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.

Garden Update :)

I love the garden! We are so lucky. It is a lot of watering and a lot of work, but worth it definitely.

This week from the garden we ate:

Salad with cherry tomatos & cuke!

Cucumber salad (had some last week too)

White Eggplants - we have a mini, skinny, sweet variety:

Beans? - maybe tomorrow night!

Also! My favorite hanging basket is our Portulaca. The Vinca are also nice. I suggest either. Here is the Portulaca:
- SO PRETTY.

Found! Old journal.

So, I found an old journal...maybe from 7 or 8 years ago...some notes:

I would advise everyone to write with a hand-carved moose pen at some point. The experience is somewhat surreal - Dali in motion, "Moose pisses blue chit-chat".

...and later...

I have not yet
found my
words or wisdom to
convey - say.

Class has ended
too soon.
There is much I wish
to know,
but no.

I wade through
yesterday's consequences.
Tomorrow
I will dream of today's
fears.

Fear is my Shepherd
I shall always want.
I walk in valleys
and shadow
surrounded by unknown,
stumbling in darkness.

Doubt clouds my mind.
Do I believe or will
decide
to believe?
Join.
Convince yourself.

Ignorance is just
ignorance.

Bliss is believing.
No questions.

...also...

The Oatmeal told me that:

Yay!

Tin Ceiling

So, we have 2 options with placement for the tin ceiling (which is so fantasticly awesome it is awesome). I did some Photoshop "sketches" to scale - this is the actual pattern!!!

Option 1: The entry is on the right, so either there is a 1/2 tile on the side you walk in (right wall), but the ceiling fan will be centered:


------------------------------------------------------------------(Door)------

OR

Option 2: The 1/2 tile is on the far wall, but the fan is then off-center:


------------------------------------------------------------------(Door)------

Garden!

Our garden is GROWING!

(One of my posts earlier has photos from about a month ago if you want to compare :)

And here are the 2 plots. We made PAK CHOY with GINGER and GARLIC last night saute'd in Sesame Oil. YUMMY. We've also had salad out of the garden. We got started a little late (being the first year and all), so hopefully next year we'll have everything earlier.

The Hydrangea Bush out back is AMAZING!

Here it is AFTER I clipped the flowers below: