TGFA

Thank God For Avocado

So, updates of things I've made and bought and found lately!



This is a two-fer! You can see the set of milk glass glasses (redundant!) there to the left that I scored at a thrift store. I remember when I was little getting really excited about drinking orange juice out of the set that my mom had (which had been my grandmother's). Don't know why it was only ever orange juice, but hey! Now I have my own set :-) And a lovely bread box! Cause, can't lie, we get mice in the kitchen since there is AN ENTIRE WALL missing behind the dishwasher. Oohhhh old houses, you are so funny. So, all the food I like to leave on the counter is now safe and secure! Hooray!


Finished another knit hat! Looks a bit like a pippi longstocking/elf helmet, but I think it's cute, and it covers my ears without bunching up on the back of my neck, which makes me really happy. Of course, I made it too small. I don't know why I freak out about hats being too big, since I've never even made one the *right* size, let alone too big. Gah. But I've got a ton of this wool left (I bought almost 500 yards... holy crap) so I'm going to make mittens!


Gaaaaaaaaaaah, I LOVE THIS SHEEP. Even when he shoves his little face at me so quick I can't get a good picture :-)


And little girlie! She's getting spots on her face, which is probably against breed standard, but I DON'T CARE SHE'S CUTE.


HELLO.


Awww, it's like they're sharing dessert on a date! Except they're both boys. And they're brothers. Awkward...


OH MY GOD LOOK HOW BIG THEY ARE.


The whole family, minus one of the moms?? Whur'd she go?



And the whole family of piggly-poo's!!! And yes, I call them piggy poo's. To their faces.

Check!

Hoodie= DONE.

Finally, a project that doesn't take years! I love that kinda stuff :-) Can't wait to wear it! Umm... when it gets cold... in... October. I have wonderful timing.


Also notice that there is still a stain under the left pocket. I totally didn't. Until I was ripping the pocket off. Oh well. It's, erm, "character". I guess anyone who knows me knows I spill stuff all the time. No biggie.

So, HOW DID THIS MAGIC OCCUR, you ask? Should you ever have a hoodie with horribly stained (or just boring) pockets, use your trust seam ripper (or, in my case, my beloved, and recently recovered, stork scissors) and take that sucker OFF.

After removing your pocket, you can cover it with whatever floats your boat. I. Adore. This. Print. And I love ric-rac, so that was easy. What wasn't easy was figuring out how to cut the curve of the top fabric to match the pocket (for some reason, I didn't think to just cover the whole thing, so I was trying to fit the fabric to the ribbing edge.)

I did a few stupid things first, like trying to sew them right sides together and flip them out (would have worked if the edge was straight, but the curve made it impossible.) After cursing and ripping out stitches several times, I gave in, traced the curve on the back of my print, and then just clipped and ironed the curve in. Worked like a charm. I sewed the ric-rac to the pocket base so it wouldn't move (cause I hate pins), then just sewed the print on top, close to the edge.

Then, you fold the print around the pocket to cover the edges. I finished it by quilting it, cause I'm a big grandma, and then zig-zagged the whole big pocket-sammich right back where it came from! FINITO! And happy new hoodie (still with stains)!

Couldn't wait!

Had to experiment with my hoodie!

I had to try out my hoodie idea *really quick!* I had this 1930's reproduction-print fabric from Warrenton, and I had this loooovely teal ric-rac (actually called dark peacock, I wonder why I like it!) and so... after a little brain storming, and lots of ripped out stitches we have...


TADA! Obviously only half done, but COME ON! AWESOME!

Fuzzy, but you can see the ric-rac, and quilted it!

And my favorite part, peek-a-boo ric-rac in the hood!

Can't wait until I finish the other side!

Well Hey There

Hi, Blog, long time, no see!

I've been a very bad girl! Let's just say, it's been a busy year so far, but I'm determined to get back into this blogging thing!

I'm not even going to attempt to fill in the fast few months- we're starting fresh from here on out!

OKAY!

So, it's SPRING if you hadn't noticed, and that means being OUTSIDE! HOORAY! This year, I'm determined (lots of determination around here!) to keep myself busy during the summer, AND I've been doing lots of reading, and I am GOING TO FARM. And make lots of changes. So, let's chronicle!

1) This is my new territory, the previously abandoned side yard. No one uses it, it's usually overgrown, and the kids just use the sidewalk to get into the basement. Scooooore. It's southern-facing, sheltered by fencing on 3 sides, and the house on the remaining side, and gets pretty good sunlight during the day. I'm killing the grass with tarps, because I am lazy and hate pulling out live grass. They've been cooking under there for about 2 weeks, so I'm going to check it this weekend and see if I can get started!



We have a tiller on loan from a parent, so hopefully I can figure the thing out (I failed at the push mower last weekend... ugh.)


The narrow part between the fence and the stairs is getting the cardboard treatment, because we don't have another one of those AMAZING tarps that I'm using on the big part. It should do the same job though.

I also made myself a make-shift potting bench!


So what's the P.L.A.N? The plan is this:

2) Clothesline. And, no, I'm not running at you with my arm aimed for your neck (growing up watching WWF makes this my initial reaction too), but I'm going to try to put as much of my laundry as possible on this bad-boy (and there's bad-boy #2 waiting to be put up. Or maybe that one is bad-girl?) I fully disclose here that there are some things that I'm sure will be put in the normal dryer (line-dried towels I've found are pretty horrific. Kind of like sandpaper) and I'll give myself concessions for bad weather, and just laundry emergencies, but I'd still like to use it as much as possible. I even made myself a swanky little clothespin bag (naturally), and I find that I really like folding clothes as they come off the line. Maybe this will help the insane closet situation too (still unresolved.)



3. CSA's. Like whoa.

A woman rang the bell out of the blue last weekend, offering us several gallons of raw milk that she was going to be unable to sell due to a cooler malfunction. She had seen our pigs driving by, and knew that pigs *love* milk, and didn't want it to go to waste. Of course, I eagerly accepted the milk, and after talking to her for a bit, I found out that she and her husband run a dairy between Washington and Sperryville, previously unknown to me. The only dairy that I knew of has a GINORMOUS waiting list; she has open shares. Long story short, as soon as this little lady gets paid, I am high-tailing it up to her place and BUYING A RAW MILK SHARE. Oh. My. God. If you've not had raw milk (and I guess few people have, since it's pretty much illegal), this is milk unlike anything you've ever tasted. Un-homogenized, with a thick topping of yellow cream, and it is absolutely to die for. Susan and I split a weeks' worth of milk from the other dairy last summer while her friends were out of town, and it was deeelish (and, I admit, I totally stuck my finger in the bucket of pig-milk, out of curiosity. Purely scientific, I swear.) I can't wait. Butter. OH MY GOD BUTTER. Gonna make so much butter. And ice cream. I even want to delve into cultured products, like yogurt, and I'm dying to know how to make sour cream without killing myself.

To add to that, our local county list-serv had an add yesterday from an older couple looking for someone to share their CSA share from Sunnyside Farm. They're out of town a lot in the growing season because they're retired, have a house in Maine, etc, so they don't get as much use out of it as they'd like to, and I'm just one person, so there is NO way I could eat a whole share. So we're going to alternate weeks picking up, and split the cost. It works out to be $25 a week. Which is really really good. Sunnyside is actually so awesome, they sell at the White House Farmer's Market.

So that's two strikes off the local eating list: dairy and veggies (plus I think Sunnyside does eggs, and fruit in season), and I still have locally grown/milled wheat from Purcellville Now I just need to trot down to Mount Vernon when I deplete all the meat in my fridge...

Totally unrelated to the subject of farming and sustainability, I've been working on a lot of sewing/crafty stuff for dance! Yee haw! Got my tassel belt started, after THREE YEARS of languishing in a bin of uncompleted projects,


and I finished my first version of my choli ( a sort of crop-top-type thing), though I want to tweak it a bit, and then I still need to make my "real" version (this one was just for practice, but I made it pretty enough to wear!)

The fabric is a hand block-printed piece that my high school art teacher gave me. When I was in high school. Like, 6 years ago. Or more. And I've never touched it.

I had *just enough* and had a lot of fun making sure that the patterns mirrored, and even that the little trees went the same direction (even under the arms!)



I'm also about to do a little fixing on one of my favorite hoodies. It's white (I know), and it's had a stain on the pocket forever (obviously), so I'm going to cover the pockets with some super-cute fabric I picked up yesterday at a quilt shop in Warrenton to cover all my sins...

After that, I'm going to recover this ottoman that I picked up off the side of the road, with some nice red waffle-weave-ish upholstery fabric that I bought a while ago and since forgot my plans for...

Sebastian approves!

So, productive weeks ahead!

Spectrum

It's an extremely blustery day outside, and there's absolutely NO point in shoveling snow in 40 mph winds, so I've been cooped up all day, keeping myself busy by working a little on cutting blocks for my quilt.I've been scouring the fat-quarter bins at Joann's to supplement my scraps, and now I think I've probably got enough to make a decent-sized lap quilt. There's no way I'm making a queen-size quilt (yet.) So here are pictures of the pieces, spectrum style, and then the few pieces that I haven't cut out yet (can't lie, the wrists are killing me!)

Reds

Yellows

Greens


Blues


Neutrals


Big Schtack o' Fabric

Sometimes...

Life is so much better with conversations like this:

LaserPanda: okay
LaserPanda: so someone just called and asked
LaserPanda: "can i have the department where you buy your stuff at?"
Saraswati7286: wtf?
LaserPanda: Parts.
LaserPanda: THey meant parts.
Saraswati7286: wow
LaserPanda: they remembered the word department, but not the word parts
Saraswati7286: lol
LaserPanda: they were not embarassed at all when i asked, "do you mean parts?"
Saraswati7286: lol, sad. so sad.
Saraswati7286: <3 ky
LaserPanda: I know. Really, how can you go on without living here?
Saraswati7286: I don't know. I die a little bit inside, every day
LaserPanda: You're just in virginia now tho, you still get your monthly mullet requirment.
Saraswati7286: :-( not really
Saraswati7286: I can't remember seeing one
LaserPanda: thats wrong, your body must be atrophying.
Saraswati7286: i think so
Saraswati7286: explains being depressed
Saraswati7286: lack of mullets
Saraswati7286: do you think I could get a supplement?
LaserPanda: Without seeing X many mullets a month, the brain stops producing the chemicals that make us happy.
Saraswati7286: dopamine?
LaserPanda: Serotonin
Saraswati7286: oh that one
Saraswati7286: yep
LaserPanda: There is a graph somewhere plotting levels of serotonin and the number of mullet's sighted at a walmart at 3pm on a sunday.
Saraswati7286: LOL
Saraswati7286: god that would make me so happy
Saraswati7286: Doctorate research?
LaserPanda: Perhaps. It is an under-researched field of study
Saraswati7286: I'm seeing "Nobel Prize" for Mullet Research

Oh Dear.

It's been. A while.

Sorry about that. Just haven't been in the chatty mood??... Or more like: I've been crafting my fingers to the bone and haven't thought about blogging about it!

Best thing to happen to me this week: Double whammy!

1. Ridiculous amount of snow days. 2 days of school all week! AND THE SNOW IS BEAUTIFUL. Let's see what I say about that tomorrow when I have to dig myself out...

2. In conjunction with part 1, I got my yarn winder mere HOURS before the snow started falling heavily (yes, maybe I went out in the *light* snow *twice* to check my PO box. Don't judge. I am in love. Little cakes of yarn EVERYWHERE.

I also got this book all about hiding veggies in your foods. Granted, it is written for parents to hide veggies from their *children*, but I never find myself wanting to eat a whole lot of veggies, and I WANT to, so I think this is the best, if not most pathetic, route for me. Tonight, I made carrot macaroni, and I have to say it was pretty darn good. I didn't measure at all, just cooked some carrots (one was uncooked, because I started pureeing it before I realized they should be cooked first...) and threw them in the macaroni, doctored it up with some more milk (I put a LOT of carrot, which made it a bit dry), butter, and some Cabbot extra sharp. Dee-lish!



I also got a bread maker at the thrift store the other day for SIX DOLLARS. Because the stars have certainly aligned in my honor. I made one batch of whole wheat (with really nice locally-grown wheat), but it turned out heavy as a brick (mom did warn me about that...) so I'm making some white now, and I'll play around with mixing in the whole wheat later. The bricks will now become an extra-special "HOLY CRAP ITS COLD" treat for the chickens. They don't really like snow, so I figure they could use it ;-)



Bread, V 1.0

And now I'm too tired to type the rest. We've now been plowed out, and I'm thinking about escaping to town, because I've been stuck here since Thursday.