the dearest pumpkin

happy hallowen

dozens of lotions

So i don't use body lotion on a regular basis. There's a certain time during the winter where i want to bathe in it, but for most of the year it just sits there. I have a good five or six years of accumulation in my room... i'm sure some of it's past its "best by" date. And most of it probably doesn't meet my latest standards. I've grown rather pickier about which chemicals i want my skin to absorb.

But i don't really want to throw it all out either... i'd like to use it up (what is still use-able, that is) and start fresh. Which brings me back to the beginning: i don't use lotion on a regular basis.

And then today, i had the bright idea to use it for shaving my legs. It's better than soap, better than Jungle conditioner from LUSH (which is moisturizing but doesn't lather up much), and i don't bother buying shaving cream anyway.

Most of those scented lotions are, ironically, not terribly moisturizing when i use them as lotion, but they're nice for shaving. And the scent really stuck even though i rinsed the lotion off... i still smell like vanilla whipped cream.

the paparazzi caught up with us

natural oil, pure oil

Better luck with the chocolate biscotti today, though i'm still not thrilled. Probably because i used 4 egg yolks instead of 3 eggs. But it was all i had...i can't believe how fast i go through eggs these days, at work. I hate the idea of eggs but ....i love the idea of omelets. That might be dinner.

And i actually left work sort of close to the time i was supposed to leave. I don't think i've done that all week.

It's much warmer today, and sunny and bright and leaves are falling, but i was too sleepy this morning to get up and walk. I had to fill my gas tank anyway. I was very empty... so i gave the attendant $40, and guess what? After filling up, i had to go back in and get $9 change! $2.09 a gallon. So i got a Perrier too.


I got my order yesterday from Mountain Rose Herbs. Today Gramma was thinking i had got a dress in the mail yesterday. That'd be even more fun, wouldn't it? But alas, herbs. Mostly oils, actually. With some of the things i got, i made a new facial toner, some mouthwash, and a hair rinse. I had been planning on getting a neroli or lemon balm ("Melissa") hydrosol, but chamomile was on sale so i got that instead. Generally i like chamomile, but unfortunately it doesn't small very nice as a hydrosol.

So here's the toner i made:

• 4 oz bottle of chamomile hydrosol (i poured some out so the other ingredients would fit in the bottle)
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon witch hazel
• 1 teaspoon warm honey
• 4 drops tea tree oil
• 2 drops lavender oil
• 1 drop geranium oil

....i think. I'm not totally sure how much of which oils i added, but it was close to that.

It smells bad. Normally i like the smell of vinegar, but vinegar + chamomile water + witch hazel just doesn't work. When it's gone, maybe i'll try a similar recipe with a different flower water.

The mouthwash is yummy, but the recipe called for honey. Is honey okay to use in mouthwash? It seems strange. I like honey because it's so natural and good for you, and yummy, but it seems like a strange thing to rinse your mouth with. If it's just for the taste, maybe stevia would be better?

a special prize

I walked to work today. It was very cold and gray but i really should be walking to work. Walking is important. And so are mittens.

I made lemon raspberry coffee cake today. I made it yesterday too, for a special order for a customer who thought she didn't want almonds in it. So today i made one with almonds, as usual. You don't really notice the almond, because it's ground up so small, but it adds such yummy flavor and texture.

I also attempted to make chocolate biscotti. I tried two different recipes, because i wasn't completely happy with the last batch.... but both were disastrous. I think i know why -- an ingredient substitution that just didn't work -- but it's too bad. They didn't rise...they just spread out like huge brownie-like cookies. It won't be a waste though, because the crumbles were delicious, and tomorrow i'll use them for cheesecake crust. Yum!!

Shortly after i got home, the sun came out and soon the sky was bright blue! That was cheering. It was still very cold though.

Got coffee with Hannah, and to honor the Halloween Festival (day 5 is it?) i got a pumpkin latte. THENNNN we walked down the street to look closer at something i had spotted on our way to coffee.... something that turned out to be everything i had hoped for! Or at least as far as i can tell a week before they're even open. But here is what we saw:

• gazebo
• porchswing
• cute little umbrella tables
• a menu including "heart-shaped waffles"...
• ...and "high tea"!

It's the most exciting thing to come to Farmington as far as i'm concerned.

phillippians 4:8

"whatsoever things are lovely... think on these things."

Some days it's so easy and delightful to notice all the lovely things. When the weather is sparkling and bright, or thrillingly spooky, or some other kind of seasonal wonderful. Or if the day featured some kind of fabulous cake or cafe moment, or any of the other millions of lovely things there could be.

It's a little harder when there are no tea breaks or walks for noticing that it is mystery weather and not just cold and overcast. When work is kind of frustrating and you go home but not really there and forget why you're there at all until you find yourself getting the silent treatment.

So how to think on the lovely things? Maybe there are deeper ways to do this, ways that can eventually become part of a mostly un-lovely day to keep it from continuing to be that way. But for now i'll just make a list of the bright points that were there:

• i made spongecake soaked in brown sugar syrup, layered with whipped cream and raspberries
• leaving the Halloween Party feeling better than i did when i got there
• love/hate cookies and tea
• cute pumpkins
• not being held a grudge against
• ending the day with a Scottish novel and sleepy tea
  

lovely halloween day 3

old fashioned chocolate, tea with leaves and lake


pumpkin pancakes at the haunted Big Boy!!

sunday meals

Halloween Festival Day 2 ~ We went out to lunch at Rebecca's restaurant after church. I got my usual veggie burger and sweet potato fries (they were gone before i got a picture).

After lunch we went a few doors down to the Tuscan Cafe and got dessert. I had cherry pie and Brianna got the vanilla bean cheesecake.

Spent the afternoon at the lake. We made fattouch salad and lentil soup for supper. Just sautee an onion, then add a handful of rice, a bag of lentils, a handful of shredded carrots, a teaspoon of turmeric and some shakes of cumin, and sufficient water. Cook till the lentils are soft and add more water and salt to taste. Yum!

The Halloween Festival, Day 1

I recently read someone (not an American) say that Halloween was their favorite "festival." I like that idea. Today was busy but so autumnal in every way that I've decided it should be Day 1 of this festival.

The sun shone through a few times but for the most part it was Mystery Weather. Chilly and rainish and thickly cloudy but cloudy with texture. I worked in the morning, and rather further into the afternoon than planned. When i got there i discovered half a dozen lovely pears! We never have pears at work and i love them so i was glad. Once i found out they were indeed for me, i put them in a tart.

Judging by the scraps left in the pan when i moved the tart to this plate, the pears basically tasted like apples once they were baked in butter and sugar and cinnamon, which i kind of regret. I should have done something that celebrated their pear-ness. But i was too excited to use them and i have two days off coming, so i fit them into a recipe that i had on hand. But i love that pears are an autumn fruit. I never realized that before this year, for some reason. I guess it was the neighbor's pear tree that clued me in.

I also made a lemon almond cake. This cake has a lot of butter. So much butter that the last few times i made it, i made it with half the amount of butter the recipe calls for (not on purpose....i just didn't read carefully) and didn't even notice. Usually it has blueberries in it, or lately raspberries, but today there were no berries so i just sprinkled some extra almonds on top and gave it some extra lemon drizzle. And, also quite unintentionally, cut it into eleven pieces. I couldn't have done that if i'd actually wanted to.

This recipe calls for superfine sugar, which i haven't had at work or home lately so i just use regular, but today a customer told me (quite spontaneously) about "bar" sugar and that you can make your own. So i did! How easy! I never dreamed. Sugar.

I also made these peanut butter cookies. They're so simple, i love them!
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Mix well and bake about 10 minutes at 350! No flour! When i made the poofier ones on the left, i added half a cup of oats and a little vanilla. And i forgot to flatten them. They're not very oaty though once they're cooked, i wonder if i could add even more oats?

After all that baking, i rushed home to change and set some lunch in front of Gramma, then picked up Laura so we could watch both Janna's and Brianna's marching band shows.

We were a bit early, so we got some concessions, then shared some raspberries.

Janna's show is called "Helios," and quite appropriate the sun came out right after they played. She did very well. She was also very easy to pick out at any given time, being on color guard.

Bri the flute player was not so easy to pick out. But they did well, as they should, but it was over before i expected. I wonder if it's done? We were never done till States, and then they always re-wrote the closer drill before Nationals two weeks later. I liked the prologue best - they use some Sigur Ros music. Another band also played a song i happened to have on a CD in my car, so that was enjoyable too.

So autumn baking in the morning, marching band in the afternoon. How to end the first day of the Halloween Festival? We stopped for chai and then went to the Cider Mill, of course. We got lost in a corn maze (rather spookier this year with the dark windy night, but a little crowded to truly be spooky), ate too many donuts, and sat around the bonfire. I actually didn't drink any cider. Now, with that kind of cozy feeling that comes with slowly warming up after being out in the chilly wind all day, i'm going to get under blankets and try and figure out how i'm going to keep up with this kind of autumn extravaganza for the rest of the Halloween Festival....

white bread

My bread turned out finally! Yesterday i used a recipe that was meant for 3 loaves and didn't think of adjusting the time or temperature. Oops. Today i used a different recipe (the one on the back of the Kroger yeast packet) and it turned out pretty nice. It didn't rise as much as my other breads have, but it tastes good!

I'm having my first piece with a cup of bedtime tea. It's sweet, i now know, because it has stevia in it.

tea weather

It's a drizzly, tea-drinking window-staring kind of day. I like that kind, especially if most of the day is free for tea-drinking and window-staring. I do feel a bit sleepy, but that might have as much to do with staying up till 2 reading as it does with the weather.

I ordered some yarn lately from Marr Haven Wool Farm. I wanted organic yarn, but i also wanted it to come from some place kind of local. My local yarn shop only carries commercial yarn, basically. After asking, they pointed to a tiny exception at the back of the shop, but there was no information about this local person either, except her first name, and it wasn't a style that appealed to me anyway.

So i looked for farms online... but I had a little bit of a hard time finding a farm that also sold its own sheep's yarn. But, this is my first attempt looking for this kind of thing. Maybe the internet is not the best way, either? My aunt recently visited an Alpaca farm for their fall festival, and she mentioned another was having their festival in a few weeks. Oh i want to go! I wonder if it's passed? I love alpaca yarn.

Anyway this place i ordered from is not certified organic, because apparently that can be expensive, but at least they make some claim to following the principles. So i got two big cones of yarn, which came earlier this week. I got the light gray and dark gray, but they're closer in color than i expected. I should have got the dark gray and the natural. It kind of smells, maybe like sheep? I'm hoping that will fade. I haven't started knitting with it yet because i'm working on another little project which should have been finished already... which i'd better make my evening's work.

I went out to lunch with Julie today. We went to Chili's (the salad was soggy, but the tortilla soup was good). After lunch she showed me their new house, which was exciting though i've never seen the inside of the old one. The highlights of the tour included the Black Thing, a lot of post it notes, a superdeluxe closet for Julie, a very creative paint job and screws in the attic door, a very large foyer and a very creepy crawlspace. But that's probably the nature of crawlspaces.

laundry day

Today i did laundry. I like the looks of laundry when it's hanging up to dry. Sheets don't look as neat as other items but it sure is a rural-looking scene with the barn in the background, isn't it?

Gramma and i had leftover chili for lunch, then i got a loaf of bread going and went out to the library. I took my books back (mostly cookbooks and books about essential oils) and got some new ones (mostly quasi mysteries, and a few more cookbooks), then stopped for groceries.

The bread ended up burning a bit...or a lot. It's really hard to cut but the inside is nice and soft, so i'll eat it anyway.

almond biscotti

This week i made another batch of almond biscotti. I used the mixer one of our customers lent us, and they came out with such a nice, light and crispy texture.

Almond Biscotti
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 cup sugar
* 3 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* dash salt
* 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds (i do them in the food processor)

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and fold in almonds. Line and grease a baking sheet. Spread dough into two 12-in. x 3-in. rectangles on the sheet. Sprinkle with a little sugar if you like. Bake at 375 degrees F for 15-20 minutes till firm to the touch. Remove from oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees F. Cool cookies for 15 minutes then place on a cutting board and slice diagonally. Place slices with cut side down on ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn cookies over; bake 10 minutes more. Remove from oven and let cool. Biscotti will crisp up as they cool. Store in airtight container.

leaf collecting

Today i collected leaves. When we had to turn in leaf collections for sixth grade science, i never quite got it done. I've often been a little sorry about that, because collecting leaves is such an idle pleasure sort of activity and it's a shame that i didn't bother. Learning about trees is definitely a Lovely Academy sort of course.

I've worked 10-2 all week, a perfect walk-to-work shift. But i've also been very lazy each morning, so i ended up driving every day. This afternoon was chilly but i decided i'd at least get in a short walk around the block, long enough to end up with a handful of pretty leaves.

I left them in the back yard because they looked pretty there, and i didn't think i'd do them much justice in any interior decoration attempt.


I wonder what the big one is?