I certainly didn’t intend to have such a long blogging hiatus but it happened anyway.  It  started with my summer from hell.  Soon after the lovely birthday party, summer camp started.  Lots went wrong- mostly database issues resulting in registration issues and unhappy parents mad at me- but also 3 staff members quitting in the 1st 2 weeks of camp for a variety of (mostly) understandable reasons and it all made me want to go home and not come back.

Oh, it wasn’t all bad.  In the end almost 1000 kids had a great time and my cool-on-the-outside-freaking-out-on-the-inside demeanor served me well and resulted in what everyone said was the best summer of camp ever.  Yay me.  In the midst of that, I had no energy left to write and once I stopped it was hard to start back up.  I’ve probably written 25 posts in my head but that does you no good.

Since I left you, my garden grew and grew and we canned a whole lot of delicious produce.  We planted giant sunflowers and now have so many seeds!

Buffy, Oolong and Wynonna grew up and started laying delicious eggs.   One hen tried to fake us out by laying 14 eggs in a secret spot before we found them!  Then last month, sadly and suddenly, Wynonna died mysteriously, and seemingly peacefully, overnight.  So we got 2 new hens- Matcha (an Americauna) and Brown Betty (a Welsummer) but they’re not laying yet and I don’t have any pictures of them yet.  Now Oolong is molting so she’s not laying either so we’re down to one laying hen.  For now.

After camp was over we took an fun, relaxing camping trip to Paradise Creek in the Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington.  We relaxed and explored, ate smores,  hiked on a path to nowhere and admired the pretty colors of the volcanic rocks that were all along the creek.

I’ve  only really been knitting in the past couple of weeks but I have plenty of projects that will show up here in the next few weeks.  The same goes for spinning.

I renamed my business and moved everything over to a brand new shop and website.  The story of why will come soon.  I love my new name and logo and am gearing up for the busy shopping season.

That’s the quick and dirty lowdown.  I’ve got to start small.  It feels good to get some words out there and I’ll be a little more detailed in my next posts.

So far we’ve eaten broccoli from the garden and will have fava beans and snap peas soon. We’re also growing lettuce, garlic, leeks, a million onions, kale, spinach, kohlrabi, 3 types of tomatoes, purple string beans, 2 types of shelling beans, japanese eggplants, jalapeno peppers, gypsy peppers, carrots, 2 types of potatos, basil and a few other herbs. Whew, that’s a lot! I’m really excited about having so much fresh produce right in my backyard! We also have raspberry, strawberry and blueberry plants. We’ve been enjoying the strawberries for about a week now and I just ate my first ripe blueberry this morning. Delicious!

I’m getting ready for some fun craft shows and art fairs this summer and have been working on a new product. I have this french press cover listed in my shop and several more will be for sale soon. Mike and I tested it out and it definitely keeps coffee warm longer and it adds some style to a french press.

Like my other items for sale, it’s made from a recycled wool sweater. This one is actually a wool/angora blend so it has a little extra softness. I tried some different methods of closing it and finally settled on these beaded ties. They wrap around the buttons so it can be closed as snugly as you’d like. It makes the cover a little adjustable so it’ll fit different brands that may be slightly different sizes.

Etsy is having a “yart sale” today through Sunday. It’s like a yard sale, but with art. I have a whole section of specially discounted items and you can search for “yart” on etsy to see what other good deals are out there.

1. The weather has been nuts. It’s spring-like one day and hailing the next. It’s confusing but we still manage to get outside and enjoy the sun, even if it is a bit chilly.


(Why yes, that is my clapotis you see in the bottom of the stroller. The bright rainbow blanket was crocheted my one of sesame’s many great-aunts. We rarely leave the house without something handmade.)

2. We all got the flu. Thankfully not the puking kind, but the fever,chills, lay on the couch and feel like you’re going to die kind. Oh, and it lasted forever. I’d feel better and think I was getting over it when suddenly the 102 degree fever would come back. We freaked out about Sesame’s temp of 105 and took her to the doctor but there was nothing they could do so we came home and slept for a week. The only nice part was that my busybody toddler finally snuggled with me.
3. My mom came to visit and Sesame called her grandma for the 1st time (well, technically “gam-pa” but we knew what she meant) and it was nice to see them have so much fun together. The hysterical toddler screaming “GAM-PA” through her tears as we drove away from the airport was heartbreaking though. She is no longer welcome on trips to the airport to drop off visitors.
4. I made a ton of cashmere hats and I’m getting them all listed in my etsy shop. they’re made from recycled sweaters and have cute springtime designs on them. Just in time for Easter!



5. Sesame decided she was done sleeping in a crib and decided that the best way to tell us was to fling herself over the edge in the middle of the night. Thankfully her only injury was a bit of rug-burn on her cheek. We got a toddler bed the same weekend and she loves it and sleeps really well in it, though the actual putting her to bed part is nightmarish.
6. I’ve been knitting and finished a pair of socks but don’t have any pictures yet. You’ll just have to trust me that they’re gorgeous.
7. I made an awesome find at Title Wave, the bookstore that sells library cast-offs. All these relatively current knitting magazines for $1 each! That’s the best $5 I’ve spent in a long time.



8. Mike and have planned an awesome garden for this summer and have started planting some cool stuff. I’ll share it all with you as soon as I get some pictures. We’ve stopped being members of our CSA, even though we love it and it’ll be sad to not be supporting Laura, “our” farmer anymore. I hope she understands. It’s just too much money right now so we’re going to grow a bunch of our own veggies this summer. I’m really excited!

Sesame won’t eat strawberries if I offer them to her at mealtimes while she’s in her high chair, but when she could pick them herself, she tried to eat them all! Despite her face in the last picture, she really liked them and amazingly most of the mess managed to stay off of her clothes.

I made fabulous strawberry shortcakes for dessert tonight. I had some creme fraiche in the fridge so I mixed some brown sugar with it and used that instead of whipped cream. Add some fresh-from-the-oven biscuits and fresh-from-the-garden berries and it was a winner!

I’ve been knitting this mess for a while and I finally have all the pieces done. After knitting this a while back, I didn’t think I’d do it again but, well, a knitted toy is hard to resist. All these pieces will be this cute little crab (Ravelry)! That’s the body, 8 legs, 2 claws and 2 eye stalks that you’re looking at. It’s for baby Lucas, whose mother is Cindy, one of my best friends but they live all the way in El Salvador so I don’t see her often enough. I hope the little cutie likes it.

The pattern isn’t written too well and is quite fiddly, for lack of a better word, but I’ll share more about that later. Speaking of patterns, I’m going to write up my loose pattern for the soaker skirt since several have asked for it. Look for that soon! In other housekeeping news, I’m hoping to add some stuff to my shop soon. With all the birthday madness, and my job starting full time next week (eek!) I have been neglecting it a little.

So are buttons- lots and lots of buttons. I bought these from an etsy seller and got them in the mail yesterday. Who knew buttons would make me so happy? Why does the simple act of sorting little buttons make me so happy? I loved sorting them and happy to find another use for my cute deviled egg tray. It makes a fabulous button tray! They can’t stay there forever but for now they make a nice centerpiece on the table. Or they would if there weren’t so much other stuff on the table right now. Look for them soon on my coin purses in my etsy shop!

Another happy thing on my dining room table are my little seedlings! This cute little guy (girl?) is a baby cucumber. I also have tomatoes and basil sprouting. I can’t wait to get my garden planted! It hailed last weekend, though, so it’ll take some time for the ground to warm up. In the meantime, they’re happy on the table.

My next happy thing to share is also a little sad. Sesame stated walking!! She’s not too proficient yet but she definitely prefers it to crawling. She’s not even 11 months old and I’m a little sad that she’s growing up so fast. She seems so big (yet tiny at the same time!) when she’s walking across the room.

I’m also really happy that I’m done knitting my Hemlock Ring Blanket. I thought I was going to die of boredom while I was binding off but I survived. It just needs a little embellishing and then I can give it away. It’s gorgeous but I’ll be glad to be finished with it.

I was on the front page of Etsy a week ago! I missed seeing it but luckily someone put up a screen capture on Flickr so I was able to see it. There’s my coffee sleeve in the top right corner! It’s like I’m famous. Or was for an hour or so.

That’s it for now. I hope you all have lots of happy things too!

The Hemlock Ring Blanket is coming along nicely, no thanks to a big mistake and the ripping back of 9, yes 9, rows. I was quite cranky for a good hour following that event but I’m over it and I’m almost back to where I was pre-ripping. It still looks like a ball of mush in a photo. I also started a sweater for Mike but the stockinette sleeve of a man’s sweater is pretty boring in a picture too. I’ll show it off when it gets a little more interesting.

Woolies tagged me for a meme. I don’t do these very often but here goes:

4 JOBS
Nature Day Camp Director (super fun!!), Guide Dog trainer in training (the total opposite of fun), Biology Lab Instructor,Naturalist for an outdoor school
FAVORITE MOVIES …
I’m not really a movie person and I rarely watch a movie more than once, even if I really like it. I don’t think I have 4 favorites.
4 PLACES I’VE BEEN..
El Salvador, Japan, Europe (I know it’s not really one place), Guatemala
4 PLACES I’VE LIVED…
Portland, Placerville, CA, Napa, CA and Sevilla, Spain
4 FAVORITE TELEVISION SHOWS…
Six Feet Under, House, Project Runway, The Gilmore Girls
4 FAVORITE RADIO PROGRAMS …
I’m an NPR junkie and that’s pretty much all I listen to. I love This American Life and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me the most although you can’t go wrong with Morning Edition or All Things Considered. Oh, and I love Science Friday on Talk of the Nation too. That’s 5, isn’t it? I’m not good at staying in the lines.
4 FAVORITE FOODS…
Apple pie but only if it’s homemade, curry with rice, veggies and tofu, pesto made with basil from my garden and homemade ice cream. Of course, not all at once. Well, actually, apple pie ice cream is pretty darn good.
4PLACES I’D RATHER BE….
I’m really happy where I am, physically and emotionally. I really wouldn’t rather be anywhere else. Of course, a vacation would always be welcome but I’m not one to just sit on a beach somewhere.

For making it this far, I’ll leave you with a picture of my succulant that is finally flowering after 2 years. It makes me happy.

Stupid, icky dandelions. Oh I know, it looks like a pretty little ray of sunshine but in another month or so when my entire yard is covered with them, it won’t be so cute and happy. I spent an hour yesterday pulling those dark green leaves and long, long taproots out of my lawn to try and get a head start on the removal process. What makes my neighborhood so dandelion-happy? I really want to know! I do feel a good deal of satisfaction when I see the pile of dandelion corpses wilting on the sidewalk so this officially marks the beginning of yet another season of my love-hate relationship with this pastime.

To cheer up the ominous dandelion picture, I added something that truly is a ray of sunshiney cuteness. Socks for sesame. The yarn is Knitpicks Sock Garden in the colorway Daffodil. How perfect is that for spring? The colors are brighter but they got a little washed out in the sun(yes, sun!). I used up nearly every last inch of the yarn left over from these socks. So mom, if you still have those, you and your granddaughter can have matching tootsies!

In other crafty news, I’ve been working on a sewing project with this fabulous fabric. I’ve been holding onto it for a while and have finally found the perfect project. Stay tuned for more updates.

Oh, and have you seen this?! I love, love, love olives. When I first met Mike he claimed he didn’t like olives but he now loves them almost as much as I do. I love them so much that I converted a so-called olive hater. I don’t think I could have married someone who hated olives, that’s how much I love them. I so need to knit me some of these giants! (Clicking the photo will take you to the free pattern. )