The Crowning Touch

Michael over at Inspired By Charm is hosting a link party today where he has invited his readers to join him in sharing a makeover inspiration from a thrift store find.  Here's a close up of my entry. 

Can you guess what it is?  Or was? 

What it was, was a dispenser to keep rolls of either foil, plastic or wax paper handy in the kitchen.  Below each spindle is a bar with a serrated edge for cutting.  It was priced at $1.99 from my local Goodwill. 

It's new purpose will be to help inspire me in my craft area. 

It will be mounted on the wall of my newly redone space and I will use it as a place to gather and hold adornments for the crowning touch on my future hat creations. 

But there is another reason why I want it in there. 

Because it was inspired by the memory of my Grandmother Mayfair, who passed away 29 years ago today, who I can still envision all dressed up and wearing a hat. 

Linking up with Michael at Inspired By Charm. 

Home Made Dark Chocolate Nonpareils

Sometimes I just crave these.   Although you may know them as "snow caps." 

Making them at home is so simple.  Get out your double boiler and pour a half bag of Hershey's special dark chocolate morsels in the top.  I don't have an official double boiler, so I use one of my sauce pans with a tin mixing bowl.  They get all melty in just a matter of minutes so as soon as you see them start to melt, stir and go ahead and remove the pan from the heat. 

 Next, just pour your sprinkles into a small shallow tray. 

Then drop half teaspoonful circles of the melted chocolate right on top, making sure you have a nice bed of nonpareils (sprinkles) underneath.  If they are too shallow you won't get an even coverage and they may stick to the bottom of your tray.  (Just don't ask me how I know this.) 

Then, very gently shake the tray a little from side to side to help level out the chocolate a bit.  Some of the circles will turn out a little larger than others, just be careful to leave plenty of room so they don't touch each other.  (But don't worry, if any of them happen to accidentally stick together, I recommend you just pop them into your mouth, no sense flaunting our mistakes.) 

Then put them in the fridge for about 10 minutes or so and that's all there is to it!  I've tucked a few into a little French inspired box for later. 

You want some don't you?   So did I.  It's a bad craving.  Here are some more colorful ones I made. 

 

Yesterday's sunset at Sullivan Harbor. 

A sweet place to walk off the calories of my bad cravings.  N'est-ce pas?

The Arrival of Fall

It was still pretty green here last Thursday when I made my first apple pie of the season.  But for some reason the smell of apple pie coming from the kitchen is a signal to Henri that leaf peeping must begin immediately. 

Just needs the top crust and into the oven it will go.   But my mind was on an early rise in the morning so this is the last you will see of the pie.  For the record, it was YUM. 

The next morning, we were up before the crack of dawn and headed to the Western mountains of Maine with our sights set on Rangeley.   The foliage was at full peak, even though my attempts to capture it were thwarted by the glare and shadows created by the noon day sun. 

While parked and enjoying our picnic lunch, we watched as this seaplane descended and I managed to find my camera just in time to catch a shot of it's water landing. 

One of Henri's captures. 

He even found a white pumpkin for me in Rangeley and then later, surprised me with a carving.  Check out my newly created galvanized pedestal stands that I'm using to display my pumpkins.   All it took was riveting some affordable hardware store parts together with some flan pans I found at Goodwill. 

The green pumpkin is a cross between a buttercup and a blue Hubbard. Using dried hydrangeas and zinnias from my garden, I had fun arranging them into fall vignettes, tucking them into a rustic, wooden tool caddy I found while thrifting. 

This corn is from last year.  Glad I saved it as the colors are still pretty vibrant. 

 I took this picture just yesterday over in Blue Hill of the blueberry barrens just coming into color.  Soon it will be peak foliage here too. 

A shot from Sorrento Harbor, where rain is in the forecast, after our nearly week-long stretch of warm, sunny weather.   

  

But this rain is really just a figment of my imagination.   The above photo was made using a free stock texture found here and pairing it with my own photograph by using the software program called Gimp that you can download for free here.  Pretty cool, huh?