I finally tracked down my Persian and Turkish design books. There are more boxes of my books in the dining room than I thought.
This afternoon, I was going to mulch the flower bed, but ended up taking a nap on the couch instead. Oh, well, maybe tomorrow.
I can't wait to get a cushy chair for the sunroom. I need to get out my sewing machine and start working on the Turkish coat I've been working on since......Crown List in November? ShadowCon? I don't remember. It needs a few more buttons and button holes and a hem. I'd like to get it finished by Beltaine. I think I'm being good by not trying to have a whole new coat made out of some of the new material I got from Gulf Wars. The theme is one of the Crusades, so I figure I can wear my cotehardie during the day and my Turkish coat at night (or vice versa), and play both sides. I'll probably also take a sari, in case it's hot and/or I don't want to wear either of the other options.
I'm torn. We'd talked about splurging just a little with some of the income tax money. I knew what I was going to get, a wool shawl from Gujarat, with little hand embroidered peacocks. Then I looked at some of the cotton saris. I'm not spending over $50, and I'm only getting one, but now......I don't know. On the one hand, I have about 5 saris......but these are so pretty. I have one shawl, but it's silk, and the wool one would be for when I need a shawl, but don't want to wear the silk one. I'm going to decide by tomorrow. That's the goal, at least.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
The house is finally starting to come together. The den, sunroom, kitchen, and bedroom are pretty much in order. The living room has fewer boxes. Unfortunately, a lot of them have shifted to the back bedroom, but at least there's some progress. With the way weekends are shaping up, June is looking like the likely time to do the wallpaper removal and painting. The kitchen wallpaper is actually starting to grow on me. A little. Seriously, I may leave it until we're ready to do the whole kitchen.
Neale's parents came this weekend, and Saturday we worked in the yard, and Sunday it poured, so we did some things in the house. Saturday, we pruned the hell out of the camellia and the azalea that had grown into it on the side of the house. The poor camellia looks like a stick, and the bees that had been buzzing around the flowers seemed confused, but next year it will be better, and hopefully, when it blooms, it won't look as though the whole thing is going to fall over. We cleared one of the beds in back, the round one I'm going to use for flowers, and worked on the big bed, which is going to be mainly vegetables and herbs. My mother-in-law suggested laying down layers of newspaper and covering it with mulch, the idea being that within a few weeks, the grass will be dead, the newspaper will be mostly broken down, and I can just punch holes in the whole thing to stick plants in. We got a third of it done, and ran out of supplies. Sunday, they brought us more mulch, I just need to get newspaper.
I'm a little worried about my seedlings. They're three weeks old now, and they're still just spindly little things with two leaves. I moved them to a sunnier place, and I hope that will do it.
I've been wanting to do some embroidery. I had an idea for a project for my European garb. I didn't think I'd like veiling, but I actually do. What I don't like is the European barbette and filet. The chin strap bothers me, and it's hard to pin another strip. I want to make a cheater filet. I'm thinking a strip of buckram with a bit of elastic in the back, so it will have some give. Cover it with muslin or white linen, and then I can pin my veil to it, or even wear it on top, like I usually do with my Turkish garb. I'm thinking of starting on an embroidered one. I also have fabric to make into garb for the fall. I saw "How to Make an American Quilt" last night, and that made me want to start on a quilt......... See, it never ends.
Neale's parents came this weekend, and Saturday we worked in the yard, and Sunday it poured, so we did some things in the house. Saturday, we pruned the hell out of the camellia and the azalea that had grown into it on the side of the house. The poor camellia looks like a stick, and the bees that had been buzzing around the flowers seemed confused, but next year it will be better, and hopefully, when it blooms, it won't look as though the whole thing is going to fall over. We cleared one of the beds in back, the round one I'm going to use for flowers, and worked on the big bed, which is going to be mainly vegetables and herbs. My mother-in-law suggested laying down layers of newspaper and covering it with mulch, the idea being that within a few weeks, the grass will be dead, the newspaper will be mostly broken down, and I can just punch holes in the whole thing to stick plants in. We got a third of it done, and ran out of supplies. Sunday, they brought us more mulch, I just need to get newspaper.
I'm a little worried about my seedlings. They're three weeks old now, and they're still just spindly little things with two leaves. I moved them to a sunnier place, and I hope that will do it.
I've been wanting to do some embroidery. I had an idea for a project for my European garb. I didn't think I'd like veiling, but I actually do. What I don't like is the European barbette and filet. The chin strap bothers me, and it's hard to pin another strip. I want to make a cheater filet. I'm thinking a strip of buckram with a bit of elastic in the back, so it will have some give. Cover it with muslin or white linen, and then I can pin my veil to it, or even wear it on top, like I usually do with my Turkish garb. I'm thinking of starting on an embroidered one. I also have fabric to make into garb for the fall. I saw "How to Make an American Quilt" last night, and that made me want to start on a quilt......... See, it never ends.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Ok, I'm back
We're finally in the house. I'm now posting from the Acid-trip room. I call it that because the wallpaper moves. It's a pattern of little yellow rosebuds on three walls, and the coordinating stripe on the fourth wall. I swear, the wallpaper moves. It's made people dizzy. We were hoping (okay, I was hoping) to have the wallpaper down and the house painted before we moved in, but that didn't happen. The current plan is to rent a wallpaper steamer some weekend after we've recovered a bit, steam as much wallpaper as possible off the walls, and then bribe people with beer and pizza to come paint the next weekend. Right now, though, I can deal with the wallpaper. This feels like home. I still hate the carpet in the kitchen, though.
My in-laws are coming next weekend (unless plans have changed), so I will have the expertise of my mother-in-law, the garden guru. (Yea!) I know the beds need clearing, but I'm almost afraid to pull anything, because I don't really know what it is. There's something that looks like a weed, but I'm not sure. So far, I've planted a pot of sweet peas by the back fence, and loosened the soil and planted wildflower seeds in the bare patch where a bench used to be. The seeds I've started seem to be doing pretty well, except the meadowsweet. I've got two Cherokee Purple tomatoes, three Brandywine tomatoes, five marigolds, four basils, four thymes, and two parsleys. I've got cucumbers and watermelon to plant when it warms up a bit, and I'm probably going to plant the beans leftover from the science experiment I'm doing with my class.
I'd really like to finally enter an A&S competition soon. I'd thought I could do something with the meadowsweet, since I know it was an herb that was used in period, but that's looking doubtful. Those were the only seeds that didn't sprout in the tray, and I put the last of them in a pot outside. We'll see if they come up. I don't know what I want to do, but I want to do something. I've been thinking about doing some embroidery, maybe. I just want to enter something in competition, just to get my feet wet. I've thought of all the peerages, a laurel is the one I'd most likely go for. I'm not ready, or sure I'll ever be ready, to seriously go for it now, but I think I'm ready to go dabbling in that world, to see if it's something I might want later.
My in-laws are coming next weekend (unless plans have changed), so I will have the expertise of my mother-in-law, the garden guru. (Yea!) I know the beds need clearing, but I'm almost afraid to pull anything, because I don't really know what it is. There's something that looks like a weed, but I'm not sure. So far, I've planted a pot of sweet peas by the back fence, and loosened the soil and planted wildflower seeds in the bare patch where a bench used to be. The seeds I've started seem to be doing pretty well, except the meadowsweet. I've got two Cherokee Purple tomatoes, three Brandywine tomatoes, five marigolds, four basils, four thymes, and two parsleys. I've got cucumbers and watermelon to plant when it warms up a bit, and I'm probably going to plant the beans leftover from the science experiment I'm doing with my class.
I'd really like to finally enter an A&S competition soon. I'd thought I could do something with the meadowsweet, since I know it was an herb that was used in period, but that's looking doubtful. Those were the only seeds that didn't sprout in the tray, and I put the last of them in a pot outside. We'll see if they come up. I don't know what I want to do, but I want to do something. I've been thinking about doing some embroidery, maybe. I just want to enter something in competition, just to get my feet wet. I've thought of all the peerages, a laurel is the one I'd most likely go for. I'm not ready, or sure I'll ever be ready, to seriously go for it now, but I think I'm ready to go dabbling in that world, to see if it's something I might want later.
Friday, February 27, 2009
I know I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks, but I have a good reason. We bought a house. It's not any of the ones we'd looked at. Our real estate agent called and said "this great house just went on the market, I think it would be perfect for y'all, it's $50,000 under priced, but we've got to offer them the asking price now (which was $8,000 more than the max we'd planned to spend), or someone else will get it." I said no, because it was so much more than we'd planned to spend. By the weekend, the house was still on the market, so we went to see it, and made an offer. It's decorated in "1980's Grandma," but the house is great. It's big, it's on a quiet street, it's very centrally located, the lot is mostly level, it's down the street from several of our favorite restaurants, it has an awesome sun room, and the refrigerator comes with the house, so we don't have to buy one. We're actually spending more than we'd planned to, but it works out to $25 dollars more than what we were separately paying in rent before we moved in together, and we'll be paying 1 set of utilities instead of 2, so I think it will work out. We may have to cut back a little on eating out and buying books and stuff, but I'm ok with that.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
I am not a cheater. :PPPPPP
I finished my hat last night. Yes, I may have started it on a circular needle, but I finished it on double pointed needles. See, I'm not a cheater. :P
The house issue being up in the air is stressing me out. We've basically looked at everything in Little Rock in our price range. The only house we were both in love with, we can't have, because the owner won't come down on the price (may he have boils on his butt). There's a house that I really like, but Neale is concerned about the traffic. I can understand his concern, but the house is pretty much the only one that has everything else we want and is big enough to house the library with room for expansion. Yeah, it's a busier street than I'd like, too, but compared to Shackleford, Cantrell, and Markham, all of which have residential areas with houses whose occupants have to back out onto said streets, this is nothing. Hopefully, we'll figure something out soon.
This is kind of off-topic, but it's been bugging me. My school serves a hot lunch once a week. Last year, it was done by a health-nut parent who made homemade casseroles with vegetables and whole grain pasta with lots of cheese, and made brownies with pureed veggies in them. I swear, the broccoli brownies were good. The kids weren't necessarily big fans. Now, the lunch is whatever frozen crap from Sam's, heated up by the upper el. class. There are a fair number of Muslim and Hindu kids in the primary classes. The do not eat pork. I understand this. I'm sorry that they do not know the delights of bacon, but I respect their choice. In fact, when we get pizza on Friday, I am careful not to serve them cheese pizza off of the half-cheese-half-pepperoni pizza. This Tuesday, they were supposed to have vegetable fried rice. What we got had chicken and bacon in it. One of the other teachers, discovered this, and asked if there were chicken nuggets, or something else, to give those children, and we got them. The one Hindu student of mine was quite happy with his veggie egg roll and chicken nuggets. When I brought up that some of the children can't have pork, the response I got was "there wasn't that much bacon in there, you could have scooped around it." Um, no. If it's cooked with pork, it's essentially dirty, there is no "scooping around" the pork. If I had done that, the parents would, quite justifiably, have been pissed. I would have been, if it had been my child. Yeah, they probably wouldn't have known, the kids wouldn't have told them, but this is so disrespectful, on so many levels, it just makes me sad. In ten years of the school operating, with the number of Muslim and Hindu children who have attended, it baffles me that so many of my coworkers have no understanding and little real respect for non-Christian faiths. It isn't as though there haven't been ample opportunities to learn. Sure, they go through the motions of respecting other faiths, but scratch the surface, and it's clear that they really don't. Not all. One, in particular, surprisingly, seems to get it. The others.....make me wonder if my job would be secure if I converted to another faith.
The house issue being up in the air is stressing me out. We've basically looked at everything in Little Rock in our price range. The only house we were both in love with, we can't have, because the owner won't come down on the price (may he have boils on his butt). There's a house that I really like, but Neale is concerned about the traffic. I can understand his concern, but the house is pretty much the only one that has everything else we want and is big enough to house the library with room for expansion. Yeah, it's a busier street than I'd like, too, but compared to Shackleford, Cantrell, and Markham, all of which have residential areas with houses whose occupants have to back out onto said streets, this is nothing. Hopefully, we'll figure something out soon.
This is kind of off-topic, but it's been bugging me. My school serves a hot lunch once a week. Last year, it was done by a health-nut parent who made homemade casseroles with vegetables and whole grain pasta with lots of cheese, and made brownies with pureed veggies in them. I swear, the broccoli brownies were good. The kids weren't necessarily big fans. Now, the lunch is whatever frozen crap from Sam's, heated up by the upper el. class. There are a fair number of Muslim and Hindu kids in the primary classes. The do not eat pork. I understand this. I'm sorry that they do not know the delights of bacon, but I respect their choice. In fact, when we get pizza on Friday, I am careful not to serve them cheese pizza off of the half-cheese-half-pepperoni pizza. This Tuesday, they were supposed to have vegetable fried rice. What we got had chicken and bacon in it. One of the other teachers, discovered this, and asked if there were chicken nuggets, or something else, to give those children, and we got them. The one Hindu student of mine was quite happy with his veggie egg roll and chicken nuggets. When I brought up that some of the children can't have pork, the response I got was "there wasn't that much bacon in there, you could have scooped around it." Um, no. If it's cooked with pork, it's essentially dirty, there is no "scooping around" the pork. If I had done that, the parents would, quite justifiably, have been pissed. I would have been, if it had been my child. Yeah, they probably wouldn't have known, the kids wouldn't have told them, but this is so disrespectful, on so many levels, it just makes me sad. In ten years of the school operating, with the number of Muslim and Hindu children who have attended, it baffles me that so many of my coworkers have no understanding and little real respect for non-Christian faiths. It isn't as though there haven't been ample opportunities to learn. Sure, they go through the motions of respecting other faiths, but scratch the surface, and it's clear that they really don't. Not all. One, in particular, surprisingly, seems to get it. The others.....make me wonder if my job would be secure if I converted to another faith.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Just call me Rachel Ray....
....no, don't. I've actually invented a recipe. I'm sure someone, somewhere has done something similar, but I claim it as mine. Yeah, like Rachel, my invention is pretty much tweaking an old concept and giving it a stupid name, but I promise, no "stoup" or "sammie." I use real English words. I've invented meat muffins. I wanted to do muffins for breakfast for an event. They could be made in advance and frozen, left out overnight, and breakfast is done before the coffee. The problem is getting protein for the fighters and really active people, and having something for people who can't just have sweet pastries for breakfast, like diabetics. I like the idea of savory muffins. Something like rosemary/parmesan would be nice, but there's still not a lot of protein. Basically, I made mini-quiche with meat crust. I took breakfast sausage and crumbled a handful of crackers into it and added an egg. Then, I put a little in the bottom of each cup of a muffin tin, and pressed it into a sort of cup shape. I baked it for about 10 minutes, while I made the filling. I beat about 6 or 8 eggs, added salt and pepper, some milk, and shredded sharp cheddar cheese. I didn't measure exact amounts, but it came out to about 2 cups. I poured that over the sausage and baked the whole thing for another 12 minutes or so. The egg puffed up beautifully, and the ones I took for lunch today were still good. I'll have to test how well they hold up to freezing before signing on to mass-produce them. They also need liners. I'm thinking foil would be best, since the "crust" is blind baked.
Monday, February 2, 2009
No, this has no potential for me to get in over my head, none at all.
Well, it looks like things are not going to work out with the house. We have second and third choices, and a potential fourth, so all is not lost. We're pretty disappointed, but it could be a LOT worse. I'm still holding out the faintest sliver of hope that I'll get a phone call to the effect of "they didn't think you'd actually walk away, and they're ready to agree to your counter-offer." It could happen. I don't expect it to, but it could.
On the bright side, the first of my seed catalogues arrived today, Bountiful Gardens. They sell "heirloom, untreated, open-pollinated seeds for sustainable growing." Can it get more granola than that? Since it will probably be late before I can actually plant anything in the ground this year, I should probably start modest. That's honestly my intention. I'm thinking, maybe build a raised bed or two, maybe a few large containers, especially for herbs. So, this is my short list:
garbanzo beans (Okay, not for this year, but come on, hummus made from my own beans? Hell, yeah)
chantenay carrots
rainbow mix chard (it's pretty and you can eat it)
collards
Beit Alpha cucumbers (they're a Middle Eastern variety - must be good for tzatziki)
Brora rutabaga
Cocozelle zucchini (It's an Italian heirloom variety.)
Brandywine and Cherokee Purple tomatoes
Moon and Stars watermelon
Sweet basil
Neale won't let me grow catnip
spearmint
lavender
thyme
rosemary
oregano
savory
The catalogue also sells a wildflower seed mix that's supposed to attract beneficial insects. Definitely want that. Daisies, too, cause who doesn't like daisies? I'm expecting several more catalogues....this could get ugly.
On the bright side, the first of my seed catalogues arrived today, Bountiful Gardens. They sell "heirloom, untreated, open-pollinated seeds for sustainable growing." Can it get more granola than that? Since it will probably be late before I can actually plant anything in the ground this year, I should probably start modest. That's honestly my intention. I'm thinking, maybe build a raised bed or two, maybe a few large containers, especially for herbs. So, this is my short list:
garbanzo beans (Okay, not for this year, but come on, hummus made from my own beans? Hell, yeah)
chantenay carrots
rainbow mix chard (it's pretty and you can eat it)
collards
Beit Alpha cucumbers (they're a Middle Eastern variety - must be good for tzatziki)
Brora rutabaga
Cocozelle zucchini (It's an Italian heirloom variety.)
Brandywine and Cherokee Purple tomatoes
Moon and Stars watermelon
Sweet basil
Neale won't let me grow catnip
spearmint
lavender
thyme
rosemary
oregano
savory
The catalogue also sells a wildflower seed mix that's supposed to attract beneficial insects. Definitely want that. Daisies, too, cause who doesn't like daisies? I'm expecting several more catalogues....this could get ugly.
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