Its raining its pouring July 30, 2008

We’ve been feeling the after effects of hurricane Dolly here in Missouri the last couple of days and last night was the worst yet. Before we went to bed, I noticed Jarell staring at the ceiling in our master bath and followed his line of vision up to the exhaust fan where I realized there were several large drops of water waiting to fall. I said “oh crap, do you think we’ve got a leak?” He thought about it for a second and said, “no its just water getting blown in by all the wind” So I said “well be sure to check that out in the morning.” And off we went to sleep without giving it much more thought. This morning other than a little dampness on the towel on the floor in front of our shower everything was fine so I was happy. However that all changed quickly when  walked out into our kitchen and heard running water. My first thought was, “Shoot he left the faucet on.” This was quickly proven to be wrong when I noticed that the cookie sheet on the stove top from last nights chocolate chip cookies was full of water. “What the heck?” I opened up the microwave that is built into the cabinet above the stove and stared dumbfounded at the water running out of it. “Oh please let him have spilled water in the microwave this morning,” I thought to myself as I dialed his phone number. “Honey did you know we have water running out of our microwave?” “yeah the rain is coming in the thing on the roof where the exhaust goes out. but I looked at the roof this morning and it looks fine” I am not quite so sure of this, as I have never experienced water running in one of those things and its a lot of water. I emptied the cookie sheet after that conversation putting it in the sink, thankful that it didn’t get washed last night, and replaced it with a huge measuring cup that holds 8+ cups of liquid. Its been there an hour and it has 2 cups of water in it. Urg not a happy morning for me.

I did go outside and check the garden, because yesterday I spent two hours out there weeding till my hands literally had blisters on top of blisters. I discovered a pumpkin that had been hiding in the tall grass which makes 3 big ones the size of cantaloupes out there so far. Today I brought in several darlin gourds

off some of my gourd vines and 1 lonely almost ripe tomato from the yellow bush again. Its skin had split because of our weird weather so I decided to ripen it indoors. The last prize was another banana pepper which makes 4 from one little plant so far. Its so nice to have them and I am thinking about making some sort of salsa out of them. The ripe tomatoes reside in the fridge right now in a bowl of basil possibly waiting to become a single serving of pasta pomodoro as I mentioned yesterday.

Toi poor girl has lost all her tomatoes to bastard beasts and I’m thinking maybe we need to start a tomato share outreach program for the tomato-less souls whose hard work has gone up in smoke or squirrel crap as it were. Knowing how incensed I was to find a half eaten tomato left by an indifferent tobacco hornworm, I fully understand her anguish over losing all the little green fellows that should have become big red delicious fellows. That said I do feel the urge to note that one of my big green guys is turning pink. Its awesome because I thought I had bought a Mr. Stripey because thats where the plant was on the shelf and it wasn’t till I got home that I realized that it was a pink brandywine instead. I wasn’t to unhappy about this tho because I love the idea of growing heirloom tomatoes and plan to have more next year.

Well folks this is getting longwinded, so I shall end for now. Hope you all are doing well and not having quite so much wet where you are.

Melissa

July 29, 2008

So this is what I’ve been working on the last couple of days. The pumpkin now has a jack o lantern face that it didn’t have for the picture. I sometimes get bored and hand applique things and this is one of those occasions. I’m thinking about making a second gravestone in order to use them as couch cushions, but for the time being, they’re just stuffies. I guess thats what you’d call them. I finished the quilt some time back, but haven’t taken pictures because its really rather an anticlimactic finish- I bound the top and bottom in the fabric that I used to back it with and rolled the sides under twice to hide the raw edges. Simple as that. I also attempted to make a stuffed coffin yesterday, but it turned out lopsided, so I guess I’m going to have to measure that one before I make one. Yeah I know somebody out there is saying, why didn’t you measure in the first place and my answer to that is, I rarely ever do. If you’ve been over to my other blog, I cook the same way as I sew– somewhat haphazardly but rarely with bad results.

In case you guys haven’t guessed I have Halloween on the brain. I love this time of the year altho it makes me a little sad too. I love how the end of the summer really comes with a bang here in the midwest. We might start the day with 90 degree weather and then all of a sudden, a huge storm comes up and bam its cold. It usually happens out of the blue in early September. I always loved that big storm when I was in high school, because it almost always meant we got out early. I’d get home at 1:00 in the afternoon and it would already be dark. The perfect excuse to get the wood stove (a biiiig @$$ Fisher) going with the first fire of the season and get comfy with a bowl of soup and a good book. This year I plan to make more cardboard gravestones and I’ll try to get a tutorial up for those. They’re easy peasy but time consuming.

This is a really typical post for me in that its all over the place, but thats okay. Its the season I swear. In garden news, I have two juicy delicious little yellow tomatoes residing in my fridge at this time– the product of my garden. I’m holding on to them hoping to get a few more by the end of the week for a yellow tomato pasta pomodoro. Yum! All the big tomatoes are slowly starting to turn at long last. Go figure that I’d end up with determinate varieties that tease you with big beautiful…. green tomatoes all summer. The yellow ones are my saving grace and the best part is they’re heirloom so I can save the seeds and they’ll be true again next year. Woo hoo! This part by the way is the sad part of this time of year– the part where my gardening is fast coming to an end till next February at least. By February I’m ready to start all the seeds inside in hopes of a big harvest. But next year I’m going to grow some early girls for faster satisfaction. Ooh and I experimented with growing some spicy banana peppers next to an heirloom cherry tomato in hopes of cross polination. Thats crazy you say? Well yeah, but a family friend did that once on accident and planted the seeds the next year only to find that he had spicy tomatoes. To me that sounds like a brilliant alternative to using jalapenos in homemade salsa and chili and such. So we’ll see how that turns out. A long term experiment for sure.

Well this thing is LOOOONNNNNG so I’m going to sign off for now. I’m going to put up a recipe for bruschetta over on the other blog for those of you lucky enough to have ripe tomatoes bigger than a pingpong ball so check it out.

Ladies Und Gentlemen Vee Haf a Veener July 27, 2008

Sorry for the bad German accent, but I just couldn’t resist. So may I have a drum roll please!

 

The winner is………….

DANA of Life Is Good you are the winner! Thanks so much for playing everyone. The correct names in no particular order are, Jasmine, Jeannie, Jennifer, Jarissa, Jessica, Jaren, Jeret, Jared, Jeremiah, Jariah, Jason, Joshua, Justin, and of course Jarell. Whew! Can you imagine keeping track of all those as a parent? I’m going to try to get the goodies sent out soon, so Dana if you’ll just shoot me an email at littlesongbird17(at)yahoo.com with your address, I’ll get your package headed your way. Also I will finally be getting the crafty goodies sent off to Diana and Elastic Waist Band Lady that I promised so long ago.

We had some rather sad excitement here in our neck of the woods yesterday afternoon. There was an explosion at the Kingdom Hall where my husband’s family attends church about 3 miles from here. That was sad enough as it is a brand new church that they just finished building about 3 months ago, but the really sad part was that a man died in the fire, and the police believe that it was deliberate and maybe suicide. The man in question was my sister in law’s uncle which is just that much more unhappy. I was shocked to hear about all of this altho I didn’t know the man in question.

Hope all of you had good weekends and I’ll see you when I see you. Oh and by the way, I have another new post over at eurofoodie.com. Check it out there or at my other blog.

Last day folks July 26, 2008

Well here it is the last day. I had awesome garage sale success today and will probably be adding some of my goodies from today to the batch of stuff already collected. In our shopping today I got 2 big tubs

FULL of fabric for five bucks a piece. Can we say Jackpot! Yeah I thought so too. I also got 10 vintage books ranging from Trixie Beldon and Donna Parker to Doctor Dolittle and illustrated Encyclopedias from the 60’s. The girl detective books will remain intact, but the encyclopedias and a huge 1937 science book will be fodder for my alteration endeavors.

Anticipation is keepin me waiting July 25, 2008

So far I’ve had just a few entries but I hope to get more. I already have the pin monkey made and the fabric cut ladies (and gentlemen if there are any) I’m not sure what all else will go into the batch, but I promise it will be good. Here’s a picture of the booty so far.

Goodies

Beyond that, I decided to put you all through a bit of torture share a story with you all of you wonderful people who listen to my rambles. Its the story of my life…. sort of. Maybe I’ll even have some pictures for you by the time I’m all done with this.

I was born an army brat in Kokomo IN. My parents lived in a little bitty town called Fairmount that was also the hometown of such legends as James Dean and Jim Davis of Garfield fame. It was a ways from there to Kokomo, and not even in the same county, but HaHa that hospital was the closest one that took army insurance. I was the first baby born that year (86) and it was the first time that the first baby born in the county was not a resident. Must have been a funny year because the second baby born was also an army brat who was an out of towner. Go figure.

We moved to Missouri when I was 1&1/2 and I grew up isolated and happy in my aloneness. I didn’t go to public school till I was in 2nd grade. My little brother was more socialised than me and he even learned what the middle finger meant before I did. Sad huh? Moved to NorCal when I was 9.

I did the California thing for 5 years before moving back home where I’ve lived for the most part ever since. I sang my way through my high school years. I loved music with a passion and it kept me going through a lot of very hard times. I had a family member who didn’t want me around due to jealousy and it made life rough. I can’t quite figure out sometimes how I got so far away from my music because it kept me sane, but once I wasn’t in school there wasn’t anyone to sing to or for but myself and no one to play for me. My mom was my accompanist but since she lives out in California, that put an end to all that.

I was a retail drone with Wal Mart and Dollar General, I was a caregiver for mentally handicapped people and loved that till the other workers and the lack of workers forced me to choose between my family life and my job.

I got married last March and it was the best day of my life to date.

Its been an exciting life so far but I know that doesn’t really show when you read this because I left all the gruesome details. I plan to keep it going to the fullest and all of you my readers and the people who I read as well are a part of that. I love to hear from the lurkers as well as all of you wonderful women who are right there front and center. I feel closer to you all than many of my friends that I went to school with over the years.

UBER BIG HUGS GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Big 100 July 24, 2008

Holy hottie Batman!! Last night Jarell and I went and saw the Dark Knight and OH MY GOD I was blown away by Christian Bale and Heath Ledger playing their games on the big screen. I wanted to bawl seeing Heath Ledger up there where he will never be again in a new movie because I’ve been in love with him since I was 14 watching him in the adaptation of Taming of the Shrew. What movie is that you ask? Well just the best movie ever, 10 things I hate about you. I know I know, its a teeny bopper movie and its old, but he’s just so HOT in that movie and besides, I was a teeny bopper when I first watched it. I’m telling my age here, but thats alright. The movie last night absolutely blew me away tho and I say that with all seriousness. It was an amazing cast and I was on the edge of my seat the whole movie (and not just because I had to pee really bad) If you haven’t seen it yet and you enjoy action with a dramatic hard core story line then go see it. If you dig Batman, go see it. If you want to erase from your mind the images of Heath’s last movie with the worlds most painfully akward love scenes, definitely go see it.

On to the big 100. I have decided to do a bit of a giveaway. It will include some vintage fabric (the same that I used to make my purse with a while back) a pin monkey pin cushion (if I can get one made), some vintage book pages for collage, altering, whatever, and who knows what else. So the way I’m going to do this is to ask a question of you all that none of you could possibly know and watch as the answers roll in. I’m going to keep this open till midnight Saturday Central Standard time. I encourage everyone to pass the word on as I hope to get a lot of entries. If I should get 100 plus, then I will make up 2 packages so send out the word. Make a note on your blog and link back here or however you want to do this.

The question is really going to leave you baffled I hope. The story for those of you who are new- My husband, Jarell, is one of 14 children. 5 girls and 9 boys. They all have names that begin with J and of these, 3 are obscure, 1 is made up, and the rest are fairly common. Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to guess at least 10 of the 13 besides Jarell correctly. Whoever gets the most right gets it. I will tell you that the made up name is a girls name, the 3 odd ones are boys, and John is not used at all. So with that information, I leave you all to run to those Baby name books or websites and take a look. If you have a myspace, you may find out more there by checking my main page. Look up hellesbelles under the user names and you should come to my page with the mermaid theme. There is a test there that may or may not give you some extra help in your quest. (What would your name be if you were a Sisk)

 Lastly I want to share a couple of zucchini recipes that I found today. Have a great day and Bonne Chance!

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/print?id=179299

http://www.post-gazette.com/food/20010830mailbo0830fnp1.asp

Post number 99 July 21, 2008

These babies are from the garden

Well I’ll be darned. I never really gave much thought to how many posts I would have by this time or when I would reach the first triple digit, but the next time I post, I will have done just that. I am not as good about every day postings as I was at the beginning, but I like to tell myself that its a matter of quality rather than quantity….. riiight. Anyway, I want to do something special for the next post, whenever that might be, to celebrate that number. Not sure what I shall do just yet, but I’m thinking a giveaway and maybe a challenge. Keeping this post short and sweet because my thoughts are tumbling all over each other. The picture is of this weeks garden bounty. Now what the heck am I gonna do with it? I have this urge to make something other than zucchini bread with it, but I’m drawing a blank on what to do. Casserole? That somehow doesn’t sound appealing. I have sauteed it before and I serve it with my herbed chicken, but I’m the only one that eats the squash that way and I want something for Jarell to enjoy as well. He’s like a big kid sometimes always picking out the “nasty vegetables” as he puts it whereas I am more like a rabbit– yay veggies! and fruits!! Oh my. My mom told me once that men get jealous when you have kids because all of a sudden you’re not mothering them anymore and I said I didn’t mother Jarell. And then I went on to talk about how I had been trying to get him to eat healthier more veggies in particular and she said, “And thats not mothering him?” We had to laugh about that.

Well I feel the urge to run outside and have a look at the garden to see what has shown up overnight. The other day I had a pumpkin the size of a raquetball and the next morning it was the size of a softball! It was amazing and there was a tomato last night that seems to almost be ripe soooo I gotta go folks.

The promised pictures of the quilt July 19, 2008

So I have the silly thing put together and the back sewed on. I’m not sure whether or not I’m doing it right, but the wonderful thing about crafting is, if it works there is no right way and you can make your own technique. So the pictures.

Quilt minus binding

 

Fabric in the quilt

 

Let me know what you all think. I’m loving the bright bright colors and designs. These fabrics were ones I was hoarding but decided to make something with because I don’t get to enjoy them near as much with them just sitting there as I do when they’re a nice warm quilt on my lap in the winter. And before we know it winter will be here. I’m thinking about doing a Halloween themed swap here soon and was wondering what you guys thought of that idea. I saw one on another blog but it costs 10 bucks to get in and as much as I’d love to do it, I just can’t see paying for a swap and then having to make and buy stuff and pay for the postage. So again, let me know if you all would be interested and what you’d want to swap. I really love Halloween so I think it would be fun.

I think I need one of these….. and other thoughts July 18, 2008

see more pwn and owned pictures

The blog that this picture came from has had me laughing out loud for the last half hour or so. You guys should check it out.

 In other news, I am a glutton for punishment. Last night I spent 2 and a half hours cutting 214 4.5″ square quilt blocks from my large stash of fat quarters. Don’t ask me why I felt the need to do this, but I did. I don’t have pictures yet, but I have finished 10 rows of 14 square long quilt and only have 6 left to go. I will probably be heading back to do more here in a few minutes. I have made two other simple quilts to date. The first was a matter of cutting long strips of fabric, sewing them together, cutting these strips and matching them up for a patchwork effect. The other was a spongebob quilt for Jarell made of VERY large squares. Large as in 10 by 10 with applique in the middle. It may sound complicated, but they were easy peasy compared to what I’m doing now and I wonder over and over what I was thinking when I decided to start this project last night. I guess I just got a wild hair up my butt, but who knows.

So the tags for this post will be, penis shaped chair, quilting, spongebob quilt, and last but not least, wild hair up my butt. Lets see who visits for that!

How to make your own Craft Foam Stamps July 17, 2008

I am hoping that these pictures combined with some basic instructions will give you an idea on how to do this. Its really a very simple project that can be adapted to many uses and its fairly inexpensive compared to buying rubber stamps.

Supplies

• 1 sheet of craft foam
• glue (I use elmers, but as long as it will hold foam its fair game)
• cardstock
• pen
• craft knife
• scissors

So the first thing you want to do is decide what you want to make a stamp of. I started out wanting to stamp Spooky on a collage that I was making, so I carved the letters out of a small frame that I made with decorative scissors. This technique gave the border edges similar to a postage stamp. I carved the letters out from the inside and learned belatedly that I had run out of room. So that stamp only says Spook. It still looks pretty cool tho I think.

 Once you’ve decided on your picture, you can either free hand cut it, in which case the color of foam you use is irrelevant, or you can draw it on a light colored foam ahead of time which I recommend. That way you know for sure it will fit. If you want a word, saying or alphabet, don’t worry right now about making the letters backwards, just carve them out as you would write them. For my example, I will make two mushrooms from one carving.

Steps:

1. Draw picture on foam. Make sure that if you want an outline of the item that you draw double lines thick enough that the stamp won’t tear when used.( If doing stamp free hand, skip this step) Make sure that if you have stamp pads that the stamp will be small enough to ink it on the pad. These stamps can also be used with acrylic paints, but I would recommend a sturdier backing in that case.
2. Cut out inside sections of the picture. Make sure to get the corners cut all the way through. If you are doing a mushroom like mine, set the center of the stem and the center of the cap aside.
3. Cut around the outside of the design so that your stamp is completely free of the foam.
4. Glue outline to cardstock or other backing material. For this stamp I used the plastic backing from some paper rub ons but for the other stamps shown I used plain cardstock. If you are doing writing, make sure that you glue the letters on backwards both in order and direction so that when stamped it will read correctly. If you are making a whole phrase, I recommend putting each word on a separate backing.
5. If your are making this mushroom take the saved stem and cap and glue them on a separate piece of cardstock or whatever you’re using for the backing.
6. Let the glue dry for a few minutes and you are ready to take these babies for a test drive.