Sarah's Summer

Most of you know, if you are a blog reader, that I have no daughters and no granddaughters.  However, my brother and his wife have TWO lovely granddaughters, and I hang out with them every chance I get.  This summer,  Sarah (age 11) came to Columbia to spend a week with her grandparents, and I suggested that she come over to our house to bake cookies while her grandmother worked at a quilt show. 

She rolls the little ball of dough in cinnamon and sugar.

Sarah chose to make snickerdoodles.  (I had bought a box mix.)  I sat on a high stool and watched her work.
A new experience for me.   We chatted.  Nothing philosophical, of course.  I got her permission to take pictures.  And they are:

Delicately brown out of the oven.
Delicious aroma!



Insert a Special Dark Hershey Chocolate
Kiss  in to the center of each snickerdoodle.

YUM!



 

I don't think I have anything to add.

I also took a photo of the back of her custom-made t-shirt.  Click on the picture above, if you want to see what it says on the front.

I love the scroll on the trim.

One project Sarah conceived of and completed during her week with her grandparents was making 'burrito' pillowcases* as birthday gifts for her friends - under the tutelage of her grandmother.  I thought her selection of material and design was so unique, I asked to take photographs of them. 

Here is a detail on the pillowcase on the left.
Black and white high heels.



This close up of colorful high heels and the hot pink scroll work
on the border is my favorite.





A flower garden design for another lucky  friend.



And finally, Sarah's own favorite -
the pillowcase that will be her own!

*For directions on making a 'burrito' pillowcase, Google:   burrito pillowcase video.

Hydrangea Fever

You've heard of Tulip Fever, I trust (if not look it up on Google).  This summer, I have Hydrangea Fever!  Due to the mild winter, our hydrangea bushes on the north side of the house are bursting with deep blue and pink blooms.  Of course, everyone else's hydrangeas are blooming, too, but I think ours are exceptional.

I planted the first hydrangea about 10 years ago.  It was given to me by a friend on Easter Sunday when I was visiting my former church in St. Louis.  The plant thrived, growing into a symmetrical domed bush,  but produced only a couple of blooms a summer, or often no blooms at all.  About three years ago, I planted a second bush and it is also growing well, but this is the first year it has produced a bumper crop of pink blooms. 

As both bushes keep getting more and more

spectacular, I keep taking pictures.  My husband has encouraged me to cut some blooms so we can enjoy them throughout the house.  Here they are, swamping the basket I gathered them in. 

Complimenting the hydrangea blooms, the leaves of the hydrangea are beautiful, too - large, symmetrical and a deep green.

I am fascinated with the center of each little composite blue flower, because it has a tiny  blue knob at it's center.

 The pink hydrangea has a little creamish one.  Why can't the pink hydrangea have a pink center, too?

Now that I've written this post, perhaps I can  be rid of Hydrangea Fever;  maybe I can stop taking pictures of hydrangeas every few days.  Maybe.