Under a Blue Moon

Road trip

Yesterday Rick and I decided, quite impulsively, to set aside Saturday's usual mundane chores and go on a road trip. Just a nice drive, end up somewhere pretty, have lunch and then head back home.

I know I apologize for the quality of my picture a lot but most of these were taken from a moving car, through a bug splattered windshield (anyone that travels across the Yolo causeway with any regularity knows what that is about…).

We decided to drive to St. Helena in the Napa Valley, taking the backroads. There used to be a program on television called Bay Area Back Roads that would feature out of the way places to visit. We wanted to do our own version of that.

St. Helena (the entire Napa area for that matter) is just so pretty. Grand wineries, old Victorian style houses, acres and acres and acres of vines. St. Helena itself is a smaller town with a typical Main Street of restaurants, shops and lots of visitors. We just parked at one end and walked down one side and back up the other.

We picked a smaller coffee shop type restaurant for lunch and then afterwards wandered over to Woodhouse Chocolates to buy a treat for a friend of ours. It is the prettiest chocolate shop I have ever been in. Beautiful cream wood work, chandeliers, hanging tapestries. I wish I had asked to take pictures inside but I was all agog at the chocolate selections. Even the distinctive pale blue, round boxes are the prettiest candy boxes I've ever seen.

After lunch we hopped back into our car and drove around town. I think we like looking at old houses more than anything else. If I had an extra couple of million dollars I could see buying a little place here.

If you have 3.8+ million dollars this house can be yours too. There are other, more affordable options but they might not come with their own barrel room.

This may have been a morbid way to end the outing but I made Rick stop at the local cemetary so I could walk around and take pictures. Even in the afterlife you can live in a perfectly charming place in St. Helena.

Charmed, I’m sure

Hmm, I wonder how many times I've used that post title. Seems rather well-worn.

More teeny collectibles. I wish I could say that I've been collecting these treasures over the years but actually I bought them all in one swell foop. I do have a couple left over from a phase I was in about 15 years ago. Back when those pins with all the watch parts and doo-dads were so popular. You used to see them at Art & Wine festivals and I, as I so often do, thought to myself – heck I can make those.

I can't tell you how many watches I smashed to get the little parts.

I am not revisiting that creative phase. I've been using them in my collage pages. I was wracking my brain, trying to remember where I bought them 15 years ago. I don't recall seeing anything like this in any craft or bead store I've been in lately.

A Google search turned up a company that has a gazillion of these charms. Rather low-frills website but the selection is amazing. Any shape, size, design heart you can think of, body parts, bugs, birds, crowns, fairies, animals - you name it.

The detail in some of them is just amazing. The heart in the first picture, for instance. Love that – I think it is my favorite one. The prices are very reasonable – I paid anywhere from 30 cents to a little over two dollars (for the larger, more detailed pieces).

The name of the company is Fancifuls, Inc. and they are located in New York. I am all the way on the other side of the country and I had my order in just a few days.

It was a bit hard to guess the size of some of them because they basically just have a photograph of a page full of charms (hundred of pages) for you to view. The page is 8 1/2 x 11 inches so you can kind of guess. They figured out about 100 pages in to include a ruler or a coin for scale.

Anyway, if you are looking for metal embellishments for any craft project you will not be disappointed in their selection. The hard part is not going hog wild and ordering all of them.

Fruit Pizza

Sorry for the slightly blurry photo – it was taken with my iPhone. We had a grand 4th of July/Birthday celebration (for my oldest) yesterday. He requested Fruit Pizza for his birthday cake. Even though we had it three weeks ago at his Aunt's birthday celebration.

I told him I didn't think people would mind having it again so soon.

I'm sure this recipe has been around for ages and there are slight variations to it but it basically is sugar cookie crust, a sweetened cream cheese topping and then assorted fruits in a pleasing pattern on top. I add an apricot glaze to the top.

Here's the exact recipe that I use – makes two pizzas:

2 packages of refrigerator sugar cookie dough
2 8-oz. packages of cream cheese (allow it soften to room temp.)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Assorted fruits
1/2 cup Apricot preserves (or orange marmalade if you prefer)
2 Tbsp. water

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Press cookie dough into two tart pans (you can just roll it into a circle and bake on a cookie sheet but I like the fluted edges that the tart pans give it). Bake until golden brown – about 18-20 minutes.

Mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla and spread evenly over the two cooled cookies crusts.

Arrange the fruit on top of each pizza

In a small sauce pan heat the apricot preserves and water together until it has a thin, glaze like consistency. Allow to cool a bit then spoon over fruit pizzas.

Chill pizzas until ready to serve.

The aftermath:

It's all about getting together and enjoying each other's company. The food is just the cherry on the top.

Happy 4th of July!

Collections

I generally amass things with the intent that I am actually going to use them but I may have a hard time parting with any of my buttons.

I've actually increased my glass button collection about fifty times over since I last posted about it. I found a couple lots on Etsy. But now that I have them I think I'm going to have a hard time parting with any – or using them in my intended project.

As far as collections go buttons do have the advantage of not taking up very much space. It's not like I'm trying to collect turbine engines or totem poles.

Isn't this lady pretty? Kelly gave her to me – she appears to be the top to a bottle. I was trying to figure out something to do with her but I kind of like her just hanging out with the buttons. Her patina matches the mother of pearl ones.

So no one got the spider web reference on my Maine scrapbook page. Charlotte's Web takes place on a farm in Maine. The honey bee is the state insect (who knew states had an official insect representing them?). Blueberries – obvious. Lobsters – obvious. Beach – obvious (although Chris who has a Maine cottage says is doesn't look like a Maine beach. I think the Maine tourism board was taking liberties and may have borrowed a picture from one of their southern neighbors). The house is Stephen King's mansion in Bangor. Oh and the cat is a Maine Coon cat.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. It is supposed to get up to 106 degrees here today. Good day to stay inside and count buttons.

Lobster roll, anyone?

Page 2 of the travel wishbook. The places depicted are in no special order, by the way. If someone waved their magic wand and said I could go anywhere I'd be on a plane to Paris faster than you could say au revoir.

But since there doesn't appear to be a travel fairy godmother in these parts we'll just head for Maine in my imagination.

As with the New Orleans page each item represents something uniquely Maine-ish. Can you guess them?

I stitched that spider web onto the page. I saw a Halloween card where they had done that and filed the idea away for future use. Now what could a spider web have to do with Maine? Hmmm?

I've always wanted to eat a lobster roll and I never have. There is something kind of appealing about taking a rather luxurious food item and serving it in such a simple, accessible way.

I think the next stop on our journey will be somewhere in Europe. Not sure yet where. Paris would be the obvious choice but I have to let the images and embellishments inspire me.

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