Nuland News

Life with an almost-toddler

2012-01-30T10:38:00.001-06:00

It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned how our little one is doing…

We are approaching her 14-month “birthday”. How did that happen?!

She has five teeth and has been drooling enough that she might be cutting another.

(I seriously think this is what she and her daddy do all day!)

She absolutely refuses to walk. The minute she knows she’s not supported or hanging on to one of us, she immediately goes to the ground. But we’ve seen her “hanging” in mid-air for a few seconds and I’m confident she could do it if she’d get a little brave. You know though, it’s ok that she’s not walking. She’s becoming an expert at getting into trouble as it is!

She is an indoor girl like her Mommy. She never really cared for grass when we had some and she just sits there not moving (or cries) when we place her in the snow. (Ok, to be fair, the one time she cried she needed a nap).

She is completely “addicted” to insurance commercials – they come on, and she stops whatever she’s doing to watch. Doesn’t matter what company or commercial. (Maybe they have some subliminal message only babies can hear?) She boogies every time she hears music on TV – especially themes to NCIS and Law & Order (they are frequently-watched shows in our household). But I think her favorite show is America’s Funniest Videos. She watches the babies and doggies and claps when the audience claps. She might even have a crush on Tom Bergeron.

She’s known the sign language for “more” for several months, but it’s turned into “I want”. Example: She sees my computer mouse and signs that she wants it. Otherwise, she doesn’t speak much. If we’re lucky, we get “mompopop” or “gagaga” or sounds like are garbled. She barks “ah! ah!” every time she sees a picture of Charlie. Mostly she just points at what she wants.

She has a “big girl” mentality. She knows what it means to brush her hair and wash her face and has attempted to brush her teeth. She also LOVES to sit in the big chairs. It can feel a little too roomy, so she prefers to have company – usually Cindy (it’s more crowded if Mom joins her).

She’s a good eater and loves almost everything we give her. Her favorite is milk followed closely by applesauce. She also loves other fruits, yogurt and animal crackers.

We’re really looking forward to seeing what new adventures await in the next few months…

Frogged again

2012-01-17T18:25:00.000-06:00

Will I ever get to the point where I don’t have to tear apart and redo a knitting or crochet project? Or maybe I’m doomed for life because I can’t stop trying new techniques!

One of my goals for this year was to try fair isle knitting. That was actually phase 1 of a much larger goal for the near future – to knit my husband a Norwegian-style sweater. But first I needed to learn the technique.

I started making a snowflake bag last Saturday. It was so intriguing I had difficulty putting it down each night (I tried not to let Emma feel neglected). I had the basic technique down right away – switching colors, however I hadn’t learned yet that if you have large spaces between the color changes you can end up with a mess like this:

The first part was ok because there were only one or two stitches between color changes, but it got worse as things went along.

It wasn’t until I was a 1/3 of the way into the project that I realized “this can’t be right”. After searching briefly online, I found this great video on how to hide floats (and ends) in knitting.

If you can’t view the video, go here.

So, now my snowflake bag is back to the beginning – just a pile of yarn. That may be a good thing since I didn’t like the way the top of it curled (it was done all in stockinette), so I’m going to revise the first few rows of the pattern.

Craft room confession

2012-01-08T15:39:00.001-06:00

When I listed my goals for 2012 earlier this week, I laughed when I listed organizing my craft room. Want to see why?

What a flippin’ mess! I’m going to duck away now in embarrassment.

My excuses have been that I had to move my craft room into the office, thereby reducing the amount of space I had (for some reason we thought having a nursery was higher priority) and also because my priorities have lain elsewhere in the past 14 months or so.

I love several kinds of crafts, but the primary ones are knitting / crocheting and stamping / card-making.

My yarn stash is, for the most part, organized in the office closet. Well, unless you noticed in that there’s some yarn on the table and a bag on the floor (they need to be cataloged yet). And if you ignore the bags of yarn and thread that are piling up on the floor of the closet. Ok, so it’s not as organized as I have led myself to believe. Last year I was fairly good in not adding more to the stash, but I still need to spend more time working on projects to use it up (or get rid of some… whimper).

In previous years I’ve made all our cards – birthday, anniversary, special occasion, sympathy, etc. Last year? I did zero stamping. One of the reasons I like knitting and crocheting is that I can usually take projects I’m working on anywhere – medical appointments, visits with family, even to work when I was pumping breast milk on breaks. Unfortunately, card-making isn’t very portable.

I frequently use paper, a multitude of stamps, ink, punches, embossing powders, ribbons, chalks, markers … and the list goes on. I also tend to spread out when I’m working on cards, so I need plenty of table space. I did manage at one point to have the table organized, but it’s gone haywire again. What I really need to do is set up some shelves and storage right above the table so I can free up some space.

I do have some tools on shelves off to one side of the room, but they’re not always convenient that far away. And my storage baskets are a mismatched conglomeration – picked up here and there at one time or another. They also house miscellaneous craft supplies, additional paper, magazines and craft books.

And there are even more supplies on the other side of the room. I really like those grey multi-drawer organizers for things like thread, buttons, brads, mini stamps, beads, etc. But I barely have room to open my Cuttlebug!

I don’t know if you noticed the sewing machine that also shares my card-making table. I don’t really sew. I’d like to, but I lack the experience at this point. Regardless, I can do some simple fixes so it makes sense to have my sewing machine available or at least have the space where I can set up quickly. I have a fabric stash too, which at this point has been relegated to the attic, hidden away in totes.

Is there any hope for me?

2012 Goals

2012-01-06T13:06:00.001-06:00

I don’t know if there is a difference between goals and resolutions, but to me the term resolutions have the connotation of something that I resolve to start Jan 1st and do every day/week/etc. If that’s the case, I don’t have many resolutions for the year, but I do have a few goals.

Some bloggers are picking one word to describe their purpose for the year. My word should be

ACCOMPLISH

Translation: I need to start accomplishing and stop procrastinating what needs to be done. I haven’t really had specific goals in mind the last two years – other than give birth and raise a child, and I think it shows in my personal life. Although I have to say, I’ve had lots of good bonding time…

I’m posting these for accountability. I hope you keep me focused on my goals and remind me when I start to stray. I’ll try and remember to post updates throughout the year.

Household / Life / Health / Finances

Try one new recipe per week. I have hundreds (ok, thousands) of recipes I want to try. More than my life expectancy, so I figure it’s time we try at least some of them. We’ve already exceed our goal for this first week. I remembered to take some pictures so I’ll post them over at MishMashmie.
Lose 10-12 lbs. Not a lofty goal, but reasonable and it would put me under a weight I haven’t seen in 10+ years.
Eliminate old boxes of papers. I should be embarrassed that we have a couple of boxes that we moved from the last house (and maybe the one before?) … our last move was almost 8 years ago! Since we’re hoping to move again in the next couple years, I want those boxes gone so they aren’t moved yet again!
Read the Bible in 3 Years. One of my few daily goals. I had thought about making this a 1-year plan, but I really like the Through My Bible plan – plus you can have the daily listings sent to you via e-mail!
Post family pictures once a month. Our friends and family will appreciate this as most live far away and Emma is growing up FAST!
Try to accomplish one item on my to-do list per day. My to-do list seems to grow and grow and I don’t get much done. My current plan it to finish something before I can “play” each night. Might be cleaning, paying bills, or just a task I’ve put off for too long.
Create a will and determine guardianship. This one is high on my list as our daughter is now a year old and we still haven’t figure it out yet.
Increase Net Worth. Pay down bills, don’t incur new ones, and increase savings.

Crafts

These goals are much more fun…

Finish all my UFOs (unfinished objects) or “frog” (rip-it, rip-it) to use the yarn in another project. My UFOs include:
- Christmas present for my sister/BIL. Yep, it’s January and it’s not finished. Want to have this done by 2/1 – at the latest!
- Bath mat for my sister. It’s the project from hell, but it’s about time I get it finished.
- Shawl for my aunt.
- Rose Scallops doily. It’s done except for blocking.
- Iota sweater. May be frogged.
Make something for Emma. I haven’t made anything for my daughter yet!! ‘Nuff said.
Make a Patricia Kristoffersen doily. These are complex but absolutely gorgeous.
Make a pattern from one of the online groups. I’m a member of several online / e-mail groups and I accumulate patterns from them, but never make one. May start with something from Celts Vintage Crochet, but I’m not sure yet.
Try fair isle / colorwork knitting. I have a couple projects in mind. Hope to complete by 2/1.
Sew something. I am horrible at sewing, but partially because I haven’t had much practice. Would love to make a quilt, but that might be stretching my abilities (and patience) at this point. Then again, I usually have no fear when it comes to crafts, so maybe I’ll join this:
Make item(s) for charity. I’ve seen some great charities that could use my crafting skills. I just need to pick one and start. At this point I’m thinking it may either be hats and mittens – or dolls.
Make a scrapbook for Emma. I’ll be lucky if I get a few pages done, but it would be best if this is done sooner rather than later, before I forget the milestones we hit last year.
Organize the craft room. Bwahahaha. Ok, now I’m dreaming…

What goals or resolutions do you have for 2012? Anything you want to confess for your own accountability? How’d you do in your 2011 resolutions?

Post-Christmas blahs

2011-12-28T20:27:00.001-06:00

I have the post-holiday blahs and we haven’t even gotten to the new year. Both Dave and I didn’t feel very celebratory this Christmas. Most of that is related to the fact that we lost our dear friend, Charlie.

This picture was taken just a few hours before Dave took him to the vet. None of them look very happy, do they? You can see that the tumor had grown to enormous proportions and not only did he seem miserable, but his legs were so twisted he could barely walk the last couple of days and he had started to bleed. We decided it was time to say goodbye. But that didn’t make it any easier.

Our house seems empty and lonely without him around. We are constantly finding points during the day where we expect him to be there – waiting for us when we arrived home, hoping we’ll drop some food, becoming excited in case he gets to leave with us, generally getting underfoot, etc. Even little things you might not expect – like realizing when we drove down for Christmas, that we could pull in where the other cars were instead of the truck / pet walking area.

The house would seem even emptier if it weren’t for our little someone who is growing in leaps and bounds. Each week we see her discovering and learning something new! She recently celebrated her first birthday – complete with cake, frosting and a middle-of-the-night tummy ache. She at least seemed to have fun that day.

Just two weeks later, she got another opportunity to open gifts, sample treats and be overwhelmed by relatives. This may not have been her first Christmas, but it was the first she really got to participate.

This is the scarf I finished for my sister-in-law for her birthday, which happens to be Dec 24th (Christmas Eve). I almost forgot to take a picture of it, so I quick snapped one after she opened the gift. Unfortunately, I didn’t get one with the scarf all spread out so you could see the lace. It turned out beautifully and is so wonderfully soft! I hope she enjoys it (it matched perfectly with the shirt she wore that day!)

I did some other crafting for Christmas … but in grand Hanson tradition, they’re not finished yet!! Oops. My saving grace was that we were pretty informal with my family this year and didn’t really exchange gifts in an organized manner. Maybe I’ll have them done in time for my sister’s birthday.

Winter winnings

2011-12-26T20:21:00.000-06:00

I have to say I’ve had an awesome couple of months with regards to what I’ve won in giveaways and contests.

The biggest gift?

A Dell Inspiron One Touch 2320 computer. We really needed a new computer – our current (soon to be former) one was more than 8 years old and s. l. o. w. beyond belief. I never expected to win this. This is the first computer we’ve gotten that I haven’t felt like I needed to spend hours setting up the way I wanted. Plus, it has some kid-friendly apps like musical instruments and a paint program that Emma enjoys.

The most frequent win?

Scrapbooking supplies. I received several packs of papers and embellishments. Once I get a chance to spend a little time in my craft room making cards and scrapbooking (hopefully soon), I’ll have a new set of treasure to use! I might also have a party and invite my crafty friends over to help me use them up.

Second most frequent?

Patterns. I now have patterns for knit fingerless mitts, a shawl, baby jacket and blanket as well as a sewing pattern for a ruffled bag. Now I just need to find a contest that would give me more time to work on these things!

The most heart-touching gift?

Brian from The Straight Male Knitter offered back in August to knit something for someone outside his family for Christmas. Technically it was a contest, but he chose my entry to knit something for Emma. When I suggested it be something fun like elf slippers, this is what he came up with. Aren’t they the cutest things EVER?! They looks like strawberries – especially with the non-skid “seeds” on the bottom!

Personally, I’m a little relieved that the holidays are coming to a close and the number of great giveaways I’m finding has dropped. I was spending quite a bit of time over my lunch hour and at night when Emma was sleeping entering at different sites. It was worth it, but I’m going to like the opportunity to back off a bit now. But not completely!

September sweeps

2011-10-18T09:00:00.001-05:00

I know I’ve mentioned before how much I like entering giveaways and contests. And I’ve found that blog contests (versus big company giveaways) are the best – you can get some unique items and not as many people enter them, so your odds are better. This is my new hobby, and one I can indulge in during short breaks – like my lunch time or after my child goes to bed (if she goes to bed).

My advice? If you going to do this, first only enter those giveaways where you are really interested in the prize(s). The last time I went on a giveaway-spree, I entered just about everything I could find and ended up with a few things that I then had to deal with because I found I wasn’t that interested. Not worth the hassle. Secondly, use a separate email address. Not that I’ve really gotten spam from entering on blogs, but it still can clutter up your regular email.

August and September were banner months for winning – probably because that’s when I really stepped up the process. I always keep records of what I won because 1) you are supposed to report it as income on your taxes, 2) it helps to keep track when (if) the prize has been received and 3) it’s a lot of fun to look back and see your stash of winnings!

Earlier this year I won a couple boxes of yarn, fabric, a shopping bag, $20 Amazon gift cards, a few books, tea, and digital scrapbooking software. On average, about one win per month. Not too shabby.

Once I started entering giveaways in earnest during August, I won:

a Hallmark greeting card pack from Life As Mom
the book Root of Riches from Faith and Finance
a ribbon rose pattern from Yards and Yards
a personalized Once-a-Month menu (not sure if this will happen) from Once a Month Mom
six one-yard cuts of Amy Butler corduroy fabric from Manhatten Craft Room
the craft book Heady Affairs from Leisure Arts

Pretty nice list, eh? September was equally nice with this list:

two $5 Amazon gift cards and a printable download pack – all from Life… Your Way
a $20 Amazon gift card from Wise Bread
a S’mores gift package from Once a Month Mom. Box included Hershey’s chocolate, Jet-puffed marshmallows and Honey Maid graham crackers – Yum!
a thread package from another member at ThreadAddicts: three spools of thread, 11 magazines, and 17 books or pamphlets!
the book Inside the Creative Studio: Inspiration and Ideas for your Art and Craft Space from Interweave
Num Num Nectarine homemade jam from FrancisFoodie

Do I feel like I’ve won the lottery? No. But I’ve gotten some great crafting items, a few books to read (while eating my delicious jam), and thanks to these giveaways (and Swagbucks) I have $60 in Amazon credit to apply against specific items I have been saving for.

More summer crafting

2011-09-08T12:36:00.000-05:00

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the other items I finished.

The second Swiffer “shrug” looks a bit strange in the pictures, but this one has one end that opens up to fold over the Swiffer and button up to tighten it. I still have to add the button, so I don’t know if I should count this as Finished yet <grin>

One of the small projects I found I like making during my breaks at work are little flowers. I have decided I probably will never get back to doing cross-stitch (I have too many other crafts I like), so rather than getting rid of my embroidery floss, I’m using it up on flowers. A friend and I are planning on making cards as a Christmas gift for other friends. These will probably end up on those cards. They are quick – I can usually finish one (including weave in the ends) in one 15 min break. Truthfully, I thought I had more than this done. I guess that means I should do more – but I’ll have to go to my floss storage container #2 (of 3!) so I get different colors.

Meanwhile, I am struggling to work on a couple of knitting projects:

I am working on a Christmas present for a couple of family members and I’m running out of yarn! It’s a dye-lot’d yarn but since I only have a few rows left I thought I could risk it not matching by a little bit. Turns out, Michaels no longer carries the color I need! Ack! I’ve asked a couple of Ravelry members that have matching dye lots to help me out, but so far I haven’t had any luck. I may end up ordering online somewhere just so I can finish it.

The second project is for another family member who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Rather than a traditional shawl or chemo cap, I’m hoping to make her a triangular scarf. I found this beautiful bamboo yarn (Bee Sweet Bamboo) that is uber-soft and has slight variations in color as it’s hand-dyed. But the thread is rather splitty, and I’m trying my first “lace” project, so right now it’s not going well. However, I am determined to make it work!

Summer crafting 2011

2011-08-25T11:51:00.001-05:00

Working on crafts this summer has pretty much been at the same speed since my daughter was born. S L O W. But that’s mostly my fault. When I get home from work, I hate to set her down for anything. Even knitting and crocheting! (by the way, please ignore the dust bunnies in the corners when you visit).

Back in April, I discovered a way that I could pump hands-free at work, so now I get almost 45 min per day (broken up) of crochet or knitting time! Whoo-hoo! It’s tough to work on larger projects because I have to keep my arms in the air – or at least free of the tubing. But I can still work on smaller projects such as those you’ll see here.

A short while ago I spotted a book for sale on Annie’s Attic with a very cute baby hat. Since we were having the hottest summer EVER, I thought it might be a good idea for Emma to have a lighter / airy-type hat made out of cotton. Being the cheapskate that I am, I didn’t want to pay $5.95 for the pattern, even if there were three in the set.

So I set out to make my own version and this is what I came up with:

It isn’t actually pointy on top – I must not have had it on her head fully when I took the picture. It took me a couple of tries to figure out how to do the increases on the top part and when to stop. She enjoyed the trial-and-error as Mom would plop her down on the couch and we’d both play with yarn. Lesson learned: it’s much harder to crochet with saliva-wet cotton yarn! That’s ok though, because we both had fun touching the yarn.

I didn't plan to make the brim curled, but I was running out of yarn and I only had the one ball of worsted cotton in that color. I did happen to have the green along for another project so I whipped out the flower in just a few minutes for a nice addition. I finished it on Friday while we were camping so she was able to wear it right away.

Everyone loved it! I even got a request from one of our fellow campers for one like it. (Actually she said if it had been in a larger size, Emma would have lost her hat!)

In late May I finished this bunny. Yes, it’s a bunny. For some reason, my ears didn’t turn out big enough to make it obvious – and I even added a row around. I got a chance to use some wonderful chenille yarn I won in a contest back in January. It’s unfortunate that the company has since been bought out, so I’m not sure if you can even get that yarn anymore. As soft and fluffy as this bunny is, it will not something for Emma to play with. Like most chenille I’ve dealt with, it SHEDS something terrible. A few hours of play and there’d probably be no fluff left!

I didn’t win the threadanimals challenge (the competition in that group is too stiff!), but I was happy that this bunny turned out as good as she did. And that I was able to finish her. Just a few days from the deadline of the contest, it looked as though I was going to run out of yarn, so I took a picture and figured I’d post my pieces to prove that I requested the pattern with good intentions. Turns out I had just enough yarn – There probably wasn’t 2 feet left!

I also finished a couple of “socks” for my Swiffer Wet Jet so I could stop buying pads. I got a picture of one of them. The other I haven’t weaved in the ends yet because I want to make sure it will fit. The patterns are for regular Swiffers, and the Wet Jets are slightly larger. And of course, I couldn’t use the same pattern twice. No siree! Gotta keep my interest level high by constantly trying new things!

Predator update

2011-07-14T18:25:00.000-05:00

There is one less predator in the neighborhood today. No, we didn’t kill it. Dave tried when he spotted a couple of ring-tailed varmints on top of the coop last week, but it was dark, he probably wasn’t fully awake and he was trying to shoot while holding a spotlight. Instead, we sacrificed some of our giant marshmallows to the great and powerful Live Trap. And it worked. Last night, I woke up hearing the sound of a plastic tarp ripping and was concerned they were trying to access the chicken run through the “roof”. Turns out he was tearing at the tarp trying to get out of the live trap. We GOT HIM! Dave drove him to a wooded location a few miles down the road and released him. For me, it wasn’t far enough, but I’m hoping he and his friends won’t be back.

And Henrietta? She died a few days after the first attack. Of “lead poisoning”. She was limping and I’m sure very sore, but the worst of it was her wounds became infected. We didn’t think she’d survive, so Dave put her out of her misery.

Predator!

2011-07-05T19:18:00.000-05:00

See all the feathers in the chicken run? We were fortunate last night that feathers were all that were lost. At 1am, a horrible screeching sound woke us. We knew immediately that something must be attacking the chickens. Dave ran out there with the rifle and spotlight. Whatever animal was able to gain access to the coop ran off before he got there. I’m sure I heard something climb down a tree just a few minutes later, so our best guess is that it must have been a raccoon. Or could have been a possum or cat. I guess we’ll never know.

As of this morning, everyone is fine. Henrietta will be sore for a while. Those are her feathers you see and she also has some scratches and bite marks. It could have been a lot worse. We could have lost one of the chickens. We could have lost several of them. Dave says he’ll have to be more careful about locking down the coop at night. All we lost this time was several hours of sleep. (Ever try to get back to sleep immediately after something wakes you like this? Next to impossible.)

Our last rooster Barney (in front, right) needs to go soon. Not only does he “attack” the hens so often that some have no feathers on their backs anymore (they’ll need time to regrow before winter), but he was absolutely no help last night. Roosters are supposed to be good about raising the alarm, or even fighting predators to protect their hens. No alarm. No fighting. Apparently he only knows how to fight other roosters – or humans he thinks are infringing on his hen-dominion.

Oh, and our watch dog? He was sound asleep. I tried for several minutes to wake him because Dave knew he’d find the scent of our predator. It wasn’t until Dave came back to bed that he suddenly caught a whiff of something. Too late, buddy. In his defense, traveling always wears him out, and we’d just come back from 3 days away from home. It’s tough work keeping track of your family, being co-pilot for (part of) the ride home, sleeping in a strange bed, etc. But I’m sure his nose was in over-drive this morning when he got up!

Emma says…

2011-04-27T12:04:00.000-05:00

I am learning something new every day now! Last week I improved on the left arm flailing trick and started splashing Mommy and Daddy in the tub. That was great fun! Then I suddenly realized that if I splashed a couple of times and then stuck my fist into my mouth, I could get a taste of something liquid. Sometimes it tastes soapy, but I still like to experiment with my new-found talents.

Monday night I was really splashing in the tub. Daddy was supporting me on my back and I kicked and waved my arms as hard as I could! Water went flying everywhere! Mommy was sure glad the tub is deep so the floor didn’t get all wet… as much as I tried.

These days I much prefer sitting up so I can look around, instead of reclining in someone’s arms. I hadn’t tried rolling over much because I loved being held, or if I was lying in my playpen it was too fascinating talking to the baby [in the mirror] above me. At least that was the case until yesterday. Suddenly I discovered I could arch my back, put my feet down and *almost* kick myself over. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of me and think I’ll probably be rolling over within a couple of days.

I’m spending a lot of time practicing talking, and trying to imitate my parents. I’ve even blown raspberries a couple of times – but I have a tough time repeating it; it just happens by accident.

I’ve had a busy month. On the 10th, I was baptized in the church we all attend. My aunties Siri and Kay and uncles Joe and Eric were my sponsors. I was a very good girl during the service and smiled when Pastor performed the ceremony. I got to wear my great-grandmother’s baptismal dress and a bonnet made by a friend at church. I even got to wear my first jewelry.

Afterwards, we had a big party. I was passed around and held by lots of people that day – some of whom I’d never met before (that I can remember). It was all very exciting, so I took very few naps. But thankfully I didn’t get cranky until about 8:30 that night, when my parents put me to bed early.

Last weekend was my very first Easter! Again, there was plenty of family around, and I got to snuggle with and smile at them. I’m fascinated when I get to watch Mommy eat food… I’m looking forward to tasting some of Grandma’s supposedly delicious meals next year. Riding in the car is very relaxing and makes me sleepy. Apparently, I sleep most of the car ride even if it’s 3-4 hours. I really don’t remember, but that’s what they say.

Being 4 months old is hard work, but my parents say overall I’m a very happy and content baby.

March (and Feb) crafting

2011-04-04T14:55:00.001-05:00

I’m finding it’s rather difficult to get much crafting done with an infant to take care of, and the craft room still looks like a tornado hit it, but I did manage to get a few items done in the past couple of months.

My sister had a birthday at the end of January. I wasn’t sure what to get her – and I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish my original plan, so I quickly made up a scarf for her (sorry for the picture quality – I forgot to get a pic before I gave it to her). This is supposed to coordinate with the mittens and Peruvian hat I made a couple of years ago. It only took 3 to 4 years to get her a complete, matching set!

I finally finished up (weaved in ends) for all the dishcloths I worked on last fall. They were awesome projects to take to all the medical appointments I had while pregnant… especially towards the end when it seemed I had at least two a week! Just pop a small ball of cotton yarn and a hook in my bag and I had a easy, portable project. A couple of patterns came from Priscilla Hewitt’s Five Textured Washcloths (patterns #1 and #4).

Then there were a couple from Lion Brand. The left one is called Almond Back Loop Stitch washcloth. The other is Bark Sedge Stitch washcloth; I think this one was my favorite, but it didn’t work well with some of the variegated yarns I had. This color worked ok.

For Christmas, I made several washcloths using the Tunisian Simple Stitch (TSS). I loved these bright colors and thought they’d be a cute addition to the “spa sets” I made for a couple of my friends. I also made makeup remover pads to match. I really didn’t have a pattern for either one of these. The washcloth I just made approximately the size of the other patterns I tried. The pads were basically the same pattern as my kitchen scrubbies.

What am I going to do with the extras? I have no idea. My husband thinks they are too rough to use as baby washcloths, but personally I think it all depends on the pattern that was used.

And, lastly I finished a couple of doilies. This one is called “Pineapple Star Doily”. Several people worked on this at the same time for a CAL (crochet-a-long) in the ThreadAddicts Yahoo group. Back in June 2010. Ok, so it took me a long time to finish it – and even longer to block it (stretch and pin it).

I recently participated in a Birthstone doily swap, and sent this one off to a woman out east. The birthstone for March is aquamarine, but we could also use turquoise for our colors. In return, I received a doily from PandaMan:

The other doily I finished is called TRISH in tribute to Patricia Kristofferson. She has designed some wonderful doilies – that I haven’t been brave enough to attempt yet. This pattern was designed by James Davis (PandaMan) in her honor and looks very similar to her style. I love the look of this doily!

And what does April hold? Well, I’ve decided I’m going to skip making cards for friends and family this year. I have a few made up that I can use for some special occasions. I’ll be lucky if I get the crafting area set up in time before I run out of sympathy cards (they’re going fast!)

Doilies are quickly becoming my favorite project, so I have already started another one. It’s the first time I’ve worked with symbol crochet, and in a lot of ways I prefer it to written directions (at least for doilies). If I find time, I should really finish a couple of projects I started months (years?) ago – along with an adjustment to a shawl I made for an aunt. But we’ll see how it goes…

What are you working on?

Baby Emma

2011-03-02T18:41:00.000-06:00

It’s hard to believe it’s March already. So much has changed in the last four months.

To start, little Emma Claire was born on 12/10/2010. She was 6 lbs, 8 oz and 20” long – a little string bean. Mom and baby had a little time adjusting post-delivery due to the drugs Mom took for her blood pressure. But it all worked out just fine in the end.

She is the love and joy of our lives.

Our good friend, Lucy was our doula during the delivery. She was completely awesome, and I can see why now the hospital staff misses having her in Family Birth.

Dad is head-over-heels in love with is little girl. And ever the proud papa, he can’t get enough of introducing the world to her – and having people say how pretty she is.

Eight days after she was born, she had her first starring role. She played Jesus in the children’s Christmas service. We were a little nervous about having someone else (an 11-year-old) carry her, so at the proper time, Dad carried her out and laid her in the manger. She slept through the whole thing.

Our lives have been completely taken over by our new arrival … but that’s a good thing to us.

Mom was able to stay home for 7 weeks and went part-time for 1 before having to start back full-time.

Dad is now full-time caregiver and bottle washer (literally) during the day.

It’s amazing to look back at the pictures from December and January. She has changed and grown so much already.

She’s met lots of family and friends already and has a pair of grandparents that refuse to go more than a couple of weeks without seeing her.

She is just as beautiful as the day she was born. We are really enjoying our smiley little girl!

Preparing for baby…

2011-03-01T17:40:00.000-06:00

In the past month, we’ve done quite a bit of preparation for our expected arrival. There’s still a lot that needs to be done, but I’m getting closer to feeling ready.

In early November, my long-time friend Kristi hosted a baby shower for us. I convinced her to host it at our house – which I really appreciated as it was nice not to have to travel 2+ hours for the party. It just meant more work for her to have to transport everything.

It was a wonderful party! We were given lots of wonderful gifts, but I really want to showcase two of them. This is a Tree of Life afghan my mother knitted. You really should click on the picture to get a larger view so you can see the detail put into this!

And Dave’s mother made one of her fabulous baby blankets. She makes dozens of these a year and donates them. She made this one special for us, in a neutral color. The colored panels are nursery rhymes.

Oh My.

I have to apologize. Apparently I’ve been neglecting this blog rather severely. I started writing this post back on 12/6 … almost 3 months ago! So much has changed and I will post an update of what has happened … but I think I’ll start a new topic. I still felt it was important to let you see these pictures.

Simple Kitchen Scrubbies

2010-12-07T09:29:00.001-06:00

You can purchase netting or tulle at most craft or fabric stores, but I particularly like getting the 6” spools of tulle at Hobby Lobby because it’s “contained” on the spool. When they have them on sale, you can pick them up for a couple of dollars and they will make 6 to 9 scrubbies. I have my husband cut the spools into thirds so each section is 2” wide.

SIMPLE KITCHEN SCRUBBIES

Note: I crochet these very loosely. I find it’s easier on my hands, and doesn’t affect the final product. In fact, I think it gives it a bit more scrubbing area.

Use a G (4 mm) hook up to I (5.5 mm) hook:

Row 1: Ch 6 and sl st into first ch to form a ring. Alternatively you could use the Magic Circle.

Row 2: Ch 3 (counts as first dc), dc in same stitch. Place two dc in each stitch around. Sl st into top of beginning ch. (12 dc)

Row 3: Ch 3 (counts as first dc), dc in same stitch. Place two dc in each stitch around. Sl st into top of beginning ch. (24 dc)

You can stop here and fasten off to make a woman’s palm-sized scrubbie, or continue one more row to make a slightly larger one.

Row 4: Ch 3 (counts as first dc) and dc in same st. Dc in next stitch. *Place two dc in the next stitch and one dc in following stitch*. Repeat * around. Sl st into top of beginning ch and fasten off. (36 dc).

Variations:

Changing colors when starting a new row is a great way to add uniqueness to your scrubbies. I’ve made some with Row 1 in yellow and white for the other rows for a “flower” look. Changing colors can also help use up scraps of tulle or netting when you don’t have enough for a whole scrubbie.

In rows 3 and 4, the dc stitches can be modified to Hdc to make a slightly smaller and tighter scrubbie.

Organizing crafts

2010-11-24T19:32:00.001-06:00

After watching AFV (America’s Funniest Videos) tonight with an entire segment of babies making messes, I’m convinced that we’ll really have to do some serious baby-proofing of our house in the next few months.

Of particular concern at this point are my craft and stamping supplies. Currently I store all my stamps in a plastic tote, tucked under the table – but I’d love to find a better way. I have the stamp pads, pens, and other potentially fun-to-play-with colorants sitting on top of the table – in easy reach. Anyone know of where to buy locked drawers?

I like the looks of the fabric totes at this website: http://www.limetart.com/zestblog/index.php/2010/11/storing-those-stamps/. They would work great for my acrylic stamps as well some of my other supplies.

November crafting

2010-11-15T19:34:00.000-06:00

And so begins the crafts for Christmas … and other projects. Actually, I can’t show the Christmas ones yet – too many peeping eyes.

I participated in a swap organized by my Ravelry Due in December 2010 group. We were supposed to make one item for the baby and throw in a few extras for Momma. My swap recipient received a car seat blanket as shown here with my favorite model, Cindy (she’s a little big for the car seat). It has leg pockets with a split up the middle for the seat belt. Mom received Raisinets, Lindt truffles, and fruit leather (all on her “wish list”).

I also included a doily I made a few months ago and wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.

My swap partner sent me an awesome package! In clockwise order: chocolate covered pretzels, two burp cloths*, an apple hat for baby*, dark chocolate bar, an organic flax seed and lavender eye pillow*, and earrings*. (All * items were made by her!)

She said the scented eye pillow helped her during her birth the last time. Isn’t that apple hat just adorable?

As for my other crafting, I recently finished another doily, but it still needs blocking before I can show it off (I think I have one I finished last month upstairs waiting as well). I’ve made some cotton washcloths/dishcloths that I was thinking of using for Christmas presents … but now I’m not so sure. That’s my biggest problem right now – I keep changing my mind on what to make for presents. I’ve started a ____ for my sister and her husband, but then I also wanted to make ____ for him; I have another idea for her as well. And then there’s the couple ideas I have for the great nieces, my dad, close friends, etc.

October updates

2010-11-02T17:02:00.000-05:00

I guess I could have a legitimate excuse for not posting in October. This month was NUTS!

The first weekend started off with a bridal shower for my sister and fiancé – hosted by their rather pregnant-looking matron-of-honor. I don’t know … does it look like they had a good time?

The next weekend we hosted my dept’s annual golf outing. We usually pick a local golf course, play “best ball” for 9 holes and then go back to the host’s home for a potluck dinner. It was amazingly warm that day – I think mid-80’s, which of course is highly unusual for October. Neither Dave nor I played that day – I didn’t think I could see to swing the ball over my belly, and Dave broke his toe a couple weeks before when he dropped a board on his foot, so he didn’t know how much weight he could put on it. Even so, we had fun running around the golf course in our cart, keeping tabs on the other teams. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to get pictures…

The third weekend we added a new member to our family when Kay and Eric were married. Again, it was a beautiful weekend – both the event and the weather. Most of the day went without a hitch, and by late Saturday afternoon they were off on their honeymoon.

Oh, and I haven’t finished much crafty stuff lately, but this was one thing I *had* to finish. It was Kay’s “something blue” and “something new”. She wore Mom’s jewelry for the “old” and “borrowed” parts.

The fourth weekend in October we spent in class. Namely, childbirth class. We decided to take the condensed two day (Fri night, Sat day) version. I learned a lot, but she went through it so quickly and skimmed over quite a bit. I guess it might have been better to do the 6-week version. But it’s done. Dave says it’s now becoming more of a reality and not just that his wife is “fat”. (He kept me laughing all weekend, so he’s forgiven for that comment!)

Oh, and see Silas below me? I’m ready to have his head meet a hatchet. He’s getting too aggressive and attacking people. Namely me. I think he occasionally attacks Dave, but I’m more worried about him getting aggressive with other people (esp kids).

In other chicken news, Ruby has left us. Dave knew she was rather sickly: lethargic, wouldn’t keep her head up, wanted to sleep a lot, etc. Oct 30th we came back from running errands and found her completely slumped to the ground. She wasn’t “gone” yet, but couldn’t stand or hardly keep her eyes open so Dave ended up dispatching her. She was a nice hen and we’ll miss her.

Belated September update

2010-11-01T16:43:00.000-05:00

I have to apologize that this blog has been neglected since August. It’s not that we haven’t had anything happening – it’s more that I just have used my time differently.

In September, I participated in Relay for Life in Winona. It’s sponsored by the American Cancer Society and is an all-night event. Unfortunately, due to my condition I wasn’t able to stay all night. But I did help with fund-raising – including a bake sale and some events we were allowed to run at work. I also sponsored a few luminaries in honor of or in memory of those that have battled cancer – including my grandmother. There were literally thousands of luminaries at this event. And once they were all lit, it was quite an impressive sight!

In September, there was also the “Great Flood”. Of course, our house is high enough that if we ever get flooded, Noah better be around with an ark. But others weren’t so lucky. Beaver Creek had a tendency to flood in the spring, so we drove down to the bottoms to see how close to the top of the bridge the water had risen. Well, we couldn’t even get to the bridge! The water had flooded all the way back to the next road. At least it didn’t affect any houses in our area (that I know of) – not like the city of Arcadia that ended up evacuated.

We helped a couple of friends out by pressing apples for juice. We’ve decided that Dave *has* to get his electric-powered version running by next year. It’s not the pressing that’s tough – it’s the grinding of the apples before you press. Fortunately we had someone with good arm muscles (way to go Lucy!) I don’t remember how many apples we ended up doing, but it was a LOT! We came home with 4 gallons of freshly squeezed apple juice (I think the others each had 12+ gallons). Unfortunately, I can’t have any this year (since it’s unpasteurized). But I hear it’s pretty good. One more item taking up room in our freezer.

At the end of August, we did some additional food preservation:

We planted two plum trees last year, so this year we saw the “first fruits”. The one tree didn’t produce much, but the other gave us a nice batch of small, very sweet plums. These were canned as whole plums. I can’t wait to try them!

After watching most of my first crop of Roma tomatoes succumb to blight, I was concerned that we wouldn’t have any for canning this year. But then things turned around. We finally got a large enough batch that I was able to I cook down two large kettles, run them through the food mill, and then have Dave process them.

I was hoping to have some bell peppers to freeze this year, but my plants didn’t blossom until early Sept, so they got tossed. And this was our big jalapeno crop this year. Yippee! I’ll have to try again next year.

In case you’re wondering, no we did not grow cheese this year. However, one of our fundraisers for Relay for Life was Walking Tacos. We had quite the organizer this year who snagged us some donated supplies – meaning, more of the purchase money went straight to the cause. We had some food leftover, including one extra-large bag of shredded cheese. I donated money to “purchase” the bag so I could take it home, divide and freeze. Each of those bags contains 2 cups of cheddar. And there are 12 bags!! Thatsalottacheese! Yet, another space-taker in our freezer. But I love it. I won’t have to buy cheese for quite a while.

Harvest preservation

2010-08-19T21:15:00.001-05:00

We may not have had enough corn from our own garden to freeze, but we found an awesome deal on corn this year. $2 for a dozen!! Fortunately, it was good-tasting and locally grown. We bought five dozen and processed all except a few ears which we ate that night.

Earlier this summer, Dave decided to pick up a deep fryer. Not so much to fry foods, but he wanted the burner so we could set up our hot-water canner outside during the hot weather. We have tried it out for frying chicken pieces – and it turned out great. But it also worked awesome for blanching 50-some ears of corn!

Once blanched, we cut the kernels off the cobs, placed the corn on cookie sheets and frozen them. The next day we scooped up into 2-cup increments and placed in freezer bags. We ended up with 26 bags in the end – enough that we could easily have one every-other week… or more since it will only have to last until next summer!

Before we were able to freeze the corn, I had to clear off the cookie sheets. The night before I froze 4 pints of blueberries that we picked up on sale. Those we placed into freezer containers so they would stack nicely in the freezer.

The week before we went camping, Dave also preserved some peaches. We’re going to have to do more canning and less freezing. Both of our freezers are getting full what with the 20-some chickens still in there. And I never mentioned this beauty!

Back in June, Dave spotted a sale on whole rib roasts for $4.99 / lb. That’s prime rib and ribeye steaks for that < $5 / lb! (compared to $8-10 per steak). When you add it up, $90 worth of meat seems like a lot, but Dave was able to chop it up into two prime rib roasts, and nine 12+-ounce steaks. We’ve become used to eating one steak for the two of us – so we’ll get quite a few meals out of this baby. We should eat well this winter!

Gardening in July & August

2010-08-15T15:55:00.000-05:00

Again, since I lost some of the posts I was going to publish, I’ll have to start over. And it’s unfortunate because there were a lot of changes in our garden in the last month and a half. It’s been an unusually wet summer where we haven’t gone more than a week without rain, and often times it’s several inches in one day … or even a few hours. Fortunately none of our plants seem to be adversely affected. The bonus is that I haven’t had to water the garden all summer!

Our chickens pretty much demolished the larger corn planting, but what came up in the garden looked really good. We’ve harvested the corn already. I’m not sure if I’ll plant corn next year. It didn’t work very well as a “trellis” for peas and beans, and we can usually find good home-grown corn from our local growers each summer.

All the onions have been harvested already. They fell over and dried up very early this year. Unfortunately, many of them didn’t grow very large, so I think I might just use them as “seeds” for next year.

Our peas did pretty well. I would have liked to see more. We ended up with about 3 batches this size – each time enough for one meal for us. Next year I want to plant more!

Our beans did really well. The plants under the corn produced just a few beans and didn’t get much taller than a foot or so. The ones on the southern end of the garden grew, and grew, and grew! We probably ended up with a bucket full by the time they stopped producing. Again, I could see having more plants next year.

So far, I’ve harvested just one cabbage head. I’m not sure if the other plants will get large enough to give us decent sized heads or not.

Our beets had to be the biggest disappointment in the whole garden (of the plants that appeared). See that tiny corner of beets? That was all that was left the day I took the picture. A couple days later, even they were gone. We found partial beet roots laying on top of the soil, and are assuming the rabbits were feasting. Unless it was squirrels. It was odd because these were on an inner corner, on the side closest to the house. They ignored bean, tomato, cabbage, lettuce, etc plants and only ate the beets.

Lettuce did ok in our garden. Much better than the spinach, but less prevalent than the Swiss chard. Given the difficulties of these plants, I might either pass on growing them myself – or try container growing where I can put them in shadier areas next year.

For a while, I wasn’t sure if we’d see much for sunflowers. We ended up with these two really nice heads. I also had another smaller-type sunflower that came up near the beans.

Our tomato crop looked a little scary for a while. The Roma plant was big and bushy and producing lots of fruit … but then as they ripened they started rotting from the bottom. I’ve learned this is tomato blight. I wasn’t sure if I should just pull up the plant or not, since it didn’t appear we were going to be able to salvage any tomatoes. After clearing out some of the dead leaves from the bottoms and thinning out the plant so air could move through, we have managed to get a pretty decent crop. This week I cooked up and seeded / strained enough tomatoes to fill up one of our big kettles. I want to cook them down some more to get closer to a tomato paste, but haven’t done that yet. We still have more ripening on the vine, so I could have more yet to add…

The tomatoes I processed were only the Romas. We also have the Striped Romans (on the right) and Best Boy tomatoes for eating, but they have been slower at ripening.

Our carrots are looking “ok”. Not as many to speak of as I’d hoped. But it’s better than the peppers. Not sure if they tomatoes grew too fast so the pepper plants didn’t get any sun or what happened. I have two tiny jalapeno peppers on one plant and nothing on any of the others.

Right now, our garden area has been taken over by the tomato plants … and the butternut squash. The squash is also creeping out into the yard. Last I counted there were at least 3 squash growing, and several other blossoms (I haven’t spent much time out there looking due to the large mosquito population this year!) I’m looking forward to picking this last-of-the-season harvest!

Counting eggs

2010-08-14T15:55:00.000-05:00

Can you guess what this Wyandotte hen is doing? Yep! Laying eggs. We now have at least half our hens laying! Notice there’s a line forming behind the nest… another Wyandotte is waiting her turn. We have three nests for 12 hens since they tend to share anyway.

They are laying small eggs, but we’ve had a few that were normal sized – including one really large double-yolker! These were some from the very beginning … and I don’t have very big hands!

Our biggest haul for a single day was 8 eggs, but most days we have been getting 6.

We are now down to 15 chickens. Dave took most of the roosters up to an Amish family at the end of July. The roosters were getting mean and aggressive – not just to the poor hens that were barely able to leave the roosts before being “attacked”, but a few were even following and “playing” with Dave. At first we thought it was cute until we realized that they were seeing him as a threat (or maybe another hen LOL).

Our 12 hens:

Henrietta, Cordelia, Gertie (Buff Orpington)
Faith, Hope and Charity (Silver-laced Wyandotte)
Babs, Opal, Ruby (Barred Rock)
Precious (Speckled Sussex; we thought was an Ancona)
Prissy … as in “Miss Prissy” from Foghorn Leghorn (White Rock)
Dorcas (Welsummer?)

and 3 Roosters

Silas (White Rock) – crows up a storm every morning
Barney (Barnevelder?) – still silent
Ludwig (White-Crested Black Polish) – starting to crow; still smaller than all the rest but his “crown” is starting to grow back in now that other roosters aren’t constantly pecking at him

I would remember the names better if Dave didn’t keep changing them on me! I think he’s settled now on names, but I’m still trying to adjust.

Summer crafting

2010-08-11T15:34:00.000-05:00

I have found that I really like crocheting with thread. Especially in the summer time. I mean, who wants to sit with a heavy, warm afghan or sweater on their lap when it’s 100º outside!? Over the past several months I’ve “finished” quite a few doilies, but I’m not always so good about washing and blocking them. So I force myself not to consider them Done until they are completely ready to give to someone.

This doily is the third in a set of three doilies called “Pretty Pineapples”. It was a free pattern from Annie’s Attic a while back. I’m finding that I like the look of some pineapple patterns, but not always so thrilled about making them. Maybe because once you start on pineapples the pattern becomes a bit predictable. Still, I like how this one turned out.

The doily on the left might look familiar. This is the third time I have tried the pattern The Gift Doily (available at Nina’s At My House). I forgot to write down what threads I used, but I know the cream color is something I picked up at during my Goodwill run. It had some staining, but I think that just adds character.

The third doily I finished is called Crochet-A-Long. I have had this one on my to-do list for a while because I liked the way it looked. One problem: I didn’t realize how many picots were in the middle! Ugh. Picots are a pain. But I still enjoyed this pattern.

I also have a few more “finished” projects… but you won’t see pictures yet. There’s a wedding garter for my Sister (needs elastic, no blocking required) and a star doily (needs blocking).

In other crafting news, I won on CrochetPartners again! This time my prize included a couple of booklets (including one on knitting), and several skeins of yarn – a wide range of ribbon and trellis yarn, microspun, and acrylic. Should be fun trying to find ways to use it all! Oh, and she even included a thread-crocheted scissors holder. Very nice!

Big News!

2010-08-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

I haven’t been posting much lately and most of it has to do with:

I had several posts all written up and ready to publish … but then I got a new laptop. Either I forgot to save my drafts or the software I use isn’t smart enough not to overwrite what I previous had. Either way, the posts seem to be gone.
I’ve been rather tired and have allowed myself a lot of lee-way in non-essential projects due to this:

Yes, we are expecting again! We’re about half-way through the pregnancy at this point. Our little one is scheduled to arrive somewhere around Dec 20th, 2010. Now I just have to decide what my first baby project will be….

And then there were 37…

2010-07-01T11:45:00.002-05:00

I guess I can't count - Dave just informed me we have 37! chickens (not 38)... so I had to quick change this post.

We are now down to 37 chickens. Dave and I were fed up with one of the Buff Orpington roosters because he was constantly attacking all the others. So he lost his head last week (not him in the picture). Turned him into a Beer Can Roast on Saturday night for dinner. Dave didn’t enjoy dinner too much – not because of the taste… because of the guilt. We just might have to find a local Amish farmer who will handle the rest in the fall.
The amazing part was that he was the biggest of the bunch … and weighed less than 4 lbs when fully dressed! If you recall when we butchered the Cornish Cross birds after just 2 months, they were 6 & 7 lbs fully dressed. I guess these still have some growing to do. Some of the roosters are becoming beautiful looking birds. Like this Ancona – the iridescence in his tail is stunning. And he’s not fully grown yet! We’ve known for a while that choosing the one or two roosters to keep would be a tough job. I think we now have it narrowed down to 4 (he is one of them).
We have been letting them out of the run for at least a couple of hours every night. When that door goes open – watch out for the stampede! They love being outside! Charlie leaves them alone … for the most part. When they start hanging around a bit too close for his liking – or they head off in directions they shouldn’t, he becomes a herd dog. Well, not really. He just likes chasing them.
They’re getting braver every day. Some wandered all the way around the house and some have headed towards the neighbor’s yard – but for the most part they’ve stayed within viewing distance of their safety zone. We just need to figure out some type of barrier for the garden. There could be some dead gooses (or chickens) if they attack my vegetables!
See the wonderful corn crop that Dave started? No? Neither do we. I guess we planted too close to the chicken area and it got to be too much of a hassle to shoosh them out constantly. We’ve had to watch the grape vines carefully … and yesterday I caught one reaching up and trying to eat leaves off the plum tree! They love their fresh greens!
We had visitors earlier this week. Our niece Hannah will be attending UW-L in the fall and was here for registration. She had a blast feeding and petting the chickens. I don’t think she wanted to leave! That’s ok – we’ll bring her up to the “farm” this fall and winter for home-cooked meals and then she can collect eggs for us :).

Our other “gardens”

2010-06-02T09:36:00.000-05:00

I almost forgot about this when I posted my garden growth. We have another “garden” area. When the chicken coop was finished and attached to the run, the run and tractor were moved over to a new section of land. That meant that we had an open area that had been fertilized for a month or more. Dave rototilled it and planted corn. The corn looks rather sad, but you have to keep in mind that this was planted a full week or more after the garden seeds. Plus, there are two varieties. The ones on the right that look fuller are an earlier variety. It still looks a bit sparse, but hopefully we’ll get enough corn for us to eat.

In other yard news… our peonies look wonderful this year. I love peonies – I just wish they didn’t require support and “babying” (shelter from winds and rain), but I’ll enjoy them while I can.

Last year we planted hostas all around the back of the house. They came back beautifully this year and are filling out nicely.

Also last year, Dave planted a clematis. It was a single stalk and didn’t get very big but it managed to produce a single flower. This year, the vine is winding up our deck railing, the plant is nice and healthy, and we’re going to have at least four of these gorgeous flowers!

Just like everything else this spring, our grapes started early. And then they got hit with frost (we forgot to cover them). I was worried that was going to be the end of our grapes … Dave has had a horrible time getting them to grow at all! But they’ve come back. There are several new leaves and the vines are taking off. We’re still not sure if we’ll ever see grapes in our lifetime…

I mentioned earlier this year that our Haralson and Honey Crisp apples didn’t produce any blossoms this year. But the plums might make up for the loss. Both trees had lots of blossoms which have turned into dozens of little plums. Dave says they’re getting their “butt cracks” already … that indentation in the middle of the fruit. We should have a good harvest this fall.

How does your garden grow?

2010-06-01T08:34:00.000-05:00

I have read other blogs that monitor throughout the year what their costs are for gardening versus how much they “earn” through their harvest. I had thought about doing the same here – except I have too much on my plate right now to keep track with any kind of accuracy.

I did manage to take a picture of our first garden “crop” this year … two whole radishes. Whoo hoo!

My other problem with tracking our crops is that only 1/3 of our harvest has made into the house. Dave feels if there’s only a handful, there’s no point in carrying it inside. He does occasionally feel that he should share with his wife… That’s good because he gets home from work before I do and I might not otherwise get a taste of our strawberries. The plants are HUGE! I guess using chick-fertilized wood shaving bedding as a much had a good effect! The strawberries themselves are medium-sized, but there are a lot of them coming in soon!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we’re trying a square-foot garden this year. I was able to get our crops in sooner than usual because of an early spring. Our “gardens” are laid out like this (the squares are truly 1-foot squares, but it’s easier to show them in a table like this).

Section 1 (4x8’):

fennel	carrots	onions	onions
brussels sprout	Roma tomato	bell pepper	radish/marigold
Best Boy tomto	Roma tomato	bell pepper	radish/marigold
basil	carrots	bush peas	bush peas
radish	~~spinach~~		butternt squash
radish	~~spinach~~		swiss chard
peas / corn	peas / corn	beans / corn	beans / corn
peas / corn	peas / corn	beans / corn	beans / corn

Section 2 (4x8’):

butternt squash		bean / sunflwr	bean / sunflwr
swiss chard	swiss chard	bean / sunflwr	bean / sunflwr
leeks	Big Boy tomato	hot pepper	lettuce
brussels sprout	Striped Roman	hot pepper	“ES” tomato
cantaloupe	“ES” tomato	bush peas	beets
peas / sunflwr	carrots	bush peas	cabbage
peas / sunflwr	lettuce	cabbage	scallions (seed)
peas / sunflwr	lettuce	scallions	beets

How do things look so far?

You have to realize that it’s been years since Dave and I have had a garden and we’ve always used row-method planting before, so there’s a lot of experimenting going on. I spent a LOT of time planning the garden layout. Making sure some sections wouldn’t over-run others; making sure plants would “play” well together, making sure the corn rows were deep enough to self-fertilize, etc. I think all that planning will be worth it.

Already I can tell these 4-foot-wide sections are going to be a cinch to weed. Between the two of us, we’re really keeping on top of ridding ourselves of non-food plants.

I’ve planted fennel seeds twice and have yet to see anything come up. I may give up and just plant some more carrots in that section. Carrots are a little on the sparse side, but I’ve already replanted some to space out the harvest.

The parsley also refused to show – but that’s ok because I started some inside this winter and we probably have enough to last us all year. You won’t see parsley on the chart because I’ve already replaced it with more cabbage since I had to thin plants anyway. The cabbage is coming in great! I’m not sure what I’m going to do with two full sections of it…

We’re seeing lots of radishes – in every section I planted them in! What an easy crop that is to grow! I’m usually not crazy about eating radishes, but it seems different when they come fresh from your own garden.

This spring when I was planning what and where to plant our crops, I read about Three Sisters Gardening where you plant beans, corn and squash in the same area. The corn grows up, the beans use the corn as a trellis, and the squash can grow underneath and keep weeds down. I tried this a couple different ways – with the “trellises” as corn or sunflowers and the climbers as peas or beans. I had to replant a couple of spots for corn (I must not have put enough seeds in the ground originally) where I have the peas / corn combination - but both are coming up nicely. Since the sections are a couple rows deep, we may still supplement with chicken wire or something to give the peas something to cling to.

The peas/sunflowers also look good, but the rabbits chewed off the tops of a couple of the sunflowers. It’s the only thing they’ve touched so far (thankfully). I replanted and the sunflowers are coming up, but it may not be in time to support the peas.

The beans / corn section – the corn looks ok, but the beans are a little sparse. I’m too embarrassed to show that picture. But where I have the beans / sunflowers it’s the opposite story. The beans look fantastic! The sunflowers … uh, what sunflowers? Again, we’ll have to support the beans another way.

This one makes me sad. Apparently that heat wave we got last week caused my spinach to bolt. This is my first experience with growing spinach, but it sounds like the best thing to do is dig it up and start over? Advice anyone? I was really looking forward to some spring spinach.

In addition to problems with the spinach, I’m not having much luck with the lettuce either. Pretty pathetic crop, huh? (the left side picture). The only green leaf that has been going well this spring is the Swiss chard. I’ve never really eaten it before, but Dave sampled some when we were contemplating our garden choices and liked it. Now he says the stuff I’ve grown doesn’t taste the same, but maybe there are different varieties?

Both sections of butternut squash look good. I suppose I’d better thin them to one plant so they don’t take over the whole garden … but thinning is one of the hardest parts of gardening for me! I hate to see those plants go “to waste”.

If you look on the chart, you’ll see some empty spaces around the squash and cantaloupe. That’s because I know they’re going to grow and take up lots of space so I need to allow for room. I was thinking about trying to plant some early crops (radishes, spinach, etc) in those empty spaces so they could be harvested before the vines take over.

The cantaloupe didn’t seem like it was coming up, so I replanted the seeds. Now it has appeared, but it seems far behind everything else. I saw some varieties where you needed to start them indoors early, but this is an early variety that could be direct sown.

I have regular set onions and scallions in the garden. Onions are pretty easy to grow - just plant the little buggers in the ground and watch them get bigger! I planted one section with “set” scallions and another from seed. The seed ones still look rather pathetic. I’m hoping they perk up with all the rain and sunshine we’re supposed to get over the next few days.

I started leeks inside this spring. When I moved them into the garden, they didn’t seem strong enough to survive, so I also planted some more seeds. Something is growing – I’m just not sure if it’s my original plants or the replanted ones. Still pretty small.

One lesson I learned this year is I won’t try to start my own peppers or tomatoes from seed again. In talking with a vendor at farmer’s market, you really need to have grow lights or they get too spindly. Like mine. The Roma tomato plants I started look pretty good. I also started Big Boy and “ES” – Endless Summer. Because mine looked so spindly and some didn’t survive, I decided to pick up a couple of plants from farmer’s market. I bought a Best Boy and something called a Striped Roman. It supposedly produces long fruit that is striped. Very meaty, juicy, and a good all-around use tomato.

The peppers look “ok” – but they’re also a bit small compared to what you’d buy. I planted both bell peppers and “hot” peppers(jalapeno).

I had originally planned on growing several types of herbs, changed my mind on some and didn’t pick up seeds. Then, some of the herbs I tried to plant didn’t bother to come up. The only one that seems to be a success is my basil. There are two small plants in that section.

The Brussels sprouts were an after-thought. As I said there were some plants that didn’t come up or survive. Someone at work left a 4-pack of plants in the lunch room to go to “a good home”. I split the 4-pack with a coworker and planted two sections. I never really grew up eating Brussels sprouts, but I think I like them… If nothing else, Dave does.

And finally, beets. The whole Nuland family ADORES pickled beets. Since I only married into the family, I’ve never been crazy about them. But, this garden isn’t just about my likes and wishes, so Dave will get his beets. I hope to give beets a try again this year. They say your tastes change as you age. Maybe we’ll even sample some non-pickled beets.

Overall, I think the garden is coming along nicely. It’s only the beginning of June, and most years we probably wouldn’t have planted some of the garden until a week or two before this. But with our very early spring, everything got a jump-start this year.

How is your garden growing?

Chickens, week 13 1/2

2010-06-01T08:31:00.000-05:00

I can’t believe I’ve never posted pictures of our complete outdoor setup! Dave still has a little bit of trim to install around the chicken coop, but otherwise it’s all finished. See someone peeking out at us through the window?

The coop has been placed north of the house, and will be shaded by trees in the summer time; there won’t be leaves in the winter so then it should get sun most of the day. The window faces south.

The coop is outfitted with electricity – lights if needed for dark winter months (to encourage egg production) and a heat lamp for those extra-cold days and nights.

There are several entrances to the coop. The door on the right will allow us full access for cleaning. The rectangular door is for collecting eggs. You can see the run and tractor in the background. (The trash can holds their feed).

There is also another smaller door for the chickens to enter from the run – using the ramp. That door can also be shut at night to keep the chickens safe.

This is the nesting area where we will gather the eggs from… I can’t wait until that day arrives!

It’s hard to take pictures of the inside of the coop. Behind this Rhode Island Red, you may be able to see the roosts that have been installed. We also have straw laid out on the floor (Hmm… looks like it could use a cleaning).

The chickens love to sit in the enclosed area underneath the coop. I’m not sure why. They can’t roost there – maybe they feel more secure in the tight space.

Dave still would love to let them free-range, but we’re worried about what Charlie would do. So, occasionally our poor, beleaguered dog has been locked up in the house, and Dave has let a few of them roam – up to 11 at one time. He hasn’t forced any of them – just “asked” for volunteers. But we’ve noticed those are the ones that want to go again the next time. They know how nice it is to forage and pick up bugs!

Every one of our chickens is still getting bigger by the day. Some, like this Ancona(?) are developing beautiful tail feathers. If you look closely (click on picture) you might be able to see the iridescence of greens and blues in the tail.

Dave has named a few more: Silas – he’s a white rooster; we were originally thinking he was a White Rock, but the comb is all wrong, so we’re not sure what breed he is. Our three Silver-Laced Wyandotte hens are now Faith, Hope and Charity.

The most interesting aspect of the chickens right now is that some of the pullets are practicing their crowing techniques. I’m a bit concerned because this is only the beginning of June. With 20+ roosters in our care, it could get rather noisy around our house by the end of August! But for now, it’s just funny listening to them. Some are going to need a LOT of practice – they sound like a sick cat!

They start up around 5:30am most mornings, but only crow for a few minutes. I was fortunate that one day they started in again just after 7am while Charlie and I were outside, so I quick grabbed the camera.

I just wish they hadn’t stopped so soon after I started taping. Maybe next time…

May winnings

2010-05-27T20:39:00.001-05:00

I haven’t been entering too many contests - at least not like I used to, mostly due to lack of time. But apparently you don’t need to enter a lot of different place to win!

I think this is the third time I’ve won the Crochet Partners “Recycling” contest. Every week I answer a question about crochet – like “what is your favorite yarn to work with” or some other random question. The “sponsors” (other people like me that volunteer to donate items) pick a random number for the winner (they don’t get to see the answers beforehand). In the past I’ve won yarn and patterns. This time I was given a choice between two books or two calendars. My Amazon.com wish-list already contained some of these calendars, so I decided to request those. 365 patterns from Crochet Pattern-a-Day 2007 Day-to-Day Calendarand another 365 from Knitting Pattern-a-Day 2007! I could be busy for a while!

The other winning took me completely by surprise. It came from a blog called Project Foodie. I just recently found the site because of all the contests they were holding – and now it’s one of the many on my RSS feed list.

I received a book called "Baking" by James Peterson. I never would have thought I needed another cookbook / baking book – but this particular one is awesome! The cover states “350 recipes and techniques, 1500 photographs, one baking education”. (It’s interesting to note that the Amazon version has 300 recipes and 2000 photos. Hmm.) The book starts with the simplest how-to’s on making cake, pastry, cookie, breads, and custards – and eventually works it’s way up to fancier versions of those recipes. Now I just need to find what other recipe books to get rid of so I can fit this one in the cupboard!!

Anyone else win anything lately?

May chickens

2010-05-20T19:09:00.000-05:00

What are you looking at?!?

I would have thought by now we wouldn’t have much to show you about the chickens on a weekly basis – but they are still growing! I just can’t seem to keep up on taking pictures and posting.

A few weeks ago we bought some leg bands to help us identify individuals among the breeds – we have red, blue, and “no bands”. We lucked out that for those breeds where we have more than 3, half of them are hens – so we can still tell the difference.

Every night, at least once a night, Dave sets up a lawn chair inside the chicken run and plays “perch” … as in he becomes the perch and the chickens sit on him. His legs, his lap, and sometimes even his shoulders.

He’s developed some favorites – birds that come around every time he sits down, and fortunately the VERY friendly ones are hens! Here are our three sets of hens:

Henrietta – she’s the smallest and lightest colored Buff Orpington. She has also been the friendliest. She loves to come and “talk” to Dave to tell him about her day. She is a jabber-mouth!

(That’s “Retta” behind the rooster in the picture.)

Blondie – another Buff Orpington hen. One of the BO’s that we leg-tagged lost theirs, so both Henrietta and Blondie are without tags, but fortunately Blondie is slightly darker than Henrietta so it’s easy to tell them apart.

Babs – a Barred Rock hen. I think these are still my favorite as far as looks (but then again I picked them!)

Faith, Hope and Charity

The Silver-Laced Wyandotte hens. They’re named but we haven’t determined who is who yet. Their feathers are extremely soft.

We’re also pretty sure we have one extra hen. She’s a White Rock like this (except this is a rooster). She’s smaller than the other two and doesn’t have much for a comb or waddle. I’m hoping that one is a hen – that means we’ll have white eggs among our colored ones!

We’ve discovered that the breed we thought might be Dark Cornish includes a couple of different breeds. The one on the left has more of a solid brown “stripe” on his feathers, and the one on the right is more brown speckles (click on the pictures for a larger view).

We’re still not completely sure what they are – but they have the most beautiful, iridescent feathers.

And of course, there’s Ludwig. I have to include a picture of him because he’s just so gosh darn CUTE! His “hair” is really getting spiky (hence the name Ludwig – as in Beethoven). It’s very hard to get a decent picture of him because he rarely stops moving. He’s been a lot smaller than the rest for quite a while, but just in the last week he’s really shot up in size and has almost surpassed the “runt” dark (Cornish?) that we have.

Oh, and the chicken with the attitude at the top? That’s a Brahma. There are three roosters – they like to fight among themselves and with others, and they just look M.e.a.n. We’re not going to be sorry to see them go.

Chickens – week 9?

2010-05-04T20:14:00.000-05:00

I think this is week 9… I’ve lost count. There isn’t a lot of news regarding the chickens themselves – they keep growing each week, developing their own identities and some are becoming Dave’s pets. They think he makes a great perch.

Three of the chickens are very, very cold right now… in the freezer. Last Saturday, we butchered the Cornish Crosses. (They look mad – do you think they knew what was in store for them?!) It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. This time I just helped pluck feathers and offered moral support for the rest. But I should be able to help out more in the fall now that I know the procedure. When fully dressed, they seemed much smaller so we began to question whether or not we should have culled them so early… until I weighed them. Two were 6.2 lbs and the third was 7 lbs. That’s a CHICKEN, ladies and gentlemen! This was only after 8 weeks of feeding! Most store-bought ones are in the 3-5 lb range - and that’s most likely with water added. They were getting so big that they hardly stood anymore – they’d waddle over to the feed or water and plop down to eat or drink.

Dave finished the shell of the chicken coop last week and thanks to some friends, it is now in place. Definitely not portable – unless you happen to own a forklift! He had a couple days off this week from work so he played farmer (wearing his bib overalls, of course!):

Painting the “barn” – the chicken coop is barn red with white trim.
Mowing “hay” - cutting the grass on the neighboring property. He does that so it doesn’t encroach on our grass. Plus, he is bagging half our clippings (rather than mulching) so the chickens get some fresh greens / bedding.
Planting crops. When we moved the coop in place, the tractor and run were shifted over several feet to be in alignment. That meant we had a nicely fertilized area which Dave tilled and planted sweet corn.

Dave really wants to have the chickens free-ranging, so he has been testing that idea by letting a couple out at a time to see how they react. For the most part, they stick pretty close to the run by the other chickens. Our biggest problem is Charlie. We put him on a leash and brought him close to the free-rangers. He seemed like he was about ready to snap at a head, so we backed away. If he just wants to chase them, that’s fine – but we’re still concerned he might decide his duty is to eliminate the “enemy”. We’ll keep working with him slowly to see how this goes.

Mild spring = bountiful harvest?

2010-05-04T19:11:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe how beautiful the weather has been the past few weeks! We finally got some rain last week (which we needed) – but otherwise we’ve had lots sunny days in the mid-60’s. It has been too nice to stay indoors for any length of time.

Our garden is already in place and loaded up with goodies. It’s painted in the same barn red as the chicken coop.

We’re trying out a square-foot garden this year. It seems too small to hold everything – as it’s only two 4’x8’ sections, but they say you can fit a lot more in a small area doing it this way.

I have planted peas (pole and bush), corn, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, onions, scallions, leeks, cabbage, beans, radishes, carrots, marigolds (pest deterrent), dill, basil, parsley, cilantro, fennel, beets, sunflowers, and cantaloupe. All I have left to plant are the tomatoes, bell and hot peppers, and winter squash – which are hardening off this week.

The corn and sunflowers are there primarily to give the pole beans and peas something to climb on. Underneath the “poles”, is where the vines will go (squash and cantaloupe). I planned some areas for shorter-season plants (e.g. lettuce/spinach and radishes) next to areas that might be taken over later in the season by plants like the tomatoes and peppers.

Last year we added some more plants to our strawberry beds to fill it out a bit more. Based on the number of flowers we’re seeing, we should have a good crop. Our rhubarb (left) is already at the point where I could harvest (this picture is a couple weeks old).

Two years ago we planted our apple trees. The first year we saw one apple. Last year, one tree had several apples – but the Honeycrisp had not a one. All the area orchard trees are in blossom already … and we’re seeing nothing. Hopefully ours are just late bloomers, because we really want to see some apples this year – from both trees!

Mid-summer last year we picked up some plum trees on clearance. Since it was past spring, we missed seeing the wonderful, highly fragrant flowers that they produce – so it was a delight to see and smell them this year. With all those blossoms and the dozens of bees we saw buzzing around, we hope they are well fertilized so we’ll see some plums this year!

The grape vines are surviving - just. We figure they’ll start producing about the time we decide to move! I have really wanted to plant a blueberry bush – and may still this year; but that will take a couple of years before we see a harvest.

In addition to our own plantings, I’m hoping we have a good crop of wild black raspberries again this year. Black raspberry jam is like gold in our household – it’s tough to find in the stores, so if we can make it, so much the better. The only jam that disappears faster is strawberry… but I think that’s because we look at BR jam as a special treat.

We also have blackberries and gooseberries on our property, but we haven’t done anything with those yet. We only had one good year for morel mushrooms – the year after the oak tree fell over; unfortunately we haven’t seen any since.

What’s growing in your yard?

Chickens, week 6

2010-04-14T21:16:00.000-05:00

The chickens are free! Actually, they’re outside now. We moved them out on Sunday afternoon.

The weather lately has been abnormally warm for April in Wisconsin. It gets cool at night - sometimes even with a hard frost, so the chicken tractor has heat lamps to make sure the chicks stay nice and warm.

The tractor is completely covered in OSB and chicken wire – including the bottom so no predators can get in (hopefully). I didn’t think it looked very big – but it’s big enough to fit one large adult man :)

Dave also built a “run” for them where they could be outside but protected during the day. The sides have chicken wire; the top has a tarp for shade and flying predator protection.

The chickens seem VERY happy to be outside. There’s more room to run around, fresh air, and the occasionally flying insect or worm to munch on.

Here’s our tally so far on the breeds:

3 Cornish Cross – The only one we named in this group was “Dizzy” (Gillespie) – because he got so big so fast that his cheeks would puff out when he breathed. They were separated from the rest of the chickens for a week so we could monitor their feed, but that’s not practical now that they are outside. I’m hoping they’ll get more exercise! (like we all could use!)

Crip (‘cripple’) – our runt Cornish Cross. He is the only one that is still indoors. He’s grown in the last week, but he’s still about 3 weeks behind in development from the rest. He has a few feathers but enough fluff left that I don’t think he could tolerate the cold temps (40-60ºF). We’re going to keep him in the basement for a while yet and see if it helps him to thrive if he’s alone – with plenty of food and water and no one stepping on him, or pecking at him, or bumping him constantly. (update 4/17- Crip is now gone. He wasn’t thriving so Dave “dispatched” him)

3 unknowns. They all have black and brown feathers – and white breasts. I guess I missed getting a good picture of them – it’s tough to remember when they keep moving around!!

3 Dark Cornish? They have black feathers with brown stripes – and tan faces. One of these was Freckles, but I can’t tell which he is anymore.

6 Buff Orpingtons. The friendliest of the breeds. At least three are pullets (hens). There’s Henrietta /Etta and Henry (in picture?) Hey, I didn’t name them!… they’re the two that always greeted us. They’re more skittish now that we’re no longer at eye level with them. You can really tell the difference between the sexes in this breed – females are much softer and have lighter colored feet and smaller combs.

3 White Rocks. Dave tamed one that ended up as Snowball. Another is Snowflake (because a flake is smaller than a ball).

I’m not sure who this is. We decided we need three colors of leg bands to help us keep it straight.

6 Barred Rock. (3 pullets) Apparently the cockerels are lighter colored like this guy and the pullets/hens are darker colored (see the one on the right?)

I love this picture! He is not shy. This guy got into a stare-down with Charlie the other day… and won! That is after he pecked at Charlie’s nose!

3 Silver Laced Wyandotte (all pullets). It’s uncanny how much these look like the Brahmas – but they are a bit darker and don’t have furry feet. This was the breed of hen that Dave really wanted.

3 Brahmas. The feathery feet guys. If you recall, these are Skipper, Kowalski and Rico (Penguins of Madagascar). Each has a coloring unique enough that we should be able to tell them apart.

Red Star? (3?) In some ways these are a plain looking bird – as they are solid brown with cream-colored faces. It wasn’t until we got them outside that we noticed the reddish tint in their feathers. Very pretty.

Ludwig (was Fauntleroy) – our White-crested Black Polish. He went through a rather ugly adolescent stage, but he’s looking good again with that big white puff on his head. We’re still contemplating having him as our rooster… because he’s just small enough he might not make much of a meal. Plus he’s just so darn cute! :)

Charlie is a tortured soul. He keeps trying to chase, attack or otherwise fluster the birds … and then he gets yelled at by his parents. “But Mom! I’m just doing my job!” (in the picture he’s listening for them inside the tractor)

Procrastination

2010-04-14T08:25:00.000-05:00

In trying to manage my to-do lists, I have “stop procrastinating” at the top of the list. But I always put it off until the next day…

Chickens, week 5

2010-04-06T18:53:00.000-05:00

It’s hard to believe we’ve had the chickens for over a month now! We were gone for 5 days this last week for Dave’s father’s funeral and our wonderful friends Mike & Lucy looked after the babies. Except when we came back – there weren’t any chicks! They’re all CHICKENS now! They’re HUGE!

Again, I’m thinking we might have to hire someone to “process” the chickens this fall. Dave has such a soft heart when it comes to animals. He also has the magic touch! Last night we were downstairs “playing” with the chickens – he grabbed one that is usually skittish, held it, petted it … to the point where the bird closed his eyes and laid down! He calmed a White Rock earlier that night – and then after given freedom again, he/she kept coming back for more attention.

Yesterday he built the chicken run. It still needs tarp over the top, especially since we apparently have a nest of eagles close by. He brought out four chicks for a short while to see what they would do. At first they were frozen in place – I guess it was a bit overwhelming. Eventually they started moving around. Then they really got moving as Charlie circled the enclosure barking at them. This is sheer torture for our part-bird dog!

Unfortunately, I never got around to taking pictures this week. It’s getting harder to separate them for pictures as they’re getting bigger and faster…

Pineapples

2010-04-05T22:03:00.001-05:00

In the crochet world, there seems to be a love/hate relationship with “pineapples”. Some people love them, others detest them to the Nth degree. Up until now I hadn’t tried making anything with pineapples so I was ambivalent. I like the look of some pineapples (never on clothing!!), but sometimes how patterns look and whether or not I like working on them are two different stories.

I started a couple of doilies back before Christmas, thinking maybe I could have enough doilies made to give them to my girlfriends… it didn’t take long before I had a good laugh at my over-ambition. These were completed shortly after the New Year, but it took me a long time to block them.

Both of these came from a single pattern called Pretty Pineapples. It was a free pattern from Annie’s Attic, so it might be available at Free-Crochet.com. This doily is the “Yellow” pattern. After seeing this picture it appears I have some more blocking to do – the pineapple points are a little wonky-looking. It was difficult to block to begin with - the doily was curled up onto itself almost in a bowl shape, so I had to stretch it flat as I was pinning. Now that it’s flat it might be easier to block a second time into a better shape.

The second pattern is the “Aqua” doily. This one turned out much better. There is a third pattern, “Lavender” that I have not tried yet, but hope to eventually.

So how do I feel about pineapples now that I’ve made some? I’m still not sure. This set of patterns was nice because they make “small” doilies – no bigger than 10-12”, so they work up relatively quickly. However, I felt that once you got on the pattern of the pineapples – decreasing to make the pineapple / increasing for the surrounding pattern, it can get a little boring. Sometimes that’s a good thing. It means I don’t have to concentrate as much … or rip out my mistakes later.

I’ll definitely try more pineapple patterns later. I have entered the “Aqua” doily into a contest at the ThreadAddicts Yahoo group. They decided to have a Spring Fling contest. Each person submitted a photo of their entry. In the next couple of weeks, the doilies will be voted on by the group members. Everyone will then mail their doilies to the winner. I don’t expect to win. But sometimes it’s fun to match your work against others in a competition – even if it is just for fun.

Chickens, week 4 ?

2010-04-03T09:10:00.000-05:00

I’m not even sure what week this is anymore. Life has been too much in upheaval to have any sort of normalcy. These pictures are almost a week old already… but I felt it was worth it to show them because the chicks change so rapidly!

They are growing quickly and most of their baby fuzz is gone. I am amazed that they seem to hit growth spurts just about every day! They are also getting closer to where we can identify the breeds better. This one is a Barred Rock (that was my choice for the hens).

The Brahmas still have the most fluff and are still at that slightly ugly stage – but the feathers on their feet keep growing!

Some breeds we’re still unsure of – like this one. Dave thinks it might be a Dark Cornish, but we’re still unsure.

We are getting better at separating which are pullets (hens) and cockerels. The hens have much softer feathers – probably because they don’t go for that rough-and-tumble fighting. In some cases, the feet are different colors between the sexes.

We’ve opened up the second level on the brooder/coop – and actually they seem to prefer it up there. Maybe because they’re taller that way?

With Dave gone most of this past week, his city-girl wife ended up cleaning their coop! Actually it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but I’m still ready for them to be moved outside…

This picture is actually from the previous week, but I wanted you see to Henrietta (or Etta for short). The Buff Orpingtons all seem to be friendly, but she is by far the friendliest of them all. Every time Dave opens the doors, she is right there to greet him and be petted. It doesn’t take long and she’s jumping up on his arm, walking up his shoulder, pecking at his mustache, etc. She is very sweet!

And for those keeping track and wondering – Crip *is* still alive. I don’t have a picture of him because he tends to hide under roosts and behind other birds. He is slowly getting larger and finally starting to develop wing feathers, but he is about half the size of the other birds and way behind in development. But - as long as he keeps thriving, we’ll let him be.

Managing electronic files

2010-03-31T22:01:00.000-05:00

I thought I’d share a couple of the tools I use to help keep my computer organized.

For anyone that has used a digital camera and ended up with a bunch of files on their computer named something generic like “picture 005”, I have a great tool to help you mass-rename them to something more meaningful: A.F.5 Rename your files.

In the example below, I have several pictures named with “pic ” and a unique number.

I told the program that I wanted all my pictures to start with “2010_03_15 chickens” and since I didn’t need “pic ” anymore I said start on the left side with position 5 (pic + space = 4). It gives you a preview of what the new file name will be. Once you press Rename, it will rename all of them in the list. The renames can be simple or complex – so it’s a powerful tool.

My other favorite tool is called CloneSpy. I’ve only used this in the most basic sense, but I’m sure it would be much more powerful if I would take the time to play with it. This tool helps you find duplicates and clean up your hard drive. I select one folder – like “My Documents” and have the program scan for anything that it thinks might be a duplicate. You can have it automatically delete files (I wouldn’t recommend) or it prompts you each time if the matched pair is truly a duplicate – which to delete.

You have have it auto-select the shortest/longest file name, the shortest/longest path (with previous folders), older/newer files, or no selection at all – you have to manually choose which to delete. In the example above, the two files it found weren’t named the same, but they probably are duplicates, so I can delete one of them.

And, the last week has brought to my attention another powerful tool - Evernote.

I kept hearing rave reviews about this software from anti-clutter blogs and websites. I tried it about a month ago and couldn’t get the hang of it. I’m still playing with it, but I’ve begun to see it’s power. You can “clip” from the web – so rather than saving bookmarks / favorites from sites where there’s a document you’d like to save – just copy/paste into a new note on Evernote. Or better yet, there are add-ons for browsers and email clients that will allow you to add a new note with the click of a button – no need to copy/paste! I don’t have many notes yet, but apparently the search capabilities in Evernote are incredible – and not just in documents. It will take pictures of text, and using OCR (optical character recognition) will allow you to search pictures as well! So far I’m loving this tool!

Resolutions update – Mar ‘10

2010-03-31T21:44:00.000-05:00

I learned a new acronym:

PEEP – a Place for Everything,

and Everything in it’s Place

I really like this idea, but I just haven’t figured out how to manage the concept. Most people know that I really like lists… and lists of lists. The rule “out of sight, out of mind” holds very true for me. So, I try and either keep items out in-sight to remind me – or I have to make lists.

Helpers

Here’s some methods I’ve tried to keep the house neater and my life more organized:

1) A couple of years ago I switched from using a small plastic filer to only using that for longer-term storage (one year) and short-term (bill paying) was in a basket. I did this because mail kept piling up until we dealt with it. The basket system didn’t work either because it was a big mess hanging out in the open. I’ve gone back to the file system and trying to manage keeping on top of the daily mail and receipts.

2 ) My new best friend is a site called Remember the Milk. When I first heard about this site I thought it was just for groceries –which wouldn’t work in our household. In truth, this site is for lists of any kind, and flexible enough it can be used for work, home, groceries, menu planning, project planning, or any other reminders you need. I’ve played with it enough now that I think I have a good system down. I tried setting up multiple lists, but it seemed hard to manage. So now I’m back down to just a couple of lists, with multiple “tags” to help sort and organize. You can create some pretty powerful search parameters and save them as Smart Lists, or just use the tag “cloud” for quick searches. You can have tasks with due dates – or no dates, different priorities, etc.

I have even started using this in place of dozens of post-it notes for work. I can have all the to-dos in one place which is great (and they don’t get lost!). Also, at my skill level, I end up with a lot of larger projects – some of which I work on, some I design and hand off to programmers, but with RTM I can break up the larger projects into smaller tasks so I feel like I’m getting something done!

Electronic decluttering

I realized this month the decluttering didn’t have to be just about papers and other Stuff in the house. The computer is full of clutter too! I’m not just referring to un-emptied Recycled bins, drives that haven’t been defragged, caches and cookies that can be cleared, etc. All of those are important to keep a computer running. But my decluttering focused more on those files that I’ve saved and have never touched again … or I can’t think of why I would have saved to begin with.

It’s a little harder to measure this type of decluttering, unless you’re keeping track of the number of files or disk space you’ve just freed up – and I didn’t think to do that at the time.

However, I must have cleared out hundreds of recipes files. I’ve found over the years that if a recipe doesn’t have a picture (and I haven’t made it before) then I’m more reluctant to try it. There were a lot of recipes that I had saved from various email mailing lists, all text, and some were dated back to the early to mid-1990s! None of them ever used. Into the recycle bin they went! I was a teensy bit selective – keeping recipes saved from Top Secret Recipes which don’t have pictures, if they came from family or friends, or recipes that sounded really interesting.

Gone this month:

at least 15 magazines/catalogs (I didn’t keep very good record)
added 18 more books to Paperbackswap; 16 shipped out
added to rummage sale pile: stack of music books and Sheet Music magazines
I even tossed some photos – for example, we had several copies of a Christmas picture that I hated. Why keep them?

As for the other resolutions. Pfffft! Stress levels and lack of control over my daily environment meant that I’m back to drinking too much Pepsi. My exercise resolution met a similar fate. With Dave gone (spending time with his father) – by the time I got home from work, let Charlie outside to play for a while, did my Chick Chores, made myself a bit of supper, and talked with Dave and other friends/family on the phone, it was usually 8:30pm or later. Not the time of night I want to start exercising. Or cleaning either. Here’s hoping April is much calmer, more “normal”, and will allow us to get back into a routine.

Wise Bread winnings

2010-03-29T21:04:00.002-05:00

I definitely could use some good news. It seems there has been too much of the other kind lately. I almost missed seeing an email today announcing that I won a gift certificate to Amazon! The sponsor was Wise Bread. Their motto is "living large on a small budget". I haven't read the blog for long, but they have some great financial and frugal tips. Check them out!

Dr. Stanley J. Nuland

2010-03-28T15:39:00.003-05:00

Obituary for Dr. Stanley J. Nuland

Stanley John Nuland was born to immigrant parents, John Severin and Synneva Bjarnesdatter (Nee Molster) Nuland on Nov. 16, 1930, in Stoughton.

He was raised on a farm in Deerfield, attended Deerfield Public Schools and graduated in 1948 as valedictorian. He entered the University of Wisconsin Pre-Med and Medical Schools receiving his bachelor's degree in 1952 and his M.D. in 1955. After a one-year internship in Duluth, Minn., he served as captain with the U.S. Army Medical Corps at Fort Riley, Kansas, where he found his interest in surgery. In 1958 he returned to the University of Wisconsin, completed a four-year surgical residence, with his final year as chief resident. Dr. Nuland established his private practice in general surgery in Platteville where he remained from 1962 to 1979. He then joined the staff of Milwaukee Industrial Clinics. He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS) and the Wisconsin Surgical Society.

He was proud of his Norwegian heritage, was an active member of Vosselag and served a term as president. Throughout his adult life he enjoyed many hobbies such as landscaping, playing guitar and making fine handcrafted wood furniture. After suffering a stroke in 1998, he retired and discovered a new interest, computers. During this time he translated many books and papers from Norwegian into English. His work has become a valuable resource for genealogical research and earned him special recognition for his contributions from the City of Voss, Norway. In following years, Dr. Nuland battled multiple medical problems including diabetes, renal failure and cancer.

Stanley wed Barbara Mullen of Deerfield on Oct. 2, 1954. He is survived by his wife and five children, Siri (Joseph) Hernandez, Jane Nuland, Andrea (Donald) Saunders, David (Carmen) Nuland and Dagny Aiken; six grandchildren, Elisa Camargo, Rachel Hernandez, Anne Rivera, Michael Hernandez, William (Kelsea) Aiken (currently serving in Afghanistan) and Hannah Aiken; two stepgrandchildren, Kyle and Bradley Saunders; six great-grandchildren; sister-in-law, Lorraine Nuland; and nieces, nephews and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his parents; brothers, Fredrick and Bjarne; sister, Karen Borrud; brother-in-law, Einar Borrud; sister-in-law, Dorothy Nuland; and nephew, Allen Borrud.

He entered eternal life at AngelsGrace Hospice, Oconomowoc on Thursday, March 25, 2010. The family wishes to extend their heartfelt gratitude for all the care and kindness he received from Brookfield Rehabilitation Center, Purity Dialysis Center and a special thank you to AngelsGrace Hospice staff for making his final days peaceful and comfortable.

Visitation at Cross of Life Lutheran Church, 20700 W. North Ave., Brookfield, on Thursday, April 1, 2010, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Funeral Service 1 p.m. Burial following at Deerfield Lutheran Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials to Cross of Life Lutheran Church, AngelsGrace Hospice or the health charity of your choice would be appreciated. Condolences to: www.krausefuneralhome.com.

AngelsGrace Hospice
W359 N7430 Brown Street
Oconomowoc, WI 53066

Krause Funeral Homes and Cremation Service
9000 W. Capitol Drive
Milwaukee (414) 464-4640

Murphy’s Law of Cleaning

2010-03-20T20:02:00.001-05:00

I thought these were funny! Maybe this is why my house never seems to stay clean for long…

Murphy’s Law of Cleaning

In order for something to become clean, something else has to become dirty.

1st Corollary to Murphy’s Law of Cleaning

If cleaning is not done properly, everything becomes dirty and nothing becomes clean.

Chickens, week 3

2010-03-16T22:53:00.001-05:00

The word that best describes the chickens this week? BUTT-UGLY! (is that two words?) Even before the weekend, they had started to really show their feathers, but still had some cute fluff. This week, they just look horrid! I heard someone describe this stage as the awkward teenage years.

I can’t wait until they get past this stage because I can already see that some are going to have beautiful feathers. This guy (gal?) looks better than most of the bunch.

We’re having to be careful when we do open the doors – they’re fluttering around quite a bit, testing their wings. In fact, we decided to stop trying to take “photo studio” pictures… I don’t think they’d remain stationary long enough.

“Buddy” (right) and “Freckles” (above) are still our most frequent greeters when we open the doors. They are getting awfully cozy … do you think they’re scared of Dave? Nah. We are really hoping that “Buddy” is one of the hens because if not, we may be forced to keep a Buff Orpington as our rooster (not that that would be a bad thing).

The Cornish Crosses are very easy to identify now. The largest one - “Dizzy” (for Gillespie) is almost three times the size of the other chicks. He is so-named because he has eaten so much he huffs and puffs his cheeks out because he can’t breathe very well (do chickens have cheeks?!) One Cornish is slightly smaller but not by much; a third is smaller yet – he actually looks healthy. And our fourth Cornish? Not so healthy. That one is “Crip” (cripple). He’s no more than half the size of the others, still has quite a bit of baby fluff – so he’s not maturing at the same rate, and the last two days has spent most of his time sleeping. That’s not a prison you see… it’s Dave’s latest way to give Crip a fighting chance. Yesterday he had other chicks standing on him. So he now has his own little pen (old milk crate) near the heat lamp, with his own supply of water and food. Hopefully that will help him thrive and survive.

Dave still spends quite a bit of time watching the chicks – he says it’s more entertaining than television! It’s hilarious to watch one chick think he’s found The Best Thing Ever. He starts running around chirping at the top of his lungs “Look what I found! Look what I found!”. Which of course alerts the others, who then chase him and try to steal away the Great Find. Since they aren’t exposed to much else, most of the time it’s usually a dark wood chip which must look like a bug or worm.

Speaking of bugs, we had one brave moth that flew into their coop the other day. 42 pairs of eyes watched intently as that thing fluttered above their heads. I can’t wait until they get outside … hopefully we won’t see any ticks in our yard this year. (Maybe we should put Charlie in with them for an hour or so after he walks through the weeds!)

Chickens, week 2

2010-03-10T20:06:00.000-06:00

We took some more “portrait” pictures on Sunday. But I think it was one day too soon. Yes, you can see that some of the chicks are really starting to get their wing and tail feathers in. However, I came home from work on Monday, I was amazed at how much bigger they all seemed… in just one day!!

They’re still in baby mode. Eat, run around as fast as you can, and fall asleep instantaneously. (It’s hard to take decent pictures with the red lamp)

Even now that they’re losing their fluff and gaining feathers, they are still very cute. We’re seeing some personalities develop… which I still think might make it tough on us this fall.

We have a few more named (yeah, I know – we said we wouldn’t do that!). There’s Fauntleroy which we introduced last time – the White-Crested Black Polish. He’s still the smallest chick in the group. (He doesn’t like having his picture taken either as I have yet to get a decent picture of that pom-pom on his head!)

Because the Brahmas look like baby penguins, we named those Skipper, Kowalski and Rico (after the Penguins of Madagascar) We really should have a fourth for Private. But it doesn’t really matter because we can’t tell them apart anyway.

We have one Cornish Cross that has a bad leg that we have named “Crip” (short for cripple). Even with a bad limp, he’s still making the rounds and eating plenty. Actually he looks healthier than the other two CCs which have gotten FAT (Dave has since learned that CCs can overeat themselves into heart attacks before adulthood!).

There is one Buff Orpington (like bird on left) that has really become Dave’s friend. Every time the door opens she’s right there to visit and be petted by him. Not me… him. Well, he is downstairs every few hours! We don’t have a name for her yet… which is funny because we COULD name her since she’ll be sticking around past fall!

Another one of the very friendly cheeps I have nicknamed “Freckles”. He’s one of our mystery breeds – we’re not sure what he is. He also likes to be close by… or maybe he just likes the idea of the door being open so he can try and escape. They’re starting to test out their wings and can jump (attempting to fly) from one area to another rather quickly. That has me worried because Charlie is pretty anxious to “play” with one of those chicks … he gets a bad case of the shakes whenever we lift him up so he can see the chicks running around. “Just open the door a little bit…”

Guatemalan Surprise afghan

2010-03-07T17:25:00.001-06:00

Hurray! I finally finished this afghan. According to my records, it only took a year… well, almost. I started this the end of March 2009. I was so excited I didn’t wait until it was washed to take pictures.

The technique used for this is Tunisian Crochet – it’s like a cross between knitting and crochet. You use a hook, but you work the stitches across the row and then work them off the hook. Because Tunisian stitches have a tendency to curl, you need to use a hook 2-3 sizes larger than is normally used. For example, worsted weight yarn usually asks for an “H” hook. For this, I used a “J” afghan hook – it’s long (14”) and has a stopper on the end so the stitches don’t fall off. This pattern contains some special stitches – including a type of drop stitch that helps create the "honeycomb” on the front side of the afghan.

The designer is one of my favorites – Kim Guzman. The pattern can be found in a book called Tunisian Around the Home and it can be purchased at Annie’s Attic. I would highly recommend purchasing this book – there are several other great patterns I’m dying to try…

Chicks in Galesville

2010-03-01T20:42:00.001-06:00

The chicks have arrived! We received a call from the LaCrosse post office Saturday while we were gone saying that the chicks were there and we could either pick up that night … or wait until Monday morning to get them in Galesville. There was no contest which option was going to win. Dave drove down to the post office immediately!

He commented later it was the first time in our marriage that I encouraged him to go to downtown LaCrosse on a Saturday night and pick up chicks!

Did you know not all chicks are yellow? I might have known that, but it didn’t register until a couple of weeks ago that we’d have such a menagerie. We have yellow, brown, speckled, striped, black, grey… but they’re all cute and fuzzy!

The brooder seems to be working fine. Dave keeps fine-tuning where the heat lamp sits, but the chicks seem neither cold (lots of cheeping) nor hot (panting). They are just like all other babies … eat, poop, dash from here-to-there, and fall asleep instantly. It’s funny to watch them to stop moving, close their eyes, begin to wobble on their feet and then finally “crash” to the ground.

We ordered 38 chicks from McMurray Hatchery. On the box they said they sent us an additional free chick … so that would make 39. We thought that’s what we had until yesterday when we counted again … there are 42 chicks. Actually, yesterday we counted 41 … twice. Today Dave counted 42 … TWICE. Where are these extra chicks coming from?!? They must be multiplying already! Or maybe this is like the two loaves of bread and five fish?

Dave has said that if there are 43 tomorrow, he’s going to spend the next night downstairs with a shotgun to stop whoever is leaving us extra chicks!

We’re not entirely sure of all the different breeds we have – and which are which, but Dave has identified some. We took “portrait” shots yesterday so Dave can spend time on the internet trying to figure it all out! When we took these pictures, we tried sorting them at the same time. It appears there are 11 different breeds in the group.

We know we ordered 3 Buff Orpingtons (at left), 3 Silver-Laced Wyandottes, and 3 Barred Rocks (below) for our nine laying hens.

We also ordered 3 Cornish Cross (top picture?) and according to the box, the 39th / extra bird is supposed to be one of those.

In addition to the hens, we ordered 25 “heavy” breed birds for eating plus one free rare breed.

This guy has to be the rare breed – there’s no one else like him in the group. He’s the only one we’ve named so far… Fauntleroy. He’s looks like he has a pom-pom stuck to the top of his head! (I know… we said we wouldn’t name any “dinners”). We’ve identified him as a White Crested Black Polish.

The chicks with the fuzzy feet are Brahmas.

It’s very difficult to not run downstairs every hour to check on them to make sure they’re all ok… but even Dave manages to hold off until at least 2 hours have passed! Maybe it’ll be easier once they’re past the really cute stage? I hope so – otherwise we might be too attached this spring … well, at least until we have 25+ roosters having crowing competitions.

Happy Birthday Levi!

2010-03-01T20:19:00.001-06:00

My godson’s birthday is on Feb 28th, so went to visit him this past Saturday to celebrate. Hard to believe he’s FIVE years old already! But not big enough that his eyes match his stomach!

Yes, Mom! I can eat that whole big piece!

(Mom and Dad finally insisted they cut it in half…
he didn’t even finish that piece)

What a cute family!

Levi originally wanted an “Up!”-movie theme for his party, but changed it to a pirate theme. Including the moistest, darkest, chocolate “pirate hat”, we’ve ever tasted!

Our gifts were based on “Up!”: a DVD of the movie, a bag of 75 balloons to lift his house up (or as he first thought – Water balloons!), and “Dug” the dog. Eh, so he doesn’t quite look like Dug, but he’s still cute.

I hope my godson had as wonderful a birthday as we had seeing him again!

Top 10 Reasons NOT to clean

2010-02-28T17:56:00.003-06:00

The Top 10 reasons not to clean:

When you vacuum, you get the satisfaction of hearing stuff get sucked up.
Dust bunnies are a type of insulation, aren’t they?
If your house is in a state of CHAOS (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome), you don’t feel obligated to host your friends or family for gatherings.
If the house is too uncluttered it doesn’t have that “homey” feel.
It’s fun to write messages in the dust!
A too-clean house can lead to allergies just as much as a dirty house.
I have better things to do with my time.
Not cleaning means you can save money on vacuum filter bags and other cleaning supplies.
I can get some exercise just by running around trying to find those misplaced keys, bills, etc.
The house is just going to get dirty again, so why bother?

Ok, so I’m being funny. Actually, as a kid when I was hired to clean my bachelor uncle’s house, I enjoyed vacuuming for reason #1 (hearing the dirt) … well, that and getting paid for cleaning.

After just two weeks after implementing a cleaning schedule, I can’t imagine going back to the way I used to clean (or not clean).

Previous plan: try and clean every room in one day (usually Saturday). By setting one day to clean, if I wasn’t feeling well / we went out of town / I had a lot of errands to run … the plan would fail. And it might fail for weeks at a time, so then I’d have even more to do.

Current plan: Do a little bit each night. As I’ve said before, Flylady has helped … I don’t follow her plan exactly, and frankly I have a hard time keeping up with all of the emails, but it’s good motivation when I do read them. I’ve combined her methods with a few others I’ve read to come with my own schedule:

Monday: Dust; water plants
Tuesday: Clean kitchen
Wednesday: clean out refrigerator; take out trash/recycling
Thursday: vacuum and mop
Friday: clean bathrooms
Saturday: run errands
Sunday: laundry

I may have to tweak this a bit yet, but for the most part it’s working very well. And since I actually do most of my household shopping during the week (so I don’t have to make a special trip back to town) and Dave has been doing most of the grocery shopping, my last couple of Saturdays have been FREE!

I used to think such a plan wouldn’t work – because by the weekend, there are several days of dust on everything. Wouldn’t it be better to have one day where it’s “perfect”? The problem is, it’s never perfect. As soon as you finish cleaning the dog tracks in mud, I decide to do some baking and dust the floor with flour, etc. And trying to clean everything in one day just made me Ms. CrabbyPants. Now when we have weekend visitors, the house is “mostly dusted” (is that like “mostly dead”?) and the floors and bathrooms still look good.

My two favorite cleaning tips?

1) I hated cleaning my toilets … just reading the warning labels on the toilet cleaners is enough to scare anyone. But why do we need to use that stuff?! Soap is soap. If you keep up with regular cleanings, it’s the swishing action that does most of the work (that’s why Flylady talks about doing a “swish and swipe” in the bathroom every morning). I went and picked up three of the largest bottles of antibacterial liquid soap I could find at the dollar store … one for each bathroom. No more harsh chemicals for me.

2) Microfiber is my friend. For a while I really liked using those Swiffer dusters because I could zip in between knick knacks and pictures without moving them. The problem was I never felt like I was doing a “good” cleaning with them… plus, the refills are an expense. My “good” cleanings were always done with paper towels or rags and dusting chemicals. Microfiber towels work so much better. It might take a bit longer as I’m picking up display items, but I’m also getting more dust – without having to use any sprays! Plus, there’s no cost – other than washing them. If you want to give them a try, do NOT pick up the towels in the cleaning aisle at the store. They’re likely to charge $3+ per towel! We found some at Fleet Farm for $4 for 3 towels. And an even better deal … $1 for 2 towels at Dollar Tree. They’re all exactly the same (even down to the REALLY BRIGHT colors)!

Spring isn’t the only time for cleaning!

Resolutions update – Feb ‘10

2010-02-28T17:54:00.002-06:00

Gone this month:

26 more magazines / catalogs
5 more books
a large stack of clippings / recipes – tossed, some after scanning

I ended up with a total of ELEVEN (11) credits at PaperBackSwap and only redeemed one. I still have over 25 books waiting to be requested. I know two other books snuck their way into the house this month – Dave received a Barnes & Noble gift certificate for Christmas, so that’s “allowed”.

I managed to keep on top of the catalogs coming into the house (after drooling over a few – like the garden catalog), and the only magazines that didn’t get reviewed and chucked were a couple of knitting/crochet ones – but even one of those was scanned (just a couple of patterns) and sent to my mother’s house.

By the way, I love the Interweave magazines! Both the Interweave Knits and Interweave Crochet are awesome. I also like Piecework which often has historical information on threadwork… I’m just trying to decide if I can afford to keep all three subscriptions.

As for the health resolution… This month started off very badly. I ended up with a health issue that prevented me from walking, and I’m not organized enough to have a list of non-walking exercises to do each day. So … I skipped altogether (not sure how much I could have done anyway).

Still keeping up with the water consumption. I noticed something this month … as my exercise decreases, my craving for Pepsi increases. I think it’s tied to the fact that if I exercise, I don’t want anything except water for the next hour or so. If I don’t exercise that night, my sweet craving hits right after supper … and I often end up drinking Pepsi. So more exercise = less Pepsi. Pretty simple formula.

My other problem has been that I’m having a tough time doing chores at night and exercising. Granted, on Thursdays I’m pretty sure I’m getting both done as that day has now been scheduled for vacuuming. Even if I rush / get just the general areas, it still takes me 30-45 minutes to vacuum the whole house (tile and wood too).

In March, my plan is to:

Keep up with the decluttering. I still have 2-3 boxes of papers to go through. Some have been moved once and I think one was moved from Cross Plains! And just about every area of the house could use some decluttering … I hope to review them all before we have a rummage sale (May?).
Continue with my cleaning schedule. I have already revised it once – due to Lenten services/Bible study on Wed nights, and I may want to tweak it a bit more. Following along with FlyLady helps with motivation even if I don’t follow her plan religiously.
Keep up with my water consumption. Not buying Pepsi might help, but I don’t think that will happen .
Try and find a way to incorporate some exercise into my weeks – even if it’s just stretching or strength routines. Now that we’re seeing daylight longer, it might be easier to get out and walk before dinner.

Chickens in the house??

2010-02-14T19:26:00.004-06:00

Yep, we’re planning on having chickens … in our house. Well, temporarily anyway. Dave had built a brooder / coop in the basement for use until the weather gets warmer and he can build an outdoor coop and chicken run.

We have 38 chicks coming in a couple of weeks:

3 Buff Orpingtons hens
3 Barred Rock hens
3 Silver-laced Wyandottes hens
3 Cornish roasters
25 heavy-breed cockerels
1 rare breed (he was free)

Sometime late spring we plan on butchering all but the first 9 hens (or is it all 12 hens? I can’t remember) and possibly keep one rooster out of the 26. So, the number #1 rule that Carmen has to keep reminding herself: no matter how cute and adorable those chicks are… No. Naming. the Dinner.

Meanwhile, Dave has been busy building, and rearranging, and rethinking the plan. He even planned the coop so we can reuse most of the materials for their outdoor dwelling.

We have the heat lamp, bedding, timer for lights, feeders, water pans, chick feed, and a place for them to stay. Their new abode is a three-level “condo” with ramps. Now it’s just waiting for the chicks to arrive (that might be the hardest part!).

I can’t wait to see what poor ol’ Charlie thinks of those little fuzz balls when they arrive. We’ll probably see something like this… his long-suffering look of what are you doing to me now? Cause you know it’s HIS house after all.

Actually I think this picture is more … I’m bored. It’s cold. I have cabin fever. Can’t we go for a ride or something?!

Decluttering update – January ‘10

2010-01-31T15:24:00.000-06:00

With my effort to declutter the house, I decided to keep a list of items I have removed. One item a day doesn’t seem much, but I would hope that seeing lots of items would help keep me motivated (there isn’t one for each day because I have grouped some items as I worked on piles of stuff).

purchased birthday cards. Now that I make my own, I can’t give away store-bought cards. They’ve just been sitting around since we moved.
magazines – old and some that just arrived; some will be recycled, some I might try and sell. Current total is at 19.
books. I don’t read as much as I used to and find that I keep coming back to the same books. So I’m determined to go through my entire book stash this year and weed out into: keep, review again (unsure – trying to keep this pile small), and sell/donate. I’ve already sent several books out on PaperBackSwap; others are in a tote downstairs. Current total for books: 41.
Christmas decorations including: 2’ tall St. Nick, plaque, 3 boxes of grapevine lights, a box full of ornaments, another box of fancy glass ornaments to sell, 2 stockings, old mini tree, candle lights for windows. Organized and reduced so now there are 3 empty totes!!
Christmas wrapping: sorted and condensed into two boxes – one for paper, one for bags and boxes. One tote was broken, so I ended up tossing some boxes/bags because they smelled musty (I think that happened in our old house).
two gift wrap “stations”; never used either.
cookie cutters – found quite a few duplicates and a box of 100 “generic” cutters. Pulled out the ones I really wanted and the rest will go…
an entire bag of recycled craft items – things like food cans, 2 liter bottles, old CDs, paper towel rolls, etc. I never got around to making the crafts I had them saved for; donated to a woman who has craft classes for kids.
pens and pencils. Cleaned out one drawer-full and kept the ones we really like; tossed those that don’t work; donated the rest.
nothing was removed, but I managed to clean and organize our silverware drawer (some items were moved to where they belonged!)
linens – couple of pillowcases, throw pillow; old towels – some from house, some from now-defunct business. Dave took these to the Humane Society.
crafts: floral foam (used one piece in set of 4), small shadowbox
miscellany: a wicker basket, felt puzzle keeper, old shoes.

Things I’ve learned: in addition to the fact that we have too much stuff?!? Well, I’d have to say that decluttering is refreshing, weight-lifting, and can be a lot of fun! I’ve run everything by Dave before it’s left the house, but usually he is more will to ditch items than I am (although he did take back a couple of ornaments I had slated to go).

Moving Forward…

I still have a long way to go. There are boxes of papers that need to be filed, tossed, scanned, etc. The books I have slated to leave are just a small fraction of the ones that need to be decided-upon.

Just like my other resolution, this one had some unexpected outcomes. Cleaning! I love FlyLady’s idea of eliminating CHAOS – Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome. I had heard about FlyLady before, and I think I might have even signed up for the emails at one time, but never followed through. Warning: they send a LOT of emails, but you just go at your own pace. The Flight Plans give you a daily reminder of what to do each day. Each day there are mini-tasks (e.g. swish & swipe in the bathroom); each week you get a “zone” to concentrate on (this week was the Living Room); and there is a monthly assignment (January is Shine Your Sink!). There are some great tips about setting a timer for just 15 min to see what you can get done, taking baby steps so you don’t get overwhelmed, etc. Already our house is looking better! In fact, I’m going to change the “About Me” note that says call before coming over… just come over!

Health Resolution – January ‘10

2010-01-31T13:24:00.000-06:00

So how did I do in the first month?

Week 1

I skipped my workout on Wed because I felt I was getting a cold; also needed to prep for someone’s 50th birthday dinner. I didn’t do the scheduled workout on Saturday. Instead, I spent several hours taking down Christmas decorations, sorting, purging, organizing. I’m not sure how much “cardio” I got in that day, but I was a bit stiff on Sunday from the lifting, bending, etc.

One unexpected bonus that I didn’t expect is my very limited consumption of Pepsi. Let me tell you, I used to be addicted! A “friend” on SP mentioned that she only allows soda once her daily quota of water is met. By the time I consume 6-8 cups of water, I am either no longer in the mood for Pepsi – or it’s past 9pm, so I can’t drink it (would keep me awake). I think it’s also helped to say that I can have it, but there are restrictions – instead of trying to quit cold-turkey. Instead of the two, sometimes three, cans PER DAY, I had two all week!

Week 2

Mondays are always my low-energy, low-mood days. Usually I get home from work and plop on the couch. Forget about cleaning, laundry, etc … I’m too tired. This Monday I came home, changed clothes, and immediately charged into my workout routine. After dinner, I was still “pumped” enough that I did a major burst of sorting through papers! (sitting down, but I wasn’t on the computer or crocheting as much). Rest of the week was so-so on the exercising, but I’m continuing my push for water consumption; that seems to be the easiest part of all of this.

Week 3

Slacking off a bit. I didn’t do much exercising on the weekend and skipped on Tues. I always thought Mondays would be the day that would be tough to keep up the routine, but it turns out the Tues and weekends are my down-fall. It also seems to correspond partly to the amount of sleep I get. The last two weeks I’ve had rough nights on Mondays, so I wake up tired and sluggish – and it lasts all day. I may just have to go to bed earlier…

Week 4

Exercise? Pffft. This was the worst week yet. I can see why they say morning exercise is the best – because then it’s done! The problem is that I am not and never have been a morning person! I had a couple of days that were busy enough I really couldn’t have exercised until 9pm… which seems too late / too close to bedtime. There were also hormones interfering, cleaning to be done, this excuse, that excuse, etc. Charlie and I had a good walk last Sunday – despite the wet weather. We did the “short” walk (1 mile) – it was plenty long enough that day. And it seems the same for Charlie – he was fine walking, but his leg really stiffened up that night.

Moving forward…

Even though I felt I didn’t keep up with the 5-7 days routine, I am exercising more than before, I’m also moving more in general. The really good news is that I might have sparked Dave into starting to walk again. He’s only done a couple of days this week – but if he gets going, I’m sure he’ll be committed more than me. He was doing really great last fall until a change in his schedule goofed up his routine and he dropped it.

The amazing part has been the switch to water. Not only do I feel more hydrated, it means less liquid calories per day, plus I’m saving money! At work alone I was doing 2-3 sodas per day x 5 days @ $.65 per soda. That’s $6-10 per week! And that didn’t include what I was drinking at home. In Dec, we were going through a 12-pack every week or two. Dave drinks mostly coffee in the winter, so guess who was drinking all that?! Now, I really notice when I haven’t gotten my 6-8 cups of water in each day.

I spent a lot of time at the beginning of this month reading articles, tracking goals, and communicating with people on SparkPeople.com. I noticed that as the month went on and I did less on SP, I seemed less motivated – so I really need to push to spend more time on SP (and less on other sites).

Quote of the day 1/12

2010-01-12T21:15:00.002-06:00

I don't bother getting even. I just get odd.

New Year’s Resolutions

2009-12-30T21:32:00.000-06:00

I don’t usually bother to make New Year’s Resolutions. Like most people, you start off the year with grand plans only to fail – usually within the same month. This year, I’m hoping will be different. I have read that it’s best to get as specific as possible to make your chances of being successful greater. I really have two primary goals in mind, and while I’ll be a little specific here, I don’t want to bore you with too many details.

Health and weight

Specifically, I like to lose 25-30 pounds this year. I know I have a lot more to lose, but as difficult as it is for me to lose weight, this gives me the goal of 1/2 to 1 pound per week. To help reach this goal, I plan to make the following changes:

Limit soda intake to a maximum 12-oz per day. I’ve tried cold-turkey in the past and it hasn’t worked, but hopefully this goal will help if I can’t eliminate soda completely.
Exercise at least 10 min every day. Even days that I “don’t feel like it” – once you get moving, often times you can go longer.
Drink 6-8 cups of water a day. I may do some of these as herbal tea – especially while trying to cut back on the soda. I refuse to try and replace soda with artificial sweetener-laced beverages and I firmly believe they are no better (and may be worse).
Check-in with SparkPeople every day. This website is FREE to use and is chock full of useful tips, recipes, exercise mini-videos and motivation.

Organization / Simplification

I feel like I’ve reached a turning point in my life where suddenly it has become clear that more STUFF does not make me happier … in fact, all that clutter can make me miserable.

To help in that goal, I have been reading several blogs including Unclutterer and one I just discovered today - 365 Days of Decluttering

I like the idea of the 365 days. You don’t have to jump in and tackle a large project – just do a little bit each day. Less emotional stress trying to get rid of items.

I almost started this in December, but there was too many other things going on, so I decided I’d try to get my feet week in the new year – or maybe even on my day off tomorrow! I’m borrowing my parent’s scanner so I can get rid of some paper clutter – but I’m sure I’ll find that a lot of those papers we’ve moved (sometimes TWICE!) can just be tossed.

Finances

I’m not sure if this is a goal or a necessity. Having lived on one income for almost three years, we’re at a pretty low point financially. In the next few months I’d like to find some places where we can cut some of our expenses … and for Dave to find a job. If both happen, we should bounce back rather quickly.

One more?

And if I were to try and change one more thing in my life (all the above isn’t enough, right?) it would be to somehow decrease the amount of time I spend on the computer. I’m going to have to find a way to decrease the number of emails sent to me along with websites/blogs that I follow. I find I’m spending several hours a night online … and consequently not crafting as much as I like. If anyone has any tips on this goal, I’d appreciate it.

Here’s hoping each and every one of you have a blessed 2010!

Good deed day

2009-12-29T18:22:00.000-06:00

I feel like a did a good deed for today over lunch.

I had planned on going to Target to pick up a long list of items (sales + coupon matching), but one last look at the list before I left, I felt we didn’t “need” any of it, so I went to Walmart instead. Picked up the one item I did need (was on clearance), and vowed that I'd try and be good as I walked through the yarn dept. I remembered that I no longer have a size 7 steel hook (lost somewhere in the couch??), but apparently they no longer carry the steel - only the letters (B thru ??). I was almost ready to walk away…

There was an older woman standing there looking a little confused. She asked if I knew anything about “this stuff”. She crocheted a long time ago and wanted now to learn to knit. “The book said” to pick up a size 10 needle. She had accidentally picked up an 11, so I pointed her to the proper size. Then she asked about yarn, because she didn’t know what type or size to buy of that. I told her about the size symbol on the yarns and said anything with a 4-Medium would be best. She was impressed with my knowledge and talked about how she didn’t have anyone to show her how … and she’s left-handed. I mentioned KnittingHelp.com and how helpful their videos are in learning.

I may have skipped buying yarn or needles today, but I still walked out with a warm fuzzy feeling!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-28T21:51:00.000-06:00

Despite the weatherman’s attempts to keep us stuck at home for Christmas, we managed to visit both sets of parents over the course of the four-day weekend. I rained here in Wisconsin, all day Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and snowed just a little on the weekend. Much better than the blizzard watches and freezing rain predictions that were being made. Our days were filled with too much food, more than enough presents, and not enough time for visiting with family, and it went by all too fast … about standard with other years.

With all the rain, almost all of our snow is gone – at least to the point that snowmobiling isn’t likely anytime soon. We thought this winter would be ideal when we had a major storm move through on Dec 9th. When Charlie looked at the deck and then looked at us like “you expect me to go out in THAT?!”

2009’s Christmas crafting was pretty dismal. I hardly made any gifts at all this year. I’m not sure what happened – too many ideas? not enough time? too much computer surfing?

In late November, I finished my second shawl - made for my aunt who has been battling cancer for the past year. It was the first time I’ve used Michael’s new yarn – Loops & Threads Impeccable. It’s nice and soft, and this shawl pattern accented the nice striping colors.

I have some doilies made that need to be finished (hiding ends) and blocked, so I don’t have pictures of those yet. I also made some nylon (tulle) scrubbies again this year – they were a big hit from last year and I had requests for more.

Several weeks ago I hit a crafting lull where I didn’t feel like doing much crocheting. Round about that time I came across another pattern that Smoothfox wanted tested. This is called “Fox's Flower Petals Doily”. It’s made with worsted weight yarn, so it’s actually quite large. I used some of the ivory cotton yarn I saved when I tore apart a sweater I made earlier this year. I also “stole” a bit of burgundy and black from what I’m supposed to be using for my sister’s bath mat. I didn’t have an immediate use for it, but it looks pretty nice sitting on the back of the burgundy wing-back chair!

Shawls and sunshine

2009-11-01T09:25:00.000-06:00

The sun has finally decided to appear after weeks of rain, snow and just plain cloudy/gloomy days. It feels weird to have to put on sunglasses again to go outside. But it also means that it has been slightly warmer and definitely more inviting outside.

The disadvantage to having a warm-up in late fall like this is the bugs! Thousands of box elder bugs and Asian beetles. Yuck! I think next year we might have to find someone to spray our house – it was utterly ridiculous this year. You almost hate to open doors and windows – but they still manage to find their way into the house (and our house is new!)

On the “inside”, I have been working on shawls. One of the women I met for First Free’s crafting weekend is trying to get a Prayer Shawl Ministry group going. I’m not completely sure I’ll continue with it … I’m finding I much prefer making afghans instead of shawls. Maybe that’s because when you’re making shawls, according to the pattern you’re 2/3 of the way done, but those last few rows take longer and longer to finish!

I also have had a tough time remembering to pray when making the shawls … especially when making for someone “anonymous”. So I changed that and have decided I’m making a few as gifts for people close to me who I feel need comfort (shhh … I can’t tell you who!)

I finished a shawl Friday night. Mom and I were the only knitters/ crocheters to show up to FF’s monthly craft night (last Fri of the month) – and except for one other person, the only ones not scrapbooking (there was one quilter). I needed to finish this shawl on Fri anyway because I was testing … of course!. The shawl is called Walden by Sara Peterson (knottygnome).

I made this in Red Heart Designer Sport. I bought a ton of the yarn on clearance this spring because I loved the color – but then didn’t like the start of a sweater I tried making with it. I think it turned out to be a beautiful shawl. And I probably have more than enough of the yarn left to still make a sweater It’s done in a half-double stitch alternated with a herringbone half-double she describes in the pattern. I think the herringbone stitch gives it even more of a slanted look than the triangular shawl would normally. (I don’t know how to take “modeled” pictures … or at least to tell Dave how to take them!)

I’ve started on another shawl (shh … don’t tell the anyone!) that I hope to have done in the next week or so. And then a third – each as unique as their recipient. And I’m even thinking of finishing one afghan and starting another. But we’ll see … I’ve been known to get too ambitious before Christmas.

Snow in Oct?? … and Crafting adventures

2009-10-26T18:52:00.000-05:00

My friends and I had quite the adventurous trip this weekend. As many of you know, we are friends with three families that went together and bought a cabin up north. The cabin is named BuGaDu (bug-a-doo)after the first initials of each family :). Two of those friends (the women only) were heading up to the cabin this weekend for crafting and invited me along.

We left Friday night. It was raining back home, but before we got to Eau Claire it was snowing pretty hard with approx 1.5” on the ground. And it was that wet, slushy stuff that makes for nasty driving. Between Bloomer and Chetek was the worst … Colleen didn’t go much above 35 mph in most places. Because of the weather, instead of taking 2 1/2 hours to get there – our travel time was almost an additional hour. We pulled up to the cabin at 9pm, tired, stressed and happy to have finally arrived, only to find:

No electricity.

That wet, heavy snow that was not only making travel hazardous was also pulling down tree branches, and apparently breaking power lines somewhere close by. After making a few phone calls (thank God for cell phones!), we decided to drive back to Birchwood and spend the night in a motel. Even then, we didn’t get to bed until 11pm.

The next morning arrived as a cold and dreary day – but at least it had stopped snowing. We left the motel, picked up our caffeine so we wouldn’t growl at each other and headed back to the cabin. Fortunately, this time there was electricity … and heat … and full use of bathroom facilities (the well pump won’t work without electricity).

We dived right into our crafting and didn’t even bother with breakfast. Gail and Colleen were working on a Christmas purse pattern that they modeled after one they picked up at Stone Lake Cranberry Fest. After a full day of sewing, they had … one whole purse done. Ok, to their credit – they were making up their own pattern, it’s not a simple one (lots of pockets and zippers), and they learned a lot in that first purse. The second one went much faster, but we ran out of time for much more.

I spent the whole time crocheting – with a brief change over to knitting (maybe 30 min). My right arm is sure feeling it today. I primarily worked on the Walden shawl and am getting pretty close to being done. Gail said she preferred shawls that cover your arms more, so I’ll keep going for a few more rows before edging it.

I also made a few snowflakes. For me, the hardest part about making a doily is the center – because it’s so constricted. Since snowflakes are so small, you spend most of your time in that “tight zone” – but they’re still fun because you can whip one or two out and you have something to show for it.

Here’s a couple of snowflakes all finished. I plan on using these for my Secret Santa in December:

On Sunday, we had a different type of adventure. We woke up, had a little breakfast, and did a bit more crafting before we had to leave. As I mentioned, it normally takes 2 1/2 hours to get (to their) home. It took us 6 hours! Not because of snow. It’s because these women can SHOP!

First we stopped, at my request at a discount store (Bargain Bills). Last time I was there, they had all kinds of yarn for around $1. They still had some, but the selection wasn’t as great. Still, Gail and Colleen found plenty to buy.

Then we stopped at a couple of thrift stores in Rice Lake - mainly looking for costumes (request to dress up in costume for a Halloween wedding). I found thread at both places - some is stained/"yellowed", but I'm hoping it will clean up ok.

We also stopped at Joann's in Eau Claire. Now that's a CRAFT store - none of that household decorating stuff Hobby Lobby is full of! Tons of fabric and sewing materials (that's why my friends wanted to stop). I picked up some purse handles and magnetic closures for purses. They had a great selection of handles – better than I’ve seen elsewhere. I also had to look at yarn of course. Lion Brand was buy one, get 2nd 1/2 off, but didn't get any. Instead I found that they had knit/crochet books for 40% off. That's one of the few items we can't use coupons for at Hobby Lobby & Michaels, so I bought a couple of doily books. I didn’t spend nearly as much as some people :).

I wish I had pictures of our trip – we all forgot to bring cameras. The snow on the trees in northern Wisconsin is quite a sight to see!

I can knit … sort of

2009-10-23T17:05:00.000-05:00

Hurray! My very first knit item!!

Ok, so it doesn’t look the greatest. The stitches aren’t even and there’s a slight hole in the middle … or is that called Lace?! But I’m learning. It’s rather fun to switch between knitting and crocheting – they both give me satisfaction, but in slightly different ways.

On the crocheting front, I finally finished getting the border on the Truffles Blanket I started (and was supposed to finish back in Aug!) I really like this color combination. I was worried about not having enough of the lighter color, so I changed this from a two-color to a three-color pattern and added a few extra rows in the middle to make it slightly wider. I love the colors. I’ve now used the dark brown (Coffee) and medium brown (Cafe) colors in a couple other items, and the Aran Fleck gives it a nice balance so it’s not too dark. Not sure what I’m going to do with it now that it’s finished. I have thought about a couple of people that might receive it as a gift … or maybe we’ll end up using it.

I’m headed up north with some friends to do crafting this weekend. They’re going to be sewing/quilting. I’m hoping to do lots of crocheting and maybe some more practice knitting. No internet access, so I won’t have to worry about THAT for a distraction…

In my project bags (yes, I have more than one bag going with me! just one for clothes – multiple for crafts!!):

Walden shawl. Testing for the designer and it needs to be done by 10/30. I’m making this as a prayer shawl for someone.

????? undecided shawl. I want to make another prayer shawl, but I haven’t decided on a pattern yet. I only have the yarn picked out.

Boucle bath mat from Interweave Crochet. For my sister; started last spring but have had problems getting the loops right. This will be like the one I did last year (on left), but in different colors. Kay wanted maroon to match her bathroom.

Doily number 7318. It’s about 2/3 done. I’m making this because it matched one that belonged to my aunt and I loved the spirals in it. This pattern was probably not the best choice for my second doily ever.

Never Fading Flowers squares. This is a great take-along project as it creates little squares. I think I have 4 or 5 done so far.

I also have quite a few doily and snowflake patterns printed off.

Do you think I have enough to do??

Projects left at home:

Guatemalan Surprise afghan – in the Tunisian Around the Home booklet (I believe you can purchase at Annie’s Attic); I thought this was too big a project to bring since I had so many others!

Iota sweater. It’s a short-sleeved one that I might have to restart in the spring.

Krochet Krystal daisy afghan. I’ve been making squares for this off-and-on. (More “off” than “on” lately).

Crafts and a shopping frenzy

2009-10-21T20:11:00.001-05:00

My mother and I have something planned to do together for every weekend in October, and even one or two in November!

Last weekend we went to Logan High school for their fall craft fair. I would really love to know if spending was as high per person as it has been in past years because I tell ya … that place was PACKED! They even added a third room for crafts this year. I know I tried to keep my spending down (didn’t succeed), but if everyone else spent as much as usual … why is the economy so down?

We have a tradition that after leaving Logan, we always head to the mall area to Hobby Lobby and Michaels to purchase the makings for whatever craft we felt we could make better or cheaper ourselves. That has changed over the years as we’ve seen less and less handmade crafts (Logan’s fair usually better than some other craft fairs) and as our (my?) focus has changed. This year we spent our money on yarn … of course. I spent too much money, but can’t talk about my purchases much because most of it is for gifts.

We even went to Good Steward and Goodwill to see if they had any yarn for sale for cheap. (Good Steward is another “charity” place like Goodwill, but it’s run by Luther High school in Onalaska. I believe the proceeds help go towards scholarships). Goodwill had nothing, but Good Steward had several doilies, DMC thread, a partially made afghan kit, etc. I picked up some nylon yarn (not made anymore) – Mom said it would make a nice hat. Also, a ball of cotton yarn, rug yarn, sport-weight acrylic (or was it nylon again?) and size 10 thread.

And if my shopping day wasn’t complete enough … Dave called because he was checking out the antique stores in the area. He was at the one in Winona and wanted me to join him so I could see just how big it is. Unfortunately, I got there less than an hour before closing time, so I just had him lead me around to show me some “highlights”. That place is HUGE! You could easily spend hours there looking at everything.

As we were going through, of course I kept spotting fiber arts stuff – doilies, an afghan, some old crochet magazines, etc. The only purchase we made was a bag marked down will a variety of items. There were two doily books, one tatting book (plus a photo-copied how-to booklet), two steel crochet hooks, a ball of DMC Cébélia size 10 thread, plus some size 80 thread (so tiny!) Can you believe I got all of this for $2?

Did I mention my stash closet is overflowing … some might even say spilling out…

Apples in October

2009-10-05T09:39:00.000-05:00

This weekend was Galesville’s annual Apple Affair. Although it wasn’t as cold as it has been some years (we saw snow flurries one year) – it was still one of the more miserable days. Cold (mid-50’s) and misting the whole time. Mom & Dad came up for the event. Despite the weather, we still managed to wander through the craft fair, check out the book “sale” (donation) at the library, and have some food in the big tent.

Dave wasn’t able to attend as he was helping a friend roof their house (yep, in the cold, wet, misty weather!) He helped again this year with the apple pie baking – nope, not the 10-foot one, but with the individual ones that the churches make to sell. They made 181 pies this year and had only 14 left at noon when I stopped by (we already had one at home). Personally I think the regular-sized pies are much better tasting than the big one – primarily because the big one is sweeter and more like a Dutch apple pie. The “ladies” make the best crust and lots of cinnamon-covered apples. (Did I mention that our pie is gone already?!)

I haven’t been entering a LOT of contests, but apparently I have done enough lately to make it worth my while! On Saturday, the mail consisted of one advertisement, one cooking magazine, and two contest winnings! Plus, no bills – so overall a great day!

The first prize was one that I wasn’t sure if I’d see. I’ve had problems with my email address getting marked as spam, so when I didn’t hear back that she had received my address – and when nothing came in the mail for a couple of weeks, I assumed she awarded the prize to someone else. I guess I need to be more patient :). Shannon at The Mommy Files has lots of great contests each week, including August’s contest for Disney’s “Pete’s Dragon”!

The other contest I won is an on-going weekly contest called “What's Old is New Again". It’s organized by CrochetPartners Yahoo group and is “sponsored” by people that have crochet items that they no longer want – yarn, hooks, booklets/patterns, etc. I won this contest last summer –and received mostly yarn. This time the sponsor, Kathleen, sent me a package of booklets (you can click on the picture for a larger view). At least half of these are thread books – so I am thrilled to get them! And if you notice, there’s even a thread ANGEL book – Awesome! I should really go through my stash and sign up to be a sponsor again…

I just finished a project tonight. Testing, of course! He’s called “Completely Fierce Dragon” and the pattern is available for purchase at Ravelry from “StarKnits”. He's supposed to have a cat toy in the middle – for either a pet or baby rattle, but I didn’t have a chance to pick one up. Isn’t he cute?

Crafting in September

2009-10-02T08:32:00.001-05:00

Still not much progress on crafts – at least it doesn’t feel like I’m making much progress.

I’d like to start off by showcasing something my sister-in-law made. Like me, Jane has tried many different crafts in the past. She used to do a lot of cross stitch, but her current favorite craft is quilting. While her mother makes dozens of baby quilts each year (no exaggeration!), Jane has concentrated on making just one or two quilts – in grown-up sizes, and with more complex designs. I had admired this quilt one of the last times we visited – and possibly mentioned that it matches the dark greens we have in several rooms in our house. Jane became seriously ill earlier this summer – so I don’t know if her gifting us with the quilt had something to do with facing her own mortality or if she had decided earlier, but I am quite grateful for it!

Most of the crafts I finished in September were ones that I had to finish because I was testing for someone. Each time I finish, I say … “No more testing!” so I can get some of my older projects finished … and then along comes another project I really want to do.

The first project I finished this month was an afghan (actually, it’s not quite finished, but "Shh” … don’t tell! It still needs a border).

This one is called Truffles Blanket by Maggie Menzel. I tested for her once before (Basic Doll Body). This is a free pattern on Ravelry. Her version only had two colors. Of course, I can’t follow a pattern anymore – just like making recipes. It’s a compulsion to change something. In this case, I wanted to make it a bit wider than it called for, and was concerned about running out of yarn (will that ever happen in my house?), so I went with three colors and added a few more smaller stripes in the middle. I really like the colors – an aran “fleck”, cocoa and dark brown.

The other pattern I tested and finished this month was Autumn Leaves Tote Bag by Linda Permann (http://www.lindamade.com). The crochet part was pretty simple, but the pattern also included sewing instructions. As you probably know, I am not a sewer! But her instructions were clear, so it took me less time to sew the lining and handles than it took to crochet the bottom.

The pattern is available for $5.50 on both Ravelry and etsy.

The only other project I finished was an “emergency” one. We were invited to a neighbor girl’s 3rd birthday party. We weren’t able to attend, but I felt she should still get something from us. So in approx 24 hours I whipped this together. This is the same lion pattern I used for my sister’s gift back in January (Lion Brand pattern# 70580AD). Is a green lion? Mint Monster? Kayla can decide what type of animal he is .

If you’ve read back, in a previous post, I mentioned that I attended a Ladies’ Craft weekend in mid-Sept? Well, during that time I had Mom teach me Knitting 101.

I can now cast on, knit and purl. I won’t say my stitches are even … or that I don’t occasionally drop stitches … or the problem this week: forgetting whether or not that row is knit or purl after I pick it up again! But I’m learning. And it’s FUN!

And you know what’s even better? Around the same time, I won an online contest (PhatFiber) and received these cute bamboo knitting needles with sheep on the ends! I haven’t tried them yet, but I’ve heard bamboo needles are a DREAM to work with. Aren’t these cute? The prize came from Designs by Tami. She has other cute knitting needles and stitch markers.

I’m off to crochet … or knit… whatever it ends up being, Dave thinks I’m addicted … could it be because I like to get a “hit” in the morning before leaving for work or church?! Nah.

Threshing Bee 2009

2009-10-01T14:57:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, Dave and I spent several hours at Norskedalen for the annual Threshing Bee (just like last year). For those that don’t know what that is… In the fall, farmers would separate the grain from the chaff before storing for the winter. In the “olden days” threshing machines were expensive, so neighbors would gather together to use the one local machine. In this case of these pictures, they’re separating oats:

The men would work in the fields, and the women would put together a large spread of food to eat when they were finished. Norskedalen served up a big meal at noon, but we didn’t participate this year – sounds like it was pretty good, so we may have to consider for next year.

Lot of antique tractors on the grounds – for display and used as generators for the threshing machines. Mostly John Deere and Farm-all. My favorite was this little Ford 8N. (Dave hates that he’s in the picture, but I wanted to show you the size of this tiny tractor! )

There were several other demonstrations during the day – corn husking, threshing by hand, cream separating, etc. Plenty of samples to be tasted too – hand-cranked ice cream, homemade cheese, and freshly churned butter. Oh, and lefse – cooked on the stove; it had a slightly smoky flavor to it, but when compared to some she had made on a griddle – it was far tastier!

They also had someone that was spinning wool into yarn - guess who I spent a great deal of time talking to?! (In my defense, I also spent a lot of time with the cheese maker).

Dave’s big thrill of the day was that he got to harvest tobacco! He was tickled pink! – he hasn’t done that in 30 years. Said it was a lot of fun (but I think he’d have a different story if he had to do it all day instead of just 10-15 min worth of work!) They only plant two rows of tobacco – about two dozen plants. It’s just to give people an idea of how it was – and still is! – harvested and hung to dry. (He picked the right color shirt – he’s camouflaged in the tobacco leaves! LOL)

Did I mention that we spent FIVE HOURS at Norskedalen this year?! There was a forecast for a chance of rain on Saturday, but it was nice and sunny and upper 60’s. Completely gorgeous fall weather.

It wasn’t until we started heading home that we saw the clouds moving in. And then we were about even with Drugan’s Castle Mound that it started POURING. The funny part? … the rest of my dept was at Drugan’s for our annual golf outing! They were on the 7th hole (of 9) and didn’t think it would last long. Not surprisingly, they all ended up soaked! We met them later at a coworker’s house for a potluck dinner. Not only did we not golf with my coworkers this year – we pooped out early. I guess it was all that fresh air, sunshine and walking. I was ready for bed at 8:30pm!

On a slightly different note, if you’ve talked with either of us recently, you may have noticed that we’re becoming more and more enamored with the idea of a self-sufficient lifestyle. The plan is, next spring we hope to get some chickens (mainly for eggs). We’ve said almost from year #2 in our home that our current house it too big – that we’d like a much smaller house, but with more land. Dave has been spending his online time looking at tractors and other farm equipment (instead of airplanes – which was last year’s fascination). It’s also why we spent more time at the Threshing Bee this year – to learn some of the techniques.

Dave came home from our weekend experience and made butter for us, using store-bought cream and our mixer. Turned out just fine – but not really cost effective the way he did it … one pint of cream $3.00 + electricity = approx one STICK of butter. Not when I can find a full pound of butter elsewhere for $1.60-$2.40.

Oh well. It was a learning experience (now we either need to get a cow or make friends with a farmer!)

Something happened to my September

2009-10-01T11:35:00.000-05:00

I think someone stole my September – it can’t possibly be October already! What’s even more amazing is that I went an entire month without posting anything! I may have to split up all my ideas, just to make it more readable.

So, what did we do in September? The first weekend (Labor Day) we spent at Dave’s parents for the annual Nuland reunion. I think this one was the most successful (at least by the number of people attending) since we started having them a few years ago. Per usual, there was LOTS of food … see this table?

That’s just the before-dinner snacks!! We refilled the table with salads and other dishes to go along with the beef and bbq pork sandwiches. And then the table was refilled another time with about a dozen desserts! The Nulands are celebrating their 55th wedding anniversary (beginning of Oct), so I decided to treat them by making a Kransekake (Norwegian wedding cake) as you see in the center.

In the middle of the month, my mother and I spent a couple of days with a great group of ladies at First Evangelical Free Church (Onalaska). They sponsored a craft “weekend” – Fri night and most of Sat. They had a large room set up with tables. We had a variety of crafts going on – beading, quilting, sewing, scrapbooking, card-making, knitting, crocheting, punch needle … and probably a few I missed seeing. The whole weekend cost only $15* – for that we had as much room as needed to spread out, snacks, drinks, lunch on Sat, workshops – including the supplies to make the craft, and of course, lots and lots of fellowship!

* I heard that some complained that there was a fee at all since it was sponsored by the church. I know for a fact that they didn’t even break even on the cost of the food and supplies. And where else are you going to be able to have that much crafting time for just $15? I’ve seen similar groups – usually quilting or scrapbooking that can range from $20 to $70 for just one day!!

They do a similar Ladies’ Craft Night on the last Friday of the month for several hours. I’m hoping to make it to the next one in October.

I think that’s probably enough for this post… don’t want you to get bored reading!

Do I need another blog?!

2009-09-20T21:12:00.001-05:00

I guess so!

Go see post at http://cmouseshome.blogspot.com/2009/09/do-i-need-another-blog.html

August projects and miscellany

2009-08-31T20:32:00.001-05:00

I’ve been struggling to get through several of my bigger crochet projects … and then of course, I added a couple of new ones this month.

I started off the month, scrambling to finish the Paris in the Spring sweater. I decided to change it a bit, making the bottom longer and less “frilly”, and I added a shell collar. But I still don’t like it . I’m not sure why. If it’s the colors, the style, or what. I think I might end up frogging it (rip-it) and using the cotton for dishcloths or something. "Before"

and after:

I have also been struggling with this doily pattern – the second one I’ve ever tried. I got part way through and it started cupping. The good news is that others in my Yahoo groups are making this and seeing the same thing, so I’m hoping it works out when it’s blocked. This is the doily pattern that matched my aunt Margaret’s mother’s doily that I “borrowed” for a while. Margaret has it back so I want to get this completed.

The only projects I managed to finish this month were afghan squares! A few months ago I signed up to receive a charity square pattern for a Poinsettia. The idea is that you need to send that person one square in return for receiving the pattern; she then combines all the square from various people into an afghan and donates it. The picture doesn’t do this justice – it was done in maroon and pine green and is 12” across.

I couldn’t keep my eyes out of the Ravelry testing “pool” either this month – despite all the other projects to finish. This one is called Never Fading Flower square. It’s a small square. It worked up in just about an hour and was fun to make. I might have to make up a baby blanket or something from this pattern!

In other news…

We had been talking about getting Charlie a new bed – his is years old, not very fluffy any more. Dave picked up this inexpensive one. Instead of treating it as a bed – Charlie apparently thought it was one Gigantic Stuffed Toy!

Dave has gotten a little adventurous in his foraging. After the many days of rain we had last week, our neighbor’s yard had these HUGE, funny looking mushrooms. Dave decided they were worth picking and frying up (after he verified online he knew what they were - of course). They’re called Puff Balls. When you slice into them, they look just like a loaf of bread. I had a teensy piece. He ate a bit more – decided they had the consistency of a marshmallow. He put a couple of slices into a plastic bag and said if he had to be rushed to the hospital, I should make sure to take that with us. Silly man. I think I'll stick with the wild black raspberries.

I Hate Walgreens! (and other rants)

2009-08-29T13:07:00.000-05:00

Be prepared for a little (ok, a lot of) venting here…

I just get so frustrated whenever I try and shop at Walgreens. I look through their ads, see what wonderful deals they have, make a list, and end up coming out of the store with no more than half of what I wanted.

School supply time is the worst… rather than make the one school section larger for the few weeks a year, they split it so part of the supplies are in the front of the store and part are in back.

I went there yesterday to pick up a few things. On sale: toothbrushes and floss 99¢. They must have 25+ different kinds of toothbrushes in the store. Do they have the one on sale? Nope. Not a one.

I also went to pick up cereal until I realized their sale said 2 for $7 – but “really 2 for $5 when you get a $2 Register Reward”. Just another ploy to get me back in the store … especially since it has to be within two weeks of when I was last there or the RR’s expire.

Almost picked up some Ragu spaghetti sauce until I realized that it wasn’t a great price (you have to watch there “sales” to make sure they really are a good buy … this is where a Price Book comes in handy).

I think I was on my third trip around the store – (since I can never find anything!!), when I looked at my cart, looked at the list of what I still wanted to find, asked myself did I really NEED to get those items today (answer to myself: Nope.) … and walked out.

That’s not the first time either. I had a couple other errands to run Friday, but I knew to hit those first because the odds that I’d walk out of Walgreens totally frustrated were pretty high, and I wouldn’t want to do any shopping after that.

I’ve had a pretty lousy week with shopping and errands anyway. Same day, just before the Walgreens trip, Target supposedly had “selected Iams products” on sale, other than the huge 40lb bags of dog food … must have been SECRET selected Iams products, because nothing else seemed to be on sale.

Today, I went to get my oil changed. They recommend using the higher-grade, synthetic oils for my car. Even though they’re higher priced, it’s not a problem because it also means I only get my oil changed every 5,000 miles instead of 3,000. Stopped to get it changed – told the guy I wanted the higher grade. He even REPEATED the name of the brand! It wasn’t until after I paid that I realized the bill was too lower. He put standard-grade in my car. Grrr… And I didn’t get one of those stickers to tell me when my next oil change should be, so now I have to try and remember / keep my slip handy.

I mentioned to Dave later I felt like I had been a b.i.t.c.h. lately – because I had been grumbling so much. His response? “You THINK ?!?” (he hasn’t learned that husbandly retort could have been playing with fire; thank goodness I have a good sense of humor where he’s concerned!)

Ok, I’m done venting now…

Postscript Monday night – I just received a call from Office Depot. It seems I typed in the wrong credit card verification# on an order I placed yesterday. Not only will my shipment still arrive on Wednesday, but the person I talked to noticed that they inadvertently charged me shipping when it should have been free. Saved me $10!! Now THAT’S what I like to hear.