Someone's been busy...

...and it hasn't been moi.

Ken's not one to be idle for  long. His first passion is restoring or building, whichever is the proper terminology, his Model A speedster. (It seems like he's restoring it, given all the antique parts he has spiffed up for it, but I'm quite sure he has said he's "building" it.) The winter's been a cold and snowy one, though, so Ken hasn't spent much time in his workshop, despite its cozy wood stove.

Instead, much to my delight, he has been getting several projects done in the house.

If you look at the first photo, you'll see our "new" dining room. It's not actually new, of course, but the wallpaper, which I knew I hated even as Ken was putting it up about nine years ago, is finally gone. In early January Ken stripped off the cussed paper, meticulously prepared the walls for paint, and did the painting. There were a few tense moments, I'm not going to deny it, while the entire contents of the dining room sat in a pile in the middle of the dining room floor, but it was worth it. I'm much happier with the new look. Also, he removed our former ceiling light, which made us feel as if we were the subjects of a police interrogation no matter how few of the six bulbs were lit, and put up a Tiffany-sorta ceiling light. It's much more conducive to enjoyable dining and conversation, no doubt about it. I wish I'd thought to turn on the ceiling light when I snapped this picture. Thank you, Lowe's, for your many contributions to this project!

After finishing the dining room make-over, which I know darned well Ken did to get it out of the way so he could move on to what he really wanted to do, he returned to a project he'd started last winter: finishing off the spare room above our bedroom and making it into his new study. He chose to use beadboard on the ceiling and walls, which I, personally, would not have chosen for the entire room, but hey, it's his room, he's the one who has to look at it, and heaven knows he's the one who did all the work finishing it off anyway. Also, Ken admitted he just wasn't up for wrestling with sheetrock. I understood his point immediately, for he and I spent many winter nights, back when we first bought our old house and were in-shape newlyweds, wrestling with sheetrock as he finished off the upstairs bedrooms. The memories from that experience are not pleasant ones, especially the memories that include the sheetrock's buckling and splitting as we tried to lift it to the ceiling. Bad memories, those.

So back to Ken's study. I do plan to make new curtains for it. I have the fabric, in fact, and am now waiting for the inspiration to arrive. It should pull into the driveway any day now.

Now for my favorite of Ken's winter projects: the new guest room! It was once Ken's old study, but you've read the above and understand how that room became available to make into a guest room. Ken painted the ceiling and walls, we moved the furniture from the old guest room into the new guest room, and voila! I love it. Sometimes I go upstairs just to open the guest room door and stand and admire it. The walls are a soft aqua, called "Sage Bud" by the Valspar paint company, and that color seems to be perfect for the room.

That leaves the old guest room totally empty at the moment. I did choose the paint at Lowe's on Monday, but here's the thing: I dislike the paint already. I don't know what possessed me to select a pale peach, which is actually a much darker peach than I thought I was choosing. I knew, as the sales lady was sealing the cover onto the paint can, that I'd just made a mistake. I'm trying to think of a way out of this dilemma, or this story will come full-circle, won't it. (See above: dining room wallpaper....)

Baking Spree

I've been on a bit of a baking spree this morning, after weeks of not much baking.

Ken loves English muffin loaves, so I made a double-batch (four loaves) of them. Then I threw ingredients into the bread machine for some yeast rolls. In both recipes I replaced some of the flour with "Lola's Fix'n's," a recipe given to me by my sister, who got it in St. Croix, I think. It's a mixture of sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, caraway seeds (which I leave out. Don't like the flavor.), rye flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ, old fashioned oatmeal, potato flakes, and cornmeal. You mix up a huge batch of this and freeze it, then add it, a cup at a time, to your bread recipes, in place of a cup of the flour called for in the recipe. I figure at the very least it adds a lot of texture to the breads; at most it also adds a great deal of nutrition.

As I said, I made a double-batch of English Muffin bread. It's quick and easy, but if I were making it for the first time, I'd make a single batch. I've had this recipe for many, many years. It comes from a Fleischmann's Yeast flyer:

English Muffin Loaves

6 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

2 T. or 2 pkgs. active dry yeast (Fleischmann's, of course)

1 T. sugar

2 t. salt

1/4 t. baking soda

2 c. milk (powdered, with water added, is fine)

1/2 c. water

Cornmeal

Combine 3 c. flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Heat milk and water until very warm (120-130°F). Add to dry ingredients. Beat well with electric mixer. Stir in remaining 3 c. flour to make stiff batter. Spoon into two 8 1/2"X4 1/2"X2 1/2" loaf pans that have been greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. Sprinkle tops with cornmeal. Cover; let rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes. (I prepare a "warm place" by putting a 4 c. measure, filled with 2 c. water, into my microwave, bring it to a boil, then set the pans of dough in the microwave (without turning it on!) for 30 minutes or so.) Remove from microwave and bake at 400°F for 25 minutes. Remove from pans and cool. This is delicious sliced and toasted.

Breadmaker Rolls

This recipe comes from my aunt in New Brunswick. Again, it's a recipe I've used for years. (For good cooking and baking, you can't beat a New Brunswick native!)

1 1/4c. water

2 eggs

4 T. shortening (I use canola oil)

2 T. milk powder

2 T. sugar

1 t. salt

4 c. flour

1 1/2 t. dry yeast

Put in bread machine on dough cycle. Shape into rolls and let rise (in microwave, as above) until doubled (about 30 minutes). I use a 7X11" baking pan, making 15 rolls. Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes. Turn onto cooling racks to cool.

Lola's Bread Fix'n's

1/2 c. sunflower seeds (untoasted)

1/4 c. poppy seeds

1/2 c. sesame seeds (untoasted)

2 t. caraway seeds

3 c. rye flour

4 c. whole wheat flour

1 c. wheat germ

2 c. old-fashioned (NOT quick-cooking) oatmeal

1 c. potato flakes

3/4 c. cornmeal

Stir well and store in plastic bag in the freezer. Use 1 cup per batch of bread (in place of one of the cups of white flour called for on your recipe).

Happy Baking!

Molly's Brief Modeling Career

I guess I'd secretly hoped Molly Brown might some day pursue a career in modeling. I mean, with her dark chocolate coat, her big, loving eyes, her rather svelte figure, how could she miss being a runway hit?

So I knit this Palindrome scarf in a pale teal, and I couldn't help thinking how lovely it would look on our Molly, how her rich color would complement the scarf's teal. 

                                                                                                                                                                      Then I set up a photo shoot, as they say in the business, collected the model (or, actually, went to where she was lying), draped the scarf around her neck, and started shooting.

I was hoping her vibrant personality would, if you'll excuse the pun, come unleashed once she spotted the camera in front of her. I thought her inner Heidi Klum might emerge. Our girl did not, however, warm to the occasion, to put it bluntly. 

  

She waited for me to quit humoring myself at her expense, is what it boiled down to.

 

I couldn't help but think of this Far Side cartoon, one of my favorites. 

I Could Hardly Believe My Own Eyes

Hiding behind this snowbank, in a warm spot against the house, I found today....

these snowdrops.

Who says spring isn't almost here??

A Taste of Spring

Since spring can't be found outdoors in Maine this time of year, Ken and I gave ourselves a little treat last week by going to the Portland Flower Show. We weren't disappointed. The smell of the rich earth, the sound of running water, the sight of blooming flowers...all of them let us escape reality for a few hours and pretend spring had arrived.

 

I'm always amazed at the amount of work the various exhibitors put into creating their gardens. Look at this waterfall, for instance.

And this granite table!

I loved the daffodils and hyacinths. Somewhere under the deep snow in my gardens, I have daffodils and hyacinths, too....

The white tulips against the huge urn made a pretty arrangement.

More beauty.

That's a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick, a contorted hazelnut, just in front of the red tulips. (Double click on the photo if you'd like to see it more clearly.) That's something I want to add to my garden. I also see a Japanese maple to the left. I'd love to have one of these, too, but they don't grow all that reliably in southern Maine. I've seen these in Wiscasset, which is farther north, but I suppose the ocean air there provides milder temperatures.

 

Many vendors, selling everything from houseplants to jewelry, fudge to plant pots, and packaged herbs to...YARN!...added even more interest to the event. I came home with 15 Asiatic and Oriental lily bulbs from Maplecrest Lilies in East Parsonsfield, Maine. The vendor at this stall assured me the bulbs can go into the ground as soon as the soil is workable. I don't have to wait until "all danger of frost is past," which is good news here in southern Maine, where "all danger of frost is past" in late May.

It was a bit of a shock for us to step outside the flower show building and back into the real world of winter, but the brief visit with spring was worth it.

Making the Best of a Miserable March Day

Today has been a drizzly, chilly, yucky  kind of day, which is perfect for March, if you ask me. March is my least favorite month. If we could go straight from February to April, my world would be a much happier place.

Ken and I decided to spice things up a bit this morning by doing some errands. We needed an area rug for Ken's new study. Finishing this study has been Ken's winter project. He actually started it last winter but ran out of steam, but he decided to get back to it this winter. The study is located over our master bedroom. It's a room that was left unfinished when we had the house built ten years ago. We'd been using it for a spare storage area, and I wasn't convinced it was large enough to become a study, but I was once again proven wrong. As of this morning the study was finished except for an area rug on the floor. We went to good ol' Reny's (a Maine adventure, for sure) and found just the rug. It has a nautical theme, which fits in well with our near-coastal living; it's just the right size, and the price was manageable, which is true of most anything one finds at Reny's. The quality is there, too.

So we bought the rug, then headed to Lowe's to select paint for what will now be our second guest room. It's Ken's former study, in other words, and it now sits empty. Ken chose the ceiling paint, because he always paints a ceiling before painting the walls of any room. I chose the wall paint. It's called "Sage Bud," and it's that pale greenish-blue of a pot of sage growing on one's windowsill. 

Then Ken asked if I'd like to stop to look around at TJ Maxx. TJ's is probably my favorite store, because there are always bargains galore beckoning to me. I spotted a pair of wedge heels, Anne Klein, that I loved, but I couldn't justify buying them, so I left the store empty handed.

After TJ's we went to Applebee's for lunch. I was craving a quesadilla burger. I met my first quesadilla burger two years ago in Miami, and I've never looked back. Lordy, they're good. I do ask the waitress to go light on the cheese, though. Otherwise, the burger's so drowned in cheese that the burger itself is almost unnoticeable.

As we were eating, I happened to mention the shoes I'd spotted at TJ Maxx. Ken asked why I hadn't bought them. I said I didn't really need new shoes, I just liked them.

 

We finished eating and got into the car to head home. That's when Ken said, "Let's go get those shoes you liked." I protested, but not too much, and soon we were back at TJ's. The rest, as you can see, is history. I love these shoes! And on the way home, as I sat clutching the bag they were nestled  in, I remembered I have a spring jacket that matches these shoes perfectly.

The new carpet is resting comfortably in Ken's study. He's now filling nail holes in the soon-to-be guest room before he starts painting (He's a perfectionist), and my shoes are happily resting in my closet.

These shoes had me at hello, I swear.

The Rabbit's Out of the Hat

I liked the way Caryn, in her comment about my last post, compared the knitting of this Baby Surprise Jacket to pulling a rabbit out of a hat. She nailed it precisely. So, as you can see, the rabbit is, officially, out of the hat.

With the little bit of leftover yarn I whipped up a matching hat (sans rabbit).

It's snowing here again today, with 8-14" of the lovely stuff forecast. The State of Maine is essentially shut down. If I were still a teacher, I'd be worrying about having to make up yet another no-school day. Now that I'm retired, though, IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM!

The birds cozy-up to my feeders on storm days. Here we have my faithful male cardinal. I haven't seen his mate in weeks and am getting worried. Usually if he's at the feeder, she's nearby awaiting her turn.

Gold finches and purple finches have been steady customers at the feeder all morning. I need to go out and put a fresh suet cake in the suet cage for them. The thought of wading in the deep snow doesn't have all that much appeal though.

afghans for Afghans has sent out a plea for handknit ladies' woolen socks, so that's my next knitting project. The socks are needed by March 12, so I'd better dig into my yarn stash and get this project under way, post haste. Hope I can get them done by the dealine.

According to rumor, spring is something like 19 days away. I hope Mother Nature has glanced at her calendar recently....