An Undercover Agent

Every so often I notice a lump under the quilt on my bed. Once in a while I don't notice, and sit on it. It doesn't like that.

Self Portrait Still Life

Vintage.

Garden and Plants.
Birds.
Art.
Etsy and Blog.
The Gospel, the Center.
My family.
Sewing.
Pattern.
Color.
Guess.

(I should have something that pertains to school... oh well.)
What would yours include?

An Old Farm

Mama used to tell us about how she used to go with her mom to explore abandoned farms. Today, Mama, Chrissy and I got to do just that! We'd stopped at this farm before, back when it was in slightly better shape, to take photographs for an art class, but only really noticed the blue shed and hydrangeas in front of it. Not so today.

Joy! At first we were thrilled by the real wishing well. Ha! We didn't know what we were in for.

Inside the light blue shed (which used to be a fruit stand, by the looks of it), there were weathered grocer's permits, bushel baskets, and shelves. A staircase painted blue, yellow, green and red led up to a forgotten loft. There was a white chanel bedspread in excellent condition, an old, avacado train case, a disheveled Santa Suit, and many old theater-type props (including a cardboard wishing well). So fun! We found an old iron in the barn - I was amazed by how heavy it was.


Some one had way too much fun papering this house. If you think these ladies are crazy, you should have seen the kitchen! How many horrifically busy, clashing prints can you plaster on one wall without being arrested? Several, apparently.


This caught my eye. I love its Scandinavian look. It's so neat to think about who used to live in this old house, what they encountered, and where they may be now. Hmm.

The Maker of Heaven and Earth

"All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all...."
- Cecil F. Alexander
(photo credit to Beth)

Grandma's Sewing Machine

I like antiques that have stories behind them. This was my Grandma Irma's toy sewing machine, and it definitely has a story.

My Great-Great-Grandpa Jens came to the United States from Norway, settled in North Dakota, and started a farm. There was another Norwegian man who worked for him named Kallelious Broten (pronounced Kuh-daily-us). When my Great-Grandpa James took over the farm, Kallelious worked for him. When the Great Depression hit, my Great-Grandpa couldn't afford to pay him any more, but Kallelious loved my Great-Grandpa's family so much that he wanted to stay for just room and board.

My Great-Grandparents had five children, James, Glenn,Norris (pronouced Norse) Irma (my Grandma), and Anne Christine. They loved Kallelious, and he loved them. They also loved to look at the Sears catalog, and if there was something in it that they really wanted, Kallelious wanted them to ask him for it. My Grandma spotted this sewing machine, and told Kallelious.

He only had one reletive that they knew of, living in a town a few hours away. There was a Sears in that town, and then next time Kallelious visited his relative, he bought the the sewing machine for Grandma.

Doesn't Red Riding Hood look fetching in her German attire? And do you see the Big Bad Wolf's wicked grin?

Grandma gave it to me for my seventeenth birthday. I think Kallelious would be happy that it's still being enjoyed!

Little Plants

New Things (and Old) on Etsy

I just put some new things up in my Etsy shop. I ordered two of that sundress pattern, and one of them is in there, along with this spring bunting and some other goodies!

The Day's Observances

Today held many interesting opportunities for observing people and animals:

• A group of teenage boys sauntering through the woods near the highway with their paint-ball guns, about to engage in one of the most painful sports known to mankind, second only to skydiving with a faulty parachute.
  
• A woman at a small sewing shop whose husband was the great-great grandson of General J.E.B. Stuart! Now I've met relatives of two Civil War Confederate Generals (the other was Gen. T. J. Jackson!). While I would not classify myself as a Confederate, I greatly admire some of their leaders.
• Two Bulgarian ladies working at an Indian restaurant.
  
• A littler neighbor girl playing with another neighbor's dog. It was running in circles in front of her, and they both were as happy as could be!
• A dog looking out of the window of a car - the air conditioner was on so high that the dog's breath was fogging up the window. Really, it was maybe 75 degrees out.
• A partly albino Canada Goose! Its wings were white, but it had a normal head. So odd...

What did you see?

Mr. Crayfish

Adventuring

For the past couple of weeks, David has been visiting "the creek." By himself, with friends, with neighbors. I just assumed it was the small, usually dried up creek that we pass whenever we go on walks. Well, he convinced Chrissy and I to go with him (we've all been sick around here, so the trip was a bit delayed).

It was not the small creek.

How have I lived here for five and a half years and missed this? It was a gorgeous, genuine stream, complete with crayfish and minnows. The banks of the creek were layers of dark slate that crackled under our feet. We saw cardinals and heard blue jays, and David had his hands either in the creek or on the binoculars most of the time. And the fresh air. Mmm. Don't you just love spring?

P.S. Can you tell who got her camera back from Canon today?

A Certificate!

Rachel saw my post on cleaning the closet, and at the bake sale presented me with a "Closet Cleaning Award Certificate." It cracked me up! She even signed it, and put a closet graphic on it - it looked so official. I speak of the certificate in the past tense, because I lost it - which makes me so sad! If it turns up, which I hope it will, I will add a picture of it to this post. So people can read it and bask in its humor.

Thank you, Rachel!

Lime Curd

The British know what they're doing when it come to toppings. Lime curd is delicious! It was so simple to make. I halved the ingredients from here and cooked it according to directions here. So, all in all, here is the recipe for

Lime Curd

Cream together 1/4 cup butter with 1/4 cup sugar. Add three large eggs, mixing between each addition. Add the zest of one lime, and the juice of three limes (about a 1/2 cup of juice). Stir again. Transfer to saucepan, and stir over medium low heat for about 5-15 minutes. It will seem as though nothings is happening, and then all at once the eggs cook and your mixture thickens. Once this starts to happen, stir like crazy until you're sure the eggs are all cooked. Makes a little over a half pint. I've heard various numbers as to how long it will last in the fridge. One person said a week, another three weeks, another a month.

You could probably make lemon curd with this recipe too, just ignore the number of fruit - 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice.

I put in on toast, but it would be really good on scones too, or as a filling in a shallow tart. It's also pretty tasty by itself. There. You've been warned.

Plans for the Garden

I'm hoping the garden will be lush this year. The first year's garden went very well, but the two subsequent years have been discouraging. Bugs, poor growth, you name it. I'm pretty sure the problem lies with the soil, and everyone I talk to about it says to add more organic matter, like leaves, compost, and manure, so I'm following their advice. Hopefully the plants will grow better now.

I'm planning to grow tomatoes (five heirloom varieties), cucumbers, bush beans, lettuce and spinach, yellow squash, along with some herbs and zinnias. Maybe some peas, too, if they'll cooperate.

Until it's summer and they're all in the ground and happy, I'll have to remember this quote:

"The fair-weather gardener, who will do nothing except when the wind and weather and everything else are favorable, is never master of his craft."-- Henry Ellacombe

Hmm, I tend to be a fair-weather gardener. I guess I'll get out and plant the lettuce, even though it's still cloudy and cold!

Sewing

Well, I've been sewing little things the last couple of days. A spring bunting (sounds like some rare bird) and a little girl's top (both for the shop). I altered a shirt for myself, and now I'm running out of ideas. I like to have a big project going, because for some reason small sewing ideas come to me then. Maybe I'll get inspiration once I start that dress. On a new machine!

Our current sewing machine is about thirty years old. It's a finicky and fragile machine, much like a spoiled child. You can hear it chewing up threads as it sews through them, and unless you have a lot of patience and good muscle tone in your foot, it will either inch along slowly or fly off at breakneck speed. Neither of these speeds are very helpful when you are sewing. The machine will come un-threaded without a moment's notice, and makes you quit sewing until it is willing to cooperate. Mama's been saving up for a new machine for almost a year, so today we're going to visit a sewing machine shop and check out their selection. She has a very specific list of features that she wants written down, so it should go quickly. I'm so excited!

Breakfast Cocoa

The idea of having cocoa with breakfast has always seemed, well, weird to me. Too sugary for the morning (though sugar in the afternoon is just fine!). I don't like to put much syrup on my pancakes, and am perfectly happy to skip the sugar and just have cinnamon toast, so hot cocoa with breakfast was out of the question.

Until...

I realized that it is possible to make cocoa that is not wildly sweet. You just heat up a mug of milk for a minute and thirty seconds in the microwave, and while it's heating mix about a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder with around a teaspoon of honey, and a bit a cream. Stir that into the hot milk, and you have breakfast cocoa! It goes well with just about everything, and doesn't send you on a sugar high. What do you like to drink with breakfast?

A Lovely Prayer

"... If traces of Christ's love-artistry be upon me,
may he work on with his divine brush
until the complete image be obtained
and I be made a perfect copy of Him,
My Master...."

(From The Love of Jesus, a prayer in The Valley of Vision)

It's Coming...

... in the mail! Just like they used to get mail order patterns!

I have enough of this fabric to sew the dress, but maybe it would look better in something else, since technically that's a quilter's cotton, and rather an odd print for a dress. I not too fond of that fabric much, either. Right now I'm thinking a solid color dress-weight cotton. In green, or perhaps a nectarine or brown. I'm such a wimp when it comes to clothing - I'm sure this would be really cute in a large, bright print, but I'm too scared to try it.

Ah, well. We'll see. Any suggestions?

Peppermint Patties

From Ceramic Canvas. My only comments are that you can substitute butter for the shortening, and that they are absolutely delicious, no matter what you do to them.

Dark chocolate and creamy peppermint. I don't think it's possible to mess these up.

Dixie in the Afternoon Sun

Because she's cute.

Cleaning Ex-Library Books

We were manning a bake sale today which coincided with a library book sale, so we peeked at what they had.

There were books about birds, and a Golden Nature Guide about shells. All hardbacks. My mother has passed on the happy curse of loving books to me, so I brought home five of these for a total of two dollars (three were free)!

They were filthy, though! I cleaned them with dish soap on a wet rag, wrapped around my finger. The amount of dirt on these books was disgusting. They didn't look that bad until I started washing, then I could compare the clean part with the, uh, not so clean part. Gross.

It's amazing what a bit of scrubbing can do!

A Vintage Dress

The vintage bug bit me a long time ago, but late this fall and early winter I actually sewed a vintage dress! I think I have Pleasantview Schoolhouse to thank for inspiring me, and Joanna to thank for leading me to PVSH through her list of blogs. Thank you!

Here's the pattern I used, Simplicity 2617, from around the late 1930's or early 1940's. I made the style on the right. Even though technically it should be too small for me, I had to adjust it so that it wasn't too large!



And here we have the finished dress!





It is sewn in a bright, peacock blue cotton poplin, which was a bit finicky. After making this, I found out that a "slide fastener" is actually a zipper, not the little hook and eyes I used. Even my grandma (who might have sewn a dress from this pattern, back in the days) was confused by the term. Now I know, which is good, as I'm planning another dress.

I really like the French cuffs, and the large collar is fun! Definitely vintage. I did leave out the recommended shoulder pads...

The dress is graciously modeled by my duct tape dress form, which needs a name (maybe). Any suggestions?

Rooming, Part II

Continuing to bring my room back to health this morning, I organized my drawers and then, *gasp* tackled the closet. Chrissy and I are very blessed, in that even though we share a room, we each get our own closet. Sadly, I let mine get away from me pretty easily, and have to do a thorough cleaning of it every now and then.

Behold, the "Before" photo:

Yikes. Paintings, boxes, folders, marionettes and whatnot on the shelves. All of my clowning supplies on one side, and fabric, stuffing etc. on the top shelf. I only wear about half of the clothing that are hanging. There were five bags and backpacks in there which I never use. I kid you not.

Two hours, one garbage bag full of junk, and many items to the thrift-store pile later...

The "After" photo:


Yes, that's a door behind the clothes. It goes to the attic.

I washed down the shelves, fixed the shoe rack, thinned my clothing, and organized the fabric scraps. Each shelf now has a specific purpose, and all of my Etsy items are in the bins on the right (the clowning items went to the basement).

We had Spring weather here today, so I left the window open the whole time, which made the job very pleasant. I usually like to clean, but even more so if there is a breeze coming in.

Rooming, Part I

Well, after a month of intermittent sickness at our house (which has not ended yet), my bedroom has been looking a bit unloved. Humidifier and rags on the dresser. Clutter all over my desk. My closet is a disaster, and my drawers are messy. Time to clean!

Yesterday, I tidied my dresser and desk, removing all unwanted items and papers (i.e. everything I don't need or like). Then I removed all the extra books from my bookshelf (there were about, oh, three of them)/ I chucked most of a stack of notebooks which were residing next to my bed, and all but two garden catalogs.

More tomorrow. Onward and upward!

Skiing

Despite living in North Dakota for almost ten years, I have never been skiing before. Chrissy, David and I went with some home schooling families from our church on a ski/snowboarding trip yesterday. First time skiers + one hour of "experimental skiing" before lessons = three very sore people the next day. But it was still fun!


David, friend George, and George's dad.

Myself with Christina (she is exactly one year younger than Chrissy!). Sorry about the fuzzy picture. We'll pretend it's supposed to be that way.

Chrissy coming out of the ski lift.

Call me crazy, but I have always wanted to go on a ski lift, even more than I've wanted to ski. It was so fun!

As to skiing, I was expecting to swiftly glide down the slopes, in complete control of the situation, but after about thirty seconds on the snow, I decided to abandon this misconception (or rather, it abandoned me). Pride comes before a fall. Ouch.

I'm Still Here...

I promise I haven't abandoned blog-land! We went skiing today (a first) and I would post pictures now, but I'm too sore and tired to post photos.

See you tomorrow!