Recycled Thrift Store Finds!!!!!

I make a B-Line to the 'linens' department at my tiny thrift store usually once a week. Last week a Battenburg Lace tablecloth (a BIG rectangular one) appeared, so I brought it home, cut the square corners off, and mounted one of the corners on a rosie watercolor fabric. I cut the lace away from the top corner so it is shaped like a heart.

And, voila!

The pieces I cut away I mounted on two little girl aprons.


And then...
I picked up a small kitchen curtain, cut the corners off, and mounted them on some green and purple leafy fabric for the next two aprons.

The Battenburg Lace Lady's Apron is already sold, so I'll make three more today and tomorrow.

The pleasure of creating and sewing beautiful aprons that others want gives me such satisfaction!!!

Seed Time/Harvest Time

No one offered up any cheese with my whine about the lack of produce in my garden, so I've sucked it up and waited for something to happen. Shockingly, the tomatoes have produced 30 pounds of fruit already. The Zinnias that failed to show earlier are blossoming beautifully. The Buckwheat that volunteers has flowered and begun to turn seedy. I'm grateful for this turn of events!

I no longer can tomatoes because the frozen ones taste more like fresh when they are thawed.

I just 'chunk' them up for use in sauce and salsa later.

Yesterday morning in the cool 44 degree and breezy weather I pruned the tomatoes so that no more flowers are left, just the vines with tomatoes so that their energy can go to ripening.

And, last of all, these plums are amazing!

It is time to get stared on seeding some flats of lettuce to grow in the sunroom for winter.

Seed time/harvest time...is this my favorite time????? Hm, let me get back to you on that.

S'up in the Garden?

Thanks to my little Sisty, Barb, for the idea of attaching cd's to the fencing for deer repellents. They swing and shine in the sun keeping away predators...maybe even birds; I'm not sure. We will not turn on the electric fence this year. Everything is producing now, although nothing is ripening all that well. Our nights are already cooling down to as low as 48 degrees, and the days this last week haven't been all that warm... in the low 70's. The watering system didn't work well in my absence this summer, so the potatoes and tomatoes didn't get their fair share with the broken line. Blossom end rot has taken a few tomatoes, and the potatoes began dying earlier than should have been expected.
The greens have FINALLY taken off and produced great quantities. Lettuce is finished, and the chard and kale are wonderful!

There IS a blossom on this eggplant, not that it will ever ripen and be harvestable.

When I lived in The Dalles I had three plants from which I harvested 18 large eggplants! The recipe in Laurel's Kitchen for Eggplant Pasta Sauce is my favorite, and I made a lot of it that year for the freezer...none this year, sadly.

There are only a few of these Amish Paste Tomatoes.

And I have many of these lovely "Connie's Dad's" Winter Squashes.

Only 36 pounds of potatoes were harvested from my 25 plants. I expected at least 50 pounds, and we had great potato-growing weather. Crop failure due to watering issues is heart-breaking.

What to do with those Zucchini Boats?

I grind them into relish using a pickle relish recipe. We like this in tuna for sandwiches, in home-made Thousand Island dressing, and in potato salad. Cucumbers are always an issue to get for me, but zucchinis are not!

That's S'up in the garden!

Little time is left here in the mountains of wild Idaho for anything to happen, and the wet and cool spring made warming the soil an issue. This is the third year in a row for very challenging gardening weather. I'm grateful for the lack of bugs!

Sold...at G'ville Farmers' Market!

I made aprons while I visited my Little Mither in B'ham. Below is one I made from a tiny set of kitchen window curtains purchased at the Goodwill in Vancouver. My friend Margaret was selling garlic at the Farmers' Market near my booth. She 'HAD' to have this one. It is/was my favorite, and I didn't expect it to really sell. It went first!The aqua/brown one below went next, my second favorite.

Below are the Little Sister aprons I had for sale too.

Big Sister/Little Sister aprons...and some of my favorites.

There are still some left. I sold 3 ladies' aprons and one child's.

I have some vintage table cloths in my stash, so I'll leave you now and get started on more aprons out of that fabric. It should be very delightful to create/view what's next!

Tour de notFrance

This is a mini-tour of some places I've been lately.

Yesterday it was a rare sunny day up here near Canada while I am with MamaPajama. We decided to take a tour of the Mount Baker area.

This is in front of Picture Lake which is still mostly covered over with snow. There were small floating iceburgs within the lake too. Mom said she'd walked around this lake in the past, but not so yesterday. It was a warm 70 degrees and brilliantly sunny.
These next pics are for you, Elaine!
Margy came up several weekends ago, and we toured an historic mansion that houses a quilt museum. The one below incorporated many men's ties.
I loved the brilliant and colorful spash of a quilt this was.This next one was a 3-D with the quilting done in chickwire-style to match the chicken theme.

The one below was also three-demensional...a cutie!

Below is the Peace Arch on the Canadian border with Washington.

The park was truly lovely with sculptures, gardens, and slow people...like us.

Mama looks a little worried, but she was very happy to have been to the border to see the arch. The Olympic Torch was passed through the arch during the pre-games run through countries.

My sister, Barb, with whom mom lives is an extraordinary gardener. I've picked gallons of raspberries for her freezer while she is away and I am here to take care of Mama.

I decided with part of the pickin' I'd make jam to take home with me. I LOVE raspberries!!!

One of my favorite get-aways is at a darling little knitting shop.

I'll spare you all the pictures of the darling houses on Lummi Island where Mom and I toured last week on another sunny (finally!) day. You can see the northern Cascades on the right in the background and Mount Baker on the left...they are obscured somewhat by the clouds that enveloped us earlier in the morning.

In the center of the picture below is a glacier getting ready to fall over the cliff. We were entranced by the stunning beauty of this place yesterday.

This is Galena Creek Falls fed by the melting glacier in the top of the picture.

I have only 2 days left here before packing up and trekking on home.

I've spent only 10 days at home this summer, and I'm ready to be there for awhile!

It has been a lovely 'visiting' summer this year.

And I needn't have worried about my garden.

Jay filled the new boxes with rich composted manure from the ranch last fall.

The 'soil' was too rich for the plants, and we have no tomatoes. Gardening is always an experiment; sometimes is works, and sometimes it doesn't.

That's life!

Kids, kids, kids!

I am staying with my MamaPajama in Bellingham for 3 weeks while my sister Barb is on vacation with her family. Kelly, back from Afghanistan, brought his family up for a visit. He came with Melissa and two of his kids, Marcus and Brianna. Also accompanying them was 2-year old Cameron, Mister Busy. We had a blast playing, eating, chatting, and picturing-taking.

Mom's heart was filled with joy by the visit with little Cameron,

so much like Kelly when he was two!

Melissa is a kid at heart, and she LOVED playing legos with Marcus!

Marcus celebrated his 5th birthday while he was here, and I let him help me build his cake.
He was more into decorating it with hundreds of 'sprinkles' and some candy corn.

Mama taught Brianna to knit for her b'day present. She celebrated her birthday, her 11th!

Marcus made a catapult with his new lego set.

Cameron was mostly into fruit (bananas and grapes0 during their visit.

I love his big eyes and long lashes, so much like his Moma, Mandi, my oldest granddaughter.

I think this is a magical picture that Kelly took of us as we watched something on TV as we all lined up on the couch together.

My sister Margy has blessed us with a visit since Kelly left, and now we are on our own, just the two of us sewing, knitting, visiting, cherishing our time together which we both know is short.

The Wedding

I have to say that I was sweetly surprised at the wedding of my granddaughter on Sunday.

She and her beloved have lived together and have a delightful child already; they did a tremendous job of planning and accomplishing a time together that drew family and friends from diverse lifestyles. You can see in the picture below on the far right Jason's twin brother and on the far left Mandi's stepmom, Melissa taking pictures as they hear from the pastor who married them. The Kiss...and Melissa's lovely hair in the bottom left corner.

The happy couple: Mandi and Jason True
Kelly and Melissa's 'middle child' was the flower girl/bride's maid.

Isn't she a darling?!

Isabella and Marcus taking a break from dancing the night away together.

Father/daughter dance: Kelly got out of his dress uniform as soon as he could,

and then he and Mandi had the first dance, so sweet.

Arlie and I flanking Kelly and Mandi as pictures were being taken.
Marcus wanted to be near his Daddy, and Arlie is accompanied by his dog Baby.

Apron Camp...and more...

Yesterday my son-in-law Chris set up a sewing center in the garage for me. While Isabella was in school I made the apron for Kimber. It was a good day for her, out of bed, up and around, and cooking! Then Isabella and I made her own so they could cook together (meatloaf, baked potatoes, and green beans).
I have the pleasure of taking Isabella to Karate twice this week, and she is awesome!

Grammy gets a dose of Grand Babies: Isabella, Dante, and Great Grandbaby Cameron.

My oldest Grandbaby, Mandi, is Cameron's mama.

Cameron and Grammy

That's all folks!