Nancy's Arts, Crafts & Favorites

Favorite Email of the Week

2012-01-31T11:24:00.001-07:00

Have you seen my lipstick?

NO, I HAVEN'T SEEN YOUR
LIPSTICK!

Why would you even ask me that?

I am so insulted!

Every time something
goes missing around here,

everybody looks at me!

Sewing Rooms from Pinterest

2012-01-27T06:05:00.000-07:00

Great looking sewing areas, all from Pinterest. Makes you want to create one that eliminates clutter and keeps all your sewing gadgets accessible, while it still has theme interest.

And for all you quilters, and you know who you are:

Becoming a Pensioner

2012-01-26T07:25:00.002-07:00

These articles are worth a look. I became an early pensioner today, so everything is not all bad.

Pensions in the United States Thank you, Sisters of Charity, for my pension plan

Study Hints That Statins Might Fight Breast Cancer (more advances in breast cancer research)

The Upside Benefit for Women of Guaranteed Income in Retirement (women do live longer than men)

and finally, just for a chuckle, here is one of the cards daughter Julie sent me for my birthday:

Happy Birthday to me, just another old broad :o) And thank you, Gene, for my new red leather loveseat where I can plot, plan, knit, read, converse, watch tv, and generally thoroughly enjoy my retirement.

Tiny Vignettes of Nature

2012-01-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

All pictures are from The Pothole Gardner in London where he creates miniatures of natural delights.

Thank you, Steve, for bringing a smile to all the faces who view your exquisite work.

All pictures from The Pothole Gardner, a guerrilla gardener's blog

How to Sew a Quick and Easy Drawstring Bag

2012-01-22T08:10:00.002-07:00

Making drawstring bags is easy. If you can use a sewing machine, one can be made in half an hour. This is a great sewing project for kids, too. I am making several as project bags for knitting goods.

These bags have so many purposes: projects, jewelry holders, shoe bags, make up containers...you name it.

When traveling, stashing makeup and personal items keeps the clutter at bay, especially if you find yourself being a companion to another sharing a bathroom. One bag can hold lipsticks and eye makeup, another used for shower items, while a separate one can contain curling irons and gels. Just remember the color of your bag for certain items, and you can dress and be ready for the day in a flash.

An easy pattern can be found for making these bags at the same site where the above picture was located. Go here for complete instructions.

Here are my fabric choices and what I am sewing on today. One larger bag, the ladybug material, will make a large project bag with dimensions of 16" x 11".

Two smaller bags will be made from fat quarters purchased for $1.50 each. How inexpensive is that?

The batty bats are my favorite! Brown grosgrain ribbon will tie up this one.

Online Cookbook at No Cost

2012-01-18T07:03:00.002-07:00

Thank you, Natalie, for sending this link. It is a downloadable cookbook from Penzey's Spices. Go here to see the entire cookbook online.

There are many great recipes in the book, and I thought it interesting to read about the spices Penzey's sells. My first purchase will be "vindaloo seasoning" for chicken (page 22). It says this about Vindaloo Seasoning:

This hot and spicy blend comes from Goa, a small state nestled in the middle of the Malabar Coast of India. Though control of Goa was returned to India in 1961, the four and a half centuries of Portuguese rule left many lasting impressions. Pork Vindaloo is a favorite dish of the Catholics, who make up a third of the population of Goa. The Muslims and Hindus of India prefer Vindaloo lamb or duck.

Mix 2-5 TB. spice in 2-5 TB. water, set aside. Heat 2 TB oil, brown 1 ¹/2 lb. pork
cubes, remove, then brown 1 large minced onion. Put browned pork back into pot, add Vindaloo paste, 1 cup water, 6 TB. vinegar and 1 tsp. salt, cook 30 min. Add 4-6 cups cubed potatoes, cook till tender (45 min. or so). For authentic fiery hot Vindaloo as served in beach
front restaurants in India, add an equal part cayenne pepper. Hand-mixed from: coriander, garlic, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, crushed brown mustard, cayenne, jalapeño pepper, cardamom, turmeric, black pepper, cloves.

1⁄ 4 cup jar (net 1.0 oz.) #12531 $ 3.65
1⁄ 2 cup jar (net 2.2 oz.) #12557 $ 6.29
4 oz. bag #12544 $ 6.89
8 oz. bag #12586 $ 12.75
1 lb. bag #12515 $ 24.40

This is just ONE of the recipes that looked good to me for Creamy Chicken Chowder:

Scroll Lace Scarf

2012-01-17T06:53:00.000-07:00

Popular knitwear designer Ysolda Teague showcases her Scroll Lace Scarf available here with it wrapped around the shoulders on this pretty model:

It looked easy, so I began it with some hand dyed yarn from KnittingRose.

This was one pattern that definitely did not turn out as expected, and was a project that schooled me in what NOT to do from the start of the project to its very end.

Although it ultimately turned out well, the learning experiences for me were:

1: Use SMALLER needles; the lace holes were from 3/4 to 1 inch in size, way too large for wearing without poking a finger into the holes. Will use size 6 needles next time it is knit
2: Do NOT use circular needles. Awkward to hold while doing the 15 row, 15 stitch repeat ad infinitum.
3: ...not crazy about the picot border; think about another edging next time
4: ...stockinette stitch will curl on the body, so ensure some purl rows are included every 6 rows or so.
5: ...perhaps too many lace repeats since it is LONG!

Finished dimensions: 85”length x 12” at widest middle point with the called for 28 repeats...Make less lace repeats next time it is knit for less length in the scarf

With these thoughts in mind, I started another Ysolda Teague Scroll Lace Scarf last night. Practice, practice, practice.

The Thrill of What You Already Have

2012-01-14T07:57:00.001-07:00

A new blog challenge hosted by Floss in Toulouse, Haute Garonne, France is something that intrigues me.Floss says about her blog challenge:

This is the idea - every month I post a photo from my calendar (this year it's iconic Scottish rail tourism posters from the 1920s and '30s) and we use that photo - colour schemes, shapes, images, location, content - ANY aspect of it - to inspire us. We search through our drawers, boxes, attics, stables etc and make up a display of lovely or surprising things, and then share a photo on our blog. If you're like me, having a monthly excuse to rummage, combine, display and then gloat will be a very enjoyable experience. Sharing our pictures will really give us a chance to thrill over our 'stuff' without any need to go out and buy any more of it. And seeing photos of other people's ideas should give us further inspiration of what we can do ourselves.

A commenter named Carolyn said about this 2012 blog theme:

I think this is an excellent idea, esp as it not only encourages us to be content, to be happy, to appreciate and enjoy what we have; but it will also encourage us to look for things we had forgotten, to tidy out those cupboards, to reclaim old forgotten loves.

What a great challenge: be thankful for what you have, reflect on your blessings, and be aware of the beauty around you.

Here are some things I am thankful for (and yes, I DID clean out the china hutch last week, including taking all the crystal out, washing each piece, and windexing all the glass shelves!)

(A cut glass vase over 100 years old that was a wedding present to my grandmother. She kept it filled with flowers when I lived with her during my teen years. The bottom is discolored despite all the vinegar efforts to remove the lime deposits.)

(Cut glass salad bowl my mother received as a wedding present in 1944)

If you are a blogger, swing on over to Floss and join in this challenge.

How to Make Modge Podge

2012-01-13T06:06:00.001-07:00

Buying Modge Podge can set you back a few bucks more than making it yourself. Since it is used in the craft room about as frequently as scissors, here is a recipe for a home made brew, courtesy of thekrazycouponlady:

1 jar (An old pasta sauce or salsa jar will work)
1 bottle of Elmer’s glue
water

Empty the glue into the jar. Add water; you will need equal parts water and glue, so you can even use the (now) empty glue bottle to measure your water. Now, shake the jar until it’s well blended. You will need to shake it a lot, so pace yourself!! This recipe will make Mod Podge that is a little on the runny side. If you want yours to be a little thicker add more glue.

That's all there is to it!

(All pictures courtesy of Pinterest)

Knitting in January

2012-01-11T08:29:00.002-07:00

While in Waco, I made a bit of progress on a new project with a pattern from Ysolda Teague: the Scroll Lace Scarf. Hand dyed yarn from KnittingRose, a 75% superwash wool, 25% nylon for stability, KnittingRose dyes beautifully.

Because I was listening to Aunt Mary and stories from her college years in the 1940's at Hardin Simmons in Abilene, Texas, it was easier to knit a sock in the round than to follow a lace chart. So the socks below were begun, using Knit Picks yarn in a fingering weight. I'm going to complete an afterthought heel. The pattern is again from Ravelry, and is from LaLa found here.

Aunt Mary thought it was fascinating that the yarn was self striping. She had never heard of that aspect of knitting. For a video showing how to complete an afterthought heel, go here.

One quick story from Aunt Mary, who has a dry sense of humor and kept me giggling. Wish I could quote her, but the gist of the story was this, with apologies to my male cousins Mark and David.

First born Cindy, a good student, industrious and courteous and kind to a fault, was a pleasure to teach. One of her teachers took Mary aside and told Mary that she should write a book about how to rear children since Mary was both a preacher's wife and an excellent mother. Mary's other two younger children, boys, were a real handful in school. Mary said after the boys got into school, not a single teacher EVER again asked her to write a parents' handbook.

Now this shawl by Rose Beck, available on Ravelry and found here, was finished on January 1, 2012. I really like the stitch definition, and the yarn from Quince and Company was a dream to hold and knit. It is my first project finished in the new year, regardless that it was begun in 2011.

(close up for stitch definition and pattern)

January continues, and I am knitting in color after all that olive green wool. What are you knitting or crocheting, sewing, painting or cooking?

Back from Waco

2012-01-10T13:56:00.001-07:00

Aunt Mary, my mother's sister, and her handsome son David

Brother Chuck, moi and Aunt Mary

SIL Karen

Cousin David and Aunt Mary in her new leggings

Great niece and nephew, DIL Martha and Dad's wife Pat

Rosemary around the swimming pool at Aunt Mary's in every direction.

After I had just gotten on the road, leaving Waco and Aunt Mary to drive to Austin for visits with more family, my Aunt Mary had a mild stroke. She is recovering well. I was so glad to see her and visit with her for a week prior to this unfortunate occurrence (she is 87). Got home last night to cold weather in Colorado.

Pigs Can't Fly, but Goats?

2011-12-31T05:58:00.000-07:00

This from The Daily Mail:

We all know pigs can’t fly — but last month we learned that goats can climb trees.Because water sources were scarce, these billies climbed up to chew on a 17ft argan tree’s tough berries. But don’t expect British goats to follow in their footsteps, as these Tamri types in Morocco have two toes that spread out to help them climb, plus soft soles for grip.

I'll be in Texas for ten days, so will not be posting for a while. In the meantime,

Best Wishes for a Happy New 2012 Year!

A Kid's View of the Christmas Story

2011-12-21T05:49:00.002-07:00

Thanks for sending this my way, Dottie.

Christmas Music with Cello

2011-12-20T07:18:00.000-07:00

Top favorite buy this year for me in the genre of Christmas music was Christmas Cello Music - Piano and Cello Music for Christmas Dinner by New Age (Dec., 2011 by Winter Hill Records).

Giovanni Battista di Jacopo (Italian Mannerist painter, 1494–1540), known as Rosso Fiorentino (meaning the Red Florentine in Italian) Angel with Lute Madonna dello Spedalingo

Take a listen to Christmas instrumental music with cello accompaniment:

Jesu, Joy of Man"s Desiring (cello) (mp3)

Winter Songs and a Selection from Schubert

2011-12-16T06:30:00.001-07:00

NPR is currently asking its listeners for winter songs and stories that connect its listeners with "winter music" evocative of strong emotions and memories.

In an interview from "All Things Considered" on December 13, 2011, Bill T. Jones, celebrated dancer and choreographer, gives music from Franz Schubert entitled 'Der Leiermann' (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Baritone)...... and says

It speaks about a bleak landscape. And this bleak landscape takes me back to a day when I was in fourth grade out on the edge of town, looking at a snow-covered highway many, many yards away from my window — I should've been paying attention, but I was dreaming.

And then I saw a lone figure walking across on a very, very cold day," he continues, "and you know how it is when the wind blows and you have to turn your back against the wind, and I felt so sorry for that person, and then I realized it was my father. That my father, who was completely out of work, had been the director of his own business as a contractor in the heyday of the migrant stream back in the late '50s, but now that business had died. He was up in the chilly North with family, broke and sick, and he had to get to this very insignificant job in a factory, miles and miles away. A black man with no car, trying to hitchhike, and no one picking him up, and he has to walk that 10 miles to get to the factory. And I'm sitting in this warm classroom, getting educated, not paying attention to the teacher, and suddenly feeling torn between two worlds. And this music, when I hear it, I feel for my father. There's something about art that can be, yes, depressing, but helps us bear the pain through sheer beauty and intensity.

If you would like to hear Schubert's music from the "song cycle about a solitary traveler in a savage winter whose heart is frozen in grief"...

(More from the Bill T. Jones interview)
..Jones' emotions at that moment were understandably dramatic. But, as he says, they were also intensely complicated. He couldn't just run out of his classroom and bring his father inside.

"One of the reasons I was in school was so that I didn't have to be out there with him," Jones says. "And that was the painful thing about this class-climbing that we all in this country are subjected to: We're supposed to do better than our parents. And did I want the whole class to say, 'Look! Look out there; there's my father, impoverished, freezing, walking by the road!' It was a very strange moment, Melissa, very strange. I was, in a way, paralyzed, doing what I should do, and not knowing what I wanted to do."

This music, and its accompanying experience, have given Jones valuable perspective.

"It's taken on a greater weight over the years. There's now more and more. My body speaks to the body I saw from a child's distance, from a parent. I understand him inside and even outside now. I'm not afraid of aging, but the idea of what is success in life, what is a life well-spent. His dreams were behind him at that point; where are my dreams now? I love him so much for getting out there that day, with no car, and really not talking to us about it, not complaining, just facing it alone. I love him so much, but did I ever tell him I love him? Probably not."

Bill T. Jones is the co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, and executive artistic director of New York Live Arts. His company premieres its latest work, Story/Time, next month.

All Things Considered wants your winter song stories. What do you listen to when it's cold or dark, when you need to warm up or celebrate the chill of the season? Tell us about a song and the memory it evokes here.

Christmas: A Picture and a Recipe (and Green & Red Socks)

2011-12-14T06:21:00.005-07:00

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (1483–1520), Detail of Angel c 1499-1502

Let's call them Christmas Socks. The pattern is L.Linneman's, free on Ravelry and found at this site. The technique used is called "afterthought heel" in that the sock is knit as a tube, and then the heel is put in after the tube has been completed. A YouTube video found here helps in learning how to knit the afterthought heel.

And on another note:
Christmas cookie baking this year in the Kinsey-McCarroll household has been a bit spare. One batch turned out acceptably. That term is used loosely. They were acceptable in that eating just one cookie would fill your tummy for the entire morning...a little too loaded with every dried fruit in the cupboard, with chocolate to boot. So next on the baking agenda are some lighter, fluffier cookies.

My friend Natalie liked these little jewels, so I tracked down the recipe, courtesy of King Arthur Flour.

Soft and Chewy Vanilla-Orange Cranberry Cookies
These cookies remain beautifully soft for days, and their flavor is outstanding: bold orange and cranberry, complemented by a hint of aromatic vanilla.

1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) butter
3/4 cup sugar
grated peel of 1 medium to large orange
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups Flour
2 cups dried cranberries; or a mixture of dried cranberries and toasted chopped walnuts or pecans

read more for how-to's:

1) Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line them with parchment.
2) In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, orange peel, vanilla, baking powder, and salt.
3) Beat in the egg. The mixture may look slightly curdled; that's OK.
4) Add the flour and dried cranberries (or cranberries and nuts), stirring until well combined.
5) Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2" between them. A level teaspoon cookie scoop works very well here; dough balls will be about 1 1/4" in diameter. Using the flat bottom of a glass dipped in sugar, flatten the cookies slightly, to a scant 1/2" thick.
6) Bake the cookies for 6 to 7 minutes, until they're barely set, and a light golden brown around the edges. Don't over-bake; if you do, the cookies will be hard, not soft and chewy. Gently lift one of the cookies and look at the bottom; if you've used parchment, it shouldn't be brown. If you're baking on a dark cookie sheet without parchment, it should be light (not dark) brown.
7) Remove the cookies from the oven, and cool them right on the pan. If you need a pan to bake the remainder of the cookies, give the cookies about 5 minutes to set before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Yield: about 4 dozen cookies.

Portraits of Giant Insects

2011-12-12T06:05:00.001-07:00

From the Daily Mail in the UK ... fascinating!

The great debate: Grasshoppers meet on the broad leaf of a plant to make a lot of noise together

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2069737/Portraits-giant-insects---actually-stunning-close-ups-tiny-creepy-crawlies.html#ixzz1gKDODfBI

5th Graders: Quinhagak, Alaska - Hallelujah Chorus

2011-12-09T05:55:00.000-07:00

Hans Holbein the Elder (c 1460 -1524) Angels

Reminiscences from Pearl Harbor Day, 1941

2011-12-07T06:31:00.011-07:00

My dad wrote his memoirs about ten years ago, spending many hours at his computer thinking and reminiscing about his past. My brother captured it all, making a book from his writings. Dad is now 93 and living in a care center with Alzheimer's, so today he could not tell us anything about his years in the navy or what he recalled about being a test pilot in the 1940's. But he did write his memoirs when his mind was sharp.

This morning after listening to the news, I thought about when Dad was in the navy and a part of The Greatest Generation. I wondered if he had written anything about Pearl Harbor Day in 1941, so I looked into his book. Sure enough, he did write a short piece about what he remembered on Pearl Harbor Day in 1941. Here it is.

On December 7, 1941…

The U. S. Navy accepted me as a candidate to be an Aviation Cadet. I was assigned to the Elimination Base at the Naval Air Station at Dallas. I reported on October 1, 1941, and completed primary flight training. I received orders to report to the N. A. S. Corpus Christi and to a pool of future Aviation Cadets.

It was Sunday morning, December 7. 1941, after reveille, I dropped from my top bunk and dressed in khaki for a full day ashore in Corpus Christi. Mother and Dad were visiting the Ward Terrells, friends from Junction. I met them for church services and then we visited with Maurine Motley, a distant cousin from Hollis, OK. She was a teacher. We drove around the city and returned to her apartment. A lady came out a door and told us to turn on the car radio for the NEWS! The announcement and description of the Pearl Harbor attack was a shock to us. The sun was low in the sky in Texas but it was morning in Hawaii.

I returned to the base by bus and was prepared for some drastic changes, but I noticed nothing different. We still drilled, had musters and formations. I remained in the Pool until after Christmas. My orders were to report to Pensacola N.A.S. as an Aviation Cadet.

The Way It Was... Recollections and Reflections of Charles Wilson McCarroll, Jr.

Charles W. McCarroll in 1941

Charles W. McCarroll, 2011

From The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw:

These men and women came of age in the Great Depression, when economic despair hovered over the land like a plague. They had watched their parents lose their businesses, their farms, their jobs, their hopes. They had learned to accept a future that played out one day at a time Then, just as there was a glimmer of economic recovery, war exploded across Europe and Asia. When Pearl Harbor made it irrefutably clear that America was not a fortress, this generation was summoned to the parade ground and told to train for war. They left their ranches in Sully County, South Dakota, their jobs on the main street of Americus, Georgia, they gave up their place on the assembly lines in Detroit and in the ranks of Wall Street, they quit school or went from cap and gown directly into uniform.

They answered the call to save the world from the two most powerful and ruthless military machines ever assembled, instruments of conquest in the hands of fascist maniacs.

They faced great odds and a late start, but they did not protest. At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world, they were fighting, often hand to hand, in the most primitive conditions possible, across the bloodied landscape of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria. They fought their way up a necklace of South Pacific islands few had ever heard of before and made them a fixed part of American history: islands with names like Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Okinawa. They were in the air every day, in skies filled with terror, and they went to sea on hostile waters far removed from the shores of their homeland.

When the war was over, the men and women who had been involved, in uniform and in civilian capacities, joined in joyous and short-lived celebrations, then immediately began the task of rebuilding their lives and the world they wanted. They were mature beyond their years, tempered by what they had been through, disciplined by their military training and sacrifices. They married in record numbers and gave birth to another distinctive generation, the Baby Boomers. They stayed true to their values of personal responsibility, duty, honor, and faith.

They were a new kind of army now, moving onto the landscapes of industry, science, art, public policy, all the fields of American life, bringing to them the same passions and discipline that had served them so well during the war.

They were not perfect. They made mistakes. They allowed McCarthy-ism and racism to go unchallenged for too long. Women of the World War II generation, who had demonstrated so convincingly that they had so much more to offer beyond their traditional work, were the under-pinning for the liberation of their gender, even as many of their husbands resisted the idea. When a new war broke out, many of the veterans initially failed to recognize the differences between their war and the one in Vietnam.

It may be historically premature to judge the greatness of a whole generation, but indisputably, there are common traits that cannot be denied. It is a generation that, by and large, made no demands of homage from those who followed and prospered economically, politically, and culturally because of its sacrifices. It is a generation of towering achievement and modest demeanor, a legacy of their formative years when they were participants in and witness to sacrifices of the highest order.

Madonna Con Gesu Bambino and Icons

2011-12-03T09:44:00.005-07:00

This is Esteban Murillo's portrait of the Madonna and Child, located in the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. Murillo painted this about 1650.

I purchased a small copy of this work on eBay about ten years ago and have been trying to paint a similar portrait from this print for probably just as long. I finally "finished" this last year, and am displaying it on a table with other Madonna and Child icons in our living area. This is my rendition:

It obviously pales in comparison to the real work, but it was an enjoyable artistic challenge. When I look at the face of Mary that I have painted, she looks quite a bit older than fourteen or fifteen, but the gist of her facial expression has a sweet countenance.

Many more of Murillo's paintings can be found here on a slideshow.

This is a picture of two tops of tables displaying my icons of Madonna and Child which I have collected over the past dozen years while traveling. Each comes from a different country [Spain (Barcelona), Italy (Venice and Florence) New Zealand (Christchurch), America, and several place in the United Kingdom including one from St. Abbey's Cathedral in London]. One is a beautiful Christmas card that a friend sent one year in the mail.

These icons serve as our holiday "Christmas Tree"

25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 minutes

2011-11-30T05:56:00.003-07:00

Thanks for sending this, Jean!

Audio Books - Reviews, Suggestions

2011-11-28T08:23:00.003-07:00

Choosing your next audio book might be just as daunting a task as choosing your next favorite book...or author, or musical artist, or knitting project. The choices, obviously, are seemingly never ending.

I came across Audiobook Jukebox recently. This site is a compilation of people who give concise reviews of what they have recently heard. The list of reviewers is extensive (take a look over at the main page under the "reviewer sites" gadget on the right hand side) where the beginning page snip begins with numbers and the letter "A":

You can imagine how extensive is the number of reviewers just from the above snippet of sites.

On Ravelry, several forums have quick recommendations about favored audio books. Go here or here to see what the knitters of the world are putting in their ears. It's fun to learn what others are enjoying on audio.

Once you have determined the new book you want to hear, several sites are available for downloading that book, or poem, or short story. There is your local library, of course, which should have the OverDrive media console where you can download your mp3 books. You first need to download the interface between your library and your computer, but then you are good to go. Although recently I have had a problem with a very long download time required to put all the sections of the audio not only into my library, and then also transferring them to the iPod. This is a new problem that I hope the innertubes...err..internet gurus, get rectified soon. ( I got so frustrated last week trying to get The Paris Wife (Paula McClain) into my media files that I finally gave up after numerous attempts over four days.)

But I digress. Back to obtaining your audio books. Not only will your local library have a wealth of titles, but also LibriVox is a tremendous site for free downloads. LibriVox provides books from the public domain, and are generally read by volunteers, not professional voices. LibriVox also has a podcast you can access from here.

From "free" to "for-purchase": Amazon has just a few, comparatively speaking, of mp3 audio book downloads. iTunes has a more comprehensive listing. But Audible is the real winner for absolute quantity and quality of available audio books. Downside: you might get your first book free, but you will need to sign up for continuing books available monthly for a fee you might not want to commit to.

And what I recently purchased but have not yet listened to is through a recommendation from the moderator of this forum, who recommended Dorothy L. Sayers as an author. The book is The Unpleasantness at the Belonna Club. Email me if you want a quick review of this book (nmccarroll at Q dot com).

Thanksgiving Day

2011-11-24T00:00:00.001-07:00

From the 1800's, depicting Thanksgiving in Colonial Times:

Thanksgiving 1915 A Colonial Revival Painting of The First Thanksgiving by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (American painter, 1863-1930).

Our rural ancestors, with little blest,

Patient of labour when the end was rest,

Indulged the day that housed their annual grain,

With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain.

~Alexander Pope

Norman Rockwell, 1942, published in The Saturday Evening Post

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. ~Erma Bombeck

Pillow Cases (the tube method)

2011-11-21T07:53:00.002-07:00

My SIL gave me the idea of making pillowcases for charity. This thought then led me to the idea of sewing a few extra for Christmas gifts as well. They will make especially unique gifts for my five CASA (court appointed special advocate) kids. Each child has something special about them that I can find a fabric theme to match with their pursuits (music, sports, tv characters, etc.). There are many great fabrics geared to kids. Here is something I found with the Dr. Seuss theme from Etsy:

If you give it some thought, there will be many people that will come to mind who might appreciate something made by you especially for them. And who can't use a new pillowcase, especially if it makes them smile?

A very easy tutorial on sewing three color coordinating fabric cases can be found here on YouTube, sponsored by Missouri Quilt Company. I watched the video several times, took notes, and started thinking about fabric choices that were on hand. A quick trip to the fabric store, and I came up with more coordinating fabrics.

Then the fabric pieces above were cut. But wait! There was more fabric on hand that needed coordinating fabric edges. And I needed some Mickey Mouse fabric, too, for a special little boy going through some hard times.

Another trip to Hobby Lobby, and behold! Twelve pillowcases were on the way to being sewn.

YouTube and Missouri Quilt explains it all, and it is not difficult if you have average sewing skills. Here are several pillowcase ready to be seamed that are on my machine shelf this morning, ready for finishing.

And here are a few already finished:

Thanks, Charlotte, for this neat gift idea.

Wintering Geraniums

2011-11-19T05:36:00.004-07:00

Last month, I brought in over a dozen fairly good sized geraniums to spend the winter in the garage.

Past failed attempts at keeping geraniums alive over previous winters included hanging the roots upside down (a definite failure), wintering the pots in the outside garden shed (they all died within two weeks), and then last year, they spent the winter in the house near a west window (some lived, but did not thrive) and in the garage (they actually lived and and even put on new leaves!).

An inexpensive shelving unit was purchased and assembled by the husband so that more pots could benefit from the sunny east facing garage. He even cleaned up his work bench to allow room for the shelves. And he hardly grumbled; that was probably just as sweet of him as assembling the shelves.

The plants are close to an east window in the garage, and seem to be doing fairly well after about six weeks in their winter home. I've been watering them about every three weeks.

Some lovely geranium art pictures from Barbara's blog:

Caroline Lord (American artist, 1860-1927) Woman with Geranium

Aristide Maillol (French artist, 1861-1944) Portrait de Lucien 1896

Alfred Stevens (Belgian Painter, 1823-1906) Still Life with Geraniums 1889

Paul Cezanne (French artist, 1839-1906) The Flower Pots 1883-87

Nancy McCarroll, Oil

Snakes Socks on a Plane

2011-11-17T09:11:00.001-07:00

So I was sitting on an airplane, yarn in hand, needles ready, and a sock pattern that was mistyped. Now what to do? I figured I'd just try to remember how I had knit a similar pair of socks a year ago. So the darned things were cast on, and I just hoped that it would all turn out ok. Magical thinking runs in the family.

This snaky pair of socks was what I came up with. Many mistakes, but I tried to hide them in the photo.

The heels and toes are a little wonky, but still wearable.

Take away: always bring the necessary well written instructions and leave nothing to memory.

Free Book for Kindle

2011-11-14T05:58:00.003-07:00

Since it did not cost money and was purported to have 54 pattern instructions, why not get a free book for my Kindle app? So I did.

But wait, there is even more juicy back content! It was first published in 1864 in Bath in the UK.

The drawbacks were that there were no illustrations, and most of the patterns were for chair covers, which I would not use. The good thing about this book was that gave insight into how people (women, mostly) had to work hard just to keep some color in their lives.

Check it out for yourself here on Amazon if you want a free download, or pay money for it in paperback, which is probably not worth it unless you are a die hard history buff in the realm of needle art.

There were at least 40 more books available for free download related to knitting, crochet, embroider, tatting, lace making, hat making, cooking, medicinal plants, tapestry weaving, gardening, dyeing of fibers and the list goes on.... so much information and so little time.

Melissa Clark's Sticky Cranberry Gingerbread

2011-11-08T04:11:00.002-07:00

Here is a keeper, along with complete recipe and instructions, found at the Amateur Gourmet's Website:

The Amateur Gourmet says:

Think Christmas. Think Thanksgiving (at least, the cranberry sauce). Spicy, fragrant, gingery, wintery, this gingerbread is remarkable not only for the way it makes your whole apartment smell like the holidays, it’s also remarkable because the texture is just dry enough to lift up a piece with your hands, but wet enough to be incredibly, notably moist. I suppose that’s why “sticky” is in the title. It’s that kind of gingerbread.

It's coming out of my oven soon!

Urban Sketcher

2011-11-07T07:06:00.003-07:00

Photo taken on Halloween in Dublin at Madigan's Pub:

A group of us waited here for our hotel to accept our reservations on October 31. It was a lively crowd, and grew larger by the half hour. We sat, and I caught this picture on a camera. While sitting at a booth, I sketched this scene quickly. Here is my rendition of this fun time:

3 minutes of Ireland, a Quick Click

2011-11-06T03:19:00.002-07:00

Of Castles, Views, Pubs and Blarney

2011-11-04T05:01:00.003-06:00

Back from southern Ireland with pictures to boot.

Castles and Cathedrals:

(Adare Abbey)

(Cashel Castle)

(Dublin Castle)

Trinity College:

MUSIC and PUBS:

at Hapenny Bar

(Madigan's Pub)

(Saints & Scholars Pub)

(Irish Stew)

(Tea and Scones, of course)

QUAINT VIEWS:

(Rugged Western Coast of Ireland near Blasket Islands)

(Cliffs of Moehr)

RUINS:

(Farmhouse on Adare Manor)

It was a great time in hospitable Ireland.

Bag with Crocheted Hexagons

2011-10-23T09:25:00.003-06:00

Loosely based on this pattern for making a shopping bag, and borrowing from this pattern on Ravelry for a hexagon blanket, a new project bag was born.

See the toy ferret and bunny rabbit? Those belong to The Amazing Therapy Dog Libby, but I actually plan on filling it with a sweater project and swapping yarn for the toys. Its strap is a knitted icord, and the bag itself is two pieces of coordinating fabrics sewn back to back, folded in half, and seamed together.

Several weeks ago, I was making hexagons from sock yarn, but did not have enough sock yarn scraps to make an actual blanket. Instead of chucking the project, I used the 20 multi-colored hexagons as decoration for the bag front. Bling was added in the form of buttons and charms.

The little sheep buttons in the middle of a couple of hexagons make me smile.

Going to Ireland in Two Days!

2011-10-22T06:09:00.002-06:00

Sixty-four travelers from the western slope of Colorado will be visiting Ireland next week, and I will be on the tour bus, too. We will arrive in Dublin on October 25 and coach over to Adare, about and hour and a half west of Dublin by coach. Here is where we will be staying -- the Adare Castle in Limerick, Ireland:

This photo of Adare Castle is courtesy of TripAdvisor

This site says:

The castle was probably begun in the 1190s and initially comprised a large square tower and an enclosing D-shaped fosse, together with a hall block to the south in an outer ward.

Villas surround the 650 acre castle property, each with three bedrooms to a villa. Our group will share these modern villas with all the comforts of a 5 star hotel. There is a posh restaurant inside the castle, a clubhouse and bar. Golfing is one of the highlights of Ireland, and this property contains the Adare Golf Club championship golf course commissioned by the Earl of Dunraven in the 1890's, but Linda and I will likely be searching for yarn in the little town of Adare during our "off hours."

We will make day trips, and Linda and I will extend our stay for three days, ending our journey in Dublin. We will be there on Halloween night, staying at the Wynn Hotel in the Temple Bar area, which is apparently a real party place.

Day trips include visiting the cliffs of Moehr;

and a visit to a woolen mill!!

Also included on the docket is a trip to Kilkenny and Bunratty with a medieval-style dinner in the Bunratty Castle in the evening.

Then there is Dingle, and a tour of the Dingle Peninsula on the way to the Blasket Island Center. Dingle was the setting for the movie "Ryan's Daughter" and is a market town and fishing port.

And of course we are going to Blarney and the Blarney Castle where the magic stone gives the gift of eloquence. I don't think that we'll be allowed to kiss that stone because of new sanitary regulations. But here is a picture of me kissing it in 2005, when it was still allowed:

(at Blarney Castle, Nancy with guide in 2005)

Kissing that old stone was not for the faint of heart, so my Scrabble buddy Darlene took this picture because she had no desire to stand in the line, kiss that stone, or get that mythical gift of the gab.

Enough for now, but more pictures upon our return from this trip sponsored by Chamber Discoveries.

Excerpted from the book "Peace Like a River"

2011-10-20T05:53:00.003-06:00

by Leif Enger:

When I was born to Helen and Jeremiah Land, in 1951, my lungs refused to kick in.

My father wasn't in the delivery room or even in the building; the halls of Wilson Hospital were close and short, and Dad had gone out to pace in the damp September wind. He was praying, rounding the block for the fifth time, when the air quickened. He opened his eyes and discovered he was running - sprinting across the grass toward the door.

"How'd you know?" I adored this story, made him tell it all the time.

"God told me you were in trouble."

"Out loud? Did you hear Him?"

"Nope, not out loud. But He made me run, Reuben. I guess I figured it out on the way."

I had, in fact, been delivered some minutes before. My mother was dazed, propped against soggy pillows, unable to comprehend what Dr. Animas Nokes was telling her.

"He still isn't breathing, Mrs. Land."

"Give him to me!"

To this day I'm glad Dr. Nokes did not hand me over on demand. Tired as my mother was, who knows when she would've noticed? Instead he laid me down and rubbed me hard with a towel.. He pounded my back; he rolled me over and massaged my chest. He breathed air into my mouth and nose -- my chest rose, fell with a raspy whine, stayed fallen. Years later Dr. Nokes would tell my brother Davy that my delivery still disturbed his sleep. He's never seen a child with such swampy lungs.

When Dad skidded into the room, Dr Nokes was sitting on the side of the bed holding my mother's hand. She was wailing -- I picture her as an old woman here, which is funny, since I was never to see her as one --and old Nokes was attempting to ease her grief. It was unavoidable, he was saying; nothing could be done; perhaps it was for the best.

I was lying uncovered on a metal table across the room.

Dad lifted me gently. I was very clean from all that rubbing, and I was gray and beginning to cool. A little clay boy is what I was.

"Breathe," Dad said.

I lay in his arms.

Dr Nokes said "Jeremiah, it has been twelve minutes."

"Breathe!" The picture I see is of Dad, brown hair short and wild, giving this order as if he expected noting but odedience.

Dr. Nokes approached him. "Jeremiah. There would be brain damage now. His lungs can't fill."

Dad leaned down, laid me back on the table, took off his jacket and wrapped me in it -- a black canvas jacket with a quilted lining, I have it still. He left my face uncovered.

"Sometimes," said Dr. Nokes, "there is something unworkable in one of the organs. A ventricle that won't pump correctly. A liver that poisons the blood." Dr. Nokes was a kindly and reasonable man. "Lungs that can't expand to take in air. In these cases," said Dr. Nokes, "we must trust in the Almighty to do what is best." At which Dad stepped across and smote Dr. Nokes with a right hand, so that the doctor went down and lay on his side with his pupils unfocused. As Mother cried out, Dad turned back to me, a clay child wrapped in a canvas coat, and said in a normal voice, "Reuben Land, in the name of the living God I am telling you to breathe."

... excerpted not only from Leif Enger's book PEACE LIKE A RIVER, but also from the book AT THE STILL POINT: A LITERARY GUIDE TO PRAYER IN ORDINARY TIME by Sarah Arthur

2011-10-16T11:02:00.000-06:00

Just returned from church where this video was shared after the benediction:

Yup, I'm a Lutheran.

Another Finished Shawl

2011-10-14T07:34:00.002-06:00

The knit-along with Paula at Knitting Pipeline is going great guns. Here is my finished Shaelyn Shawl that finished out at 26" x 54". I called it the Colorado Wine Shawl because the yarns are the colors of grape leaves, merlot grapes and green grapes in many shades of green and aquamarine.

Five repeats of the lace were completed. Two different skeins of yarn were used; the dark green has some cashmere in it...so soft.

113 people have posted on Ravelry over the past two weeks about this shawl, with almost 1,000 people worldwide having knit up and documented this pattern on Ravelry.

Don't Forget to Eat Your Spiders

2011-10-13T05:57:00.000-06:00

How cool is this.

Actually, the spiders are plastic rings. You can read how to make the jello ring here where Brett Bara blogs. That is her picture, by the way.

Rainbow Cake At a Family Picnic

2011-10-10T05:55:00.001-06:00

The husband's brother, his daughter and grandson came for a visit. Granny hosted a family party. You can tell from the pictures that the kids had their pictures taken several times over and had good times.

It was just the right occasion to have a rainbow cake that Cakity on Blogger first featured.

This is her colorful cake:

Using two white cake mixes, four round pans, three cans of prepared white frosting and food dyes in four colors along with one tsp. vinegar for each dye batch, I came up with this cake, sprinkles courtesy of Michael's.

The kids liked it.

Breast Cancer Update on Julie

2011-10-08T04:13:00.001-06:00

Just an update on Julie to say she will have three tumors removed from her left breast next week.

After several months chemotherapy, the tumors have shrunk enough to facilitate their removal. The largest is one inch, and the smallest is 1/6 of an inch. A mastectomy is not a viable option for her due to complications from VA shunt tubing that goes to her heart

Then following surgery, Julie will go back on chemotherapy for an undetermined length of time.

She and her husband face many trials, with cancer being the most recent hurdle to wheel through.

From a fellow blogger comes this motivational sign.

(If you go to her website, you can download the slogan in various formats.)

For sure, Julie and Jack are examples for accomplishing hard things.

Your prayers for her well being are appreciated.

Stained Glass Blanket

2011-10-06T04:40:00.020-06:00

Crocheting hexagons from left over sock yarn has become my new comfort needle art project. No need to think, just watching the magic come out of my crochet hook, almost like "creating lace in the air", like my SIL Charlotte once said. These are the hexagons I've made thus far:

After a gadzillion of these are made, they will all be put together in one color jewel toned yarn that will hold all the little hexagons together from an independent yarn dyer (maybe from Sweet Clement on Etsy). I'm thinking of getting this color BFL yarn:

Another blogger friend, Kepanie, showed her blanket on her blog, found here. She always has beautiful photography, so please visit her site and tell her I sent you! Here are Kepanie's hexagons:

An here are a few hexagons made by pennywenny:

If you like video podcast about knitting, don't miss Sheila and Wendy's Knit1HeartToo show.

There are many patterns where crocheted hexagons are detailed. If you click on the "R project button" below, it will take you to Jessie's pattern.

From Crochetaboutdotcom, here is an easy way to crochet a hexagon:

Starting Chain: Chain 6. Join with a slip stitch in the first chain, to form a ring.

Rnd 1: ch 3 (counts as first dc), 2 dc in ring, (ch 3, 3 dc in ring) 5 times, ch 3, sl st in top of beginning ch-3 of this round.

Rnd 2: sl st in ea of next 2 dc, sl st in ch-3 sp, ch 3 (counts as first dc), (dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in same ch-3 sp, * ch 2, skip next 3 dc, (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in next ch-3 sp **, repeat the directions between * and ** 4 more times, then ch 2, skip next 3 dc, sl st in beginning ch-3 of this rnd. End off. Weave in ends.

Aspen Leaves Turn Gold in Colorado

2011-10-03T07:01:00.001-06:00

Our Sunday afternoon in the nearby Colorado high country is displayed via YouTube. Weather in the national park yesterday was in the low 60F temperatures, the sun was bright, the foliage brilliant in yellows, golds and rusts. Just a few blue-grey thunderclouds foretold that rain was on the horizon. (I hope you will enjoy the scenery and music as much as I did while producing this short video.)

Found on Facebook Today

2011-10-02T05:58:00.000-06:00

I laughed.

and a baby porcupine:

A Knit Along with Podcaster Paula

2011-10-01T04:07:00.005-06:00

One of my favorite podcasters, Paula, who hosts the Knitting Pipeline, is starting a knit a long (KAL) today. I'm in. Here is the Shaelyn pattern that several dozens (?) of us will be knitting simultaneously:

And here are two yarns I will be using; the main color is a madelintosh pashima in the colorway of "Manor" and the variegated color is from Farmhouse Yarns in a sock weight called "Grapes on the Vine".

The darker color will be used on the lace panels, while the "Grapes on the Vine" will be the solid stripes. With a KAL, there will be lots of people to help if any of us get pestered by the pattern details.

If this sounds fun, join us here and enjoy some bagpiper music, too.

PS: 907 people on Ravelry have knit this pattern with gorgeous results. You can view most of them here.

Leafprints Shawlette

2011-09-28T07:16:00.004-06:00

After two weeks on the needles (small, very, very small..size 3 circular needles), the pretty blue Leafprints Shawlette by Anne Hanson is completed. YEA! (Note to self: purchased here)

The picture above shows the shawl after completing Chart A, and ready to begin Chart B.

The edging (shown above) was clever in its execution. There was a bind off of two stitches every fourth row.

Its picture was taken this morning after being washed and blocked yesterday. Here is the link for Soak, a product for bathing woolen objects. It could have been further stretched since its scallops look like more of a wave than a tip.

Another note to self: ensure that at LEAST 400 yd of fiber is on hand to make this shawl. I will make this again.

This is the Leafprints Shawlette shown on Patternfish ... that lucky mannequin.

Pink Saturday

2011-09-24T05:34:00.000-06:00

Beverly hosts Pink Saturday. If you go here, you can see lots of pinks from bloggers who participate.

Here is my contribution, a double pink hollyhock:

Now that fall is here, the hollyhocks are a little worse for wear. Those dang leaf hoppers have been getting to the leaves. Believe it or not, just two days ago I found a leaf hopper and took his picture before he flew off to the cottonwood tree, never to be seen again. This is his 15 minutes of fame:

Iced Sweater

2011-09-19T04:25:00.005-06:00

Here is the very chunky, heavy sweater just finished from the sweater design named ICED by Carol Feller. The pattern is free and can be found here.

It took 8 skeins of chunky weight Lamb's Pride wool (85% wool, 15% mohair). And after all that knitting and pattern revision, I ended up with only 27 inches of leftover yarn. That is right living.

See that yarn? That is the 27 inch left-over tail end from the 8th skein. (Mug by Jenny the Potter.)

It was a bit large, so I threw it into the dryer while it was still damp from water blocking. That helped it come down a bit to size, but the front of the sweater has an uneven edge, likely because I have no chest!

Revision details can be found on Ravelry here. I would knit this up again sometime, but it will be a long sometime before I do it again due to the bulkiness of the project.

NPR Provides Great Fall Recipes

2011-09-15T05:20:00.005-06:00

A link for summer garden bounty use:... click here

(all pictures by Susan Chang for NPR)

The garden season will end soon enough, in a fanfare of potatoes and squashes and pumpkins and gourds. As the weather gets colder, they get starchier and more like breads themselves, so it takes less and less effort — a little egg and sugar to sweeten and bind them — to get them to shine in a loaf pan.

Quick Zucchini, Carrot and Pumpkin Breads all found here.

Artist Bloggers and Urban Sketchers

2011-09-11T05:25:00.001-06:00

In looking at artists' works on the internet, I came across Urban Sketchers and some beautiful pictures. You might find some of the artists' work exceptionally appealing.

Urban Sketchers is a web site that features artwork from over 100 invited artists from 30 different countries. Imaginative, delightful images are found there; it is an absorbing site and a feast for the eyes.

Above is a watercolor from Caroline who lives in Brittany. Her blog is An English Artist in Brittany, where she shows some of her watercolors. She says about this piece:

This beautiful 'maison de maitre' at Dinard was built in the late eighteen-hundreds and is called 'Les Roches Brunes'. It was bequeathed to the town and exhibitions are now held here.

Here is a sketch by Rob entitled Budenfest found here, painted at a train station in Germany on September 10, 2011.

And below is another sketch by Rob from May, 2011, found here on Urban Sketchers where he writes:

It's been a very dry and warm spring in southern Germany this year. I've been zipping around on my little 50 cc scooter with my sketchbook, looking for little scenes like this to enjoy and draw. I pulled off the road at this spot near the village of Hertingen, watching a tractor plowing up the dry soil and enjoying a field of buttercups before me. Warm. Dry. Wonderful!

Liz on Sketching Architecture featured this picture on Sept. 10, 2011 where she said...
I love the fluidity and forcefulness, the bold 3-dimensionality, adventurous complexity and all the fun games that are played with curved vs flat surfaces and all the crazy decoration. Today while tidying up my study/studio I came across a print out of a photo I took in Rome last year of a building that I didn't have the energy to sketch at the time.

Judy from the Netherlands sketched this on September 9, 2011. She can be found at her blog where her sketch was featured here where she said...
The room is filled with the colours of the cyclamen. The flowers are totally odourless but when I let their colour "bleed" into the background, I always feel that I am painting flower fragrance.

Below is a scanned copy of my watercolor worksheet. If you are not familiar with this "painting tool" mixture of colors on a grid, it is merely the original color of a certain named color down the left hand side of the page with its associated color painted to the right of the name. Across the top, in the same order, are those same colors. By mixing the colors, one on top of the other (after each color dab has thoroughly dried), the resulting hues are the combination of the two colors listed on the chart, going from left to right and top to bottom. In using this worksheet, one never needs to wonder exactly what shade will result in the mixing of colors.

This is one of my watercolors from 2001 painted from a photo I took before a luncheon meal outside Volterra, Italy:

This is one of my watercolors from a vacation in Greece in 2001:

(size 11" x 14")

And thus concludes a blog foray into sketch art from various climes and times.

New Jobs? At What Cost?

2011-09-09T07:12:00.007-06:00

After almost nineteen years in the restaurant business, the last two in which she co-managed a restaurant of 120 employees, our younger daughter was laid off this week. And are there any new jobs out there in the marketplace for her? According to The Washington Post:

The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims rose by 2,000 to 414,000 for the week ending Sept. 3. The department said last week that no net jobs were created in August.

(picture courtesy of CBS News)

Last night's speech, in which President Obama said "PASS THIS BILL" (the $447 billion American Jobs Act proposal) more times than I bothered to count, was disappointing and disingenuous. In less than 45 seconds:

From this site:

Essentially, the jobs plan is an IOU from a president and lawmakers who may not even be in office down the road when the bills come due. Today’s Congress cannot bind a later one for future spending. A future Congress could simply reverse it.

Currently, roughly all federal taxes and other revenues are consumed in spending on various federal benefit programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, food stamps, farm subsidies and other social-assistance programs and payments on the national debt. Pretty much everything else is done on credit with borrowed money.

So there is no guarantee that programs that clearly will increase annual deficits in the near term will be paid for in the long term.

The Los Angeles Times this morning said that Obama

... then provided a joint session of Congress with a broadly ambitious list of goals that sounded to many people very much like a lot more spending, like, say, the $787 billion economic stimulus bill of 2009 that didn't stimulate much of anything except that national debt.

I am so disheartened for my daughter Heidy. She is a hard worker and I have been told by many of her co-workers that she rules fairly and with a velvet hammer. Hopefully, she can obtain another position she likes and in which she will prosper.

My thoughts are with all those seeking work.

"It's recession when your neighbor loses his job, it's a depression when you lose your own." Harry S. Truman

Tonight on TV

2011-09-08T07:53:00.007-06:00

~~stolen~~ taken from my brother's blog

York, South Carolina

2011-09-06T05:49:00.005-06:00

The weekend was spent with our daughter and SIL in York, SC. Julie is feeling just fine, thank you, and is visited at home three times a week by an RN, and less than a dozen times a week by a CNA. Her CA prognosis is up in the air, as a PET scan will be reviewed by the tumor board this week. Her chemo has been suspended for a while as her tumors have responded well to the drugs.

We celebrated her birthday with presents, a lunch in Rock Hill, SC and champagne. This is Julie:

Julie, Jack, Gene and Jack's dad on their porch...very hot and very humid!

Historic York and its ancient cemetery and tombstones gave a glimpse into the past and occupied some of our hot and humid time in the outdoors. Next time, I will take pencil and paper for rubbings so I can get the oldest dates on the marble that have been obscured by moss and the ravages of weather.

Engraving on the stone above shows that Isabella Davis died in 1834, a consort of the Reverend William C. Davis. A consort? That was odd wording, but she would have been born in 1767, so terms were different back then. (Mrs. Davis would certainly not know what a microwave, airplane, digital clock, battery or the internet was, so why do I think the term "consort" is odd?)

To round out the history of the graveyard, a Civil War veteran's stone:

Kudzu, originally imported from the Orient to prevent soil erosition, is an invasive species in the South, growing a foot a day under optimal conditions. This picture showing kudzu covering both land and power lines is around the corner from Julie and Jack's house:

\
Historic homes abound in York, SC, population of about 10,000 people. Here are a few old homes on Congress Avenue:

Now we are home. The brief interruption in the South did allow one visit to a Pineville, NC yarn shop. Yes, the credit card was used for some pettable and pretty fibers at The Yarn Shop by Rainy Day Creations in Pineville.

Chicken Pablano and All the Fixings

2011-08-29T07:23:00.002-06:00

We had a Mexican Sunday lunch that was pretty tasty, IMHO. The husband does most of the cooking, but he cooks only what HE likes. So when I have a hankering for Southern food or Mexican food, or desserts, or anything with more than a few ingredients in a longer recipe, I do the cooking.

Here was our lunch, based loosely on recipes for Chicken Pablano found at this site, and Mexican Fried Rice found at this site, and pinto beans, and tortillas.

Start out with roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped pablano peppers:

For a quick cream sauce to add to chicken that has been browned and cooked in garlic and onions with a bit of chicken sauce and white wine and herbs and S&P, just mix sour cream with the chopped pablano peppers and a bit of cumin for seasoning. Put this atop the cooked chicken in the skillet for about five minutes, or long enough to warm up the sour cream.

Actually, the entree was the easiest part of the meal. Start off by cooking the pinto beans (soaked overnight, but not necessary) with a few slices of bacon, a fresh chopped tomato, cilantro, chopped onions, chopped garlic, chili seasoning, and S&P. It takes around two hours on a low stove top burner to take out the crunch in the beans.

And then there was the rice, browned in a skillet with bacon, chopped garlic, and chopped tomatoes prior to adding the water. I used 1 1/2 cups white rice and about 2 cups water after browning the rice and vegetables and cooked it while covered for about 20 minutes. I also added a can of corn after the rice cooked. Peas and carrots could be added, too. And don't forget to season with all the herbs and spices you like!

(Pretend there is cilantro atop the rice. It would have made a better pictorial essay.)

It was almost a fiesta!

A Sweater to Knit, A Blouse to Sew

2011-08-24T06:50:00.001-06:00

Knitty Magazine had a free pattern several years ago called "Iced", a sweater knit up mostly in stockinette stitch. A free downloadable pattern can be found here. It uses chunky yarn and is a quick knit. Designer Carol Feller says of her pattern:

I knit this cardigan for my holiday. It was designed to be loose, casual and in a neutral color so that I could wear it with everything. I like to pack light and going to Florida, I didn’t want to bring more than one warm cover up.

However all did not go according to plan. I did bring this cardigan on holiday with me and I also took some very nice photos on the beach with it. What I wasn’t planning on, though, was my sister-in-law. Nicki came to visit, picked up the cardigan and tried it on. It was a perfect match and I just had to give it to her.

Nice sister-in-law!

This is a picture of a completed Iced sweater from the designer's Ravelry page:

I am knitting it up in Lamb's Pride Chunky in the Ink Blue colorway. Here is the cardigan in progress:

Next up on the sewing table is McCall's Pattern 6241. Using jersey fabric, it will be a mainstay in the wardrobe. And all those shawls and kerchiefs will have a nice under layer.

But there are people to see, places to go, things to see before I can get back to these projects. Enjoy your day!

"If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don’t do that by sitting around wondering about yourself.” Katherine Hepburn

The Beggar's Slippers

2011-08-22T06:49:00.007-06:00

Abraham Verghese brought the story of the beggar's slippers to my attention in Cutting for Stone. It is worth a reprise here. (Chapter 29 is the reference point for this story.)

Abu Kassem, a miserly Baghdad merchant, had held on to his battered, much repaired pair of slippers even though they were objects of derision. At last, even he couldn't stomach the sight of them. But his every attempt to get rid of his slippers ended in disaster: when he tossed them out of his window they landed on the head of a pregnant woman who miscarried, and Abu Kassem was thrown in jail; when he dropped them in the canal, the slippers choked off the main drain and caused flooding. Off Abu Kassem went to jail...Abu Kassem might as well build a special room for his slippers.. Why try to lose them? He'll never escape. The slippers in the story mean that everything you see and do and touch, every seed you sow, or don't sow, becomes part of your destiny.

Abraham Verghese has one of his characters say this regarding the topic of making up for absences:

I made up for...(father's)... absence by hoarding knowledge, skills, seeking praise. What I finally understood ...is that neither my sister nor I realized that my father's absence is our slippers. In order to start to get rid of your slippers, you have to admit they are yours, and if you do, then they will get rid of themselves...The key to your happiness is to own your slippers, own who you are, own how you look, own your family, own the talents you have, and own the ones you don't. If you keep saying your slippers aren't yours, then your'll die searching, you'll die bitter, always feeling you were promised more. Not only our actions, but our omissions, become our destiny. (Cutting for Stone, Chapter 29)

Over the years, I have tried to rid myself of many pairs of (emotional bondage) slippers: sorrow, grief and regrets are woven into the soles and fabric of my tattered slippers.

After I realized several pairs of "slippers" were mine for a lifetime, they wore better. Even the calluses caused by the slippers have become part of me. I look at them with curiosity and reluctant acceptance. Tough layers of skin... would I want to rid myself of those experiences that caused the calluses? The slippers worn are not comfortable, yet have softened my heart and helped hardened my insecurities. My own tattered slippers have helped mold me into one of God's loved, flawed, creations.

Hand Molded Hand Soaps: Hands Up!

2011-08-17T06:17:00.005-06:00

When I saw these molded hand soaps, I knew they would make excellent gifts. And paired with a hand knitted face cloth, a doubly nice present.

Cool? You bet.

Plastic Foliage makes these soaps. They come individually packaged in bubble wrap in a cute little package.

Oh, and that is one of Grandma's Dishcloths that goes along with the little "hand soaps". The dishcloths make excellent facial cloths because of the knitted fabric that gives just enough abrasion to remove makeup, but soft enough for a baby's skin as they are made from 100% cotton.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Mary, you will be receiving a couple of these next week!

Moody Kerchief - Color to Fit Your Mood

2011-08-12T06:16:00.004-06:00

A new knitting project just started is the Moody Kerchief, available on Ravelry. It is a fun one and quick to knit, with a zillion color combinations you can choose. Only your imagination limits you.

Designer Kirstin Kapur's picture of her design:

Finished Measurements: 42” across top edge, 14” from top edge to base of curve

Knit Picks says about this the wool/silk blend I chose to work with:

Gloss DK is a luxurious blend of soft Merino wool and lustrous silk. The fiber blend takes dye very well, resulting in glowing saturated colors. Gloss DK has a large spectrum of colors, which are ideal for combining in color work projects. It is next-to-skin soft, and good for wearing around your neck or on your wrists, since it’s not itchy. Its sheen and drape produce a very sleek fabric, which shows off the stockinette stitch.

That Gloss DK is soft, squishy, and easy to handle. I like that it has silk in it, and the greys look lively, which seems like an oxymoron to the color grey. Here are the color choices in my project that will look good with blacks, reds, and even peach colors:

(and this Ella Rae sock yarn held together with both the peach and red yarns)

The Knit Girllls (Lala, actually) talked about this design on her podcast in August, saying she had made several from this pattern, and that it was quick to knit and ingenious. I concur! And I already know I'll be making another scarf from this same pattern.

Finished:

Sharing Recipes (on a laptop?)

2011-08-08T05:54:00.007-06:00

(okay, maybe it was a joke they shared)

Here is the best scone recipe I found from Amateur Gourmet:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup heavy (or whipping) cream
1 large egg
1/4 cup vanilla sugar, plus more for sprinkling on the scones
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces, chilled
1/2 cup dried cranberries (or dried currants)
Zest from 1 small orange
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (or, if your oven runs hot, 350 degrees F.)
2. Place the cream, egg, and 1/4 cup vanilla sugar in a medium-size bowl and whisk until fluffy and well blended.
3. Place the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a food processor and pulse to combine.Add the chilled butter, then pulse again until fairly well blended. Then add the cream mixture and pulse until the dough just holds together.
4. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle the cranberries and orange zest over the dough and knead for 30 seconds, making sure the cranberries are well distributed throughout the dough. Pat the dough into a round about 1/2 inch thick
5. Cut out the scones using a floured 2-inch round cookie cutter. Gather up the extra dough, pat it out again, and continue cutting out the scones. You should have 16 to 20.
6. Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush the tops with the melted butter and sprinkle them with vanilla sugar. Bake in the oven until golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes.

YUM!

A Little Brag, A Big Confession

2011-08-05T07:35:00.005-06:00

The Wilhelmina Shawl from the book What Would Madam Defarge Knit? (Creations Inspired by Classic Characters) is finished. Your can read more when it was posted back here. So I am bragging that it is finished, and turned out pretty well. See what you think:

The sun was not out this morning when I snapped the pictures, so the pretty greens look more muted in the picture than what your eye would see. But you get the idea.

Over 500 6 mm glass beads were knitted into the border of the shawl in the last two rows. It really did not take that long using the YouTube video from Random Knits:

But I will confess that I did not follow Chrissy Gardiner's exact instructions on the lace charts because I did not understand it. The improvisations are ok, but her scarf looks prettier if knitted according to her pattern. And I added those beads, because it was easier than knitting nupps. So that is my story and I'm sticking to it.

(Knit pattern is from the first edition hardcover of What Would Madam Defarge Knit has been sold out, but you can order the digital download here.) Details on Ravelry are here.

Beauty, Older Women, Courage, Quotes

2011-08-03T07:11:00.004-06:00

An arresting photo of a woman in her late years:

A quilt of unknown origin, size unknown

this from just a portion of a poem well worth the entire read found here called The Invitation:

I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it is not pretty, every day,
And if you can source your own life from its presence.

(A Study -Limbo ID:374 from 2006 Lilly Oncology On Canvas 2006 competition)

The picture above was an award winner in the referenced art competition. She is a symbol of a woman carrying a burden, but knowing she will survive the battle with courage and victory, no matter the outcome of her health issue. This particular art piece of the introspective woman who has lost her hair from chemotherapy reminds me of a reference given to me by my husband when we were discussing our daughter's recent photo.

Julie's smile below shows her inner beauty of personal strength and almost continual attitude of optimism. She, too, is undergoing chemotherapy and has lost her hair.

These preceding photos all tie together with this quote from Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land ( referring to Rodin's sculpture of "Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone")

... she's a symbol for every woman who ever shouldered a load too heavy. But not alone women - this symbol means every man and woman who ever sweated out life in uncomplaining fortitude until they crumpled under their loads. It's courage... and victory.

Victory in defeat, there is none higher. She didn't give up... she's still trying to lift that stone after it has crushed her... she's all the unsung heroes who couldn't make it but never quit.

Rodin's plaster of Fallen Caryatid referenced here 1881-1882

1920, Rosa by Walter Grammatte

And finally, one of my favorites:

(from a picture in my study that is over 30 years old with the poem below by Nadin Stair)

If I Had My Life to Live Over

I'd dare to make more mistakes next time.
I'd relax, I would limber up.
I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I would take fewer things seriously.
I would take more chances.
I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.
I would eat more ice cream and less beans.

I would perhaps have more actual troubles,
but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I'm one of those people who live
sensibly and sanely hour after hour,
day after day.

Oh, I've had my moments,
And if I had it to do over again,
I'd have more of them.
In fact, I'd try to have nothing else.
Just moments, one after another,
instead of living so many years ahead of each day.

I've been one of those people who never goes anywhere
without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat
and a parachute.

If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over,
I would start barefoot earlier in the spring
and stay that way later in the fall.
I would go to more dances.
I would ride more merry-go-rounds.

I would pick more daisies.
Nadine Stair, 85 years old

Our Flowers in August

2011-08-02T08:19:00.006-06:00

and finally, from pinterest:

Drying Herbs & Freezing Pesto

2011-08-01T04:48:00.006-06:00

We have herbs. Do we have herbs. Abundant herbs! Never one to waste anything, my husband has been nudging me to dry those aromatic sprigs from heaven. He even sent me this information from Michael Ruhlman on drying herbs that said, in part:

The herb garden has gone wild from the heat and rain showers. It’s bursting with more herbs than I can handle or possibly use. It’s like an herb party with too many rowdy guest showing up. So now is exactly the time to start cutting them back and letting them dry for winter cooking. This will both begin the supply of dried herbs and also encourage more growth during the next weeks of summer. Herbs are roughly divided into two categories, “hard” and “soft.” The soft herbs are herbs with soft stems, such as parsley and tarragon. The soft herbs are best used fresh; they’re fine dried, but they lose their magic, all the beguiling qualities that make them so powerful.

Looking at my "soft" herbs, I seized the day and picked tarragon and parsley to dry, simply washing off the leaves and spreading them on tea towels laid on the counter for drying. Ruhlman says to spread them out in bowls for drying, so that must work too.

Candied herbs? Look at Shuna Lydon's post a few years back about how to infuse herbs into sugar. She has a way with words:

Custards could be infused but they must drape the tongue briefly and evaporate, smooth and silky. Like a well cut skirt: scissors glide through the grain of the fabric, not against it. An aroma is an elusive sensory experience. We embrace those we have known and loved forever and are comforted because they still smell the same as we remember.

And now for the basil and Making Pesto to Freeze:

from Food Network:

Pesto to Freeze

2 cups packed fresh basil leaves

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup pine nuts

2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese

Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.
If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

I followed the directions, doubling the amounts:

Several years ago I made this recipe. It is great for gift giving in mid winter, and it lasts in the freezer much longer than three months; don't hesitate to make several batches for those cold weather doldrums when you want to carbohydrate load. This pesto recipe is delicious with pasta and chicken.

PS: I decreased the olive oil slightly, and added the pecorino cheese into the processor while blending. Then remember to sprinkle heavily with more Parmesan or mozzeralla cheese as a finishing entree topper.

Green Gates and The Green Man

2011-07-29T04:34:00.006-06:00

In 2008, writing about honeysuckle and hummingbirds this was a picture of our back garden gate that leads to a larger garden area down wooden stairs. This is what it looked like three years ago:

Unfortunately, we had some very cold winters that killed off the honeysuckle vines. We took down the archway, cut back the dead branches, and were left with just the gate that looks bare and in desperate need of a face lift.

So I went looking for garden gates that were green in color, hoping to find something I liked and would inspire me to repaint the wooden gate. Here are some pretty gates that I found while doing an internet search:

from madeitonmonday

from pinterest

(from dreamstime)

Using oil paint from a tube, paint thinner and a linseed oil mixture with instructions here, this is our newly refurbished stained gate:

This is the gate yesterday prior prior to staining:

What a difference a little paint makes!

This is a Green Man, cast in iron, similar to one that I just ordered to attach to the fence:

The Green Man

...is that spirit, energy, presence, inherent in every cell of the vegetative realm, and transmitted to the animal/human realms through the foods we eat, the flowers we smell, the trees we hug. He is Pan.

Kilkenny Cowl

2011-07-26T06:32:00.001-06:00

Several months ago, Paula the Podcaster at Knitting Pipeline, mentioned that she was knitting a different sort of cowl. The name of the cowl sounded Irish (the Kilkenny Cowl) and I thought it might be one I would enjoy making and wearing while in Ireland this fall. And then on her podcast yesterday, she again mentioned finishing it for her future daughter in law, and showed the pretty cowl on her website. So I, too, will share this pattern and the end results.

In early July, I shopped online at Quince & Company and ordered the pattern and the yarn to knit this cowl.

(The pictures of the Kilkenny and the pretty girl are from the Quince website)

Yes, you too can order the Kilkenny pattern and yarns here.

The "chickadee" yarn in the color nasturtium, in 100% made-in-America wool was purchased and knit over a few weeks, resulting in my rendition of the Kilkenny Cowl:

Remember those beaded glass bracelets I made to go with it?

Thanks, Paula, for the suggestion of a fun knit project with cables and lace making that was not too difficult.

(More Kilkenny Cowl knitting information can be found here on my Ravelry page.)

Therapy Dogs International and a New Scarf

2011-07-23T04:35:00.003-06:00

Last night was the third Friday of the month Sew-In party hosted by Heidi. She gives away a couple of door prizes, and everyone shows off their sewing projects they finished on the night of the virtual party. Then the "partiers" show off their finished objects on their blogs the following day ... which happens to be today.

And yes, I was late to the party. But it did give me the incentive to quit looking at that scarf that has been lying pathetically on my sewing machine for more than a few weeks, just waiting for me to do some cutting and sewing and applique. So I joined the party yesterday and finished my sewing project last night.

Details:

1) A red Therapy Dogs International (TDI) scarf that belongs to Libby the Therapy Dog, aka Dr. Libby, aka The Corridor Chaplain at our local hospital. The scarf is HUGE, the dog is small. Hence, Libby never wears it because the size of the scarf would literally envelope her like a blanket.
2. A small piece of watercolor fabric remnant that was too good to throw away.
3. An inspiration to "save" the emblem of TDI, incorporating it into a smaller kerchief.

After cutting out the emblem and finessing it onto the scrap fabric with interlining and applique, we have a finished product that is wearable by a 10 pound pup.

Results:

Friday Night Party Wrap-Up:

Sometimes it is handy being your own best friend at a party that only you attend.

Sassy Water

2011-07-19T06:34:00.003-06:00

Have you tried SASSY water? It is the next best thing since... fill in the blank... And it supposedly gets rid of belly fat. Ya think?

This is what you need:

8. 5 cups water
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 cucumber (sliced)
1 lemon (sliced)
spearmint leaves, a dozen or so (I leave them whole)

Combine everything and chill in the refrigerator overnight. Drink!

That is the official recipe, but since cukes and lemons are not cheap, I used half the amount called for and it tasted just fine. Then the next day, I could make up another batch of sassy water.

The taste? It was refreshing. But I doubt it gets rid of belly fat...unless you quit eating.

Prevention Magazine has more information about Sassy Water, named after its originator, Cynthia Sass.

Beaded Bracelets

2011-07-17T06:03:00.001-06:00

Now that I have been knitting with lots of oranges and red yarns, some bracelet bling in those colors was needed for accessories So I went to Michael Sellick on YouTube for instructions about how to make a beaded bracelet. (He has over 1,700 videos on YouTube about how to make various things.)

Here is the video I looked at to ensure I was making the bracelet correctly.

Using glass beads, I made two bracelets. One has a toggle clasp and the other has a magnetic clasp.

For 34 free patterns to make even more beaded bracelets, this site from Favecrafts is an excellent web source. I especially liked this cluster bracelet:

Wilhelmina Shawlette

2011-07-15T04:42:00.027-06:00

One of the best digital downloads that I have recently purchased is the book What Would Madam Defarge Knit? (Creations Inspired by Classic Characters). Over 20 patterns are available in the download, along with live web links. A great value for the money, since all patterns are included for one low price of $16.95. And the links are fascinating, informative, and just plain fun. Note: the first edition hardcover has been sold out, but you can order the digital download here.

Madam DeFarge was a character in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. She is known for her knitting activism during the French Revolution, secretly purling names into her knitting of those who would be charged with crimes in the upcoming revolution. Go to Wikipedia for the quick and dirty about Therese Defarge.

(Madam Defarge found on Google images)

The inside page of the WWMDK book explains a bit about how the book came into being:

What Would Madame Defarge Knit? is a new book of crafty patterns—in pre-orders February 7, 2011 from Cooperative Press—written and designed by the good people who bring you CraftLit, Cast-on, March Hare Yarns, Jen Minnis Artworks, WeaveZine and WeaveCast, Silk Road Socks, Gardiner Yarn Works, and Crochet Compulsive.

It all started back in 2007, while listening to A Tale of Two Cities on CraftLit. Not far into the book, WWMDfK? became a rallying call for t-shirts, knitting, and fun. And now—patterns!

The Wilhelmina Shawlette is the first pattern I'll be knitting from the book. And the name Wilhelmina? It comes from here:

What would Mina, the heroine of Bram Stoker’s epic novel, Dracula, wear to protect her neck from the bloodthirsty count? Chrissy Gardiner thinks that, as a practical girl, she undoubtedly would appreciate this simple, delicate wool shawlette, featuring Serendipitous Ewe’s Autumn Glow vampire-inspired colorway, one in a series dyed exclusively for SandraSingh.com.

Designer: Chrissy Gardiner, Finished Measurements: 44″ wide and 22″ tall after blocking

(Close up of the knitted lace pattern in the shawl)

This is the variegated Ella Rae lace merino fiber I purchased from Aimee's Yarn Cafe in Paradise, CA for knitting the Wilhelmina:

My neck will definitely be warm when I wear this, even if I don't need to be protected from vampires.

(Dracula is a book that will be read on the Craftlit podcast in the fall. I can't wait!)

Parasols and Umbrellas

2011-07-14T06:23:00.001-06:00

This is a reposting from a favorite blog, It's About Time. Enjoy the pictures and go to the original blog posting for further information about the artists.

On the History and Art of Parasols and Umbrellas

Too much sun here today. Umbrellas and parasols come to mind. Many 19th-century paintings are filled with parasols, partially a reflection of the Japonisme influence at the end of the 1800s. An umbrella or parasol is a canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight.

Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919). Woman with a Parasol 1872

William McGregor Paxton (1869-1941) Child in Sunlight, The Chinese Parasol 1908

1886 Olga Boznanska (Polish Impressionist painter, 1865-1945)

Jacques-Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) The Traveller

Claude Monet (1840-1926). The Walk, Woman with a Parasol 1875

Best Gazpacho Recipe and Apricot Cooking

2011-07-11T05:41:00.013-06:00

Ina Garten showed off her best gazpacho recipe on Food Network. So I made it. Don't know about being the "best", but it was good, easy, and was said to take only 20 minutes to make. I don't know about the 20 minute time frame, but the recipe was definitely worth whipping up again. In process:

And apricots are finally in season. We bought five pounds at a local farmers' market and dehydrated 3 pounds. After 12 hours in the drying unit, they still are not ready to bag. But they are sweet and delicious!

Two pounds of the apricots were used immediately for an apricot cobbler with rolled dumplings.

OLD FASHIONED COBBLER

8 or 9 peaches or apricots, peeled and sliced
1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. sugar2 tbsp. self-rising flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 c. butter, melted

Cook fruit in water until tender. Mix flour, salt and sugar. Add to peaches. Mix. Add melted butter.

PASTRY FOR COBBLER

1 cup self-rising flour
1 tsp. salt
1/3 c. shortening
4 tbsp. sweet milk, or enough to make a stiff dough

Blend flour, salt, and shortening to coarse meal texture. Add milk. Roll on floured surface. Pour half of fruit in 9x13 inch pan. Cut some dumplings and push dumplings down into the peach juice. Pour remaining peaches in and top with more cut pastry. Bake in a 350 degree oven 35 to 40 minutes, or until top is golden brown. I like to sprinkle a little sugar on top before baking. This should be juicy cobbler.

Several days ago, I got out the tried and true Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook and made some vanilla ice cream, so home made ice cream was topping for the cobbler. It was the first time I had gotten the electric ice cream freezer from its shelf in the garage, and it was not even "cranky" after having been neglected for a number of summers.

The ice cream recipe called for only four ingredients - no infusion of vanilla bean, etc.- just 2 Tbsp of vanilla extract, and no eggs. Some things don't have to be difficult to be tasty.

And last, apricot freezer jam was a hit. We only made five cups, but that will be enough for a while. A previous post about freezer jam can be found here. Ingredients:

3 and 1/3 cup pureed apricots
1 and 1/3 cup sugar
4 Tbsp. freezer pectin

Stir sugar and pectin together. Add apricots and stir for 2 minutes. Let it stand for 30 minutes and then ladle into plastic containers and freeze. Excellent!

Free Patterns for Caftans

2011-07-07T05:43:00.002-06:00

Hot weather makes me want to shower early and put on a comfy, cool caftan. Caftans hearken back to the 70's when they were the rage, and for good reason. It was (and is) an easy wearing garment reminiscent of muumuus.

Some vintage patterns are available on various websites, but I decided to forgo the purchased patterns and find a tutorial on the internet.

This website by essortment was where I went for general instructions. Of course, the pattern was tweaked and re-sized, but the general gist of it was used. I found that after washing my fabric, it did shrink up, so be sure you prewash your yardage, and purchase enough to allow for shrinkage. And ensure that if you are taller than average that you increase your length.

Weekend Designer highlighted this caftan, along with similar technique instructions.

And here is the finished caftan, with surprisingly little effort:

Can't you just see wearing it on your summer patio with an umbrella drink in hand?

High Water in Colorado

2011-07-05T07:28:00.004-06:00

Driving over to Denver for the weekend holiday, I was amazed at the high water levels on the Colorado River. In Grand Junction, one local walking and biking path has been obliterated by the mountain water runoff.

(photo by Gretchen Daughtery - Daily Sentinel)

Telluride's Daily Planet said:

A Hazardous Weather Outlook published by the NWS for eastern Utah and western Colorado indicates that recent warm weather has accelerated snowmelt in these areas, increasing runoff into local waterways. Many rivers, such as the Arkansas River near Leadville, are surpassing their banks.

As I was driving solo, it was a bit dangerous to take pictures of the Colorado River overflowing its banks, but I did manage a few by just holding the camera up and to my side, then clicking away. Here are a few shots.

(in Glenwood Canyon)

(Just off Interstate Highway 70 at a rest stop)

(picture by UpthaCreek)

Whitewater rafting was a popular activity on Saturday, July 3. I saw lots of rafts on the river with adventure seekers galore and honked and waved at a few from the sidelines.

Hope everyone had a safe and fun weekend!

July Pictures - Summer Poetry

2011-07-02T03:55:00.011-06:00

"That beautiful season the Summer!
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light;
And the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"And pomp, and feast, and revelry,
With mask, and antique pageantry,
Such sights as youthful poets dream
On summer eves by haunted stream."
- John Milton, L'Allegro, 1631

"The summer morn is bright and fresh, the birds are darting by
As if they loved to breast the breeze that sweeps the cool clear sky."
- William C. Bryant

"I know I am but summer to your heart,
And not the full four seasons of the year;
And you must welcome from another part
Such noble moods as are not mine, my dear.
No gracious weight of golden fruits to sell
Have I, nor any wise and wintry thing;
And I have loved you all too long and well
To carry still the high sweet breast of Spring.
Wherefore I say: O love, as summer goes,
I must be gone, steal forth with silent drums,
That you may hail anew the bird and rose
When I come back to you, as summer comes.
Else will you seek, at some not distant time,
Even your summer in another clime."

- Edna St. Vincent Millay, I Know I am But Summer to Your Heart

Vintage Seed Packet Images

2011-06-30T06:14:00.004-06:00

Vintage seed packet pictures: an internet search came up with many good links. The beauty of Victorian ephemera is quite fetching, especially since all images were hand drawn and painted.

Links to free images of vintage seed packets are cataloged here for my (and your) future use, along with some of the pictures that captured my eye. These images will be an excellent source for referencing, painting, and posting on my Floral Art blog.

Here are some links, in no particular order:

Smithsonian Museum: "Seed Packets, Vintage"

(sweet peas)

(pansies)

and my favorite:

Free Vintage Fruit Crate Labels:

Go to Google Images and you will see many such as this one:

Bing Search Engine has lots:

Vintage Seed Packet Templates shows many templates with flower and vegetable images, all free to use for your own non-commercial purposes. (They are in PDF format)

Home and Garden has more images:

And some blog posts about vintage seed packet images and how they might be used can be found at The Frugal Mennonite, The Vintage Workshop, Blue Hour Studio, to name just a few.

So there you have a short run-down of sources for your viewing pleasure.

Headband for a Bald Head

2011-06-28T09:12:00.004-06:00

This is called "headband for a bald head" and it should fit right into the wardrobe of a person without hair. And it took less than a day to knit.

You can click on the badge to the left to get all the details and the free pattern. It is a good thing, and I'll bet you can guess who will be the recipient.

And another cotton number from the same pattern:

and yet another:

Caffeine Cure for Wrinkles

2011-06-28T06:24:00.006-06:00

If this topic interests you, look further. (That means if you are over thirty, is caffeine the cure for puffy eyes?)

This gal (picture courtesy of the London Mail Online) shows some real change after using caffeine serum in her before and after pictures.

Having featured on U.S. chat show The Tyra Banks Show, the First Aid Beauty Detox Eye Roller caused a online and sold out on the Boots website within two hours.

WILL IT WORK - FEMAIL'S VERDICT Several eye products have started incorporating roller ball technology because customers like the cooling sensation on their skin and immediately think that it must be having some sort of an effect. Garnier launched its Caffeine Eye Roll-On in 2008 and it became one of their most successful products.

The metal ball does mean it feels cool to the skin, although I’m not convinced the pressure equates to the sort of results a facialist can achieve with manual massage. Glycerin, a powerful moisturising agent, and mica, a mineral which reflects light, mean fine lines do instantly look less obvious. (Read more here.)

So I am thinking that if wet tea bags are placed under the eyes for a refreshing spa treatment, why not use a wet instant coffee bag for additional benefits? Just a thought.

Referencing a Multi Talented Woman Blogger

2011-06-26T06:32:00.015-06:00

For art lovers and those who enjoy beautiful images, please wander on over to It's About Time. This site will provide pictures and bio information about a variety of topics, including:

flowers and gardens
reading
motherhood
outside art
boating
the countryside
folk art
working with textiles
Madonna and child
and NINE other topics for you to investigate for lovely illustrations
PLUS Four, yes four, other blogs Barbara authors, each in its own separate blog space, and each fascinating in its own right

Michael Peter Ancher (Danish artist, 1849–1927) Artist's wife Anna Ancher

This is just one of the pictures found on one of Barbara's blogs. She entitled it Outside in the Hot, Hot Garden.

Can you tell I am very much impressed by this prolific blogger and researcher? In part, she says:

I am a historian, the images usually cluster around some social, cultural, or academic theme or a timeline. I try to choose works that justify their inclusion on aesthetic grounds. There is a little museum in each blog -- no travel necessary.

dawn chorus, Ipsden, Midsummer (mp3)

A blogging buddy who lives in the UK doing her PhD (The Domestic Soundscape) introduced me to Audioboo and provided the bird call. (It is one of Felix's top hits!) Just click on the arrow and turn up your speakers and you will feel like you have a morning flower bouquet in your hand!

The picture of the yellow flowers In Anna Ancher's arms reminded me to put this small work of sunflowers in oils that I have been painting for a few weeks:

The stems have not been started, and the centers have no definition yet. We shall see.

How to Make 3-D Decoupage

2011-06-25T06:29:00.003-06:00

A little history about Paper Tole was found here:

There has been much speculation of the origins of the craft of Paper Tole or 3-D Decoupage, as we know it today. The Japanese have for centuries shaped and folded paper into beautiful designs, transforming a 2 dimensional piece of paper into 3-D creations.

Indeed oriental lacquer work formed the basis of the development of the 17th Century art form decoupage. The craftspeople of the day embedded designs into furniture by applying successive coats of lacquer, sometimes using 15 or 20 coats.

The French and Venetian further refined these techniques in an art form called "Vue d'Optique" which is considered by many as equivalent to the modern method of using paper sculpture to create 3-dimensional pictures.

beautiful example of 3-D paper tole by Susan Lee

A quick tutorial on how to make a tole card is available from eHow, and provides enough information to start you out on this craft. Here are the supplies you will need:

3 to 6 copies of a detailed image; card stock (optional); Spray adhesive (optional); Scissors; Silicone adhesive; (hot glue gun or foam tape); Tweezers; Clear glaze or glitter glue (optional); Well-lit area to work in

This picture is a postcard that I will be using to do my first paper tole project:

Several postcards came in the pack.

Things to keep in mind while making a tole card can be accessed at this site:

There are 3 principle areas that when looking at a 2 dimensional image the crafter must visualize, those being, the background, the middle-ground, and the foreground with several intermediate layers between the background and foreground.

A natural perspective is gained by properly and skillfully shaping each cutout piece before gluing it. In our view, one of the most important techniques that will really elevate your finished tole from being really good to magnificent lies in the skill in which you shape or sculpture the individual elements of the picture.

After reading the information about 3-D Decoupage, I decided to take the princess by the crown and start cutting up those postcards and make that princess come alive.

Her bald head, of course, needed to stand out in all its beauty, so the head and crown were emphasized by building up layers. And of course, she needed pink beads on her tiara, so the bead stash was raided. Here is the finished product. I was disappointed because the head-on view did not even show that cutting and gluing job!

This side view displays more of the dimensionality of the card. (Is "dimensionality" a word?)

Jane Holmes at Porcelain Painting in Australia first introduced me to this craft. Thanks, Jane.

This is part of How Sweet the Sound of Pink postings on Saturday.

What WERE They Thinking?

2011-06-23T07:21:00.000-06:00

All from Fail Blog

Good News!

2011-06-22T07:19:00.003-06:00

Instead of linking to a care page, I'll just let my blogging buddies know what has happened to daughter Julie over the past two days:

She had her chemo treatment, but a week later she had severe nausea.
When the nausea continued to the point that it was obviously not related to the chemo, she was taken by ambulance to her local hospital (20 miles from her home in S. Carolina) and then AGAIN transferred by another ambulance several hours later to Charlotte, NC to the 700 bed Carolina Medical Center for tests on her AV shunt (the AV shunt drains fluid from the brain to the heart to treat her hydrocephalous). She has had over 100 AV shunt revisions in her life.
Julie underwent emergency surgery last night to replace the clogged. She is speaking coherently now, has no headaches and has no memory of anything that happened, including her intense pain from the headaches, for the past 72 hours. That short term memory will likely not be regained, and I say "who cares?" as she won't remember that awful time.
Julie is supposed to sit up in her wheelchair for a few hours today while in hospital and will be discharged tomorrow if all goes well.
Thank you all for your prayers and concern!

The other good news is the package of breast cancer clothing accessories that came in the mail yesterday from Cafe Press.

This is the t-shirt I wore yesterday:

It says: "They're Not Real (the real ones tried to kill me)

Here is a hat for Julie going in the mail today, also from Cafe Press:

Decoupaged Side Table & Chair

2011-06-21T05:30:00.010-06:00

Greeting cards, get well cards, birthday cards, sympathy cards ... I cannot bear to throw them away because the sentiments, although sometimes just the garden variety that come from the manufacturer, are sincere efforts to keep friendships alive. And often, the illustrations are keepers!

Several years ago when I was going through chemotherapy as a result of breast cancer, cards sent by friends and family helped keep my spirits uplifted. I saved them all. But a better use than keeping them in a box was to display them for gentle reminders of love. So I decoupaged them onto a little table where some costume jewelry resides, and those bits and pieces of get-well cards remind me of valued friendships.

A little Modgepodge and some cutting and pasting were all that was necessary to make this useful little side table an enduring sentimental symbol of friendship. I use the "get well" table in my bathroom to hold the tools for getting ready for the day.

The cards were cut and pasted onto the table in no particular order. The randomness of the mementos draws my eye to a different card at each glance onto the surface, reminding me of the kindness of each friend.

(close up of top of table)

Taking on an old piece of furniture and decoupaging it with special gift wrap or other unique papers is a project which you might like just for its preservation value of sentiment alone.

Here is a link at FaveCrafts that shows how another woman has more methodically decoupaged a chair seat:

And here is that chair again holding some pretty flower pots. Her theme seems to be flowers, and appears to be a nice touch to her patio.

Summer Squash and Sausage Casserole

2011-06-20T04:12:00.007-06:00

With tomatoes, squash and onions all now available, they are the basis of my favorite summer casserole. This recipe makes plenty, is easily reheated in the microwave, and is definitely in the new triangle of foods that are good for you. It also has lots of cheesy goodness.

Ingredients: as many and as much as you like of....

tomatoes in thick slices
yellow and green squashes, any varieties are fine, cut in thick slices
onions, yellow or white, cut in pieces
a pound of Italian sausage, browned in a skillet with the grease discarded
cheese, yellow and grated

Preparation consists of layering all the vegetables, browned sausage and grated cheese a couple of times with lots of pepper, a bit of salt, and maybe some spices you like. Cover and cook in a 350 degree oven for an hour or until the vegetables are no longer crunchy.

So there you have a complete meal if you add just a slice of bread, a beverage, and a dessert if you are feeling indulgent.

Cornices with Fabric Coverings the Easy Way

2011-06-17T06:51:00.004-06:00

After more than a few years, our dining area windows needed a decorative face lift, not to mention a good vacuuming of the blinds.

The husband cut some foam core board that came in a sheet that was 8 feet long and 48 inches wide. The width of the foam board was one inch; our supplier was the local Home Depot.

After measuring the windows, four lengths of foam core board were required for placement over the windows. We cut them in 12" x 48" pieces.

Knowing that my two finished oil paintings of birds were ready to hang, I bought coordinating fabric in a teal color, cut the fabric into pieces roughly 16" x 55" in size and pinned the fabric to the foam board backing.

The original smaller version of those "Angry Birds" was given to our local hospice for a fund raiser, but I painted two more similar ones on gallery wrapped canvases that were 12" x 36".

So now there are four cornice boards covered in fabric over each of the four windows in the dining area. Each is secured to the wall above the windows with a single nail that was driven through the fabric covered foam board cornice.

And then the Angry Birds were hung above the cornices.

Voila! (pictures pan from left to right)

It was an easy way to bring more color into this area by using a tiny flowered teal print fabric under the pictures and covering the cornice boards. It also gave a more finished look to those windows without obstructing the view of the back yard foliage.

Mint and Jalapeno Jelly the Quick Way

2011-06-13T05:48:00.002-06:00

Mint grows like crazy in our back yard.

Mint jelly with lamb is OK, but how about a sweet jelly with a little more kick? Maybe adding a jalapeno would bring up the heat and tone down the sugar. It would be tasty with meat entrees, and a kick over a block of cream cheese. (My husband remembers pouring a jar of salsa over a block of cream cheese, but he is much older than I, so I don't recall that particular little party treat.)

A Google search for mint and jalapeno jelly came up quickly. Here it is:

2 cups spearmint leaves, chopped fine, divided
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded, diced
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
2 Tbs lemon juice
3 1/2 cups sugar
4 Tbsp. freezer pectin (this is my variation on the original recipe since it called for regular pectin)

In a small saucepan, heat 1 3/4 cups mint leaves with 1 1/2 cups water, bring to boil, shut off heat and let steep for 30 minutes. Strain mint infusion into large saucepan, squeezing out mint leaves to extract as much mint as possible (I used a coffee filter in a small colander for straining). Discard boiled leaves.
...(recipe continues for Hot Water Bath canning)

Here is what I did to make it a quick freezer jam:

Instead of boiling it all together for what would have taken forever, I just stirred it all for three minutes, added about 7 drops of green food coloring, added a few cleaned mint sprigs to each container, then ladled it into the plastic freezer containers. Done. -- It has not been thawed yet, so perhaps the mint leaves might wither.

This is my third recipe for making freezer jams this spring. We have strawberry, blueberry and now mint jelly in our freezer. The first batch with strawberries was too sweet, so I cut down the sugar when I made the blueberry jam, and also cut down the sugar on this mint/pepper jelly. We liked them all.

And here, in all its glory, is a picture of the mint jelly slathered over a block of cream cheese. It tasted surprisingly refreshing with just a little bite to it.

Does that picture above remind you of James Lilek's Gallery of Regrettable Foods?

Says Lileks:

Freud never had to ask what men want. Men want liquor. They want a pistachio cordial that matches their ties, matches the coffee cups, and matches the salad and the relish. AVOCADO GREEN, the rutting stags demand.

To remind them they're men, make sure to embed a batch of wriggling, erect wieners in a sea of beans.

James Lileks has so many funny stories and books. Take a look. He makes our childhood foods look downright...well, unappealing. His Gallery of Regrettable Foods is here.

Preemie Hats - Let's Make Some!

2011-06-11T07:52:00.003-06:00

From a blog called Calvin's Hats, the purpose of creating tiny baby preemie hats is summarized here:

Calvin's Hats is offering to grieving parents a gift which can bring a small amount of comfort and peace... a hat tiny enough to fit right on their precious child's head and something to hold on to when their child is no longer here.

Our wish is for these hats to bring a small amount of healing."

A couple of weeks ago, Raveler Annie said this:

When Calvin's Hats first started in February of 2009, it was with the hope that we could provide some hats to families who were leaving the hospital with empty arms. We had one knitter (Sarah DuVal) and a website with a limit of 3 pages. We were sending out one or two hats per month and thrilled to be blessing those families.

About 6 months ago, something changed. I'm really not sure what it w as that spurred it on, but our goal of getting hats into hospitals was finally working. Since that point, we've sent out a large number of hats. ... but never once has my hat drawer been completely empty. I don't suppose tiny knit hats can really compare to the Bible story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with a couple loaves of bread, but that's how it feels sometimes.

If you want more information about Calvin's Hat , Annie's blog can be found here, along with some easy preemie hat patterns.

Here is my first finished hat that took only 90 minutes to complete. It would fit on a tangerine.

Chemo Hats and Interpreting Sickness in a Unique Way

2011-06-10T07:50:00.003-06:00

This is the second one off the hook:

The same pattern of crocheted hat finished this week from this free Bernat pattern:

Here is another:

These hats are, of course, for my daughter Julie. Julie had her first chemo treatment this week, along with the requisite anti-nausea drugs. After three days post treatment, she is still not keeping anything down. Sigh.

And speaking of sickness and how we deal with it, I am borrowing this from Abigail at Abigail's Alcove:

...When I found out that my newborn needed emergency abdominal surgery, I immediately asked to have her baptized. If my baby girl had to undergo all of that suffering, I wanted it all to mean something. I wanted her incorporated into the mystical body of Christ. I wanted her hurt to save souls.

A birth defect is different from the ordinary effects of sin. My baby girl didn't get hit by a bullet or poisoned by an environmental toxin. The Creator of the World, the One who lovingly knit together my baby's body in the womb decided in His infinite wisdom to drop a purl stitch in the formation of my baby girl's intestine.

Futher reading can be found here by Abigail about her infant daughter's sickness. It is well worth the read, and gave me pause after digesting her interpretation of why this birth defect happened to her child. I hope you take the time to read it.

Lettuce and a Summer Recipe

2011-06-09T07:00:00.001-06:00

Here is a clever idea with lettuce growing in containers attached to exterior house siding:

These are my little pots with leaf lettuce now ready for the picking. Each clay container will make maybe two large salads at two week intervals.

Along with fresh fruit, this salad will be delish on newly harvested lettuce leaves:

Here is the website for Strawberry and Mozzarella Salad with basil. Our basil won't be ready for a while, however. The leaves are still very young:

Eye Art - Really!

2011-06-08T06:24:00.001-06:00

Putting on eye makeup has taken on a whole new realm with eye artist Katie Alves.

Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas gets Katie's eye-art treatment

More pics from the London's Mail Online:

this one inspired by Aladdin

And my favorite, fairies:

this one inspired by Alice in Wonderland:

Cool...but if the eyes close, I wonder if all those colors would smear. It is hard enough to keep brown on the upper lids without disaster!