Memorial Day Weekend, and then some.

I had a wonderful time last week seeing old faces.

Wednesday I met some friends at the relatively new Indian restaurant The Himalayan Curry & Grill.

We also went into Bella Boo, where one of our favorite Debbies got the wee one two awesome Haba toys.  As it turns out, Bella Boo also sells gdiapers. (I would so much rather buy local than from Babies R Us.)

Thursday I was lucky enough to go back to the school where I student taught last spring!  They had their art show, and I was invited to judge the jewelry.  Talk about hard to do!!! The kids all did a great job, (it helps that they have an amazing teacher!  Hopefully I will be as good as her someday!). It was wonderful to see some of my old students, who were more than happy to watch the wee one while I looked at all of the work.  After that I went over to the big garden, and while my husband tended to the bees, I threw piles of grass clippings over newspaper paths.  Time got away from us, and we had to hurry over to the local high school, where a friend of ours had work in another art show that was going on.  

Friday and Saturday were much more mellow, but Sunday picked right back up.

My husband's band played at FlavorFest.  We started our day out early, at the coffee shop, then headed to the Renaissance Faire, where the event was taking place.  Family showed up, and overall there was a great turnout.  Of course, we had to move the party to our friends house.  That's when it really started to get good! 

PIZZA!

On a charcoal grill.

Photos? Of course not!  I was too busy feeding a baby half of the time.

I had made the dough and rolled it out.  Our food-savvy friends worked on the toppings.

Pizza #1

Apples, Candied Bacon, Thyme, (and a really good cheese that I forgot.)

Pizza #2

Pineapple, Caramelized Onion, Arugula, Coconut Gouda, Coconut White Balsamic

Pizza #3

Italian Sausage, Fennel, Roasted Garlic (and I think more arugula)

Pizza #4

Roasted Red Peppers, Caramelized Onion, Roasted Garlic, Arugula, Mozzarella

It was all delicious.

The grill cooled down, and it got late, so I ended up with two rounds of dough leftover.  

Darn.

Tonight we did pizza on our gas grill, with the little smoker box.

Pizza #1

Pineapple, Onion, Red Pepper, Spinach/Arugula Mix, Mozzarella (my husband's half had sauce)

Pizza #2

I basically just put a salad on flatbread for this one...

Avocado, Beets, Spinach/Arugula Mix, Onion, Red Pepper, Feta, Mozzarella (sauce on half this time, too)

I made the decision, we are having Pad Thai again soon.  The unused half of the noodles in the bag keep falling out and onto the counter.  It's bugging me.  

Don't you like how I decide on my meals?!

Up next:

Still trying to get working in the studio.  Ideas of jewelry bouncing around in my head.  Maybe they will get on paper first?

Showers Forecasted

Well, the bees are here!
Two boxes that looked like this  --->

It was very exciting!  I wanted to go look and see what was going on, but I had the baby, so we stayed at a safe distance.  The guys got the queens in the frames and proceeded to dump and shake the boxes to get the bees out and into the hives.  Then they put the flat feeders on top, poured in a mixture of honey and water, put the lids on, and watched.

We watched as the bees came flying back out, and were crawling all over the outside of the hive.

Well, that doesn't look right.

We called the bee place, and my husband asked them a bunch of questions.
So here's the thing.
They had the wrong size feeders.
They "ordered" the wrong size.  "Only the wooden feeders fit on that size super."  the woman said.

*Shaking my fists...  And my head.*
They had asked now three separate times  "This doesn't look right.  Are you sure it's the right size feeder?"  The response was always "Yes.  It's the right size."

So what should have been a few hour adventure turned into a two day ordeal.   First they had to take the feeders off and again, literally DUMP the bees out of the honey water.  Way too many of which had drowned in it, since they should have never been able to get to the mixture to land in it.  Luckily, masses of bees who looked like they would never make it cleaned each other off, and presumably, went about their business.
But the next day, my husband had to go get the proper feeders.  They had to be painted and then brought up- again to mess with the hives.  It was 4pm by the time everything was settled and done.  The whole thing started at 7.45am, the day before!

But we have bees now!   I hope they are surviving well.  It was looking pretty bad for a while there.
Fingers crossed.

Beyond the bees, I had a pretty productive weekend. 

 This is the nicer of the two diaper covers I worked on.  It's not finished, as it still needs a front waistband, but it's getting there.  Besides, the baby isn't quite ready for the next size yet.

The first one I did, as kind of a sketch, I used an old tank top, the kind with a built in shelf bra.  I was able to use the wide elastic for the waistband.  Smart thinking, if I do say so myself!  But like I said, it was a "sketch", so it's sorta... ugly.

I made these using snap tape that fits the gdiaper liners, because...

gdiapers are pretty great.  

1.  They are cute.

2.  They are cloth.

3.  They are EASY! (On so many levels.)

The Easy part.  Let me describe.  Now, I have no issue with good old pre folds.  

Fold it, pin it, cover it, Done.

But my husband and his mother, both of whom are wonderful, and really the only two others who change the wee one's diaper, seem a bit intimidated with regards to which covers or diapers or whatever to use.  gdiapers are pretty darn straight forward.  (But they can be put on backwards...)

The other reason they are so easy is that the soaker inserts are smaller and not folded, and therefore  so much simpler to wash out.  I chose to kinda copy their style because I wanted to make covers for my girl and I don't feel toooo bad, because I am still supporting them by purchasing the snap in inserts.  Win-Win.

*********************************************************************

 And then there was food.

I made some super delicious rhubarb muffins.

This week is looking like:

leek & potato soup

a big ol' salad

macaroni & cheese

mustard chicken

sesame fish & quinoa

and then parties over the long weekend.

So maybe a pasta salad?

Up next:
Adventures in...  finding adventures.

Busy Bee Week

Tomorrow is Bee Day.

The hives are ready and waiting.

There is so much greatness to the farm.

Bees.

Hens.

Garden.

(Not to mention the bird sanctuary with peacocks, the ponds, pool, and castles...)

The girls started laying already. 

And what pretty girls they are!  Photo soon, i swear!

But we have had some fresh eggs.  Yay!

                

(Oh, and in there was a doubler.)

The eggs aren't the amazingly deep orange yet, but when the purslane starts coming up, and there are spare tomatoes on the vines, im sure they will be!  Gotta feed the girls well :)

I've been trying to get my flower garden up to snuff, and get the weeds under control.  

My neighbors were helping last week to get mulch, and they piled it around for us while we were away.  (They piled it, but didn't spread it. Phew!)  So I even moved the mulch out of the way so i could put newspaper down.  It may sound crazy and OCD, but I've had some dealings with periwinkle in that garden.  It may be nice in some settings- but there, it's just a weed, and im sick of it.  So i used as much paper as possible so any potential remnants of that dont see the light of day!  All it takes is one little dead-looking stem to get some sun, and that stuff takes over, like it owns the place.  

The backyard vegetable garden is going well.  We have harvested some *yummy* lettuce for salads.  And tried a radish.  Spicy and awesome!  We went to the Mother's Day Plant Sale at the Landis Valley Museum on Saturday, where We got a pineapple tomato.  Those are so good!  I can't wait.

Other than that, I'm just working on the day to day stuff.  Hardly a chance to work in my studio with the housework, gardens, baby...  (But I must say, she is AMAZING.)

Onto finger foods- rice puffs.  Yes, we got the organic ones. And i am just waiting, impatiently, to have carrots come up in the garden for her to try.  Snow peas, too.  The frozen peas that I cooked up didnt go over so well.  (Not that I can blame her, I don't care for them much either!)

Recent Recipe Goodness:

Veggie Stromboli

Pad Thai

Veggie Quinoa

Soba Noodle Salad

*We watched Vegucated.

I had been intrigued.  It was a SERIOUS letdown.

They were so excited to have vegan mayo, and oreos, and all sorts of other, prepackaged, extremely processed foods.  

I was on a brief kick of realizing "haha- i just made a vegan meal by accident"

And on top of that, what i make is so much healthier- vegan or not!  But with our fresh eggs, you couldn't pay me to be a vegan.  (But you could try.  Throw some numbers at me.  Lets talk!)

Up next:

Farming highlights

Shiny silver