Trying again…

I’m going to attempt to start blogging here again. My DH and I are attempting many things, but the biggest one at the moment is that we’ll be saving this year to try and buy a home next year. I’m, of course, planning big gardening ideas to try and both grow some food as well as deal with being in the apartment another year. Not that its bad. I’m just getting antsy.

Hopefully I won’t have such a large hiatus as I did before. Life just got overly stressful, and while things are still stressful, gardening and doing homemade things are helpful. I’ve started a crusade to go through all my crafting stuff and get rid of things I don’t use and finish old projects. The first one was finishing up a kaleidoscope quilt I’d started eons ago. I thought I’d lost half the pieces, made a quilt top, then found all the lost pieces. Of course. So now I’m creating a plan to incorporate them, because I don’t think i can make them fit onto the top I made.

Here’s a photo of the first part:

Its not great quality, but my camera was dead so I used my tablet camera. I also have a yo-yo runner I’m finishing for my mother (that I’ve owed her for about 6 years) and A set of leaf quilted place mats. But I’m going back to hand piecing and quilting things. Machines are all fine and good, but I do better work by hand.

I also spent the weekend squealing at the local Barnes & Noble because they had copies of my book! And I had nothing to do with getting them ordered – select Barnes and Nobles are carrying them and I am beyond excited!

Last, a fellow teacher and friend at school keeps chickens. She loves her chickens, but they aren’t big egg eaters. When I said I’d help her get rid of some in exchange for cookies or something, she surprised me by bringing me two dozen eggs at school on Thursday. When she said they didn’t need cookies, I made egg noodles instead. It gave me a great way to use some eggs, and I got to pull out the pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid that my brother got us as a wedding present. I might have over-made the pasta, but i have to say, the attachment is amazing. I used to have a counter top hand cranked pasta roller and it never stayed clamped and was a huge pain. This was a dream. Hence the tons of pasta (and this is after I gave a pound to a friend.)

Next project is to get things planted. I’ve already been at work and planted lots of herbs: thyme, rosemary, lavender, chives, sage, parsley, and I have basil to put out later this week and dill seeds in. I also got broccoli and jalapenos, and have started tomatoes, italian fryers, nigella, and Armenian cucumbers and regular cucumbers inside. I’m very excited for the Armenian Cucumbers. They look interesting, though they might be a little more than our tiny porch can take. DH and I planned out a mini arbor/trellis to build for it that will help keep them in check. we hope.