Wordless Wednesday: Through the Garden Gate

Advent Conspiracy 2009

It’s that time again…

The Advent Conspiracy.

Wordless Wednesday–a toad in the hand is worth two…

ThanksGiving Greetings

Thank you to all of you who stop by, who comment and brighten our days with your kind, thoughtful, wise and funny words. You are special to us and we give thanks for you!

Custom Apron

I’m so excited! I just completed my first custom apron for someone I met at the Old Farmhouse Craft show. If she doesn’t like the apron, you can find it for sale in my Etsy shop, The Home Gnome. Or, you can find me wearing it. It’s super comfy and I love the alterations she had me make to the original pattern. Check out that bias tape: I totally made it by hand–never done such a thing in my life…   The colors will be great for holiday cooking–machine washable.  And, did you see those pockets?  You could fit a small child and leftovers in them!  Okay, maybe I exaggerate about the small child but those leftovers will go right in…

Thursday 13 at the Leigh Shell Estate Wow Sale

This past weekend, I scouted out a great sale here in Pensacola run by Leigh Shell and associates. It was advertised as being a “unique shopping experience” and boy was it! Turns out, the estate was that of a vintage/antique textile and clothing dealer here in town. She also was a home economics teacher at the local community college. What a great combination to find some great merchandise!

So, what did I find at the estate sale?  We found so many great things that I thought I would dress it up as my Thursday 13 post for this week!  The sale itself was inundated with Edwardian and Victorian style clothing.  Many beautiful items in near mint condition.  Of course, most of these antiques were beyond my budget–but I did manage to come away with a few very lucky finds!

Most of these beautiful finds will be making their way to my etsy shop, The Home Gnome, but others of them have found their home with us!

The return of the cornbread maker

Some of you may recall the unceasing moaning I did last year about our lack of a working oven.  I was reduced to cooking biscuits on the stove top or griddle.  Stove top biscuits, let me tell you, do not cut it.  They were more like thick pitas or tortillas.  But, the story ends well.  James was able to find the part for the stove and now it works again–like the wonder of modern technology that it is.

Unfortunately, during the time of no oven, I forgot how to make cornbread.  Before the lack, I had become quite adept at golden delicious cakes of cornbread that folks just loved diving into.  To my shock, after a year-long hiatus, that touch was lost.  I made cake after cake of cornbread–most of which was fed to the dogs.  It was pretty sad times for me and for James.  Happy times for the dogs but definitely sad for us.

Last night, all that changed.  In desperation, I pulled out Jane Brody’s Good Food Book, sort of as a return to my roots.  I had begun my cornbread salad days using a recipe of hers and then improvising.  Maybe I could do it again.  Friends, I must tell you that it was a shining success.

I started out using her Corny Corn muffins recipe (page 600-01), altered it to our tastes and ended up with something roughly resembling this:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 t salt

3/4 T baking powder

3/4 t baking soda

(In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together with a whisk.  In medium sized bowl, mix together:)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup buttermilk

3 T butter, melted

(add liquid ingredients to dry, blend.  Add:)

1 cup frozen corn

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and bake in greased cast iron skillet at 425 F until cake is golden.

We all congratulated ourselves on how well the cornbread turned out.  Jennifer said she was glad to have missed all the bad cornbread days, James said we should definitely stick with this recipe.  I simply buttered another slice and smiled.

 

Wordless Wednesday–on the Pier at Sanders Beach

Dilemna vs. Dilemma

Okay, surely enough time has gone by that I can write this post without any feelings of guilt, shame or mortification.

Several weeks ago, I was writing to someone when I typed the word dilemna Yes, that’s exactly how I spelled it and–yes–the little red line provided by spell check appeared below the typed word. I looked at the red line in amazement. Why did it not like the way I spelled dilemna? Wasn’t that the way I always spelled it? Didn’t I even have a silly joke/pun/play on words I always used when someone said that word? Wasn’t I a great speller?

Yes, I’m a great speller–a stickler if you will. For a time, I made a conscious effort to never even speak a word if I couldn’t be sure of its spelling. You never know when someone may say: “That word you just used, gorgeous, can you spell that for me?” It’s really better to be safe than sorry, I feel. Yes, I do have a dumb joke using the word dilemna and, yes, that is how I’ve always spelled it. My point is, I’ve always spelled it incorrectly and my little joke was less funny than even I thought it was. It was meaningless because it hinged on spelling the word incorrectly. Oh, the shame!

So, I decided to do a little research on how I came to spell dilemma with an “n.” After visiting a few forums and conducting my own non-scientific poll I discovered that other people do spell dilemma with an “n” but it appears to be an anomaly and no one is sure where the alternate spelling originated. As for my poll, the only person who spelled it with an “n” was someone who attended grade school with me. Yikes! Sounds like we may have pinpointed that spelling glitch right there!

So, mystery solved. Or not. To those of you who were gracious enough to answer my little poll and wait so long for the great reveal, I deeply thank you. May all your days be happy and all your spelling be precise.

ETA: whoa-ho-ho…just checked the poll results–five people voted for dileMNa.  Not so alone after all!

Buy Nothing Day is fast approaching

I had my own little buy nothing day today. After a bit too much shopping over the weekend, I felt like perhaps a spending freeze was in order. It’s something that is good for me right now.

I was looking at the statistics provided by wordpress and saw a reference to my post last year on “Buy Nothing Day.”  I had completely forgotten about it!  “Buy Nothing Day” falls on what is traditionally known as “Black Friday” in North America.  It’s a time of intense sales, lines and sometimes evil tempers.

As I post this ad, let me just say that I do not necessarily endorse the philosophy of this movement–but rather the spirit of the movement.  I don’t think that “bringing the capitalist consumption machine to a grinding halt” is the answer to all our problems.  What I do believe is that dealing with our own desires to own more and more and more will solve many of our over-consumption problems.

That said, here’s a little reminder. You don’t even have to visit the website, just keep in mind that on November 27th, there is a call to observe your own “Buy Nothing Day.”

I feel like this illustration when I’m trying to refrain from buying…