November!

Well October went by in a flash!

My trips to South Carolina, Southeast Asia, and New England filled the month. There are some pictures on my flickr page, be sure to take a look if you'd like.

HALLOWEEN was fun :) I was CHEETARA from Thundercats:

and Sean mutated to have QUATO grow out of his stomach (I know, gross!).

I'll share the process with you.

From Bob-the-Builder to Quato:

Step 1: take Bob all apart, cut off clothing:

Yes...ALL APART. Step 2: Take off his legs!

Step 3: Put Bob's torso back on. Now he is the perfect Quato size!

Step 4: Shave down the brim and top of Bob's Hat.

Step 5: Paper Mache' Bob until his face looks like you want.

*Be sure to cover him all up and sculpt him a little! He needs to look creepy.

Step 6: Paint Bob's face. I chose to mix a color that was very similar to the nude colored fabric I had which would be for his body & holster.

Step 7: Now add googley-eyes and hair. cover eyes witha little papermache so he has lids & I used hair from a wig.

Step 8: Make him a holster (stuffed his arms and covered them, and you are all set! *For a project where you have more than an afternoon, you can add a bit more to the body, but it worked out okay for a day's project and fun Halloween Costume!

Now Quato is ready to hit the town! Here he is driving:

Fall

I am just off of one week in New England and I am now on my way to SC for 2 days...I'll be home Friday night to fly to Asia on Saturday for 2 weeks - whew!

I also do not currently have a working camera. Never trust online chat support to be right about what is wrong & the part you need...and expect them to take it back even if you have kept the entire IM conversation & careful notes...so I think S is going to lend me his camera for Asia :) YAY, but still, not my usual which I know so well.

Of course, there are pictures of stuff from the garden. Just as I am NOT HERE (booo!) there are gobs of tomatos! This pic was taken AFTER we had made a tomato pie on Sunday (2 big containers of cherries plus a v.large orange used and 5 giant sandwiches. S says I put too many tomatoes on sometimes...but I think it is perfect. I use about 1 big per sandwich-ish. SO you can imagine how many we had! We also made a pizza last night & used a bunch of peppers, so we had more of those (and beans too) before...but I was too lazy to take the picture then.

AND...since I will be away until the 19th...I used an hour of free time today to decorate just a wee bit for Halloween. We don't have tons of decorations (unlike Christmas -watch out!), but they look good on the mantle. I'll maybe get some spider webby stuff for the mirror when I get home & it will complete the look, I think.

I did start off w/o the baby doll, but she adds just the perfect eerie touch, don't you think?


Well, that's all for tonight...probably won't check back in for 3 weeks or so! Enjoy the Fall!!

Fun Times!

This past weekend, J & R got married & their wedding was great. I had a chance to reconnect with friends & see folks I haven't seen in a while!

J & friends (me too!) made all of the decorations which were lovely & plentiful. You can see them on my flickr page...

Also, we have LOTS of cherry tomatoes! Yay! And have been making Cherry Tomato Sandwiches! YUMMY ^^ Last night we made Rye Bread & had sandwiches with that. That was even more delicious. Yay for something in the garden that is still growing. We have a bunch of larger tomatoes but they WON'T TURN RED. Grrrrr....
We still have about 2 pints after 2 sandwiches last night & I use a lot! S puts pickles on his.

AND...finally took pictures of the door I...um...*fixed*. Ha. The door had holes in it.
So, I cut the holes to what I wanted & made stuffed pieces for them...still might paint on it too. I was thinking about Calder's mobiles.

These are the curtains for the room - harlequin patterned. I will hopefully get around to sewing on top of them as well...but 1st step done! Thank goodness for curtains - esp. at night! It's kinda funny too b/c when you pull them it is as if we are putting the plants on the windowsill to bed. Goodnight plants! Sleep tight...

September already!

Okay, I know I basically just blog about our garden & our house, but those are my current projects. Everything else is so in-process that I can't blog about them...yet.

SO...in keeping with the summer blogs...garden! This was dinner the other night. LOVE the colors in the peppers. The white are eggplants - yummy!

AND check this HUGE bean from last week.

Doesn't look that big? Here's a comparison with the other beans. Egad!

ALSO...I finally worked on my entryway switches. Finished painting the branch, painted some lanterns. A good start.

Here was the issue of the bottom of the larger lantern hanging all wonky:

BUT...I did fix it pretty easily & quickly!:

I can't decide if it is kitchy or is actually awesome...maybe it is both...

Here you have the front door in the picture.

I think I am going to paint the trim around the door either the samon or the yellow. It will bring it all together. I do need to get 1/4 round to trim out the crappy trim, though first...sigh.

More and More!

MORE loveliness from our garden ~

Beans! 2 which are entirely PURPLE. Yummy. When they cooked up, they lost their outside color & became green, but the beans inside were STILL PURPLE! Wicked.

AND some Purple Peppers :)

Also, some of the beautiful flowers...

I put them on our mantle. Lots of reminders of FRIENDS on our mantle ~ A by Roberta, Candlesticks from Marc Mariana of Iron Design Company - http://www.irondesigncompany.com/, Em's HS Graduation Picture, Monkey from Meredith (of course), candle made by S's mom Michelle.

I was also up at my parents' house this past weekend & we are sitting outside on the porch when we notice a visitor! A baby bambi. SO CUTE. I got really close & it looked at me:

And then got angry & started stamping! Hehe! I laughed & took pictures.

Small Projects

I have been plodding away on many small projects lately while also working toward BIG projects such as the TIN CEILING. The tin ceiling is is 1/2 way hung!

Our garden continues to grow lovely yummy veggies and beautiful flowers. We've planted heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and beans. Here are some beans - note the PURPLE Beans! Woot!

There are also some YELLOWs which are tastey & fun. Just 2 purples the first time we picked them, but others are on their way.

Looking forward to the PURPLE PEPPERS and YELLOW PEPPERS we have ready (probably pick those tonight) to go along with our GREEN and RED and YELLOWISH-GREEN (long & sweet) peppers!

Heirloom tomatoes are just small now (we've had regular & cherries for a while), so hopefully another week or maybe 2! Even when they are little they are all wrinkley like an old man.

Here's a smaller project I did one night - kitchen curtains:

I took lace hand-me-downs & cut them off.

The YELLOW is hand sewn on - see the BLUE hand stitching. The yellow is taken from an old 2nd-hand skirt that I no longer wear.

I also added little RED bows at the top :) with scraps of bias I had from another project!

The curtains soften the room & are just perfect!

Another small project I worked on (which I adore the idea of) is a sign for my friends' wedding where they asked friends to make a letter of the sign! I took on an O and an E and tried to incorporate as much of the theme of the wedding into each letter:

Here they are hung on the windows of my kitchen door. They will be hung outside, so I wanted to use the light with the letter E:

The paper for the E was from the invitation to the wedding! There are many small "flags" used in her decorations, so I incorporated them as well & even used one from another page of the invitation - far left - pale pink paper:

The E is all about the outside-ness of the wedding! I used the sewing machine on a zig-zag stitch to make tiny holes in the paper, so the light would shine through. I also left the strings on the bottom (and sewed extra lines to get more strings) - you can see it better here:

The O is 3-D...I used colored pencils to make pizza pie slices style different designs for the base - this is to reflect the table-cloths that J and her lovely assistants have created. I then used a packaging bubble for the center and covered the O with tulle. The background paper is the actual template that was sent!

Happiness,
^-^ Aly

Whew!

Well, it has been a while friends! It has been a busy couple of months.

I have been off a lot of days in July, and had a chance to work on the entryway. Still needs some molding, the floor worked on, etc...but it is MUCH better. See for yourself:

Before (ugly & dark with crappy fake wood molding and hole in the wall!):

After (bright and clean! I still have to put the other door up but it is all painted & finished!). Still needs molding, have to paint the outside of the outside door (see the blue tape!?):

Also, the owl's do not cover the holes completely :( so I had to put white plates underneath - here is the pic to explain more. I still have to finish painting on the wall, but this is just the start of a sketch:

AND, as you know if you read this, it was my birthday Monday! Yay for me. Way to go and make it another year, yes, thank you. Anywho, S & I decided to go to the Farmer's market & pick up some local yums to make dinner Sunday night.

Local chicken for Beer Can Chicken - yep! It is a great way to keep it moist. As many of you also know, I eat very little meat now, but I'll make exceptions for local and if I know about how it was raised (or if there is no other way around it).

Here he is ready to go:

In the oven:

Done!:

AND!!! We made Lemon Blueberry Buckle.

Now what, you are asking yourself this very moment in time, is a buckle? Well, like coffee cake, only with fresh fruit both in the cake and a layer in between the cake & crumb topping. OH, and it has a GLAZE. Glaze is glorious, don't believe anything otherwise.

Glaze just poured (note the shiny) right after it is out of the oven:

Glaze all set up - see my yogurt maker int he back!:

Side view:

Slice! (note the beer - Sah'tea by Dogfish Head - it is a beer brewed with CHAI TEA - NOT kidding. Is that made for me or what? It is also delicious):

We also had Cuke Salad w cukes from my parents' house :D

The Lemon-Blueberry Buckle is pretty much the most delicious thing you have ever ever ever EVER had. Um, and YUM.