The company, rather, our project

Steve and I decided to do a little larger scale gardening this year.  His company has a large grassy area that's fenced in to keep the public out.  Eventually the area will be used for expansion but for now it'll be the new company garden. I have been buying seeds for it every time we get near a gardening center. Pumpkins, watermelon, cantelope, lima beans, beets, tomatoes,  peppers, corn, onions,  green and yellow beans, radishes, zinnias, carrots, cabbage,  lettuce,  squash, and zucchini.  Whatever comes up,  the employees will be allowed to pick and take home for their family. Steve did all the tilling but it will be me planting, weeding, and picking whatever doesn't get picked.  Hopefully the employees will get a little more involved but for now the sign up sheet is blank. No matter, I'm excited for the fresh produce.

First nibbles

The last four nights we've had a light frost so we covered up the garden.  Today the threat of frost is gone so we uncovered and checked on the plants.  Quite a few of the radishes were ready so I got a tasty treat. Can't wait till the tomatoes start producing.

Meet Kiwi

Carley brought home a little 9 week old kitten yesterday.  She named it Kiwi and gave it a home in her room.  Zipper was thrilled to have a new four legged friend to play with.  He cleans Kiwi's ears and nudges her along to where he thinks she should go.  Surprisingly Kiwi tolerates Zipper and doesn't claw him up...yet. 

Quilt cockeyed square

As you can see, my sewing leaves a lot to be desired.  It's not even close to good. But I'm going to leave it as is because this is a personal experiment that will sit on my bed and rarely get seen.  You don't learn anything by not making mistakes along the way anyway.  I'm going to sew a couple more squares like this and then start hand sewing a blanket stitch onto each one.  Then I'll see what kind of crochet border I can come up with.  I'll update a photo when I get the border on. 

Another fractal doily done

My daughter in law asked me if I could make her this.  I'm not 100% sure she'll actually use it but I made it anyway.  Hers was made in white and the one in off white is mine, but I already posted that one last month I think it was.  

I'm kind of glad I bought this pattern because I've really enjoyed making the doilies.  I've also received an order for one in bright green (yuck!) from my husband.  He wants to use it on the company coffee table in the lobby.  

Plaid afghan done

Today I finished up Ty & Courtney's wedding gift.  They are getting married in August.  As usual I changed the pattern just slightly.  Instead of making six rows of squares like the pattern states, I made seven because I wanted a bigger blanket.  That of course meant I needed an extra skein of green.  I also attached the squares row by row as I went rather than sew them by hand later.  If you don't know how to do that technique you can probably find a tutorial on you tube.  The chain three thing I also did away with, I learned another technique on you tube that I've been using for a while that makes the ends look so much nicer.

Here's the pattern link if you'd like to make one for yourself:

http://www.alpacabytes.com/2010/06/04/fiber-arts-friday-flannel-blanket-pattern/ 

Possible quilt

About a month ago I was wandering inside a resale shop and an antique piece of fabric caught my eye.  It's a heavy piece that I think was used to make curtains or maybe cover a chair of some sort.  Because its old it has softened with age.  When I bought the fabric I was thinking I'd stash it away until I found enough similar colors to make a quilt for my bed.  

The other day I was searching for a crochet pattern on google and came across a picture that made me have one of those, "ooooh!  I want one!" moments.  It was a summer comforter that a store sold.  The comforter had square blocks and each block had a crocheted edge around it.  The whole thing was connected by crochet.  Very pretty I thought but it was all the wrong colors and I couldn't figure out where the comforter was for sale anyway since it was just a picture.  The photo sat in my mind for a couple of days until I remembered the fabric I had purchased.  

I spread the fabric out to see if it were possible to use it to make something similar.  The fabric isn't quite big enough but I've been thinking about it all week now and I think maybe it can still be done if I just make a larger crochet border around each piece.  I think.  

This may be my most challenging project yet.  I'm not a sewer, nor do I have a pattern, don't really know how to quilt, and don't have a crochet border pattern.   All I have is a photo in my head because I forgot to save the photo that I found online.  

This should be a fun project. I'll keep you updated as I figure things out and make some progress.  In the meantime you can take a peek at my antique fabric. 

It must be jelly cause jam don't shake like this

A long time ago I remember seeing a canning page where the woman made a huge variety of jellies every year and I remember seeing a picture of violet jelly.  I thought that was interesting but none of my yards ever had violets until this yard.  1/4 of my back yard has violets growing among the grass.  As you know I was bored last night so I started picking.  After the violets were done I decided to see if maybe dandelions could also be made into jelly.  Turned out there are tons of recipes on the net for that too.  So I let those sit the night alongside the violets and today I went to the store to buy lemons and sugar.  After each jar was filled and processing in the jars I tasted each jelly.  The dandelions taste like honey and the violets taste like honey with a slight hint of lemon.  Both are very good.  

So far I've heard all the 16 jars pop so I know I did a good job considering I haven't canned in probably 25 years.  I'm kind of excited for everyone to taste it tomorrow after the jars have cooled down.  Steve turned his nose up at the idea as did a friend who owns a local restaurant.  I'm going to take a jar of each into her and demand she try some.  Aren't the jars pretty?

In case you'd like to try making your own jelly this is where I got each of the recipes:

http://www.simplycanning.com/dandelion-jelly.html

http://www.urbanpioneerstory.com/2012/03/foraged-violet-jelly/#comments

Omelet/frittata

Last night one of my Facebook friends shared a recipe that she saw posted by What's for dinner recipies https://www.facebook.com/pages/Whats-for-Dinner-Recipes/284470131684103 

I was hungry when i saw the recipe and I had all the ingredients on hand so I thought I'd make myself the omelet for breakfast complete with baked bacon for on the side.  As usual I changed the recipe.  I used red pepper, onions, mushrooms, and omitted the ham since I was making bacon on the side.  OMG!  I have never had such a light fluffy omelet in my life.  

Oven Denver Omelet

Ingredients

8 eggs

1/2 cup half-and-half cream

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup finely chopped fully cooked ham

1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and cream. Stir in the cheese, ham, green pepper and onion. Pour into a greased 9-in. square baking dish. 

Bake at 400° for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Note: because I never remember to pre-heat and always throw it in cold, and I used the oven for cooking bacon alongside the omelet the cooking time went way up. Mine took about 45 min.

Roses are red, violets are blue...

I'm bored as heck, and looking for something to do.

With my violets of course and why not those ugly dandelions too?

Come back tomorrow and see what is new.

The roof is on

The north side of the roof was finished up last night.  The south (open) side will be glass and that isn't here yet.  I really want this project to be done because the specialty seeds I ordered arrived today.

Greenhouse updated photo

I forgot to mention here on my blog that my husband and I are building a greenhouse. I put photos on Facebook last weekend of the progress but haven't updated because we haven't had much time to work on it. Since the last Facebook update we've finished the rafters and the last sidewall where the door will go is now up. Tonight we are going to get some of the side walls up. The back, and back roof, will be completely covered since they are on the north side. The rest will get a wall that's only about two feet up from the bottom. The rest of the walls and roof will be glass. The glass panels are going to be ordered today. I can't wait for the greenhouse to be done already. In my head I've planted it 4,000 times already and have lovely plants growing in there. The building needs to hurry up and catch up with the vision in my head.

Two afghans

Here are two of the afghans that I've been working on for the past month or so. The blue scrap one I started in November but put it away because I was tired of seeing little balls of yarn all over the floor. I had the project out until the grandkids came. Didn't want balls all over the house. Scrap afghans are so messy to work on. The plaid green and off white one is for a wedding in August. I was going to put that one off and work on some other projects for a while but then remembered just how warm it gets in the summer. The temperatures will be too warm to sit under as I crochet. So I'm going to try and finish at least the plaid one here in the next couple of weeks.

Yup, I did that

With the grand kids here last week I didn't have much time to work on craft related projects. However, this week I got a needle and thread out and went to work. I almost never buy patterns but when I saw this one posted on Pinterest, I fell in love with the modern look of the doily, and I bought it. Here's the link to the pattern in case you're interested in purchasing it. It cost $4.01 in US dollars. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/fractal-2

I used Aunt Lydia #10 off white thread with a #2 needle. The original pattern says the doily should fit a 22x22" table but I obviously don't have the same gauge. My doily measures 36x25.5". I'm quite happy with the size of my doily because it fits a 6 seat dinning room table perfectly.

The pattern was incredibly easy to do but I wouldn't recommend it for brand new crocheters unless you're looking to challenge yourself.

Budding

I see small buds on my indoor tomato plants! These are the ones I started in November. The other tomatoes I started much later because I want to put those outside to grow. These however will stay in the house. I want to see how easy it is to pollinate the flowers myself. I also want to see how long a tomato plant will live indoors. I'm thinking I may have to get bigger pots for them soon though.

A picture of me

It's rare that I share pictures of me because I pretty much hate all photos of me. Mostly because I'm fat and my eyes tend to do funky things when the flash goes off. I'm pretty much the worst subject there is to take a photograph of. So here I am with my husband. Bet you didn't know I was so short, did you? Lol

This photo was taken at aunt Dolls (family) party. Doll is pretty much a fruit cake, as are the rest of the family. Not long after we got there Steve's other aunt, Carol (Dolls sister) was motor boating everyone who wanted to smash their face into her massive boobs. This was before the first bottle of beer or wine was opened.

Last weeks birthday girl

It's hard to believe but Evy turned 1 last week. Steve and I went to Ohio to spend some time with her to celebrate. Actually we had three things to celebrate. Evy turned 1, Easter, and tomorrow Casey turns 21. We had three days to celebrate so we celebrated one thing each day we were there. I still don't have any of the pictures off my camera but I stole this one from Anna, Evy's paternal grandma.

Waiting on a new toy

A long time ago I got rid of my sewing machine because it was more expensive to fix than it was to buy a new one. Problem was, I didn't buy a new one, I just went without. Being around people who quilt often I've been getting the itch to play with a sewing machine again. All the little money earning apps I have on my phone I have finally saved enough gift certificates to order this ((photo below):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000F7DPEQ/ref=pe_309540_26725410_item

My first project is going to be with my daughter and were going to make a rag quilt for her bed. I figured it would be a good beginner project for the two of us considering neither of us are skilled with the sewing machine. She's never been taught to sew and I haven't done it in years. You can google "rag quilt" if you want to see what it is we will be making. When we get some fabric and the machine I'll post some pictures of our progress.

Rug done

Usually Dorothy weaves 4 rugs on the loom before cutting them off but the strings on the end were getting kind of loose so she snipped it early. No doubt because I'm new to weaving and probably screwed something up. Weaving looks pretty simple but its easy to loose tension on ends or flub something up. I made a couple of mistakes and the ends aren't exactly even. Not bad for my first attempt though.

New Craft

Once a week I volunteer at a local non-profit community place that re-sells goods and handmade craft items. I've really been enjoying myself. Up until today I've mostly hand tied quilts and priced items for sale. Today Dorothy, the crafting director, decided it was time for me to learn how to weave rugs that are sold down stairs. The monsterous looms are intimidating and I'm not so sure I'm ever going to master the craft, but I'm trying. The photo below is the rug that I'm making. What you see took me about two hours to weave. I don't know if I'm just super slow or if that's really how long it takes to make rugs. Dorothy chose the colors this time but she said after this one is done I can chose what colors and fabric I want to use. I have a wall of colors about twelve feet wide by twenty feet high filled with bins of fabric. I don't have a clue what I'm going to pick. I might just choose colors that fit my house and then just buy the rugs myself.