So thats how it is.

I fear that I will be overruled. Watermelon is still in the house, not in the garage as was agreed, and will be indoors at least for the next 2 months or so. She is soo small and young, I fear that if we put her out, even in the garage, she will still get hurt or lost. I have resigned myself to having a cat in the house for the next two months or so, even if she continually climbs our very tall field stone fireplace and knocks things off the mantle. Fine, I can deal with that.

But I am getting little hints and hearing whispers to the kitty from Mr. T, he is a cat lover mind you, that even after the 2 months she might still not be exiting the house.

Things like, napping together. Very cute, indeed, but I think they enjoy each others company a bit too much. Mr. T has also started calling Watermelon, "My Cat", instead of her name.

It is very cute, I like seeing this side of him and we will see what happens. I am all for Watermelon staying indoors, if someone else cleans out and changes the litter box. She can stay indoors forever if she finds a willing caregiver. In two months, this lady will no longer be a pooper scooper. I will do it for the time being because I wanted to bring her in, but I did not sign up for 15 years or so of daily litter box duty.

Watermelon is officially a member of the family. Funny how fast that happened. She now plays kitten games of attack and run away with MAT, she is surprisingly gentle and sweet with RAT and very snuggly with Mr. T. We have a vet appointment on Monday to get her checked out. We want to be sure she isn't micro chipped, though I am sure she is not, then get her micro chipped, vaccinated, find out how old she actually is, and talk about when we need to have her fixed and maybe dewclaws removed. She is quite a little riot.

The beauty of clarity.

I finally have organized our basement. This ended up being the catch all room when we moved in so our upstairs wouldn't be a hazard for the kids. It was a great idea, but the plan was to quickly go through all the boxes, of which there were at least a hundred of various sizes and shapes. Sadly they ended up being out of sight out of mind and I just recently got so annoyed that I hadn't found a favorite toy of MAT's and a toy I wanted RAT to play with before he outgrew it, that I knew something had to be done, NOW.

So with the junky weather today, seems like it isn't ever going to stop raining, and the start yesterday, I started going through sewing and crafting boxes and arranging them for my workspace, it seemed like a perfect place to start. It was.

Hours later and many many items lighter, I am finished, well all but one box of Mr.T's things that HE has to go through for me, so it will be there FOREVER. But happy to be lighter none-the less. Mr. T is on his way to the Goodwill with a computer box, another very large box, three paper boxes, and two contractor garbage bags of goodies. Mostly baby clothes, my old clothes I am finally ready to part with, and things from my childhood that we have no where to put and really have just been in a box for the last 15 years or so. I did go through EVERYTHING and I paused before I put each item in the give away pile. Anything I had a question about I kept, but put in the "think on it" box.

We now have a simple corner of storage by the furnace. Everything is well labeled and useful. One side is Holiday decorations, and funnily enough we have as many boxes marked "Skulls" as we do "Christmas tree Ornaments", Halloween is big around here. And the other side is keepsakes, baby toys and gadgets, and clothing storage. They are all tucked away and out of sight. Now we have and empty bedroom and all this space in the basement, what am I going to do to occupy myself. My mind is spinning with all the ways I can use the spaces. Sadly I have no funds to make any improvements, boo.

The unthinkable...

has happened. We have a cat. I am decidedly NOT a cat person. They have a purpose and some people like them a lot, good for them. I don't really like cats, and I for sure thought I would never have a cat in the house. But last night after we put the children to bed Mr. T was on the phone and called me over to the window.



"Hey! Come look at this cat! It just ran across the field and now is climbing the tree."

So over I went expecting a cat, big and full grown, not what I saw. It was a kitten, tiny fluffy and so scared. It was pouring down rain and I was heartbroken. It was climbing the tree off our deck and was sopping wet. I gave him a look, he said "we do NOT want a cat, you don't like cats, REMEMBER..." Then a pause as I looked sadly out at the poor little thing. He rolled his eyes and said, "fine, if you want to feed it and let it live in the barn we can keep it. If you can catch it."

So out the door I dashed in the rain to the tree it had climbed. I looked and looked and sweetly called and...nothing. I looked all over the place, under the cars, in the burn pile, in the barn, under the decks, in the window wells. Nothing. My heart sank, poor little soaking freezing kitten. I felt terrible. I accepted that it, hopefully, had moved on to a dry and warm place or its mommy had found it.

Then this morning, as I was moving things about making a work corner in the basement, I finally decided a 6 month hiatus from the clothing business was enough. So I was moving boxes, and totes all over and MAT was playing with various nick-knacks and when I heard something. I looked to the window and saw the same little tiny kitten pawing at the window.





As if to say "please you look like a nice family can I be a part of it?"





So I went upstairs and ran out the door. I followed the kitty yowls till I found the little yellow and white striped ball of sweetness. I brought him up on the deck as Mr. T looked out a bit disapprovingly. He opened the door and said "same rules, we can feed it, and it can live in the barn." MAT ran out of the house totally enamored with the little ball of fluff. And as he ran out the kitten covertly ran in.

I put a towel in a big box and a water dish and then MAT and I ran to the store for litter, kitten food, and maybe a toy or two. On the way I called my sister, who has had a kitten much more recently than I, for advice, it was very good advice. While we were at the store and talking about the kitten, MAT decided it should be named Watermelon Wild Jumping Cat T. I suppose you have to be 4 to totally understand the name. I think Watermelon is a great name, very creative, so we are agreed.


When we got go home RAT was awake from his nap and also totally enamored with the kitten. He is surprisingly gentle for a 16 month old. And Mr. T, though he pretends to be indifferent, I know is also sort of tickled that we have a cat. He, of the two of us, IS a cat person. Watermelon is awfully small, I cant believe she is very old. Maybe a bit over a month, not quite two, her eyes are still sort of blue and she fits in one hand. She is living in the bathroom, since the ducks have vacated. She has a litter box, kitten food, water, and a warm soft place to sleep. These are much better digs than a big tree and pouring rain. I think the company is much better too.



Eventually the plan is to send her out to the barn with a warm bed, plenty of food, and a litter box too. But we shall see, Mr. T thinks I will keep her indoors, and I suppose that is a possibility, but I don't think it will happen. Who knows, until today I never thought I would have a cat, imagine what tomorrow will prove.

Free time?

Mr. T has been out and about for a few days, an all day bachelor party(paintball, food and drinks)a little work here and there, taking care of the forest of grass at the rental house, going to Union meetings, and generally puttering about, so it has just been the kids and I for the last three days and nights. I know I was, in effect, a single mom 5 days a week for 10 months, so it should be old hat for me at this point. But with Mr. T being home for the last 3 months, due to the lay off, I am totally out of practice at being alone with the kids for extended period of time. By 1:30pm yesterday I was TOTALLY frazzled and nearly at my whits end.

How is that possible? I have been a stay at home mom for YEARS, how am I not totally in the grove with this.? Well the rain didn't help and neither did the frustration of the children that Daddy wasn't home, they hadn't seen him, and didn't know when he would be back. So at 2pm We decided a trip to the grocery was in order.

Goodies in tow we returned home and the rest of the day and evening was much more pleasant. We made our first attempt at Kim Chee, I over planted my Bok Choi and didn't spread the plantings out. I ended up with 35 heads all ready at the same time. This cabbage doesn't freeze well and I am sure not going to can it. So something had to be done. I am not a fan of Kraut, or cabbage for that matter, but I couldn't let it go to waste. I also had several very large nearly pithy radishes that I couldn't waste so they went into it too. I do love radishes but I don't think I can keep eating 7 or 8 a day for much longer. The verdict is still out on this mind you, I will keep you posted. I figure if it is edible and I happen to like spicy fermented/pickled cabbage, happy days, but if I don't my fermented cabbage loving friends will just have a special treat to take home with them in July.

The remaining heads, all 5 of them, will and have been made into delicious shrimp stir fry. There were bags of frozen shrimp on sale, 2 lbs for $3, so we bought two bags. Today we had a delicious mix of broccoli, onions, carrots, bok choi and shrimp over rice. I had brown rice so did RAT, but Mr. T and MAT opted for white, which I didn't mind because the veggies were so healthy a little white rice won't hurt.

I looked for a cinnamon raisin bread recipe, and I found a killer one, but it yields 3 loaves and I only have 2 pans so I will have to acquire one to try it. I also found a delicious chocolate chip scone recipe I intend to try in the morning, yum!

With Mr. T home we accomplished many things today, not one of them was letting the little ducks out of the barn. Sadly they still cant tolerate the rain, so they must be indoors when the rain pours all day. I think they will have to stay indoors till next weekend if the weather does what is predicted. They must be terribly bored, as are the children.

We washed laundry, sadly had to use the dryer for a few things, there was no way to dry them in the drizzle and occasional downpour of the day. So we have to add some more uses to the tally. But all the laundry is put away and clean, a death defying feat in our home.

Mr. T, in his handy way, puttered about indoors fixing things as he came across them. We have light in all of our basement now, instead of just the laundry corner, and all of our doors now close without sticking or noise. Yay! I can now use the restroom at night, with a closed door, and not wake he entire house. Hooray for little luxuries. He also ran new wiring from our super efficient central air unit to the fuse box, in preparation for the change of service he will be preforming later this week. Not that we will be using it this year, but it will make me feel better to know we can if need be and that it is done properly. I cannot tell you how happy I will be when we have a new fuse box and wiring, the one we have hums and crackles, make me very nervous, but the electrician in the house says it is fine.

A bit of cleaning, sorting and puttering on my end happened today as well. The boys got a new, to us, dresser for their room so now we can pass on the crumbling old one we had. After three drawer fronts fell off in a week we knew something had to be done. We put the word out and Grandpa T found one for us and Mr. T brought it home last evening when he returned to us. A few pictures were hung and a new shower curtain was also.

This afternoon we sat watched a family movie. We watched Alvin and the Chipmunks, it was a bit annoying at times but fun was had by all. Popcorn, snuggling, and a fun movie on a rainy afternoon just cant be beat. Even when we have time to rest it seems we just cant sit still. There is always something to be done and though it will take forever, I think we are making big dents, little tiny chips at a time. This house is shaping up to be a very comfortable and fantastic home, even with all the quirks and needs.

Not a good day to be a bird round here...

Today had been rather peaceful so far. A rocky night of no sleep followed by a noisy morning, that is the norm around here. Then several hours of weeding the garden, it somehow got out of hand, and then a rest indoors from the midday heat.

All the sudden a HUGE ruckus outside the door. Birds a chirping something fierce and fluttering about like mad! It was the two little Chipping Sparrows that made a nest in one of our mini ornamental spruce trees right off our front stoop. They were all a fluster about something. I looked out and around to see them frantically trying to herd their babies, only about half feathered and all out of the nest! Eeep! The little ones were also flapping frantically, AWAY from their nest. I counted, 1, 2, 3... wheres 4, there should be 4. The adults and 3 babies scattered as far from their nest as their little non-flying wings could carry them. In all directions, I fear something awful must have happened to number 4, and something had.

Upon even a glancing look at the nest I see the cause, our 2 foot garter snake "friend" peeking out of the wee tree with his body coiled up in the nest. See his little head on the lower right. Alas number 4, so sorry about your demise. A happily full snake but a sad day for sparrows. I fear the three survivors of the attack wont survive for long, we did herd them back together but on the ground I am afraid they are sitting ducks.

Speaking of sitting ducks! As we finished steering the little flightless birds back to the same area I heard a terrible sound from the duck yard, only about 20 yards aways from the house. I turned to see and a Red Tailed Hawk was diving into the duck enclosure! Run babies! Ack! RUUUUUN! I ran over as the big hawk flew off, frantically counting the little ones to make sure none had been lost. All was well, however, we have decided not to let the little ones in the yard without supervision, for at least the next 4 weeks. They are happier in their pen anyway, they feel more secure, with good reason.

So it has been a stressful hour around here. Sadly lives have been lost and more will probably follow, but that is nature and the nature of life.

New Residents

Our barn/garage has some new residents that have moved in over the last week. No not rodents, those are longtime residents, sadly, not new arrivals. We have barn swallows!

How COOL are Barn Swallows. With their supercharged flying and diving, incredible ability to zero in on the tiniest of insects mid-flight, and beautiful appearance down to those tell tale "V" shaped tails and orange breast. They are just very cool and super happy they deemed our barn the best place to build a home and raise their young. Not to mention all that free pest removal and mosquito control.

Just one more super cool thing about living in the country I get to be able to experience. I love it here.

Oh and I know, NO PICTURES? but hey those suckers are WAY fast and I cant get a photo of them that isn't of empty air. Sorry those are the breaks. I guess I just have to enjoy them in real life.

2 Boys, one room

We officially have big boys now. Last Thursday, while Mr. T was working, the boys and I moved the crib from RAT's room into MAT's room.

We have been talking about this seriously for months now, but MAT has been talking about "his babies" sleeping with him since he started talking. He has always wanted to share a room and would gladly, at this point, share his room with any number of children.

That evening at bed time we read a story to both kiddo's and said good night. MAT messed about for a few minutes and RAT took offense at the noise and made a bit of a fuss, but soon all was settled and quiet and they both slept quiet well.

We are into sharing a room nearly a week and it is still smooth sailing. If RAT wakes and has lost his pacifier, MAT finds it and gives it back if he even wakes up. It is actually quite wonderful how harmonious they are, and quite amazing how easily my baby goes to sleep even with a big brother getting a drink, going potty, and in general messing about for an hour after we say goodnight.

Now we just need to find somewhere to put all those little piece 'n' parts toys that MAT had been storing in his room which is no longer a baby free zone. Also we are kind of at a loss as to what to do with the RAT's old room. I am thinking sewing/workroom, Mr. T is thinking office, but I think a workroom is more easily reconverted back into a nursery when we will need it again. So many options, I like options. It is very nice to have rooms to not know what to do with, and we still have the basement that is completely empty also.

I am sure sometime in the future MAT will refuse to share a room and opt for his own space again, and we will build a solution when we come to problem. For now they are both thrilled to be sharing, and I am tickled to have such "big boys".

Someones Baking...

SO, I did a whole bunch of wonderful baking on Tuesday but I am just getting around to telling you now. Gimmie a break. We woke up on Tuesday and MAT didn't want cold cereal or oatmeal and aside from fruit, we didn't have much else breakfasty type food.

Disappointed there were no pancakes made, or bagels to eat, Mat hopefully asked for banana bread. We didn't have any, sad, he opted for a glass of milk, a peach and a banana, with a slice of toast. A perfectly respectable breakfast, I think. But it got me thinking. About yummies that I could make a whole bunch of and put in the freezer, to thaw as needed. I hatched a plan.

SO after breakfast was over I decided to make a mass amount of breakfast type muffins using flavors from my fridge and freezer. This would use items we already have AND use up some of these duck eggs we have, since all three hens are laying one a day so we are getting a dozen eggs every 4 days, for us that's alot of eggs. It will also solve the problem of a fast and easy breakfast on the days the children don't want cereal or oatmeal.

I began scouring the cabinets, fridge, and the depths of the freezer for yummy items to use. I came out with the last of the pumpkin puree from last season, a bag of frozen strawberries, and half gone quart of yogurt. I can work with this.

I found them some recipes that contained these ingredients but were not the recipe i intended to follow. I made them fit my needs and taste and in the process nearly changed the level of every ingredient, added new ones and totally omitted others. I love playing it fast and loose in the kitchen, it is thrilling. So here they are. Pumpkin Pie Muffins and Strawberry Yogurt Muffins. Feel free to try it and play with the levels and types of flour, sugar and special ingredients.

Pumpkin Pie Muffins

2c. unbleached flour + 1 1/2 c whole wheat flour = 3 1/2 c. flour

2c. white sugar + 1/2 c. dark brown sugar = 2 1/2 c sugar (or 2 1/2 c unrefined sugar)

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp. baking SODA

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 c. pumpkin puree, a little more is better I think

1 c. veggie oil, I use extra virgin olive oil

4 eggs, we use duck eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In separate bowl mix pumpkin and oil, beat in eggs, one at a time, add sugars one at a time, add vanilla. Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture. Fill greased muffin tins or muffin cups half to three quarters full and BAKE at 350 degrees. I have a convection oven so I bake for 20 minuted with a conventional oven add 5 to 10 minutes.

Makes 4 dozen muffins or two loaves of bread. These are a sticky, pretty sweet, muffin but they are delicious.

Strawberry Yogurt Muffins

1 3/4 c. unbleached flour + 3/4 c. whole wheat flour = 2 1/2 c flour

1/3 c. white sugar + 1/3 c. dark brown sugar = 2/3 c sugar (or 2/3c unrefined sugar)

1/2 tsp baking SODA

1 tsp baking POWDER

1/2 tsp salt

2 eggs, again we use duck eggs

3/4 c plain or flavored yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 c- 2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries, chopped, (if using frozen let them thaw about an hour before using them.) Or you could use peaches and peach yogurt, thats the next on my list.

Combine dry ingredients and set aside. In separate bowl mix eggs and oil, add sugar, add yogurt, add vanilla, mix after each addition. Then slowly add dry to wet. FOLD in strawberries, if you don't want pink muffins, this is key. If you don't mind the muffins are pink toss 'em in the mixer, I personally kind of like pink muffins. If you don't want pink muffins the less mixing the better. Fill greased muffin tin or cups 1/2 -3/4 full. Bake 400 degrees. I have a convection oven and I bake for 20 minutes, for conventional oven add 5 to 10 minutes. Makes 2 dozen. These are moist and not too sweet. They are great with a cup of coffee. If they are not going to be eaten within 2 days they need to be kept in the fridge or frozen. They do have yogurt in them you know.

I hope you try these recipes. They are both really fantastic. The kids both prefer the pumpkin and Mr. T and I both like the Strawberry at breakfast time, but the pumpkin are good anytime.

On the right are the pumpkin and on the left are the strawberry. Mmmmmm.

MAMA!

"MAMA!"At the top of his lungs screaming to me from through the railing bars of the landing at the top of the stairs. It sounded urgent and there was a need and excitement. I put down the dish I was washing and ran out of the kitchen sure that his head was stuck or something was broken or something was...

I popped my head around the corner to see RAT standing at the top of the stairs VERY happy to see me. Nothing was amiss, nothing had happened, nothing but that he has officially learned that Mama means Me!! and screaming it means I will come running. I walked up the stairs and asked him what he needed, and he just said, "Mama" and held his arms out wide and smiled a big smile. I picked him up and he said it again, "Mama" and he gave me one of those super slobbery open mouth baby kisses on my cheek and squeezed my head.

I am the luckiest person in the world.

This is the second time in my life when a child of mine has put together my name with meaning me, and it is still as touching the second time around. For the past 3 months my name has been the verbalization of "I need to nurse, my pants are dirty, or I fell down and need a snuggle." You know "mamamamamaaaa", while crying.

But he knows it is officially MY name, his little yell it and watch her come running game, will wear thin sometime, but for now I am happy to play and that it's pretty exciting.

Three weeks old already.

The wee baby duckies hatched out just 21 days, three short weeks, ago. They arrived to me only 19 days ago. Tiny, super fragile, and essentially just born. They were fluffy and easily fit in the palm of my hand.

It feels like they have been here forever, mostly because we have gone through 3 brooders, 1x50 lb bag of feed and moved them from the bathroom, where they spent their first 2 and 1/2 weeks, to a new safe home in the garage.

They have quadrupled in size and are feathering out, notice the "highlights" in the first, those stick out much farther than the downy ones, and sporadic tail feathers in the second.

At the end of next week they will be moved to the outdoor pen where, the ones we keep, will live out their long lives, and the ones we cull will live out there short lives.

There they will begin the process of getting to know the adult ducks, through a protective fence of course. And will also lean what being a pasture raised duck is all about. In a little over a week they will be out of doors all the time, unless we get more rainy 40 degree nights, I hope those are over.

I can't get over how fast they grow. I mean I know they are essentially adults at 8 weeks, but they double in size every week and that is not an exaggeration.

Bedtime conversations with a 4 year old.

When I was putting MAT to be this evening we were talking about moving RAT into his room. RAT sleeps well and goes to bed easy and even though he is only 15 months old we are thinking about moving him in. We want them to share a room and MAT wants very much to share, so we are considering moving him in the near future.

MAT says, "I's happy to share a room and I's plenty of room in my bed for baby RAT."

I said that RAT will be sleeping in his crib for a while longer, at least till he climbs out. If he is out of the crib sharing is perfectly fine, though I think they will probably still sleep in different beds for a while.

I asked MAT if he wanted to get a skinnier big boy bed, he has been sleeping in a full size bed since he was 15 months old, that was when the crib no longer kept him in. Maybe a twin bed would be good, hoping for a bit more space and maybe a guest bed out of the deal.

He replied, "no I think I will keep my big big boy bed. Because this bed is big enough for when we have a girl baby, her can sleep in this one with me. Cause the next baby we get will be a girl and I will love her. You gonna tell Daddy I want a girl baby, right?"

I said, "well buddy I don't think we are gonna have another baby for a while yet and I can't promise that when we have another baby that the one we get will be a girl."


After a long pause and deep thought he grinned real big and threw up his arms and exclaimed, "I can know I will tell Grandma, and Daddy, AND Santa we want a girl baby and we'll get one I bet!"

He melts my heart. How lucky are we?

The taste of summer.

Last evening I made one of my favorite summer things, pickle juice. Water, sugar, vinegar, and a pinch of salt, seems simple enough, but it brings such joy and fond memories to my heart that it just screams summer to me. Simply bring to a boil and let cool. Add fresh, peeled, thinly sliced cucumbers and a thinly sliced onion and you have heaven. I also throw in a bit of celery seed and fresh dill for an extra punch of flavor.

I wish the cucumber were from my own garden and soon enough they will be, but for now they will be procured from the local greenhouse just down the highway from our home. We had them with dinner last night and again with lunch today, I suppose we will have them with dinner this evening as well. And the fact that everyone, including the picky RAT (Little), loves and eats the snot out of them I am sure we will be sick of them long before the harvest slows.

I used the last of our chicken eggs today. We hard boiled 8 and used 8 on scrambled eggs for breakfast, they were a big hit. I figure I will make egg salad for lunch tomorrow and then we will be all duck eggs from here on in. At this point the ladies are laying 3 a day and that is really more than we use on an average day anyway.

Between breakfast and lunch, during the rain, we made chocolate chip cookies, which are even richer and more delicious made with duck eggs, I think. I was a bit worried that MAT might be yucked out by eating duck eggs in anything. But he seems to to take delight in using the eggs he helped gather. I think the transition will only be hard on Mr. T, simply because he can be a bit picky about food, but if he gives them a chance he will love them. About the time we finished it stopped raining so I went to the garden to do some weeding and harvesting.

I pulled a lovely mixture of lettuce, spinach, radish, and mesclun out of the garden and had a delicious salad for lunch, with a side of pickles of course. MAT even had a bit, though he just picked out the lettuce to eat mostly. I was pleasantly surprised that he ate any. He is more of an iceberg lettuce, lots of cheese and ham, drowned in ranch kinda kid. But he did eat quite a bit, I was rather proud. RAT and Mr. T opted our of the "rabbit food", not really a surprise but they both heaped on the pickles, also not a surprise.

Now it is officially summer in the Little Squidgen house and it smells and tastes delicious.

Damn Bird!

A few weeks ago we had a bird come down our chimney. It was my day to sleep late and I was woken early by my husband. " I think...I know there is a bird in the fireplace, what do I do?" To which I replied, " you wait for me to wake up." He agreed and in a half hour, when I was awake enough to tackle the task, we put the children in the play room and opened the doors to the house. Mr. T with safety glasses and elbow high gloves removed the coffee table from in front of the fireplace, it was there to keep the children out, and comedy ensued. My husband had never encountered a bird in the fireplace before even though he had a fireplace growing up, and was at a loss of how to go about it. I remember about one a year would get into our stove growing up and the removal was always rather simple.

It was very comical, to see his strategy, but he wanted to try his way. In the end after about 10 minutes of attempts, he asked for my recommendations and the bird was simply caught and released out of doors.

The very next day the same bird was back in the fireplace, idiot bird. This he handled without my help as I was at the grocery. And I am sad I missed it, apparently it got loose in the house and there was a bit of a frenzy to get the doors open. MAT(Big boy) told me all about the fun when I got home. As I was unloading groceries I saw a Starling perched on the top of the chimney, it is her favorite place to sit (that is the pesky fellow at top). I started thinking "All right you, next time you fall down we are not going to release you. You are toast. You..." Then I heard some noise from the top of the chimney and it was not the adult bird I heard. I heard the squawking and squeaking of little birds.Ugh. Great that stupid clumsy bird made a NEST on the ledge of the chimney and it keeps falling down trying to tend it's brood.

Awesome. So it has been a few weeks and no there have not been any more Santa acts from that bird, thankfully. But now when I sit on the couch, ALL I hear is "SQUAWK, PEEP, SQUEAL" echoing down the chimney pipe. Blast those wretched birds. Feather out already and leave home.

Crafty goodness: Bags of sorts

So I in fact did decide to sew today, after many other projects and a bit of bird watching, I finally got motivated. On the list today was to make a new purse out of a moomoo I bought at Goodwill. Some XL super sturdy tote bags. And covertly some new bean bags, or Corn Hole bags thought I hate that name, for Nick because our old ones are in the garage and probably full of holes thanks to hungry mouses. And the tote bags are mostly going to be for the farmers market and traveling. I already have reusable grocery bags made of old up-cycled tshirts, but those are specifically for groceries.

Oh Reminder! Wash your reusable bags, apparently, as my local grocery bagger informed/tor me a new one, the news said that "reusable bags are a "Dangerous Hazard". Because people don't wash them and there is a strong cross contamination hazard and people are getting sick." Yeah if you buy blood meat and it gets all over your cloth bags and then you don't wash them, yeah you might get sick. But he was telling everyone NOT to use cloth bags. How about suggesting that they use washable bags, that is a much smarter solution. Ok reminder over, he just really irked me.

Anyway, rant over, here are pictures of the finished purse, It's reversible! The patterned fabric is a satin moomoo I found for 75 cents at the thrift store. What is left I think I will make an apron out of. And the solid green side was left over linen that I made Big's suit out of for his Uncle and Aunties wedding 2 years ago, I am a fabric hoarder, I know.

No giant tote bag or bean bags yet, forgot about the filler and ran out of co-operation time.