Under Construction

Charmed, I'm sure

Hooray, I finally came up with an idea I'm excited about for my upcoming shows (IndieSac on May 2--button on left sidebar and an impromptu show at Nina and Tom's in Davis on May 9).

Charmed, I'm sure

I'll just be selling pendants/charms in all sorts of mediums. Of course I still have a few wood discs that are laser engraved. I'm making clay pieces (and crossing my fingers they'll be fired by May 2) and planning some glass work. I may do textiles pieces if I can get it together and get excited about that.

Everything will be super affordable and fun.

I'll also be offering prints of my dad's photography at both shows as he is interested in testing the market for his work. Hope to see you at a show!

P.S. I'll be putting wood pendants in the swag bags for IndieSac so come early!

Easy (free) garden plant labels

Use a sharpie and a rock.

The ones I made in January held up well through the wet part of winter so I'm assuming these will easily last through the dry summer (or at the very, very least until the plants start fruiting, negating the need for labels).

I'm currently building a climbing structure (as Biscuit called it) for vegetables. It's made of the branches of my dying cherry tree (boo hoo). Hoping to get most of the rest of the garden planted today before the seedlings ALL die in the heat.

'Tis the (birthday) season

So I pulled out my new standard birthday gift for Biscuit's best friend at school. She did some very hasty drawings with permanent fabric crayons (seriously, what is it about fabric that makes the kid want to scribble and be sloppy?).

Originally the "art" was to be a pocket but the colors didn't work out. So I made the whole thing reversible.

Biscuit immediately recognized the pink fabric as the upholstery from her rocking chair (and her bedroom valance). Nothing like putting scraps to good use.

The collection of books is all second hand. I spend an hour combing the thrift store for like-new, good books. Read all 8 to Biscuit and asked her to choose three for the b-day girl.

I must say, I don't feel too bad about spending only $2.50 on the gift. We put in some time and thought and I think she'll like it. I love having a standard gift, it sure saves money and brainpower!

Needless to say we'll be giving the book bag "art" side out.

This might be more interesting once the chickens arrive

In the meantime, an evening's work:

I love the process of construction and seeing something come together. It seems so amazing to turn a pile of 2x4s and other materials into an entire structure. Even as I watch (and sometimes help with) every step it feels like a surprise.

For now it's a nice restaurant order window for Biscuit.

Project Spring Chicken (part 1.5)

If we don't finish the coop we'll have a lovely sleeping platform back by the spider infested wood pile.

But, odds are we will finish the coop. Mr. H is on the job and he is more persistent than I. And six
assorted rainbow layers are arriving in mid-May giving us a bit of pressure to get this done (actually 25 are arriving but we're sharing with friends). Tonight after dinner, we (meaning Mr. H with my supervision) built a wall.

You're impressed with our pneumatic framing nailer, aren't you? I did take a photo of the completed wall but, you guessed it, my camera didn't work. In better news I had a windfall today in the form of a $100 Amazon certificate--new camera, here I come!

And lest you think we were going to go pro in coop building. Exhibit A:

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Mr. H?

More Easter (and eggs)

Sorry, can you stand another Easter post? I've got three more things in need of recording since I am in the habit of forgetting my own life at a rapid pace.

1. The brunch menu. I was pleased with it so I'm going to write it down: Appetizers: fresh fruit/yogurt smoothies for the kids (skip this, they didn't drink them), mimosas for adults (thanks, sis-in-law), strawberries with homemade lime curd (yum!) and deviled eggs. Main dish: ham (thanks, mom), hashbrown casserole (thanks, mom-in-law), challah, toasted bagels, fritatta (chard/mushroom and sausage/tomato), roasted asparagus, more fruit (kiwis, oranges in addition to strawberries), jam and, of course, cupcakes.

2. Biscuit made Mr. H and I an Easter card and gave it to us. When we weren't looking she took it back and cut it in half "so we'd each have one." I got "ppy ster" because, in case you couldn't tell, that's a picture of me on the upper right. My ears are quite prominent and I look suspiciously like the pictures of slugs that she draws.

3. Operation Spring Chickens is in full swing. The chicks are ordered (6 females, May 11 estimated arrival date) and yesterday afternoon we started on the coop (immediately after I lost a bet with Mr. H about if Home Depot would be open on Easter. Answer: yes, until 5 pm). $185 later we have most everything for coop construction and Mr. H is suddenly excited about the chickens (or at least excited about the construction project).

Biscuit helped move the compost heap. She has pretty good form for a little shoveler.

Ok, I think I might be done with Easter.

Easter!

The challah bunny and braid and egg painted with egg yolk and food coloring. (Christmas coloring accidental--I thought it was pink!)


Then we baked the bread and the bunny puffed up and reminded me of nothing so much as Monty Python. (Attack rabbit anyone?). The challah recipe was from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I recommend it.

We set a lovely table (tables). Biscuit was very excited about table setting for some reason.


Then, after we ate, the Easter Bunny finally showed up and we had an egg hunt.

Note the very dated (but cute) thrift store dress (no time to sew this year) and the brand new "very fast" running shoes! Also the bunny backpack she wore all day.

All those photos and I failed to take a single picture of the girls' Easter baskets filled with a stuffed bunny, a (second hand) china teacup (filled with jelly beans) and a sewn, stuffed, patchwork egg. So cute! I also missed photos of the lemon curd filled vanilla cupcakes with marshmallow frosting covered in coconut. Big YUM!

Hope your Easter was happy. I'm wiped and off to bed.

Touristy

I hate the term "staycation" so let's just say we had a little vacation on our home turf with some out-of-town friends.  We did take the opportunity to visit two of the most well known local attractions that I had never visited after living here 16 years! Yikes, nearly half my life.

I finally went to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield. Get there early to avoid the lines but it was fun. I find food manufacturing facilities fascinating and this was no exception.

Couldn't get the kids to stay still for a photo after their bean samples.

We came home with several bags of "belly flops" so I can fill the Easter eggs this year. Hopefully Biscuit isn't smart enough to notice that the Easter Bunny has the same candy we do. I fear she might be.

In addition to the candy factory, we also visited the Railroad Museum. $8 for adults and free for little kids it was a great deal!

I took a ton of photos but my camera is in it's death throes and only captures about 1in 3 images. Annoying! I was going to get a DSLR but I'm considering another point and shoot. I love my Kodak Easy Share. Let me know if you have good camera ideas--the rechargeable batteries are my favorite part of the EasyShare.

Speaking of photos, this is the best image I got all vacation. The three little ones working on a pictorial treasure hunt created by my friend.

Awwww.

In unrelated news, I've been making soap, planning our Easter brunch for 12, thinking about Easter baskets, missing out on thrift store scores, eating a lot, busy at work and generally having the attention span of a gnat. So I've been on twitter more than the blog. I'll update here soon but, in the meantime, Happy Easter! (or not)

Lazy days

I finally made a lazy days skirt. Biscuit was "helping" me at the fabric store and carefully selected this fabric. Since she showed an interest I had to buy a half yard with the lazy days skirt in mind. I had been wanting to try the pattern  but I must say, the ribbon trim didn't work great for me--maybe I should have used a 1 inch grosgrain rather than a 1/2 inch satin ribbon.

In other news, I finally got started on planting the seedlings in the garden. I'm hoping to use these images from last year at the State Fair as inspiration (but I don't imagine my garden will look this good). I love the climbing structures for the cucumbers.
 

Other than that I've been mostly lazy. I'll be back when I have something potentially interesting to share.