isn't this adorable?

(find out all about it here.)

Sunday brunch jacket by Oliver + S

maybe a nice sewing project for these up-coming long winter days & nights.

I'm thinking it could be a lite Spring coat for florence.

colossians

dear Naomi - it's so good to be asked about how memorizing colossians is going.

lets just say I have had my ups and downs...but I have been pressing on.
we are using a scheme from this website.  the basic idea is to memorize 2 verses a week and by the end of a year you will have memorized the entire book!  it has been so good - but I tell you what those first two chapters are jammed packed with mind boggling theology.  so good, so intense.  it has taken me a bit to get them memorized properly.
at the rate I am going, I think I am on the 2 year plan.  and that's ok, disciplining myself in memorizing scripture is always worth it even if I get off schedule! it is amazing how memorizing scripture reinforces and cements truth in my heart and mind. 
 

I think the coat from Selma will be just perfect for the winter...so cute, even with the sleeves rolled!.

the Thanksgiving center piece. 

nice. simple. little. perfect.

A picture of Autumns last burst of color

I think there must be two kinds of cold - one that makes you want to bake and create wonderful things in the kitchen, and the other one makes you want to cuddle under a blanket, read a book and really do nothing.  yesterday was a cuddle up under a blanket and do nothing sort of cold - lets just say I was not terribly productive.

Nathaniel was so kind as to eat left overs from the night before so I didn't have to make dinner but I still needed to make something for the guys.  I was planning on making an cinnamon type roll with an orange flair - a recipe I tore out of a magazine years ago and never got around to making. 
Due to my 'do nothing' state I didn't get around to starting my baking till 6.30 - not enough time to make a yeast dough unless I was planning on staying up till 11, which I was not.  Instead I flipped to a banana bread recipe in my recipe binder...the title on the recipe: Real Simple Banana Bread.
real simple thats what I needed...and it really was really simple. nice - I hardly had to think while putting this together.
So I guess most of you out there already have a really simple go to banana recipe but for those of you who don't tuck this one away it may just come in handy.

1 stick of butter melted
1 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour
3 mashed ripe bananas
*and I added 1/2 tsp of salt and left out the 1/2 cup nuts*

mix in order given
pour into a large greased loaf pan
bake at 350 F for 50 minutes until golden brown
cool on wire rack 10 minutes then turn out onto rack to cool completely

I did over cook mine - we were having issues with our heater, you understand how one can get distracted by heaters right?  See, because it was so cold in our house we turned the heater on in the afternoon - but then it wouldn't shut off so that it was 84 degrees in our house and climbing at 7.30 last night.
I told Nathaniel that this was the only time in my life we would have our home so warm in the winter and I wasn't even being able to enjoy it because I was stressing out as to whether the heater would ever shut off.  Anyway I was a little distracted and the bread over cooked. but here is the thing - it was still delicious, it just needed a little...ok fine, a lot of butter.
Also - I think this recipe is courtesy of Gab, at least it looks like her hand writing...thanks for passing along this great recipe I have been looking for something like this for ages and silly me, I had it all along.

last week I bought some molasses - I have been thinking about gingerbread.
for this morning I made a pan of gingerbread, a Jackson family recipe.
I don't think I realized that gingerbread could be anything but cutout cookies until Nathaniel and I got married.
as it turns out gingerbread is one of Nathaniel's favorites - loves it at breakfast, tea, dessert with a bit of whipped cream...

Everyone can use a good gingerbread recipe - especially with Christmas around the corner (Ahhh! Christmas is coming!).  Please, please, please make this recipe at some point in the next two months and especially eat it with freshly whipped cream and a cup of coffee.

mix together:
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg

in a different bowl mix together
1/2 cup of melted butter
1/2 cup of boiling water
1/2 cup of molasses
1 egg

mix all the ingredients together until smooth
pour into a 8-9 inch cake pan
bake at 325 F for 35 minutes

I ate a piece while skyping with Gab this morning - I restrained myself from exclaiming out loud just how delicious it was because I didn't want her to be sad not to have a piece of her own.
I definitely do not make this recipe enough.


I don't make it nearly often enough.
 

coconut banana bread

our yummy bread from last Friday morning.
Nathaniel called it Caribbean banana bread.
he loved it - Florence had a little nibble of my piece, she was wild about it. She would have eaten my entire piece if I had let her get her little hands on it.  Thanks for the suggestion Jamey!

(the picture is from the myrecipes.com)

when the days get really cold this winter I will whip up a batch of this bread and pretend we are far away in the Virgin Islands.
For those of you interested check out the recipe here.

At some point in the early summer, my sister-in-law, Gillian came over for dinner.
Because she is totally awesome she stayed around to help with the clean up. After poking around under the sink a bit she turned and asked me where I kept my rubber gloves for washing dishes.
I told her that I actually didn't own any - simply put she was baffled.
I have my reasons -

• those yellow gloves are always soooo huge! when I use them I feel like I am clunking around in them
• because they are huge, water always gets in them and they take forever to dry out - gross
• probably the biggest reason is that really, I can't be bothered with them - I don't want to take the time to pull out the rubber gloves and put them on when by the time I do all that I could have my dishes washed (in theory!)

Gillian listened to my reasons and simply said, 'I don't know, you might find that you like them...'

A couple weeks later, I am opening my birthday present from Gillian...she bought me a pair of rubber gloves.  Size x-small the package said, and they are purple not yellow. Gillian smiled - you never know...

Ah - well those gloves have sat under my counter unused since July. 
Last week I was washing up the blender and cut my finger on the blade (because I was lazy and didn't take the blender apart the way I should have done), a terrible inconvenience.  I remembered the gloves under my sink and decided they might just keep my fingers dry (remember - size x-small!?) and I could keep washing up without the risk of infection.

I think I have been converted.  These purple gloves have done everything Gillian said they would do and then some. So I don't know - come over some time and offer to do my dishes, I might even let you use my awesome purple gloves that are not clunky, keep your hands dry and if the sponge is smelly your hands don't get smelly too.