12 Saturday Jul 2014
Posted in nature, photography
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Just a couple of photos. But the photos don’t capture the night sounds, the way the moonlight shines on your cheekbones and glitters on a spiderweb. I hope you all get a chance to sit still under a full moon.
11 Friday Jul 2014
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It was overcast but we still had fun.
The kids play with red, white and blue balloons on July 4th.
02 Wednesday Jul 2014
Posted in Inspirational, nature, photography, Scripture, words
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inspirational, nature, photography, scripture, sunset, words
The first and third photos were taken at Sunset Beach, NC. The photo in the middle was taken in my backyard. Please feel free to copy, save and print these encouraging cards if you want.
Edited to add: I just remembered when that first photo was taken. My granddaughter and husband were with me to hold my camera gear as we walked to the beach. We had been at the beach house for five days and I still had not walked down to the beach because I was in so much searing pain and seriously disabled. I suspected my back was broken but it had not yet been confirmed. I could barely walk or move. But I was determined to not miss an opportunity to photograph my granddaughter in the sunset and asked God to please help me make it down to the shore and back. During the slow and painful walk, the sun broke through the clouds. I have never seen such as spectacular sky as that evening. Instead of remembering the terrifying unstable spine, I have photos such as this to remind me… God was with me.
19 Thursday Jun 2014
Tags
bread, bread dough, breadsticks, food, meal, recipe, salad, sourdough bread dough, Sourdough Breadstick Cobras, sourdough starter, summer supper, supper, tutorial
We were scraping the bottom of the barrel for supper tonight. Things went from bad to worse when he forgot to put the yeast in the bread dough. He forgot to add the honey too and I forgot to check the dough, so much later we found the forlorn little lump in the bottom of the bread machine bowl. I was going to throw it out but decided to try breadsticks and called him out to help.
“What are we doing?” he called from the other room.
“Making bread sticks,” I called back. “Help me roll all these snakes.”
And so he did. I watched as he coiled up his snake like a … snake.
So then I figured we might as well make a bunch of snakes, cobras, actually, with little flat heads and perky tails. They were delicious and adorable!
The recipe is my Sourdough Grain Bread recipe, found here, but WITHOUT adding yeast or honey and using the starter cold, straight from the refrigerator unfed.
These chewy breadsticks need a tiny little rise so it’s essential to use a good sourdough starter in the recipe.
SOURDOUGH BREADSTICK COBRAS
Prepare a shallow muffin tin by greasing the muffin cups. Place a tart tin upside down as shown next to each muffin cup. Roll a small piece of tin foil into a ball and place in each muffin cup.
Roll a piece of sourdough bread dough, about the size of a small egg, 16″ long, with a little taper at one end for the tail.
Lift the long piece of dough and place the tail over the muffin cup edge. Slowly lower the long piece of dough into the muffin cup, around the foil ball twice and then back up out of the muffin cup, draping the end over the tart tin. Pinch the end flat to form the cobra head. Ours puffed up more than I thought in the oven so next time I will flatten them even more.
The sourdough “snakes” are formed into snakes and positioned over a foil ball and tart tin.
Beat one egg white and use a small brush to brush the cobras. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. (NOTE: Ours seemed barely underdone so next time I will quickly remove the foil balls and pop them back in the oven for another minute.)
Bake at 375 for 15 or so minutes.
Remove from oven and remove from the muffin cups. Pull out the foil balls. Ours didn’t stick, even though they weren’t greased.
Aren’t they adorable?
Who could complain about a sorry-lettuce salad, canned beans and fried egg yolk supper when there were Sourdough Breadstick Cobras?
Salad with beans and Fried Egg Yolk and a Sourdough Breadstick Cobra
Perfect for a warm summer evening. So what started as a recipe fail ended up as an Oh my goodness “play with your food” meal!
17 Tuesday Jun 2014
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…and a doll, Sarah, with her girl. I made the doll for her three years ago, following a wonderful Indian Dolls pattern by Joan Russell. (Woman’s Day magazine, 1966) Sarah was showing signs of love and needed a new dress.
I wasn’t up to sewing so I sat in the rocking chair and cut out pieces to make a “no sew” doll dress out of non-fraying stretchy, shimmery fabric. We cut a rectangle with a small slit in it big enough to fit the doll head for the bodice and slid it over the doll’s head. I cut narrow “ribbon ties” in the side of the bodice and tied it at the doll’s waist.
The skirt was a long rectangle with tiny slits across the top through which I threaded a long pink fabric sash and tied the skirt around the doll’s waist. Doll dress made from three rectangles and no sewing. That was fun!
But a girl has to have beads, right? So we strung beads together to form a necklace and made loops of beads to put over the skirt sash.
Sarah looked lovely in her stylish, beaded ensemble but of course a girl with imagination won’t let a tray of beads go to waste. So a tiny stone was the friend of hundreds of little beads…
…which kept piling on top of her and looking like snow…
Children have exquisite imaginations!
16 Monday Jun 2014
Tags
bird, crafts, decor, Etsy, home decorating, little bird, Shelle Hill
The eggs got put away and I had a little nest with no bird. Then I saw my friend Michelle’s sweet little birdie, all bedecked with a beaded crown. I can almost hear bird song from the tree now!
An adorable little bird from Shelle Hill on Etsy.
The bird was going to perch on one of the library shelves in a different room. So I will have to visit Shelle Hill on Etsy again and get another bird for the library. A bird with words is the perfect bookshelf visitor.
Thank you, Michelle.
15 Sunday Jun 2014
Posted in All Sparkled Up, family, Inspirational, nature, photography, sunlight
Tags
beach, children, inspirational, nature, photography, Sunset Beach, toy boat, toy ship
Sometimes it seems like we’ll never get there.
We walk and walk and walk.
We even do some climbing.
And then there is even more to do.
But maybe it wasn’t about going to sea at all.
Perhaps it was all about the journey…
…and feeling the sand on your toes…
and the wind in your hair…
Enjoy the journey.
10 Tuesday Jun 2014
Posted by Julia Monroe | Filed under All Sparkled Up, God, Inspirational, nature
05 Thursday Jun 2014
It was a happy 21st Birthday! Twenty-one is a big birthday and the “toys” will never be the same again. We got our son 4 items: a big hunk of awesome steak wrapped in meat paper, a loaf of hearty homemade bread wrapped in brown paper and tied with string, a bottle of champagne, and a bread board.
He was amused at the loaf of bread and had not yet opened the steak wrapped in meat paper and cutting board wrapped in cutting board paper.
Thank you, God, for good bread, for good meat, for good wine.
Life doesn’t have to be complicated.
Enjoy the people you love!
30 Friday May 2014
Posted in Little Plastic Bears, photography
The Little Plastic Bears will have their own website some day. They’ve been to Washington DC, the Grand Canyon and Grandma’s Bed & Breakfast! They never have enough space in their tiny apartment and vacations are essential to their well-being.
Here are a couple sneak peek photos from their ballooning adventure at the beach last summer. As usual, blue bear isn’t following safety rules. Good thing there is masking tape or he would have fallen out of the basket!
The sun was setting as the Little Plastic Bears began their balloon ride. As usual, blue bear forgot safety rules and nearly fell out of the basket. Fortunately, masking tape held him in.
The Little Plastic Bears enjoy their balloon ride out over the Atlantic Ocean. The sunset on Sunset Beach was soft and dreamy that evening.
All Sparkled Up 