Bee Creative

Holiday Mystery Solved

This has always been one of my favorite holiday ornaments and originally hung on my great grandparents tree, passed down to hang on my grandparents tree and then to mine. I posted a little about this ornament last christmas, so hear is the new twist: 

Walking through an unique toy store with many of the older style of toys, we saw an "Elf on the Shelf" kit - complete with elf and a book. I was tempted to buy the set to find out more but thought I'll google it and see what comes up. I was so pleasantly surprised to find the background story and the missing piece for our family's elf. 

The creator of the "Elf on the Shelf" introduced it to her kids as a way for santa to keep tabs on what the kids where doing. She would bring it out around thanksgiving with the story that the elf would watch the kids and report back to santa if they were being naughty or nice. You can watch a quick YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/user/theelfontheshelf with the animated story - it's cute. The creator used "the elf is watching" to help correct her children's behavior - do you think it'll work on husbands ;-)

Now that I know the story behind this treasured ornament - it's all that more special to me. Happy Holidays.

It's Snowing and Blowing...

The first winter storm of the season is raging outside, making it a great day to spend the afternoon sewing in the studio working on a quilt for my new book. I was going to run and get my hair cut this afternoon but the storm is all the convincing I needed to stay home and work.

A Little Cleaning

Some times you just gotta do it!! I love to work with in my studio but every once and awhile I just got take the time to reorganize it again. Sort all the fabrics according to color, clean out the scrap bin, dust, clean out and so on and so on - you get the picture. But when I'm all done and get stand there and to look at the pretty stacks.....I'm all recharged and ready to tackle something new.

First Snow

During the night, Mother Nature put the landscape to bed for the long slumber of winter with a beautiful blanket of white. This is our first snow, on the first of December and it's the light fluffy kind of snow that sticks to the branches and evergreen boughs - but gratefully it is easily brushed off the car windows. The first snow in our area is usually the cornmeal kind, just little hard kernels of ice that knock on the window pane to announce winter's icy arrival.

I am not a huge fan of winter or what I should say is I like winter, just not six long months of it. To me winter could last about three months. Yep, three months would be good. This year I am counting my blessings because winter has gotten a late start. Sunday was such a beautiful mild day, I washed the windows and put out christmas lights.

This morning I caught the sun as it was passing through this tiny window of sky between two large layers of clouds. The clouds don't look to thick today maybe the sun will make another appearance this afternoon - I HOPE!

As I finish up this post I am already seeing more and more blue sky - It's going to be a GREAT day!

Pear Custard

 Okay, I admit it...I'm a sucker for cookbooks. I've had to set a rule for myself, there has to be a picture for every recipe or the book doesn't go home with me. I like to see what I'm suppose to be creating. Oh, another rule is no crazy ingredients. 

Paul and I often like to nose around the bookstore after a dinner out, not to long ago while browsing the discount books, Paul picked up "Everyday Food: Great Food Fast". After looking it over, he finds me and says "I found a cookbook I think you'll like". My response, which I've rehearsed to myself many times, "You know my rules, lots of pictures and no crazy ingredients". "I know, I think you'll like it" was his reply. After looking through the book, I decided it passed, gave Paul a kiss on the cheek and skipped to the register with my new little cookbook filled with lots of exciting new things to try. 

The first thing I like about this book is the recipes are divided into seasons based on what fruits and veggies are available. There are lots of pictures, each recipe calls for limited number of ingredients and I've learned a few things in preparing food.

Last night we had Pear Custard Pie. It was a nice light dessert and a snap to make. I would like to try it again substituting in different fruit - maybe bananas or apples. The pie is a little big for just the two of us so next time I will make a small pie and pour the rest of the custard into a baking dish. If you like custard you might want to try it, here is my simplified version of the recipe.

Pear Custard Pie
from Food Everyday: Great Food Fast

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 inch pie plate.

2. Peel, core 3 Bartlett pears, slice 1/4 inch thick and arrange in pie plate.

3. In a blender combine, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 2 tsp pure vanilla extract, 3 eggs, 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 tsp salt. Pour batter over pears.

4. Bake at 350 degree (F) 40 to 45 minutes. Custard pie should be golden brown and firm to the touch. Serve warm.

Happy Dance!

I'm so excited to say that my piece Love, Honor, Cherish has been selected to grace the cover of "500 Art Quilts" published by Lark Books. Greens for Dinner will also be included in this collection of outstanding art quilts. Karey Bresenhan had quite a job selecting from over 2000 submissions. 

The book won't be available until March 2010, but you can find out more information at www.larkbooks.com or google 500 Art Quilts. Amazon already has it up on their website as well.

Where's the Sun?

One of the drawbacks to living in upstate New York is the number of grey days. It seems like weeks since the sun has graced us with its presence - shinning its rays of happiness on us. At least there is some color on the leaves and berries of the trees in the yard. There was a hard frost this morning, the colorful leaves won't last long.

Last year we planted three Lime Light Hydrangeas in the back yard. I love hydrangeas but we don't have a lot of shady areas so I jumped at these - they take full sun. They bloomed in August, starting as a light lime green, changing to white and then to this pink recently. I have enjoyed them everyday, giving my heart a little lift to see especially now when so much of the garden flowers have passed. Inspiration for a new fabric line?

Overnight in Yellowstone

This was my second trip to Yellowstone and it was just as memorable as the first. Shortly after arriving we noticed smoke on the horizon from a wildfire in the south east section of the park.  Due to part of the figure eight roadway being closed for construction, we ended up driving right by the fire zone. This picture of the smoke was taken by Yellowstone Lake. It was about 4:30 pm with the sun still high in the sky, but once we passed under the smoke it was suddenly like sunset. The sun was very red through the smoke and cast a red glow to the landscape.

Peg had talked about the smoke filling the valley where she lives and a wildfire north of Helena was quick to demonstrate. One day while we were sewing the wind shifted and before to long the valley was filled and we had to close all the windows. I couldn't see any of the mountains.

We stayed the night in the northern part of the park, near Mammoth, in a first floor room. It was a pleasant night so we decided to leave the window open and enjoy the breeze and "night noises". I'm not sure what time it was but at some point we were bugled awake by the bull elk outside the window. Peg and I sat on the edge of the bed with our noses pressed against the screen watching the elk just outside the window, they were so close we could have reached out and petted one. It was one of those amazing and special experiences we will never forget.

Glad to Be Back

It's been so long since I last posted - so many things to tell you about. Rather than make a really long post, I'll spread them out over the next several days. Let's see, I...

...visited with my sister for a week and a half in Montana. We drove down to Yellowstone for an overnight; I'll post more on that trip tomorrow. We also headed over to Seeley Lake area and visited Deer Country Quilts. A wonderful shop located in a log cabin - great atmosphere to shop in. Peg and I had a great time picking fabrics for several quilt projects, fully taking advantage of having someone else's opinion other than our own. One night was spent near the Charlie Russell Nature Preserve watching the elk come down out of the mountains onto the prairie.

...I've signed a contract with C&T Publishing to author a quilting book for spring 2011. This is so exciting and I have jumped into it with both feet. I will be writing and creating about a dozen quilts for the project. I can't share much more with you at this time but it's all very exciting.

...we hosted the annual October Murty Birthday's/Halloween party. We had a shy dragon, fairy princess, red power ranger, cookie monster, elmo and many other great characters visit us for cake and ice cream.

...Paul and I headed down to Washington DC to see the Solar Decathlon on the "mall". It was a rainy, cold weekend but we made the best of it and toured almost all the homes. It's so neat to see how each of the teams approached the challenge and reach their creative solutions. We ducked inside the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for a little break from the weather and had two great dinners with a friend and one of my cousins.

It's been fun but I am looking forward to spending some time at home getting reacquainted with my studio.

Dreaming of Bears

Did you ever wake up from a dream with a start that leaves you disoriented? You know, the kind where the alarm clock rings and in your dream it's a bomb going off or some such crazy thing? I had one of those dreams last night. 

I'm walking a path in the woods when I hear a growling from behind me. Turning around I see a big brown bear towering over me with long, sharp, shinny white teeth bared - roaring. A side note: Meeting a bear in the woods is a fear I've had for a long time and as much as I love to walk through the woods - there isn't a time that I enter the woods when the thought of a meeting a bear doesn't cross my mind. Anyway, back to the dream, I'm running down the path but I just can't get away from the growling bear behind me. Filled with terror, I awoke with a start - you know, when your whole body shakes you awake. But I could still hear the growling bear - and I know I just woke up!!! I frantically look around trying to get myself orientated and figure it out because this just CAN'T make any sense - I'm in my bedroom. Then I place the noise - It's Paul snoring next to me.

He's been sleeping on his back, propped up by a couple of pillows because of the wisdom teeth extraction - not a normal sleeping position. Usually he doesn't make a peep all night. 

I filled Paul in on my dream this morning and we both had a good belly laugh. A good way to start the day - with laughter. Hope you got a good laugh as well.