Around the Farm...

Frankenfoot is all healed on the outside and feeling pretty good.

Inside, there is still some swelling around the joint and it lets me know when I need to sit down for a while and rest.  I see the doctor tomorrow and hopefully he'll tell me I'm not overdoing it.

Strawberries in abundance from Bountiful Baskets! Over the past two weeks I got 16 pounds of them.  I put up 8 pints of strawberry jam,

and dried 12 pounds of them in my dehydrator.

It's amazing how they shrink down to nothing...

I've been making some fermented things:  yogurt, sourdough starter, and creme fraiche.  It all sounds very fancy but it's stinkin' easy.

strawberry yogurt, sourdough starter, creme fraiche

In fact, there's no reason to buy sour cream when you can make creme fraiche in 24 hours.  Get a pint of heavy cream (whipping cream) - NOT ultrapasturized, and dump it in a bowl.  Add 3 tablespoons of buttermilk and gently whisk into the cream.  Put a clean cloth over the bowl (I use cheesecloth) and leave it for 24-36 hours.  Our house is chilly in the winter, so it takes a little longer.  When it's thick, it's done.  Put a lid on it and stick it in the refrigerator.

Yesterday I worked in the herb garden, building up the bed and making a (hopefully) dog unfriendly border using some paving stones that have been lying around for ages.  I also transplanted my bay laurel tree from a container into the ground.  This morning I'll plant some peas, nasturtiums, and calendula seeds. (Or maybe not.  I just went outside and it's freakin' cold and windy.)

Murnie checking out the new border.

At the back of the garden, you can see my upcycled bowling ball.  Here's a close up:

I got the idea for it on Pinterest here.

Remember the lace wimple I blogged about a while back?  Well, I got busy with it...

and now it's finished! I learned a lot by making it - provisional cast on, how to add beads to your knitting, and a picot bind off.

I must remind you that I am neither a professional model nor a professional photographer...

So while some of us are buzzing around doing a million and one things, others of us are just lying around taking it easy...

Murnie the Dog

Rosko the Chihuahua

Sophy the Cat

Nelly-cat

Frankenfoot, a finished project and the amazing cleaner recipe

Here is Frankenfoot, 12 days after surgery.  I am pleased, my doctor is pleased, my foot is relatively pleased.  I can now wear a real shoe, but have to be careful that it doesn't rub too much on the top of my foot, which = PAIN.  Murnie the Dog and I have walked twice around the path at the park (1 1/3 miles) for the past two days, but by the end of it we're both ready to go home and sit/lie down.

sorry for the poor color - it's my phone camera

Here is the finished forest green wimple.  It's really warm and light to wear either as a neck "scarf" or
a head warmer!  Amazingly simple to make, too.

dweebie looking model - it's hard to look stunning while managing the camera phone...

Yes, those are snowflakes and poinsettias left over from the holidays.  I have a hard time letting go...






I said I would post the recipe for the cleaner I used to clean my daughter's bathroom if it gave satisfactory results, so here it is:

1/2 cup Borax
1/2 tsp liquid soap (I used Dr. Bronner's peppermint liquid castile soap)
2 tsp. TSP (trisodium phosphate - you can find it at a hardware store.  I got mine at my local Ace.)

Swish this all around in 2 gallons of warm water.  It did the trick on the bathroom mold/mildew.  Big happies and results without the use of noxious chemicals.   

I got this recipe from a book called Nontoxic, Natural, & Earthwise by Debra Lynn Dadd.  I just checked and it's available on Amazon even though its copyright date is 1990.  Shouldn't I get a kickback from Amazon for referring you there?  How do you do that?

My Left Foot

This is my foot.  And David's chihuahua, Rosko.  He's a nice chihuahua and he likes everybody, but he LOVES my husband.  This is his coy pose.

My foot is tired of looking like this.  I suppose I shouldn't complain.  I'm fairly mobile considering I had surgery on Thursday morning and it's Sunday afternoon.  Pretty much done with the pain pills, which were not fun.  I have to creep along whenever I get up for fear of bumping it - also not fun.  I see the doctor on Tuesday.  Hopefully I can lose some of the bandaging, which is tight and itchy.

Here is my faithful companion, Murnie:

She's a snuggle-bug and has much taken up residence on the couch with me.  We receive occasional visits from the cats, when they're not at Secret Cat Club meetings or napping or getting into things that I don't know about because I am stuck on the couch...

Here is a weird snowflake thingy I made from some of the cards we got this year:

Yep. That's what I did for two days while lying on the couch, high on percocets watching Desperate Housewives on Netflix.  (Thank goodness Downton Abbey starts back up tonight.)  I've also got pieces cut out to make little baskets from the cards that were too small for the snowflake thingy. Pictures to follow once I get going on it.

While haunting the internet I discovered this:



which I love SO much and want to make.  It will have to wait for a few more days because I have to be able to get up and root around in my stufio for the yarn, needles and beads.  Isn't it gorgeous???  For those of you who knit, you can find the pattern here.(Even if you don't knit you can find it there, but you probably aren't interested.)

I'm finishing up a wimple knit from a deep green Shetland wool.  It's not delicate like this one, but it is WARM.  And I like the color - a foresty kind of green. 

I also have some pillowcases that I'm going to embroider (white on white).  I planned to have a bunch of fussy little stuff to work on because the coffee table won't hold big projects and I have to be able to work on things while lying down.  I'm not sure why the pillowcases.  I just woke up one morning last week and wanted to have elegant embroidered pillowcases.  Perhaps it's the Downton Abbey vibe, not sure...

Enough nattering for now.   More on the next episode of  "View from the Couch..."

New Stairs

This is my friend, Ron.

He is an amazing artist, along with being a superior craftsman and a really great person.  He took our ugly stairs, landing and hallway with the carpet that was two days older than Methuselah

here you can see the nasty carpet with Sophy-the-cat being excessively cute

and transformed them into a work of art.

good-bye, yucky carpet!

laying out a pattern...

the upstairs hallway

the upstairs hallway, finished

laying of the carpet and the landing

Everyone approves!

Not only is Ron an amazing interior designer, but he does incredible artwork.  If you are in the Las Vegas area and are interested in having him do any work for you, let me know and I'll put you in touch with him.

Hurray! This was a BIG thing to cross off my 101 Things in 1001 Days list...

Yesterday...

was what every single day should be like.  I got up early and had coffee in the morning room with the husband.

the morning room

 After a bit, Murnie the dog decided she'd like to go for a walk in the park, so into the car and off we went.

3D Murn

When we got back, I needed to get some things out of their pots and into the ground, so Murn hung out while I puttered around and the husband worked on his latest story.  I finally got a climbing rose and planted it along the front fence.  It doesn't look like much now, but I am dreaming of it taking over the ENTIRE front fence.

I am also envisioning the lavender growing to great heights, along with the bee balm, rosemary, and lemon balm I planted.  Grow, grow, grow!!!  Once everything was happily situated, I thought I'd go in and knit.  On my way in, I discovered Murnie the dog sitting in the middle of the strawberry patch, blissfully munching the nice, ripe berries.  It was so funny, I didn't have the heart to fuss at her.  She's such a fruit bat!  And we've got tons of berries from the co-op anyway.

Oh, this new knitting WIP -- I went to my local yarn shop on Saturday (I haven't touched yarn in sooooo long, and there were so many new things.  I just wanted to pull it all off the shelves and roll around in it...).  I settled on two skeins of outrageously expensive Turkish novelty yarn (green and purple) that actually has a bunch of different yarns worked into a skein (viscose, silk, cotton, linen, and combinations thereof).  I decided on a scarf (the world's most expensive, and like I really need another scarf???).  As I said, it's been forever since I touched yarn and I must have started this stupid thing a half dozen times.  I'm so out of practice and I just couldn't keep my mind focused on a simple feather and fan pattern.  Yes, ridiculous.  I mean, feather and fan?  The easiest pattern since garter stitch.  OK, so I finally got it together, and here is the beginning:

Turkish lavender mint scarf

Imagine it much longer and with luxurious fringe of many greens & purples...

Went swimming and did 60 laps in 45 minutes.  I must get off the sugar train and lose at least 15 pounds, preferably 20.  Back pain is no fun.

Finished off the afternoon by beginning an altered board book that will be a prize in Amy's All Together Now online art party.  Do you know Amy?  I love her blog, and her site Flutterbye.  To find out about the art party, click on the button on the right.  I've never done an online party, but it sounds like fun.  So here is the first page of my giveaway book:

altered board book giveaway

And now I'm done nattering.  That's what's up with me.  What's up with you?

Murnie the Dog

This is Murnie, my 10-year-old long haired Dachshund.  She's usually got a great sense of humor about things, as you can see.

However, there is one thing about which she does NOT have a sense of humor.  This is Murnie after I suggested it was well past time for her to have a bath:

Apparently, she'd rather be in jail.  We got her upstairs into the tub.

These show her "oh, woe is me" face to great effect, I think.  I must add that all of this was closely supervised by Sophy, who made sure we didn't do permanent damage to her dog.  After the bath came the toweling off and blow dry.  Definitely not amused:

But now she's a beautiful, fluffy girl, ready for her treat!

Afterward, I went upstairs to clean the tub, and look who I found, waiting for HER bath!