memories...

So, when I was a kid my family collected the Random House Golden Books.
Some of my favorite books were the ones illustrated by Sheilah Beckett.
She really helped form my idea of beauty, what illustration should look like,
and what I wished i could draw like.

here we have a 2 page spread from Cinderella


Here we have Sleeping Beauty and her Prince... i think when i crop it
i might have oriented it back wards... humm


And 2 of my favorites, Snow White and Rose Red. I loved the way they
thought through their problems and helped to solve the Prince of the
stories problem too.


Now I'm going to share a little secret with you all. You know when people
say "I've thought about my wedding dress since i was a little girl". Well,
I never really have. "Oh that's pretty." is generally my thoughts but there is
no grand plan in my head waiting to be executed.


That said, when we would play pretend, this is what I pretended to look
like.



Sans the glass slippers though. They can't be good for dancing in.

I think I'm going to have to find more illustrations by Sheilah Beckett.

off week...

This week has been rather off.
It's hard to focus, hard to help folks, hard to just make since of things.
I know it's the depression, but knowing that doesn't help. breathing does...
a little.

Today on the way into work, i saw an injured bird on the ground.
It was just laying on it's back. Birds are not supposed to lay on their backs.
So I picked it up and set i down in the mulch to see if it could right itself.
It couldn't.
So i went inside, got a box and put the little guy in it. I know it's just a
common bird, but seeing it flap around like that, panicked, not able to be
safe... I couldn't just leave it.

When lunch coverage got to work I took it to the Wildlife Rehab Center.
It's not to far away from the house. I felt better, don't know if they can fix
the bird, but I did what i could to help.

The Norwegian tourists that were in the shop said that helping a
sparrow was good luck. I could use some. Here's to hoping the little guy
is ok.

dreary days

It was a kinda odd day off. Had a Dr. appointment to pretty much say,
"So, how yah doing" "Ah pretty good" "Good, get some blood taken and
I'll see you in 3 months". I've got to be paying for a boat or something,
to bad I'll never get one myself. And that's all before 9am.

After that, it was rousting HT out of bed, taking him to work, getting more
kitty food (Grimlock was insistent that this was a priority). By 10am it was
time to relax and just knit. (knitting in WIP on side bar)




I thought I should clean up my work corner. Grimlock thought he would help.
There are a few needles that are getting replaced slowly with KnitPicks'
harmony wood needles. So far they are my favorite.

Also no needles were harmed in the organizing of the corner.



After that it was time for tea. What's better than tea on a day where it's
cloudy and windy and wants to rain but wont? Nothing but tea with a little
honey. The mug agrees with me.



I tried to make raspberry tarts... it didn't work out super well.
They are tasty, but very runny. I might want to just look up a recipe one
of these days and go there. I'm pretty sure there will be enough berries to
experiment on for the rest of the summer. It might be fun even.

Garden update

Because I can't stop thinking about my plants, I thought I would give you
all a little update.

These are my Peppers. The baking pumpkins are trying to take them over,
but I keep helping them out by cutting or tucking the leaves back.


This is the plant that I don't remember what it is. I really like the leaf and
the flower they make, but just don't have any idea what to do with them.
any ideas?


These are the Yellow-Wax green beans. They are very tasty and have
a lighter flavor than regular green beans. It's really fun to pick a handful,
toss them in a pot of water, then have beans with dinner.


This is one of my carving pumpkins. You can still cook with them, but the
meat of the pumpkin isn't as thick as the baking kind. There are lots of
little guys coming out of this plant, but so far, this guy is the biggest.


I will also be eating (hopefully) eggplant Parmesan, made from my own
eggplant in the fall. I the plant has a few flowers and looks like some are
starting to bud.


It is really very exciting to eat things that I've grown. I've wanted a
garden for a long time. But living in an apartment means that you have
to find some place other than home to garden and well... I'm just too
lazy for that.

I started my ideas for a garden way before the economy tanked. And
honestly, veggies and roughage are not my normal diet. So this my friends
is not a "Recession Garden". It's just my garden that makes me feel good
about doing something with my hands, growing things that do more
than just look pretty (though I have plans for a 'cut-flower' bed next year)
and actually make me want to cook. Because lets face it folks, i'm no
Julia Child, i'm just an Iki that likes to eat food fast and with little fuss.

Though i will don my apron from time to time and cook for others.
But only from time to time.

scene 1: day off

Take 1: Get up, got HT to work, get things for pork tender loin marinade,
go home, start making jam.
Get call "No ones here to open the store!!!" Toss on clothes, fly out the door,
fly back in to make sure burner is off, fly to store. Open store. Let Ass. man.
feel like ass head home.

Take 2: Turn on The Current, start making jam, look at mess in house...
say "frak it, it's my day off, i'm not cleaning."

spinning like a fool

This is some corriedale that I'm working on. It's a bit clumpy, but it's spinning
up nicely. I wonder how much it will make.



This is a smoother Corriedale that I spun up. It's about 1062 yards of
light fingering weight yarn. I think I might try making Aurburn-Camp shirt
out of it. We'll see how it swatches up.


This is the Marino Top that Ms PurplePurl gave me. It spun up quickly.
It's drying right now so we will see how much of it there is in a day or so.

The garden is going well. There are cucumbers starting to grow. The egg
plant has a flower on it so I might just get an egg plant later this year.
The basil is huge. The pumpkins are taking over. The watermelon is
trying to grow. And I really wish the tomatoes would ripen up. I want some.

I'm working on figuring out what to do with all the raspberries. I have jars
for canning. But the idea of heating up the house for that seem a bit much
right now. So, any good ideas for raspberry non-heavy duty boiling jam,
or tasty treats?