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I've been bottling honey lately for a local beekeeper.
It's soothing work, and I've been catching up on my podcasts and books on tape.
We went camping this weekend, which involved a 3hr hike each way. I just got home and am too exhausted to think clearly. So today, some pictures taken while bottling sweetness.
We went into Chattanooga today to get my phone replaced. Apparently it suffered water damage from my using it while my hair was damp, which is both ridiculous and a bummer. So a hundred dollars later, I've got a new pink Razr to replace the old grey one, and Logan gets to carry the old one around.
While we were in town I stopped at Lavender&Lime Quilts and picked up these Amy Butler fat quarters. I think all but one or two are from the old Charm line, and there's a piece pf the Geisha Fans print from Lotus. Logan actually set up this pile on the dashboard of the car (which is why its crooked) and told me to take a picture :)
I was digging around on Etsy for fabric to make some more bags with, and came across Starlit Nest. She's running a sale through the end of July, w/ free shipping on orders over $50. Lots of Lotus prints, Freshcut, and the new Joel Dewberry stuff.
I found this apron in May at my in-laws baby shower. There was a huge pile of fabric scraps for everyone to make quilt blocks with, which are going to be put together as a blankie. In the pile was this poor stained thing, already being hacked up. It used to be floorlength.
Look at all that ricrac! It's all been handsewn on. I rounded up all the scraps, brought them home and stitched it back together again. So now I have a turquoise gingham apron, and its already stained so it doesn't matter if I make it worse. It's so over the top its awesome. Plus, I kind of can't stand the idea of cutting up something someone spent so much time on (hand.sewn.ricrac.), when it'll still work for it's original intended purpose.
I totally want to try the gingham + ricrac + crosstitch thing on something else...
This is the other project I've got on the needles: stripey socks for Bradley, who has ginormous feet. I'm using MeanGirl's Bigfoot Socks pattern, Lana Grossa Meilenweit something-or-other self-striping sock yarn, and this is my first sock. It's also the first time I've used double-pointed needles. I wanted to learn because of that skirt from Knitting with Nature that I'm obsessed with. The entire thing is worked on dpn's, so I needed to get the hang of them if I'm ever going to make it.
I found a yarn store in Chattanooga called Genuine Purl last week, and while I was wandering around it I came across the yarn from that dream: Rowan Summer Tweed in 542-Mango. Raw silk with nubs of cotton, and the consistency of handmade paper. Unfortunately it would take 19 skeins of the stuff to make that skirt, at a rough total of $200. But it would be gorgeous.
I've been going to parades for as long as I can remember. I lived in the New Orleans area until I was 6, and I used to sit on my dad's shoulders at the smaller Mardi Gras parades on the West Bank. I didn't actually go to any of the really big Mardi Gras parades in the city itself until high school. After New Orleans, we moved to Jackson, Mississippi, which had one big blowout parade each year for St Paddy's Day, featuring the infamous Sweet Potato Queens, the source of much teenage eye-rolling and mockery. I don't think I'd mock them now, but at the time it seemed like everybody's mama in a 100-mile radius was dressed up in wigs and sequins and generally making a fool of herself; all I really cared about then was whether they were good tippers.
In college, I still made it to parades, either in New Orleans or more likely Jackson. When we moved to San Francisco, there were lots of them that I never went to: Chinese New Year, Pride, Dia de los Muertos, etc. Actually, I did make it to Pride once, for about 15 min, and Dia de los Muertos was in my neighborhood so we'd participate in that, but none of the others. I was either pregnant or had a small baby the whole time we lived there, and it just wasn't much fun to go to parades at that point.
Now we live in rural Tennessee, and theres only one parade in the town nearest to us: the Independence Day Parade. Logan's old enough to be into catching loot off of floats, and has been pseudorandomly stomping around yelling "Par-ade! Par-ade!" for months, so that's where we were this morning... despite the fact that this the fourth or fifth time that I've been in the area for the 4th.
It was completely unlike any parade I've ever been to. The theme was "Sequatchie County's 150th Birthday", so most of the actual floats involved birthday cakes.
Jesus was there. No comment.
There was a guy playing a little organ. He actually got some deserved applause.
Local beauty queens. I think they're acutally called "Fairest of the Fair", because the competittion is held during the County Fair (which is only 6 weeks away:)
... and most disturbingly, a fleet of children on variously sized motorcycles and 4-wheelers.
Naptime's over.
I've been daydreaming about a fall/winter wardrobe for Logan for a few weeks now. Initially, it felt pretty ridiculous to be thinkng about wool when it was 90 degrees every single day. It started back in May, a few balls of Cascade 220 in a tweedy murky brownish green with rust-colored flecks. It reminded me of leaf litter. I cast on for Elizabeth Zimmerman's Tomten jacket, and every time I work on it I start thinking about little corduroy and woollen pants. I'm up to the hood now, and Logan keeps asking to try it on. He sort of can, since it has armholes but no sleeves yet.
On Saturday I found these piles of fabric at Goodwill. There was a HUGE box of fabric in the back of the store labeled $5, but once I started digging through it I realized that I didn't want most of it. It was mostly ugly polyester, plus I don't really have the space. There was a lot of wool suit material in various weights though, and there was even one pair of half-completed old man plaid pants in wool. I pulled every scrap of wool and corduroy out, and went up to the counter to see if they'd sell part of the box. They tried to talk me intoo taking the whole thing (I wouldn't), and then let me have my little pile for $0.99!
Awesome. There's so much suit material, I'll be able to make warm winter pants for Logan for a few years. Warm clothes are actually a little bit of a concern for us in the homesteading context, because there's really not much of a market for woolen toddler clothes these days. We got through last winter by piling the layers on, mostly of those velour tracksuits that were so popular, but it would be better to have fewer, higher quality layers. Layers of something naturally insulative and heat-generating. Like, say, maybe....wool?
Now I just need to find some fabric to line the pants with so they won't be too itchy, and some nice colorful contrasting stuff for pockets and cuffs. Because as much as I love what I've got so far, it's a pretty muddy palette.
So excited.
The rose is blooming for the second time. So far it only forms one little bud at a time, and the petals all fall off within 48 hours of it opening out to a bloom. I have no idea whether that is normal for a rose or not, I've never had one before. It's pretty while it lasts.
I accidentally killed a chicken last night (by closing the door to the coop on the poor thing's head). It was one of the little Sultans, w/ the mohawks. I feel more guilt for killing it by accident than I think I would if we had intentionally slaughtered it to eat. I buried it, since we're not set up yet for plucking and cleaning and the various associated messes of prepping a bird for dinner.
The land adjacent to ours is being logged. The owners live in Kentucky, and don't have any environmentalist leanings whatsoever. It's kind of been a downer for the last moth or so since they started, and will continue all summer. The sound of chainsaws in the morning, not so fun. The other day we went over there after the loggers had left for the afternoon, and picked up their trash (LOTS of it) and left in the driver's seat of their machinery.
There are lots of these winding , self-looping roads bulldozed through the forest so they can get their machines in, and the trees out. I think what's most frustrating for me is that they're leaving a thin ring of trees all around the property lines, so the uninformed won't be able to tell that there's no forest there. It just strikes me as dishonest.
Logan has been obsessed w/ tractors and heavy machinery since last summer; tractor was one of his early, and favorite, words. Normally, this kid is all about wanting to get in the drivers seat of anything big, greasy and loud. However, the first time he saw this skidder for the first time, he didn't want to ride it. He wanted to know, "Mama, why the tractor hurting the trees?"
It's not all doom and gloom and environmental destruction around here though. There's been lots of knitting, thrifting, and chicken raising. I'm going to take pretty pictures of my rose blooming, and tell you about it tomorrow.