Iced Pumpkin Raisin Cookies

Iced pumpkin raisin cookies. Yum! I used this recipe from Allrecipes.com as my base. I decreased the sugar by about 1/8-1/4cup and increased the pumpkin by 1/8cup. I also added a few raisins to the batter and pecans to the top. They have a moist cake or muffin texture and are not overly sweet. My new favorite (non-chocolate) cookie. :-)

I'm sharing this over at The Shabby Creek Cottage link party. Be sure to stop by to see all the creative things bloggers have accomplished this week.

A Dog's Life

Our dog Hunny…I know I haven’t written much (or anything at all) about Hunny since we first got her nearly a year and a half ago. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how long we would have her. To say this dog has been a challenge would be an extreme understatement.
We were not unaware of the perils of adopting a Labrador puppy. She’s not our first. We fully expected irritatingly boundless energy, destroyed furniture, chewed shoes, food snatching, behavior problems, and many trips to the vet due to ingesting any number of potentially harmful substances.
But, what I didn’t expect was to be constantly bullied, bruised, attacked, and bitten (sometimes aggressively so) by my year old puppy!
We did basic command training early. She is extremely smart. We tried to establish our dominance from day one by letting her know that we control the food, by not letting her sleep in our bed (re:photo, She knows she's not suppose to be up there.LOL)and by making her wait until we enter or exit the door first. We provided plenty of exercise; lots of play time and 2-3 mile walks every day, rain, heat or snow. But the biting and dominant behavior didn’t stop. So we finally contacted a private trainer. He confirmed that, yes, we had a difficult case on our hands. She was probably the “alpha dog” of her pack and was very reluctant to give up that title to us. He also suspects that she was separated from her mother too early and never learned what “too rough” play was. Surprisingly, she is submissive to other dogs and is fairly good around kids. With some of the techniques that the trainer showed us, things are slowly getting better. The biting incidents are getting fewer and farther between. But she is still too rough for me to trust her unleashed around small children or the elderly. After seeing some of my horrendous bruises, friends have asked why we haven’t gotten rid of her. Don’t think we haven’t thought about it! But, we take our role as pet owners very seriously. We adopted this dog and it was our responsibility to make her a good, stable pet citizen. And we knew that with our personal circumstances,it was possible.
I have high hopes that as she gets older and past the stage of the wild energy bursts that seem to be the cause most of the problems, she will be a wonderful, intelligent, gentle, and loyal dog.
And I have to say, to this dog’s credit, she has not destroyed any furniture or possessions with the exception of a few shoes, has never gotten up to the counter to steal food, and doesn’t beg at the table. She rides in the car like a dream, loves to play with other dogs, is friendly (although rough) with people, and is very good on walks. And let’s face it, she is a beautiful dog!

So, that’s my tumultuous year with Hunny. Here’s hoping the next year will be less painful.

Oh, and in that last photo you can see a bit of the new fence we had installed. More on that in the next post.

Inspired By the Colors of Fall

We have had the most beautiful fall weather the last couple of weeks! Sitting out on the deck, looking up at the trees, I was inspired by the gorgeous colors of the leaves against the vibrant blue sky.

I decided to look through my vintage velvet stash for similar colors. I discovered that many of the cut velvets were in autumn hues.

I also found this lovely printed floral velvet with royal blue flowers with touches of yellow, red, and green. I paired it with a vintage camel colored cordouroy for this wristlet.

Most of the items shown are available on my website or my Etsy shop.

What Fall inspired projects are you working on?

The Guest Room / Office

We have family coming in from out of town, and since my sewing room is temporarily in the second bedroom, we changed a few things around in the office to make a guest room.

I know I've only shown a few "in-progress" photos of this room, so here's a little recap:

The Before photo (dark mauvey pink carpet, yellow walls and ceiling, and oak trim):

And how it looks now with Orla Kiely inspired wall painting, hardwood floors, Moda's Wonderland fabrics, Ikea furniture, and new crown moldings and trim:

We decided that we really didn't need a desk, since we both use laptops, so the desk was moved to the basement. We did need the file cabinet, though, and were able to find one at Ikea that could double nicely as a side table.

Hubby outfitted the closet with shelves and outlets to hold the printer, cables, phone station, and wi-fi thingy.

The room is quite small, and since we rarely have over-night company, we went with a sofa bed. Again from Ikea, this one opens easily into a queen size bed. And with the addition of a pillowtop mattress pad it is really comfortable!

That's about it for this room. Still trying to get the living room into a workable arrangement. I'm not really happy with it, yet, but I did cozy it up a bit for fall. As soon as I can get some decent pictures, I'll share it with you. :-)

I'll be sharing this room make-over at Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday.

Vintage Floral Velvets for Fall

Vintage printed velvets from the 1970's become new zip pouches. They are in pretty fall colors and have fun poppy and daisy floral designs. Available on Etsy and the website... more coming soon. :-)

Framing Fabric and Master Bed & Bath Photos

The walls in the master bedroom and bath were still pretty bare, but I couldn't really find any wall art or pictures that I liked. I did, however, have numerous fabrics that looked fabulous with the wall color and originally thought I would be sewing lots and lots of throw pillows.

Instead, I decided to frame some of those pretty fabrics to use on the walls. A lot faster than sewing and it fills the empty space...a win-win!

But first, lets take a look at what this room looked like when we began...


And this is where its at now...(Ikea Pax closet, Olympic's Blue Shamrock paint on the walls) I purchased a couple of Ribba Frames from Ikea and taped squares of fabric to the matting. So easy! In here, I framed one of Amy Butler's fabrics above the chair.

Click here for a previous post to see more photos detailing how we removed the old closet wall and installed the Ikea wardrobes.

I also picked up the new green lamp on the dresser up there at Pier 1.

I made the pillow on the bed using a lovely orange leaf fabric by Vicki Payne. While it was on sale, I bought several more yards to use elsewhere in the room...maybe for a new slipcover for the blue chair. Or possibly to edge the curtain panels.

And in the master bath, I framed a graphic yellow fabric by Premier Prints. I love this fabric and have it in several colorways!
And here is a Before picture of this room. Not a lot of changes in this room, yet. But a new vanity and flooring will happen eventually. For the wall color in the bath I mixed the same Blue Shamrock as the bedroom, with equal parts of white. The room is so small, I wanted something just a touch lighter.

Oh, and the little curtain in the bathroom is about the only thing I've had time to sew lately. I used a fun and colorful Sandi Henderson Meadowsweet print, orange grosgrain ribbon, and the white fabric left over from the bedroom curtains after I hemmed them.

I'm sharing this transformation over at Between Naps on the Porch.

Hope to be able to do more sewing projects soon. Have a great week, everyone!

Rustic Apple Tart and Blackberries

I know I should probably be making something with the fabulous peaches that are now available at the local orchard, but I was craving an apple dessert. I decided to keep it simple and throw together a rustic Apple Tart.

I used one of my favorite go-to ingredients, puff pastry (I always have some in the freezer). It makes a wonderful flakey crust. Remember the Cherry Cream cheese Danish?

Well this one was just as easy.

1. I just thawed the pastry and rolled it out a bit, placing it on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

2.Peeled, cored, and sliced 2 grannysmith apples and layed them in a pretty pattern.

3.Rolled up the outer edges of dough.

4.Then sprinkled the apples with a 1/4 cup of sugar and dotted with a 1/3 stick of butter. Because I had some beautiful blackberries from the garden, I added a few to the center.

5. Baked in a preheated 400 degree oven for about 45-50 minutes.

6. In a small pan, I heated a couple of tablespoons of apricot preserves thinned with a little water, and brushed the top of the tart when it came out of the oven. (you could also use orange marmalade).

We had ours with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

And here are those gorgeous blackberries. They were on the property when we bought the new house. There are so many, we've been freezing some of them.

I'm sharing this recipe over at The Shabby Creek Cottage link party.