What happened to January-May?

Holy cow, time is rushing past! Quilt a palooza was quite a success and now it's time to push forward to the college issues. C and I are leaving in the morning for Galveston for her New Student Registration Conference. We'll be there for 3 days and home Thursday night. Then, I quilt 4 quilts in quick succession to get caught up and get them mailed out to their rightful owners.

I finally got a new phone and will be investigating how to update my blog via cell phone and also sending pictures. I always think about it when I'm nowhere near a computer, so if I can send stuff in when time arises, perhaps my blog will have more entries.

Gotta go finish packing.

Peace,

Deb

doin's on the homestead

We reconfigured the chicken pen to give the girls some fresh grass and weeds and especially some shade now that the Texas summer seems to have arrived. I'm letting them play in the asparagus bed now that the ferns are all real tall and they can't do any damage. They can keep the weeds down and fertilize though, and that's pretty important stuff for the asparagus.

I finished my last 2 shop samples for Quilt-a-palooza and have been cooking stock all day. I'll let it go overnight and then pressure can it in the morning. I also have 2 chickens in the fridge that I need to cut up and cook in the morning to make chicken salad and also to have the meat for a couple of dishes for the next 2 weeks (chicken pot pie, chicken stuffed peppers and possibly chicken enchiladas). I like to get a bunch cooked up and then store it for meals. Then I'll make and can more stock out of the leftovers. Now that the heat is here, the garden is starting to grow. The lettuce is all bolting, so I'll need to go harvest what is left out there tomorrow and get it all in the fridge. Salads for this week and next, and then maybe it's done. I did buy some lettuce seed called "heat wave mix". It's supposed to be able to grow in warmer climes, and I'll plant it under the okra so at least it's shaded. The green beans are climbing the fence and I think I'll actually get some this year. If the grasshoppers become an issue, i'll let the chickens have them. Planted all the curcurbits (cucs, squash, pumpkins, watermelon) in the front this year. Ran out of room, plus the squash bugs are in the back yard. Maybe I'll be able to trick them.

Gotta run, we're watching my new dvd of Dexter, first season. Such a good show!

peace,

Deb

Alright, alright!

Shees! The wedding was last Saturday and everyone wants to see pictures. I have some of them, but not all, so I can only post a few here and there until I have them all.

So here is an authorized picture of my beautiful lovely daughter, C, who was a bridesmaid. I altered her dress and made the cloak.
Now, if I can do this correctly, I'll try to pull another of the bride over from the cd itself. All this technology...

This is my lovely new Daughter in Law, M being walked down the aisle by her father. I made the gown. You can't tell, but it's got an embroidered vine up one side of the bodice with flowers made out of beads and it's also got pearls all along the top. (I just viewed the post and if you click on each picture it enlarges it and you can see detailing)
This is the kids during the ceremony. Our minister was pretty cool. My son, A, was pretty nervous but seemed a little more relaxed by this point.

That's it for tonight...the pizza is almost done and I want to go spend some time with C and finish up my round robin block since it's late already. They gave me some leniency since I was having a wedding, but that card has been played and it's back to real life for me. I'll post more pictures as I come by them. Hope you enjoy them.

peace,

deb

Holy Bananas

My son is getting married tomorrow morning. How weird is that. I'm already getting all choked up. Just thinking about his life and all the things I remember about him as an infant and a toddler. I'm really glad that I bought waterproof mascara in preparation for the event. I think I'm kind of in shock right now.

Guess I should try to get some sleep. It will be a long day tomorrow.

peace,

D

What I've been doing...

I noticed the last post was from February 26th. That was about 10 days after I started working on the wedding clothes. Well, today I finished the wedding clothes. That's about 8 solid weeks of sewing. Here is a small example of what I've been doing.
This is my hubby in his brand new kilt. He looks a little dazed b/c I ambushed him as soon as he walked through the door after working a 10 hour day. But I think it looks pretty good for someone who's never made a kilt before.

Now, I have half a day plus whatever time is left after going to work to get the house sorta straightened up. Luckily, the folks that will be staying here don't care so that's truly a blessing.

peace,

Deb

Homestead Update

I've gotten the onions in, transplanted lettuce and some brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, etc), planted potatoes, started sweet potato slips, planted garlic and transplanted rosemary and dill. We built a small chicken run for the girls since they dig up my herb garden and lilies on a regular basis. Well, they can't now, so I'm planning for a real nice herb bed this year.

Canned some dried pintos the other day and also some pecans. I'm working on filling my pantry with a year's worth of food. It's good to have a back up. The garden and chickens will feed us in the spring, summer and fall, but again, it's good to have a backup.

C's cat was attacked by 3 dogs 4 days ago and we're nursing him back to health, however unwilling he is to accept it. He's just a tad grouchy these days.

Took a road trip up to my parent's place last weekend and got my almost DIL wedding dress almost done. Just some handwork on the bodice and hemming up the skirt. Still need to make an underskirt, 5 cloaks, my outfit, DH's outfit and alter the bride's maid's dresses. I've got 7 weeks. :)


I need to start some more seeds this weekend and order a few more. Maybe get some peas planted up against the back fence. Lots to do!

Deb

Ice day projects

Today we, like much of the country, were gripped by an ice storm. It pretty much shut down the DFW area. So, since I didn't have to work, I used all the time that I would be gone and did what I wanted to do. Seemed to be fair. Here is what happened.

I finished 2 pillowcases for C,
2 Civil war blocks (both the same-I swap with Sue),

An apron with hot dogs on it,
and I finished the borders on my Roman Stripe quilt.
But now I don't think I like the light purple border. I really think it needs to be a stronger border. I was going to use a dark pink with with polka dots, but it turned out to be a poly blend. Now I guess I'll find something else. Anything that's dark. Maybe green or blue. Do you guys have any thoughts or suggestions?

Anyway, that's what I did today. Not too bad for one day! Too be fair, I did all the prep work yesterday on everything. I was just finishing things today.

Oh, I watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica. My son has been nagging me to watch it for a while, and last time I was at his apartment, he forced the first season on dvd into my hand and demanded that I watch. I got through the first episode which was a four hour mini-series on Sunday and watched one episode today. It's hard to sew while you're paying attention, thus only one episode.

Gotta go get my jammies on and get settled for the evening.

Peace,

Deb