October 26, 2014

Celebrating Autumn - Octoberfest 2014 Blog Hop

Octoberfest 2014

My friend Rita of Toltec Jewels is hosting her third annual Octoberfest Blog Hop today and I thought it would be fun to join.  She asks only that participants do something - anything - to celebrate autumn and blog about it.  I've been enjoying autumn for the past several weeks, and what's more autumn than apples?  A friend has over twenty apple trees and sent home a whole bunch of apples for us.  

apples

After conning my daughter and her friend into helping, we peeled and chopped apples until we couldn't stand it anymore.  We ended up with a huge roaster (the giant one I use for Thanksgiving turkeys), a huge dutch over and a large crock pot full of apples.  I added a little sugar and cinnamon and a splash of apple juice and set them all to cook for hours and hours and hours.  The sugar in the apples caramelizes and the apples break down and when all is said and done, you end up with apple butter.  

Homemade apple butter

We ended up with something like 15 pints of apple butter and still had bags and bags of apples left.  I've been slicing them and drying them in my dehydrators every night for a week now.  And honestly?  I am not sure when I'll ever be able to even LOOK at another apple.

In the weekend between apple butter and dried apples, my husband and I took a trip up through the Rocky Mountains.  It's one of our favorite things to do in the fall and we always try to time a trip when the leaves are turning.  
Autumn in the Rockies

My photography skills are just not good enough to capture the beauty, but I always try.  Notice the gorgeous waterfall in the distance in this one?  We hiked up to get this view and it was so worth it!

Mountain waterfall

My favorite, though, is always the vibrant yellow.

Autumn in the Rocky Mountains

Vibrant colors of fall

Brilliantly colored leaves

A while back I found a great variegated cord and used it to make a chain of leaves (the class is available here if you want to try it).  I was never quite satisfied with the outcome, so I set it aside.  After being inspired by the mountain trip, I dug it back out and made a few changes.  At a suggestion from a friend (thanks, Lindsay!) I used some lizard leather to make connectors and added some swags of colorful glass seed beads between the leaves.

Micro macrame leaves and hand made leather connector

I also made a clasp to match and sponged on some of the necklace colors.

Clasp

And I ended up with a colorful autumn necklace with cascading leaves, funky leather connectors and multiple strands of beads.

Micro macrame necklace by Sherri Stokey with knotted leaves, leather connectors and multiple strands of beads.

And that, my friends, is this year's ode to autumn from me.  I hope you'll take some time to visit the other participants below and see what they did.  And be sure to swing by Rita's site and tell her if you like her blog hop!

Toltec Jewels (Hostess)

Sherri Stokey <----You are Here
Michelle McCarthy

27 comments:

  1. I love the macrame leaves, they look so pretty

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  2. The apple butter must be delicious! Your necklace reproduces so perfectly the colors and beauty of Autumn shown in your pictures. It is gorgeous!

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    1. The apple butter is pretty darned tasty, I have to admit :)

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  3. Your macrame is always amazing and I love this necklace.

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    1. Thank you! I really like how the necklace turned out with the addition of the leather.

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  4. Love the waterfall pic! You've got about the same amount of color as we do, the yellows are just starting to make an appearance. Love that your necklace matches those colors so well!

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  5. I love apple butter. I always make it when we have enough apples. It's one of my favorite things. Love your leaves necklace too!

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  6. We made applesauce today ... and still have bags of apples to figure out what to do with! Never tried apple butter, might have to give that a try. What a fantastic necklace! Love how you've blended green with the orange - really beautiful

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    1. Google one of the crock pot apple butter recipes. It's really simple and really tasty!

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  7. Hi Sherri, Your apple butter looks yummy. Thanx for sharing your rocky mountain pics. Your necklace is outstanding. I am always amazed by how many different designs you can come up with to macrame.

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    1. Thank you! I really try to think up new and interesting ways to do macrame - there have to be enough variations to keep me busy for several years at least, don't you think?

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  8. The colours in the pictures and the necklace are ONE, sooo ♥pretty♥ Your photo skills are good enough I think, looking at what inspired you and the result :-)

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  9. Looking at your post, it suddenly occurred to me why I don't like cooked apples. We used to spend a couple weeks making up apple butter when I was a kid and it just burnt me out on them.

    I just love the necklace! It is so different from what you usually show but so beautiful.

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    1. Hahaha - I know just what you mean about apple burn out :)

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  10. Your apple butter looks scrumptious. I usually make applesauce when \I get a bunch of apples. I'm not sure I could undertake a project as big as yours but what else do you do with such bounty?
    I love your macrame leaves and all the colours you used in your necklace. Fresh just like the breezes of autumn.
    Thanks for the great fall scenery, too.

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  11. Your necklace is a festival of fall colors, the shades of mountains in full fall foliage. The lizard leather was perfect for the clasp. It's wonderful. I have to confess that your blog made me homesick. I so miss the mountains of NY. Ohio is so flat and our leaves never reach the heights of color from back home. The pollution of the city has something to do with that. Your pictures took me back to the places I love. And apple butter! Yummy. We used to make that and tons of applesauce for the freezer and munch juicy apples every day. Yes, we have apples in Ohio, but without the "cold snaps", they don't taste quite the same. Great post.

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  12. Gorgeous photos of fall in the Rockies. The apple butter looks delicious as do the apples. I love your necklace it turned out gorgeous and so true to autumn colors. Great design!

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  13. You reminded me of how much I love apple butter. Yum. Your necklace is gorgeous. You captured the colors of autumn!

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  14. Apple butter - yum! And your necklace is oh so yummy!! 😉

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  15. Mmmm.. first you put the tantalizing aroma of cooking apples in my head and then your gorgeous photos of the landscape THEN... your absolutely beautiful necklace that leaves me scratching my head how that is done. I know macrame has been around forever, but one thing about the internet is you get to see so many fascinating things (not just the plant holders) constructed out of it. So inspiring! The color palette is so light and airy. Thank you for sharing!

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  16. Well, I think you have great photography skill. Those photos are amazingly beautiful... I really do love them and admiring the nature beauty captured in them. And you succeeded to tranfer those beauty into the necklace you created. Brilliant skill. I also love you mentioned apple butter... make me currious since I've never tasted one... thinking of making the apple butter myself. Thanks for this great post!

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  17. Your work is fantastic, I will have to learn macrame after seeing your post.

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  18. I love how you took that idea and ran with it! It turned out so awesome. I miss my grandma's applesauce so much. They made huge batches every year, out of gravenstein apples...to me it's the only edible applesauce. Trader Joe's has an unsweetened gravenstein applesauce on the shelves that's almost as good though. Everytime I open a jar, it's like opening childhood memories.

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  19. I love how you took that idea and ran with it! It turned out so awesome. I miss my grandma's applesauce so much. They made huge batches every year, out of gravenstein apples...to me it's the only edible applesauce. Trader Joe's has an unsweetened gravenstein applesauce on the shelves that's almost as good though. Everytime I open a jar, it's like opening childhood memories.

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  20. The apple butter looks delicious; what a job! Gorgeous nature photos. And I'm so glad you got your piece out of storage and finished it because it is just beautiful!

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  21. I love apple butter! Your designs are so bright and colorful, like light appears on fall leaves.

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