Happy Weekend!

What are your plans for this weekend? We're enjoying 70 degree weather at the end of October!





Apple cider press, making apple cider!



Patterson House



Gorgeous detail work on the house!



Picking Indian corn was so much fun!

A couple of weekends ago, we spent all afternoon at Ardenwood Farm! The Fall Harvest Festival is absolutely wonderful! If you haven't been, mark it on your calendars for next year! Corn picking, apple cider press, homemade ice cream, pumpkins, corn husk doll making, magic show, quilt making, hay rides, and much more! After touring through the Patterson house, I felt like I had just stepped back in time.



Here is a sneaky of the back of my latest quilt. I just put the binding on it. Waiting to get some good photos of the finished quilt, so I can show you!

The best weekend!

Isn't this the cutest house pillow?! It was a wedding gift I made for some of our friends who just got married. It's hard to tell how large it is, but the dimensions are 20 x 20". I added a cute little button for the door handle on the house.



We headed over to Tiburon for the wedding reception.......



....and this was the stunning, spectacular view from the backyard of our friends home! Nothing but blue skies and 80 degree sunshine!



After the reception, we drove down the hill to the Tiburon waterfront, and walked along Paradise Drive! Gorgeous!!!!!!!!!!!!





...........more sparkling views of the Bay, looking towards San Francisco.

Can't wait to go back and take the ferry to Angel Island! Haven't been there for a few years.

Figgy Friday

It's fig season! I think figs are something you either love or dislike. They are full of wonderful vitamins and nutrients. Did you know they are a flower?







Since I have been eating gluten-free for the past eleven years, I have not had a fig newton cookie! Yesterday I decided I would make some! They are so good, and you must try them for yourself!

Fig Newton Cookie Bars

FILLING

1 cup fresh figs (I scraped out the insides only, with the exception of the last two figs I diced into small pieces)
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (gluten-free)

DOUGH

2 - 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
3/4 cup amaranth flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (gluten-free)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 F.

For the filling:
Place the fig mixture into a blender, along with the fig filling ingredients, and blend for about thirty seconds. Pour the mixture into a pan. Boil on medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly. Make sure it comes to a rolling boil.

Set aside.

Grease a glass baking pan (7 x 11")
Press half of the cookie dough firmly on the bottom of the pan. (thin layer)
Pour the fig filling slowly, over the surface of the cookie dough.
On a clean surface, press/roll out the remaining dough to the same size as the pan. Using a large spatula, gently lift up the pressed out dough and place it on top of the fig filling. Gently pat it down and smooth out the corners, gently pinching the corners down, so the filling will stay between the layers. (It's okay if it's not perfect)

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool completely (at least one hour) before slicing and serving. This way the cookie bars can set up.



Here is what the filling looks like, while you are boiling it on the stove top.



Fig Newtons! (the best part, is they are gluten-free)!!!!! Woot, woot!

Happy Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!

We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, Canadian style! Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October. It is a few weeks earlier than the traditional American Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving coincides with the American holiday, Columbus Day.



I baked a yummy apple cake for dessert, gluten-free!





Have a wonderful day!

Leafy collage

Want to make a fun leafy collage?

First of all, you take a piece of sturdy cardboard.

Cut a piece of fabric that is one inch larger, than your cardboard.

Go through your autumn colored fabric scarps, and pick out some pretty leaf colored fabrics.

Cut out a bunch of leaves.

Arrange your leaves on the fabric, making sure to keep a one and a half inch border all the way around your leaf design. Have fun with this! There is no right or wrong way to arrange your leaves!

Put a dab of hot glue on the back of each leaf, to fasten it to the fabric.

Pick out some pretty colors of embroidery floss, and stitch around the leaves with a needle and thread. If you are in a hurry, you can use your sewing machine, using a pretty stitch.

I left a few of the leaves alone and did not stitch them.

Secure these leaves with a bit more glue, using my hot glue gun. If you have fabric glue, this works well, too.

Using a cool iron, carefully run the iron over your finished collage.

Cover your cardboard with your collage. I simply taped the fabric around the cardboard, on the backside. (no one will see, right?!)



I got a little carried away with the leaf cutting, so I have a few leaves left over. I am going to make a banner with these.



I plan on having my kids help out with this one. We are going to collect leaves (real ones) and use them to dip in fabric paint, and stamp the individual pieces of fabric that will attach to the banner. We will mix these in with the fabric leaves for a fun effect. Come back later on this week, to see what we came up with!

Happy leaf hunting!

Spread a little L O V E

Something I L O V E using my little fabric scraps on, is pillows! My scrap bin is constantly growing, and this is a great way to put these pretty little scraps to good use. I let my kids whole heartedly dig into my scrap bin, in order to keep it from flowing over the top.



The other day, I decided to spread a little L O V E and made this cute pillow for me and my sweetie's bed! Yes, the pillow pile is growing, but all the more for squishing up against to read a good book, or even the odd pillow fight, I mean toss. My kids steal all the pillows in the house and set up an inside fort with pillows and blankets.
What is it with pillows, in this house?

I'd say that pillows are the icing on the cake for bed making in the mornings. So fun to toss the pillows in a pretty heap, at the head of my bed each morning.

Happy Monday, ya'all! I'm off to make one more bed!