The Little Brook

Brownie Busy

2008-10-20T15:14:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone,

Well, I had signed up to be a Brownie leader last summer, and it's taking off. I have my own troop of girls, and I have a lot to plan. I've been absent for that reason, and I'm not really sure I'm coming back anytime soon.

I hope you all enjoy your falls and winters! Be safe and best of luck!

Project Abandonment

2008-09-26T10:30:00.002-04:00

Though I feel guilty about it, I am abandoning the tree project. I have completed 3 blocks already, and they look like a 12 year old's school project to me. Ick. So I give up. I hate doing it, but I will find another way to use all those half square triangles (I hope) at some point. Maybe I'll revisit this one with some different fabrics and a different block.

Oh well. Onto the next....

One Down

2008-09-23T09:20:00.007-04:00

12 to go

Jeezus, these things are a lot of work.

Unfortunately, I'm not in love with this block right now. I hate that. Usually I put the block together, I love it and then I'm completely motivated to do more. But this one isn't speaking to me that way. I'm hoping that when there are more done, I'll change my mind. I've got to keep going, I have too much done to stop now.

In the meantime, I finished another block for that toile quilt:

This one has a bit of beading on it, which is fun (because it means less stitching!). Two more of these to go. I like the way they are coming along.

****Don't forget the yard sale here on October 1st! It'll be a big one!********

364 Half Square Triangles

2008-09-21T09:41:00.007-04:00

Is that what you thought that would look like? I thought 364 half square triangles would look like more. It just seemed like a lot of triangles. I thought I'd be looking at something like this:

But no. There are fewer than I had thought there would be.

That part is done. Now onto sewing them together!

I did get a bit bored, but not too badly. When I was not sewing the triangles together, I planned another 2 quilts in my head, and I did this piece at night:
It's part of this quilt:
Isn't that a terrible picture? When I saw the pattern at a quilt show, I said ick. The picture is terrible! But then another vendor had made the quilt up and hung it in their booth, and it just changed my mind totally. The quilt is really beautiful when it's done. I bought the pattern and fabric right then and there. And it's been sitting in my studio ever since. No more! It's Stash Only September, so out it came, and I'm making progress!

Yard Sale Coming October 1st

2008-09-18T09:12:00.005-04:00

Hey everyone,

I think one of the inevitabilities about going through your stash and working with it is that you realize just how much stuff you have. Coming along with that is the fact that some of the stuff you have that's no longer your taste, or probably won't work with because at the time you had in mind some project that you forgot about, or decided not to do. Usually I go by the rule that if I haven't looked for it in a year (or more), I probably don't need it anymore. That's a hard rule to follow with stash, but it's time for me to do it.

So, I am having a yard sale here on October 1st. I have been going through my stuff, and there are many projects I am not going to do and supplies I'm not going to use, so it's silly to hang on to all of it. There are some quilt patterns, some clothing patterns, and a lot of cross stitch supplies. There are charts, beads, and probably some fabric (I have to go through it all again). If you are a cross-stitcher, or know a cross stitcher, be here! There will be plenty! If you are a quilter or sewer, there will be things here for you too! Come and join us on the 1st!

PS--Because I haven't thought of a better way, I have started responding to your comments within the comments themselves. A few people I know do it this way, and it seems to work pretty well, so I thought I'd try it. I always enjoy any comments I get, but was not able to write back most of the time, so this fixes that problem. So if you commented, check back. I probably wrote you back!!

SOS #4

2008-09-17T10:45:00.008-04:00

Another little quilt:

This one is not my pattern. It's the "Everyday Table Topper" from Heather Mulder Petersen's book, Charmed and Dangerous. Luckily, though I never have any ideas for those charm packs, Heather does. Yeay! I borrowed this one. I think it's cute and bright and fun. It uses the charm pack from the It's Snowing line by Moda.

My new project is to make a quilt similar to this:

You can click on the picture for the website. It will give you a much better view of the quilt.

I am intrigued by this quilt. I have been wanting to do a tree of life quilt for a while, but I was never happy with any border option I came up with. I like this one because it has no border but still ends well. I have chosen my fabrics, which will be more vibrant than the original, and I have changed the tree block a little. I will also not be making the quilt as big. This one is 84x88 inches, which is pretty large. I have mine at about 68x68, which is still large for a lap quilt, but the size will also make it very snuggly. The block size of the tree I drafted is 14x14, so I will need 13 blocks. That means 364 half square triangles to make those leaves! I will be busy for a while.

These are some of the fabrics I've chosen, primarily they are the leaf colors. The browns for the trunks are not shown here, and neither is the background fabric, which is like a warm tan that looks like parchment. The background fabric really makes these colors shine, so I'm very happy with it.

The challenge here will be to get through making 364 half square triangles without drifting off into another project. When things get repetitive like that, my mind tends to wander, and off I go onto something else-or many something elses (just ask the crazy quilt I've been working on since February). So I'll try to stay on course. I'll keep you posted!

So Not Alone

2008-09-16T08:59:00.003-04:00

Hey y'all!

Well, I'm not alone in my disbelief of the stupidity of the corn syrup-pusher industry. So not alone. Check this out:

http://cleanerplateclub.wordpress.com/2008/09/10/sweet-surprise-the-corn-industry-apparently-doesnt-know-whats-wrong-with-high-fructose-corn-syrup-but-i-do/

She shares my outrage, and backs it up with the facts. It's definitely worth your time to read, if you find those ads to be full of crap-o. Many thanks to Lee for the link.

My Submission for a New Ad Campaign

2008-09-15T12:06:00.007-04:00

Hey everyone!

I do have another little quilt to show you, but I can't stop myself from mentioning what I think is the funniest commercial ever. And not funny in a good way, like that La-Z-Boy commercial where the guy comes in wearing this horrific suit, and wants a couch to match it. They find the fabric and put it behind him, and his eyes kind of roll up in his head and he sighs and says, "Bingo". That commercial cracks me up. That's a funny commercial.

This is not that kind of funny. It's the kind of funny where you see an ad that explains that smoking is really ok for small children, cause hell, they're young and will heal and all that. The kind of funny that makes you realize that the world really is as insane as you thought, so maybe you're not so crazy after all. And it's funny because seeing this ad makes you wonder how stupid people will have to be to believe it. So, funny in a bad way.

I hope you have seen this ad. If you have not, here's a link for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE5aSUcU3YA

This is the "corn syrup is good for you" ad. You've probably seen it. They've been bombarding everyone with it for a couple of days now. No matter what channel I watch (and I don't watch much TV, let me tell you that), this ad is on. There is another one, with a woman and a popsicle and a man, but it's pretty much the same. The feel good ad of the year. The one where they tell you all those "crazy health concious" people out there who are worried are worried for no good reason at all.

They do neglect to tell you, however, that the "fruit punch" that woman is pouring to give her kids is nothing BUT high fructose corn syrup, water, red dye #5, and some chemical crap that probably not only preserves the pretty color, but also keeps it from eating through the container it's in. I wonder why they left that out?

No matter. In light of the "new advertising" we have here, I'd like to propose my own ad campaign to help bolster the sagging fresh imported tomato and pepper industry. It's entitled Salmonella-Shmalmonella. Enjoy!

Salmonella-Shmalmonella

The scene opens: It is a sunny day somewhere in America. In a backyard of green luxurious grass, a woman is sitting in a chair, enjoying her lunch of a fresh salad, topped with tomatoes. This is woman #1, she is a happy woman, who just seems to be a lot of fun. Her neighbor is woman #2, a "worrywart". Constantly concerned about things like the environment and "global warming", she just needs to get a life.

Woman #2 pops up behind Woman #1's fence: Hey Jill. What'cha up to?

Woman #1: Not much, just having some lunch.

Woman #2: Oh, a salad! That's so healthy. But wait....are those tomatoes?

Woman #1: Yeah, why?

Woman #2: Did you grow them yourself? (She looks around the yard to find a garden)

Woman #1: (laughing) No! Who has time for all that? I bought them.

Woman #2: Are they locally grown? (looks worried)

Woman #1: (kind of brushing woman #2 off, because she's such a downer sometimes)I don't know. I doubt it. I got them at the supermarket. Don't most tomatoes come from Mexico or something nowadays?

Woman #2: Don't you know about Salmonella? (really worried now)

Woman #1: (laughing a little at her worried neighbor) What about Salmonella? (big smile)

Woman #2: Well, that it's..... (voice trails off as she tries to think of anything she may have heard about Salmonella)..... um.....well.....

Woman #1: You mean, that it's a NATURALLY occuring bacteria, and that's it only harmful in larger doses, and that it probably won't kill me unless I'm elderly or sick to begin with?

Woman #2: (smiling, as she is hugely relieved at how wrong she was to be concerned in the first place) Yeah, I guess that is it. Mind if I join you?

Woman #1: Not at all! Come on over!

Big smiles all around by both women as the neighbor comes through the adjoining gate to join her for lunch. The website (salmonella-shmalmonella.com) flashes on the bottom of the screen, accompanied by the picture of a smiling tomato with friendly eyes. Fade out. Commercial end.

What do you think? I think it's a winner. If I can only find someone to film it, it'll be a hit, I just know it, and I think it'll be having everyone feeling better about imported tomatoes in no time.

SOS # 3

2008-09-12T17:23:00.007-04:00

One more down! This is another table runner made with a charm pack. This pack is Candyland Christmas, another Moda line.

I really like this line. It is (to me) 50's in the color and the way that the things were drawn. To that end, I made the setting very simple and used the solid deep green to sash the blocks with. I originally had quilted it with the in the ditch method, because I thought it would be true to the style. I think it was, but I have discovered this year that I really like things QUILTED, so I requilted it with a meandering design. I really like the texture it produces.

Sorry about the not great pics of this one and the last. It's been raining here, and I can't take pictures outside, like I'd prefer. When the sun comes back out, I will do that!

SOS -#2

2008-09-09T09:34:00.004-04:00

You might remember me mentioning this fabric here. It's named after me!! Woo hoo! Thrilled as I was, the fabric is TOO cheerful for me, and I'm not that cheerful. I did want to own some of it, just because it has my name on it, but I wasn't sure how much or really what I would do with it. So I bought a charm pack. I like charm packs because you get the whole line in little snippets, so if you want to try the line out it's a great way to do so. Or if you like the whole line (that gets into big $$), the charm pack is an inexpensive way to get it.

But I also don't like charm packs because they are hard to work with (for me). I never have any ideas on what to do with them, so they usually sit on the shelf where I fondle them occasionally and put them back.

That is, until Stash-Only September, baby!! Now I've got to dig deep, stop the fondling, and use up that fabric! So out came the Jocelyn charm pack. ...And it's still too cheerful. Every time I put it together, no matter what I did, it just looked like spring threw up on the floor. Too many flowers, too much happy color. Then it occured to me that maybe the fabrics would behave better if I separated them a bit by something neutral. That worked. So I present to you this:

I call it "Jocelyn's Bloomers"! Many thanks to Blogger for putting the picture sideways. :( Grrrr. I don't know why it does that.

The white keeps the flowers in check, so it doesn't look like there's a cacophony of spring jumping into your retinas. That's a good thing. Yeay! I used the happy fabric! Kudos to me!

So that's project number 2 for Stash-Only September. I was going to make a blog tag (like those awards that go around), but I don't know how. If I figure it out though, I will.

Have a great day, everyone!

Stash-Only September

2008-09-05T09:32:00.011-04:00

The following is proof that I do things other than can food, raise children, garden, rant, and cook.

Taaaa Daaaa!!

I'm back in the studio again! Yee haw!

This here, pardners (now I'm all on a cowboy tangent--sorry--I will self-correct), is a quilt I made up with the 12 Days of Christmas panel by Nancy Halvosen for Bernatex. I have a confession: I love these damn panels. I don't buy them (usually) because I never know what to do with them, but I always like them. Actually, I lie. I don't like things like this, and I have no desire to own this, but there are a few panels I have looked at and thought hmmm.....

Usually I don't buy them because they are hard to work with. You either have a panel that's hard to cut apart without ruining it (right? that one you'd destroy if you took scissors to it--I mean, where do you cut?), or it's a panel that's like a whole quilt, and that's just cheating (hence the name cheater panel). But sometimes I've been tempted, and this one tempted me. I succumbed to it without actually knowing what to do with it. In order to NOT have it hang around the studio for months (or years), I tried to figure out what to do with it. The above is what I came up with. Basically I used the panel as the centers of a log cabin block, put in some sashing, and made the border with extra strips from the blocks. Nicest thing was, I used my stash to do it. Yeay! So anyway, making this quilt from my stash leads me to Stash-Only September, when I will spend this month making things only from what I have. And I'm not even going to cheat by not sewing--I will, in fact, sew a lot, and hopefully get a lot done.

So there you have it. A challenge for myself. I have a lot of fabric stashed away, so I should be pretty busy. In fact, I have this fabric to get to next, since I was going to make it for my kids for the winter time. I'm still thinking on that one. And no, I did not get the panel. I wasn't loving it. But I did get a bunch of other fabrics from that line, and I'm stymied. Oh well. It'll come to me.

I will keep you posted! Expect to see more!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Oh, and as an aside, my daughter did finally open up about school. Yesterday at dinner, she sat and told us about her whole day. I mean, her. whole. day. For 45 minutes, and that was mostly because she kept telling the story and then saying "wait, wait, I forgot something", and then would go back over everything she just said, adding tiny details here or there. I just sat there with a huge doofy grin on my face because I was thrilled to hear it. I didn't even know what part of the day she was talking about sometimes, but it didn't matter. I was thrilled to hear every "wait, wait, I forgot something". It was good. So, Cathey, turns out you were right. She had too much to process that first day. The second must have done enough for her that she felt ready to tell.

Either that, or she just kept talking so that her brother wouldn't get a chance to talk about HIS day.....

Welcome to the 21st Century

2008-09-04T16:18:00.006-04:00

Or the 20th, depending on when you want to think they were invented (1973, people, just so you know, but most think they are a more recent invention).

I got a cell phone. I have been resisting it until now. But with two children in school, and being the only parent local in case of emergencies, I needed one in case I wasn't home (gasp) if something happened. You know, in case I grow a life or something. Could happen.

I hate cell phones, but not because I'm a technophobe, which is what people usually think when I say that. I'm actually quite technologically literate, and in fact used to teach people how to use computers in my other life (ie: before children). So, I know my way around. But I hate cell phones, because I believe they contribute to the "rudening" (that's a new word, hope you like it) of society. For instance, why do you need to talk on the cell phone when you are:

1. In the supermarket, shopping in the aisles. Do you need help figuring out what to buy?

2. On line at a store. Pick a store, any store. There's someone on the phone on line. Or pick a food place. Trying to get coffee at Dunkin' Donuts? There'll be someone on the phone on line.

3. Driving. Do you NOT need to pay attention? We should all be looking out for you, is that what it is?

4. At the gym. No, you're not here to work out. You're here to talk to your friends, but not anyone who is actually at the gym.

5. On the train or plane. Yeah, we all want to hear what you're talking about.

6. In a restaurant. Again, we all want to hear about whatever it is you're talking about. Please don't let us enjoy our meal.

7. In a movie or concert or some other entertainment venue. You paid money to go to this thing and then talk to someone about something else?

8. A a child's Open School House or some other school function. This is my favorite. Your kid is that boring? Are you that non-involved? Does it only count if you say you've been there, but not that you participated?

Ok, I'm sure there are a million more you all can fill in for me. We see people everywhere doing this, and the message they clearly send is "whatever is going on on this phone is more important/interesting than whatever I'm doing right now". Really, people? You can't just live in the moment? Participate in your life? It's that dull? Sad, really, sad.

You know what else gets me about cell phones? Kids who have them. Why? I can sort of understand a teenager having one (calling you to let you know they are going out with so and so after school, using them to talk to friends so they don't tie up your home phone), but a second grader? What the hell could they possibly need one for? The kid's 7 years old. I don't get it.

I also don't understand texting. Why? You have a phone, but you don't want to call? So you text? It's bizarre, really. And don't even start me on the camera thing. I don't understand that at all.

All this aside, I do understand having a cell phone for emergencies. They really can be a good technology, if we use it right, which most of us do not. In fact, I'm sure we all have a cell phone story we can relate, or a pet peeve about them. Do you? I'd love to know it. I don't think I'm alone in this feeling. Feel free to vent, folks. I'd love to hear what you have to say, whether you agree with me or not.

I'd Like To

2008-09-03T16:51:00.004-04:00

tell you about my daughter's first day of school, however, when I asked her what she did today, she told me there was "too much to tell" and left it at that. I have gotten no information from her.

I can tell you that when she came home she looked pretty tired. Probably because this was her first full day of school, 8:50 to 3:15, and she was in the structured setting of first grade. But that is all I know. I also think she had music at some point, but I can't commit...

Instead, I guess I will have to tell you about my first day of my daughter's school. I am proud to say I cried much less. In fact, I didn't cry at all until I thought about taking the kids to the farmer's market Friday morning, and realized one of my children would not be there. Then I cried. But other than that, I was brave.

What's hardest for me is always how much I DON'T know about her days. And before you label me a control freak, let me explain. I stay at home. I raise my children. Pretty much that means that I know what they're up to during the day, even when I can't see them. When Little Girl was in Kindergarten, it was a half day, and I wasn't missing much, even when she had "too much to tell". Now she's got a full day, and at the end of it, I'm left to piece together what happened either by what little information she gives me, or what was sent home in her folder. Who was she talking to? What friends did she make? What did she learn? Those things I can't answer. I don't even know what the teacher looks like or who she is. This is what I find so hard--I can't choose who it is who is influencing my daughter. What is she teaching? How does she act? Is she supportive or not?

I know this is part of letting go. I know this is a part of growing up. I can accept that, ....but it doesn't make it easier.

My daughter, a study in contrasts: pretty dress, shiny new shoes....and a Wall-E backpack.

Making Yucky

2008-09-01T19:09:00.005-04:00

Brought about by either having withdrawal from my kitchen (with no canning projects to speak of), or by the ridiculous sale on potatoes at the local market (5 lbs for .99--how can you beat that?), I decided today to make gnocchi.

I have never done this before. I know I like it, I have seen it done, but I've never done it. When I looked for a recipe, it seemed like a piece of cake. A nice, pretty quick way to make a bunch of gnocchi all at once, and I could freeze it and we could have it whenever we would like. Because it seemed so easy to do, I figured why not do it big? So I boiled up 9 pounds of potatoes. The recipe needed 3 at a clip, and I figured I'd pretty much make triple that and have a WHOLE LOT. Good deal.

The cooking of the potatoes was a piece of cake. Boil them, no big deal. Peel them, no big deal. Smush them, no big deal. I smushed them as best I could, then I threw them in the mixer to smush them further. Then I added the egg, the salt, and the flour. Then I mixed them but good and went to knead it.

This is where I had trouble. This stuff is STICKY!! No sooner would the outside get dry, then the inside would be a sticky, mushy mess. I was struggling with this, adding flour and kneading and kneading, when Little Boy came over.

"What're you doing, mommy-o?" he said. (We are beatnik parents, I have to warn you now. Mommy-o and Daddy-o. Funny enough, it was Little Boy who started to call us that when he turned 2--I don't know why-and it just stuck. So that's us. The beatniks.)

"I am making gnocchi", I said as I added MORE flour.

"Making Yucky?"

"No, making GNOCCHI."

"Why are you making Yucky?"

"Nee-yo-kee", I said, sounding it out as best I could for him. "I am making it because it's good."

"Why is Yoke-y good?"

"Because it is" (aren't I full of helpful information?)

"Why? Is it bread?"

"It's not bread, it's like macaroni. You can have some if you want."

"Ummmmm...no thanks. It's not macaroni!"

"Why isn't it macaroni?"

"Cause that's dough, and macaroni's not dough! It's hard and it grows on trees!"

Ok, that's my husband's fault. We were in the car one day and he kept asking and asking where things came from Most of what he asked about grew on trees or bushes. He asked where oranges came from, where lemons came from, where pears came from, etc. Just on and on and on. He finally asked where macaroni came from, and my husband, who is as demented as I am, says "a macaroni bush". Well, to a 4 year old a bush=a tree, so macaroni grows on trees. I am partly to blame for this. When my husband said it, my son got so excited about macaroni growing on trees (and therefore maybe he could plant one), that I just couldn't stop laughing enough to correct the situation.

So this was my chance for redemption.

"No, macaroni is made from dough. Then it's dried. That's why it's hard. It doesn't grow on trees" I said.

He looked pretty disappointed, but didn't push the issue.

"So that's yucky macaroni?"

"Yes", I said, because now it was kind of a yucky thing. I could NOT get it to dry up and be workable. I think that at this point I had added 3cups of flour, and I know the recipe only called for 2. Most recipes called for less than that, so man, I was off. I decided to just cut my losses and roll it out the way I was supposed to, boil it up, and hope for the best.

At this point, Little Boy had moved on, convinced that the yucky macaroni was just another project of mine, and he needn't worry because I wasn't feeding it to him tonight, and all was right with the world.

I did get the dough to sort of behave, and got it rolled out and cut up, but the gnocchi are not pretty. The second batch I made behaved slightly better, but still was really sticky, and not pretty at all. I did taste them after they came out of the water, and they taste fine, but they're not as coherent as I would have liked. They're also not so smooth, despite the fact that I beat the potatoes to a pulp.

And I shall call them "Rustic"

So I don't know what I'm missing here. They are passable, but ugly. I think they could be better. I did make two batches, but I froze the last three pounds of cooked potatoes instead of using them because I was a bit discouraged, and didn't want to make 3 batches of ugly gnocchi. Are there any gnocchi makers out there? Got any tips to help me change my "yucky macaroni" into pretty delicious macaroni? I'd be glad for the help!

I Cannot Take Responsibility

2008-08-27T17:38:00.003-04:00

He dressed himself this morning.

The Fruits (and Vegetables) of My Labor

2008-08-25T08:39:00.011-04:00

This has been quite a canning season for me. I've been canning for quite a few years now, but spurred by the vegetable garden outside (I'm guessing, because who really knows where the obsession comes from), this is probably the busiest one I've had. I'm realizing that I've written about canning here, here, here and here. Hmmm.... well, here's another post about canning, and where I fess up as to what I canned.

Okey dokey. When I left you in suspense, I was working on a peach/plum harvest that we did at a local farm. We had a blast that day, and the kids are champion fruit pickers. We had gone on Sunday, and then I spent Monday and Tuesday (and Tuesday night) canning (and freezing a bit) what we had picked. This is what that looked like: Curious??? Wanna know?? Me too, actually, 'cause there's a lot there. Ok, here's the rundown.

Out of the plums (11 pounds), I put up:

3- 1/2 pints of Spiced Plum Butter. Wow, try this one. The smell is unbelievable, and the taste is out of this world. Seriously good!

4- pints of Plum Jam (which was really 5 pints, but I only had 4 pint jars ready, so the extra went into a reused jelly jar in the fridge.) This jam is surprising-tasting, which is the only way I can think to describe it. You think that it's going to be really sweet, like most jams are, but then it's got a really fresh taste to it with the sweetness, so the sweetness kind of goes to the background. Every time I taste it, I am surprised. It's very good.

6- pints of Sugar Plums. Meaning, whole plums in syrup. There is no spicing with them, just plain fruit in sugar water. The plums we picked this time around were small reddish plums. They easily fit in the jar, and they were so pretty. So instead of chopping all of them up, I picked the nicest ones, poked them with a fork and preserved them in medium syrup. They float, which seems to be my curse when preserving fruit, because no matter how I pack them, hot or cold, tightly or not, any type of syrup, they float. But they are pretty, and I know they're going to be delicious, so who cares??

Ok, I started with the plums on Monday. You know, as a warm up. On Tuesday, I tackled the peaches. 32 pounds. My kids like to pick peaches. :) That made:

6- 1/2 pints of Spiced Wine Peach Jam. (that's the first picture in this post) Ok, this one is very good, but it's because of the spices. I don't really taste the wine in it at all, which is a shame, because I used a good wine for it. I am hoping that if it mellows a bit, I may taste it more. When it's fresh, the wine taste is pretty nonexistent.

6- 1/2 pints of Lavender Peach Jam. Ok, yes, I can recommend this one. The lavender is there in smell and taste, and the peaches are a wonderful compliment to it. Neither one is overpowering. This is one of those frou-frou chic preserves you'd see in some store somewhere, selling for $12 for the 1/2 pint or whatever. So I think if you were going to can to give gifts to someone, this would be the one to make. And it's easy, which is the kicker. Very good, and very impressive!

2 pints and 1 1/2 pint of Peach Butter. This one is ok, but I think it would have done better with a bit of spicing, like the Plum Butter. I added a cinnamon stick during cooking, but it could have used a bit more....something.

6- pints of Honey Spiced Peaches. Yeah, more buoyant fruit. Oh well. These are peaches basically hot packed in a sugar syrup that uses honey as the sweetener. The spices are added to the jar, and then the peaches and syrup are put on top of them. It will need to mellow to get the spices to do their thing. I used cloves and cinnamon sticks for half, and star anise for the other half. All I can say about this one (because I didn't taste it) is this; if you enjoy mead, make these. We do, so I did. That's the smell from the honey syrup. It was good!
2- pints of Fruit Ketchup. It used peaches, tomatoes, and some other stuff. I was intrigued. I have tomatoes. I figured, what the heck?? It smelled good, but I have no idea how it tastes, because hot ketchup is not something I really wanted to try. I'll have to let you know about this one...

With the rest of the peaches, I was going to make canned peach pie filling, but the recipes I had for it either made a too-small amount (like 4 pints--what can you do with that? That's only 2 pies worth, so it's not really worth it) or a too-big amount (like 7 quarts--and I didn't have enough peaches left for that), so I just cut them up, treated them to prevent browning, and froze them. I can still make peach pie with them, and it was easier.

That took care of the peaches and all the fruit we had picked. But the garden had produced a bit too, so I put up:

3-pints of cherry tomatoes in water. No picture here, but trust me, they're floating. :)

2- pints of Gingered Zucchini Marmalade. Being as though I have some zucchini, and I have frozen a ludicrous amount, I thought "hey, why not? I'll try something different.". Famous last words. First, there was a marmalade disasterThis, friends, is what can happen when you leave to go pee. Don't do it. Just hold it in. Trust me, you'd rather hold it in than have THIS smell permeating your kitchen. Oh boy.

After the burned batch, and all the scrubbing I did to clean that pot, I tried again. It worked better, but I think I overcooked it. Then, not to give in, (because I won't be beaten by zucchini) I tried again. The third batch was the best. I stopped before I thought it was done, and it actually was the right time to stop. So go figure. I did have extra, and I have tasted it, and all I can say is eh. What a description, huh? The zucchini isn't there at all to taste, so that's fine, because that would be odd, and all you can really taste is the lemon and orange in it. I didn't taste ginger at all. Yeah, I don't know about this one. I think if you're going to make marmalade and risk marmalade disaster, make orange or something. Leave the whole zucchini thing out of it. I don't think I'll repeat this recipe.

Ok, after that whole thing, it was like 10 o'clock at night, and I was feeling like I needed an easy win, so I made Cabernet Franc Jelly.

This is the super-easiest thing to make, it's ridiculous. Get a good bottle of wine, a little sugar, and some liquid pectin. Voila! Wine jelly. It is good, it is fast, and it sounds super impressive, too. And it's good with cheese and crackers and also as a glaze for meats. Win win. :)

See the ridiculous jars, by the way? Those were the store's answer to "I just want a jelly jar, please". That was it. I went looking for those quilted jelly jars, and that's what they had. Wide mouth, "platinum" band. You KNOW I'll never find the tops for those things again, right? UGH. Plus, the shape is so weird, they just kept falling through the rack in the canner, over and over again. Oh well. At least the color is pretty.

Wednesday I spent cleaning up the kitchen. Thursday I took the day off (go figure). Friday we went tomato picking, because although I am growing tomatoes, I grew heirloom tomatoes, which don't all ripen at the same time, and cherry tomatoes, which you can't really sauce (though I may try it anyway). The kids picked plum tomatoes and some globe tomatoes which were so perfect my mom called them "Disney Tomatoes", and on Saturday, I tomatoed. On Saturday, I put up:

6- pints of Chunky Garden Salsa. I used the tomatoes, some jalapenos, some zucchini (go figure), some peppers, etc, and salsa'd. It seemed soupy to me. I haven't tried it yet.

6- quarts of Plum Tomato Sauce. Just plain, no spicing. I figure I'll do the spicing when I cook it up for dinner.

3- pints of Ketchup. This took a LONG time. A LONG TIME. I started with it, because I figured, what the heck, by the time the ketchup is ready, the jars will be warmed up, the lids will be ready, I can peel all the rest of the tomatoes, and it'll be good to go. I also should have added, and I can clean all the bathrooms, weed all the gardens, and read War and Peace, and THEN it'll be ready. That's how long it took. The result is good, really good. But I don't know if I will repeat this one. At least not on a day when I have other things I want to do.

Then, because I do have lots of ugly heirloom tomatoes in the garden, and because I didn't want to mix them up with all those pretty "Disney" hybrid tomatoes, I used them separately to make 2 different kinds of sauce, which I didn't can, but I did freeze. I made a Mexican Yellow tomato sauce with Chipotle peppers, and a red tomato sauce with basil.

I just reused old sauce jars I'd been saving for those. This was the easiest. Make the sauce, let it cool a bit, plop it in the jars, freeze. Good deal.

And that's it! I am done canning until apple time now. Or until I see a good deal on u-pick pears or something....

Oh, stop me now!!

Gifts

2008-08-22T17:17:00.006-04:00

Did you ever notice that the best gifts are the ones that show that someone was thinking about you, and just wanted to give you something that they thought you would like? A lot of times they are things that don't cost anything, but are rich in thought. I received many gifts this week. It was a wonderful week.

Last Saturday, my mom brought me a bunch of lavender. She has Provence lavender growing in her garden, and this year, she got a bumper crop. The smell was just intoxicating. Well, she went outside last weekend, and was cutting the flowers because they were really finished, but the bracts were still there (and wow, do they smell good), and she brought me a huge bunch to dry. The bunch is both hands around, that's how big it is. The smell coming from the bag is just better than I can describe. What a gift. I am so thrilled she thought of me.

On the same track, she was growing watermelons in her garden. They are cute little watermelons, a variety called Sugar Baby, or something like that. She gave me one. Another wonderful gift!

On Friday, we had the gift of a day out. This week has been long, with a lot of canning going on, and running around getting ready for school. Friday, we went out tomato picking and picnicking. It was a nice break, and the kids (and I) had fun picking tomatoes. In fact, Little Boy turns out to be an expert tomato picker, which was previously unknown.

I've been so busy, I haven't had a chance to really catch up on my blogs, but I finally got a minute, and found another gift. Cathey has given me an award!!

And look what she said about me:

Jocelyn - this mighty woman adds magic to everything she does from stitching and quilting to gardening and baking.

Thank you Cathey!! I am honored and thrilled and truly touched by what you said!! I will display this award proudly. Thank you so much!!

So many wonderful gifts this week. I hope you all are having a wonderful week too!

Fall Found Me Again

2008-08-21T11:18:00.003-04:00

Last night, I got done cleaning up the kitchen after 2 days of canning (and making a mess, too), and went outside to look at the vegetable garden. It was a cool evening, the sun was going down behind the trees, and the air was a pale blue. I was in the tomatoes, picking a few that were ready, and a little breeze blew, bringing the scent of fall to me.

And all of a sudden, I was a child again, sitting in my room at my parent's house, doing my homework in the evening, at the desk in front of the window. The windows were open in my room and the crisp fall air smell came in and told me of promises of leaves turning, and the dark excitement of Halloween to come. It was that smell--that smell of the evening in fall--the one I can never seem to find here that seems to have found me. It lasted a minute. It lasted less than a minute. It was gone as fast as it came, and I didn't find it again all evening, though I tried. But it was there, for a moment, and I was back in time with it.

I know I have said that fall smells different here--it does. I miss the smell I knew. Why it brings me back to being a child, I don't know. Maybe because things were so much simpler then, though I didn't know it at the time. Maybe because it feels like a safer time. All I know is that the fall found me again last night, and it brought tears to my eyes. I was truly thankful.

It's sort of summer here again today. The heat has come back, but it's bite is gone. The leaves have continued to slowly turn. I can tell that summer is over--what comes during the days is just a shade of what it was. I am looking with excitement to the coming season. I hope you all are too.

I Be Cannin'

2008-08-19T16:55:00.002-04:00

Be back.....eventually. :)

It's a Good Day

2008-08-15T10:14:00.005-04:00

You're probably pretty tired of pictures of tomatoes and squash and stuff, so sorry, but I can't help myself. And since this is my blog, I figure oh, what the hell, I like squash, I will take some pictures of them. So here is a picture of some squash. These are pattypan, which are very delicious and mild-tasting, as squash go. They are very enjoyable.

This is what they are "supposed" to look like when you pick them (meaning, ideal size):

This way, they can be cooked and eaten whole, and they are good!! I don't always pick them at this size, though, because I feel like that's too small. So I will usually leave them until they are sliceable size, and then I'll slice them and cook them, and they are still so good. But sometimes, when I'm feeling wild, I will leave them longer, to stuffable size like this:That's when they are still tender and yummy and can be cooked by stuffing them with something (I like breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese with balsamic vinaigrette---YUM!) and putting them in the oven. They are big enough to hold in the palm of your hand, and weigh about a half pound each. They are a meal in themselves.

Then sometimes I like to not see a squash for--oh, I don't know--three weeks or something, and then go out and be surprised because there's a squash there that I didn't see, and all it's been doing is getting BIGGER, and it looks like this:
Here are some pics for scale. The littlest on the biggest.

This thing is like a work of art. It's 3 lbs, 2 oz. I don't want to eat it. How long do you think it will last if I just put it on a table as something to look at? Is there a squash taxidermist anywhere? Does anyone know? Geez, I just want to look at it all day, it's so pretty.

I did get many other things from the garden today, though, too. Here's a picture of them all. I am SO proud (can you tell?)

93 cherry tomatoes, 3 zucchini, a bunch of other "ugly" tomatoes, more pattypan, the huge pattypan, and I even braved the huge spider's lair and picked some beans (thankfully I didn't see the spider). Wow. I am super happy today!!

Turns out I am sharing my tomatoes with the groundhogs, though.

They got two of them. Furry buggers. Least they could do is eat the whole thing. What a waste, just eating a chunk and leaving it. Now that I know, I will have to find a way to combat them.

Ok, that's it for me today. I've got a million things to do. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

.....And Today I Took Them Back Off

2008-08-14T17:03:00.006-04:00

Actually, I took them back off on Tuesday. Oh well. I didn't think it would last. The heat is back, but it's bite is gone. That is a relief. I got to do a good amount of weeding outside, which needed to be done desperately. At least the gardens are tidier.

Yesterday, I found the biggest, creepiest spider in the beans. I am not a fan of spiders, so I am very hesitant (to say the least) to go back into the beans and harvest. I will have to be really careful. And wear thick gloves. Shudder

Before I found said creepy huge spider, I did get a nice harvest.

The little brownish tomatoes are the Chocolate Cherry tomatoes. They are the ones I had to wrestle with. They have now grown about 2 feet past the supports and don't look like they are going to stop anytime soon. At least they are productive! The big huge yellow tomato in the front is a yellow Brandywine. They are ugly tomatoes, from an aesthetic standpoint, but they are huge. This one is one of the larger ones. It weighed 1 1/2 pounds all by itself. I called it Big Bertha. Then we ate it. YUM!

I hope you are all having a good week!

I Put On My Socks Today

2008-08-11T18:18:00.005-04:00

Sounds like a song, doesn't it??

I put on my socks today,

I looked out, the sky was grey,

something something something

hey hey hey...

Ok, well... that's a work in progress. Maybe it's a country song. I dunno.

Anywho, I put on my socks today. Why? 'Cause it was CHILLY!!

I don't wear socks in the summer. Ever. In fact, I don't even wear shoes if I don't have to. I go barefoot all the time, if I can. It's just a thing I have. But today I had to put on socks. It's cold and damp. Summer ends quickly here. Around mid-August, that seems to be about it. I can't claim a long history on this whole theory, I've only lived here a couple of years, but for the 3 summers I've gone through, mid August and late August is the end of the summer and the beginning of the fall. Even the trees agree with me on this. Look at this:

Can't see it? How about now:

No? How about a big, blurry version?

Them's leaves are yella!

It's the beginning of the end. Woo hoo!

I'm not a huge fan of summer, though I try to be. I try to enjoy all the seasons, because otherwise, I'd be missing out on part of my life, and that would suck. Spring I enjoy because the Earth smells so good, and the weather is so mild, and it's time to plant and there are so many possibilities ahead. Winter I enjoy because it's time to be indoors and the holidays are around, and it's hibernation time. Plus I really like snow. Is there anything in the world like the quiet outside after a good snowfall? I don't think so. Fall is my favorite time because the Earth smells so good and the leaves are so pretty, and there's harvest and chilly nights that aren't cold but just a bit crisp. I feel energized in the Fall in a way I don't feel any other time of the year. Fall is crisp and dark and watchful and exciting. I don't know why. But there is a connection there that I feel every single time. Summer I have a tough time with. I am trying to look at it as the time that the plants mature and produce food and the bounty of it is wonderful, because it is wonderful. But the heat just gets me every time. I hate the heat. So it's a work in progress. I will find a balance with Summer. I just have to see where the peace with it lies.

But today I had a piece of fall. And I felt that energized excitement that I always feel at this time. I know I'm a bit premature here--summer's not quite done having it's say, and I'm sure that later this week, the heat will return, even if it's slightly less edgy. But I enjoyed today, for sure. I got to put on my socks. :)

Honey, I Skunked the Car

2008-08-08T15:13:00.004-04:00

I was driving home last night at about 9:30. It was dark, made moreso by the fact that there are no streetlights here (a fact I really like). There are, however, a lot of animals (I like that too), and when it's dark, they come out. For this reason, I drive home pretty slowly, usually about 30 or 35 mph. This almost always ensures I have someone driving up my rear end the entire way home, since that just seems to be what people do up here (which I still can't understand since the speed limit is all of 40). So, as normal, I was driving home, watching out for whatever my try to run across the road, with someone up my butt.

9 times out of 10, I make it home without seeing any animals. Sometimes I will see a deer or raccoon on the side of the road, thinking about crossing, but usually changing it's mind. Last night, a skunk decided to run across the road, right in front of me.

Now I have someone up my rear end, not close enough that I can't see his/her headlights, but still too close, and I'm going 35. Not enough time to stop. So I try to swerve so that the skunk goes under the car, between the tires. I have no idea if he will do so. I don't even know if that will kill him or not, but I have to try, because I didn't have enough space to brake. So I swerve. And Pepe La Pew goes right between my tires, almost through the center of the car.

I wait for the bump, thinking maybe I didn't aim right. I'm thinking I may have hit him anyway. Maybe he kept running and ran under the tire, despite my best effort.

But no bump. So maybe I didn't hit him.

Holding my breath, I look out the rearview mirror.

Because I had tried to stop so suddenly, the up -my-butt driver has backed off a bit, and in his headlights I see a little white streak running back into the woods, back the way he came.

So little Pepe will live to stink another day.

I feel pretty good about that. Then it occurs to me that he was, after all, a skunk, and what do they do? Spray. Yeah. And I just scared him pretty good, no? Yeah.

30 seconds later, the smell comes. Very subtly, but there.

30 seconds more, and oh boy. The car's been skunked.

By the time I got home a few minutes later, the smell is, well, potent. I pull into the driveway and get out of the car, and well, the smell's a bit more potent out there.

So I go inside and tell my husband as nicely as I can (it's his car, by the way--I may have forgotten to mention that) that the car's been skunked.

Actually, what I say is this:

"Hi honey, I'm home. Wanna hear something funny?"

Luckily my husband has a pretty good sense of humor. He came out to look, or -er- smell, and tells me that not only is the car mean looking (as in dinged up--I didn't do that, by the way, it's just old), it's now mean smelling.

Heh heh heh.

Sorry honey.

So the car's been skunked. Funny thing about it is, that before I got home, there were a bunch of kids playing football in the dark at the next door neighbor's house. After I got home, it seems that the game broke up rather quickly. I wonder if it has anything to do with the car....

So Embarrassing!!

2008-08-06T14:58:00.002-04:00

Today I took Little Boy and Little Girl to the library for an ice cream social. It was part of their summer reading club activities. I thought it would be a nice surprise for them, because with ice cream, how can you go wrong??

They were very excited about it, and when we got there, the library was swarming with kids--just tons of them, all waiting for ice cream. Of course, when you're talking about that many kids, you're bound to know at least one or two of them from a class or two. Well, I knew a few from Little Girl's preschool class, and a couple from her Kindergarten class.

I recognized the kids right away, since I'd both dropped off/picked up Little Girl from preschool for the whole year and also because I'd done a lot of volunteer work at the elementary school this past year and met a lot of the parents and their kids. So when I'd see a kid I knew (and therefore Little Girl knew), I'd say "Hey, isn't that a kid from your class?"

And Little Girl would say yes.

So I'd say "Why don't you go and say hello?"

To which, of course, Little Girl would say no.

Okayyyyyyyyyy.....

Maybe it was just that kid, for some reason. Who knows. Bad kindergarten blood or something. But each and every kid I saw that I knew she knew, I'd say the same thing. And each and every time, she'd say no. The more kids I saw and mentioned, the more unhappy she got with me, until her eyes were rolling around in her head with the displeasure of my asking.

So I laid off.

But when we got into the car, I figured I was safe. There was no one around, and maybe she'd tell me why she didn't want to talk to any of her friends. So I said "Hey, Little Girl, why didn't you want to say hello to any of your friends?"

And she turns to me and says "Because you're embarrassing".

Huh.

I've got to admit, I'm a bit stymied by this. First of all, because the kid who just said this wanted to wear a hand towel around her neck to this party, to pretend to be a superhero. It was only after MUCH debate and arguing that she agreed not to wear it when we went out. Is a handtowel cape a cool, normal thing, I guess?

Secondly, I dress normally. I look (pretty much) like other mothers. And I've got kids with me, it's not like I'm just some odd loner going to the party because I wanted ice cream for myself .

Thirdly, and maybe most prevalently, I would think, is that people don't like me so they don't talk to me. Well, no, let me rephrase that. Other mothers don't like me, so they don't talk to me. Because of that, I don't talk at these things. I just speak to my children, help them with whatever they need, and smile politely at the crowd most of the time. I do say hello to the other mothers, but they always run away as fast as possible. So really there is no way I'm embarrassing her by talking too much, or talking too loudly, or laughing at things, or anything like that.

Apparently, I'm embarrassing her by just being.

Hmmmmmm......

I didn't know that I should expect this at the age of 6. It's about oh.....6 years earlier than I expected. Oh well.

So, I am embarrassing. That's ok. Now I know. I will try to fade into the wall a little more from now on, I guess (though I'm not sure how much more I can possibly do that). And cool, normal Little Girl will be cool and normal.

And yes, she IS now wearing that hand towel. She put it on as soon as we got home.

Not Just Gardening All The Time

2008-08-02T12:10:00.003-04:00

Well, I seem to be losing you all with the talk about the garden (not that there are too many of you to lose as it is), so let's switch gears a little.

I do tend to live outside in the spring and summer, I like working in the dirt and tending plants, and now that I have a vegetable garden, I am completely obsessed with the idea that I can grow food and put it by. Not a bad thing to do, really. These things are skills I really think everyone should have.

But there are other facets to me as well. I have been in my studio a bit, and I also have been stitching. As I have no completed sewing projects right now, I can show you a stitching project I have been working on. This is a Papillion Creations freebie--a newsletter project they release once a month. I am up to part 8 so far, so it should take until December to finish. The project had 3 versions--completely cross-stitch in 6 colors, completely cross-stitch in 2 colors, and cross and specialty stitches in 6 colors. You pick your own colors and linen. I picked my colors and linen and am doing the 6 color specialty stitch version. I am pleased with it so far. Take a look:

Sorry about the dark pics. It's not the sunniest day today to take these shots. Darn.

And some close ups:

This is a nice project. It's quick and challenging, but not frustratingly so. If you subscribe to the website, you can see many other people's versions of this project--the range of colors used really is wonderful to look at. Everyone has their own slant on the project, and it's really enjoyable to see.

So see? Not just gardening all the time. But mostly. :)

Wrestling Lycopersicon lycopersicum

2008-07-31T09:41:00.007-04:00

I do think it could be a new sport--Tomato Wrestling. It could be BIG. I mean BIG. There just needs to be a big name to endorse it and another to do the whole announcing thing, and we're all set. And the bonus would be that anyone could participate. No steroids needed, just a person, some scissors, some stakes and a lot of ties. It could be timed to see who can get the tomatoes to behave in the least amount of time. And the better you get at it, you move up to taller and vinier tomatoes that are flopping all over each other and more and more tangled. That'd be a feat of strength, stamina, and brains. What an event!

I wrestled the tomatoes yesterday, as I said I was going to. 2 hours. They were really tangled. I am ready for the big time, baby. I think I could go all the way.

Let me show you. Or should I say;

LET'S GET RRREADY TO RRRRRRUMBLE!!!!!!

The "before" shot. Tomatoes, tomatoes, everywhere. Mainly on top of one another. But also on top of the peppers and squash. They were hogging the sun.

See that low part of the "mound" there? Those are the cherry tomatoes. They got so tall they fell over and continued to grow into one another. When I planted all these guys, they were in nice rows. I was determined to find the rows again....

Can you see the tomatoes on the left? There on the garden path? Can you see the garden path? No, no, you can't. I know. This is what I'd be stepping over everytime I went into the garden. A little TOO snug.

Though for some reason Blogger wants to put this picture upside-down (???), I would like to point out here that I DID stake these suckers about a month ago. This is a 4 foot stake, lost in the foliage. I would have to extract it and a few others like it....

To prevail!! Hah! Here are those unruly guys, 2 hours later, sort of behaving.

And finally, I had gotten both the unruly cherry tomatoes to behave, and then all their compatriots next to them. Ha!!!
I would just like to point out that the vines of these tomatoes are actually TALLER than the stakes I put them on....
And to give you some idea for how tall that is, the stakes are 8 feet tall. If I pounded 6 inches into the ground, I was having a good day. So a 7 1/2 foot stake. And a what, 8 foot tomato?

But I unearthed the peppers. Poor sunless little guys. They looked relieved. Now either they'll make peppers or die of shock. Hmmmm.... Well, either way. At least they can breathe. :)

And I reclaimed the garden path. Woo hoo!!

So, totally worth it. Why is this a sport? Well, because there is a lot at stake! Ha ha ha!!

Ok, really now. Tomatoes are actually very fragile. The vines break easily, and the tomatoes can be damaged easily, or fall off. So it takes a bit of finessing, especially if the vines have gotten as long as these vines have gotten. I untangled vines on the garden path that were from the tomato in the back of the garden. And they were growing under vines from some of the tomatoes in the middle of the garden, the tomatoes comingling freely. Darn cominglers. So be prepared to have some tomatoes fall off.

And don't panic about it, because you can still harvest them and bring them in to ripen. My favorite way is to spread them out (that's important) on some newspaper on the counter. It takes a while, but why waste tomatoes, right?

As careful as I was, I did break a vine:

I don't worry too much about that, though, because they are resilient, and I've had tomatoes in the past grow on vines that were severed almost in half. They actually develop fine and don't seem to mind the break, as long as there is still a way to get the nutrients to the rest of the plant at that point.
Speaking of, this was a vine that was broken quite a while ago. It was growing fine and actually sprouted tomatoes on it. Then I broke it off totally (oops). But here's something else you may not know about tomatoes:

They develop roots all along their stems (see those little yellow nubby hairs--they be roots!), so they can be rooted in a pot of dirt if you break off a branch. This will usually work just fine with a young branch. I don't have much hope for this branch, though. It's an "older" vine, but mainly I don't think it will work because it's supporting tomatoes. That's a lot to support on root hairs. So I'm thinking this one will probably not make it. Dang. But I will give it a couple of days, just in case. Right now it looks very shocky. I don't have much hope, but I'd kick myself if I didn't try. Oh, and another fun thing about tomato wrestling? You WILL get dirty! Very, very dirty! What more can you want?

I think I may be onto something here. You start with easy tomatoes, and as you conquer them, you move onto the behemoths. You lose points for tomatoes that fall off, and points for vines that break. There's an opportunity to use your strength to pound in the stakes, your stamina to keep at it, and your brains to figure out just WHERE the damn vines belong and to which plant, and then how to best tie them to the stake. Extra points for deftness with the scissor/tie handle and how the ties are applied to the vines.

Hmmmmmmm.......

Well, I think it's got potential.

At Least it Wasn't 95 Degrees!

2008-07-30T10:23:00.007-04:00

It was cooler (87 degrees--woo hoo)Sunday, so I did some more canning. That canner is getting a workout THIS year!

Let's just say I had a bounty of zucchini. So I pickled it.

I also put up some plum conserve, which is on the left in this picture. The 10 pints on the right would be the zucchini pickles. The middle loaf is zucchini bread. There were 2 loaves, but one had been "attacked" as soon as I took it out of the oven. My daughter has a previously undiscovered love of zucchini bread. So in total, I got 10 pints of pickles, an "overflow" jam jar of pickles (with the red top in the back--no I didn't put that in the canner--it would have exploded, methinks) and 2 loaves of zucchini bread, and froze a bunch. That was the harvest from the day before we left and the day we came back...... Did I mention I had a bounty of zucchini?

Finally the tomatoes are coming, so you see some in the front in this picture. I have a PLETHORA of tomatoes, but they are almost all still green. These ripened while we were away, so I picked them. They are a variety of cherry tomato called Chocolate Cherry. Bet you can't guess why I picked them, huh? Anyway, I grew them from seed, and the plants are now 6 1/2 feet tall, and loaded with tomatoes. And falling all over each other, which is a pain in my butt. My mission today is to buy some 7 foot stakes and get them off of each other. Then I may be able to walk in the vegetable garden again.

That's going to be my day today. What are you all up to?

Vacation!

2008-07-28T11:55:00.008-04:00

I went on vacation! We went to Seneca Lake, and did some cabin "camping". It was a good vacation, and we did lots of things. Would you like to see? Come along on the trip!!

So......do you think we packed enough??

We stayed in a little cabin. It was really nice!

We hung out the first day, did a little fishing with the kids, they played on the playground, and that night we had a campfire, where I fed my smores habit more than I should have...

The next day, we went to the Corning Museum of Glass. I forgot my camera. You'll just have to take my word for it, it was fun. The kids had a good time because they gave them things to find like a scavenger hunt, and there were interactive exhibits. We also took in a couple of little shows. It was a nice day.

After we got back, my mom and I snuck out to visit a quilt shop called Oh Susanna. It was small, but if I tell you I could have spent hours there just looking at everything, I wouldn't be lying. I love little shops like that, with lots of quilts and samples and ideas and books to see, besides the fabric. It was just brimming. Very enjoyable.

The next morning, the kids got up before 7. Ugh. In order to keep them quiet (because they're not), we took them on the little nature trail in the campground. It was well marked, and it taught the kids how to follow a trail.

It taught me why I shouldn't take pictures while walking. Dramamine, anyone?

Oh, really now, stop it. Blech.

Then, because we'd started the day walking, why not continue? That day, we hiked the gorge in Watkins Glen. If you've never been there, put it on your list. It's a beautiful place. The trail is 1 1/2 miles, mostly up steps. There are 19 waterfalls, and the views are incomparable. Take a look....

You start out at the bottom of the gorge, and hike to the top, up about 800-odd steps. It was a good walk, with lots to see. I took over 100 pictures that day. We hiked up the gorge, and back down a trail on the side of the gorge. No steps that time and not as many views. Still, it was nice and quiet and shady--very enjoyable.

After hiking the gorge, we went on a boat ride around Seneca Lake--no walking required.
Little Boy and Little Girl sitting nicely, looking. Aaaaaahhhhhh......

That night, another campfire. A little more feeding of the smores habit I have, but not as much.

The next day, it was time to go home. The kids were antsy and fighting, and driving my younger brother insane. Hubby and I needed to sleep in our own bed. But before we left, we visited 2 wineries. There are 15 or so around the lake. The kids were NEVER going to put up with 15, but we snuck 2 in before we headed home.

Enjoyed the view, bought some good wine, and off we went for home.

It was a good time, enjoyed by all. I hope you liked it too! Thanks for taking the trip with me!

All Because of the Apricots

2008-07-18T16:44:00.009-04:00

It's 95 degrees out. It's hot. Yet I spent the day baking and canning. I believe I am insane.

Poor Percy. I understand, buddy, I really do.

The day became what it was after a planned trip to the farmer's market and a sleepless night thinking about organizing my freezer.

I know, have I nothing better to do than think about organzing my freezer all night? Well, yes, sleep would have been nice. Unfortunately, my inability to sleep as of late caused my brain to stay awake despite my best efforts of stopping it from doing so, and while it was looking for something to think about, it came about the abundance of summer squash we have and the fact that it has caused a bit of a traffic jam in the freezer.

Squashy devils. Oy!

So, having been fueled by stupidly-late night ponderings on what to do to clean up the freezer, I got up this morning to head to the farmer's market as planned, and then come home and clean up the freezer, in hopes of appeasing my brain, so MAYBE I'll get to sleep tonight.

Of course, things never go exactly as planned, do they? I find mostly not. I went to the farmer's market to buy carrots (to bake a carrot cake) and some lettuce for salads. That was it. Then home to clean. Well, I did get the carrots which were lovely, and I did get the lettuce,

but then my daughter spied cherries, so we got those,and then I spied a stand selling peaches and apricots.
We don't go to the farmer's market all the time, and you know how quickly things go in and out of season, so we bought a couple of pounds of peaches, and I eyeballed the apricots.

I like apricots. I like apricots in syrup, actually. But I shudder at eating the ones in the supermarket because of all the crap preservatives they put in those things. And fresh apricots are like $3.50 a pound or something ridiculous, and that's not happening, because what if I don't get them "syruped" and they go bad? What a huge waste of money. Plus, where are they from? California? Mexico? But these apricots were sitting there. And they looked nice. And they are very local. Plus, they were "seconds", meaning slightly blemished but still perfectly good and much cheaper. Well, I'm going to cook them, aren't I? Does it matter if they're not all that pretty? Not a bit. So, ok, no convincing here, I buy 5 pounds of "seconds" apricots for a total of--get this--- $4. Whoo hoo!

Ok, so I've got my carrots and lettuce and cherries and peaches and now apricots, and we head home. And on the way there I spy a sign that says "Blueberries U-Pick". I think about it. It's getting hot. Maybe it'd be best if we just go home. We were at the market a while. Little Boy wants a drink. .....But the blueberries will be a good price. The kids like picking things themselves. Or maybe they'll have some already picked and I'll just grab a couple pints and we'll go off home with little interruption. Hmmm...

The U-Pick won. We pulled in and since there were no already picked pints waiting for us, I asked the kids if they'd like to pick blueberries. They were extremely enthused. Kids after my own heart. Little Boy has forgotten he wanted a drink (he always does--he's SO 4), and we're off. About an hour later both in the sun and out in the shade, with the kids picking blueberries like champs, and Little Girl eating almost as many blueberries as she picked, we brought them back to the stand. Three and a half pounds of blueberries for--get this again---$4. Whoah!

Ok, really to home now. Fed the kids lunch, gave Little Boy his drink, and now to the freezer.

Messy, messy.

I pull everything out.

And attempt to put everything back in.

Ok, bit of cramming going on, but so far so good. I am nearly completely out of room. But I do have the "problem" that I just created for myself--those apricots and the blueberries. I have to do something with them. So I figure I'll can them. Apricots in syrup (yum!!!) and then I can can the blueberries in water, for baking later on. Ok, that's a plan. So I get the water going in the water-bath canner and get all my jars and such ready to go, and I prep the apricots. I get them going, make their syrup, then the jars are ready. So in they go, nicely as you please, and I pop them in the canner. But now I have to wait. 20 minutes. That's a while. So I figure, I was going to bake a carrot cake, so heck, why not?

So I do. And that goes so quickly that I have some time left, so I figure hell, I'll make some zucchini bread. It uses the same oven temp and everything. Kharma.

So I do. And then the jars of apricots are done (I got 4 pints-mmmmmm!!!), and the cake and breads are in the oven, and I'm going to get started on the blueberries. But I need to prep more jars and lids. So that's a little "down time". And I noticed that I had a frozen pie crust in the freezer that I really didn't have room for. So what if I just put together a little free-form and very rustic blueberry tart? I've got the crust. I've got the blueberries. Kharma again.

So I do. And I pop that in the oven just in time for the jars to be done, so I heat up the blueberries, get them in the jars nicely as you please and pop them in the water bath. Ok, 15 minutes of down time and now the carrot cake is done, the zucchini breads are done, and the tart is done.

And that's it. I'm done. At 5 o'clock. I only meant to clean the freezer, you know. Hmmm....

Darned apricots.

Summer Garden Pictures!

2008-07-10T10:19:00.008-04:00

Let's take a walk around the yard and look at the flowers and plants this lovely summer morning!

The Artemisia and Sedum that grow on the path as we walk down from the back deck.

The garden at the entrance to the vegetable garden. The Irises are tired. :(

Other side of the entrance. You can kind of see the tomato forest behind on the right.

The garden by the driveway.

One side of the foundation plantings. I'm still waiting for them to cover up the foundation!

The garden by the lamppost.

Echinacea. One of my favorites. This one is a double, which is why the centers seem to be sprouting petals. They are!!

Cardinal climber flower on the old chair.

The other foundation planting.

You could get lost back there!!

And around the other side of the house.

Pretty Butterfly Bush!! Can you see the cute little garden shed back there?

Oh, there it is!!

The plants in the cages in front weren't bad, by the way. My plants are all pretty well-behaved! I guess I brought them up right. :) They are little blueberries, which are irresistable to pretty much all the wildlife around (I discovered). So, we "cage" them for their own protection. At least, until they can hold their own with hungry bunnies and deer!

Thanks for coming on this tour with me. Enjoy your day!

Up All Night, Up All Day

2008-07-09T05:26:00.003-04:00

Ever since my late 20's, my body seems to have shifted into what I'm calling pre-menopause mode. One of the unfortunate side effects of this mode (and there are many) is not being able to sleep at certain times of the month. Pretty much it's like clockwork. I start to feel what I can only describe as "prickly" one day, and then it begins. Either I can't fall asleep, I can't stay asleep, or I wake up ridiculously early. Today is ridiculously early day. As I am writing this, the clock has chimed 5:30. I've been up since 4:48, when my eyes snapped open like a window shade and my mind started racing.

Joy.

So here I am. So far this morning, I:

made a pot of coffee (pretty necessary for 5 am, no?)

fed the cats, as Percy was telling me that he would absolutely DIE if I did not feed him immediately.

went outside to get the paper.

looked at the blue light that washes over everything in the mornings. So pretty.

picked yesterday's heads off of some of the daylilies.

picked yellow squash and zucchini (prolific little guys!)

had a short discussion with the squash about how they are growing on top of the peppers and hogging all the sun, and that's not fair. They seem unmoved, literally.

listened to the rooster someone somewhere nearby is fortunate enough to own.

listened to the birds.

sat down here to write.

That's about it.

I notice how fresh and clean the air is at this time of day. It's not late enough to get hot--thankfully--so it's nice and cool and the grass is wet with dew. It is so nice and quiet at this time of day. Out of all the sleep disturbances I am so "lucky" to experience, this one is my favorite. I really would not mind getting up this time every day, but I'm not built for it, save for a few days a month. I am a sleeper-inner (as much as 7:30-so not too much, really). I think I would get up at this time all the time if I had something to do, though. Say, like plow the back 40 or milk the cows and feed the sheep. That would be bliss. Maybe someday I will get to.

Well, as I am up before the children (miracle of miracles), I think I will enjoy the quiet for a while. I hope you all have a wonderful sunshine-filled day!

You Just Can't Fix Bad Wine

2008-07-07T16:07:00.004-04:00

Which is sad, but true.

While in Vermont, my mom and I went to a store that sold Vermont-made wine. Because my husband and I enjoy wine, I bought a couple of bottles. One of the bottles intrigued me because it was rhubarb wine. I like rhubarb a bit, and I thought, what the hell, I'll try it.

Hubby and I tried it last week. He tried it first, and once he had sipped it, made the most interesting face I've seen. All he'd say was that it was "different". So I tried it. Holy cow. It was the WORST wine I'd ever tasted. Dry to the point of sand-like. Kind of sour. Really unpleasant. Horrible aftertaste. I know rhubarb is not a sweet vegetable, but I figured, that, as in with pies, they'd figure out a way to counteract that whole thing, at least to a degree. I was wrong. I guess the way they chose to deal with the tart taste of the rhubarb was to add it to a dry white wine and see what happened. Ugh. It was really horrible.

I had only taken 3 sips from my glass, and my husband drank only half of his, so there was nearly an entire bottle left. I hate wasting anything, so I thought about what I could do with the rest of this atrocity. I thought about using it in cooking, but I was afraid of ruining whatever I added it to (it was that bad). So into my head popped some things I had read from a book called The Herbal Pantry. I thought, "Hey, I've got herbs. Maybe I'll add some to this horrid stuff and it'll be alright".

Yeah, no. I added Lemon Verbena and some blueberries to it. I let it sit in the dark for two days. I tried it again yesterday. Underneath the refreshing lemon and sweet blueberry was--you guessed it--tart, sour, dry, disgusting rhubarb wine. So you really can't fix bad wine. It is true. I had to dump the bottle, which hurt, let me tell you. But I didn't know what else to do with it. So sad.

However, if you have a GOOD bottle of wine at some point that you'd like to make better, take a couple of sprigs of Lemon Verbena, wash them up, and stuff them in. And if you're feeling really wild, go ahead and smush (gently) some blueberries and pop them in too. Let it sit for a couple of days in the pantry, and the wine will be very nicely flavored (and if you added the blueberries, it'll be a beautiful color too). But only use good wine. And leave that horrid rhubarb stuff on the shelf. BLECH!!

Probably Should

2008-07-03T15:09:00.004-04:00

...tell you all about the quilt show or how the summer is going or something, but it's a lazy day. So instead, I'll show you all some pictures of the vegetable garden.
Enjoy!

The bean teepee, currently under attack by Japanese Beetles. F-ing beetles. Spent a lot of today flicking them into a can of soapy water for a drowning. OOOOOOOOh, I hates them!!!

Little Boy and Clifford sitting on the little bench next to the pat-a-pan squash.

Little Boy again (and Clifford). The squash mountain continues on his other side there with yellow crookneck and zucchini.

The tomato forest.

Little Boy by the strawberries.

See how those tomatoes tower? They're about my height, and I'm 5'7" or so. Little Boy could get lost in there! I'm glad he's got Clifford!

Beans and herbs and the mints in a row.

The beets, ready for harvesting.

The beets, harvested. Oh, and a couple of peppers.

Little Girl and the beet harvest. What an armful!!

Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head

2008-06-24T17:53:00.005-04:00

It's been raining here-a lot, and almost every day for a week. It seems the April rains we should have gotten are not missing, but only delayed until June. So, I guess we're catching up.

I like the rain, but it's just odd for this time of year. Yesterday, we got downpours. So much so that (get this) the school held the AM kindergartners until the rain stopped. I'm voting overcautious on this one, personally. This school called for snow days this Winter when it didn't snow, and now didn't send home the kindergartners because it was raining. I did not know this, so I stood outside in the rain, waiting for my daughter. When I had been outside quite a while, I figured something was up. I came back in, and discovered that the school had left a message that they were holding the AM kindergartners until the rain cleared. This is something I could understand if there were say, major lightning, thunder and wind, but this was a fairly garden variety thunderstorm, so I don't really understand the issue. I'm guessing they sided with over caution because of the litigious society we've become. Who knows, but that's my guess.

It is the end of the year. My daughter has 2 days left, and she's out for the summer. I am still making the plans as to what I'm going to do with my two while there's no school to occupy the one of them. We'll have to find things. The end of the year also brings about that dilemma of dilemmas--what to do for teachers and bus drivers and such. Does anyone else get hung up about this? I can never decide what's enough and what's too much? Do you give a gift to a bus driver? What if the bus driver has only been the driver for half the year? What do you get them? Do people give the teachers gifts anymore? What do they give? Does the teacher really need any more items with apples on them? Do they like items with apples on them? My vote would be no, and that teachers, if they are going to get a gift, would probably prefer something more personal or useful. But what? Does anyone actually know their kid's teacher well enough to get them the perfect gift? I don't think that's possible, is it?

I'm not going to say I'm losing sleep over this whole thing, because I'm not. But it is something for me to think about yet again. For the bus drivers, I think I will bake something (so I'd better get on it). But for the teacher, well, that's a whole other kettle of fish.

My daughter LOVES her teacher. And, though I've only met her a handful of times, and spoken to her little more than that, I really like her too. But more importantly, I like the WAY she taught. And not so much in the curriculum sense, though my daughter learned a lot during the year, it was more in the way she delivered the information. She has a very straightforward, honest approach to teaching. If she thought something was off, she told the students. She challenged them to think. In the day and age of "memorize and spit back at test time" teaching, that's not common. One time, my daughter brought home a little story they had read in class. It was basically a conglomeration of words in form of a very loose "story" to teach the words to the kids. My daughter read through part of the story and then stopped. She looked at me and said "My teacher said this story is weird". She then finished the story. And yeah, it was weird. It made no real sense. But I found it completely refreshing that her teacher would call that to the kids' attention. That makes them think. It makes them look at things that are written and challenge the ideas within. It's totally something I would have done. So I appreciated it immensely.

As I wanted to do something nice for this woman who has meant so much to my daughter, I made her this:

What do you think? Good? Too much? I hope it'll do. I think it's pretty. I don't know if it's my daughter's teacher's taste, but I hope so. That's a hard thing to judge. I thought to personalize it, my daughter could write the quilt label for the back. This is what she wrote:

I hope that will be nice for her teacher. I hope it's not too much. I never know what's appropriate in this situation, or if people give teachers gifts anymore at all. Ugh. I hope it's all right.

On Thursday, I am going to the Vermont Quilt Festival. Woo hoo! Vacation! I'm off with my mom for 3 days of fabric, fabric, and more fabric. I am looking forward to it. it'll be the start of my summer, and I'm hoping that when I come back, I'll have ideas for how to manage the couple of months my kids are off, so that we don't go insane altogether. Or at least I'll have a fresh outlook on things. I need the break, I really do.

So, until I return friends, enjoy your days! I will bring home pictures, that's a promise. I am packing my camera as I type!

Summer Cookies

2008-06-20T09:12:00.009-04:00

Happy Summer, friends!

We here in Orange County, NY are enjoying a lovely summer day with 64 degree weather! Yep, 64. Last night it was in the 50's. May was a warmer month, for the most part. Bizarre-o.

Well, in hopes that summer will arrive here eventually, and because it is the first day of summer after all, I made summer cookies. That's because I really like cookies. Have you noticed? It's not something I keep a secret. These cookies were in the recipe book for Christmas, but they used herbs, and what's more summery than that? To make them more summery, I used fresh herbs instead of dry and the strawberry jam I made earlier this week. Wow! They are so good! I think you will enjoy them. They are like little bites of freshness in a sweet/savory cookie. If you have some sage growing in your garden, and some jam in your fridge (homemade or not), try them! They do not disappoint.

Here's the recipe. It's from Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookies magazine 2007

Blackberry-Sage Thumbprints

2 c flour

2/3 c yellow cornmeal

1 1/2 tsp. dried sage, or if you have fresh, 2 tbsp fresh sage

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 c butter, softened (2 sticks)

1 c packed brown sugar

2 egg yolks

2 tsps finely shredded lemon peel

1 1/2 tsps vanilla

1/3 c blackberry preserves ( I used strawberry for this, and it was very good!)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, cornmeal, sage, and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside.

*** If you use dried sage, just crumble it up really well. If you use fresh, snip the leaves as small as you can. It just makes sure the sage goes throughout the dough instead of leaving big chunks in just a few cookies.

2. Beat butter in a bowl with a mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg yolks, lemon peel, and vanilla. Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining by hand.

3. Shape dough into 3/4 inch balls. Place balls 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Lightly press the tip of your thumb into the center of each ball. Fill the center with 1/4 tsp of the preserves.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Cool for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to wire racks and cool completely. Makes 60.

To Store: Place cookies on layers separated by pieces of waxed paper in an airtight container, and cover. Store at room temp for 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.

Enjoy enjoy! They are REALLY good!

Until next time, my friends! Have a wonderful day!

Putting Up Strawberries

2008-06-16T14:36:00.005-04:00

I made some strawberry jam this morning. We had gone strawberry picking Saturday morning, and brought home 6 quarts. I hadn't realized how fast they go bad, and we lost 3/4 of a quart by this morning, so I knew it was time to make the jam, lest I lose all the rest of the crop.

Glub glub goes the jam

I like to make jam. It's work, but since the strawberries and sugar "jam" themselves, a lot of it is watching and checking to see if it jelled and tasting--that's the best part.

Smooshed strawberries, anyone??

With the 5-odd quarts of strawberries we had today, I made two kinds of jam. One just plain strawberry without pectin, and one strawberry-rhubarb.

Rhubarb is a pretty color

I got 3 pints of plain strawberry and 2 1/2 pints of the strawberry-rhubarb. The funny thing was, that I was expecting to LOVE the plain strawberry jam, and only like the strawberry-rhubarb. I wasn't really sure about it. I have had strawberry-rhubarb pie before, and I like it, but don't love it. So I figured the jam would be the same.

Well, I was wrong! The strawberry jam was good but sugary and didn't seem as "strawberryish" as it could be, but the strawberry-rhubarb jam was out of this world. Holy cow! Love it love it!! As you can see, my daughter agrees with me. She gave the strawberry-rhubarb first prize!! I could eat it all day. I think next time I do this, I'll try the pectin-version of the strawberry jam. Maybe all the cooking is what made it not as strawberry-ee. I dunno. But I will repeat the strawberry-rhubarb recipe. I think my mind's been changed. WOW!!
After I was done, I had a nice lunch of strawberry shortcake. (It's very nutritious, you know) MMMMMMMMM!! So good!!

Have a fabulously sweet day!!

Quick Project, Long Coupla Weeks

2008-06-11T12:59:00.005-04:00

It's been a long couple of weeks. Not in a bad way, but in a really busy way. Last week, my dad broke his ankle. Because my mother works, he needed someone to take him to the Orthopedic Surgeon and then help out a little. So last week, we did. Of course, I still had home things to do, so it was busier than normal.

This week, he doesn't need our help (or doesn't want to put us out and won't ask--I can't tell the difference), and so we've been home. We were bombarded with 100+ degree weather yesterday and Monday, so not much has gotten done around the house--it was just too hot to function. Then last night we lost the electric for a few hours, and I couldn't get home (Literally, but that's a story for another day).

So, busy, busy. Tomorrow my daughter has field day at her school, and Friday we have an assembly there--where she will get an award (SHHH!! Big secret, I am told--the principal called me directly to tell me--I wonder what it will be)! It's very exciting.

In the midst of all the busy-ness, I did manage to get back into my studio. It was nice, because I haven't set foot in it for-um-2 months. I've been outside. But as it was 100-odd degrees, I wasn't going outside, so I went to my studio instead. And I did a cute project. Here they are:

They are the pleated tote pattern from Artsy-Crafty Babe. The link for the tutorial is here, you just have to scroll down the page a little. This is a super-quick project that is really like instant gratification, and they come out so well! I really enjoyed making them.

Well, that's it for me. I think I'll go back into my studio today. Have a great one, everybody!

Oh, Mercy, Mercy Me

2008-05-30T11:56:00.004-04:00

Things ain't what they used to be.
What about this overcrowded land.
How much more abuse from man can she stand?

So I was driving to do some very expensive food shopping (is there any other kind nowadays?), and noticed that there was a sign up along a really nice stretch of woods on the side of the road.

Coming soon! Some development with some "quaint" name that will make you all think we're doing you a favor and that more houses are better than woods! Stay tuned! We're busy improving your lives, people! Get excited about it!

There are signs like this all over the place up here. If they don't say that, they say For Sale!! And I just know, that a year from now, the lovely old woods will be gone, and replaced with some "lovely" and "quaint" development of oversized houses on large lots, or a whole shitload of condominiums. All in the name of progress.
Truly, it makes me want to vomit. Anyone else feel that way? We thought, when we moved up here, that we were getting away from the overdevelopment Long Island is "famous" for. Unfortunately, this county seems to want the overdevelopment worse than Long Island did. They are building huge stores everywhere, houses all over the place, knocking down trees and erasing farms. My guess when we first moved up here was that in 10-15 years we're looking at Long Island all over again. We thought we maybe got away with something, and were giving our children a chance to see some open spaces. However I think, by what I've seen in the 2 years I've been here, I'd have to narrow that guesstimation down to 5. We got away with nothing. Our children will know the same crowding we do.
Two weeks ago, I went to a hearing at the town hall because a builder decided that the pond at the end of our block wasn't good enough and he wanted to put houses on it. Three, in fact. He had spent a year and a half filling in the pond, and marking out the houses, and had actually built a foundation for one of them---15 feet from the nearest neighbor. Now the property in total is probably 2 or 2 1/2 acres. But because this lovely gentleman wanted the 3 houses on it, it warranted the houses to be somewhat close together. Very nice. Because of this, he was needing some major variances to put the houses as close together as he wanted, because in this town, you now can't build a house on less than an acre and a half. Obviously, 3 houses on 2 or 2 1/2 acres means no one gets that acre and a half. This was the problem.
So, I went down there on a Monday night and complained about it. Not just me, mind you, but there were a number of neighbors there as well. We all complained. I don't know what I said particularly, but it was something along the lines of can we please just think about this a little? I get the idea, but it still doesn't make sense. Why crowd more people into an already crowded neighborhood? Others complained that he had filled in the little pond and scared away the animals. Very valid. Luckily, the builder lost, and has to stop building and assumably tear down the too close foundation he put up. He only lost by 2 votes. Out of the 5 councilmembers, 3 said ok. You people suck.
So we won a small battle. No 3 houses, but it doesn't mean he can't try for 2, or 1. He'll win eventually, you just know it. Then this past weekend there were some men walking through the backyards of everyone who backs the farm (that'd be us). Guess what? They're surveyors.
Wanna know why? The farm's for sale, and someone wants to buy it.
More condos, anyone? Huge houses on large pieces of land, anyone? The surveyors tell us that the farm is 120 acres. Hmmm.... at 1 1/2 acres a piece, if they even stick to that requirement at that time, that's 80 houses. And no farm.
Will my view go bye bye? Will they clear that land, too? I don't know. At the time we bought the house, we were told that the piece of land that borders the house is a greenway between us and the farm itself. There is the little brook back there, for real and large as life. I don't know if that's enough or not. I don't know how to find out, either, though I have tried. If they build on the farm, I will still have the trees and brook behind me. Some of the trees are hundreds of years old. I don't think I have to tell you again that the space behind the house is the only reason I liked it. The whole being surrounded by neighbors thing is definitely not part of the appeal of the place. So, it remains to be seen what happens. The surveyors who were here, for some reason, came back and marked the borders of everone's property that backs the farm (again, us--and some others). So now I know where my boundaries are. That's nice, since they did it for free, and it's normally a VERY expensive proposition. But why they did it, I don't know. Are they going to make me an offer? Cut down those trees, you may as well. I don't want to live here then.

This place sucks. Humanity, with their endless greed for land and money, sucks. If we don't slow down, it'll be too late. It may already be too late. We're crapping all over the Earth and no one's listening. Enough already, folks. Start using your brains. No farms=no food. No food=no people. No people=no reason to build houses. No houses=no money for you. Get it? Knock it the hell off.

Jocelyn

***The pictures above are all of my yard. They are heavy on Irises because I like Irises and because that's what's blooming right now. Yes, I am a gardener. I do love plants, and I realize that makes me a bit "biased" against people who chop down trees and build on farms, but that's just who I am. I garden because I feel that I need a way to feel more sane in this increasingly insane world. I garden because I am surrounded by people and I would rather not be. I love my gardens. They are my center. They are young (I only planted many of them last year), but they will grow, and they give me the patience to see that happen. This is one of the few types of work that I really feel is worthwhile and good. Go outside and work in the dirt. Believe me, you will feel like a better person for it. And there is a deep wisdom in the knowledge of how to grow plants. I can't explain it, but I think it is something we all should know. It is something that goes deeper than just existing to exist. I think knowing how to grow things would make us all understand the Earth better, and then just maybe we'd all finally slow down.

Parental Twilight Zone

2008-05-26T09:45:00.003-04:00

So yesterday was the annual Memorial Day blowout in this neighborhood-when everyone has a party (except us--we're not party people. Quiet dinner with friends people, yes, but not party people). Somehow, these parties usually wind up involving our yard, though we weren't invited to anyone's actual party. Generally it's kids running through it on the way to said party, or retrieving balls from one of the gardens that were lost from said party. Even every once in a while, some random kids from said party will be found in our backyard, just playing with my kids' toys. This is, of course, when my head explodes and I shoo them (as politely as an insane person can) away and back to whatever the hell party they came from.

Then there are times like yesterday when I am SURE I have entered the twilight zone of upstate weirdness. Get this: we were outside all day yesterday (in the midst of party-ville), working on our newly-erected shed. I spent the day painting it, and my husband spent the day filling it up and emptying the garage (which can now be used to house the cars-what a weird concept!). It was a long day. Around 5 o'clock, two little blond kids I don't know come running out of the house next door, and head directly for our kids' swingset. They start to climb it. Now my husband and I were sitting on the grass in the backyard, taking a short break in the work. Our kids were inside, playing. Soon behind the two kids came the childrens' mother, who saw us and said "Is it ok if they play on your swingset?".

Now, I am tired. The kids are already ON the swingset. They're little, like my kids. I am utterly taken aback by this woman. The neighbor's house she came from is the neighbor I never have problems with, and have a good rapport with. If I were with it and NOT in shock, what I should have said was one of the following.
The sane response: "No, my kids are inside, but if they want to play with your kids, you can"
The gut response: "Who the hell do you think you are? This isn't a public park. Get the hell off my property"

Either one of these really would have jived with what I was thinking. I don't like people running across our yard. I don't like children playing with our kids' toys, especially without my kids (duh). It drives me nuts that I have to deal with ANY of that crap up here at all. I really think it shows that people, as a whole, have lost respect for each other, and do what they want because they want it. So really, I should have told the woman to go stick it. But for some reason, either because I was tired or because this woman put me in a horrible awkward position, I said
"Yes, but you need to watch them, because we are busy".

We went back to work. She looked pissed that she had to watch her own kids.

Also, at some point, there were a whole bunch of teenagers playing ball in our driveway. Apparently they were cousins of the little ones and had assumed that since the little ones were here, well, then why the hell couldn't they be? At some point, while I was FREAKING out about how f-ing weird this whole thing was, someone (adult-wise) woke up and called them back to the yard of the party they actually belonged to.

The long and the short of it was that my kids came out of the house, and after my son got very upset that there were strangers on his swingset (rightfully so), the kids all played together and had a really good time, and we finished our work on the shed. The kids ran and played until 8:30. The parents of the children had disappeared LONG before that time. At 8:30, when my kids went in for a bath, I went over to the next door neighbor, located the mother of the errant children and told her she would need to keep her kids over by her now, because my kids were in for the night, and I'm no longer going to watch her children.

She looked pissed.

I don't give a damn.

My kids had fun, which was why I tolerated the crap. I want my kids to be happy and do kid things. But why did I say yes in the first place? Believe me, I beat myself up about it for a LONG time after I did it. I'm STILL beating myself up about it today. I didn't handle the whole situation well. I really wanted to tell her to screw off, and I didn't. I can't believe the GALL of people like that. It was an awkward situation--I was torn between telling her to go stick it, and thinking it didn't really matter if they used the swings, because it couldn't hurt anyone. Plus then, my kids would have the chance to play with some other kids. And the kids were little. How do you tell them no? Punish them because their mom is an idiot?

See the weird position I was in? I STILL don't know how I should have played this. I still go between thinking I should have told her off and stood up for my family and my kids and property, and thinking that I should just lighten up because it is not a big deal and it's being "neighborly" and nice and it didn't hurt anyone. And maybe that's how things are done up here, and I should just let kids run all over the place, because that's just what they do here. Then I think screw neighborliness. See?

I think I should have done the first response, "No, but if my kids want to play, then it's ok". I think that would have been nice, but still standing my ground and not being walked all over like a doormat. I don't know why I didn't. That's going to bother me for a while. What would you all have done? This is one of those times when I feel like I'm not equipped to be a human being and deal with other human beings, and I resent that too. I don't know what the proper response should have been. That bothers me. This ever happen to anyone else?

Just to add to the whole Twilight Zone feeling, the neighbors I usually have problems with (kids in my yard, plant trampling, etc), were not a problem. They did have their usual party, but the few times they lost a ball, they came to get it if it was right inside the yard. If they lost it WAY inside the yard, miraculously, instead of barreling through the garden to get it (which was the norm for these kids), they called our attention to it, and asked if they could get it first. Then they said thank you when they got it, or we gave it back. It was weird, and not what those kids are known for, I have to admit. They are barrelers and tramplers by nature. It was a weird night.

I seriously need to put up a fence. A big, honking, 6 foot stockade fence.

Or get a dog. A big, vicious one.

Then there would be no barreling and trampling or kids I don't know on my kids' swingset. And everyone would have to ask first. I'd know how to handle that.

Blog Abandonment!

2008-05-19T12:11:00.007-04:00

I saw my brother yesterday and he reminded me that I haven't updated my blog in quite a while. He's right! It's been nearly a month. Sorry about that everyone, I've been so busy. I haven't had any time to either write on my blog or read any others. I've been outside, planting and weeding and playing in the dirt. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been cooperative lately--today it's 51 degrees outside and overcast. In fact, I think it's drizzling. Not the most inspiring day. I'm hoping it might clear up, but since it hasn't, I finally got a chance to write.

I did take some pictures of the gardens, though, to show you what I've been up to. I've got to account for my time somehow, right??

Anyway, enjoy the show!

The vegetable garden went from this:

To this:

To this in one month!:

I am very excited about the vegetable garden. It's the first time I've had a "proper" one. I used to just scatter the vegetables around in the other gardens, wherever I had room. In this house I actually have a space for it all by itself (though it is fronted by a perennial border--I can't help myself, you know) I have tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, yellow squash, zucchini, beans, pat-a-pan squash, herbs, blueberries, carrots, beets, peas, strawberries and cucumbers in it. The bed behind it in these pictures has raspberries. We will eat well this year!

As for the perennial gardens, I did a lot of work on them as well, and now they are just bursting! I don't know, is there anything better??

Can you believe this front garden went from this:

To this in one month?:

And this one did the same. From this:

To this:

Yup, that last one was a different angle from the first.

And the back beds we put in went from this:

And this: To this:

And this:

It's really something. I could look at these pictures all day.

This time of year is really magical. Things start off SO SLOWLY and then all of a sudden, BAM! Things pop and thrive and it's amazing. The yard is really coming along. When we moved here 2 years ago, it was a rectangle of grass with an abandoned perennial "garden" (put in quotation marks because the garden was a couple of clumps of irises, peonies, and liatris all on top of one another) and overgrown shrubbery. Since we came here, we've put in new shrubs and many new plantings and have started to grow ourselves some privacy. It's starting to become a yard I like spending time in, which is nice. Best of all, I'm pretty proud of it.

I hope you enjoyed the show. I will be back with more pictures soon! I hope you all are enjoying your days!

Perfectness

2008-04-30T14:49:00.001-04:00

From my daughter to her grandma and grandpa:

Dear Mema and Papa,

This is a picture that is a pretty sky. And I took it and I think it looks very nice. And I wanted to tell you that this is the perfect picture just for you. The sky is so pretty I can't believe it, that's how pretty it is. And this is the best picture I have ever taken. You could never have taken it if you saw the beautiful outside. Just remember when it's raining, don't take a picture, just take them in the sun. I think it's the perfectness.

Gotta run.

Love,

I think it's the perfectness too.

This N' That

2008-04-25T16:45:00.006-04:00

Did anyone else participate in TV Turn Off Week? I had heard about it previously, but never participated, because I didn't know when it was (or wasn't paying attention whenever it came up, that sort of thing). But having a kid in school brings that information home, so we participated this year. Surprisingly, it went very well. My kids don't watch a lot of TV, but they do like their PBS kids, so I figured it would be a bit of an argument every day when they couldn't watch. However, it almost never came up. My 4 year old son did ask yesterday morning, but I told him no, and he didn't ask again. They are troopers about it. Because they haven't watched TV since last Friday, I am letting them watch Word Girl today. They are thrilled and sitting quietly to watch it. It's really nice.

This week has taught me two things: one, that the kids aren't that hooked to the "tube", though I had thought they were, and two, that I wanted to watch TV more than they did. I held off until last night, when I watched Scrubs. Normally I don't watch TV during the week except on Wednesdays--after I put the kids to bed, I head to the gym and work out, go home, take a shower, and go to bed. On Wednesday I stay home to watch Mythbusters. Luuuurve that show! But this week I moved 12 yards of mulch, so needless to say, I didn't go to the gym. The couple of days I wasn't passing out from exhaustion at 8 o'clock, I really could have used some quiet time with some MASH reruns or something. I don't know what that says about me, except that I was too tired to find another way to amuse myself and could have used some mindless entertainment. I am hoping that this week will help us all to find a better way to "ration" our time with the TV. We'll have to work it out, I guess.

Did you all hear about the rice rationing?? http://www2.nysun.com/article/74994?page_no=1

They are also rationing flour too. I heard about it this morning in our local paper, and then again in some forums I belong to. Scary, no? And interesting.

America, time to wake up, stop building freaking McMansions, and start farming again. You're crapping all over the planet with all the manufactured garbage you buy from everyone. Knock it off, and let's all concentrate on survival and making things better for a while. I think the problem here is that we haven't had to concentrate on survival for a long time. Things are handed to us, food is easy and cheap, so we go and concentrate on the newest plastic crap toy, and what car we want to drive so it impresses the neighbors. If this is the wake up call we need, then so be it. I would love to see us all go back to a world where we can sustain ourselves, and not count solely on other countries. It's gotten beyond ridiculous.

I could rant about that for a long, long time, believe me. I will restrain myself for the time being.

The pics in this post are of the farm and "greenspace" behind my house. So, in the backyard, sorta. It's so pretty in the Spring. And Summer. And Fall. And Winter. Ok, all the time really. There's a bat house in this pic that is going to be hung up this weekend, hopefully to draw some visitors. They fly around here in the Summer, so I'm hoping we'll get more. They are so helpful, those little guys!!

On the same track, one of the projects I did in the past three weeks was to clean up that back wall. One of the most charming things about this area are the stone walls all over the place. Because we back up to a farm, we have one, but there are stone walls here everywhere. Behind houses, farms, even in the woods where they seem to belong to no one anymore, but at one time they did. Our wall was partially absconded by crap left by the previous owners. There are lots of bits of wood, some rotted, some not, from buildings I guess someone took down, bricks from something, possibly when they built the chimney for the house (those are what my son used for his cool village), an old wheelbarrow (that I'm going to use as a planter) and, believe it or not, an entire metal swingset, minus the swings and slide. All the metal bars, rusted and gross, tossed back in that pile. Of course, tossing all that crap back there meant that the wall got a bit knocked down at some point. So I cleared all the leaves laying on it (with my son's help), and found a number of the stones that had fallen and put them back. There are still a lot missing--that portion of the wall is much lower than the rest. There is a large slope behind the wall--most likely they tumbled down and are somewhere at the bottom. I did the best I could. I would like to think that the person who built that wall would appreciate that I helped to put it back together somewhat.

The bricks were piled up nicely (after dismantling my son's cool village--boy did I get a talking to about that!!), and the good wood was stacked. The rotted wood I put under the rest of the wood pile, on top of the swingset parts. I figure that the metal pieces will serve to keep the wood off the ground, so it won't rot, and any moisture that gets through will hit the wood that's mostly rotted first anyway. Some of the good wood I took and framed out the beds in the vegetable garden. I am going to use more to go all the way around the perimeter. I will find uses for all of it-I'm not going to throw it away. You never know when you need a piece of 2x4, right? Plus, what a waste that is. I'm sure I'll find something.

The kids and I also bought a cherry tree this week for our new garden bed. It's a sweet Danube cherry. My daughter named her Carol. She's a self-pollinator, so we only need one. I am very excited about her, but not as excited as my kids!! I think it is because not only is she beautiful (and she is), but she will give us fruit. I am hoping they will be as excited when the raspberries and blueberries and strawberries arrive for us to plant. I think they will be.

I will take some more pictures of all the finished beds, I promise. I will especially take a picture of Carol, who's a beauty. But that's it for me today. I am pretty tired. I hope you all have a great day!!

Give the Boy

2008-04-20T13:03:00.003-04:00

5 minutes and a bunch of bricks that you found behind the woodpile, and look what happens!

He's only 4. I'm so impressed!!

10 Days!!

2008-04-18T10:50:00.006-04:00

That's quite an absence. Well, what can I say?? It got nice outside, so I went outside. And didn't really come back in for two weeks. I'm not really in now, I'm just sort of taking a small break today. I'll be back out tomorrow.

This time of year is so cool. Nothing happens for the longest damn time and then all of a sudden--BAM!! Everything starts to happen at once. The crab apple tree gets leaves, the Irises jump up. The Peonies pop. The Lilacs get ready to bloom. Up here is so different from LI, where I lived. There, March was the time things would have started to grow and do their re-appearing act. Here, it's just last week that things did it. I get impatient, I admit. But it's almost sweeter when things DO come back up. I have been in my bliss lately.

I also have been mucho busy, too. This is what I've been up to:

Carving out more bed space in the front garden next to the driveway to plant roses in. (Can you ever have enough roses?? I don't think so)

Carving out more space behind the lampost for more plants (happiness!)

More space here, too!

And here!!

This is a project and a half. we built these boxes (as you may remember) and filled them with dirt. Then it just looked like random boxes on the lawn. Not liking that too much, I drew out a new bed to go around it. It was a bit ambitious--my guess would be 80 feet by 20 feet at the largest part. So, that means lots of grass removal. But then I didn't like that it was so flat, so we built a hill (we meaning me and my little son, who LOVES gardening, it seems. Happiness!) in front of it. This took us all last week. A couple of days ago, I put down the landscape fabric. I don't like that stuff. It tries to fly away all the time. Really annoying. But it's done. Once it's planted, it'll be GORGEOUS!!

Tilled the vegetable garden (the only rectangular patch in the yard), and used wood that the previous owners had thrown in the back of the yard to make a path and a bed. I'm not done with this yet, but I am excited about it.

This is a shot of the border that joins to the raised beds we built. I made it more "roundy" this year, and joined this front bed to the back. It was an undertaking, that's for sure. But I like how round it is. Now I need to fill it with plants!

So, lots of stuff going on here. This time of year is usually pretty busy for me, but this year it's been REALLY busy, because of all the projects I took on. I will try to blog as often as possible, though, I do miss reading up on everyone's everything. I hope you are all enjoying your days. I will post more pictures, I promise!

Keeping Out of Trouble

2008-04-08T16:30:00.008-04:00

Mostly, anyway.

Yesterday started out kinda cloudy, so I had no motivation at all for anything, pretty much. Today almost started the same way, but the sun came out around 10 and it warmed up a bit, so I felt much more enthused about doing stuff. I went outside and ripped up grass, to make way for new gardens to be planted. Every year I do this, and the lawn gets smaller and smaller and smaller. I do realize I have to leave some lawn--where else would the kids play? I only figure I have SO MUCH of it that really, we can spare quite a bit of it to be torn up and replaced with pretty flowers. That's logical, no? So today I spent quite a few hours tearing up the grass and throwing it over the stone wall into the "compost" pile. It's very satisfying work.

I have been stitching some again, too, but I have to say my progress is slow. I did stitch the Chocolate Covered Cherries piece in the last post. It was a freebie by Casey Buonaugurio (that last name is a toughie). It was quick. I did it as a break from the piece I've been working on for so long, Papillion Creations Floralie, which now looks like this:

It's a bit of progress from here, but not as much as I would like, really. It is going so slowly. It's been a little discouraging.

Did I show you these?

Aren't they cute? The Cricket Collection has been making some really cute charts lately, I think. I got these with my birthday certificate from ABC Stitch Therapy. My birthday was last year, but I've been hanging onto the certificate for a long time, looking for something to use it on. I think it must be the fact that they're so "springy" that I like. I think they're so cute!

I haven't yet had to explain my missing tooth, but I've decided to tell people I've lost it kickboxing. I think it'll be an easier sell than the Pridefighting, because I'm not entirely sure what that is. I'm clear on kickboxing, though.

Have a great day!!

Hole in My Head

2008-04-05T11:05:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone,

First I want to say thank you for the comments on my last post. It's good to know I'm not way off base with this. It's something that has really ticked me off, and I am composing a letter to the PTO currently, but I'm having to go back to edit it again and again, because, quite honestly, every time I start, I sound normal, and then I get totally aggravated and sound all crazy. I will get it done, though. I just have to calm down a bit and try to be rational. ....Rational, yeah, good luck to me!

Got my tooth pulled yesterday, and now I have a big hole in the front of my head. I am very self-concious about it, and have found I'm talking through a half-closed mouth all the time so no one will see the gap. The procedure was no big deal, I think it took 5 minutes at most. The pain afterward lasted a couple of hours, but I had popped 3 ibuprofens, and that stopped it. There's no pain at all today, but still a big hole. So I guess I'll be talking through a half-closed mouth for quite a while, until that hole goes away.

I've also been debating telling people I'm a PrideFighter, and I lost the tooth in a match. I think I may tell people that anyway, just to see what happens and who believes it. It would make for an interesting story, no?

Emotional Blackmail

2008-04-02T16:39:00.005-04:00

I know, I'm back one day and I'm complaining already. Not cool. But listen to this:
Last Thursday, while I was trying to die peacefully, my daughter brought home this from school.

It's a magnet that was made out of a piece of artwork she did in class. It took her two days to draw the picture (by the way; it's a rainbow with unicorn-pegasus-horses flying around. What would those be considered? Unisuses? Pegicorns?? Hmm... Anyway, they are NOT goats, so don't think that, because that's what I thought and I got a STERN 6 year old lecture on art appreciation because of it) and then someone took the picture away forever pretty much and turned it into a magnet. So I looked at it, and thought, oh, what a nice art project she did, I'll hang it on the refrigerator, but then she produced the REST of the information that goes with the magnet, and it went something like this: "Congratulations on your child's lovely artwork. We made it into a magnet for you. If you want to keep it, send us $6. If you don't want to keep it, just send it back in by Friday. If you want to keep it and then buy more stuff with this picture on it, send us more money, and here's the list of prices for you"

Uh, EXCUSE ME???

Is this NOT emotional blackmail? You bet it is. What child has ever created anything that they DON'T consider a masterpiece? My kids are insanely prolific artists. We can't keep up. Half the things they make are -uhm- practice pictures for better things. But do they allow me to throw them out? Of course not. I have to sneak them out in the dark of night to the recycle bin and then bury them under last week's newspapers, just so my kids have no chance of seeing them there. So you let this child work on a picture for two days and then take it away and she'll never see it again unless it's in magnet form, and is there any way she's not going to think it's fabulous and want me to keep it? They're going to get my $6, I guess.

What about the kids and families who don't have $6 for this little venture? How crappy are those parents going to feel, turning away something their child has made? Was the idea here to alienate those people?

All in all, this whole thing is not cool. I don't enjoy being forced to purchase something I wouldn't have purchased at all. I would much rather she brought the picture home so I can save it for her or even frame it for her if she liked it enough. Instead, I have an overpriced magnet.

This school district is doing Spring pictures basically the same way. I don't even know why they are doing Spring pictures, as school pictures were "officially" in the fall. But here we are in the Spring, and I get a notice home saying that there are Spring pictures on Friday and every child will get their picture taken, and they will be sent home, and if I want to keep them I can pay then. Well, guess what, folks? I don't want them at all. School pictures were done in the fall, and we all just went as a family to get pictures taken and that means my daughter too. So I don't need it. But there's no way to opt out. The pictures will be taken no matter what. And I'm going to send them right back. Nice try.

So here's my final word on this whole thing, you ready?

Hey American businesses: Is it not enough that you try to sell crap to children all hours of the day on TV (which is why we only watch PBS--no commercials--ha ha suckers)? Now you need to "force" the product into their hands and then ask for payment? I know you know what kind of a position you are putting parents into. We don't like it. We will remember it. You have lost my business, and I will complain to the PTO about this whole affair.

Hey school district and PTO: Shame on you!! By doing this, you are no better than all those stupid commercials on TV, and you are supposed to be above all that. You're an educational institution, not a mini-mall. Yes, I know you need to raise money for things. I fully support that. But forcing children to carry home products that the parents do not want or need is unfair. You are not making this voluntary, you are essentially making it mandatory, and I don't appreciate it. You need new ways to do things. Let's work on it together, shall we?

Sincerely,

Unplanned Absence

2008-03-31T10:47:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone,

I know it's been silent here for a while, and I'm afraid it's going to be silent for a while more. Last Monday, my daughter was diagnosed with Strep Throat. On Wednesday, my son got the Flu. On Thursday, I came down with the Flu, which added to the sinus infection I already had.

We're all on medication, and the kids are doing much better--but I've been knocked for a loop. I think I'm going to be "out" a little while longer.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I'm looking forward to talking to you all again when I'm better!

Spring, Do Your Thing!

2008-03-26T09:34:00.003-04:00

Ok, it's mostly here. Today is a beautiful day, yesterday was a beautiful day..... and Friday it's going to snow. But I know it's here because the light outside is different, and I've gotten my yearly sinus infection, which I only get when Spring arrives. So yeay!! It's official. No planting outside for quite a while, but the dirt for our mondo planter box arrives today, so I will have something to do, and my daughter, son, and I did plant seeds last week and look!!

Spring is bustin' out all over!!!

Have a great day today, everyone!

Spring Has Sprung

2008-03-23T09:56:00.004-04:00

ahem...

Spring has sprung

The grass is riz

I wonder where the flowers is?

But they'll get here, sooner or later

'Cause the sun's direct rays just crossed the equator

So here I stand,

My banner held high,

'Cause Spring has sprung

And so have I!!

This somewhat grammatically incorrect poem brought to you by my third grade teacher, Mr. Mammina. I have no idea if he wrote it or someone else did, but I do remember that we little third graders walked up and down the halls of our school chanting it on the first day of Spring. I believe we also had banners. I love this little poem, which still sticks in my head, um, 20 odd years later.

So what have you been up to since the seasons changed?? I've been outside!!! Woo hoo!!! Yesterday and Friday my husband and I built a MASSIVE planter box on one border of our yard. It's a 40x4 foot gigantor, 1 foot high on one section, 18" high on another. I would show you a picture, but it's nothing to look at right now, just an open box with nothing in it. I have to order dirt for it (7 yards--oh fun) and then plant it with Butterfly Bushes and Forsythia, and put up a post for a birdhouse. Doesn't that sound nice? I think it'll be lovely. Then I'm going to plant in front of it and to the side of it with a few more bushes and some roses and perennials. Yeay!

I love Spring.

We cleaned up the other gardens yesterday, cutting away the dead grasses (I have a number of Maiden Grasses-I leave them for the structure during the winter, plus birds sit in them) and pulling away any old leaves that had collected in the beds. Prompting all our neighbors to shortly do the same, I'm sure. Today one of our next door neighbors is out raking, and I know the others will soon follow. We are clean-up trendsetters!!

Well, that's about it for me. I hope you all have nice weather and are enjoying it. If you celebrate Easter, have a great holiday!

Metalmouth.

2008-03-19T16:23:00.003-04:00

Braceface.

Tinsel Teeth.

I dunno, I'm sure I missed a few. Anyone think of any others?

Well, if you do, feel free to lob 'em at me, cause I took the plunge and did it.

I got braces.

No, not Invisaligns. Those are crazy expensive and my teeth were way too out of wack for them to work. Regular metal braces for me. The type many of us agonized over in Jr. High.

When we couldn't chew gum.

Or eat taffy.

And were told not to kiss anyone else with braces or we would -gasp- lock together.

That kind.

I'm also getting a retainer in a month.

The kind you were hollered at not to flip in and out of your mouth by your parents and teachers, because they said it would break (they do break, by the way--I broke mine that way, so it's true).

The kind that made you talk funny for a while.

The kind that is icky and you have to take out to eat cause otherwise -shudder- let's not even go there.

Luckily NOT the type that requires that weird thing around your head with the wires coming out of your mouth that is the butt of the 80's movies' jokes. They don't seem to do that anymore. But, a retainer with wires and whatnot just the same.

Yes, I am over 30.

And you know how it makes me feel?

Like an adult.

Crazy as it seems.

This is a thing I've wanted to take care of for nearly 10 years. I did have braces as a kid. Afterwards, my teeth were pretty straight. But I did break my retainer and it did not get replaced, so that did not help, and unfortunately, I had wisdom teeth that wanted to come in in my 20's, but there was no room. I didn't get them taken care of when I should have, so they pushed EVERYTHING on my bottom jaw out of whack. Pretty badly. Most people (I'm told) never noticed.

But I did.

And I went through months at a time when I didn't care at all. My crooked teeth were just a part of who I was, like my grey hair (which I love). But then there were months at a time when it bothered me-really bothered me. And I always thought everyone noticed, whether they did or didn't. And I just hated myself.

So I finally have had enough.

I figured it's time I act like an adult, stop running away from this thing that makes me so unhappy, and face what needs to be done to fix it, so it won't bother me anymore. So I got braces.

And they are not pretty. And worse yet, I will have to have a tooth pulled (in front) because my mouth is just too small. So I'll have a hole there for a little while. Am I excited about that? No. I do realize that it's not particularly attractive, and yes, I'm sure I will be very conscious of it. But the thing about this, and the whole reason it feels so damn good, is that I am finally investing in myself. This is not something I do. Ask me to do something for my kids --no problem. Ask me to do something for my husband --no problem. Ask me to do something for the house --no problem. Ask me to do something for me --well, how much will it cost? It's too expensive. I don't really need it. I can put it off.

I always put me in the back seat. But I didn't want to do that again. So, braces it is.

Coincidentally, today was my appointment to get them and there was an article in the paper about adults and braces. I thought that was pretty funny. Oh, and then I also found this accidentally this morning:

It's not wrong!!

So I'll deal with the lovely metalworks I've got going in my mouth, and when the tooth is extracted, I'll deal with the hole.

Because in the end, my crooked teeth will never bother me again.

And that makes it all worth it.

I Wanna Go Outside!!!

2008-03-18T10:58:00.005-04:00

And smell the Lilacs....

And walk in the yard....

And plant some roses....

And build this arbor....

(won't that surprise my husband?)

But it's too cold....And it's going to rain for two days...
And it's not the time to plant up here.

Sigh...

I guess I'll just plant some seeds today....

And plan for things to come.

Did everyone have a nice St. Patrick's Day? I have to say, it's one of my favorite holidays, though none of us are the least bit Irish. I loved me some corned beef, that's for sure. Ate way too much. Enjoyed every minute of it. Hope you all had a great one too!

I Covered a Laundry Cart

2008-03-17T09:14:00.005-04:00

Because white plastic rolling carts from Lowe's don't look so nice in a pretty bathroom, though they are necessary for storage

Had grand plans of a sewn slipcover for this, to go over the front. Couldn't figure out the logistics, so hot glue works just as well.

These pics are for my little (big) brother, because I said I would:

I think the blue fabric softener looks especially neon in the morning light, don't you agree?

Pretty Egg-citing!!

2008-03-13T15:45:00.011-04:00

Ok, I couldn't help that one. Sorry. But here's what's exciting:

I made a Spring wreath! OOOHHHH!! Springy!

Why is this exciting? Well, mostly because I like it, but also because I normally ignore Spring (decorating). Love the season alot-alot, but normally I don't do anything about it inside the house. I especially ignore Easter. But for some reason this year, I'm completely excited about it and I went a bit insane at Target last night buying treats and goodies for the kiddos. I overbought by quite a bit, I know, but I couldn't help myself. Geez, I wonder what's going on with me..

Anywho, back on track. The wreath I made was sort of inspired by Inspireco (go figure!)and her Surprise Eggs. We bought those little plastic eggs this year, to put in a basket. But then I saw these and I said "Wow, those are better", so I thought we'd use them in the basket instead of the eggs. But then I was stuck with the eggs. So when I saw the Surprise Eggs, that made a lightbulb go off. But instead of using books (which would have been pretty, but I wanted color), I used scrap book paper. Now that paper is a little thicker than a book's pages, so it doesn't curve to the egg as well as a piece of paper from a book would (I discovered), but if you cut it into small enough and narrow enough strips, it does well. I am happy with the way it came out, and I thought I'd share how I made the wreath in case you like it too and want to make one of your own. It's simple and fun (and messy too!). Here's how:

1. Buy plastic eggs, or find the plastic eggs that your kids squirreled away under their beds and in their toy boxes from last year's Easter basket. It doesn't matter what color they are or if the tops and bottoms match. Just get some and put them together. I used 12 on my wreath. I'm betting, though, if you wanted an "eggier" (eggful?) look, you could fit 15 or 16, if you cluster them.

2. Get some other supplies. You would need:

A) Scrapbook paper or tissue paper (but be prepared to layer and layer that--it'll turn transparent with the glue), or even colored copier paper. Or use fabric. I LOVE fabric (didya know??) The point is to cover the "plastic-ness" of the plastic eggs. I used 6 pieces of 12"x12" scrapbook paper from Michaels (the ones they sell in those trays, if you've been down the scrapbook isle, you've seen them--there are tons of the darn things). The 6 sheets covered all 12 eggs, with plenty to spare. I will say that the only thing to avoid with selecting papers would be any paper with a large, busy print. The strips are too small to accomodate them and it'll just be a jumble. So a tonal print or a small print would be the best, I think.

B) Mod-Podge (or you could use the white glue thinned with water, if you wanted)

C) A paintbrush

D) Scissors

E) A hot glue gun and glue sticks (because the gun works better if you have glue for it :) )

F) A 12" wreath form (if you get a bigger form, you will need more eggs). The form I used was a styrofoam half round form.

G) Something to cover the wreath form. No matter how you set your eggs and flowers, some of the wreath form will show. And let's face it--styrofoam is NOT pretty. So, covering the form is a good idea in case any of it peeks through. I covered mine with 4" eyelet lace, because it worked for what I was doing and I had it on hand. But the form could also be covered in silk leaves, layered on top of one another and glued to the form, it could be wrapped in raffia, ribbon (the 12" form would need about 10 yards of the ribbon, if it were an 1" wide, so plan accordingly), or tissue paper. Anything you can either wrap around it, or glue to it.

H) Silk flowers -as many as you like. However, make sure you pick a flower that is larger and one that is smaller. An example of what I mean would be pick a spray Rose for the larger and Baby's Breath for the smaller. The spray rose is not large, but compared to the Baby's Breath, it is. You need a difference in scale to give it dimension. Generally, I use three types of flowers in anything I do with flowers (the exception was the Valentine's wreath, but that was ALL flowers, so it's a little different). One is a "background flower", which is the one I have the most of, and is usually the largest in scale (here it was the white daffodil). The second is the "focal flower", which may be a large or medium flower, usually of a different color for punch (here it is the pink rose). The third is the "fill in flower", which is the smallest flower and whatever color compliments the other two (here that is the daisy, which you see here and there).

I) Now this largely depends on personal preference, but for those small touches of gingham on my wreath, I used one roll of 1/4" narrow ribbon. It was about 3 yards. I used the whole roll. If you didn't want gingham, don't use it, but a colored ribbon is a good idea to get extra touches of color into your wreath that don't come from the eggs or the flowers. It can give the wreath the "pop" of color it might need, and could be any color or pattern you like.

J) Ribbon for a bow on the bottom and, if needed, the hanger. I bought a 5 yard roll and had quite a bit left. I think 5 yards is a safe amount.

K) A 12" piece of crocheted lace trim or a small doily (if you want to use it).

3. With all your supplies at hand, go ahead and cut your pretty paper into skinny strips. With the scrapbook paper I used, I cut a strip 1 1/2" long by the whole length, and then I took that strip and cut it into little tiny strips that would be maybe 1/8" x 1 1/2". You could also tear the paper into small pieces, if you like that look. The scrapbook paper has a white edge when you tear it, though, so you may see too much white and not enough color. The tissue paper and copier paper should tear beautifully.

4. Use your paintbrush to paint the Mod-Podge (or glue with water) on the eggs. Do a section at a time, this is super messy. Be prepared to be covered with Mod-Podge. Adhere the paper strips to the Mod-Podge on the egg and to each other. Overlap. Change directions. Make sure your edges are down, though, the scrapbook paper did tend to curl up on the edges a little bit. I held it down with my fingers, and it got the message. Cover one section at a time until the egg is covered.

5. Repeat step 4 until all your eggs are done, or until your fingers are so covered with Mod-Podge you can no longer bend them. :)

6. Let the eggs dry and go get a cup of coffee or tea (that's the best step yet, isn't it?)

7. Cover the wreath form in whatever you chose to cover it. Be sure you hot glue the ends of whatever you're using down well. You don't want it flapping back up. The styrofoam will hot glue really well, but you'll have to hold onto the thing you're adhering for a minute, so it doesn't let go. But once it's on, it's on.

8. Place your eggs and glue them to the form wherever you like, pretty side up (because inevitably, one side will be prettier than the other).

9. Fill in with some of your silk flowers. I usually put down the larger ones first, to fill up the space. 10. Fill in with your 1/4" ribbon. To do this, I made lots of little bows. Some were small, some were a little larger, it was random. I then tucked the little bows here and there and everywhere. They added a nice pop of color in addition to the flowers. 11. Fill in with the rest of your silk flowers. Here is where I would use the smaller ones and the "focal" ones. I do this on purpose. For one thing, it brings the wreath out more (literally, as in towards you), and two, it buries the ends of the larger flowers and the middles of some of the bows, so all you see are little loops and ends. It just looks prettier. 12. If you are using the crocheted trim, fold it fan style, and either stitch it together or hot glue it together. Either one works fine. Be sure to fold the ends of the trim to the underside. 13. Attach the crocheted "fan" you just made to the bottom of the wreath with a good dollop of hot glue. 14. Make a bow out of your ribbon.

15. Attach bow with another good dollop of hot glue. Then you can either let the ends of the ribbon fall, or you can attach it to the bottom of the wreath in different places, so it doesn't hang. It's completely up to you.

16. To make the hanger for the wreath, cut a length of ribbon to whatever length you need (because I don't know how tall your door is or where you'd like it to hang on that door) times 2 plus 3 inches for the form. Make a loop, flip over your wreath, and attach it.

17. Let the hanger dry well, and voila! You are done! Congratulations!
Can you see that I tucked the end of the ribbon bow up? This one just seemed to want that.

That's all there is to it. It's a relaxing, very creative project, with a really pretty outcome. I hope you will try it out!
Have a great day and good crafting! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me and I'll help you out. Thank you for stopping by!

Slowed Down

2008-03-11T17:15:00.005-04:00

UGH! This broken toe has slowed me down, and more than I would like. I'm not a person who likes to slow down. I am busy, busy all the time, if I can be. So this has been a bummer with a capital B.

Luckily, with all this "resting" time my toe is feeling much better. I'm only limping around a tiny bit, and that's mostly when I'm wearing shoes. I was able to walk around quite a bit more today than yesterday (though my foot is pretty tired now), and I think tomorrow will be even better. Yeay! Back to my normal routine! The lovely sunshine we've had has made me want to be productive, even though it's 30 degrees outside. But the weird daylight savings time has unsettled me, to be honest. It's just not natural. It looks like Spring out, the sun is out longer, but last night it snowed. (((Shudder))) Freaky. I do not like it, Sam I Am.

I did get a couple of things done in the last few days, while I was "taking it easy". For one, I finished that blue and yellow quilt.

Ta DA!!!

I couldn't pick which one of the bad pictures was the best, so I put them all in. I am going to call it "Picnic in the Sunshine". I like it, it's cheerful.

I also read a book:

Is it wrong to say I really enjoyed it? I really did. I thought it was well-written, and gave an interesting perspective on Anne Boleyn's ambition. Who's to say how ambitious she really was? Was she really that driven, I don't know. But I found this an interesting slant to it. I have read a number of Alison Weir books, one of which was The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth and though Anne Boleyn was talked about quite a bit, the books are from the perspective of history. It was interesting to read about it from the perspective of it all happening right then and there, though I know it was fiction. The author did take a bit of the book from actual fact, and that was really good.

I also could completely sympathise with Mary Boleyn, who just wanted to be live in the country and own land and whatnot. (Don't we all, Mary? Don't we all?) I enjoyed reading about her "escape" from courtier life, and found some times when I was holding my breath, wondering what was going to happen (even though I already knew). I think that's the mark of a good author, and I will be looking for another Phillipa Gregory book soon.

Oh, and no, I haven't seen the movie. I heard it was pretty bad. I think I would like to see it just to compare/contrast the two. This book is long--660 pages or so, so I'd be interested to see how they "squish" that down. The book was good--I would recommend it!

That's it for me! I hope you all have a great day!

All Cooped Up

2008-03-07T09:26:00.009-05:00

Oh, let me tell you, this broken toe thing is for the birds. I have been stuck in the house since Wednesday, and I have things to do, but can't go and do them. Not to mention that my daughter has a cold and has been out of school for 2 days, and so all I can do is listen to the two of my children fight all day. Ugh. Not loving it.

Anyway, because I am stuck in the house, I took some random pictures of the finished bathroom to show. I hope you like it!!

The light fixture over the mirror

The light fixture in the center of the room (I LOVE this one)

The trim over the baseboard heater (yes, I did trim over the baseboard heater. I'm a detail type of girl!)

My beautiful shelf that is sadly empty right now. This is one of my favorite things. It was thrifted at a flea market, and was dark brown before I painted it. It's been used for knick-knacks and as a spice rack, and now I put it in the bathroom for---I don't know, something. It cost practically nothing when I bought it, and I love it so much it's not even funny. Isn't it odd how that happens sometimes?

Pictures on ribbons, with covered buttons on top.

Closeup of one of the covered buttons and the crown moulding. Pretty!!

Towel holders with towels...

Box/shelf that I made to cover up the pipes and outlet for the washer (which was not so pretty to look at). It has a pretty orchid on it, which you can see....

...kind of here, in this bad picture of the curtain I made for the window. It wouldn't be a good post without a bad picture, right?

Closeup of the top fabric of the curtain.

Slightly better bad picture of the curtain

Another bad picture of the curtain

And now, some really detailed shots of random things. I love that macro setting!

The mirror frame

The pretty orchids (ooh, there they are! See? I told you there were orchids in those pictures!!)

The milkglass soap dish with pretty scented soaps in it (I LOVE LOVE milkglass)

Faucet handle

Towel ring

Oooh, a better picture of a piece of the curtain! This is the top part

This is the bottom part.

Those last were nice pictures, right? The light in that room is tricky. It's on the west side of the house, so it only gets good light in the afternoon, but then the light is either too direct or behind the trees behind the house, so I never can win. Oh well.

Thanks for taking this little tour with me! Have a great day!

Things That Go Bump In The Night

2008-03-05T15:32:00.005-05:00

Otherwise entitled:
Why Your Mothering Instincts May Kill You
By: Me

If you have kids (or know kids), you know they get hurt. And if you have my son, you know he can get hurt-quite a bit. He's a busy boy, and doesn't look where he's going half the time. So if you're his mother, you are attuned to listen to those cries that are hurt cries and to come running when you hear them.

That means at any time of day-or in the middle of the night.

Last night I went to bed like any other night. An hour later, I was awoken by a terrified cry from my son. That's just as scary as a hurt cry, maybe even scarier, and makes the mommy auto-pilot kick in lightening fast. This is not a time when you think rationally. In fact, I don't even know what I was doing. I just know I heard that cry and a thousand thoughts raced through my head:

"He fell out of bed"
"The house is on fire"
"There's someone in his room"

And I RAN. Ok, well, first I must have gotten out of bed somehow (I don't remember doing it), and then I ran to the door. Well, actually I fell at the door. I don't remember doing that either. What I do remember is a very loud crash, then laying on the floor and reaching for the doorknob to open the door and thinking, vaguely "Ow". And hearing my husband behind me, saying "Ouch. That hurt. Are you ok?".

I don't know if I answered him. I must have been half asleep. I remember being desperate to get the door open. I did, and I must have run down the hall to my son's room, but I don't remember that either.

The next thing I DO remember is getting into his room and running across it to him, in his bed. And I remember thinking he hadn't fallen out of bed at all, and he wasn't hurt. But then I heard a beeping sound, so immediately I thought the house was on fire. And I was totally confused, because the alarm didn't seem to be coming from the smoke detector.

Luckily my husband had gotten there, and was thinking more clearly than I was (which wasn't at all, really). He found where the noise was coming from and saw that my son had squirreled away an alarm clock in a basket of toys (he's a big time squirrel-er) and it had gone off. My son was scared because of the sudden noise.

It took me a few minutes to grasp that my son wasn't in any danger--that a clock had just gone off. I really do think I was half asleep all that time. But as the reality that everything was ok set in, and the adrenaline wore off, two things became obvious to me. One, that I was shaking uncontrollably, and two, that I was HURT.

Remember how I said I fell? Well, I didn't fall, I FELL. And I must have hit things on the way down. As I sat there, making sure that my son was ok and was going back to sleep, I realized that I had a sharp pain in my calf, my knee, one hip, one foot, some ribs, and a couple of fingers. I don't even remember falling. All I remember is reaching for the damn doorknob from the floor.

As my husband and I headed back to our room, I looked at the spot by the door. A few things that were on a hope chest in the room were on the floor. I must have fallen on them. I don't even remember. I was in a lot of pain, but too tired to do anything about it. I went back to sleep.

Fast forward to this morning: I woke up with a huge bruise on the outside of my right calf, the inside of my left knee, a cut on my left hand, a bruise and scrape on my right rib area, a mother of a bruise on my right hip, and a broken toe. Yeah, no kidding. What the hell did I do?? Near as I can figure, I got out of bed, ran full tilt into the hope chest's corner (thereby bruising my hip--you ever do that? If you have, you know the spot I'm talking about, right on the bone), and knocked whatever was on there, off, and then fell over it. Landing would account for the bruises, but the broken toe? Maybe I ran it into the bottom of the hope chest. This is all I can figure.

But my little boy is safe and unhurt, and thankfully the house is not burned down. I, however, have seen better days. I am some lovely colors today, and I can't walk on my right foot. Ah, the joys of motherhood!!

I'm Home!!

2008-03-05T15:09:00.003-05:00

Look at this!! A beautiful new blog layout! For the longest time, I tried to get this blog to look more like "me", and I couldn't do it. Blame my computer illiteracy.

Enter Amber from The Shabbee Chick! She came to the rescue and just made this blog look beautiful. Thank you, Amber! I love it! I feel like I'm home now. Thank you, thank you!

2008-03-05T10:08:00.002-05:00

A Twist

2008-03-04T16:21:00.006-05:00

I thought a lot about what to do with the quilt "center" I have. I thought about wide borders, lots of skinny borders, vertical borders, pieced borders, you name it. I did even think about leaving it and having it be a table topper, because I thought maybe it was telling me it was done. I was stymied. But then I said to myself, "Self, you're looking at this all the wrong way". So, I did this:

That worked.

Damned if I can get a good picture of it, though.

Sorry about the wrinkles. I had just brought it out of my studio without stopping at the iron first. Shoulda done that...

Does putting Sam in the picture(or him putting himself in it, as it was) make it better?

....Not really. I've got to find a better way to do this.

Anywho, I have one yard and 7 charm squares left. It needs finishing, just to "stop" the middle. Hopefully tomorrow....

Have a great day, everyone!

Border 1

2008-03-02T19:34:00.003-05:00

Added the first border:

It helped pop it.

This is a little challenging because using the rest of the charm squares left me with only two fabrics--one a blue with a large print, and one a yellow with a med/small print. I have only 2 yards of one, and 1 of another. It sounds like a lot of fabric, but the quilt is really still small, and I have to "grow" it without adding 10" borders (that would be sucky). As a challenge to myself, I won't buy any more of this fabric to finish this quilt (I don't even know if I could find it anyway). But I have an idea. Stay tuned...

The giveaway is over, and hmm..... didn't go so well. Lesson learned: no more giveaways for quite a while.

But, I got two entries, so you both win!! I have one more teacup and a whole lot of cool bits and pieces and ribbons, so I can make another pincushion and send you both one. Seems only fair since you were the only two to comment. Jan and Cathey, please send me your addresses, and I will send them post-haste. Thank you both for your comments on that post! Congratulations!

A Center

2008-02-29T14:49:00.007-05:00

Last year, probably right when it came out, I fell in love with the Sunshine collection by April Cornell for Moda. I think a lot of people fell in love with that collection. It's a nice and cheerful one. I liked the line, but I did not know what to do with it. So I decided to buy a few of the charm packs and a little yardage to make a quick quilt. I figured when I saw the fabric in person, I would get inspired and whip up a little something.

No such luck. I got the fabric, looked through it, really liked it, drew a blank, and promptly shelved it. I have pulled it down quite a few times, but never has inspiration struck.

Not to say that 1000 designers haven't designed quilts for this line, because they have. There are tons of patterns out there featuring this line, and furthermore, featuring this line as a charm square quilt. How much easier could this have been made for me? Fabric... pattern... DONE. But none of the patterns grabbed me. So the fabric stayed on the shelf.

I have become ashamed of myself for letting it sit that long, and so I've pulled the fabric down and have started a quilt. I have no plan. This is a first for me, making it up as I go. It'll be an adventure, and I thought I'd take you with me.

This is part one:

The middle. OOOOOOOOHHHHHH!!! Middle-ish!

First thing I did was remove all the green squares from the charm packs because that green was icky. It just killed the whole flow. Really yuck. So there won't be any green in the quilt, other than what's accenting the flowers as stems and such. Once I removed the green, the quilt sort of opened up. I put the squares on point with a color arrangement that is random, but not that random (I actually have a hard time being random--it doesn't come easily for me). And now I will build it from there.

I don't know what I will do next. I have a bunch of charm squares left over to use, and a little yardage of two colors for the border. It needs punch, so that'll be the first thing. And it's really quite small right now (I think 37"), so I have to work on that too. I hope this experiment works. I'm really more of a planner than a "fly by the seat of my pants"-er, so this is going to be interesting. But you'll be able to see it every step of the way, whether it flops or not!

PS--The giveaway is still open, so please leave a comment and be entered!

Post #50 Giveaway!

2008-02-27T08:55:00.012-05:00

I've reached post #50, and as promised, I'd like to hold a giveaway. Just a little something to say thank you for visiting with me for the past few months and listening to me ramble on. You've all made me feel welcome, and I thank you for that!

I made this pincushion out of a transferware cup. I used some of the things that came in those bags from Flights of Fancy to make it. There were some lovely things in those bags!

If you would like to participate in the giveaway, just leave a comment. This blog is currently open to anonymous comments, because I realize a number of visitors may be from WordPress or TypePad and couldn't comment otherwise. If you do not have a Blogger account and would like to enter, just be sure to leave your name in the comment, so I know who you are! Also, if you have a blog that's not a Blogger blog, it'd be great if you'd leave that addy, so I can come and visit.

The drawing will be Sunday, March 2nd. I wish you all the best of luck and thank you for participating!

That Other Hobby

2008-02-25T16:00:00.007-05:00

As my husband would say "Which one is that??"

Ok, yeah, I have a few hobbies. Just a few. Not like a million or anything.

Here I mean cross-stitching. I haven't posted anything about it in a long time, though I have been working on a piece pretty constantly for the last month. I have to admit I was in a bit of a stitching slump at the end of the year last year, only working on small pieces with little commitment. But then the bug bit me again last month, and I picked up a piece I haven't worked on since maybe last summer. Maybe some of you are/have stitched it? It's called Floralie by Papillion Creations. This is mine so far:

This is a piece that feels like I'm either not making any progress on it at all, and then I step back and discover I actually have, or that I feel like I'm making lots of progress on it, and then I step back and discover I actually haven't. It's never one where I feel like "Oh, I'm making good progress", and I'm actually making good progress. It's odd that way.

I think the reason for the slow and not so slow progress is the fact that I'm working it in linen thread on linen fabric. Has anyone else tried this? This is a first for me. Usually I like either DMC (or some other cotton)on linen or silk on linen. Both are strong and smooth and even and I know what the tension is to get the right stitch. For this piece, though, I wanted it to look old, and though the hand-dyed cottons are nice, they are usually pretty vibrant and shiny. So I first thought about linen threads, and DMC. Their threads are nice, but the color pallet is limited in their linens, and I wasn't loving their greens, though I liked the blues. Then I discovered Olde Willow Threads, and they have lots of beautiful hand-dyed colors. I picked a blue, a green and a brown, and ordered some of each.

As it turns out, the blue was too light for the linen, and just got lost. So I still needed to use the DMC blue, which was fine, because I liked it. But I still liked the Olde Willow blue too, so I decided to use primarily the DMC blue, and to "throw in" the Olde Willow blue randomly here and there. That, coupled with the hand dyed green that changes color from light to dark, gave it a nice aged look.

Then there was a hinky in the works. I only ordered a little bit of the green and blue from Olde Willow. I was going to be ok with the amount of blue, but not the green. So I ordered more. Guess what?? They changed their color. The old green is a sagey-mossy green. The new green is a greeny-blue. Ugh. It's my own fault though, I didn't expect them to change the color that drastically. But since the whole thing is all different shades because of the hand-dyes, I just went through and picked out some of the "old" green sections and re-stitched them with the new green so they will blend.

That's taken a bit of time. Add to that the fact that linen rubbing on linen causes the linen (thread) to break, and I wind up working with very short lengths at a time, and not being able to use the tension I normally would. But it's coming along. I am sticking with it and I'm hoping to make a lot more progress and either finish it, or at least do a lot more before I put it away again. Really, I'm hoping to finish. When I make more progress, I'll definitely show you!

I've Got Mail

2008-02-21T10:09:00.007-05:00

I've been so busy, I forgot to tell you about some nice things I received in the mail recently. On Saturday, I received a book from Oh Sew Cozy. She had a giveaway in January, and I won! I received the book, "Simple Things, Small Joys".

It's a lovely book. Nice and simple quilts, bright and pretty. Thank you very much, Kris! I still wish I were close enough to visit your shop!

Also, I recieved on Tuesday my order from Flights of Fancy Boutique. It was a fluke that I found this site, but they had such lovely things, I know I'll be back again. I was looking for embellishments, and they popped up. Not knowing exactly what I wanted (it was hard to decide), I went for their scrap bags--they call them their Bags of Elegance. Normally, I like to know exactly what I'm buying, but this time I didn't know where to start. I ordered the lace bag, the ribbons bag, and the "Ultimate Bag of Embellishments". I wasn't disappointed. Look at all the pretty things!

The bag of lace. I love that tatted doily!

The ribbon bag

The "Ultimate Bag of Embellishments"

They are all so pretty, I looked through it all quite a few times. I can definitely recommend this site, if you're looking for some pretty little things.

So, ok, I've talked about embellishments and a giveaway I won. What's it leading to? A giveaway of my own!! In 2 posts, I'll be up to 50, and I'd love to have a giveaway then. So, stay tuned!

A Quick Post

2008-02-20T09:49:00.011-05:00

Well, the little boy is much better. I am relieved to say that he had his stitches out on Monday, and again he was a trooper. After doctor removed his stitches, and he got up and asked for a sticker. So, all is well. His boo-boo is healing up nicely, and his black eye is going away. I am very happy.

On the other fronts, the bathroom reno is going along very well. I have to put in some time with it today, but it's down to just the detail work at this point. Hopefully this weekend my husband and I will get some time to do the shopping for the accessories--like hand towels and waste paper baskets and such. The bathroom is coming out so well, it deserves new fancy things.

I thought I would share some pictures with you of how it looks so far:

We put up crown moulding

New sink, faucet, and mirror

New towel holders (but no new towels yet)

New light fixture

Brand new (beautiful) floor

This is one of the times I really wish you could come into the room to see it up close. There is just no way to really take a great picture of it. For example, I can't get a great picture of the wall color. It's a soft grey-brown with a finish that looks like old plaster. The room itself looks like something you'd find in an old 1800's brownstone. The transformation is really amazing. It went from a hideous 1970's throwback to a really elegant space--and it's not even done yet!! It really is beautiful. I am very, very pleased with it. I will definitely post again with more pictures when it is all completed and accessorized. For now, I've got to get to work!

Have a great day.

A Trip to the Hospital

2008-02-14T09:36:00.008-05:00

Hello everyone!

I apologize for not wishing everyone a happy Valentine's Day yesterday. Wednesday night we took my son to the hospital. He was running and playing, and tripped and fell and put a gash in his beautiful face. My poor little sunshine. He required 4 stitches. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time this has happened. It's actually the third. The first time he got 7 stitches in his chin because he had a fork and was bouncing up and down on his chair, and then he fell off, and the fork went... well, I think you can put two and two together. He was about 2 years old. Last year, he fell out of his bed in the middle of the night and cut open his forehead. The doctors chose not to stitch it, but they did glue it, and we did have to go to the hospital. He was 3. This time, he's about 4, and fell down and required stitches again. Adding to these three trips to the hospital to the time he was hospitalized for a medical condition at 5 months, my beautiful little boy has been to the hospital one time for every year of his life.

I hate to say it, but he's started to look at it like it's old hat. He got the cut, cried and cried, and we told him we'd have to take him to the hospital. At first he said no (not that he was going to have a choice in this matter), and then I told him he'd been there before, when he fell off his bed. Then he remembered and was ok with it. When we pulled up to the hospital, he recognized it and said "Oh, THIS hospital? I LIKE this hospital!! We went here when I fell out of my bed yesterday!".

Well, not exactly yesterday, little love, but it sort of feels that way.

He was a brave soldier. We waited a little while, and then a kind nurse took us in and looked him over. He hadn't lost conciousness (thank goodness!), so they just checked out his eyes to make sure he had no head trauma and then cleaned his wound. When the nice doctor came in and looked him over and stitched him up (well, there's a little more to it, but it's a long story), he was so good. He yelled, but he didn't move. Not an inch. When it was over I hugged him and hugged him and hugged him.

As we left the hospital, my husband and I asked him if he could be more careful so we didn't have to come back to the hospital again. He told us "No, we HAVE to come back. I LIKE it! They give me stickers!"

We asked him if it could not be soon. He told us "No, we'll come back tomorrow".

Let's hope not.

I love you, my little sunshine boy, get better soon!

Voiceless But Busy

2008-02-12T09:12:00.000-05:00

Well, this is a first for me--I have laryngitis. My voice is a hoarse whisper which goes away at will. Sunday I had a very hoarse voice. Yesterday I woke up and couldn't talk. Today is no different. Would it be wrong for me to say I am enjoying it? I am. There is something very peaceful about not being able to talk. There are so many extraneous things we say that don't really need to be said, and not having much of a voice, I'm not saying them. It's bliss. Equally nice is the fact that yesterday, when I was first voiceless and whispering on and off, my children mirrored me and whispered too. It was so quiet here. Today the effect is not the same; though I can't talk, they are. Plenty. Oh well. At least I can't yell. That really is nice.

Anyway, enough about me. I thought I'd share with you where I've been the past few days. You might recall, back when I started this blog, I told you that my husband and I bought this house and it needed a bit of fixing up. Mainly, a lot of it was stuck in the 70's, which is when it was built. Well, slowly and surely, since we bought it a couple of years ago, we've been working on it. The first year we did some things, last year we did some things, and this year, same.

Our first project for this year is the "holdout bath". There are 3 bathrooms in this house. Two on the second floor (one common, one master), and one on the first, for guests. The two on the second floor were updated somewhat. The floors were replaced, the tiles in the showers/bathtubs were redone. Last year we replaced the toilets (because 1970s toilets use a ludicrous amount of water) and the countertop in one, and painted them and fixed them up. They didn't need too much work. We ignored the "holdout bath" on the first floor--the one that hadn't been updated since the 70's. The bath is/was ugly. Dingy "white" walls. Hideous linoleum, dark walnut-stained trim, lovely yellow toilet and towel bar, huge, dark 1970's sink cabinet with faux marble counter and matching lovely yellow sink. It is/was really bad. But it requires the most work/money, so we just ignored it, because there was so much else to do.

But not this year. It's the first thing to work on now. So these past few days we've been gutting it, and then I was working on painting the trim and filling in the holes in the walls. Yesterday my husband did the plumbing. Today I think I may be able to do a final sanding and then paint the walls, which I am really looking forward to.

Just in case you enjoy home remodel like we do, or if you just enjoy before and after pictures of home remodels, I thought I would show you what the room looked like "before", or at least when the demolition had only just begun. Be prepared! This room is/was not pretty. :)

The infamous ugly linoleum floor. As bad as it is, it's actually covering a floor that was even uglier. Scary, right? That loveliness used to be in the kitchen too, but we got rid of it last year. Shudder!!

Lovely yellow towel bar and toilet paper holder. The toilet in the picture is the new one--we put it in place late last year when the bathroom started to be used (previously it really wasn't) and we were unhappy about the old one's water consumption. The toilet is coming back, so you'll see it again when the room's done.

Dingy white walls and lovely dark brown trim around the window. This room also has the honor of being the laundry room, so this has been a challenge, to say the least.

1970's "faux bois" cabinet. Immensely big and dark and way in the way.

Faux marble top and lovely yellow sink with fairly no frills faucet that no longer turns properly.

So that's what was. The light fixture had been removed already, or I would have taken a picture of it for you. My daughter called it the "scary light". It was basically a fixture that had one light that stuck out from the wall and had an outlet in it. I don't know why it was the "scary light". I always thought it would look perfectly at home in a campground bathroom somewhere.

All of this lovely stuff was taken out, and the room is in a shambles. And what's going back in? Well, that's the fun part, right? First, the toilet comes back and a pedestal sink is added in lieu of that cabinet. The "scary light" is being replaced with a two-light fixture in an oil-rubbed bronze finish (sorry--I looked for a pic, but can't find one). The faucet is oil-rubbed bronze. The towel rings and paper holder are same. Wide white dentil crown moulding is going up, wide white baseboard is going down. The trim around the window and door is white. The walls will be painted a soft grey. And the floor? Dark. Nice and dark. I won't tell you about that just yet, you'll have to wait and see. I'm very excited about it.

We are making progress. I will definitely show you the "after" photos, which I'm hoping will be next week. We have found that this bathroom is hard to live without, so we're trying not to live without it for too long, especially because it has the washer/dryer, and we have kids. :) So, stay tuned!! There will be more!

PS--As I am a dutiful scientist, I should also update you on the chocolate covered cherry experiment. I have been faithfully sampling one every so often (and sometimes too often), and I can tell you, that yes, they really do liquify nicely. For a while not much happened, but now they're really doing whatever they do, and they're doing it well. I think that by Valentine's Day they will be really nice, and if I had had the time to keep them longer, they'd be fabulous. So far so good! I'll let you know the final outcome!

Thanks, Kids!!

2008-02-06T09:17:00.000-05:00

So the fish quilt has a new home. I donated it to Project Linus yesterday, because not only have I heard of the charity before and like what they do, they also have a chapter in Orange County, and fortuitously, their drop-off point is right where I was going to be. It was kismet. I hope that someone will enjoy the quilt. Surprisingly, I felt a slight twinge of regret when I laid it out to take this picture. I thought for a moment that maybe I should keep it, because of all the work and the fabrics were somewhat expensive and.......then I snapped out of it. I feel it's more important to donate it to someone who will (hopefully) love it rather than just keep it around "because". I think I made the right decision.

But that's not my story. My story is about my kids, whom I love and adore. While photographing this quilt, my daughter, who is 6 and very good at it, looks at it and says, "Why are you giving it away?".

I say, "Because I don't like it. It doesn't fit in the house well". And it doesn't fit me, and I think I made it because I was just following the fabric to it's logical conclusion, instead of really thinking whether or not I'd want the thing around afterward. (But I don't say that, obviously.)

So she says, "Can I have it?".

I think about that for a second, because I was having the twinging little doubts about donation, and I'm flattered that she wants something I have made, but then I remember she's 6 and her normal thing is to want something, get something, take care of it for a few days, and then forget about it under the bed or in the closet or something like that(this does not hold true for My Little Ponies, but quilts, yeah, that's the case). Then most likely I'll take possession of the thing again. She's 6. That's what kids do. And since that'll leave me in the same predicament of wanting to give it away, only several days later, I say "No".

Then my son chimes in and says "Why you don't like it?" (he's 3--we're still working on grammar)

And I say "It just doesn't really fit. I guess I just don't like it too much."

He says "It's ugly?"

"No," I sigh, "it's not ugly. I guess I just don't like the way it came out. That's all".

But the notion that the quilt is ugly is now implanted in his little boy brain, and it'll come back to bite me later.

We head to Middletown, which is where we were going for several reasons, and do our errands. Then we head to the AC Moore, which is the dropoff point for Project Linus here in Orange County. I get to the counter, and show the package to the cashier and ask her if they take the donations at the counter, or if I need a manager.

"I can take it", she tells me. And she looks at it, all wrapped up and says "Oh, it's all wrapped and everything".

It was wrapped because I didn't have a bag big enough to stuff it in. Plus, I felt bad just shoving it into a bag. But of course, it's wrapped, so you can't see it. So you can't tell what it looks like. Which is fine, except that now my daughter speaks up and says, "My mom doesn't like it".

I mumble something about how it wasn't what I was expecting when it turned out, and it just doesn't fit in, or whatever, and then my daughter speaks up and says "So we're getting rid of it."

Thank you, kiddo! Now the woman looks at me like I'm dumping toxic waste on her, and giving the charity something ugly and horrid. So I mumble something else about how we're not getting rid of it, it just doesn't fit and blah blah blah, I don't even know what I said, but the whole time I'm fighting the urge to grab the package back and rip it open and show her it really is a nice quilt, and my son, my lovely, lovely son, whom I adore, opens his sweet little innocent mouth and says, "It's ugly".

Ah, there it is. The final nail in the coffin. I was waiting.

Of course, now the woman is positive that I've dumped some horrid thing on her to give to someone. I can't reach the package to open it and show her that's not the case (nor should I--let's try to be mature adults here, right?), and I can't say anything to dissuade her thinking, so I just slink away. And once outside, thank my children for being wonderful and honest, but perhaps next time if they could just not be quite SO honest all the time, I would appreciate it.

A Sweet Experiment

2008-02-05T08:50:00.000-05:00

I'm trying something a little different this year. I'm making my own Valentine treats. It's a bit of an experiment, because I don't know how it's going to work out, but I figured I'd give it a try.

I got the recipe from my Gooseberry Patch calendar. I've used their recipes before with good result, so I thought I'd try this one and see. This is a recipe for chocolate covered cherries. If you try it, please let me know how it turns out for you. I'll let you know how it goes for me!

Chocolate Covered Cherries
You need:
3 10 oz jars maraschino cherries with stems, drained
3 T margarine
3 T light corn syrup
2 c. powdered sugar
1 lb melting chocolate, chopped.

1. Drain cherries on paper towels for several hours.

2. Combine margarine and corn syrup in a medium bowl. Stir in powdered sugar.

3. Shape 1/2 teaspoon mixture around each cherry.
**To do this, I took a little of the mixture in my hand, rolled it into a ball to warm it up, then flattened it, and wrapped it around the cherry. Then I smoothed it out. It was time consuming, but kind of relaxing, once I got the hang of it.

4. Chill for one hour, or until firm.
**Put them on something non-stick, because they will stick. Here I used a Silpat. Buttering or spraying the pan will work too, I think.

5. Melt chocolate in a double boiler over low heat. Dip cherries in chocolate and chill. Store in an airtight container. Allow candy to ripen 2 weeks to develop liquid centers. Makes 4 to 5 dozen.

I have a couple of notes to add to this recipe. First, I bought 2 16 oz jars of maraschino cherries. Since 3 10 oz are 30 oz, and 2 16 oz are 32 oz, and that was more cost effective, that's what I went with. I don't know if that 2 oz are just a billion more cherries or whatever, but I wound up with at least 7 dozen cherries, instead of the 4 or 5 dozen they were saying. Also, I couldn't find cherries with stems. Maybe that's why I had so many more? Anyway, because I did have so many more, I had to make the corn syrup/powdered sugar mixture twice. And I found that you need 4 to 5 tbs of corn syrup, not the 3. 3 tbs. leaves the mixture too crumbly to shape.

Right now, I have 80 some-odd little balls of chocolate sitting in the fridge. I made them on Sunday, so they won't have 2 weeks even to "ripen", but I'm still hoping for the best. I will let you know!

864 Clamshells

2008-01-31T08:45:00.001-05:00

I wore out my stencil (I didn't even think that was possible, but look at this thing! sad.)

The pouncer's seen happier days.

I breathed in enough "chalk" dust that my lungs are probably coated in white, and my studio's floor certainly was.

But it's done.

I would like to donate it to charity. Does anyone know of one that might be able to use it?

Thread in the Freezer

2008-01-26T13:43:00.000-05:00

Nope, it's not a typo. And it's not a funny story about how I once went to get ice cream while I was quilting and left the thread in the freezer. Though I've been known to do things similar to that (I've left it in my purse when I went to get my keys, and left it on the counter countless times when getting a snack or drink), it's not that sort of thing. This is thread that my mom bought to quilt her flannel quilt with, but it kept breaking. Understandably, she got very frustrated. Every 6 inches of stitches she made, the thread would break and she'd have to re-thread the machine and start all over again. Super annoying stuff. So she put her quilt aside and only worked on it in bits and pieces until she got super annoyed again and stopped. Finally one day she told me she was stopping for good. She put the quilt aside and went on to other things.

When she told me this, I volunteered to quilt it myself. This quilt is very my mother. The colors are her, the subject is her, the warmth of the flannel is her, it's just a quilt that if you knew my mom and didn't know she made the quilt, you'd still look at it and say "I know she made that quilt". It's just so HER. One of the snowpeople even kind of looks like her--NOT that she looks like a snowperson, it's just that it's got on this hat like my mom would wear and a scarf that my mom would wear and it's holding a BIRDHOUSE, which is SO my mom it's not even funny. (She's crazy about feeding the birds and housing the birds and keeps 100 pounds of seed in the yard at all times.) So it's just so my mom. This is why I volunteered. But, like any mom (or woman for that matter), she turned me down, with a "no, I'll get to it eventually, I'll just do it in bits and pieces". What is the matter with us women? We never want to put anyone out.

Anyway, I let it go for a while and then asked again a couple of weeks later. She said yes. I took home the quilt, and the thread she had wanted to use, put the quilt in my studio, and put the thread in the freezer. Ok, this is why: I know two secrets about thread and sewing machines that most people don't. Wanna hear?? First: they won't tell you this when you go shopping, but not all machines will work with all types of thread. They won't. Don't let anyone tell you they will, either, because they lie. I have owned 4 different machines in the time I have sewn, and I can tell you that with the Elna machine I used to use, Sulky thread breaks like it's made of glass. It doesn't matter how many different types/sizes of needles I use, how many different tension settings I try, it doesn't even matter what I sew on, Sulky threads break and break. I can tell you that on the machine I own now-a Janome-it still breaks, but not as often. I can tell you that on my Kenmore, which is the machine I use for classes, it doesn't break at all. I can tell you that Coats and Clark, which I use for piecing and all purpose sewing, never had a problem in my Elna or my Kenmore, but if I site it the wrong way in my Janome, it will break, so I have to be careful. And I can tell you that the Singer Featherweight I started sewing on when I was a kid up until about the year 2000 will sew without a problem with any type of thread at all, as long as it's a 50 weight or better (which makes sense, since it's a machine from 1920 or so). So it really is true. But this leads to secret number two: if the thread keeps breaking on you, put it in the freezer. Some thread, when you get it, is old. It sat on the shelf for 1000 years under lights in the air because no one bought it until you came in, and it's old and dry and cracky. And who knows how long it sat in whatever warehouse before it even got to the store. It needs humidity, and the freezer is the ticket. Take the thread, put it in the freezer for a couple of days. Then take it out. Put it in a plastic baggie and let it defrost. By being cold in the freezer and then warming up in a confined space, it absorbs moisture back into itself and it will break less. It works. So, I put the thread in the freezer for two days and let it thaw for one, and voila! The quilt, she is quilted!

I think it came out well. I am not a professional, obviously. I only have a home machine, so there's the inevitable little jig-jags here and there from stopping to reposition now and again. The stitches are pretty even, but here and there there's one that's not. Flannel is heavy and doesn't move nicely all the time. And the thread was still ugly. It only broke twice (woo hoo), but look at that fuzz!! ICK!! I was cleaning the needle every 10 minutes or so. Pretty yucky. I don't even want to open up the throat plate. I'm afraid there'll be a whole fuzz tumbleweed in there. But I hope my mom is happy with the quilt. And I'm thrilled it's done. It makes me happy to have done something for her (and I'm thrilled that she trusted me with it), and I'm really glad that something that is so HER is going to be able to be used and loved.

That's my story and my secrets for today. So if you have a problem with your thread, know it could be your machine, but also try the freezer trick. It really does work!!

I hope you all are having a great weekend! Thank you for all your comments!

Just a Quick Note...

2008-01-25T09:34:00.001-05:00

It seems to be so busy here lately! Every time I sit down to write, I seem to have to get back up again.

Thought I'd post a couple o' pics of the Valentine's wreath I made last weekend. For some reason this year I felt we needed a Valentine wreath, though I must admit I never felt that way before. It was a quick project, I just used a Styrofoam wreath form, some (read: very many)"silk" flowers, cute ribbon, and a bit of hot glue. I'm very pleased with it, but I think the best part of all is that when it was done, both children and my husband said "Wow, that is pretty!". Generally, the children ignore the things I make and the only response I get from my husband is either "That's nice", or "That's really nice". So "that is pretty" is pretty over the top for them.

In other news, today is report card day! Dum de dum dum!! Nah, I'm not worried. I'm not even sure that Kindergartners get report cards, but I think so. My daughter had a test a couple of weeks back, and I'm thinking that it was for the report card (I know, tests in Kindergarten, sheesh), so we'll see. Kindergarten sure has come a long way from when I was in it!! I remember going there and -I don't know- playing and coloring and whatnot. But my daughter is learning to read (very well, I might add), she's learned a bit of addition, and they were working on money a little while ago. Things have changed. And so now report cards. Hmmmm....

I also wanted to share a cool find with you that I-well-found recently. Olde America Antiques is a company that makes quilt blocks that are printed with vintage pictures. They are so cool! I was in contact with the owners a couple of times asking questions, and they were very quick to get back to me. The blocks come in different sizes, in many subjects. They are printed with a half-inch white border around them so you don't have to sew on the actual print, and they are fade-resistant (though they advise you to keep them out of direct sun), and can be washed in cold water. Too cool! I think they are really interesting, and I'm planning on using a few in a project or two. That would be so unique! I will definitely share with you what I make with them.

Ok, my son is informing me he "needs" juice, so I'll leave it there for today! I hope you all have a great one!

PS--I opened comments to anyone, even if you're not registered with Blogger. It was brought to my attention (thank you) that people would like to comment, but can't because of the registration. Now you can! Thank you all for your comments!

Fish IN the Water

2008-01-20T12:06:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

I finished the "water" quilting on my fish quilt, so I thought I might share some pics. Out of the two stencils I had chosen for the quilt, it was the easier of the two. It went quickly, mainly because I converted the stencil to a continuous line design, rather than the stop/start design it was supposed to be. I think it worked out fine. This is a shot of the whole quilt (with Percy as accessior). It's good and bumpy.

This is a close up of the quilting, with the fish block and the copper frame unquilted.

This is a shot of the water quilting and the clamshell quilting added to the fish block. I got two of them done. It's going to take a while, though. It's the harder of the two stencils to work, not to mention that the pounce pad that I'm using to mark the stencil has chalk in it that's supposed to stay on until I iron it off, except for the fact that my hand seems to brush it away really easily. I wind up marking the block in sections, and in some cases re-marking again. It's super frustrating.

I'm sorry it's difficult to see the quilting with all the chalk on it. I find it crazy distracting myself. But Percy likes it. That's enough for me. :)

Thank you for your comments about Bill. I feel we hardly knew him, but I had thought my kids would be upset about his passing. They were not. In fact, after scooping Bill's little body out of his bowl, my son plopped him in the toilet and said "Well, bye.", and then flushed. I guess no love lost there. Kids are so resilient :)

This and That

2008-01-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

Today I did my part for the local economy and did some shopping in town. First I went to the local hardware store and got some paint chips for the bathroom redo we're about to embark upon, so there's a promise of a future purchase, and then I went to the local candle store (which is more like a stuff store with some candles in it) and bought two new candles to put on the buffet. Then I took my son to Dunkin Donuts (in town) and bought him a muffin...Ok, so I did a very small part for the local economy. I guess I'm definitely not helping to send anyone's kids through college. But I did shop in town, and that just feels good.

I bought two little African Violets and potted them up. I put one in our bedroom and one in the living room. It's like having little pieces of Spring in the house.

I'm thinking I might know what to do with that Jocelyn fabric after all, but I'm still working on it. At least I'm not drawing a blank anymore. I definitely have to use it in something, don't you agree?

I got a little further on my shiny fish quilt, so that's something. It's going slowly just because of the amount of quilting to be done, but at least I've stopped stopping and looking at it and asking myself what I'm going to do with it when I'm done. Actually I sort of like it now, though it is shiny. That's progress.

Speaking of fish, Bill the fish died today. We knew he was about to, because he's been mopier than usual and didn't look too good. However, I feel I should say something about him, just because he was with us for a few months. So, here goes...

Bill, you were a good fish from Wal-Mart or whatever store we got you from. You didn't ask for much except to be fed once a day and have your bowl cleaned once a week. You didn't do much but hang out under your little plastic plant and look ferocious. But you were a pretty Siamese Fighting Fish. We didn't know you very well, because you were only around for a few months, but your presence certainly added to the -er- decor. You will be missed.

Bill is survived by Jack the Siamese Fighting Fish who lived in the bowl next to his, and by Goldie, my daughter's extremely well-fed goldfish who lives in her room.

I'd like to think we gave Bill a good life for the little time we had him. We fed him daily, and he lived in a big bowl, as opposed to the tiny little plastic tanks people usually put them in. I cleaned his tank every week. He had a plant. I hope he was happy. Rest in peace, Bill, there in fishy heaven.

************************************************************************************* I am hoping that there will be some changes to this blog in the near future. I am re-writing my "about me" section, I finally have a picture I think I want to add, and I am hoping to have someone who knows a lot more than me dress my blog up because it's not too me. I am also thinking of changing the name of this blog, just because I haven't been doing as much stitching as I have other things, though it's still a big part of my life. So if you come one day, and the name's different or it looks different, don't be alarmed. I don't think it'll be too different, no matter what.

Also, I just figured out that I can to reply to comments (yeay!). I had no idea I could do such a thing. So if you comment here, I will now get back to you. And if you haven't commented here because I haven't been replying, please know that it's because I didn't realize I could. Your comments are SO important to me, and I welcome each and every one of them. Please let me know your opinions!

Again, as always, thank you all for coming by!

What the...????

2008-01-16T17:03:00.000-05:00

Oh, I HAVE arrived, baby!! My very own fabric line named after little old me!! OOH OOH!!

Though, had Moda asked me, I would have told them I am just not that sunny and cheerful. But I appreciate the sentiment. ....I am kind of digging those pink daisies, though.

I think I will have to buy some (oooh, twist my arm). How often do you find a fabric line with your name on it??

The Story of My Seduction

2008-01-15T09:17:00.000-05:00

What a title, huh?? Racy!! Unfortunately this is not that kind of blog. This is about fabric seduction. You know, the type where you go to a store that is set up so well that you buy fabric that you would normally not? This is the object of my tawdry affair:

FISH!! Oh, I think I may have lost my mind that day. Let me explain. Last year in (I want to say) March, my mom and I went to Woodstock. We live in Orange county, so Woodstock isn't all that far away. What a cool town! It's all hills and turns and small stores and sidewalks and little cafes. The object of our schmoozing was Woodstock Quilt Supply. From the outside, it just looks like a little country store. But we walked in and wow! So not what you'd expect. The inside was light and bright with lots of windows, clean and open, and then the fabric was presented so beautifully. It was organized by type, with some fabrics being elevated and draped above the bolts like a display. Each bolt was tucked neatly in the shelving, with fat quarters of the same fabric cut and put directly above it if you didn't need/want a yard.

The store carries Kaffe Fasset, Amy Butler, Batiks, Laurel Burch, metallics, and Oriental prints. Guess what types of fabric I don't particularly care for? Kaffe Fasset, Amy Butler, Batiks, Laurel Burch, metallics and Oriental prints. But I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. And I don't get taken easily. I am skeptical of everything. But oh, I was so enamored!! And worse yet, I bought a pattern, too!! Ugh! I NEVER buy patterns. But these guys are such masters, they had pieced this pattern in an amazing black and white scheme, and it was hard not to notice it. I had looked at the pattern on the rack and skipped right over it, because it wasn't grabbing me. But the quilt on the wall did. When I put together that the quilt on the wall was the quilt on the pattern, I just went right for it.

You can see the quilt that is the fruit of my tawdry affair. This is that BQ quilt, done in metallic Oriental prints!! The blue is the one with the fish (which are outlined in metallic gold), then the copper has copper metallic, and the white is one of those Fairy Frosts, which is---metallic. I pieced it last year, almost immediately after getting home from Woodstock while I was so in love, and then upon finishing it, remembered that I don't really like Oriental print fabrics, and I really don't like metallics. It was like coming out of a spell. So it sat pieced and unquilted on my ladder (I have an old wooden ladder to hold my UFOs) for however long it's been, until I got tired of looking at it last week. And I then had a hard decision to make: get rid of it, because it's not my style, or keep it as a reminder of my indiscretion. I decided to keep it. What you see here is the process of it being basted, and then some of the quilting. The blue lines are the chalk lines for the quilting. It's not done--it's going to take a little while. And it doesn't help that occasionally I'll stop and look at it and think "What am I going to DO with this thing?". ...I've been trying to stop myself from doing that. Now I'm focusing on the quilting itself. I figure I'll quilt the begeezus out of the thing, and see if I feel any better about it that way. The quilting you see is a water design which I will use for the whole white background, and then the clamshell you see on top here I'm thinking for the fish fabric itself. The copper fabric I plan to leave unquilted (it's ditch quilted now, but not decorative quilted) until I finish the other two parts, and then I'll see if it needs it. I think it will be interesting to have the two textures juxtapose. We'll see.

And that's my story: part one. Part two will be what it looks like when it's done, I suppose. But I will say if you are anywhere in the vicinity of Woodstock Quilt Supply, go ahead and visit the evil geniuses that own it. They are brilliant. The store really is worth the trip, and if you are a quilter who likes the fabrics I mentioned above, it'll be heaven! And if you don't like those fabrics, go anyway, because the store really is beautiful. It's not particularly large, but it's one of those that you need to walk around a few times just to take everything in, because it's not possible to really see it all at one time. Plus, the town is so cool. I wonder when I'll go back...

A Thrifting I Did Go!

2008-01-10T16:18:00.000-05:00

Yes, I admit it. I am a thrift-shop addict. I keep myself in check by not going near them as much as possible, because as soon as I am near one, I just cannot help myself. In I go and stuff I buy. Like I need more stuff.

This is an obsession that neither my mother nor my husband understands. My mother is strictly of the belief that if someone is getting rid of it, it's garbage and not something to be coveted. "Why would you want something someone has thrown out?", she's asked me many times. The only time I think she's gone against this particular mantra was when she went through an Ebay addiction phase a few years back. The object of her desire at the time was enamelware. She was crazy!! She bought up piece after piece. She owns a number of beauties--and even gave me a piece, which I love. But this was the extent of the thrifting on her part. I haven't ever known her to go into a thrift store, and anytime I've extended the invitation, she politely declines.

My husband is of similar ilk, but less vocal about it. Instead of asking why I'd want something someone threw out, he gets quiet when I mention thrift stores and that I'd been in them. Just really quiet. Which usually means he doesn't agree, but doesn't want to start a fight. He's a smart man.

Me, though, I'm hopeless. I love them. Come on, what's not to love?? Where else can you find stuff that people had kicking around for years that you can't find in stores because it's not being made?? And then get it for not a whole lot of money? A thrift store, that's where!! It's the way to go. And I do like digging through the 70's retro chic stuff to find the treasures. Doesn't bother me in the least. It's like a hunt where nothing gets killed. Win-win all the way.

Anywho, my diatribe is because I caved today and went thrifting. I have been wanting to make sweater pillow covers for the pillows in the family room, and spending a lot of money on sweaters I'm about to chop up makes no sense whatsoever. So, where do I go?? The thrift store, of course!! Woo hoo!! Fun, fun!!
Anyway, I bought a few, as you can see. I needed 4 sweaters for the pillows, and a couple more just followed me home because they had an interesting texture to them. I have to say that the store was chock-full of sweaters. And the colors were just something to see. I resisted quite a few that were colors that would not have worked in the room, but after I got home I thought about possibly going back to get them to make blankets out of. Hmmmm..... I think I may. Some of those colors were just TOO irresistible. A feast for the eyes, no joke.

When I got home, I looked on the net to see if there was some information about making pillows out of sweaters, just in case there was something I didn't know that I needed to. I didn't find much information, but I could buy a video all about it for only $19.95, if I wanted to!! Er....no. So, being the savvy sewing-lady I am, I just did it myself. And I thought I'd share with you how to do it, in case you thought about this yourself. It's super-simple. Here are my instructions. I hope they make sense!

Sweater Pillows with Envelope Backs

1. Go and buy sweaters. Or go in your closet and find sweaters. It matters not. Just make sure they are big enough to cover your pillow. If they are not, you can seam them together (I had to do this with the yellow one you see below). However, the seam is going to be super-obvious on a plain weave, monochrome sweater. It's not obvious on a sweater with cables and braidy-design thingers on it. So if it's a plain weave monochrome that's too small, put it down and walk away. Or find a smaller pillow to cover. Whatever works for you. I would think that you could seam a plain weave striped sweater and have it be less noticeable, but just be aware that the seam will keep some bulk no matter what, so the seam will stand out a bit. Those cable-braidy things really do help. Plus they look cool too.

2. Go and buy backing material if you're making pillow covers you can remove and wash. If you are just covering the pillows and they can stay covered forever (you have no kids or pets to make them dirty, or you just like to have a lot of pillows), then you wouldn't need this. Also, if you have a small enough pillow, you can probably back it with the rest of the sweater you're using for the front. However, sweaters are bulky. And folding them over to make an envelope back will make a bulky blump on the back of your pillow. So, I don't know if I'd recommend that. I used flannel for the backs of the pillows I made, which is still soft and nice, but doesn't make a blump at the seam. Cotton homespun would be just as soft and also be non-blumping. It's up to you!!

3. Ok, this is where it gets faster. Determine where your pillow needs to be on the sweater so that you have enough to cover it. For example, can you center the pillow on the sweater and have enough for a seam allowance? Does the neck get in the way? If it's a V-neck, you may need to use the back of the sweater instead of the front. Figure that out now.

4. Cut off the arms of the sweater.

5. Cut off the neck of the sweater.

6. Cut along the side seams to separate the sweater halves. Cut off the bottom band as well. Measure your pillow and determine how much more you need to cut off of the sweater to get the correct size piece for your pillow (plus your seam allowance--don't forget to add that in).

For example, if your pillow is 20 inches square, and you want to use a 1/2 inch seam allowance, you would need to cut a 21 inch square to properly cover your pillow. Do that now. Once you've got this, leave it alone and work on the back.

7. Cut two pieces of backing fabric. Their width should be the width of your pillow+seam allowance (so, going back to the example above, it should be 21 inches wide) and the length should be half of your pillow's length+3 inches (again referring to the example, it should be 13 inches--20 divided by 2 plus 3). The three inches are for the fold to finish the edge of the envelope, plus overlap. It's a generous number, but more overlap on the back is better than not enough.

8. Fold over one side of your backing piece 1/2 an inch. Press and then fold it over again another 1/2 inch so that the raw edge is inside the folds.

9. Sew down your folded-over edge, and then press it again.

10. With right sides together (very important), and one of the backing pieces overlapping the other, position the backing on the sweater piece for the front. Get the center seam straight and the overlapping part even. Here I hadn't gotten it straightened out just yet. I had to fiddle with it a bit.

11. Once the backing is straight on the front and overlapping nicely, pin it! Use big pins. I started with silk pins because I like them, but they were just lost in the weave of the sweater. It's better to use a bigger pin with a big head so you can see them.

12. Sew the backing onto the front, using your predetermined seam allowance. After it's sewn together, remove the pins (if you didn't already), and then trim the seam if it's not even all the way around. Cut the corners on the diagonal, if you'd like to make them a little crisper (it will only make them a little crisper--the sweater material is bulky and rounds the corner naturally).

13. Turn the cover right side out and stuff your pillow into it. Viola!! A sweater-covered pillow!!

And the back!

A whole pile of sweater-covered pillows!! So pretty!

I hope that all made sense! If it didn't, please let me know and I'll fix it. Enjoy your thrifted sweaters, everyone!!

Do you crochet?

2008-01-06T17:53:00.001-05:00

I don't. But I'm learning to. For the past 3 years, I have wanted to make scarves for my kids for the winter. Honestly, I'm not good at it. I forget the stitches and make up my own, I lose count, the sides are all lumpy, it's really pathetic. The scarves get finished, but they are not particularly pretty. My kids like them, but I'm always disappointed in how they turn out. But then this past Christmas my husband bought me this book, and now I am in love with crochet. Oh, I need another hobby like a hole in my head.

Firstly, I want to say, I LOVE this book. I am such a handmade person it's not even funny, and this book is all about handmade. It is a lovely book, filled with pictures of handmade things and lovely flowers and wide open spaces. I have looked through it so many times and I could look through it a million more. The book talks about making aprons, yo yos, tatting, embroidery, and crochet. I had no idea crochet could be that beautiful. I really did not. For example, I just stopped dead at this picture. Isn't that scarf just lovely?? Well, I am in love, so I wanted to learn to make it. I bought yarn and hooks and have sat down for many hours to figure out how to do it. The instructions in this book are excellent, I will say that. I went from not knowing anything but a single crochet (kind of) to being able to read a crochet pattern, which previously looked like Greek to me. I can also now do a triple crochet and make a loop and a slipknot. I've got the trellis stitch licked. But it's not easy. I can't yet make a hexagon, which is what this scarf is made of. I start, and can do three rows, but it always looks wobbly to me, so I pull out the stitches. I also need to jump into using the tiny, tiny yarn the scarf is made of. It uses a size 10. That's small!! I'm a little intimidated and definitely not ready for it. But I will get there.

Of course, like any good completely obsessed person, once I "discovered" crochet, I had to delve completely into it. Let's just not dip one toe into the water and try it out, let's just jump headfirst, you know? So I just ordered another book to help further my learning experience. Isn't that front picture yummy? Boy, do I want to learn to make that!! Pretty, pretty. And then I did an internet search on free crochet patterns and WHOA! There are tons! Laces and scarves and shawls of all kinds. I had no idea. And of course, the laces all use a thread that's size 30 or 50. I don't even know what that looks like, because no one by me carries it. It's probably tiny. Microscopic, even. But that didn't stop me. I printed out at least 50 pages of instructions for things that I liked. Now, I just need to learn how to make them. There's a goal for this year, I guess.

Has this happened to anyone else? You get a book and in it is something you never noticed before or knew about (or paid any attention to) and then it becomes something you HAVE to learn? What's your unexpected obsession? Did it work out and become a new hobby? Or was it a quick "fling"? I'd love to hear about it!!

Show and Tell

2008-01-03T16:34:00.000-05:00

Ok, I had a few minutes and the camera was charged, so I thought I'd share with you pictures of what I've been up to. Are you ready??? On your mark... get set... GO!!

First, I made two little "holders" for the tools I use next to my sewing machine. One tool is a small pair of embroidery scissors I use as thread snips, and the other is a seam ripper. They are small, and were a pain to pick up from off the table, and if I put them in a container I'd have to feel around for them. Honestly, I don't like to search for my tools, I like to reach and get them and use them when I need to. So, I was, for a while, sticking them into the tops of old, empty thread spools. This works really well, but it's not particularly attractive. So I dressed the spools up a bit. Now they are cute little bits of frou! I used some pieces of felt, little bits of trims and lace, and a couple rhinestones (just because that pink one seemed to need them). The tools are upright and easy to grasp and right within reach whenever I need them. So, if you have little tools that you use, dressing up an empty thread spool will do the trick. Just be sure you make the hole in the top again, if you cover it. Also, I would suggest putting a piece of cardboard under whatever the spool sits on, just for extra stability. These work really well!!

I also pressed that blue silk cross stitch piece I had finished while I was sick back in December.

Oooooh, flat!!

And I finished a second silk piece, this one with a pinkish silk on Dirty linen. The silk is also that Soie de Paris. So pretty!!

I made an apron for Christmas. It's a Butterick pattern, and I really like it. I finished it on the 23rd--right under the "deadline".

Sorry that it's not a picture ON a person. I put it on for my daughter to take a picture of, but she kept taking a picture of my feet--or half the apron--or the picture was completely crooked. Oh well. She's still learning.

I made a pincushion for my ginormous glass head pins that I use only occasionally but still need a pincushion for. I was keeping them in a drawer in a container, but when I did need them, I had to fish for them, and that's a pain (Did I mention I like to have my tools close at hand all the time?? I may have...).

I like it because it looks like an ottoman, and because it's flat, pulling the pins out and putting them back in is a piece of cake. I can do it without looking, because it doesn't roll away or move like the tomato pin cushions sometimes do. Also, it's large enough to accomodate the pins without being too crowded. Plus, it's got cute stacked buttons in the middle. How can you go wrong??

I also finished and then hung the little shelf I've had for over my cutting table. It took me...um... a while (ahem) to get around to it, but it's done (yeay) and now my space is clear. I put my pens and pencils, marking tools, and cutting tools on it. Before that, they were all over the table and always in the way. I used old cache pots to put the things in. The white one is mine, and the green ones were found in the house.

Found? Yep, found. Back when we moved into this house, we found a bunch of things "hidden" in the attic and the basement that I think were left by the original owners (which is interesting, since we are the third owners of this house. What were the people we bought the house from doing?? Not looking in the attic and basement, I guess). They left 4 hubcaps for an Oldsmobile (very helpful if I owned one), a bunch of 70's curtain rods (ugh), and these odd 70's flower pots that were "hidden" in the basement on top of the wall. Being as though I am a staunch recycler/reuser, I couldn't throw them out. I thought about it, because they are SO 70's, but I just couldn't do it. So I thought I'd use them in my studio instead. They've come in very handy, and don't look as 70's as they did (well, mostly--that polka dot one is still screaming 70's retro chic to me). Then when the top of the shelf was full, I thought the pegs looked naked, so I made this little crazy quilted little heart (which I really like)to hang on one of them.

Whew! I think that catches us up a bit. Thanks so much for looking, everyone! Have the greatest day!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T11:01:00.001-05:00

So the kids' rooms are clean (4 bags to Goodwill of clothing and toys), my studio is clean (well, the storage closet is spotless, but the floor of the studio....mmmm....well, it is a WORKING space, after all), the holiday decorations are coming down, the refrigerator is spotless (unplanned wine explosion caused us to have to scrub the damn thing out), and my daughter is back to school. It's the new year. Welcome, 2008!

Did you all make resolutions? I don't make new year's resolutions, per se. I actually make my resolutions (so to speak) on my birthday, which was back in November. I figure that yes, the year starts in January, but my year really starts in November, because what better time to say "before I get another year older, I'd like to accomplish this..."? So that's what I do. I like to think about what sorts of things I would like to accomplish for the year, be they changes I'd like to make or just goals I'd like to meet to make me a better person. I don't hold myself to anything--they change at will; I add and take away from the mental "list" I keep as I go. Nothing rigid. It works for me.

New Year's Eve was a quiet night. We hardly ever make it staying up to midnight here, so it was a rare treat to get there this time. I wound up spending the time watching reruns of "The Next Food Network Star". Sad, sad, sad. I hate those reality shows. But I just...kept...watching. I switched over to whatever channel it is that shows the ball dropping, and caught the last 24 seconds of the countdown. Perfect! Saw the ball drop, kissed my dozing husband, and went to bed. So, no wild parties for us.

Yesterday we went food shopping, and then took the kids to see "Alvin and the Chipmunks", which they loved, and was mostly appropriate for kids. That's a nice change nowadays. Half the time kids' movies aren't really for kids, but this one was pretty good. My daughter LOVED it, and my son and daughter were both dancing in their chairs to the music. We really, truly had a good time. It never ceases to amaze me how the littlest times can be the ones you enjoy the most. The holidays were nice, we saw friends and family and had a good time, but I never got that warm really happy feeling during them. But then yesterday, we went to the movies--just the 4 of us--and that feeling just came on. Same thing happened Saturday, when we went out to dinner. Again, just the 4 of us. We just went to Perkin's, no big deal, but we had a really nice time, and there was that happy, warm feeling. I was truly happy. So I think there's a lesson in there for me. I hope I can learn it better this year.

Today is a day to get back to normal just a little more. I am going to take down the holiday decorations today, with exception of the tree. I have been forbidden to take the tree down until the weekend, because "everyone just likes it SO much", or that's according to my daughter, anyway. So, ok, I will let it slide for a few. Everything else has got to go, though. I need to see some surfaces again. Right now everything is covered in STUFF. So, down come the plasic tubbies from the attic, and into them goes the stuff, away for another year.

Tomorrow I'll post some pics, so be ready! In the meantime, I'd like to say Happy New Year to everyone and thank you all for coming by! I'll leave you with some pictures my daughter took this past Christmas with the kiddie digital camera she got. Do we have a budding photographer in the house? Erm... I'll let you be the judge!