Under Construction

Frames

I am trying to frame some of the images from the Pumpkin Patch to sell on site at the patch. Of course, I decided to make the frames. Because I am dumb. And now Mr. H who is mentoring me really making the frames isn't feeling well so I'm behind. And I'm going out of town for four days starting Friday morning. No matter, the patch is open the whole month--I'll get them there eventually.

I bought frames for 50c at the thrift store and used the glass and cardboard to insert into the wood frames I Mr. H made from old pallets and fence boards. It's fun trying to reuse materials for these even though it's slow going. I really need to clean the glass.

Tasha commented on the photo post and inquired about a trade for one of the images. She's a real photographer so I asked her for honest feedback on the images I posted. She was SO helpful in giving ideas about what to bother printing, cropping, converting to black & white etc. I'm working on editing the images tonight. Thanks, Tasha! Be sure to check out her brand new Etsy site where she is slowly building up an inventory of prints.

Speaking of readers and giving things out, I am totally lame and never followed up on the ceramics giveaway post (this is why I shouldn't do giveaways--no follow through!). Anyway, I just emailed all four commenters and let them know I'd send them each a pendant so if you commented and didn't get an email from me, let me know your address. Sorry for the delay.

And that concludes my month of everyday blogging. Thanks for the inspiration, Loobylu. Welcome, October!

Getting what she asked for

When asked a few weeks ago, Biscuit requested a refrigerator for her fourth birthday. She's right, her play kitchen doesn't have a fridge.

Mr. H is remedying that situation.

In other news, my favorite chicken, who just happened to be a rooster, now lives with Vladimir and his family. Three hours on craigslist and he had a new home. Biscuit is upset but not as upset as she was about the idea of us eating him. Bye, Apollo!

Crumble Rumble: Amy v. Molly

I cheated on Amy (Angry Chicken) today and tried Molly's (Orangette) plum crumble. I do love Amy's crumble (crisp) but competition is good. So is variety.

I have tried Amy's plum cake and her crisp topping over plum/peach mixtures. Both recipes are found on Amy's cheat sheet. The plum cake I find a touch too sweet but the crisp with its oatmealy, walnuty goodness is about perfect. Image above is Molly's. Image below is Amy's in process, earlier this summer.

Tonight, I branched out and tried Molly's crumble served at Delancey. I cheated and used regular ol' plums (not prune plums) but it was delicious in spite of it. A nice kick of ginger and not too sweet.

This round of Crumble Rumble goes to Molly (but if I'd made Amy's crumble tonight it could have gone the other way. After a day of helping around the pumpkin patch playing farmer and then going for a very short jog I was really in the mood for plum yum.)

Play silks

Hello, instant gratification.

I bought this pile of cheap (polyester) satin years ago. One yard each of a rainbow of colors. My plan was to make play silks but cheap satin and regular sewing machines just aren't a pretty combo so I gave up on trying to finish the edges and shoved the fabric in a cupboard where it remained.

Last week I realized, duh, I have a serger now. Took about 3 minutes per piece to finish the edges. I serged until the serger started smelling a bit electrical/suspicious but by then I was done. Yes, I could have ironed but the silks went straight into play circulation.

While I was at it I also mostly finished the Princess Bride dress. Don't look too close. Totally screwed up but it passed the 4-year-old test so I'm calling it done. I am totally over working with cheap satin.

Behind the pumpkin patch

So many cool things. Great colors. Great textures. Great autumn evening light. I only wish I was a better photographer but here's what I got.

One of the barns is actually two boxcars with trusses and a tin roof on top.

There's a boat in the rafters. Random

And a lot of rusted out cars and trucks scattered about.

See what I mean? Did you spot the lizard? How about a rusted out bus? Do you see it below?

But wait, there's more....

Are you getting the feeling it might be time for a farm-wide decluttering? This fellow clearly has issues throwing things away. And I clearly have issues with restraint when it comes to photographing EVERYTHING. Look, this is an outhouse in a fig tree.

And a house that is falling down.

Ok, did you make it this far? Last one which is sadly out of focus but what is this? On the end of the pipe coming out of the roof is a big auger bit. Any ideas? I was thinking water cistern but why the auger?

Sacramento's Pumpkin Hill Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkin Hill

5415 Kenneth Avenue, Fair Oaks (near Sacramento), CA

Opens October 1, open 7 days a week until 7 p.m. (I suggest an early evening trip, the light at sunset was amazing through all the oak trees)

If you're local, definitely check them out. It's pretty incredible what these first time farmers have managed to do in the last 6 months.

Our friends (the parents of Biscuit's bestest friend from school who, conveniently we really like and have a ton in common with) have a pumpkin patch.

He is a contractor and she is a manager at a grocery store and through some convoluted series of friends and relations they ended up leasing a 90 acre farm and growing a pumpkin patch. This is exactly my kind of random. They are literally learning to farm as they go and are pouring everything into this place.

They open on October 1 and have a LOT of cool giant pumpkins plus even more regular sized pumpkins. They estimate 30,000 pumpkins total plus gourds, corn and other stuff. For the kids they have a straw pyramid and will have a bounce house as well as educational information about pumpkin growing and pollination. They also have a snack bar being run by a very nice, currently-in-between-jobs culinary school trained chef so I'm guessing the chili dogs will be extra tasty.

I'll be honest, their website isn't great which is why I posted the details above hoping to get some web traffic.

This is a view from the top of pumpkin hill. They've got a lot of weeds at the moment so it might be a pumpkin hunt or they might have time to weed in the next few days. Either way it'll be fun. I personally loved the weeds but I might be weird. If they leave the weeds, dress your kids cute as the photos will be amazing. (Check out this photo shoot and you'll see what I mean)

Speaking of amazing photos, behind the pumpkin patch is the rusted out junk yard of the 90 year old owner of the farm. Taking twilight photos of rust was the highlight of my day. I'll share more tomorrow.

Hope to see you at Pumpkin Hill!

List

I feel like one of those wind up toys that sloooows waaaay dowwwnnn before running out of batteries. 23 days into posting every day and I am plum out of material. Wow, that really makes you want to keep reading, huh? Would bullets help?

• I am working on a Mighty Life List (ala Mighty Girl) but can't seem to think beyond the next two years or so. It's still fun to think about.
• I am excited to finally have someone to go see Julie and Julia with. Now if it will just stay in theaters until next Tuesday.
• This playhouse is the coolest thing ever.
• I went running jogging on Monday and was feeling very self righteous until I could barely walk for 2 days
• I think I need to run more often than once every 5 years if I want to get in shape
• My sister is running the Portland Marathon in a week so I get to go to Portland basically for free
• I am looking forward to Powells more than marathon cheering (sorry, sis, I will cheer for you!)
• I made this Mexican shredded beef for dinner. It was very tender but surprisingly bland for all that spice.
• Crockpots are the perfect thing for working parents.
• I really want to work on some quilts.
• I decided to stick with only 4 kids for Biscuit's b-day party. Reader Pat reminded me of the age of kid=number of attendees so 4 is perfect. More throne time per attendee
• I am very excited that it's Project Runway night.
• "Renew my passport" has been on my to-do list for months. Only positive of an expired passport is it keeps you from acting on urges to buy cheap international tickets that you can't afford.
• Passport renewal fees aren't exactly in the budget either.
• I am actually sort of keeping a budget these days. And, again, feeling very self righteous. Until I blow the budget at the thrift store or Ikea.
• Seriously, who blows a budget at the thrift store? It's my weakness.
• I'm related to my mom whose weakness is garage sales but I can't get up that early on a weekend.
• I think I'm done.
• How about a photo?

When did she get so big?

Princess bride

Biscuit wanted to be a princess for Halloween. Then she wanted to be a wedding girl (bride). I suggested the Princess Bride (not that she has any idea about Princess Buttercup and the Dread Pirate Roberts/Wesley).

This is the dress pattern she chose (surprisingly good fit with the Princess Bride). When I realized it was a $16.95 pattern and I'd missed the $1 pattern sale by a day, this $3 pattern is what I purchased with plans to adapt. You can totally see the resemblance, right? ;) I believe I have overestimated my garment sewing abilities.

This is the "muslin" I made to test the pattern.

I used a piece of fabric I bought in India and was saving for something "special." Like a dress muslin, apparently. Maybe I'll even put in a zipper and finish it...

In the meantime, here's where we're at with the dress. Seriously, how do those Project Runway people do it?!

Mr. H makes lots of stuff

A few nice comments on yesterday's post about the awesome chairs and cabinets Mr. H made reminded me that I failed to blog about what he made me for my birthday (in February. oops).

Nice, huh? The situation in Threadville had been getting precarious and he created the perfect solution. And I'm on thread buying restriction for a while (although, ironically, I have not a single spool of plain white that I can find right now).

Another view of the laser engraving. Thanks, Mr. H!

And now I'd like to change topics. This being my blog and all :) Mr. H should really start his own blog for all his stuff. Oh, wait, he did. And I am supposed to be updating it. Oops!

But we're still changing topics because I need advice and hope you might be in an advice giving mood.

Question #1: Nothing like ruining Christmas surprises but since I have already mentioned I am making vanilla to give as a gift, I want to include a mini vanilla-oriented recipe book. Any ideas of what to include? It seems so easy but I'm having a hard time. If what I come up with isn't too copyright infringementy I'll post it here to download so bring on the ideas--even for just types of food if not actual recipes. Pudding? Ice cream?

Question #2: (this got out of control long. I think in typing it I've come up with my own answer but welcome your input) Biscuit's birthday. Past parties have included about 10-12 kids plus their adults. A mix of our friends, her friends, neighborhood kids etc. And I've been sorta overwhelmed. This year I was going to keep it to a very clear, small group of 6 children plus their adults: 3 cousins, 2 very close friends who are kids of our very close friends, one best friend from school. Okay, perfect. But! now the 2 very close friends can't make it and I'm not sure yet about the school friend. So.... Do I go with a super small party with more adults than kids? Do I invite 1 or 2 more girls from her class? (there are only about 12 kids in her class right now, if we did all the girls, that would be about 7 girls but one girl is a twin whose brother is in the class so we'd have to invite him and I don't want to invite all the boys too and "just girls" seemed an easy, if arbitrary, delineation but we can't exactly leave a three year old twin brother out). Also, two classmates for sure have older siblings that would need to be invited. BUT, if we open it up to many kids, then we should definitely invite the neighbor or it would start to get weird. Biscuit seems relatively unopinionated. I asked her tonight and she randomly requested to invite two boy classmates about whom the only thing I've heard is that one bit her earlier in the summer. Hmmm. Can we get away with 2 more girls from the class without including all? Does it help that we'd invite ones who were there last year, not those that just started? Ack!

Ok, that's it. I'll get back to the ceramic pendant post tomorrow!

Now my chairs are wearing pin stripes

It was ill advised to start at 9 p.m. but recovering my 6 dining room chairs is the most satisfying project I've done in a while. The old blue fabric (right) was disgusting after a few years of toddler eating in the house. I had a grand plan of covering my chairs in Anna Maria Horner's oil cloth (ironically, Blair posted about this today) but my grand plans became realistic plans and I covered the chairs in a striped, nubby, navy linen I had in the cupboard. It's a really lovely fabric and I cannot even tell you how much better my chairs look. File this one under "done is better than perfect." And free is better still. I should also mention, Mr. H made the chairs. Cool, huh?

In other satisfying project news, the comments on Swistle's random post about towels inspired me to turn this:

Into this (in about 5 minutes)

Ahh, much better. Although the towels were surprisingly hard to roll. They kept getting crooked and wrinkly. And the tidy towels encouraged me to clean the shelves where I discovered a whole box of q-tips and some lotion. Yay. Oh, and Mr. H made my towel holder cabinet too. Isn't he handy to have around?