Revamp

Summer vacation came and went.
Quickly.
Now it's time to be back on some kind of a schedule.
Some key players in this schedule:

Mommy, Daddy, Baby

Play, Food, Work

and Naps!

(Please, naps!)

Summer was crazy busy.  There was a grad class that took up tons of time and energy.

And a baby who took up tons of time and energy.  (In the best way!) 

She learned to do so much over the summer.  

Pat-a-cake

Stair climbing

Pointing

But now it is back to school.  My husband had his first student day today with a new classroom, a new para, and a new school.  Changes, changes.  

And I picked up one (of many) applications to be a substitute teacher.

I love every second of being at home with my baby, and wish that I could just do that forever.  But I know that my baby will not be a baby forever, and at some point I will need to go back to work.  I do also love teaching, and want to keep my foot in the door, since that is what I want to do for work.  

I feel like everything needs to be revamped, though, as far as my studio work is concerned.  

I need to make the time to make jewelry, and get it out there.

Changes, here we come...

Food Galore

Baby.

Food.

And a little bit of work.

So I had some "things" going on with my car for a while there.  I will just say that I questioned whether I should have trusted the garage I took it to.  But it's back now, hopefully in much better shape than it was two months ago, when the whole process began, but I'm still listening extra carefully to all of its noises, in that slightly paranoid, just-in-case kind of way!

So, in reverse

A little bit of work:

The somewhat unexpected financial situation that came about because of the car (and the fact that my husband is home) had me calling in to my old job to see if I could help out while people are on vacations, meanwhile, making a few extra dollars.  So back I went to make glasses.

I have to say, it's a pretty good job, actually.  It's nice knowing that I am helping people to see, and I like the work I do there, its hands on making, which is kinda my thing.

Which brings me to

Food:

I made an angel food cake for the first time.  It's my friend's favorite, and considering the fact that I get lots of eggs from his hens, I thought it was only right to make his favorite cake. (Of course I shared it with him!)  

It wasn't the prettiest cake in the world, but it did taste good!

I also picked some raspberries from my friend's farm, so I made this tart. 

I cheated.

I know.

But I wanted it sometime before the raspberries went bad, and with the baby around, and the working and everything, well, graham cracker crust (that I got for a key lime pie) it was.

Then we have the food straight from the garden...

There are lots of cucumbers.  And many of me need to be chopped up and made into pickles.  We did relish yesterday, but that didn't even make a dent.  Though it probably should have.  We decided that we didn't need to double the recipe because there were so many cups of raw ingredients, we were sure to have plenty to use and give away.  ** it cooks down **                   Why didn't either of us think of that?

And now to baby.

                           

While I did all sorts of chopping, I tried to keep her in the kitchen with me.  

The little stinker outsmarted me!

My makeshift baby gate really just turned into a fun obstacle course for her- which really, is fine by me. She was happy and occupied.  At one point she would just crawl out, and turn right back around and crawl right back in, over and over!  

Cutie.

And on top of that, she LOVES climbing the stairs now. 

She keeps me busy!

Luckiest mommy ever.

Up next:

Who knows!

(My) Summer Vacation

What will I do on my summer vacation?

Well, it's not really a vacation, per se, for me, but my husband is a teacher, and he is done with school for the summer, so it's something.

The day he finished, we packed up the car and headed north to Vermont, after some sad events.

First my studio pickle pot stopped working.

Then one of my old fish died.

Then I got news that my car needed more loving from the garage than I expected.  And a hard to find part.  

(So we piled our stuff and ourselves into my husband's two door car.  It worked just fine.)

The guys went fishing almost every day, and my mom and I, true to form, spent some time in the sewing room making thing like... New, cute diaper covers. Go figure.

We also took a side trip to Walmart.  Normally I stay far away from that store, but I wanted a nice white crock pot, and google said that was the place to find it.

Wow.

It was a frightening experience. Character isn't quite an appropriate word to describe these people. But scary would work... I should have known better! My line options were 1) wait behind an obese, hillbilly couple with their yappy dog in the shopping cart, as they argue with the cashier about how much money is on which card, 2) wait behind a guy with a full belt of camping gear, 3) wait in any other line that had at least three or four customers with lots of stuff.  

I chose the camping guy.  Three cases of beer, one pair of new boots, a tent, the line that he can't buy cigarettes at and $459 later, it was my turn.  

No thanks, I don't need a bag.  

Thank goodness grandma stayed in the car with the sleeping baby!

But now I have a dandy, new, white crock pot with three heat settings, and it's already set up on my bench.  With my husband home, I got the chance to clean off my metals bench and get reacquainted with what I want to work on.  I pulled out lots of projects that I had started but never continued and set them all out.  

*clap hands together*  Where to begin?

Yeah, it's all tarnished and not so pretty now... But just you wait! 

I, for one, am excited!

Gardens are doing well.  We have a net up to keep the neighborhood bunnies out of our leafy vegetables, and a superb trellis *pat myself on the back* for the tomatoes and cucumbers.

Even the big garden is still under control.  (For now, and I really hope it can stay that way.)

I made more rhubarb muffins and granola bars.  Yummy, but I think I will still continue to tweak the recipes.  I also found, with the muffins, that I liked the way they baked in the silicone liners that were place on a cookie sheet more than how they baked in the regular metal muffin tin.  It was an interesting observation that I want to look into more.

Up next

Parties?

Pizzas?

Pastries?

Jewelry! 

Who knows what will happen next.  It's summer vacation!

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

On the Rise

Right now, Lily is out with grandma.  Probably at the park.  I expect them back any minute now.
Also right now...  My daughter is SIX MONTHS OLD!   Ooh.  I hear her bell.  They're home!!

Also right now.

Bread Is Rising! 

Maryetta's Oatmeal Bread, to be exact. 

From Beard On Bread.

We own it.

My parents own it.

My husband's parents own it.

Everyone should own it!

Two regular loaves.

One with cinnamon and sugar.

Yum!

Also, a week or two ago, I made this delicious (If I do say so myself!) meal. 

Roasted Asparagus & Peppers with Feta.

1 bunch of asparagus
1 large sweet pepper, (or the equivalent)
drizzle (or glug) olive oil over it, and grind some black pepper on
top with crumbled feta

Roast at 400°F about 25-45 min (until veggies are done to your liking.)


And, in other news:

The big garden is just about completely planted.
We need some hungarian wax peppers- of which I am STRICTLY limiting myself to 6 or less.  Sad, but it must be done!

Lily helped with the garden-- so did lots of people!   That helped make short work of the planting.
We have potatoes, peppers, squash, watermelon, tomatoes, onions, carrots, beets, peas and beans.
Yesterday we got rain, too.  Great for the gardens!