Preserving Fall - My Favourite Season!

 My favourite season is Fall! I wanted to make this Buttermilk Basin pattern for two years now, this time I finished it in time to enjoy it! I still have the outside pennies,  pumpkins to stitch down, & leaves for the sunflower to do. I love the wool appliques & warmth that they visually give you.

 I use the blanket stitch from the Babylock sewing machine & added a black glass bead for the crow's eye.

 I will need to make the corn's kernels with french knots & maybe more glass beads on the sunflower.

 I have a fondness for grey squirrels as I had one for ten years, the squirrels here in northeast NB are a reddish colour & so small compared to ON grey & black squirrels. I'm going to add a curly stem to the pumpkin.

 I was pleased with the playing of the sewing machines 'fancy stitches' on the scarecrow's hatband.

Grape Jelly

 The grapevine was plentiful with grapes this year! It is only a couple years old & this is the first picking of grapes from it. Bill brought in quite a few & sampled them to say that tasted great!

 They were easy to remove from their stems after soaking in lemon juice to remove any particles.

 And the finished grape jelly jam!

 I made my own jelly bag from flannel & disposed of it & the grapes outer shell after it drained out.

Apples Mmmm

Jocelyne & I went to MacDonalds Heritage Farm yesterday only to find out it was closed for the Fall season now. Rats, I've wanted to see it for years now & will have to wait till next spring when it opens again. We did, however, go to Negauc to a furniture store, clothing store, & fabric store & saw roadside Fall produce for sale. I wanted local apples & there they were! I picked up two bags with around 35-40 apples. I think that size is about 1/2 a bushel.

Oh my, it sure looks yummy, I needed to sample to see the amount per pie.
I was able to get six pie fillings out of those apples with leftovers of seven apples to eat for snacks.

I watched some Youtube recipes & came up with a combination of my own with their ideas as a base.

 I really liked Rada's idea of placing foil inside the pie plate, then plastic wrap onto of the foil.

 Recipes usually called for 5-6 cups of apples however with the cooking they always shrink so I used a full eight cups of apples.

 After peeling & coring/slicing with the gizmo, I put the apple slices in cold water with the juice of one lemon whilst I worked on peeling more until I had 8 cups of apples.

 Then the coating was mixed. I used 1/3c white sugar, 2/3c dark brown sugar, 1/2tsp nutmeg, 1- 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2tsp salt, 2 TBSP flour. Add apples coating them all well with the spices & sugar combination.

Then place inside the awaiting pie shell dish & gently push into the form of the plates shape banging down gently to remove any large air pockets. Place in the freezer like this for 4hrs or overnight, then fold the plastic wrap & foil over the frozen shape of the pie & place in a freezer bag. An apple pie filling is now ready for a pie or an oatmeal apple crisp in the future, made with fresh Fall apples!
It's good for one year in the freezer ready for the Fall apple dessert of your choice.

 I always use a pie bird in my pies to help the steam release from the pie.

 Eight cups of apples can get juicy that's why the flour was added & the spillage was prepared for. lol

The smell of apples & warm spices always makes me think ... Mmmm pie

Outside Fall Sights

 The geraniums are in full bloom & frost is called for again tonight, I cover them with a blanket & it helps that they're on the front porch.

 The Limelight hydrangeas are doing well too, even after Hurricane Dorian's visit, they just don't stand as high as they once did. Loads of bloom here!

 There's still colour in the Anniversary Garden & butterflies too!

 The butterflies & bees just love the late bloomers. Thank you, Leslie & Nicholas, for the gift of these flowers that we are still enjoying!

 I love this view as I come up the drive when I come home.

 The Boston's are still jumping into their swimming pool to cool down after a hard run of fetch the stick or ball. The days are getting shorter on sunlight but when it is here Fall is beautiful!

 The front Fall garden's, still singing their blooms!

 Rexton the Manx enjoys sitting in here perch, you can see it in the window it looks like a 'y'. She is there in the afternoon when the sun shines in the sunporch & she watches what is going on in the garden with the movement of butterflies, bees, & birds.

The scarecrow is now on the porch to greet the visitors & welcomes & thanks to you for your visit today!

Have a great week wherever you are & taste & smell what this season has to offer you!
Thank you for visiting!
Cynthia

Fall Begins Today

We have had a beautiful September & now the colours are showing the signs of fall.

 Baxter & Bridget are enjoying the warm afternoons with now mosquitoes as we've had a couple of frosts now & that has put the mosquitoes in a dormant hibernation state. And so many of us are happy with that!

I washed their fur toys the other day & laughed at the sight on the clothesline.

 When the Boston's get a fur baby toy, the 1st thing they do is 'destuff it'.

Then the game of tug-of-war begins & some are shredded, I've yet to find a 'tuff' toy for them but that skunk seems to be holding it together! lol

Such a beautiful day for laundry & furbaby toys. 

 Bridget loves to sunbathe on their bench in their penned-in area, Baxter sometimes joins her.

 Rexton prefers the morning flood of the sunshine in the laundry room as the cats don't go outside.

 This was a morning shot before a rainy day, with the pink hue in the sky you know to take your umbrella with you.

 As the saying goes 'Red sky in the morning is a sailors warning', no laundry hanging today.


Organizing For Another Season

With the cooler days ahead I thought I'd get a jump start on organizing my dressing room.

I emptied everything out of the one most used unit. Everything except my perfumes which are a rare personal treat to use now as everything is scent-free.

  
 Oh my! So many socks, t-shirts, undies, cammies, & blouses? I must have run out of the hanging room for blouses & put them there for safekeeping. lol

 Wow, where to start? I sat on the floor for hours organizing & categorizing in 'like' piles.

Ankle socks & sports socks...

Wool work socks & dress socks in plastic bins for easy pullout to look & choose.

And here is the finished pullout with socks & panties all organized!

This PAX unit is a joy to go to now!

T-shirts are organized in a recycled box - at a glance, I know what I'm reaching for!

Summer clothes were put away, not worn clothes were put in a bag for donation & there are empty shelves awaiting the winter wear that will soon be brought out.

Fall Decorating

The Jim Shore witch is one of my favourites to view this time of year!

The new crow weather vane is perfect on the sideboard.

And the skull dishes have now been brought out & are being used, for your viewing pleasure Nick!

The black & white dishes have been put in the IKEA cabinet & the blue & white Blue Willow put away till next summer. I'm loving these dishes!

Bridget blends in with all the fall black & white decorating. I put the resin cat on the bench for decorating & she shared her fur toy with the cat. How sweet is she?!

Creating Pleasures

I made this quilt for baby Elias born this summer. He got his crib sheets, one in pink piggies as 2019 is the year of the pink & one in the giraffe print to coordinate with this quilt.

His nursery was done with a jungle theme so I wanted to do something to enhance that theme & had this jungle panel that I added on to.

The back was done with a flannel paw print that I had used to make him a flannel crib sheet...you can never have too many crib sheets.

The cool evenings have me crotcheting a wool blanket for the great room in the colours of this Christmas PJ's.

Granny squares with no two alike, it gives one freedom to play with the colours, there are two different blocks, this is one & the other is much the same without the white round.

The white will outline the afghan & edge it off when brought together with a whip stitch.

This was my jumping-off point with the Briggs & Little heritage wool for that cozy afghan.
Soon these bolts will be washed, dried, & cut into PJ's.

The company from London, ON arrived this week for a seafood luncheon visit.
It was great seeing Penny, her husband Walter, & daughter Julie whom which they are visiting on PEI.

It was a beautiful day on Friday & you can see the birch are starting to change into their fall attire.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit!
Wishing you health & happiness, wherever you are!

Cynthia