Year of Making Stuff: Week 16 No Photo Yet

I skipped making anything last week due to work and leaving town, but will make up for it this week by making TWO things.  Item for Week 16 (last week) is finished, but will be in a surprise package that will be shipped at the end of this week.  Photos to follow early next week.  Item for Week 17 (this week) is in process and will also be done this week despite having to cut the main fabric part 4 TIMES.

Savannah is a beautiful city, and I was so happy to be there for Regina’s party.  A beautiful city, perfect weather, homemade southern cooking, good company and some sweet-ass sweet tea are the perfect ingredients for a long weekend get away.  I really needed it.

Schoko-Bananen is a banana flavored candy covered in dark chocolate that a co-worker brought back from Germany specially for me!  I adore it, AND its fun to say.  I think the world would be a better place if there was more banana candy and all beauty products smelled like grapefruit.

Tim is in the final stretch for his papers for the semester.  Send good thoughts.

Spring Weekend Getaway

I am getting ready to go to Savannah tomorrow to celebrate Regina’s BIG birthday.  I am really looking forward to a weekend getaway, seeing friends, and visiting a new city, and in the process hoping that Tim gets lots of quiet time to finish up his semester.  But maybe he could also squeeze in some time to plant these snow peas too!  I haven’t had a lot of experience growing from seeds, but these guys are finally up and ready to go.

In Year of Making Stuff…I may just have to make TWO things next week and call it even.  I was going to pack my knitting, but forgot it at work.

Also?  Friends make you healthier.  Not just in mind, but also body.  Who knew?

Year of Making Stuff: Week 15

So the Year of Making Stuff isn’t limited to crafts and such, it can also be food.  Didn’t you know,  I also make the rules.  So, today I laboriously made candied citrus peel.   The result?  A great big sweetly sarcastic Thanks-A-Lot to Martha Stewart.  The recipe (which  won’t even bother to link to.  You know how to use google) called for grapefruits, oranges OR lemons.  No mention of limes, but she DOESN’T say to NOT use limes.  So I used limes with my grapefruit, and I can tell you that LIMES ARE BAD for this particular endeavor.  Too bitter.  And because I cooked them with the sweet sweetness of the grapefruit, I think the whole batch is a wee bit too bitter to really enjoy.  They look pretty though, right?

I also got a new tattoo yesterday and am now off to plant some baby spinach before the rains come tonight!

Freshness and Light

New arbor for our wisteria and drying sheets in the background.  Tim and I rehung new laundry lines this weekend, so this is the season opener for drying laundry outside.  Nothing better to start with than sheets.  They get crisp and smell so fresh.  Love it.

Speaking of crisp and fresh, I give you baby LETTUCE!

In my garden I planted 3 types of lettuce, arugula, walking onions, oregano, broccoli, snow peas and swiss chard.  We also have strawberries and rhubarb coming back up.  These early plants will be pulled eventually to make more room for tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and such later in the season.

Year of Making Stuff: Week 14

What with all the gardening around here and at the library, this week’s YoMS is sort of lame.  I was really curious about The Big Ass Book of Crafts, so finally it came in at the library and was less than inspired.  Many of the projects are creative, but the main ingredients seems to be popscicle sticks (yep) and rope.  Neither of which I am interested in using.  But he has some cool Day of the Dead light switchplate covers, so I thought I would give it a shot.  I don’t know if it is the images I chose (I was trying to just use what I had on hand), or what, but I am feeling fairly meh about them.  I probably didn’t have the right glue either, but now buying the right supplies may be moot unless I fall in love with another image.

I also spent time this weekend in the Library’s community organic veggie garden, lovingly called Monroe County BookWorm Farms.  So far we have planted peas, arugula, spinach, kale, swiss chard, thyme, lemon balm, walking onions, chives, broccoli and some bok choy like veggie I can’t remember the name.

Sunny Spring = Outdoors

This spring has seemed a little damp, though maybe I am still getting used to midwestern weather patterns.  Today was cool, but SUNNY so it was spent outside.  A hike in Brown County State Park with Jenn and Cean, clothes on a new laundry line outside, work in the library gardens and even digging dandelions all seems so sweet when done in the spring sunlight.  Lest I complain too much about the rain, it does make everything GREEN.

Tomorrow, three types of lettuce and arugula will go in my garden and photos of my sort of lame weekly YoMS project.

Year of Making Stuff: Week 13

Just in under the wire on this one, I finished the binding tonight after work.  It is in the wash right now and will be taken to be donated at the Tuesday meeting for the Bloomington Quilters’ Guild Community Quilts.  Other than the batting ($5 with my 40% off coupon), everything is made from what I had on hand.  I think I bought the fish fabric several years ago for Gina’s second boy.

I am not going to complain about the possibility of snow coming up next week.  I had a great weekend and the weather was perfect on Friday and Saturday.  I got to hang out at Jenn’s (doing mad libs…who knew so much fun as adult?), go to the first outdoor Farmer’s Market of the season with Tim, worked in my garden, and planted early crops at the library community garden.  After shopping at the Farmer’s Market and seeing all the cool names the farms have that sell there, I was thinking our little garden needs a name.  What do you think of Monroe County BookWorm Farms?