Lettuce and a Summer Recipe

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!

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!

CASA and a Fundraiser at Tiara Rado and Boston's Pizza

Back in November, I became a CASA and posted here about it.

Court Appointed Special Advocates of Mesa County (CASA-MC), recruits, screens, and trains volunteers to speak in court on behalf of children who are abused, neglected or abandoned by their families. These volunteers are the eyes and ears of the Judge. Judges, make the final decision of where a child will live. Will the child be returned to the parent or will parental rights be terminated and the child be placed for adoption. This decision is influenced by the information the volunteer provides to a Judge and could be a major determining factor in the future of that child.

Casa means home, but for thousands of abused and neglected children, it's an acronym that has even more meaning – it's the best chance of finally finding safe, permanent homes where they can thrive.

This morning will be my 15th session of either meeting with caregivers and case workers or being in court to represent my little kiddo in need of foster care.  My partner in CASA and I have created a one inch file of documentation on "our child" so far!  (His foster parents are doing a great job with the kiddo, by the way.)
From the KKCO website:

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO)_11News and Boston's the Gourmet Pizza are teaming up for two great fundraisers to benefit abused and neglected children in Mesa County.
First join 11News this Saturday at Tiara Rado for the 7th Annual CASA Golf Tournament. There's still time to register by calling 242-4191. It's $300 a team or $75 a person. It's an 8am shotgun start.

Then on Wednesday, June 8, join the 11News team at Boston's as the anchors and reporters serve up lunch from 11am to 2pm.
Boston's will also 15 percent of its proceeds for the day to Court Appointed Special Advocates.

Help 11News and Boston's make sure no child's voice goes unheard.

This Wednesday, June 8, Boston's Pizza in Grand Junction is giving a portion of their profits to CASA. If you are not a golfer, at least come out and have lunch or a drink and join the KKCO team in supporting CASA!

7 Days: 7 Positive Things

A fellow blogger in Wales who writes I Knit, and Sew What?, writes a weekly "7 Days and 7 Positive Things", so I borrowed her theme.  Here goes:

1: The Texas Road Trip was completed, family visited, and I maneuvered through interstate and local traffic without incident.

2.  On the plane trip back to Colorado, I had trouble getting to the airport.  Long story short, I was the last person to board the plane, getting to the gate just as the door closed.  If that connection had been missed, it would have required not only a long delay, but a stayover in Denver.  Phew!

3.  I saw Bridesmaids TWICE because it was so funny.  What a hoot!

4.  Chive blossoms in our garden made up an onion flavored vinegar that we will use in balsamic vinegar and olive oil salad dressings.  Love the look and looking forward to the dressing!

(Vinegar pretty and pink and ready to strain after 3 days)

5.  I made up nine small batches of strawberry freezer jam that is delicious.  Here is how: 

• 3 and 2/3 cups of strawberries (washed, hulled, quartered)
• 4 Tbsp. freezer pectic
• 1 and 1/3 cups sugar
• Stir the sugar and pectin together, add the fruit, let stand 30 minutes, pour into containers and freeze

 
6.  Making small, slow progress on a Simple Scallops crocheted scarf:

7.  Our house and garden were spared over the night.  A huge limb off an old cottonwood tree in our back yard crashed to the ground around 1 AM.  We heard a loud noise that awakened us, but did not see anything in the dark.  This morning, we found this in the lower part of the back:

the broken tree trunk was 10 inches in width!

That could have caused some serious damage! We were very lucky.

Leaf Little to the Imagination

From The Daily Mail, artist Ju Duoqi created these works from nothing but Chinese cabbage leaves:

...amazing

Podcast from The Electric Tree on "The Safe Sock Talk"

From The Electric Tree:

 click on arrow to listen after a short download

Podcast Powered By Podbean

pic from Craftzine

Important things to remember when giving hand knit socks in your safe sock talk:

1) Know the washing (and drying) requirements
2) STD's in socks (sock trauma)
3) The ED of socks (erosion disfunction); talk openly about it so pilling will not occur

Stay safe.

Texas Road Trip over Holiday

It was time to see family.  So by air and automobile, Texas was the destination.  From Colorado, where our temperatures were in the 40's (F) to Austin with high humidity in the 95+ (F) degree range, it was a definite change of scenery.

From Austin to College Station, from College Station to Waco, from Waco to Austin again: nothing but troubles driving.  I got lost more than a few times, but I surely went past many little cemeteries along the way.  And the scenic drive to College Station was lovely.  It is all in how you look at it. Listening to Mazie Dobbs and Pardonable Lies made the drive time shorter.

NEVER trust the Bing maps! The Bing map was ten exits off just in my first venture out from the airport to Round Rock, Texas to visit the parents at Parkview Meadows where they recently moved. An hour wasted on I 35 just trying to find the correct roads. Grrr.

I took lots of pictures.  Just a few here..

My brother Chuck and sweet SIL Karen McCarroll

Chuck has his own blog that you can reference at this link.  He calls it I'm Not Drinking O'bama's Koolaid, so if you are also in this mind frame, you might get a kick out of his editorial snippets and cartoons displayed.  He  is the brother with all that artistic talent that I previously referenced on this blog post

. 

a picture of their east Texas evening skyline in College Station, TX

Aunt Mary Mays who lives in Waco, TX

Above is an oil painting of Texas bluebonnets that I remember from my earliest childhood that Aunt Mary has in her newly remodeled apartment where she now lives with her grandson and his family.

In all, I got to see both brothers and SIL, one nephew and his darling young family, my father and his wife, my sister, my aunt and various distant cousins, the youngest of whom was six months and an absolute doll.

Remember the blanket knit for him?  (Ravelry reference is on the bottom of the post)
It was good to visit and catch up on family issues.  It was even better getting home.  You know what I mean.

Chemo Cap to Crochet

Ironically, sadly, three chemo hats are still in my cedar chest that my mother used during her cancer treatment in 1999, and that I saved because they reminded me of her.  She was not a complainer, and always grateful for whatever the day held.  I do try to emulate that quality, though sometimes it is a challenge.

This is my mom and me in 2000 just before she died, wearing one of her favorite hats covering her little bald head:

Then, lo and behold, wouldn't you know that I then had the "opportunity" to use those same hats, and especially the one shown above on Mom, when I went through chemo.  Yup, it is so.

And now my daughter will be the recipient of these useful little garments to keep her head warm after she loses her hair due to chemotherapy.  Three generations of women with cancer: bing, bing, bing.

Never fear, she won't have to just use those old hats (even thought they are quite attractive and still functional).  I am making her a couple more with crochet and knitting needles.

Here is a pattern I came across this morning: free, free, free and easy, Bernat offers this chemo hat as a download with a (also free) registration to their website:

As a quick update on Julie, she has been diagnosed with Stage III B breast cancer, and will have her chemo port placed on May 23.  They are trying to shrink her tumors prior to a mastectomy.

The chemo cotton hat will be started today as I listen to Frank Delaney's Ireland on audiobook.  If you are on Ravelry, there is an audiobook group and a podcast group that you might check out; this group has excellent suggestions on good listens.  I'm currently listening to several books on tape, depending on moods and inclinations.

Now I'm off to Michael's as soon as they open to buy three balls of cotton yarn so I can snuggle down for a good session with Ireland and my hooks and needles.

Crochet: Laptop Bag with Six Layer Padding

You know how Sandra Lee uses prepared foods and makes them look like a lot of prep time went into it, supposedly fooling her guests with a delicious end product?
This crochet project was done along the same lines, using a few things that were on hand in the craft closet and finishing it off with a handmade smaller project.  The end result looks like an expensive purchased laptop case,  IMHO.

Start with a $2 canvas tote from the craft store for the middle lining...sandwich that between the outer crocheted "public side" of the laptop bag and the fabric inner lining.  Then add in some pretty fabric for lining and attach a key ring for personalization.

The recylced canvas tote had sturdy handles, so they were disassembled and covered with matching fabric and zigzagged onto the bag (one is hidden and only attached to one side of the bag for ease ofloading the laptop into the jacket).

Directions for making this 9" x 12" cover:

• chain 95 stitches of cotton yarn with Size E crochet hook
• double crochet contrasting complemenery yarns in rows to your liking (I crocheted 4 rows, 3 rows, 4 rows, 3 rows to a length of about 23 inches, turning and changing colors at whim at the end of the rows).  Now you have a little piece of fabric that looks like a doll blanket.
• fold over the finished crocheted piece of fabric to make a (roughly) 11.5"x 9" product; single crochet edges together
• create lining using canvas and pretty fabric, right sides together, sewn together leaving the ends open, and pressed with a steam iron (only 1/3 yd. of fabric is required)
• sandwich the canvas sturdy lining between with the pretty fabric lining cut to 23" x 9" to create a 6 layered, cushy pad for your laptop.   Add a finished fabric binding to the top of the tote to cover the raw edges.
• create fabric covered straps from the canvas tote by sewing fabric atop the handles and turning the fabric over with 1/4 inch edges, tacking down with blind stitches
• add a purchased key ring with charms to finish off the tote

Note: some assembly is required (grin)

Herbs of Provence

A friend sent my husband Herbs de Provence for Christmas.  It was a thoughtful gift that is a daily use as chicken dishes, eggs, and fish all benefit from a dash of this lovely mixture.  The crock contains finely ground thyme, rosemary, basil, savory and marjoram, and a small hit of lavender in the concoction. (Thank you, Dorothay!)

Coq au vin and this recipe with a whole chicken perched atop a beer can is one of the husband's specialties (he sometimes uses Herbs of Provence inside the chicken):

Currently in my little corner of the world we are growing:

• mint (LOADS of it)
• rosemary
• chives
• tarragon (the tag says "Texas Tarragon")
• parsley
• oregano
• sage
• cilantro
• garlic
• basil (hopefully the tiny seeds will provide the base for many containers of pesto)

Every time I try to grow thyme, it seems to fade in the heat.  Guess it needs a different spot.

Garden stakes with herb names imprinted on the front have faded over the years, so this is what I purchased from Amazon:

The ceramic labels have not yet arrived, so I went ahead over last weekend and planted some herbs with the old garden markers stuck in the soil.

Here are some recylcled window herb garden containers that perked up with Spray Paint refashioned by Centsational Girl:

Good idea, as I have several containers that could use a good slathering of paint to give them fresh faces.

Childhood Home in Watercolor

Just dusted off a watercolor I painted of my childhood home in Mereta, Texas.  We lived there during the drought in the mid 1950's.

Please visit my art blog that I updated with my better works (it's subjective, I know) on the sidebar.  HERE IS THE BLOGSITE.

And leave a comment if you are so inspired so that I know at least someone went to the Floral Art Blog.  Thanks!