Happy Halloween

I bought 3 more pumpkins. I know, I have a serious pumpkin problem. These are called Fantasy Pumpkins at Trader Joe's and all I can say is I needed them. They are on display in the house, because the crazy squirrels have eaten completely or taken bites out of every single pumpkin in the yard. I moved two tiny pumpkins to the picnic table and one squirrel was bold enough to just sit there while I watched eating away. The dog can't even keep them away. First it was my tomatoes and now it's my pumpkins. I don't even live in the country. Next year I might have to set up some squirrel traps.

I feel so sorry for all of our little Trick-or-Treater's. It is going to be cold and yucky tonight. We may end up with a lot of leftover Halloween candy. I guess I can send it to work with Alan. His folks enjoy any and all chocolate that they can get their hands on. Hope you have a super Halloween. Time to start planning for Thanksgiving. Is it still too early to listen to Christmas music? Maybe I'll just listen to it in my car.

Saturday Matinee

We saw this movie Saturday afternoon. I'd heard good reviews about it and since it was made by the same folks that did Juno I was pretty sure I'd like it. I have to say that is was quite enjoyable. A little sad, a little funny with a lot of good acting done by young people. Hermione (Sam) can do a pretty good American accent. It was a little weird to hear her talk like that at first, and even by they end, I was still thinking of her as Hermione, but she does a great job. I didn't cry, but then I'm a little cold hearted I guess. The people behind us went through quite a few tissues, so if you go you might want to be prepared.

Sunday In The Forest

Not such a picture perfect weekend weather-wise here in Louisville, but we did manage to squeeze in another fall hike in the woods.

 This sign may look familiar. We hiked here last year. The Jefferson Memorial Forest is only about a 20 minute drive from our house. I wish the sun had been shining just a little bit more, but we were able to do the 3.5 miles in a little under 2 hours with just a couple of rest stops for me.

 If you click on the picture above, it should get bigger and allow you to see Louisville in the background.

We decided not to picnic today, but did enjoy a little snack at the end of the hike. Hot spiced cider and fruit bars were just what we needed.

Unless the weather improves greatly, this might just have been my last hike of the season. The holidays are fast approaching and I know that our social schedule is about to pick up. If all of our Grand Canyon plans work out for next fall we will have to get back in to our hard core training come spring. 

Hope you had a lovely weekend. If you live on the east coast and are dealing with the hurricane, stay safe. David's classes have been canceled for Monday, Norfolk is expecting a lot of rain combined with the full moon, flooding is likely. David may have to swim to class on Tuesday.

Sally

Fabulous Fall Weekend ~ Part 2

 Can you guess what time of year it is? If you guessed "hiking time" you are the winner.  The weather on Sunday was picture perfect and we took total advantage of it.  We headed back to Indiana  to Charlestown State park and hiked trail 3. I'm just going to show you a whole bunch of pretty pictures. Are you ready?

 I told you they were pretty pictures. I'm hoping the leave here in Kentucky will look like this soon. You know my favorite part of the "hike" is the "picnic" after all the hiking is over.  Yesterday we sat by the Ohio river and enjoyed our little feast. Honey Crisp apples are my favorite apple by far.

 They are especially tasty when dipped in caramel sauce.

These little apples were not half bad either. Those Moravian's sure do know how to make a crispy cookie. It made me really happy to see that the cookies were actually apple shaped. So cute.

Not sure where we will hike next weekend. It all depends on the weather.  I'm quite the fickle hiker and if the conditions are not just right I can come up with a ton of other things that "need" to get done. Keeping my fingers crossed for lots more beautiful days to come.

Sally

Fabulous Fall Weekend ~ Part 1

 Even though the weather was not picture perfect on Saturday, Alan was a trooper and drove me to the Southern Indiana Fiber Arts Festival. It was held at the Harrison County Fairgrounds in Corydon Indiana. I'm not kidding about the weather. It was about 48 degrees, cloudy, misty and basically yuck. The trees on the way there were the most beautiful that I have seen so far this fall. Just gorgeous. I felt like I was on sensory overload. Just spectacular. The Fiber Fair was very nice. Not too big, so we were able to walk and shop through all three buildings in a about an hour. They had the cutest llamas and sheep out for viewing. We fell in love with this little fella. His name was Midas and he was the softest thing ever. The little boy showing him off was pretty cute too. I bought some fluff from the shop pictured above and a batt from another shop. I bought some other things as well, but I'm saving them for Christmas gifts so I can't show them to you just yet.

 We met up with our friends on the Corydon square and had a yummy lunch at a little diner called Fredrick's. After lunch we stopped by their house for a cup of hot chocolate and so that Alan could help Gordon move a piece of furniture up stairs. We got home in time to watch a little football. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday in October.

Sally

My New Yarn Bowl

You may remember that last Christmas I bought myself a beautiful pottery bowl to hold my yarn. It was a great bowl. I used it all the time. Last week my poor bowl got broken when George decided to stretch and knocked it off the ottoman. I'm sure it was all my fault for putting there, but I'm still blaming George. I was sad about it for a little while and then when I got over moping, I went online and ordered a new one.

I found it in an Etsy shop and it's even more beautiful than my first one. It's a little bigger and rounder and seems to "hug" my cake of yarn nicely. I got it from Ning's Pottery and it was made by the very talented ceramic artist Ke Ning Dauffenbach. If you are in the market for a yarn bowl, I would highly recommend that you check her out. www.ningswonderworld.etsy.com

Here is a little sneak peek at my hat and fingerless mitts that I'm currently working on I hope to have them finished today. Alan and I are going to go to the Southern Indiana Fiber Arts Festival tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm hoping to find some lovely local fiber to spin. We are also planning to meet some of our Indiana friends for lunch. Sounds like a perfect Saturday to me. Hope you have plans for a perfect weekend too.
Sally

New Favorite Thing

 This super cool tool made by the lovely people at Pampered Chef (who have absolutely no idea who I am) was brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago, by one of my fellow Weight Watcher friends. It is called a Potato Chip Maker, and while it does make pretty amazing 0 fat potato chips, we have been using it mostly to make apple chips. It's so easy and the results are fun and delicious.

 All you do is grab an apple, cut it in half and position the flat side down on the holder prongs.

 Set the slicer tool on it's thinnest setting and slide the apple back and forth across the cutting blade.

 It will make the thinnest apple slices that you have ever seen

 Here is the secret. Lay the apple slices out on layers of paper towel and blot out as much moisture as possible. The dryer you can get them the better.

 Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. I usually make my own, but I've found that the sugar in this little bottle from Kroger is more fine and sticks better to the apples.

 Lay the apple slices on the silicon cooking trays

Microwave for 3 minutes on high. Switch the trays. Put the bottom one on top and then microwave for another 3 minutes. My microwave tends to have "hot spots", so during the second 3 minutes I reduce the power to 70% to keep the center chips from getting too brown.

 Lay them out on a cooling rack for just a minute or so. They seem to crisp up as they cool.

One apple fills this sandwich bag and makes an easy snack to eat at my desk. Everyone that's tasted them  has loved them. Thank you Pampered Chef!

Sally

New Recipe Alert

I just wanted to let you know that I finally got around to adding a new recipe to the I Love the Taste of... tab at the top of the blog. It's for the yummy Autumn Vegetable Soup you see in this picture. Fall in a cup.

Sally

Weekend With Grace

Grace finished her mid-term exams and decided she needed to take a little break

 I think she was missing her cat and maybe sleeping in her own bed just a bit.

 She also wanted to check out all of the Halloween decorations at the zoo.

 The weather was pretty perfect Saturday morning, but the wind really picked up by the afternoon

 Alan's dream job has always been to be a UPS delivery guy. I bet you didn't know that about him did you?

After the zoo visit we checked out a yarn shop called Grinny Opossum over the river in Indiana and then we went to see the movie ARGO. We all enjoyed it. Grace learned all about the hostage crisis. It's hard to believe that it happened so long ago. Ben Afflec did a great job and in my opinion was probably at his cutest.
Hope you had a fun weekend!
Sally

It's All About The Spinning

 I don't want to go on and on about how much I am enjoying my spinning wheel, but since it is taking up a big chunk of my time I thought you should know that I'm still at it. This is the yarn that I made last weekend. I am just over the moon happy with how well it turned out. I am going to knit myself a hat out of. I'm not really a hat wearing kind of girl. Hats tend to mess up my short hair in a very unattractive kind of way. However, last weekend when Alan and I took the dog for a walk I could have really used a nice warm hat to keep my ears from freezing off, which they almost did.

 Next up on my wheel will be this gorgeous fall colored fluff. I wish you could feel how soft it is. It's heavenly.

 Don't you just love the name. I might have bought it just because it's called Indian Corn. Really, you can't get much more autumn than that.

Maybe next week I will be able to let you see how it turns out. I'm already trying to think of what I can knit out of it. I have to work hard to keep from getting ahead of myself. Slow down Sally.

Have a great day!
Sally