Monday, April 26, 2010

Faith - Don't leave home without it

I am a firm believer in Faith. Faith is like Hope with a backbone. You can hope something will happen, but with faith, you believe that it will. I believe that the (not so) simple act of having faith lends faith it's strength and truth. Hoping something will happen sort of tosses something up into the air and maybe you get heads, maybe tails. But having FAITH that something will happen turns those hopes into truths. You can't just say you have faith, you REALLY, REALLY have to have faith, to believe that it's a truth, to believe that God or the Universe or whatever you believe in will see that you trust It to take care of the situation. Back in the day, when I was a struggling single mom going through a messy divorce, I was waiting tables in a little cafe in a one horse town, I decided that I really needed to buy a house for me and the kids. A logical choice from a woman who had basically no income, tons of debt and bad credit and barely a foot to stand on. But I had faith. I ended up waiting a some older ladies and we got to talking. One of them was selling a house here in town. She wasn't going through a realtor, just selling it herself. Now this house just happened to be one that I'd walk by almost daily. It was after the lunch rush at the cafe and my boss said that I could leave and look at the house. So I did, knowing that there really was no way I could EVER buy a house. I fell in love with it. It was perfect. In town so the kids could walk to school safely, big back yard, the old house I'd always wanted to live in. I dreamed about this house. Once I decided that I wanted it, I went to a mortgage broker here in town and unbelievably, someone decided that they'd give me a shot. Again, I had faith. My friends who knew my situation asked me what my back up plan was because they knew I wouldn't get it. There was no way I could. I was getting ready to be up in my lease at my old house and had no other alternatives. I told them I didn't have a back up plan. I told them that if I came up with a back up plan, it meant that I didn't truly have Faith that my needs would be met. I still live here. I know in my heart, that there is no earthly explanation for me to have gotten this house. None.

All of that was for this.

I've been having a crisis of Faith lately. It happens every once in a while, and it's so dumb. I know that time and time again, when I give things/needs/desires over to Faith, not only are they met, but I am also blessed with such a peace in my soul. I don't need to stress about bills or repairs or birthday gifts, but somehow, in my flawed heart, sometimes I still do. Or if there's something that is a need, but also a want...and I want it NOW...and then I see that I'm acting like a spoiled child. And I'm ashamed of myself. I've been shown the promise of security time and time again and yet I still fall into the pit of anxiety and obsession.

And then, when I realize the error of my ways and I lay all that stress and anxiety on the altar and step away and let the clouds of uncertainty disolve, God's love and truth shines down on me again and I have a day like I had yesterday, filled with the truth of the Promises and beauty of living simply and with the earth and the joy of sharing it with others and a feeling of serenity and peace. Which I think we all need on a daily basis.

I wish you all peace,

Deb

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

All things considered,

I really should be in bed. Tomorrow at work is my long day. 9am to 7pm, and I'll need to get up early to get dinner in the crockpot. Chipotle Black Bean and Vegetable soup. A customer at the shop gave me the recipe and I've tried it once before and it's delicious. It's also really nice to have dinner ready after working a long day. DH will be home long before me, so if he's hungry he can dig in when ever he wants. He usually waits for me though. Such a sweetie.

I'm working on my list of craft show projects. I got some very good suggestions from my daughter in law. She suggested more smaller items: wall hangings, placemat and napkin sets, seasonal items and baby quilts. I think I'll also ask on facebook what folks might like to see and buy at a high end artisan craft show.

I finally finished the alterations I was doing to barter for goods from a friend of mine. She runs a CSA (community supported agriculture) and in our trade she gave me several tomato and pepper plants. All kinds, slicing, cherry and paste tomatoes and bell, jalapeno (green and black), poblano and anaheim peppers. She also gave me a csa share. A huge bag of fresh lettuce greens, garlic greens, elephant garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme and some coriander. Quite a haul. I gave her a dozen eggs, altered two pairs of pants and hemmed two pairs of jeans. All in all, a good trade.

Yesterday I went out and got quite of bit of work done. I cut all the saplings off the alley way fence line, planted all the tomatoes and peppers and got them all mulched. Indoors, I finally gave in and put the duvet away in the blanket chest and carried all the fire wood in the living room back outside. What that means is that we're sure to have a freak snow storm or some such nonsense. I think I left firewood in the house til July last year, just to be on the safe side. Then I ran into town and facilitated a "support group" at the shop for customers who are doing any of the Blocks of the Month projects. It was 3 hours when they could come to the shop and get help or just have a dedicated time to work on their BOMs. I took my handcrank and worked on a class sample. I only had 2 ladies show up, but it was the first meeting of the group. I'm sure it'll pick up some steam. It's free to our customers.

Well, like I said at the beginning, I really need to get to bed. DH is already snoozing as he has a very early morning.

Y'all sleep well,

D

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Had a relatively calm day today. I got up and ran into Frisco about 10am to do my grocery shopping at Target and Sprouts, home by 12-ish. Walked the estate and watered a few things that I just planted and then I started sewing. I did some bartering with a friend. Alterations and hemming for plants and seeds, so I got that job all done today. Then onto the Buggy Barn quilt.

I fixed some pop overs as a side for dinner. DH had never had them and they're about the easiest bread product ever. I pulled down an old popover pan (I assume) that I've had for years and never used and baked some up. They were quite a success and DH liked them alot. I'll have to keep that recipe in my head to whip up on nights when I don't have enough time to bake a loaf of bread to go with dinner.

I promised you pictures of the tumblers quilt, so here they are.

1400 pieces (ish) or so. Now I can't decide how to quilt it. I really had wanted to hand quilt it, but now that I have another Christmas piece that I NEED to hand quilt I might just go ahead and machine it. I would like to use both of them this year during the holidays. The other is a wall hanging, but it's a Baltimore style so it will require quite a bit of quilting. I guess I should decide pretty quick though.

I went online today and downloaded an application for the War Eagle Mill Craft show. It's my holy grail I think. I'm working up the courage to start doing craft shows. There are several fairly large ones in this area, but I'd love to get into the War Eagle one. DH thinks it's a great idea and it could be quite lucrative. I guess I need to quit sabotaging myself and just do it. I think I'm just afraid that I'll fail and then all the time and money put into it would be wasted. Perhaps I just need some one to hold me accountable. I guess I need to work up a plan. What I can make to sell, how much time required, etc. Do I make quilts that are quick or quilts that are pretty? Do I make contemporary quilts or country quilts? Wall hangings, queen size or miniatures in frames? Quilted tote bags? You guys, who ever you are that reads this, give me some input. If you were to go to a large arts and craft fair with money to burn and you came across a quilt booth, what would YOU want to take home with you? I guess there's just about nothing that I'd rather do with my day after chores and gardening than quilt. And If I could generate some income doing that, that'd just be amazing.

Ok, well that should give you guys something to think about and PLEASE leave your opinion in a comment. I'd love to hear what y'all think.

G'nite

D

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Candy Coma

So the other day, I was at the grocery store and all their Easter candy was on clearance. My bright idea was to buy some and send it to the kids. They got opened. And sampled. And double sampled. It's not like I ate a whole bag, there's still plenty of candy. But I don't eat candy. I don't even hardly eat sugar. And I certainly don't do more than a cup of coffee or tea's worth of caffeine in a day. I know, I'm a freak. Whatever. I woke up this morning feeling just icky. Head achey, sluggish, and apparently I get mean. But only to my DH. Which really isn't a good thing. I spent the day drinking tons of water and working in the yard, trying to rid all that poison from my system. I don't think it's all gone yet though. Still headachy and feeling funky. I think I'm gonna take the next few days and try to detox it out. No more candy for me. Well. Probably in about 6 months I'll do it again, knowing full well what's going to happen and feeling like a jerk when I do. It's kinda stupid to eat something knowing that you're going to pay for it. Oh well, I guess I'll keep trying to learn from my mistakes.

On the up side, I got a few things done today. Paid bills, made a menu and grocery list, cleared out a veg bed and got the corn planted, went to the feed store for chicken fud and caved and bought 2 tomato plants and a pepper plant. Got them in the ground, did some laundry and worked in the sewing room for a while. I got the final 2 rows sewn onto my Christmas tumblers quilt. It's huge. I'll take a picture tomorrow. Approximately 1400 tumblers. I hand pieced most of it, but once I got close to the end, I just went ahead and finished up on the machine. I fixed a lovely dinner of marinated chicken breasts, herbed rice and fresh asparagus. Shoulda made bread, but we survived. I started cutting for the next class sample, a Buggy Barn Crazy quilt out of the new Moda line called Oz. Funky, 60-ish type prints. And I completed another hand pieced LeMoyne Star block for, you guessed it, a class sample. I sure hope I get some students. I'm spending all my time doing class samples and don't have time to do the paying jobs.

Watched the final Stars hockey game of the season. We won. :)

It's time for bed. DH has to get up at 4:30 (eww) and I should probably get up relatively early and head into town to do my grocery shopping before all of Frisco is out and about. Then home for more yard work and class samples. It's a good thing I like to garden and sew.

Peace,

Deb

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

I worked him like a dog...

My husband that is. He was off of work today and I blatantly assigned him a bunch of jobs to help me with. He cheerfully did them. Well, he started off cheerfully enough anyway. We got the rest of the rails up on the fence posts around the garden. He helped me cut down an old bamboo shade to use as a sun break for the chicken coop, he walked with me down to the hardware store to purchase some screws, he mowed the front lawn AND he put the down spout extension on. Whew! I think it was a good day's work. After that, I left him alone and let him nap and play video games. As much as I can leave him alone. :) I have a habit of vocalizing my random thoughts, running from the sewing room into the living to blurt out something completely strange and quite important. (ie: "I think the guy who moved in across the way has his own table saw" and "Our mean old neighbor is smoking in the alley"). While he was "resting" I was finishing up a class sample that I was working on last weekend at my parent's house. I got it finished just in the nick of time. Both my over head light and my sewing machine task light burned out today and both require specialized light bulbs. And the window in front of my sewing machine is currently wood. So I was battling daylight in an effort to finish before it was so dark in there that I sewed my finger to the quilt. I won and we had just enough time to run to the grocery store in town to purchase the fixins for the dinner DH requested. Chili Dogs. It was his day off, after all. Then we sat down to watch a hockey game, which we are losing atrociously. And that's about it. Here's a picture of the quilt. It's called a Blooming 9-Patch, and hopefully, you can see why.

Here's a picture of the chair I re-strung yesterday. It's really quite comfy.

Time to hit the hay. Getting up early in the am to do chores and work on another quilt top. It's a Tumbler quilt made up entirely of Christmas fabric, both mine and pieces I requested from my quilting friends. I hand pieced most of it til I was close to the end and machine pieced the last 6 rows. I'll get them sewn on and transfer the quilt top from the "works in progress" pile to the "quilt top" pile. I'm really trying to finish some stuff. OH! I got my chicken quilt loaded on the quilt machine as well.

I'm pooped!

peace,

deb

Monday, April 5, 2010

Springtime in Texas

No, we haven't had a tornado yet. :)

The seasons in Texas are a bit strange. They don't gradually come rolling in. You go to bed and it's winter with snow and wake up to spring and 70 degrees. It's now spring. Too late to plant any peas but too early for tomatoes, but just barely. Luckily, I have broccoli and cabbage and carrots and lettuce to fill in the gaps till it's time to get really serious. Those in the know say that we should have tomatoes in the ground now, but the friend that I'm getting plants from doesn't put hers in til May. So I guess I'll be waiting.

About the iris's previously mentioned. Several years ago as we were driving home from being "in town" we passed a spot where progress was marching over. They were widening and reshaping the road in anticipation of the work that's being done now (taking it to 4 lanes). The spot they were bulldozing had been the entrance way to the drive of an old home long since gone and at the edge where it met the road was a stand of beautiful white iris'. I looked at my daughter and she knew what I was going to do. I pulled over right in the middle of the construction zone and dug a bunch of those white iris's out of the ground with my hands with the dozer crew looking on. I planted them in my iris bed and every year they've thanked me by multiplying and being the first to bloom. I like to think that the homesteader woman who planted them can see them from Heaven and is pleased that they still greet the spring each year. I just couldn't let them be buried over with a road. I think if I ever have to leave this house, I'll be taking with me my iris's and my roses. And the hibiscus...

I made a jar of sauerkraut on Saturday. I used the recipe in the cookbook "Nourishing Traditions" and I added 2 tablespoons of whey left over from some raw goat's milk cheese making. The book has a lot of information about lactofermentation and I thought I'd give it a try. It's supposed to make the nutrients and the enzymes more readily available to your body and also help the proliferation of the good flora and fauna in your tummy. And a happy tummy makes a happy person.

I've been working on a sample for a class I'm going to teach. The blooming 9-patch. It's almost done. ALMOST. 4 more rows to sew together and to the shop it goes. I'll be sure to post a picture.

I finally re-strung the seat of my wicker rocking chair this evening while watching a movie. The cats had sharpened their claws on it til the wicker disintegrated so I just pulled it all off. It's been sitting on the porch with no seat for about 6 months. Decided that I probably should get it done since it's becoming porch weather. I've been taking my coffee out there and reading in the mornings the past couple of days. It's pretty nice on that porch swing with a quilt and a cat and a book.

Started some seeds today and they're in the green house. The asparagus is going crazy, as are the chickens. Cut back some saplings in a flower bed and cleared the dead datura out. Worked on a paying repair job. Hmmm, I think that's it for today.

Gotta get some sleep. DH will actually be home with me tomorrow and he's said he'd help me with some outside work, which is very cool. And a friend said that someone gave her a chipper/shredder and that I can borrow it which is WICKED cool. That huge brush pile in the back yard is going to become some delicious mulch for my gardens.

I'll try to be better about posting. I didn't know anyone was reading, but now that I do, I'll keep in touch better.

be well,

deb

Friday, April 2, 2010

My iris's are starting to bloom. :)

My public ;)

Seems I have a few friends and family out there who actually read this blog. I know, right! I had no idea. So I guess that will lend some accountability to things around here. If I have to write down what I did, I have to have done something.

Had a great time in Stilly visiting family. Mom made me a pattern from my favorite shirt....WITHOUT taking it all apart. Dad cooked and cleaned, which was a new experience. We also opened the outdoor patio for the season. It was nice to be there for that. I worked on a class sample, it's not quite finished yet, but I will definitely post a picture for that. It's pretty darn cool, if I say so myself.

Got home and I think my blackberry bush has died. We'll have to see. I might go ahead and plant it and see what happens. My lettuce is coming up and my broccoli and cabbage are doing well. We had two really warm, but very windy days but now it's raining again. I put in some radish and beet seeds last week, so this may be just what they need to give them that umph to get going. I have some carrots sprouting all over one of my beds. I guess I let a carrot go to seed last year. That's a-ok as everything I planted last year was open pollinated. And I don't have to mess with planting carrots this year. The asparagus is really starting to get going. I think I've harvested one spear from about 2/3rds of the crowns so far, another week and this rain we're going to get today should help them out. I do need to get some more straw and start mulching things since once it gets warm, it'll be real warm.

I didn't get to bring home my rain barrel since I was driving the little car. Next time, I guess.

My niece is getting married tomorrow, but we're not able to go. I hope everything goes well and I wish her the best.

I need to go finish getting dressed for work. A dear friend and co-worker has been out a few weeks and will be out another few weeks more and we are all taking turns taking her food. Today is my day. Nothing special, I cooked a crockpot of beans yesterday and am taking her some of those. They were quite tasty, but we sorta just threw in what we could find and I'll probably never be able to duplicate it.

I will spend some more time this weekend to see if I can get the mobile photo upload to work from my phone. My camera doesn't quite work as well as I'd like it to these days and my phone takes better pictures.

peace,

D