I'm enjoying a cool evening outside on my daughter's laptop while she takes her brothers for a game of wiffle ball. Of course I'm blogging rather than doing the dinner dishes but summer is about compromise and once the sky darkens, I promise to get those dirty dishes taken care of, really I do!

Is there anything blogworthy going on in my corner of the universe? Hmm, I guess that depends on your perspective. Here are a few things others might find interesting.

First of all, as Ruthie noted a while back, we didn't join a CSA this growing season. We just couldn't find one that fit into our unique schedule (summer in one place, spring & fall in another). I agonized over this decision but I couldn't justify the hour and fifteen minute drive that we had for 10 weekends in the fall to accomodate the entire CSA season.

The solution to this conundrum, because I really wanted to keep my produce local as much as possible, sprung up unexpectedly when a local family opened a produce stand in front of their home about a mile from my house. Can you get any more local than that without growing your own? There are still farmers markets I intend to check out to improve our variety but I am just thrilled with the way this has turned out.

I've been making progress on my sewing & knitting projects in the evenings while I listen to old radio shows like Dragnet, Sherlock Holmes & Tales of the Texas Rangers. I just love those old radio shows! Current projects include a denim quilt and a log cabin blanket to use up my yarn scraps.

Actually, the log cabin blanket brings me to another decision I recently made. Once I finish with my current stash of acrylic yarn, which is massive by the way, I plan to only knit with natural fibers. It just feels like the right decision to me.

Alas, the battery on the laptop is running low so I'll end for now. Happy summertime to all!

A Slug for the Slugs

You guys are so sweet for wondering if everything is ok. Thank you so much for being concerned. Everything is fine. I'm not even going to pretend that I have a legitimate reason for not updating my blog for so long. I just haven't gotten around to it. I've been busy enjoying summer vacation with my kids. I'm knitting a little, quilting a little, and gardening a little.

I don't know that I've done anything blog worthy except perhaps my ongoing battle with the slugs that are infesting my garden here in the Adirondacks. It's been rainy, really rainy. The slugs are just having a party. They're sliming over and eating just about everything I've planted, even the Jerusalem artichokes which usually aren't bothered by anything. In short, they really piss me off.

The weapon of choice when battling with slugs is beer, believe it or not. I'm catching slugs by the slimy cupful. It's disgusting yet gratifying. Today is marks the beginning of my third go round of putting out fresh beer for the little buggers. (The beer gets a white coating after about a week and seems to become less effective.)

Check out this link for more on using beer to get rid of slugs.

Has it really been a week since I blogged? I'm up to my eyeballs in graduation preparation as well as putting the final touches on my yoga projects. My bags aren't packed and we're no where near ready to make our escape to the Adirondacks. It'll all come together I'm sure. Look for a post on Tuesday when life slows down considerably.

A Father's Day DIY

I'd love to take credit for this idea but it isn't mine. It's Soulemama's. Check out this post which peeked my interest and then click here for the instructions.

I know I'm making you work awfully hard to look at something that I haven't really explained but I don't want to ruin any surpises. If you have kids (or even if you don't), minimal sewing skills and some fabric scraps, this is the answer to your father's day gift quandry.

I'm Sew Proud of Tasha

I couldn't resist putting up this picture of Tasha at her cosmetology class graduation. She's wearing the dress I altered for her so that her bra would stop playing peek-a-boo out of the arm hole.

When I first tried to figure out how to fix this, I focused on the side seam but that just changed the problem it didn't solve it. After a lot of pinning and unpinning, I realized the seam that ran over the chest was the one I needed to focus on. Is it totally perfect? No, but you'd have to have your nose practically in her armpit to discover that. I'm really pleased with the result and so was she.

If I could figure this out, you can too!

Coffee Break

This is just too weird not too share. Yesterday, after working for several hours on my paper, I took a break to make a much needed pot of coffee. Notice I said pot, not cup, that was no typo. These last few weeks before summer are just killing me!! (It should be easier since the girls are now driving themselves to work and school but for some inexplicable reason its not, must be the stress of having two teenage drivers.)

Anyway, in my haste to make the coffee, something went wrong. The coffee wasn't perking. It turns out the stem of the basket that the grinds sit in was clogged up with old coffee grinds, but I didn't know that at the time. All I knew was I NEEDED a cup of coffee and it wasn't happening in the traditional way. So...I rigged up this apparatus and poured the boiling water over the grinds and let them drip through like the old style manual drip pot.

The basket that holds the grinds sat inside the mesh strainer to keep the grinds out and the canning funnel kept the boiling water going into the jar rather than down the side. Since I wanted my coffee string, I used a second jar and poured the water over the grinds a second time.

It's weird but it worked.

Can You Fix This?

I shouldn't even be posting right now because I'm supposed to be working on the final paper for my yoga training. Truth be told, I'm having a little trouble focusing. I keep peeking at blogs and finding reasons to walk away from the computer. (Honestly who can write a paper without a fresh cup of coffee????)

Maybe it was the randomness of the weekend that got me in this frame of mind. I jumped from task to task like a bunny gone mad. First there was this pair of jeans Jim had that were in perfect shape but had developed a bum zipper. "I can replace that," I announced and began to root around my "jeans as fabric" stash for a pair of really ripped jeans with a perfect zipper. I came up with a candidate very quickly and, holy seam ripper Batman, I got right into setting the good zipper free. Of course once you set the good zipper free, you have to set the bad zipper free as well.

Alas, a graduation dress in need of alteration took priority over the jeans. It was time to set the jeans aside since by this time Tasha had come home and could model the dress in question. I'm a huge fan of trying the item in need of alteration on inside out to make pinning easier but I'm sure that breaks a gazillion rules of sewing so if you need to conform and do it the right way I understand. A few try-ons later (it took a few times to smooth out the 1950's bra as a torpedo look I accidently created when altering the top of the dress. No worries, it's all better now!) and the dress was hanging in her closet.

By then it was getting late and I needed to make bread but I couldn't find any bread flour (clearly there's a gremlin in my house who steals whatever I'm looking for!) On and on it went for the rest of the day. Start this, run and do that. Yesterday was no better.

I finished the jeans and btw I'm very impressed with myself. Of course, skills get you no thanks only more work. Tasha has already requested that I replace the broken zipper in her favorite winter coat. It's a good feeling just the same.

Jim brought a pair of incredibly ripped up pajama pants to be made into pajama shorts. This went well until I discovered that I didn't cut the line straight and the backs of the shorts are a little shorter than the front. He was good natured about it. "Who's gonna see them," he kept asking me when I offered to fix them correctly. The moral of this story is just because there are straight lines on the pants doesn't mean those lines are straight enough to use as a cutting guide.

The interesting thing about these pajama pants and other cotton flannel pajama pants we've owned is that the seams mysteriously wear away without actually ripping. (Maybe it's not so mysterious now that I think about it those pants are at least 10 years old...) My solution to this is to use a piece of fabric from the part of the legs that I cut off and pin it under the almost ripped section. Then I use the mending stitch setting on my sewing machine to anchor this patch in place. Once the patch is anchored I cut the excess fabric off and then continue to use the mending stitch to anchor the edges of the patch in place. It works beautifully although you couldn't really use on something you were going to wear in public. I don't know enough about sewing machines to tell you if a mending stitch setting is common on most sewing machines but mine is from the early 1970's and it has it.

Since the sewing machine was still out, I reinforced the seams on a favorite pair of sweats giving them new life. The sewing machine and I are becoming fast friends. Although, if I'm to get everything done that needs to be done in the next two weeks, the sewing machine and I will have to have far fewer play dates. It's time to start planning my summer projects and getting them packed and ready to go.

Ok now I really have to get going on this paper.

Liquid Laundry Detergent Recipe

I had to snap a quick picture of Tasha's bag this morning since she was using it for school again. Now I'm getting bag requests from her friends!

Del was wondering about my recipe for liquid laundry detergent. I got my recipe from the Twin Cities Green Guide which seems to be no more. This is the recipe that got me started. Over time, I've opted to use less water making my detergent more concentrated and therefore I use less detergent for each load of laundry (I use 1/4 cup). I'd love to tell you how much water but at this point I just know that I have to fill the pot I use to an inch below the rim. You'll have to experiment and let me know how it goes for you.

Here's the original recipe:
1 bar Fels Naptha soap
5 gallon bucket
1 cup washing soda
4 1/2 gallons water

Grate 1 bar of Fels Naptha Soap. Place soap in small saucepan and cover with water. Heat on low until dissolved. Fill bucket with hot water and add soap. Stir to combine. Add 1 cup of washing soda and mix well. As it cools it thickens. May be used immediately. Use 1-2 cups per load.

I use Ivory soap in place of the Fels Naptha soap. I also find that you need to mix the detergent as it cools to keep it from seperating. I use a hand mixer, every half hour or so until it cools. Because I use less water than the recipe calls for, my detergent is almost like a paste. It doesn't suds up the way store bought detergent does but it does a great job.