The Fruits of Summer

So, yes, I am a Nite Owl. 

I am starting this at midnight. The Man in the Moon is barely visible from the window over my kitchen sink; he's risen so high. Most of the living room lights in the neighborhood are out. 

I am putting away the remains of my tomato sandwich supper.  I was thrilled, absolutely thrilled when offered a few garden tomatoes yesterday from a stamping friend. My husband has purchased some from the market and made sandwiches already, but those were just not real tomatoes; they did not grow in Rich's garden. They were not picked by Rich's hands once they had ripened after the watering and the staking. They just were not real tomatoes. (Rich, by the way, is just a name. I do not know who grew my tomatoes; they came from a New Jersey garden, though.)

One disadvantage (perhaps) to being a Nite Owl is that I am not up for the sunrise very often so I do not get to the farmers markets before they close or the orchards before the sweltering southern summer heat and humidity makes it impossible to function.

So that ripe, juicy home grown tomato and mayo sandwich was so delicious. The simplicity of white bread (stick to the roof of your mouth white bread), slathered with mayonnaise, stuffed with thick slices of tomato generously salted and peppered is summer paradise.

If prepared correctly, you don't even make it to the table to sit and eat it; most of the time you don't even cut it in half and you just may have to eat it standing over the sink. Now, if you think I have lost all of my manners and sense of decorum, you are wrong. This is just how you do tomato sandwiches.

Sorry for a stock photo, but I was already finshed before I even thought about taking a picture. And upon closer inspection of this photo, it appears as though the bread has been toasted! Heresy! Do not toast your bread, please. If you want to add other ingredients and make a different sandwich toast away, use artisan bread and gourmet dressing even.

There was one occasion just a couple of summers back in which the tomato sandwich rules were broken, but for the best of reasons. It was a girls weekend away. We traveled to the mountains of North Georgia. A cozy family cabin was home base for our daytrips. We brought only breakfast foods because we were planning to eat locally all along the way. 

Our hostess supplied fresh tomatoes, mayo and bread. Breakfast! And I added the chips.  We sat around the kitchen table all morning long catching up over tea,  sandwiches and chips. Of course, I was always the last to the table because even though we chatted all night, they still got up with the sun. Someone always has to be last, and I am ok filling that role.

One of the nicest things about our girls get aways is that there aren't any rules.  On our last morning that trip we ate ice cream cake for breakfast. We eat whatever and whenever; we buy whatever. We stop along the road whenever one of us spys an interesting shop or hole in the wall, or food establishment.

Besides tomatoes, I have been thinking about peaches lately. I have not been peach picking; it was on the summer to do list and I thought the grandboys might like to go along. The grandboys start school this week! 

I have been busy crafting peachy cards, though. Perhaps that's driven my appetite. Oh, no; we're coming into everything pumpkin season, I am in trouble!

This card design reminds me of a vintage kitchen tablecloth.

And this reminds me of picking in the peach orchards on Rt. 17

If you haven't had your fill of peaches yet this summer, the You're A Peach Suite is available in the 2021 - 2022 Anual Catalog; see pages 60 - 61 and the gorgeous Designer Series Paper is shown on page 134.  Click on the Shop Now button on this website to shop, or contact me to order. 

You know, that peach stamp could serve as a tomato...

Let's stamp!

 

 For the Beauty of the Earth

If you are around about my age and spent much time in a Methodist church, or probably any church for that matter, these pictures are probably familiar:

Our Sunday worship opening hymn was always one of Praise and Thanksgiving; often one you knew by heart or at least knew it was in the front of the hymnal. And of course the hymn board with its large numbers indicated the number and order of the hymns. The hymn board was a good reason to get to the sanctuary early; book mark all the hymns and readings for the service so you didn't have to fumble around while the organist was already into the first stanza. (Or if you stopped for coffee and donuts you had the prelude during which to book mark the indicated pages.)

If you started your morning worship with "For the Beauty of the Earth", "When Morning Gilds the Skies", or "This is me Father's World", it was goingto be a great day!

I have always been partial to "For the Beauty of the Earth"; the references to nature, to family love, to divine love.

When I read the title of Beauty of the Earth as one of the new Designer Series Papers from Stampin' Up! in the Annual Catalog, what do you suppose was at the top of my first order? That DSP! Along with the stamp bundle of Beauty of Friendship stamps and Beautiful Trees dies. 

It there is a tree stamp or a leaf stamp, it/they are on my list! As Autumn is my favorite season I want to color and stamp and die and cut leaves in every shape and size and color. I am thinking Bumblebee, Cajun Craze, Rich Razzleberry, Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow, Cinnamon Cider (getting a little hungry now) ... use the Stampin' Blends and watercolor pencils. Oh, and the reinkers with baby wipes: fold up a layer of four baby wipes, making a little ink pad if you will. Squeeze a few drops of fall color reinkers randomly onto pad; it will look like a giant mud puddle. Ink up a leaf stamp, or stamp of a tree canopy and then stamp onto your card or scrapbook page ~ magic! So many techniques for coloring...

I wasn't going to start in on the fall stamp projects until the end of the month, but a friend of mine just left for a week in the woods. She has a vintage log cabin in a state park and is planning hikes and lake meanderings and bird trails. I created a journal for her Walden-like experience.

I had been watching demonstrator Kelly Gettelfinger create journals and memory books from paper bags and Designer Series Paper. She even included the clear medium envelopes as photo pages. Journals, like any other kind of paper, call to me. You can find Kelly on Facebook: Always Stampin With Kelly Gettelfinger

So in the middle of several other projects I cleared a space on my work table, pulled up Kelly's video and started in on a journal with a recycled paper bag that I begged off a server in Panera Bread - recycled, brown and green, perfect.

The light and coloring here is terribly dark, sorry. This design from the DSP Beauty of the Earth is dark and rich in Mossy Meadow and Old Olive inks, with touches of Bumblebee. I also used a dark design from the Hydrangea papers which is now retired, as are the lovely stamps.

Tucked away inside in various pockets are journaling cards and photo mats crafted from Stampin' Up! papers and products, several are stamped with nature images. There are four clear envelopes attached by their adhesive flaps. She can add memorabilia or photos,  pressed leaves or journaling inside to display and document her adventure.

It was fun to create! I won't stop with just one. But, I also need to get back to those projects I pushed aside. And I really need to play with all of the elements in the Beauty of the Earth Suite. Check the new Annual Catalog pages 10 -11 for all suite items. In the beginning of the catalog, just like those joyful hymns in the front of the hymnal.

                                                                    Stampin' Up! images

If these products have your name written on them, you can certainly order right here on the blog, just check for Shop Now; or contact me and I will be happy to help you with an order. 

I have more fall ideas coming, so please stay tuned; if you have not subscribed to this blog, please do so. I would love your company.  

And if you know the tune:

For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,

for the love which from our birth, over and around us lies;

refrain

Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour of the day and of the night,

hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light;

refrain

For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind's delight,

for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight;

refrain

For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child,

friends on earth and friends above, for all gentle thoughts and mild;

refrain

For thy church, that evermore lifteth holy hands above,

offering upon every shore her pure sacrifice of love;

refrain

For thyself, best Gift Divine, to the world so freely given,

for that great, great love of thine, peace on earth and joy in heaven;

refrain

United Methodist Hymnal. Tennessee: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989

Words: Folliot S. Pierpoint, 1864

Music: Conrad Kocher, 1838, arr. by H. Monk 1861