MY MARBURGER FARMS INTERVIEW WITH SUE WHITNEY...

I was so blessed to have the lovely SUE WHITNEY of JUNKMARKET STYLE stop by my booth at the Spring 2011 show at MARBURGER FARMS to film a segment on garden style. I just saw it on the MARBURGER site.

Go HERE to watch SUE and I chat about garden charm. I was so NERVOUS! I hope I don't look like a total dork.

Be patient, it's at the end of the segment.

Oh my goodness...

Kitchen Detail

Look at these glorious tiles! Deep breaths everyone. Would love to see the rest of this beautiful kitchen. Sorry, I don't know the source of this image. When I found it I must have been so focussed on the tiles I didn't record where I found it. If anyone knows the source AND the tiles!!!, let me know!

I've got kitchens on my mind this morning as I am off to help a client plan her new kitchen. Speaking of clients, pop over HERE to see one of my lights just recently installed in my customer's home. Warms my heart to follow the progress of my customers exciting renovations and house builds and to see my lights featured!

Flea Market Finds…Friends…Fun

Sunday we headed to our favorite Flea Market and are always on the lookout for Pewter…I normally can find one piece at least.

Well this time there was a table full – 18 pieces actually but I only bought 4…now that might have been a mistake because all 18 pieces WERE ONLY $10.00 total.

I took 4 – I just didn’t need the rest (well, I didn’t need these either, but it was a have to have kind of thing) and thought I’d only have to find someone to buy them…so I left them. Sorry afterwards!!!   But the girls said they have more packed away and that their mother collected it and they’d find it and send me pictures…I’m waiting anxiously.

So here’s my little 4 piece stash – A domed Butter Dish, Creamer, 2 Wine Goblets all for a dollar each.
And the gorgeous  Crock for only $8.00

I love the dark coloring on the crock and will put some Fall things in it and that will make the colors pop even more.  Later in the season I’ll change it out and use it for kitchen utensils.

And the butter dish up close
 

And the goblets on the Pewter table

And some nice Pineapple napkins for .25 cents!

 

I don’t think I mentioned that the week before we went to another flea market and I found this antique crock bowl with wire bail handle – never seen one in this good of a condition and I paid just $5.00 for it

 

Using it for our fresh Tomatoes right now 

  So last week Thursday we met our friends from Arizona for breakfast – we meet them every year while they’re back in Wisconsin visiting their children and on their way home – this year it was at the Cracker Barrel.
Emily and Joe are with us on Thursdays in the Summer so this is the 2nd year they went with us.

Joe had quite a plate full of Apple French Toast and Bacon – Emily had Oatmeal and a muffin and Apples.

Guess he was pretty hungry because there was only one slice left plus a few apples!

Then it was photo shoot time…Mare never gets together that she doesn’t take pictures. She wanted pictures of the kids with us to see the growth – and there was a huge spurt from last year to this.
Here’s last August

And this August

And Mare and Me.

4 of us

Group
 

Didn’t realize I had this many pictures for this post – but sometimes words just get lost…so I guess that’s okay.

Mare had a special order for me on my Pansy/Watering Can design…she wanted Burgundy thrown in and also in an oblong so this is what I ended up doing.

 
I really like how the Burgundy made the other colors pop – it’s on the small Penny as well.

Almost forgot – I am doing the LITITZ CRAFT SHOW next August…I’m very excited but skeptical at the same time…this is a big show and I got rid of all my ‘show’ things – no displays left – NOTHING…so now I have to plan.  And buy a pop up canopy. I saw one at Sam’s Club…PERFECT with screen sides and an front awning – great for winds or rain but I think they are for a limited time – all the other ones I have seen are just the awning tent and you buy the extras separate. Not sure what to do there. If only I could rent one!
So that has my brain reeling – figuring out what to make and how much of it to make.

I’m in the process of making dried Green Bean/dried Cranberry garlands – because you know I don’t have enough to do!!!!  I bought 2 lbs at the flea market last week and now it doesn’t look like enough to make several….and the farm stands around here well, they aren’t cheap. These were so I was spoiled!
I’m also going to experiment with maybe dried Green Bean/Sweet Potato garlands too. See which I like the best.  If they turn out I may sell them at the show.

Fall is in the air – I’m so happy!  I’m a cool weather person and Tuesday (right after Labor Day) we are heading up north to camp with some friends. They maintain the camp ground all summer and then stay one for a couple weeks past Labor Day so we should have a good time with pretty much the camp ground to ourselves.  They have a large motor home but they don’t hook up to electricity so the mornings and evenings will be a tad cool but hopefully we’ll take enough warm clothing and by 10 or 11 the sun has warmed up the air considerably.

Be happy and safe whatever it is you are doing this week…for me it’s sewing!  Thanks to all my wonderful followers and website followers I have had a huge sale on my Fall Mr. Jack and the Triple Pumpkin Penny Rugs…looking at all of them sitting here it looks like my pumpkin patch is becoming overgrown! 

ENJOY,
Karen

Cheeseburgers with Caramelized Onion and Bacon Jam

I love a good burger so when I saw this recipe for Cheeseburgers with Caramelized Onion and Bacon Jam over at Cassie Craves I had to put it on the menu.





Unfortunately (sorry Cassie!) this one just didn't work for us. As much as I love caramelized onions and bacon, the flavors were too mellow when piled on top of the burger. I'm thinking it would be better to keep the bacon whole so it didn't get lost amongst the onions. I also felt like something was missing (and not just the cheese, which I forgot to put on the burgers we ate for dinner but remembered to add to the leftovers I ate the next day for lunch). I can't put my finger on what it was, though. It's a beautiful burger with great ingredients so I'll keep trying to make it perfect.



Cheeseburgers with Caramelized Onion and Bacon Jam

Slightly Modified from Cassie Craves



1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

6 slices bacon

3 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 large white onion, chopped (2 cups)

1 1/3 pounds ground beef chuck

1/4 cup Dijon mustard

4 slices American cheese

4 rolls, split and toasted

Dill pickle coins



In a small bowl, combine the ketchup, mayonnaise, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce; season with salt and pepper.



Add bacon to a large skillet and cook to desired crispness. Drain on paper towels. Drain all but about 1 tablespoon of bacon drippings from skillet. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden-brown, 15 to 20 minutes; season with salt and pepper.



While the onions are cooking, in a large bowl, combine the ground beef and mustard; season with salt and pepper. Shape into 4 patties. Cook to desired doneness in a skillet or on the grill. During the last 2 minutes of cooking, top each patty with a cheese slice.



Place each patty on a roll bottom, then top with some of the onion and bacon jam, the ketchup-mayo sauce, pickles and a roll top.

WOAD!

We love visiting the Museum of East Anglian Life, there's so much to see and always something to learn about the fantastic part of the country that we are lucky enough to live in!

The annual Steam and Craft fair is a brilliant event with so many steam engines and crafts people from far and wide...Jen (pictured above) is a dedicated volunteer, fund raiser and a (quite brilliant!) Wednesday knitter!

We set up our stall in the pole barn and it was clear to everyone as we donned our aprons and got the pots warming on the stove that this was no ordinairy craft fair...

There were the brilliant colours achieved through the microwave technique - a little bit quicker than the natural dyeing that we do...

...and the chance to see the famous Needham Market fire engine a recent acquisition for the museum!

So, happy that all the pretty bias bindings, ribbons, ric racs and knitting needles were displayed at there best for the day we got busy with the woad!

We had a lot of fun doing the woad dyeing section in A Green Guide to Country Crafts and all think back fondly to Gavin Kingcome's fascination with the whisking!

Woad creates a rich blue dye by reacting with oxygen so although the surface bubbles here are a gorgeous shade of blue if you part the foam you can see the very yellow dye bath below!

The colour starts to develop as soon as the items are removed from the bath! You need a lot of people around to help 'air' the skeins of yarn and silk scarves so each 'dip' ended with the shout of 'WOAD' and the ringing of a great big handbell that Lisa Museum lent to us for the day!

Here they are drying on our line and yes that is a skein of green yarn there - it's what you get when you 'over dye' yarn that has previously been dyed with Dyer's Greenweed - it's Lincoln Green!

Now it's time for a little bit of an apology - the reasons for the LONG gap between this post and the previous one, my trusty old laptop gave up! It had worked hard and written many a blogpost and luckily as it was coming up to my 40th birthday my very lovely and brilliantly supportive parents bought me a new one! How lucky am I?

It was definitely party time at HH HQ last week and Wednesday was also the day that BBC Radio Suffolk came to visit the knitters and as it was also Wednesday Wendy's birthday we had a little party. Tina made these amazing cakes and as you can see they didn't even hang around long enough to get a snap of all the letters!

They were amazing, thank you Tina!

Jo Lea, knitting moss for an ornamental hanging basket and quite determined to teach Jon from BBC Radio Suffolk to knit!

Just one of the very brilliant birthday presents - a marvelous book by a brilliant knitter! This is my bed time reading...

The lovely birthday gifts will get a proper blogpost all of their own after I've written my thank you notes...but this one deserves a special mention as it was tracked down by Mike the Glassman and it's a beauty!

I LOVE glass as much as I love yarn and there had been much plotting, texting and consultation with The Good Wives of Sew and Crow to find a piece of glass that would make me go giddy and I know that Mike is particularly pleased with himself for finding this Martini jug by Holmegaard glass...

...he takes his glass seriously and being charged with this task made it tricky for me to pin him down in order to pick a winner for Country Buntkin bunting giveaway!

BUT, I finally got him - comment 7 is the winner! Congratulations Cath, send me some details halfpennyhome@googlemail.com and the bunting bits and bobs will be flapping their way over to you!

And finally...how proud were Jacqui and I to see a good friend of Halfpenny Home, Polly's Textiles featured in Oh Comely magazine?!

Well done Danielle, your 'Beautifully Purposeful' hand screen-printed fabrics are gorgeous and your aprons are definitely a favourite of ours and featured in one of our favourite magazines too!

Phew! Think that's about everything...Nic x

Battling Distractedness

We live in a time where it is easy to be distracted. Technology beckons, with another gadget to purchase, another blog to read, another show to follow... the problem in all of this (for me) comes in that my real life requires my attention. Increasingly so.

Precious children, with bright eyes, come with stories that they want heard,

pictures carefully colored (and sometimes not-so-carefully colored) that they want admired,

questions that need answers,

requests for a book to be read,

hurt fingers needing a kiss and sometimes some neosporin & a bandaid;

they have needs for snuggles on the couch,

math lessons that require an explanation,

and wrestling on the floor.

And I have a wonderful husband who I want to spend time with, cook well for, and be able to exchange ideas with.

The temptation becomes to only enter into these significant things halfway because of time spent online, or checking e-mail, or mentally mulling what I've just read on a blog or online news agency. Even right now, I'm watching "North and South" (Elizabeth Gaskell's; bliss!), with the kids, while typing out these thoughts.

About 10 days ago, my husband bought me a Kindle, and I love it! One of the things I love about it is (as a piece of technology) that when I sit down to use it, I don't get distracted by additional features (a.k.a windows/apps). I can't check e-mail on it; I can't get distracted by blogs on my rss feedreader; Facebook can't draw me in. When I intend to read, I don't get unintentionally, thoughtlessly drawn into other things.

Today I've been wondering, what would happen if I only concentrated on one thing at a time. What would change about my life if I only focused on one thing at a time, rather than falling into the habit of regularly spinning 17 mental "plates"?

Thoughts? Comments? Experience? Tips you want to share? I welcome your input on this topic that affects so many.

Buyer's Remorse

Well more like 'giver's remorse'.... I was out on my run yesterday morning thinking about my lovely, 'now almost empty' shed and some impending stock arriving for my 'soon to be store'. I was having slight remorse over giving away some shelves which would have come in handy after all.......... but then I saw this! ... propped up on a wall, out in the weather, outside an op shop. Ha! Thank you very much. Just what I needed at that precise moment in time. I love my suburb. It looks after me!

Happy Wednesday!

Terrific Under Ten Tuesday #28

WELCOME TO TERRIFIC UNDER TEN TUESDAY!

Where we show off our creative side for $10 or less!

 

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Here are the rules:

1. Your project must be made or bought for $10 or less. Crafts, Makeovers, Thrift Finds, Recipes, Kids Projects...

2. Please do not link up Online Shops or Giveaways.

3. You can link up multiple projects.

4. Link to the specific post and not to the main page of your blog.

5. Add the Terrific Under Ten Tuesdays button to your post, side bar, or linky party list.

6. Visit at least one other project and leave a comment. We all love comments!

Then I'll feature some favorites on the next Terrific Under Ten Tuesday.

*By linking up, you give me the permission to use your photo(s) from your post.

So How Do I keep This Alive?

Yep, the little water colour in the background is St Ives in Cornwall

I love that place.

On the weekend, I bought some pretty lavender to brighten up my kitchen. I was inspired by the post on potted colour that Leigh did, over at Brabourne Farm (see Leigh I did go out and get some!).

Ok, so how do I keep it alive and perpetually beautiful? Will it stay alive?.... in a pot? Would love some advice please. Nope, can't plant it as I have no garden. Does it need full sun? How often do I water it? It did not come with instructions as it was a 'roadside deal'. If keeping it in a pot is bad news all round, I can cope. Hit me with it!

SHOWIN' THE GOODS...PART DEUX

Another peek at some of the goods I will be offering for sale at the one and only...

MARBURGER FARMS ANTIQUE SHOW!!!!

Who doesn't love a fabulous shaving mirror?

I'm bringing a collection of them! Yours for the taking at MARBURGER FARMS ANTIQUE SHOW~TENT H BOOTH 15!

ARE YOU COMING?

MARBURGER FARMS ANTIQUE SHOW

SEPT 27TH THRU OCT 1ST