Happy Halloween everyone. I hope you have a delightfully creepy one. We have plans for dinner out followed by a small Alfred Hitchcock film festival. (Netflix loaded and ready) What are your plans?
Here are some haunting images from an illustration of Henry James’ Turn of the Screw. This was a short story that truly got under my skin and left me unsettled. Have you read it? I always wanted to discuss it in a book club….
{images via this magical artist}
Posted in Just Life
A little inspiration…
One of my Favorite Movies of All Time!
And your comments!
Well, you talked me into it! And guess what? I LOVE it! Why did it take me so long to do this? I don’t know if I will ever go back…
Never underestimate the wonders a new hair color can do. I feel like a new person! Red feels so perfect for me right now. It’s kind of funny because only two people at work noticed. Them and a very insane crazy man at my coffee shop. I walked in and he declared loudly, “Here’s an Irish girl!” I laughed and misguidedly responded. After confirming my Irish heritage he launched into a long story about his own and how he was directly related to or best friends with every famous Irish person you could possibly think of. (Most notably Michael Collins) Then he asked, “You’ve heard of the IRA War right? -Well I’m the one that ended it. But I’m sure you know that. I was in the papers…”
After launching into some pretty gory anecdotes he started genuinely making people nervous and was asked to leave.
See the adventure that red hair can bring?
Two rather silly things that have been occupying my mind lately: Plaid and dying my hair red. These images from Toast are particularly persuasive…
If you loved all the twiggy wonder of the architecture in Where the Wild Things Are you will especially love these fascinating installations created by Patrick Dougherty.
{all photos via Patrick Dougherty}
I just wanted to say: I loved it dearly. Something about this film just crept into my soul and found a familiar place to stay. This movie resonated with me and so clearly captured pieces of the darker side of childhood that we sometimes like to forget. Here it is both beautiful and sad and I don’t know what else to say, but that I really loved it.
Posted in film
What have I been doing instead of blogging? Well, a few things. Fall is my creative Muse. Perhaps that is a rather grand statement for my humble offerings, but I do love it all the same.
The beginnings of a warm cozy winter blanket…
Embroidery thread I “borrowed” from my mom. Some of it even belonged to my grandmother and still has the 10 cent price tag.
My little gyspy doll for a very special friend of mine. There just may be more gypsies to come!
Among other projects I’m determined to read the full manual for my camera so that I can take better pictures. So many things to do, so little fall.
What have you all been spending your free time with?
This was a very nice weekend. My fella’ and I celebrated five years of togetherness. We spent some cozy time dining and drinking on the cliff above our fair city…
We also headed into the woods a bit. If it wasn’t getting so cold I would have been eager to spend the night out here. I love the forest in the fall.
The rest of my time was spent visiting with family, curling up under warm blankets, turning on the heater for the first time of the season, and roasting my remaining squash into another steaming soup.
Autumn has definitely settled into my little corner of the world.
Posted in Just Life
If you have yet to visit Ruthie’s wonderful blog 5 Precious Things I highly recommend you start reading. She finds the most delightful things to blog about and also features her own beautiful creativity. Today on my visit there I was awestruck by some images she posted of a fantasy faerie wedding. Here are a few of my favorites and more can be found here. I could look at these all day.
Some of my favorite childhood memories involve going to the library and listening to my dad read aloud books to me and my little brother. My dad is a super reader and he was always quite patient about reading the same stories over and over. One of my very favorites was Mrs Gaddy and the Ghost. It’s out of print now, but I’m hoping to find a copy on ebay. I happened to think of it the other day and found a few images to share. It’s the story of a little old lady who lives alone and one day discovers a ghost in her kitchen. If I remember correctly he is sitting on top of her refrigerator and is crying because he is a sad ghost and rather lonely. Mrs Gaddy tries everything to get rid of him and nearly moves out of her house until she realizes that she and ghost can be friends and live happily together. My ghost obsession may have begun with Mrs Gaddy’s ghost. I was so sad that she didn’t like the poor fellow in the beginning! Did you ever read this book? What are some of your favorite childhood books?
Here is the recipe from Martha Stewart Living with a few of my own suggestions. (Sorry Martha, sometimes you are just a little unrealistic…)
-2 1/4 lbs of sugar pumpkin or butternut squash, halved and seeded (The wise lady at the farmers market told me it would be easiest to simply cut the pumpkin in half and roast it flesh side down. This would have been much easier and I should have listened. It all gets pureed in the end, so this is a good suggestion to save time and extra work.)
-1 onion, peeled and quartered through the stem (I found an entire onion slightly over powering and next time would use a little less)
-2 shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and caps wiped clean (I used a more common and less expensive variety and added a little extra than recipe called for. I thought it added a great earthiness to the soup.)
-1 garlic clove, peeled (I added minced garlic from a jar)
-1/2 cup of olive oil
-5 cups vegetable stock (Depending on how thick you like the soup you may use less. I only used about 4 cups)
According to Martha, prep time in about 5 minutes which naturally is quite ridiculous. It took me a good 20 at least to cube pumpkin.
Drizzle the pumpkin, onion, mushroom, and garlic with olive oil and toss with salt. Then roast in oven on a baking sheet for about 40 min. Transfer all to a sauce pan, add vegetable stock and let simmer. In small batches I pureed soup in a blender and then put everything back in sauce pan and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste.
That’s it! The perfect fall soup. If you decide to try it I would love to know how it worked for you. (And any changes you may have made!) Enjoy!
GYPSEA TREE HAS MOVED!
Please visit at: gypseatree7.blogspot.com.
I hope to see you there!
