Month: October 2006

Last weekend, I went to our local Farmer’s Market to try to find the biggest mum they had – this one is a monster-mum! We even had trouble getting it in the car to take home!!

It was mostly blooms when I got it, but it’s flowering out now – the colors are so pretty!

This is Mr. Scarecrow Man (I know, I just don’t have a better name for him and “Mr. Scarecrow Man” is what Av and I always call him!). The first year that Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion was published, they had something like this in the magazine, and I went out and painted a face onto a terracotta pot, then made a hay body and a mum for his hair. I am SO not a painter, but the shapes are really easy:

We put him on the front porch every year. BTW, that gourd is supposed to be him playing the banjo!

Nigella Lawson’s show, Nigella Feasts, is on Food Network now – and for supper tonight, I made a similar version of one of the dishes on the “weekend wonders” episode…sage chicken and (beef) sausage. Ohmygoodness was it ever good! We both just loved it.

Be sure to start this the night before (to marinate).

Ingredients (this will serve 4 people):
1 large onion, cut into 1/8ths
1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons English mustard
1 tablespoon dried sage
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 lemon
6 pieces chicken (I used thighs)
1 Polish beef sausage, cut into 4 pieces
2 tablespoons fresh sage leaves, chopped

Last night, I started marinating the chicken. In a large freezer bag, add the cut-up onion, olive oil, mustard, dried sage, Worcestershire, a little salt and fresh pepper, and the juice from the lemon. Make sure that mixes together well in the bag, then add the chicken pieces. Shake very well and put this in the refrigerator overnight.

The next evening, preheat the oven to 425*. Let the chicken mixture come to room temperature, then empty all of it (chicken and marinade) into a roasting pan. Make sure the chicken is skin-side up.

Next, I cut up the beef sausage and placed that in the pan along with a sprinkling of the fresh sage, and a little more salt & pepper, then into the oven for one hour, fifteen minutes:

Halfway through the cooking, turn the sausages over so they’re a uniform color.

At an hour and fifteen minutes, it was *perfectly* done:

It was excellent!

I started my annual paperwhite forcing today – I’m starting with six bulbs, and every week, I’ll start a new group of six so we’ll have blooms from just before Thanksgiving to…well, whenever I stop, which will be some time in January. I *love* the smell the paperwhites give whatever room they’re in.

Not too long ago, I got one of the blown glass reed diffusers from Pottery Barn that smells like paperwhites and it works wonderfully. I have it in the living room, and it’s *so nice* to go in there any time of day and smell paperwhites, even when I’m not forcing the bulbs. When my ‘real’ paperwhites get going, I’ll move the diffuser to a darker room where I don’t grow them. I’ve seen reed diffusers used in spas, and when I saw it at Pottery Barn, well, I just had to get one! Besides paperwhite, they also have mandarin and honeysuckle (mmmmmh!) and I think even more scents in their shops.

Last year, I got a very late start, but I’m using the very same setup (post here):

Mason jars and carafes are used as containers, then I fill the jars with some of pretty stones or marbles. I have some special bulb-forcing vases, but mason jars work just as well, and I love the look of the jars, too. I get the bulbs from our local Smith & Hawken.

In the carafes, the bulb is held right in the neck of the glass – and when it grows, you can see the roots below it in the water. The mason jars have marbles or rocks to act as a base for the bulb, then the roots meander all through them once they start growing. I set my bulbs in the bottles, then added water to the very bottom of the bulb. They’ll start waking up tonight or tomorrow, and I’ll take pics every week or so to show their growth.

The important thing is to keep the water level at the bottom of the bulb, and to put in a sunny window. I’ve done some before, though, in shady windows, and they grow and are beautiful, they’re just taller than ones that are in a more sunny location. I can’t wait for them to start growing and blooming!

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I bought some dried peonies on eBay and they’re beautiful!

I wanted to make some little dried peony arrangements to go in the new armoire, to add color, so I just took some jelly jars (these diamond quilt-pattern jars are my favorite), cut the flowers to length, arranged:

…and they’re so pretty now!

Tomorrow begins the Agrifolk Art in America exhibit at the Soho Myriad Gallery in Atlanta. It’s a project between Andrew Dietz (who wrote The Last Folk Hero) and Jonathon Keats.

What they’ve partered on is something they’re calling “the merger of agriculture and folk art.”

The invitation goes on to say, “previously unaffiliated, the two industries were merged for the first time in Forsyth County, Georgia, with stirring repercussions in regions ranging from the Farm Belt to the Chelsea District. During the weekend of September 16th, fifty Leland Cypress trees at the Kinsey Family Farm in Cumming, Georgia were provided with mark-making implements and Strathmore paper supported by professional-grade easels and given three days to create a series of drawings. Agrifolk Art in America features thirty of the artists’ best work along with related artifacts that document the founding of this vital new art movement.”

That’s right. The trees are the artists.

I haven’t seen a ‘finished’ work yet, but I have to admit, I’m interested to see!

The February 2004 issue of Livingetc Magazine (published in England – I think it’s one of the *very best* home decorating magazines – it’s available at Barnes & Noble) featured a pic of an old armoire that they had completely changed around with chalkboard paint, chalk marks, and fixative. I think it’s sooooo great!

Av and I wound up with these two armoires – they’re from the sixties, I think, because they have this weird greenish stain with little black specs all over. We’ve been ‘hiding’ them in one of our guest bedrooms because they just aren’t terribly attractive; I mean, it’s nice furniture with interesting details, but it definitely needs updating. I decided to take the idea from the magazine and paint the armoires with chalkboard paint. I figured even if I decided not to write or decorate them with chalk, they would look nice as just black pieces of furniture. Here’s a before pic:

…and a during pic…

…and an after pic! The chalkboard paint (I got mine at Home Depot) was pretty inexpensive, went on really easily (although I found that I needed to touch up the paint three different occasions because I missed spots), and dried quickly. I decided to not make new little ‘curtains’ to go behind the doors, because I like looking through to the shelves:

Ever since I found an upholstered headboard featured in Notebook Magazine (their second issue), I’ve been wanting to make one. This weekend, Av and I made one and I think it turned out really nice!

We’re in the midst of redecorating our master bedroom – top to bottom. Previously, three walls were silver and one wall was royal blue (it was pretty masculine, but then again, those walls were last painted when Av bought the house, a year before we met). We just repainted, and I chose “Baked Brie” by Behr. I was hoping “Baked Brie” didn’t come out “Boring Beige” – and it didn’t – it’s a really nice color!

We’ve also moved our previous furniture suite into one of the guest bedrooms, and sort-of started all over with the master bedroom. We have a couple of nice armoires that we inherited, and I finished making those over this weekend (that’ll be tomorrow’s post).

I’m just not into the idea of having a whole room full of furniture in the bedroom anymore. We have pretty nice-size closets (I’ve always dreamed of having one of those huge closet-rooms with the huge mirrors and super-plush carpet, like in Mommie Dearest!!) and I believe in hanging up rather than folding almost everything, so we don’t need a great deal of drawer space. Really, the only furniture we’ll have in our bedroom now is the bed and two armoires. I like that soooo much better! The only thing we’re missing now is a chaise lounge to go in front of the big window between the two armoires – and I’m shopping for that right now! I think I’d like one similar to the ones at the Alluvian Hotel in Greenwood…hmmm….

Anyway – back to the headboard! The idea with this is that I can change the fabric with the seasons…so this time, I started out with a really Autumn-y fabric – it’s a nice chocolate color with pretty teal embroidered vines. For Winter, I think I’ll go with something more dramatic, and then for Spring and Summer, something sweet and playful. The fabric is just stapled on, so I’m thinking it won’t be a big production to replace it.

Here’s what we used:
* A sheet of MDF 2″ wider on each size than our queen-size bed, and 48″ tall (I think 48″ is the largest piece they had at the hardware store).
* Staple gun, staples
* Cotton batting from the fabric shop (this goes between the fabric and the MDF to make it soft)
* Fabric big enough to fit the MDF and overhang on each side by 6″ or so (so it’s easy to staple on the back).

Here’s the sheet of MDF:

We stretched the cotton batting over the front of the MDF, and pulled it tightly to staple it to the back. We stapled every three or so inches.

Here it is, with all the batting stapled on. We found the easiest place to do this was on the bed:

Av had the idea to start stapling the fabric on to the back, then lifting the MDF up and pulling the fabric along the front. This was SO much easier than us picking up the whole sheet of MDF to do the fabric! We just had to lift the wood a bit to peek underneath to make sure we were keeping everything even and nice & tight. On the corners, I made gift-wrap edges.

Here’s what the back of the board looks like with everything stapled. I took a pair of scissors after this and squared everything up.

Here’s the headboard! We just placed it behind the bed and we were all set!

Tonight after supper, I made tea cakes (they’re just really simple and dainty little old-fashioned cookies). There are lots and lots left to share. They turned out really nice, and Av loved them! Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients (will make 2-3 dozen tea cakes):
1c. sugar, plus just a tiny extra to sprinkle over hot tea cakes
1/2 c. butter
1 egg
2 c. flour
1/3 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
dash salt
1/6 c. sweet milk
1 tsp. vanilla
…you’ll also need foil-lined cookie sheets

Preheat the oven to 325*.
First, I creamed the butter and sugar in my Kitchen-Aid. While that was going, I mixed together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, then, I added to the Kitchen-Aid bowl the egg. Next, I added some of the dry mixture, then some of the milk, then back and forth until it was all incorporated:

Once everything has been mixed together well and evenly, I took my fingers and formed small ball-shaped rounds and placed them (with lots of space in-between) on foil-lined baking sheets:

After about 14-15 minutes in the 325* oven, they came out perfectly (this is the part where, if you want to, you can sprinkle the *tiniest* amount of sugar on top):

Yum!

I’m hoping to get to Auburn sometime between now and November 5 for the Rural Studio: Education of the Citizen Architect exhibit on Auburn’s Rural Studio at the Jule Collins Smith Museum. The exhibit includes work from the first project, the Hay Bale (Bryant) house (done under the leadership of the late Sambo Mockbee) to the Rural Studio’s current work.

We’ve driven out to see some of the completed houses and community areas – they’re *amazing*. There are a lot of great pics of RS work here on Flickr, too. Soooo nice.

My friend Suzanne (who is an incredible pottery artist) and I went to the “Alabama Folk Pottery” exhibit at the Birmingham Museum of Art today. We’ve really been looking forward to it and had all kinds of ideas about what might be included in the show.

The museum doesn’t allow pictures to be taken in their special exhibits, but included were Bowl, Shop of John Alexander Rogers, (1857-1936), Mark: “J.A. Rogers / Oak Level, Ala.” ca. 1890, 6.5×8.25×8.25 inches, Loan from Ron Countryman and Large jug, Attributed to the Joel Falkner shop, Sterrett (Shelby County), ca. 1870, 18 X 11 X 11 inches, Anonymous loan.

I was so happy to see so many examples of older Alabama pottery – the pottery done by John Frederick Lehman, who moved to Alabama from Germany, was *very* interesting.

The exhibit included pieces from the 1800s through mostly the mid-1900s. We saw Jerry Brown pieces, and a piece or two from the Miller family, but I don’t remember seeing much more than those two more contemporary artists. I have pieces by both of those potters, but I think Suzanne and I both were hoping that since it was a folk pottery exhibit, the museum would have found some other family somewhere in Alabama who had been doing this for generations and generations, more or less undiscovered, that was still going. Well, we loved the exhibit anyway! There’s also a book that goes along with the exhibit, written by Joey Brackner, and I ordered it too.

Right next to the pottery exhibit was the “William Christenberry Photographs, 1961-2005” exhibit, and that was excellent, too.

Ohmygoodness – did we *ever* have the best time at the Ole Miss game Saturday night! We started off in the Grove where everybody was tailgating:

Some of the setups were nice…

…and some of them were *amazing* with nice chandeliers, china, etc. and multiple flat-screen televisions showing the pregame and some of the other SEC games that day! Av and I have tailgated before – but never with the good china and linen. We are definitely going to have to step it up next time!

We got in the line to the walk where all the players go through…Colonel Reb starts the walk, and then all the players go through – it was so much fun!

After the Rebel Walk, we went over and watched the band play…OHmygoodness was that ever great! Everybody was singing and cheering along to all the songs and it got everybody worked up for the game! Soooo much fun…

The game was SO GOOD! We were expected to lose to Georgia by a huge margin – but it was a great game and was really close until the 4th quarter. The referees had some really bad calls against us and missed some really important calls that would have gone against Georgia. I know there are always mistakes made by referees, but this game was one of those where everybody was saying to each other (over & over again), “what are they thinking!?!?”. Anyway, we did a lot better than I think most people expected and it really was a good, close game. LOTS of fun!

We love Ole Miss! I kind-of have a thing for Ole Miss anyway, because I’ve considered going there to get my Masters in Southern Studies. I’ve got my BBS (business) and my BA (liberal arts), but I’d love to have my Masters and be a folklorist! How neat would that be?! I think it would give me a great background to one day be able to collect stories and such, and write a book!

Anyway, we did lose the game (14-9) but it was *such* a great time!

Hotty Toddy!