few of the pictures from the story of "Beauty and the Beast," a favorite of my nieces Natalie and Marissa.

The last picture is the picture that made me scoop up those books! Love the fireworks!

What I love about this style of illustration is all the detail, the floral patterns and the textures on clothes and fabrics, the swooping sleeves and flowing hair--just so perfect for fairy tales, especially.

Fishie.

This is not my favorite time of year to be in southern Virginia, but living near the water does have its compensations...

Caught...

Cleaned...

Seasoned...

Grilled...

Plated...

Yum! Now that's what I call fresh!

Boeuf et fleurs.

(Sounds fancier in French.)

I cooked up a whole bunch of things the week before my surgery, and we're still digging down to the bottom of the freezer and enjoying some of them. This is one of the things I cooked...I got the recipe from a Pea at Two Peas, and it is unbelievably good. While it's cooking, it smells like my great-aunt Helen's house when we used to go over there for Sunday dinner when I was very little. Pure essence of pot roast, only better.

Italian Beef Sandwiches

1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. dried parsley
1 large garlic clove, minced
3/4 cup water
3-lb. rump or chuck roast

You just plop the roast in a crockpot, pour the water and spices over it, and let it cook all day on high, or till the meat's tender. Then you shred it up with a fork and let it simmer for a few more minutes, then eat it on a nice soft steak roll.

I like horseradish sauce on mine, but Todd prefers steak sauce. Apparently some people like to put banana peppers on the sandwiches...personally, I think a pile of grilled onions and peppers would be delicious on top. You can add provolone cheese or not--we didn't.

Todd thinks the meat is too spicy, so next time I make it I'll probably just use a half-teaspoon of red pepper flakes, but I think the heat is just right. And if I can find a reduced-sodium onion soup mix, I'll use that in the future, again for the hubby's sake. But boy, is it good.

I'm feeling slightly more energetic today. My body has rebelled and refuses to sleep on its back any longer, so I've had to contrive a way of sleeping on my side with lots of pillows under and all around me. I don't think it's the greatest thing for my incisions, but I'm compelled to do it. I've never had my body wake up in the middle of the night before and force itself into a position--it's like being demon-possessed. Very weird feeling.

I have a few randomly-connected pictures to share...my aunts put together the most beautiful bouquets for the church windows at my grandpa's funeral last week. They pulled together garden flowers and wildflowers and added cattails at the last minute, and it looked like something we could have picked on a random summer stroll around my grandparents' property 20 years ago.


Speaking of my grandparents' property, one of the items my aunt Molly salvaged from there was quite a bit larger than the odd chair or table. She took the summerhouse that stood right outside the front door and had it moved to her own yard a mile or two away.

Molly lives in an old brick schoolhouse, where my grandma and her siblings attended school, incidentally, and the summerhouse fits into her yard as though it had always been there.

She's having it painted and refurbished a little, and her neighbor gave her a wonderful old door with etched glass panels that will replace the original door. It's going to look great. But I think it looks nice, now, too. Here's how it was at my grandparents' house, painted blue to match their house:

Grandma had wildflowers and mint growing around it in the back, and rosebushes and other things in the front of it. I can't wait to see what Molly does with it!

Todd and I dropped in at an estate sale on Saturday that reminded me a lot of the sale we had at my grandparents' place last September. It was an old house with a barn where the parents had lived for 55 years, it was their large family of descendants holding the sale, it was piles and piles of very old junk that no one had thrown away for decades. And the family was Mennonite.

I had a very nice chat with the daughters, who are the same ages as my mom and her sisters, and picked up a few odds and ends. I got these three cream bottles from a whole huge box of saved bottles and decided to throw some garden flowers in them for my kitchen windowsill.

Can you see the price molded into the top of the bottle? Those were the days.