Vitamins and Garden Vegatables

Greetings everyone!

I have great news: my energy has been up for two days! My results came back at the beginning of the week on my vitamin levels and other blood tests. I'm low on vitamin D, which so many are around this time of year - especially in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Something funky is going on with the proteins in my blood also, which might point to the gluten sensitivity but I am not going to pursue that further unless something else changes. For now, I made a daily food serving chart to mark off to help insure me that I am getting my nutrients. I never want to be caught in that fatigue state again! Here's my easy-peasy chart.

We made it to Fleet Farm to pick out our veggie plants for the 2011 garden. We chose tons of peppers and tomatoes. I picked out large grape tomatoes and La Romas for bruschetta. We like planting marigolds around the garden too. Last year, our marigolds grew like crazy and they were even a miniature variety.

I love the alyssum honey scent. I had to have some of that too. They grow into a bush with tons of fertilizer.

We're going to extend our garden by 100 square feet. The shape of the garden will be like an "L".

We worked on it a little bit last night - well, Ed did. I helped a tiny bit with the posts. He actually started in on the dirt and shaking the sod while I started supper. We plan on getting compost, black dirt, and manure. Ed also got a gigantor box of Miracle-Gro fertilizer to use this summer. We're going to have crazy veggies. He told me that he's taking over the garden this year. He told me that it's too hard for him to help me when he's not in a routine. Besides, he's the one who loves the food more from the garden. I mostly think it's cool to watch plants grow. :)  

It was fun watching my herb garden plants come up. My yarrow is going crazy and my lupine looks great - although I don't think it's a plant that people should eat. I just put it in the herb garden because it's such a cool shaped bloom. I'll post photos of that when they bloom.

I have 4 chive plants. This one is in the front in a pot that is sinking into the soil. It looks so neat so I left the pot sinking. I can't believe the chives are ready to bloom! It seems like the snow just melted. We're having such cold weather still. I had a sweatshirt on again yesterday even. Well, when I wasn't mowing the lawn. I took it off to get some sun. I got a little pink, but that's it.

Today we need to finish what we can in the garden. Hopefully we will be able to plant our vegetables and seeds. I know, we're late for seeds. Such is life. We'll just harvest later in the season. I suppose I should get my garden clothes on and head out. We have to take the dogs to Petco to get their rabies shots before 11 am, so we need to move! :)

Have a great weekend!

Gluten-Free Bars & The Abbey Bag

Hello again Friends and Family. :)

I thought I would try and get a post before 7 days have passed, but it didn't work out that way this time. But I did better than 12 days! Thanks for coming back!!!

I'll just mention that my time at the doctor on Friday was a good meeting. I feel like she paid attention to my plight. She sent me to the lab to draw several viles of blood. We're starting with checking my vitamin levels and cholesterol and other stuff. After I get results back, we go from there.

In the meantime, she's encouraged me to venture into the gluten-free diet. I've been as gluten-free as I can get for 4 days. I still learn a little more each day. I have even made a trip of the health food store to get ingredients for a new way of baking. I stopped at the library and got some gluten-free cookbooks. I browsed my personal collection first and tried a recipe. This is my first purposefully gluten-free baked dish - Pecan Shortbread Bars. My husband LOVED them. Directly out of the oven, they crumbled as I cut them. I put the lid on after they cooled and about an hour or so later, they cut nicely. Ed thought they needed to "rest" a little before cutting. Perhaps so. Here's the recipe I used:

Gluten-Free Home Made Pecan Shortbread Bars

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup fine white rice flour {(next time I'll try the brown rice flour, as it is more nutritious.}
• 1 cup tapioca flour
• 3/4 tsp almond extract {I ran out of vanilla}
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp xanthum gum
• 1 cup chopped pecans {I used 1 and 1/2 cups. :)}

Directions: Heat oven to 350°. Grease 9"x13" pan. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg. Add flour, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in 1/2 cup pecans {I added the entire cup}. Press dough in bottom of pan. Sprinkle last of pecans over the bars and press lightly. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Makes 32 bars.

Here's how mine turned out. Delicious! They were great with ice cream too! :) Okay, enough of baking.

On to sewing! Here's the wallet I made to match my tote. I added a pearl snap closure. I took the photo before I added that though... isn't it cutsie?! {I just realized that I haven't photographed my tote yet!}

Of course I have to share a picture of my new used sewing machine. It sews a little to the left of the foot, so I have to pay attention when I follow a drawn line. I do like the clanking of the mechanical machines. I'm thinking about decorating it with some glittery beads or something. I didn't spend a ton of money on it and I feel like I have a license to DECORATE now! :)

And you might remember that I am making a Sunbonnet Sue quilt with my mom. Here are some of my blocks.  I plan on appliquéing other cutsie stuff on the blocks with her, for example, stars, hearts and little critters. That's why some of their heads and hands are placed differently.   My favorite Sue is the one with the dark pink hat on.

I'm also working on a "Thread Catcher". This pattern is The Abbey Bag.

I found some emery sand at Northern Tool and Equipment. It's not called emery sand for sand-blasters. They call it Aluminium-oxide. :) It's mostly made from the material called Corundum {a stone?} and other particles are added. It's actually quite expensive. It's more expensive than I had originally planned for, but I wanted it badly, so I purchased it. Now I can make gifts with it. 

Here's the bag part. I'm practicing my blanket stitch for my Sunbonnets. =D

I'll finish this up tonight, I think. It was fun to make. I feel like I can tackle more time consuming projects if I work on them in mini-sessions. I've been working on this pin cushion for two weeks, maybe...? I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Well, that's all I have for today. Thanks for hanging in there with me! More Sunbonnets to come later. I'm also working on a different owl pin cushion with fabrics that are similar colors to my Abbey Bag. Oh, and I suppose I will be sharing a little more gluten-free recipes as I experience new ones. If you know of great gluten-free links, please leave them for me. I like the "tried and true" links. :)

Have a wonderful rest of the week everyone. See you again soon!

Sunbonnet Sue Lap Quilt

Hi Friends!

I'm so sorry that it's been 12 days since my last post. I just haven't been feeling well at all. I've had such low energy that I find myself resting a majority of my days. I've had my thyroid checked and all is well there. I just don't know what my problem could be! I've gotta start at square one and find out. I'm going in for a physical this Friday with a new doctor. At any rate, when I do feel a tinge of extra energy, I push to get a craft started or finished rather than blog. Please hang in there with me. :)

I finished my tote and I'll be sure to post photos of it. I also made a matching wallet that is just so fun! I've continued hand quilting my king size quilt and still find hand sewing very relaxing.

Another project that I began was my Sunbonnet Sue lap quilt! It's a mother-daughter project, which means MY MOM IS QUILTING! She hasn't quilted in over 15 years so this is a big deal. I'll share photos of her Sunbonnets as soon as she gets them up and going. We're learning a technique from Eleanor Burns that utilizes lightweight fusible interfacing as an aid for the appliqué to bond it before hand or machine stitching. I took some videos of my work today to share the technique. It's extremely fun and the results are just neato!

I don't know how to operate a movie making program yet, so I have two movies instead of one. My camera battery died. So SORRY! I hope you enjoy them anyways. :)

Without further delay: Sunbonnet Sue Arm and Hand Part 1



Sunbonnet Sue Arm and Hand Part 2



Thanks for watching and see you again soon!

New Quilt Brings Other New Projects To Mind

Greetings!

It's been 9 days since I last blogged. That's better than 14 days, but I promise to get back on a weekly routine. Summer is barely making its way here and it's slightly depressing. I keep pushing forward though. I've had a lot of energy for crafting, which is great!

Well, first off, I'd like to share a quilt. My sweet husband and I have decided to use a quilt that his grandmother made for him for our king size bed. It was brand-spankin' new. Never been used. As a matter of fact, it still has the chalk marks on it from her hand quilting. :) So, what does having a new quilt really mean? This means that I get to decorate our bedroom in all new colors! I get to sew new table toppers and curtains and pillow shams! I haven't decided which color I want to use from the quilt (in the photograph below) but I have time to decide.

Since my yellow quilt lost its place in the master bedroom, it is going to be a lonely spare in the house. I've decided to hand quilt this. I couldn't find a template I liked, so I drew up my own. I made a large flower for the center of each block and a small flower for the cross-road on the lattice (in the photo below- upper left). I will start hand quilting sometime this week, I'm sure. I think having an extra quilt on hand will be nice. I'm actually in love with the yellow lonely quilt now. I added a brown border - which I will photograph and post later - and I fell in love. It's such a pretty, pretty quilt!

Moving on... more hand sewing. This embroidery business has me addicted. Or maybe it's the hand sewing. There is nothing like it to bring me relaxation. I love using my hands and eyes together with fine detail. The results amaze me. Now this next photo is of the Kitchenaid cover I made. This was one of the most simple projects that I've completed in my life! A basic embroidery image of a Kitchenaid makes this cover just a little more fancy. I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. :) The side panels are cherries. I might have put a little more thought into the way the cherries are floating because they aren't floating the right way. =o)  I'll remember that for next time. This type of mistake is what sewing is all about!

Random topic change coming now. Last night my girlfriend came over and we worked on making her garters for her wedding. She's asked me to help her with a variety of crafts - even stuff I've never done - and we've been successful thus far. She keeps asking me for more help. I'm so glad I am able to. All right, here comes another random topic change.

I'm not very smooth or fluent in my writing today. I suppose I would be a little more so if I were giving a tutorial of some sort. At any rate, here's my next project (next photo). :) I'm making a cute zippered tote. I like the tote in the pattern that has yellow and green stripes, so that's the one I'm starting with. My fabric is cheery light green with white polk-a-dots. The pocket fabric is this crazy bright teal with butterflies-all-over-it fabric (photo comes later). My girlfriend saw it and said "Yeah, that's Tawnya fabric." That comment made me smile.

Sorry for being sporadic or random. I have a lot of projects starting/finishing and wanted to get that all out on the table. (Which reminds me that I need to finish my crocheted white ruffle scarf.) My next post might be just as random if I can finish several projects. Time will tell...

Until next time, have a great week!