In it, two little girls discover a raft of fairies down by the river. They build them a tiny house and appease them with fairy cake–a favorite of fairies. Eventually the girls even take photographs of flitting fairies–baffling the whole world.
The movie also mentions that mushrooms and toadstools are magical fairy things. If it’s true–we have a busload of fairy dust floating around our place these days.
With four days of straight rain–toadstools and mushrooms are popping up everywhere–some in the middle of the yard all alone…
…most of them in little clusters.
The bald kid mows them down, and the next day…
They pop right back up—sometimes the size of dinner plates.
These brave souls have even formed themselves into a fairy ring. In case you didn’t know, a fairy ring is “the phenomena resulting from the dancing footsteps of fairies; a hallowed place to magical folk.”
Very cool.
Apparently you can get into big trouble for messing with or mowing down a fairy ring–like being stolen away into the fairy kingdom, never to return–that sort of thing. I told the bald kid to mow around it, you know, just in case. I figured he’d feel pretty bad if they swiped him away to live with the sprites forever. He’s a big guy—Heaven only knows what they’d feed him.
He wasn’t afraid.
He said, “Bring it.”
This generation and their total disregard for things that really matter.
I have a lovely, sweet daughter that sees this day just a tiny bit differently—after many years of being raised by a single-mom.
She’s just a cute little reminder to me that whether you are—climbing mountains or sliding down them, realizing reasons to rejoice or to mourn, lying in the warm sunshine or splashing in the rain—this life is what you make it–every step of the way.
We are determined to make it good.
A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery while on a detour. ~Author Unknown
Let me just start this post off by saying–right up front–I’m not really a quilter. There. I said it.
Oh, I have loved to sew since my mom helped me make a skirt in the 7th grade, but quilting has always been a bit scary to me. All that precision…all those pieces. Yikes. Though I have had dear friends and now dear daughters that are quite wonderful at it–this particular bug has just not ever bitten me.
So when April suggested that we go on a Quilting “Shop Hop” that would take us all over the state—the fact that I agreed had nothing to do with my love of, or ability to–quilt.
It sounded like a great adventure with some people I’m pretty fond of–so we packed up the little doo-dads and headed out.
The idea is that if we visit every shop in the “Hop,” in the end we’ll have all the little town patterns we need to make the “Around the Town” quilt.
We ended up at 10 different quilting shops today and we have 5 more to scope out tomorrow.
So far, we’ve enter 11 drawings and won two prizes, received 6 free gifts, and collected 10 of the patterns.
Not to mention the piles of assorted cookies and brownies and popcorn and homemade bread we’ve consumed—all for the cause.
Each shop has designed their own version using the same patterns in their own particular style–so we’ve tried to take pictures of them all as we go.
We had such a fun time running around to all the different stores and having them stamp our “Around the Town Passports.”
Each store is giving away $100 worth of quilting prizes–so just think—16 stores, with 3 of us entering each contest–that’s 48 entries! The odds of winning something are pretty good! Wahoo!
I remember having my first soft pretzel at Disneyland about a million years ago–I was in High School, if that tells you anything. Later that year, Seventeen magazine came out with a recipe that captured Mickey’s pretzel to the letter. Because I’m a friendly, benevolent sort–I shall share it with you.
Ingredients
1- 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 package active dry yeast
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, approximately
1/4 cup butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for pan
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Pretzel salt
Directions
Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope.
Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel.
Now, there are a couple of ways you can do this…
The very, very wrong–bald kid way…
Or the very, very graceful and right, Jillian way.
Whatever works.
Now, place them on the parchment pan.
Next, carefully lower each pretzel into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula.
Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt.
Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.
Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.
In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope.
Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel.
Now, place them on the parchment pan.
Next, carefully lower each pretzel into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula.
Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt.Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.
