Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Sorry for the Spam

My yahoo mail account was hacked. I can't really tell who all got spammed as some were blocked by servers. I'm sorry if any of you got the spam from me. Yahoo advised me to scan for spy ware and viruses, and I found none on my system. They also advised me to change all my passwords. Always good advice but I've neglected to do this for some time now. So now it's done.

My niece recently used her debit card online for a donation, and had a couple thousands of dollars charged to her account from some place in another state. This hits very close to home.

My son showed me how to set a master password for my Browser, Firefox. So I'm doing that, too. A wake up call indeed.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Quilt WIP


Quilt WIP
Originally uploaded by acornbud
The doll patches were paper-pieced quite awhile back, like maybe more then a decade! I added some fabric to make the patch square and to complete the 9 patch. With the borders it's a 46 inch square so far. The attic window is the fast patch method (cheater method).

I know a quilt is not a quilt until it's quilted and I'm determined I will not wait another decade to do it while I contemplate backing and quilting method.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Some Kind of Orchid

I got a little surprise today out in the patio. This orchid bloom is quite tiny, about one inch in diameter, and actually a bunch of blooms that have the appearance of one big flower. The plant was in survival mode growing in some moss which got moved to a pile of gravel in a cement pot. Lucky for me many varieties of orchid can survive without much attention.


Monday, June 07, 2010

Totoro Oatmeal Sugar cookes




In addition to the yarn diet, I'm trying to not buy sugar. This isn't saying much as I had a big stash. I'm out of granulated and brown sugar, but still have powdered sugar and the brown sugar crystals, not to mention the honey, maple syrup and maple sugar.

I found the oatmeal sugar cookie recipe surfing. Adding oatmeal just seemed to be "healthier", lol. It also made it a bit harder to cut out. I think next time I will grind the oatmeal a bit. The great thing about this recipe is that there is no creaming of butter and sugar, or chilling of dough. It was quite easy to roll out. I substituted 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar for the granulated sugar.

I used my handy dandy RM Make Your Own Cookie Cutter Kit to make the Totoro cutters, starting with Jennifer's tutorial on how to create a coloring book style image from a photo.



I like baking but I'm no Martha when it comes to decorating. I still they came out cute with the simplistic chocolate chip eyes and sugar crystal tummies.

Wouldn't you know it. While I was baking these, the docs office called and said I'm due for blood work. I could swear those kind of things were for patients, not for doctors. Do I just bite the bullet and go in tomorrow? Or do I procrastinate some more? In my case it's true, doctors make the worst patients.

Friday, June 04, 2010

Almost Summer

I can tell it's almost summer as the pikake and gardenias are blooming like crazy.

The plover are all gone, but the Fairy tern are coming up the river. They are beautiful acrobatic fliers. They lay one egg without building a nest. Although they are sea birds and eat the little fish that have hatched along the shore, they still fly up our valley to raise the chick in the trees.

The litchi tree across the stream had a lot of fruit. None of it was picked so the fruit eating birds have had their fill.

My mom has been trained by a lovely red cardinal couple to feed them shelled sunflower seeds on command. They chirp and whistle and she comes a-running. It's pretty funny, really. When I daddy watch, they chirp at me too, and darn if I'm not trained now, too! (Kiko, the cat, is sure interested in them too!)

I finally finished a couple knits!


Pattern: One Row Scarf, by the Yarn Harlot
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, in a nice cranberry red (the photo does not do the colorway justice)
Needles: size 9
Mods: I cast on 36 stitches, including two for the end stitches.
Comments: 4 skeins ended up being 64 inches long and 5.5 inches wide, unblocked. The yarn is a real please to knit with and feels very plush against the skin. I've read it is quite fragile, but it held up well while knitting. This one is for the Red Scarf Project. I'm a little concerned that it is not an easy care fabric. I love the color!



Pattern: Topsy Turvey doll
Bernat has another version of it.
Mods: I was thinking about a project for Ponyo. She has two forms, a goldfish and a little girl. I ended up not having enough yarn so Sonja was born. I used some of Opal's hand spun left over from a project and I really like the color of her hair. She's sitting on one of this years 3 pineapples.

The summer project of weeding the patio and transplanting the pot-bound plants has stalled about 3/4 of the way through. The weather dried up making the weeds hard to get out. Then, I was sidetracked by the aphids attacking my Rangpur lime and bay laurel. I love the Rangpur lime I grew up with. It made the best tabbouleh, imo. The nursery I got it from grows the lime for rook stock and I've nursed the plant along in a pot. It finally got planted in the yard but it still hasn't taking off. It's fighting for root room with the privet, grass and Asparagus densiflorus One thing I've discovered, is that staring at the tree twice a day does not make it grow faster. I will have to ask Totoro to help!



The last of my card play days with blogless Melody was all about cupcakes. She brought her Sizzix cupcake die.


I used the following references:
Beverly's Sizzix Cupcake and
Valita's yummy cupcake card.

Melody will be returning to Camano Island until November, so no more card buddy. It was so much fun having a partner in crime!

In the meantime, I am organizing the sewing room in hopes of getting my sewing mojo back. If anyone sees my sewing mojo, please send it back. The fabric stash is waiting!!!