Sunday, February 24, 2013

A Celebration & Give Away!


Chocolate-Nut Hand Pies 
are a tender, flakey way to celebrate
Silver Trumpet Style's 2nd Blogiversary!
This simple treat was a spring board from a dessert 
my dear friend Tracy made for one of our BITE dinners.
You can find her recipe here
(scroll down to Transylvania Dinner, Chocolate Walnut Strudel) 
and these are the simple changes I made:
4 oz. of chopped Lindt Dark Chocolate bar with Currants.
Puff pastry dough cut into 4" diameter circles.
Place about 1 Tbsp. of the filling in the center of each circle.
Brush the edges with a beaten egg before folding 
the pastry in half and pressing fork tines around the edge.

Now for the give-away:

Winner's choice of one Silver Trumpet zipper pouch!

The winner will be selected from those of you who kindly 
leave a comment sharing your best party tradition.
Is the same cake recipe made for every birthday?
Is there a scavenger hunt for gifts? Party games?
Share your favorite party tradition and
be sure to include an email address ("dot com"), 
or link to your blog or FB page.

 The winner will be announced next week.
 I hope you will love to call one of these zipper pouches
your own or know someone special who would! 

Thank you all for visiting Silver Trumpet Style.
You make it all worth sharing! 

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Mid-Winter Discoveries

 Growing organic celery.
Here's a look at each of 4 weeks so far.

  I'm excited to finally get around to these vintage quilt squares
I found while poking around a local antique shop last year.
Handling them is an honor. Who made them? 
How was she planning to stitch the blocks together?
Just look at these prints and colors!
What stories do these scraps of (a family's?) life have to tell?
There are enough blocks to mix with my own stash to make 
a throw that should be the perfect size for summer nights 
around the campfire. 
Gosh, I can almost imagine it on this blustery 10 degree day....

While on Pinterest I came across foodforliving.com
and was inspired to try her recipe for homemade 
Making your own nut butter is easy 
and lot less expensive than store bought.
And yes, this tastes as good as it sounds!
(Click either link in red above for this recipe and more!)

What discoveries are you making?
I'd love to hear!


Sunday, February 10, 2013

And the Award Goes To...


"Liebster" is German, with the approximate translation of "favorite" or "dearest". The Liebster Award is a fun and friendly way to pay it forward to    up and coming bloggers with less than 300 followers. There's no voting or judging; only appreciation and kindness. These bloggers deserve recognition for their wonderful blogs, and I'm grateful to my dear friend Tracy for nominating mine!


**Here are the details on receiving this award**
  1. When you receive the award, and choose to accept it,  you post 11 random facts about yourself and answer the 11 questions from the person who nominated you.
  2. Pass the award on to 3-5 other bloggers (who have less than 300 followers) and let them know they've been nominated.
  3. Create 11 questions for these 3-5 bloggers to answer.
  4. Link them in your post.
  5. No tag backs!      
    11 Random Things about myself:
    1. I'm a kid at heart.
    2. I married another kid at heart.
    3. I love baking, especially anything chocolate.
    4. Talking on the phone with my (step-)daughter Alyssa always makes me happy. 
    5. My cat Stanley is the coolest cat I know.
    6. I recently began meditating and am hooked. 
    7. This winter I'm drinking lemon-honey tea, peppermint tea and          yarrow tea.
    8. In recent years, to my family's delight, I've really loosened up on           my neat-nick tendencies.
    9. I constantly surround myself with color, pattern and texture. 
    10. I feel most at peace when I'm creating, and am truly happy when            I'm hanging out with my nephews and niece.                   
    11 questions my Liebster Nominator Tracy wants me to answer:
    1. What is the one food that you wish you liked, but you just don't? For example, I wish that I liked mushrooms - but I can't stand them.  Ground beef. Ugh.
    2. How many books a year (or month or week) would you say you read? Do blogs count?
    3. What is one embarrassing memory from your youth that you feel comfortable sharing? That would be the time I unknowingly "stole" from a local restaurant a box of Thin Mints just sitting next to the cash register. My 6 year old self thought they were free for the taking, which they were, but not the whole box at once! By the time we arrived home my parents saw what was in my lap and promptly drove all the way back to town to return them. All the while, I remained in the back seat. 
    4. Hellman's Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip?  There's only one right answer here - so be careful! I don't have a preference! Oh no!
    5. If you could do something else in your life other than what you are doing right now - what would it be? Walking the hills and valleys of Scotland, through heather and bracken, over lovely old stone bridges and along narrow foot paths carved into the hillside. 
    6. Favorite all-time singer or musical group?  Far too numerous to choose just one, so today my favorite is Mumford & Sons.
    7. Do you like riding on roller-coasters, and if so - do you have a favorite one? Yes I do, once I work up the courage. They're all the same - a building up of suspense followed by a very long scream!
    8. Favorite season of the year? While each offers something special, Spring time makes my heart soar, so that's my absolute favorite.
    9. If you could have one talent that you know you don't have, and will never really have, what would it be? To sing and perform on stage. 
    10. What is your favorite way to spend time by yourself? Either in my studio with music on, wearing PJs and working my heart out, or curled up in the corner of the couch, knitting in front of a good movie! 
    11. Would you rather do the cooking, or do the cleanup afterward?  Both!

    11 Questions for my three Award Nominees:
    1. What are you too chicken to try?
    2. Have you ever eaten a worm?
    3. What's your preference: a real book or an e-book?
    4. As a child, what was your favorite story?
    5. What's the last song you listened to?
    6. If you could only eat one food for ever and ever, what would it be?
    7. Where is your Mother's Mother originally from, and have you been there?
    8. What's the best and worst thing about blogging?
    9. What ritual do you turn to when you want to feel all cozy and relaxed?
    10. What 3 words best describe you?
    The Big Finale...I'm nominating these 3 extraordinary Blogs:
    1. Lisa Jordan's lil fish Studios, for her exquisite devotion to natural dyeing, felting, embroidering and for handling life with great care.
    2. Lara Smoot's Have Needles Will Knit, for her fun-loving approach to knitting, designing, cooking, sewing and for our long-distance friendship.
    3. Bonnie Sennott's Blue Peninsula Knits, for her larger-than-life artist's soul, sublime knit pattern designs, and quest for seeing beauty all around her. 
    Congratulations, and I hope you each accept your nomination! 
    You deserve it!


    Sunday, February 3, 2013

    Storm Clouds Rumbling Through

     Thunder bolts and lightning, too!

     
    At long last, my Storm Clouds (boy's) quilt 
    for Project Linus is finished and will gladly be 
    delivered to our local drop off site this week.

    All through the process I've imagined a boy 
    wearing the warm layers of 
    color and movement like a hug. 

    Now that the quilt is finished, in retrospect 
    I can say my wish is for both of us to take comfort in 
    the collective power of love, hope and giving. 
     If you follow my blog you'll know I didn't use a pattern.
     As a planner, I like to know where I'm going, 
    so working intuitively (a.k.a. making it up as I go)
     was way out of my comfort zone.

    The process of making this quilt changed all of that. 

    Right from the start I knew I was making a boy’s quilt, 
    but still many other choices needed to be made. 
    I began by choosing half square triangle blocks. 
    Next, I decided on the colors red and blue, 
    and allowed black, white and gray. 
    Stop. No pattern, no more direction. 
    Well there I was working along doing what I could - 
    preparing as many blocks as I had scraps for
    and randomly arranging them on the design wall, 
    when just at that time, a volatile storm rolled through our valley. 
    I couldn’t help but notice my "random" arrangements 
     looking a lot like the rumbling, tumultuous skies overhead.
     Storm Clouds!  

    Light broke through the clouds, 
    figuratively and literally as represented in the borders. 
    Starting with only one block and limiting myself to scraps, 
    I found my way to a quilt that tells a story. 
    One that will soon be passed along to a special audience of one.


    I'm deeply grateful for Project Linus. They take it from here, 
    doing all of the work involved with getting each quilt 
    into the hands of a child in need here in the US.
    If you're interested in donating hand made blankets and quilts, 
    their website offers free patterns from many talented  
    and generous quilters, knitters and crocheters, 
    as well as other useful information. 
    Have a look around and be inspired!
    For anyone interested in a different approach to
    designing your next scrap quilt, a free "Recipe" 
    will soon be available here. It promises to be an adventure!

    Have you made up your own quilts as you went along?
    Have you given or received a quilt that really meant a lot to you? 
    I'd love to read all about them in Comments.