Tag: tea wallets

Monthly Review · Sewing

Sewing Review

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I’m back! This time with my sewing projects for the month. I have been sewing lots of wintery things. I need some more, longer sleep shirts. I do not enjoy the random cold spot in the middle of my back on cold winter nights. Brrr…

This cozy shirt is one of the warmer shirts I have made. It is. Relaxed Raglan pattern from Patterns for Pirates. I ordered the fabric after getting a sample of a different color in an order. It was not entirely wht I expected, but it’s still soft and warm. 

It grew a little as I was making it, so it’s pretty oversized, but perfect for sleeping in. The sleeves are deliberately long, which really meant I didn’t shorten them. 🙂 

I know you’re probably completely sick of seeing this pattern, considering I have made a bunch of them. It’s interesting to see just how much it changes with each new fabric. I intend to make many more. These are the other two I’ve made.

This one is a black sweatshirt material fleece. I did something funny with the neckline, so it got really wide. I’m considering adding a comtrast band under the first. It’s definitely an “at home” sweatshirt. I was wearing it before the picture, so that’s why the sleeves look wrinkly and weird. 

Mmm… pink.. The floral fabric is a triblend with cotton, spandex, and rayon. The pink is a lovely cotton spandex. Both fabrics are from Girl Charlee and were on sale! That makes these even better! 

I still have a bunch of the floral fabric and am debating what else to make. It’s so soft! 

I had one disappointment when sewing this month. I made these cool foil lightening leggings.

They seemed stretchy enoug, but then when I went to put them on, they wouldn’t stretch past my derrière! Boo! I will just cut down the side and add a strip of plain black. The pattern actually comes with a pocket feature, which I might just try out. 

I also made my purple harem pants and this lovely vest for Kalamazo. I seem to have only uploaded a close up of the vest. I’ll have to post the full costume one day. It has a green background with a gold crackle overlay. Those flowers are iron on pieces and it’s accented with gold dance coins.

I wore a green tank top, gold jewelry, a fairy headband, and a fairy skirt. 

Last Friday, I attended a tree skirt workshop with my MIL, but it isn’t finished yet. It still needs some bias tape, which I need to make. Sadly, no little elves have appeared to do it for me, so it’s taking a little bit extra time. It was a fun class though and a pretty easy pattern with the special curvy ruler. I would definitely take a class at the store again. I’ll write more about it when I have finished it. 

I didn’t really make many new things for my vending event, but I did make these three Star Trek tea wallets. 


“Tea, Earl Grey. Hot.”- Picard

I think there are a couple more things that I have finished or made, but haven’t taken pictures of. I’ve been finding myself reaching for more handmade items lately. It’s fun to wear them and have people try to figure out if it’s one I’ve made or not. One of my kid clients didn’t believe me that I made my dress today and said I must have bought it in the store. I must be making some professional looking items!  

My goals for this month are to finish up the Christmas gifts, sew up enough items that my fabric fits in bins again, and to make up my cozy jammies and sweaters. I would like to try some of my other patterns too.

To send you off to dreamland sweetly, here are pictures of Fancy utilizing her holey sheet to perfection…

Auto Show and Evil Fairies
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Auto Show and Evil Fairies

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The Husband and I went to the North American International Auto Show yesterday. I haven’t been in several years because I’m mostly indifferent to cars and I don’t need to push every single button that is in a car. I like to look at the shiny ones and then sit in a corner with a book while the Husband does his thing. This year though, we are looking at getting new cars in the spring and thought it might be a nice way to check them out without having the pressure of a salesperson haunting us.

I of course, don’t think I got a picture of the two we were looking at. I was too busy trying them out. We think the Husband is going to get a new Escape and I will probably get an EchoSport. Or the Escape, but I like the Echo better. It’s smaller, more me sized.

I kept saying that about the smaller cars at the show and people would giggle. The Fiat was one of the me sized cars that I liked. It’s so cute and dainty looking.

The Husband requested that I sit in a new F150 and I think I was the only girl around that truck.  I felt like I was 6, but it did have adjustable pedals, so theoretically, it could have worked. That’s assuming I didn’t take out telephone poles while driving, of course.

I like looking at the shiny new cars and I kept taking pictures of front ends because it’s funny how some look so predatory and some look adorable. Case in point: The Alfa Romeo vs. the VW Beetle

Shark:

Sweet:

There was also a couple of Hot Wheels style cars. The Camaro had a hot wheels one on display, but there were too many people drooling on it for me to get a picture. This one is from the Ant Man movie.

I had to take a picture of a Jeep for my friend, who has her own rough and ready yellow Jeep.

There were some cool displays and details in the cars too. The Hellcat has its  symbol in the headlights.

This display was in the Michelin booth.

It’s a 3d printed tire. Surrounding it are ideas for things that it could be made of including wood fibers, plastic bottles, cloth, and orange peels. Also, the Michelin man was there and the little kids were so excited that it was cute.

I have lots more pictures too, but they’ll be posted on Wednesdays probably.

Now for the sewing/evil fairies part of this post… My deal is that I have to finish something from the UFO box before I can start anything new, since I want to get halfway through the boxes in the next year.

I’m running out of tea wallets, which are, of course, the easiest, but I did find four more red ones that were almost completely finished. They just needed outlining mostly.

Three of them are complete. The one that has a button loop will get finished when I do the button. It’s a fall themed one, so I don’t have to rush. I also tied off the ends of more of the brown ones, so those have been added to the stack.

So in addition to the red tea wallets, I had a fairy bag, which is the last of this fabric that I have. It’s pretty adorable, with fairy mushroom houses, mushroom lining, and cheery red background fabric.

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t finished because it may have been infested with evil fairy vibes…Let me list the things that went wrong…

The straps were already sewn, meaning I would have to exactly match the stitching, or sew them on differently. Then, because they were made to go across the pockets, they were super duper long and I had to cut them down twice. I had two zippers that were too small and one that was five inches too big..The fabric got twisted up while I was sewing the corners:

I unpicked the wrong seam and had to sew it twice. The backing fabric was a weird size and I ended up ripping strips off of it. Fancy doesn’t like the sound of ripping fabric apparently and almost took a header under my chair trying to make sure I was safe. Poor dog, running on slippery floors doesn’t go well for her.

I ended up with 5 pocket bag, because I sewed the pocket sem in the last place and one of the times I cut the straps, I cut my new slouchy sweatshirt sleeves as well.

Oh, and there were missing threads on one of the pockets and a strap, which took me about six tries to fix. My thread kept nesting on the strap.

Like I said, evil fairies.

I did get it finished finally, but I probably should have stuck it back in the box and worked on something else. I was so frustrated by the time I was done with it that I wasn’t up to doing anything fun. Plus, it took me at least three hours, for what should have been an hour tops. All of the pieces were already cut out!

It needs to leave my house. I’m still mad at it. If anyone wants it, I’ll give you the “possible evil fairy” discount. 🙂

In a related note, this fortune came up in our “Make Your Own Fortune” book and I’m slightly concerned what my day will be like, considering what I do for a living..

Eek. I only have four appointments today, so hopefully they all go well and this wasn’t a sign of things to come. Send peaceful thoughts!

Back to the Sewing Machine!
Sewing

Back to the Sewing Machine!

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Now that the busyness of the holidays is over, I can finally get back to my own sewing goals. Fancy’s picture pretty much shows how I feel after all of it is done.

My fairytale fabrics came in the mail and I have them washed and the patterns that I think I will use have been pulled. I have a few more details on the dress to work out, but the shirt should be pretty straight forward. That’s probably my next project.

While waiting for the fabrics to get washed, I made a simple elastic waisted skirt. I’ve actually talked about this fabric before. It was a birthday fabric purchase, I believe.

It has pockets, but they sit oddly and things fall out when I sit down. I self-drafted, which is really a fancy way of saying I didn’t measure… It’s possibly a little too heavy of a fabric to be in this style, but I think it’s cute. I wore it yesterday with a sweater, leggings and boots.

I also worked on the Rainbow Chevron quilt. I now have all the strips sewn together and it needs to be ironed and trimmed.

As we all know my feelings about ironing, I’m sure you can understand that I have to break that up into smaller bits. Plus, when I finished it, it was bedtime.

It’s draped over a 4 foot folding table, if that gives you an idea of scale. I don’t know how long it is in inches, but each strip is five of the rainbow patterns long. It will have a black border around it, probably about 6 inches to match the strips.

I also made more tea wallets. They’ve been selling on Etsy and I had black thread loaded on the machine and bobbin. These four were from my UFO box, waiting to be finished.

I try to remember to check for tea wallets when I switch thread colors. It’s super annoying to load half a bobbin, just for those.

Speaking of UFOs, while I was thinking about what to sew for clothes, I finished a bag from the box. If I can sew just a few things from the UFO box between big projects, I should be able to hopefully make a dent in it.

The Husband had to remind me that I probably shouldn’t keep all the bags. “Other people need cute bags too,”or so he says. I think he just wants my stash out of the house.

But it’s books! 🙂

Since I had brown thread loaded, I finished up the entire stack of brown tea wallets. I have broken my rule about not making multiple things with the same fabrics with tea wallets. I bought 1/4 yard pieces to make the wallets for Hawthorne and Vine and Etsy. This batch has three fall leaf ones, but they all have different inside fabrics.

I ran out of time before bed to tie and clip the strings. I’ll post another picture of the insides when they are completely done. That’s another step I have to do in batches. It drives me batty if I have to do them all at once. While I was looking for these, I found a stack of spring ones that need strings and buttons too, so I’ll have a tying marathon soon.

Tonight, I may try to cut out my castle blueprint shirt. I managed to catch the fabrics before they got wrinkly in the dryer and can maybe sew it tomorrow.

Fancy is being crazy dog and playing catch with herself and one of her treat dispenser toys. It’s pretty cute. I should probably go give her some more attention. Poor thing thinks she never gets enough.

Have a good night!

Prepping, But in a Good Way
Canning and Preserving · Crafty

Prepping, But in a Good Way

LSieh2 Comments

So one of the weird ways my anxiety comes out is to consider doomsday prepping a normal thing. Granted, it’s a good idea to have canned goods and an emergency kit on hand, but when I get overly anxious, I can go a bit nuts.

For example, I texted a friend the other day legitimately concerned about what vegans would eat if we got nuked and trade routes went haywire. I don’t think almonds and chia seeds will grow in Michigan… Mostly, I was wondering about how long people would stick to the moral side of things food wise, if all there was to eat was animals. We have no problem eating animals, so I think we’d pull through. The food aspect was still concerning though.

So how does this fit in with my blog, you may rightly ask?

Well, I know how to cook and sew, both of which are very good skills to have during a crisis. The Husband has technical skills and is very good at figuring out how to fix things. We also have a fireplace and a dog who sounds very fierce. We may be wearing clothes made out of sparkly butterfly fabric during doomsday, but we will at least be clothed. 🙂 Plus, even though I haven’t canned tomatoes, I have at least a 2 month store supply in the basement. I am my father’s daughter because counting the canned tomatoes always makes me feel better.

I’ve also used my prepper anxiety for good. I packaged 4 freezer to crockpot or oven meals. I made up Hungarian Beef Stew, Barcoa Beef, Sweet Chili Soy Chicken with Carrots, and Jerk Rubbed Chicken breasts. We also have about a pound of plain stew meat that could be made into pasty, if I ever have a free weekend. The freezer is very messy, or I would show you a picture. Maybe after it’s organized.

I also canned applesauce. Applesauce is relatively easy. Cook it down, smoosh it up, add lemon and sugar, and can it. A few of my jars leaked a little, but are sealed, so I will have to keep an eye on them. It is delicious! It’s incredibly smooth and velvety. I may need to go get some more apples to make more. It made 7 1/2 half pints. The half pint has been eaten already.

I found really nice looking rhubarb at the store unexpectedly, so I have 6 cups chopped in the fridge to be frozen or made into something. I have some time tomorrow morning, so it may get done then, or frozen if I don’t have time. There were a few rhubarb recipes that I didn’t get made.

I did get some sewing done, when not busy worrying about the vegans. 🙂

This batch of tea wallets is set to be mailed today, assuming Fancy will let me off the couch. It’s hard to be productive with a snuggly dog around.

Here are the out and insides of the tea wallets.

These are headed out to Hawthorne and Vine, per a customer request. They were a little harder to make than I anticipated. The fabric print has to be a speific size and I had a lot of fabric waste, as I had to fussy cut it. The fabric is more expensive too and I can only get 3-4 out of a 1/4 yard piece. My normal ones are normally 6-7 out of a 1/4 yard. There isn’t as much variety, due to the fact that the fabric could only be used a certain way. I think these will be a by request item only after this.

I didn’t really sew much else. I want to make a couple more bags for Ooky Spooky and a few of the team wallets with whatever fabric I have left. I also have Dr. Who fabric, which I’m hoping will sell.

One thing I haven’t been good about prepping is my Etsy store. It was down to 10 items at one point, so I need to get that back as a priority. I was experimenting with picture options last week with a black background and I think it might work.

These were just taken in the basement and lightened with a photo editor. It’s a black dance veil over black cotton hanging from one of my new display shelves. Some of my items might look better on a black background.

I want to have a Thanksgiving and Christmas sale this year and see if I can move some of my inventory. I have way too many things just sitting around.

When I originally started to write this post, I thought I might not have enough to blog about, but then after writing it out, I understand why I’ve been extra sleepy lately. 🙂

Here’s another picture of Fancy, just to make your day happier. She was vocalizing her need for me to stop messing around and walk her.

Let me know your thoughts on prepping and vegans during the apocalypse. Or am I the only weird one who thinks about crazy stuff?

Things I Could Have Been Doing Instead of Paperwork
Crafty

Things I Could Have Been Doing Instead of Paperwork

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Paperwork… Terrible, easily forgotten paperwork. Cause of Fancy’s dismay and tendonitis. I got very behind on paperwork at one of my offices and it was not good. It ate up all my Fancy play time and all my crafting time.

Fancy started pushing the computer off of my lap after a certain amount of time, or trying to sit on top of it. The picture is from one of those nights. I did finish the paperwork and will definitely not let it get that bad again.

I did manage to get some new tea wallets done. I swear I will make other things too. These were the final part of the Hawthorne and Vine order. I also need to make some college themed ones, but they are not there yet.

Here’s picture of the new tea wallets. The Husband picked out the candy corn.

The insides are a mix of black and orange fabrics. And the second row. This one has ones from the last post, but also a picture of the darling pumpkin button I found in my stash. How perfect is that for a Halloween tea wallet?

I also finished the first part of the second office picture. It needs the words still, but I left those at work today by accident. I have some time tomorrow to try to finish it.

The red fabric for the Rainbow Snowball Quilt got washed as well. I have plans for this long weekend when I can use the table to tie it. Then it can be delivered!

Now for the things from my ever-growing project list that I wanted to be doing instead of paperwork…

These sets of bellydance hip wraps.

Finishing these bags…

The top one is one of the 6 pocket bags. The bottom is a market tote that I may have sewn the handles wrong. It’s been in the UFO tote for long enough that I think I need to get another set of directions. There are many more projects waiting as well, but these would be a good start.

I am looking at recipes for tea blends for a ladies’ only tea making party on Sunday the 3rd. I have a few friends coming and need to dry some herbs and get some tea.

Now that my paperwork is done, I can get back to sewing and hopefully have a few more things done before my next review.

Fancy will hopefully stop giving me the look of betrayal soon for neglecting her while finishing notes. It’s quite sad, I’m sure you will agree. I’ve had to give her extra cuddles to make up for it.

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

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I have made 75 tea wallets this month. I went a little crazy. What’s also crazy is the fact that my scrap boxes look very similar to when I started. I need to get my already started quilts done so I can start making some more.

These are waiting on the last threads to be cut. It’s my least favorite part. Some of them will also need buttons.

I got tired of having nothing to report on for my craft goals this month, so worked pretty hard to get them done. I still need this darn Rainbow quilt to be done, but may be able to get the fabric washed tomorrow.

Crafting and Sewing Update

So my completed craft goals for the month were to figure out a wallet and a coin purse, organize the basement, and fix something from the mending or finish a UFO project. Some of the tea wallets were actually in my UFO bag and I fixed a skirt where the elastic had snapped.

I found a stash of wallets that I made when I was first sewing for Etsy, but had decided they weren’t as professional as I would like, so haven’t sold them. I pulled a black one made from a shrunken sweater with a daisy print fabric and daisy embroideries on the front. It’s not too big and looks cute.

I also made a zippered coin purse from some scraps from a shirt. It gave me an excuse to use a tiny 4 inch zipper.

It’s lined with the same material. I have so many zippers right now and really need to make some zippered bags for my Twinflower Etsy store. I have a bunch of weird colors though, so hopefully I can find enough fabrics that match. It would be terrible if I had to buy new fabrics after all! Well, the Husband would think so at least.

This is the skirt that I fixed. The elastic popped while on a work trip a few years ago and it got stuck in the mending pile. I finally pulled it out, picked a few stitches and re-threaded the elastic.

Such a simple fix and I just never did it. Now I can wear the skirt again and it will be even more appropriate since I work with kids.

My office art and clipboards were two things that I only got partially done. I lost my Modge Podge in one of the moves and will need some more before I can collage the clipboards.

The office art is drawn out, but I haven’t quite decided if I like it. One of the songs I had picked out, “Heavy,” is by Linkin Park. With Chester Bennington’s recent suicide (the lead singer), I’m debating the wisdom of having the song in my office. The song itself talks about not holding on to things you can’t change and recognizing that you need to leave some things behind. It’s a beautiful song and sparked a few discussions in my teen group, I’m just not sure if I should have it up right now. I can see both sides. On one hand, the song itself can be inspiring, but it now is connected with someone who died by suicide. Maybe I will still make it and put it up in a few months. This piece will have a stick figure trying to support a globe on it’s back with the words in the globe. It will either be oil pastels or collage pieces with cool colors.

My second song, “Brave,” by Sara Barellis, is one that I have wanted in my counseling office since before I had an office. It talks about saying what needs to be said and being brave. For a little while every time I had to do something big, the song would be playing on the radio. 🙂 This one will have a stick figure shouting the chorus. It will be warm colors.

Garden Update

Most of the garden is growing well. I’m still waging a war on squirrels and they are still winning. Here are some garden pictures.

These are the “mammoth” jalapeños. They still aren’t what I would call mammoth…

Green Peppers

Roma Tomatoes

Cooking Update

I used 12 new cookbooks and 25 new recipes. We had one family recipe and 4 or 5 recipes/methods by me. That’s a lot of food. How did we eat so much food?

Hits for the month were the Gold Beach Burgers, the Korean BBQ ribs, the Greek Grilled Chicken, and the Shrimp Scampi. Most of the ice cream recipes were also hits.

Misses were the Slow Cooker Soy Citrus Chicken, the Garlicky Baked Chicken Thighs/Drumsticks, and the carrot puree.

We had at least two new recipes per week and I made lots of new ice creams. I made two last night actually! This week’s recipes will be posted later.

Goals for next month: 

Sewing wise, I am relaxing my goals a little. I’m picking general categories this month. Sometimes I don’t want to work on the things I’ve picked. The only firm projects are the Rainbow Snowball Quilt and my office art.

Categories:

Clothing item, Etsy stock, and UFO/mending pile.

Continue to organize basement.

Get new storage for small pieces of fabric.

Garden Goals: 

Dry herbs for a tea making party in September.

Food Goals: 

Continue to make 2-3 recipes for week.

Try new ice cream recipes.

Use new recipes for Anniversary party.

Get freezer recipes made up in freezer.

It seems I may have a busy month ahead of me. I think I’ll join the puppers in a good night’s sleep.

Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update
Crafty

Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update

LSieh2 Comments

Apparently cleaning the basement makes Fancy sleepy. She napped for most of the weekend, when she wasn’t running frantically around in the basement pretending to be a shark guard dog. She must have been getting into the spirit of Shark Week, since I’ve been subjecting her to it all week.

She likes to think all boxes are hers and hers alone. And how dare we try to pick them up, or take them away from her! We did manage to distract her with some box flaps so that we could clean the rest.

I took one picture of part of the basement before it was organized. It’s terribly embarrassing, but I thought maybe I would be more likely to keep it clean, if I posted it. Try not to judge us too much…

We were able to recycle some of the boxes and the rest are in the garage waiting to be recycled. The city finally figured out the recycling program, so once we get our can, we can really get it under control. Moving takes a lot of boxes.

The Husband put together two more shelves for my crafty things, so that was very helpful. Now even if the inside of the totes are messy, they will be at least on shelves and off the floor. Here are two after pictures:

We still have to figure put storage for the Husband’s Legos and there’s more craft and general household items to figure out, but it’s nice to be able to fully work in the basement.

I cleaned up and put away ton of fabric. I need to get a different storage option for my fat quarters. They are outgrowing the shoe boxes and all the boxes are different sizes. I’m thinking the bigger shoebox type clear boxes will be the best.

I also went crazy with tea wallets! I kept finding good pieces for them while I was putting away fabric. I did them in color batches again. This time it was reds, browns, grey, and some pinks. I specifically needed rose and fall themed ones, so tried to get those done so I can mail them out.

Here are the groups. Fair warning, there are a ton of pictures. Most of them will go to Etsy, some will go to Hawthorne and Vine, the lovely flower store where they are currently being sold.

Grey batch. Yes, those are shiny unicorns…

Pink batch. This one had a lot of the roses in it. It also has one that looked like frosting, so I used sprinkle fabric s the inside.

Red, brown, yellow. With beer! And rockets!

More brown with fall leaves, tea, and revolvers.

Sometimes once I start sewing them, I can’t seem to stop. I suppose there are many worse things to be addicted to than sewing, but it does make getting anything else done a problem. I’ve put the rest away for now, but do need a few more rose themed ones for my flower store package.

I was experimenting with new Etsy pictures this week. My pictures on the website definitely need an update, so I was playing with backgrounds and props.

I sent the birch tree picture to my husband and he said  “Are you being weird in the front yard?” The answer, is of course, yes, because that’s where the tree is…

I figure the neighbors might be ready for our true selves to come out anyway. It’s been a year and there’s four flamingos in the front yard. So I need opinions on which picture looks the best. I don’t mind being weird in the birch tree and think it looks the best after editing, but want a second opinion. Which one highlights the bag the best? Birch Tree or Trellis? (My pics upload fuzzy on the blog. I haven’t been able to figure out why yet.)

I have a picture of our garden harvest too. It’s not being as prolific as we would have hoped, but we are getting a few things. The pepper had a bad spot on part of it, but was good on the other side.

So that was my week and weekend. Busy and very productive. Now that the basement is a bit more organized, I have more room to get things started down there and be able to work with the bigger projects. We have to get the Husband another Lego table too, so he can have more room to build more pieces. He’s filled the one he has with Lego city pieces.

We just have to keep working on the bits that need to be finished and we’ll be all set. It’s definitely encouraging to see our progress. I know we can keep it up too, if we just do a little bit at a time. Wish us luck!

Canning and Gardening and Crafts, Oh My!
Canning and Preserving · Crafty · Gardening

Canning and Gardening and Crafts, Oh My!

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We had a lovely weekend. We had friends over on Sunday for crafting and video games and it was lots of fun. They helped us cook and we used the grill two days in a row!

Fancy was in heaven with two other people to pet her, plus we got her the treat she likes the best from the dog bakery. She’s currently recovering with multiple naps.

My craft this weekend was canning. I made five jars of pickles. There were originally 6, but one popped in the pot. I have always been afraid of it, but it’s probably good it happened with pickles. The mess that exploding jam would cause makes me cringe just thinking about it.

I found out when I went to check the  pot and there was a floating jar. That’s not a good thing to see when canning. The bottom just popped right out with a pretty clean cut. All the pickles stayed right in the jar too, so it wasn’t too bad to clean up. There wasn’t  good way to take a picture of it while it was still hot, but the picture up top is the circle of glass from the bottom.

Here are the intact pickles:

My friend had the brilliant idea to cut the cucumbers into chips after I found out I didn’t have enough wide- mouthed jars. Sometimes my prep skills could be a little better, but I thought I had more and was trying to avoid having to smuggle more jars past the Husband. Apparently I still haven’t canned enough for him. 🙂

I have a few more pickled veggies to add to my list, but not during this week. We are way too busy! I need to outdo my Mom’s pickle trays though, now that it’s become a thing.

My craft ladies discussed the differences between pickle and relish trays for about 45 minutes after they heard the story. My Mom was so proud when I told her. 🙂 This year for our parties, we’ll have homemade pickles!

On the crafty front, I cut a bunch of tea wallets over the last few days. I pulled from the red, brown, and purple scraps this time. I got in a groove and found myself with a huge pile of tea wallets needing to be made.

I worked on the purple ones first this time.

Here are the insides. The blue one at the top right has planets on the back and on the inside!

The garden is growing pretty well. We have three zucchini on the plant and a whole bunch of tomatoes coming in. The green pepper plant has two peppers on it. I couldn’t get a good picture of the “massive” jalapeños. There are three of them starting, but they are so far not living up to their name.

I did have a problem with blossom end rot on three of my big tomatoes. We’ve had a few days with a lot of rain and I probably need to add some more special fertilizer. I had the same problem with them last year and the internet said it was probably due to inconsistent watering. I was really terrible about watering enough last year.

The lettuce will be a wash this year. It’s completely covered in spiders and is starting to go brown. It’s quite sad. I have successfully grown baby lettuces before, so I think in the future I’ll stick to that.

I brought home my personal clipboards from work to collage, as I wanted to make sure I could tell them apart from the work ones. I’m going to just do the backs, so that there is still a smooth surface to write on. It will also let me go through some of my art supplies, as I need to have a bit more of it in the office right now.

Have a good night!

Craftiness and Garden Update
Crafty · Gardening

Craftiness and Garden Update

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How did it get to be Monday again? It seems like it was just Tuesday and now I need a weekend to recover from the weekend. We had friends over for a Driveway Movie Night, where we projected “Moana” on the garage door and watched it from lawn chairs in the driveway. Fancy got to see a dog friend again and did really well when the other dog was in the house. We were happy with that, as she can be territorial.

It’s pouring rain and thundering this morning; the perfect kind of day to stay home and do nothing. I don’t have that luxury, sadly, but do have French Onion soup in the crockpot for later which will be comforting.

Fancy had the right idea this morning. She hid under the bed and refused to come out. I was making chocolate ice cream, so bribed myself with that, otherwise, I would have been under there with her.

I was pretty crafty last week. Having to be in the basement with Fancy helped me get some more fabric cut up and organized. I had to start a new box for purple fat quarters, as I kept finding more of them. I also almost completely cleaned out a box with random fabric and crafty things in it. I also made 12 new tea wallets for Twinflower Fancies, or Hawthorne and Vine, a flower shop where they are also currently being sold.

When I sew these, I organize them in color groups based on what color thread they will be sewn with. I chain sew them as well. It doesn’t make sense to do them one at a time, as I would have to switch thread colors constantly. Normally, I wait until I have three or more in each color before I start sewing them up. I tried to expand my color range this time. I know I tend to stick to colors and patterns that I like by accident, but need to remember that it may not appeal to others as well.

Here are the green ones:

These three buttons were my favorites, I think, from the whole stack.

Here are the two black ones:

And the blue ones:

The octopus one might have to be my work tea wallet. I just love it and don’t know if I can give it up, despite already having a Red Riding Hood one in my purse. It’s just too cute.

It ws fun to go through the fabrics and remember what they were from as I was sewing them. This batch had a lot of familiar prints.

The owls are from a baby quilt for my cousin’s little girl. The dark green and vine print one is from a purse that I had tried to hand sew when I first started out. It was not a good idea and I finally got up the nerve to just rip it and reuse the fabric.

The geranium one and the holiday recipe one are both made from scraps of aprons that have been made for my Mom. When I bought the geranium fabric, the lady at the cutting table asked if I could adopt her too, she was jealous. 🙂

The gold treble clefs are from pillows I finally made the Husband this year after buying the fabric when we were dating. The blue and white waves with the boat is from one of the first skirts that I made.

All the other fabrics are from the stash. It’s nice to think if those special fabrics being used for something else too. That’s why I love scrap quilts so much too, there are a lot of memories in each of them.

Now for the gardening update:

I keep accidentally almost killing my lettuces. Plus, there are spiders living in them. Gross, hairy spiders, who have made a home in the lettuces themselves and in the pots. The Husband is going to have to cut them when, or if, they survive. I am not having spiders crawl on me. I think I’ll stick to farmer’s market lettuce next year. Any tips would be appreciated.

We have been getting some strawberries before the squirrel does!

These were all from yesterday and I found another one today. There are still a bunch of green ones on the plants too.

My peppers are looking good. The Mammoth Jalapeño has a pepper started. We’ll see how big it gets and if it lives up to its name. 🙂

The tomatoes all have some started. This one is the Roma, I believe and it had the most on it. I need to get some more stakes.

Here is the cucumber. This sucker is huge! It has a lot of flowers, but no starts yet. It keeps trying to escape into the yard.

My herbs are doing alright. The basil doesn’t look good. There has been a beetle that keeps eating it and it got very leggy and scraggly looking. It has yellow bottom leaves too, which I’m sure isn’t good. The oregano seems to have bolted. It keeps sending up flowers. I’m going to prune them off and see if I can get more out of it. Everything else seems to be growing well.

This week I have a few late nights, but most of my other days have a little more flex in them than usual. The weeks that my biweekly clients all come can get a little crazy, but it evens out with a few slower days occasionally. I’m hoping to get the fabric washed for the Rainbow Quilt and get it ties this weekend. Our friends are coming over this weekend for another sewing/video game day, so I can get some sewing done then too.

I also have a goal of canning three recipes, blackberry cinnamon tequila jam, nectarine orange marmalade, and dill pickles. I have some time tomorrow and a few other times this week.

I’m considering starting a “Simple Sunday” post which would be a quote or two, either funny or inspiring. I found my quote book from a while ago and was sad that the quotes I liked were just sitting in a book and not getting shared. It would be a good way to find out other quotes too, so I think that will start this Sunday.

Have a great Monday!

Crafty · Gardening

Crafty Weekend

LSiehLeave a comment

It was too hot to work in the garden, but everything is still alive! I’ve been watering frequently and the zucchini grows every time I look away. We have buds on the strawberry plants and a few of the tomato plants. I’ve used some of the oregano and the rosemary in a pot roast recipe and it was delicious.

I did some work in the basement and cut some more scraps down into squares and strips. I cut them into squares and strips measuring 2 inches, 2 1/2 inches, and 3 1/2 inches. Then I store them in baggies separated by measurements. Those bags are in suitcases. The theory is that I can then pull them out of the bag and have scrap quilts go together quickly. Most of the time it works. The quilts I’ve been working on lately have all been scrappy quilts, so I haven’t had to use them. My bags of 2 and 2 1/2 inch strips are currently overflowing, so I should find a quilt that needs those measurements.

I also cut out some new tea wallet pieces and made four tea wallets over the weekend. They just need their buttons to be completely done.

I tend to work on tea wallets in batches. It’s easier to chain piece them like you would a quilt square. I sort them into colors too, so this batch needed black thread. Two of these wallets have plain black fabric for the inside and two have black music print fabric, which doesn’t photograph well at all. It has treble clefs printed in black on a slightly darker black background.

It felt good to get some more scraps cut. I need to make some more tea wallets again. I changed out my order at the floral store and now have many more for Christmas, but not a lot of generic ones. I also need to figure out some more masculine fabrics. I figured the circle ones could go to either gender and I have more plaid and gun fabric I can use. I have a lot of floral wallets and pastel colors at the moment.

More fat quarter pieces got folded and added to the trunk. It still looks I did absolutely nothing down there, despite working for a couple of hours. My latest Netflix/fabric sorting show is called The Dr. Blake Mysteries. It’s set in 1959 in Australia. My Netflix watching gets progressively weirder the more fabric I want to cut. It’s pretty good. A bit laid back, but has social justice themes and murder, so what’s not to like?

We had people over this Sunday. My friend needed help with a bellydance costume and her husband plays video games, so is friends with my Husband. There was supposed to be an Atari marathon, but our TV is too new and they ended up playing Lord of the Rings in the Wii. I am atrocious at those games, so I was glad that the Husband had someone to play with who was actually good.

We had a new recipe for pot roast and a huge salad for lunch. It was lots of fun. My friend took some of my give away fabric too, which made the Husband very happy and her husband not so much. 🙂

Fancy was extremely excited to see them. They give her lots of love, because of course, the Husband and I never pet her…

This was Fancy shortly after they left. She was tuckered out.

In other news, I am getting ready to use my yogurt maker. It just came in the mail today. I’ve made my own yogurt in the past, but the texture wasn’t quite right. I need a plain starter yogurt and will be getting that tomorrow. I’ll let you all know how it works out. I’m excited to be making it again. My yogurt habit was getting expensive and one of the Food Network magazines has a “50 Things To Make With Yogurt” booklet in it. I see tastiness in my future!