Through the Garden Gate

Don't you just love it when a finished project exceeds all of your expectations? Boy, I sure do! As I was looking for fence ideas I ran across a gate on Pinterest. The minute I saw it I KNEW that was MY gate!!

It was one of those pins that make me a little nutty. It is to someone's blog in general rather than to a specific post. But, no worries, I knew we could pull it off even though this was all I had to go on.

You see... I have a secret weapon! My Kevin can build anything! And it's a bonus that his triplet brother, Ryan, normally joins the project! These boys men work together very well.

I wanted an arched top, but no arched bottom (too much temptation for a little dog). I traced the hearts and Kevin used his grandpa's old jig saw to cut them out with precision.

I'd like to say that this project went really fast. The actual building did but I didn't have everything as rounded up as I thought beforehand so there were some last minute errands to get those lose ends.

And what did Nikki and I do while the guys were gate building? I had a project of my own and Nikki is always glad to help out.

Thursday night was a Relief Society activity where one of my neighbors taught us how to make pizza on the bbq! OMSH was it ever yummy! And since this Sunday is Grammie dinner I knew I needed to do a repeat! I hussled up and found some unglazed terra cotta tiles at a local tile store to use on the grill as pizza stones. Compare them at $3.50 per 12"x12" tile to Williams-Sonoma's $29.99 for 4- 4"x4" tiles!

But now I needed the individual sized pizza peels. I asked Kevin if he had the tools to cut them out. Silly me, of course he did. (grandpa's jig saw!) So after a demonstration on technique I took over the cutting. And sanding!

Gordon insisted that I use a dust mask ("I don't want my baby to get sick") and I'm glad he did. For good measure I added my ear plugs.

Nikki did over half the sanding of the 18 pizza peels.

We made the dough earlier and by the end of our work day we were anxious to try out our newest creations! This easily rivals any restaurant pizza I've ever had!

And look at my beautifulness! I am so very, very pleased with my completed garden fence and gate.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Last year I ran across this recipe on Pinterest!

OMSH are these ever delicious! 

I made them last night to take to a Relief Society activity. They were a hit! So I knew I needed to share the recipe with everyone!

I got the original recipe here but my recipe reflects a few changes that I've made. I'm just grateful for the blessing of finding such an exceptional recipe!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 24-28 cupcakes


1 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 large egg, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup BUTTERMILK (makes all the difference in the world!)
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using regular butter)
1- 15oz can unsweetened pumpkin puree OR 2 cups


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the top of a standard 12-cup muffin pan (in case you get some “muffin top” action). Line pan with 12 baking liners. Sift the flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk to combine pumpkin and milk; set aside also.

Using an electric mixer on medium-high, cream butter and sugar together until light in color and fluffy (I really beat mine... I think this is the key). Turn mixer down to low add eggs and vanilla. Beat well to combine (again with the beating). Next, add 1/3 the flour mixture, then 1/2 the pumpkin mixture, another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the remaining pumpkin mixture, and the last 1/3 of the flour mixture, mixing to combine after each addition. Fill baking liners about 3/4 full. Bake 20 minutes OR until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (a few tiny crumbs are OK but there should be NO wet batter). Cool 5 minutes in pan, then remove from pans to wire racks to finish cooling completely. Pipe or spread on cream cheese frosting, and enjoy!

Pipeable and Not-too-sweet Cream Cheese Frosting
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla bean paste (notice the beautiful little vanilla bean flecks in the frosting?)
a pinch of salt (omit if using regular butter)
8 oz. (1 block) cream cheese, cold and cut into 6 to 8 chunks

In a larger mixing bowl, cream the butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until thoroughly blended and fluffy; about 5 minutes. Add the cream cheese, a chunk at a time, beating after each addition (just enough to work it in until it’s smooth. I just turn the mixer to low and drop them in.). Scrape the sides and mix in any unmixed bits. Be careful to avoid overbeating or the cream cheese may start to break down and become gloppy. If not using immediately, chill until needed, then beat again until smooth just before using.

Cupcake / Half recipe (no need to half frosting*)
Makes 12 to 14 cupcakes


1 cup PLUS 2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 scant cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree 1/2 of a 15 oz. can]
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
6 Tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup PLUS 2 Tbsp sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temperature

* I tried making a half recipe in my Bosch and it was too difficult to get it right.

Girls Day Out @ Eureka Springs, AR

Gordon scored his second grand-slam in vacation planning when he set up our girls day @ Eureka Springs AND offered to take care of Kristi's kids so she could go!

And I'm gonna tell you right up front that I DID NOT take this beautiful photo! Notice the green trees? Yup... we had naked trees. Credit goes to Art Meripol, Karen Lingo and was borrowed from the link above.

The sad part is that I really wanted to see this building AND visit in the quilt shoppe... but this is what I got to see instead (but not because we didn't pay for parking... just that we parked there)!

We parked right across the street from the building (you know, can't see the forest for the trees?), I saw the CLOSED quilt shoppe, walked down the stairs, around that corner, up the next street looking for other open shops and didn't think anything more about the beautiful building! I can't believe I missed MY photo op here!!

One of the locals told us that the whole area is filled with springs; cold artesian springs, not the hot kind, and the water bubbles up everywhere.

This is another example of the *rock-in-layers* that I love so much.

There weren't many shops open on a Friday afternoon in January. We did find several art galleries open. We found a cute shop that sold pre-owned furs. They had a beautiful red coat that was just a smidge too small for me... bummer. But I looked across the hall to a shoe store when a pair of red shoes called out my name! "Hey, little-Joanie! I'm 50% off... please take me home!" I'm of the opinion that one can never own too many pairs of red shoes so look who came home with me!

Erik, Megan and kids had visited Eureka Springs previously and told us there was a haunted hotel there. So of course we had to check that out too! The Crescent Hotel started life in 1886 as a hotel but "from 1908 to 1924, the building was utilized as the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women, but continued to act as a resort during the summers."  It was also used as a cancer hospital in the 1930s.

As soon as I saw this sign I started singing the Disneyland Haunted Mansion song and gave Kristi that jibbles! I thought this sign was creepy enough to be at Disneyland's mansion!

But you know? We never did see any ghosts. But over a delicious dinner Megan did tell us that she has a friend who stayed there, with her daughters, on Friday the 13th! dun, DUN, DUN!!



The view from the top of the hotel was beautiful. I can only imagine how pretty it is when all the trees are dressed not naked!



Lastly this visit to rural Arkansas wouldn't be complete without a photo of all of the roller-coaster roads that dip, wind and twist through the rills, hollows and hills. OhMyStinkinHeck could you ever get good and carsick on these roads!

We had a lovely day together.

S & D's Wedding Quilt

* (I went looking for this post, and several others... omsh... apparently I never wrote them! At least I did blog about this project when it was in the construction phase... but come-on!  The #1 purpose of my blog is for me.  That's right ME, ME, ME!  IT'S ALL ABOUT ME! OK... well, I got that out of my system!)

When Spencer and Deb were planning their wedding I asked *the questions*- what colors do you want in your quilt?  what size?  They wanted green and brown!  Oh, dang, that will be torture!  Green and brown just happens to be one of my current favorites. 



I thoroughly enjoyed myself through the whole process: choose the fabric, cut the fabric, arrange on the design wall (which now lives permanently on sewing room wall, I was tired of taking it down), sew the block, rows, top and then one of my favorite things nowadays... the quilting. I decided to use that same wonderful paisley pattern I learned when I made Holly's quilt (but did I get any close-ups of S&D's quilt? No, not me! I'm sensing a problem here!)

I love being able to make these beautiful quilts for my loved ones... what a blessing.

Grammie (&Grampy) Christmas

AGAIN-WITH-THE-SPOILER-ALERT!

IF YOU ARE ONE OF MY GRANDCHILDREN-

DON'T SPOIL THE SURPRISE!

A bunch of years ago I became aware that I was out of touch with what our grandchildren would like for Christmas. So I decided to give the gift that fits everyone- cash, check or gift-card! I know I always liked receiving cash when I was a child (hmm... I still do)!

In past years I've done different versions of the cash, check or gift-card. Most recently I was caught up with the Target gift-card coins.

Christmas 2010 I made photo greeting cards using photos I'd taken throughout the year (you can see the gift coins stacked in the background)



Christmas 2009 I made these darling origami containers (dang, I sure do have fun!)



This year I thought about a more universal gift-card but I hadn't found exactly what I wanted when I ran into my neighbor... he had rolls of coins in his hand, but they didn't look quite right for quarters. When I asked him about them he told me they were $1 US President coins!

HA!!! That rang my bell!! I envisioned coin purses... a Google search turned up lots of free ideas and patterns (Have I mentioned how much I love the internet? What a wonderful wealth of information and sharing!)

My hands-down-favorite is this dumpling coin purse.



OMSH... were they ever fun to make! I dug around in my stash of old zippers, courtesy of Edna and DI and found some good ones to use.



But since we have more than one girl in some families, I had to use some variety. I found a great pattern using felted wool. Then I carefully got out MY mom's, the original Grammy, embroidery thread organizer, which I totally love, and did some embellishments. The round coin purse hails back to my childhood when I had a darling little turquoise round coin purse.

But now I needed some zipper pulls.  I stopped at Hobby Lobby (love that store!) and found all I needed to put these zipper pulls together.  I just love doing things like this. I love using my tiny tools.  Several times since making these I've thought... hmm, wonder what else I could make! (Yep, it's an addiction!)



I was a little concerned about the grandsons... would they want a cutesy-grammie-made-coin-purse? But my worries were solved when I was wandering-aimlessly (one of my favorite things to do) at Wal-Mart and just happened to spot these darling rubber coin purses. (Do you remember the old simple rubber coin purses like this?)  You can see that they are bulging with coins!



What a fun project... I'm all finished now... made the last two last night... the far-away grandchildren should have already received their Christmas packages... hmm, what shall I do next year?

texture info-
kk_annabelle- blending mode overlay @ 48%; duplicate layer- blending mode darken @ 48%