masterpiece

The beginnings of a good homemade pie start in a blackberry patch. Where else? Today our berries were just becoming soft and ripened so I thought I’d make a pie. Once you pick four or five cups of berries you can go straight to the kitchen and wash your harvest for the sweetening process. Half a cup of sugar, some water, a little cornstarch; you don’t need much to make it taste good. Dump the berries into a pie crust, stick it in the oven and you’ve got dessert for tonight---all finished in a couple of hours.

(My top crust tends to be a little patchy looking at times, but it just makes it look artistic.)

 PIE (with fresh berries):

4-5 cups of berries (for 9 inch pie plate)

Mix in:

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2/3-1 cup sugar (I used ½ a cup)

Let fruit sit for 15 minutes before pouring into pie plate. Cover with crust. Bake at 450 degrees F. for

10 minutes before reducing temperature to 350 and baking for 40 -45 minutes.

church camp

I know I haven’t written on my blog in a long time but this time with good reason! Last week I went to 2012 NEOLA CYF Conference (in other words, church camp for youth).

Beginning on Monday, 58 campers gathered together for the full camp experience including zip lining,  making new friends, games of gaga (a game with which we were slightly obsessed), late nights out, talent show, dancing, bug bites, cold showers, and many more small things which make up the fond memories everybody has of camp. But because it was a Christian church camp, we also had Bible studies, worship every night, prayer partners and key-point scriptures. Despite how little sleep I got, I came away from camp rejuvenated and ready to become a witness of God.

It was sad (naturally) to leave camp, but I am looking forward to next year—even more so than usual because I signed up for council. That means I get to meet up with other council members and help plan the week of next year’s camp. It’s like being a camper and a leader at the same time!

So in conclusion to this rambling blog post I would like to say that camp was an amazing experience for me. The Bible studies taught me much about our Savior, and worship was especially personal and meaningful to me. I will continue on through the year using camp as an example to hold up for others and remembering sincerely the large step forward which I took in my spiritual journey.

sewing up a storm

     It's not often that I have the time to lay my hands on a good craft/sewing project, but since today was unofficially a day of rest in our household, I decided to finish some projects and see what I could find to work on. Not that I'm a terribly great seamstress or anything, but sewing is something I like to do, so at least there are good intentions and love (if not craftsmanship) thrown into each undertaking.
Firstly, I found (in my deep dank closet) a baby afghan that I had started for my niece Amelia.
Today I finished it off, though I only hope
that the middle isn't too noticeably bulgy.
The next one will be better I promise!

     Next, I found (in our overflowing fabric box) some quilt blocks left over from a quilt Mom had made many years ago. It was a lot of fun designing the pinwheel design and sewing the blocks together to create a small quilt top. It was quite easy considering that the piecing had already been done for me:)

      And yes, that is my fantastic sewing machine that I won at the sewing expo in Kansas City! It's wonderful to work with, and (with the assistance of a built in touch screen) does small embroidery projects for me.

     My final sewing venture of the morning consisted of nearly finishing a baby quilt for my nephew, Ian. (It's awful hard keeping up with these nieces and nephews:) It really has been a joint project between me and Clara, but today I took the bit in my mouth and worked on it some. I tied the back and the front together, and sewed the binding on (though it still needs a little more work.) It doesn't look half bad, if I do say so myself.

     I especially love the little gangster dogs and cats that we put in it!

      All in all, it was a hard day's work and it was nice to have the feeling of accomplishment. Now, for hemming my brother's pants!

indecision

     It is pathetic that an inconsistent blogger such as I, should have changed her blog title twice in the last 6 months! Unfortunately, the first one (Kimblewick) just didn’t sound right, and the second (Country Girl) isn’t very original.
    And so because I was faced with this difficult situation of choosing a more permanent blog title, I decided to give it my dedicated attention. (I had nothing else to do since I was in bed with the chicken pox.) Hence the new blog title you now see: “landsflicka”.
     If you think about it (and happen to know one or two words in Swedish) you discover that “landsflicka” is really “country girl” in Swedish!  Switching the language turns a rather plain phrase into something distinguishable. Not to mention, the voice on Google translator makes it sound nice.
     And while I was making major changes to my blog, I added the picture of the Belgian horse you see up top. Dad actually got the picture in Mexico (not Sweden) but I liked it so much and the color of the barn matched my blog. Now I will try better to make all of this work worthwhile by improving the consistency and quality of my posts. (Ha!)

A World of Horses

     I was especially lucky this year to be able to go to the RolexThree Day Event in Lexington, Kentucky for my birthday!

     It was really quite an adventure we undertook to go see this event. Firstly, our hotel wasn't all that great (besides being surrounded by sprawling horse farms,) and we ended up "roughin' it" for the first day or two. That meant trying not to get lost on highway, trying not to spend too much money, and trying to figure out why that bathroom smelled burnt.

       Secondly, we truly didn't know what to expect on our first day at the Kentucky Horse Park. We must have walked at least 50 miles rushing around trying to see all of the horse shows and exploring the stables and museums.  Still, at the end of the day, we felt that we had managed pretty well----for tenderfoots. Clara and I had been able to watch a good 3 hours of the dressage anyways, getting badly sunburned in the process:) We absolutely loved seeing such beautiful horses.

     For our second day at the Rolex, we were much better prepared, having examined the map and carefully decided which events to go to.

       One of the demonstrations we attended was performed entirely on Friesians. There were 4 of them pulling a wagon, one of them being ridden in dressage, and another in training for harness. Remind me to get one (or two) of these magnificent creatures when I grow up.

     Also, the five of us were able to see a presentation called "Hall of Champions" where in a large gazebo, famous retired racehorses were paraded about for the audience. Among these horses were Be a Bono, Funny Cide, Cigar, and Da Hoss.

      Cross Country was next on our list. We managed to find a nice shady spot to sit on the grass and eat our lunch as the horses went by. Cabe and Dad became our professional photographers and only got about---300 pictures, while Clara, Mom and I were the cheering squad.

    The picture on the bottom is of William Fox-Pitt who actually ended up winning the Rolex this year.

      Our AMAZING trip concluded with the World Championship Freestyle Reining Competition. There were only about 12 competitors but they were all absolutely wonderful! (Much to our dismay, Stacy Westfall was unable to compete in this event due to a minor injury her horse had.)

      It was a great way to end our adventure---but I plan on going next year if at all possible! 

                                  

      I would like to thank both Cabe and Dad for providing pics for this post!