Take a picture

'cause it will last longer. So here are some ephemerals:

Zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and okra from the farmer's market.

Peppers from my garden.And last, but not least, a clean playroom. That only took me 6 hours to do. The pictures are proof that it is clean, at least for a little while.

Morning Garden

The garden is growing. Yesterday we finished up the lettuce (I have more seeds--I'll plant them in late August), but the other vegetables are coming along too.

We have green beans! They'll be ready for harvest sometime this week. I can't wait. I love fresh, steamed green beans.I have some very nice peppers coming along, too.Finally, the tomatoes are getting bigger and bigger. However, I am puzzled. The grape tomato plant is definitely not producing grape tomatoes! Oh well.

Mail Call!

Yesterday was a good day--The Baseball Fanatics came down and we all went to Berea for their craft festival. The boys always find things they want--Game Boy is becoming quite an art connoisseur. He chose a photograph for his wall, while The Wiz picked a stuffed mouse named Swiss. Game Boy has a better art collection than we do! The Wiz is always fascinated by artists/craftsmen and chats them up. Yesterday was no exception. (I bought a pottery colander. I am trying to make/have things that are functional, AND beautiful. IOW, I want to believe my "stuff" is worth moving!)

The other Good Thing about yesterday was I received a package from my Secret Pal (and the one I send made it to the person I'm spoiling). She knows what my life is about! It was a combination knitting/gardening package with some of the best toys. See?
Basil seeds, yarn for boot socks, a lady bug measuring tape (you can't have too many of those!), and post-its. I <3 post-its for knitting. I use them for notes and keeping track of charts. Oh, and a bee pin, that now is living on my Tilley hat.

The farmer is magnetic, and will stick very well to my work table (the vintage table I liberated from my parents house in December. I had their permission.) I like his pitchfork. The green hedgehog is also magnetic. It is supposed to be for paperclips, but I think that I'll use if for straight pins, since I use a lot more of those. The Collar likes him the best.Happy Saturday! I need to go to work. I must do laundry so that I can pack up Game Boy for his week at camp. We're going to be parents of an only for a week, and then we'll go on vacation. Hooray!

How to avoid housework

1. Remember that you have a sewing machine, and fabric. Curtains are necessary, right now!

2. Make yourself a skirt. (No pictures--it's comfortable, but isn't exactly attractive.)

3. Play yahtzee or other games with the children.

4. Organize your knitting stuff.

5. Go cycling. Today: First "half" 16:00 min, 3.64 miles (I forgot to start the timer!), 13.7 mph, second half 16:21 min, 4.32 miles, 15.9 mph.

6. Promise to help the boys with crafts.

7. Go bug hunting.

8. Sleep in.

9. Blog.

10. Find episodes of your favorite tv show online. (That works for avoiding everything.)

11. Decide it's not your mess and sulk about the mess.

12. Knit yourself a new top (about 1/3 finished) and knit your SO a pair of socks.

13. Rue buying the new vacuum cleaner.

In which I do other things besides knitting

I am knitting. Right now, it's pretty dull stuff, so I'm not showing pictures. The two items are a shell for me and a pair of socks for The Collar. (His socks are orange, brown, and blue striped, just so you know. No, those colors do look good together!)

Yesterday, I made some gluten-free peanut butter cookies. I find they work best if you used natural peanut butter.The other thing I did (this morning!) was sew curtains for our bedroom. It is light in there awfully early even with blinds, so I thought curtains would help. We were given some fabric from Ethiopia (The Baseball Fanatics brought it back when they came back to the states) to use as table cloths. These cloths are about as old as The Collar, but are still beautiful and colorful. Unfortunately, our table is just a tiny bit too wide, so we don't use them often. That's where the fabric came from--so it has a lot of sentimental value for us.

Here they are! I am aware that they are not identical, and that they need to be ironed! As nothing else in our house matches, why should the curtains? They have similar colors and some similar themes, so they make a fine set of curtains for our bedroom. I tested them out on the dining room window, the only window with hardware. I can't wait to put them up and see how they work.

The real question: will the dog (Lulu) stay asleep longer? Stay tuned!

Finished!

It's finished! The pinwheel baby blanket knit up from leftover hunter green and pale pink Lion's Brand Wool-Ease in worsted weight. It's pretty soft, but will be even softer when I wash it. It's nicely machine washable, so any baby that gets this will be able to spit up on it and it will survive.
I started it June 11, and finished it yesterday, July 5. I was at camp for a week so I supposed I knit on it for about 2.5 weeks. It's pretty big--and there's very little of the yarns left, so I achieved my goal of using up yarn that was left over from other projects. I knit it on US size 7 dpns and circular needles. The ruffle was huge! I have no idea how many stitches were in that moss stitch ruffle because I refused to count. It's a small ruffle, as I was running out of yarn.

Now I can work on some other things. :)

Independence Day

To celebrate Independence Day, we went on our first family bicycle ride. There's a short bike path not far from us, so we loaded up the bikes and drove down. The Wiz even rode with his training wheels. Game Boy's just so cool!

We went about 3.5 miles--not too bad when one rider is on a training bike and is pretty slow. I rode the Dew (flat handlebars are easier for my thumb), and The Collar and I took turns riding with Game Boy. Fun was had by all.We celebrated the rest of the day with the Baseball Fanatics, who brought mustaches for the boys.Hope that your day was fun too!

We Never Stop!

I don't know how our summer of "doing nothing" disappeared, but it hasn't been in evidence lately.

Monday we spent running errands. We took a load of recycling to the recycling center, went to the bank, bought groceries and shoes, and I did this:I've always been blonde. Why not try another color? It brings out the green in my eyes more.


Tuesday was a big day. My sister and her family (husband and 2 girls) visited, and we hiked up the Eastern Pinnacle and had dinner in Berea. It was hot, but we're used to it. Being from Pennsylvania, it was hotter for them. The pinnacle is gorgeous, though, and we really love going up there. Even if it does start my fear of heights going.


I'll write another entry about the 4th. Blogger only lets me have 5 pics at a time.

Something old, and some things new

First of all, guess what made a reappearance yesterday? I'll give you a hint: we had it for dinner.
Second, the garden is growing and growing. Here is the proof:Today we were busy. The boys and I needed new flipflops, we needed to get rid of the recycling, I've weeded one flower bed, we needed groceries, we went to the bank, and we cleaned one corner of the play room. There's another flower bed to weed and the rest of the play room, but it's getting there. We are using this as a way to purge some stuff. I try to do it every three years, whether we are moving or not! (We'll probably be moving in the next year at some point, but why wait until I know?) Tomorrow's also going to be busy, but in a good way, I believe. Happy July!

More Camp

Before you ask, I did take pictures of other children. I just don't feel comfortable posting pictures of other people's children.

The Domain is dog heaven. All three of ours love it. Game Boy was at camp, but did not seem to be around when I had the camera (much!). The Wiz is in lots of my pictures. Here's a favorite of him (I changed it to black and white):The last very blurry picture is an Elvis sighting. Elvis is a dog that the Domain dogs adopted as their own pet. He tends to hide.We had a great time at camp. The Collar and I were very busy. Game Boy turned out to be a great help, and The Wiz had a blast staying in a cabin with the other boys.