Marsbarn Designs...

Harvest Feast

Dinner for 35? Not quite. There were a couple of cancellations for last night's Harvest Dinner. Mom said there were less than 30, but I never did get a solid number. I love it when people say, "Well I don't have room for that many people!" Ha! As you can see, my Mom just takes over the whole house for the dinner party. You can't see the kid's table, because its in the entry. I did manage to take food photos last night (Good girl!). Of course, I had to start with dessert. Poached pears, yum! Big E judges a dinner by the meat content, are all the bases covered? Pork, beef, poultry, seafood, salmon? (Last night it was just pork and poultry). I judge a dinner by the desserts. Are all the major categories covered? Chocolate, fruit, pie, cake, and slightly savory...
My contribution to the dinner was a Pumpkin Cheesecake. There was a scuffle at the far end of the table for the last piece. Note To Self: Next year make two. There was also Apple Tart with caramel cream, mince tarts, puff pastry with chocolate, and a cheese plate with homemade quince paste. Of course there was also lots of real food.. Turkey pot pie, roast pork loin with shallots, pumpkin lemon grass soup, mashed potatoes with parsnip, kale salad, green salad with persimmon, homemade rolls, green salad, herb linguine with brussels sprouts, something with broccoli, mustard pickles, dilly beans, sweet potatoes with apple strata, roasted squash with cilantro pesto and pumpkin seeds, and whatever else I am forgetting. Obviously there was a lot of suffering..

And for my next magical feast

Day one of feasting is complete. (No, I didn't take any photos, but I will try and make up for it tonight.)
I am pleased to say that my monkeys are back home! Yay! Today there will be a bit of shopping* and a smidge of picking up, followed by Grandpa D, Grandma K, and Naynay coming for a visit... oh and then Feast number 2!

*Now, I am pleased to say that my Black Friday shopping is going to be restricted to handmade goods. A friend's pottery studio is having their yearly sale, and there is a craft sale near my house.

Family support

Happy Thanksgiving!
Of course, I have to do a "I am Thankful because.." post. 'Cause if I didn't... well I'd be an ingrate, right?
I am thankful for the support of my family in what I do. No, I don't mean the "Thanks" when I lug the clean laundry upstairs. I mean the "Hey put this on your blog" or the "take a photo of that" or "look at this fabric". It is this sort of support which allows me to spend time on my personal projects (with only occasional moments of intense guilt). Both of these photos were the products of Big E's eye. He spotted the pitcher plant and the mushroom, and encouraged me to take photos of them. Thanks to Big E, little e, and to sweetheart g for forgiving me my lax housekeeping and appreciating the things that make me happy. (Like vintage light up snowmen... oh kitch is a dangerous thing.. just wait and see..)

The foodie dilemma

So you have Thanksgiving... turkey, mashed taters, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and so on. But what do you do with the cool new recipes of the moment? The butternut squash risotto, chard and parsnip strata, eggplant souffle, skirt steak with pomegranate, pumpkin cheese cake, or what ever calls from the cooking magazines this year? Do you dare dump the traditional for the wild? No! You just have a second dinner! Or at least that's what my Mom does. Thursday night is Thanksgiving- Hello traditional! Friday night is the Harvest Dinner... a second dinner with all new food. Yes, I did say all new food, as in no leftovers. Did I mentions she's expecting 20 for the first dinner, 35 for the second. Its a wild, wild foodie world here.

This year, Big E, the girls, and I are going south to his folks house for Turkey Day, but we will return for the Friday night dinner.

Total coolness

Look what came in the mail for me! My friend K, the spinning and knitting Queen, made this little photo mosaic card. And then she sent it to me. I am so lucky! Can I tell you how the little 1/2 inch squares boggle my mind? I could never cut something into such neat tiny squares, and then I wouldn't be able to get them back together again... Thank you, Thank you!

Today I am running away from responsibility and going downtown with my mom and a friend. Tomorrow, I will tear down my sewing area, clean my house, create a guest bedroom out of dustbunnies, lint, and fabric scraps, and bake. I have started all the sewing projects I wanted to complete, but I don't know if I will finish any. Oh well, I guess the world won't end...

dream a little dream

Twice a year I completely dismantle my sewing area, and return the room to its true purpose.. a guest bedroom. So I am in a mad dash to get as many projects done (or at least stable for transport) before Wednesday when everything gets boxed up. I have a dream of eventually tearing off our useless back porch and building a big craft room. I want a space large enough for Big E to have a painting station (instead of my dining room table), a sewing area for me, and a nook for each of the girls. There will be natural light, windows that look into the garden, birds singing, music playing, little fairies dancing... Ahhhh... Now, all I need to do is win the lottery...

To Gnome

I splurged and bought some of that really cute gnome fabric that's been floating around Blogland. Yes, I know I have outed myself as a Gnome person. I (forgive me) have garden gnomes. But they are all the tasteful, lovely ones (all have their bottoms covered) and show dignity and wisdom at all time.
My mom gave me a piece of gorgeous paper with butterflies and moths on it- thus the moths appearing in my recent collages.

Red skies in morning

Sunrise, earlier this week.I got busted. Sweetheart G was not pleased with my post about her earlier this week. She told me (rightly so) it was private, and I should have asked her first. (Sigh) Bad Mommy.
Neither of the monkeys have school next week, so they are off to G'ma R's house for a visit. Normally, I love alone time. I plan out all my days. I revel. But, this time... I'm not really into it. I kind of wish they were staying put so we could have family quiet time together. Goodness knows I have projects and things to get done... but little girl time sounds kind of nice.

Collage in red

Here is the second collage I made the other night. We've had dark skies, and no natural light so the photo is bad. The reds are not reading true, and the hand photo is not that washed out in person. So this is a "insert imagination here" type photo.

trouble with my transmission

I've taken a short break from sewing fabric (I plan to sew up a whole bunch of little bags and wallets next week), to work on collages. It surprised me how difficult it was to switch gears. It took me a least an hour of shuffling through papers and collected ephemera to decide on where I wanted to begin. And then, I changed my mind. Twice. I did finally make two collages. I am having lighting issues, so I will have to wait to photograph the second one.