Well, it is now confirmed. I have some very smart blog readers. Thanks to everyone for telling me about the swallows. Since they eat flying insects, I’m going to let them stay. Eggs have most likely already been laid, and I don’t want to disturb them. Once they leave, I’ll probably knock down the nests, because they are right above the door to our shed, and stuff is dropping, and by stuff, I think you know what I mean. That wouldn’t be a huge problem, after all, I dodge chicken poop all day long since our chickens are spoiled and get to free range around the entire yard, but this is over a door I walk through several times a day, and I don’t want to be pooped on. Also, it’s still kind of creepy when they come pouring out of their nests and circle around and around above me. Silly birds, I was here first, and if I bug you so much, maybe you shouldn’t have built you little swallow colony above a door I go through several times a day. Doh! Also, there is a lot more bird poop on my car, and I think we all know who to blame that on as well.

Let’s change the subject, shall we? Sheesh, it was hot this weekend, well over a hundred on Saturday, and today a much cooler 98 or so. One good thing about summer, at least, is all the delicious fruit. So I made a lovely, cool fruit salad. This is a great recipe, because it works with whatever fruit you have on hand. I’ve made it with all sorts of different combinations and it’s always delicious. The only things you really have to have are oranges and fresh mint.

Today’s version had strawberries, red grapes, nectarines, and a french-kiss melon that I got at Trader Joe’s. It looks like a small cantaloupe, and it was so sweet and delicious. So here’s my fruit salad secret: cut the peel off an orange, so there’s no white pith-y stuff left, and hold it over your fruit salad bowl while slicing out each section, again, leaving the white membrane in between the sections behind. Once all the sections are cut, squeeze all the juice out of what’s left of your orange. Then chop up some fresh mint and toss everything gently. It’s just perfect. I’ll be eating lot’s of variations on this theme all summer long.

I managed to get a couple more curtains done, but my sewing room is our little guest house, which has no air conditioning, so I didn’t make as much progress as I had hoped. Instead, I decided to start on something cool and cute to wear.

Inspired by this smock/dress from Noa Noa (and really everything on their site is so pretty and inspiring), I got some white cotton/linen on sale at JoAnn and this pattern (view D), and thought I’d add a little embroidery to the front band, and make it wider. So I sat in the cool, air conditioned house, and did a little stitching with red perle cotton.

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I said there would be sewing and knitting again on this little blog, and so, here you go! I’ve had this fabric for quite a while, it was an eBay find, and it’s old and I’m pretty sure it was originally intended for pillowcases. Doesn’t that just look like a pillowcase border?

And while it would, in fact make very charming pillowcases, I don’t currently have a room decorated in yellow and lavender in need of pillowcases. What else could I do? I had to make a skirt. So I just cut off a bit to use for the waistband, sewed a seam at the back with an invisible zipper, pleated it up, and stitched it to the waistband. Easy-peasy!

I did want to mention that I’m feeling pretty brave with this picture. I appreciate all the comments about the 20 pounds lost, but as you can see, I still have quite a ways to go. Not that I’m belittling those 20 (now 22!) pounds, I’m darn proud of myself for accomplishing that kind of weight loss, especially since I’m doing it in a healthy way, and very slowly, but it’s just the beginning, and I’m working on getting rid of another 40 pounds by the end of the year.

Oh, and I also had to mention, the long-sleeved t-shirt? In the exact same shade of yellow? I found it at Old Navy this past weekend for $1.99! And I also found a green one for $5, and the two together perfectly match my completed Lace Ribbon Scarf.

 

This was a fun scarf to knit, until the last third. At that point it seemed to stop getting longer, and the ball of remaining yarn stopped getting smaller, and the knitting just went on and on and I got irritated and then made a series of mistakes which required unknitting several rows. Of course it did end eventually, and I rather like it. Even though it’s wool, it’s rather light-weight, and perfect for this crazy Spring weather we’re having. I was so looking forward to this past long weekend, but it was cold and grey and rainy the whole time. Of course Tuesday morning, when I had to go back to work, was all bright and blue-sky-ed and lovely, which put me in a very cranky mood. We’re almost to the next weekend, and I’m still bugged about the whole thing.

I better add something cheery to end with. This is my dog Winston, who likes to snuggle. He gets in bed with me every morning around 5:00, and then doesn’t want to get up when I decide it’s time to get up. He won’t budge and I have to physically push him out of bed. Silly boy! Doesn’t he look comfortable?

He doesn’t have his Summer haircut yet, because of the yucky weather. I just can’t let it go.

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I did it. I’m kind of tired, but the two quilts are done and on their way to the publisher. Thanks mom for quilting the one with the crosses! I put the last stitch in the binding last night around midnight. But now I get to enjoy my day today, which is great, since it’s My Birthday! I’m off to have a big messy hamburger and fries for lunch, because you can’t eat healthy every day.

Winston was pouting this morning because I was taking pictures instead of paying attention to him.

He’s a little smartypants, though. We’ve been training almost every day, and he’s very good at sitting. Down is a little harder, and stay is the hardest of all. He’s starting to understand ‘Shake’, and will give me his paw about half the time when I tell him to shake. I got a book of dog tricks, so we’re going to work on learning lots of fun tricks.

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I have entered phase two of my new healthy living plan. That’s right…exercise. It wasn’t easy to find an activity that I enjoyed doing, that I could fit into my day, and that wouldn’t involve spending large quantities of money, but I finally figured it out. I’m going swimming a few times a week, on my lunch hour, at a nearby rec center pool. Before now there were occasional walks, and visits to the tiny gym at work to use the elliptical machine, and I even use the stairs rather than the  elevator a few times a day, but I knew it wasn’t nearly enough. So now I’ve gone to the swimming pool several times, and it feels really good. The only thing is that I am so very tired at the end of the day. I thought exercise was supposed to energize you, when does that start happening?

I’m going to pretend that these are my reward for exercising and eating better, even though I ordered them weeks ago, and they were on back order. They just arrived, and they’re just as cute as I thought they would be:

See how big my feet are? Still, with art by Camilla on them, they look pretty cute.

Quilting continues in earnest, and I thought I’d share some of the music I’m enjoying right now, to get me through. I love the new Rogue Wave album, particularly this song (I couldn’t embed this one, so you have to click the link).

I can’t get enough of this song, and the video is so great too:

Here’s a conversation between me and my brother:
"Have you seen the video for (some random song, I don’t remember now)?
"Oh yeah, that was really good, I found it on youtube.
"Wouldn’t it be so cool if there was a TV channel that played nothing but music videos all day?
Melancholy silence as we remember what MTV used to be like.

This song is for all of you peeps who still have snow on the ground. I really, really hope Spring gets to you soon. "Hello blackbird, hello starling, winter’s over, be my darling!"

I think this is now my favorite Bright Eyes song. It was recommended to me by my 3 year old niece, who has the best taste in music. We should start a music column somewhere and call it "Mimi’s Picks". I’ll have to talk to her about that.

My favorite verse:

So the doc came with his black bag
I said you know doc I don’t feel swell
If you had a blue bag I think I’d get well
So he came right back with a blue sack
He said will this do?
I said why not, yeah

The whole thing is so clever, just watch it, please.

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Does your to-do list ever get completely out of control? Mine seems to have developed a mind of its own, but I’m showing it who’s boss and whipping it into shape, although I may soon collapse from exhaustion. I may be exaggerating a little, but still, sheesh, I have a lot to do right now. I even had to add ‘clip fingernails’ to the list, because I kept forgetting and I just don’t do long nails, and they were getting annoying.

I did take a little time out for a couple nice activities, however. First of all, I took some pictures of the ornamental plum trees at our post office, which are currently fully in bloom. I think I’m going to send one of these to my sister for this week’s Photoshop picture, and see what she comes up with. I played around a little with giving it a cross-processing effect, which I kind of like.

Before:

After:

I like them both. The sky was so brilliantly blue this morning, it was just perfect for taking pictures.

I also needed to make an Easter bunny egg cozy, because I didn’t have one.

The pattern is from an Yvestown/Cherry Menlove collaboration. I used a felted angora sweater, which I thought was apprpriate. And notice the egg cup matches Yvonne‘s (from a previous Christmas swap). My bunny is quite startled by the fact that he has an entire egg inside him.

You can see more bunnies in the Flickr pool.

So now, for the rest of the month I have to buckle down and finish two quilts for a new book from Lark. I was just looking at their website, and the one with my little yo-yo quilt is coming out soon and it looks really good.  Two quilts in one month? No problem. Heh.
   

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Sheesh, I finally did it. I sewed the darn pocket on.

I was hoping it would look like a tulip. It sort of does, right? I’m okay with it, I think.

I’m getting pretty good at sewing binding to things. Here’s my helpful hint for seam binding: if you’re going to be going around curves, make sure you use bias binding. Sure, it’s more of a pain to cut out, but there’s no way I could have used straight binding to do this.

Another project I’ve been working on is up and running. This one is a collaboration with my sister. We both have new cameras and new-(ish) versions of Photoshop that we want to learn how to use, so we decided to share the process with everyone. Each week we’ll exchange pictures and then play with them in Photoshop-she has Elements, and I have CS2, so there should be something for everyone. We’ll also share links and resources and other fun stuff relating to photography and Photoshop. I thought it would be kind of cool to have a site for those of us who don’t really know what we’re doing, but want to learn. We’re posting step-by-step what we do, so you can follow along at home. And of course, participation in the comments section is highly encouraged. So please visit, and spread the word!

And lastly, if you need a song for your Valentine on Thursday, I must admit to being partial to this one. You can buy it on Cary’s Myspace page.

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