Yummy Cream Scones

My son and I were in the kitchen at 5:30 this morning making scones for his geography class at school.  We used a recipe that is so easy and so good I wanted to share it with you. 

Cream Scones

Preheat oven to 425 deg. Farenheit.  Whisk together:

- 2 c all-purpose flour

- 1/3 c sugar

- 1 T baking powder

- 1/2 t salt

(I have substituted 1 c whole wheat flour for one of the cups of all purpose flour with good results. This yields a scone that is heavier, but very flavorful.)

Add and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened:

- 1 1/4 c heavy cream

Knead dough against side of bowl 5-10 times to form a ball.  Pat into an 8" circle, slice into 8 or 12 wedges and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Brush with extra cream, if desired, and bake for 12-15 minutes.  That is it...Couldn't be any easier and they are yum!

Today we threw some chocolate chips in before forming the dough into a ball.  My favorite addition is a little ground cinnamon and some slivered almonds.

And, since you asked, I will tell you that I found the recipe in my most favorite recipe book of all time:

I have two different editions of this classic and they are an invaluable resources for me.  They are the first place I look when I need a classic recipe or want to learn more about a certain ingredient or technique.

So... I hope you'll try and enjoy this recipe.  Wouldn't warm scones be nice Christmas gifts for your friends and neighbors?

Still Felting...

I want to write more soon about the process of making felt, but I do have a few quick photos to share of an order I'm just finishing up.  I've been working on some felt pockets for a dear lady who loves gardening.  Her friend saw some earlier versions of these designs and thought they'd make a nice Christmas gift.  I agree!

I really enjoy using Impressionist paintings as inspiration for my felt.  No matter how many times I work from a particular painting I see something new about the original when I begin to lay out my design.  Yesterday I concentrated on the details of the field and tree line in Monet's Wild Poppies. 

Laying out the wool roving is my favorite part of the process and this is what I really wanted to share with you. Here is the wool pictured above before I wet felted it.

The smaller piles of red, yellow and green roving on the counter became the flowers.  I prefelted those pieces and applied them to the background once the entire piece was wet and beginning to hold together.

The reason I love the early stages of wet felting so much is that I am forced to let go of my tendency to get caught up in details.  In fact, the process of wetting and fulling the felt changes the piece so much that there are always suprises.  There is just no way to control it completely...sounds a little like life, yes? 

Here is my latest interpretaton of Van Gogh's Sunflowers.  In the finished piece the individual colors are more defined than I expected, but I love the way it all turned out and I love that the "spirit" of Van Gogh's original piece really shines through.  I think it's great I could never create the exact same image.  If you saw the photos of the pockets I posted a few weeks ago, you know how very different these are, even though I was inspired by the same paintings.  LOVE that!

It's time to get these packed up and send them on their way.  I hope you are inspired to do something creative today.  Go where you go and do what you do with all your heart and enjoy the process!

Holiday "Snow"

What a very busy day this was. 

First of all,  I spent the morning loading up the jewelry cases at the MT SYLVAN COFFEE HOUSE & MERCANTILE.  They are now fully stocked and ready for holiday shoppers!  While there I just had to take a few photos to share of a really ingenious and quick way to create a winter wonderland.

In need of some quick decorations for a special event a few evenings ago, proprietor, Denise Warren, piled shredded documents on cabinets and displays to create a wintery environment.  It is amazing how much the piles of white paper strips resemble piles of snow.  What fun!

I love simple ideas that work!

A Nice Long Nap

My cat had a nice long nap today.  At about 1:00 I noticed he was "dead to the world", as my mom says when someone is in a seriously deep sleep.

Even when my son lifted him from his comfy spot, Obi refused to wake up.  He's so crazy.

We could not believe he could actually remain asleep through all our laughter and picture taking.

I suppose in a way I've had a nice long nap on my blog.  There have been so many posts in my head...so many things I meant to share but instead I simply took a break for the past few months.  Now I'm all rested ans excited to get back in the habit of checking in here and letting you know what I'm doing.

If you know me at all, you know I like to try new things and a few months ago I tried a new thing that has brought me much joy and breathed new into my creations.  I have learned to wet felt.

Since some of you may not know much about the process of making felt, I will try to post more about it soon but for now I just want to share a few images.  I have mostly been creating little wallets and what I call "pockets".  They are just the right size to hold and protect a phone, a pair of glasses, or really any small treasure.  These are a few I created using impressionist paintings as inspiration. 

You may recognize Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night and Sunflowers or Monet's Poppies.  I love simply responding to the colors and forms I see in the original pieces and then laying down my own interpretation.  It's actually very much what impressionist painters did, only they worked directly from nature.

I completed a few more pockets the other day.  This time I worked with circular forms that were purely from my imagination.

I had a great time adding the freeform machine and hand embroidery.  I love needlework as it was one of the first skills I learned from my Grandmother.  She taught me how to thread a needle and work a nice straight row of stitches.  I think of her often when I do handwork.

Well, it's good to be blogging again.  Maybe now that I've stepped back into it I'll be able to keep up.  I hope this post finds you happy and well and ready for the upcoming holiday season.  I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week!

Summer Reading

One never knows what chance treasures these easy unconcious rollers may toss up on the smooth white sand of the concious mind;

 what perfectly rounded stone, what rare shell from the ocean floor.

 - Anne Morrow Lindberg, Gift from the Sea

I no longer keep track of how many times I have read Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberg, a text filled with wisdom and peaceful observance of the stages and rhythms of a woman's life. Nearly every summer I revisit the pages of my well-worn and well-loved copy, amazed at the peace that washes over me when I see my own questions, my own musings so precisely verbalized by a woman who lived a life so very different from mine. It reminds me that we are not alone in this journey because deep down our hearts are the same.

This book is particularly appropriate reading for me this week given that I am staying at the beach and celebrating my 46th birthday.  These two events have put my contemplative nature into overdrive.  I always wanted to be a woman who grows older with grace but I admit that lately I sometimes find myself wondering who that cheerful and slightly sagging chick in the mirror is.  Does she know that 50 is just around the corner?

I love watching and listening to the waves as they form and make their way to shore.  The tide, like the passing of time, is unstoppable... relentless.  Every day it flows in and it flows out, changing the landscape with each crash of a wave.  Life is just the same.  Things come crashing in, circumstances change and the best I can do is look for and appreciate the beauty that is before me right here and now because it, too, will be changed with the arrival of the next wave.

I haven't needed much "stuff" to keep me happy this week.  Even the one moderate suitcase I brought seems superfluous (although I really, really tried not to overpack).  The weight of unneccessary possessons is such a burden.  As I headed out to the beach my first day here I filled my backpack with so many things I thought I might need.  Did I really think I was going to read my book and work Sudoku puzzles?  Today I will probably walk out the door with just my hotel key.

Most of all, though, I have learned that I am ready.  By God's grace I believe I am ready for whatever the next year, the next season of my life brings. 

Tomorrow I head home.  This retreat has been great, but I look forward to infusing a bit of beach girl attitude into my everyday life.  I want to pursue my renewed desire to simplify and "lighten my load", to seek and appreciate the beauty that washes up on my little shore each day.

A Great Gift

But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea

between the shores of your souls. - Khalil Gibran 

   

This week I have been given a great gift...time alone by the sea.  I can only imagine what it must be like to live near the ocean where the horizon is so wide open and the land is a constantly changing canvas, washed clean and reshaped again and again by the pounding of the surf.  For a few days I will wander, rest, reflect and dream on my own.  In the evenings I will come together with the man I love and do more of the same.  I find that we are beginning to settle into this rhythm in our everyday lives as well, as our kids are growing up and away from us.  Like so many other transitions I have experienced, this time is bittersweet...a mixture of sadness and excitement, adventure and grief.

A Dream Come True

Today I had the great fortune of visiting with one of the most beautiful women I know, Mattie Seale.

Mattie is the mother-in-law of one of my dearest friends, Susan. (Mattie is quick to point out that Susan is not "just" a daughter-in-law, but that she has become a true daughter over the years.)  To many of us Mattie is "Mama Seale" and just a few moments in her presence today left me with a feeling of peace and contentment.

Mama Seale has a heart of gratitude.  She is well-loved and she loves well.  She has lived a big life filled with the usual ups and downs but when she looks back on it all, she says life has been good "without interruption".  She told me that her faith is the foundation that allows her to enjoy life to the fullest and that her life today is like a "dream come true".  I felt peace and hope settle over me as I listened to what she had to share. 

It seems that every day I am bombarded with information about how to make my life "better".  I am encouraged to do more and be more.  Teachings abound on how to "create the life I want" and "live my best life now".  I believe, though, that great lives are not orchestrated or acheived.  Great lives are simply lived, facing whatever comes with courage and grace.  Mama Seale knows this and her words of experience and wisdom resonate with something deep inside of me.  They call forth a desire to simply let go and be content with what I have and what I am this very day...to realize that my life, with all its challenges and triumphs, disappointments and victories, really is a dream come true because I am loved and I love and in the end that's all that really matters.