What's on your needles?????

a secret present for a far away mystery friend.....hmmm what could it be?

toadstool caps for my felt playscape I am making for my class

the gnome house I am knitting from this great pattern I found on etsy! Stay tuned I traded AnnSpun a few bars of soap for some of her other great patterns.

Garden still life

a portrait of yum by desi

please stand by.......

Stand by for what. Kind of silly but all night in my dreams I became obsessed with those little red lights on various appliances around the house. Why do I need a light to tell me that said piece of equipment is waiting for me to come back. Please come back and turn me on, says the stereo with its weird dancing light display, flaunting all of it's different functions across the digital screen. Come back begs my television with it's special color coded light up logo. Orange if it is off and white when it is turned on. Do they really believe I need a color coded light to confirm that the T.V. is turned off......Luke, you switched off your computer is something wrong????????

I dare you to take a look around your house and count up all of your electrical gadgets that have a standby light of some kind. I counted everything that has some sort of light on when you are not using it like the clock on the coffee maker, the display on the stereo etc. Report back with your numbers and I will post mine.

believe it or not all of these little lights and displays add up to electrical drain, sometimes referred to as a ghost load. Somewhere down the line, no matter how small it may seem, someone is making money off all these tiny lights. At this point there are no light free options, that makes me a little crazy!

weekly harvest wrap up

somehow, blame the heat, i forgot to post our harvest tallies for last week. in my defense it did 101 degrees here last week. i don't survive the heat very well! i won't complain about it further as all my DA cohorts already posted about it.

this last week we harvested:

our first ever so lovely purple cabbage (2 1/2 lbs )
2 dozen eggs
greens for two salads
4 artichokes
1st cucumber
2 tomatoes


mmmmmmm, sure was tasty!

Construction update

Some of you may remember that my dear husband is building me a new studio, as he and all of his stuff took over my former studio. You have been asking me for progress reports. Sadly the progress is very slow! We are now waiting to be able to afford the electrician coming and sorting that all out. Most of the electrical is done, it just needs to be connected to the circuit breaker. Not really stuff I want to mess with...so I am saving my pennies!

Here is the inside view from the front door. You can tell the man has been here. See all the tell tale signs...tools all over the place and lots of sawdust!

The outside, I am happy to say is completed! Isn't it cute. My door is the set on the left. This studio will be much smaller than my former space but it has a lock on the door! Once it is completed we will be building a little patio outside the back door. I am planning a little bistro table and chairs to sit at and sip my coffee while gazing out over my little orchard!

we love our Dad!

Here is our dad! doing what he loves most....well at least one of the things.

we are so grateful that he chose to be part of our family!

we love you!

SHOP UPDATE!

This week the shenanigans shop is launching a line of t-shirts for kids. After much searching for cool stuff for our son, we finally decided to just do it ourselves!

here is the first design! It will be up in the shop today so go and check it out!

thanks!

The adventures of mama and mud boy!

hmmmmm, alaster has no clothes. What ever shall he do??
Oh what he knows, he will make a mud suit.
custom fit!

poor alaster! mama won't let him wear his new suit in the house.
brrrrrr it is cold now!

mean old mama, washes of the mud using cold hose water.
see poor alaster cry!

Back to basics Challenge!

The folks over at Path To Freedom have issued a challenge to all you gardeners out there! From the newbie to the veteran, you are invited to join them on the path to food freedom.

In a nutshell, it means growing what you can to feed yourself. You can read all about the particulars if you click the back to basics link on the left sidebar.

I am happy to report that this week we harvested:

2 1/2 dozen eggs
1 lb swiss chard
a handful of thyme
a handful of basil
1 oz of chamomile

it doesn't sound like a whole lot but it sure felt good. The rest is growing away. I am still working on my timing in the garden. I need to get things in the ground faster and work on the continuous harvest thing.

What is growing in your garden??

This is how we roll

as many of you have realized, gas is getting very precious. if you haven't realized this, I kindly suggest you come out from under your rock and check out the world around you. There is an awful lot going on. Many of us are having to really think about where we are driving too, and why. No longer can we afford to blindly dash out for a bit of this or a bite of that.

For my family this has meant a return to a simpler form of transportation.

This how we roll now.

yesterday, we left the car at home and went to the bank, P.O. and the farmer's market. On the way home we stopped at the park to play. Can I take a minute to tell you how rewarding this was. Yes, yes, we didn't drive the car hooray! But more importantly my two children and I spent two and a half hours together. I mean really together. no car stereo or images whizzing by the window to distract. No hurry here and there, buckle in and out of car seats. We chatted and watched birds and choose our fruit and veg for the week.

what a priceless moment in our very fast world.

on the road again

the view from our camp site

well, we are back from yet another successful camping trip. this time we were lucky enough to travel with our favorite homeschool group and boy, did we have fun. Nothing quite like having your best friends in the next tent for days jam packed with fun. Various mamas had packed craft activities to occupy the short crowd but they were fast forgotten. How can yarn and sticks compete with whales and dolphins. The only drawback??? The wind was something else at night! We felt like the three little pigs !

yummy dinner

The other night, I made the vegan cassoulet from Isa's book.

even the 2 yr old chowed down (he doesn't eat anything as nursing is soooooo much better). SO yummy. this was the first time I had ever done any vegan "baking" and it worked like a dream. The dish was a sort of leek and white bean stew with a dumpling toping. Today we all ate it for breakfast, it really was that good. I highly recommend this book.

I would have taken some lovely food porn photo for you all but we ate it too fast!

happy eating

It is official!!!!

the shenanigans etsy shop is now open for business! If you look in the side bar there is a link to it. Just click on the blue maltagirl line and that will take you directly to my shop. At the moment there is this lovely selection of felt play food (waldorf style) and some eye pillows.

yummy, a pita for lunch! the lettuce is hand embroidered and the pickles and tomatoes have needle felt details.

spaghetti with marinara strands. so full of fibery goodness.

Farfalle (bowties) and a marinara puddle.

ravioli with marinara puddle.

I am planning on creating a pasta set with all the different pastas I make. Keep your eyes peeled as soon the pancake and strawberry breakfast will be up. New items will be added weekly to keep your little chef well supplied.

Enough about shenanigans-kids what about the grown-ups you say????? Well at the moment I have the eye pillows up. Soon there will be soap as well and a slew of other lovely gifties for you and your loved ones.

keep checking back. Shop updates happen on Mondays!
thank you and good day!

how does the garden grow....

well the garden is really starting to grow now. the weather is still weird here. hot one minute and cold the next. My poor green beans aren't sure what to do. Here are some shots of what is growing!

lovely purple cabbage, almost ready to eat.

green tomatoes and boy are they getting big.

today I discovered tiny artichokes on my new plants. A pleasant surprise as I did not expect fruit this year.

Last but not least the rose I rescued from the yard next door. It has really taken off and the smell is heavenly.

So tell me what is growing in your garden???