HAPPY 249TH JANE AUSTEN BIRTHDAY

 

CHRISTMASTIME #2

 

I am sharing a little more of our

Christmas decorations:

I apologize for showing the same

items that I have had "forever"

and have shared for years. 

2024 CHRISTMASTIME

 

Hanging some bulbs on the kitchen

chandelier was one of the first

steps in decorating for Christmas.

I don't decorate very formal 

because frankly, we live in

 a cottage - not a

castle.

I recently found this fabric on Ebay and made a tablecloth.  I did make a mistake in sewing it as I centered the French couple cameo design.  Really, they

should have not been centered as then

they get covered up with the 

centerpiece.  I still make mistakes!

I wanted the cameos to 

show better but

placed them wrong when I cut

the fabric.

I missed some red and green

transferware in the armoire.

We have our tree in the dining

area which is a small

area off the kitchen but without

a wall dividing it.

I think I just remembered

that last year we turned

the table to allow more room.

And one more photo for today:

COLONIAL FRUITCAKES WITH WATERMELON RIND PICKLES

 I have made these little fruitcakes

many times for Christmas over the years.

This time I could not find the required

watermelon Rind Pickles anywhere

in my town so I ordered 3 jars  of

Jake & Amos brand from

Pennsylvania.

I cut this recipe out of the Woman's

Day magazine back in the 1970's.

Actually I saw a note that it was published

many years ago in several historic cookbooks.

These fruitcakes are really fun.

As you can see, we don't have snow

but it was a cold 39 degrees today.

Did see that in the UK they have

already had snow?  And lots in

Colorado where we lived years ago.

So this recipe made

9 little fruitcakes:

Here is what you will

 need to make

them:

The cake base is made with 3 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 2 tsp baking powder

6 eggs, 2 sticks of melted butter (1 cup)

and 1/2 cup of rum.

Mix all these ingredients together in a

large bowl or Kitchenaid.

You need to chop most of these

items which you will be adding to the

cake base and mix together well:

16 oz container red candied cherries cut in half, 1 20 oz jar of watermelon rind pickles which are chopped and drained,

1 8 oz container of candied pineapple,

1 box of about 15 oz golden raisins, 2 cups of chopped walnuts, 1 1/2 cups of chopped

almonds (we find the almonds always

settle down to the bottom of those bit

jars of mixed nuts so I just stole mine

from there!)

This year our Walmart didn't have the candied fruits above but I found them at another

local market (HyVee)

I baked these cakes in the mini foil

little pans at 300 degrees for 50 minutes 

in my convection oven

After they cooled I brushed

more rum on them and will do

this again every 3 days for the

next week or so.

I actually used some green candied cherries too and also used 27 additional whole candied red cherries for the tops (3 per cake)

Did you know they used these pickles

in their fruitcakes in the 18th

century?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 Wishing you a Happy

Thanksgiving!

BOUQUET TIME

 

It was fun doing a bouquet this week

with blue hydrangeas from our garden.

Here in Missouri, the blue ones can

barely survive the hot summer but

I watered mine a lot hoping that when

fall came with cooler weather, they

might survive and bloom.

I decided to try them in our 

(family/living area) next....

But of course, the bouquet ended up

outside by the front door since my

husband has terrible

allergies:

In the end we were told that it

might frost so I went and picked

the remaining hydrangeas.  This

is a little video I did which I am

not very good at as it is much harder

than I would have guessed:

THE NOVEMBER GARDEN

 Normally, we have had a frost

by this time but this year we are

fortunate.  I am still picking

tomatoes and my blue hydrangeas

are blooming.    I went out today

and took a few photos:

It is really a lovely day.  We finished

a huge project this week.  A few 

weeks ago, with the help of others,

our koi pond apparatus was removed

and the hole in the ground, filled in 

with dirt.  That also  meant we still

 had a pile of dirt on our driveway. 

 It took a while for us to eliminate that

 pile but finally it is gone and all

 the tarps cleaned off and put away.  

It took a lot of dirt to fill this pond. 

 I also planted bulbs and have

some forget me nots and irises

planted for next spring.

Yesterday, the man who had picked up

our pump house, pump and water feature

and other apparatus sent us a photo

of his new pond with the "equipment"

we gave him. This photo below is his

newly created pond:

So here are some photos of the

garden today.

BLUEBIRD TEA for "Tea In The Garden"

 We have been so thrilled to have

cooler weather 

 going into October. 

I decided to set up a little bluebird

themed "tea in the garden" to

celebrate some lovely blue

hydrangeas.  Actually, not

much is really going on in the

backyard garden,  and the marigolds

and zinnias have now been removed

out front.  That was a big job for

sure.  In some ways - I could have 

waited till next month but I guess I

was in a cleanup mode that day.

I was so glad to get our huge project

behind us of removing our koi pond.

This year I was feeling a little over-

whelmed at the cleanup of the filters

every few days.  I had to take that over

last year because my husband has some

physical issues.  It was quite a project

to remove the pond but that is all 

behind us.

Thank God for our son, sweet neighbors and a brother of a lady in our subdivision

who showed up to help.  I think, he

may have been an angel in disguise!

So I hope you like bluebirds because

that is our theme.  They will come

back this winter and into early summer.

I love them and seeing them hatch

little baby bluebirds is such a joy.

Please enjoy some tea!

I've had this tea set for a long time

now from my store.  I actually had

2 teapots but decided that was silly

so I shared one with another lady

who blogged.  That made me happy.

I have always loved the song 

"The White

Cliffs of Dover".

I made this little table topper

a long time back with a

combination of old vintage

linens.

We have enjoyed some lovely

blue hydrangeas in our yard

this year.  They just bloomed now

as they barely hang on all summer

because of our heat and if it turns cold when it is time to bloom.....too bad.

This year we love them!

I hope your fall is lovely.

I have been on a learning curve lately

and I am not very good at these video/reels

yet but hope you enjoy anyway: