After the Rain

Sunflowers

Comfort Cooking

We all have heard of comfort eating, but have you ever tried comfort cooking?
I had a really lousy day yesterday and I am still not up to snuff, but I found some relief in doing things I enjoy.
I chopped up a bunch of veggies to make a greek salad for dinner, I made yogurt and a bread dough starter and I came up with some really yummy rolls for dinner. I used my basic pizza dough recipe, used part regular flour and part whole wheat, added a little oil, garlic, oregano, parmesan and dough enhancer. After much kneading, squeezing and shaping I let them rise under a tea towel and baked them for 25 minutes at 425°. The result was quite good and will be repeated for sure. And I used some wrinkly apples to make apple crisp for dessert.
Today I baked bread, whole wheat with flax seeds. And I am using some "yarn therapy", knitting a new baby sweater.
I don't have any photos of what I made yesterday so I leave you with one of my garden harvest, which will be used in tonight's dinner.

Sad Morning got even sadder

My friend Betty passed away yesterday. She was a wonderful lady with a great sense of humor and a very talented quilter. I met her a few years ago in Vienna at a meeting of one of my online quilting groups. I took these pictures back then. She had been diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer a few years ago and it seemed like she had beaten it but the cancer came back and this time invaded her brain. She put up a brave fight but lost it in the end.


Godspeed dear friend, we'll miss you.

Sad Morning

The first thing I saw this morning when I looked out the window was a dead cat. One of the garden cats got run over last night right outside our driveway. I know I can't save every cat in the world but I love them so much and this makes me so sad. She was not very trusting and never came close but she was such a pretty little thing. I'll miss her. Del took her off the road and laid her in the grass so she would not get run over again. Poor thing.

WIP Wednesday

I thread basted my sunrise wall hanging today and made a quilting stencil. I will hand quilt rising suns into the white triangles with different color quilting thread.

Simple Summer Lunch

A flour tortilla, fresh tomato and fresh basil (from my garden), zapped in the microwave until the cheese melts, a glass of iced fruit tea and a bowl of watermelon. Nothing says Summer for me like watermelon and tomatoes.

Bunny Booties?

They sure seem to multiply like bunnies. I think they are getting ready to take over the house. But they are so much fun to make and look so cute. And they are for sale in my Etsy shop. ;)

My Mosaic

I saw this on several blogs and wanted to try it too.


1. Toledo. Santa María La Blanca., 2. Pasta Flower, 3. Walk in the park, 4. Soft purple, 5. Gerard Depardieu, 6. tea and toast, 7. Black storm over Piha. West Coast. New Zealand, 8. ice cream?, 9. A Bowl of Goodness, 10. husband and wife trees 夫妻樹, 11. La Merenda, 12. Block f. Halloween Swap 5


Here are the questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Type the answers to these questions into the search box on flickr.com then pick one photo from the first page that comes up and use fd's mosaic maker to make your own mosaic.

Hot Stuff

Jalapenos from the garden.

Sleeping Plant

I have a Japanese Eggplant in my garden. It sleeps at night with leaves folded upwards.


And that's what it looks like when it is awake.

Wednesday

It was a lot cooler yesterday and I took advantage of that. Early in the day I put a load of laundry in the washer and then decided to dress up the two remaining sofa cushions with more fabric from the thrift store and a little help from Miss Kitty. This time I did not repeat the boo-boo I made in the other pillow covers (I left too little fabric for overlapping in the back, now I have to attach hooks and eyes or snaps) and I am quite pleased with how they turned out. The pretty pointy corners are empty though because the pillows had sort of rounded corners.


Then I hung my laundry with the help of my little outdoor cat. She is so funny, she will walk with me all over the garden, but always at a safe distance so I cannot touch her. The only time she lets me touch her is when she is at the back door eating.

I spent some time updating my website, sorting photos and cleaning out my computer.

In the afternoon I finished up some baby booties I have knitted recently, washed dishes and made the dough for the pizza we had for dinner. Before dinner I watered the garden and picked my first zucchini.


Del cut back some more of the bushes in the garden and I managed to snap pictures of two of our regular feline visitors.


After dinner we watched TV for a while and I knitted another pair of booties.

Knitting

I knitted more baby booties last week and also four new dishcloths. The dishcloths mainly because I wanted to see how the colors in the new yarn turn out.

Cats and Birds

I have two bowls with water for the cats in the garden and I clean and refill them regularly, this is not one of them. :-)


Our mockingbird couple has a baby bird and they are fiercely defending it, attacking cats and people alike if they get too close to where it is hiding. A couple of days ago it was sitting in a bush right outside my porch.

A Day in My Life - June 14, 2008

Saturdays are different. We get to sleep in and then do all the things we don't get around to doing during the week. It is also our grocery shopping day and usually we have pancakes for breakfast.

This morning I woke up around 7 am with a numb right hand and a pain in my left hip. I wish I could control in which positions I sleep, obviously it was not a very good one. Ouch. The hip pain usually goes away once I start moving around.

We had wholewheat pancakes and fresh peaches for breakfast. I was all out of regular flour so I tried wholewheat.


I took my morning walk around the kitchen garden, took a shower, washed my hair and got ready to go out. The day will be a hot one.


We went to Lowe's for more insect killing soap, the pet store for cat food and the thrift store, just for fun. You know times are getting tough when the prices at the thrift store go up. What yarn they had today cost exactly the same as at the craft store. We then went to the grocery store to get our food for the week and headed home.

We had turkey sausage, homemade bread, corn and watermelon for lunch (sorry, no photos, we were too hungry to think about it).

After lunch Del washed dishes and I spent some time watching TV (Bubbleboy) and knitting. I will be spending some time this Summer knitting hats and scarves for Christmas at Sea.

It got very hot again today (into the 90s) and we stayed indoors all afternoon and had some ice coffee for dessert.


I'll be fixing tortilla chips and dips for dinner, water the garden, then watch racing and knit some more. Oops, a thunderstorm just moved in, with a little luck I won't have to water the garden after all. But the storms here also scare me, I hope it will not be a bad one and that we will not get any hail with it.

That concludes my day. Hope yours was a good one.

Summer Sofa

A cotton throw with a William Morris pattern, bought a long time ago in England, a few yards of upholstery fabric from the thrift store and a couple of hours of sewing time and our sofa is ready for Summer.

7 am in the garden

Little Knits

Yesterday I finished a baby sweater and matching booties. I am not sure yet if I am going to put it into my shop or keep it for future gift giving.

Knitting baby stuff is fun and it goes so fast. :-)

I also have the sweater pattern for adults and now I am thinking about making one for myself. I found a very interesting looking cotton yarn I want to use for it. But since I have so many ongoing projects at the moment I will not allow myself to get started with it until I finish a few more of these.

In the Garden

My kitchen garden is finally coming along, all the plants are doing well and are growing. I even discovered a few of my tomato plants that have survived the frost and are now trying hard to catch up. The radishes are ready to eat and I pull a few of them out every day for our lunch. And the zucchini plants are getting ready to take over the garden. :-)