Art & Crafts

 I forgot to add these couple photos to my last post...

The last bit of color from my garden in this zinnia bouquet:

This pillow that I made a few weeks back from a quilt patch that my maternal grandmother made, and an old tablecloth from my paternal grandmother:

Late Winter Projects

I have been working on a few projects this past week.  I finally took the Titanic downstairs so that I could use the card table to put puzzles together as I usually do during the winter.  I started with one that I got from my mother, and I remember seeing in our home when I was growing up.  It was tricky as the picture on the box was only part of the entire puzzle and many of the tiny corners have disappeared over the past 50 years.  I believe it was manufactured in the 70's based on the colors and pattern, see what I mean?

I also made 60 biodegradable pots out of newspaper and planted them with seeds last weekend.  I already have some little seedlings that have come up!

I spent several hours this week taking apart that sad, sad rag rug that I made a couple of years ago, and then several hours today sewing it again.  It's better, but not perfect.

JP and I found a bunch of these Christmas Milanos on clearance for $1 each at WalMart in January.  I like to use them instead of ladyfingers in my Tiramisu, which I made this weekend (so yummy!)

I'm ready to take a little break to watch a movie with JP.  Hope your late winter is similarly productive!

A Titanic Feat

 Well, I had another birthday.  Huzzah.  Turning another year older does not hold the same element of awe as it once did.  I did get some nice presents, and got 2 birthday cakes!

I have been working on a couple of projects of late.  I decided to recycle all of those dozens of masks that I made early in the pandemic.  Look at all of the fabric I ended up with!

Then I turned some of them into a new tea cozy!  (I know, I know, the back side isn't straight...it just adds to the charm, right?)

L and I finished building the Titanic today.  It was a big project - over 9000 pieces!  It is a 1:200 replica and ended up right around 4 1/2 feet long.

I decided that the ship needed some passengers, so I dug up my tiny figures from the Lego Hogwarts that I built a couple of years ago.

Ron Weasley is King of the World!

The ship has many moving parts, some of which cannot be seen without taking apart the model:

So, that's what I've been up to so far this year.  How about you?

Quilting and Getting out of the House

 I really enjoyed my quilting lessons.  Not only was I doing something that I've really wanted to for a long time, I was getting out of the house a bit - something that is hard to come by during a pandemic it seems.  I have finished my quilt sampler, and I'm at the point where I'm trying to decide if I have the nerve to start another one.  I'm also a bit disappointed that I don't have anything to get me out of the house these days.

We haven't seen the sun in days.  It's been cold and grey and muddy and downright depressing.  I started back to work last week, but even so, I have been restless and wanting to get OUT OF THE HOUSE and do something fun!

Just for giggles, I googled the local drive in movie theater, so see if they were staying open during the winter by any chance.  What luck - they were, AND they were showing the new Wonder Woman movie that we were hoping to get to see.

So, last night, we piled in the truck and drove to the drive in, where we bundled in blankets and watched a movie OUT OF OUR HOUSE for a change!  It was fun - I highly recommend it!  Not only does it help our fragile pandemic psyches, it helps support local businesses.  Go get stranded at the drive-in!

Borders

Today, during quilting lessons, I sewed the sashing between my sampler blocks, and sewed the first of 2 borders.  It's looking nice, if I must say so myself!

Flying

Here is the final quilt block of my sampler, it is a "Flying Dutchman."

Dashing

 My 3rd quilt square is called a Churn Dash.

I have one more square to piece for my sampler, and then I learn how to do sashing, borders and quilting!

4 Patch

 My second quilt square was a 2 color 4 patch.

I am enjoying the sewing, but my machine is STILL not working.  It appears that I am in the market for a new sewing machine.

Quilting

I have had a bit of guilt for many years that I never learned to quilt.  I come from a Mennonite background, and quilting is such a Mennonite thing to do.

It's a long story, but to make it brief, I recently discovered that I woman here in town was offering one-on-one quilting lessons.  I decided to take the plunge.  The end product will be a wall hanging size with 4 squares, each featuring a different pattern - a sampler of sorts.  I opted for a holiday theme (although it may not look much like it from my first square.)

So, here is my first quilt square that I did today.  It is called a "split rails" pattern.

I feel like I'm finally on my way to becoming a true Mennonite!

Upcycling

I decided to embark on a project recently that would satisfy several objectives at once:  1)  Give me something worthwhile to do, 2) Clean out my closet, and 3) Make something attractive that I can use.  So, I decided to make a rug out of old t shirts.

I sorted through my closet and pulled out a pile of prospective T's.  (L stole that red one.)

Then I cut them into strips, gave the strips a little tug, and they snugged down into yarn-like strands. 

 

Here are my balls of t shirt yarn from 6 T's.

The next step took the longest - braiding all that yarn into a very long braid.

The girls helped some with this part.

After several days of braiding, I had 120 feet of braided t shirt yarn.

The final step is sewing the braid into coils.

I used an entire spool of thread, and something happened to my sewing machine on the final strip, but here is my finished rug.

I'm pretty pleased with it, and my daughter told me that I was doing a "very Mennonite thing."  So...job well done!

Sewing

I stayed fairly busy this week.  I did get my sewing machine out again and made some more masks using a different pattern.  I think they fit better, but I think I will alter them a bit in order to get a tighter seal around the nose.

I also got the paints out again and painted this cute caddy that Lauren made for me LAST Mother's Day.  I put all my seed packets in it, so when I head down to the garden for planting, they'll all be together.

The garden is finally ready to start planting.  On Monday, JP started rototilling the upper part that the girls and I cleared last weekend.  The tiller died after about an hour out there, and not much to show for it.  We were able to reserve a rental rototiller for today.  While JP was tilling at the top, the girls and I were tearing out the last 8 raised beds and ripping up landscaping fabric at the bottom.  JP was able to go over everything twice, and the tiller is ready to head back in the morning.  I can start sewing out there anytime now!

The girls and I also uncovered the pool last weekend and dumped chemicals in.  I was able to vacuum it this week, and get the solar cover on.  The water is still VERY COLD, but I'm hoping that we soon can get in.

On Friday we had the last Drop Off/Pick Up day at the schools.  The work for the next 2 short weeks of school is all for enrichment and does not count towards their grades.  This sign was out front of the Middle School, and there was a similar one on the hill to the HS and Elementary Schools.  L is a bit sad that she will not see her teachers again, as she moves to the HS next year. 

Next week they must don gloves and masks to go in and empty out their lockers and return books.

In other news, the baby birds under the deck are getting big and have plenty of feathers now.  The tiny nest in my weeping cherry tree now has 4 diminutive eggs.

I'm exhausted!  Over and out from Poplar Ridge.

Crafty

It has been a quiet week.  That is not to say that we haven't been busy, we have.  The house is quiet with Kali gone.  Stella was quite depressed for a while...didn't really eat for about a week.  I think she is back to normal now.

It has rained over 3 inches in the past 24 hours.  That, along with the fact that I hurt my back carrying Kali, and digging a hole, gave me the opportunity to sit at my sewing machine for the past 2 afternoons.

I did a bunch of little projects that have been sitting on my desk for awhile:



Two heart shaped pincushions.

A tea bag wallet.

 



Fruit placemats.



A pillow made from my worn out T-shirt from my trip to the Philippines in 1989.

The most fun thing was this tea cosy for my new tea pot!

 

Now that there will be mud outside instead of rock-hard ground, and I am almost back to normal after 2 visits to the Chiropractor, I will have to head back to the weeding project in the garden this weekend.

Have a good one!

Gardening With Chickens

This post title sounds like a seminar that I could attend at the upcoming Mother Earth News Fair this weekend. JP and I have been perusing the 10 pages of seminar lists, and trying to narrow it down to a number that we can physically and mentally handle in one day. I give up, my vision is turning all squinty and wiggly...the new reading glasses aren't even helping!

It was a beautiful weekend! Unfortunately I spent most of Saturday inside with little L, who started running a fever and vomiting on Friday night. I did manage to get 2 loads of laundry washed and hung out to dry in between holding the bucket.

On Sunday, I finally got out to the garden, which has been sadly neglected for a couple of weeks...since school started really. I let the chickens in to scratch while I worked on weeding and mulching my Fall peas and uncovered my blueberry bushes from the weeds. It was blissfully quiet. The crooning of the happy hens was punctuated every now and then by the POP of acorns dropping on to my parents' metal roof. They dug and scratched while I dug and scratched...and tossed them a grub every now and then.

JP and the girls joined me later, and we got all 5 beds of cornstalks pulled and disposed of. I have 2 beds of beans to pull yet, and then we are planning to experiment with cover crops this Fall. We might have to wait until after the Mother Earth News Fair to know what/how to plant.

This weekend, I also sewed a couple of dresses to send to orphans in Malawi. This Spring, my friend, N, hosted a sewing bee. The ladies there finished 8 dresses, but N didn't manage to send them any where before she passed away. Another friend recently found someone who can hand deliver the dresses to an orphanage in Malawi. I wasn't able to be there for the sewing bee, but when T said she needed 5 more dresses to have one for each girl at this particular orphanage, I pulled out my sewing machine. I did it in memory of N, imagining her delight at finding just the right home for our little dresses.

Full weekend, even more full Monday.

And K, here's something to laugh about: I was hustling this morning to get everything done before leaving for work...including dealing with a load of laundry that I ran over night. I carefully checked the forecast for the day, 0% chance of precipitation. I double checked by watching the radar video, which seemed to be pushing inclement weather North of here. I decided to risk it, and spent 20 minutes hanging everything out. I was probably only at work for 45 minutes when it began to rain, and didn't let up all day. Surprisingly, when I finally took the laundry down, sometime after 5 this evening, things were only damp...much drier than when I hung them out!

Things I Love

It's been a long, hot week...enough to make one feel weary. And yet, I'm glued to the computer again tonight, blogging about things that made this week special.



(Besides these 2 little princesses, of course!)



1. When my husband schedules me for a massage. He's quite a guy! I've been complaining of my back hurting all week, so JP actually dropped everything he was doing on Tuesday night, and called our neighbor (who is conveniently a masseuse). She recently put an addition on their home to work out of, how great is that? The hour was great...left me feeling quite mellow (and a bit embarrassed for the time I dozed off and woke up snorting).

2. The Eagle's Nest at Giant Eagle. It turns out that the Giant Eagle grocery store in Washington has a FREE childcare area, called the Eagle's Nest. Just drop off the kiddos when you walk in, shop like a free woman, and pick them up before you leave. LOVE it!

3. Finding a Starbucks card at the bottom of my purse with $7.00 still on it. (Even better when there is a Starbucks IN the Giant Eagle and you can sip your Frappuccino while grocery shopping sans children.)

4. Lazy summer evenings. They go on and on until the light fades enough that you finally look at your watch and, oh my goodness! It's 9:00 already! We have been making the most of our summer evenings this week with ATV rides, playing ball with the dog, sand box art, and bike riding practice.

5. Watching your daughter master the bike without training wheels. We've really been focusing on it this week. J started on Tuesday completely terrified, crying, panicked. She ended this evening riding her bike ON HER OWN in circles on the lawn. Those training wheels are history!



6. Order out of chaos. I love the feeling after the laundry is washed, folded and put away; after the dishes are washed and the floor is swept; how a bucket of produce can be preserved in pretty jars and boxes, and how a pile of fabric pieces can be turned into something pretty. These are my pickles from 2 weeks ago: Bread and Butter, Dill Spears, Sweet Pickles.



7. Air Conditioning. The end of this week turned out to be pretty hot and humid. Since I'm still under the weather with my back, I've been sitting in the cool house sewing. Results soon.

8. Bedtime. I've been staying up way too late these days. I enjoy having an hour or two to myself and with JP after the girls go to bed...helps me re-group, relax, re-focus. Since we are staying out until last light, my "free time" is dwindling. Time to call it a night.

Grouting tile is exactly like frosting cookies, except...

...that it is slightly less messy!

My awesome friend, T, who can do ANYTHING, came to my rescue last week and helped me tile the guest bathroom. Unfortunately, the weather, and her Holiday trip to Wyoming prevented her from helping me grout. She did leave her tools here, however, and after a quick tutorial or two on YouTube, I managed to grout it on Wednesday. I need to seal it tonight, and then it is ready for trim and fixtures



We baked up a storm on Wednesday and Thursday. And here are the results:



Clockwise from left: Thumbprint Cookies, Gingerbread Children, Haystacks, Chocolate Chip Surprise Cookies, and 5-Flavor Pound Cake

We decorated the Gingerbread today, and the clean up was a slightly bigger project than the grout clean up.



Here are our anti-Christmas colored cookies:



This morning at 2 AM, I finally finished my sewing projects which I started the beginning of November. I have been sewing since I was 9 or 10, but I have never been one who can sew without a pattern. My first project used some really pretty cable knit fabric from my Mom. I wanted to make a sweater for J, but I ended up having to really re-work the pattern to make it work.



Next I made these doll sleeping bags and pillows. The girls have been wanting bunk beds for their American Girl dolls, but I'm too cheap to fork out the nearly $200.




Then I worked on these nightgowns for the girls and their American Girl dolls. Yellow for J and Pink for L. I gained confidence from the sweater project to make the doll nightgown pattern, and I re-sized the child nightgown pattern 3 sizes smaller for L.






Finally, I made these doll bathrobes. It's hard to see, but they have tiny monograms of the dolls' initials.



Today has been relaxing, and we have all picked something that we want to do. We have accomplished all but JP's. I'm feeling good enough to decorate my blog for Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, and may you experience the warm, snugly love of your family around you this season, imperfections, bad attitudes and all!