growing dirt

I just like to document this - May 19th!  there are actually some things growing, despite the fact that it looks like a dirt patch: lettuce, chard, lacinato kale, radishes, garlic, spinach, cilantro, green onions, basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, parsnips, zucchini hopefully golden beets (they germinated, but then kind of disappeared) and now peppers and tomatoes.  I also have planted: delicata squash, spaghetti squash, pole beans, broccoli rabe, corn (both red and yellow), and cucumbers.

kiiro neko

on May 5th, our neighbor came over with a little yellow cat, wondering if it was ours because he was friendly.  He wasn't, but again, what could we do?  Say "move on down the road little cat!" - no way!  we took him to the vet to make sure he was healthy and get his shots, and kept him in the garage until the vet said he was cleared to be around other cats.  In that amount of time we realized that he wasn't so good about using the litter box.  We wondered if that's what got him dumped in the first place.  He's very sweet, but....  I've never had trouble getting a cat to use a box.  So we're debating whether he can be a house cat.  For now, we've been letting him just be an outside cat - he seems to come to the house to eat and he'll usually sleep on the glider on the porch, but then he wanders during the day.  I'm not sure how it'll work long term.  We put him in the garage last night to control his food because he went in for a neutering this morning.  We figured that regardless of whether or not he was "ours" he should be fixed.  We're also hoping that'll make him a bit less aggressive toward our other cats who go outside - last weekend he had ol' Borris stuck up a tree!  He doesn't look so happy here - it's post surgery!  i've always wanted a yellow cat - and he's a sweetie!  oh, we call him Neko, or Kiiro Neko, which means yellow cat in japanese.

oh, one other detail

It tasted AMAZING!!!! (sorry Carrie, how could I have not mentioned that?)   :)  We made the first egg sunny side up and split a piece of toast to ceremoniously dip in the yolk!  deeelicious!  today was the first day we got 4 eggs!  That's a record so far!

1st Egg Day!!

I feel like I've told everyone already!  but the ladies (well, one of them) laid their first egg yesterday!!  it may be the most photographed egg ever - 2 different cameras, an iPad, and a phone!  hahah!

i know, i know

i'll shut up about the chickens soon.  Or else i'll make another blog.  but.....today the ladies took their first walk around the yard!  i took one million pictures like it was the first day of school or something!

Borris loves his chickens

the sky is not falling

FINALLY the chickens decided to give the outside world a try!  On Wednesday evening they all ventured out.  Today they waited all day and then came out at 6pm and stayed out during the thunder storm (though they do have a roof...but still.)  What goofs!  Yay!  I love to watch them scratch and peck!

The 8 hr 1hr skirt

I took a few vacation days to enjoy spring and to be with the chickens - but the chickens aren't doing a lot at this point - they're still too afraid to come out of the coop into the run, even with the door standing wide open all day.  They're silly.  Also, it's been raining for 2 days, so not much outdoor time is being had.  However, we spent almost the entire day on Sunday outside - I even got a little sunburnt accidentally!  I thought, because it was raining, I'd finish up a quick wrap skirt that I started a couple weeks ago.  It's McCalls 4530 and the envelope says "1 hr skirt".  I decided to do some embroidery on the patch pockets because they were screaming for it!  So that added another couple hours.  Understandable.  What's not understandable is how I screwed up every damn seam on this skirt!  I seriously don't think there's a single seam that I didn't rip out at one point because I sewed it on backwards, or missed a step.  I even had to recut the whole waist band because I did it all wrong.  oy!  It totally wasn't the pattern - it really is easy - it was all me!  anyway, it's finished and I really like it!  whew!  I'll definitely make this one again - hopefully in 1 hour next time!

The color isn't reading very well in these pictures - it's less red than it looks here- it's more of a bright coral.  and it's some mystery fabric I found at a thrift store - sort of medium weight synthetic of some kind.

Here's the embroidery - the flash isn't helping.  it's part of a Folklorico design pack from Urban Threads.

And nifty contrast pocket linings!  I thought using the thick fabric for a pocket lining would be bulky.

So there's my sad sewing story and my terrible photography all in one post!  hahah!

The ladies are here!

Today was chicken day!!  We drove to Celina - about an hour north of us - to an old seminary/nursing home/farm - odd, and beautiful!!  I wish I'd gotten out of the car to take a picture, but we were too excited!  You can see it here on their website though.  they had a million kinds of chickens, but not all for sale - and we'd reserved 4 golden comets (aka Red Stars).  They're so pretty!  17 weeks old and they should start laying at 19-22 weeks.  We decided to go with pullets for our first chickens, instead of chicks - but maybe we'll get chicks another year!  We're already talking about converting one of the bays in the shed/barn into a coop.  If we do that, they'll be right out by the garden, which would be great for insect control!

I think we made it!

I think we actually made it out of winter and into spring!  I know, our last frost date here isn't until April 17th, but yesterday was officially the first day of spring and I've got green bits coming out of the ground!  The thing i'm most excited to see is my garlic!

I planted garlic for the 1st time last fall and with all the sogginess in the past month or so, I was afraid it would be out there rotting.  But no!  I believe I planted 2 varieties - I bought them from a farmer at the Yellow Springs farmer's market last year.  He has tons of varieties, so if this goes well, maybe i'll try some different ones next year!  I'm definitely getting ahead of myself.  

It's T-14 days and counting until CHICKEN DAY!!  that's when I'm driving to Celina to get my Red Comet pullets!  I'm both excited and terrified!  

My first quilt - quilted!

My parents gave me a check for my birthday and I decided to splurge and have my first quilt top quilted!  It's been finished for years now, but I can never justify paying to have it done - there's always something that needs the money more!  And there still are things that need the money more, but it was a gift and I think that's what gift money should be spent on- stuff you'd never get on your own!

I took it to my local quilt shop - Sulphur Grove Quilt Shop - and it was actually the first time I'd been there!  it's a great little place - and she brings in her cat Lenny, which makes me very happy!  She did a fantastic job!  Of course my quilt top was a little wonky, but she made it look great!  Ol' Earl loves it too, obviously!

I originally bought green flannel for the back, but I didn't have enough of it to mount properly in her long arm quilter, so I bought this fabric there - I really love how it turned out!   Oh man, I just couldn't be happier!!!!

I told her that I just made a little quilt for my newest nephew, but baby quilts are about the extent to what I can quilt on my machine - she said "well, you can either quilt by machine, by hand, or by check!" hahaha!  very true!

I dare you

I dare you to have a better birthday than I've just had!  I don't think it can be done!  It's mostly when you're a kid that you really expect to do exciting stuff and have your every whim indulged on your birthday - but I got it this weekend!  I took my birthday off work (it was Friday - so why not?) and I told the fella that what I really wanted was to wake up, and read in bed for as long as I wanted to!  then I asked for scrambled eggs and toast - which he took a step further and made FOR me, AND served it on a tray (which he had to go out shopping for the previous day!) in bed - along with a little paper flower that he made and stuck in a vase!  Then I wanted to go to Jungle Jim's!  Some people might kind of think that's like grocery shopping on your birthday, but Jungle Jim's is not grocery shopping in my book!  We had a great time and got some fantastic stuff!  We got four different cheeses and two kinds of hearty rye breads and decided we'd have a tray of that for dinner!  So he made a fire in the basement fireplace, we cozied up on the couch and gorged on cheese, bread, and pears,

And drank wine - this one was a delicious Riesling which just happened to come in a bottle shaped like a cat! (who am I kidding - we bought it because of the bottle, but the wine was great too!)

Then today we went to the Taqueria Mixteca downtown and pigged out on mexican food - he tried tongue tacos for the first time, and I had a bite too (delicious!) I got a ceviche tostada because I've never had ceviche before (delicious) and we shared a bowl or posole (which i make about once a week) but this had pork in it - and it was, you guessed it, delicious!  We rolled ourselves out to the car and came home.  I meant to stop at the 2nd street market for a giant bag of popcorn, but totally forgot because of my excitement to get there!  oh well!  Other tidbits that made my birthday great: finding about 20 little ceramics and S&P's from Japan (my favorite - they don't look asian, they just have a "look") at the thrift store when I ran in to get a fireplace set for the basement on Thursday after work - it was like a birthday eve present, dancing while the fella played tunes on the electronic organ/keyboard, and finding a Florida avocado at Jungle Jim's - which I've seen, but not at stores around here!  I can't wait to try it.  Yeah, try to top all that!!!  :)

flying geese finish!

I actually wrapped this quilt up last weekend but I thought maybe I'd get a day with some sun to photograph it.  No such luck - it's January in Ohio!  And when the sun did pop out, I totally forgot about this!  duh.  Anyway, here it is!  I really like it!

I know it's impossible to tell in this picture, but I think it's about 32"x32" - something like that!  not big, but probably good for a crib or a car seat.  

Here's a closeup of the binding:

The binding was scrap fabric I bought in a little grab bag of stuff at an antique mall I think.  I never want to use the good stuff...but especially for a baby quilt.  I mean you know it's going to get puked on!  But really, it's still to let it just sit in the closet!  I should just put it to use!

I didn't do a lot of quilting - just straight lines on either side of the seams - I think the orange thread kind of mimics jeans, so it works with the denim, and also orange and blue just look great together!

The background is some fabric I bought online and thought I'd use it for a dress, but the scale of the print turned out to be bigger than I expected and I wasn't so sure it'd be a great dress!  that's what you get when you buy online - but it's not like it goes bad - it got a new life as a quilt back!

flying geese for a fat baby

My sister-in-law just had a new baby boy on Christmas Eve.  That's baby #7 for her and my brother.  Yeah, 7.  Oy vey!  whatever.  Anyway, he's a fat little boy, which is exactly how babies ought to be, and I like to call him Fat Bruce.  I'm making lil' Bruce a quilt.  I keep seeing cool denim quilts on Pinterest - using different shades of denim almost as different colors.  I have a bunch of old jeans that don't fit anymore, so I started cutting them up for a flying geese quilt.  I'm pairing the denim with some aqua Kona cotton, and I think I'm going to throw in one or two red or orange triangles for a spot of color.

I think I'll do the quilting in red and orange thread - probably along the long sides of the triangles simply because those are the only lines that I can guarantee will be straight!  Haha!  I originally planned to run a line of quilting up the middle of each triangle - from base to point, but who am I kidding?  those points are never going to line up!  Why make that even more obvious with quilting that highlights it?  nope.  I'm really loving it so far!  

So here's my new year's blog quandary:  I keep telling myself to blog more, because I like doing it.  However, I don't really feel like anyone is reading it.  Then I ask myself if it matters, and I guess if I didn't care if anyone read it, I'd just make a diary and not post it.  In a way this is almost an electronic diary for myself I guess - I use it to look back at dates when things happened or to compare one year to the next.  Still, I guess I'd like someone to enjoy it besides me.  So that made me ask myself why people wouldn't read it - and I can only answer that by thinking about why I read the blogs I do.  I think my blog has too many topics - I really only read about such varied topics if I personally know the writer and want to keep up with their life, or if they're miraculously into everything I'm into!  Otherwise, I like a blog based on pretty much one subject.  I also like blogs that inspire me with cool projects, or teach me how to do things I haven't done.   I'm not sure I'm really hitting any of those marks!  I'm wondering if I ought to divide up topics.  Will I write more if I have one blog for sewing/knitting/crafting, one for cooking, one for gardening, and one for what will undoubtedly become my new obsession in the spring - chickens?  I'm sure there are people who are already like "I don't care a fig about your walnuts or your chickens!"  but maybe they like reading about sewing.  Would I write less if I do this.  I just don't know.  Any thoughts?  

embroidering

Good gravy!  i haven't posted since October?  sheesh.  I did a poor job preparing for many handmade gifts this Christmas, but I thought I'd give an update on what I've made.  My parents both requested socks and I knew I could do that.  Did and done (that may sound cockier than it should - I just finished my dad's socks last night!)  I started a pair for the fella out of worsted weight, and I have one sock finished.  I think i might be able to eek out the other.  We'll see!!  I'm also making some ornaments on my embroidery machine for the nieces and nephews and my brother and SIL

 They're kind of large, so I might suggest that they be door knob hangers too!  they have an exchange student from Norway so I made  him the dala horse (which I know is actually a Swedish thing, but I guess I'll claim to just being going for a general Nordic thing!)


I also made this table runner with some red fabric I picked up at the thrift store (I love when that happens!) and my beloved embroidery machine, of course.

This was my first time doing an applique on the machine - it's not easy to see from my crappy pictures, but the bunny's body is felt, then it's embroidered over and around.  The little mushroom house has some printed quilting cotton for the base!

Same with the little fox and santa!  These are all from the Woodland Wonderland pack from Urban Threads!  Oh, i also LOVE that little scallop stitch on the edges - it feels very vintage to me!

more color = more gooder!

The chicken coop needed to be protected in some way - the instructions said to paint or seal it.  I definitely wanted it to be colorful, not just wood, so paint it I did.  sooooo cute!

It is taking FOREVER to paint - first it was primed, and then I've needed a couple coats of each color.  And for some parts, I had to crawl into the run and paint on all fours!  The roof still needs another coat, as does all the green, but it's going to be worth it!  I can't wait to get the ladies moved in!

You know it's fall when...

...you're buying yarn at the Woolgathering, the chestnuts are falling, and the chicken coop is in place!  yay!  the mister put together our chicken coop this weekend and its' just fantastic!  now we need to paint it to protect it - and I'd certainly rather have a colorful and cute coop!  

oh, i just love it!  I can't wait to get chickens in the spring!

The chestnut empire continues this year - I think we've collected nearly 200 lbs so far!  I roasted up a bunch this morning to freeze for use in recipes later.  I got this tip after talking to one of the Chinese ladies at work who bought a lot from me this year.  Apparently chestnuts are really big in Chinese cooking - in real chinese cooking - not the chinese that we get at the restaurants, which is not really chinese at all!  haha!  Anyway, aren't they beautiful?

I got a pumpkin and a warty gourd from a guy who runs a little farm stand just down the road from me - it doesn't get much more "fall" than that. He also had bird's nest gourds - the green crook neck ones - that will dry out and be hollow!  Those were $1 each so I got a bunch!  i want to make a couple toad houses from them - we seem to have a lot of toads here and I just love them!

This giant guy, who I call Fritz, likes to sit in the track for the sliding glass door at night when we have the light on - I guess it attracts a lot of insects and he has a feast!  

On the crafting front, I've got a pair of socks on the needles for my mom for Christmas.  After that, it'll be a pair of socks for my dad, then hopefully I'll have time for a pair of thick worsted weight ones for the mister, and maaaaybe a hat for him too!  yowza!  it's not like any of that takes so long, but I've realized that having 2 kittens in the house makes knitting really difficult!  they inevitably want to be in your lap and then it all goes downhill!

The Plunge!

I just ordered a chicken coop!!!!

Our plan was to build one this fall and get chickens in the spring, but I found this Clubhouse Coop online for $399 and it had great reviews and tons of features that I wanted.  I waivered on the prospect of building a coop - it went from totally doable to something I wasn't sure I wanted to tackle - back and forth and back and forth.  Neither the mister nor I are master carpenters, but I know people with way less skill have cobbled together coops.  I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg so I thought making it would save money, but I also know I'd have to buy lots of stuff - even with our stash of lumber, I'd need hardware cloth and hinges and latches.  plus, i kind of didn't want my coop to look like crap, and our cobbled together one probably would.  This one isn't huge - big enough for 4 chickens, which is all we want to start with - but you can add runs lengthwise (they sell them separately) or if we get more chickens than this will hold maybe then we can tackle making another coop and this could be a separation coop, or one for more delicate little ladies.  I'm pretty excited!  We'll still get chickens in the spring!

baby quilt!

I finally finished the baby quilt that I've been working on!  I'm still not totally happy with the quilting, but I think I just need more practice.  I guess it's not just that - i thought it'd be cool to do some different quilting on each of the blocks, but I wish I'd stuck with one theme - either the straight lines like I did on most of the blocks or the meandering which I did on only two.  I didn't like the meandering after the 1st block, but then I kind of had to repeat it at least once.  bleah.  oh well.  i liked it after the 2nd one but then it was too late for more.  Oh well - I'm not going to stress!  babies don't judge.  The little girl is due in early October, i think, and she'll be getting the February baby sweater and the little pink dress with the bear on the front too!  For her big brother, I embroidered 4 cute aliens on a sweatshirt - because I know that a 5 year old doesn't understand why someone is getting a gift and he's not!  It'll be his big brother gift!  Now to start thinking about Christmas!  My brother and SIL have 5 kids with another in the oven AND a foreign exchange student.  because they're nuts, i guess.  Anyway, i'm thinking about making the whole darn family Thorpes (the bulky weight earflap hat).  My only fear is that for kids, a hat may be the equivalent of a pack of underwear.  I want to think a hat is more fun than that.  Part of me doesn't care.  i think I could knock them out quickly and have time to make something special for my mom, who really appreciates it!  Any opinions on how kids view hats?  they range from a baby up to 13!

late, but still good!

I found this pressure canner for only $35 this weekend at the Village Antiques!

I have been thinking about getting one, but just didn't want to pay a much as new ones cost.  Even on Craig's List they were $50-$100 and then I'd have to drive to some faraway place to get it!  this one required 2 trips actually - we went to the Antiques Village yesterday but I didn't get the canner and the fella passed up a couple sports coats, so we decided last night to make another trip today!  silly.  but now I'm happy!  It's from 1975, but seems to be in great shape - it's a Presto and it still has the original instruction manual and came with a jar lifter too.  I have a waterbath canner, but this will be great for beans next year!  Unfortunately, it's a little late for this year because this is what the garden looks like now :(

It's the end of the season for things like beans and squash and cukes - powdery mildew got ahold of our melons and tomatoes, but we still got lots of tomatoes, but the melons just never got to ripen as they should.  Next year I'm going to plant spaghetti squash on the little fence!  

This is where the corn was.  I planted a couple rows of sugar snap beans here and 3 red cabbage plants that I started from seed.  Borris is supervising while recovering from this run in with the car in the road.  Maybe not the best idea, but it sure raised his spirits to be out there - never unsupervised, of course!  he's still very limpy, but he doesn't seem to realize that he needs to limit himself!

More cat stuff

We've had more than our fair share of terrible cat issues lately, I feel!  almost 2 weeks ago, our Borris got hit by a car out at the road.  Thankfully, it clipped his back end and his injuries were fixable.  He broke his femur, which is a pretty significant injury - the vet had to put 2 pins down the length of his thigh bone to fix it, which means he's got a whole leg full of staples.  The inside of his other leg was also pretty torn up, but he stapled that too.  No internal injuries - which is amazing!  For a week I felt like I was at the vet almost everyday!  he kept pulling out staples, then had to get a cone, which he hated and tried to pull off every chance he got, then he wouldn't go to the bathroom - he could barely stand, and definitely couldn't squat.  it was just terrible because you knew he was suffering but couldn't do much to sooth him.  I slept on the floor next to him every night.  Suddenly, in the past few days, he's made recovery by leaps and bounds - he's getting up on his own, walking about (even on little walks outside!) - it's great to see!  His staples will come out on Tuesday and then the dreaded cone will be gone - he'll be a happy guy!  It warms my heart to see him acting more normal - he's an amazing cat and i don't know what we'd have done if he didn't make it!  I took pictures of him all laid up, but I imagine it's not the way he wants people to see him!  soon, he'll be back out in his favorite spot...tracking field mice!

THEN, if you can believe it, we were walking around up near the front of the property, which we haven't done in a while since we've been taking care of Borris every minute, and heard a meow, meow, meow coming from the hill down to the culvert.  We've got a bunch of crown vetch there because it's too steep to mow.  I said "where are you" (well, first I said "ooh no") and saw a big rustle in the leaves down below and then this guy climbed his way up the hill through the crown vetch and popped out the top!  he was super sweet and lovey right away - like he'd been around people, but was super skinny, COVERED in fleas, and had a bum leg.  oh, another cat with a messed up leg!  but what could we do? you can't just put him back in the ditch!

So i took him to the vet where he was diagnosed with a broken lower leg, but that we probably didn't need to do anything - kittens are pretty resiliant and he'd probably heal up just fine.  He does walk on it, he's just all gimpy (i actually thought maybe it was a birth defect, but there are wounds there that are healing)  He got some shots, and some blood tests and we took him home and gave him a hell of a bath, then some Revolution to take care of his fleas.  He's probably 14 weeks old and now we have yet another kitten!!  oy!  i've never met a more lovey cat though - he's sweet as sugar and super affectionate!  we're still tossing around names...more to come!