New Address

I haven't been blogging because I was having my website developed and it includes my blog.

Please check out my website at www.blainemhunter.com

There is a link to the blog.

Crazy Quilt

I bought this book , Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond by Ruth Chandler, Liz Kettle, Heather Thomas and Lauren Vlcek, a few months ago.

 It is a wonderful book for anyone who likes to make crazy quilts. In it, the authors write about an amazing number of embellishment methods: to name a few, beading, couching, needle felting, and weaving.

One of the chapters is about "deconstructed" crazy quilting. Each block is made of a variety of fabrics placed on fusible stabilizer in a random pattern of fabrics. The example in the book looks very geometric, with squares and rectangles.

I am going to try this method on my stash of construction fabrics. I have rinsed the fabric out and am now drying it. I hope to iron and cut it tomorrow and start the deconstructed crazy quilt this weekend. I can't wait - such fun... I just love new projects!

Train Class

Thursday night we went to model train class in Wallingford, CT. It was amazing to find out the amount of  information we do not know. We listened to four teachers, each of whom has been modelling for years, for two hours. I learned about the differences between product magazines and how-to magazines, between weathered and un-weathered cars, between freight and passenger trains, and between different scales and sizes of models. I was overwhelmed with information, and we have five more classes to go!

For fun today, Bill and I went to Yankee Candle store in Deerfield, MA. It is one of my favorite stores. In addition to candles of every conceivable size and scent, they carry books, home goods, Department 56, and trains. They actually have trains going around the walls near the ceilings! We usually wait until the fall to go there, making a day of shopping and having lunch; but today we wanted to see the trains!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Yankee_candle_shop_flagship_outside.jpg
Slovakjoe at en.wikipedia [CC-BY-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Model Trains

Bill loves model trains and I love Department 56 houses. Is this a marriage made in heaven, or what?

We are taking a class together, starting this Thursday night, in model railroading. Today we went to an event at  Portland (CT) High School and saw some fantastic layouts. Bill loves HO, but the scale is just a tad too small for my two D56 collections, Halloween and North Pole. He will still work with HO, but I like S. It is just the right size. I imagine an S scale train with an orange engine and black cars zipping by Grimsly's Retirement Home and Walter and Larry's Crypt. And what could be cuter than a Christmas train, with a peppermint stripped tanker, flying by the North Pole Cookie Exchange and the Gumdrop Shop?

Not too big, not too small, just right! Where have we heard that before?


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Goldilocks_and_the_3_bears.jpg
By Gaspirtz (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


We didn't see this train at the show, but it gives an idea of what can be done with these detailed models.




http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/US_model_railroad_02.jpg
By Graham Causer, Wombourne, United Kingdom [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Maple Walnut Cake

Today I made cake number 12, Maple Walnut cake. Without going into gory details, I will only say, it was an unmitigated disaster. I have never had a cake so, so - well, so sad. The recipe is now where it belongs, in the circular file.

Basket

Bill and I bought this basket at Michael's around Christmas. I put it on the floor for a few minutes, and when I came back, Mitzi was enjoying it. Bill put one of his old shirts in the bottom of it.

I guess we will have to go buy a new basket!

Another Cake

In the last week I have tried a total of three red velvet cakes. My husband is starting to think I am a little weird. I thought the first one was moist; then Bill told me it was the driest cake he ever had. (Thank you very much...) So I threw the recipe out, and tried one from a Paula Deen Magazine. That one was much more moist because it had 1 1/2 cups of oil in it. But I was not totally satisfied, so tonight I made yet another one. This one uses 2 1/2 sticks of butter. I suspect it will be quite tasty when I try it tomorrow.

I also made a chocolate "party" cake. It was nothing to write home about.

So, since January 1, I have made: 2 Hawaiian wedding cakes, 1 sour cream coffee cake, 1 chocolate party  cake, 1 Tennessee jam cake, 2 chocolate pumpkin cakes, 1 vanilla "party" cake, and 3 Red Velvet cakes. That is 11 cakes, all with different recipes, and we are only in week 7 of the year. I am way ahead of schedule.

At his point, 6 have made the cut as truly acceptable. But I have not yet found my "signature" cake.

I have a Polynesian wedding cake and a Maple Walnut cake to try next week!

Red Velvet Cake

Last night I made a Red Velvet Cake with vanilla frosting. I know these are usually made at Christmas, but since it is close to Valentine's Day, I thought it was appropriate.

It was delicious! The recipe came from an old Family Circle magazine. The only thing I did different from the recipe was make it in an angel food cake pan instead of as a two layer cake, and I used a whole bottle of red food coloring. The color was vivid, and the cake was moist!

The Affair Continues

Mitzi loves her hot water bottle. She just woke up.

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I move her to the chair. She looks pretty irritated.

"Ok," she says. "I will just have to sleep here. Can I have the hot water bottle back?"

Then I decide to sit in the chair! She is so upset she went to sleep on the computer case.

Did I really think I could win? Back on the hot water bottle!

Another day - another cake

Today I tried to make a chocolate pumpkin cake with vanilla frosting. You will notice there is no photo!

I had pumpkin flinging around the kitchen when I lifted the electric beaters out of the bowl, while the mixer was on. After cleaning a good part of the kitchen, throwing my clothes in the laundry, and pulling little pieces of pumpkin out of my hair as I showered, I returned undefeated to the kitchen.

I had enough pumpkin left in the can to start again. This time I left the beaters down until I turned the electric mixer off... It really works much better that way.

I baked the cake. Two eight inch layers. After 35 minutes in the oven, I put them on the cooling rack. I came back and turned the cakes out onto two dinner plates (still haven't bought a fancy cake plate). Well, to be more accurate, I tried to turn the cakes out onto two dinner plates. They were stuck a little in the pans. Ok, they were stuck a lot.

I carefully molded the cakes back together, frosted them and covered them with Saran Wrap. We are visiting our friends Ed and Cindy tomorrow, and I am bringing the cake. I hope it tastes better than it looks.

I have another chocolate pumpkin cake recipe. I'll try that one this weekend and see if the results are better. Maybe it is the pumpkin?

Two More Cakes

Today I tried two more cake recipes.

The first, Hawaiian Wedding Cake, was a disappointment. It was not as moist as I expected it to be. However, I do have another recipe which I will try soon.

                                                   Hawaiian Wedding Cake, Recipe 1

Then I made a Tennessee Jam Cake. It was very good. I used one cup each of orange marmalade, apricot preserves, and peach preserves. Next time I make it I will use three cups of one of those. I think it will make the taste stronger.

                                                                  Tennessee Jam Cake

New goal - get some pretty cake plates!

Lightning Meets the Drysink

Bill and I went to our favorite country store, Margaret's, on rt. 83 in Somers, CT. I love painted furniture and Margaret had a perfect drysink that I fell in love with at first sight. We bought it and loaded into the back of my truck.

When we got home, I put the cats in the basement so we could unload the drysink and not let the cats escape. As soon as it was placed against its new home against the wall, I let the cats out of the basement.

Within seconds, I took these pictures. You can even see the price tag is still on the drawer!

                    He thinks this is a great place!

I don't think you can see me!

Hopefully he will let us decorate the new drysink tomorrow....

Cat Falls in Love

I am cold, even on summer nights. So I always put a hot water bottle in my bed. Last night I put the bottle on the bed, and went down the hall to get a magazine to read. When I came back, Mitzi had fallen in love with the hot water bottle.

Here she discovered the bottle and sat on it.

Then she looked at me, saying "Mom, please let me keep the bottle!"

Before I knew it, she was hugging the bottle.

And finally, she held on to it with such delight, that I decided she could keep it!

I fear that now we will fight over the bottle every night.

Dewey

I love Dewey. What could be better than a book about a library and a cat?

One of the stories the author, Vicki Myron, tells is how close Dewey was when she was recovering from surgery. She says (p. 192): "Nobody understood what I was going through for those two years; nobody, that is, but Dewey. He seemed to understand that love was constant, but that it could be raised to a higher level when it really mattered." I don't know about love between species, although I love Lightning and Mitzi, and they love me. Especially when I am in the vicinity of the can opener. But I do know about love between people.

I found her description of love beautiful - it is constant, always there, supporting us and fulfilling us. But sometimes, when things get bad - which they invariably do during life - love can be raised at a higher level. I think the lover can raise the intensity and expression of that love, and the loved can receive it in a deeper way.

What a nice quotation!

The First Cake

I baked my first cake of the year, chocolate pound cake. Just 51 more to go to reach my goal!

I really enjoyed it, although with 1/2 pound of butter in it, I am afraid to get on the scale tomorrow morning...

As I ate the cake I thought, this is really good. But it is not what I would call a signature cake, one that family and friends will always remember me by, or that will be put in a book of family recipes.

On to the next cake...

Dewey

One of my friends gave me a copy of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World for Christmas. I have to admit I hesitated to start reading it because often sad things happen in animal stories. But that beautiful orange cat's face kept staring up at me from the cover, and I couldn't resist him any longer.

I love the book! It is a very sweet cat story, and plumbs the depths of the human-cat (or cat-human) relationship. The author, Vicki Myron, also weaves an interesting amount of local Iowa history into the tale.

A very good read for cat lovers!