A Crafty Yarn

I feel as though I haven't been able to hit the publish button on this blog in quite a while...I've been making Christmas gifts for what seems like forever and have had to keep all of that under wraps.   It's been a good time creatively because I've tried a few new things this year.    I'm not sure how it's possible that I have never stained wood before!  Now that I have, I'm hooked!  So few things give you instant gratification when you're a crafter but stain is absolutely one of them. Some Rustic Christmas Tree Goodness     This is the first multi-piece wooden sign that I've made so far.  I stained the wood before I dry brushed it with an oatmeal colored paint.  I used the Silhouette to cut out the "Gather" stencil.     A Christmas Cat :-)                                                    The Daily Prophet Headlines transferred onto 2 inch tiles.       The Silhouette got quite a bit of use th

My friend Brent really wants backyard chickens.  He bought a used coop that ended up just being a nightmare.  I went over to his place to help him work on it and it didn't take long for us to realize that there was no way to fix the thing in the few hours that we had!  We decided to take a drive to see if there was a new one in town that he could buy.  After seeing the prices there was no way I was going to let him go down that road!  Going into debt for fresh eggs is ridiculous!   I had him tow the coop to my house where I could work on it over the course of a couple weeks and I'm really pleased with how it turned out!   Here are some before and afters:

Like anyone who loves fiber arts I am always fascinated by looms and the projects made with them.  I've never taken the leap to purchase a loom but, after seeing an idea on Pinterest, I decided to make a pin loom to try my hand at it.  You go into a project like this not realizing just how damn tedious it's going to be to hammer in all those tiny nails lol!     It was worth it though!  This type of weaving is hella enjoyable...It reminded me a bit of those potholder looms from when I was a little girl.  I'm not sure what I'll use it for but I can see that it will, at the very least, be a way for me to utilize the novelty yarns that I just had to have but that can't be knit or crocheted with!

One of the things that I love about gardening is how aware it makes us of where our resources come from.  I felt this when I grew the luffa gourds last year.  I had always known that luffa came from the inside of a certain gourd but it never occurred to me that it was something that could be grown locally.  Earlier this year I went to a seed exchange and one of the items that I received was a small bag of sesame seeds.  I looked at the seeds and then at the man who had given them to me... I guess he could see the disbelief on my face because he grinned and said "RIGHT!?!"   There are a few things that I want to try that are outside of the norm.  Tobacco and peanuts are on the short list. Sesame seeds, however, had never crossed my mind.  But...I thought I'd give it a shot and LOOK!!!! Do you see all of those pods along the stalk?  Each one of them holds dozens of sesame seeds!  

Making my own lye soap has been on the to do list for years... the one thing that got in my way was my fear of working with the lye. I'm not very graceful and I spill...a lot!  The thought of doing so with lye is terrifying.  BUT... sometimes you just have to get over it and move on so that's what I did!  AND I LOVED IT!   Online soapmakers have told me that once I tried it I'd be hooked and I can honestly say that they were right...I cant wait to make the next batch!        I wanted to start with a basic soap that I didn't have to fiddle with dye and scents.  I chose an Oatmeal and Honey Goat's Milk recipe.       It has ground oatmeal inside of it which should make for a fantastic exfoliating soap.   I love how it turned out!  Now comes the long wait to let it cure before I can use it!

When I was determining where to put the chickens on our property it was important to me that they be in a place where they could get sun and shade.  It was also quite important that they be put in a place that allowed us to utilize our available space wisely.  The area that we eventually chose is a steep hill.  I haven't done the math to see how steep it is but I can tell you that it was steep enough to be a pretty big pain in the ass to mow!!  Not only was this part of the yard the perfect place to put the chickens, it was ideal because we would no longer have to mow there!  About a year into keeping chickens I was reading a blog post on Milkwood   that outlined their plan to use a steep chicken run as a gravity compost set up.  I knew immediately that this would work in our run.  I pulled several downed trees from the woods and put them crossways in the coop.  This photo is taken with me standing at the first row so that one is not shown.   The entire thing has worked

When you live the majority of your life in one climate and later move to a different one there are many changes to deal with. Aside from culture shock, the most significant thing that I have experienced is a disconnect from what has always been a very intrinsic awareness of seasons. Planning, seed starting, planting, fertilizing, and harvesting all happen at relatively the same time each year. When you move to a different planting zone, all of those times change.  Over the past 10 years I've learned to compensate for that through trial and very unfortunate error.  However, this year has brought with it a challenge that I haven't faced before and the solution is going to have to be dramatic.  My raised beds get too much sun!  Crazy talk, right?!  Impossible!  But...it's so true!  Do you see this?  This is a VERY unhappy garden:    When you plant a garden in Zone 4, which is the zone that my people grow in, the season is short and there is a need for as much sun as

My friend Katie has two amazing kids and I love them like crazy!  I wanted to make them some softies and knew right away that I would do a pink bear for her little girl.  I wanted to do either a lizard or a dragon for her little guy but he couldn't choose between them so we went with both :-) All patterns are available on Ravelry   Her son did the honors of naming each animal.  The bear is Girl Bear, the dragon is Spikes, and the Chameleon is Corndog LOL! Girl bear looks different now than pictured because I chickened out about using the plastic eyes for a baby... She's not as cute with the crocheted eyes but definitely safer!

I LOVE the molcajete that is served at a local Mexican restaurant!  I have been wanting to try making it at home and finally bit the bullet...and I'm SO glad I did! Molcajete is actually the name of the bowl.  It's sold as a mortar and pestle and is made from volcanic rock.  I bought two of them and if I had known how much work it would be to clean them for their initial use I would have been tempted to just make fajitas!  :-) I'm really glad that I did it in the end though!  It was delicious and a real treat to have it in the comfort of our own home. There are hundreds of recipes that can be prepared in the molcajete.  The one that I tried turned out so much like the restaurant version!  I found it here!

I'm so excited about gardening this year!  My seed addiction has gotten slightly out of hand but it's all going to be worth it once I have these guys in the ground!   These are the seeds that I have planted for the Spring:   Bulgarian Giant Leek Red Freddy Genovese Basil Mary Washington Asparagus Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach Precoce D'argenteuil Asparagus Candy Roaster Squash Devil's Ear Lettuce White Soul Alpine Strawberry Alexandria Alpine Strawberry Baron Von Solemacher Alpine Strawberry Cocozella Di Napoli Zucchini Chocolate Cherry Tomato Brandywine Tomato Black Magic Kale Lemon Cucumber Scarlet Sage Lemon Bergamot Pleurisy Root Greek Mullein Gobo Burdock Astragalus Calendula German Chamomile Holy Basil Valerian Wood Betony Yarrow Purple Coneflower Evening Primrose Brown Flax Lemon Balm Marshmallow Motherwort Stinging Nettle Cayenne Pepper Elecampane   Hyssop Viper's Buglos

We've slowly been chipping away at our dining room to-do list.  Thankfully...it's finally done!  You can see that the wallpaper was all 80s!  What you can't tell from this picture is that the chair rail....was installed upside down!   We removed the chair rail and the wallpaper.  Painted the walls a much richer color and did the trim in an oatmeal color rather than leaving the original wood.  Plantation blinds were a real upgrade from the previous plastic miniblinds.       The change with the greatest impact, at least in my mind, is the light fixture!  The one that was here when we moved in was oh so dated as well as being broken.     We replaced it with a beautiful fixture that fits our style... and works!        Please excuse the glare in this picture...it is out of control.  Anyway, the interior wall is really large and after we got it painted it was in desperate need of something.     We pulled some cigar boxes from my coll