Oct 23 2011

Moving right along

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Cabol

Last night I finished the dread number 114. I am relieved. I am lighter and free and full of joy and song and dance. Or that could be the candy corn.

This is a piece called “Dragonfly Duo” by Dimensions Crafts. It’s a kit I got 50% off at AC Moore. I think the 50% I didn’t get had my sanity in it. I think it should be renamed, “Damned Dragonflies Bleepity Bleep Bleep.” I sent my suggestion to the manufactures, but I haven’t heard back from them yet.

Being the sadistic crafter I am, I started on my next project this afternoon: 113 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Christmas Item. For this piece I am using a pattern I found online called “Shades of Christmas,” from Crossing Montana. I chose this pattern because (1) it was free, (2) it only had 3 colors in it, and (3) it is small. Do you remember Unhelpful Store Lady from a month ago when I went to the local craft store to find cross-stitch supplies? I said, “Hey, I’m a cross-stitch newbie and I want to make this –show lady pattern–. Could you help me get what I need?” And Unhelpful Store Lady grumbled and led me directly to the 32 count Aida cloth and never once said, “This is not really for newbies,” or “You need magnifying glasses to stitch on this,” or “Whatever you do, do not try and stitch on this when you are in a car being driven by your crazy-driver husband going along wavy, windy, hilly roads with your whining pre-schooler in the backseat.” Not one word about any of that.

Strangely, once I had the magnifying glasses and a chair on solid ground and peace and quiet and a bowl of candy corn, this piece became not only much easier but actually pleasant. I think I can dig 32 count Aida. It’s more like real fabric, and the finished product doesn’t look like it is stitched on a piece of graph paper. And I definitely can dig the simple, small, three-color pattern that lacks half stitches, back stitches, and the insidious french knot.

Oct 19 2011

Olive (1997ish to 2011)

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Cabol

Olive was the last kitty to join our family before we realized we had enough kitties. Andy was in school in California, and for some reason he decided it would be good to browse the humane society web site in Michigan. One day he told me about a little gray kitty who needed a family. I don’t remember if he was about to come for a visit or if he was on his way home for good, but he came home and the little gray kitty was still at the shelter. She was already grown up, and her info card said she came from a house with lots of other cats. Her tail was just a little stub that waggled when she was happy. We figured if she was used to lots of other cats, she’d do well as a ninth cat at our place. We took her home and named her Olive.

Olive was always pretty quiet. She didn’t get into trouble or do any neat tricks. She did like to sleep in the bed with us, but for the most part she stayed to herself.

Back in January she began to slow down. She started to lose weight and we took her to the vet. We hoped she’d perk up after the vet removed a bad tooth, but she didn’t really. She stopped going downstairs. Eventually she spent most of her time snoozing on the couch, walking to the kitchen for water, and hanging out in the bathroom hoping for food time. We finally realized she had gone blind and was almost deaf, too. She kept getting thinner and thinner. Her body started to shut down a few weeks ago when we noticed her drinking large amounts of water and leaving many puddles about. We decided yesterday that it was time, so this afternoon we all took her to the vet and gave her hugs and kisses and said goodbye. Andy made her a spot in our pet garden and found a nice rock to mark her place.

Night, night Ollie.

Oct 16 2011

10 Down, 180ish to go

Posted on October 16, 2011 by Cabol

Today I decided to work on some canning since the canning stuff is still spread out all over the kitchen. I need to redo the apple jelly and work on a mixed fruit jelly, but jelly sucks. I don’t even eat jelly often. Darn jelly. Last week I used the last of our canned apples from 2005 (Anya, these apples are older than you!!), so I decided I would can more apples today. I peeled, cored, and quartered 18 pounds of apples (Andy helped peel about half). [After making cider, dealing with only 18 pounds of apples seems like sewing doll clothes.] Although it took forever to get everything boiling and assembled and into the processor, I was pleasantly pleased with the jars when they came out of the canner. I went and had dinner and came back to oogle, and I noticed that two of the jars (including the one I planned to enter into the fair) were half empty. The lids didn’t seal, and all the liquid was gone gone gone. I had lots of liquid left over, so I filled the jars back up, put on fresh lids, and popped them back in the canner. Hopefully they behave this time around.

With less than 330 days to go, I have only completed 10 items for next year’s fair. I thought it was more. Surely it was more?? Darn cross-stitch sucking my life away. Stitch, stitch, stitch, that was 20 days of my life sucked away. At least the end is in sight for 114. I think 115 | Needlework | Cross-stitch | Afghan is going to be the last thing I work on. Whoever heard of cross-stitching on an afghan?!? I think that would not only suck a few months of my life away, but it would probably also suck out my soul and put it in a jar and make it into jelly.

Look, we got rid of our windows!

Oct 13 2011

Tonight’s project

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Andy

I made a little table for Cabol!

Oct 9 2011

Beautiful Bee Barf

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Cabol

I’ve been feeling rather homesteady this weekend. Yesterday we went back to Andy’s chiropractor’s assistant’s house and picked another 360 pounds of apples, and then we spent about 7 hours making about 9 gallons of cider. Today, Andy started 5 of those gallons on the journey to being hard cider, and he bottled his blackberry wine. I worked on cleaning out the garden and replanted some strawberry runners. Our garlic order came in, and I was cleaning the garden spot for that…then I found all these runners that needed new homes. Maybe I can put the garlic in between the strawberry runners? We also collected four frames from our beehive and began the painfully tedious and sticky process of harvesting the honey without a honey extractor. We scraped the goop, comb and honey together, off the frames and then strained them into jars through cheesecloth. Not ideal, but it works.

The honey has a nice, but minty (?), flavor. It looks like we’ll get about a quart and a half. Not a lot, but since we haven’t had any honey since we moved here, it’s a step in the right direction.

Work on 114 continues.

Oct 4 2011

If only apple caramel were on the list…

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Cabol

Saturday, we spent all day making apple cider. Sunday, I decided to whip up 64 | Food | Jelly | Misc. Jelly — apple jelly. I figured the hardest part was getting the juice out of the fruit, and that was already done the day before. What could go wrong? My recipe didn’t include pectin because apples are so pectiny, so I had to get the gel setty part on my own. I pulled out my thermometer and brought the liquid up to “jelling” point and then some. It didn’t pass the “sheeting” test with a spoon, but I had faith it would jell. I filled the jars and processed them. When they came out, they were about as liquidy as water. I let them set for several hours, but they were still fluid. Thinking I hadn’t cooked them enough, I popped the lids, poured the stuff back into the pot, and started cooking again. Things were looking okay until I started listening to Andy and his internet apply jelly research. I added some pectin. The extra cooking or the pectin alone would probably have been fine. Together, I got The Blob. Still, I put the goop in jars and processed it thinking it would make everything better. I’m still not sure why. Reminds me of a post from the Yarn Harlot where she was knitting something and she knew the gauge/size was way off, but she kept knitting and knitting, like sticking with it will make it turn out right.

In the end, I spent a couple of hours and four cups of precious apple juice, and all I had to show for it was two and a half tiny jars of what sorta seems like apple caramel. It’s tasty, but don’t try and heat it up and pour over ice cream unless you like apple caramel plastic. Which it turns out I do.