a gypsy caravan

what mae was doing while I wrote that last blog post (or "why I haven't written a post since february")

I often feel badly that I don't write more often here in this space. I really wanted it to be an almost daily journal of our goings on. I hadn't written since February and decided I'd quickly write the April Ruffle post to join in Ginny's fun. I was careful to assign Mae, age 2 1/2, to her sister for a few minutes of watercolor artistry and playing giraffes. Apparently things didn't go as I thought they were going upstairs and her sister (who shall remain nameless) got distracted. Mae was found, seven minutes after I began writing the blog post, on the floor painting her toenails. The child needs Constant. Parental. Supervision.

To her credit, she did not get a single drop on the floor.

Apparently seven minutes is long enough for a pedicure in Mae's Salon. Anyone want to be her second customer? :)

 

april ruffle wrap-yarn along

Warm weather is coming our way here in Northeast Ohio so I am trying to finish my November Ruffle Wrap before the chill is out of the air. Right now the temperatures are in the mid fifties with an occasional jump into the sixties. When the summer months come, I tend to work on smaller projects that aren't quite so warm on my lap. I like the way the charcoal grey is speckled with the lighter weight alpaca. I think I will wear it alot on cold winter nights.

I've been reading The Family Kitchen Garden and really love the way the projects are broken down on a month by month basis. We are in hardiness zone 6 which means I can follow the book as written without adjusting our growing calendar. Ben planted shell peas two weeks ago and they are beginning to sprout out back.  The strawberries also have new leaves. We should have a bumper crop for jam and for eating. 

I plan to put in an herb garden on the west side of the house this spring and am looking for design ideas. I like circular gardens with small paths between plantings so I'm considering that idea.  The Kid's Herb Book has a nice list of medicinal herbs and kitchen herbs that are child friendly plus some easy activities/recipes for children and parents to do together. 

I lost a hive of bees this winter. I heard a lot of people lost bees this year. I'm trying not to feel too badly about it and have ordered replacements to pick up the first week of May. My strong hive last year that subsequently survived this winter were Carnolians and the ones that died were Italians. So I ordered another colony of Carniolans. Here's hoping! In the meantime, I'm going to try to be more diligent to read the beekeeping books that are lying around my home and become a bit more educated in that regard. For those of you who keep bees, do you have a favorite go-to resource to answer your bee questions?

Happy Wednesday, my friends!

You can find more Yarn Alongs at Ginny's. 

mae's owlet

Seems I've been working on her owlet for a looong time. I finally finished it a few days ago but hadn't added the buttons until last night. 

Mae isn't one to sit still or to have her photo taken.  So these are the best pictures I could squeak out with my iPhone camera.

First, she wanted you to see her little hair twists.

She is very fond of the owls' button eyes.

She makes this face a lot.

As I mentioned, she doesn't like to have her photo taken. But she likes to sit on the heater.  She sat on the heater vent for all of thirty seconds and made faces while I tried to capture her in her Owlet sweater. 

More Yarn Alongs at Ginny's. 

remembering my grandmother kathryn

Today I am missing my grandmother, Kathryn, who died peacefully in her sleep yesterday morning. She was a loving mother, grandmother and great grandmother, an avid card player, Jeopardy watcher, quilter and maker of crocheted rugs. Most of all, I will remember her for her humility, her unshakable positive attitude and her tenacity. Safe home, sweet Grandma.

 

 

Many thanks to those of you who have been praying for her and for our family. 

kathryn

My grandmother, Kathryn, is my father's mother.  She has lived a long and beautiful life. She is ninety-seven years old and, until two months ago, was living independently in her own home. Recently she had been hospitalized and is now in a hospice care center. She is dying. I flew to visit her last week to say goodbye. While she has lived a long, long time, it still makes me so sad that she will be leaving us soon. Do we ever feel prepared to say goodbye to those we love? No matter what my age, the death of someone close to me makes me feel like a child. 

(Grandma and baby Annie a several years ago)

After losing my mother a little over a year ago and my father a dozen years ago (can it really be that long?), I do not feel qualified to be the oldest person in my family. It's not because I have a problem with my age but because I feel badly for my children not to have another generation older than their mother with whom they can have a day to day relationship. Their local grandparents have died. They have another loving set of grandparents living in Florida.  While we cherish the small amounts of time we spend with them, those short visits do not allow for a daily relationship built on hours and hours of unplanned time together from which they can learn about life. I can't help but wish they had long, even boring, stretches of time with someone older than themselves, someone who isn't their parent, someone with the time to spend and the patience to teach. 

As a child and even a young adult, I had my grandparents nearby to ask advice and to spend not just "quality time" but "quantity time". I spent time with my grandparents helping them do everyday things rather doing anything altogether special or well planned.  We cooked. We baked countless Christmas cookies year after year. We fed the birds. We read the comics in the newspaper. We walked the dog. We sat in the lounge chairs in the back yard and listened to Bobby Vinton. We hung the laundry on the line. We drank lemonade in the summertime with paper umbrellas in the glasses. We shopped at TJ Maxx. We set our hair in rollers. We played the organ. We cooked paprikash. We played cards. It all amounted to beautiful relationships and memories galore. I want that for my children and yet I cannot give it to them. 

(Grandma and Christopher in 2006)

The kids and I recently talked about what a fantastic card player Grandma is. Rarely does anyone beat her.  If they do, she quickly gathers up the cards, shuffles them and deals another hand. She'll play for hours. And yet, it is the only game I have ever seen her play. She is of the generation that values hard work, drinks black coffee, wears things out. Until only recently,  she cooked, cleaned and ironed like nobody's business. But she also knew how to relax. In the evenings, she likes to watch Jeopardy. And I think she could beat all of the television contestants on any given day.

Sigh. Our family will miss her tremendously. 

If you'd be so kind as to offer a prayer for my grandmother Kathryn, I'd so appreciate it. 

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

See more moments at Amanda's.

narnian yarn along

The kids and I have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia books aloud before bed and, occasionally, at tea time.  For some of them, it's a re-read.  For others, the lovely stories are brand new. Ben heard all of the Narnia books read aloud three times by the time he was nine. When I realized that some of my children hadn't any idea of who Mr. Tumnus was, I decided to fix that. We are most of the way through The Magician's Nephew. I am always torn whether to begin there or with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.  Thoughts?

I'm still working on Mae's Owlet. I thought I would have finished it by now except that, instead of knitting, I've been cleaning like a crazy woman.  Actually, Mary and Christopher and I have been cleaning like crazy... people. Here is my progress on her Owlet...Can you see the owls? 

I LOVE them. 

That temporary scrap yarn under the sleeves is holding stitches until I can graft the sleeves into place.

There will be tiny buttons for owl eyes after all is said and done. 

Not only have we been reading the Narnia stories, but after receiving a thoughtful family Christmas present of a bookstore gift card from Ben's godmother for Christmas, we all went shopping for books and I bought myself the Unofficial Narnia Cookbook. I so love this book! It contains a recipe for every mention of food from the series of books. I made the delicious porridge (I've never had porridge before) the other day and we are anxious to try our hand at making Turkish Delight! 

 

I hope you are all staying warm and are enjoying these slower days of January. 

You can see more entries at Ginny's Yarn Along. 

Have a wonderful day! 

winter days

I know I vowed to record our family's happenings more faithfully but it seems Autumn has passed and Advent and Christmas as well.  Here it is the New Year of 2013 and I am only now saying hello to you!

Our Christmas was lovely and was then followed by a two+ week Flu Season. I have just recently begun to emerge from the kleenex, flannel, tea-filled world of family illness. Mae was hardest hit and took the longest to recover.  She wanted nothing to do with anything less than constant contact with me. She slept upright on my chest for several nights. The crick in my neck is now beginning to loosen. We made several blanket forts and played lots of playdough during the recovery time.  Did I mention she is a Dora and Diego fanatic? Honestly, I've never seen the likes. We watched an inordinate amount of Dora and Diego together during the last two weeks. This diversion was gratefully embraced by the woman who never wanted a television...  

I have spent a fair amount of time knitting while snuggling with Mae.  I started her Owlet so long ago and am only recently getting close to finishing it. I am on the third row of cable and can't believe I've never done a cable project before.  It really intimidated me and now I realize just how simple it is. 

It's probably difficult to see the true color since the above photos are so icky. My table reflects the overhead light and makes it so difficult to make out the colorway of the yarn. Anyhow, it is Knit Picks Swish Bulky in Blackberry. I am hoping to finish the sweater by the weekend. I have a patterned blouse in the same shade of plum that I plan to repurpose into a skirt for Mae to go with the sweater. She will look like a doll in it. (Either that or she'll decide she hates it on the spot and refuse to pull it on.  Feisty one, that girl.) 

Also on the needles are a pair of socks. I've never worked on size one needles before and I can tell you that the K2 P2 ribbing is tedious but somehow comforting. They are my take-along project. At least that's what I keep telling myself since I haven't gone anywhere recently. :) 

The yarn is Plaid Blanket Madelinetosh Tosh Merino. I love the self striping sock yarns.  I live in clogs during the winter and so enjoy fun, handmade socks peeking out. 

My sidebars are terribly out of date.  I will update them soon. I've been reading Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco while  in the bathtub late at night. Honestly, I don't get to read much alone during the day. Seems I can only read aloud to Mae and Anne and rarely have time to read for myself.  If you haven't read this book and enjoy stories of the saints, you will find it fascinating. I so love St. John Bosco.  

I am squeaking under the wire to join Ginny's Yarn Along. Hope you are staying warm and are surrounded by people you love.

happy autumn trails

 

 

a handmade baby shower

The girls and I recently attended a baby shower for a family friend.  This young mother has always loved handmade things so the girls and I set out to make some presents for her little boy who is due next month.

At the suggestion of a friend, I made some burp cloths by sewing grosgrain or satin ribbon down the seam of a cloth diaper.  The ribbon helps distinguish between a burpie and a regular cloth diaper as this mom was planning to use cloth and wraps.

We also made a sweater vest and matching hat by using patterns from Heartfelt which a lovely book about upcycling felted wool sweaters into new pieces. 

Lastly, I knit a green toddler hat for next winter in some stashed yarn of Plymouth Tweed.  I am sorry that the company stopped making this yarn because it has such fabulous hues and knits up beautifully. 

 

The simple pattern can be found here although I tweaked the bind off and did an i-cord for the knot at the top.  

The girls and I enjoyed making the little gifts to welcome another sweet baby boy into the world. It's been some time since I've had a baby boy and I enjoyed the crafting immensely! 

early autumn knitting-adonis wrap

Fall is the perfect time for reading and knitting. I love to hunker down on the sofa in the evenings while knitting or sit up in bed and read. I've been on a poetry kick lately.  A large compilation of Keats sits on my nightstand.  I'm also reading the controversial Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. I haven't gotten to anything controversial yet though I am only a couple of chapters in. I do think she is very humorous and that her humor might be lost if you aren't used to that subtle sarcasm. 

There is a lovely knit shop just a few miles from my house that is owned by Kate Jackson.  Kate is a charming and creative young woman who has just recently published her first book called Sunday Drive. Some fabulous patterns grace its pages. It is available for download in her ravelry store. But if you're a bibliophile like me, you will want the print version. Because paper is oh so nice!

Kate recently offered a test pattern at the shop called the Adonis Wrap. I started it during the Olympic opening ceremonies and finished it the other day. I am not a very fast knitter, catching five minutes here and there to get things done. It is one of the first things I have knit for myself as I usually make things for my children or give away my projects as gifts once they are completed.  But this wrap is mine. :)

Be sure to visit Ginny for more Yarn Along inspiration!

beloved

a longwinded post about canning or "dear kim"

It seems so many of my posts these past few months have been recipes or garden notes. I'm sorry to those of you who aren't into gardening or canning. One thing that is important while keeping a garden is to record one's thoughts so as to better plan for next year. It's easy to forget which things were a great idea to plant and which were a bust.

 I have found canning to be an enjoyable way to spend time and an easy way to put food away for the cooler months.  This summer I canned pickles using cucumbers from our garden. I'd like to plant the same number of cucumber plants next year.  Nine plants gave us plenty of cukes over a long season. We had plenty for pickles and enough to enjoy sliced.

We also canned hot hungarian wax peppers as well as banana peppers.  I'm not sure what I was thinking when I (over) bought pepper seedlings this year.  I think I bought twenty plants too many. I have canne many dozens of pints of pepper rings and I still have about a hundred peppers still growing in mid September.  Today, I canned a dozen more pints and I decided that's it.  No more pepper rings! While they are delicious on barbeque pork sandwiches or with a burger, one can only can so many peppers over the course of a year. I even made and froze some split down the middle, filled with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon.  Those can be broiled like poppers and served as an appetizer. The rest that are growing outside are being put in a basket on a table in the front yard and someone else can deal with them. :) 

Did I show you my new cupboard? I know I showed it to Kim, (who is likely the only person reading this, I think :). I needed some extra cupboard space in the kitchen so I thought this freestanding shabby chic piece would do the trick.  It was originally painted red and then repainted white and distressed.  There is red toile fabric in the open shelving and I just love it. Right now I have some of my recently canned foods inside as well as drawers full of table linens.  It is from my favorite store (quite possibly ever) called Off Center. You can find them on Facebook. (Though I am no longer on Facebook. I found it to be such a downer that sucked the life out of me.) 

Now that I see the picture so large, I remember the tomatoes.  Next year I am only planting cherry tomatoes. They seem to be the only kind that my family will eat raw. I ended up canning a full bushel of roma tomatoes so I can make spaghetti and pizza sauce as well as soups and chili throughout the winter. I think I have about 30 quart jars. 

Do you see those few jars of brightly colored peaches? My friend Nicole cans 50-60 quarts of peaches each year so she has one quart for each week.  I had never canned peaches until this summer and now I wish I had made as many as she did. I bought one crate of peaches for $12 and got 13 quarts of canned peaches from it. Cut in halves, each jar contains about 8 whole peaches. So economical and completely delicious at less than a dollar a jar!  Next summer, I'd like to do several crates. It was fun to do them with my friend and made the process go much more quickly. 

Last week the kids and I made concord grape jam.  That is a very time consuming process but I'm glad we did it.  Not sure if we'll do it every year but it was fun for a change.  We picked the grapes at a local orchard. 

The dusty color of concord grapes is unmistakable.

The kids spent quite some time squeezing the skins from the grapes. 

The kids have eaten two jars already so I doubt the jam will last all winter! 

I am looking for an upright freezer on Craigslist. We have enough produce that a freezer would be a good investment.  I have frozen many quarts of green beans, several bags of chopped peppers and onions and many bags of shredded zucchini. Looking forward to zucchini bread in the cool months ahead. 

Thanks to those of you who've read all the way to the end of this post.  Should be one of the last canning posts unless I can find on some apples for sauce. All of our local orchards lost 90% of their crops this year to late frost. So apple prices are sky high and there are very few orchards nearby that have any apples for "pick your own". Still, hoping I will get my hands on a few.  

In the meantime, have a lovely second half of the week and thanks for visiting! 

quick and easy peach cobbler

Seven peaches, peeled and sliced

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

1/3 stick of butter

Melt butter in a 2 quart casserole or something slightly larger than a pie dish. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder and milk. Spoon batter over melted butter, covering the bottom of the casserole. Spoon peaches over batter and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Should be golden on top and slightly crisp around the edges. Yum!

garlic dill pickles

We recently made twenty quarts of garlic dill pickles. "Recently" meaning at least a month ago. I am behind on my blogging. But I guess it is good to be behind on blogging because your life is too full to record it in real time. 

::KosherGarlic Dills::

20-25 cucumbers

Combine:

1 quart (5% acidity) vinegar

1 cup salt

3 quarts water

Add to each sterilized quart canning jar:

2 cloves garlic 

2 heads dill 

one grape leaf

1 hot red pepper

 

Wash cucumbers and let stand in cold water for a couple of hours

Pack in sterilized jars. 

To each quart add garlic, dill and red pepper.  Combine vinegar, salt and water. Bring to a boil.  Fill jars and place grape leaf in each jar and seal. Makes 6 to 8 quarts.