TEXAN

2012-02-14T07:24:00.000-08:00

Remember the photo of the pile of bias tape I made. This is what it was for :O)

Its girly, its flouncy and it really is fun to have on. Just kinda puts a spring in your step!
If you click on the photo you can see it so much better :O).

10.5 yds of bias tape I made, you guys saw in previous post.

You guys know I use my kitchen a lot!, but not everyone likes to cook and can :O).
I thought this was so fun!

It reads

The ONLY reason I have a Kitchen is because it came with the House!

Its straight in real life lol I wasn't holding my camera straight but in the first photo you can see its straight on the apron!

I think the flouncy layers of the skirt just make this apron :O). Just look at the back of it :O). The layers are all trimmed on the edge with the bias tape. The top bib also has the bias tape around it.

I have no idea why it looks like my dress form is bending forward in this last photo LOL she is not.

This apron will be in my Etsy shop. It is size M/L

Excellent read...

2012-02-13T12:59:00.000-08:00

The American Chestnut

The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a perfect Tree

Susan Freinkel

This is a book I've finished reading, it was fantastic!

~~In my spare time~~, when I have been able to eek out a few minutes here and there I have been researching Chestnuts, all the varieties, where they grow, how they grow, what climate, etc..

In my research I came across this book on American Chestnuts, which almost became extinct many years ago due to blight. 4 billion trees were lost which as I said almost totally wiped out our American Chestnut. The American Chestnut was huge to America in so many ways before the 20th century. I find it amazing that its history is not well known by everyone. Its truly an American icon in my way of thinking. That so little is said or known about this tree is amazing to me, as it was apparently to the author of this book, who decided to put in writing the importance and amazing life and history of this tree. The book covers so much, not just the illness that hit this tree, but its role in every day life where it grew. It gave Food, timber, tannin, medicinal, livestock feed just to name some of its roles and she explores all over those in this book.

It was dubbed the perfect tree and after reading this book I can certainly see why. What an amazing tree it was/is. The amount of effort that has/is going into saving this tree is unbelievable!

I have also been learning a lot about the Chinese, Japanese and European Chestnut trees. Sadly what infected our American chestnut, blight, was imported on the Chinese or Japanese trees or both. Way back when before they knew the dangers of importing plants here and there without quarantine or such, the disease was imported into America. For various reasons our Chestnut trees could not fight it off where the Chinese and Japanese ones had the ability. The Chinese has the best resistance. The European Chestnut trees became infected with the blight but for various reasons they were able to control the disease over there.

You will have to read the book to get the whole story :O).

2012-02-08T10:01:00.000-08:00

The Liebster award is making the rounds and I have been awarded it by Hilltop Homestead :O) who is another Texas farmer. Thank You for the award :O).....

They just got some of the cutest rabbits, you guys run on over there and take a peek at them and the nifty hutches they built for them with mostly left overs they rounded up! They work hard on doing a lot without spending a lot, you have to admire that!

Its my understanding this award is to say WTG to bloggers who have less than 200 followers as of yet....kinda give a hey this is a neat blog tip of the hat to them...

Who doesn't like to get an award for what ever reason :O). It just makes ya feel good, huh :O).

Here are the rules:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award.

3. Pick your favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs.

Laughing Duck Farm Melodie... has lots of different critters, she gardens, cans, spins, knits, dyes her own yarns, grows her own fleece, her wool babies as I call them are so darn cute. Oh yes and she makes to die for home made soap which she sells in her Etsy shop. She is also my best buddy. No that is not why I gave her the award, LOL go check out her blog and see for yourself!

DakotaGoats Deb ...This gal does it all folks, she works out side the farm and she raises all sorts of cirtters, she makes cheese, she... well heck just tootle on over there and take a look at what all she does on her farm ... Oh ya go back into the Dec. archive and check out the barn this gal is building! I have MAJOR barn envy! :O)

Journey to Casmir Tracy... Another farmer gal but not from Texas, this gal is in Canada, brrrrr... she is one hard working farmer! Goats, doggies, chickens, pigs, rabbits yep she has them all. I am pretty sure she could also win the prettiest farmer gal skin award. LOL guess that sounds funny but well she has the prettiest skin mmm or does one say complexion? See I really need to get out of the cave more.. anyway go visit her :O).

Okay that isn't five that is three but I have got to get this posted as I have chores waiting on me!

A bit of a boring post...

2012-02-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

Doesn't look like much laying there does it. Its 10.5 yards of bias binding I made. Anyone who has ever made this binding knows that burned fingers go with the territory or it does for me. I swear I must get myself with the steam a gazillion times while making it, for sure while making this many yards of it. I needed this for a cute something I am making ;O).. I will show it to you when its all done.

My seedlings, a lot of the tomatoes are ready to put in bigger pots. I will be doing that this week. I had very good results, only a few didn't come up.

My pepper seeds are sprouting up now in the covered pans you see, they are always slower to come up than tomatoes and I always plant them after I do the tomatoes so I always start to worry are they going to come up? LOL then they start sprouting through the dirt. One would think I would know this since I do it each year LOL..

I told ya it was a bit boring ....

2012-01-31T15:33:00.000-08:00

Okay we are back up and running smoothly with the Internet/computer. We figured out what our issue was and several $$$$ later its fixed now.

Nothing new here outside of that, still sewing a lot for my Etsy shop. OH wait that is probably new LOL. I don't think I told you guys yet. All this sewing is for my Etsy shop I am opening. I will let ya know when I get it full of goodies so you can go take a peek.

The garden seedlings are doing great soon I will start potting them into pots, I planted my cabbages and Brussels Sprouts in the garden and I put in more Asparagus. This gives me a nice size bed dedicated to just Asparagus. That huge pile of compost is in all the raised beds that are in the hoop frames, Thanks to honeyman. I did one row and whew, that BIG wheelbarrow we bought was like wrestling a bear when I would dump it! Even honeyman said it was a handful. So he helped me out and he dumped the loads in the rows and I raked it in.

I must say our weather has been outstanding! This has made for some fabulous running. I am trying to take full advantage of the nice days because soon enough summer tempts will set in here and it will be back to getting out the door literally at daylight if I want to run outside, I enjoy the treadmill to some degree but nothing beats running outside in the fresh air! I have set a personal best in the last few months on a five mile run. I feel really good about this since I just turned another year older this January .... Yes the time clock does keep ticking. Which is a good thing right :O) ...

2012-01-27T06:18:00.000-08:00

I am working hard! Sewing lots of neat things :O)

Its like being back in the drapery work room when I worked in Interior Design, only I am not making drapes. But I am putting in a lot of hours keeping those machines humming! Why you ask, soon I will tell you :o).

A work in progress in the photo below, I bet some of you will know what that will be...

I am still trying to figure out why I am having so much trouble loading peoples blogs, I can get one or two to load using my blog manager on my dashboard then boom it happens. I start getting Not available notice. Or I get it to load and then can't leave a comment. I can post on my blog sometimes and sometimes not.

I am going to check into this FireFox.... about a year ago we switched to Google Chrome and that seemed to fix a mountain of computer woes for us but now we are back having issues. We will get it figured out I am sure!

Where we live we have one choice for Internet, well okay two if you count dial up. We have to use a air card I think that is what they are called. We are lucky there is a ATT cell phone tower up the freeway a bit or we would be stuck with just dial up as our only option! Its been working pretty good but we are having some other issues that I think are related to our Internet connection as well. So we will be checking into that as well.

Computers are the best and the worst aren't they!

Now lets see if this will post!

Arggghhhhhh

2012-01-26T19:35:00.000-08:00

I am having major issues with either Blogger or my Internet connection or my browser (s)... I do not know for sure which it is! But its making reading blogs and leaving comments soooooooooooo hard for me right now!

I hope to figure this out soon!

Compost and recycled containers

2012-01-20T12:50:00.000-08:00

Compost arrived yesterday afternoon. I think it looks very good. Now to wheelbarrow it to the rows! I got one row done today. Whew...

This morning before the compost moving. I got out all my containers that I use to pot my seedlings into as they start to grow. I should have washed them up before I put them away last year, but well ummm okay I got lazy and didn't do it. I am very lucky that this winter has been so mild today 74 so I could get in the water to clean them up. I could really be kicking myself right now if we had freezing or below temps and I was saying great now how am I going to wash up all those dirt pots! I will put them away clean this year!

So I have a mix of all sorts of pots. Anything from recycled nursery pots to recycled food containers I have saved or people have saved for me. Funny when people know you garden they will bring you things that people who do not garden would consider trash and you are thrilled to get it. I always find it interesting to see what containers they bring me LOL. To be honest plastic is not my favorite thing in the world for using but the pots and containers are free, they work! They also can be used over and over and I need a lot of them sooo.

Tub of bleach water.

Knee foam pad and rubber gloves!

Rinse water that also has a tiny tiny dab of bleach in it. Not as much as I use in the wash one.

Drain to dry tubs

Okie dokie all done! Some of my tubs draining and drying in the sun.

Gardening and Sewing

2012-01-19T04:17:00.000-08:00

Been in the garden getting it ready to plant :O), have a huge load of compost being delivered today! Planted more tomato seedlings, peppers will be planted 25th and 26th almanac says those are very good days to start pepper seedlings! Quite a few of the tomato seeds I had already planted are up and about 1.5 " tall already!

Have bought my cabbage seedlings because as usual I didn't get any started soon enough. I also got Brussels sprout starts. Yep they are out full swing in the nurseries here. I am hopeful my asparagus made it from last year as it was doing so well before the 110 degrees hit. I tried to keep it watered. I got enough roots to finish filling that bed this year. Its in about a 5 foot long bed.

We put in that one group of 8 fruit trees last year, all have buds on them but one pear we lost. We dug it up and returned it. Again given the summer we had that is super in my way of thinking. You have to love that one year plant guarantee! My two pomegranate trees I had put in, well we will see they are slow to come out so its to early to know if they made it or not. I sure hope so they are past the guarantee time so if I lost them, its a total loss. All of my blackberries made it. I did loose some honeyberries and bush cherries sighhhh the cherries had been in 2 years so I can't get those replaced but the honeyberries I can call and get replacements for free as they are covered :O). So will replant those little guys.

Have also been sewing a lot, here is a sneak peak. More to come on this later...

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to let me know what you saw on your computer with my header. I tried and tried to fix it. I guess I will just have to accept it the way it is... bummer. I liked it so much better when it went all the way across my page top.

Hang in there with me :O)

2012-01-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

Okay guys another question. I tried the suggestions (thank you), shoot it didn't work.. What is odd is on one of our computers my blog header goes all the way across the top of my blog like it was.. But on another computer it is a smaller width picture on the left top side of my blog page ...

What are you guys seeing? Is it all the way across the top of the page on your computers?

Well Crud

2012-01-16T07:51:00.001-08:00

Okay for some reason my header photo has shrunk to just one side at the top instead of going all the way across the top of my blog page. I have looked and cannot figure out why? Anyone know why this happened and how to fix it?
Thanks

Learning something new

2012-01-12T07:36:00.000-08:00

I am learning to crochet. In the past I did a granny square afghan, that is the total sum of my crochet knowledge. Mine was just one giant granny square :O). Not knowing anything about crochet or much about yarn, I just picked out yarns by color and texture based on the room I made it for.

That fuzzy nubby yarn was a bit hard to work with but I liked the textural effect it gave. It pulls the colors of threads in a upholstered chair in our master bathroom really well, which is normally where I have this afghan, it lays over that chair. I took the above photo in the office due to lighting.

The green yarn is a chenille yarn and it added a nice texture as well, plus its oh so soft. The cream is just plain cream yarn, but it too gave another texture from the other two so I thought that works... :O)

Well heck I went and took photos of it on the chair in the bathroom too :O), just can't have to many photos in a post right!

Masterbathroom

Very old chair that belonged to honeymans Grandmother. Had it upholstered in this fabric.

Little green table I found at a flea market for a couple bucks. It was a sorta neon green when I found it. But I knew if I antiqued it, it would bring that color down and pull one of the thread colors in the fabric of that chair! Its subtle in the chair but I really thought it will work and in real life it does. It looks a bit brighter in these photos than it is or the chair is. They are neither quite this bright in real life. I am so getting off track here LOL , but I do love to talk decor!

So back to where this post was originally going .... I decided that I wanted to really learn how to crochet, ~~because you know I have so much free time on my hands and nothing to do with it ROFL~~ so my cousin who was in town over the holidays who crochets got me going.

I picked out a potholder to learn on, its a pinwheel on the top and then has a flat back so its two layers thick which makes it very use-able. Not really a beginner project it was a 3 out of 4 difficulty according to the pattern, but I figured since I reallllllly wanted to make this, I would manage :O). It enabled me to learn several terms and stitches as well which was good since I was going to be on my own after this lesson.

We didn't get it done while we were together so I had to finish it on my own. I managed to! I learned quite a bit on this little project. I have now started another project, ummm which I have taken out as much as I have done but I am learning something from every ooops.

I used a all cotton yarn since I intend to actually use it on hot pans. Won't melt or such, should wash nice. Not perfect but I was tickled with it. I am finding I really like the all cotton yarns and the wool yarns I have seen. I now have a good yarn guru to tell me about yarns, can't hardly do better than someone who actually spins and dyes yarns and heck grows her own fiber to boot! She just dyed some deep plum yarn that is to die for (Melodie). So I can quiz her when I need to know okay what about this or this yarn. Fabric is my field of expertise, yarn I am learning about!

So here it is!

Done Front, if you click on the photo you can see the raised pinwheel part better.

Done Back

Work in progress

Front done with no back on it yet. You can see the pinwheel on it better on this photo I think.

Every time I say to my honeyman, "I am going to learn how to" He says as he laughs, there isn't anything you don't want to learn how to do is there? He loves to kid me about this particular trait of mine. I tell him yes actually there are a few things I have no interest in learning to do LOL. Just a few :O).

I do love to learn to do new things its just part of who I am.

First seeds for seedlings planted

2012-01-09T14:46:00.000-08:00

Today I planted 96 tomato seeds/seedlings... I use our back bedroom as my starting nursery. When the plants can go into bigger containers I will move them to the greenhouse outside.

I use a full spectrum light bulb in the lamp you see. I have the nice big window. I have a regular blanket on the floor and then a electric blanket on top of that, set on medium on top of that. I am very careful to not spill water on the blanket. I have a GFI plug its plugged into. I am not telling anyone to do this, just saying its what I do LOL.

I like using the aluminum lasagna pans with the plastic lids as my starter trays. They are taller than seed starting trays which I like and they are cheap. You can get a two pack for 2.50 at WalMart. They will last a couple years before they eventually get a hole in them... I was making my seedling pots from newspaper and using starting mix but as of last year I was told about Jiffy starting pellets (Thanks Melodie). I tried them and liked them so I am using those again this year.

So here is the start of the seed/seedling planting! Its so exciting isn't it. Oh yes and I have that little space heater you see in the bottom right corner in this room, it turns on by temperature. We don't keep our house super warm as we just don't like it that way. But the seedlings do like it warmer. I set the heater on 65. I figure with the heat from the blanket that is good.

I have learned to not over crowd them in the pans, its just invite a issue with fungus and such. I don't clamp the lids down tight on them I just lay them loosely on top of the pans. As I feel it may need more air I turn the lids a dab to allow a bit more air to get in. I also have a ceiling fan in this room, which I set on low and leave on to keep the air moving in there.

We seem to be way to busy around here, I am slowly getting around to read everyone's blogs as I can :O).

Rosemary

2012-01-04T14:23:00.000-08:00

Its a great shrub. Though its not a shrub, its a herb. Rosemary.

It simply loves our Texas heat and never complains about our lack of rainfall! Last summer when I was loosing plants right and left in our 110 degree never ending days and no rain in sight. My Rosemary laughed in the face of it.

To my way of thinking you can hardly go wrong with it. You can eat it, it has medicinal qualities,you can make a wonderful hair rinse with it, it makes a nice foundation planting as it stays green year around. It doesn't need a lot of care. It can take our heat and droughts, as a matter a fact the fastest way I know to kill a Rosemary is over watering! Its smells soooo good. It can be shaped or left to do its on thing. They also bloom a pretty purple flower :O).

When we redid our garden rows I had several established Rosemary in the garden so they had to be dug up in order to get the wire down in the bottom of the rows. They were a piece of cake to dig up even though they were quite large. So there is another plus as I seem to move things around :O)... Well the holidays were right on top of us when we did this, so they sort of got left laying on the ground with their root balls in-cased in the dirt we dug them up with. Yep I know that was really bad of me to leave them like that. But well I did... Last weekend I finally got them back in the ground. I decided to put them in the front flower bed as foundation plants. I popped them back in the ground and they said ewwwww Thanks... no worse for their experience of being neglected...

I think they will be great as foundation plants since their roots do not get huge (always a good thing in Texas we have enough other issues that can cause foundation problems here without planting plants up against the house that get giant tree roots on them) they will deter bugs with their scent. Okay I know yall are thinking of the wasp incident I got into last summer. Believe me I have not forgot it either, I have never seen a wasp build a nest or any other bug on them before or since. I don't know if that is a normal thing or not for wasp to be perfectly honest. But like I say it has been a one time thing here and I have quite a few bushes of Rosemary. Umm though I will admit I do watch for them now when I harvest Rosemary :O).

I still need to mulch around these in the flowerbed but here are the Rosemary after I finally got them stuck back in the ground. The placement looks a bit off but trust me its not, they were crammed together in the last spot they were so some of their sides need to fill in. I know how big they will get so I left some room for that as well. By the end of summer they will be pretty solid across there :O)

This one I planted by herself on the other end of the bed. I have 3 more to move from another spot to put with her..

The New Hoop Frames

2012-01-03T14:02:00.000-08:00

As promised I have taken photos of the new metal hoop frames we put up for the shade cloths in the garden. These we did from metal fence pipe. 1 3/8" and 1 5/8" Texas heat pretty much makes PVC brittle in one season and it just couldn't hold up to the wind/thunderstorms etc. As you guys remember the PVC ones broke/collapsed several times. I guess there is a reason the commercial growers use this metal type system here.

The 1 3/8 are the pipes you bend using a Pipe bender tool and they have one end that is made to slide into the regular end of another piece. This makes them ideal for using on hoop frames. Honeyman added brackets and screws to add strength. The side braces at end of the hoop frames are for added strength as well. These babies are not going anywhere! We went and looked at several commercial growers hoop frames here before we put these up. We decided that this type pipe was a better route to go over electric conduit pipe for several reason and one of those is the ends that slide into the joining piece of pipe. The other thing we did was use the galvanized 1/2"x1/2" grid wire called hardware cloth to the bottoms of all the raised beds! Mole problem solved, we hope! Yes we had to move every single cement block and all the dirt to do this! So yep un-build and rebuild all the beds. We hired a helper on this project!

I have A LOT of dirt work left to do to get all of it back in the rows. I will just work on it a few hours each day till I get all the dirt and such back in place and tilled nicely...I will be adding organic compost to all the rows and tilling that in as well. If I am lucky some mushroom compost too. We will see if I can get that here or not.

What it looked like after tearing all the raised beds down so we could build the frames and put the hardware cloth wire in the bottoms of the raised beds.

The pipes sticking up are the 1 5/8" pipes you drive those 30" into the ground. Oh ya that was a lot of work. Of which I did none! I could have jumped up and down on those and not got them in the ground that far! You then slide the 1 3/8" pipes into those pipes and put in screws.

I forget how far down into the pipes the hoops go but its a good amount.

More bricks on the other side of the garden to be put back.

Pipe bender honeyman ordered. You see the silver bent thing in the right hand corner on the ply wood, that is the pipe bender. You attach it to ply wood and do what you see here. You then bend your pipes for your hoops using it. They come in different sizes. We did 12 foot wide hoop frames. They come for a 20 foot wide too. With our space and garden rows etc. the 12 foot was the way for us to go. Not to mention I had already sewn alllllll those shade covers to fit that size last year! Honeyman put this plywood set up in the back of his truck bed to use it.

Brackets we used.

First hoop frame done. No beds put back yet with the wire.

Done

Bracket used to attach the spine pipe to the hoop pipes.

Brace on ends of each hoop frame.

Brace

1/2 x 1/2 inch wire called hardware cloth. Home Depot special ordered us 100 foot rolls of this. Hopefully the moles will not be able to get to our veggies now!

Vote with your pocket!

2011-12-31T17:20:00.000-08:00

We all want to see the quality back in what we buy. We are tired of buying cheap quality mass produced by the thousands import products. We are tired of the chemical laden products that are not healthy at all for us. Everyone seems to be saying, bring our jobs back home!

Well to my way of thinking there is a great way we can vote with our pocket book on these issues!
I have met through blogging some wonderful Artisans! Being a former pottery Artisan for many years myself, I understand the hard work and dedication it takes to be a Artisan at a craft.

Why not consider searching out Artisans that excel at their craft and spending your dollars with them on purchases you need or want! You can get better quality, healthier ingredients and unique one of a kind items!

Then spread the word via blogging when we know personally about great artisans and their product(s)! When I have experienced their products first hand and truly feel they are masters are their craft I am going to share that with you. I will only give you a review on what I have experienced first hand. If I say this soap is fabulous or this jewelry is gorgeous and excellent quality it will be because I have used or have that item and truly feel that way. Lets keep it honest. Then these reviews will be worth something :O) to everyone who reads them... I have tried items that were not for me, it doesn't mean they were not good but for me they were not something I could use. So those items I would not feel right about saying I use this, I love this etc. Again it doesn't mean they are bad it just means I can't honestly go on and on about how great they were for me... But when I do use something and I do love it...then yes I am going to say so! Also why not think about using part of your sidebar in your blog for Artisans button/ links not because you will get paid for it but because you would like to see jobs back home and better ingredients used in products :O), you can help further the very things we say we all want to happen :O).. I can promise you Artisans are some of the hardest working people for every dollar they earn! They don't have the $'s for advertising that the giant companies do, but that is part of the problem the giant companies are not creating jobs here, they are filling their products with so many chemicals its ruining our health and we find the same mass produced products at every company.

First I will tell you about ....
Melodie over at Laughing Duck Farm! I have used Melodies homemade soap first hand for quite some time now. Yes Melodie is my personal friend, but I used her soap before we became the best buds we are now and I am still using the same soap. Melodie taught me how to make soap. I kept telling her you realllllly should sell this its fantastic! Now that she is I can just buy my soap from her. Let's face it there are only so many hours in a day and where I enjoyed learning the process of making soap, it will be nice to be able to order a bar of this and a bar of that and have different scents to use as it takes a long time to use up a whole batch of the same soap when there are only two of you in a house!

I have used only homemade soap for years now. I had gone through several different peoples soaps and I had landed on this one I bought all the time.. Then I tried Melodie's soap!!!! One bar that was all it took!, its all I have used since!! For me her soap is just what my skin needs!! Its moisturizing, its very good for sensitive skin and it smells out of this world!!! .... It lathers realllly good, it does not dry my skin out (tall order)! It is hands down the best homemade soap I have ever used! It smells soooo good, I am telling you, you can't stop snorting the stuff it just smells divine!

Melodie has a son who has super sensitive skin issues and he uses these soaps. I have a niece that I had try them as she just has the most awful problems with her skin, soaps, lotions, shampoo bless her heart you name it she breaks out in big rashes and its very uncomfortable for her.... I didn't know for sure how it would go but I knew this soap sure didn't cause me any issues and I knew Melodie's son could use it..So I gave my niece some to try....She loves it!!! She can use it with no problems!!! Her DH is using it too now so I send enough for the both of them :O).... You try one bar and I bet you will be hooked, I was! You can also believe without a seconds thought, what ever Melodie tells you is in her products is what is in them, what she says is not in her products are not in them! She is one of the most kind, honest to a fault people I have ever met in my life! Do yourself a favor try it, you will be hooked :O).

There are so many chemicals in soaps that are soooooooooooooo bad for our health. Do a little research on the ingredients/chemicals in mass produced soaps, pretty sure you won't want to use those anymore!!

As far as Melodie's knitting goes, I have a pair of arm/hand warmers she knit me because she is so sweet and knew I have a issue with my hands called Raynauds Syndrome.... She knit me in my favorite color grey, the most wonderful warm hand/arm warmers. (Was that beyond nice or what, it truly touched me that she did this!) I wear them a lot! They are wonderful! So I can tell you in all honesty just how nice her knitting is! I also got for Christmas :O) the most chic scarf/hoodie/shawl from her, its the most unique thing I have ever seen. Its soooooo pretty. It difficult to describe as you can wear it so many different ways, but its just awesome! My honeyman went on and on about how nice it looked on me :O)... She is now raising her own fiber goats and will be dyeing and spinning her own yarns in the future!!! So as you see items that she has knit show up in her Etsy shop the two I have are very well done and unique! If you want to see her wool babies as I call them (her fiber goats) just go on over to her blog. They are the cutest things!!

Now for my second Artisan review
You guys have also seen the link in my sidebar for for quite some time now for Broken Teepee Jewelry you guys all know her over at The Maaaa of Pricilla . I have several pairs of Patty's earrings and I adore them! I get a lot of compliments on them every time I wear them. Patty's Jewelry is unique, well made, top quality! The one jewelry I wear often is earrings and I have several pairs of hers! They are soooo well made and Patty uses top notch materials to make her jewelry. She uses sterling silver and gold fill. Gold fill is 14kt gold bonded to brass. It is not plated. Gold plate will eventually wear off where gold fill will not lose its luster. I am not able to wear cheap metal in my ears as I am allergic, I have to wear gold or my ears get all gunky, I have three holes in each ear so believe me it doesn't take long before things get ikky if they are not what they are suppose to be.... you gals know what I am talking about that have this reaction to costume metals. Patty's metals are exactly what she says they are, I have no issue wearing Patty's earrings at all! :O)

Her stones are are gemstones as in real stones not faux, she buys from reputable sellers that she trust so she knows that the stones are what they purport to be, meaning if she says they are rubies or sapphires not quartz that is exactly what they are. They are natural and not man made unless she state otherwise in her descriptions. Patty will tell you exactly what her metals and stones are in her descriptions.

Patty has amazing intricate detail in her jewelry, the tiniest detail you can imagine being able to do she does! My dealings with Patty have proven her to be a very giving and very honest individual! She has gone beyond and over board with me in our dealings as far a value and quality!

I have links to both these gals Etsy shops on my side bar, just click on their photos! Keep them in mind when your needing soaps and jewelry for yourself or for gifts!

Again I encourage all of us bloggers when we have first hand knowledge of a Artisan that we have experienced their products, lets share that information..
Lets support our fellow bloggers and Artisans! Lets support a healthier choice, a quality choice and uniqueness!

Splish Splash

2011-12-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

Apparently I am part duck. :O)... In our bathroom my tub sits in the corner. The painted wall area around the tub was getting water runs on it, umm from someone splashing around in the tub apparently.. We painted the bathroom recently and it took care of them... I told honeyman I will be more careful splashing around. Well being part duck and all you just gotta splash apparently because it was not long before fresh water lines were back on the wall. So we decided the best course of action was to put something water proof or that the water would not harm behind the tub up to the window bottoms. Since we have so much rock in the house and just love it, it seemed a very good choice for there as well. So we rocked it.

I am really tickled with how it looks. We have a see through fireplace in this bathroom to the bedroom and both sides of it are done in the rock as, well floor to ceiling...Over the summer if you guys remember we installed wood stoves and that is how we are heating now. So far they have been wonderful and I just have to say free wood verses buying propane oh ya that works. I don't mind cleaning out the stoves and I enjoy cutting and hauling wood. I am not sure I would go so far as to say honeyman enjoys cutting and hauling wood, but he likes free heat and he does really like the stove, so he is willing to cut and haul wood. :O)...This little one in the bedroom is so cute! I am looking for the perfect fireplace screen or metal something to put behind it inside the firebox on the bathrooms side so your not looking at the back of the stove. Anywho back to the rock.

This is the bathroom side thus the back of the stove. This rock being on this side of the bathroom, the opposite wall of the tub area balances out the room nicely.

Bedroom side, you can't see how cute that stove really is, but it is. It has some nice details on it. I love the big glass door on it so you can see the fire flicking in the bedroom. Pretty,warm, relaxing and romantic what is there not to love about that :O)

The grout is still a bit damp in these photos so its darker in the photos than it will be when its totally dry in a few days. It will be the same color as the grout on the fireplace when dry. I am going to paint the window seals a softer color to take the edge off them a bit. For some reason those white window seals are bothering my eye so that tells me they need to be softened a bit. The tub is good being white but not those window seals, trust me on this!

Splish Splash I was taking a bath ,,, :O),,, (with no worries for the wall) rub a dub dub oh wait there are never three men in my tub so I guess that is the wrong song ...

A No Sew Sweatshirt remake!

2011-12-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you guys but I am not much on crew neck plain sweatshirts with those big bands on the bottoms of them. They make me feel dumpy LOL... Maybe its just me, anyway I bought some Hanes ones last year end of season clearance for 2.00 bucks a piece! I figured if my idea went south well at least I was only out 2.00. or worse case I could wear them around the farm no matter how bad they were :O).

What I did was cut a deep v neck into them and cut off the entire ribbed neck band around the neck line. Yes it makes the sweatshirt opening wide at the top, but if you put a ribbed sleeveless Tank under it then its really cute and warmer. Then I cut half or a bit more of the arm bands off leaving the raw edges and I cut half the band off the bottom leaving it raw edged.

Sleeve band edge after cut. It doesn't ravel out when washed. This one has been washed several times. That raw edge thing I talking about in my last post :O). Its not perfect but that is whole point, its not suppose to be.

Cut off half or a little more of the original wide bottom band too.. Cutting that bottom band off also softened how tight the bottom sucks in to you, it makes it more the width of the shirt and not a band drawn to you, I like that much better.

When you cut the bands off leaving some still on the shirt, it leaves you with two layers of the band with raw edges. They don't ravel out when you wash and dry them.

See two layers, because you cut off the bottom of it where it was fold.

It totally changes the way they feel on, not dumpy any longer. They are kinda sporty and have a good feel to wearing them I think.. They look cute with jeans and boots. It hits just about waist level on the lower rise jeans ( not the super low rise ones) so just the perfect length at least for my jeans. Obviously this is going to vary depending on how long your body is and what rise jeans you buy. Long enough in the back still to cover your waist band back there.

Several of you guys mentioned the bed in those other photos. This room is our guest room I take the photos in here as its the only room with a full length mirror. The closet doors are mirrors in here. This bed is one we have had for a very long time. It used to be in our room before we got the bright idea we needed a king size not a queen bed... So we could sleep on half of the king size bed ROFL... I have no idea why we thought we needed a king LOL. I did a post on that quite a while back, that I sleep on honeymans side too.... Heck we could easily sleep on a twin lol... Live and learn. :O) . This bed has a arched canopy frame. I have a netting canopy cover for it but I decided I liked it with just the wood frame no canopy cover. :O)

2011-12-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

Okay as requested I got a pic of the top on. For the sewing people that emailed wanting to see the fit.. This is the best photo I could get.

Oh and I got my polar fleece at Hancocks and the pattern too. Sorry about forgetting to list where I found everything. You gals that do the sewing reviews all the time have them down a lot better than I do :o)..

Pretty cute top!

2011-12-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

I just finished this toasty warm polar fleece top.

Its a larger roomy cut type shirt, comfy and warm to throw on with some sweats or your most comfy jeans! I used grey polar fleece as grey is my favorite color for clothes.

I intentionally left the sleeves and the bottom of the shirt unhemmed... right now for some reason I am really into raw edges on clothes. I have T shirts that I split the hems and collars open because I just like how it looks. I also like jeans that are unhemmed, though that is usually done out of necessity due to me needing the extra length, I am only 5' 6" tall but most of my height comes from my legs. I buy longs in jeans but its just not enough sometimes. Anywho so I decided since the collar has the cut fringe that is raw edge that I would just leave the sleeves and the bottom unhemmed.

Here my dress form Tex is modeling the shirt, I simply cannot get decent photos if I am taking the photo and wearing the clothes lol... I made a size small and its plenty big! I always push up the sleeves on my long sleeve shirts so I pinned this to look like the sleeve was pushed up. Pretty cute huh...Its a longer top, but I think it would be cute shorter as well. I think I will try another one and shorten it to come just to the very top of my sweatpants or jeans! It was super easy to make and pretty quick too.

The one thing about the pattern is they did not put the cut line on the collar piece for fringe length. It tells you to cut them 1/2 wide by marking them from the edge to the center fold... then it says to cut them going up using the cut line. Well unless I am just blind there is no cut line on the pattern piece. I looked and looked. They also did not give a number measurement in the written directions to tell you how long to cut it. So I did 3" going by how the photo looked that seemed like it would be about right. The collar is not quite as open in diameter as the picture on the pattern makes it look. Its looser than a turtleneck but not as as open as the pattern photos shows. I do like it. I don't know if I cut the fringe deeper into the collar if it would lay more open or not. But as I say I like how it fits so I think I will leave it be.

2011-12-10T15:09:00.000-08:00

With goats you just never know what tomorrow will bring...

8 New kids on the ground more on the way. I have been very busy with 8 new kids and more to come soon. We have also had a bit of a medical crisis with a Nanny but we are hopeful. She lost her kids, they were born way to early, no where near full term. We are watching her close. I feel a bit responsible in a way as Harrison our buck got her in this situation way to young and I am sure that has played into the outcome. Harrison is a wonderful buck, he is beautiful, he throws adorable kids, and he throws more girls than he does boys on a regular basis...He is sweet to me..... He also is impossible to pen, you cannot hold him, you cannot keep him from the girls. He will tear a metal gate right off its hinges to get to his girls! He is a handful! He will not let me have another active buck on the property as he will literally try to kill them! Yep he is a stinker in that respect!

We also got hit with a serious health issue with some of the herd that involved parasites. Luckily not the whole herd. We are totally stumped by this. We have not had a illness of any kind in quite a few years and this just hit out of the blue with no warning, no symptoms nothing. We have that situation under control and it looks like everyone will be fine. Its clearing up very fast which is super as this isn't always the case ...We are grateful to see everyone who was sick responding so fast to the meds.

Its been a stressful week and yet with all the new kids there have been some smiles in there as well :O)...

New Kids Born this morning!

2011-12-06T09:45:00.000-08:00

Cubey kidded! Meet the new additions to the farm! Both Girls!

Need names :O)

Its cold here wind chills in the mid 30s so I quick got the kids in some coats. The coats are a tad big on them now but you all that raise goats know that in less than a week they will fit them great. They grow so fast!

Cubey says yes I know, they are stunning little girls!

Hard to get good photos as they move constantly lol

2011-12-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas....What I did today...

I love the Celtic Crosses

Pheasant feathers and praying Angels around the top

Flash made the floor look orange... Hard to get good pics at night :O)

Flash really washed out the rock wall and made the floor look orange ugggg, I told ya'll a photographer I am not lol... Its pretty in real life lol

Time

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

Do you find yourself always saying I will do that when I finish ..X... . The ..X... is usually some chore that needs doing. Bread that needs baking, clothes that need washing, chicken pen that needs cleaning, barn that needs cleaning, garden that needs tending, canning that needs doing, house that needs cleaning (that one always seems to be looming). Get my exercise in for the day usually a run and then maybe some core work or weights... All of these things I actually enjoy short of cleaning the chicken pen out (that is not really a enjoyable job, but one I am pretty sure the girls appreciate) and house cleaning. Odd I used to love to clean house, not so much anymore. The rest of the stuff I really don't mind doing at all. The bread making and cooking I really do enjoy, but it does take time. Well it all takes time. Gardening and canning also, I very much enjoy but they certainly take a fair amount of time. Like I say for the most part even what I guess are chores I pretty much enjoy most of them.

So I will get to my point. I enjoy sewing, I rarely allow myself to do it. Why? Well I usually will pick something like the above type things to do. My thinking is when I finish .X... I will then sew. Somehow it always gets pushed back yet one more time with me saying as soon as I finish this job then I will have a little time to sew. I am not sure why I do this? When I think of some of the things I did get sewn this year and how nice they have been to enjoy... drapes for the master bedroom and for the guest bathroom, a couple cute summer tops and I did get some quilts started that once finished we would enjoy on our bed. This is not a new issue for me, I have always placed sewing behind "have to get dones". Except when I was sewing as a job. Maybe when its not a job I see it totally as a hobby and should only be done when I don't have "work" to do? mmmm well I just don't know the answer really. I do know I tend to try to do to many things in a day, a lot of the time. Sometimes I will get frustrated and say to honeyman, I guess I am just getting lazy I only got this and that and this done today. His reply "babe you are one of the least lazy people I have ever met". I do like to stay busy and I enjoy so many things.

My plan is to remedy this in the coming year. I am not really one to make New Years Resolutions but maybe I should this year. That I will allow myself more sewing time! I have so many wonderful quilts started. I have some great clothing patterns and material to make them. I have a beautiful sewing room that honeyman and I did a couple years ago. It has lots of room, very good lighting and a big window I can see out over the farm. I would love to see a few more finishes this year...the quilts I have started, clothes etc. so they can be enjoyed!

So now that I have thought out loud for a bit, do you guys have something like this? A hobby or such that you really do enjoy but you don't allow yourself much time for it? Why do you think that is? Have you found a remedy for this? A way to change your thinking on it, because I am pretty sure this isn't going to happen over night and is going to take a conscious effort on my part to change.

Also Thank You to everyone for the very thoughtful comments on my last post, honeyman and I appreciated them all.

2011-11-25T13:45:00.000-08:00

RIP

12 yrs 1 month

We have known for several months that Kota would not be with us for much longer. Though knowing something and living it...your never prepared, never ready...

Our boxer boy is gone... We will miss you so very much boo boo.

Gone, but never be forgotten.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T16:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it! One of the things I made... pastry covered whole pears ...The pears were some I had canned whole in lemon syrup! I then covered them in a pastry dough and baked them. They were a hit!

Hard headed chickens!

2011-11-22T15:37:00.000-08:00

Okay so I have just given up on getting these girls to stay off the back porch! Well that is till honeyman can get the fence fixed up to block them. I am trying free ranging again. So far so good. I put them back in their pen at night. But for some odd reason after about one week of going back to the pen to roost of their own free will.... which is all they know! They have always lived in that pen since little. They decided that the rocker on the back porch was a lot better place to roost for the night! No amount of running them off this rocker has deterred them in the least! I have to force them, shooing them all the way back to the pen every night now!

Here they are at about dark, this is taken from inside. I am in the living room taking this through our living windows.

They know they are about to get shooed off the chair and porch with the broom!

Always the last to give up her spot this one!

I left for a couple minutes and look who is back.. okay don't look at the all the junk on the porch okay.. the shoes, the ash can, etc...

Yep making themselves comfy again...

I will wait another 15 -20 minutes till it gets good and dark and go herd them back in their pen for the night.. they are soooo hard headed!

We have a lot of giant cedars on our property, I just love them. I love all the colors of berries they get. These are blue and grey.. We also get gold berries on some as well.. Some people here in Texas for some reason call Cedar Trees trash trees... This was new to me. I had never heard cedars called that before. Ours as I said are huge and so beautiful, how anyone could call these trees trash trees is beyond me... Especially given how hardy they are! We have lost many, many hard wood trees in the droughts and sadly are still loosing them. They will all become fire wood, but we don't loose the cedars.... Well till this last year and we did loose a few smaller ones. This last year was a reallllly bad drought with realllllly severe heat... But over all they seem much hardier than the hard woods.

Oh and as I have said before I am not photographer I point the camera and push the button. I get what I get on the photos LOL.. So you gals that are photographers that read my blog try not to cringe to hard okay ROFL :O)...

Attitude adjustment

2011-11-17T14:45:00.000-08:00

Okay you know how you get all excited about something and then you find out its not going to happen. Your attitude just goes totally down the drain. Okay well mine did... Ya'll have listened to me whine about the woes of a Texas gardener several times so I won't go there again.... well not exactly....

We have talked with the well drilling company... they were honest I give them megga points for that! They could have just said sure we will drill for ya and taken our money... but no they told us "we won't even drill, there is no point" ... you see where we live they don't drill wells as they don't hit water.... I was all upset and ready to blame this totally on Texas... Well its not because we live in Texas, its just the way it is ... Some areas of land have water under them and they can drill wells, then some do not. This isn't just in Texas its everywhere....so my hopes of free flowing water coming from my very own water well to water my garden till my hearts content.... Not happening.....

Well with this news honeyman and I got pretty bummed. Ya we really wollered in it last night let me tell ya... Oh ya I was just going to throw in the gardening towel. That was it, I was done and pooy on this anyway!! Honeyman does not like to see me this negative as he isn't used to it and it upsets him. He also doesn't like it when he can't fix a problem. He is not a production manager for a living for nothing! So between the two of us we were a pair I can tell ya....

Well I got up this morning with the same attitude, oh ya whine, whine, whine.... then as the morning went on I started thinking..... Thinking how I have grown things here, I have grown lots of good veggies! This last summer was very hard, even for Texas, it was extreme.

We have seen that the shade covers were huge in growing nice vegetables, that hasn't changed and that we can so do .. Granted we have to rebuild them from metal because the wind here and storms will take out PVC ones big time...So metal frames it is ... I have the covers they worked great! You know the freebies I sewed up a couple years ago from all that shade cloth we got free :O)......

We know the raised beds are great for growing in as well! Okay the moles find raised beds to be a big old play ground of loose dirt... but we have figured out how to fix those moles! Hardware cloth wire... I would love to run onto four 100 foot rolls of that 60" wide for free... but even if I don't they sell it and that will fix the moles!

So yes by mid morning I was back thinking and figuring and scheming on how I WOULD garden and I would raise as much of our food as possible!

We will be educating ourselves now on rain water collection systems. I will keep you informed as to what we find out on all of that!

I think when gardening is in your blood well its just there and your going to figure a way no matter what.... even if you do have a few pity parties along the way....

Onward and upward! :O)

2011-11-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

Canned Kumquats in honey ginger syrup!!

I canned these Kumquats off my tree :O). They are candy like. I started them yesterday and finished them up today as they have to sit in the fridge over night in their syrup. This is the recipe I used. They are sooooooo good! I had a good bit of the yummy ginger syrup left. If you do, don't toss it! Save it and use it for sweetening hot tea or cold tea. I am going to add it to the water I take out with me when I run! You could drizzle it over desserts etc. It taste incredible!

You guys remember last April honeyman got me the Kumquat, Lemon and Lime tree for anniversary. We potted them up in the biggest pots we had at the time as we cannot put citrus in the ground in the part of Texas we live, to cold. They all three have thrived in their pots! I got a few Limes and Lemons and a lot of kumquats! I thought this was great given it was their first year.

Since then Honeyman has managed to get for free from a landscape company installing landscape on a job some HUGE pots ... we will be re-potting these guys come spring! I am not sure exactly how we are going to move these babies in and out of the garage for freezes once potted in those giant pots, but that is HM's dept! :O) He will figure it out!

The pot size they are in now. Not little but not giant.

This picture just does not due justice to showing the size of these pots LOL but take my word for it they are giant .. I think the citrus trees will be very happy in them.

I kept hearing how good Lemons, lime, kumquats would do in pots. I believe it now!

Curious Sam, or would that be Curious Texan

2011-11-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

Design from: http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/Products.aspx?Catalog=Emblibrary&ProductID=F2587

Just curious,

Any of you guys doing solar power? or Wind power? to generate your electricity, some or all of it? We do not have any source of "our made" electricity, as of now, honeyman is reading up on this! We are looking to make some changes in this direction without breaking the bank!

How about water, how many of you guys are on city water? Got a well?

We do not have a water well, yet! We are in the process of getting estimates, gardening in Texas without a well is getting cost prohibitive to say the least, it doesn't help they have raised our water rates 5 times in a bit over 8 years here! ...

Won't happen over night but we are going to try to move this direction. If for some reason we stay here after retirement then we are set up. If we get to move to AR for retirement then super we will know exactly how to set up our place there after doing it here. Its a win, win deal ... A person can make plans all day long but in 12 plus years a lot can happen.

We are on septic here, but we do have city water, if you want to call it water. You know the stuff that comes out of the faucet that is so full of chemicals and crud that it is just plain bad for ya.. ya we have that here.. I steam distill the water we drink, cook with etc. have for many years. If you could see and smell what is left behind in the distiller from one gallon of city water you would never drink city water again! I am not talking about the minerals either, I am talking about the other stuff! We also have a filter on the garden water hose, it helps to get the chemicals out of the water that leech the nutrients out of your garden soil.

We also have good filters in the shower and tub. Taking out as much stuff as you can get a filter to do. Sadly no filter will take out fluoride sighhh... But we have certainly improved the quality of what is coming out of the faucet for bathing. etc.

A well would solve a lot of issues. Really hoping that is something we can do in the very near future. Just going to depend on how costly it is.

We have thought about doing water collection into giant water tanks off the roofs of the barn and house for the garden and fruit trees, but in order for this to work and be of real value it would have to rain regularly. Ummm we live in Texas. We would be able to get a little that way but no where near what we need for the fruits trees and the garden. The cost to set that up we are thinking its probably not worth the expense at this point. Unless we just run onto some 1500 to 2500 gallon water tanks dirt cheap or free :O)... Then yes we will set it up and get what we can that way as well. We are keeping our eyes open for them. You never know what you will find :O).

We did install wood stoves to heat the house this last year. We have so much fallen wood on our land we could burn for several years and never cut a live tree. By the time we use up what is there now, more will have fallen.
No more buying propane for heating the house! Just out of curiosity what is propane running where you live? Here 2.75 a gallon! We are down to just the kitchen stove and the hot water heater on propane. When we had to replace the dryer we went electric. I use the clothesline as much as I possibly can, but sometimes you need the dryer.

The central heat in the house was the big eater of the propane, it just drinks that stuff up like cheap sweet wine.. slurp... LOL :O). So we fixed that with the wood stoves!

I would love to hear about anything you guys are doing in these directions.

2011-11-11T05:20:00.000-08:00

Thank You!

Also

Happy Birthday to my Honeyman!!!

2011-11-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

I'm back.... Mrs Laughing Duck and I had a fabulous time in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Where we came from! We just ewwweed and ahhhhhed at the gorgeous fall color all across the mountains! Red, Orange, Yellow, Green. It was stunning! Lots of very curvy, very high mountain roads which can be a bit tough for those of us who get a bit car sick even in the front seat... but it was soooooooooooo worth it to be back home.... I haven't been back to AR in 15 plus years!!! I found myself grinning uncontrollably till my cheeks on my face ached. LOL... I couldn't seem to help it! It felt sooooooooooooo good to be back.

We had the BEST time! She and I are pretty much two peas in a pod we have discovered. I count myself very blessed to have met Mrs. Laughing Duck as I have a very wonderful friend now!!!!...

I can also tell you that Mrs Laughing Duck can read a map like no one I have ever seen! I am telling you, dirt county roads or highway... if its on the map she could figure out where we were and which way we needed to go! Beat anything I have never seen. She is like a live human GPS System! :O) and believe me we were ALL over those mountains up there!

Part of the trip was research. I am thrilled beyond words, honeyman and I have made the decision we will be retiring to these mountains. The mountains I was raised in by my grandparents. Not the exact location but in what is known as the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. We are not ready to retire yet but we are now looking. We have time to find the perfect place. It will be several more years before we move there but I am just happy the process is started.

I have spent many, many years living in Texas. It has been good to me, after all I met my honeyman here. We have made a good living here. But I miss many things about the mountains of AR. I miss the four season weather, I miss the ability to grow things much more easily. I miss the mentality, I miss the folklore, I miss the mountains, the water, the stunningly beautiful landscape. I miss mother earth who shines beyond words in those mountains. She is so alive, so colorful, so happy, so peaceful, so vivid, so inviting. I miss the type of spirituality I was raised with by my grandmother. I have never found that here in Texas. I have and always will carry it in my soul and heart, but I am thrilled I will be going back to where it was originally shared with me.

I will do my best to describe it:
Its a place where the mountains whisper, the creeks and springs sing songs to your soul. The trees blow a breeze of pure contentment. Earth, wind, fire and water. All the elements of being. Mother nature and her sprites in all their glory live there.

Once you have lived in these mountains, you may leave them for a time. You may move far, far away for many years, but they will never leave you. They will softly beckon to your soul...return, return home .... We are here as we have always been and always will be. Come home .......

2011-10-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Gardening in general takes a fair amount of patience, tenacity and hard work. But gardening in Texas well I am pretty sure it qualifies you for some sort of award, saint hood possibly. Between the scorching 100 degree plus days... day after day after day that will blister your veggies or burn the leaves off your plants literally. Not much rain on a good year and none on what seems like a revolving drought here in Texas uggggg.. Add in for me MOLES! Ya'll know I battled the little devils this summer in my garden and the previous year as well. They pulled down into the ground literally what was it 20 jalapeno plants when I stopped counting, I lost count of how many tomato plants, numerous other pepper plants, Swiss chard, well you get the idea every day another plant or several were pulled into the ground with the top sticking out all wilted.... it was like a cartoon with them all pulled in the ground like that only not cute or funny! Please do not tell me that moles do not eat the roots off plants or eat vegetables!! Yes I have actually been told that (me rolling my eyes) ... Well today the ultimate insult by the moles! I dug the sweet potatoes. I was so excited. The moles we thought we had managed to get under control as we had not been seeing their tunnels near as much and they had left the garden alone finally at one point earlier in the summer, well they were not gone! They were just living under my sweet potato row apparently, living the life of Riley off my sweet potatoes! Here is what I found today!

Yep looks like time to dig okay good!

My helper in all things Kota, who by the way as of this month made his 12TH Birthday, That is big news when your talking about a Boxer. Their average lifespan is 9 years.

Oh this looks promising doesn't it! Looks like a dandy..

I dug it out and found this lovely tunnel leading right up to the bottom of it ....

this was the bottom side of the potato were the mole tunnel came to! grrrrr

Ok here is another one...

Both of these next ones, chewed on but healed over so I kept them!

Okay they got one I got one on this next deal, they left the little piece behind just so I would know they ate one I guess grrrr

This looks good, I can see there is more than one.. Okay good..

They had chewed off the ends of all three!!!

Whats left of another big one, they ate half and left me half I guess was the thinking.. ugggg

Now this was a nice find. Not one chewed on in the whole group!

These guys made it okay with no chewing on them...

This was my entire harvest.. The moles got as many as I did. I also saw lots of baby sweet potatoes I think that was because the moles were steadily eating them off as fast as the vines would put them on. So the vines kept making new ones to grow.

There was a maze literally of mole tunnels in that bed! :O( ...So what we are going to do. Yall know I have raised garden rows, we are going to dig out the dirt lay down rabbit cage type wiring (since it has very small squares) in the bottom of each row and put the dirt back in. Its that or give up gardening. Which I am so not doing!

Because I like to try to say something positive when I have been on a whiny negative bend... this is one thing you can grow in Texas easily. The moles don't seem to care for its roots! It seems to love our heat and it doesn't mind the drought. Rosemary, this is one plant. Its been in my garden now for a few years.

This is a group of 4 plants they have only been in the ground for about a year and half I would say.

To bad you can't eat giant cockscomb. They do very well here in the ~~Sahara desert~~ umm I mean Texas. They re-seed themselves every year. This is one flower head! Their color is outstanding is it not!

Again one flower head.

Ditto

How do you like this Turtle... tee hee ... okay I admit it the turtle is gone. I found this turtle shell in the woods when we were riding the four wheelers so I brought it up to the house to put in the flower bed for the frogs. I thought they might use it as a frog house. I don't know if they will or not given a live animal lived it in before. Its pretty big and looks very cool in the flower bed... those are herbs in the pots.

2011-10-24T05:56:00.000-07:00

Lovely foggy morning.

Click on photo you can just make out Sugarcube :O)

The pond is that way, usually you can see it. Its so very low, hopefully we will get rain soon.

Herbs

2011-10-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

Yep I baked bread today. You guys remember the no knead bread recipe, I posted it some time ago. Well ever since then I have been baking our bread. Its so easy. What I have done is I 1.5 times the recipe. I can then get 2 loaves and this round flat one. We use the round flat one for a sub sandwich for dinner one night! Kinda like a Schlotzsky's sandwich is, if you have those sandwich places where you live. I have started switching out part of the whole grain spelt flour for Flax Seed Meal and I also add 1 cup of flax seeds. Works great. I can't imagine who cut the end off that one loaf and ate it! LOL :O)

Make Bread, check

Clean house some, check

Juice for several days, check

I really enjoy the health benefits and the wonderful fresh juice but lets face it juicing is time consuming! Worth it yes, but never the less. Today I made Grapefruit,lemon,honeydew melon, celery, carrot... okay that sounds horrible but it taste wonderful! Goes without saying its sooooo nutritious!

Clean up mess in kitchen from juicing and making bread, check

Do a load of laundry, check

Feed Ebony and Squeaker, check

Read a few blogs, check

3:54 p.m. I think I am done for today... oh ya study math ugggg, no haven't done that yet. Okay will do that now I guess. Do I have to? Okay, okay... I am going.

Oh I almost forgot, yesterday I tried out the new canner!

Black Eye Peas

It works wonderful. I will say it holds 24 wide mouth pints not 32. When they say 32 pints they mean regular mouth pints :O).

2011-10-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

What do you think it is? Remember I was going to order a Cover Stitch machine with my Amazon Reward Points? I still plan to when I save my points back up again :O).

What I ordered instead of that is this!!!!

A 41.5 Quart All American Canner!~ This is my first time to buy a pressure canner. I was very lucky and was given a older pressure canner when I started canning :O). Its been a good little canner.... however several times I was still canning at 8 o'clock at night trying to finish up stuff as I could not get many jars at a time in my canner. I will certainly be keeping my little canner it will serve a funcion :O).

But as I was considering what to buy with my reward points... as you can see the pressure canner won out this time :O). Our goal is to continue to raise more and more of our own food. I know my canning will grow with each year. So yep this was a good purchase :O).

This baby will hold 19 quart jars or 32 pint jars in one batch!!! No more waiting on my little pressure canner to cool down so I can get it open and reload. These canners are made in America ( I love that). They do not use a rubber seal. It seems very well made and looks to be quite durable. I read up on them before I bought it and really could not find one single negative comment on them. :O).... It is heavy as you might expect, but I can manage it. If you have a ceramic/glass top stove you cannot use these it says. So heads up if your thinking of getting one and have a ceramic/glass top stove.

Isn't she pretty!

It comes with two racks. Didn't get a picture of those.

Okay now I just need to fire this baby up and test her out!

2011-10-07T05:45:00.000-07:00

Bath drapes installed....I have been meaning to get pictures of the guest bathroom drapes that I finished on here. So this is them. A dark moss green band on a dark moss green gold and brick plaid. If you click to enlarge the photos you get a much better look see :O)

The ceilings are 10 foot in this bathroom. I hung them as high as I could. If you notice I did not use any type of finial at all on the rod ends. Why you ask? When you hang drapes wall to wall like these are it creates the illusion of width. This bathroom is long and narrow. Two, I didn't want the drapes to cover any more of the window then they had to when open. But I did want them to be workable so I used one solid rod. The bamboo shade is not completely opaque. You can actually see out side through them. I took this photo when it was dark out side so you can't see that in this photo. Its one of the things I really like about these bamboo shades. It is more difficult to see back inside from the outside but some people find it a bit unsettling apparently to be able to see out while in the shower/tub so this way they can pull the drapes. Our home is in the middle of 27 acres no one is going to be looking in the window LOL but okay for those that feel the need, now they can pull the drapes :O). I have a small upholstered bench in a medium moss green with two black accent pillows on it. I also use black and moss green towels. The picture on the wall has all the of the colors plus a few more. I tried to get a pic of it but it didn't work out to well. Its dimensional. Hard to explain. The matting is brick colored.

Note the brackets, rings and rod all go together nicely :O) story on that below.

Yep they puddle, told you this is my favorite look in a drape.

It was a bit of a challenge to hang them due to the tub sitting by the wall as it does. Could not use a ladder. This is where having a honeyman in commercial construction comes in handy. He brings scaffolding home!

I could not find exactly the right color of rod, I had some burnished gold brackets and large pretty rings but they were the wrong color. I found a solid black rod twirled rod at the store. black was not the right color but it was the perfect base color. I decided I would repaint them all to match. It worked wonderfully. I dried brushed burnished gold on the black rod in layers leaving back showing through. Then glazed/antiqued black glazing medium on the gold rings to tone them down and start to tie them to the rod. I dried brushed a little black on the raised areas of the rings. Then a little bit of black on the rod on top of the gold I had applied.

I thought to take this photo about half way through my process so well here is the work in progress.

In the 3rd photo from the top you can see they matched up perfectly in the end.

Below oil lamps that sit on the vanity. I made these oil lamps using seed balls and lamp oil. I made and painted the lids back when I did pottery and put holes in them. Then you put a lamp wick in them. The lamp wicks have a glass vial looking body with a rim the rim holds them in place. Yes as you an see by the burnt wicks you can light them and use them.

These are the mirrors in the bathroom. They really do blend well in the room, but for some reason in this photo they seem kinda of like really? Just have to trust me it all works together. No way to get a photo of the whole room lol, I tried standing everywhere can't do it lol...

Overall its a warm, inviting room I think for our guest.

Question & picked name for new kid.

2011-09-28T15:20:00.000-07:00

Question. For those of you that get word press notifications of new post via email, when you open the email to see who posted is it blank? I get email notices on three word press blogs I read but the last week or so the email notices are blank when I open them, even after I click show images and enable links, they are blank short of the grey blank box in the body of the email ... Anyone else having issues with this? Know how to fix the problem?

Thanks for all the name suggestions for the new kid :O). I have decided to go with Squeaker as he is still just squeaking away LOL... I can't tell you how tiny he is :O). I really liked Bruno as well (thanks Chris) our next buck born that isn't quite so miniature LOL, his name will be Bruno! I like that... For now I just can't get past the little squeaking noise he makes LOL.. So Squeaker it is :O)... It was very hard for me to leave him and go off to school. I printed off his picture and put it in my book bag :O).. Silly I know but I was at school the better part of the day, I pulled it out several times to look at it. It made me smile :O).

2011-09-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

New Kid!
Is this little fella cute or what! He was born last evening just after dark. Ebony (Nanny) who if you remember had itty bitty Sterling. Well she has done it again. Meet itty bitty new kid. He needs a name. I will be making him a kid coat lol as the regular small ones I make are HUGE on him lol. Its suppose to drop in the 50s toward the end of the week at night, I don't want him to get to cold. He was a bit chilly even this morning at 60. But Mom was cuddling with him, so that was keeping him from getting to cold.

You can see by my hand how tiny he is. I have small hands. He has the cutest little squeak lol... That's all it is a squeak. LOL

Brain overload...

2011-09-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

This is a post of ramblings to try to clear my head. Sorry no pictures, believe me at this point you would not want to see my brain. LOL it wouldn't be pretty.

I study, I study and I study. Then when I have some spare time I study. Of course those odd free minutes here and there, I use to study. ROFL okay it might not be quite that bad. But last night when I should have been sleeping, there I was thinking about the 3 math homework problems that I never did figure out yesterday. Did I mention I devoted an hour of awake time to each one, so yes 3 hours last night I was awake.

I have noticed I am slipping in some other areas of life, one area, my running! Yes I know shocking :O(. I feel a bit overloaded and I shouldn't really ... I am only taking one class! Could it be that I am not studying as much as it feels like I am and once I get used to being back in school I will settle into a better rhythm with things?

Of course it doesn't help that I am undecided as to what I will do. I spend to much time I am quite certain researching options. I could do this, I could do that. How usable would that degree be? Should I go for something creative that every class you are just chomping at the bit to be there or do I go for something practical and in high demand that yes you feel you would be good at it but it might not be your dream job?

The degree in Professional Pattern Design? Would that be to great or what. But how usabe is that? There is a school in Dallas that offers that and actually from my research its a respected program in the industry. This school is drive-able from where I live. That is a huge factor as well in my decision making. The school I am going to now is very close to me but has very little to offer in programs. Its good for your transfer classes. It does have a very respected Nursing program. I have considered that in that I know its certainly usable degree. However I would only want to work as a nurse with critical infants? I just think for myself that would be the area I could be most effective. Is that possible I wonder to be that specific to one area?... I have considered Respiratory Therapy. How about Graphic Design? I could make a list of 15 other programs I have/am considering LOL... as you can see LOL I am all over the place. Now you have to factor in that I am not 18 yrs old. I really am not looking to spend 8 yrs in school so that does limit what I am looking at as well. LOL I am telling you I do not know how anyone chooses! ........ ah yes maybe this is what is wearing me out more than the actual school itself!!

On a totally different note, I have finished the drapes for the guest bathroom! wooowhooo! I think they turned out lovely and hope they will be as pretty hanging as I think they will....We plan to get those hung this weekend. We have a claw foot tub in that bathroom and its a tight fit to get where we need to hang rods at 10 foot off the floor. Honeyman said something about scaffolding over the tub... so he is bringing home something from work to stand on to install the rods. Anywho those go up this weekend. Very glad to have them done as they are yards of fabric and were covering every surface in my sewing room. So now I can sew on something else!

Do you own and use a cover stitch machine?

2011-09-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

I am doing research on cover stitch machines. Do you own one? If so would you care to share what brand and model? Would you buy it again? Is there anything you learned after you bought one you wish you had known before you bought it. Maybe about features or accessories that are available or not available on them, feet etc.?

I am very curious about the flat decorative stitch they do, the one you can do on top of a seam or flat fabric as a decorative stitch? This is something I think would be great for sports wear and would like the machine I get to do a good job at. The serger I recently bought as my very old one died....will do that stitch but turns out its a bit more involved to actually do that with the serger than I had hoped. I really like the new serger I got so far. Its been very easy to use and has not required any fiddling. But what it does best is serge not that flat lock decor stitch.

My budget is not huge for the cover stitch machine. If it needs to be bigger I will wait on the purchase. If the two I found on Amazon are not either really a good choice then I will for sure need to wait a little while :O) and that is okay I would rather wait then get one that is problematic :O)... I have been saving up my Amazon Reward certificates for a bit now thinking I could maybe get one on Amazon. Honeyman lets me have all the Amazon Rewards Certs. we get to spend how I want. We get quite a few as he uses that CC for all his company travel etc... Amazing the items I have got using those. Lots of great kitchen items mostly :O). I do love to cook.... So anywho I have been saving them up thinking maybe a cover stitch machine... I found they sell a Brother 2340CV and a Janome Coverpro 900CPX both new both sold by Amazon. But are these good cover stitch machines? If you own one of these 2 models, would you buy it again? Have you used the flat decorative stitch? Is it fairly consistent in working properly or it does it require constant adjusting and fiddling to get it to work properly every time you go to use it?

If any of you guys would like to chime in on brands and models of cover stitch machines I would love to hear. Please feel free to say if you have had negative experiences with the 2 above mentioned machines. They were just what Amazon has available. As I mentioned I have reward certificates I can use there so I looked there first! I am in no hurry to buy, but figured if I could use my Amazon Certificates to buy one then all the better! But I don't want one that is problematic. I have noticed the pricing of these machines varies quite a bit, but then so does the pricing on most machines from brand to brand.

I have owned through the years and do own now both Brother and Janome machines. I have found them both to be decent machine brands in what I have had so far. But again I don't know much about these cover stitch machines. I am still researching and learning about them.

Any input would be much appreciated.

2011-09-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

School has started, so far I am enjoying it. Brains a little rusty but over all its going smoothly.

On a sewing note a new JoAnns store opens up today only 45 minutes from me. The only other JoAnns close to me is also 45-50 minutes away, its a smaller very old one. I finished all my homework after I got home from school yesterday :o). So I can go today without that hanging over my head. I am not really looking for anything but I want to go see the store. I know famous last words.

For something different I thought I would show a few photos of the crew, its been a while.

Cube below always looking for a treat or ear rubbing.

Harrison pushing through the herd to get up on the gate first, outta of my way Cube if she has a nilla wafer its mine!

Harrison as always saying where is my nilla wafer! Didn't you bring Harrison a nilla wafer!

Harrison's usual response the minute he figures out you did not bring the nilla wafer. LOL... you can see with the extreme heat we have had his hair is shorter and thinned. Its usually nearly dragging the ground and thicker.

Cube again, also asking did you bring us something? Anything?

Some of the kids and Harrison making nice to Ivory LOL

Harssy, Ivory, Ebony and some of the kids, they are getting big.

Everyone leaving the corral as they figured out no treats were involved in this photo session. So back out to browse they go.

Later lady rancher, bring treats next time! We will stay longer.

Should have some new kids end of September and then into fall.

2011-08-26T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hand sewing is therapeutic I think. This is my Hex quilt I have been working on. You see hexes used in a Grandmothers Flower Garden pattern a lot. I decided on this star pattern. I saw a picture of it and thought I really like that. Its totally scrappy, my favorite in a quilt and its easy to do. I can cut out hexes out of any fabrics without having to count okay I have five of this fabric, 7 of this one etc. This is good as I am using up scraps from my scrap basket and using some from my fabric stash.

I just throw them all in a bag together. I have also put a baggy together to carry with me. I can then work on them when I have time here and there.

Its hard to see what this will actually look like at this point as I don't have a full star pattern done as of yet. I have almost half of one done. But you can get the general idea. I think I have decided to use the cheddar fabric for star flower center and then the bubble gum pink for all the centers of the flower. That will be the only thing that is not scrappy, well that and the cream borders. I will of course tan over dye this when I am done with it to soften and blend all the colors... Knock that new and bright off it... Just amazing how that just blends out everything and gives it a lovely old look. A look I adore in a quilt. Its not for everyone but I love it.

Class starts next Tuesday! I have been doing some reviewing the last few days so I am not completely lost LOL... It was 2008 the last time I went to school.

I a bit of a rant ...

2011-08-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today I registered for college. Yep I decided to go at it again. The last time I took classes was in 2008.

Today I was floored by the cost! Floored I tell you! I signed up for one class as I have a test I need to study for that I will need to take by the end of this semester. I felt one class and studying for that test was enough to get my feet wet again. I am (used to be) one of those people who really wanted a certain grade, sighhhh yes I know. I am working on that. Really I am. I could not let go of that the last time I went to school which was very stressful. So I decided okay don't overload and try to work on not thinking its a 4.0 or nothing.. Yes I have a 4.0 from the two semesters I was in college for the first time in my life at 40 something lol, which I can tell you about did me in from stress. It really worked against me thinking that if I didn't get an A I had some how failed, trust me I have put much thought into this ridiculous thinking and I believe I have it under control now :O)...I can see that ultimately it played into my decision to not continue in school at the time and I don't want that to happen again....I am not putting myself under that kind of pressure again! Okay I am getting off track here, my point is I decided one class and studying for the test I will take by the end of the semester was enough. So today was registration day :O) .............

One class, one book, equaled a couple dollars short of $700.00. Its a state junior college not a private school!

Talk about sticker shock. Will you please explain to me how that it could cost more to go now then it did in 2008 when the economy has tanked since then and all you hear the large companies and politicians saying is school, we need better educated applicants etc. etc, further education is needed blah blah blah from the governor all the way up the ladder to the top of our government in this country...

Well I would say to that, then quit making the cost of going to a state school so ridiculous! The way I see this is as I do a lot of other things, for what we all pay in in taxes, tax dollars should first and foremost be to further the U.S. and its citizens! I just get annoyed how that our tax dollars are not being used to help U.S. citizens. There is waste yes, there is also pure out right out landish amounts of money leaving this country going into other countries.. Don't get me wrong there are a million good causes, a gazillion disasters, many countries with many real problems all worthy of helping but dammit when is the U.S. government going to start putting the U.S. and its citizens first again!!!!! We cannot take care of the world! We cannot govern the world either! Hello its our backs those tax dollars are coming off of!!

Did I mention that the book was 203.00 dollars? Is that just highway robbery or what! Come on ....

I do not know what other state junior colleges charge but if you are thinking of coming to Texas well that is what they charge here and that is if you are a resident of Texas and meet those requirements.

Okay I just can't help it I have to say it (let me just say I am not a democrat or republican, I am me! a U.S. citizen who does not need a party system to tell me how to think, no I am not a tea party member either can't we just be citizens with a brain of our own that doesn't blindly follow some group or label?) sorry just felt the need to add that... so when Governor Rick Perry tells you about how many jobs he has created in Texas (debatable in my book) but never the less. To get one of these said jobs, it pretty much takes a degree these days. There are a lot of women that are returning to the work force after not having worked for several years. They are returning to school in order to qualify for jobs... Governor Perry if you really want to do something to help people better their lives why don't you get state college tuition under control (really under control) at our state schools!... what is with charging 203.00 for a book? A paper book with a soft cover that is being bought by the thousands no doubt by Texas Higher Education systems for its state schools? Just how much do you think that book cost the school? Okay now I am done. ...

Just one more thing, so I guess I am not done...I live approximately 13 miles from this school. Yes that is very handy, I live in the same county as this school. BUT our public school taxes go to a school district that is just over the line into another county...Bingo yep I get slammed for out of district fees even though I am live in the same county as this state school! Not out of state fees thanks heaven but out of district, to the tune of 192.00 extra for that fact. Oh ya we are still talking on one class. I will have to pay out of district fees on every single class I take ...Doesn't matter I am a Texas resident. Nope... Who rigged up this system anyway? Like I have control over who is getting my public school tax dollars? I have no control over that. I live in the county with the college but the powers that be decided to send my public school (grades 1-12) tax dollars to a school district which is not in my county and that school district doesn't pay into the college that is in the county that I live in.... clear as mud isn't it!! Is there nothing that government on any level cannot mess up and make confusing and difficult!!

I would like to add that I like this school, my experience at this school with the teachers and staff has been positive. As a matter a fact they apologized to me for the cost of the book as they sucked in air ringing it up today.... before I even knew what it was LOL, now what does that tell you? Then they inform you your total is 203.00 and some change... They realize themselves what a ridiculous sum of money that is for one book!

Okay now I am done, really.... I am just saying!

New to me Pattern company and where have I been

2011-08-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

This is a new to me pattern company Silhouette Patterns.

I totally love this , would this be cute just like the pic with jeans and Tshirt and my boots of course! Total Cuteness!

and this , I would make to wear with jeans and yep my boots... Would love a longer tailed almost historical looking jacket to go with it! Something about knee length I think. Maybe kinda something like the men wore in the late 1800 to 1900..Not quite a duster but sort of like that... I saw one once on a show and a woman had it on. It had criss cross lacing up the back .. I just loved that, it stuck in my mind. That coat this vest jeans and my boots... :O)...

Sorry for so few post of late. I have been a tad off my game the last week or so, but seem to be rallying now :O). I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that we had company and I wore myself out completely LOL... Our niece and her DH you guys have heard me mention them before, they are the runners. I actually ran a personal best while they were here. They slowed down to run with me :O) each day, before they went to do their work outs. They have a schedule their coach gives them. They are running great and are now in Colorado for altitude training full time. I know they are both very excited about that!

We are glad they are back stateside :O), our niece's DH opted to go into reserves rather than completely leave the Air Force at this point. He has served for 10 plus years active duty and now Air Force reserves.

We hope to go visit them at some point, I am curious to run in high altitude myself :O). See what its like! Being I am what my niece calls a flat lander LOL as Texas isn't exactly known for its hills LOL at least not most of Texas. She also is a former flat lander LOL... I got some very good tips from them and a lot of encouragement! I also wore myself out completely the week they were here :O). But we had such a great time!

Add in a few lovely hormones oh ya you know late forties is just a wonderful roller coaster ride of hormones or it has been for me. Who knew they could make you so blasted lethargic at times. Something I cannot stand hardly. You guys know from reading my blog, I am usually a very doing, energetic type person and whew I have no patience for this stuff! Am back on some herbs now and they seem to be helping! :O)..

Nest Box Giveaway

2011-08-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

Nest Box Giveaway, Do you have some feathered friends who would like a lovely new nest box? I know my girls (chickens) would certainly enjoy this new shiny clean nest box. I am thinking they would think they had moved up in the housing department to have this. :O)... Life on a Southern Farm is having a give away! You can go here and enter to win one or you can buy one in lots of different sizes as well! Made in America :O) right on their farm!

http://georgiafarmwoman.blogspot.com/2011/08/henpals-chicken-nest-box-giveaway.html

2011-07-27T05:55:00.000-07:00

I have not fallen off the planet. We have family in visiting. :O)

Header done and drape up!

2011-07-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

So I got the headers sewn in the drape panels... The header is simple, fold over 4.5-5" I usually go for 5 as I find having the full 1" turn under on the raw edge just makes it so much easier to handle than a 1/2" does... So you fold down 5" and then fold under 1" on the raw edge. or fold down 4.5" and then turn under 1/2" on the raw edge.. Press the fold under on the raw edge.. just makes life so much simpler when you go to sew this ... Then put in your seam....If you have inner lined your drape panel do yourself a favor and use your walking foot to sew this header seam with this many layers and a little bulk from all of them the walking foot will prevent any puckers :O)...

So lets talk about drapery hardware for a minute. After you have spent this much time, money and effort to make great drapes don't just throw them up on some rod you had left over in the garage! LOL. Put some thought into what is the best style for your room and for your drapes. You also will need to consider any physical issues on your walls or windows that need to be dealt with..

For instance the master bedroom where these drapes are going. The window has a wall within a few inches of it so that I could not use a big fancy finial on the end of the rod as that would have thrown these panels halfway over the window.. See the top right corner, I needed to start my drapes there... a actual rod with a nice decorative finial on the end would hot have allowed this.. I felt for our room and the drapes etc. plain rod with no finial was not a good call. ... sooo I went looking for drapery hardware knowing I had this issue to over come... Sooooo what I came up with was this.... these are drapery panel holds actually not drapery rods ... I knew I would have 5 hooks to hang by given the width of my panels and where they were going so I got 10 of these babies..

Then I made some little hangers from a regular drapery hook you know the silver ones that slide into your fabric usually like on a pinch pleated drapes... I added to them the clips off some bigger drapery rings I had, that were to big to use with these as they dropped to low.... sooo Honey man took the little clippy off the rings for me and we put them on the silver drape hooks.. I then clipped the clip to the drapes and put the hook over the stems of these holders... Poof problem solved! They hung exactly where I needed them to...

So here is what they look like

Yep gotta love that puddle :O)

Sadly one of the holders was damaged and not usable when we opened it. Soooo I have to make another trip to town to get another pkg. So one drape is actually hanging.. the other drape will go on the outside left of that other window... There will not be one in the corner you see. I am framing the two corner windows with one drape to the outside of each window ...

2011-07-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

Vintage pattern give away. My Happy Sewing Place bloggy is giving away a really pretty vintage pattern! Yep giving it away. I don't do twitter or facebook but if you do and you blog about it you get extra chances to win. I am quite sure there will be a million entries but hey someone has to win right! So if you sew and like vintage patterns go throw your sewing needle in the pin cushion and see if you get lucky!

This gal has given away other vintage patterns as well, she only ask that you not win them to turn around and sell them. That you pass them on to someone else to use when you no longer want them. That so works. Then many people get a chance to use that pattern as it works it way around the world :O). Just click here and it will take you to it!

Sewing with puckered fabrics a few tips

2011-07-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Sewing with puckered drapery fabrics.

When your sewing with drapery fabric that has intentionally been puckered...then yep you want to sew puckers in your seam allowance too :O).... Because puckered material has a somewhat wavy selvage you need to work that into your seam. But have a method to your madness and it will give your drape a much nicer look in the end...

This is what I do, I pin, pin, and pin some more.. in this case I am sewing the front fabric to my batting (my inner lining) so my fabric is right side up in this case....I am working from my hem line up to the top of my drape, the reason for this is if your going to be uneven you want it to come out at the top not the bottom IF your pillow casing your drape. Which in this case I am as these drapes will puddle on the floor. ( I totally love drapes puddled on the floor) So I am sewing these in pillow case fashion.

I am working with the front side of my drapery fabric below... What I do is I pin the fabric front side up to the batting (inner liner, which could be flannel as well) working in all the pleats/puckers from the center out to selvage edge. I pin in the pleats into the selvage as I go up... Pin the tucks and folds where they would have been had the design of the fabric continued... in other words don't pin in a big fold or tuck in an area where there would not have been one had the pattern continued to the selvage... This way it continues the existing pattern of your drapery fabric to the edge of your drape..your goal is to continue the same look out to the edge.

My seam allowances are larger than usual and they may look uneven to you as your sewing but since your selvage is uneven due to having to fold in your tucks and pleats this is partly why. You can see as your sewing if your seams truly are getting really uneven. Slow down when your sewing and just keep a eye on the width of your seam. I took my seam allowance at a width I felt would lay the nicest. Selvages can vary quite a bit in decor fabrics anyway. I am not one to trim off first.. my theory is sew first check and then trim off excess. This is what your seam will look like once you have sewn this to your inner lining. See if you look its really not uneven. Yep you just intentionally sewed all those puckers into your seam. But you can see it took what was a wavy selvage and actually about 3" in from the selvage it was wavy, it now lays nice with the pattern continued to the edge :O).

But if you should see something like this below, see the 3 puffs in the photo below...ooops that wasn't what we wanted.. just take it out pin it again and resew that area... These panels are cut 107 inches I only had this one spot that ballooned up on me :O). Now could you leave this? Welllllll yes you coulddddd... but do you really want to do that? Nah! Just takes a second to fix it :O). Take seam and re-pin that area sew it back in.. It just took a second and now I won't ever look at that panel and see that and think why did I leave that LOL.

Another thing to watch for, after you pin your first selvage to your inner lining and your doing your other side be sure to measure the width of your panel every few inches making sure your panel width has stayed even. Don't be surprised to see that your panel is 49 inches in width in some places and 50 " in others... No biggy, this type fabric will give and stretch out, so just go to the places that are less is what I do and pull it out to the wider width... Usually there is an extra fold or such ironed in or folded in in the body of the fabric that will easily give...ok now your panel is the same width all the way up and down!

Once you get your front sewn to your inner lining piece ... then you want to attach your lining piece to the top of your drape. Right sides together..This would be the time to curve your bottom corners if you want them curved. This is something I started doing after I discovered how curved corners look a million times better puddled on the floor than square ones do. Just just enough to knock that hard square corner off is all your looking for here. :O) . Isn't this looking just soft and plush and wonderful! Oh and see how taking the time to sew those puckers in the right place in your selvages just carries the pattern out like it never ended.

Example below of a puddled drape with rounded corner.. I made these for our office a few years ago.

See if you had square corners on drapes that puddle then you wouldn't get this lovely soft pile... You get a pile with two squared off corners that stick out and well for me I just don't like that. BUT everyone should make their drapes how they like them! :O) If you like corners on your puddled drapes then for sure leave the corners.

If you rather your drapes meet the floor not puddle, I would not round the corners. You would want to leave those square :O). But then you would make those different anywho and that's a different how to post LOL.. This is on puddled drapes :O)

Some of you guys have seen these drapes but thought I would show the top of the drape that I showed the bottom of LOL... You can also see how the inner lining of batting gives these drapes a body but in a very soft flowing way they simply would not have had were they not inner lined. I inner lined the swags as well... because of this they hold their style instead of just laying flat on themselves. It gives them a soft sorta 3D look.

Ok back to sewing your panels...You now have a giant pillow case basically that is three layers (lining, inner lining and front fabric) Turn it right side out.. Flatten it out and take a good look at your seams, your curved corners, etc...If your happy :O), then turn them inside out and trim your excess fabrics and batting etc. Now turn them back right sides out you need to press all your seams. Your goal is to have your front roll ever so slightly over the back lining. We are talking like 1/8" here. I can't think of a better way to say that. You just don't want your back lining rolling to the front. Even though yes in this case its a exact match. Don't skip the pressing! It truly does make a huge difference in your over all finished drape.

The tops / headers are next... Thats where I am on the bedroom drapes at this point. Hoping to finish them today or tomorrow :O). More to come on that....

Sewing and Drowning in drapery fabric

2011-07-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

Master Bedroom drapes... the puckered piece is the front of the drape, the embroidered piece is the back lining. That is also the piece I made our dust ruffle from.

Guest bathroom drapes, plaid and solid moss green fronts... the goldy solid piece is the lining. The plaid is from old drapes, I am reworking them as I still really like that fabric! Adding the darker solid green and new lining out of the silky goldy piece.

batting? yes batting

Some tips to get that custom drapery shop look....

You ask what the heck is batting doing in the mix? Well its the inner linings for the drapes of course, yes really. You can take a drape that is pretty and make it outstanding by doing this!You sandwich it in the middle between your back lining and front fabric, sewing it into the seams. It not only looks fabulous but it also adds a bit more bulk to your visual width of a single width drapery panel, so its a way to use a single width panel and get the visual bulk you need instead of adding another half panel width or double width... decor fabric has gotten so high this is a great way to stretch a buck in making drapes!......You can use flannel drapery inner lining for this and that certainly adds a lovely look as well..... but believe me this very thin batting which is about like a cotton quilting batting, we are not talking wall batting here okay :O)... try it you won't believe the results! Of course it does depend a bit on the type of material your using and the style of your drapes as well... This works well for drapes that are not pleated or have heavy folds in them etcs... panels being hung by rings or ribbons or such...

Flannel inner linings are appropriate for say a dust ruffle, this batting would not be something you would want to use on a dust ruffle. I made a dust ruffle from that same silky embroidered fabric for our master bedroom its back lined and then inner lined with flannel.. It just gives them soooo much body especially if your working with silky or thinner fabrics. They will just hang and look like a million bucks....Some fabrics have enough body on their own to hang wonderfully as a dust ruffle with just a back lining, but I would always do a back lining!

No I don't miss working in the Interior industry, even though I can get get so excited over figuring out a new window treatment LOL... by the time I left that industry I had burn out so bad it wasn't even funny! I never find myself thinking oh gosh I should go back into that ... ROFL... but do I love pretty interiors and seeing pretty things come together in our home.. OH YA! Do I still walk the decor fabrics at every fabric store just so I can ooo and awww over the new decor fabrics.. heck ya LOL... I pretty much never tire of looking at fabric of any kind!!!

Chocolate Cheesecake, but not.... this is a Chocolate Cheesecake made from Tofu!! Honeyman and I LOVE this! No eggs, no dairy, its Vegan!

From the Tofu Cookery 25th Anniversary Cookbook by Louise Hagler ..I LOVE this cookbook! The ice creams from this cook book are sooo good as well. If your Vegan or Vegetarian or not! If you just like cooking with Tofu you would like this cookbook..The food is just good whether you are vegan or not. The ingredients in the recipes are easy to come by. They are not off the wall strange things that you will never use again.
I sliced this up and froze it in wax paper. Holy Cow we are talking good. It doesn't freeze so hard you cant just eat it right out of the freezer... I made the crust from roasted nuts and coconut and 12 vanilla wafers instead of graham crackers. Its what I had on hand :O)

Whew

2011-07-14T17:01:00.000-07:00

I am telling you the devil himself would not live in Texas this time of year! There I said it... yes I know I usually whine about winter but folks its miserable this time of year in Texas... It makes a girl wonder what the heck she is doing living here or why anyone would live here! ... ohhhhh yes I remember now, my honeyman is a native Texan... yes he is hot as heck too!!! :O) that kind of hot I like!!!!... but this daily business well over a 100 degrees is wearing me out folks... seeing lows in the mid 80s at night.. oh ya 6:45 this morning 85 with a heat index of 89... try running in that! No I didn't, I ran on my treadmill in my AC thank you very much :O)...

Okay I am done whining. thanks for listening, I hope your next blog read will be a bit more uplifting... :O)

New top and a shrug from a free pattern!.

2011-07-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

A new top. So give me your opinion. You see the ties... I have yet to actually attach these on the front. I was able with the scrap that was left of this material after I cut out the top to make the ties with the embroider on both ends of the ties.. well it seems like such a shame to cut that off... so I thought maybe tie a knot as you see and attach them to the outside front? What ya think? Stupid looking?

The rumple you see on the left side is just cuz I was in a hurry to get this on my dressform and get photos. Its not messed up lol.

Back

See the white sheer thing, well that is a pattern for a 50s shrug, I got it free off a gals blog! A super cute shrug.. I will be posting where I got it and you all can get it too and more info on it! The gal that has made this shrug has shown it with a lot of outfits and it is soooo cute.. Of course it helps that she looks like a model out of a magazine to start with LOL.. everything she puts on looks like a million bucks, she sews clothing VERY well... But don't hate her LOL she is actually very nice and helpful! More to come on her blog and this free shrug pattern :O)...

Greatest Treasure Find Link Up to Two Bears Farm

2011-07-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

Ok I am a day late to be joining but oh well.. Lisa over Two Bear Farm is is doing a post your favorite treasure or find. This is one of my favorites.. But since I got it the cheapest LOL I figured I would post it. I was gave this old table, chairs and buffet I am guessing given the leg style and its a guess on my part but I am guessing 1950-60 maybe? ...It was pretty rough when I got it LOL... Yellow and Kelly green! The chair bottoms were bright kelly green um with stains and rips.. the table had been painted very badly with kelly green accents on a yellow background.. the backs of the chairs were cane but two of them had big rips in them :O( ...

Oh ya honeyman thought I had lost my mind for sure on this one... I have been known to drag many things home and have got several things out of the trash... Hey ones mans trash as they say...

Anywho I did some painting with black accents.. I used 2 different colors in Minwax gel stains in about 4 coats to antique the yellow base paint and the black accents and tone it down to a good color... I painted little gold accents in some places as it did have some gold flecking on it already... then I found the perfect or what I thought was the perfect fabric for the chairs and I had the backs upholstered and the chair bottoms in it.. My total investment if memory serves me for paints, gel stains, brushes, fabric, and labor to get the chairs upholstered (I have a family member with a upholstery shop so I got the upholstery done for cost) anyway and my free days and yes it was days of labor... grand total 243.00 or it may have been 248.00 and some change, either way it was not much for how it turned out... hugh table with 2 leaves and 8 chairs two of which are captains chairs and a buffet that is really cool the top slides open and has a hot plate area to set hot dishes for serving...

The one thing I have not done yet that I want to is redo the top of the table.. I don't know what type finish this is on it.. lacquer or varnish or what so I have been a little hesitant to go at it with even wet dry sand paper.. it has a lot of fine scratches in it and would look so much better sanded down and redone in a low luster like satin varnish, which would give it a more old world look.. its super shiny and I don't care for that.. well except a few places where something had happened at some point and its got some round dull spots lol...I will get the nerve some day and do it.

Front of chairs

Sorry not the best picture of the leg. There is one of these legs on each end of the table...

Back of chairs.

Dehydrated Coconut covered Pineapple

2011-07-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite if not my favorite dried fruits is pineapple Its super easy to dry in your dehydrator. I can fit 8 pineapples in my dehydrator and Sprouts had them 2/3.00 this last weekend when we were there. So yep I got 8.

Well I tried out something new. On two of the trays I rolled the fresh pineapple pieces in finely grated unsweetened organic coconut before drying. There is just enough moisture on the fresh pineapple the finely grated coconut sticks right to them in just the right amount.

Holy Cow is it a winner! I will do the entire dehydrator full this way next time!! mmmmm its so good! This is what it looks like after its dehydrated!

Added update to this post :O)
I ran onto a new blog through another blog I read. If you like bird pictures or quilting fabric Love of Quilts blog is having a 250 blog giveaway! Run on over there and check it out!

Tiny egg

2011-07-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

Look at this itty bitty egg we got. That is a grape tomato next to that little egg LOL

What the little fellow looks like in the egg carton

Wasp sting and trying to sew!

2011-06-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

So today was to be the day! Yep this was my day to sew. My me day! I have worked my hiney off canning and gardening and and :O)... yes those are good things too but well I needed a day for just fun and creativity.

But as usual I can't do just one thing, no I have to do fifty things on the way to the sewing room. Which is why I also take forever to do things like sewing as well my attention span is easily diverted and I usually sew 2 minutes get up and run change the laundry over. Sew 5 more minutes and think oh I should put on a pot of such and such for dinner. Sew a bit more then stop to read blogs a few minutes... Well you get the idea. Yes I do most everything like this, even when I am canning and such I am all over the place to a point. Its just how I am... So anywho I decided it would only take a few minutes to run out to the garden grab a dehydrator full of Rosemary. So off I go.. I am almost done getting it and zoom zoom wasp all of a sudden fly out of the Rosemary bush. This bush is about 4x5 feet its quite large ... I am not really afraid of flying buzzy things but they seemed as if they were really angry with me and so I am backing up and swatting at them and poof I feel it... S T I N G... holy moley did that hurt. No that was not me you all heard cussing and hollering all the way up in Canada... nope wasn't me. Okay it probably was me but I am telling this realllllllllly hurt. Luckily I was able to get the little devil off my hand relatively fast! But wow he must have been loaded and ready to inject his stuff cuz it felt like my hand was on fire. I let them calm down and I calmed down and I got a long stick and looked, yep a wasp nest about the size of a orange! Thank heaven I didn't actually get a hold of that nest! I got the rest of my Rosemary from another Rosemary bush on the OTHER side of the garden. Don't you know I was looking for wasp nest in this one.

So by the time I get in the house its doing the whole swell up thing most stings do but I figured it would be okay. I then decided... ok to the sewing room!!!!!!!

I am up there cutting out this new top and my hand is hurting, its still burning and its getting a bit bigger. I thought about taking benadryl but I knew if I did I would be shot because that stuff knocks me out like a hammer. I get the backs and fronts of my top cut out which I had to belabor because well that is what I do when I cut fabric.. measure,, measure,, check check.. ya its like going back to check and make sure you locked the door three times even though yes each time you checked it was locked... okay don't even say you don't do that, cuz we all do it sometimes! Anyway I did get the front and back pieces cut out.... this is the fabric I am working with.

Now the hand is really feeling tight its past a little swollen and has got into my wrist now. My skin feels like it might pop open.. Well at this point better judgement over ruled wanting to sew and I took a dose of benadryl... Sure enough within 30 minutes I was dragging my hiney to bed to sleep! Fast forward several hours, yes hours! My hand is a tad smaller but not much and my day lost to sleeping grrrrrrrrrrr..... so I was really annoyed when I woke up in a fog no less and had slept away hours of today! Only to find my hand still swollen to this point.

Hand I got stung on, as you can see its gone up into my wrist and arm a bit. You can't even see the normal boney knot on my wrist which usually stick out...You see that little red spot where my thumb connects to the hand. Yep that is where that devil stung me!

My other hand. All skinny with its normal veins and wrist.

I tell you it seems like the sewing gods are mad at me or something ROFL... every time I try to sew it seems like something happens to prevent it! If I didn't know better I would seriously be starting to wonder about this. :O) Well now Mrs Laughing Duck and I did sew a bit while she was here and that seemed to go okay. LIttle did she know how risky sewing with me can be! LOL

Pathetic, hard to believe and just wrong! ...........

2011-06-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

This article was on AOL homepage. Its totally shocking. Sad and pathetic in my opinion. Hard to believe the HOA and the people running it and that the people living in this neighborhood would go along with this type attitude by the HOA. Whats wrong with people anyway?

This my friends is why I say the human race has come so little in such a long time. Money, greed, put above all else in this country. Mercy sakes a live! Pathetic!

This really hurts my feelings for these people. I cannot believe that HOA or community had the nerve to do this. It doesn't matter what their reasons were. This man is now disabled after serving since 1988 in our armed forces protecting their sorry A**'s and this is the thanks he gets in return? If anything they should have been making it easier for this man to build a home in their sorry neighborhood. Paperwork issue my rear end... Greed and almighty dollar issue, that I believe. Though who would want to live in a neighborhood this hung up on themselves and obviously the almighty dollar! Which apparently after finding out just what type neighborhood this was these people felt the same way and I say I surely don't blame them!

Doesn't matter whether you agree with the wars we have fought and uggg are still fighting.... doesn't matter what your political beliefs are. What matters is that we have people that volunteer to go into our armed forces. They go fight when our government says to. They have no choice! .... and this is how he was thanked...........................

Please feel free to copy this article on your blog if you feel like it. I think it should be on every darned newspaper and news site and you name it. To treat a disabled service man or woman this way grrrrrrrrr.....wrong people this is wrong on every level!!!

| By Stefanos Chen | Posted Jun 28th 2011 8:30AM 922 comments

Plans to build a new home for a paralyzed Army veteran at no cost to his family have been put on hold by the local homeowners association.

The reason, said the president of the nonprofit homebuilding group, is fear that the home would drag down property values in the neighborhood.

The Evans, Ga., home was to be built for Army Sgt. 1st Class Sean Gittens (left), who was struck in 2008 by an IED blast on his second tour of duty in Iraq. The trauma left him paralyzed on the right side of his body and unable to speak.

It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. "This is the total opposite of what usually happens," said John Gonsalves, president and founder of Homes for Our Troops, a nonprofit that builds homes for injured veterans. "We've met every requirement they've asked for," he told AOL Real Estate during a phone interview.

Construction was to begin on Friday, but Gonsalves said the homeowners association at the last minute filed a cease-and-desist order on the project, claiming that he had failed to file all the necessary paperwork.

"This could have been a done deal had they just gotten us the paperwork," said Rick Trump, president of the Knob Hill Homeowners Association, during a phone interview. "Who's really to blame here? Is it that we blocked them or that they're disorganized and don't have everything they need?"

While Trump maintains that the HOA's only contention is the paperwork, he said that some homeowners are concerned that the Gittens project will drag down the value of their homes, either because of the style of the home or the size.

The home will include several disabled-accessible features to accommodate Gittens, who currently is bedridden. But the neighbors' major complaint, Gonsalves said, is that the home is only 2,785 square feet, while other homes in the area are in the 3,000- to 5,000-square-foot range. The discrepancy should be a moot point, though, he said, because the minimum suggested size of homes for the area is only 2,700 square feet (see the supporting document here).

In reality, though, the HOA needn't have worried, according to New York appraiser Alice Palmisano.

The claim that smaller houses drag down neighboring property values is unfounded, she said. "It usually works the other way around, where the smaller house typically sees a boost in home value," but there's no evidence that smaller homes hurt the value of larger ones. Given the special nature of the home, it wouldn't even be used as the basis for a "comparable property," she said.

"Just because a custom home is built for a handicapped person does not mean that home can't sell to a conventional buyer," she added. "And considering the circumstances, it sounds kind of mean-spirited."

But Trump argues that the dispute is simply a matter of upholding HOA guidelines, and neither he nor the association has anything against the Gittens family.

"If they leave, that's the family's choice, but we're honored to have them in the neighborhood," he said.

For Gittens' wife, Sharon, the message conveyed has been less hospitable.

"They just don't want us here," she said during a phone interview. Gittens moved to Knob Hill with her husband and children last year and has been renting an apartment in the development. Her husband's military career began in 1988 with a tour of duty in Kuwait during Desert Storm and ended in 2010 when he was forced to take medical retirement.

She says that she doesn't accept HOA members' claims that their new home is too small for the area, as there are other properties in the development that are even smaller. She took particular umbrage to the association's request that they add a second floor to the home.

"My husband doesn't need that. He's wheelchair bound," she said.

But no matter the outcome in the Knob Hills dispute, Gonsalves said that his organization will keep their promise and build the Gittenses a new home.

"This home is about freedom and independence adapted to the Gittenses' needs," he said. "But it's also about roots. Luckily we can enjoy the [American] dream because of people like Sgt. Gittens. So who deserves it more than him?"

Gonsalves expects to make an announcement on the future of the project early this week.

UPDATE: Late on Monday, Homes for Our Troops issued a press statement in which Sharon Gittens confirmed that she will be leaving the Knob Hill development. The Gittenses are currently exploring other options in the area. John Gonsalves, president of Homes for Our Troops, has agreed to continue the project in a new location.

Fun with friends, more canning, wishful sewing and old activities new again.

2011-06-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

Mrs Laughing Duck and myself had the BEST time while she was here! We talked as hard as we could the whole time. We sewed, we shopped, we had wine. Yep it was a wonderful visit! Sorry, no we did not take any pictures again this time.

Our main air conditioner went out while Mrs Laughing Duck was here, sighhh... we have three units on this house. But the biggest one that does the biggest section of the house died, so we wound up having to take a mattress upstairs to the sewing room for one night so she had AC. Ummm at over 100 I didn't want to cook her a live with no AC. What we hoped would be a easy fix turned into a new AC unit! Sighhhh. I swear they don't make anything worth a darn anymore! That AC unit was 7 count them yes 7 years old! We have had the same AC people for quite some time so we trusted them. Honeyman also got the chance to show it to another AC person as it was in the back of his truck to be dumped and that AC guy said the same thing. toss it its not worth fixing with whats wrong with it.... I recently read on a couple other peoples blogs about all the new stuff they had bought over the last several years and how so much of it has broke and been replaced. Its epidemic I tell you. Nothing last anytime anymore... :O(... What used to last 20-25 plus years will break in 3 now. or 5 its just awful I tell you!

I am starting to get a little tired ... not complaining mind you, very grateful for a good garden this year! Just saying I am canning all day every day or dehydrating or both LOL. This next week we are looking at over 100 every day, up to 106 AOL weather was saying this morning when I checked. That will most likely finish the garden. Except the two rows I think I can keep under cover. My Sweet Potatoes and Peppers are under that cover. Sweet potatoes take a long summer to make.

I canned tomatoes all day Friday and then I went out to pick tomatoes and replaced all the ones I had just canned LOL.

Breakfast table covered.

Eat in bar covered.

My sewing list for when canning is done is getting rather large. I have drapes to make, clothes I want to make and a few other things on my brain I would like to give a go at. I am looking forward to having the time to do all of these things! :O)...Quilts are always started and there are always a gazillion more quilts I want to start so those go without saying LOL.

I am running at daylight with this heat but the main thing is I am running. I have to admit I have had a few days where I have felt so pressured for time I let it keep me from running! I know shocking, I had a stern talk with myself about this. Health and fitness come first! I am also adding weight lifting back into my exercise routine. At one point I was pretty serious about the whole weight lifting thing. Back when we lived in town and I had a a trainer. I think I might like to go there again, but I will be doing it at home myself. I have thought about it off and on for the last several years but it didn't seem to stick. I feel it might this time. I know your thinking and you have time to do this when......Well I will find it! I had told honeyman I would like to get back into weight lifting and he came with this for me, ummm we won't talk about the fact that it semi fell out of the back of the truck on the freeway coming home because well honeyman just never ties anything down in the truck unless I am with him and its the only way he can get me to hush is to tie down what we are hauling. Needless to say I was not with him when he got this and so of course he didn't tie it down LOL... A few scratches but over all it survived...Mrs Laughing Duck and I had a good rolling eye moment over our boys over this. We had a good rolling eye moment over her boys too while she was here. Seems boys will be boys LOL.

I still have my old lifting gloves :O)... yes those itty bitty weights you see are what I am starting with LOL. But you know its not the amount of weight you lift, its the form and control you lift with!

Oh yes one more thing, I did can a batch of the eggplant tapanade (dip) that Patty suggested to me and oh my gosh, if your looking to can eggplant that is so a winner! Honeyman wound up stealing a bowl of it and eating it before I could get it in the jars! He loved it. As do I.... Thanks Patty!

Its a race to the finish and a yummy and company!

2011-06-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry for so long between post. I have been canning all day pretty much every day! This is a good thing :O).
I have done
Caramelized Vidalia Onions

Tomatoes and more tomatoes.

and many more waiting to be canned and on the vines if I can keep the sun from ruining them. Its been a good year here for tomatoes!

More Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing

More Summer Squash Soup

Ketchup

My garden is almost done. More tomatoes are out there, again if I can just keep the sun from blistering them. Which I will make tomato sauce and can some more plain tomatoes from.

Some melons are coming off now. A honeydew type that is yellow striped, they are small but very sweet and tasty.

I still have peppers hate to repeat myself but IF I can keep the sun from frying them. I have bigger peppers this year than I have ever had before! The hard part is my peppers got off to a slow start and now its 100-104 every day. The wind has been bad and my crippled row covers are barely staying up. If I can't keep them up the peppers just blister and then of course they will rot. grrrr.

But over all I can see my canning days coming to a end for this season within a couple weeks.

I dehydrated 24 of the fairy tale eggplants. They are the skinny smaller ones so it sounds like a ton 24. It was a good amount but not like if it had been 24 of the big black ones. Its about the only way I know to preserve eggplants. You just re-hydrate them in say eggplant parm. As I was cutting and slicing those for the dehydrator I did a little tasting and you know these fairy tale variety are good raw. I know, I know your all going ewww.. but no they would be very good cut up in a salad. Their texture is a bit different and they have a pleasant taste to them.

This is one of the best baked tofu recipes I have ever cooked!

Has a nice crusty outer skin and a good texture inside.

One block tofu firm or extra firm pressed to get the water out. I use my tofu press for this but you can use what ever method you usually use to press your tofu.

Slice into 1" cubes

Put tofu in bowl add 1 tablespoon grape seed or olive oil.

Gently toss to coat.

Add

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp garlic pwd

1/2 tsp onion pwd

Salt and pepper

Toss gently again to coat..

Place in a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.. put in preheated 400 degree oven for 40 minutes total. At the half way point turn the tofu over.

You can use this same method and use any coatings you like. This is a endless possibility recipe! Just prepare the tofu and then add what ever you like spice wise! Follow baking directions.

I picked out a piece of fabric for another shirred top and well that is as far as I have had time to get with that. I haven't even had time to run the fabric through the washer yet. But once canning season is over I have big plans for my sewing!

The best news of all of this is......

I have company coming :O) tomorrow!!!! Yep Mrs Laughing Duck... I am sooo excited!

Finished the shirred top

2011-06-11T17:37:00.000-07:00

Finally I finished my shirred top! From the Honeygirl Pattern. Sewing with the elastic thread has its quirks but over all it was a good project. I changed the ruffle as it was just to wide and to floppy. I wound up doing one half the width by just folding over the original and taking out half the width with about a 1 1/4 seam. I then pressed that seam flat uncut on the back of the ruffle. I am not sure that is very clear but not sure how else to say that and I didn't get a photo. I left the extra fabric back there to give the ruffle some stiffness hoping it would have a little better shape. It did and I would do the same thing again. Plus it created a cute little layered point at the bottom of the ruffle. I like the covered buttons, but then I just love covered buttons on anything.

Now the shirring itself, its a little quirky to sew as the material does start to gather as your sewing your rows. A walking foot is for sure a big help in this situation. I suggest using that. I put the 1/4 " elastic in the top/hem casing as the pattern said. I didn't like it. It just seem to throw the fit off. I put it in two times thinking I had got it to tight maybe the first time.. No I just didn't care for the look and fit it created. Plus I thought it took away some of the look of this type top to not have that self ruffle you usually see. So I took that 1/4" elastic out of the top hem which then created the little self ruffle.

This pattern also had you start sewing from the bottom of the shirring area and work your way to the top. Well to me that seemed backwards. But I did it that way because it said to. Next time I will start at the base of the top hem so it has the self ruffle and I will work my way down. Because..... when doing it the other way your top ruffle area won't be totally straight because there is some movement as you sew your rows and it gathers. In my opinion it would be better to have that end out at the bottom full skirt part where it wouldn't even be noticeable.. Not at the top where you have a 1/2 inch hem?

Speaking of hem, I added a band of the purple Swiss Dot to bottom of the shirt just to tie in the fabric more with the bias tape, covered buttons and straps.. Oh speaking of bias tape, I actually got it on in a manner I was happy with it! First time for everything... What I did was I used a decorative stitch instead of trying to use a straight stitch. I knew if I tried to straight stitch that on I wouldn't like it LOL. I picked a stitch that I could use part on and part off the edge of the bias tape. Why didn't I think of this before! If you click on the photo and blow it up you can see the stitch I used on the bias tape. This was before I took half the width out of the ruffle, this was the original pattern size of it.

The elastic thread itself is easy to work with as far as actually sewing. I had no issues at all with my machine sewing with it. Don't forget to hand wind your bobbin. Not super tight but not sloppy loose.

I did the best I could getting photos, ok you gals whose sewing blogs I read I finalllllly have a finish! :O).

I finally did it and I didn't blow up the kitchen

2011-06-11T12:46:00.000-07:00

So today I used my pressure canner! Remember when my friend Mrs Laughing Duck came to visit me and we figured out how to use my given to me pressure canner, as it was missing the manual. Which was actually very funny, we got such a chuckle out of the whole thing. Well up to this point I had not actually canned anything with it (chicken you know)... Well today was the day! A over abundance of Yellow Squash forced me into pressure canner territory. We just only need so many jars of Summer Pickles which can be hot water bathed canned, though we love them I think I have us covered on those. Plus I want to can beans!

So I did Summer Squash/veggy Soup. It has Onions, carrots, potatoes, summer squash. Salt and Pepper. Veggy broth and water. When your ready to eat it, you add milk or cream maybe a little butter and heat it up. In my case it will be plain unsweetened almond milk and veggy butter. So what you have is Cream of Summer Squash soup ready to eat at a moments notice!

Mrs Laughing Duck held my hand via Skype nearly the whole time for petes sake.. But she is nice like that and just hung in there with me. A very good friend indeed! I was a nervous wreck which is normal for me when I am doing something new. I wish I was not like this but well I am... But I think now that I have actually used this and didn't blow up the kitchen or anything like that. I will not be near as nervous next time!

Honeyman and I ate a big bowl a piece of it just like this without adding any dairy to it to make it cream of, its just good as a veggy soup too! I filled the canner with all it would hold jar wise in pints.. Then we decided to eat the rest for lunch and dinner today :O)... It must be good if honeyman is eating it :O)... Whats not to like its all veggies!

2011-06-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

These photos are the best I could do. I was to lazy to drag the ladder to the porch, besides that might have startled them. Wouldn't have wanted them to fall out of the nest jumping around because I scared them! There is a nest every year in this same spot on the exact same rock on our front porch. That rock juts out a bit and must just be the perfect bird nest foundation.

Not sure what kind they are but aren't they cute. They might be the same kind TexWisGirl over at The Run around Ranch Report showed a pic of on her blog, given we live in the same general area that makes sense..But I am not sure.

I could see what looked like 4-5 babies... Talk about crowded in that nest LOL. They are also making a horrible mess on my front porch pooping on it LOL. Oh well when they leave it can be cleaned.

I don't think they are big enough to fly yet. But they are getting close. They were actually sleeping when I took the photos. They didn't seem to care I was climbing up a chair to take their picture. They didn't even open their eyes. I guess they were full and napping?

This one was sleeping dangerously right on the edge of the nest!

Lunch is served

2011-06-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

I made myself a big salad for lunch. Romaine lettuce, red and yellow tomatoes, cucumber, banana pepper, and yellow squash all from our garden... and then to top it off... well of course the home made Vadalia dressing!

mmmm....

Now to eat this and get back to my canner! :O)

Canning Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing

2011-06-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

Yep that's right, I canned salad dressing! I did use a recipe from canning book authors! But my previous disclaimer stands. I am just posting the recipes I am using. :O), so you guys do with as you will :O).

I was really tickled to find this as I just cringe every time I buy a bottle of salad dressing anymore. Mercy sakes that stuff is like gold. It seems unless your willing to use a bottle of non food, non nutritive, chemical gunk as your salad dressing they want nearly 5.00 a bottle. I like to be able to pronounce what is in my salad dressing and I like it to be food :O), call me crazy LOL

So here is the recipe and who made it etc.......Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing by Patricia Telesco with Jeanne P Maack they have a canning book out called "The Everything Canning and Preserving Book" All you need to know to enjoy natural, healthy foods year round.

No I do not own this book but I am considering it after tasting this recipe and given you don't usually find canning recipes for odd things like salad dressing. I stumbled onto this recipe on a site that was advertising their book.

It taste really good to me. But then my favorite type salad dressings are always Oil and Vinegar Italian style. I like a vinegar wang to my dressings or sweet and sour wang.. This has a sweet and sour vinaigrette type thing going. Most tasty. The only negative I can give you is, its not as thick as I would like it to be. I am sure that is because the recipe only uses 4 tbls of oil in the batch of dressing. I know there is a product out there made for thickening canned products, but its a chemical product that I am just not going to put in our food, kind of would defeat part of my reasoning for canning if I did that. :O)

So what I am going to do is... when I open up a jar of this I will add say 1/4 cup grapeseed or olive oil to it in my little salad dressing carafe shake it up and wha la.. I think that will make the consistency perfect and will not alter the flavor. You have to shake up oil and vinegar dressing every time you eat them anyway so no biggy.

Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing by Patricia Telesco with Jeanne P. MaackIf you like garlic and onion, try substituting minced garlic for the Herbes de Provence in this recipe.

1. In a small saucepan, stir together first seven ingredients. Add grated Vidalia onion.

2. Add the extra-virgin oil and vinegars; whisk together to blend. ( I actually used my emerson blender to mix it up good)

3. Heat on medium 3–4 minutes, stirring constantly. ( In order to get this good and hot at least on my stove it takes more than 3-4 minutes)

4. Ladle hot dressing into sterilized jars. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rims; cap and seal. ( I tried to keep it stirred good while I was ladling it into the jars. So the oil wouldn't separate)

5. Process in water-bath canner 15 minutes.

•MAKES 1 QUART

•INGREDIENTS
•2 cups Splenda or granulated ( I used sugar)
•sugar
•2 teaspoons onion powder
•2 teaspoons dry mustard
•2 teaspoons celery seed
•2 teaspoons Herbes de Provence or finely grated Garlic ( I used the garlic)
•½ teaspoon sea salt
•½ teaspoon coarsely ground
black pepper
•1 large Vidalia onion, grated
very finely and dried. (my onion had about 1 tbls of juice I dumped it all in the mix)
•4 tablespoons extra-virgin
olive oil
•2 cups white vinegar
•½ cup aged balsamic vinegar

Sweet Onion Onions are an ancient vegetable, but the Vidalia variety has only been around for about seventy years. In 1931, a Georgia farmer named Mose Coleman discovered his onions were sweet. He took his unique onions to the farmers market during the 1940s, boosting their popularity. Now Vidalias are so popular they have their own festival.

Canning Rotel

2011-06-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

Ok so technically I can't call this Rotel, you know copyright and all.. But I can tell you this taste exactly like Rotel... One would ask why I am so sure it taste exactly like it. Welllll cuz I opened a can of Rotel when I was making this is how LOL. I used it as my taste testing guide ROFL ;o)...

So here is my disclaimer:
I was asked to post this recipe and I am always happy to share so I am :O) but with my disclaimer LOL...I did use a canning recipe for this Rotel, BUT that recipe had green bell peppers and onions in the recipe. Wellllll if you look at the ingredients on a can of Rotel neither of those is in it. I didn't want Salsa I wanted Rotel... Soooo I left those out. I used all the acid ingredients that were in the recipe. You apparently don't want to lower your acid levels in a recipe by either adding to many low acid foods or such.. The two ingredients I left out would not have lowered the acid level if anything it may have raised it some leaving them out. Now having said all that I am comfortable with what I did and so I did it.... I am just saying up front to you all I didn't have this tested at a lab okay ROFL... I am pretty cautious when it comes to canning and have tried to get a good understanding of how this all works food safety wise. But again I am telling you I altered the original recipe by leaving out green bell peppers and onions. So do with this as you like :O). Oh I also added an extra 1/2 tbls more salt and the 1/2 cup of water!

I can tell you it totally taste just like Rotel! As a matter a fact I ate so much of the Canned one and the one I was making adding ingredients slowly in amount to reach this recipe that I gave myself heart burn getting the taste just right ROFL. But I do love Rotel so what a nice reason to get heart burn, LOL

1 gallon tomatoes (skinned and chopped)

10 large jalapenos or I would say 12-14 regular ones (chopped small)

3/4 cup vinegar

1/8 cup sugar

2 tbls of salt

1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients bring to a boil then turn down and simmer for 30 minutes. Put in hot sterilized jars Process for 15 minutes in a boiling HWB.

How much can be crammed into one day! :O)

2011-06-08T07:16:00.000-07:00

Dill relish. Its so very good! Its a combo of cucumbers, zucchini a dab of onion, white wine vinegar, dill seed, tumeric and a tiny dab of sugar. Honeyman and I both like dill relish better than sweet relish. I do believe this recipe nailed it....Its a keeper.

Right now I am meeting myself coming and going.

Getting up early to run due to heat, which means I have to get myself to bed eariler! The garden is taking quite a bit of my time :O) which is fine as we are enjoying the fresh produce. I am so enjoying the canning as well! Next year we will have installed our drip irrigation! This is going to save me several hours a day. Yes hours. I water by hand now a few hours a day.

I am still trying to work in sewing in where I can LOL. It seems to be getting the short end of the deal lately. I almost have that shirred top finished! Add that to goat care, chicken care, keeping the house in some sort of order. Oh and lets don't forget laundry :O). How two people can create as much laundry as we do is just a mystery to me.

Its all good stuff :O), I am just trying to keep up! As you can see nothing super exciting to post about. Just checking in :O).

Today I am canning something new for me, Rotel! I love Rotel so I hope this recipe is good! Will let ya'll know if its a keeper!

Hot temps have hit the garden

2011-06-05T09:22:00.000-07:00

Its a race now, how long can I keep the garden going before it burns up. We put the shade covers back up on our very damaged hoop rows yesterday. We are hitting 98-100 now. The storms we had this year completely destroyed one hoop row frame. They damaged all of them and we fixed them all once and then poof got hit with another storm. We are going to go with metal frames, but have to find a pipe bender first and then will just do them as we can. Metal will be much more expensive than PVC. The shade covers are so worth it when we start getting this Texas heat. I am just now starting to get produce, if I didn't cover the rows the plants would soon burn up completely. Some of my plants now are not under covers, they will make till they burn up.

I am pleased with the garden this year, though it has been a battle. The moles were taking our plants faster than I could replace them at one point. I lost 20 tomato plants to them, I have lost count of how many pepper plants but its 25 plus. They have killed a cherry bush plant, a elder berry plant, all of my holly hocks, they ate all the bulbs but my Amaryllis that I put in last year which was a ton of bulbs. They got most of my chard this year! Well the list just goes on and on. We have them under control now but are still battling the little demons.

Then my tomatoes got a fungus early on, I got some organic spray for it and it cleared them up. Then my Sans Marsano tomatoes (paste type) got blossom end rot. I have this issues every time I try to grow a Roma or paste type tomato. Obviously my dirt is lacking calcium. (I will work on that) I got some liquid calcium and have sprayed them several times and poof it fixed that isssue!! Woowhoo cuz my San Marsano tomatoes are loaded! I have 40 of those so I was really going to be bummed if I could not get that turned around...

One of my Rosemary bushes and some Mums. I just love Mums they are so dependable aren't they. I have put in several more Rosemary bushes in differnt rows. I am finding them to be the most excellent bug control!

My first year to grow sweet potatoes. They are finally starting to take off. These take a long summer to grow so I have read. No problem we have that :O).

Some Big old Green Bell Peppers. I don't usually have super big green bells. This year they are huge! A lot of my other peppers are just not doing much. But the green bells are trying to make up for them.

Peppers, Mums and some tomatoes.

More tomatoes

More tomatoes :).. yes I planted a ton of tomatoes!

Spaghetti Squash are doing well. Have quite a few this year on the vines.

Some very late cucumber vines. My first cucumbers just didn't do squat.. So I replanted very late. We will see if I get cucumbers or not! Well ones that are not bitter anyway. Have my fingers crossed!

Yellow Squash plants and they are making very well. I picked 11 just this morning.

Kind of proud of this tomato LOL its really big for me. I have some of the nicest sized tomatoes I have ever had this year. Given what a rough start my plants got with the disease that hit them, I am tickled to have so many tomatoes on the vines.

These are yellow squash and Zucchini, my Zuchs are just not there yet but they have blooms. I am hoping they will make. I have more under the shade cover rows and I am glad. These two rows are the ones that the hoop frames were totally destroyed by storms. With the temps hitting right at 100 now. We will see how long they can hold on.

Jalapeno pepper plants. The moles got over half of what I planted. I planted 24 plants.

My eggplants are all loaded! I planted several kinds, but as it turns out 4 of them turned out to be the exact same kind. Obviously the tags were wrong in the pots at the store where I got my seedlings. Oh well they are doing realllllly good so that works for me.

All in all I am tickled pink with the garden. Gardening in Texas is hard at its best. LOL. We have had a long spring this year and it really gave the plants a chance. Though it also slowed down growth on some things. So now just as my garden starts to really produce of course the Texas heat hits. LOL... I think we are done with the spring storms since we are now hitting temps we are. So if I can keep the shade covers up on my damaged hoop frames then I should get lots of goodies. We have some of the shade covers being help up by T-pots Honeyman put in yesterday. Its a pretty rigged situation but it will work for now. I have to crawl under part of it to water ROFL... Thats okay I can crawl! I want those veggies!

Canning and Kitchen Gadget Review.

2011-06-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

So the canning begins

6 pints of tomatoes

8 pints of summer squash pickles.

ya they are floating a bit, oh well such is life, they will taste excellent no matter!

Are these the cutest jars you have ever seen! Better Homes and Gardens from Walmart. I LOVE these jars!

You can't see but they have a raised criss cross design on the jar and on the front it says Better Homes and Gardens and it also gives the oz. numbers and ml numbers down each side in raised design. Cuteness I tell you just pure cuteness!

Love this jar gripper! Or Jar lift maybe is the right name. I got this at Tractor Supply. They are made by Ball and let me tell you they are far superior to what I had! I was having a difficult time operating the old kind. Maybe I am jar gripper or lifter challenged? But never the less this baby solved that problem. It is spring loaded so operates with one hand and it grips the jar so great! No worries your going to drop the jar. They don't slip around on it at all! Worth the price, in my book you betcha 9.99.

This is not a canning related kitchen item, but this is a very handy kitchen gadget, IF you eat a lot of tofu. What is it you ask? Well its a tofu press of course. Being vegetarian I eat quite a bit of tofu (always buy organic tofu but that is another post) usually you wound up pressing tofu before you use it to get all the water out. Yes you can wrap it in a couple or three kitchen towels and put books on it or a brick.. yep you sure can. But this baby presses the water out so much faster and so much better and without messing up three kitchen towels. Over priced yep it sure is! Would I buy it again after owning it now for over a year, yes I sure would. Do I still think its overpriced for the materials used to make it, yes I sure do.. Do I think its worth buying price wise for what it does, yes I do IF you eat a lot of tofu. If you only eat one or two blocks of tofu a year then just press it in kitchen towels as this baby retails for 39.95.. I know its shocking what this cost. But if you eat a lot of tofu you will LOVE this... I probably would have never bought this if I had not had Amazon Gift Rewards to spend LOL. But I am so glad I did!

Give Away Winner!

2011-06-01T05:48:00.000-07:00

The winner of the kid coat from Texwisgirl at The Run A Round Ranch Report is........... Feral Female from Thoughts From A Yoedling Goat Herder!

Feral send me your snail mail and I will get this coat in the mail to you! My email addy is in the side bar of my blog :O).

Thanks to everyone for entering and Thank You to Texwisgirl for doing this give away and for helping Kezia at the same time!

Fabric Shopping in the big city

2011-05-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

Okay so I drove all the way into town today to do a little fabric shopping! JoAnns, Hancocks and Hobby Lobby had some good sales on fabrics and patterns today. I had a very nice time and found some really nice finds today!

As I have said before my sewing most of my life has not centered around clothing but more drapes and interior design and quilting. Today as I was looking for bargains to try out my clothing sewing ability, I decided to approach this as if the clothes were window treatments. If this were a window treatment how would this fabric hang, would it have enough body to create the look, would it hold the style, is it stiff enough to hang right. Etc.... so that is how I looked at fabrics. It helped me to think like this as this is how I am used to thinking.... I got several pieces of fabric today and a couple new patterns. It will be interesting to see if my thinking and approach worked out or not LOL...

I was one to push the envelope when I did Interior Design, so I probably am doing the same with picking fabrics for clothing. Your talking to a woman who used Burlap to make a dust ruffle okay.. Um after I washed it several times to give it the right texture and body. I am a over dye it, wash it or fade it what ever it needs to make it do what I want kinda gal LOL.. you get idea... So its very possible I may have made a few boo boos in choices but then again I may have made some outstanding ones that will be unique and different LOL...

I know I have said I am not a dress person and actually don't own a dress at the moment, however I have seen this dress on several sewing blogs and several people have shown photos of it on and its very pretty. I decided that I might actually wear this dress to the one dress up event I go to with my DH for his work annually. I have worn a dress a few times but usually go for dressy black slacks and a dressy top. But I like this dress. So I got the pattern which was on sale for 3.99 its Vogue 1250 and I got enough fabric on megga clearance to try making it. Very cute fabric and if my approach of thinking in terms of this dress being a window treatment works LOL , then the fabric should drape lovely and have enough body to shape the dress!

This is the pattern for the dress.

This is the fabric which I purchased for the dress which photoed absolutely horrible! I cannot get a decent photo of this fabric so I guess you will have to trust me when I say its really very pretty.....The gold flecks are subtle in real life but look overwhelming in the photo..In real life its a dark dark mossy green with almost a black under tone to it. It looks very green in the photos at least on my computer its not that green in real life its darker. The event is semi formal so it needed to be some what dressy looking. It has enough stretch it should shape up well when on, its got a really lovely drape to it so it should do the neck area well...So all in all it seemed to be a good choice for this ~~window~~ ~~treatment~~ erm I mean dress! DH loved the fabric when I showed it to him and he liked the dress pattern as well.. We will see what this looks like made up :O)!!! If its horrible I am out very little, this was a find.

Then I found a piece of material that the bolt said was 100% silk. I loved the color and pattern..... Now what to make ....

I decided on this retro Butterick robe.....I usually wear shorty robes, don't really care for long ones..... so I will decide whether I want this long or not later... the style would work short or long... Its perfect to make up into a silky material.. I got enough of it as it was a megga buy to also make a shorty night gown or tap pants and camisole set... to go with the robe. Should be a fun set. If it turns out.

I also got the pattern for a top.. Isn't that cute... Butterick and Simplicity and McCalls patterns were 99 cents today.. I mean how can you go wrong...

I got these fabrics for various projects. All such good buys and I loved each piece of fabric! You have to love JoAnns 50% of the Red Tag Clearance price sales! It takes digging and patience but there are some real deals if you look. Oh sure some of it is ikky and not good, but there are some gems if you look hard enough.

Last but not least a piece of polar fleece covered in frogs... Just could not leave this cute polar behind.

2011-05-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

So I decided to make a shirred top. Yes you can buy fabric that is already shirred though usually you see dress length material like this ... But I decided to make tops and shir the top as my quilting stash of material is just perfect for this type top! So I had endless fabric to pick from! I ordered a pattern called Honeygirl but I also found on Utube several how to videos, this one is by far the best I think. Its a little different than the pattern.

I am finding the elastic thread a tiny bit quirky to work with as you get several rows into your bodice. Its hard to keep the puckers out of the fabric. I am going to try my walking foot on the other section of this top. See if that helps or not. I was using my foot that has a ruler on it, not sure whats that's called but it made it really easy to do rows every 1/2" but did nothing to help deal with the puckering.

The elastic thread actually goes into your bobbin not on top. You hand wind the thread onto your bobbin so there is no tension on it.

I pinned this section to Tex (dressform) which is either the front or the back as they are identical. The pattern calls for 1/4" elastic in the top edge there is a casing, well I don't have any so will have to get that.... The pattern is sized small 4-6, Medium 8-10. etc. but does not give you a bust measurement to determine what size. I think its runs small for sure. I realize Tex has on a bra so that will change the fit a dab as you don't wear a bar with this top. Well you could I guess if you put wide straps where your bra straps are ... mmm now that's a thought isn't it ... I actually think this piece may wound up being the back as I got a few tiny puckers in the shirred part. Not that you can really tell with it shirred up like this but I know they are there. So if the next section is better this will be the back LOL...

Anyway this is the beginning of a top!

This is the pattern I bought. It has a pattern for the top and a dress. I am undecided if I will use the ruffle with buttons part on bodice.

This is the elastic thread. I found Create For Less online had the best price on this. I live so far out to drive all the way into a Joanns isn't practical with gas being what it is. Their shipping was reasonable as well. They also sold the pattern which really surprised me.

Nope not a shirt a Baby bib!

2011-05-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

I made these bibs for the same niece and nephew I made the fabric books for.

Back of Bib

These are the cutest little bibs. They look like shirts sort of :O). They cover their arms and lap and chest.

I alway change the back so it is open and has ties. the pattern has it as a pull over, as I have said before that makes no sense to me, pulling a bib over a babies head after it is all covered ikky with food. I mean the point is to not have food all over the little person right...So I always open the back add ties. Well that leads to a issue with the neck ribbing, that had to be made to fit as well, I curved it into the back. I am going to redraw the pattern to fit this curve as it doesn't and its kind of a eye puzzle doing it when the bib body is square and the neck band is square as well from the original pattern but then your doing a curved collar. So will redraw those pieces curved to fit each other. It will make it faster for me in the long run :O).

The original pattern is Sew Baby F854. It says this bib will fit 6 months to 2 years. It only makes one size so I assume they mean this size fits that range. I have made a couple of these for other nieces and I have changed it a little every time I make it. I am happier with this version than any of the rest. I think I may actually be done changing it.

I made these from polar fleece, they live in Nebraska. I figured a nice warm bib would be something different. Plus polar is so darn soft isn't it. I serged the edges even though polar won't ravel I figured it looked decorative. (Used my new serger, it came!) The pattern has you doing bias tape trim on all the edges :O(. I am just not ever happy with bias trim when I put it on something. it looks great on one side but then the other side not so great. so I avoid bias trim if at all possible :O). Yep the little piece of the polka dot polar I had left from making the kids coats was just enough to make this bib, though it wouldn't make another kid coat. Talk about using every last inch of a piece of fabric!

Now I just need to get the books and bibs wrapped and in the mail!

Next sewing project, a top for me!

New kid born today,

2011-05-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

We have another new kid! A very large Doe! Kid and Mom doing great. Sassy is one of our larger goats so her kids are larger than our little Nannys. But she is not large as in full size dairy goat large...She had just the one and I think it was taking up every bit of room there was to be had, so good thing just one :O). No name yet, any ideas? OH we did name our last kid Yentl credit goes to Hoe Hen Inn she suggested that name :O)... so we need another girl name.

I know hard to believe this is a new born as of just a few hours ago! She is a sturdy husky built girl :O).

There is still time to enter the Kid coat give away! Two post back, so go enter :O).

New Serger Sewing Machine and Memories

2011-05-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

My over 20 year old serger died :o( in the last few weeks. Have a new one on the way should arrive this week. I am excited I must say.... But I am sorry to see my old one not working. It has never failed me in over 20 years! Now that's saying something for a serger as they can be cranky machines. At some point when I am in town I will take it to a repair place. I am doubting it can be fixed as its so old getting parts I am sure won't be possible. I see what the problem is. There is a part that is now sliding up the shaft on it that should not be. Apparently after all these years something has broken on it. Its a odd brand as well so who knows. It was sold through JCPenny.

When my over 20 year old Kenmore regular sewing machine stopped working I took it to Sears, they couldn't get parts for it anymore they said. So they said they could not fix it. I was so sad. My honeyman got that machine for me our first Christmas together :O). I was so blown away and thrilled! It sits in my closet as I just can't throw it out even though it can't be fixed and will not sew. Funny I don't get attached to objects as a rule. But that machine well I just can't toss it. When I think of opening that package and seeing that machine I was beside myself. I had never had a brand new machine before. I had some used ones I had got for like 20 dollars at a garage sale. Since I had been sewing since I was a kid. I had been through a few cranky garage sale machines and had been loaned a machine once for a while by someone who said keep this at your place I don't use it anymore. My Grandma had a machine she let me use as a kid, whew it was cranky too LOL, someone had given it to her... So anyway I opened that box Christmas to see a brand new machine that would do 12 stitches! It also did a buttonhole! Now for those of you who sew you know that is almost comical given how many stitches they will do now. Even the basic most least expensive machine you can buy will do lots these days. But back then that wasn't true. Anyway I will never forget opening my first Christmas present from my Honeyman and it was my first brand new sewing machine! I sewed on that machine happily and a ton for a bit over 20 years. ......A few years later I got the serger with money I made using my new machine honeyman had got me :O).

So back to the new serger.... I did some research on sergers within what I wanted to spend and the features I wanted to get on it. I found this Brother 1034 D. Between Amazon and the Walmart web site there were nearly 800 reviews on this machine to read. It has a almost five star rating on both sites. like 4. 75... I read many of the reviews some this was their first serger and they loved it, some had been using sergers many years and they loved it. I was hard pressed to find anything really negative about it...It does the flat lock stitch which I am tickled to get as back when I bought my old one, serger home machines didn't have that. Well not ones I could afford anyway :O). I think with my new interest in clothing sewing that flat lock will be fun to have... Back then I wouldn't probably have even wanted that as I did Interior Design sewing mostly with my serger.

To all you gals that use a serger. Have any of you ever tried the wooly serger thread from http://www.threadart.com/

Its a good price just wondering if the thread is good?

Give Away!!

2011-05-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

Give Away!!!
Yes a polka dotted kid coat give away!

You guys all know I had four red polka dotted kid coats up for sale for Kezia's Fundraiser right... Okay well ya'll also know they sold! THANK YOU to everyone....

Texwisgirl over at The Run *A* Round Ranch Report Blog who lives fairly close to me though I have never met her in person, she bought one of the coats to help Kezia even though she doesn't have goats or small dogs. Her doggies are large! Then she told me to do a Give Away with it, yes can you believe that. Now come on how nice is that!!!! She has some really pretty horses too but well they surely couldn't wear the coat. So I said I would be happy to do the give away on her behalf!

You guys really need to check out her blog, she takes some of the most awesome photos of birds and other things you have ever seen. Now I am talking reallllly nice photos here. Lots and lots of birds and she gives the proper names to them. I use her as my reference library for bird identification since we live in the same general area of Texas. I am really bad at not knowing what bird is which. Okay I know a cardinal when I see one LOL and a blue jay but we really do get some neat feathered friends here and I don't know what a lot of them are called. I usually wound up calling them the big grey one etc. LOL. Now I know the big grey one is a Blue Heron. The big white one is a Egret :O)... She is good to only laugh a tiny bit at me and further my bird education as she does so....She gets these fabulous wild ducks Whistling Ducks that my honeyman would LOVE to see at our pond but for some reason they don't visit us... shhhhh but I have it on good authority she is bribing them with food! Of course we don't get any here to even get a chance at bribing them... mmmmm... Which maybe because they are all at her place! tee hee

So you guys can thank Texwisgirl for this kid coat Give Away because this coat belongs to her and she has decided to give it away!

To enter leave me a comment that you would like to be entered in the drawing and you must go over and check out Texwisgirl's blog, leave her a comment you tootled over there from here :O)... then poof your entered. You will enjoy the visit, so many great photos!

You have till May 30th to enter. I will do a random drawing and announce the winner May 31st!

Fun Sewing

2011-05-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

I made these fabric books for our niece and nephew who are expecting a baby! I think they are so cute! Little fabric books. I don't know why I never made these for baby gifts before! Since we never had children I am not always up on things. But these I would have so made for my own kids, if I had any LOL.

I love books, I love to read and these are so perfect to give to a new little person just getting to the world. Get them off on the book note right away!

The books are soft and have several pages each, the pages have batting in them so they are soft for the little person.

The colors and pictures are so great in these books!

Pages inside the Three Little Pigs Story Book!

Pages inside the Mother goose book.

ROFL okay so you people with kids are thinking, UMmm yes dear these have been around a long time. Tee Hee ...This is the first time I have made them or seen them up close and personal all made up! This is my new favorite baby gift to make! I am sure I will be making more of these as I need baby gifts.

New kid, but almost not

2011-05-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

We have a new kid!! A doe :O). Sadie kidded this morning. Her first kid and it was big for her! It was a rough delivery.

Honeyman just happened to be home late this morning as he just got back in town late last night.

Between Sadie, me and honeyman we got the new kid here. I really thought it was dead when we finally got it out into the world. I did with it what I did with Rubix when he was born and appeared to not be breathing. I got the stuff of its head, mouth and nose.. then I opened its mouth and blew air into it several times and like Rubix it finally gasp one big breath and with that it was going! Now I can say I really have no idea if this is why either of them started breathing but I thought it was certainly worth a try with this little one too! She is like all other kids so darn cute!! She may not look it in these pictures but she was a lot of kid for Sadie to have and on her first time.

At one point I really thought we were about to head to the Vet's, the kid was so big and I just was not able to get in there much because the kid was taking up all the room. As I told Mrs. Laughing Duck this morning, this is where having little hands and long fingers came in most handy! I will spare you the gory details. Mom has been hard at work cleaning her up non stop for a while. I have seen the new kid (no name yet) nursing too! This always makes my day when I see that is going well! Milk is flowing and kid is eating. Mom and kid doing good! What more can you ask for!

If ikky in pictures upset you, you might not want to look. I didn't realize till just now all my photos have a little ikky in them ....

So meet the new kid on the farm.

Lick me on the face Mom I like that :O)...

Look at me I can stand up!

Yep I like being licked on the back too.

Okay lick my head some more.

Fundraiser UPDATE, more wonderful goodies!

2011-05-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

We are on a roll now!

UPDATE: Here is the link to Claire's post on her blog Wispering Acres she and Lucky Nickel are offering many items!! She has her hand made, hand dyed, Artisan fiber and yarns! Fiber for making yarn for you spinners, she also has yarn already spun for those that knit and crochet but don't spin! She has two online shops to pick anything you want and all the proceeds go to Kezia's surgery fund and she is paying the shipping folks! Be sure to put in the "message to seller" area that its for Kezia so she will know :O)...There is more, she also has in this post some really pretty bracelets for the fundraiser as well! Ya'll run on over there and see if there is something you can use! As one of my readers said to me she was thinking Christmas gifts. Soaps, fiber, yarns, jewelry, kid coats, anyone on your Christmas list that would enjoy these items!

You have the rest of May to do a little shopping!

A sample of Claire's gorgeous fiber and yarn! I snagged these photos, I think it will be okay :O)... The first one is fiber to make yarn from. Are those gorgeous colors or what!

This next one is yarn ready to use, Could you see this in a sweater? I so could! Well that is if I knit, tee hee but you knitters I bet are thinking ewww sweater!

Again we have home made goat milk soaps as well, from the Maaaaa of Priciilla! She has many wonderful shapes and sizes and lots of yummy scents! And don't forget the kid coats! :O)...

Thanks to everyone for participating and for all the good wishes on the fundraiser! We appreciate it very much!

UPDATE to UPDATE all four kid coats have sold!!!! Thank You!!!

Okay here they are... UPDATED

2011-05-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

Update two coats sold.... THANK YOU guys!
Sharon your set at no reply :O). email me at Sprig2@aol.com and I will email you back :O)..

Okay guys I have a picture of the kid coats I have for sale for Kezia's fundraiser!. As mentioned in previous post all the money for these will go to Kezia's surgery fund. I have four of these adorable Red background with multi colored polka dots kid coats for sale! Can you just see a kid hopping around in one of these :O). I will pay the postage too!. I will ship them to the USA or Canada. I don't happen to have any small kids to model them right now so the coat is just sitting on my desk :O).

If you were thinking of getting some kid coats now would be a great time and you get to help Kezia too! Plus you get a bargain as well!

Till the end of the month of May 2011 you can purchase one or all four kid coats for 9.00 each. My regular price on kid coats is 12.00 each plus shipping. I am putting these four up for 9.00 each and I pay the shipping! If you want to donate more than that, that is super. There are only four of these. I do not have anymore of this polka dotted polar fleece material. I will go by first contact on the sale so if you leave your comment first saying you want one or all.... or email me direct Sprig2@aol.com . That is how they will sell. I will update my blog just as soon as they are sold so you all know.

This is Kringle from the Maaaaa of Pricilla wearing the same style and size kid coat in solid red :O). So you can see how they fit the kids.

To recap this is the little pup we are trying to help out.

I am sure a lot of you follow Isobelle Go Lighty the Beautiful Goat blog. If you already read Isboelle's blog then you also know of the situation with Kezia... Her lady did not ask for help in this matter but well those of us who have taken in Rescue dogs and rescue animals know that sometimes we get more than we bargained for. By the time we know this we are so darned attach to them the only thing we can do is try to get them the help they need... and sometimes that help comes at a very hefty price tag. So some of us have decided to do a fund raiser. You can read here about Kezia issues and what type surgery she needs.

The Maaaaa of Pricilla. She has been running a fund raising soap sale since earlier in May! Donating 10% of all her sales to Kezia's surgery fund! How nice is that. So if you were thinking of getting some wonderful home made goat milk soap now is the perfect time. You get the great soap and you get to help Kezia too!

This next paragraph I copied from The Maaaaa of Pricillas Blog

I have a very SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!! We have a very special goat friend Isobelle Golightly the Beautiful Goat. She has a blog too! Lately she has told the tale of her lady's little dog, Kezia. Poor little Kezia needs an operation and it's a very expensive one so a lot of us goats on the Internet (and some humans too) are getting together to try and help raise some money. So for the next month (from 5/3 to 6/3) 10% of all of Pricilla's soap sales will go towards Kezia's surgery. So now is the time to shop!

Also as soon as Claire from Wispering Acres can get settled in some what she is going to have some of her hand made yarn for sale as well! Claire has just moved to Canada and is trying to get in her new house on her new farm! Lucky Nickel made the trip with Claire in the car! Yes hows that for something. A goat rides all the way to Canada in a car and wearing clothes no less! Everything went pretty well at the border and the border Vet and border people just loved Lucky Nickel. Whew that was good... so over the border Lucky went with Claire! Okay there was just a ton more to it then that but you can read alllllll about it on their blog! Its actually pretty involved taking an animal over the USA and Canadian border! But the good news is Lucky Nickel didn't get held up and went right on over with Claire :O)...

Now about our house project, the floors are in and cleaned up and we are moved back in the house. Well almost, still a little more to do there but for the most part we are back in :O). We love the floors.. We also had the two wood stove installed this last Wed. So those are done. They are so great we just love them!

This first photo is the living room stove!! You can see some of the new floor too! I have no idea why the color is so terribly off in these photos but well it is lol

This second photo is the stove in the master bedroom and bathroom, we had it put inside the see through fireplace!

I am ready to get the rest of the moving back in done and get back to my normal daily life! Whew....

We are getting there...bit more info on fundraiser

2011-05-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Still have to put the rock back on the front of the fireplace where we tore out the raised hearth. The Wood stove will be sitting in front of the fireplace where the raised hearth was. We also still have all the stone grout through out the house to put back at the floor level where we tore it out to install the floor. I am cleaning the baseboards, walls, window seals, well you name it so we can move everything back in. Was a very dirty project. But so worth it!

I will put more info up on the fundraiser for Kezia in the next few days. But basically if you would like to offer something for sale on your blog then its that easy to participate, then you would mail the item to the person who buys it. Then you would send the funds to Kezia's Mom. I think this will be the simplest way to do this. Or you can participate by checking all the blogs with items and see if there is something you could use or need. I will post a list of all the blogs that are putting up items. So if you want to put up items email me and I will add you to the list. What if we all list our items on say May 15th, I am not sure if Claire will be able to make that date, as I said she is in the process of moving. But she can list her lovely yarns as soon as she is able :O)....Its my understanding Kezia's Mom has some items for sale as well but they are rather large so you would need to be local for pick up. More info to come...

We are getting there, and fundraiser info

2011-05-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

The floors are looking wonderful! BIG project, house totally empty short of my sewing room. Been camping in here with a air mattress and way to much stuff piled everywhere. Lots of cleaning and grout sealing and, and, and yet to do...

We are thrilled with the floors! I wasn't totally prepared for every wall and baseboard and, and, and to be covered in dust and such. Oh well just think how clean the house will be when I get it all wiped down!

Oh another note:

Kezia

We figured we had some things others could use and we would see if we could help out a bit :O). I will be doing kid coats or they will fit small dogs too! Red background with different colored polka dots all over them! To cute! :O).... There will be hand made yarn by Claire and Lucky Nickel over at Whispering Acres, Claire and Lucky are in transit moving to their new farm now if you haven't been reading their adventure you should. Lucky Nickel is riding in the car with Claire wearing clothes and diapers LOL to their new farm in Canada, I am guessing the USA and Canadian border people have not seen this before ROFL ROFL, they have also drawn quite the crowds at rest stops a long the way :O) ...

Our house is tore up too LOL so we are just getting this organized. Anyone who would like to participate in this fund raiser is more than welcome to!
More information will be coming....

Update:
News just in: there will also be home made goat milk soap from Happy Goats Soap her blog is Maaaaa of Pricilla .