Herb Meeting

Last night was my Herb Society meeting, we met at one of our members home located on Lake Michigan. Her home was beautiful and the scenery was spectacular!!
The topic last night was making cinnamon/applesauce ornaments. Many of us had made these years ago but a lot of new members had never heard of them. If you haven't the following is the recipe:

1 1/2 c. applesauce
1 1/2 c. cinnamon
Mix ingredients together. If too moist add more cinnamon. if too dry add more applesauce. Dough should be about the consistency of pie dough.

Roll out and cut out with your favorite cookie cutters. (the type with no top work the best) Let air dry.

While Beverly worked mixing up the dough I went outside to photograph the sunset.

And it was beautiful. The sun just going below the horizon line,

the left side of the sunset,

and to the right of the sun. Beautiful!

OK, back inside they rolled out the dough and started cutting out the ornaments.

I made a gingerbread man 20 years ago and sewed it on a "cookie" quilt wall hanging. I also sewed on vintage metal mixing spoons that were my mother-in-laws.The ornament is still hard and firm. I hang the wall hanging every Christmas during cookie baking time.
These are also nice to use on the top of presents.

Chrissy brought her doll bed quilt she just finished hand-piecing. The pattern is called "postage stamp". I find most of the women in our group are either  artists, quilters, needle workers, knitters, weavers, and interior designers. A few of them have designed their own homes.

Including this member who loves color.

I took home one little star to set in my kitchen, this morning with the dishwasher heating up the room you could smell the cinnamon.

With the weather getting cooler I cut back all my scented geraniums and brought them to my office for the winter. When you rub their leaves on a cold snowy day you smell summer. This is my Attar of Rose geranium, they use this type in perfumes and scented oils, it smells like a rose bush.

Another variety of rose called Old Fashion Rose. Their are many different varieties of scented geraniums, some people collect them. I didn't plan on it but I do have quite of few now. They all have different shape leaves and tiny flowers.

This variety is Mint Beauty with a little flower left over from summer.

It's hard to see but this lemon scented one has teeny tiny leaves that have a very strong lemon scent.

My favorite when I come to work on a cold winter morning is coconut. Just rub a leaf between your fingers and your in the middle of summer rubbing on sun tan lotion :)
The leave of scented geraniums are used in cake baking, line the cake pan with the leaves, pour vanilla batter over the top, after baking flip the cake pan over and take off the leaves.

Their also used in punch recipes, ice cubes, to flavor sugar to use in cookies.

I do have a few more plants in my office. This is aloe vera, one of the herb members gave me a tiny baby years ago. This is always handy for the guys out in the shop when they get a small burn or cut. I take care of them (not that their excited about it!)

I finished designing the next row of my wool quilt.

One side,

the other side,

and the middle with my cute little fiddle head fern prints marching along.

This row will be in the middle of the quilt, the top half is all piece ready to ad to this bottom half.