All She Needs is a Little Love.....

I thought it was fitting to share this sketch with you today. My brother-in-law drew it two years ago in honor of the purchasing of my little house. (Can you tell he loves to tease?)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! 

We are going to be getting a few last minute before-winter-is-really-here projects done. I think we are almost out of time as it is a windy, shivery cold day with snow flurries this morning!

2nd Year Have-Done-List

Can believe it?! I have owned the little house for two years! What busy years...... I have decided to  write another Have-Done list, like I did last year.

Front Yard
I re-did the flower beds and have been adding plants all year. They are coming along nicely, but it is so different to what I am use to as the beds are all shade.

Porch
Last year, the front porch was just a dropping ground. This summer I transformed it into another living space, and boy did we enjoy living in it! Painted wicker furniture, made cushions and pillows and re-arranged the furniture a dozen times.

Entry

The biggest thing on the list was getting a coat rack! I also hung the mirror and baskets for mittens and keys. Very exciting accomplishment!

Living Room

Not too much going on in the living room, but we have big plans! Purchased a new rug for in front of the couch and added another couple of coats of shellac to the floors.

Dinning Room

Also re-coated the floors. Hung up my fruit illustrations and finished up the blue side chairs. Turned the table the other way, which really changed the look of the room!

Front Bedroom

Still have a bit more picture hanging to do here. But we finally figured out what would work in the closet, good old basic shelves! I am planning on sharing them soon.

Bathroom

Installed the medicine cabinet!! Put shelves in the linen closet and re-organized everything again.

Back Bedroom

(This was the only picture I has that even shows the back bedroom. Do you see the bed through the hall? That is it!) Didn't change a lot in this room. Bedrooms have to be decorated slowly. They are such personal spaces one has to take their time.

Kitchen

The kitchen has been a busy place this year! Made curtains, bought a new vintage table, installed tile back splash. Still have trim to do.

Book Nook

Moved more shelves in, organized books, and purchased a chair. I am in the middle of working on the foot stool and pillow now.

Upstairs Bedroom

Not much done here either. Because the sewing room was better organized, I was able to de-clutter a bit.

Sewing Room

Bought cube shelves and bins, re-organized everything, found a new sewing chair. I will be getting together a post on this room soon!

Back Yard
Painted both my garage and the neighbor's garage with fresh white paint. Bought a raised garden box, planters and planted an apple tree!

Happy Anniversary Little House!

Pasty Making

Pasties have a long history in my family, and for the Cornish people. Miners from Cornwall spread their popularity all over the world among the mining communities. (For the full history of the Pasty  visit the Cornish Pasty Association.) The pasty tradition has been passed down from my father's mother, but since we have a lot of miners on the family tree, I have no doubt that both sides ate lots of pasties.

Our Grandma loves to tell the story of being sent to school with money for "Pasty Day". During lunch break she would walk down to the church and buy pasties for dinner for the whole family. Her Grandma would usually be there peeling bunches and bunches of onions for all the pasties.

Pasties are a very simple food, meat and root vegetables held together in a hand pie by crust. In our house they are pure comfort food!
We really don't have a recipe it is so simple. Our rule of thumb is just about equal proportions of ground beef, peeled and chopped potatoes and grated carrots, plus a few chopped up onions. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a bowl and add generous amounts of salt, pepper and garlic powder. Using your favorite pie crust recipe, roll dough in 12" by 12" pieces. Place about 2 cups of filling on each piece of dough, fold in half and crimp edges. Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until potatoes are soft and meat is done. Serve with ketchup or gravy or plain.

We anxiously await cooler autumn weather so we can have a Pasty Day! The stove always ends up being on for at lest three hours as we don't like to skimp on pasties! Once we get started we might as well make enough to go around a few times. Our usual output ranges between 4-5 dozen. But we have a system and once started, it doesn't take long. The hard part is waiting the hour long baking time! With the wonderful aroma filling the house, it is hard not to be hungry.

Rainy Days

We have had a lot of rain this week. Rainy days in the autumn make me want to stay at home!

 They are made for staying cozily at home, don't you think?  Not going to work and energetically, efficiently conducting business. 

How I would love to stay at home and potter around, a few pleasant chores like sweeping or laundry and then a bit of baking. Perhaps a few loaves of bread for dinner and a pie or cake. A lovely delicious smelling soup on the stove, warm and homey bread in the oven.

 And in the evening, when the gloom is settling into dark, a bit of knitting curled up in the chair.

Painted Ceilings

Traditional Kitchen by San Marino Interior Designers & Decorators Charmean Neithart Interiors, LLC.

What do you think of painting ceilings a color? Are you for or against? A firm believer that any color other then white will make it look like a cave? Or are you all for livening things up? 

After getting the the back splash in the kitchen finished, I felt it was time for a few changes in the kitchen! I had plenty of ideas for the kitchen while I was planning it, but somehow when it came time to finish it up and move in, it didn't come together like I had envisioned. Over the summer I have been pondering this, when I had a spare minute! 

When I was working on my front porch, I looked at a lot of pictures on Pinterest and Houzz. There was a lot of blue ceiling porches! I love them! I also read it is a southern tradition and suppose to keep the bugs away. So to get back to kitchens, suddenly I thought maybe a blue ceiling in the kitchen would be pretty. It would add some interest and bring in a bit more of my blue color scheme. 

Traditional Closet by Salt Lake City General Contractors Cameo Homes Inc.

Transitional Kitchen by Shaker Heights Architects & Building Designers Shaker Interiors
What do you think? 

The family seems unsure of the idea, I don't think they have the vision yet! I got a lot of weird faces when I asked what they thought. Anyone taken the plunge? Do you like it or not?

Giveaway Winner and Blog Updates

The winner of the Mini Knitted Pumpkin giveaway is.....

Theresa!

Congratulations! Please message me with your address and I will send it on it's way to you.

Don't forget you can always knit yourself our own mini pumpkin!

A little update on the blog's new look. Did you notice I tidied things up a bit? Gave it a cleaner look? What do you think? I am also working on putting together a page on my house. Hopefully, it will make it easier for you to "take a tour". 

Hope your week is off to a good start!

Apple Picking - Vintage Style!

Pinterest

I found a few vintage apron-wearing women to celebrate Apple Picking time! Hopefully, we will be able to fit a trip to the orchard in this weekend. Apple picking is one of my favorite autumn activity!

Pinterest

I think this one is my favorite, so sweet! 

Pinterest

And of course, a bit of baking always follows apples. So many luscious things to make with apples! 

Weekend Project

We spent the weekend up to our elbows in mortar, tiling the kitchen back splash. Once the first tiles were up, I keep asking myself why I didn't get this done sooner! It made such a huge difference in the kitchen, so much more finished looking. (I know the answer to that question! A lot more fun working outside or on the porch then in the kitchen during the summer!)

It was fun doing a bigger messy project again. I think the last time we did something this big was re-doing the living and dinning room floors in July. As you can see, it kind of disrupted life for a few days, the kitchen was a wreak!

I love tiling, it was one of the first do-it-yourself projects I learned. On looking back at previous posts, we were tiling the bathroom on the exact same day last year! So funny!

At one point in the middle of tiling, Mandy turned to me and said, "We don't have to go home!". "What?" I asked.  "We don't have to go home when we are done, we are home!" 

So many days and nights last year after we finished up for the day, we would leave, wondering and dreaming of when we wouldn't have to go home anymore.....

Mini Knitted Pumpkins

I have had so much fun knitting mini pumpkins! The first one I made for the wreath on my front door. They are just so cute! And a very quick and fun project, number five just came off the needles last night!

For those of you that knit, I have just posted the pattern on Ravelry for free!

You can see the Mini Knitted Pumpkin pattern here. As I said before, this is a fast and easy pattern. All you have to know is how to increase, decrease and knit in the round! One skein of 50 gr. dk weight yarn makes three pumpkins.

 Since I am soon about to get over run with pumpkins, I thought I would also share one with you friends! That is right, I am hosting a giveaway!!

Very exciting, as this is the first one I have hosted! I wanted to share a bit of Autumn loveliness as a special thank you. The blog will be four years old this spring, it has been a delightful adventure! Thank you friends for all your comments, encouragement and friendship!!

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment mentioning your favorite thing about Fall. 

The giveaway will be open for a week from Oct. 6th to Oct. 12th at midnight. 

Happy Fall, Friends!

Pleasant Summer Over.......

Illustration by Tasha Tudor from A Child's Garden of Verses

I love Tasha Tudor's illustrations. This one seemed very fitting for the season and the accompanying poem.

By Robert Louis Stevenson from a Child's Garden of Verses c1947

I don't know if we are going to have a very colorful autumn. The leaves are already falling, we will have to savor what we get!

Geese in the pond is always a sure sign fall is here.