New Discovery: Ifttt

Has anyone else discovered or use ifttt?  I just came across it in an article last night and I've been hooked since.

The amount of automation ("if this then that") is a wonderful way to increase efficiency across social media, which is something I've been wishing for, for a while now.

*so excited!*

What would/will you automate?

Lake Michigan

Taking a little vacation time to regroup, clean out email inboxes (I have 3, each over stuffed), and find inspiration.

I'm excited to say inspiration has already started whispering in my ear once more and I can't wait to get started on fall items for the shop.  (Not to mention a giveaway is planned for September on a friend's blog!)  I'm so excited to get things kicked off for cooler weather.  What are you looking forward to in the near future?

Continuing to Harvest...

Squash!
Man, 'them plants are taking over the world!

Peas!

With a second crop on the way!

Homemade Ice Cream!

Ok, this didn't come from the garden.  But it's from-scratch & lots of friends helped crank & enjoy it.

The watermelons are taking over the patch behind the garage and the broccoli are all about bolted.  The tomatoes are weighing down with more tomatoes than I've ever seen (and make me nervous for future processing) and the cucumbers [started from seed] have their first handful of flowers!  I just wish the green & wax beans were doing as well.  They have too many holes to count all over the whole crop so I'm researching how to handle pest-management without chemicals.

What does everyone else's garden(s) look like?

A Jam Update

Please enjoy my canning post since I haven't been doing much crafting this hot summer.

Made my first batch of jam at the end of May: strawberry.

The only thing that would make them better would be if they came from my garden.  But, unfortunately, we only got about 5 berries from all 6 or 7 of the plants.  Fingers crossed for a bumper crop next summer, though.

A few weeks later I enlisted my husband's help to pick a whole tree's cherries (from a friend's front yard).

  

The pitting "party" lasted a very-long week.  :-S

But there were so many cherries, I was able to can two batches...

 

...dry two dehydrator-full batches...

...and Husband made two cobblers.

AND there is still 2+ gallons of pitted cherries in the freezer waiting for the weather to cool off enough to make two more batches of jam.  I think we'll leave the rest for a few more cobblers down the road.  :]

What is everyone else up to?  I've missed blogging & reading about what everyone is up to.  Hope all is well!

End of June (& Parts of May) Review

Perusing Goodwill, Savers, and yard sales... Finished a good read...

...& visited the town where my Grandfather spent his childhood.

Picked a few strawberries from our plants. I'm hoping they will fill in their little patch so I can make jam next year.

Planted wax, green, and soup beans. They came up a little sparse this year. I'm thinking next year will be the year to put in a good order of fresh seeds. Only one soup bean came up out of 12. But the packet was free so it was kind of a shot in the dark if any were still viable.

Saw our first lightening bug in May this year!

Also removed our crumbling picket fence :(I'm hoping we can replace it with a similar but nicer white picket fence later this summer.

Made my first batch of jam at the end of May: strawberry.

For the next two weeks it was cherry fest at our house.

"Fixed up" the front of the yard & house for Memorial Day...

Before

TLC

After

Finished my internship :(

Picked our first produce from the garden: beets!

Attempted a yard sale with a friend.

& attended a wedding to wrap up the month.

May's [Garden] Update

Spring is in full swing over here, which has pushed my yarn habit to the back burner for a little while.

broccoli

Back in March when the weather was unseasonably nice, we started building raised beds for our garden.

We added little broccoli seedlings from a seed-swap; planted beets, califlower, kale, & collard greens from seed; then a month later, we filled another whole bed with peas from seed and transplanted tomatoes (we started ourselves) in another bed.

It was all still manageable until this past weekend HIT.

Now it is like a mad dash to get everything in before it is too late.  ?  I don't know what "too-late" is, other than transplants getting too big or the bbq we're having next weekend.  So it has been pretty hectic around here from the moment we both get off work to the time we crash in bed, we are always outside getting dirty in the garden.

beets

Kale

Tomato starts, overlooking the backyard & the raised beds.

Last weekend my husband took out the sad, collapsing, white picket fence with our neighbors' help & finished fencing in the remaining raised beds & strawberries.

Wednesday he tilled the east strip of our yard for the red & yellow onion transplants & asparagus seedlings.  Chives & June-bearing strawberries were already in the bed so he had to till around them.

Chives

Strawberries setting their first fruits back in April!

Friday he finished tilling behind the garage for the popcorn & potatoes (red & yukon).  We also talked to a guy about putting in a new fence (yay!)

This weekend we're hoping to finish any veggie planting and get the front flower beds planted.  Our town has a Memorial Day parade that goes right down our street and my husband wants our yard to look good ;) hehe.

*Sorry this doesn't have much about yarning, but I'd hate to leave you thinking I'm not doing ANYthing ;)

Yarn Along

Originally I hadn't planned to join this yarn along because I'm missing one of the two main requirements: a current-reading material.  But then I realized, or maybe, just being honest with myself, I have done a lot of reading:

Sadly, the only thing I really read between scripts at work & magazines or newspapers from the Gentleman I drive, is the ads for my latest craze;

some might call it a beginner's version of "extreme" couponing -- but I say I still have a lot to learn.

And I don't want anyone to think this blog is going to become about couponing -- thus my hesitation to post anything about couponing or to admit that I've doing a lot of it lately... -- but I thought it would be kind of humorous to share & it would make a fun twist on the read/yarn along.

Happy yarning!

After the Show

I remembered pictures! :]  And I'm happy to report it was a great learning experience.  Now that my first show is "out of the way" and I have all this new "knowledge," I hope I can make my next show ten times better.  If anyone sees anything worth improving, changing, etc, please please please let me know in the comment section.  I am a collaborative person so it helps to have others whom I can bounce ideas off of.

I love how my clothesline display of dishcloths turned out.

My husband helped me set up the table and he surprised me with his cute (don't tell him I said that) ways to display the different items.

He made circles with the earwarmers and laid out the coasters in different "square" patterns.  I really liked the ear warmer circles.  Anyone else have a preference?

The whole spread

I need to find a good way to display the beanie hats, the scarves & the baby blankets.  I used an old suitcase to hold them this time; plus it doubles for carrying things in ;)

Dishwasher magnets & pricing

Even though it wasn't what I had in mind, I'm very proud that I was able to free-hand "knittedhome" on the board the same way it is printed on my business cards.

Notes for future shows:

• smaller magnet board for magnets with table-top easel
• display prices with items on table (?)
• display scarves hanging?
• need to find a creative way to display hats & blankets

A Red & Blue Hat

I have to say this is one of those I-had-no-idea-what-I-was-making-but-I-was-inspired moments when it came to this cute little beanie.  And even better?  It was a BOYS' hat!!

What's so great about that?  How many boys' beanies do you stop and "awww" over?  ;)  That's what I thought.

His Spider man shirt & pajamas inspired me to use a familiar color palate (he's two) and after digging through my bag...

...I discovered I had JUST the perfect, *primary* colors.

psst - Have you heard about the show this weekend?

*ps - this is my first time using Instagram to edit ON my phone, phone-captured pictures.  Sorry they aren't the best quality but I will be working on their improvement.  Thanks for your patience :)

First Show!

I would have mentioned it sooner, but it just all happened this week!  Sweet Addictions messaged me on facebook about her upcoming show and mentioned that knit/crochet might be in the minority at this event and they were still looking for vendors.  Even though I was very nervous & a bit hesitant to jump head-first into my first show, VERY unprepared, ...I'm hoping it's more of a "trial-and-error equals improvement" result rather than "first impressions can make or break you,".....

Here's hoping it's the former and not the latter.

So if you're in the Toledo or Greater Toledo area this weekend, I'd LOVE for everyone to stop out and show your support!  It's free to get in, come do some shopping for fun and/or for Mother's Day.  And feel free to drop off a few suggestions if you have any ;)

I hope to be back with more soon!