this weekend was quite lovely.
on saturday we went apple picking with our close friends, alex and celena, at carter mountain orchard in charlottesville. their apple doughnuts are delicious (don't taste much apple but who cares!).
fuji and pink lady were the current picks. we got 12 lbs. worth.
now i just need to decide what to do with my abundance of fujis. the pink ladies make very tasty snacks so no need to cook them.
after hitting up the orchard, we lunched at bodo's bagels in downtown charlottesville. it was delicious!
then we got coffee (my second cup of the day = slight panic/caffeine attack later on) and rode out in the country a little.
out in the VA countryside, celena tooks us to her favorite flower shop and i fell in love!
it was a memorable day!

going apple picking tomorrow in charlottesville with some good friends!
hopefully i will come back with a stash of apples to make applesauce, apple butter, apple chips & a few leftover to eat with peanut butter. yum!

i finally tried no knead bread from this blog. i have heard a lot about no knead bread recently and have been wanting to make it for a while. it was very easy to make and quite tasty (especially with cinnamon & sugar butter). i substituted the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour for a more textured & healthier bread.

in the kitchen, as usual.

the quote on the chalkboard is a summary of wendell berry's larger quote: "Eaters, that is, must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used."

check out this article from wendell berry about eating.

the large squash by selva's head is a cushaw.

jeremiah surprised me with this small (large) gift yesterday.

supposedly it cooks up like any other squash or pumpkin.

i think it will be feeding us for a while.

my staple breakfast is made up of a few, simple ingredients.

old-fashioned oats, local honey, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg (not pictured).

i cook the oats (1/2 cup oats to 1 cup water) on high to medium heat until they are nice and soft.

then i add a spoonful of honey and a little bit of everything else to taste.

yum!

jeremiah went with a redskins logo for his pumpkin.
i went the more traditional route.
happy halloween!!

slowly getting our belongings tucked away.

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cold air came upon us in the night.

leaves are falling. 

crows are sitting in the treetops talking.

winter is starting to call.

time to settle in. to build warmth in our homes for the season ahead. 

doily gift wrap.

starched doily bowls. idea via.

furoshiki gift wrap using a vintage scarf.

vintage pillowcase tote bag. idea via.

gift tags using stamps, vintage buttons & paper doilies.

doily table runner. idea via.

this past weekend i had the privilege of teaching a class at a local church's women's crafting event.
my class was called "a vitnage christmas" and focused on how to reuse doilies, hankies, buttons and other vintage-y items to make gifts and decorations for the holidays.
these are a few of my favorite ideas from the class.

we live in a small "village" as the locals call it.

our house and land is located on a very large block in the village.

this is the house we share the block with. obviously vacant.

its crammed full of so many antiques. 

a few beautiful iron beds and one iron baby crib. lovely moulding and fixtures. glass door knobs. cast iron sinks. and much more, i am sure.

it's sad to see a house wasted. abandoned. vandalized.

it makes you wonder what happened. what went wrong. especially when so many possessions are left behind.