Cranes, Muffins, Ribbon Flowers

Late summer is crane season around here. We've been hosting (and feeding) a very congenial pair of sandhill cranes. No pecking on the windows this year. They've just been hanging out, eating corn, grooming themselves, and occasionally making a racket that could wake the dead.



A week from now we'll be just about touching down in St. Lucia for the wedding festivities and some serious relaxation. The dress is just about done--still needs a hook and eye, but that's manageable. I think I can begin to breathe again.

This week, I've been working on a fancy little bag for the ring bearer (who will be a little girl)-- sewing on beads and making little ribbon flowers. This bag will be way more foo-foo than the bridal dress.


Once the bag is done, I'll post a picture.

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Last week I had a kitchen disaster. One of my old reliable muffin pans had disappeared--think it somehow has made its way to a kid's apartment. I bought one new pan--one of those dark ones. I made a double batch of blueberry muffins for a library event and catastrophe struck--the pans had different baking rates. I ended up with one pan of pretty muffins, and one pan of muffins too burned to be presentable. And a stinky house.

Should have been able to figure this out myself beforehand but, well, I have other stuff on my mind.

One trip to Williams Sonoma later, my wallet is a bit lighter, but I am the owner of two nice, heavy, identical muffin pans. Tonight we tried them out and the results: beautiful. Happy, happy.