Vanilla Icing

Early Morning Knitting

Saturday evening I got a fantastic knitting book at the bookstore called AwareKnits : Knit & Crochet Projects for the Eco-Conscious Stitcher.  It is a great book for those wanting to use what they refer to as 'green yarns'  (organic yarns, sustainable yarns, etc) and ALSO has lots of ideas for using up your own scraps and turning old t-shirts into 'tarn' and using it to make a large basket for toys, laundry and more.

Anyways, of course my eye was drawn to the sweater you see in the picture.  There was none of this 'at the same time' business in the pattern so I decided to give it a try since my first sweater attempt is crammed into hiding somewhere until my knitting skills advance.  (Five years give or take, I think--haha.)  I got the yarn last night--a super soft chocolate merino--but didn't have the correct needle size at home.  One of these days, I will write down all the needle sizes I have and carry it in my purse with me always.

I did something bad.  I broke my vow to NEVER go to Walmart again if I can help it.  (Sometimes it can't be helped but this time patience would have helped).  I set my alarm for 6 am and got up on my own at 5:20 am.  By 6 am, I was back at home with a mug of coffee and my new needles (newly started blue sock pushed to the back) and away I went!   I spent a lovely early  morning hour knitting.  Aside from the Walmart trip, it was a perfect way to start the day.

I hope you've had a wonderful start to your day as well!

I Was Going to Eat That

It is nearly the end of September and my garden is still going strong.  On the herb side of things I have Italian flat leaf parsley (too much of it!), oregano, rosemary, thyme and basil.  On the vegetable side of things there are some peppers valiantly fighting to give me just a few despite my choice of a not-so-great location for them.  I got a little lazy and let some romaine bolt and I neglected the cucumber plant.   The romaine is doing some funky things in return for my negligence but that cucumber plant was so thankful I tucked a stray seed found in the bottom of the envelope in the dirt late in the season that it's sprawling nicely all over the place and has already given me several plump juicy cucumbers with the promise of a good many more.

Then there's the right hand garden full of the Mafia Tomatoes.  All but one of the plants made it to adulthood and they are all giving me tomatoes.  Not as many as I'd like, but considering the overabundance of rain we had all summer that lead to many tomatoes getting a weird black spot on the bottom just as they started to ripen they seemed to have rebounded.  After the too much rain and the black spot crisis I got more vigilant in checking them over nearly every day and removing any leaves and/or baby tomatoes that just didn't look right.  It must have worked because every leaf on those plants are perfect and tomatoes are forming every day AND I've got a bowl of pretty ripe ones in my fridge.  Not too bad!

Despite all of this thriving goodness in my garden I've been wondering about this:

This is a leaf from one of my two broccoli plants.  (The other plant has been gnawed almost to the ground).  I've never grown broccoli before and this perplexed me because the other vegetables that are in the same bed as the broccoli are untouched.  The vegetable itself wasn't doing too well either.  Every time it looked as if it was starting to get bigger I'd check it again to see that it looked like someone had been nibbling on it. 

Tonight I found the culprit.  A-hem!  Culprits!  I plucked a dozen of these guys off my broccoli plant tonight and I will be looking for more of them tomorrow.  And the next day.  And the day after that.  'Cause you know, as a stay-at-home-mom whose children are in school I've got nothing better to do with my time.  Waging war against these green wormy-caterpillar-things is by far more important than things like laundry.  Or running the vacuum.  

Don't you little $#!+$ know there's perfectly good neglected romaine just a few feet away?  You really should leave the broccoli alone because I was going to eat that.

Treasures

I know I said I was finished with beach pictures, but I wanted to share with you a few pictures of something I sewed that I happened to take pictures of while I was at the beach. 

This little 'Treasures' beach bag was one of Maia's birthday presents.  The pattern comes from Amanda Blake Soule's "Handmade Home."  The instructions are very easy to follow--the most beginner sewer can easily accomplish this with little to no trouble.  <-----  That's me!  It's really a perfect bag for collecting and bringing home seashells--without the excess sand--from the beach.

I made a few changes to suit what I wanted a little more.

Instead of old screening or mesh, I chose to use burlap for the bag.  I got a few strange looks and and few questions at the fabric store when I told them what I was planning on doing with it.  The fabric cutters always ask what you are planning on making, don't they?  I'm not sure I like this because I always worry they are thinking ill thoughts of my color/fabric patterns. 

I'm glad I didn't let their surprise deter me.  The burlap works wonderfully.  It's a little stiff at first but that eases the sewing process.  After the first few shells are tossed in the burlap begins to relax.  It really does a great job of sifting out the unwanted sand so little arms can easily tote their treasures home.

I also chose an embroidered label over a stamped label.  I've never been one for stamping but I think that's because I can't stamp without leaving big blobs of ink everywhere.  The embroidery is done on a scrap of linen that is then placed on a square of cotton.  The label in "Handmade Home" says 'treasure' but Maia always refers to her gleanings as 'My treasures, Mama!  My treasures!'  The edges are left to fray which I think adds the final touch to this beachcomber bag!

...And the Last I'll Share

                       Sunrise at the Outer Banks, North Carolina

Ocean Gazer

Devoted Digger

                        Tristyn at the Outer Banks, North Carolina

Soap Carving

Tristyn & Maia were entertained for hours all for the price of two 3 packs of soap.   And consequentially, very enthusiastic about bath time!

The playing with knives thing bothered me for about a minute until I saw how careful they were.  Isn't it funny how sometimes we worry and fear that children aren't ready for something but they really are and quietly prove us wrong?

Tristyn picked Irish Spring; the whole first floor smelled of it for days.

We thriftily saved all of the soap shavings for re-melting into new shapes and/or turning into liquid soap as its carver desired.

Smiley One.

Smiley Two.

Hoorah for Crochet!

Approximately 8 months later despite numerous putting downs and picking ups...I've finally finished the crocheted granny-square blanket I started last mid-winter.

I made it with one particular room in my house in mind; the room that my treadmill lives in that is decorated in old Americana colors.  Rick and I like to watch a few HBO shows that we enjoy in this room and it will be just right for snuggling under when the weather begins to turn.

There were a million ends to weave in.  I'm pretty sure I've overlooked a few thousand and every time I weave an end in two more will poke up to see what's going on.

It's about 76 by 84 inches and contains 156 granny squares.  I don't want to see another granny square for a year at least!

It's pretty nice for outside too.  =)

Sunken Plum Cake

I am currently at the beach but thought I'd set up a few things to share while I am gone.  I hope to have lots to share when I come back.  =)

The other day while having dinner at Rick's mum's house she mentioned a plum cake that her friend, Cindy, used to bake.  Right away my ears perked up because just a few days before that I had gotten plums in my CSA basket.  I asked her for the recipe and made it the very next day for Rick's office.

It's very easy to make and I think other large cut fruits such as apples or peaches would work nicely too.

Sunken Plum Cake
            by Michelle by way of her mother-in-law's friend--Cindy

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup soft butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla  (I couldn't resist and added this.  It's not in the original recipe)
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
9-12 plums, halved and pitted

Additional sugar & cinnamon to make approximately 1/4 cup

1. Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease a 9 inch spring form pan.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside

3. Cream the butter and sugar.  Beat in the eggs and vanilla.  Slowly stir in the flour mixture.

4.  Arrange the plums on top of the cake and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

5.  Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the cake--not a plum!-- comes out clean.  Cool slightly and serve warm or at room temperature. 

Grandmother's Button Tin

Someday soon, I have to tell my grandmother how much we enjoy the tin of buttons she gave me a few years ago.  We use it for far more than its original purpose.   Sure, if a button is needed for a pair of pants or a shirt that has suddenly gone lacking I go straight to the button tin.  But the button tin is more than that.

It's provided eyes for stuffed and crocheted animals.  It's made a few necklaces and even a ring once.  It makes a great game of tiddlywinks in a pinch.   But most of all, we enjoy separating the buttons into little piles.  We see how many of each is in the tin and we look at them closely to see if we can guess what type of garment they were on.  Sometimes there is clue; a scrap of fabric on the back of the button where it was cut off before going in the tin.  Maia likes to giggle and imagine one particular set of buttons with scraps of blue and red flowered fabric clinging to their backs as being one of her PapPap's shirts when he was a little boy.  We get a good laugh pretending he wore a flowered shirt and trying to make his brother wear it instead.   Another set has tiny anchors on it and of course that could only adorn a creek-playin' shirt.  We've made up so many stories about the different buttons that some of them have names:  Gardening Buttons, Little Boy Blue's Scuffed Buttons, Grandmother's Pink Dancing Dress Buttons.  Sometimes buttons we've added have turned up in our rummaging and then there are Tristyn's Halloween Buttons and Maia's First Jammie Buttons.

I like to wonder if my Grandmother's children played with the button tin in the same way.  Do you have a button tin to play with?

August Baking....