End of the Road Festival: The view out of our hotel room window while on tour with Herman Dune.
–c.
[I’m starting a new feature on Wednesdays, posts about travels that we have taken over the years. Either together or apart. Hope you enjoy it!]
Another reason why I have a million craft projects going is because I have this tendency to do something so much until I get sick of it and have to do something else. Maybe it’s ADD passed down from my parents. After sitting in front of the sewing machine for so long working on the quilt, after a few squares I already felt burnt out.
Luckily, I had been itching to start crocheting again. 2 projects later and I’m burnt out and back to the quilt, but I got a couple cute things out of this burst of crochet energy. Both patterns were from Ana Paula Rimoli’s Amiguri Two! I got this book at Barnes & Noble on a whim and have been pretty happy with it thus far.
I’m realizing that the majority of craft books that I own are in Japanese, I mean, literally written in Japanese. I’ve been able to figure out the patterns relatively easily but I have to fill in the blanks most of the time. This book is in English and I have to say that was a bit easier on the brain. Though mine didn’t turn out exactly like the ones in the book, they were fun to make nontheless. Here is one of them: Peas in a Pod!
The one in the book only has 3 peas in the pod, but for some reason my pod turned out extra large and I was able to squeeze in 4. Go figure. I know everyone’s crocheting styles and stitches are a little different but I have never really paid attention to how many stitches per inch, etc. This might come back and bite me in the ass when I’m crocheting some type of clothing, but until then I’ll just do what I do.
One thing I have yet to perfect is the invisible decrease (which I’ve never heard mention of in any of the craft books I’ve read). I always wondered why the bottoms of all my spheres were lumpy and just not attractive in general. I finally googled this problem and discovered the invisible decrease which improved the look of my pieces greatly, but they still aren’t as smooth as I would like. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to advise!
I’ll post the other crochet project as soon as I take pictures of it. It’s been so cloudy here I haven’t been able to get any good light!
–c.
As if I didn’t have a million craft projects, add a baby into the mix and my brain is about to explode. Andrew has made me promise to not get carried away and take on too many things because sometimes even the most relaxing things can become stressful when you load them on nice and thick.
It’s been a dream of mine to make a quilt. For years and years, I’ve kicked the idea around in my head but it always seemed like such a daunting task since I’d never made a quilt in my life. Finally, I decided on a pattern that I found in Suzuko Koseki’s Patchwork Style that will be our baby’s first quilt and hopefully one that he or she will keep forever.
I’ve had this book for a few years now, first the Japanese version that I bought online and then more recently the English version that came out this year. At first I debated on whether I needed the English version, but I’m so happy that I bought it. The Japanese version was great for inspiration, but for a first time quilter I had to study the English version for a week before I was sure that I had it right. And not until I actually sat down and started sewing did it really start making sense. Here is my progress so far:
Luckily for me, the pattern doesn’t call for too much precision or for much planning. It’s very “decide as you go” which is nice because it’s less repetitive than I imagine a tradition quilt being. Each square is different. There really isn’t a color scheme and it’s sort of all over the place, but so far I’m happy with it. I just have about 24 more squares to go! Yikes.
I hope this baby like bright colors!
–c.
The yhs: Fruits & Vegetable Garden is coming to its end for the season and overall it’s been a mixture of success and failure. We knew this first year was going to be a huge learning experience and in that sense we were a success.
On the other hand, some things were devastating failures. The main one being the deer situation. We truly underestimated their desire to eat all our hard work despite all the beautiful foliage there is to eat outside of the garden. Though some things didn’t work out for us regardless of the deer (such as melons and cucumbers) I think the deer were the main culprit for destroying not only our plants but our morale as well. I think after the first few hits by the deer we realized that no matter how much love and care we put into the garden those pesky deer were going to get in there and wreck the place anyway. So, for next year our main focus is going to be keeping the deer out because, honestly, it’s not worth the time and effort if we can’t keep them out. Or we could just grow solely kale because they didn’t seem to care for that!
But I’m not going to dwell only on the bad things. There were some things that grew really really well! I’m happy to report that we had a fair share of lettuces, potatoes, green beans, carrots, zucchini, butternut squash, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, kale, basil, snow peas, green peas, and (dried) lima beans.
Some things that grew well, but then were ruined by the deer were swiss chard, tomatoes, strawberries, and our second round of green beans. We were able to harvest some of these things but not as much as we would have liked.
We also got a few cucumbers, one pepper, two tiny eggplants and about a million pea tomatoes. Let me just say that we planted way too many pea tomato plants. They are extremely cute (being smaller than even a grape tomato) but not really worth the effort of picking all those little guys. Note for next year: only one pea tomato plant.
–c.
The yhs: Fruits & Vegetable Garden is coming to its end for the season and overall it’s been a mixture of success and failure. We knew this first year was going to be a huge learning experience and in that sense we were a success.
On the other hand, some things were devastating failures. The main one being the deer situation. We truly underestimated their desire to eat all our hard work despite all the beautiful foliage there is to eat outside of the garden. Though some things didn’t work out for us regardless of the deer (such as melons and cucumbers) I think the deer were the main culprit for destroying not only our plants but our morale as well. I think after the first few hits by the deer we realized that no matter how much love and care we put into the garden those pesky deer were going to get in there and wreck the place anyway. So, for next year our main focus is going to be keeping the deer out because, honestly, it’s not worth the time and effort if we can’t keep them out. Or we could just grow solely kale because they didn’t seem to care for that!
But I’m not going to dwell only on the bad things. There were some things that grew really really well! I’m happy to report that we had a fair share of lettuces, potatoes, green beans, carrots, zucchini, butternut squash, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, kale, basil, snow peas, green peas, and (dried) lima beans.
Some things that grew well, but then were ruined by the deer were swiss chard, tomatoes, strawberries, and our second round of green beans. We were able to harvest some of these things but not as much as we would have liked.
We also got a few cucumbers, one pepper, two tiny eggplants and about a million pea tomatoes. Let me just say that we planted way too many pea tomato plants. They are extremely cute (being smaller than even a grape tomato) but not really worth the effort of picking all those little guys. Note for next year: only one pea tomato plant.
–c.
We’re officially at the halfway mark of the pregnancy. This past Monday was our 20-week appointment/ultrasound and the baby is healthy and happy. We’re not finding out whether it’s boy or a girl, though Andrew and I both have our suspicions. In another 20 weeks we’ll see who’s right. I’ve been feeling the little one move a lot, but Andrew still has yet to feel anything. I suppose he’ll be able to feel something soon because the movements are definitely getting stronger.
–c.
UPDATE: Andrew felt the baby for the first time this morning (10/11/09)! They were the strongest kicks I’ve felt yet!
Life has been busy and full of new things to share. Summer is almost over and fall is creeping up faster than expected (I think living in a valley speeds along the process too). Fall is my favorite time of the year and some days the air smells so much like autumn that I can hardly stand the wait. It seems the waiting and anticipation are half the fun when the end goal is something so amazing.
With that said, Andrew and I have some big news to share. We are expecting a little one at the end of February! We are very excited and very busy with getting our lives in order to welcome a new person into the world. This is our first baby and we are equally happy, nervous, and mystified by the whole thing! I think the shock has finally worn off and we are now in the planning-and-slightly-overwhelmed phase with a “to-do” list that is as ambitious as it is long. I have to say that I prefer it to the sick-as-a-dog-exhausted-beyond-comprehension phase, which has for the most part passed.
I will post again soon with all the things we’ve been working on the past few months!
-c.
As you saw in our last post, deer have been snacking on our hard work. So far we know they like peppers (or at least their leaves), strawberries (the whole plant), swiss chard, green bean leaves, and they like the foliage of our beets but not the actual beet, which is kind of annoying because in the process of eating the leaves – harvest-ready or not – they pull out the beet. Their path has been obvious.
Swiss chard chomping:
Green bean binge:
The deer are looking past the pastures of fresh, organic grass and honing in on our more “exotic” offerings. This is a problem we anticipated but now that we’re faced with it we’re scrambling for solutions. As expected, our fence isn’t tall enough. The wind chimes we bought are so heavy they hang stoic in gale force winds. The liquid fence, although very potent (imagine the worst smells your body has ever produced all mixed together and combined with the liquid that has pooled at the bottom of a dumpster in August), keeps getting washed away by the rain. Our next thoughts of prevention are radios, motion lights, strategically strung fishing line, borrowing a dog, and me dressed as a bear. If you have any suggestions let us know.
-a.
The fact that matter cannot be created or destroyed has always boggled my mind and our garden has added to that bogglement. We put seeds in the ground – some the size of pinheads – and they grew so, so big that I simply cannot understand how that “matter” was not created. The energy potential in a seed has to be on par with an A-bomb. Our garden exploded.
Zucchini a few weeks ago:
Zucchini now:
Our trellis is finally getting some relief as the peas are starting to die. For a second there I was worried it would buckle under the strangulation of hundreds of tiny little nooses (vines).
Here are some overviews:
If deer weren’t so damn cute I’d have their carcasses strung up from every tree in our backyard. This is one of our healthy strawberry plants:
This one’s not so healthy. I hope it tasted good, Ms. deer.
-a.
I’ve never seen this happen but every time I approach an intersection with a 4-way stop I hope for one of the following scenarios to play out:
1.) At the exact same time, all four vehicles turn right.
2.) At the exact same time, two vehicles turn right while the other two pass each other and turn left. (This scenario is more unlikely as the physical size of the intersection needs to be quite large. But, it is possible.)
Rest assured, I’ll keep everyone posted and if either of these happen you’ll be the first to know.
-a.