Garden Veg at the End of July

I have been struggling to keep the tomatoes watered enough not to burn to a crisp, and they are finally producing! I got my first heirloom, a Brandywine, this weekend. The cucumber is still going like gangbusters. The heirloom eggplant 'Rosa' is also quite happy and has started giving me baseball-sized fruits.

A nice surprise: Purslane! It's volunteering all over under other things I've planted. Unfortunately, so is the spurge which looks similar when small and easily weeded out...

Fractal Yarn, Part 2

This weekend we got together to spin up the dyed roving from the last meeting. The 'fractal' yarn is spun using thicker and thinner torn pieces of roving so that the color striping length varies. The result when plied is a colorful yarn with a lot of contrasts.

Cora also got an opportunity to learn to spin on one of her mom's wheels. She made some lovely 'art yarn' for her first attempt. I pulled out the iPad and brought my mom to the meeting via Face Time to join in the spinning and plying. Then we invented a new Olympic sport: the 30-yard long draw! Aunt Pat had *almost* got the two bobbins of yarn to match for plying, but the difference was enough that she needed 6 extra hands to walk the length away while she made the tails match up to keep spinning. We stretched it all the way from the table under the canopy up to the gate next to Latte's run!

Convergence 2012 - Long Beach

Convergence was a textile-themed convention that also brought in massage therapy and yoga classes! They had a nifty display of textile projects, largely resembling sci-fi garb and haute runway getups and some interesting 'art' pieces. Unfortunately they would not allow photography in the exhibit hall, so we just wandered through and then hit the vendors! One technique used in several pieces was felt-backed silk, which has inspired us to add another project into our own textile group calendar.

After the halls closed at 4:30, we took advantage of being right at the harbor and wandered down in search of wine and cheese...

We ended up with wine (and beer for Mia and rootbeer for Uncle Bear) and sweet potato fries and calamari instead, which was surprisingly perfect. 

New Bathroom Tile

 So the mold and peeling paint in our tub finally got to be too much - plus the pipes were leaking again - so we called in Aunt Pat's plumber, Ron, to replace the whole thing. He put in a nice white tub and taught me how to do the tilework.

Here is the tile setting up with spacers still in between, and a close up of the running border detail with glass square mosaic tiles:

Unfortunately, the grout Shaun picked up was NOT white. I ended up ordering a colorant/sealant called "AquaMix" that gets painted on. It looks so much better, but was really slow-going. Moral of the story: double-check the grout color before leaving the store!

The finished tub! Shaun ended up repainting the whole bathroom white. We also ended up cleaning and painting the grout on the floor with the same colorant.  Now the bathroom looks so much less dingy. Eli approved and immediately took a bath the next morning. He had been waiting for the two weeks the whole process took.

Peppers and Beer Bread

Shaun loves my mom's beer bread recipe, of which he got extra helpings when we were up in Idaho. Now that we're back, I thought, what could be better with beer bread than fire-roasted jalepenos and aged cheddar? It's a very tasty Tex-Mex revision of an already amazing treat...

This is the recipe: 3 cups flour sifted with 3 tsp baking powder + 1 tsp salt, 2 seeded, diced fire-roasted jalepenos and 1/2 cup shredded aged cheddar, mix just to combine with 1 beer (I used Blue Moon, but Fat Tire also works nicely), and pour into the greased baking tin. Then sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup shredded cheese and dash of coarse salt on top,and p our 1/2 cup melted butter over it all.Bake at 375F for 50 minutes (but it needs to be covered with foil for the last 15 or it will burn).

These are jalepenos from our garden, which I held over the flame on our gas stove till bubbly. Below that is a pic of our Chili d'Arbol plant, which is turning into a little red and green fiery Christmas tree. There are other peppers still small, but growing, on the other peppers.

 

Banner Projects

I am working on some nice long processional banners for our household, starting with Aunt Pat's, Uncle Bear's and Carlean's. I took their devices and improvised a little. The major elements were cut out and glued down first, then the outlines stitched. Then I cut out the back fabric and stitched in details.

 This is the front after cutting off excess fabric:

This is the back, after the design fabric was stitched down: 

And this is the back after the  back fabric was cut away and the design stitching done. From the front you see the mirror image of this.

Aunt Pat's finished banner:

Uncle Bear's finished banner: 

Carlean's finished banner:

And then... the ceremonial banner-hanging from the tree house!

I am working on some nice long processional banners for our household, starting with Aunt Pat's, Uncle Bear's and Carlean's. I took their devices and improvised a little. The major elements were cut out and glued down first, then the outlines stitched. Then I cut out the back fabric and stitched in details.

 This is the front after cutting off excess fabric:

This is the back, after the design fabric was stitched down: 

And this is the back after the  back fabric was cut away and the design stitching done. From the front you see the mirror image of this.

Aunt Pat's finished banner:

Uncle Bear's finished banner: 

Carlean's finished banner:

And then... the ceremonial banner-hanging from the tree house!

Last Huzzah

On Thursday I was feeling a little burbly, so we ended up delaying the drive back South till Saturday. This gave us a couple more days to enjoy family and friends in Idaho. Dad took off early that morning for a two-week drive with his cousin, Paul, to see Glacier National Park, the Cascades, and the San Juan Islands where Aunt Barb lives now. On Friday Mom and Shaun and I met up with Steven Roosevelt (Martin) for lunch at one of our favorite haunts - the Russian Bear Cafe in Eagle. 

The drive back was slightly cooler, as there was cloud cover at least part of the way. Since Abi was staying with Jami for the next few weeks to do "horse camp" out at the ranch where Jami is giving lessons, the ride was much quieter. Eli already started asking for Abi two days after we got back, however. Ah, siblings.

Food and Festivities

As is tradition with our family, we celebrated each day of vacation with FOOD!


Sunday: Bardenay's Brewery and Restuarant in Eagle

Monday: Firehouse Cafe in Kuna, home of pulled pork sandwiches so good, even Guy Fieri would approve

 

 Tuesday: Kopi Luwak (a.k.a, tiger-shit coffee) which is complex, delicious and very expensive! Wally had given this package to my mom and she had been saving it to share with us.

 

There were also raspberries fresh from the bush in the backyard which went really nicely with icecream and with the baklava that I made for Jami's BBQ on the 4th...

Wednesday: BBQ at Jami's house! Her uncle made yummy chicken, she made some cheesecake, and we brought Adele's sausages, potato salad, and of course, baklava and GF brownies. Abi and Eli had been at their dad's for three days, and Rich and Heidi joined us for a while when they dropped off the kids that evening.

 

Shanna, Brian and Kian also came for dinner, as did Matt and Teri and the kids

Eli stayed inside, hoping to get a crack at Jami's NES...

Instead Jami got a crack at Matt's back with the sander, I mean, massager...