It's looking like a limb torn off...

Just ♥...Band of Horses -No One's Gonna Love You

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Be still my heart

I have this unexplainable desire to place unnecessary objects about my house...dust collectors. Let me explain. I have no home phone. We use our cell phones, makes more sense and costs less. But for some reason I am always tempted to buy vintage teles...oh and metal fans, I loves them! I like to dream about them when I am thrifting and visiting antique shops. I think it goes back to when I was little, my grandma had a rotary phone. My finger seemed to fit perfectly and I would dial random numbers and listen to each click as it rolled back around. It was one of those fancy ones with the large handle and gold metal. Here are some lovelies that have captured my heart...

Just spotted on Apartment Therapy.

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I always picture the old fans in all black sitting on the dresser by the window of the bedroom. I can picture the light peeping through the curtains kissing the tips of the blades. The room is white with silk sheets and linen curtains, with light pink girlies things and beautiful cream doilies lying around...that would be nice.

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I'm so lazy...

I've been meaning to blog...

• about seeing Where the Wild Things Are and how much I ♥ it!
• about finally buying a new sewing machine!!!
• about my weekend photography workshop and how much I learned.
• about fall and Oh, how I love fall!
• about cleaning up the garden and having nearly ripe brussel sprouts!
• about making this and making that.
• and about my halloweenie costume...

My name was Lois (grandma's name). I made my name tag out of shrink plastic (too bad it is too small and sadly pixelated to see), my apron with my new machine, my hair piece from 2 layers of sticky back fabric and my polyester button-up dress is oh so vintage!! Oh and so is the little sparrow pin on my apron..another detail that you can barely see. I won first place at the costume contest at the mettttaaallll show I went to.

My long time friends are in a band called Monolith...they released their 4th CD. It f'ing rocks!

Check them out on their myspace!

Buy their CD!

Image by another long time friend Matthew Lofton and amazing photographer

matthewlofton.com

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Sunflower butter -I mades it.

A few weeks ago I made sunflower butter...I took photos for you but totally forgot about blogging it. It was a pain in the behind and took a long time to make, but it was delicious!

We had several different species of sunflowers growing in the garden. Many of them with the small seeds, like thistle, that fed all of our little finches and even brought in a large family of gold finches! We were all very happy about it, "we" includes the bird-watching kitties. If you live in a subdivision like me with many small trees only a few years old you will have a lack of wildlife and song birds. Planting sunflowers will welcome many birds, bees and butterflies!

I had only a few of the larger sunflowers and the seeds were too large for the finches to eat. If you read often you know I don't like to let anything go to waste. So I thought hard about baking the seeds, saving them for next years garden, but then something inside said, "Make Butter!" And thus I did.

These large sunflowers were actually the first to bloom and the first to die off. The seeds begin white but once they dry out and are ready for harvest they will turn black. I just left them in the garden until the seeds had turned black.

Then I cut off the heads and threw the rest in the compost pile.

I cut the heads in half to make them a bit more manageable. Then I rubbed the seeds right out of the head and into a strainer.

I rinsed them with water to get off any creepy crawlies, dirt, etc. and spread them out on a towel and let them dry overnight. If you want to bake them you would salt before drying or soak in a salt/water bath for some odd hours and then after they dry you could just spread them onto a bar pan and pop them into the oven.

After they were dry I put them into a paper bag and hammered them with the rawhide mallet that I use for hardening sterling silver wire. You can use a regular hammer here, just try not to hit them so hard that you are smashing them. The goal is to open the shell of the seed not smash the seed completely.

Next was the longest process. After hammering the heck out of them, I put them into a bowl of water. The shells should float and the seeds should fall to the bottom of the bowl. Should. But you may find that a handful of seeds do not come out of their shells. I had to pick through the shells on top of the water and crack them open one by one. Blah.

When I was done I scooped out the seeds from the bottom of the bowl, trying to get as little water as possible, and put them in another little bowl to dry a little.

Then I put them into the small cup that goes with my Magic Bullet. There is really no science to the measurements that I used. I cracked some sea salt into the cup...probably only a few cracks since I really only had a small batch of seeds. Then I added some honey, maybe a tablespoon or two, for flavor. I really like honey.



Then I added the flat blade and blended until it was smooth and slightly chunky...

and put it in a cute little jar. I love these little jars. They are the perfect size for little bits of jam or dressing. Keeps in the fridge for maybe a few weeks.

I enjoyed some of mine right away, with Cascadian Farm Blueberry fruit spread and whole grain bread. It was good!

Have a great weekend! ♥

Bird Watching

I spotted my first red-tail of the season this morning in it's usual winter stomping grounds! The weekend before last when we took the railroad we spotted 3 golden eagles, 1 huge eagle's nest and hubby spotted a bald eagle, though it was really far away. That makes me feel better about not being out on the open car and instead stuffing my face. :p It was a nice day, perfect for a train ride. I do wish that the leaves would have been a bit more in change. Last weekend must have been the peak because it was a beautiful ride when I drove to visit my grandparents.

This weekend I am taking a nature photography workshop at Cacapon State Park through the Potomac Audubon Society. It will include early mornings and late evenings so I am excited to experience all of the colors of the day. I'll share what I capture. In the meantime, enjoy a few photos from our train trip. (Click on each image to view a larger version.)

And my personal favorite...

See the golden eagle at the top right corner?

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