Mitten Quilt and a Winner

Good Morning!

I am so very much excited to show you Harvest Moon Hollow's newest item -

Our Warm Winter Mitten Quilt

This mitten quilt can be personalized to perfectly fit you family, down to the mitten size! With as few or as many mittens as you like, this quilt is sure to warm up your home during the holidays. Are you looking for the perfect gift for grandparents or loved ones? This quilt might be just the thing!

Each mitten will be topped with a heart or star and a vintage button. Would you like all stars? All hearts? Just buttons? Would you like the mittens running vertically or in a square design? No problem! This quilt is just for you!

The mittens will be stitched on your choice of muslin - white, cream or tan. The quilt pictured above was stitched on a tea stained muslin. You can choose a general color scheme of blues, greens or reds - or you can have a delightful mix.

You also have the option of having the quilt machine quilted in a unique swirly design as seen in the picture. If I were you, I would go with the machine quilting. It makes all the difference.

I love this quilt, I really do.

I will start taking orders for this quilt today. I can only do a limited amount for the holidays, so be sure to act fast!

Head on over to my Etsy Shop for more details.

Now, to the give away!

And the winner is...

Hazel!

**Hazel, please email me your address and your Harvest Moon Hollow choice (anything that was listed in the shop during the give away!) **

Last Day!

Today is the last day to enter our give away!

Tomorrow, in conjunction with announcing the winner, I'm going to be releasing a whimsical, personalized quilt just in time for the holidays. I'm quite excited about it, so be sure to check in!

(Have you tried the chocolate cake listed below yet?
Just try it, your taste buds will never be the same again...)

Give Away Update and a Treat

Good Morning!

It seems as if, over the weekend, Facebook was having a multitude of problems with their 'like' buttons. This would happen, of course, on the weekend where I launch my Facebook site and have a give away centered entirely around the 'like' button! Oh well.

So, if you entered the give away this weekend, you might want to check Harvest Moon Hollow's Facebook site. If you didn't happen to show up in the 'like' box, your 'like' click wasn't recorded on my site. I think, fingers crossed, that Facebook has fixed the problem - and your 'like' click should work now.

If you would rather just leave a comment here, I'll count that as an entry too. My sincerest apologies.

Now, I have something that just might make you feel a little better. Well, it always makes me feel better anyway - and I could use some of it right about now.

Introducing....

The Single Best Chocolate Cake Recipe I've Ever Had
(my daughter has named it the very best thing on earth)

Chocolate Sheet Cake by The Pioneer Woman

Cake

2 C flour
2 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 lb butter
4 heaping TB cocoa powder

Icing

1 3/4 sticks butter
4 heaping TB cocoa powder
6 TB milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 lb powd. sugar
1/2 C finely chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Stir together and set aside. In another bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda. Mix with a fork and set aside. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and add the cocoa. Whisk together to combine. Meanwhile, bring 1 C water to a boil. When the butter is melted, pour the boiling water in the pan. Allow to bubble for a moment, then turn off the heat. Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture. Stir together for a moment to cool the chocolate, the pour in the egg mixture. Stir together until smooth, the pour into an ungreased jelly roll pan (or rimmed baking sheet) and bake for 20 min.

While the cake is baking, make the icing. Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium-low heat. Add the cocoa powder and stir until smooth. Add the milk and vanilla. Add powdered sugar. Stir together. Dump in the chopped pecans and stir until well combined. Immediately after removing the cake from the oven, pour the warm icing over the top. You'll want to avoid doing much spreading, so try to distribute it evenly as you pour.

As The Pioneer Woman says - 'Please make this cake today. I don't want you to live another day without it.'

Recipe from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Recipes From an Accidental Country Girl (I highly recommend this book!)

Enjoy!

Give Away!

It's time for a give away!

Harvest Moon Hollow is giving away one item of your choice from our Etsy Shop!

Here's how it works...

To be entered you will need to visit our facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Harvest-Moon-Hollow/143942288966265
and click on the 'Like' button at the top.
Simple as that!

Would you like to up your odds?
To be entered twice in the drawing you will need to do the above and then return to the Harvest Moon Hollow blog and leave a comment letting me know that you 'liked' our facebook page.

Would you like to increase your chances even more?
To be entered three times, you will need to do both things listed above and also let me know in your comment on our blog which item you would like from our Etsy Shop.

Happy Clicking and Good Luck!

Halloween New Releases!

Check out our spooky new Halloween items in our Etsy shop!



Be sure to stay posted,
I have a few tricks and treats up my sleeve
and
I think there may be a give away just around the corner...

Pleased to Meet You!

My husband and I just returned from a lovely trip way up north. Our little family will be relocating in June and we wanted to begin the process of narrowing down the particular area where we would like to put down our roots and call home. It was a grand little adventure which included wandering through apple orchards and savoring changing leaves. And if you happened to read my last post, you know just how lovely that was for me!

While we were a-wandering these last few days, we had the pleasure of introducing ourselves several times. And as we were meeting and greeting I realized that you and I, most likely, have not properly met yet! My sincerest apologies - why don't you grab some fresh apple cider (my oh my, was it delightful up north!) and let's chat.

Hmmm... where to start.

I am the oldest of eight children, seven girls and one boy. (My brother is right smack in the middle. My mother always says that she had one boy and went right on back to having girls. Don't feel too sorry for him though, he was always the center of attention.) I spent most of my childhood in Wisconsin and Minnesota and became a four seasons girl through and through.

I met my sweetheart in college and was smitten from the start. We were married about 10 1/2 years ago and have been walking hand in hand through this crazy life ever since. I graduated with a degree in American Studies and taught second grade until my son was born, about a year and a half after we were married. Our sweet daughter was born almost two years to the day later. While we had hoped for a home filled with children, that hasn't quite been the Lord's plan for us. This sadness has helped us to grasp each others hands a little tighter and celebrate the two miracle children we do have. Our children bring us tremendous joy, along with the occasional headache of course, and having the opportunity to help them navigate this life is one of our very greatest privileges.

Our lives center around our faith and our family. Our faith and family are everything to us - and doesn't that just make life wonderful?

I could keep chatting all night long, but I'm afraid you've probably finished your cider and are ready to head out the door. So I'll just shoot out a random list of things I love and we'll call it a night!

I love snuggling up with a good book, planting a vegetable garden in the spring, baking goodies in the kitchen, touching bolts of fabric in a quilt store, eating coconut cupcakes, reading to my munchkins, date nights with my husband, the smell of books in the library, playing the piano until my fingers are sore, singing lullabies, laughing until I cry, late night chats with dear friends and finding a reason to celebrate each and every day.

Now it's your turn to properly introduce yourself!

What are some things you love?

Welcome Fall

**Our lovely little Crow Pillow is now available**


Yesterday,
even though it was 92 degrees,
our fall decorations made their way out of storage!

Almost eight years ago our little family moved to a rather hot and humid place. Blistering heat might be a more appropriate description. When September came that first year in our new home, I anxiously awaited what I had always known September weather to be. Lovely warm days and cool, crisp nights. I looked forward to the leaves changing from dark green to the autumnal hues of red, orange and deep purple. I patiently waited, and waited, and waited and before I knew it, Christmas was upon us. Much to my surprise, our family had moved to a place where fall, as I knew it, just didn't exist. As I am an apple cider drinking, leaf pile jumping, pumpkin harvesting, scarf wearing girl - I was very sad. But, this was where we needed to be, so I decided to pull up my bootstraps and make the best of it.

And I very much tried to for the next few years. Even though, I will admit, there were some mornings in September and October when I would walk outside and say, 'You have got to be kidding me!' And then, one fall, came the realization. While it is true that I have absolutely no control over the 105 degree weather outside, I do have control over the inside of my house. And if it isn't fall on the outside, by golly, it's going to be fall on the inside! So now, no matter what the temps are outside, fall is gladly ushered into our home each September.

So, if you happen to be in our neck of the woods over the next few months and the heat is getting you down, come on over. There will be apple cider on the stove, the smell of spiced pumpkin in the air and all of the colors of fall tucked neatly into each and every nook and cranny of my home.

Welcome inside Fall, we are so very glad to have you!

Simple Words

When I was growing up, this sign hung in the entry way of our home. I passed it multiple times a day, often glancing at it as I rushed by. Of all the delightful things my mother filled our home with, (and,oh my, were there ever so many delightful things!) this particular sign burrowed its way into my mind. I knew, even as a teenager, that this was the motto I would someday want to raise my family by. So, in my early twenties, years before I was married, I bought an identical sign. I then carefully packed it away for the time that it would hang in my own home. It has hung for the last 10 1/2 years in every apartment, condo, and home that we have lived in, and is always one of the first things out of the box on moving day.

I have come to realize that there is a power found in very simple words. Words have the ability to inspire, comfort, motivate and even recreate sweet memories of years gone by. And I know, from personal experience, the remarkable and lasting effect surrounding a child with written words can have.

Can you guess what fills my house? Words, words, and more words. There are words everywhere! (I think that I may be referred to by some family members as the crazy sign lady. Oh well!) Over my bed hangs the sign 'Always Kiss Me Good Night.' In our dining room is the sign 'There's No Place Like Home.' In our family room the words read 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Above the door to our home, to help my children remember the three most important things every time they leave, are the words 'Faith, Family, Friends'. I came across a sign the other day in a lovely little primitive shop in Colorado that read, 'Love You More!'. Now, I had sworn upon entering the store that I wouldn't buy a sign. But guess what sits on our table now? You guessed it - 'Love You More!' (Now, I must explain that this phrase is one we have said multiple times a day in our family for years. That's a perfectly good justification, right???)

Now, before you join my family in thinking that I am the crazy sign lady, these words have made our house a home. I have thoughtfully tried to surround my sweet little son and daughter with words that will uplift and inspire them. Words that might come to them when they are having a particularly difficult day at school, or when they are feeling uncertain of just who they are. It is my hope that as they grow older they will remember our love and that, truly, 'There Is No Place Like Home.'

What about you?
What are some of your favorite words in your home?

**Don't forget, our sale ends tomorrow and there is a special bonus (also known as free shipping) for any who order that either have left a comment or are followers of this blog!**

And the winner is...

Now before I get to the winner, I have a little something for all of you today! A treat to say 'thank you' for your overwhelming support and following in just my first week. What a great group you all are, I can just tell we're going to have great fun together. On to the treat...

Harvest Moon Hollow is having a sale!

Everything in the shop has been marked down 20%
AND
there will be a special bonus surprise for the first person from this
blog to place an order during the sale.

Now, on to the winner! The winner is...

Robin!

**Robin said: How exciting; "O Be Wise" is my favorite. Can't wait to see what other goodies you are designing.** Robin, please send me an email with your address and your stitchery will be on the way!

Thanks again everyone! Be sure to keep checking in, I have a feeling there may be another contest in the near future!

Halloween Sneak Peek

Don't you just love Halloween?

I'll be releasing my Halloween items in the next few weeks, but I thought you might like a little sneak peek... don't get too scared!


***Tomorrow is the final day to enter the give away. Don't forget to check back on Wednesday to see if you are the lucky winner!***

Way Up High in the Apple Tree

With the welcoming approach of fall, we have apples on our mind! September, for as long as I can remember, has meant apples. Perhaps it's the apple for the teacher on the first day of school or maybe it's the fond remembrance I have of my second grade field trip to an apple orchard during the month of September. (Incidentally, while I remember with fondness watching apple cider being milled and crunching on a variety of apples, the absolute highlight of that trip in my second grade mind was our bus being stuck in the mud, in the middle of the apple orchard, in a rain storm, for two hours. We had just moved to Wisconsin and this field trip happened to be my very first day of school. It was great fun!) Whatever the reason may be, in our little neck of the woods, September means apples!

In honor of apples sweet and tart I give you the following...

First, the sweet.

When my son was just a little guy of about three (unfortunately he's not so little anymore, he's a strapping nine year old) he used to wander around our little house reciting the following:

Way up high in the apple tree
Two little apples hung over me
I shook that tree as hard as I could
Down came the apples
And, oh, were they good!

In my mother heart I wish he was still wandering around reciting his apple rhymes. However, nine year olds, I've found, are not big on the apple recitation. Nevertheless, to honor that sweet memory I am releasing Harvest Moon Hollow's Apple Tree Pillow. To have an up close look - click on over to our Etsy shop.

Now, to the tart.

Our family has a favorite apple pie recipe that calls for several tart Granny Smith apples. We love this recipe so much that it is our traditional dessert on the first day of school. This recipe also graces our holiday tables and any other time we just want some delicious apple goodness.

Way Up High in the Apple Tree Pie

1 C sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
5 C thinly sliced apples (we always use Granny Smith)
2 T flour
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 TB lemon juice
2 TB butter

Combine sugar, flour, spices and salt in a large bowl. Add apples and lemon juice. Toss to mix. Line pie pan. Trim off overhang. Roll pastry for top, cut vents near the center. Add half of the apples, pack well. Dot with butter. Add remaining apples. Apply the top crust. Bake at about 400 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until apples test done with fork.

(I have a delightful pie crust recipe that I use for all of my pies. I will be sure to post it at a later time.)

Enjoy!