Peony with Ant

Garden 051212

Taking a break, spent most of the day outside finalizing garden plans, planted cucumbers, helped John to unbury our stash of wooden fence posts (for my new fence) and retrieve old decking material for constructing more raised beds.  Above: John tilling the north garden with our trusty tiller Rotilla the Hun! 

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm

When I woke him up and asked him if he wanted me to move Pepper so he could go to bed, all I got was "ummm". Needless to say they are still sitting in the chair, both sound asleep.

Cottonwood Stand

A beginning sketch on cotton fabric, more pen and ink and then some stitching and then maybe I'll rust and compost it for some additional color.

My favorite Sycamore Tree.

Stand of Cottonwood Trees at Bjorkboda Marsh

Seedling Protection

John made this "cage" for me, it has screenwire mesh for the sides, to protect my seedlings from the chipmunks, mice, and birds.  He used reclaimed cedar, from a fence we salvaged, for the structure. 

Garden 050612

Yeppers I have a big ole crab apple tree smack in the middle of my garden, and a grape vine on the west side of the garden.  So far I've planted peas and pole beans, the biggest obstacle was getting the fence set back up.  Looks like it'll be dry enough, late next week, to plant my cold crops and cukes.

Swan Dance

Bjorkboda Marsh, Hamilton County, Iowa.

Untitled WIP No. 45

Needs more stitching.  I started this piece this evening, not bad for a day with no stitching or creating blocked out the schedule!

Pear Tree Dye Project

The wind took out my beloved pear tree last week, so this week we will be cutting it up into managable pieces, the leaves, bark, and smaller limbs will be used for dyeing fabric and yarn.  Am thinking of breaking out the large cast iron cauldron and making up a large dye vat.

eBook Sale ends this Sunday!

eBook Spring Sale ends this coming Sunday!  It's time to start those natural dye and rust dye bundles with this years botanical wonders!

Spring eBook Sale Ends this Sunday!!!

eBooks Sale ends this coming Sunday! Spring is here it's time to make those dye bundles with natures bounty!

Wool Felted Bag

Bag front.

Back of bag.

Needle felted natural dyed wool fabrics and fibers.

Beautiful Blue

Indigo dyed silk velvet that I found at the bottom of my fabric stash, I haven't decided what to do with the fabric yet.

Felt Continued

Now with some stitching, I have no specific plans for this piece other than for it to be bright and cheerful.

High Winds versus the Pear Tree

And the pear tree lost, the Keifer doesn't seem to have sustained any damage though, the truck just a few scratches.

Felt

Evening project.

Downsizing and Shop Update

Been working in the studio today, going through supplies and have decided to downsize, I'll be listing more silk bundles, silk fiber packets, wool bundles, etc. tomorrow in the shop! The need to downsize has more with the need to focus and so long the extras are hanging out the desire to dye more fabric and fibers becomes diminished! 

Upcoming dye pots for this weekend include walnuts, curly dock, and indigo, and I can't wait.

Curly or sour dock, I have three beautiful stands in the yard right now, all parts are usable including the roots.

Plant ID

Whatever it is it wintered over, I'm not sure if it's mustard greens or not, ideas???

If you click on the images a larger image will pop up.

When I picked off a part of a leaf it smelled like lettuce or grass not peppery.

Dinner 042312

I made homemade spagetti sauce and meatballs, known as "gravy" if you are italian, for dinner all because I had an eggplant to use up, which I turned into eggplant parmesean.

The recipe for the sauce and meatballs is posted a few posts back.

What's left of the eggplant parmesean.  I baked the breaded eggplant this time, instead of cooking it in the skillet with oil first, and WOW the taste was so much better, I can't recommend baking it first enough!  I also left off the mozzerella cheese this time, and my best friend Brenda brought me some organic parmesean cheese to use, the taste was out of this world heavenly!

Experimenting

Experimenting with some charcoal and paint this afternoon, I tried this once before but wasn't thrilled with the results, the charcoal ended up as on big smear across the paper making the paint look dirty.  This time I used a harder charcoal pencil and the results were better.