Starry Sky Ranch

best of all

 

"Best of all were the mornings and evenings at home.  Laura realized she had never appreciated them until now. There were no sullen silences, no smoldering quarrels, no ugly outbreaks of anger. 

Instead there was work with pleasant talk, there were happy little jokes and evenings of cozy studying and reading, and the music of Pa's fiddle.... How often Laura thought how happy and fortunate she was. Nothing anywhere could be better than being at home with the home folks." 

- These Happy Golden Years

Window Dressing

The children's bedrooms here have been a bit Spartan since we moved in.  Mainly just beds and a dresser - for personal items since the clothes are stored in the laundry room. It has been a good system since the rooms  clean up easily and usually look pretty neat. Now we are turning our attention to dressing them up a bit and slowly replacing some subpar beds and mattresses etc.  

The girls each picked out bedding before we moved. Alannah has a set of black bunkbeds and chose a black and white zebra stripe comforter with hot pink sheets and bedskirts.  For months the windows stood bare.  They are now dressed in bold pink sheer panels topped with black boas found locally.  They hang on simple black iron rods. 

We repainted an old hand me down chair in glossy black and moved it in for seating.  The stained white upholstery was recovered (glue gun and staple gun) in a pink cotton and topped with a pillow to match the bedding and boas.  It still needs the black braid trim to cover the staples.  Had to wait til I found it finally at a craft store.  To be done soon.   It isn't exactly "my" style but it isn't exactly "my" room now either is it? ; )  And it is very, very "her".  

Christmas in July

I am finally embracing this idea that shopping and crafting are best done at least a season or two in advance.  With that in mind, I am deciding how to finish the French cross stitch completed mostly after Christmas last.  Thinking a tiny ribboned cushion to hang from a doorknob would be perfect.

 

And to go with the mood, a spray of summer snow. 

random lately

Just checking in with totally random snaps from the past couple weeks. Too tired to type between getting Colin to the airport, a birthday party to host, and company arriving for the weekend. 

Snapshots - Read

Please hop over to the Snapshots Around the World blog.  This week's theme is Read. We would love to see you there!

good apple pies

"Good apple pies are a considerable part of our domestic happiness."

-- Jane Austen

Since summer feels ever so much like fall this year we decided on a nice apple pie for my husband's homecoming dinner Friday evening.  Moira came into the kitchen as I was kneading pie crust and wanted to do the apples.  Between us it was efficient work, almost meditative.  Exactly what the end of this week needed. 



I am a devotee of real whipped cream since discovering how easy it was to make. Sugar, cream, and strong arms to whisk.  Alannah and I each took a turn at it and it set up nicely.  

We used this recipe for the crust and this for the pie. (though you can see I was a bit ambitious tackling the lattice top....ah well, we tried)

Served on newly thrifted green transferware.  Oh I love it when my eye catches a bit of the familiar china pattern peeking out from boxes of discards at the junk shops. A dollar here, a dollar there, and a collection grows - no longer confined to a particular color.  I love them all. 

Weinstrasse

Some combination of us have been preparing for a trip, on a trip or unpacking from a trip pretty steadily lately.  Wish my connection was fast enough to upload fullsize pics.  When I am home, and not cleaning something or running errands, there is sewing, read alouds, walks,  movies, and hours upon hours of board games.  Resizing images doesn't always make the cut which is why there is Rome, Munich, Neustadt, and Speyer still in the queue here.  I'll get there though.  It's a good busy. 

Make Way For Ducklings

I realize this makes two bird posts in one week.  Came around a corner this morning and had to hit the breaks for a long line of ducklings waddling down the road. They seemed just as surprised to see me and finally hunkered down near the shoulder as we passed. 
Do all mama's do this?  Have this rush of adrenaline, mind racing thinking where is your mama?? (or farmer or whatever?) How long have you been out?  There is another car coming.  Omigosh I cannot look.  I really need to DO something.  I will drive over between them and the car....

Yeah.  It really doesn't matter the species.  I have permanent mama wrinkles in my being I think.  

smile

how can you help it? 

I'd like to meet the person who looked at their barndoors and thought...

"Ladybug!"

The Practical Housewife Week by Week Cleaning Challenge

Dropping in for a second time today to share this link.  Mrs. Catherine who previously had an awesome Xanga site and a print newsletter  now has the Practical Housewife blog which is loaded with how-to's and videos.  She just began a new week by week challenge.   It's not too late to jump in.  She seems to also have a forum now too, though my position on forum's is that is usually a LOT more absorbing to talk about home making than it is to actually DO the homemaking.  (or homeschooling, or well, insert just about anything worth doing)