Photo of the week

I didn't realize it until now, but I got photo of the week on the Mother Earth News website.  It's of a photo I took over the summer at my mom's house of some daisies while the sun was setting.  Hip hip, hooray!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/healthy-people-healthy-planet/photo-of-the-week-dancing-daisies.aspx

Tennessee State Fair

Well, we packed up our stuff, prepared our three cats and headed East.  We only managed one flat tire along the way but we made it across country and are settling in to our new town of Knoxville, Tennessee!

On our way across country one night we stayed in Nashville and were able to make it to the Tennessee State Fair.  I had to share this beautiful knitted sweater that was on display in the Arts & Crafts Building.  Isn't it wonderful? 

The colors are so pretty and the pattern was amazing! Amazing enough in fact to win first prize. 

Also, check out these great giant pumpkins!  I'm so excited to start a garden at our new house - our first garden together.  I'm already thinking a year in advance in terms of what plants I want to see next year that need planting this year (i.e. tulips and daffodils).  So many things to plant, so little time.

As a side note, I thought since we are in a new town, a new blog look was fitting.  I hope everyone enjoys!

Sparkly Bird Birthday Card

Need:

Cricut Machine or access to one such as in a scrapbooking store
Cartridge - Wild Card and Give A Hoot
Cardstock paper in four colors [purple, light pink, pink]
Craft glue
Bone folder
Pencil 
Glitter


Directions:

Starting with the Wild Card cartridge, cut one Tweety at 5 1/2 inches in the purple colored cardstock.  This will make your card with a window in the front.  Using the light pink color cut one blackout Tweety at 5 1/2 inches and glue this to the inside of your card.  Then switch your cartridge to the Give A Hoot.  Cut one bird3 at 3 1/2 inches.  This is your stencil for the glittered part.  Next cut out the same bird but blacked-out in your pink cardstock.  Temporally put the bird with the designs cut out on top of your blacked-out bird.  Trace the design onto the pink bird.  Remove the stencil and fill in the traced in areas with glue and then glitter.  The trick I've learned when working with glitter is to really put a descent amount on at first and let it sit there without touching it until it dries - at least 15 minutes.  Then shake of the extra glitter.  After you have shaken off the extra glitter, glue your bird to the outside of your card.  On the inside of the card I glued a small design from the Give A Hoot cartridge and stamped Happy Birthday - can you tell that I like those letter stamps?! 

 

This is a really nice card to make and I imagine it would also look pretty in all different shades like blues and purples.  You have to forgive the low quality pictures in those post too because we are moving and the best light I could get was on the fridge.  I'm hoping our new house will have better lighting for pictures! 

New neighborhood

These photos are mainly for my family to see where our new house is but I thought I'd share with everyone:

We are so close to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park it is unreal.  We could see them from the plane on the way into the city.  See the faint black line in the photo under the arrow?  That's them!  We timed it and on a Monday afternoon it took us about 35-45 minutes to get to Cades Cove in the Smokies.  And the best thing is that it's free to get into the park so Lewie and I can go there anytime!

This is the city park that butts up against the back of our property.  The house is located just over that hill of trees.  Not only will no one be building a house behind us anytime soon but we'll be able to hike down to the Tennessee River and Fort Louden Lake.  We are really excited to check out the land and trees - don't they look nice? 

This is the entrance to our new 8 acre 'park'.  You can kinda make out the small green gate in the front.  It will be so nice for once to not have a major highway out our front door like it has been for the last 3 years.  Finally some peace and quiet.

We feel so blessed that everything has been working out for us.  Lewie got his dream job in our dream location and now our dream house!  We close later this month so I'm sure I'll be posting before and after house pictures and projects soon.  Stay tuned for renovations to come!

Things we already love about Knoxville

Rain or shine the Farmer's Market @ Market Square in downtown Knoxville happens every Wednesday and Saturday and when we were there we were stopped by.  We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the vendors selling everything from fresh and local produce, handmade woodwork, and even a spinster selling handspun yarn!  But our favorite was getting breakfast at the Cruze Dairy Farm van which included homemade buttermilk biscuit sandwiches with fresh eggs and the best bacon Lewie and I have ever had.  We washed them down with the Cruze Dairy chocolate milk - milked from their Jersey cows on their farm just outside of Knoxville in Strawberry Plains.  

 

I think I know where we'll be eating breakfast every Saturday morning!  Yum - it was so good!

We are moving!

Lewie got a new job in Knoxville, TN so we are moving!  We are so excited to be moving because we'll be closer to family and we miss the East after being in New Mexico for almost a year and a half.  I'm so happy for Lewie because this is a job he's been hoping to get for several years and it's a job he gets excited about.  We have already been to Knoxville to pick out a house and we are so thrilled to finally become homeowners!  We'll hopefully be settled in by the end of the month so forgive me in advance for not posting for several weeks.  I have to go start packing...

Currant Muffins

I was lucky enough to receive a few cups of fresh currants from a coworker this summer.  I have never cooked with currants so I froze them until I figured out something to do with them.  I thawed them last week to make currant muffins.  They are (at least the ones I had) somewhat sour but flavorful.  Currants are a lot like blueberry's - same color, shape and texture.  So, I took a blueberry muffin recipe and instead of using blueberry's I used currants.  To top of the basic muffin recipe I sprinkled a crumble of butter, brown sugar and flour onto the muffins before baking.  This added a sweetness to them to counter the currant's sourness.  They turned out pretty delicious - a perfect breakfast with a nice cup of coffee.  I always enjoy using fresh produce that is local - it is a really great feeling!

I finished my sign!

I finished the sign I've been making for work!  This was a massive undertaking but I really enjoy painting so it was fun to work on and so satisfying to finish.  The man who renovated the Bear Mountain Coffee House & Art Gallery last year helped us build the sign out of plywood and 2X4.  Once the sign was built we painted it white with a primer.  Then I painted the whole thing our navy blue color.  It took several coats to cover it well.  After that, I cut out the letters using my Cricut - each letter is approximately 8 1/2 inches tall.  After they were all cut out I measured out my board then taped each letter and played around with the arrangement.  I traced each letter with pencil, then painted each letter in with white, twice.  Once all the letters were painted I put a few coats of polyurethane on the whole board.  After this dried I then painted each letter again with polyurethane and before it dried I sprinkled reflective dust on it.  This way in the evening each letter will be reflective for traffic passing by.  It's a large sign measuring 10X8 feet so we put it on Hwy 60 as you are coming into town for travelers to read on their way in.  It was a lot of hard work but turned out pretty good!

Happy Birthday Cat & Bird Card

Need:

Cricut Machine or access to one such as in a scrapbooking store
Cartridge - Wild Card and Meow
Cardstock paper in four colors [tan, gray, orange, red ]
Craft glue
Scissors
Ruler
Bone folder
Black and red markers [i.e. Sharpie thin point]

Directions:

Using your Wild Card cartridge in your Cricut machine,  cut one #1 using red cardstock.  Cut this at 5 1/2 inches.  This will create the base of your card with a small window in the front.  Use your bone folder to fold this in half.  Next, using the Meow cartridge cut on one Bird, with your Real Size dial on, at 1 3/4 an inch in gray cardstock.  This is the base for your kitty.  To make the kitty orange or your desired color, cut one layers Bird in 1 3/4 an inch.  Glue this to the top of your kitty and bird.  Using a lighter cardstock then your card, I used tan, cut out a rectangle that is smaller then your card folded for the inside.  You can add a decorative edge around this using scissors if you'd like. Glue this to the center of the inside page.  Lastly center your cat in the window and glue the cat to the card lining.  I added to small black eyes and colored it's nose red with markers.  I also used my new stamps to spell out Happy Birthday.

Knitted coffee mug scarf

I had to make a gift this past week for a friend and she owns a coffee shop so I decided to go with a knitted coffee mug 'scarf'.  They are so easy to make, I finished this one in less then an hour and a half.  They are meant more for the paper cups in coffee shops so that the sides don't burn your hands and or the coffee stays warm, but they look cute on mugs too!  I got the idea from Interweave Presents Knitted Gifts: Irresistible Projects to Make & Give.