All posts tagged: One+Four=Life

One+Four=Life. Weekly Photos 49/52.

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Frosty mornings are upon us and last week was chock full of them.  By the afternoon it is usually milder though when the sun has been out all day.  I like the crunchy mornings with hats and gloves and a brisk walk to school. At the weekend we went to the Farmer’s Market at Schlafly Brewery and picked up some lovely mushrooms from Ozark Forest Mushroom farm. These are heading for a noodle soup. I also bought some dried serrano chili peppers from them which I will throw into soups and roasting veg. This photo just cracks me up!  My cousin sent it to my now 11 year old for his birthday, it is hilarious!  A balloon in the shape of a bull.  Ha! These cakes were for the birthday boy this weekend.  I used this feature from Frankie magazine as inspiration.  I used vanilla cake for the ‘bun’ and brownie for the ‘burger!  The ‘lettuce’ is green taffy rolled flat and the ‘ketchup’ is red icing. Simple and effective, just how I like things …

One + Four = Life, Weekly photos 48/52.

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1. On Thursday it was Thanksgiving and my birthday, the weather was beautiful, so we went into the outside and hiked around Lone Elk Park.  We saw elk and deer and lots of woodpeckers! 2. As we walked around Lone Elk Park we stopped for coffee and tea from flasks by the side of the lake and watched the turtles sunbathing on a log peeking out of the lake. 3. Roses and birthday cards!  Yay for birthdays. 4. This weekend, we scored this funky monkey record player from an antique mall.  It works and came with the single on it!  All of my records are in the UK, so I will need to get on the look out for records to play, hello Goodwill! I am joining in with Isabel at Nanjing Nian for this week’s One+Four=Life, check out her fab blog for an insight into life as a western student in China. The kids had a very short school week  because of the Thanksgiving break, they had Wednesday through Friday off.  We watched movies …

One + Four = Life. Weekly Photos 46/52

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1. It is soup and fresh bread season!  Hurrah, I love making soup and of course the bread to dunk in it. 2. All the tomato and aubergine plants have been pulled out of the raised beds and I have started to dig them over and add in a pile of compost.  The weekend was lovely and sunny and today it has rained all day so far with no sign of dry on the near horizon. Oh well at least the compost will get watered into the soil and the leaves will mulch down nicely. 3. More tennis this weekend, we like to play in the handball courts, bouncing the balls off the three walls.  Kind of tennis crossed with squash with a healthy dose of giggling thrown in. 4. I have been keeping up with a 30 day sketchbook challenge with Skillshare and day 13 was ‘leaves’.  I used my lovely sumi brush and gouache paint to quickly sketch the leaves I picked up in the woods that day. Did you have a good …

Four + One = Life. Weekly Photos 45/52.

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1. Blue sky and orange leaves, one of the best things about this time of year. 2. I snagged some hydrangeas this week and even thought they are kind of past their prime, they are still so striking.  This book is my new favorite cookbook and I was happy to see that there are more books by the same lady which I have ordered from the library.  Hurrah for libraries! 3. These mica powders arrived this week which I am excited to be able to add to lip balms and maybe a gentle blush with a hint of shimmer.  I will be sure to let you know how they turn out. 4. It is not tennis weather  I know, but my youngest and I decided this weekend was the time to channel our inner Wimbledon.  I thought I  would wear alternative tennis attire as you can see and jeans and boots worked just fine in our friendly knock about.  We found this ball at the tennis courts which has a valuable message – Practice. Yes …

One+Four=Life. Weekly Photos 44/52.

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1. I went to see Twenty One Pilots in concert this weekend with my teen.  They are so good live, they put on an amazing show and they are funny and chatty too.  I do like some entertaining chat when I see bands live, nothing more boring than a band who just warbles through their back catalogue then leaves.  There is nothing boring about a Twenty One Pilots concert, and not to sound like a middle aged mama, but I just love that they don’t swear every other word.  Most bands seem to think they have to ‘f and blind’ (now I sound like a right old fart) the whole way through their set. Not true!  I took this photo using the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. 2. On Sunday morning there was a bit of fog hanging about so I went out for a little walk into the woods to see if the fog was worth a photo.  No fog to speak of, it was all in the tops of the trees, but the …

One+Four=Life. Weekly Photos 43/52.

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1. A fire pit with (veggie) sausages and s’mores on a Autumn evening is the best!  I picked this fab vintage fire pit up from a yard sale and it is the perfect size. 2. As I walked through the park past the same bridge I see almost every day, I was drawn to the bright red tree.  I am sure the leaves have turned brown and dropped off by now, which makes me grateful to see the trees everyday so that I don’t miss their glorious colour change at this time of year. 3. I picked this giant two tone tomato this week and it is ripening nicely, I might get a few more red tomatoes and the rest are heading for pickles.  Most of the ripe tomatoes are being chopped with a chili from one of my plants and some coriander to make a salsa, I am eating fresh salsa at every opportunity. 4. We had our annual Halloween street party this weekend and everyone had a lovely time meeting each other and …

One + Four = Life. Weekly Photos 42/52.

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    1. Ikea has recently opened in St Louis and I went to check it out this week, I haven’t been to an Ikea in over ten years, so it was nice to have a look around and get stocked up on Elderflower cordial and Swedish chocolates.  The cookies/biscuits in this picture are like mini ‘jammie dodgers’ which makes them a winner! 2. My purple hair is fading rather nicely I think and I have had many conversations about the radical application of colour on top of grey/white rather than bleaching to start with.  The lady in the post office informed me helpfully that a very popular colour to dye hair at the minute is grey, so that is handy to know! 3. Over the weekend we had our first ‘frost advisory’ in the weather forecast – be advised, there may be a frost.  So I picked some of the green tomatoes from the vines and I chucked a tarpaulin over the rest.  What to do with green tomatoes which won’t induce a nasty …

One + Four = Life. Weekly Photos 41/52.

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1. I picked up this feather in my garden this week and decided to have a go at painting it in watercolours.  I thought I might use this tube of white paint, but I was very wrong.  I bent and ripped it in half thinking I might get a squeeze of paint from it, but alas it is all dried up. 2. Look at this fabulous mushroom!  We were out exploring in the woods and my youngest called me to see a ‘photo’ mushroom (he is trained well!!).  A photo mushroom indeed, this is a beauty.  It feels almost spiney, not soft at all and apparently they are edible.  Would you eat it?  Pop it in a stir fry? Pasta? I am not sure I would eat it, what if it really isn’t edible, that would be a big mistake.  I was happy to admire it and snap a photo to share.  I almost forgot to tell you what it is called.  ‘Hericium erinaceus’, otherwise known as lion’s mane mushroom, pom pom mushroom, bearded tooth …

One + Four = Life. Weekly Photos 40/52

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I am joining Isabel and a host of pals over at Nanjing Nian for the weekly ‘One + Four = Life’ project where we share four photos to sum up our week. 1. The days are getting cooler and shorter and the clouds are hiding the sun more regularly. I still have some green tomatoes which I hope will ripen on the vine and I have a couple of aubergines growing fat and purple. I am pleased with my veggie crop this year and who knew I would ever grow aubergines! My Grandad would have been proud. Now I am planning my garlic crop which I will be planting soon. Are you growing anything for Autumn or Spring? 2. This weekend saw the local yard sale extravaganza through three local ‘cities’. The annual first Saturday in October where everyone can set up shop in their own yard or garage and sell their crap! Out came our crap and some sold, but the highlight was our neighbor’s sale which was chock full of vintage goodness including …

One + Four = Life. Weekly photos 39/52

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I have not taken many photos this week, but never fear, I have some to share!  I am joining in with Isabel at Nanjing Nian and linking up with other lovely people sharing their weekly photos. 1. This is an old house in our neighbourhood up for sale.  It looks like it hasn’t been touched in years, I bet it is all original inside.  Kinda cool. 2. The garden is still enjoying the warm weather, this aubergine is growing in the shape of a mitten! 3. At the weekend we caught the train into St Louis.   I love the Peabody Opera House and the array of carved faces all around the walls of the building. 4. Outside one of the local arenas is this kickboxing hare!  I can’t tell if he is about to beat someone up or run off at high speed! I hope you had a lovely weekend, did you get to see the Supermoon which was red and eclipsed?  We had a dense cloud cover here so missed the whole thing. …