Blueberry Crumb Cake

I got the itch to bake the other day even in this hot and humid weather. Thank goodness for AC. I had bought a pint of blueberries and thought that I would make some muffins to share and freeze. For some reason, I decided not to use one of my go-to recipes and try something new. I broke out a couple of my small local PTA and church cookbooks to find a recipe. 

Lo and behold there was a recipe for Blueberry Crumb Cake in the cookbook from the church where Hubby and I were wed. One problem.... the ingredients sounded yummy, but there was no oven temp or cooking time listed. This is a common problem with these types of home-town cookbooks. This recipe really sounded delicious though. Lots of butter and sugar...okay so not very healthy but yummy.

 So I searched through some of the cookbooks and came up with 350 degrees for 30 minutes. The crumb cake came out perfectly and it is so very delicious. I have added this to my recipe box to make again in the future. It even looks good.

Here is the recipe for Blueberry Crumb Cake:

1/2 cup butter or margarine 

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour

1/4 tsp. salt

3 tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup milk

2 cups blueberries

1 Tbsp. lemon juice 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream butter, add sugar, beat until creamy. Add egg and beat until light. Combine flour, salt and baking powder, add to first mixture alternately with milk. Put into a greased 13x2x2 inch pan. Mix blueberries with lemon juice and sprinkle on top of dough. 

Prepare topping by combining

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Cut in 1/2 cup slightly softened butter or margarine with pastry blender until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of blueberries. 

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 1/2 hour. 

Enjoy!

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Mom's UFOs

So I spent a few hours at Mom's house the other day. I was planning on washing her windows, but she didn't want me to. Since I had planned on being at her home for a couple of hours I suggested we make room in a drawer for all of her quilting UFOs as they were currently residing in the middle of the bed in the guest room. 

So after cleaning out a drawer full of old greeting cards (she is still sorting through them), we sorted these UFOs that Mom no longer wants to work on. You need to know that Mom does not use a sewing machine. Each of these have been hand-stitched. She joined a quilt group at our church when she was in her late 70s. She had never quilted prior to that.

This is a baby quilt that she began at the quilt group that used to meet at our church. Mom started quilting it, but for some reason she really doesn't like it. I happen to think it is quite pretty so I took it home to finish quilting.

Mom actually likes this, but is no longer in the mood to quilt. She is 89 and her hands are quite arthritic. I took this top, the backing fabric and the batting home. It isn't large so perhaps I can quilt it this winter while watching TV. Mom usually quilts with embroidery floss so I may just follow her lead.

Mom has the pattern, but she doesn't remember what she planned to do with these blocks. She has enough fabric to make at least one more so I think this must have been destined for a wall quilt or a table runner. Guess what?! I took all the fabric home and may work on it someday. Those baskets don't thrill me, so they may stay stored for quite some time.

Lastly, we came across this little table topper. How sad that all it needs is the binding to be sewn on those two sides. I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching and this will be my Sunday stitching project. It may end up staying at my house, because Mom only has one room with blue and doesn't know where she would put it.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Baker Beach Update

I have been working on Baker Beach a little bit here and a little bit there now that the Olympics are over. Here is where I was prior to the Olympics:

I had just started the first blue color of the sky.

Here is where I am as of 10 minutes ago.

I finished the first blue...even went into the next page to the left. I also filled in the darker blue speckles along the top edge. I have now started on the next lighter blue stitching from the left-hand edge of this page inward. I am really enjoying not having to constantly change colors. It seems to go much quicker.

It is hot and humid once again here on Long Island. On another recent hot and sticky night I gave in to Hubby's suggestion and we shared a meat and cheese plate for dinner. No cooking! 

The little pieces of cut up fruit that you see in between the sausages are Red Velvet Apricots. Oh how sweet and flavorful they are. I recently found them at a local supermarket that has an amazing produce section. They are new to me and are oh so delicious.

Thanks for stopping by!

Flower crafting

Several weeks ago I bought all the supplies I would need to make a floral lantern display for my front bay window. They sat in bags in my basement for quite some time. Yesterday I finally broke out the glue gun, tacky glue and wire cutters and came up with this. 

Here is the front....

and the back.

I should have kept the glue gun out and finished the crocheted Christmas tree. That will hopefully be the next UFO that actually gets finished.

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Last Olympic day

It is cloudy and very humid with downpours a possibility at any time. In other words it is a perfect day to get back to stitching on Baker Beach....maybe. I haven't touched it since the Olympics began. I have been working on Autumn Angel though as I've been watching the various sports. 

 She is growing slowly as my attention span has been short. 

There are only two more weeks to my summer vacation and then it is back to work. I know that my crafting time will be greatly curtailed. I wonder how much I can fit into these next few days. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. On Monday I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fresh Till Cowl

This is one of the easiest knits that I have ever completed. It came out beautifully. All that is left is weaving in two ends and some blocking. 

I am still working on the Wasatch Backcountry Hat. This is purely to use up some yarn and to have an easy Olympics watching craft. 

I have put down Eat, Pray, Love for now. Too much whining. I will bring this to work this fall and read the short chapters when I have a break.....or maybe not. I have picked up Distant Hours by Kate Morton. I have loved all the books that I have read by this author so I am really looking forward to reading it.

I am joining Ginny for Yarn Along today. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn Angel

I know, I know, I have yet to design and stitch a Summer Angel. I have had a huge inspiration block concerning that angel. I have a color scheme determined, but I just haven't been able to figure her out. Seeing all the fall decor in the craft store recently gave me some inspiration for Autumn Angel though. I sat down at my computer on Friday and I was able to design her in just a couple of hours. Oh how I wish it was always that easy. 

I have her all kitted up and I am ready to stitch.

I did get some ideas for Summer Angel will designing Autumn Angel, but she is still not completed. I will aim to have her finished for next year.

I recently ordered the fabric I needed to make some Prairie Schooler Santas also. I made one for each of my children last year. I want to do the same this year and maybe one for myself also. I have these two kitted up right now.

I need something small to work on while watching TV.....especially the rest of the Olympics. Baker Beach requires too much concentration and is too big to handle.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I think you know what I will be working on. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

Two Tills Done

A 4 hour car ride to Saratoga and time spent watching the Olympics have made my knitting go quickly. My reading not so much.

I have two of the till rows completed and I am working on the third. I hope to finish this pretty cowl sometime today or tomorrow. 

Then I will return to the hat.

I am joining Ginny for Yarn Along. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are your reading? Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to.

I am still reading Eat, Pray, Love. This book is broken into three parts: Italy, India and Indonesia. I am done with Italy which I mostly enjoyed. I am in the middle of India. This section is interesting in the descriptions of the place, but the angst of the author is annoying me. I hate it when I find myself obsessing about life.  I can be patient and encouraging when my children obsess, but I really don't enjoy a book where a character or the author obsesses almost constantly. I am hoping that Indonesia will be better. So far I find this book just okay.

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More Baker Beach

I have been working on Baker Beach. I actually have to go an buy some more of the blue that I am currently using...DMC 809. I think I am going to run out before I finish this page and I need it for the next page also. I guess I am making a trip to ACMoore sometime today. 

Here is where I was on my last update.

This is where I am now.

I haven't been working on this for the last couple of days because Hubby and I made a short trip to Saratoga, NY. Hubby loves horse-racing and had never been to Saratoga during the season. So we drove up there on Thursday morning....about a 4 hour drive. We came home Friday night. I took only a few pictures. This is the picnic area.

Here is the grandstand. Although you can't tell from this picture, it was very hot and quite crowded. 

This is the view of the track from inside the grandstand. Hubby had a great first day of betting....lots of winners. He only had one winning bet on the second day. Me? I did not have a single winning bet on either day. Sigh......

There were some really pretty flowers around.

After dinner we went over to the harness racing track which is separate from the thoroughbred track.

Another pretty track.

This was just a short but necessary respite from daily life.

I am joining Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching today. Tomorrow I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

A visit

Our daughter came home for a visit last weekend. This visit she wanted to go in our pool and do something interesting, but the weather did not want to cooperate. It was the first weekend of clouds and rain here on Long Island in quite some time. We did have a little bit of nice weather on Saturday morning and we took the opportunity to visit Planting Fields Arboretum. There were a whole lot of pretty flowers in bloom. You can see one of my favorites in the header of my blog. Just a warning that this is a picture heavy post.

 This is the Dahlia garden.

 There were many beautiful Dahlias.

 I love this yellow tinged with red.

 Purple flowers are always a favorite of mine.

 My daughter enjoyed the day out.

 Hubby and I got a recent picture now!

 More gorgeous flowers.

Isn't this a pretty bed of hosta and hydrangea?

 Daylilies are one of my favorite flowers.

I would love to plant these in my garden. 

 We couldn't find a label for this tree, but it was absolutely gorgeous.

We also toured the greenhouse.

There was a bench near this pretty water feature.

 This is called a pitcher plant. 

There is a Gold Coast mansion called Coe Hall on this property. This is the Surprise pool with the mansion in the background.

We were rushing to get to the car as there were a whole lot of big black clouds just to the left of this picture. I wasn't able to get a good picture of the mansion.

 We didn't tour it as the weather was starting to turn and the mansion wasn't close to the parking lot. I will have to go back sometime. I love touring old mansions. 

Thanks for stopping by!