a number of things

wordless Wednesday :: lemon balm tincture making

 

 

June

  The Asian green bean arch with the cukes and sunflowers behind.

Wow. What a month. Round about the end of May, Chip decided that we didn't need to pay more than one more month's rent on his little office space in town, and that we could finish (the interior at least) the office we have been working on by the end of June. Now, keep in mind that at this point the building was little more than a roof and walls, with only naked studding inside. I knew it would be work, but I am always up for a ridiculous self-inflicted deadline, so I said "let's do it!".

Tomatoes in front & Rattle Snake pole beans in back.

On top of the garden / mini-farm work that we were doing (mainly watering everything to try and keep it all alive in this horrid drought), Chip's parents flew in for the first week in June which was followed by a week of swimming lessons for most of the kids. These things slowed us down a little, but Chip was all the while plugging away with insulation, wiring and then walls on the weekends. As soon as the walls were up, however, it was my turn to come in and start priming, caulking, painting and trimming.

Lilly with zinnias.

So that is where I have been for the last two weeks. Nearly non-stop. Coming in for a quick peanut butter & maple syrup sandwich and a glass of water and letting the older kids watch the younger for the most part. (Thank goodness this is not school time!) At the end of the 95 degree days, I am tired, so very tired. But grateful. Grateful for the cooperation and real help from the kids. Grateful for the past learning experiences of adding onto our little house... 3 times in 12 years! (When we bought it and plunked it down on our patch of dirt it was a old, tiny little cypress structure (with good "bones") of only 750 square feet. That first addition was before we moved in, and by adding two bedrooms we brought it up to a whopping 980 square feet. Subsequent rooms got us to 1,300 and then 1,680 square feet... where we are now.)

Scrumptious Juliet's & a few Roma's.

I am also grateful for the beautiful abundance of the gardens. There is always a bowl of tomatoes on the kitchen island not to mention the endless cucumbers, yummy beans and sweet cantaloupe. Someone we know once looked at our gardens and some project or another we had going on and pronounced, "You all work too hard. That is why you have no life."  Excuse me? Ha! Apparently you have failed to notice that we most certainly do, and we indeed love this little life of ours! We work hard, but we play equally so. Even the teenagers, when hearing Chip relate the above conversation to me later, said indignantly, "What's wrong with our life?!"

So why on earth am I sitting here typing this silly ramble and not out painting baseboards? Because it is actually raining! Blessed rain! We have been so dry for so long. It is not that great a thing for painting plans, but the plants and trees are desperate for it.

Have a fabulous day!

 

wordless Wednesday :: office progress

 

elderflower

The short window of time to make elderflower tincture is once again here.

 

I have accumulated many herbal medicine-making books over the years since I took my first herb class in 1993, but my two current favorites are Making Plant Medicine and The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook. Without getting to technical, I basically use the folk method but with a bit more measuring (My favorite source for bottles.). We are nearly out of last year's batch, but it will likely hold out for the six weeks it will take to finish this year's. This time I am making a double batch in a quart jar instead of a pint. Now to start a batch of lemon balm tincture.

Happy early summer!

 

spring cleaning

Pea pods... not long now!

My goodness. I can see why Tasha Tudor always put away her brushes during spring and early summer. Not that I am even remotely trying to compare myself to her, but trying to find time to do all the garden work (along with house work, school work, office work, etc) and still have time for drawing (or virtually any other creative outlet) is simply impossible.

This is really just a quick note to let you know that I will be doing a bit of spring cleaning on this little blog over the next few days (weeks? hopefully not.), so if you see something totally out of wack or broken, know that it is probably being worked on. :)

Have a fantastic day!

 

weekending

 

 

We are so excited to be working on an office for Chip so that he can soon work from home! This has been a dream for our family since he left the accounting firm he was with in 2007 to become a self proclaimed one man CPA band. Chip and Noah started the construction about three weeks ago and they have been working hard every weekend since. (Yes, I know working barefooted is not a good idea. He usually has on shoes but was playing frisbee with his brothers when called in to help for a quick minute.)

In other news, the flowers are blooming and the garden is shaping up nicely. I am really focusing on the herb garden this year, and made my first batch of compost tea last weekend (the 5 gallon bucket with air stones method... similar to this). We are still dreaming of bees one day soon and are most likely going to go with top bar hives. Can't wait for that!

Just wanted to pop in and say hello!
Have a wonderful Sunday!

 

what's up

These warm (as in mid 70's) days that we have been having have got us all dreaming of spring. There are, no doubt, more chilly days to come, but for now we are soaking up the warmth.

A little while back I ordered this pattern and recently decided to give it a try on some cheap fabric that I had no real plan for. A sort of colored "muslin", if you will. It is quick and simple and I really like it as a day dress. I am planning to make Lilly a few for spring, with just a couple of alterations to the pattern.

In other sewing news, I am making several little fun pairs of pants for the big 2 year old girl using this pattern. I usually just trace off a current pair or wing-it for baby/toddler pants, but I decided to give the Britches & Bloomers pattern a try... since I had bought it over a year ago and it was just collecting dust. I must say, it is wonderfully quick and easy (like 30 - 45 minutes... with interruptions) and I foresee many more to come.

Around the House:

We are in the midst of completing the hurricane shutters which we began, ahem, 8 years ago (with a 7 year break). Chip has made them all and now it is up to me to get them painted so that they can be hung.

In the Garden:

The seedlings are all started and doing quite well. I am getting somewhat experimental this year and growing several things I have never grown before as well as trying out new varieties and methods for growing old faithfuls. I am also so very thrilled to have made my first attempts at grafting! This has been a skill I have wanted to learn for many years and I can see it will take many more to perfect it. I used to watch my grandfather (who owned a citrus orchard) graft one tree after another. I wish now I had paid better attention to all that he was doing. I'll let you know if any of my first tries are successful. I also plan to start some air layers (blueberries, mostly) in the late spring.

At the Art Table:

I know the art shop has been closed for a while, but I have felt the need to change things up a bit for some time now, and it is taking a little longer than I planned. I am having fun with new ideas and hope to get some of them up soon.

Have a fabulous February day!

 

chilly down south

This was yesterday. Brrr!

 

break taking

(Rosie's new doll from this pattern.)

I'll be taking a break from blogging for a bit as we plug through the beginning of this second half of the school year. That coupled with the traditional (for me anyway) January organizing and cleaning thing, trying to plan the spring garden (and early seed starting!), and working on a few sewing projects (things for the little girls mostly) has left me with little extra computer time. I had resolved (among other things) to spend less time in front of this screen this year, and uploading the new things to the Gardens of Grace site seems to be using up my self allotted time each day for now. (No doubt I'll be popping in here and there with a photo or two, however. :))

Have a wonderful day!

 

a few of the gifts we made

I thought I would just share a few of the handmade gifts we made this Christmas. Above you can see some of the little peg people (there are two boys also) that Ginny inspired me to paint. I was going to do a nice assortment like Ginny did, but I got rather hung up on the matryoshka look and well, you see the results.

Some time ago I had made myself a small pocket sized watercolor sketchbook using chipboard covers (gleaned from the backs of sketch pads), linen spine covers (from the scrap bag) and an assorted mix of watercolor papers for the sewn signatures.

I liked it so much I decided they might make nice gifts for the artsy ones on my list. (The end papers are simply small rectangles of brown paper bags.) These are time consuming, but so much fun to make.

I haven't mentioned it here (because we were giving three as Christmas gifts) before, but we have been quite into the whole hooping thing these last couple of months. We made several for ourselves (various sizes) and then thought what cool gifts they would make.

We used 3/4" 100psi tubing following the instructions here.

Also made, were (lots of) truffles, homemade/homegrown tea blends, branch blocks (This is the set we gave Lilly for her birthday, but we made a second set for a special Godchild.), crocheted hats and scarves and homemade quick bread mixes. The best part about the whole handmade gift thing this year was that everyone got involved. Chip with the woodwork, Anna with crocheting and everyone else (with except maybe Lilly) with the candy making (and tasting) and overall idea giving. All in all, we loved the whole process and I am already making a list of ideas for next year. :)

 

my elves

 

 

 

good busy

These days are busy ones indeed, but oh such a good kind of busy. The tree went up yesterday and tonight is our little St. Lucy's Day celebration.

 

Everyone is getting into the season with secrets and surprises being plotted and planned.

A little shop for the dolls is being stocked, because they must have somewhere to buy their gifts.

And gifts are being finished up and packaged for mailing or giving. Tomorrow there are candies to be made and parties to plan. Oh yes, it is a very good kind of busy.

Hope you are having a lovely Advent with plots and plans of your own!