Silent Sunday

My latest creation: scrappy inspirational bookmark

The heat has arrived

And with it, so has water time in the park arrived on schedule. When Amilia's friends called to say they would like her to meet them at the park, she was ready and willing! I was willing because this particular park is a lovely place to sit under a tree and knit or embroider while I watch her play. As is my usual practice when we arrive there, I leave Mr. Nature with Amilia at the park while I walk to the cafe for an iced coffee and a bagel to munch on at the park. After my walk, he sometimes walks to the scenic gardens.

On my pleasant walk, I pass the City Hall/Police Station:and other lovely historical homes in front of which were the public works guys who always say hello to passersby, planting new flowers on the corner:and the trolley waiting for passengers:until I arrive at my favorite coffee shop that serves the best bagels known to mankind. This place roasts its own beans, bakes all its own baked goods, and is locally owned.And on days like yesterday, when I have been feeling sorry for myself for some of life's stresses and burdens and economic woes, I think of the water and the park and the lovely walk, and I say a prayer of thanks for all the blessings in my life. And that I live in beautiful Stars Hollow, just like the Gilmore Girls.

Garden Update

I have been remiss in my gardening duties, having been attending to sewing and organizing and working on small projects. Since it is a family venture, Mr. Nature has been lovingly tending and watering in my absence. His favorite part is the watering anyway. Here are the grapevines:My favorite part is planting and harvesting. However, I am behind on seeding the warm weather crops by over two weeks, and may purchase a few seedlings for some of these. We share weeding, but he has been doing all of that, too, lately.

Courtesy of his eye behind the lens, I have some photos to share with you. The broccoli:
The cabbage:The peas:The dill:The kale (with chickens in the background, taking care of those unwanted garden pests):And a tomato that is somewhat behind due to some earlier lasting cold temperatures and a high clay content in the soil where they are planted:
The other plants are doing well also, but many are still so small that they are not fun to photograph. This is our first attempt to grow more than four types of plant, so it is still a learning process every day. We are enjoying the time spent, and have eaten lettuce, asparagus, coriander, and onions from the garden already this season.

Have a lovely Friday!

Swingin' Success

I finally rolled up my sleeves and got the job done! Remember when I said I was making cushion covers for my porch swing (all the way back on April 30)? Now, I have finally finished.
The lighting was wrong when I took the above photo because the swing is on the West deck and it was the wrong time of day to take it...

So here is the closeup of the back cushions and yellow throw pillow. But those just didn't give it enough spice, and as you can see, that arm rest looks a bit dangerous for a bare arm, so...I made padded armrests.With ribbon ties.And more pillows.And then we tried it out. And we pondered whether sitting on the porch swing really does solve all one's problems.

We concluded that it probably does not,
but it certainly makes them dissolve
from the foreground.

Chicken update

Big Daddy, whom we thought might be a male chick, is actually Big Mamma. We think. This particular chicken has always been bigger, taller, and quicker to develop than the other two. The comb is bigger and more red also. Beyond that, I don't know how to check down below in their vent area. But, it seems we have three hens after all. We weren't sure if the chicks we purchased were a straight run (males and females all together) or if they were all female.

Now, Big Mamma has been limping for almost a week. We weren't sure if this was due to some chicken illness, or if she was hurt. They are not vaccinated against Marek's Disease, which I find is a common chicken ailment, but they are kept clean and have not been around any other chickens from which to contract such illness.

Today, it appeared that she is getting better and the limp is much less pronounced. This is a good sign that it was an injury instead of illness. Yay! Since this is my first experience with chicken ownership, I am learning as I go. Both sets of my grandparents kept chickens at various times, and they never vaccinated for anything, nor did they have any chicken illness in their coops. I am hoping to have the same success.

The chickens care nothing for these thoughts of mine.
They just want to nestle in the tall grass and
eat bugs from the wild flowers.

The Rag Rug

As mentioned in my DIY play house post, I was making a rag rug for the people of the house. I took three of Amilia's old t-shirts that were in my fabric bin and cut each of them in a circular fashion around and around from the bottom up to give a continuous strand of "yarn" with which to work. After cutting, the shirts looked like this:And I had rag yarn to work with in three piles.I safety pinned the three strands together at one end, anchored that safety pin to a cushion for stability, and then began to braid.Soon, I had a long strand of braiding.I continued to braid until I reached the end of the shortest strand, then I safety pinned that end and cut off the excess. I then went to my sewing machine and sewed across each end to hold the strands in place and keep from raveling. Then, I got my needle and thread and began to turn it into a rug by hand stitching. I held the end and bent it toward the braid and tacked it with a stitch.

I continued to attach the braid to itself in a circle until I had reached the size I wanted for the doll house. I then sewed a cross seam on the place I wanted to stop, and cut off the excess braid. I have a very long braid left over to use for another project. The small round rug for the doll house is loved by the cats. There were 9 toy animals lined up to try it out!
I am pleased with the result, and Amilia was happy as well. I really like the way the colors mixed and turned into a summer-day-strawberries-and-mint-ice-cream scoop.

With my first attempt behind me, I can now experiment with larger
rag rug projects - yay!

Birdy arrived in Germany!

(photo source)

I was visiting a blog called Lovely Purses on my regular blog rounds yesterday, and to my surprise, I was the subject of the post. Or rather, Birdy (from Crafting it Forward) was the subject. The photographs taken of my packaging and of Birdy are lovely there, and I am pleased that Duni liked my creation.

In fact, she chose to affix the ribbon and use Birdy as a hanging ornament instead of a pincushion. In actuality, that was what the pattern originally intended, and I must agree that she was too sweet to be stabbed with pins. Amilia was sad when I mailed Birdy off, but she was happy to see she had found a good home, and she enjoyed looking at photos of her arrival in Germany. She is a travelled European bird now.

I have been thinking about my wish list and thought I would share:
1. A serger for more professional seams
2. A Nikon D90 SLR
3. A VitaMix
4. A manual wheatgrass juicer

What is on your wish list?

DIY play house

Yesterday on my other blog, Sharing Our Gifts, I shared a story about some do it yourself play sets I found while surfing around the virtual world. Amilia liked them so much that we had to make one last night. She was so anxious to play with it that we did no decorating whatsoever. It was in use all day today, so still, no decorating. Soon we plan to cover the walls with pretty papers and "hang" photos from magazines on the walls. She wanted me to share with you her new house:Ours is not nearly so glamorous as that shown in Cookie magazine about a year ago, but Amilia loves it and says it's the best house I have ever given her. REALLY?? I tell you, it's the universal truth - children prefer cardboard boxes. Hands down.

I am now making the family a rag rug for their living room.

My chores

I have been a busy bee this week, and have been just as busily battling wasps. I have at least 8 varieties of bee and wasp and stingy thing around here, and they are awfully testy when you get into their space!

Remember this?Now it looks like this:
Just a little more weeding to go there, and that space will be back to tip-top. And those terraces I was taking back?
Almost there! And even though I had to fight all afternoon with the wasps and spiders, I was rewarded with the visits of several beautifully colored humming birds. There were three chasing each other at the end of the evening. One with a beautiful red throat, one with a bright green back and wings, and the more pale beige one I actually managed to capture in a less than crisp photo.Perhaps tomorrow I will be quicker on the draw, and will capture the others. What an interesting noise they make as they flutter by! The feeder is filled with sugar water I make here at home. I think it is better than the commercially produced liquid that contains artificial colors and other additives.

It is easy to make. Just use a saucepan, pour in 4 cups of water and 1 cup of sugar and boil for 10 minutes. Let it cool, and then fill your feeders. Once the hummingbirds know it is there, they will tell their friends, and your house will be a regular feeding stop.


(visit my sister blog, Sharing Our Gifts, to see DIY doll houses)

Sharing found Treasures

I found this photo on a blog called Beelieve. I got permission to post it here. In getting permission, I found out that Karen, the blog creator, painted the Frog Crossing sign when she was a child. For me, that makes her collection of things on this porch all the more special!

This blog is a must read, and I have to thank one of my other favorites, Bee Creative, for directing me there from her blogroll.

At Beelieve, there is a warm serenity that oozes the sharing of beautiful. Beautiful thoughts, sights, art, family, and a little bit of mystery. The photo mentioned above is from this post, and when my daughter saw the photos in the post, she came running from across the room and said, "where did you find that beautiful photo" and "where is that place?"

Oh, man, do I need a better camera! I see beauty all around me, but the camera at my disposal does not generally translate that beauty to exacting standards.

Anyway, go visit and be lifted in thought and feeling.



(reprinted from my sister blog, Sharing Our Gifts)

Word Wednesday: Taraxacum officinale

or common Dandelion. This top photo is from botanical.com, where I learned that a true dandelion's leaves are not hairy, but are shiny and point up straight and tall to allow maximum water drainage directly to the taproot. The genus Taraxacum consists of about 40 different species worldwide.

While Dandelion is a weed, it does have desirable qualities one might consider before eradicating it from one's yard. The taproot of a Dandelion can be beneficial in a clay soil environment because it aerates the soil and facilitates water drainage to other plant roots.

Nutritionally, it is a source of vitamins A, B complex, C, and D, and contains iron, potassium, and zinc. (source.) Dandelion greens are nutritious and flavorful in salads. They can also be steamed, and if harvested after they first appear, the flavor is less bitter than the older leaves. Our diets used to naturally include bitter tasting herbs and seeds, but in recent years, we have shunned bitter for the more pleasurable (maybe) savory and sweet.

However, anecdotal information suggests that bitter might signal the presence of another B vitamin (B17), and that this vitamin might be very important to our overall health at a cellular level. One such testimonial exists about Dandelion root. Historically, the roots and leaves have been used to treat ailments such as liver disfunction, kidney disease, digestive disorders, skin problems, appendicitis, and breast inflammation. (source.)

Dandelion petals are collected en masse by makers of wild wines. At Eat Like a Wild Man, I found a recipe for Dandelion fritters and Dandelion wine. Both of these are certainly worth a look-see. WikiHow has a 10-step tutorial to making Dandelion wine, and says that April and May are the best months to harvest and make this wine.

I was surprised to find that the root of a certain species of the plant has been considered as an alternative to the rubber tree for making rubber. In 2008, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center was awarded a $3 million grant to research making rubber from the roots of Russian Dandelions (Taraxacum kok-saghyz) .

With all these useful and beneficial traits, how did the dandelion become the bane of the lawn? I think the grass should actually be envious. Common yard grass provides no human sustenance at all. Beware the imposters, however. I went looking in my yard for Dandelion, which should look like this: (photo from this source)and I actually found this:What I have is Catsear, or false dandelion. Also known as Hypochoeris Radicata. Mine has hairy leaves, and true Dandelion has shiny leaves with no hair. So no Dandelion wine for me, but I did read that the leaves of my variety are still edible. Additionally, it is a genus/species that is commonly used in mixed soups in Sicily.

So go ahead and gather Dandelions, make Dandelion chains,
and hold the flower under your chin to see if you like butter.