New Dress-up for Lou's BDay

Lou loves dressing up, and it's been a bajillion days since I sewed anything, so it was time to get my creative on.  I was less than excited about the usual princess dresses I was finding online as inspiration.

Plus I didn't want to buy any fabric.  And I don't have any of that cheapy fabric, and I'm not going to use my expensive fabric.  Hmmmm.  Then I found a cute peasant dress, got out my free-from-my-mom fabric, and got to work.

She looks very serious, but she really liked it.

Though, she may have liked the nerds rope Axel gave her better.

Father's Day dinner

Collard Greens
Sweet Potato Fries
BBQ bacon blue cheese onion ring sliders on made-by-Alisha buns
Mango ice cream for dessert

Of course it was a day late, because he was working 24 hours on Father's day.

Paul loved it, anyway.

I planted wildflowers

The beginning of April I made a flower bed where 'grass' was. It took me all morning, but the soil was good, and the location - right near the door we always come in. I love flowers, but have never grown any, except bulbs.

Two and a half months later, we have a whole bunch of flowers. I used a package of mixed wildflowers that attract butterflies and bees. This children are at this moment trying to construct a butterfly catcher, despite my arguments that butterflies are best enjoyed when they are free. I don't really think they can catch one, so I'm not too upset.
They are a messy beautiful mass. I'm fully enjoying them and think I'll plant the flowers again next year, but probably a little more neatly. But for now they are showing off for us every day.

The jungle view. We have a little baby rabbit who likes to hang out a midst the flowers. He's pretty cute. Cuter than the chipmunks who make endless holes in the yard.
My favorites are the zinnias, but the spurred snapdragons are a close second. The Plains coreopsis is the yellow and rust flower. They just bloomed and are fun.

We keep getting new flowers blooming. It's like a surprise. We have little pink poppies

and white flowers I don't know the name of and cornflowers in blue purple and pink

tickseed

and lots of buds about to open. The kids watch them every day and we learn the names together. The flower we are on the edge of our seats about, is the sunflower. There are a few of them, but this one is as tall as me and every day gets a little close to blooming.

My chamomile has finally sprouted. I had given up on it. I planted the seeds a month ago. Hopefully they make it to flower and then into my tea!

In the front I planted gladiolus bulbs.

It took forever for the green to pop up. Then a friend told me that she planted gladiolus and she got the green, but the flowers never showed up all season. We've had the green for so long and no flowers I was starting to worry. The green leaves are about 4 feet tall, and we just got our first flowers. I called every one to the front yard to show them.

I am soooo excited to see the colorful mass when they all bloom.

Also, in the front, I planted knock-out roses. I ripped out a really incredibly dangerous everygreen shrub with pokers like sewing needles. Really, they were that long. I should've taken them out sooner. My landlord is so nice, he doesn't care what I do to the yard. The rose bush is still small, but has been blooming profusely. I love having roses around.

In the back at the edge of the property are beautiful Rose of Sharon trees. The problem is that the honeysuckle has grown so big that it blocks out the sun and makes it hard for the trees to put out new growth. So I got the pruner and a saw and the kids helped drag it down to to the street. Wow. That's a lot of honeysuckle.

The woman who originally owned the house, and from whose son we now rent, planted three different kinds of Rose of Sharons.

I'd like to think she's looking down from heaven, pleased that we are enjoying her trees. And all her yard. Hope she likes the roses more than the needles-in-your-eye-pokey bush.

RC Cola and MoonPie Festival

Bell Buckle TN has a MoonPie Festival every year, and every year we want to go, but decide that it's too inconvenient at the last minute. But this year is our last chance. We braved the rain and drove the hour. And loved it.

Paul loves posing for these pictures.

We saw the world largest MoonPie.

And they shared it with us. Mmmm, marshmallow sandwich.

The South is Home.

Morals

I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks lately, while I'm cleaning or sewing or cooking. It's nice. I'm listening right now to 'The Paris Wife'

which is a book about Ernest Hemingway's first wife (he had four). I'm about half way through the book.

I recently finished a book called "The Namesake"

This one is about an Indian boy, born in the US, very American, but his parent's are very Indian. He feels lost between the two cultures. The writing was absolutely beautiful. Honestly, I don't know if I've experienced writing this good since 'Beloved' (my favorite book in the whole world). However I didn't love it. I kept thinking I would. How could I not with such art in word form and such a great topic. What it was lacking was morals. The main character seemed to lack morals. This was especially bothersome to me, because I consider him someone who should've had morals. Growing up with parents who had a strong moral compass of right and wrong, and no doubt taught him. But there was a definite lack of God, though his parents must've had religious convictions. Right?

Anyway the Hemingway book seems to be lacking in morals too. Characters in both books engage in adultery very nonchalantly. And yes there are consequences for the characters that they don't like. But even those are experienced with relative indifference. I would experience those consequences with months of crying and torn heart and despair and anger and guilt and upheaval.

Similarly their joys are experienced as if hearing music through a closed door, ear to a glass. You can tell it's beautiful, but you miss the piercing of the instruments. You cannot feel it, rising beside your heart. Perhaps it's just the writing of the authors, but it gives me pause to think.

Do lack of morals result in shallow feelings?

I have to contrast these works with Jane Eyre. Which I LOVED. Didn't expect to love it as much as I do, but wow. It's a classic for a reason. She is perhaps the most morally strict character I've read about. Right up there with Hester Prynne. Both of these women experienced their pain and happiness so acutely. Both obsessed over the consequences of choices before they made them. The other characters seemed numb and thoughtless by comparison.

So, even though you may not have read the books, thoughts? I wish I was at a book club right now. Do having and adhering to morals (whatever they may be, so long as you believe there is a right and wrong and you should do the right) make you feel things more intensely? Does having a what-I-feel-like-doing-is-a-good-thing-to-do attitude make you less deeply feel repulsion, relief, betrayal, safety, hope, bitterness? And if that attitude does dull the feelings, should those people feel like they're missing out on something in the human experience?

Hopefully I'm not too bizarre or offensive here. I'm so curious about what you think.

I agree with what Alisha says. My proof is in my favorite book of all time: Peace Like a River. If you haven't read it I suggest you do. The dad in the book is an example of a character with great morals. --This portion is written by Paul in response to Alisha's post.

Kale

This was so good, I had to stop myself from eating it all, so Paul could have some when he got home. Yes, he had to work all day today, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the...

We signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share. Every week from now until the very last week of October we get a box of organic food, picked that very day, whatever is in season. It's a surprise! Well when I was looking into it I saw that there would be a lot of kale. It was the only thing that was listed more than once. It was listed three times.

Local joe: What do you grow on your farm, JimBob?

JimBob: Down here on the farm, we grow strawberries, corn, kale, eggplant, cabbage, hot peppers, kale, tomatoes, kale, blackberries, kale.... did I say kale already?

Well I've never eaten kale. All I knew that it was a dark green curly leafed vegetable that was probably really good for me and something I wouldn't have liked in high school. But I love the idea of supporting local farmers and eating food that is in season and grown in my very own climate. And maybe I'd like kale.

This is only our second week of CSA and it's our second time eating kale. The first time was good, but this time was a mazing.

Of course, the recipe is Emeril's. He has never let me down. Not one time. I'm trying to think if there's another person who's never let me down. Emeril has transformed my eating standards.

I tweaked it a little, here's my poor-man's version:

Ingredients

• 1 lbs. bacon
• 2 small spring onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds kale, tough stems removed, leaves rinsed well and left damp, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 bullion cube
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• freshly ground black pepper

Directions

In a large saute pan, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. When cool, cut bacon to bite-sized pieces. Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pan.

Return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the butter and when melted, add the onions and garlic, and cook, stirring, until soft, 3 minutes. Add the damp kale and stir to combine. Add 1/2 cup water and the bullion cube. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the kale is tender, about 5 minutes. Uncover, add the cream and lemon juice, and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the kale is very tender. Add the bacon and adjust the seasoning, to taste.

Serve hot.

Please try. I liked it even better than all the cookie recipes I've tried.

Speaking of cookies, I'm making another recipe tonight. At that point I think I'll be able to confidently declare a winner. I have to say, I do like cookies. I must've just had a lot of bad cookies in my life. But I wish I still didn't like them. They don't make me feel awesome, they just make my mouth awesome, for 1 minute, then I feel all thick in my blood. But the kale leaves me feeling snugly satisfied.

A few projects that are long since completed

Two sets of baby bedding. They're really cute. It's hard to see exactly how cute from the pics, but rest assured it's the cutest bedding you've ever seen. Mamas did a good job picking out fabric.

A lamp I made. Actually two of them. Our music room has absolutely no ceiling lighting. I didn't want a floor lamp, because in the past the children have ruined them. I didn't want a table lamp, because we don't have a table in there. I really wanted something on the mantle, but didn't think a conventional lamp with shade would look right. So I invented this lamp.
I borrowed a jig saw from a friend who has every tool imaginable. I cut two circles out of MDF, one slightly larger than the other. Hollowed out the bigger one, and drilled hole for lamp cord. Glue big and little circles together. Paint. Screw in super excellent socket I got at a specialty lighting store (Home Depot apparently has ALMOST everything.) Attach the cord kit to the socket. Twist in lightbulb. Add candle hurricane from Michael's. Viola. It did cost about $40/lamp. So I didn't save any money, darn-it. But I did get exactly what I wanted. I still have to tape the cord to the fireplace, so it's not tackily floating around. The lamp on the right has tissue paper on the glass. The bulb was a little bright, right at eye level. I realized why all lamps have shades. But I love the look of exposed light bulb when it's not on. I ended up taking the tissue paper off, but maybe will put it back on if I have guests over in the evening.

I made a quilt for a wedding present. Didn't take a picture. The whole quilt was grey and white stripes with mustard binding and a big mustard house on it and embroidery of our kids artwork. There was a big rose, a sun, and cute family of apples. I think they liked it. I should've taken a picture. The bed below was the closest thing I could find so you can visualize it. But my stripes were much bolder. I think they were 4 inches each.

Cool headboard for that bed, eh?

I made the girls Valentine's dresses that are, what I consider, masterpieces.

Pettislip for Maggie's

My first foray into embroidery on clothes. I love how it turned out.

The great thing about Lucy's outfit is that I COMPLETELY designed it myself. I started with the pattern for Maggie's dress actually. So a lot of pattern making went on here.

The red corduroy was leftover from a Christmas table runner I made. So I consider it 'free'. It is essentially a tiered bubble skirt. The linen of the shirt and Maggie's dress was $1/yard at Walmart. As was the fabric for the pettislip.

The shirt was inspired by a Vogue pattern I have for an adult suit jacket. The neck is wide and low and the lapels are actually two separate pieces, the little one under the big one. The 3 pieces that make up the front of the shirt flare out at the bottom, feminine. And the sleeves have an open flutter at the elbow. Lots of buttons. I wish I had a better camera. You'd be so impressed with the awesomeness of the shirt. Elastic in the back, and slightly longer in the back

$10 and many, many, many hours of labor. By the way, we're trying to rock Lucy's self cut bangs.

Easter dresses. Also designed by me, to be fast and easy, and to only use the 1.25 yards I got as a 75% off remnant.

Can you see how beautiful the embroidery of the fabric is? $15 these two dresses.

We've been doing a lot of traveling and hosting the last few months, and I'm jonesin' to get my creative back on. It's been many weeks since I created anything but a 10 minutes clean room.