Tuesday, January 30, 2024

"Stagnation of the lungs"

 Do *you* know what show that line is from? 

When I sat down to start writing this blog post, that was the first thing that came to mind, for some reason.  Maybe because that is how January has felt?  Stagnating? 

Maybe it's appropriate that my friend sent this gem through to me. 

Then, suddenly, it will be February in just a few days, and I will be thinking "Wow, that last little bit sure went fast!" 

The last time I wrote was just over a week ago.  Last week didn't feel that interesting as I was living it.  No sun.  Temperature's not as forecasted.  I was working towards a publishing day. Blerg. ... 

Tuesday I went to the dentist for a cleaning.  My hygienist is a really sweet gal, and we usually end up talking crafty things. Well, as much as we can while she's rooting around in my mouth, making sure everything is as it should be. 

When we were done, I got up and had pulled out my phone to show her something knitting-related and she saw the photo of Furby as my lock screen.  She enthused over how pretty Furby was and I had a hard time talking about Furby. 

Not in the way you might think. I wanted to tell her SO much about what kind of girl my Furby was that I got a bit stuck and didn't know what to say first.  She was my favorite girl and she is missed. 

It's been at least six months and I still get a bit teary-eyed and choked up at times when I think about her. 

*ahem* 

My son has been begging me to make eggrolls. Ever since the mom of one of his friends made eggrolls and he brought some home, he's pleaded with me to make them.  

I said I would if I found a good recipe.  Everything online calls for 100 ingredients.  I asked my mom's group if anyone had a good recipe. My friend E came through and gave me the recipe her mom used. 


Eggrolls were a big, fat hit! I even figured out a way to make them low carb, using low carb wraps.  

Another day I took advantage of the slowly thawing temperatures and cleaned out the chicken coop before work.  Yeah, I was out in the coop at 7 a.m., mucking it out. 

These two thought it was WAY too early for those type of shenanigans. 



The pine shavings were SO heavy from all the moisture. Then trying to move the wheelbarrow through the soft snow.  I thought I was gonna die! 

One of my hens was a bit miffed because she wanted to lay an egg and I kept messing about, and then I emptied the shavings out of the nesting boxes. 


Oh yeah ... when I first went out there I was looking at the tracks in the snow. 

Pretty sure this is a raccoon track. I am not fond of raccoons. 



Cleaning out took me about an hour.  I know I clean out my chicken coop more frequently than others probably do.  I want my birds to be happy. 


They are. 


I shot a quick video and my one hen had to come check out what I was doing.  This is my Stumpy Girl. 



Quilting ... 

The quilting has slowed down a small bit. Now that a few of the small sewing projects have been wrapped up I've not been quite as quick to run to the craft room in the evenings.  I'm still in there, though. 

I don't remember which night it was that I decided I was going to start working on squares for the Dancing Stars quilt. 

I thought I'd be so clever about it, too, and not look at the instructions. 


I have no idea what month this color set is. 

I sewed the pieces together in groups of two.  Then grouped two groups together. 

Like, I said ... I was being so clever. 


Three groups of four. 

I don't remember it being three groups of four ... Or the pieces needing to be sewn up into a Y seam. 

Drat!

It was supposed to be four groups of three colors.  

The first quilt square went in to timeout while I mentally kicked myself.  Then the next day I ripped seams and re-did the first square. 


Sewn back together as best as I could do.  There is some weird circular wrinkling going on. 


I know if I ripped everything apart and sewed it all back together, those wrinkles would likely not go away. So they will stay. Close enough. Not to mention 12 fabrics meeting in the same spot.  I doubt they would have come together again as nice as they currently are. 

Last night I ripped the remaining quilt squares apart, ironed and they are all ready to go. 


I have a goal of completing this set of squares by the end of the week, along with one square from the other quilt I'm working on.  Wish me luck!

And in the midst of the week I was out in the she shed and spotted a bag of DMC floss.  I was like "What chart is this for?'


I have no idea what project I picked these up for. *Eeks* It was nice to look at all those colors together.  So bright and pretty. 

About half of the fiber I weight out for January has been spun up. I have some kind of hang up about spinning.  It's all *right there* ready to go. 


When I have spun it's been wonderful. 

Saturday I finally did it! What did I do? I started some seeds!

I've been waiting for this moment. Then when it finally got here, I was like "What should I start?"  

Celery, onions and lettuce, duh! I also started a few herbs.  

My first set of mini soilblocks.  Aren't they adorable?

All the room in the house to work and plant seeds, and where do I go?  The kitchen table. 


Sometimes I really amaze myself with what I'm able to do in a tiny space I allow myself to work in. 

After I planted the seeds and dropped some vermiculite on it all. 


I decided to try something different this year.  No plant tags tucked between the soil blocks.  I have tape with numbers on them, and I have a notebook where I listed everything I planted.  Last year I had trouble with the plant labels sliding out of place. 

This weekend I'm going to plant some peppers, and ... I don't know what else yet.  A lot of perennial seeds were purchased and I'd like to set some of those started.  Just need to settle on how I'm going to start the seeds: Winter sowing, in seed cups, soil blocks ... I have a few ideas.  The mild winter is helping, too. Maybe plant a few small cups of seeds and set them out in the greenhouse? Or, I could use the material we got last year and make a low tunnel? 

My office chair out in the she shed got a makeover.  This chair is at least 12 years old.  Maybe 15? It's still in great shape but for the material.  The material is pleather and it's starting to split. 

It now matches MUCH better, I think. 


On Sunday the sun came out. 

Seriously ... My hubby and I were outside and when the sun broke through the clouds I went and stood in a sun patch. 


Our snow melted a LOT over the weekend. 

Yesterday was publishing day. 'Nuff said. It's publishing day!

Today was catch up day. 

When I was out in the coop this morning, before work, our barred rock roo decided to act up a bit with me.  I'm sure I did something he didn't like, such as sweeping away pine shavings so I can close the door. 

I grabbed him and held him for a bit and talked to him. Then he leaned his head over and nipped my hand.  Through the glove he managed to bruise me. 


The brat. I didn't hand raise him from a chick.  He was a rescue. There hasn't been any attitude until late last summer.  He would try to sneak attack me and I don't put up with it, so he's had his fair share of being held by me while I tell him he's a naughty boy. I thought we were making headway when he finally would take food I offered him.  Nope. 

The rest of this week ... I have Thursday and Friday off.  The last little bit of my paid time off before my work anniversary. My plan is to record a podcast one of these days.  

Soooo ... I guess that's all the news from Lake Woebegone ... 

Oh, and if you didn't know where the quote in the title is from, it's a line from the original "All Creatures, Great and Small."










Monday, January 22, 2024

We have reached that point of winter ...

 It's too cold out to really do anything.  Too much snow, but not enough for anything fun. 


Unless you are in to ice fishing on the bay.


Winter doldrums ... the Monday of winter. ... whatever you want to call it, we are in it. 

I'm not even sure what I mean anymore.  The cold snap (and I use that term loosely, considering the area I am in) is done.  Today we had a high in the upper 20s F.  The rest of the week the high temps are supposed to be in the 30s.  I'm just waiting for spring fever to hit me. 

Okay ... 

Last week I had Thursday and Friday off of work.  I have vacation time to burn before my work anniversary in February.  I'll have been at the paper for 21 years. TWENTY-ONE years! Can you believe it?  I can't. 

I decided to make use of this time to catch up on some of my crafty endeavors, and maybe knock a few things off the list. 

My last blog post talked about how I measured incorrectly for my binding on the Daydreams wall quilt. 

I went to Walmart and looked for the fabric.  They did not have it.  I was disappointed but not surprised. It's been a year since I purchased this fabric.  A yard of plain white fabric was purchased, to ensure I did NOT run short this time around. 

Wanna take a guess as to how much binding I would have needed for the original fabric? 

Here, it may make you weep. 


Maybe six inches?  When I set that up to see how close I was I immediately went looking all over the craft room and out in the she shed to see if I had ANY scraps of this fabric left.  I don't have a problem with piecing fabrics together. 

Nothing. 

Here's my finished wall quilt. 


Daydreams Wall quilt
Started: 2/5/23
Finished: 1/18/24
Designer: Sew Sampler Box, Jan. 2022
Fabric: Beautiful Day by Corey Yoder. Background fabrics from walmart. 
Made for: myself.  Will go up on the wall in my bedroom. 

On the bright side, it is my best binding job, to date. 

I put the binding on Thursday night.  I'm very pleased with it, overall.  This was my first time using the walking foot, with the bar, instead of drawing out all those lines.  I used a hera marker and pressed the first line, going each way.  Then used the bar to space them out about an inch apart. 

Friday I decided to tackle the apron I've been wanting to make for around two years now. 

I had the video going, and wasn't feeling stressed at all.  

Bam! The piece I had cut out for the body of the apron. ... I accidentally grabbed that piece and cut the straps out of it. 

Seriously? 


I posted about it in a few places on my social media and a few people gave me suggestions, since I did NOT want to have to buy more fabric. I promptly folded this fabric up and put it away until I could think more clearly about it. 

I figured it would be a good time to break out the WIP progress bag I wanted to make. The WIP-style bag I like, and have made several of, is the one that Kimberly from Fat Quarter Shop shows how to make. 

Cruising along with it, and quilting the back of the bag was going easily enough. 



 Then I about 25 percent into the quilting and I thought 'Hey, did I check that both fabrics are the right way?  You can see in the upper photo, to the right ... No, they are not!

I'm pretty sure I said out loud "Are you freaking kidding me?"  

I sat there for about 30 seconds and thought to myself "I should have stopped after the apron, and just gone and knit." 

Then thought "I don't care." The bag is for me.  No one is going to see the back of the bag.  I use vinyl on the front to help showcase the fabric." Then I continued quilting the fabric. 

There may have been an email to my mom's group in the interim about this. ... *ahem*

Before I trimmed down.  I thought I'd take a photo to show how the fabric was. 


After it's all trimmed up. 



The finished product.  I'm thrilled to bits with it.  Naturally, I want to make another one. I also want to put a Valentine project in it.  Cross stitch or sock, it doesn't matter. I think I'm ready to be done stitching Christmas charts. 


Spring WIP bag
Started: Purchased fabric from walmart in early 2023
Finished: 1/19/24
Used tutorial from Fat Quarter Shop
Made for: myself

Gotta say .... my new Janome came with an awesome zipper foot.  The zipper foot with my older Janome is a bit confusing to work with and I'm never quite sure I'm using the right side of it. 



I finished my WIP bag on Saturday. Friday night I worked on it until 10 p.m. and only had the binding left go to.  Thankfully I had enough. ... 


Sunday I tackled the apron again.  Since I had stepped back from it, I was able to go "Oh yeah, just sew the pieces back on!" 

That I did! 

And here you go.  You may not be able to see the three pockets I have sewn on there. I'd love to figure out a way to sew snaps on so I can fold the apron in have and use it to haul stuff in from the garden. 


Farmhouse apron
Started: Purchased fabric at walmart in 2022
Finished: 1/20/24
Designer: Sewing tutorial from Cosmopolitan Cornbread. 
Made for: Myself.  I've wanted a harvest apron for some time, and i think this will fit the bill. 

Would you believe that as soon as I hung this up I realized there was something that I forgot to do when I was assembling the pieces together on this.  Yeah ...  I'm not going to say what, however, because I firmly believe in not pointing out your errors, especially if they aren't obvious. 

And, yes, now that I've struggled through one of these aprons I want to make another.  One in a lighter color. 

I'm a glutton for punishment.  It's a really nice design, though.  Simple and you don't have to worry about ties. 

This weekend I worked on few of my knitting projects.  I'm hoping to record a video this week, and I'll share about them in the video.   Naturally, I had some battles with a vanilla sock and my harvest cardigan. This wasn't my week for crafty things. 

In other news, my hubby is hatching an idea for our solar set up and the ability to charge up the batteries with a generator when the solar panels are covered in show, or when we haven't had sun in several days.  That's kind of exciting.  We haven't had any new homesteady-type projects in a while. Unless you count expanding the garden.  







Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Bird watching and a quilt update

 The last several weeks I've been feeding the birds. 

It started out with chicadees, some finches and nuthatches. 

It's now blue jays, squirrels and one lone starling. 


I watched this starling integrate itself into the group of blue jays that comes to my feeder each day.  It was off on it's own and slowly moving towards the group.  The next time I saw it, it was sitting in the middle of the bird seed pile, surrounded by all the blue jays. It's made itself at home. 


The birds and the squirrels show up every morning and tussel around, taking turns at the suet cakes and the plate I put the bird seed in. 

I don't know what this guy was waiting for. 


I do like watching these guys flit around.  



I've been paying extra attention to my quilt project the last couple of weeks, right? 

Last night I finished the quilting. 


I decided to save the binding for tonite. 




Then I started sewing the binding on ... 



And discovered I don't have enough binding. 

NOOOOOOOOO! 

I have no idea how I messed up this royally.  

The binding fabric was purchased at walmart.  I think they still have some at the store. 

*sigh*  I was *so* close! 

My goal is to get this wrapped up by the end of the weekend. If walmart doesn't have the fabric, I will have to rip what I sewed on, and use a different fabric. 






Monday, January 15, 2024

The cold is here

 On Thursday or Friday the weather people said to prepare because snow was on the way, followed by sub-freezing temps. 

What it looked like on Thursday. 



Lovely, huh? 


Well, the heavy snow went around us. The southern part of Wisconsin was slammed by a blizzard. 


One of my friend's said her power went out for a few hours.  I also heard a rumor about the Milwaukee airport shutting down.  I heard later that it did not shut down. 

We did not get the big storm that was promised us. We got four inches at the most. 



It snowed a wee bit on Friday and overnight. 

Not that I was disappointed at the small amount of snow that hit our area. 

Remember the tractor we purchased? There hasn't been enough snow for us to really test it out. 


So it is the ATV plow for us, to push around this fluffy stuff that isn't amounting to much. 

This weekend wasn't very exciting. It's surreal to have snow on the ground. It also doesn't seem right to have subzero temps now.  It's supposed to warm up a bit by the end of the week. 

Saturday we took a trip to town and Sunday we bummed around the house, taking it easy. 

I stitched, knit and sewed a bit. 


Knitting on my Harvest Cardigan.


My wall quilt. 



On Friday I hauled in a little something ... 


The garden soil had to thaw out.  

Even though I was all keyed up to start some seeds this weekend, I did not.  I still had to set up the lights in my seed-starting greenhouse. 

I finally did that today, after work. 


I flipped the lights on and it was an an immediate burst of something ... Like "Wow!" and feeling upbeat and chipper almost right away.  Crazy how lights can do that. 

I've been reading stuff on the book of Faces, and watching some Youtube channels about seed starting, gardening, etc., and I got to thinking a little bit. 

Ever since I got in to gardening it's been a dream to have a "real" greenhouse, but for various reasons one hasn't been built yet.  

With the recent cold snap I've been reading a lot of people asking for tips and advice on how to keep their greenhouses warm so their plants and seedlings don't succumb. 

I got to thinking about this a bit and how much maintenance a greenhouse is at this time of the year.  One person said they are spending $1,000 a month to keep their glasshouse warm enough. Can you imagine?  

Anywho ... these last several years I've learned a lot about gardening and seed starting.  And I realized that every place I lived since I got into gardening, I've worked my seed starting set up to fit in my house.  Greenhouses are nice.  What I am seeing is that having one is kind of the exception, not necessarily the rule. 

A lot of the blogs and channels show how to start seeds indoors with a seed starting station. 

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this because it's getting a bit late and I'm a wee bit tired.  I see a lot of people poo-pooing the type of greenhouse I have outside and that is a shame because they work well. There is at least one well-known YouTuber who said disparaging words about this style of greenhouse and I think she did a real disservice to those who are just getting started with seed starting and may feel bad that they have this "greenhouse" but not a "real greenhouse."  My only wish is that mine was a bit bigger because I start so many seeds now that my greenhouse is full to bursting when it's time to bring the plants out there.  However, I do have a second greenhouse and I may set it up this spring if I need it. 

So, yeah. If you are a hardcore gardener, you find a way. 

And my way is to have my seeds start in my craft room.  How close is everything?  You can see where my quilting station is, and my umbrella swift. 


Oh yeah, and the incubator behind it.  If I was hatching eggs out, I'd have the mini-greenhouse in a different spot. 

Fun times ahead! I can't wait. 


Wednesday, January 10, 2024

A mid-week catch up

 The last week has been pretty quiet.  Mother Nature remembered it is winter and we have a mild snowstorm going on right now.  Big fluffy flakes when I was last outside. 


One day I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. 


My son assured me they were tasty.   He blew through them pretty fast. 

I started the grand spinning project. Well, I started spinning the four ounces of fiber I wanted to spin this month. 


Fin Wool Top

Purchased: Paradise Fibers

Started spinning: Jan. 8, 2024


I also started up my first set for "Make Bundles for Babies"


I made one of the patterns listed on the website.  My crochet gauge is so loose that the next hat I make I will need to lose one row.  I'm currently working on a matching granny square blanket.


Most of my attention has been on my DayDreams wall quilt. 


One square. ... 

Two square ... 

Three square ... 

Four!


Last night I wrapped up the four squares needed.  Now I need to sew on the sashing.  Then the borders and all the other fun stuff. 

It's going to look so nice.

In other news, I made a trip to the office today and swung by the stores before heading home. 

I stopped in Menard's to see what they had for potting soil for seed starting.  The seeds were out. 

Um ... yeah ... I may have picked a few out. ... 


Tomatoes, some herbs and flowers. 

Lemondrop basil

Hollyhock - Country romance mixed colors

Hollyhock - Fordhook giants miced colors

Tomato - Delicious

Tomato - Sandwich slicer hybrid

Tomato - Cloudy Day Hybrid

Thyme

Sweet Pea - Queen of the Night, mixed colors

Lemon Balm

Canterbury Bells - Cup and saucer mixed colors

Rudbeckia - Black eyed Susan, single mixed colors

Chamomile - German

Delphinium - Pacific Giant, Mixed colors

Sage - Broadleaf

Onion - Walla Walla

Foxglove - Excelsior Mix

Butterfly weed - Asclepias tuberosa

Rosemary 

To be fair, the tomatoes were on my list to restock my supply.  I had those last year and was happy with production.

I'll be starting some of these this weekend. (Finger crossed) Along with some of the others already in my collection. 

*squee!*

Tonite my hubby and I had a project. The other day one of us decided our spice cabinet was in a very poor state, and we both agreed something *had* to be done. 

I wish I had taken a before photo, because the transformation is remarkable. 


We had no idea we had so many spices! This isn't all of them, either. 

The top shelf is my husband's pepper collection. 

We spent a few hours going through our spices, transferring them, combining the duplicates, and marveling at our spice collection.