Autumn

Well according to the calender, autumn is officially here. But by looking at the thermometer, it would be hard to tell. We almost broke a record yesterday. It was 95*. Not the kind of record I care to break.

It's very dry around here. We haven't had any of the rain that came through middle TN and the stress is starting to show. The garden soil is dry as a bone. Trees are losing leaves before they even change color. They say that we're going to get rain and cooler weather next week. Let's hope they're right.

I can't wait until we can head up to the mountain and enjoy camping in the crisp autumn air. I'm bringing my hammock so I can tie it to the trees and watch the leaves fall.

I dragged out some pictures from past years of our trees at Crystal Lake to remind me what lies ahead.....somewhere in the near future.

Until next time.....

New Necklaces

New necklaces in my Etsy shop, with more to come.

Until next time.....

Black is Black

It's that time of the year to start bringing back the black clothes and accessories. I love to wear black, but ever since we adopted Althea, it is almost impossible to leave the house without white cat fur somewhere on me. I don't want to go out looking like the crazy cat lady, which I am not. Seems like by now, I should own stock in pet hair rollers.

I've been stocking my bead shop with black beads and have listed some new black jewels in my jewelry shop. Just in time for Halloween; one of my fave times of the year.

Until next time.....

Pumpkin Latte

A couple of years ago when I was hanging in Etc, on the Etsy forums, some folks were talking about Pumpkin Latte from Starbucks. It sounded good! I love everything pumpkin. I had no desire to go to Starbucks to try one. Never been there. Why start now? So I hit the internet to see what I could find. I did find several recipes, got the gist of it and came up with this. Give it a try. It's easy and oh so good!

3 heaping tablespoons pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons vanilla syrup*
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice**
1 cup milk - works with any kind of milk
1-2 shots espresso
-In small saucepan, stir puree into milk. add vanilla syrup* and spice. heat gently and stir occasionally just until steaming and foam begins to appear. If you like it sweeter, you can add more vanilla syrup.
Pour into tall mug and pour espresso over it.
Top with whip cream and dash of spice.

*Vanilla syrup:
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
-Bring water,sugar and salt to boil on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved.
Boil until mixture becomes thick and syrupy. It took about 10 minutes when I did this.
Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
Cool.
Store in frig.
~I didn't make the whole recipe. I may have made 1/4 of it. I read that it stores in the frig for a couple of weeks. You might want to google 'vanilla syrup' or 'sugar syrup' to see what you find out.

**I make my own pumpkin pie spice and keep it on hand. We love cinnamon, so I'm pretty heavy on it. Adjust to taste:
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
a little under 1/4 teaspoon cloves
a little under 1/4 teaspoon allspice

Until next time.....

Autumn Jewels

Just a sample of some of the new jewelry being listed in my Etsy shop. My shop's landscape is changing just like the landscape in TN. Here the leaves are starting to turn color and fall. Ironweed and Fall Asters are among the flowers that are in bloom. And when the sky is blue, it is really blue. I'm enjoying every minute of it. As a matter of fact, I'm heading outdoors to work in the gardens.

Until next time.....