Spidey Sense

Our group went out to dinner tonight. There were six of us, walking the streets of downtown Ashland, Oregon. Me, falling off curbs and bumping into streetlights, gawking and twisting to soak in all the charm and sweetness, afraid I would miss something between the park and the restaurant. I was snapping pictures of everything ~ David's shoe, the hanging planters, the creek and bridge, the silverware at the restaurant...Everybody else? Behaving normally.

Story of my life.

I often whip out a camera to document some insignificant moment, because you just never know what you'll need when you keep a blog. The day I realized, in the produce aisle, that I had worn my slippers to the grocery store? Needs to be documented. The perfect pie crust, as it comes from the oven? Needs to be documented. A bowl of thread? A goofy face? Evidence that I can be a total slob? (All of these, photographed and blogged right here.)

How about a gift you made? If you don't take a picture of it before sending it on to its new home, it's like it never happened. If you're not running around taking pictures of random shit, it's like you don't even have a blog.

On Saturday, before I left for Oregon, I had a craving for a BLT sandwich. I had some bacon, and some lettuce, and I even had some tomatoes. I even thought I had bread, but when I went to toast it for my sammy, I saw that no, that's incorrect. So I made some bread. And Erik was waiting for the bread to rise (twice), cook (once) and cool (completely), before I could make the sandwiches.

That was the best BLT I've ever had. Erik agreed, completely. In fact, he made me take a picture of it before he would eat it. I often make something from scratch, rather than drive to the store to buy it, and I think it's totally normal. If I want a cookie, I bake a cookie. If I want a sandwich, I make bread. If I want cereal I make granola. If I want a quesadilla, I whip up some tortillas. It kind of frosts Erik, in a funny way. His stance is that it's "not fair". That I have so much "power", and when I don't make him cookies, bread, tortillas, granola, well, then, I'm essentially abusing the power. It's pretty subtle, because it really comes down to the fact that it's not fair if he only gets the food when I feel like making or eating it. In a perfect world, I would make the food when he wants to eat it, whether or not I was personally interested in it. He likes to remind me that with great power, comes great responsibility.

I'm such a sucker.

Mia Goddess Center block

Mia Goddess Center block
Originally uploaded by brit

Brit just shared the block she made for me in the Round Robin we're doing. I feel so emotional when I see her work, and read her words. Completely overwhelmed with emotion.

This seriously makes me want to run. Fast. I love it. And I love her.

Until Then

Well, I'm tired. Really, really, really tired! I worked this week, and I'm working again next week. I know, people work all the time! But these week-long professional institutes are just so much work. I work late into the night, and I'm up early-early-early in the morning. Like, no later than 5 AM kind of early. Which, no offense to any early-risers out there, but that's like the the middle of the night in my world.

I'll finish up today at the institute I'm working this week, work all afternoon and evening to make sure I have everything I need to head out of state on Sunday for the institute next week, and then try to spend Saturday nesting and snuggling and getting ready to miss this life, these littles, and that man.

I'm going to hate it.

A week isn't so bad. I'll enjoy some 'me' time in the evenings, I'm sure. I'll explore and hike in the beautiful woods, read in the bath tub, and eat entire meals without having to get up and do something for somebody else. I'll knit in the park, work hard on a sewing project, and I'll even be able to hear myself think.

I'm going to love it.

Best Kind of Project!

I've decided that this is the best kind of project! All I had to do was deliver this adorable quilt to our friend, Cynthia. Maia had to pick the fabrics, make the design, cut and sew the blocks, add the batting and backing, baste and quilt, make the binding, and, finally, attach the binding.

I had to put the blanket on the front seat of my car, hand it to Cynthia, and get a big hug for my efforts! I've decided to do all my future projects using this winning formula.

Also, I want to officially tell Maia that I already miss her, and that I've folded and put away the FOUR BASKETS OF LAUNDRY that were trapping her in our bathroom every day that she was here, so it's now SAFE TO COME BACK. Please come back!!!! :) PS: Cynthia loved the quilt!

Is It Wrong?

I'm testing a theory. I've been working on a handsewn quilting project. I'm appliqueing the individual blocks with a "botanical" theme, and I worry that it will turn out badly because a) I just learned how to do this applique thing, like, five minutes ago and b) you haven't seen anything until you've watched me try to pick the fabric for this project. The amount of brain cells I burned trying to figure out which colors, which shades of which colors, and which patterns of which shades of colors, would go together? It's not a good scene.


So, my theory was, when I get enough blocks done, the mistakes I've made in sewing and color choices will be imperceptable to the naked eye. Here are the first three blocks, which have a similar flower shape and are all done in shades of purple.

I can see now that, once again, I was right. haha I'm really happy with how they look together! What a relief!


The next set of three have daisy-like petals (instead of the posey-like petals of the previous trio) and they will be done in shades of blue. Again, when I look at this, I have to think, you know, "not so much". But I'm going with my theory, and I'll withhold judgment until I have the whole set of three complete.




Now. Tell me. Is it wrong? Is it wrong that one of the reasons I like this project so much (in addition to the meditative qualities of the sewing itself, and the gratification of a large project with so many mini-milestones) is because it's housed in this wee little basket? Do you have any idea how happy it makes me to grab this box, Little Red Riding Hood style, and go skipping off to wherever, knowing I have everything I need to pass a few minutes working?

And, also, is it wrong that one of the great joys I get from this basket is the clown car quality of the never-ending stream of supplies that it houses?






This is my 'kit' that I put together. All of this fits in my basket, which is roughly the size of two loaves of bread.







I keep wet-wipes, so I can get the peanut butter and jelly off my hands before I touch my blocks. I have a gallon ziplock bag full of threads, scissors, needles (still wrapped), and toothpicks (for tucking fabric). The thimble and pin cushion are crucial. The pin cushion holds stick pins, for piece placement, and also several needles.



I have all my blocks that I prepared ahead of time (15 of them) and all 15 patterns, ready to be transferred onto the blocks with a pencil, roughly sketched, so I know where to place my fabric pieces.

Optimus Prime is not optional. Everybody needs something to do if I want to get two minutes of sewing in.


I prepared all the fabric I'll need for the whole project, each set in it's own baggie, labeled and ready to be trimmed for sewing. I also made, for the first time ever, my own 1/4" bias tape! I made it in different shades of green, and I need it for the 'stems' of the flowers.




I am pretty sure that the preparation for this project will end up representing about 60% of the energy output for the final product. Another 10% of my energy goes toward staring at, and admiring, my basket.

Garden Update

Well, it's been awhile since I've updated about the vegetable garden. I went out last evening and took a few pictures (it was dusk-ish, please forgive the photo quality!) and pulled a couple of weeds. Even though I'm working this week, I made a mental list of things to do in the afternoons when I get home: cucumber trellis, add more mylar tapes to the plants, add some tomato composting to the tomato bed (according to my favorite source, it's a great way to replenish the nitrogen tomatoes suck out of the soil!) and some more weeding. Always with the weeding. Embrace the weeding. (In this picture, the pumpkins are in the foreground, and a 'volunteer' squash is behind it. I saw it growing from a tiny budding seedling several weeks ago. I almost pulled it, because in a raised bed, you sort of know what you put, where, and when, so any outsider could legitimately be a pest. I sort of recognized the broad, flat leaves, though, and let it go. Yep, it's some kind of squash! I would not have planted it so close to the pumpkin, nor so close to the edge of the bed, but he has a will so on he goes. He's nearly overtaken the marjoram in the far corner too!)

This picture is taken from the mid-point of the bed, looking back. That's eggplant and cucumber, and a yellow squash or two. I don't see much mylar here. Do I see any? I think no. Maybe a couple, way in the back bed on the tomatoes? At the very far right hand side of this bed, you can see a tomato plant that is officially a couple of feet high. It's definitely growing!




Here is the main garden bed at the front. More eggplant, more cucumber, a yellow squash (which may or may not be suffering from a fungus on his leaves?) and a volunteer tomato. I have no idea where it came from, but it grew from a seed, it's about a foot tall, and you can kind of see the yellow flowers it's starting to get just behind the eggplant leaf there. Again, why so close to the other plants? Why so close to the edge? le sigh.


My camera battery died before I could take a picture of the smaller tomato bed in the back, so I'll have to update that later. I've been um...complaining around here quite a bit (what?) about the cold summer we're experiencing. I got a late start on the veggie garden (first week of June, as opposed to the last week of April that I normally would do) and June was cold and gray. I've had problems with birds and deer, and so I put the mylar strips on just a couple of weeks ago, and added the terracotta pots on the garden stakes. (I think those are supposed to be kind of like scarecrows? Maybe to animals they look like people standing around in the garden?) July had a couple of hot weeks, and most afternoons have been sunny, but the mornings and nights are cold and windy. We eat outside on the patio, in sweatshirts, and move shivering into the house by the the time the sun goes below the mountains. It was drizzling this morning. Did I mention the complaining?










So, the point is, I was legitimately wondering if my veggie garden was doomed. Could I keep it afloat by nurturing it along until our typical "Indian Summer" kicks in at the end of August? Or has the damage been done? Are the plants too stunted from the weather and the pests to ever produce?

I went back and looked up the picture I took the first week of June, right when I had planted the garden in the first place. My veggie beds may not look like much in my updated photos, but when I compare it to what it looked like here, when it started, I feel very optimistic indeed!

Mark it with a B!

On Saturday I got to have a "don't leave the house day". I used to run-run-run, always planned, always going somewhere, doing something...ugh. I get exhausted just thinking about it! I took a year off teaching when Tommy was born, and we were running the wheels off the car. Play dates, mommy-and-me swimming, music class. I mean, come on. He was 6 months old! Holy cow.

To be sure, there were many things worth doing. That year, we went to Gram's house every Tuesday, and that was precious time with a very important person; I wouldn't trade it for the world. I also went once a week to my mom's house, so I could clean. She wasn't home, because she was working like, 70 hours a week, at her small business. It was a small thing that I liked doing, because she has always done so much for us. So, I'm not saying I'd like to be a hermit. But there were an awful lot of things that I see now go completely against my magic formula for "getting it done".

The point is that now, when I can be home for days at a time, I am in heaven. Saturday was one of those days for me. I puttered around the house, working on a sewing project and a crocheting project in fits and starts. I folded fabric and organized my sewing table. We ate on the patio. We played Risk and Trouble and watched a movie. Tommy and I drew cartoon characters. And in between, I baked.

I made loaves of bread, banana nut bread (just to use some bananas that had turned the corner), and lots of peanut butter cookies. I gave most of it away to our neighbor Lior. Lior, who cut down my trees for me, as you may recall. I ask you? Who wouldn't want that handsome duck up there to show up on your porch, with a loaf of bread, a banana-nut treat, peanut butter cookies, and fresh, homemade jam? I could eat him up, too.


I have a tip for you. If you use eggs from your backyard (or your mom's backyard), it's a good idea to crack them into a small bowl instead of directly into whatever you're cooking. I'm sorry to have to tell you this so bluntly, but you are in charge of quality control with your own hens. There are some truly unnerving things that can happen (Grandma Dot once cracked an egg for scrambling straight into the fry pan and found a wee chick inside, only partly formed. That was a bad day for Grandma Dot.) but there are also some standard, easy to spot problems that can happen. When it gets really hot, sometimes the eggs just 'turn' righto there in the coop. Or it turns out there was some kind of crack in the shell, a hairline fracture that you may not have noticed, and that can turn an egg too, if the crack has caused a tear in the membrane just beneath the shell. A bad egg, when you break the shell apart, will smell appalling. Just crack them right into a bowl, and if they don't smell fresh, you can dump them right into the composting. Then you don't ruin the food you're cooking.

It's rare that I get a bad egg, but it really only has to happen once. Let me save you the trouble.

I made my favorite peanut butter cookies, from my favorite baking cookbook. It is so easy, it's almost embarrassing. And, they are so old-fashioned! It's the kind of peanut butter cookie that you mush down with a fork dipped in sugar, making criss-cross hash marks? Love that!

Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sugar

Directions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In large bowl, beat sugar, brown sugar, and margarine until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter, milk, vanilla, and egg; blend well. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt; mix well. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased (I spray with cooking spray) cookie sheets. Flatten in crisscross pattern with fork dipped in sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees F. for 10 – 12 minutes (I cook them for 9:45 minutes, in my gorgeous oven, and it works like a charm) or until golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Cool completely.

Yummy with cold milk.

You should probably also know that Tommy would eat the whole bowl of dough if I let him. He actually asked me, this time, if he could have the last baking sheet of cookies before they went into the oven. Er. No, son, that's not going to happen. But I'm glad you like it so much.