In a jam. Busted.

I hate it when things like this happen. I had delicious hot peppers from the farmer's market, picked all the blackberries I could reach in our back yard, made delicious, spicy juice for Hot Pepper Blackberry jelly. And, I only had enough for one jar because you have to strain out all the fruit and just keep the juice. I got it all prepped and was a little lazy about my water bath, using some jenky metal rack instead of the real wire rack. Dropping the jar in, I heard a pop, followed by a big, spicy, dark red blackberry cloud that dissipated in the pot. But, I left it to water bathe nonetheless because I didn't really register what had happened and I thought maybe it just leaked a little. It broke and I lost all the jelly except for two tiny jars and about a Tablespoon that is in my fridge. I guess it will just be as precious as caviar, now. And I learned a lesson. Don't use a jenky rack that is not meant for canning unless you are super careful. And, don't use a jar that is normally an animal cookie jar that Finn bangs on and takes in and out of the car!

Napkin design innovation accident. Amazing.

I thought I had dialed in my napkin design but this weekend I got a little extra "help" from family members and an innovation has appeared. I wanted to make a set of napkins for a friends wedding shower and I had all the pieces sewn together, left a little whole in one side to turn them inside out and brought them to a family gathering to get some free labor in turning the napkins. The task was to clip the fabric corners that would make the napkins bulky once turned but one of my helpers actually snipped a whole new corner off to make his own whole to turn the napkin. When I got home and began to press them I noticed this and was puzzled but soon realized what had happened. I just thought, okay, two of the napkins will have bites taken out of them (which you see in the picture). But the further I got, the more I liked those napkins with the bites better. So, I went ahead and snipped all the napkins because it is way cuter! And, not to point fingers, but I think it was my brother Mat who I can thank for this design detail. Good job Matsky!

Back in action!!

Finn is now 16 months old and though I feel a bit harried most of the time, those feelings are overwhelmed by a stronger sensation: I'm back! I am squeezing in time for fun projects and Tyler is playing music with buddies (and sometimes me!) and Finn seems to be developing his own set of interests, too. It might be the summer sun, but whatever the cause, I am glad it's happening. This week I am going to do a couple more posts about home-made things that have been coming out of our house.

A new shirt!

I saw a really nice shirt on line and I decided it was so simple I could do it without a pattern. There are a few user errors here, but basically, it's doing the job. The fabric came from that batch of stuff that Annie, my Mom and I collected from the burnt out seamstress' house.

Garden variety

I meant to post these old pics of how the garden in our backyard came to be. When we moved in, there was one raised bed which I divided into two. Then, Tyler dug out two more raised beds and we framed them in with all salvage goods, lined them with burlap coffee bags (thanks kevin!) and pretty much seeded those suckers within two weeks of moving. I was pretty eager to see something coming up. Here is series of photos showing the progression.

First tomato!

I can't believe what green house growin' can do. I've already got ripe toms.
I picked this green zebra with Finn this morning and he instantly tried to bite into it. I thought, I know the feeling! I hope this is one of many to come.

Tyler is awesome!

Tyler Potts and Roger Green cover Wentworth Kersey's "Ears Burn" from Plastic Sound Supply on Vimeo.

Tyler just spent a few days in Denver and environs and he played a show in a church and sang this awesome cover of a Wentworth Kersey song. Roger Greene is accompanying him on guitar. I wish I could have been there! Here is a link to Wentworth Kersey who is also awesome.

um. one more thing.

if i could change the font of just this one post, i wouldn't change it to comic sans even though this made me laugh so hard i think i might have woken up finn.

yes, a mouse.

I had a lot of my fabric in a dresser in the garage. And I can't remember if I thought to myself when we moved in, boy, you should really bring it in, but I might have thought that. I wish I had thought that. Although the pictures reveal that not too much damage was done and that mouse was really cute especially when she made her little squeeeeeky squeek. And, Finn really liked the whole experience, too.

So, here's the story. I noticed little mice poo all around the garage and for weeks thought I should bring my fabric dresser in. Last weekend I finally got the guts (and the time!) to get out there and explore what was up. I opened the top drawer which was relatively inhospitable, fulln drawer 2, the quilting fabrics drawer. And what you see above is what I found. A mouse and a little ball of stuff that was full of babies. I ran into the house because I really don't have what it takes to deal with rodents and Tyler helped move the mouse lair into a box. The worst is that I had totally been opening that drawer to look for things for quite a while and I am SURE those mice have been there all along. And they were soooo cozy in their next.

But, it turns out maybe we should have killed the mice? It's sort of like you are letting the pesting continue if you don't get rid of them. But oh man, I don't have the heart to kill those mice even though I am creaped out by it all. On the other hand, I eat meat and that is a dead animal so what's the difference? It's a silly double standard. I think of myself as someone who would be able to kill a chicken if I want to eat it, but that would actually be REALLY hard for me. The killing part.

what's better? a smoothie or mama's camera?

Well, the evidence is right before you that despite a delicious berry smoothie that i left Finn actually drink himself with his own two hands (and by that I mean, he not only held his own glass but put his hands inside the glass along with a bunch of cheerios), an iPhone is more interesting that food! This slightly cruel series depicts, through Finn's facial gestures, the joy of the smoothie, then the rapid decline in Finn's mood as I took his picture. The more I snapped, the madder he got and wanted my camera!! I guess I'll have to get more sly with my device.

And, by the way, this weekend there will be a flurry of posts. Tyler is out of town (a tear falls) and so I will finally be posting about tons of things I have let go to the wayside. For one, I am getting some serious haul out of the vegetable garden now so I really want to show it off!!

Singin' with Whiting again!

Hi All. I am going to sing back-up with Whiting Tennis tomorrow at the Olympic Sculpture Park from 5:30-7:30. Annie is standing this one out, but she may be back soon. Come and enjoy!!
Here is a link to the event.

Waitin' for the bus.

If he could twiddle his thumbs, I think he would!

Naughty

On two fronts. He climbed up and is standing on the arm of the couch AND he is messing with the light switch. He even looks like a little baby jailbird!

LA just gets better and better

I mean, everyone is saying that LA is the new New York (which is redundant!). I don't think we'll be moving there anytime soon, but if we did, we could use this amazing interactive map of LA's districts, neighborhoods and census-style stats to decide which neighborhood had the best and most bahn mi. And go LA Times for doing this project and publishing their first attempt, taking comments from readers and revising it all to reflect how people in LA really draw lines around their neighborhoods!

Finn is 1! (well, almost)

We celebrated Finn's birthday a little early with his cousin Bridget who turned 3 on Saturday. He went straight for the flame and then actually blew out his own candle! What a genius. I think we are going to do a mini birthday on the actual day, so I guess this was sort of a practice round. Good performance, Finn! Oh, and notice the shark fin(n) on his cupcake!

And Bridget did a number on her candles, too!