Flowers, Flowers, Flowers!

My last post inspired me to take some pics of the flowers in bloom in my yard as well.. so here they are! Enjoy!

My Yard…

I’m posting “just a few” pictures of my yard this July… thought it would be fun to give a virtual tour. From the Top Left:

1-My Completed Picnic Table! Whahoo! The boys were watching birds in the apple tree on it.

2-My four Acorn Squash plants in pots this year.. they seem to be doing quite well!

3-My new garden bed with 2 Pumpkin plants, 2 Pepper plants and lots ‘o carrots!

4-My existing garden beds with tomatoes, artichokes, thyme (3 varieties), oregano, rhubarb, chives, onions, garlic, parsley, italian parsley, lemon balm, mint, and terragon.

5-View of the back of the house and my cool Wisteria!

6-Pole Beans in the old hot tub (and Rat Cat)

7-Onion blooms along my back fence

8-Pots full of strawberries, tomatoes, and flowers!

9-Apples growing on the tree (we’re going to have TONS this year)

10-Ivy on the garage and flower bed along the garage

11-Volunteer sunflowers and moonflowers in the yard, and all along the back fence.

12-Volunteer potatoes in front of the compost bin

13-Front view of the house and flower beds… on the left, very tall Hollyhocks, on the right, very large Clematis.

14-New Butterfly bush along with volunteer moon flowers and sunflowers

15-Close up of the gorgeous Clematis!

So there you have a tour of my yard! I will make sure to post photo’s of the Sunflowers when they bloom!

Shelby's Purse!

My niece Shelby in Texarkana TX graduated High School this year. I decided she needed a new purse for her accomplishments!

I used the "Bow Tucks Tote" pattern by Quiltsillustrated, and incorporated Stacie's idea of using the charm pack patchwork squares.

I used 'Spirit' by Lila Tueller for the squares, and some cute Walmart fabric for the accents and lining.

Turned out way cute! Now I've just got to get it in the mail!

Antique Roses

Aren't these the most gorgeous roses?

They're miniature antique roses growing wild behind my garage... my neighbors used to have a fence full of them, but they took them out a couple of years ago.

I encouraged the remaining on my portion of the fence to keep coming over my way...

I've been threading the very sticky, teeny tiny thorned branches through the fence for the past couple of years.

This year we have a fair amount of blooms. I had to capture them for inside the house.

Totally loving them.




I hope they continue to thrive back there, and fill in that portion of our back fence.

Excellent theft deterrent!

And yes, you may call me Martha for a moment...

Gonna have to try this soon!

Found here at SimplyRecipes.com

Thanks Stace!

Lemon Rosemary Zucchini Bread

Posted by Elise on Jul 8, 2011

Filed under Bakery

I'm on a mission this summer. A mission out of necessity, resulting from the abundance of certain summer squash I planted in my parents' garden. Four plants. What was I thinking?! One zucchini plant alone could feed a family of four. Every time I stop by my parents' house my mother glares at me accusingly. Actually, she's not the glaring type. It's more like a bemused look that says, "we have a problem, and it's your fault," along with an offer to cook me up some squash (she has an excellent recipe) and a plea to give some to me to take home.

3 days worth of summer squash (and a couple lemon cucumbers) from the garden

So the mission? Come up with recipes that we all like and that use a lot of summer squash. For this I have been experimenting with zucchini bread for the last two weeks. We have a couple fine zucchini bread recipes on the site, but I was hoping for something a little more savory. I tried all sorts of combinations, experiments with cheddar, with Parm, jalapenos, etc. Mom's response to most of them, "good if you toast them and then put sugar and butter on them." Not good enough. Finally I succumbed to the classic somewhat sweet zucchini bread, but seasoned it with rosemary and lemon, so you get a savory note. More than good enough. Really good. My conclusion is that zucchini bread works well with sugar. Here we use 1 1/4 cups for 3 cups of zucchini and 3 cups of flour. So, it's not a lot, but it's enough to make a lovely, lightly sweet bread.

One of the raised beds, with a patty pan and a zucchini

Lemon Rosemary Zucchini Bread Recipe

• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 3 cups (390 grams) flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 Tbsp minced fresh rosemary
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoons salt (omit if using salted butter)
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest
• 3 cups grated zucchini (from about 1 pound of zucchini)

Method

1 Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare two 4x9-inch loaf pans, either coating with butter or spraying with baking spray.

2 In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and rosemary.

3 Beat the eggs in a mixer (or by hand) until frothy. Beat in the sugar. Beat in the melted butter and olive oil. Stir in the lemon zest and grated zucchini.

4 Add the dry ingredients to the wet, a third at a time, stirring after each incorporation.

5 Divide batter/dough into two loaf pans. Bake in a 350°F oven for 45 to 50 minutes. Test after 40 minutes. If you gently press down on the surface of the loaf, it should bounce back, and a bamboo skewer inserted into the center should come out clean.

6 Remove from the oven. Let cool for a few minutes and then remove the loaves from their pans to cool on a rack.

Yield: Makes two loaves.

E-Fannie Vintage Sheet Quilt

E-Fannie? You ask?

This is my vintage sheet quilt that my sister Shannon finished quilting for me in June.

She and her family came up for the 4th of July, and she brought the quilt home to me! As I was binding it today, I came across a mysterious word quilted into the bottom left corner. (Pictured in the 3rd photo, but very hard to actually see it).

From the back of the quilt, the word looked like, "Canooddle" (photo 2)... which didn't make ANY sense to me, so I called her up to see what it was!

It HAD BEEN "Steffanie" from the front however, as I readied the quilt for binding, I trimmed off the "S". Then, as I bound the quilt, the "t" got covered up. So we were left with "effanie" (or einaffe...which somehow looked like canooddle from the back...don't ask).

Shannon and I joked about it being an Effanie quilt, then I though of E-Fannie (like E harmony... Electric Fannie!) I told Shannon she had just named my quilt!

It then came out that she had also quilted "Gypsy Bandana" into it (photo 1... also hard to see). How cool is that?

So this is now my E-Fannie Vintage Sheet Quilt!
Isn't it awesome?

Thank you, thank you for the quilting (and the name) Shannon!


P.S.... I was thinking about making pillow cases out of the leftover sheet scraps, but then thought.. duh, it's a vintage sheet quilt made up of tons of different sheets.. all my current pillowcases will already match! Ha!


Now I can make a cool bag or something out of the scraps!

Coolest Piggy Bank and Bug Fabric Ever!

I ran to Rod Works with Shellie today, and found the cutest stinking piggy bank EVER!




I mean really? Have you ever seen it's equal?




FYI.. they also had chickens...

















Then I headed over to Thimbles and Threads because I received an email from them this morning about a great 4th of July sale (30% off every regular priced item!), as well as the new line they got in, Big Beautiful Bugs by Lonni Rossi.





I NORMALLY buy bug fabric for my 2 boys, and my sisters were all confused about me being excited enough about BUG fabric to hop in the car and run get some... so here it is, and now you understand the excitement!






And yes, I know our big Quilt Shop Hop is tomorrow, and yes we are starting at Thimbles and Threads... but I REALLY don't mind going two days in a row!