Spring - is that you?

Love Spring! Tulips are poking up their stems, the garlic is doing nicely. I'm making lots of fun things with crochet including a plant sweater I developed. originally it was Mother's Day gifts but I've been asked to provide them for a fabulous shop in LaGrange, Kentucky called 1887 The Corner Shop. They have asked for other handcrafted items so it's time to step up the crafting!

Crochet Crochet.....

I have been having a great fall crocheting this year....super inspired. Seems like hand crafting is back/still in vogue - yippee!

Here's what I've been working on.

And some of these,

Cupcake Marathon

Two of my favorite things - running and cupcakes. That's right, they don't seem to go together, but I have found a way to have my cake and eat it too. Running. If I want to eat, I have to run....that's just the plan hard truth.

So, Jason at Cook, Train, Eat, Race has a competition - giveaway. Run a marathon distance over two weeks and you could win great prizes. I have decided to donate a crochet cupcake - isn't it the cutest ever? Best part - fat free, gluten free, vegan.... and the wrapper comes off - cause you should never eat a cupcake with the wrapper still on!

Transformation

If you want to move to the next level in transforming your workout and your body composition - you have to enter this giveaway - or maybe just buy the darn thing outright....sounds very intriguing. Check out 26.2's blog for more info.

Headed out on a 5-10 mile run, I'll decide somewhere down the road exactly how far....

Cuties

These little guys are the cutest. I followed a blog that had a picture of the little bear - I bugged her enough to put the patterns on etsy. Let me tell you they are very labor intensive! I will dig out the pattern so I can give a shout out to the pattern maker!

That is a quarter next to the bunnies foot to show scale! They fit in the palm of your hand!

Here's what I did during the great snow in of 2011 - it lasted two days in Knoxville Tennessee!

Now is about the time I start dreaming of spring - how about you? Today I wore a celery green top to work because I am over black, brown and gray!

On my way to work, I went to the grocery store and bought three bags of greens - spinach, mixed greens, and cole slaw mix (which I use to make my salads crunchy.) I made the most delicious salad ever!

Yummy Think of Spring Salad

• handful of spinach greens
• handful of mixed greens
• two pinches of coleslaw veggies
• 1/4 of diced avocado
• 1/4 diced tomato
• 2 tbsp White Balsamic Vinegar Citrus Vinaigrette
• 1 sliced tofurkey spicy Italian sausage (mico'd for 30 seconds)
• pinch sunflower seeds

I was either really hungry or this was indeed the best salad ever!

Speaking of sunflowers - last summer our cool farmer neighbor planted an entire wheat field with sunflowers! It was the most amazing thing - people stopped to take pictures for the few weeks they were in bloom....you couldn't help but smile. It inspired me to paint this picture.

Because of him I now use sunflower oil to cook with. It has a mild interesting flavor - you should try it.

Between crocheting, painting and running I have been keeping out of trouble...sort of!

What's your focus this year?

So sorry friends, I have been so bad about keeping up my blog - but I shall try to do better.
Not much going on right now.

I have garlic patiently waiting in the ground - it grows a little with each warm day and then just waits for the next warm day.

I've been doing some water color - I've decided this year to make all my cards - especially thank you cards. I'm improving - even did a picture my husband thought worthy of framing...that's a pretty big compliment. They aren't worthy of selling, but you can tell what the subject matter is - always a big plus for me!

I've been kind of into amigurumi (little crocheted critters)....I guess I have lots of pictures to post. Hopefully I'll get that done this weekend.

Well this year is another year for running, gardening, and crafting for me.

What is your focus for this year?

Weird Huh?

I know it's been awhile since I've posted....crazy I know....but I've been on facebook and running and working and gardening.....blah blah blah....excuses but darn good ones.

Well today something strange happened and I feel the need to chronicle it for safe keeping.

I am a very spiritual person but not overly religious. I am by faith a member of the Society of Friends, or a Quaker. For those who don't know this is a christian religion that believes very strongly in the spirit of God. I don't do much apostatizing and hope that my actions speak louder than words.

Although I do believe in signs, I try to pay attention to them. If I do, I am often rewarded by seeing a direct link from the sign to a manifestation - small or large, religious or secular, monetary or simply an action. I don't always see a response but I don't necessarily think I missed it or I misinterpreted it, I think I might have to just wait longer.

Well today I received some work correspondence from a man named John. Very ordinary. He answered many questions and in the middle of his response he asked for a meeting with me at 3:30. Preparing my response I erased his response and posted a prepared email response. As I was reviewing the response I got to the end of the email and say in very large bold letters JOHN 3:30.

I must say, I immediately associated this with the Bible. I looked it up. The quote is He must become greater; I must become less. If you use the New InternationalVersion. Or He must increase, but I must decrease. If you're a King James fan. Either way, I am puzzled. I'm not sure what I'm to do with the message. I'm not sure if it pertains to how I view God or place him in my life. Perhaps we're talking about loosing weight, giving something away....not sure. What I do know, is I'm open to receiving more info about this process. It's a pretty broad statement for the universe to just through out there. It also took some doing for the universe to make it happen and the universe would know that I would see a higher power in the revelation. The words were not together but were buried in the email and items on all sides had to be erased leaving portions in the middle. So I am left with food for thought for the weekend.

The Princess on Vacation

The Princess hanging with her cousin at Rock Creek Horseshow.

Here's what her cousin did to earn the blue ribbon....notice the puff of dirt behind the pony. They are bookin'!

Horse Showing

Well this year I am focusing more on hanging out with my sister on the semi-local show circuit.

Here's a few pictures taken at the Cloverdale Indiana Arabian Horse Show last weekend:

This one is Ashley aka The Princess on Tiny Tina. They are a good pair. Still learning to trust each other, but coming right along. Tina is an Arabian. I remember my legs being so short they didn't go below the saddle flaps - Ashley is following right in her mothers footsteps!

This is Ashley and Tina with Grandma. My mom is way cool with her sun glasses on indoors! Isn't she pretty in pink?

This is what happens between classes:

Soon will be pictures of the garden - got the salsa garden planted and the spring garlic bed with Silver Rose. The garlic is already up four inches in two weeks. I was concerned that I may have planted it to late - we'll see how it forms up. Not sure what stops it's growing cycle heat or maturity. I hope it can stand a warm summer because I don't expect it to be mature until July/Aug. Last year it matured in June. Over at Clayhill we planted hardneck in the fall - they are doing nicely. My hardnecks I planted in La Tres Belle got their feet too wet and haven't produced. I also ordered Pioneer garlic but they didn't seem to survive the shipping here and are moldy - I'll ask for a replacement be shipped this summer for fall planting.

I am getting ready to plant my seeds from Survival Seeds. I'll update you on how those grow!

Happy Spring!

Survival Seeds

Well, the bug hit me....or fever, or whatever trigger causes the need to play in the dirt long before it's safe. I ordered from the Gurney seed catalog this week. My hubby has been concerned that I didn't plant enough garlic last fall (mainly because I waited too late to order the bulbs from the dealer I like.) So I just reconcile myself to make do with planting what I put aside for seed stock. Turns out, with an unlimited supply on hand we used way more garlic this fall/winter than ever before and my hubby has developed an addiction so severe he depleted our years supply of culinary garlic by January - with no fresh garlic until June/July we were very susceptible to vampires! I resorted to using the garlic in the decorator braids hung in my kitchen window. Not to fear, this was home grown garlic I braided. Thinking I had such a plentiful supply when I harvested the garlic last summer, I made a yarrow and garlic valance - the garlic is totally edible and organic, but I'd have liked to preserve my window treatments a few more months!

As we were preserving our salsa last fall, Ashley - AKA The Princess, recommended a salsa garden . We put up 12 jars of salsa and it was gone within six weeks. The child absolutely loves anything with vinegar in it and downed a pint of salsa in one setting. This left the extended family members highly disappointed because she ran through the entire stock of "Christmas salsa" in said six weeks. The salsa was intended as gifts to those who loved it the year before.

Back to the catalog order... I was looking for things I couldn't find locally. With The Princess's idea in mind and thinking this sounds like a great project for a mother-daughter duo I ordered some interesting tomatoes - my friends will not be surprised to note that I picked a variety called Flamingo's....they are an undersized plum tomato with raspberry pink interiors....It just sounded like to much fun to resist! They come as seeds which I don't generally have good luck growing tomatoes from seed, but for $2.45 it's worth the gamble.

Can't have salsa without onions - so I found an interesting variety of those also. Candy Apple Red's - supposedly eatable raw although I don't know why people do this - the plant makes you cry when you cut it - what makes you think you should eat it raw? Go figure....anyway, it looks pretty and if it is mild with a good flavor, will do nicely in the salsa. I generally saute my onions and garlic for the salsa and have had good results with the flavor.

To round out the salsa garden order I found some softneck garlic still in stock. So I ordered Pioneer Whites and Silver Reds....I hope they come soon so I can get them in the ground while it's still cool. With the softnecks I already planted and these, I should have enough to last through next winter and give some garlic braids as gifts. Maybe I can even replace my window treatment! If not, I'll double the order in the summer and hope I have help planting it all!

With those items added to the cart I decided I'd like some tomato plants - to get a jump on the season. I went out on a limb and ordered Black Krim heirloom cherry tomatoes. I've never had heirloom's before - I guess I felt they were to delicate for me to grow - I've got a limited budget - both financially and time - and I generally don't like to take a chance on something that's not going to produce. I thought I'd give through caution to the wind...

Before I log off, I wanted to share with you another site on seeds - Hometown Seeds they have a grouping of seeds called Survival Seeds. Hormone free and packaged to last for an extended period of time. Once you plant the seeds the resulting fruit produces seeds suitable to save for next years planting. Sounds very interesting to me - especially the hormone free aspect.

Although it is not very warm today - I have a need to prepare homes for the soon to arrive seeds and plants. This means raised bed preparation - I'm off to the rock pile to start hauling them up the hill for a bed near the house.....

ThistleDew Crochet Lessons

Hurray - the dream of starting a craft haven at Thistle Dew Farm is becoming a reality.

My good friend Wendy has requested the inaugural crochet session. I am so excited to share my craft! I'll post more when we have a date and materials list.

Here's some samples of my work over the last few years to give an idea of what we can aspire to.

Ending the year with Food!

This morning I thought - today is the day I'm going to tackle a recipe from Julia Childs.

I was inspired, as many were, by watching Julie Julia a few weeks ago. Not to mention that I volunteered to make beef stew for our New Years Eve dinner for the farm.

So why not give Beef Bourguignon a try? I must have been crazy. Have you actually ever looked at that recipe? Craziness I tell you! Sheer craziness. To spend that much time in prep work for something that doesn't involve chocolate or sugar - simply mind boggling!

So I decided to go Russian instead of French and try a recipe for Beef Stroganoff instead. I'll let you know how that works out.... Just in case I have already put on a crock pot of beef stew - hey you never know what might happen around Thistle Dew Farm.

But Julia kept niggling in the back of my mind. So I googled her and came upon this blog...http://www.bookstorepeople.com/2009/08/julie-julia-the-way-to-cook/ and after a little research I believe The Way to Cook is a better choice for me if I want to investigate Julia Childs methodology. My ultimate goal is to become a better cook....with Mastering the Art of French Cooking I fear I will waste a lot of money, time and get really frustrated.

Besides, I don't feel I've missed out on any of life's pleasures because I don't know how to de-bone a duck.

I also found this blog about the book Julie Powell wrote which in part inspired Julie Julia along with her blog - Corrodentia Weekly- she answers the question I had about Julie Powell in the movie - "why is this girl so whiny?" I guess she read the book (which I haven't) and got the answer - the screen writers must have really played down her whineyness from the book because she just marginally got on my nerves in the movie. My sister-in-law, the marvelous Terri says they toned down her language from the Julie Powell blog also.....which is a good thing. I haven't read that and not sure I want to - I don't like fowl language!!!!! Hee Hee, little cooking joke there....

Well wish me luck on this last project for 2009 - making a delicious Beef Stroganoff.....near enough to Beef Bourguignon for Thistle Dew.

May 2010 be full of crafting, gardening, and friendship for you and Thistle Dew.

SantaClaustraphobia - again! Already!

It is that time of year again. Time to get serious about my fitness level. I know most people think about this in the spring, but I am not like most people.

My work is doing SantaClaustraphobia again - the fear of looking like Santa Claus. Our motto is 2 and no more. If you gain less than two pounds over the holidays, you get a free t-shirt. As some of you know, I'll do almost anything for a free t-shirt!

Last year I lost about 8 pounds over the holidays - from two weeks before Thanksgiving to the middle of January. I am sorry to say that I gained it all back over the Spring and Summer. So the only place I have to go is down.....our office is having a competition with other offices for bragging rights to the team that looses the most. Hope I can contribute to their success!

Traveling Masterpiece

I have been participating in a project for over a year now. It is called the Traveling Masterpiece. A canvas has been circulating through a list of those interested in contributing to the canvas. We get the canvas in the mail add something to it and send it on. I was appalled that it has taken over a year to reach me....until I had it of course. Now I see why it has taken so long. First I had to admire the work I received. Then I had to wait for inspiration to strike on how to improve the canvas. Then I had to get brave to actually apply my idea. Then I had to admire it for awhile. Now, I am ready to part with it and send it on it's way.

The masterpiece is nothing like I imagined. It is different, better, grows on you....it tells a story! Very cool - I hope to be involved in a project like this again.

I have asked Super Hubby to take a picture of it, so hopefully I will add a picture very soon so you can see the traveling masterpiece.

Happy Birthday US Marine Corps

Sorry for the quick post - but needed to wish a Happy Birthday to everyone connected with, in love with, or associated with the Marine Corps. It's the Corps' birthday today born in 1775~

Semper Fi.

Weekend Here I Come

This should be an exciting weekend. Ashley, aka The Princess, has her first horse show where she's totally in control. Previously she's been on lead line with an adult leading her and she is perched atop the horse - sort of a proto-type Auto Pilot. This year she has progressed to walk trot where she is in charge of the horse. She is very good at hanging on - but working on the finer points of riding and showing. We are all very excited - hopefully I'm not putting to much pressure on her! We'll know tomorrow morning if the pressure cooker gage blows! I am taking the camera (the one I haven't broken yet) with me, so you should actually see some pic's on Monday'ish.

As a side note....I am participating in National Blog Month, so I've been exposed to some blogs I don't normally see. It's been really fun. This morning I read Fleur De Aleta.
Aleta had a great post yesterday about credit card company shenanigans....The requirements to be part of this organization is to blog every day during the month of Oct....I'm not doing so well, but it's interesting to wander around and see other blogs.

Prepare not Change

Today's post is in honor of National Blog Action Day. The subject is Climate Change. I am ashamed to say that I am not as informed scientifically on this subject as I should be....why should a crafty girl feel guilty about this you ask????

(Thanks for asking) Because I work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where cutting edge really cool science is being done on Climate Change. So if you want to know some really technical stuff about the subject, click on the link to read a cutting edge article and then follow your nose around their site.




As for me and my naive understanding, I am wondering why the world is so concerned with slowing down climate change as opposed to preparing for it's eventual happening? Perhaps we are, but we're just not hearing about it? I base my opinion about the inevitable climate change on the many offerings the History and Science television channels produce depicting what happened during the previous catastrophic climate upheavals - you know ice ages, mass warming trends which assisted the separation of continents and so on?

Believe it or not, even without the intervention of man, the climate changes! Shocking I know! Who would have thought such a thing.....surely these scientists who suggest such a thing are crazy! Or is that passionate - I always get those confused. So, if the climate is going to change anyway or some meteorite is going to crash into earth causing devastating climatic variances, I would prefer the scientists work on survivability. Might I suggest we start with the cockroach, now there is a creature that has survivability! Next they need to develop a space suit we will look good in. That's it, that's the extent of my scientific suggestions, everything else I leave to the professionals.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about clean water, pollution reduction, green spaces... but for the sake of enhanced living experiences not to avoid climate change....that one was set in motion long before we humans could do anything about it....lets learn how to live with it!

Oh and I almost forgot....I would like affordable solar panels so I can become independent from the energy companies....now I'm finished!

Planning my Christmas Dinner

Well folks, I know this is crazy, but I'm actually planning my Christmas menu!

ThistleDew is hosting the Family Christmas on my side of the family. My fab sister Ellie from Windy Meadows started the tradition about five years ago. My siblings, and their families, and our mother get together a few weeks before Christmas to do fun things including a stocking exchange. We collect funky and cheap items throughout the year and stuff each others stockings. Sometimes it's caste off items, sometimes it's fun toiletries, sometimes its hilarious stuff we find at a garage sale....you just never know. It also includes retro candy! A personal favorite of mine.

Well since ThistleDew House is newly built and this is our first Christmas - we're hosting! So I must compete with my Fab Sister.....which is going to be difficult. I have decided to do a traditional English Roast Beef Dinner with Prime Rib, Yorkshire pudding and mashed potatoes. This could cause some concern on my husband's side of the family because I made this dinner for them 10 years ago and they have been requesting a repeat ever since....a few things have held me back....#1 the cost of prime rib, #2 you can never make it as good as you did the first time. This is ok for my family, because they didn't have it the first time (which did turn out awesome). I did practice for a month on the Yorkshire puddings, until my husband cried uncle already!

So I have put on my calendar to order the Choice Cut or Prime Cut Standing Rib roast the second week of November to ensure I have an awesome piece of meat come the second week of December. More on the recipes I've chosen and a pictorial session of the meal assembly to follow over the next two months.

For now, it's back to crocheting....with pictures of that to follow after I fix the camera.

Blog Action Month

I have joined the blog action month - see the icon to the left. I guess I'm a little behind as it's the 8th and I'm posting my first blog....sorry about that.

I am very into crocheting now - it's getting colder and I'm getting motivated.....more tomorrow!

Best Laid Plans

Today is scarf making day - I'll let you know the out come.

These are pictures of scarves past....Shannon and Tayler are the models. Pictures are taken by Danita Rogers - she's fab!