graceful designs

Farmer Me

I woke up  this morning to the strangest sound. It was this rhythmic high pitched squeal.  Kind of a "Cree-Cree". Silence,  then another "Cree-Cree". I stayed in bed willing the sound to stop, and it would for a while. Then just as I was drifting off again, "Cree-Cree". Finally I gave up, and went to investigate. I thought maybe someone was having an odd dream. Trying to sing in their sleep. Laura was silent. The boys were quiet as can be. Buffy was nestled next to Gavin, dead to the world. After puzzling for a while, I realized it was my rooster. Trying on his Cock-a-doodle-doo. He's got a bit of work to do if he wants to impress anyone. But he's doing okay in the volume department. I guess I had better start getting to bed a little earlier if he's going to be up at 5:10 am. Sigh...

It just cracked me up when Laura named him Pecker. It still does. Every. single. time. I say his name. I'm so mature, ya know. This morning he truly started living up to that name. He's quite amorous, to put it mildly. Poor Midget. She is easy prey for him, and he is taking full advantage. I am fascinated by all of this, and feel like a voyeur every time I look into the backyard now.

When I looked at my plans for today, I was surprised. I've changed quite a bit this past year, without really noticing until now. On my list for today:

Clean out chicken coop
Work on nesting boxes
Revamp compost bins
Meet at school regarding School Garden
Arrange a compost delivery
Work on Family Garden

Last spring I did a bit of gardening, chickens were still a dream, and the school garden existed only in my imagination. How did I get where I am today?

Reading had something to do with it.

Some good books I read this year~
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  A must read for everyone, I do believe. Hurray for eating local and creating a positive food culture.
Harvest for Hope  Jane Goodall rocks. Truly. She hammered home the point that other creatures shouldn't needlessly suffer for our own selfish benefit. I have just about returned to my old vegetarian ways.   
Closing the Food Gap  This book was an eye opener for me. It explains what food insecurity is, and got me excited in community gardening.
 The Art of Simple Food  Alice Waters did a fine job in this cookbook, teaching the basics of good food. She emphasizes eating locally, and the shows how to do it well.

Now I'm putting much of what I learned through these books into practice.

I attended a school garden training, and applied for a grant. I formed a garden committee, and got started with the whole process. Last week we were notified that we are receiving $5,000 in grant money to go towards the garden. Woo Hoo!! This grant is significant on many different levels for me. I am thrilled beyond belief that we have the means to dream big and do wonderful things for our school, and firmly believe that we will be able to create a garden that will make a difference in the the lives of the students in our community. On a personal level, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. It's nice to try for something and be successful. I am excited, energized and focused on such a positive task. I'm loving it.

And then there's the family garden. My mom has a lot of sunny, easy to garden property. Her husband asked me this winter if I wanted to go in on a large garden with him, and I said "Sure!"  He bought the rototiller, I brought my dreams, and we got started a few weeks ago.

When I look at this picture, the garden doesn't look so big. But when I am working in it, it feels enormous. Overwhelming at times. When I am weeding I have to keep saying to myself "Don't look up, don't look up." Because when I do look up, I wonder how on earth we can plant and keep this whole thing under control. It's going to be a lot of work, but I can't imagine a better way to spend my time. Sitting in the dirt, talking with my brother and sisters, spending time with my mom. It's all so peaceful and positive and hopeful. Most of the time anyway. There's enough time spent out there that important topics can be debated, like should we put an in-ground pool in or not (for the record,I say no).

I am loving this garden because even though it's just my family, we have a big family, and it feels like a community garden. There are lots of people working in it, and a loads of people will (hopefully) be fed by it.

So. If you are wondering where I am, I'm probably in the garden. Or hanging with my chickens.  I might be at the library, trying to learn more about this garden thing, and how to do it right. Or maybe I'm sitting, spinning my wool dreaming about my next garden. I've got some plans that involve our town, a vacant lot, and some hooligans that roam the streets. They might not know it yet, but they are gardeners at heart. I'm quite sure of it. But that's fodder for another post...

Happy Gardening!

 

Obsessed

I've got a bit of an obsession these days. I hope you all can bear with me while I work my way through it. This spinning thing has just worked its way into the recesses of my mind, and no matter what I try to think about, there it is. Wool. Yarn. Bunny. Niddy Noddy. It all  just races round and round in my head.

I feel extremely fortunate to have found someone on etsy to trade kits with me. A spinning kit for a soldering kit.

This kit came from Lamina's Closet. Along with the wool and the spindle, there is a disc with excellent instructions and photos.

 
I'm in love.

One of the things I love about this is it doesn't have to be perfect. When you quilt, your corners have to match up. When I solder, I can get quite tense when things aren't as smooth as I'd like.  I've got a lot to learn, and plenty of practicing to do, but there doesn't need to be a "perfect" here. I'm sure someday I'll want to make a sooth thin even yarn, but for now lumpy bumpy is beautiful to me.

A few of you asked about my spice jar labels. I bought them off of ebay. I spent more than I wanted too, but just didn't feel like trying to make them myself. If you want to try your hand at it, these labels were printed on an Inkjet/Clear waterslide decal paper. Hope that helps!

My weekend looks busy~We have an enormous garden that needs to get finished up, a little league game, a foster child coming for a few days, and dinner with family from out of state. Lots to look forward to.

Happy Friday! 

A Spicy Makeover

Inspired by Roxanne's makeovers, I decided to actually finish a project.

Remember these spice jars I picked up a while ago?

I soaked the labels off and applied new ones.

A nice improvement. I'm still not loving the color of the lids, but haven't come with any brilliant ideas yet. Any suggestions? I'm looking forward to using and displaying these. The milk glass is fabulous, and I am happy to get my spices out of plastic.

About that llama wool~ It came to me in a filthy state. A prime example of you get what you pay for. The baby's wool is crazy soft though, and for now I'm willing to work with it.

Here's what the wool looks like after picking most of the hay out~

I'm going to keep working with it until I decide I absolutely can't stand it anymore...I think it might be worth the effort.

Furry Friends

I found a listing on craigslist for free llama wool. Today Laura, Braeden and I took a road trip to pick it up.
Mama and Elizabell generously donated the wool.


They also donated a bucket of llama beans for the garden. Lucky me.

Now I need to figure out just what to do with this massive amount of wool. I have dreams of knitting a  fabulous sweater.  I just have to learn how to clean the wool, card it, learn how to spin it, and then learn how to knit something more complex than a simple scarf. Easy Peasy.

When we got home, my little flock of chickens was chilling under our lilac and rose bush.

Pecker seems to be enjoying his time with his girls.

Hope your day is lovely...

Spinning

Last night I went to our local Handspinners guild meeting.  I was a little hesitant to go, because I don't love group scenarios, and I don't know a thing about spinning. I thought I just wouldn't belong. But I had a great time, am delighted that I was invited, and had a wonderful companion for the evening. Thanks Claudia!

The topic of the evening happened to be Angora rabbits. Heaven. There were bunnies, and a breeder, who talked about different breeds and care. Then women showed their yarn and items they knit with angora/wool blends, and someone demonstrated how to spin it. I've been wanting  a bunny for a while, and am now a step closer to getting one. Hippity hop. 

I also got a chance to try my hand at spinning. It was hard coordinating feet and hands, but think I could get the hang of it and become addicted pretty quickly. I'm going to take a step back, look at the big picture and make sure I am ready to give this a go. Then I'll call the guild (because I'm a member now~yeah me!) and see about borrowing a spinning wheel. I'm pretty excited about it all.

On the home front I'm still cleaning house. I've got the play/computer room under control, and am now trying to make it a little more homey. It's been a room of mismatched yucky pieces.  My first project was this stool.

Hideous:

And a bit better:

I used denim from a pair of goodwill jeans for the top, because it has to be very durable. The bottom fabric is from a remnant I picked up somewhere. I have enough fabric left over to recover the seat of my sewing chair, I might get to that later today.

I hope you all have a  fabulous weekend!

Spring Projects

I've been keeping busy, but sometimes I feel like I don't have a lot to show for it.

One of the projects I've been working on is a garden for our school. I'm co-chairing the committee, and have spent a lot of time applying for grants, meeting with parents and teachers, calling to get donations, ordering lumber, etc...

This Saturday we had a garden work party, and got a lot accomplished.

We went from a field...

to a garden in about 3 1/2 hours.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but it really feels good to have something substantial accomplished. As we continue to work on the garden, we are starting to plan phase two of our project, which is a nature trail that will extend up into the woods. I'm so excited!

On the home front, I am still decluttering. I just donated 6 garbage bags of stuff this morning, and got rid of recyclables. I have plans for some painting and redecorating, but I'm not going to start it until I absolutely can't find another thing to get rid of in my entire house.

I haven't done much crafting, just a bit for my Spring Time in Paris swap that I sent out last week. I'll try to show some goodies tomorrow.

Take Care!

Three

My baby boy turns three today.

Sigh...

When I bought his candle I almost started bawling in the store. Three is so old. I love holding him in my arms, sniffing his hair, listening to the rhythm of his thumb sucking.  Gosh, I don't want that to end. I of course love everything about him, and words are failing me this morning. 

We celebrated yesterday. He welcomed presents with open arms, harassed me all morning during the baking of the cupcakes, and was pretty bashful as we sang to him. He knew just what to do with that candle though.

I made yellow cupcakes, oddly addicting chocolate cupcakes (they had mayonnaise and vinegar in them~a first for me), and cream cheese frosting. Yum.

Happy Birthday Braeden.

I simply adore you.

Addition by Subtraction

I have been on a major decluttering spree. Working hard, sorting, tossing and donating. I'm up to 19+ bags of junk donated, with many, many more to go.

I've been feeling strangled by clutter. I usually feel that way to some extent, but lately it's been really getting to me. I haven't wanted to do any crafting, because I just knew that I would spend more time looking for things that I would spend actually using them.

When we had our fire scare a few weeks ago, I had quite the revelation. As I was standing in my home, trying to decide what I bring with me in case our house did burn down, I realized that our home was filled with things that I don't love. There were a few treasures, like my grandmother's weavings, and  a painting by my great grandfather. But besides that? It all just felt like stuff. I think part of it was just emotional~I was terrified that I would lose everything, so I started separating myself from it all emotionally, just in case.

But truthfully, my house is overflowing. And now that my eyes are open, I'm not having a hard time letting go of things.

I want...

~my home to be a haven.

~to be able to walk through the play room and not stub my toe.

~to decide to sew, and immediately be able to sit down at a clear sewing desk.

~an empty cabinet in the kitchen, and an empty shelf in the closet.

~to love every piece of clothing in my closet.

~to look around a room, and feel relaxed and proud.

~to be surrounded by beauty.

Slowly but surely, bag by bag, I'm getting there. I'll keep you all updated on the process.

*thanks to those of you who responded to my proposition. I'm getting started on pendants today, if anyone else wants to swap, let me know!

A Proposition

Another quilt-a-long has been announced. And I am thinking that I might want to give this a try. One more time. I talked a bit about my first attempt here. I didn't get too far, but I do like what I did. So... what's holding me back? Two things~ anxiety (so many triangles. Ack!) and lack of fabric stash.

I do have plenty of backing fabric, due to my failure to complete the first quilt, but I just don't have pretty fabric for the squares. The fabrics that I have bought are pink or sporty, as almost all of my projects have been for my children. And I want this project to be for me. And after my recent shoe purchase and jaunt at Marshall's, I'm not feeling like I should be forking over any more cash. Self-restraint. That's my mantra this week .

So I was wondering if any of you want to do a little swap. On my end I can offer one of these:

A monogram pendant, or one with a favorite saying, or a picture you love, in exchange for some bits of pretty quilting fabric from your stash. Bright happy red, and perhaps some aqua.

I'd love making a quilt with fabrics from friends across the country. And I'd love making some pendants in exchange. I think I could even get some done by Mother's Day, if you'd like.

Anyone Interested?

Terrarium

Yesterday I went to Marshall's. Oh, how I adore that store. I could buy almost everything in there, which is why I try to stay away.

I found a lovely lidded jar for $7.50, and fell in love. I bought it not knowing quite what to do with it. After staring at it for a while I decided to make a terrarium.

Between my basement, window sill and forest, I had everything I needed. A bit of gravel, charcoal, potting soil, African violet, fern and moss, and voila...

A welcome addition to my living room.

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!