McKenzie

A baby girl is coming!!! My cousin Kelly is expecting the first girl in the family in almost 19 years and I couldn't be more excited. The five little boys born in the past few years are wonderful and as sweet as can be but pink and ruffles are sooo much fun. This little one is going to be met with lots of handmade love at her baby shower this weekend. The hat is from Natural Knits for Babies and Moms and the I found the bib pattern free online!

I also spent the morning working on some sewmuchthyme bags to send off. Here's the one I just finished...the only clue I got to help pick out fabric was that the girl likes "bright colors."

Now I need to finish a secret quilt for a secret friend who is coming into town this weekend for a visit. Maybe it will be done....maybe.
Until then, I really want to make this. It would be perfect to hold my neurophysiology text book this Fall....

A Conversion

I have converted "The One." Who is the one behind the sewing machine???? The Little Wowzer, who until Saturday would have rather gone out to a movie with her friend then sew all night long. But then something happened. And she and Catherine sewed for hours making each other flannel pillowcases (which are now on my craft list).

Not bad at all, eh?


Meanwhile, I've been busy cutting and sewing Sewmuchthyme bags for some 'customers (!!!)'. Look who helped:

The Wowzer, again.

I Wanna Party With You!!!

Happy Birthday, Nicole!!! At some point, there will be a rocking picture taken of us...perhaps in the next year. Here's your horoscope:

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Vin Diesel, 40; Martha Reeves, 66; Paul Verhoeven, 69; Nelson Mandela, 89

Happy Birthday: Communication, travel, education and uprooting yourself, if you must, are all in the picture this year. Getting away or learning something new will lead to a host of ideas, directions and greater stability in the end. A chance to make a difference to someone or something you believe in is apparent. Your numbers are 1, 12, 15, 31, 40, 42

Sounds telling....what will this year bring??

All my love and happy birthday!

Smells like campfire!

Outside, it is another beautiful spring/summer day! And it smells like campfire which has nothing to do with crafting, except I love campfires as much as I love crafting.

On the crafting front, Nicole and I have embarked on a market bag making-fest. Combining going to the Public Market and sewing has worked out well for us. Over Memorial Day weekend on retreat in an old farm house in W. Walworth we sewed up a bunch of bags for ourselves and friends and family have put in some requests. More details on the bags, how one can get them, etc. later. I have used the bags as gym bags/library bags/work briefcases/grocery bags for the past couple of weeks and I love 'em.

When I haven't been sewing or knitting (which seems to be a lot of time these days) I've been working around the gardens at my house. There's been a lot of annual planting, weeding, mulch laying and coffee ground spreading. Apparently, coffee grounds keep the aphids away from rose bushes and they generally make the gardens happy as well. And who can blame them, I enjoy a good cup ( or 2 or 3) of coffee now and then (or every day by 9 am). Last summer, I saved my coffee grounds every morning and put them around the most sickly rose bushes in the back. A couple of weeks ago, when getting my daily java I noticed Starbucks gives their "pre-enjoyed" grounds away FREE for anyone who wants them to put in their compost or around their gardens. Now, I'll do most anything for something free so I was in for the free used coffee grounds. As much as I like to support the local coffee brewers, I do go to Starbucks every once and a while and I do love this initiative.
Apparently, my roses love coffee as much as I do, because they are going crazy. They haven't bloomed this much ever.

Here's the before: (yes, this is how I feel when I don't have coffee, too)

And the after:

This bush hasn't bloomed yet, but when it does just imagine how fantastic it will be!

And a token black and white photograph, because everything is better in black and white:

Other big things have been happening besides market-bag sewing and blooming roses. The Wowzer is getting ready to graduate (hence the intense gardening and annual planting). Here is the Wowzer with the origional crafter who taught me how to sew and knit and cook. (She's the one not in prom wear).

The Lupine Lady

Did I ever mention that I'm a bibliophile? I love LOVE books. If it has a cover and pages I like it and read it. If I'm not crafting, I'm reading....

Today I read my students my favorite childhood book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. If you ever have to read a book to any child at any age this is the book. Alice Rumphius, the Lupine Lady has three goals in life: travel to faraway places, live by the sea, and make the world more beautiful. This strong female character achieves her goals and makes the world a more beautiful place by planting lupine seeds where ever she goes. Even my inner-city kiddos, who are literary critics in their own sense, loved this book!!! Yay for passing on a love of literature!

In crafting news, the stripey sock is coming along quite nice...Hopefully this long weekend will allow for lots of crafting productivity.

Crafting Duldrums

Hello there....apparently between lots of travels, graduations, and spring arriving here in Rochester blogging has taken to the back burner. However, here is the promise more consistent updates and hopefully some more crafts.

Anyways, as Nicole says that our individual crafting style is reflective of our inner peace my style is starting to show. As careless or carefree (depending on the day) as I am...with everything, if I cannot give 110%, I often don't give anything. A la my stripey socks. There is now a heel and half a foot on the previously mentioned sock. However, its taken me about a month to get there. Normally, I can get socks (2!!! socks) finished in a week or so. I must, I must get on the socks basically because I have 2 feet and one will be seriously cold if I don't get a-knitting.

One reason the socks are still en-progress is due to the lovely, not-like-Rochester-at-all weather. When its sunny and warm I can't help myself from spending time outside taking walks and biking. One of the best places for this is conveniently down the street from my house. The Webster Arboretum one of the best little parks around. One Sunday I brought my camera on walk to share the sights and scenes. Here's the gazebo:

When Highland Park is full of thousands of lilac-smellers and festival-a-goers, the Arboretum offers its blossoms to...well...basically only you.

And here are some lilacs to enjoy sans crowds:


Years back I remember the beginning of the Arboretum...I took a science inquiry class there when there were a few flowers and trees and this new pond. Now the new pond isn't so new, but it does have some new inhabitants:

The goslings are quite cute and the momma and daddy are rather protective. I must get going and working on those socks.

Socks and Blooms

Spring has finally arrived in Rochester! This morning on my way to the gym I looked at my rhododendron and it is practically blooming. I'll give it to Wednesday before I see some full blown blossoms...given this nice sunny and warm weather continues. On the side yard, the lilacs are starting to bloom as well. Rochester is known for its annual Lilac Festival which is coming up shortly.

Speaking of sweet sights for the eyes, I ventured down to the Village of Fairport for the Perinton Historical Society's house tour. It was the perfect sunny, warm day to walk around the village, enjoy period houses and eat ice cream on the canal. In fact, we were the first ice cream customers at Lickety Splits, a great ice cream shop on the canal. Nothing inspires me more than looking at other people's crafts and there were some beautiful quilts in the houses. Perhaps I will be fabric shopping soon for a little something to make for me...

I have certainly spent a lot of time in fabric art these days with the birth of the Butterfly Garden quilt, that I put my fiber on the back burner. The other day I spoke to Amy, the knitting-extraordinairre who taught me knitting in the round over many cups of tea in Hemlock, NY who asked me what was on my needles these days. Sadly, nothing except the Trinity Christmas Scarf for my mother was in progess. With new found excitement for the garter stitch and some sock yarn from my birthday in November, I began to make a little something for me.

It's knitting up quite fast and I'm about to turn the heal, which is clearly the best part of knitting socks. Hopefully, I don't come down with the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome... If I don't I have a whole slew of other socks to start making from my most favorite knitting book ever Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. My fingers are crossed that these Spring Fling socks will be done in time for Amy and my Knit and Tell and yarn shopping extravaganza in a couple of weeks!

You say "Potato," I say "Potato"

Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. I could really care less about most potato products. French fries, no thanks. Mashed potatoes, only on Thanksgiving. Smashed potatoes are better, but ROASTED ROSEMARY POTATOES are a staple in my life. This little dish is quite versatile. Its a great side to a steak dinner in January or something to bring to a BBQ in July. Whenever I bring roasted rosemary potatoes somewhere, they are gone before the meal is over. They are so easy to make and easy to PREPARE AHEAD I can't think of a reason why they aren't the best side dish ever.
So here's the recipe:

• 2 lbs. red baby potatoes (you could get white potatoes, but why?)


• fresh or dried rosemary


• olive oil


• kosher salt


• fresh ground pepper
  

Put your oven at 450 and remember to put parchment on your baking sheet

Ok, quarter your potatoes so they look like this:

Then add 2 tbs. of dried rosemary (remember that dried rosemary has a stronger flavor than fresh...so adjust the recipe accordingly), 4 pinches of kosher salt and a good amount of fresh ground pepper. Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes and seasoning and stir.

Finally put on your baking sheet. Roast in the over for 45 minutes or until the potatoes are that dark, roaster color and your house smells like rosemary...which ever comes first.

Put the potatoes in a dish and enjoy!

Butterfly Quilt is BORN!!

The Butterfly Garden quilt has been in progress for some THYME now. I don't think we will actually tell how long, but lets say that three sewing machines have seen their tension have better days. Anyhow, that's another story. Recently I have been promising my crafty counterpart a day devoted to quilting. Even when two polar-opposites combine to craft, its always better than trying to make something without another's eye. Even though I am very, shall I say, go with the flow, I have limited creative vision regarding color-combinations and details. I need someone else to turn the fabric around or suggest a change when my creative juices run out. Soooooo, on to quilt day. With two working sewing machines, I thought it only appropriate to turn this:

and this:

into something more....quilt-y.......in ONE day.

Good thing we made a big pot of coffee because it took two brains, two sewing machines, two meals, 14 hours, 131 photos and a lot of laughs before small three inch squares turned into bed-sized quilt.

I cannot say how impressed I am with the finished result. Butterfly Garden is far more beautiful, intricate and intense than I ever imagined. However, you all must stay tuned to see the photos!!!