Fall Flowers

I have two urns in front of my garage that I use for all the seasons. I do not have photos of what I did for Winter. All I did was cut down some evergreen branches and stuck them in the pots and added red velvet bows. That was not one of my better ideas. It looked okay but the wind would catch the branches and they acted as sails and it would knock over the urns. I love my urns. It was one of the first things I bought when we moved into this house. They match the brick perfect. They look okay but my husband has jury rigged these for me so many times now. I cross my fingers every time he repairs them for me.

Summer this year. Not crazy about it. When I had the time this year, there was not much of a selection and my husband was with he is a cheap-sake. I am defiantly going to get more creative next summer

This is for Halloween . When Halloween is over I can take out the flamingos and Halloween signs and just have fall decorations. They will  look nicer when the mums bloom.

Adult Coloring (the not so new fad)

 An estimated 12 million adult coloring books were sold in the United States. Supposedly people find it therapeutic. Once again I am behind the trend. For at least a year I have seen women in our break room coloring in adult coloring books. I was mildly interested. My daughters boyfriend has a five year old. This got me looking at coloring supplies. I would pick her up Lisa Frank things here and there. I am a sucker for her stuff. I love me some unicorns. I recently seen at the Dollar Tree adult coloring books. I picked up 2 of them. My thoughts were if this turns out to be another hobby I'm not so thrilled about I am not out much money. Well the school supplies came out in all the stores and I naturally had to buy the biggest box of crayons they make. That really brought back some memories. The box is even bigger then the one I had as a kid. The smell of those crayons was amazing. Even though I had 120 colors to choose from I picked my favorite childhood crayon of all time. Magenta. As a child I loved everything about that crayon. The color, the name, and even how the wrapper was a lighter color then the crayon. Most of the crayons wrappers were the same color as the crayon. The Magenta just seemed so special. Even now I want to say Magenta, Magenta! I kinda want to get a kitty and name her Magenta. If you think you might enjoy coloring, check out The Everyday Goth the coloring books on this blog are really pretty.

The one I had as a kid probably looked like this

Dollar Tree coloring books and the biggest box of crayons. Still do not know why I had to buy the biggest box? I guess I am still a greedy little child.

There is almost too many. I think it would be overwhelming for a child to pick out a color. 

My daughter colored in the top book and I did the bottom one using just Magenta for the flower. That is as far as we got. Its really boring. 

I Love New York!

My brother who I have not seen in a couple of years was cleaning out a storage unit and came across a nativity set I had given him years ago. He texted me "How is your summer?" I texted him "My summer is a boring drag. Invite me out." Then I text him "Answer Me" He text me back "Come Out."
The next thing you know I am on a plane. I won't post tons of pictures (just a few) and bore everyone. I just want to say that I think this is how I am going to do vacations from now on. It was spontaneous, exciting and so much fun. Not planning, no stress and having no unrealistic expectations was fantastic. Best of all was having one on one time with my brother. He is one of the most beautiful people on the planet.

My and my brother Ronnie in Central Park

This was from a boat tour

Time to Prune

I am trying to get myself into a better place. A few things are helping me. One is reading blogs and keeping up on my own blog. The second thing is pruning my poor neglected garden. I want a Gothic Garden. I have been working on this for awhile. I call this Garden "Ancient Enchantment". I hope the name gives an idea of the look I am going for. Here are the BEFORE pictures.

Below are the AFTER photos. I did not rip out anything. I did prune the heck out of the peonies. I do love them. They are Magenta. I think next spring I will cut them back as soon as they are done blooming. They block the sun for my other flowers. I think I like my garden before? Maybe its like a new haircut. It looks better in a few weeks. Hopefully all my hard work shows next summer.

I think this might be the third year for this Rose in my Dark Garden. I thought this was "Mr. Lincoln" but its looking more Scarlet then the deep luxurious Red I love. I will have to compare it to one of the roses that I just planted that I know for sure is Mr. Lincoln when it blooms. Mr. Lincoln is one of my favorites of the cheap Red Roses I buy from Menard's. They look like Red Velvet and smell rosey and fruity at the same time. Its on the cusp of being zone five so wish me luck.

This is my Hibiscus. It is very Dark Red. I think its name is "Big Red" not very romantic. They could have come up with way better. Perfect for my Dark Garden. I cannot cut it back yet. It still has some buds on it. I think I will cut it back right away in the spring so it will bush out more instead of letting get get tall and stringy.

This is a Purple Geranium! I had no idea they came in Purple. Its name is "Contessa Purple". Unfortunately where I live these are an annual. The nursery in my town let me have the annuals for a dollar a piece since they are on their last legs.

This Rose in front of the Lion I think is called Carrousel. I am not crazy about it.
The Roses are little and they are not all Red. They Are Red and White. I might mail order the Darkest Rose in the World and put in this spot  next spring. You cannot see it but this year I had a Black Hollyhock! I thought he was dead. I am not sure if they come back or just reseed. It is done for the season so I did not bother to take a picture.

These are Dahlias and Mums. Nothing special but it is some desperately needed color.

 

These are Verbana. One of the few flowers that still looked okay at the nursery. They talked me into them.

The brown leaves behind the Iris is a brand new Hibiscus I bought from the nursery. It is done for the season. Its called "Plum Fantasy". I looked it up and I think it is going to be more Fuchsia then a Dark Plum. I am kicking myself because last week I seen one with the word Black in its name and I did not buy it.

I added three roses that were in pots on my deck. They are not happy. It was pretty hot today. I hope they make it. They are Mr. Lincoln, Oklahoma and probably Mirandy.

The Flowers and especially the Roses did not look good at the nursery. I asked why and they said it was too wet this season. Now I don't feel so guilty about my garden. They are professionals and they had a hard time. I have identified two of my problems when it comes to gardening. I am sure I have more problems then two. One is I think I might be cramming to much it to a small space. The second one is that I take to many free things from people. Free things are free for a reason. They get invasive. I know there are people within a 50 mile radius that are cussing me out right now because of my White Irises.  Sometimes the Roses love fall in my area. I will post some photos if they decide to put on a show.

Caramel-Walnut Star Cookies Recipe

 

Toasted nuts

I chopped the nuts after I toasted them

Raw

This was easier then I thought it would be.  I just followed the directions on the back of the chocolate chips.

Cooked and glazed

I made these today.  Not sure if I would make them again.  They are a lot of work.  The dough is really dry.  I wrapped it in plastic wrap and squeezed it a bit.  I always roll out my cookie dough with powder sugar instead of flour.  The caramel glaze is a little tricky.  I have been meaning to buy a small whisk.  That would have helped.  The recipe does not say how to toast nuts.  I toasted them for almost 10 minutes in the oven and kept shaking them.  I was so afraid of burning them. I only had 22 cookies.

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 30 min. Bake: 15 min./batch + chilling

MAKES: 24 servings

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cold butter
• 2 tablespoons 2% milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup ChoppedWalnuts, toasted
• 24 Walnut Halves
• 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted
• GLAZE:
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, cubed
• 1 tablespoon 2% milk
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°. In a small bowl, combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in milk and vanilla, then walnuts.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a 3-in. star-shaped cookie cutter dipped in flour. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Press a walnut half in the center of each. Bake 12-15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.
3. Spread bottoms of cookies with melted chocolate. Place chocolate side up on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate until set.
4. For glaze, in a small saucepan, bring brown sugar and butter to a boil. Cook and stir 30 seconds. Remove from the heat; cool 5 minutes. Whisk in milk until smooth. Stir in confectioners' sugar. Immediately drizzle over top of cookies. Let stand until set. Yield: 2 dozen.

To Make Ahead: Dough can be made 2 days in advance. Iced cookies can be stored for 1 week in an airtight container at room temperature or frozen for up to 1 month.

North and South the miniseries

I am a sucker for mini series.  I seen this coming up on the Sundance channel so I DVR'd it.  I thought I would watch just for the beautiful dresses and pretty rooms.  Imagine my surprise when one of the main characters turns out to be Patrick Swayze dressed like a southern gentleman in some heart pounding tight pant.  Oh and the ladies have some really nice dresses and there are some pretty rooms too.

So dirty!

Does this need a caption?

There are better ones of his pants then this one but  couldn't get them to download.

His face is really nice too!