Happy Halloween

Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Fillet of a fenny snake

In the cauldron boil and bake;

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble.

Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

- William Shakespeare

The Last of the Apples

Using up the last our apples this week. Last year, you may remember, I baked lots and lots of apple treats which I shared here. This year we're not enjoying as many baked goods so we have to come up with other ways to enjoy our apples, and preserve them for the rest of the year.

We've put away many quarts of apple sauce

and have over a gallon of dried apples ready to be used in recipes or just snacked on

but I do have one super easy baked apple treat to share with you. I made this last year, and I made it again this past weekend when we had a bunch of family over for brunch. Both times it was a hit, and it's sooo easy! It can be served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, just just by themselves as a breakfast pastry.

Recipe: thinly slice ~6 apples, put them in a bowl with a cup of brown sugar and toss to cover the apples. Defrost a box of puff pastry and lay the sheets of pastry out on a baking sheet. You can divide the puff pastry into 2 or 3 sections. lay the apples in the middle of the pastry and bake at 375 degrees for ~20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed up and golden. Top with confectioners sugar.

{This Moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

Autumn Nature Table

I love fall. I love just about everything about it. I think I'm just so grateful for a break from the summer heat, but I also love all the other things that mean fall - the smells of cider, pumpkin, apples. The crisp air and the crinkly leaves under my feet are other favorites of course :)

We are in the process of welcoming fall into our house, bringing out the nutmeg smelling candles and the wool slippers that were in the back of the closet, layering up in fleece and wool and making soup and fresh bread for dinner. As a representation of the changing seasons we revamped our small nature table to reflect Autumn. Let me show you.

and here are a few of my favorite things on the table right now

A little picture to remind us of our apple picking. Card by Ruth Elsaesser.

I love having a few of our seasonal books up on the table too. Plus our fall tree that I watercolored.

and a nest to remind us of home and warmth. It also smells like sweet beeswax (the polish) and I just can't get enough of it.

How are you welcoming Autumn?

Wordless Wednesday - Judah Charles

WIP WIP

Such a WIP-y Wednesday here. The fall air has filled me with motivation (or maybe it was the dark chocolate...) either way - my house smells like applesauce (again) and my kitchen table is full of various projects. I like it this way, full of projects :)

Here's a peak around the house

mmmmmm. applesauce

the first knitting project I've started in ages. Cozy socks for my little toddler

and a pumpkin hat for halloween that should be a quick project

The beginning of a new sewing project. My niece who visited this past weekend requested a purse like the one I made for myself, of course hers will be pink with monkeys :)

and I checked out Amanda Soule's Handmade Home from the library this week and found this pattern for a bath mat that is perfect for some terry cloth I had laying around.

Wow. that's a lot of projects going on for me. Considering the real WIP (Q) doesn't give me too much downtime these days. And now for the last WIP of the night.

Anyone want to come and fold my laundry for me?

Happy Tuesday!

Well those book reports didn't happen. yet. Oops. But really, it's been crazy around here. We had an unexpected weekend long visit from some family. Always a wonderful thing really. Especially with the fall weather (!!!) and when there are cousins for Q to play with

and then yesterday I got my practice in for being a stay at home to a toddler and an infant while watching a friend's kid for the day. I had quite a few moments of "I can totally do this" followed closely with "omg, how will I ever be able to handle this?!". Let's just say I was happy that it only took 45 minutes to get both kids out of the house, between feedings, diapers, naps, clothes, loads back and forth to the car, it was a pretty busy day for not really doing much.

Between the cousins, and the day yesterday we've been going going going, so today (and tomorrow) we're going to lay as low as possible. We have plans as usual but they don't extend further than our neighborhood park. I'm canning the last of our apples tonight (and making an apple pie - below), and tomorrow I'm going to attempt to bake challah bread (wish me luck!), I also have a incredibly huge stack of library books all about education (I'm on another schooling kick right now), and I pulled out my box of yarn and have been pouring over my ravelry queu. So yeah, even staying home we'll keep busy. Not to mention our yard - I'll tell you all about that very soon!