This is how I feel right now.

I love giraffes.  They are just so darn cute.  (Even if they do have freakishly long, black tongues.)

The laundry is clinking away in the dryer. 

The baby is sleeping.

And I can see the grey skies outside, clear as a bell.  

That's right.  More spring cleaning happened yesterday.

Sparkling windows, and the scent of vinegar. 

It's the little things that make me happy.

Vinegar, by the way, is the best for cleaning!  I don't have to worry as much that the baby will try to drink it, and the windows are WAY less streaky than when I would use actual cleaning products.

WIN.

Anyway, we had a pretty good weekend.  

We went to cheer on a friend for her first half marathon on Saturday.  

We are talking about doing a half in June, too.  

Of course, if I am going to run 13 miles, I need to get going with the whole running thing.

So I ran on Saturday, too!  It was pretty great.  

And then we pigged out on some beef chuck roast that was cooked low and slow all afternoon.

I would show you a photo, but it disappeared far too quickly!

Sunday was the window cleaning event (whoop-de-doo, right?)

Then fishing!

Of course, I caught nothing.  The cute little bluegills that I so desperately wanted to catch just looked at and swam around my fly.  They followed it, and were really intrigued, but just wouldn't bite. 

Oh well, there's always next time.

Felt animals are posted on Etsy. 

*love*

Husband is awesome and brought the sewing machine down so I can work on bibs.

A mass posting of those is soon to come on Etsy, too.  I'm just waiting for some better light for photos. 

*Birthday awesome:

Camera Flash from my in-laws

This pen from my guy (I think he really likes me!)

Oh, and he worked on cutting out his knife yesterday, too.  

Yeah, obviously I like him.  I got him a sheet of steel for his birthday!

I hear a baby stirring. 

Off to start another week of adventures, activity, growth, and making!

First step: water the seedlings!  Photos to come.

Life begins to emerge

Warm sun

Water

Life!

Another season of gardening begins.

A very productive weekend is now behind us.
First of all, it's great to have a spring birthday because my mother in law brings me daffodils from her house :)

And, my husband is the best, because he planned to surprise me by having friends over for dinner and then going out to the pub.
Love.

But then, the two beehives were painted, and an extra, top bar hive, was mostly put together.
I planted more seeds in the backyard garden. Spinach, carrots, beets, and swiss chard. Also the herb section: sweet basil, thai basil, dill, cilantro and parsley.

And we went up to the big garden. Lily watched as her daddy and I pulled out all of the old structure from last year, the soaker hoses, and any plastic bits from markers or ties. Then farmer Wayne brought over three scoops of mushroom mulch and tilled it in, along with all of the plant matter left from last season.

"Sugar." he said.

It's going to be like sugar. He will retill on wednesday, when the temperature is supposed to reach 80°, and then again, right before we start to plant.


Today the wee one let me get started on the house chores while she slept in. Laundry filled the line and is almost dry in the warm sun. Nothing like the smell of fresh, line dried sheets on the bed!
Bread is rising, and Lily is sleeping on my chest.
Hopefully this spells a productive week to come.

Up next:
*Finish my spring cleaning (I won't bore you with those details.)
*Sewing
*Polishing

Easter, etc.

So I planned to make my daughter an Easter basket.
I was all pumped to do it.
And then my mother in law showed up.
(Don't worry, she really is a great mother in law!)
She had a basket.
It is handmade, split oak, and really nice. She guessed she got it in 1985.
There were a few toys, and a cute My First Easter outfit
(that she got before we even knew if it was going to be a boy or girl. She was prepared!)

Turns out, it's a good thing she gave her a basket.
As with all of our trips to Vermont, my mother and I have all sorts of intentions to do all sorts of things- such as making an Easter basket for my daughter- and we never get to everything.






We did, however, get to dying eggs!
I have a serious aversion to fake food coloring. (Especially when there's color in something that is, was, and obviously always should be brown- but that's for another day.)

For all of the colors, I boiled water with the ingredient and let it cool before I dipped the already hard boiled eggs. I used way too much water for the amounts of colorants, though.

It was pretty fun to play chemist.  I tried changing the color of the blueberries with baking soda.  It worked, but it wasn't pretty.  Don't try to mess with something good.

Blueberries for blue.
Spinach for green.
Turmeric for yellow.
Paprika for orange.
Red onion skins for red.

I heard that you should try to leave them in the liquid overnight.
I also heard you should use vinegar to get more vivid colors.

...Meanwhile, my husband did the "naked egg" project with his class a while back. You soak raw eggs in vinegar and the shell basically dissolves.

*Think, Catherine. Think.*

So we put some vinegar in some of the jars of dye and stuck them in the fridge overnight.
The eggs in jars with vinegar had bubbly looking shells in the morning, and the color wiped off with the top layer of shell.  Sigh.

Chemistry, you got me good this time!

At any rate, the colors were nice, but brighter would be better. I can live with that. At least I learned from this one!

When I got home, I decided that I just couldn't let go of the fact that I had tried making vanilla sugar from beans that had already been soaked in vodka to make vanilla extract, and the sugar, first of all, didn't taste very vanilla-y, and secondly, turned into a useless clump.
So I had to try to use these beans for something before they went to the compost.
Vanilla simple syrup!
I already had the ingredients right there. Just add water!

And ta-daa!

And then there's the last project I did.
Start some seeds!
I like to recycle, so I used old cardboard egg cartons (thank you, husband, for the idea!), cut up and labeled, and some of last years burpee pots.

Right now they are near a window, and over the heat vent. We just need to set up the grow light.




Up next:
Who knows...

Spring has sprung.

Yesterday we went for a walk down to the coffee shop.  It was a beautiful, blue sky, sunny morning, and we thought it would be fun to see some friends.

Along the way, this is what we saw. ------------------->

It made us think that spring had sprung.

Then a friend of ours said "6-10 inches."
Yeah right, I thought.

We proceded to finish preparing our raised beds in the back yard in the afternoon.  We decided to try the square foot method this time around- especially the idea of succession planting- it seems so reasonable, and manageable.  We are only allowing three tomato plants in our yard.  It is so hard to restrain myself, though!  And the dilemma of what types to grow... tough choices- but I think we are going with Black Krim, Ramapo, and some kind of cherry tomato that my dad had seeds for.
So, we made the grids, and planted lettuce seeds, radishes, garlic and snow peas.

SNOW peas, I said.

and this is what we got.

For all of the complaining I did.  Sheesh.  

But again, I am super excited about the gardens this year.  Maybe, just maybe, we will have watermelons and honeydew at the big garden.  That depends on if I can get some seeds started- soon.  The seeds I have are old, and too many years, now, I have been a slacker at taking good care of the seedlings.  Keeping them properly hydrated, lit, and warmed fell to the wayside, as I was busy with work or school, and just didn't pay enough attention.  

We are definitely planning to plant potatoes, winter squash, onions, and hungarian wax peppers up there, though.  I can't wait.  And-- hopefully, there will be hens again!  I love eating fresh eggs, and especially knowing that the hens are eating well, and therefore, so are we.  Watching them jump for the purslane we brought up to them was so much fun!  You get those Omega-3s, hens  Get 'em!

Up Next:

Odds & Ends

Road Trip

Make an Easter Basket

Dye Easter Eggs

It's an obsession. I can't stop.

Threat again of a winter storm. The warning that was good until 8am today has now been extended to 10pm, with only a grey sky, and not even a glimpse of a snowflake. Yes, I'm obsessed. I just want some real snow this year. Everywhere else got some. (Ok, lots.)

*tie bib*
It's together and clean, but I do need to press it to take a prettier picture!

With a whirlwind weekend, we sure did get quite a lot done.


Friday afternoon I got to work on some of my bibs. Boy version. I only got to do two- bias tape and time ran out! I am really excited about these!!!!!!!
Hopefully other people share my enthusiasm. Since we just started solid foods, I am noticing how it is really helpful to have more bibs than you ever imagined needing (or wanting).




We had a friend in from Albuquerque on Friday night, which spelled another trip to the pub. Of course, we didn't head out until the wee one usually goes to bed. She was all snug on Daddy's chest, and super alert on the way there. She lasted a little while, and then went to sleep. That was great-except she woke back up. (I think it had something to do with talking with his hands!) Anyway, the next day we got some breakfast, and our visitor left. A few hours later, another friend was knocking on the door.
It was time to put the bee boxes together!
So Lily was this time wrapped onto my chest, facing out- She has to witness all of the crazy things her parents do. The boards were glued, and somehow I was the one- baby attached to me- who ended up swinging the mallet to wedge them in place. She was unphased by this craziness and noise. Phew! One six pack, and one roast beef dinner, one trip to the hardware store, and 9 hours later, the boxes and frames were done.

Also, spring cleaning is going well, I do believe. We got some rest on Saturday night, and woke up with big hopes for productivity. Well, it all worked out! We cleaned and organized the mess of a garage. We even figured out how to place our raised beds in the yard. I gave my husband a haircut (new clippers work so well!!) and as a bonus, he ended up vacuuming the whole house. Maybe the spring cleaning OCD won't delay the rest of the things I want to do after all!

Waiting on a snow day

I waited last Tuesday night for snow to come. A huge storm, I thought, how could it miss us?
Well, it did. I'm done believing in weather predictions, they let me down something fierce this year.
But, before my hopes were so painfully crushed by the lack of snow, I did get to work on some earrings. And some felt animals.

Anyway, while we didn't get any snow, the day wasn't a complete bust. I woke up a little earlier than usual, probably from the excitement, and looked out the window to see the sad, grey morning. I thudded my way down to the living room with a glum look on my face, and my husband said, with a great smile on his, "I don't have school today!" What better way to celebrate that than to do our taxes?! April 15, you don't scare me!

That was about the extent of my productivity for a while, or at least that's how it feels.
Thursday, we had dinner at the pub with my in-laws, and Friday night, my parents arrived. They got here just before my husband had to leave to go play with his band at the smokiest bar in town.

Saturday there was lots of time to be had playing with the baby. We went fishing on Sunday, and my mother got to test out our new stroller. They stayed until Thursday morning, and amid all of the playtime, I did get to search some fabric stores with my mother.
We picked out lots of material, and I have a new diaper bag coming my way! (Our design, of course!) I also found some great material for one of my next projects...

Bibs!
I have some drawings done, but it's mostly in my head. So no sneak peeks!
Hopefully I will get the chance to work on them soon. This weekend looks like it may be full with friends and family, but I am really excited to start working on them! (Along with the busy weekend, I started to feel the urge today to get to spring cleaning. That has the power to stop me in my tracks, due to my self-diagnosed OCD.)

Some progress

I went on a baking spree the other day. Well, I tried to, but many things seemed against me! I planned to make zucchini bread, to use up one of the many bags in the freezer, and thought, since I would have the oven on, I should make regular bread, and some berry muffins too, to use the blueberries and strawberries I so happily got on sale last week, and promptly forgot about in the fridge.

Banana Berry Muffins. 

Well, the cornmeal for the bread had to cool, then the dough had to rise, so I'd be baking it in, oh, say, three hours? Then I realized I'd need 3 eggs for the zucchini bread and one for the muffins. Since we only had three left, I opted to make the muffins the next morning so they'd be fresh and warm. So that was all well and good- dry ingredients for everything were all set to go. Then I saw that one of the three eggs had a crack in the shell. Really?! Fine, I'll just use two, I thought. Well, I should have at least added more liquid! We have some pretty dense zucchini bread now!


On the bright side, the muffins were tasty, despite their less than beautiful appearance.

I did get the chance to start to work on some earrings. Just have to finish working on them!
And I started my new project.
Felt animals!
I am quite excited about the little guys.
I have a bunch cut out, and I need to go get some embroidery floss. (I tried to get some yesterday- I was so close- but the store I went to was renovating, and apparently left some things out to get dusty. Not ok for kids toys...)

Still no tapioca plans.
And sometime this weekend, we are going to go to the fly fishing show :)