Under a Blue Moon

The light is changing

The temperatures were in the 90s yesterday and we are still running the A/C on the regular but there is a definite feeling of the seasons changing. I just love it. The light has such a pretty, almost melancholy feel to it. Or maybe it is just me. I have always felt a little melancholy in September. Probably from being a child and having summer ending and having to go back to the routine of school.

Now I am happy to say goodbye to Summer.

Those lavender are fake, by the way. I can't keep real cut flowers down low because the cats want to eat them. I generally oppose faux flowers but what can you do.

What? Me eat your flowers?

We live on a very walk-able street and the girls like to perch in the window and watch people go by.

I posted this picture (below) in Instagram but thought it deserved a spot here. Aren't the colors of those hydrangeas gorgeous? They are definitely fall appropriate but not your typical oranges and reds (which aren't my thing).

I hope your Wednesday is going well. We are halfway to the weekend!

Apple Spice Cake

I'm kicking off the fall season with an apple recipe. Okay I know it's not technically fall yet, and won't be for a few weeks, but to me September is fall and apples especially are fall.

This is a simple apple spice sheet cake with cream cheese frosting. I have no idea how it tastes because I don't eat cake but Rick assures me it is good, although maybe could have been a bit apple-ier.

I will say the whole house smells fabulous. Since I've been eating low carb I rarely bake. I am starting to slowly add carbs back into my diet and while I don't think I'll be binging on baked goods anytime soon I think the occasional small treat won't derail my efforts.

I may or may not have eaten a spoonful of cream cheese frosting while making this cake…

Apple Spice Cake (adapted from The Baker Chick which is adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients

2 large Granny Smith (or other tart apple) apples peeled and cut into small pieces (about 3 cups)
1 tablespoon of butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1⅓ cups vegetable oil
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat over to 350F. Oil and flour a quarter sheet pan and set aside. If you don't have a sheet pan use 13 x 9 baking pan.
In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter and add the apples, 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, and 1 tablespoon of white sugar. Saute for 3-5 minutes, until the apples are slightly soft.
In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, remaining pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine vegetable oil, sugar, and eggs; mix on high speed until the mixture is fluffy and light. Stir in the vanilla extract.
Gradually add the dry ingredients while mixing on low speed until just combined. Add in the apples and gently incorporate.
Spread batter in the sheet pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time until creamy. Add the vanilla extract.
Frost cake in the pan and serve. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Friday Favorites

Fall in Ashland ◊ The Mixture of Autumn Colors ◊ The art of being happy ◊ Marmellata di melone

William Morris washi tape!
This is such a pretty pillow. The Cotton Hut not only sells lovely things but also contributes ten meals to hungry children for every single purchase made. That is pretty fabulous business model
Two pretty Instagram feeds to follow: Andrea Groot (for houseplant inspo) and Lärkhuset (for vintage white decor)
Isn't this a cute AirBnB? Over the top girly, for sure, but still adorable

Happy last day of August! I am so over Summer and ready for the Fall. It's funny – I'm always over Winter and Summer but never Spring or Fall. Why do you suppose that is? I think it is because Fall and Spring are more gentle seasons. Summer and Winter tend to be all in your face.

We really don't have any plans for this three day weekend. We'll probably do an end of Summer bbq at my Dad's on Sunday but that's as far as any structure to our weekend goes. I am fine with that. Maybe I should paint the greenhouse. I just have the primer coat on. I still need to find some sort of shelving for in there. Or maybe design something and sweetly ask Rick to make it for me. And there are the irises to deal with. I keep putting that off. Anyone need any irises if I divide them? They are really beautiful.

I hope you have a lovely weekend!

Goodbyes and a life hack

The title is a bit more dramatic than the blog post is going to be.

My coworker is leaving for a new job at the end of the week and we wanted to send her off with a celebratory lunch and a gift as she embarks on this new adventure. She is just getting into cooking and has a particular interest in baking so we decided we would get her a Sur la Table gift card that she can apply towards cooking classes. I also picked up some fun, colorful kitchen utensils (at Home Goods) as sort of a gift basket to present the gift card. She is young and I thought she would like the cheerful colors.

While I was checking out at Sur la Table the woman waiting on me gave me the best tip about gift cards and I thought it was worth passing on.

She said to always check the back of the gift card before you purchase and to make sure the pin number covering isn't scratched off. She says unscrupulous types will expose the pin number, take a picture of the back of the card and then put it back. Then every day they will check to see if someone has purchased that particular card and as soon as it shows a balance they'll make a purchase with it. The unsuspecting buyer will cheerfully gift it to someone who will surely think they are a cheapskate when they try to redeem it and there is only $1.73 left on it.

I thought that was a brilliant tip and not something I ever thought to check for.

A little book review

I paint doll furniture about as well as I do full sized furniture. Not well at all. I always miss a spot.

I follow a very creative woman on YouTube who has a channel and accompanying blog called Thicketworks where she features mixed media art projects. She has been on a miniature kick lately and just featured a tutorial on making miniature books. Her blog has downloads so you can easily recreate them yourself.

The books are very detailed and realistic. She has a great trick of using embossing powder on the book covers to mimic leather which really adds to the realism. And the pages really turn and if you had super power eyesight you could actually read them. I can’t tell if I even got them the right side up or not.

I won’t detail how to make them because her tutorial and blog post have all the steps. I will say it was a relatively quick project. I printed everything up and cut them to size and got the covers embellished the way I wanted. Then the next morning I assembled the pages into book blocks, applied the end papers and put it all together. I would say the entire project took about three or four hours total.

One slight modification I made was rather than printing the PDF files as is I copied the image of the page from her blog and plopped it into a Word document. That way I could size it down slightly to be closer to 1:12 scale.

I printed the covers on Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Paper Matte rather than the recommended card stock because the colors are more vibrant with my inkjet printer. It’s pricey but the results are so much better. It’s the same paper I use when making cards.

I have made zero progress on the dollhouse restoration but at least now the inhabitant is well read!

Friday

(Photo apropos of nothing)

Sorry for the change in posting schedule this week. I am on Grandma duty and it's hard to keep up with my normal routine.

I just wanted to pop on so people didn't think I dropped off the face of the earth.

I'm having a lovely three days with my granddaughter. We have gone to the park, made sidewalk chalk art, read lots of books, blown bubbles and have pretty much done whatever a two year old wants to do. She is at such a fun age.

We don't have any plans for this weekend. Which is fine by me. I'll head back home this evening and tomorrow I plan on sleeping in. Ha! I always say that and then rarely can sleep past my normal wake up time.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

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