spirit of peace and thanksgiving

"Her eyes are those of the fawn of the forest, questioning the strange things of civilization upon which it gazes for the first time." -Edward Curtis

November is Native American Heritage Month

may your day be filled with the spirit of peace, healing, generosity, and thanks ♥

seven year granola

i've been making our own granola for a while now, a very simple recipe with no oil and just sweetened with honey. though Rob enjoyed it, he requested if i could make it with clusters. well, i figured that to get clusters it's gonna have more sugar and oil to make it stick, right? my cluster curiosity was picqued however, and after a google search i stumbled upon "seven year granola" by The Traveler's Lunchbox. it's accompanied by an hilarious story about the "Lip Lady's secret granola" you must read! when i saw cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg, i hit "bookmark". it's the best granola i have made so far... and Rob agrees! recipe here

**the recipe was way to sweet for me (i want granola, not cookies-lol) so i made some adjustments:

• increase oats to 3 cups
• use half the amount of butter
• reduce brown sugar to 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup (could even go to half cup)
• add about 1/4 cup of ground flax meal
• i went with chopped dates in todays batch

what could be better than the aroma of freshly baked granola on a chilly autumn morning? try not to eat handfuls of it while it cools :)

here they are!

introducing my new extra mini stick bears... a brand new design! they will be available today on my web site~ a pre-holiday mini listing of sorts. hope you like 'em! have a fun weekend :) SOLD OUT, thank you!

new mini bear design

my tiniest stick bears yet! i will be unveiling these sweeties in the next day or so! maybe you can see the theme here? 3 are christmas light colors, one is black like coal, and one snowy white :) so far so cute. **** don't forget tomorrow is PFATT marketplace update!

OMG: miniature tree paintings!

i may be biased, cos the talented gal that did these extraordinary tiny paintings happens to be my best girl friend/ former art college classmate/ cat + dog rescuer ;) she recently opened an etsy shop, Art by Jeanne Hospod, and just stocked it up with new miniature/ micro paintings on canvas + wood. her mini paintings have a grand scale for being so tiny. i'm thinking these tiny tree silhouettes are perfect for:

• autumn/ winter decor (mantel, nook, holiday table setting, office, wherever)
  
• displaying with your peng peng bears and owl sculptures
• affordable original fine art makes a unique gift
• stocking stuffers
• displaying as a group
  
• nature and art lovers

i just bought a few for my home and can't wait to receive them. oh, and today happens to be Jeanne's birthday! hope you can pop by and see her art work today!
xoxo

tie dyed doilies

did everyone remember to set their clocks back today? i woke up this morning at 4:45am and slept in an hour cos it was just too early. i like to get up before sunrise and get the oven going with something fragrant to warm up the house... this morning i made *cinnamon coffee cake (*recipe from my very tattered copy of Vegetarian Nights: Fresh from Hawaii).

next on my to-do list was to dye Rob's old army shirt black. it was gray from when he dyed it black years ago. i also threw in some little sock monkey hats and a doily in the pot. well, the jacket turned out looking the same before i dyed it :( some kind of impervious military material. but not all went to waste... i was delighted to unwrap my delicate 6" square doily and see it transformed from blah white to totally cool black tie dye! here's another neat tie dye i did, orange striped on vintage wide lace doily:

so before you banish those dull doilies to the thrifts, try dying them fun colors! they're usually crochet cotton so they take the dye wonderfully. i used RIT dye for these.