Christmas in the air

Yesterday, C and I braved the winter weather and drove to the U-cut Christmas tree farm. It was only 73 when we left the house but it warmed to 76 while we were there. :) The tree farm is about an hour north of us, almost to the state line. We tooled around on back roads to get there and once there, we picked a lovely tree that was way too big and way too expensive. The owner marked it to half price and we cut it down and brought it home. We ended up cutting another 12 inches off of the bottom and then trimmed a little off the top. We've named it Fonzie. I know normal people don't name their Christmas trees, but I never claimed to be normal. We have a legendary tree named Helga in our memories. Helps us keep things straight I guess. C and I got the tree in his stand and put the lights on before DH came home from work. Then we decorated when the whole family was here. It was a lovely day!

And now it's 22 degrees. Cold front hit about 8:45 last night. Hit us like a freight train. The wind came up so quick that it turned on both neighbor's motion sensor lights and they blinked on and off for the rest of the evening. It dropped 20 degrees in 30 minutes. Crazy Texas!

love,

Deb

Damn, I'm getting old....

Tomorrow will be my youngest child's first foray out into the world with just a friend. She's going to a concert. Now, don't get me wrong. She's been to lots of concerts. In fact, her first concert, at the tender age of 10, was Linkin Park. Her brother, then 16 promised her the show. He bought them both pit tickets, arrived an hour before the show and stayed at the barrier the whole time. She even touched the hand of one of the performers. At the time, I said that she was spoiled for any show after that. She's been to Warped Tour a few times and we even went to Edgefest last year to see My Chemical Romance and The Killers. Pit tickets, AWESOME show. But this time is different. She's going with her best friend. No brother, no parents....just her and BFF. I know they'll be okay. But still. *SHE'S JUST A BABY!* Of course, she IS 16, studying for her second SAT and working on her college app b/c she'll be graduating this year. And the show will most likely be full of several thousand other teenaged girls and not too many boys. It's Panic at the Disco/Dashboard Confessional. And her brother already had his license and a car and a job by this point and routinely headed out to see shows around the metroplex. So, why is this so different? Is it because she's a girl? Is it because she's my baby? Is it because I just don't want to admit that my youngest child is almost a grownup? I just don't get it. I'm dropping them off and BFF's dad is picking up. I'm sure I'll be waiting up for her, trying to figure this whole thing out. And she'll be fine and say "Aw mom, you didn't need to wait up for me".

I'll let you know how it goes. :)

best wishes!

Fabulous Friday

It's almost bed time and I'm watching the last period of the Dallas Stars hockey game. They're playing Anaheim and whomping them, 4-1. Picked up some pizzas on the way home from work and we watched Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull while we ate. Then watched a couple of shows, but not really and switched to the hockey game. The weather today was awesome. 75, clear and just beautiful, and then cooled nicely this evening. Had a real nice cozy fire cracklin' away. Hubby went to bed about 8:30. He's had to get up at 2:45am the past 3 days for work, so I don't really blame him. He'll be able to sleep in tomorrow. Kitchen's clean and the coffee pot is ready to be turned on when I get up. No automatic timer on Saturdays.

I got the top pieced of a quilt for my etsy shop. I'm hoping to be able to get a few more things up and posted before Thanksgiving and maybe make a few extra bucks.

And we just scored again! Go Stars! I do love me some hockey.

I'm the last one up, so I think I'll climb into bed and watch the rest of the game. I'll have to fight with the 2 cats that have decided to snooze with hubby. I'm bigger than them, I guess I'll probably win.

Y'all have a good night

Deb

The Day After

My daughter was shocked to see all the negative, hateful things that her Republican friends wrote on their Facebook pages about our new President. She said that she would never think of writing those things about McCain, had he won. My almost DIL was surrounded by hateful and racist opinions at work today. You'd think that in this country in the year 2008 that we would be above this type of behaviour. Ironic that it's coming from the so-called "religious" folks who just can't see above their own agendas to accept and at the very least, tolerate others. Perhaps, as parents, those people should take this event and turn it into a lesson in tolerance and maybe even change.

While I've never been prouder of our country for trying to right all the wrongs that have been done over the last 8 years, I'm deeply ashamed of those who refuse to accept that the world is changing and your thoughts and opinions could, maybe, need some adjusting.

Go Obama!

g'nite

It's Official!

Been holding my breath all day and trying not to be too anxious, but now I'm ok! Obama wins the Presidency! YAY! Truly an historic day in the history of this country. Maybe now things will start to turn around and we can return to being a proud, honorable country.

This Historical Day

I hope you're all out there rocking the vote today! I will be going with DH when he gets home from work this afternoon. My son already has voted, C is mad that she's not old enough to vote. She is doing her school work in my sewing room with the TV on CNN watching the election coverage. I think it's educational, don't you?

I'll be on pins and needles all day. Sure hope this turns out the way I want it to, but then again, don't we all?

Go VOTE!

Deb

October

Halloween has come and gone. *sigh* Our favorite holiday. We did drag it out through the weekend though. I had a Halloween party to go to Saturday and then my nephew, JT, came over last night to watch scary movies with us. A tradition of sorts. But today, all the jack o' lanterns got put away, the Headless Horseman was brought in and dismantled and the black candles left the mantle in the living room. So sad.

Yesterday afternoon, C and I went to a book signing of one of our favorite authors, John Green. His new book, "Paper Towns" just came out in October. We picked it up Saturday morning. I finished it yesterday and C finished today. John's brother, Hank (of Ecogeek.com) was there with him and together they make up Brotherhood 2.0 and lead the community of Nerdfighters we belong to. It's a great story, the Nerdfighters. 2 years ago, the brothers decided to go a whole year without any textual communication. They switched off making video blogs (vlogs) and posting them on their website and also on YouTube. People started watching, then more people started watching, then participating and a whole new classification of people was born. All the band geeks and Star Wars groupies and drama kids and everyone else who's ever been called a Nerd, all of a sudden had a community where they fit in and had folks to discuss the latest LOTR movie and Harry Potter book with others who also had the same interests. Nerdfighters fight injustices in the world and "decrease world suck". It's pretty cool. There is now a book club for Nerdfighters, since most of us are avid readers, and a message board and a forum "My Pants". Anyway, the booksigning was the first stop in the Tour de Nerdfighting that is going on across the country. We got our picture with the brothers. It was great fun!

I've got some stuff still growing out in the garden. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and okra. Lettuce and brussells sprouts. I've just sprouted some beets indoors that will be transplanted outside this week. I've also got some galvanized tubs ready for some lettuces and spinach and herbs to grow overwinter on the front porch. Weird fall, so far. Still in the 80s during the days. I did get all the sunflowers cut down and into the compost pile, plus a few other items that I had let sit.

Working on items to put up in my Etsy store. All I've got up now are 2 Doodlestein patterns and a Halloween trick or treat bag, but I've got 2 quilts almost done for it and some aprons that we need to photograph and post. It's a great site. I've taken the Handmade pledge, to give gifts that were handmade either by me or by another and to not shop the big stores. Time to give unique gifts, so I'm doing my best to decide what those that I love would like.

I guess that's about it for today. And no, I still haven't finished the hallway. :)

peace out,

Deb

ps: Don't forget to vote!

Out of a rut

Things around here seem to be going so fast that I can barely keep up. I only seem to be able to complete my regular daily chores before it's time to go to bed. Everything is piling up and I can't seem to find my way. Last week I was sick for most of the time, then I worked Thursday and Friday, a friend's wedding rehearsal Friday night, then the wedding Saturday night. Sunday was spent selling some books for gas money and then kicking around the McKinney square, then home to try to start getting caught up. I just seem to be so tired all the time. Maybe it's the weather change. It's chilly here at night, which is welcome, and still in the 80s during the day. My goal today was to actually get up and get right to work, no computer, no tv, no reading. I did pretty well, got some laundry done and some other chores. Then I went and gassed up the truck and picked up an ice chest from the neighbors. Tomorrow is "spa day" again for the babies. We have 33 this time, and they'll be 7 weeks old on Wednesday. They've been really good this time around. We learned a lot with the first batch. A lot of what not to do. This batch has been living in the dog run, and then free ranging during the day. I think these guys are a lot healthier as far as running around chasing bugs and eating a lot of grass. I'll be getting up early, loading them up and heading out.

I also finally got the Headless Horseman set up for the front porch. He's sitting in the rocking chair by the front door with a scull in his lap. Pretty spooky. I've only carved one pumpkin so far this year. One for a friend, so I can't reveal what it is until it's delivered.

I guess that's about it. Just trying to get a routine re-established, get some energy and get some things done.

Wish me luck

All Burned Out

The title says it all. I'm soooo burned out on summer. I'm ready for some cool weather and crisp nights and all that goes with it. We don't get much fall color here in Texas. The leaves sorta turn brown and fall, or just fall off when they're still green. I need to be outside, putting in the fall garden, but it's still in the upper 80s and lower 90s and I just can't bring myself to do much out there. I'm setting a goal for myself though. I've gotta get that stuff in next week. DH will be off next tuesday and he said he'd help with building the new beds and putting up another section of rails for the stick fence. That will complete one whole side of the fence. And then, while I've got the air compressor out, I'll go ahead and get the cornice trim in the hallway put up. I just get so far into a project and then it stalls and I leave it. So weird. So annoying.

I bought a whole bag of "scratch and dent" organic bananas at the grocery store the other day for 50 cents, and this morning I've made a couple of loaves of banana nut bread with cranberries. I'll freeze one and leave one out. Nice healthy snacks for the family.

We had to replace our water heater on monday. Sunday, we smelled gas in the house and found that the bottom of our old water heater had rusted out just enough for a small spray of water to hit directly on the pilot light/burner. We turned everything off and waited for monday morning to call our plumber. We were supposed to have gone camping this weekend, but ended up canceling because the baby chicks weren't old enough to be left for the weekend. Thank goodness for that. If the house hadn't exploded, we would have had extensive water damage. God was watching out for us there.

The banana bread is almost ready to come out of the oven, and it smells really good. I've got a chicken boiling on the stove so I can use the meat in a couple of casseroles. I've got a bunch of okra to process and the rest of the small onions to pickle. I need to baste a vintage quilt top today for hand quilting and C and I have haircuts this afternoon. (Bring on the SASS!) Plenty to keep me busy while I (im)patiently wait for the days when I don't have to run the a/c.

Peace Out,

Deb

Procrastination strikes again

Yeah, I know, I never posted pictures of the finished hallway. Know why? It's not finished. I was SO CLOSE! And then it happened. I couldn't get the moulding for the door cut b/c of old rusty tools, and I just stopped. Well, I was talking to one of my co-workers and she said her husband does wood working all the time and that if I brought by the moulding, he could miter cut it for me in no time. I'll be painting it today and measuring the door frames and I'll take it by tomorrow evening after I get off of work. They live in the same town that I work in, and really, they're on the way home. I work again on Friday, so Saturday should see me putting up the moulding! I still need to purchase the crown moulding, but that stuff's expensive. But I'll be closer than I am right now.

I spent part of yesterday preparing for the arrival of my second batch of broiler chicks. They should be here either this afternoon or tomorrow morning. The sewing room is all rearranged and I moved my sewing machine into the front room so I can keep the chick room warm enough without having to use the heat lamp. I'll just turn off the a/c in there, close the doors and it will be plenty warm for the little critters. I'm excited for them to arrive. I'm going to try to house them in the dog run this time. It'll give them a little more room to run around and I won't have to sequester the big girls.

I have 2 regular egg customers now! 2 of my co-workers have both asked for a dozen a week, which is pretty cool. Only took 5 years for the girls to start paying for themselves. LOL. I have another customer here in town, but he's not so regular. Every other week or so. But that's okay. Hope we can keep up with the demand. My older ladies don't lay as much as they used to, but I can't just get rid of them. I'm running an old hen home. :) But they're pets.

I canned 5 pints of green beans yesterday. First time that I've done that. I didn't grow the beans, they're from the Farmer's Market, but that's okay. They're in my pantry and I know what went into the jar. I hope they're tasty. I'm focusing my grocery money on buying one item in bulk at the market, then canning it. So, I'll probably do green beans again this week, and maybe some cucumbers for pickles. Then when the tomatoes get going again, i'll hit that pretty hard as well. I've started some seedlings for broccoli, cabbage and lettuce, and also pinto beans, and I'll be putting in a whole bed of beets and carrots soon, and get those canned and into the pantry to feed us over the winter. And of course, the okra is still going strong. I'm going to attempt to freeze some uncooked okra fritters to use some of them up. I've frozen some for frying, and I'll most likely put up some for pickling. Soooo, the season is not over yet. I can probably even get some peas in and even have a couple to eat.

That's about it for now. Keeping very busy. I assembled a quilt top yesterday, need to border it today and have another one to work on as well. 2 full size shop samples, so there's a deadline on both of them.

Keep the faith!

Deb

Just a quick note

Man, the past month has been a whirl wind. I got the job, got trained and then I've been filling in for every employee that needed a vacation! I've been working 4-5 days a week, which is a lot for this homebody. I have been realizing just how spoiled that I've been. When getting to work at 9:30 is hard, you know you've been spoiled. I have to actually get up "early" (7:30)! I also started the FLYlady program, so I've been cleaning and de-cluttering and getting things to where I like them to be. I'm always tidy, I just sometimes don't deep clean, and then it gets overwhelming. The FLYlady lets you join the program and start learning cleaning habits in babysteps, setting the timer and doing chores for ONLY that amount of time. As she says, "I can do anything for 15 minutes". I really like her system, and I'm finding out that some of her systems I already have in place, like doing a load of laundry every day if there's enough for a load. And my favorite of hers is not going to bed with a dirty kitchen. That way, when you wake up, you don't already feel overwhelmed.

We've been having crazy weather, down into the 60s at night and only topping out at 75-80 during the day. Plus, the 4 inches of rain we've gotten in the past couple of days. We're forecast for rain for the rest of the week, but the temp will be going back up to the 90s. Some of my plants think it's fall and are starting to go to seed before the big freeze. I keep trying to tell them that it will heat up again, but they never listen.

I need to get my fall garden started and cut down all those sunflowers and clean everything up, but between all the working and the rain, I just haven't had a chance. One of these days I'll get caught up. Hahahaha!

I'm starting a new program at the shop called the Hard Times Social Club. The 3rd Thursday of the month, I'll have a pot of soup and a scrappy pattern and a stash swap. It's free to attend and nothing is required of the customers except to come in and sit a spell. Everyone needs a place to go where they don't feel pressured, especially during this downturn in the economy. I hope it takes off and people like it. It will be from 5-8. They'll get a bite to eat, some company, a free pattern, maybe a recipe or two and maybe be able to swap some of their old fabric for someone else's old fabric...a win/win proposition, I think.

I hear the oven timer going off. Need to go check on that fabulous smelling chicken!

Take care of each other

deb

Things you don't know

It occured to me yesterday that I've been remiss in my blogging. There are SO many things I haven't told you, or shown you. So, I made a list of things that are sorta important. Gardening things, house things, eco-things, hippie things....you know, things that I fill my life with.

Item 1 on the agenda is my solar oven. I built one. I made mine out of 2 cardboard boxes, a couple of newspapers, some tin foil, matte black paint and a piece of clear 1/8th inch plastic that was on a shelving unit in my sewing room. You can see how attractive it is. :) BUT, amazingly enough it works. I put my oven thermometer in there and the temp, so far, has reached 220 degrees F. To go along with my solar oven, I got this great crock pot cook book to maybe come up with some new recipes. I actually got one that has food you would really want to eat in it. The most important fact is that crockpots cook at 180 degrees, so using my solar oven to cook in is perfectly safe. It's also FREE and doesn't heat up my kitchen, which in this house of no central a/c and no insulation is vitally important. It's eco-friendly, made from recycled products and it's pretty damn cool, if you want to know the truth. I've been cooking about 2-3 meals a week in it so far. The only problem I've seen so far is that I have to bring it in when I'm done using it and put it in the sewing room. It's biodegradable. My family thinks it's pretty cool too, hubby asking me when I was going to build a permanent one out of wood. Still thinking on that one. I'd still like it to be made from recycled products, and I'm not sure what to insulate it with yet. I'd love to have one I could leave outside. Next on my hippie list of things to build is this fabulous rocket oven. I figure with the solar oven and the rocket stove I could almost do all my cooking the eco friendly way.


Item 2: Harvesting my onions/garlic. I harvested all my onions and garlic before we went on vacation in June. I got them all cured and ready to go, braided them and hung them from my pot rack. As it cools this fall, I'll most likely move them out onto the covered front porch for storage. The warm temps in the house will shorten their storage life. Besides what you see hanging, I have a big basket of the smaller onions and I also took all the very small pearl onions and pickled them. I just couldn't stand throwing any away, and they were really too small to cook with.

So that's today's update on what's been going on around here.

Woke up to thunder and rain this morning at 6 or so. Didn't even know we were supposed to get any rain. But they're saying we'll get 1/10th of an inch. Anything is good.

BIG NEWS: The "Half Blood Prince"(Harry Potter) trailer came out last night. Looks really good, and so far, pretty accurate to the book. Now to wait til Novemeber. Also, book release for "Breaking Dawn", the final installment in the "Twilight" series is Saturday. I'll be escorting C and her friend to the local book store for the midnight release party. I just love those! It's pretty cool to be around a whole bunch of people who like books. Just does my heart good.

Deb

A friend in need is a friend indeed

A really good friend of mine valiantly offered an older monitor up to me, and I snatched at it with both hands. She even made the drive out to the boonies to bring it to me on Saturday. So, I'm back in business.

The hallway looks great, but I want to the get the moulding up before I take the "after" shots. It's like a whole new room. It makes me happy. C and I are even decorating it, which is unheard of here. It's more of a throw things anywhere sort of scheme at this point. We don't want to buy anything, but we figure we have enough stuff laying around covered in dust that we can find stuff to put in there. We're even talking of an area rug to go in there. I know! It's very motivating.

I joined the FLY lady webgroup the other day to get a little better about being clean and orderly. I've gotten my DIL and my friend, Jack to sign up too, so we're all working on the babysteps portion. It's a pretty cool system. It's a NO STRESS system. I'm fairly tidy anyway, but I get overwhelmed by our "extreme dust" and just give up most of the time. I'm learning how to approach the mess and the clutter from a different angle now.

I've started my annual "summer's almost over, I better get a routine again" program. No more sleeping til 9 and hanging out for a couple of hours doing nothing until someone says they're hungry. I get that way when it gets really hot and I don't want to go outside and work in the yard anymore. I'm kinda whiny that way. I really work hard in the garden/yard until about mid July, then I'm indoors until October. Meanwhile, Nature hits it hard and takes over and then I have major work to do when I get back out there. I really don't want to let that happen again, so last night after dinner, I set a timer for 15 minutes and worked on weeding/clearing the iris bed out front. 15 minutes goes by fast, and I was surprised by how much I got done. So, that'll be my after dinner thing for awhile. I also forced myself to get up while it was still relatively cool, cut okra and peppers and take care of all the outside chores before it gets too hot. I even did my 10 minute workout dvd this morning. Routines make me feel better and I tend not to just wander around the house all day, eating something.

We're really looking forward to the Olympics. C and I watch them together when they're on, and we have some really nice memories of them. We also watch the X-Games together every year. So, this weekend coming up is the X-Games (7/31-8/3) and then, of course the Olympics. We have our favorite athletes, and enjoy rooting for them.

One last item.
Uh, I thought only Garfield liked lasagna? This is C's cat Bam. Needless to say, I used a different pan. And the bowls were already empty. :)

peace,

deb

ps: Welcome to my new readers!

Houston, we have a problem

My monitor died on my birthday, and we're replacing it this next weekend. Right now, using my daughter's laptop, which is pretty cool of her! Just can't upload any photos. Dying to show you all my new fab hallway. I painted it last week while C was gone camping with her friend. I didn't have anyone to play with, so I painted. I even remembered to take before and after photos, amazingly enough. So, next week you get to see. :)

C has a job interview this afternoon. Wow, my baby is growing up! Hmmm, what does that say about me? I'm NEVER growing up.

talk to you soon!

Big Red

Yeah, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! I've wanted one of these fabulous mixers since I worked in the kitchen of a small restaurant, 9 years ago. Hubby surprised me with it as an early birthday gift and it is glorious. C and I wanted to use it so we made cookies, and then I used it for the pizza dough on Friday. It's AWESOME!

Deb

Food of the Gods

Wednesday brought lunch with 2 good friends. We all used to work together at a quilt shop and even though one of us has moved away and abandoned the other two of us, we still are able to get together for a meal twice a year. This time The Cheesecake Factory was chosen. And it was chosen well! The meal was good, but the dessert....holy cow! We split a piece of Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake. To DIE for. I think that will start being an afternoon treat when I take C to the mall for mall stuff. Pictured above is (left to right) me, Cathy, and Sue. A more unlikely trio you'd never ever see, but for whatever reason, it works and it works well. It was a lovely time, but it ended too soon. Cathy was in town to visit relatives and we didn't get a lot of time together, but it was really fun. After Cathy had to jet, Sue and I drove to a local quilt shop that is going out of business and spent an undisclosed amount of money on an undisclosed amount of fabric. That's info is need to know....and no one needs to know. :)

Job Update: I have acquired a job at another local quilt shop (not going out of business) entitled Happiness is Quilting. I start tomorrow and I'm really excited about being back in a quilt shop. Sue still works at the quilt shop that we all met at, and now I guess we'll have to be rivals and have weekly quilt wars. That could really put a damper on our private Civil War block swap though. Or I guess we could pool resources...hmmm, have to think on that one.

Deb

Major Girly Moment!

Hubby was off today for the 4th, so we decided to go to the mall and see "Wanted". Pretty good movie, I liked it, didn't love it.

Anyway, after the movie we were walking around the mall and of course, Charlotte Russe had some cute shoes in the doorway. And a sale. I didn't want to go to the back of the store because I knew what might happen...and...it happened.

Hubby bought me the CUTEST shoes in the universe. The most perfect shoes ever created. And here they are. Aren't they gorgeous! And only 23 bucks! Elle Woods would be proud.


And then...they were buy one pair, get one for $10, so I picked out another pair. Got to the register and they were only, get this...$4.99! I did still have the opportunity for that other pair at $10, but didn't take it. I didn't want to push my luck.

I even got some new hot pink toenail polish. *sigh* What more could a girl ask for. :)

Happy Independence Day, Y'all!

D

Running on empty

This last weekend was a whirlwind of fun. My daughter and I drove up to the town my parents live in and met up at my sister's home. As did my son and DIL. Headed over the church and set up for the party.
Here is a picture of the finished quilt. I think everyone liked it, and I know my Mom and Dad loved it. The party went well. Dad knew about it and had prepared a presentation with their love story accompanied by music. At the close of his speech, he asked my mom to marry him again and their Pastor stood up and performed the ceremony. Not a dry eye in the house, I gotta say. It was very touching.

Another piece of news, maybe not QUITE as big, but almost. Feast your eyes on this! It was our first chicken dinner! It was so moist and tender. C (my daughter) told me that she learned that the difference between white meat and dark meat is the amount of oxygen it got while it was still alive. Almost my whole chicken was white meat since they were all free range and had plenty of exercise. We are now looking forward to getting another batch in before the season is over. I think I might have mentioned that before.

Today was job hunting day, both for C and for myself. This was her first time asking for employment and found the whole process somewhat depressing. This was NOT my first time asking for employment and also found the whole process depressing. We consoled ourselves by digging change from our purses and having tacos and water at Taco Bell on the way home. Paying for tacos with change scrounged from your purse certainly makes the job hunt seem a little more necessary. LOL. We will persevere. Ironically, both of us have some chance of being hired at book stores. Different book stores. I applied at a different branch of the book store that my hubby works at part time. C applied to 2 bookstores. What a bunch of nerds. And I mean that in the nicest way. We know we're nerds and revel in our nerd-dom. It's so nice to own the fact that you're a nerd and not try to fit in with the "cool" people. Takes off a lot of pressure.

I snagged 3 bags of grass clippings from the neighbor yesterday. I know she doesn't spray her yard, so I hot footed it over there as soon as I saw her bagging them up. I have one of the veg beds that Hubby built that never got filled with dirt, so it's sitting on newspapers (to kill the grass under it) and I dumped in all the clippings. I smooshed it in as far as it would go and then planted some leftover bean seeds in it. Just finished watering it again and we'll see what happens. I also put in some corn seeds in the onion/pumpkin bed for a fall batch of corn, as well as filled in some holes in the pepper bed with some more okra seed. Pulled up the radish that I had let go to seed and then put in some lettuce seed where it was. Maybe, just maybe I'll get those things to sprout. I'm learning that gardening is constant, especially in the part of the country I'm in. We have a 10/11 month growing season here, so I can get 2 crops of corn and beans and most other things. As one crop is harvested, another one can be seeded into the empty spots. It's pretty fun experimenting with things. I harvested onions yesterday, and man, there's a ton of them. Trying to figure out storage now.

My Sis in law gifted me with a beautiful wire egg basket this last weekend, and now it's the daily harvest basket. It looks so nice filled with home grown goodness.

Thanks for listening and I'll keep you posted on the job front.

d

And We're Back!

Got back Saturday night and hit the ground running. While I ferried the girls (my daughter and her BFF) to the movies and back, my hubby started mowing the lawn which had grown to frightening heights. We ordered a pizza so we could get stuff done. Sunday saw him mowing the back yard before heading to work and me working feverishly on my parent's quilt. Yesterday, I finished the top and got it basted and ready to be quilted. Right after dinner last night, C (my daughter) and I were evacuated because of a gas leak on the town square. We live right off the square in the historic distric. A month or so ago, there was the same situation in a town near here and they DIDN'T evacuate and some houses blew up, killing a few people, so they tend to be overly cautious now. We headed over to C's friend's home and hung out with the parents for a while, then C was invited over to another friend's house. We adults ended up sitting out on the patio, drinking beer and eating party food. Best evacuation ever. Of course, I hadn't pinned the quilt at that point so when they finally let us back into the house at 10pm, I still had to clean up the kitchen from dinner and then work on the quilt.

Hit the hay, and up early (for me) and on to chores and then to the quilting of the quilt. After hubby gets home, we have to go start hauling firewood. The house where we were cutting and loading a week ago still has the rest of that tree left, plus they had 2 more cut down and it's stacked and waiting for us to come get it. I imagine it will be a couple of loads a week for the next few weeks. We'll make a trip tonight, and most likely I'll make another trip tomorrow after getting home with the chickens. It's their "spa" day.

Anyway, got 2 weeks worth of stuff to do and only 4 more days to do it in, so I gotta run. BUT, before I go, here's the view from our balcony when we were on vacation.
Peace,

deb

Woo! Pictures!

Prepare to be amazed! I really did go and buy batteries, and even though I'm neck deep in laundry and cleaning and dog bathing and all the other things I need to do today because we're going on vacation tomorrow, I do this for you. :)

Here are the chickens. They're the same ones that were in the tub a few weeks ago. They are 6 weeks old today and have 1 1/2 more weeks to go before they head to the "spa". They do not like the heat any more than I do.


Here is the veg garden. Green beans and okra in the front bed, you can see the corn over to the right in the next bed, tomatoes in the bed right behind and the one in the back has onions.

Daisies that I think are pretty.

My first tomato! :)

That's it for now. I have to go hang the first load of laundry. We're all wearing clothes that we wouldn't be caught out in public in so I can wash all the "good" stuff to pack.

Hope you like the pictures. I'll add some more when we get home.

Happy Father's Day

deb

Getting ahead of the game....for once

Because of the high winds and the storms we've had, a friend of a friend offered to let us come over and cut up a tree that fell over at their house. We said yes please, and made arrangements to go over today and start cutting and loading. Dear Hubby got called into work this morning for an emergency meeting. It's his day off, but he went in anyway. He got home around one, we had lunch, got directions and headed out about 2. About 20 minutes into the cutting we decided that cutting firewood in the middle of the afternoon in Texas in June was not the wisest thing to do. It was a little warm. Well, quite warm. 97 degrees warm. But we were there, spent money on gas to get there and made the best of a hot situation. We got almost a whole truck load cut before the chainsaw got too hot and we had to quit. But honestly, we were pretty glad about the whole thing. The deal when we get firewood is he cuts, I load. So, once he stops cutting, I can stop loading. We only got about a fifth of the tree cut, maybe not even that much. The trunk is massive. The owners told us that the other two trees that were in that particular stand will be coming down soon as well, so they hired someone to cut them down, but are giving us that wood too. It should be enough for the whole winter and then some. Never been this prepared before! We'll rent a splitter and get it all stacked and seasoned before the cold hits in December. Now that's a good feeling.

My sister in law asked if I'd gotten batteries for the camera yet. Uhhh, well, see...basically what happened was...OH, ALRIGHT! I'll spring for the batteries tomorrow and get some pictures of the chicks and the garden and other stuff up.

Big news for the day: I picked my first tomato this morning. It was even ready for me to pick it! Of course, I can't eat it yet because I have to take a picture...see above paragraph. I also ate the first green bean today. And I harvested some Passion Flower vine leaves to dry and make tea out of. It's has purported anti-anxiety powers, and I have lots of Passion Flower vines. And lots of anxieties. Rule of thumb is to only harvest one third of a plants leaves and then thank the mother plant for her kindness and generosity.

I harvested all my garlic the other day and it's in a basket on the front porch curing. Definitely enough for a year. Pulled, braided and hung some onions today. There's still a lot out there, but I wanted to get some done before we go on vacation.

I worked on my parent's 50th Anniversary quilt today. My sister printed all the photos for me and I got them back last night, so they're all cut down and ready to be pieced into the blocks. I'm running against the clock at this point, so I'll be busting my butt the week after vacation to get it done. It's to be presented at their party on the 28th...of this month. Yikes. I'll have 5 days after we get home to get it finished. No problem...I have a daughter to do my chores and really, they can feed themselves.....


I guess that's it for today. It's been a full day, but a good day.

Be well,

deb

Take a break.

Yeah, so I'm taking a break. Well, really I'm just lazy. And I don't like humidity. Or heat. And it's summer in Texas. And I'm a WHINER.

But, this morning, I found my very first okra in the garden. I'm growing burgundy okra this year, so it's....um...burgundy. It's actually quite pretty, too. It's sitting on my kitchen table wondering what will happen to it now. Me to. I mean, what am I going to do with one okra? Sunday I pulled up a big batch of beets and pickled them. Starting on the pantry. I doubt that 5 pints of pickled beets will be a year's supply for my girl and I, but it's a start. Hubby doesn't like them. At all. The end. So we know he won't sneak into the kitchen in the middle of the night with a hankerin' for pickled beets. That's a relief. I also pulled some onions and braided them and hung them from the pot rack. They're so pretty! I need to get the rest of them harvested and hung, along with all the garlic. But there's that issue of the garlic and onions being outside with the heat. Hm. I need to get some floodlights so I can work at night when it's 'cool'.

Still haven't got batteries for the camera, so you have to take my word on all of this.

Been working on a quilt for my parent's 50th anniversary. A scrappy gold double wedding ring with photos in the center of each block. It's going to be pretty cool. We're planning a party for the folks, dad's in on it, mom's not. But the quilt will be a surprise to both. My brother and his wife and family will be there. Haven't seen them in 5 or 6 years.

Well, I'm feeling a nap coming on. I guess I better take a break from taking a break and give in to the nap. It's rough being me. This will end soon, I'm filling out applications for a real job. Ugh. Hubby bought me a car, now I need to pay for it and I'm not selling enough eggs to fill the bill.

I'll let you know how the job hunt goes.

deb

Meat the babies!

I went out to take photos of my HUGE chickens and my camera's batteries are dead. :( I'll pick up some more this weekend when I'm out and about. But I can tell you what I've been up to.

I foolishly decided that I would do the Farmer's Market in our local town of McKinney. The market is located in the old historic village part of the historic downtown. You know, old houses and schoolhouse, a general store, herb gardens, etc. It's a very cool venue. I'm not selling produce or eggs, but crafts. I made these WAY cool fabric grocery bags out of some recycled sheets and was really looking forward to selling them all. My first lesson was a harsh one. People who shop at farmer's markets already have tote bags and fabric grocery bags. I made a whopping $5 for the whole 4 hours. Didn't even pay my gas to get there! LOL! So now, being hard-headed and all that, I'm determined to beat the farmer's market. I WILL persevere. I came home and cut out some aprons. Made 2 yesterday and have 4 more cut out. I also went through my quilt tops. I found two that are done and even have backing with them. Just need some batting and thread and can whip those suckers out with an all over stipple. Luckily for me, one of the local quilt shops is going out of business and everything is 50% off this week. I'll swing over tomorrow and pick up some stuff.

Oh, did I mention....my dear sweet hubby BOUGHT ME A CAR! Woo! I've been out here in the boonies for 2 years with no vehicle, and now we've each got one. It's a sweet deal! We were spending so much putting gas in the truck, that we decided we could buy a small car with way better gas mileage and absorb the cost of the payments in the gas savings. The rule of thumb these days is whoever is driving the farthest gets to drive the new one. I got a light metallic blue 2008 Kia Rio. She's a sweet little thang. I named her Nesbit. She gets 35 mpg as opposed to Trucky (original name, huh) who only gets 13 mpg. Since hubby was transferred to another store that's 35 miles from home, we thought it prudent.

The garden is coming along. Built 3 more beds, but don't have dirt in them yet. That will be this weekend. Running them along the back and side fence so I can trellis tomatoes, cucs, watermelon and the "jelly melon". Then one along the stick fence that will have sweet potatoes. They're all ready to be put in the ground, just need some ground to put them in. :)

As soon as that's all done, my focus will be on setting up the flower beds and "patio" area under the pecan tree. It's always been a jungle on that side of the yard, I thought I would tame it this year and next and make it a usable portion of the yard. It's always shady over there and would make a good outdoor room. I'd like to put in a fire pit the first year or two, then build in a wood burning oven.

Well, that's it for today. Gonna have lunch with a friend that I haven't seen in forever today, and then work on those aprons. Hubby is working both jobs today, thankfully only a 12 hour work day as opposed to the evil Saturday schedule which is a 16 hour day (full shifts at both jobs). Poor guy. But that means we can have breakfast for dinner tonight, since he won't be here.

OH! I fixed omelets the other day and everything in them was from the yard (or mini-farm if you prefer). Eggs, onions, beet greens, garlic scapes and cilantro. Good stuff man!

Talk to you soon. Hopefully I'll have some pictures this weekend.

Be well,

Deb

Spring has sprung!

It's been so busy around here. Texas doesn't really have much in the way of spring, as such. It's cold, then it's hot, then it's really cold, then there's a tornado, then a dust storm and then it's summer. But somewhere in the middle of all of that, we get these perfect days. 75 degrees, no clouds, no gale force winds, the sky so blue it hurts your eyes and that lime green of all the new leaves on the trees, and the hummingbirds at the feeder. Ahhh, those are the days that I live in Texas for. I've been so busy in the garden, I haven't gotten much else done. I've got 5 beds planted with onions, radishes, corn, cabbages, broccoli, okra, lettuce, peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes, garlic and some beans. I got a new bed made and planted with some grapes to trellis up the side and shade us some and some pink eyed peas. They're like black eyed peas, only...you know, pink.

I've also been able to work on my stick fence around my veg garden and have had some requests for photos, so here they are. I used the standard 4x4 posts and 2x4 rails, then have just been cutting 3 1/2 foot sticks off of prunings and also the branches on the trees that we cut for wood. We heat with fireplaces...no central heat or air installed in this old house. The types of sticks vary according to what kind of tree we just finished with, but I think it gives it a cool look. I'll also have sweet potato vines climbing up it soon (I hope) and it will look very rustic.

The other big happening is the baby chicks that arrived today. I wasn't expecting them until tomorrow, never having been invited to the post office on a sunday, but I got the call around 10 this morning and ran over and picked them up. They were a little rowdy at first, but they seem to all be satisfactorily fed and watered and are now taking a nap. My wonderful lab Label is napping next to the tub in the sewing room, having tired herself out observing her new babies for a couple of hours this morning.

Must get into the sewing room. Sunday is my day for sewing now that there's way too much yardwork to do. It'll be too hot to do any of it in a month or two, so I have to get it all done in the cooler days.

One last item: My treadle group Miniature Round Robin. This is the last border that I put on. Each bear's paw block finished to 3/4 of an inch. And I hate trimming half square triangle....ugh.

Talk to you soon,

Deb

Strung along

It's been a while, I know. I sorta gave up over the winter. It was cold, and I don't think I did much but stand by the space heater in my sewing room, trying to keep warm. Pretty pathetic, I know. I can live with that.

One thing I did accomplish was finishing the string quilt top that I've been working on for 2 years. I've been saving strings from the quilt shop, from home projects and from friends to work with. They multiply after dark, by the way. I have become enamoured with the simple string quilt. There is so much you can do with the pieces...spider web, LeMoyne star, applique, bricks, etc, but this quilt is the first one I started (I've done 3 all together). I love the simplicity of it. I love looking at it and picking out fabrics that I've used in other projects for people I love. I love the "primitive" feel with the bright, bold fabrics. I love the weight of it. I foundation pieced on muslin because I hate peeling paper off the back of things. I decided to hand quilt it in the Baptist Fan quilting style, using a pencil and a piece of string with knots tied in it every inch and a half, approximately. It's going very quickly and now I understand the lure of the Baptist Fan for our quilting foremothers. I can see putting a full sized quilt on the frame in the morning and having a group of experienced quilters working on it and it being done by the end of the evening. I've recently quit the "quilt for money" work, and now all the quilting I do is for me, and the passion is returning. Thank goodness! I've missed it!

I'm also working on an hand appliqued free form vine/leave/rose border for my red and white round robin piece. This is the final border. I added it to make it fit my bed as it was square when I got it back from it's circuit through some amazing quilter's sewing rooms. This was an internet round robin involving friends on a message board of people who collect and use antique "people powered" sewing machines. That includes both treadle and handcrank machines. Both quilt tops have been entirely pieced on one or the other. No electric machines were used.

So, now back to cleaning the kitchen. Ugh. At least I already got the bathroom done. Luckily, we only have the one. :)

Back with you soon...

Deb

I seem to be having photo issues. I'll post pics as soon as the internet/my computer allows me to.

D