Nevertheless...

Moonshine Cake

2011-05-02T17:58:00.006-04:00

Ahhh, titles can be deceiving! Moonshine is the most amazing dog owned by my friend Aaron, who this past weekend had a milestone birthday. This was my second attempt at a 3-D cake, and I was pretty happy with it. It was pretty fun to do. I used Smitten Kitchen's Red Velvet Cake recipe and cream cheese icing. Two recipes of the cake and three of the icing. The recipe used 3 9" round pans, which I substituted 3 8" square pans. It was just easier to figure out the layout using square. In my head at least. :) It is hard to see in the pictures, but she has a pink collar with metal spikes - metal icing tips worked perfect!

Filling the Frames

2011-04-06T20:52:00.003-04:00

The wood frames are almost complete. This past week I reinforced them with nails (first time using a nail gun with a compressor!), and now all they need is a coat or two of polyurethane to protect them. This week I started laying them out how they will go on the wall, and plan for what will go in them. In the midst of that I'm working on a project involving forks, wood, and chalkboard paint. :) Oh, and the second half of the garden may get planted soon as well. Woo hoo!

Signs of Life

2011-04-02T22:45:00.005-04:00

We've had a LOT of rain recently, good because it has brought us almost up to normal. But it has made for some chilly, dreary days! So I finally made it out to the garden today to do a little weeding and check on the progress. The sugar snaps, onions and sunflowers have started sprouting, and with Monday's scheduled sun and warmth, it should start taking off soon. Yay garden!

Garden 2011

2011-03-17T23:24:00.005-04:00

Garden planting has begun! A couple weeks ago we tilled the garden and today I planted potatoes (Yukon Gold and Blue Adirondack), carrots (purple and orange), yellow onions, sugar snaps, and sunflowers. Someone gave me a few of their strawberry plants, and they seem to be doing nicely thus far, hopefully I will get a handful out of them this summer. So nice to be back playing in the dirt, despite the large number of grubs we've all seen thus far. Gross. If I had any plans to go fishing, they would be perfect. I probably squished 20 today. Anyways, loving getting things started, can't wait until they start growing!

Reclaimed Barn Wood

2011-03-14T22:31:00.006-04:00

The beginning of the year I started to think through a project that sounded interesting ... more on that later when it comes to fruition! Anyways... to frame this particular project, I wanted to use old wood, reclaimed barn wood sounded so fabulous and MUCH more interesting than fresh cut. So I started asking around and found a place north of town where I could buy boards of all sizes, shapes, and type. I definitely felt out of my league staring at it all and just started picking out random boards that seemed like they might have extra character. Most were weathered completely gray, and just laying about all over a field. I loaded up my stash of wood, and brought it back to Charlotte.

It spent a while on my porch waiting for me to do something with it. ;) Finally, after letting it dry out completely, I took it to a friend's to plane it. And that's when all the cool colors and knots came out - that was SO fun! And just recently I marked the boards for the sizes I wanted, and we cut the boards down with a table saw, and mitered the corners. I was so excited that night I stayed up late gluing and clamping all the frames. :) They just need to be reinforced with nails. I love how they turned out!

Wine Box Bookshelves

2011-03-09T13:52:00.011-05:00

I've been needing some change lately. Partly due to re-signing my apartment lease for the FOURTH time. We can't paint the walls either, so I have to find other creative means. I was also in need of cleaning out some things, making it less cluttered. So one project included the living room... there is a weird two foot corner by the window, where it juts out. In my excitement at getting started, I neglected to take a decent "before" picture, and had to dig through the archives to find this one. But you get the point. Weird corner. Bookshelf angled in corner.

That's not the only place I have books in the room either, so I needed some variety. I moved the books and bookshelf, and went to my local wine store, where I picked up a variety of sizes of wooden wine boxes. Total Wine was great - theirs were only $5. Dean and Deluca were more, but had a better variety (including a Dominus box that I had to get in honor of my dad).

I then laid stacked them up the wall to get an idea of what I wanted. Then took them down and painted the outside a watered down white and the inside a pea green. For the bottom box I needed something a bit bigger than the rest, in part to be a good base, and in part to hold my oversized books. So Aaron helped me out there...

We (he) built a plywood box that is fabulous and fits the corner perfectly. We cut my Christmas tree up in pieces ... yes ... I saved the trunk of my Christmas tree this year. :) Took all the limbs off, bark off the trunk, and sanded it down. I knew it would come in handy. We attached 4" Christmas tree "legs" onto the bottom of the box so that it will clear the molding and lay flush against the wall.

It is a very cute box. Seriously. Painted it to match the others, stacked and anchored to the wall. This part was not easy because 1. my stud finder is faulty, and 2. I'm pretty sure there is a severe lack of studs in my walls. So I resorted to using wall anchors and drilled holes through my boxes to attach them to the wall. I had seen on a design blog where someone organized their books by color, so I tried that which helps bring color to that part of the room. New curtains from IKEA, a pillow for my rocking chair, a little cleaning up, and it is a lot more open and bright now. Still a couple more touches to do, but I love it!

I have great friends

2011-01-26T21:03:00.004-05:00

I was driving home last weekend when I passed a recently cut down tree. It was very large. All the limbs had been cut off and I thought briefly - I want some of that wood! Then laughed at myself. And texted my friend whose response was ... why don't you go ask them if you can have some? That's a good friend. Not just because he didn't think my initial response was strange, but because he knew that for me to get some of that wood would require the use of him and his chainsaw. And so I did stop the next day, and the couple told me to take all that I wanted.

A few days later and we were out there to get some cross sections. The tree turned out to be red oak and had pretty cool ring patterns. The base of the stump must have been 5 feet. It was HUGE. Pretty cool ring patterns, I can't wait to see what they look like after the pieces are cleaned up. I cut a couple of the smaller ones myself. We carried the pieces up to my apartment where they are currently drying out. I have some ideas for them, but that will have to wait for summer, when they've cured. And many thanks to a friend covered in sawdust. :)

Snowflake Photo Shoot

2011-01-19T19:34:00.003-05:00

I. love. snow. AND. snowflakes. Snowed in for two days and I loved it. Day two was actually ice, but the beginning of day one was the most amazing, perfect snowflakes. I had fun using my new micro lens to get these shots. After the storm a tripod was purchased, which should help with future snowflake-photo shoots. :)

Sketching with Fabric

2010-11-06T22:41:00.003-04:00

I've thought through a number of options for my sketchbook and started a number of things, but have finally settled on a direction. Fabric. It is going to be a fabric sketchbook. :) Tonight I took out the pages (I'll need to use the original cover), and cut pieces of muslin to use as pages. I can sew on them, hand stitch, paint, draw, whatever. Looking forward to starting!

Engraving

2010-10-30T23:14:00.003-04:00

I distinctly remember 6th grade art class... we did a project which required engraving in linoleum. And I loved it. I've done a couple small engravings and number of years ago, but thought it would be a fun way to start my sketchbook, with an entire scene. And so I've been playing with it the past couple days. It's been fun pulling out my tools and messing around with it.

The Sketchbook Project

2010-10-30T23:04:00.004-04:00

Recently I discovered a pretty cool art initiative called the Sketchbook Project. It is an artist's cooperative from professional to just kids having fun from all over the world. You can go to the website to sign-up, where they send participants a Moleskin notebook. That is your parameter. Fill it however you are inspired, and send it back by mid January of 2011. All the sketchbooks then go on tour across the US, ending in the Brooklyn Art Museum.

All books have a barcode on the back, so people visiting the tour can "check out" sketchbooks. As a participating artist, I will get updates on where my book is and who has checked it out. Pretty fun!

My sketchbook arrived this past week and I am excited to get started! The hardest part is the beginning, making the first mark. But I need to get going, only 2.5 months to finish! This will be a fun challenge. :)

Spoon Shelves and Emma

2010-07-15T13:47:00.007-04:00

I had some extra spoons left over from the garden markers I made, so I had the idea to make them into little shelves I could use in my kitchen. Aaron helped me (a lot) and we bent the spoons, drilled holes in them and screwed them into a little wood board. I love them! :)

This is Emma. My first try at making a doll. I saw this Poppy Doll pattern by Hop, Skip, Jump and thought it was super cute. There's a giraffe by the same person that I want to try too. I found doll clothes to be fun and quick due to the size, but a bit tedious to stitch little bitty hems! And in retrospect I should have put a little more stuffing in the neck, but this was good practice since my sister is having a GIRL! I may try a little minature quilt next.

Spoons

2010-06-24T21:44:00.006-04:00

Soooo... it's been a while. After an insanely busy spring, life has finally begun to slow down. YAY! I've had time to play in the garden, try new recipes, and get excited about some art projects. :) This particular one I stumbled upon on THIS BLOG. It took me a while to get the spoons... they had to wait for a trip to Boone, which has a fabulous antique store - everything you can think of.

So I picked up a handful of old spoons, brought them home, and smashed the mess out of them with my mattock. :) Very therapeutic. Once flat, I took these metal stamping tools and stamped the words of herbs I have growing. This was tricky. You have to hit it with enough force to imprint the spoon, but if you hit too hard, it bounces and leaves extra marks. Oops! The softer the metal the better. Cover the imprinted area with permanent marker, then steel wool the excess ink away... and voila... garden herb markers! Super fun. And I have some extra spoons which are about to be used in ANOTHER project...!

Quilt DONE!

2010-05-10T20:53:00.004-04:00

After a week of quilting, it is finished! Fun to see it from start to finish. I really like the design, and learned a lot about sewing on curves. Yay!

Power Tools

2010-04-20T18:40:00.008-04:00

Power tools. I love them! And any excuse to use them... fabulous. So when a garden email went out "suggesting" we add name signs to our plots, and me not being one to rock the boat, it became an excuse to play with power tools. Thanks to the generosity of a friend, I was able to use a dremel to carve my name in some wood, then a woodburning tool, table saw, and router. Loved it! While I did that, he made a trellis for my sugar snaps. :)

The Quilt Continues... Finally

2010-04-11T19:52:00.004-04:00

In the midst of everything else, the quilt has sat, in all its pieces, on my kitchen table, waiting for me to work on it. And this weekend I FINALLY went to work on it! Each square is composted of three main sections, so Thursday night I sewed two of those together - on a curve. A lot of pinning and lining up. It took more time to pin than it did to sew and iron. And Friday night I added on the third main section, also sewing on a curve. I've discovered that time disappears when sewing. I'll just be absorbed into the project, sewing "just one more" piece, and I look up and 4 or 5 hours have passed. It's like a time warp. This was the case both nights. Saturday I was pretty excited to sew all the squares together and finish the top. This is when my machine decided to revolt. Bad timing. A couple hours on the road, no solution and some frustrated moments and I barely managed to get the top done. But it is. *WHEW* I even fused the batting onto the top and bottom layers and am ready to start quilting! :)

Garden Gambling

2010-04-07T10:14:00.002-04:00

I know... this picture has nothing to do with the garden, but I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. It is from a coffee date with a friend who loves taking pictures as well. We walked around Salisbury in the late afternoon light on a Saturday. Fabulousness. :)

ANYWAYS... this is the time of year when amazing weather + my impatience, results in a conclusion which can go well or not so well. Seriously. It has hit 90 almost every day in the last week or so. And what does that mean? Summer MUST be here. Right? I know it is early to plant, but I have been itching to get some more things in the ground. And so I went to Renfrow's Hardware and purchased a few items yesterday. The place was filled with people carrying all sorts of planting items and greedily looking over the vast array around them. I asked David if he thought we would get another frost and he said he thought so. Said it got too warm too quick, that there'd be another dip before it was all said and done. But he agreed, might as well try some things now, plant in stages, have an ongoing crop (hopefully). So before the sun went down, and I mean LITERALLY before the sun went down yesterday, I planted some rosemary, thyme, oregano and three types of tomatoes: Pink Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and Mr Stripey. Mmmm... good feeling. :)

Roan Mountain

2010-04-05T22:21:00.005-04:00

With some amazing weather in the forecast, five of us hit the road early Saturday for Roan Mountain, which is just on the border of NC and TN. The actual peak of Roan sits just over 6200 feet, but we chose the trail at Carver's Gap, which encompasses the longest stretch of grassy balds in the Appalachians. Roan also has the world's largest rhododendron gardens. They bloom sometime in June and are supposed to be an amazing sight. It's a great place to hike since, like Mt Rogers, the views all along the trail are great. AND there was snow. :) We ended the day with dinner and coffee in Boone. Fabulous day!

The Garden

2010-04-03T21:56:00.008-04:00

Yayyyyy garden time! A couple weeks ago we had a garden work day to till up the plots and do some pathway maintenance. It was good to be out messing around in the dirt again.

Everyone has been getting early crops planted and preparing the soil for later this month. (below are before and after shots)

A week ago I planted potatoes - which unfortunately have a couple strikes against them. I bought them at the hardware store, but left them in a plastic bag for a few days, which resulted in the sprouts molding. I tried to break all the mold off before cutting them up. Then as I was planting them, it started misting on me, which it was NOT supposed to do. I quickly covered them in hills, and there was minimal precip, so hopefully they will pull through and survive. They are yukon gold, my favorite. I also planted sugar snaps, carrots (orange and yellow), radishes, onions, and a few cabbage plants that a passerby generously gave me. One of my artichoke plants managed to survive the winter, so I'm hoping this summer or fall I'll finally see it produce.

A number of us ordered compost, which arrived last week. As it was delivered in one large dump truck load, we had to fill 8-9 wheelbarrows full and take them to our plot. Fortunately for me, the pile of compost was near my end of the garden. Unfortunately for me, the only time I could do it was during 85+ degree weather. Summer has arrived. The compost is a fabulous chocolatey brown and looks very promising. I've worked some of it in, but hope to go out this week and do some more planting and prep. Yay garden!

The Life of a Quilt

2010-03-23T11:57:00.005-04:00

I've begun a quilt. I'm using a pattern for this one, something I haven't done in years, I think because I rebel at being told HOW to make art of any kind. But this time I'm enjoying following the process. So we will see how this one goes! I started about a month ago. Night one involved cutting out all the paper templates... of which there were 33. That took me all evening. Night two and three I cut the individual fabric sections... and since I'm doing 6 blocks, and there are four main sections in each block, that would be 234 pieces. Mmmm hmmm. I've currently attached all the little green sections... that took probably three or four nights. There has now been a gap due to the busyness of life... but I hope to make more progress this week. :)

High on a Mountain

2010-03-08T19:40:00.003-05:00

After many weeks and weekends of cold and wintry weather, the sun broke through and the temps hit the mid-60's. Scott and I kicked-off the hiking season with a trip to King's Pinnacle on Crowder's Mountain. Due to the mountain's close proximity to a rather fabulous fabric store, I made a couple purchases toward a project to be seen later. :)

Chocolate Heaven

2010-03-04T22:21:00.003-05:00

You really can't go wrong when a recipe tells you to cream Nutella with butter, add 6 eggs, some rum, and fold in melted chocolate. Then mix more melted chocolate with cream and pour on top. Mmmmmm. If that frightens you, you may want to look away. Because this is one easy, darn good cake. :)

This is a take on Giada de Laurentis' Nutella Cake with Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache

Cake:
6 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 13-ounce container Nutella
1 tablespoon rum
1/2 cup finely ground hazelnuts
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

Ganache:
4 ounces whole hazelnuts
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon rum
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; butter a 9-inch springform pan. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff. In another bowl, cream the butter and Nutella, then add the rum, egg yolks, and ground hazelnuts. Fold in melted chocolate. Add a blob of beaten egg whites to the chocolate batter, and mix gently until well-combined. Fold in the remaining whites, one-third at a time, very gently but thoroughly. Pour into springform and bake for 40 minutes. Let cool completely, in pan, on a rack.

Toast hazelnuts about 4 minutes in a dry skillet, shaking frequently.

Chop chocolate, and add to sauce pan with cream and rum over medium-low heat. Once chocolate is melted and components are combined, whisk until mixture reaches desired thickness, then cool. Remove rim of cake pan and pour cooled ganache over, spreading lightly to create a smooth, shiny surface, and apply hazelnuts all over.

Eat.

Snow!

2010-03-03T23:33:00.003-05:00

Snow. I love it. We had an amazing day of snow yesterday, it fell ALL day. I moved my work stuff into our main room so I could face the window and watch it fall. And every so often I would yell to the back of the office "Big flakes!" or "It's sticking!" My poor co-workers. But even though it snowed all day, it didn't stick. Uggg. That's what you get in the south. So I grabbed my mocha and headed to class that night. When we got out at 9pm, it looked amazing. The roads were covered, it had accumulated all over everything and was pouring snow. And when I got home I just wanted to stand at the window and watch it fall. It is now completely gone and will be in the mid 60s in just a few days. Which is probably a good thing because I just noticed that we have a garden work day in a few weeks which means it's time to start making plans...!!

Coffee Sleeves

2010-02-20T19:04:00.003-05:00

The local Starbucks has a fair number of regulars, all with their own quirks. It makes for funny conversations when a handful are there at the same time, sitting up at the bar and chatting with the baristas. In the course of one such conversation, one of the baristas, Kari, mentioned wanting a coffee sleeve, a commodity which Starbucks has not seemed to have taken on, unlike the local Caribou. So I figured they couldn't be too hard to make, and did so last week with her qualifications of "girly". I just used the paper sleeve as a template. A couple days later Meg wanted one. She loves black and green, so this was the result. I may have started something here... :)

Ricotta Orange Poundcake

2010-01-22T21:36:00.004-05:00

Well. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don't. And sometimes they do a little of both. I'm a fan of most of Giada de Laurentis' recipes and this one had a pretty high rating. I read the reviews and so was prepared for the possibilities. Overall people loved it, but a good handful said it overflowed and another handful said it wasn't done in the middle. Sadly, mine turned out raw in the middle. And the first forkful I tried to taste slipped off the fork and onto the floor. AHHHHH! At least it was a pretty simple recipe to put together, so I didn't have a big time investment in the deal. And despite the results, I'd like to try it again, because the bits of it that WERE done were pretty darn tasty. AND I wore my new apron, which was fun in itself. I think the next time I just may try it in my mini-bundt pan. Being that I'd probably eat the whole thing myself, I guess it is better that there is less than there should be to eat. I guess...

Remembering Grandpa Bill

2010-01-12T12:31:00.007-05:00

I found out yesterday that Grandpa Bill passed away a couple months ago. And so here's to remembering all the fun garden times, drinking sweet tea with him and Larry out on the patio, and hearing all sorts of advice. These pictures are from when Ciara and I planted Yukon Gold potatoes at his house and thoroughly confused him that we didn't know how to cut the potato up. This also led to the conversation with Grandpa Cliff on the correct way to plant potatos... eye up or eye any which way. He is missed!

Buttercup Bag

2010-01-10T21:20:00.003-05:00

My last project pointed out to me the value of patterns. I tend to be a no-pattern, no-pinning, sew-as-you-go kind of person. Which, for what I am usually working on, is just fine. The previous apron project taught me a few things and so this year I WOULD like to add structure here and there to my projects in order to learn more. And so I found this cute bag pattern online at Made By Rae. It was super fun and easy to make, and I love the finished product. AND an additional bonus... I ran out tonight to get the magnetic snap which closes the top, and the trip took me right by Krispy Kreme. The "hot donuts now" sign was on. Enough said.

Emmeline Apron

2010-01-04T23:32:00.004-05:00

One of my christmas presents was this adorable Emmeline apron pattern from Sew Liberated. It is reversible and can tie in the front or the back. I picked out these fun Amy Butler fabrics from the local Bernina store and whipped it up! Love love love it. It is so cute I want to wear it out.

Gingerbread Throwdown

2010-01-03T22:20:00.008-05:00

Ok... so this is a little past due. But a whirlwind of Christmas festivities, studying, life... just kept me a little busy! And in the middle of those festivities was a Gingerbread Throwdown. Seven girls + sugar = insanity. We had a great time and laughed hysterically. We were actually making miniature houses, and that's a good thing, because I'm not sure we would have survived full-on houses. I found a recipe for gingerbread on the Food Network's website which was super easy, and tasted great. AND made the apartment smell AMAZING. And the winner? That's yet to be seen...

Felt Scarf

2009-12-17T23:54:00.004-05:00

In continuing with the felt theme... I have a stack of hand-dyed felt that my mom gave me which I've been trying to decide what exactly I want to do with it. I've been thinking about the idea of a quilt for a while now, but we will see. Still thinking! However I DID use a piece of it for Zachy's dinosaur, and then made this scarf as a secret santa gift for Brittany, along with a little bag to go with it. Very easy to work with and great colors!

Felting a Sweater

2009-12-16T21:20:00.005-05:00

So when I was in college I had this pair of cream and blue striped, wool J. Crew socks that my grandmother gave me for Christmas. I loved them. And I had probably worn them a few times around our apartment before I washed them (I know, I know... remember - college student). I forgot they were in the load when I put them in the dryer. And when I opened it up, there were these miniature little pair of socks. My roommates got a good laugh out of it.

This wool sweater I've had for a while. I got it when baggy was in style, and every year I think... maybe... when I'm just hanging out at my place... I'll wear it... Nope. And so I remembered the socks and thought I'd try felting it.

And so, a good washing with hot water, a couple towels and some suds... and voila... minature felted sweater (that took an eternity to dry... including throwing it in the dryer THREE times).

It is a good, sturdy compact fabric now... almost no fraying. Tonight I made this little bag with it. So YAY I didn't have to get rid of it, and now I have a little bag to use. :)

Sugar Cookies

2009-12-14T21:05:00.005-05:00

Ever since I was little, I have loved making (and eating) these sugar cookies. My mom got the recipe from our neighbor across the street. The dough is SO GOOD that it is hard to actually cut the cookies out without eating a massive handful.

Thankfully I remembered just how long it takes to make them - most of a day - and planned accordingly. It helps to make the dough one day, cut them out the next, and frost them the last. Otherwise you are worn out!

And last time my parents visited, mom gave me this book on cookie decorating which has some great tips and ideas in it. These were made for a Christmas party and a few people told me they had wondered what store they were purchased from. :)

Christmas Tree

2009-12-08T10:25:00.010-05:00

I LOVE the smell of real Christmas trees. LOVE. I about fell over when we went dogsledding in Maine in the winter, and the floor of our wood stove-heated tents were covered in christmas fir boughs. It smelled AMAZING. :) My tree has a combination of my own ornaments, my grandmother's ornaments, and a little from mine growing up.

The ornament on the left is my favorite. It is from my grandmother's tree, and is a little greenish tinted glass ornament with a string of tinsel inside. On the right is one of the angels from our tree growing up. We had two, christened Big Bertha and Chubby Cherub.

Also from my grandmother's tree... pretty impressive how styrofoam and a wax covered photo held up over the years! The picture is of my uncle (left) and my dad (right). The girl ornament on the right is from Anthropologie last Christmas.

The ball ornament was given to me by one of my college roommates, Rachel. She had gone to New York City and picked up a handful of the hand-painted ornaments for gifts. This one has the World Trade Towers on it, as well as the Empire State Building. The thin icicle ornament is one of many, also from grandmother's tree!

Christmasy Weekend

2009-12-07T09:37:00.007-05:00

What a weekend! My good friend Julie headed down from Winston Salem to spend the weekend in various shenanigans. :) The weather was pretty chilly so it finally felt like winter. I love cold weather!

I made Cinnamon Rolls and Molasses Cookies, both keepers. The recipes were from Pioneer Woman's website. I highly recommend her recipes!

Despite the rain, I took Jules out to see the garden plot, which is pretty soggy and done at this stage. However, the artichoke plants were HUGE. I was quite surprised to see them! No chokes growing on them yet, I'll see how they do. I picked most of the cotton and put it in a jar on my table. Looks like snow. :)

Mistletoe! My local location still has a ball of mistletoe growing in it. And Julie wasn't afraid to half climb the tree in front of Harris Teeter to pull down some pieces. We did get some looks as we stood under the tree looking up, wondering what the best plan would be for getting it down.

And Jules left me with some amazing fridge poetry. Amazing, Jules. We decorated the tree and I attempted to teach Julie my limited crocheting skills. (can't wait to see your scarf!!)

Crochet-Land

2009-12-03T23:26:00.002-05:00

Yay! I conquered crochet! I had a not-so-good experience with it a week ago. I tried getting a book, watching videos online, examining diagrams. Not so much a good experience. I like the smallness of the crochet hook, and the fact that there is only one required, making it easy to carry around. You know... to work on little projects while driving to work and all. So anyways, I abandoned all hope until this past week when Bekah and I had "craft night" and she helped me out by telling me "no, not there... THERE" and "if you hadn't gotten this bulky yarn..." and "I don't know why your scarf keeps getting smaller". But we prevailed and I finally got the general hang of it, and finished a scarf! Much narrower than my knitted scarf. And I think with a scarf down using both techniques... I kind of like the crochet better. :) We've got a crazy cold weekend ahead, and I am DEFINITELY wearing this one!

Zachy!

2009-12-02T10:11:00.003-05:00

I love the holidays! Thanksgiving this year was spent in Dallas, hanging out with the fam and my adorable nephew. He did like the dinosaur... I could tell because he tried to eat him. Zachy has the most adorable laugh/giggle. He needs to move to Charlotte. And his parents, of course. In other areas, I've been working on a couple projects, will post pictures if they are completed soon...

RAWR!

2009-11-20T22:53:00.002-05:00

The mosaic wall hanging is done... quilted, bound, and hung. Next project... a dinosaur. In anticipation of seeing my little nephew Zachy in just a few days, I made a little dinosaur for him tonight. I sketched it out on freezer paper and stitched it up - a pretty quick project. Hopefully Zachy will like it too!

Fabric Mosaic

2009-11-19T13:53:00.005-05:00

My poor peanut plants have been drying on my porch for over a month now... mainly because I forgot they were out there. I pulled most off the plant last weekend and they then sat on my counter until Bekah came over and started munching on them. I forgot how much flavor raw peanuts have - pretty good! Whether I just eat the rest of them raw or actually do something with them is yet to be seen as life is pretty busy right now.

I DID finally work on a project I'd been wanting to do. When mom and dad were in town, they bought me a copy of Quilting Arts magazine, which had an article on mosaic wall hangings. I've had cut up pieces of fabric all over my kitchen table for the past three weeks. I finally finished the top and have started quilting it. May even finish it before the weekend! It was a fun project and I've more ideas of how to use this technique.. but can't decide if I should do another now or work on one of the other different ideas I've had recently...!!

Back to Mt Rogers... and the Fog

2009-11-03T20:43:00.006-05:00

So I've hiked Mt Rogers quite a few times now. And the ONLY two times I have had crazy fog was when hiking with Scott. He, I and Bekah hit the road Saturday morning despite the 80% chance of rain. In fact, it rained most of the way up there. But the first mile and a half of hiking was rain free, with low, cool looking clouds hovering just above the mountains. And warmer temps than I was anticipating.

However, as we began to hike up Wilburn Ridge, the winds came roaring in and the sideways rain commenced. We continued on, 2.5 more miles to the top, where the winds and rain stopped. A bit more rain back down near Wilburn again, but not too bad. The ponies were more scarce this trip, probably seeking shelter from the weather. Good times anyways!

Hanging out with the Fam

2009-10-27T08:25:00.005-04:00

Last weekend mom and dad came to visit - YAY! Despite a bit of rain the weather was not too bad, and definitely warmer than last weekend. We hung out around town, saw my cousin Deborah and her two boys (ADORABLE) and headed down to Kings Mountain National Military Park to walk around the battlefield trail and check out some history. The leaves are really changing now which I LOVE. We all snagged some books from the local bookstore as well, and now my mind is spinning with ideas of mosaic quilts and printmaking...

Peanuts!

2009-10-18T21:35:00.009-04:00

The peanuts were planted back in May...

I never knew exactly how they grew... apparently the main stem puts out little runners, where the flowers had blossomed, which head down into the soil, and the peanuts grow ON them. Pretty cool!

So I thought the plants would yellow more than they did, and so when I pulled them last weekend... some of them had started growing their OWN plants. :) Oops. I pulled them all though, and they are currently drying on my porch - supposed to do that for a couple weeks. It has unfortunately been rainy though, so it is slow going.

New Friends

2009-10-12T10:40:00.002-04:00

The other day I was at Starbucks. Starbucks has two things... a Marble Slab Creamery next door and a flock of "local" birds that hang out. This combination means that the birds are both friendly and well-fed. This little guy sat on my car while I loaded it up. I think it'd be kind of cool to have him as a regular hood-ornament. :)
And this weekend I had gone out on my porch to get some stuff and as I raised my head I caught a large object out of the corner of my eye on the railing... it was a large praying mantis. I grabbed my camera and did a mini photo shoot while he watched.

Apple Success

2009-10-10T21:56:00.006-04:00

YAYYY! I picked applesssss!!! :) Scott and I left a misty Charlotte, hitting sun halfway to Flat Rock to pick apples. It was a windy, beautiful day. Sky Top Orchard is a pretty cool little spot up on the mountain and they have everything apple you can think of. Including apple cider donuts. Scott and I got to talking about them on the way up and were crazy hungry for them by the time we arrived. We made a beeline for them before we did anything else, hoping they were as good as they sounded. And. they. were. Wow. These were the best donuts I have ever had. Hot out of the oil, covered with cinnamon sugar, YUM! We (or I) picked a peck of apples, tasting them all - they tell you to taste as many as you want. It was a good thing they were cash-only, and I only had enough for one peck and a donut, or I'd have been in some serious trouble! Apple picking done, we snagged 1.5 dozen donuts, and headed to Dupont State Forest to check out some waterfalls. We were able to see two - Hooker Falls, which was in the movie Last of the Mohicans, and Triple Falls. It was a great day! And now, I just pulled a fresh apple pie out of the oven..

Apples... maybe?

2009-10-07T19:58:00.004-04:00

Apples. They are apparently much like the elusive spider lily. I was supposed to pick them a couple weeks ago, but just days before our trip, a deluge of rain was predicted. All day. I will say that it turned out to be a good day - to sleep in, enjoy a late breakfast and relax. And, after all, we rescheduled the day. Because we seriously had a plethora of people who were going to go. It was going to be an apple extravaganza like you'd never seen. Until last night. When the news foiled my plans again by forecasting thunderstorms this Saturday. Not to be denied the pleasure of picking the apple straight from the tree, I went into plan C. Plan C calls for taking half a day off on Friday and coercing my friend Scott to go with me. Scott tried to appease me by promising a bag of apples from Harris Teeter, but I would not be bought. And so I agreed to check out a couple of waterfalls while we were out there. It was a hard sell, but I eventually broke. And if the weather tries to mess THIS trip up...!!!!!!

Mt Mitchell

2009-10-05T17:30:00.005-04:00

Had an eeaaarrrrlly wake-up call Saturday morning to get up and out so we could start our assault on Mt Mitchell by 10am. Mt Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi and is about an hour from Asheville, NC. The hike from the Black Mountain Campground is 6 miles. Up. That's a 4000' climb in 6 miles. It was probably the hardest hike up I've done due to it being a consistent uphill climb over such a long distance. The hike is predominantly closed in by the woods, on a path covered with tree roots and rocks, so it requires looking down a lot. But we survived, and broke out onto the top... where there is a parking lot, museum, gift shop and snack bar. Kind of funny after 3.5 hours of hiking up to see people who have DRIVEN up. An amazing view from the top. When we set out at the base, it was 39 degrees on top, but had warmed to 50 degrees and windy by the time we got up there. We enjoyed snacks, bought some hot chocolate, took pictures, and headed back down 6 miles, which took an hour less than the hike up. Topped it off with dinner at My Father's Pizza in Black Mountain before driving home. Good trip!

Ciara's Wedding

2009-09-22T14:39:00.009-04:00

On Saturday my friend Ciara got married in the NC mountains. I drove the wedding cake up (AHHHH!). No mishaps. And, apparently, I neglected to take a picture of it. I was too stressed the thing would fall over while I was driving because it was not. in. a. box. Open and free, three-tiers high in the back of my truck and I couldn't see it from the driver's seat. So I didn't know for sure that it had survived the winding mountain roads until I arrived. I DID make a sign for the back to explain my extreme slow turns and care over bumps. :)

The wedding was nice, although wet - an outdoor wedding on top of a hill during a pretty rainy weekend. Somehow it managed to stop for the actual ceremony. This was the first wedding I wore my rain jacket during, and the first where the ushers wiped the seats down with paper towels before they seated you. :) The low clouds did make for some nice pictures as well as make the colors contrast nicely.

99 Red Balloons

2009-09-05T19:37:00.003-04:00

BALLOONS! Today we filled 1000 balloons to hand out in the local Matthews Alive Parade. WHEW... early morning + walking around in the sun = nap. It was a fun day!

Memories

2009-09-04T20:39:00.002-04:00

Took a trip to Mary Jo's today to look for fabric for some curtains and pillows. And while there I saw fabric that was the EXACT color (pea green) and style (little velvety rows) of the couch we had growing up. :)

Cotton!

2009-09-04T08:34:00.001-04:00

This would be yesterday's picture... due to not being able to get online at all last night. My cotton is opening up - very cool... makes me think snow. :)

MAIL!

2009-09-02T15:50:00.003-04:00

I love mail. LOVE it. And when I saw the wadded up package stuffed into the back recesses of my little mailbox, I assumed it was something I had ordered for work. But it WASN'T! My college friend Danielle, who makes the cutest outfits for her and her daughter, sent me some fun scraps to play with! This is just a sample of them. I'll have to add them to my project list...

Chasing Butterflies

2009-09-01T17:52:00.002-04:00

AMAZING weather today. 70s, no humidity, sun... amazing. After work I went by the garden and spent almost 45 minutes chasing butterflies. There were three different colors - a black one with bright blue, another like that but yellow with the blue, and this orangey one. It was my favorite. I also saw a hummingbird, but wasn't fast enough to catch him on camera, and a couple yellow birds which I have tried before to get pictures of - they are too fast. The cotton has started to open! Yay! More on that later. I also picked another handful of better boy tomatoes. Still waiting on those peanuts.

Monday = Coffee

2009-08-31T20:13:00.002-04:00

A productive work day, 3 mile run with Lisa, cooler weather... time to curl up on the couch with this. :)

A week in pictures

2009-08-30T18:30:00.003-04:00

So Jules and I are having a photo challenge to help us be more bloggy. Starting today, we are posting a photo a day for a week. And mine today is TOMATOES! I planted a second crop of them and just picked this bag full. It includes the last of the yellow cherry tomatoes, Lemon Boys, one Mr. Stripey, a couple Purples and some Better Boys. Salsa time!

Shenanigans in the Mountains and on Water

2009-08-29T21:13:00.006-04:00

So LAST weekend I hit the road with my college friend Julie, to go visit another one of our college friends, Andrea. It was a hilarious drive and trip, with a LOT of laughing, some rain, a lot of coffee and some good curling up on the couch with peach pie. YUM! This trip will definitely have to be repeated again soon. :)

And THIS weekend, or rather, today, Scott and I went back to Lansford Canal State Park to do some kayaking. The last time we tried this trip the river was crazy swollen from all the rain, which had majorly submerged the spider lilies. I had given up on them until next year. However, as we paddled around the shoals we discovered a handful of them here and there! I can't imagine what it looks like to have that whole area packed with them. It was a great afternoon though - sunny and warm, but not too hot, the water temperature was perfect.

Art in the Ordinary

2009-08-26T23:04:00.002-04:00

I love when I look at art other people have created and it inspires me. But when I can look at something made out of ... STRAWS or PENCILS and be impressed... wow. While looking online in search of some ideas for a project I'm thinking about, I found this website. Check out the photos, starting with the first one, and specifically look at what it says the display is made OF. It's pretty cool. :)

Tara Donovan Art

Massive Spiders

2009-08-17T20:56:00.004-04:00

Spiders. Ick. I can remember my older sister making me come get a spider that was on her bed. And it didn't bother me. But these writing spiders are the size of a small dog. And they apparently multiply. When I went out there yesterday, there were three along this fence, and they are HUGE. From their top leg to bottom, they are the length of my pointer finger. At least they eat Japanese Beetles. And other bugs that accidentally fly into their massive webs.

The garden is a little unkept at present... I need to do some weeding but haven't had the time, and it's been really hot lately. I keep hoping it will cool down. At present I've got a second round of tomatoes getting ready to ripen, peanuts, cotton, sweet potatoes, watermelon and cantaloupe. And I was just noticing that the vines from the watermelon and cantaloupe have snuck through the fence and a couple melons are growing outside the garden. Maybe those spiders will clean it up for me...

Birthday Fun :)

2009-08-05T23:10:00.007-04:00

When you think birthday, you think ponies... right? Right. That's what I thought. For my birthday this year some friends and I headed up to Mt Rogers to hike and see the ponies. And they were everywhere! This trip we saw a number of baby ponies. I was tempted to put one in my backpack. SO CUTE!

The weather was amazing, as were the views. Rebecca and Sam both brought birthday cake to celebrate. :)

The required on-top-of-the-mountain picture... totally enclosed in the woods. That confused a couple of hikers who came up while we were there. They were about to continue through the woods in search of a true peak.

It was a great trip and we definitely slept well afterward. A couple days later Lisa took me out to Ratcliffe on the Green for a birthday dinner. They use ingredients from the local farmer's market. I had a duck and pheasant pot pie and a dessert that was like a pudding cake made with farina... cream of wheat! YUM. It had a cognac apricot sauce. Lisa picked the strawberry shortcake with a mountain of mascarpone. Both were amazing (and pictured below).

Farmer's Market - Tomato Tasting

2009-07-27T10:55:00.009-04:00

It felt more like a usual summer day on Saturday when Ciara and I met up at the Matthews Farmer's Market for their tomato tasting. Sun shining, humid air, people everywhere. I don't think I've ever eaten that much tomato prior to a cup of coffee. Actually, I KNOW I haven't. We took our ballots and tried various tomatoes like the "Great White", "Green Zebra", "Chocolate Cherry" and many others. After making our votes we picked up fresh baked chocolate chip orange muffins and a cup of coffee and sat in the shade to chat and people watch. It was a fun way to start the day.

Walnut Pesto

2009-07-26T19:48:00.007-04:00

There is a LOT of basil growing in my garden. It was slow starting, but has taken off and is quickly starting to flower. Which means it needs to be harvested now before it goes bitter, or allowed to go to seed for next year. And so, I made a big batch of pesto.

I normally use pine nuts when making pesto, but since I already had walnuts, I used those instead and the flavor was just as good, with maybe a little more texture. I'm a fan of recipes which can be made almost solely in the food processor, so pesto is a great recipe for me. I doubled the recipe since I had so much basil. It starts with 1 1/2 cups of packed basil leaves, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Pulse until basil is chopped.

Add 1/4 cup Parmigan-Reggiano (fresh grated), 2 tbsp toasted pine nuts or walnuts, and 1 tsp minced garlic. Process while pouring a steady stream of extra virgin olive oil (1/2 cup) until a mostly smooth sauce is formed.

I had the sauce over pasta with chicken the first night, and tonight made homemade pizza with pesto, chicken, cherry tomatoes from the garden and goat cheese. YUM!

Garden Progress

2009-07-25T11:15:00.004-04:00

After the decent early summer rains, it has been a bit more sparse lately. However, the overall temperature this summer has been amazing. None of that nasty 100 degree heat of a couple years ago. Find a nice spot in the shade, some iced coffee, and the temperature is perfect, even at the end of the day. My sunflower head is quickly drying out and facing straight down like a shower head. The vines in the garden are starting to dry up, so I harvested the majority of my winter squash. In the process I discovered another volunteer cantaloupe as well as sweet potato vines sprouting from where I threw the extra pieces aside.

Tomatoes are still consistent, green beans starting to come off, I may cook my first batch tonight. Peanuts aren't quite ready yet, sweet potato vines and watermelons are looking good. The gardeners all got together last week for a feast from our individual plots - YUM. We've been trading recipes since. One favorite was Angela's zucchini and blueberry cobbler. :)

Blackberry Hand Pies

2009-07-14T23:43:00.009-04:00

I really should know better than to try a new recipe for a get-together when I have a fixed amount of time. And yet... I found this recipe for Blackberry Hand Pies, which sounded great and looked easy. And so... I left work, got home, prepared the dough and put it in the fridge to chill while I ran to the store for a couple more ingredients. The dough itself was easy to make and simply required adding the ingredients to the food processor in succession until the dough came together. I was definitely a fan of that.

Since the recipe only made 8 little pies, I attempted to double the recipe. This resulted in a BIG bowl of blackberry mixture - again, a simple group of ingredients... although quite a bit more than I needed. And then the challenge began. Trying to roll out individual 5" rounds and stuff it with the mixture while in a hurry because time is running out to get them in the oven before going out the door... not such a good thing. After tearing the first one terribly, blackberry juice squeezing everywhere, I balled it up in frustration and threw it against the counter. Interestingly, this did not help the process and required more work to clean up. Somehow I managed to put together nine or so and chill them briefly (and I do mean BRIEFLY) before ushering them in the oven.

Not surprisingly, the poor things looked like they were bleeding as the bubbling juice squeezed through all the cracks in the dough. I'll be more careful next time. Kitchen was strewn with dirty dishes, flour everywhere, blackberry juice stains, quite the mess. However, the final result was actually pretty good, and with a few changes I WILL make this recipe again! It is below, with my notes.

Blackberry Hand Pies
Serves: 8 individual pies
Ingredients:
Pie Crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cake flour
1 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
4 tbsp chilled vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 tbsp ice water

Filling (I had a lot left over)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar (my blackberries were a little tart, so if this is the case, add a little more sugar)
4 cups fresh blackberries
1/8 tsp almond extract

Additional
1 egg
turbinado or sparkling sugar for dusting

Crust:
In a food processor, blend together flours, sugar and salt. Add chilled butter and shortening and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle water over flour mixture and pulse until dough forms moist clumps. Gather together and divide into two equal rounds. Flatten dough into disks and wrap in plastic wrap. Refridgerate for about 45 minutes.

Filling:
Combine flour, sugar, blackberries and almond extract and stir gently until evenly coated.

Prep:
Working with 1 round at a time, roll dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut circles, approximately 5 inches in diameter. (I found it easier to divide the dough into 8 pieces and THEN roll them out. Spoon about 1/2 cup (this was way too much for my circles) of blackberry filling into the center of each circle. Carefully fold circle over to form a half-moon shape. Use a fork to seal the open edge. Transfer hand pies to a parchment paper lined sheet pan and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until needed.

Brush pies with lightly beaten egg yolk (next time I'll use the white, I think it works just as well), and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake at 375 for about 25 minutes.

Blackberries and Mountain Tops

2009-07-12T21:24:00.007-04:00

Mmmm... just finished a big bowl of hot blackberry cobbler and ice cream. I really should plan better when I'm making these things. It's not that I'm opposed to sharing, really, anyone who happens by gets their fill... yet I'm also not opposed to slowly (or sometimes quickly) consuming the vast majority myself. This happened with the Strawberry Mascarpone Tart. I ate it all. In two days. Mmm.... I should make another one of those soon... ANYWAYS, I HAVE given a portion of this to a friend, so we are currently safe on the full-consumption. This is Southern Living's Triple Crust Blackberry Cobbler. I fully believe in the abundance of crust in a cobbler.

Scott and I picked these blackberries on Friday at a farm up in Huntersville. I say "farm" because that is what they call themselves, but it's probably more like a massive garden in someone's back yard. Nevertheless, they had a number of peach trees and rows and rows of THORNLESS blackberry bushes. We picked 5 quarts for $8. And just may have eaten an additional quart. :) Thornless is definitely the way to go.

Saturday, Steve, Scott and I climbed Kings Pinnacle on Crowder's Mountain. It was a great day for a hike and had amazing views on top. And it was followed by a 3 hour nap and cookout. Yay weekend!

All About Zach :)

2009-07-09T23:22:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I celebrated the fourth with the family in Sarasota. My absolutely ADORABLE nephew Zach received a well-deserved majority of the attention. I love him!! It was a relaxing weekend of hanging out, watching the fireworks, checking out the beach, good food, and reminiscing of when Tracy and I were little (and perfect children, of course).

Nine Feet

2009-07-02T23:44:00.007-04:00

The sunflower has opened!! :) I had to use a stepladder, but determined that the sunflower is (at present) NINE feet tall. It is the tallest thing in the garden and I've had people mention to me that they've seen it as they drove past. Yay sunflower!

Virginia Vacation

2009-07-02T23:05:00.011-04:00

Last week Lisa and I headed to the Virginia mountains for a mini-vacation. We picked an out-of-the-way town, with a little bed and breakfast and some great views of the Blue Ridge mountains. On the trip up we grabbed a cup of coffee in Floyd, a pretty cool little town with a great coffee shop. And apparently we missed the contra dance by one night. :) After a steamy, sticky week in Charlotte, the mountains were perfect - no humidity, cooler temperatures, plenty of sun. Our bed and breakfast - the Inn at Riverbend - sat on a hill in Pearisburg, VA and had an amazing view of the New River. This also provided some fabulous sunrises - the only thing I will voluntarily crawl out of bed early to see.

Pearisburg, as you might imagine, is a small town, about 35 minutes northwest of Blacksburg. And the dining options are limited. After a few funny phone calls checking on possibilities, we just picked one and set-off, Lisa driving and me giving directions. From the beginning we were on a winding country road, over rolling hills, cows, fields, a house or two, more cows, an occasional car, lots of fields. We kept thinking SURELY we are going to drive into a little town. Not so much. The road ended at a lone hardware store. The only other buildings were an old church, a fallen-down building of some sort, and a handful of houses- children playing out front and tractor driving down the street. A sign on the hardware store read: "The Palisades." We looked at each other laughing and said - we've driven all the way out here, let's just try it. We could not have been more surprised. The inside was the restored shell of a hardware store - exposed brick walls, old dark brown shelving, wood floors, high ceilings - very cool!

We also hiked out to the Cascades, a 66 ft waterfall. It was a great trail, following the stream up to the waterfalls. We had lunch packed by our b&b on a rock in the sun. Originally there were plans to pick cherries on the way home, but the excess of rains resulted in the cherries splitting. One more thing to add to my list for next summer (Spider Lilies being the other). But it was a great trip - just can't go wrong with mountains!

Listening Lizard Daylilies

2009-07-01T15:53:00.002-04:00

A couple weeks ago Sherri, Ciara and I went the Listening Lizard Daylily Farm. It is owned by Terry, one of the community gardeners, and his wife. He gave each of the gardeners who came out a daylily! I picked out one with bright yellowy-orangey-red colors. Terry hybridizes the flowers and can tell you what the "parent" flowers were of each of his lilies. One thing about daylilies... and I guess I should have known this, but I didn't. The flowers themselves each last one day. Hence, the name. There you have it. It was a fun afternoon... and VERY humid. Required a nap when we got back. :)

Waiting on the Sunflower

2009-06-21T21:16:00.000-04:00

I took a mid-week trip to the garden where I ran into Natalie and Sherri checking on their plots. I'm SO excited about my sunflower plant - taller than me and should open soon. Natalie picked a big bunch of her wildflowers which look so great blooming next to my plot.

Below- the two rows of peanut plants are looking great, even though the one on the left is being taken over by the cukes. And the produce I took away - squash from Sherri and eggplant & tomato from Sean.

Brussel-Sprout-Eating Lizard

2009-06-15T21:47:00.007-04:00

The garden is putting out cukes like crazy. I'm making a mental note to go tomorrow... waiting two days, combined with a pretty big downpour today means lots and lots of cukes.

This is my new friend. I was pulling up one of the brussel plants and he was hanging out on the one next to it. He even let me pet his tail before jumping onto another leaf. I can remember some pretty cool ones growing up, that had blue stripes on their tail. I even caught one once... or at least its tail. It came off in my hand. Oops. At least they grow back. And we always noticed the ones in Florida, but I haven't seen many around here until this little guy.

And some flowers from around the community gardens.

HELLO vines!

2009-06-12T10:50:00.006-04:00

I have some VERY healthy fines growing away in the garden, and two sunflowers that are taller than I am! The recent rain has been good for everything and even made the tomato plant that I thought was dead come back to life. This week I pulled the majority of the potatoes, some onions, picked a handful of cucumbers and two yellow cherry tomatoes. I also planted more green beans and watermelon seeds (Moon Stars, of course). The current vines are heading out in all directions... around the peanut plants, tomato plants, along the walkway... I had to spend some time unwinding them.

Cucumbers, Acorn Squash, Butternut Squash

Spider Lilies: 2, Melissa: 0

2009-06-07T21:08:00.006-04:00

Well, we tried! I guess the spider lilies will have to wait for next week. The river was on its way down so we headed out for the Catawba. By the time we got there, they had opened a dam upriver upping the flow too much. The park ranger recommended a spot not too much farther downriver which I guess isn't affected to the same extent as the spider lily section. So Scott and I put in at the Hwy 9 bridge and paddled upstream a ways. It was a nice day to be out on the water!

Spider Lilies, Take 1

2009-06-03T16:05:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I attempted to checked out the spider lilies which only grow in a certain section of the Catawba River in the spring. They are supposed to be pretty cool, growing all over the banks and river. However, the massive rains from last week raised the river quite a bit, and all with all the water coming down from the mountains, they had opened all the dams on the river. So not only was the river 7 times as high as normal, but the current was running pretty swiftly. Normally, 2500 cubic feet per second is a decent paddle amount. At 4000, the park cancels its kayak trips. That day it was running at 15,000. I decided to head down anyway and get a look. Couldn't see much with the water being up so high, but it was a nice day to be out. We plan on trying again this weekend as the river is back to normal and this may be the last weekend for the lilies this year.

Mid-week Bounty

2009-05-26T22:11:00.003-04:00

I stopped by the garden today with the intention of picking up a few carrots. We have had MASSIVE amounts of rain in the past few days and the plots were one big mud puddle. For the most part it is causing the plants to take off, although one of my mater looked droopy and sad and, I'm thinking, rather over-watered. I couldn't believe how much the brussel sprouts had grown since Saturday... amazing! Sean was checking on his plot and gave me a radish and I gave him a handful of sugar snaps. When I was pulling some carrots I noticed one of the potato plants on the end had been knocked down by all the water, and there were pretty good-sized potatoes showing, so I grabbed a handful to add to my stash of carrots, onion, radish and sugar snaps. That made for a pretty darn good dinner with candied carrots, and crash hot potatoes (recipe from last year) to go with my breaded pork chops. Yummmmm!

Candied Baby Carrots and Buddy the Pigeon

2009-05-25T21:29:00.005-04:00

Sugar Snaps! These plants have been giving me a good handful of snaps every time I go out there. And with the rains we've been having the past few days, there should be a bunch next time I go out. These are SO good, I just eat them straight off the plant.

I've been wanting to try some carrots, and have plenty out there. So I pulled a handful of little baby carrots and made Tyler Florence's Candied Baby Carrots. Good!! You drizzle them with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper, and cumin and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes until fork tender. Then you set them on the stove top on medium-high and add 1 tbsp butter, a couple spoons of brown sugar, zest from an orange and orange juice squeezed. It boils up pretty fast and makes a thick syrup which is amazing on the carrots. Note: don't grab the handle of the skillet after it has been IN THE OVEN. It is hot. I promise. And it is hard to stir ingredients while you are holding your hand under running cold water.

Poncho has been growing his onions for quite a while now, so that some are starting to flower. He's letting a couple of each variety go to seed so he can replant.

And in other random news, I'm pretty sure I saved a pigeon this weekend. Yes. It's true. A friend brought me a pigeon that had a broken wing, appeared to be from a cat or dog. Poor thing couldn't balance itself at all. He liked when I held him because he could lean into my cupped hand on the left side, hunker down and rest. Poor thing. My porch finches were quite confused and sat on the railing looking down at him in his box. The Charlotte Raptor Center gave me some numbers of people who take injured wild birds and we were able to take him to a quite nice home with a garden (important, right?) to be rehabilitated. Get well soon Buddy the Pigeon!

Creekin'

2009-05-19T23:22:00.010-04:00

This is my geologic hammer. I took it "creekin" last weekend. Much like the mattock for gardening, the geologic hammer is my favorite rock tool. It actually came in handy in college while I was majoring in Geology (even though it scared my mom to death that I was wielding such a sharp object). This particular one was purchased in Clifton Forge, VA... where my grandparents were from and my dad grew up. I found it at the local hardware store when I was in middle school and my grandmother split the cost with me. :)

But back to creekin'. Creekin' is something you do in Hiddenite, NC where you pay for a creek permit to sift rocks and sand through a screen in hopes of finding amazingly valuable gems that have washed down from the mine. So Scott and I staked our claim, glaring at kids who ventured too close and sifting load after load after load of rocks. We figured we were there about two hours. But yes, I have a little jar full of pieces of amethyst, quartz crystals, aquamarine, rhutilated quartz, agate, jasper and various other minerals.

I've always loved rocks. I can remember when I had to get four teeth pulled at the dentist, and afterward my dad brought me a "Mineral Collecting Sites in NC" book. We would spend Saturdays on the side of the highway, in the creek or in random woods digging through banks looking for rocks. And I have quite a good collection... at my parents' house... where they claim it is leaning on one side.

Garden Workday and Birdies

2009-05-15T20:36:00.013-04:00

Above - little maters growing on my balcony tomatoes. We had a garden workday yesterday, laying tarp on the walkways and weeding. The rain has caused everything to really take off and most of my previously unsprouted seeds have now come up, including the cukes, acorn squash, butternut squash, poppys, peanuts and cotton.

The greens are thriving. I had another salad of them last night which was supplemented by some of Marilyn's lettuce. Also picked a handful of sugar snaps - yum! Natalie gave me a few cloves of garlic as well, which I used in some baked lemon pasta (YUM).

Back at the apt, the birds which built a nest on my porch last year came back. When I sit on the porch, they do fly-by's, to see if I'm still there. They eventually end up on the tip of a tree that comes just over the railing of the porch, blowing back and forth in the wind, chirping at me.

And at the office this week, the resident geese have been showing off their little goose-lets. Quite cute. When we peeked our head out the door to take pictures, we were threateningly (is that a word?) hissed at. For some reason this reminds me of one of my pets growing up... parakeets. Mine was green - Shelly, and my sister's was blue - Wilbur. These had to be my dad's favorite pets ever. Seriously, who wouldn't like a pet that makes sounds incessantly and scatters everything in their cage as far OUT of the cage as possible? And it was great when they would peck your fingers. So cuddly and sweet...the things parents put up with. :)

Brussels and Greens

2009-05-09T21:45:00.004-04:00

A good week of rain made for a muggy day in the garden. The usual weeding resulted in three LARGE buckets full of bermuda grass being dumped out in the woods. Below is the stalk of one of the brussel sprout plants, with the little brussels on their way.

I picked a handful of greens, a couple of onions and checked the carrots to go with dinner tonite. Fun to pick and eat straight out of the garden. I sauteed the onion in a little olive oil and barely sauteed the greens in it.

Yes... I know the carrots aren't ready yet... but I couldn't resist... I wanted to see how they were doing! So the seeds were planted 9 weeks ago for these guys. They are supposed to take about 80 days to mature fully, so they've got another few weeks to go. They DID taste good though.

Screen Printing

2009-05-07T21:07:00.008-04:00

Back when I was in high school, I tried my hand at silk screening by cutting the design I had created out of an old piece of wallpaper with an exacto knife. Lately I've been wanting to try it again using a different process. I ended up doing the community garden flyer for this weekend's home and garden tour and thought the design would be a good one to try.

Step one: print out the design and trace it onto the silk screen with a pencil.

I opted for the "negative" method where you paint screen filler on the silk screen to block out what you don't want to print.

The design was ready, placed on the shirt and ink (brown) squeegee'd on.

Yay design! Actually needed more ink on the bottom due to the small printing spaces, and in a wild act of risk I actually laid the screen back on and re-printed the bottom... only a slight echo on some of the letters, worked pretty fine! :)

Turtles, Ants, and Strawberry Mascarpone Tart

2009-05-04T20:58:00.007-04:00

Turtles. Leaping gracefully through the air in to the water. Sleek boats slicing through the massive wave crests. Ok... well kind of. Scott and I took our kayaks out last weekend for the first time this year. And while I DID take my camera, I didn't take pictures... so I'm trying to help you out there. Use your imagination people!

I spent a good 3 hours weeding in and around the garden along with a bunch of other gardeners. Above is my massive creasy field, and best looking brussel plant. Something is eating one of them and has just about abolished the leaves, while practically ignoring the one next to it.

As I was weeding I discovered.... FIRE ANTS! Argh. For some reason, our fire ants like to live completely beneath the surface... no little hills indicating where they are. Our method of fighting them is to yell, "PONCHO!" Poncho owns a garden torch. Yes. TORCH. And so he comes over with his shovel and torch, digs up the hill and instantly rids us of our ants. Very satisfying, I must say. Unfortunately, the ones I discovered were beneath this potato plant - you can see the little bitty taters growing. So we dug them up, torched the ants, and I attempted to replant. Not so sure they will make it, but the ants for sure didn't.

And the weekend also included picking strawberries... which are by far the juiciest I have ever picked. Thankfully, my old roommate Kate had posted a recipe she just made from HER strawberries on her blog for Strawberry Mascarpone Tart with Port Glaze. WOW. SO good. I took her suggestion and instead of 2 cups mascarpone, which can be a bit expensive, I used 1 cup and 1 cup of whipped whipping cream for the other. We will just say that 24 hours later, I had eaten over half. By myself.

And we will end with turtles. Someone from the garden emailed the group and said she encountered a rather large snapping turtle IN our fenced-in garden. She coaxed it out eventually and snapped this picture of it.

Garden Planted!

2009-04-28T11:24:00.007-04:00

I woke up early Saturday (early for me... my family will understand... 8am!) in anticipation of planting the rest of the garden. It was definitely a hot day for planting and resulted in Sherri spraying me with the hose. No complaints. A number of us planted our plots throughout the day until it was too hot to continue. I finished up the planting on Sunday, and then added a couple more Monday. My newest additions included tomatoes, a green pepper plant, artichoke (don't think it will do well - it likes partial shade), peanuts, acorn squash, butternut squash, cucumber, and cotton. I also planted half of the thyme I had growing on my porch, some basil seeds and flowers - poppy and cosmos. The already existing potatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts, onions, and creasy are doing very well. We've not had rain in a little while, but the soil is still damp underneath. I fight the bermuda every time I go out, taking buckets of it to the woods. We also divided up our compost and included that in our gardens. So I'm MOSTLY done planting... I say that because if I find a random interesting plant, it is likely I'll add it in. :)

Dr Seuss Cake

2009-04-18T21:29:00.007-04:00

When Lisa began the conversation with "I have a proposal..." I knew we were in for an interesting experience. And when she said "wedding cake," I was actually excited, despite the "NO!" voices yelling in my head. After all, who wants to be responsible for not messing something up of that magnitude? Even my boss said - you said no... right? Ha - BRING ON THE CHALLENGE! But based on the crazy amounts charged for wedding cakes which usually are a bit on the dry side, the thought was that it CAN'T be that difficult. This is not a solo project... that was the proposal. That we would figure it out together and do it together. And so our first project in the process was to make a "Cat in the Hat" cake for a friend's birthday party. I found an amazing recipe for a dense vanilla cake and buttercream frosting on Smitten Kitchen's website, and Lisa baked this massive sheet cake on Wednesday, then froze it. It was thawed most of Friday, then put in the fridge until we were ready for it Saturday morning.

Using a paper template, we cut the cake out and proceeded to frost it. I'm not even going to tell you the total amount of butter involved (6 1/2 sticks for the frosting alone), nor the fact that while it normally takes a teeny tiny smidgen of coloring to color normal icing, it took 3/4 of the container of red to do a small bowl of buttercream. My fingers were pink the rest of the day. It was totally a fun process and just may have kicked off a cake business.

Meanwhile... the table top is DONE! After two layers of tung oil, I decided I wanted a bit more protection for my wood, so I put a single coat of satin polyurethane, which actually brought out the pattern of the wood a bit more. Yay!

And my current project... a topographic map of Maine, where we went dogsledding. I have the basic pieces of fabric down, now onto the details and fun pieces.

Garden Growing

2009-04-16T19:23:00.002-04:00

This is my little plot in the foreground. :) Everything is growing nicely thus far! You can see the split rail fence that the town put up around the garden, it looks great and should deter some critters. I headed out today to pull weeds with other gardeners and have continued the onslaught on the bermuda grass. UGGG! But the plants had grown quite a bit since last I was out, especially the brussel sprouts and potatoes. A visit to Norwood and conversation with Grandpa Cliff revealed his intention to plant on the 25th, so that is my plan as well! We actually have a frost warning tonight... if only it would kill the bermuda grass. *sigh*

I Want a Pony! Adventures on Mt Rogers

2009-04-13T21:35:00.010-04:00

So the weather in Charlotte last Saturday was supposed to be sunny with highs in the low 70s. Not so much on Mt Rogers. Basically, any hike to Mt Rogers should totally disregard the weather forecast and assume the opposite. So Scott and I stepped out of the car about 11am to 42 degrees at the base of Mt Rogers. And SNOW! I love snow. Love. Snow.

The first four miles of the hike, through rhododendron woods, rocks and grassy plains were done in complete fog. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to be in a cloud, it is wet. And it wasn't a silent fog. It was (as usual on Mt Rogers) crazy windy. You could see the fog blow across the trail in front of you. In fact, that was all you could see. I kept trying to convince Scott that there were mountains out there, and that it was really quite pretty. I don't think he believed me.

Not too long into our hike we happened upon a pack of ponies, the first of 30 ponies we saw on the hike. We stopped for a photo opp... some walked over to check us out, others ignored us and kept eating, and one kept trying to get into my backpack while I was taking a picture of him.

We ate lunch in a shelter on the AT, talking with a through-hiker and trying to hide from the winds in what was probably mid 30 degree weather. A quick hike up to the summit through some amazing mossy, snowy woods.

As we came down off the summit, the first rays of light started to shine through, and finally, the fog lifted. Yay mountains! Still crazy windy, but sun at last. Another good hike, topped off by BBQ on the way home. :)

Stone Mountain, NC

2009-04-05T19:47:00.010-04:00

On Saturday Steve, Scott and I drove north of Charlotte to Stone Mountain, NC for some hiking. It was a pretty rough day. We were forced to eat lunch at the bottom of a waterfall, lay on a huge rock in the sun and check out the view from the feature of Stone Mountain - a large monadonock. And the weather was amazing as well. Rough all around. I did get labeled as "hardcore" for wading through a creek barefoot to get to the other part of the trail. Success.

Meanwhile, our community garden made the Charlotte Observer and I even got mentioned! Here is the article: Charlotte Observer

Ricky Tims Quilt Seminar

2009-03-30T09:07:00.010-04:00

So fabric is a LOT easier to work with than wood... I'm still in the process of hand-sanding my elm table. It is looking really good and I'm excited to get it finished. I have a feeling I will forever have sawdust in various places since I sand it on my little bitty porch and most likely bring it in with me. :) This past weekend I headed down to Florida to go to a quilt seminar with my mom! She is crazy talented in the arts and thankfully has passed some of that down to me. We learned about new techniques for piecing and quilting and were inspired to come home and start our own projects.

In the past I've never enjoyed the quilting aspect of making a quilt quite as much, but after looking at all the quilts, hearing different tips, and thinking of it more as a continuation of the design process, I think I just may enjoy it this time around. Below are some details of the quilts we saw.

And so this is my little stash of hand-dyed fabric, along with a hint about what I plan to do with it. Hope to start this week... in between finishing my table, studying, working...

Biscuits and Biscuit Grinders

2009-03-23T21:05:00.007-04:00

The table. It has entered the final phase after this weekend's work which included biscuits. I'm quite the fan of biscuits, even wooden ones. Mike loaned his woodworking expertise and whipped out his biscuit grinder. I want one. What else would I use it on? I don't know right now, but I'm sure I could figure it out.

The boards were laid next to each other and marks made for the locations of the cuts. The biscuit grinder is adjusted to the thickness of the board and makes fun little oval-y biscuit shaped cuts. Very cool.

The slits were filled with wood glue, biscuits inserted and boards clamped together. Speaking of clamps - these were another really cool tool, and quite old. Mike said they were older than our two ages together. We'll just leave it at that.

Two boards clamped together, the third was added the next day. And after a trip to the hardware store today, I'm ready to do the final steps and can't wait to see it finished!

Signs of Life

2009-03-18T23:08:00.004-04:00

After a weekend and then some full of continual rain, the sun finally poked out yesterday and should be out for the most part this week. Temperatures are just cool enough to help my colder-temperature plants. The brussel sprout plants are looking healthy, and the onions have started peaking through the soil. I ate some brussel sprouts from the grocery store tonite in their honor. And marbled cheesecake brownies. Ok so the brownies were really because I was craving chocolate, but I DID purchase the aforementioned sprouts after viewing my plants in the garden. :)

Planting Phase 1, Table Phase 3

2009-03-09T09:36:00.013-04:00

This was quite the weekend. We went from snow on Monday, and a low of 18, to 80 degree temperatures on Saturday and full sun. This made for the perfect weekend to be out in the garden, and a number of us showed up to work the dirt and get ready to plant. Natalie, my plot neighbor, discovered little bitty carrots left over from last year and pulled a whole pile of them. It was a good combination of chatting and digging in the dirt and getting excited for this year's crop. I was talking with Shelton and discovered that he was a retired Baptist minister. His wife quilts and her dad used to be a "rag merchant", as he called himself, selling fabric in the area. He was the first to sell fabric to Mary Jo, who started the huge Mary Jo's Fabric in Gastonia. She apparently sold fabric out of a shop her dad owned.

In addition to gardening, Megan was visiting me from Florida. She has been doing an internship at a wild cat refuge in Burlington. I put her to work and took her to cut the wood for my table - which is slowly shaping up, and she helped me plant my early stuff... carrots, onions, brussel sprouts, potatoes, creasy greens and sugar snap peas. Pretty excited to have plants in the ground and the upcoming cooler weather will be good for them. We went to see Mike and Michelle at Privette's Upholstery to utilize their saws for my table wood. I have a little sanding to do to make the final piece fit well, and will head back down to use the biscuit grinder and glue the pieces together.
Also pictured are some stars I cut out of sheet metal for a project I'm working on, and two of Natalie's carrots - that grew around each other. They must have been in love.
Below- Meagan and I working in the garden

Community Gardeners below:
Shelton and his friend on the left, Mike on the right

Poncho - our resident compost expert
Natalie - my garden neighbor
Terry - putting in a watering system, hybridizes day lilies

Zach and Cupcakes

2009-03-01T19:28:00.008-05:00

This is my nephew Zach, born about six weeks ago!

I headed to Dallas the middle of last week to see him (and my sister and brother-in-law of course). He is ADORABLE! Seriously the cutest baby in the world, especially when he is swaddled and just has his head poking out, like a little baby burrito.

While I was in Dallas, little Zach took me to a cupcakery. Yes. A cupcakery. A bakery that sells only cupcakes. And they are AMAZING. This cupcake was the chocolate peanut butter cupcake, and is by far the best cupcake I have EVER eaten. Ever. Especially with an ice cold cup of whole milk. I'd heard friends talk about such places, but had yet to find one, and it is probably just as well that there isn't one in Charlotte, or at least that I'm aware of, because they are that stinkin' good.

In garden news... no planting occurred today because it is SNOWING! :)

Initial Garden Preparation

2009-02-25T05:25:00.006-05:00

This past weekend Terry met Sean and I in the garden to use his tiller on our plots... the time is getting closer! We picked a pretty windy and cold day for it, but the sun helped. Tilling helped tear up some of the bermuda grass which is rampant in the lower portion of my plot, the newly acquired section. I made a start at getting rid of some of it, but have a feeling this will be an all-summer job. We discussed what we are planting this year, things we've done before, things we are trying for the first time. And I hit the hardware store yesterday to pick up some items which need to be planted soon - yukon gold potatoes, carrots, onions, sugar snap peas, as well as other items for later - winter squash, peanuts and some herbs. I'm also going to put out my creasy seeds I harvested last year. I'm itching to get started, especially after walking around Renfrow's Hardware and looking through all their seeds. Seriously, if I had enough land, I'd plant something of everything. Everything. I'm also thinking of trying brussel sprouts, because I saw them on the stalk in the grocery store the other day and had no idea they grew that way. Yay garden time!

Playing with Wood

2009-02-21T22:33:00.005-05:00

So I started a new project this weekend, and one way outside my expertise. But it has been fun to figure out piece by piece along with the help of friends who have skills and tools that are much needed! The project is to create something to turn my very much needed sewing cabinet into a side table while I'm not in a sewing phase. Part one of the project, create a table top that will sit on the cabinet, one that I can move when I am ready to sew. I wanted something made of wood, and rustic, with the live edge on it.

A ready-made top is a bit more than I could spend, so I found a guy in Apex who makes some pretty cool rustic furniture from trees that he slices and leaves the raw or live edge on. His website is robbinsbearlyrusticfurniture.com. His workshop was full of all kinds of wood slices from cherry to oak, to maple, hickory, dogwood, you name it. Thick, thin, long, short. VERY cool! We picked out the above three pieces of elm which came from a tree in Raleigh.

In a cool addition to the weekend, my friend Rob had some wood that he needed to plane, so we headed to the workshop and did both of our pieces. Totally fun using the planer and seeing how all that worked!

And these are my pieces, planed and ready to cut to length. The grain looked pretty cool after planing. Part two to come... sawing, a little sanding, and later joining together. Yay for fun new projects!

Community Garden Meeting

2009-02-16T09:56:00.004-05:00

We had our community garden meeting last week at Renfrow's Hardware and discussed various things such as fencing, weed control, and plowing. There are two new gardeners this year, Sean who just moved down from Pennsylvania, and Terry, who grows and hybridizes day lilies. It was fun to catch up with old gardeners and meet some new ones. Brian brought a stem of cotton from the plants he grew last year, and gave us all a piece to grow ourselves. Getting closer to time to plant... need to decide what that will be!

Also made Yogurt Marmalade Cake which was REALLY good. It is from the website "Pioneer Woman Cooks", which my Aunt passed on to me. I've made two things from there and both were really good. YUM!

Snow in Thyme and Raised Velvet

2009-02-08T21:38:00.010-05:00

Wednesday of last week was one of those amazing mornings where I woke up scrapy icy sounds, and looked out my window to SNOW! (On top of a layer of ice) It was a great surprise. By mid afternoon the ice had melted, but some of the snow stuck around due to the frigid temperatures. I HAVE discovered that Thyme is quite the hardy plant. I planted this one the beginning of last summer and haven't been watering it at all since mid summer. It has been snowed on twice and doesn't seem to mind in the least. Snow Wednesday... today flip flops, t-shirt and studying outside in the sun.

Tonight I made a purse out of some pale blue satiny fabric with dark brown raised velvet pattern, and used zebra tapestry fabric for the inside to add strength. I like it! I'm also working on an idea based on one of Anthropologie's store window designs which has to do with ribbons and strips of fabric. We will see how that one turns out...

Donut Muffins

2009-02-03T22:14:00.007-05:00

Wow. I stumbled upon these amazing things while I was googling WOOD of all things. Still not sure how that happened... The Donut Muffin. It is So. Good. Really what it reminds you of are the cinnamon sugar donuts. And while best hot (of course), they are still really good the next day. Yum Yum! Especially good with coffee. I found the recipe on Alice Q. Foodie's blog. Which has some other yummy things I want to try.

Also managed to finish my wall-hanging thingy and have a couple more projects floating around in my head. And I started another scarf. (Much narrower)

Scarf done, compost flipped.

2009-01-30T20:02:00.004-05:00

The unthinkable has occurred. I. finished. my. scarf. Yes, yes... as you all gasp in amazement, it is true. Now, it is ALSO true that this scarf could also probably be used as a blanket for a small child, due to its width. But, I mean, isn't it all about warmth? And so I've worn it happily for the past two days, informing people of my achievement. There is no scarf two as of yet, but that's mainly due to the stack of other projects spilling out of my head at the moment.

COMPOST! Ahh... the first signs of garden time. I met the other two people who I "compost" with today out at the plots, and we turned the pile again, adding various vegetable scraps. it is looking good and dark and has a plethora of earthworms happily aerating it. :) Now for the hard part... what to plant...

Snow Cream and Frost

2009-01-21T19:05:00.006-05:00

SNOWWWWW! Finally. We woke up yesterday morning to a good layer of snow... not a large amount, but enough for Charlotte, which has not had a good snow in what seems like forever. As usual, it shut down the city and most of us enjoyed a snow day. :) Ciara came over in the afternoon and we made snow cream - regular with vanilla, milk and sugar, and chocolate - with hershey syrup and sugar. Yay snow!

This morning we still had some leftover snow, and my windshield was covered with a cool feathery frost. :)

Knitting 101 and Random Sewing

2009-01-19T19:35:00.006-05:00

In December, Audrey, Ciara and I thought it was time we learned to knit. And Lauren let slip that she knew how. Poor girl. She had no idea how knitting-dysfunctional we were. My first attempt at knitting on my own resulted in a crescent-shaped thing. It was supposed to be the start of a scarf. I have no idea how that happened. So the girls came over, we made some coffee and Lauren started the instructions. She knew she was in trouble when, after casting on our first row, all three of us had our needles and yarn facing the wrong direction. Lauren looked at us in confused silence and finally said - take it out, start over. Second time around we managed to get it right.

Ciara and I are still working on our scarves, which are rather wide (and seem to be getting wider...), but hey... warmer, right? This is mine below. We are determined to finish before winter is over. That one is still up for debate.

The other random project I've been working on is this... ahhh... thingy... will probably end up being a wall hanging of sorts. The bottom fabric is actually curtain fabric - a satiny background with raised velvet pattern. And then solids sewn on top. I had the idea in my head and have been pretty happy with the way it has turned out so far. :)

Browns Mtn Hiking

2009-01-11T20:19:00.009-05:00

This weekend Scott and I headed down to Kings Mountain, which neighbors Crowders Mountain, for some hiking. Kings Mountain is the site of a Revolutionary War battle in which English forces were defeated as they tried to regain control of the colonies. We briefly set foot inside the gift shop/ranger station/museum before we were promptly signed-in by an extremely enthusiastic woman, pointed toward our trail head and whisked out the door on our way. We hiked up to the top of Browns Mountain which sits at 1,045 feet. It is a nice 7 mile round-trip hike over and around hills through the woods. In addition we did the 1.5 mile Battlefield Trail which is a loop around the area of the actual battle. A nice day to be out.

Mt Rogers, VA

2009-01-04T19:58:00.015-05:00

Yesterday I headed up to Virginia for the day with three friends to do some hiking in Greyson Highlands and Mt Rogers State Park. Mt Rogers is the highest point at the state, reaching 5,729 feet. The actual peak is anticlimactic, being completely enclosed by trees, but we were aware of that and had plenty of views from nearby ridges. The ridge in the picture below is Wilburn Ridge which sits at 5,500 feet and had the best gusty winds on top. We hung out there for a while just because of them.

As we hiked the Appalachian Trail across the fields and up the ridges, the wind was crazy -wild and made for a pretty fun experience! Once we reached the peak of Rogers, the wind had died to a dead calm. In all, we did about 9 or 10 miles of hiking and had a great time. Saw a little snow, a handful of wild ponies and some amazing scenery. Great way to start the year! My friend Rob also blogged about this trip, a link to his site on the right.

Christmas Tree Extravaganza

2008-11-24T20:49:00.007-05:00

To make up for last year's tree falling ON me while I tried to put it up by myself... I had a Christmas Tree decorating party, which was amazing. The tree actually almost fell AFTER it was decorated this time, but the girls caught it, and we tied it to the bookcase behind it with some yarn... a bit ghetto, but you can't see it! I will be finding a new tree stand to use for next year's tree.

Above... I'm pilfering some mistletoe I saw growing in a tree outside the grocery store. :)

Painting Mountains

2008-11-20T21:49:00.003-05:00

Due to the fact that I spent last weekend getting over a cold, studying and writing a paper... there really wasn't anything to report! No progress has been made on the quilt pattern, but I did get a little oil painting in this week... it's not done yet. Looking forward to a weekend with some great friends and putting the tree up. :)