Paddlewheel Sawtooth Table Runner

I hope you aren't tired of quilt post after quilt post. I feel a little proud of all that I've accomplished this year. Since I was unable to run for eight weeks, I found a little more time for sewing. I also did my spring cleaning. ;-)

During said spring cleaning, I came across more than a few unfinished projects. Some need quite a few hours to completion, while a few others need just an hour or two. This table runner was one of those. 

Several years back- probably more like six to seven years if I'm honest and thinking clearly, I borrowed Thimbleberries Beginner's Luck: Over 20 Tried and True Quilts by Lynette Jensen from the local library. Several projects caught my eye, and I decided to try my hand at one. 

To be truthful, I had no idea what I was doing, and it shows. When I found this "work in progress" in my sewing closet I was tempted to throw it away. Most of the half square triangles have the tips cut off, and it's more than a little wonky. My perfectionist tendencies can often keep me from completing a project if it  isn't going exactly how I want it to. I gave myself a little talking to and decided to finish it anyway. I'm glad I did! 

Oh boy! Not getting half square triangles to match up is one thing, but this corner is really off! 

But, on a galloping horse from 50 feet away it looks pretty good! 

This little table runner only lacked the binding. It took me about 45 minutes to finish it. I had quilted it by hand, and though it isn't anywhere near perfect, it has a certain charm to it. 

Humble beginnings! My quilts are still far from perfect, but it's nice to see how far I've come. 

Interestingly, as I Googled the name of the pattern in hopes of sharing the book title with you, I found the instructions online. If, you'd like to make a Paddlewheel Sawtooth Table Runner of your own you can find the directions here.

A Respectable Start

Dresden Plate made. Floss colors chosen. 

Pattern marked. 

 I've cross-stitched. I've crocheted. I've quilted. 

But this? My very first embroidery project!

30 Day Vegan- Day 10

I'm finding it very hard to believe that I'm 1/3 of the way through my 30 Day Vegan course already. Although I went into this with a positive attitude, I expected it to be somewhat of a struggle. It isn't. At all. 

Heather has done such a wonderful job supplying us with recipes, I mean really good recipes, that I haven't missed a thing. When I announced to my husband that I wouldn't be cooking meat for 30 days, he thought I was off my rocker. Being the sweetheart that he is, though, and trusting my cooking, he didn't throw a tantrum, or insist that I cook special for him. He hasn't committed to the month in the same way that I have- he's still eating meats, eggs, cheese, etc. if he makes his own breakfast or lunch, or if he is eating away from the house. The same goes for Abigail and Collin. 

The true test? Every one of us has enjoyed the meals for which we've sat down together. No complaints at all. In fact, Verne and Abigail in particular have raved about the recipes.  

Pad Thai

Roasted Root Vegetables over Brown Rice

I've not been craving dessert at all, but Abigail sure has. She's used to dessert every night, and has hinted a few times, so I've obliged by making vegan apple crisp. Tonight I added a few blueberries as well. 

 It's particularly good with unsweetened almond milk poured over the top. 

I've also made a batch of Carrot Sesame Spice cookies, and they were wonderful. 

I continue to have energy, and I feel really good. I don't anticipate having a difficult time with the next 20 days at all. 

30 Day Vegan

I'm taking part in Heather's 30 Day Vegan course, and I've only finished the second day, but so far I'm enjoying it. I have no moral objection to eating meat, butter, honey, etc, but I was curious to learn more about cooking without those things. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find quality meats where we live, and I'm ever thankful for our own eggs as a wonderful source of protein. It's easy to grow your own vegetables, and even some fruits, but not everyone has the space to keep a cow. 

I'm also curious about the effects of cutting out certain foods. For instance, I don't feel poorly when I eat any particular food. In fact, I have no known allergies, and I eat just about everything. We eat a very healthy diet, in my opinion, loaded with fresh fruits and vegetables, pastured eggs, nuts, cheese and yogurt, whole grains, and meats. I cook from scratch, and rely very little on processed foods. Why, then, do I crave sweets after every meal? It's like an addiction, really. I don't feel satisfied until I've had a taste of something sweet upon the completion of lunch or dinner. 

Oddly, after just two days of eating vegan, I've not craved dessert. I've been more full than I expected to be, and haven't added anything different to my diet. We often eat meatless meals, so I don't think it's the meat. Yogurt, perhaps? I make my own, but it's still dairy. Hmm...

Being a runner, I was afraid I would feel sluggish eating vegan, but that isn't that case at all so far. I'm making sure to get protein by having almond milk in my green smoothies, and having nuts each day. Quinoa is great for getting your protein in too. 

Heather addressed setting up a Whole Foods Kitchen today, and asked us to share photos of our own kitchens by placing links in the comments. I love seeing how other women organize, don't you? My favorite method of food storage is glass jars. They're easily accessible, and it's convenient for seeing how much of an ingredient you have on hand. 

Unlike others who make a list and shop for ingredients each week, I like to keep my cabinets well stocked at all times. I can our own garden produce, and keep assorted grains, dried beans, nuts, dried fruits and vegetables on hand. 

I also keep an updated list of what is in each cabinet taped to the inside of the door so that I can keep track of everything in there. This prevents items from getting lost in the back of the cabinet. 

I do shop weekly for produce, and milk, but can get by for much longer without a trip to the store if need be. 

Heather's recipes are wonderful so far, and I've also discovered another blog that features many vegan recipes. Tonight I had a delicious Quinoa, Sweet Potato, and Cranberry Stuffing with a large side of broccoli. I'm looking forward to leftovers tomorrow. 

Brought Into the Light

I've been noticing some difficulty with my vision for several months now. Reading has become a problem for me, and sharing a hymnal with my husband while we are standing to sing in church is near impossible. He brings the hymnal closer, and I gently push it back. I notice holding things at arm's length to make the print more crisp. Ahhh, the joys of turning 40!

One day last week after we dropped Autumn off at work, Abigail and I stopped at Wal*Mart. As I tried on +1 reading glasses, I also began to get a headache. None of the less expensive glasses felt good at all, and I didn't want to pay $20 or more for something that wasn't right for my eyes. It was at this point that I decided to walk over to the vision center to see if they had any openings for an exam. And they fit me right in.

Within the hour my exam was finished, and the doctor explained to me that the +1 reading glasses were giving me a headache because my eyes aren't the same. And I have an astigmatism, which I already knew. He wrote a prescription for me and I walked next door to have it filled. Obviously, this was all very spur of the moment.

Fast forward to Saturday. I was sitting in Quilt Club when I received a text message from my husband saying that my glasses were ready to be picked up. The girls and I headed over when we finished our meeting. I wore the glasses that night while working on a new quilt, and Autumn snapped my photo and placed it on Facebook. I wore the glasses to church on Sunday, too. While I could definitely see better than I had been able to over the past few months, I was in sheer misery because of the glare on the glasses. I prayed that I would get used to it, but by Sunday evening, I was ready to throw in the towel. I wondered if they could add the anti-reflective coating to the lenses as an afterthought, and promised myself to call the next morning.

Monday morning my phone rang. It was a friend of mine. She had seen my photo on Facebook, and wondered if she could ask me a question. "Sure!", I replied.

Sometimes I'm just plain dense, let me tell you.

My friend's voice was shaking as she gathered up her nerve. "Well, I noticed that you got new glasses, and I was wondering why you didn't use our service?"

I wanted to crawl in a hole.

My friend's husband is an optician. He owns his own business, and in this economy they need every customer they can get. She was sweet, not accusatory, and I could tell that it took every ounce of courage that she had to call me.

I apologized profusely, and explained that I certainly didn't choose to not support their family business, but it was an oversight. I had never intended to buy prescription glasses the day that I did. I was already in Wal*Mart, it was easy, and I never gave her husband a thought. Thankfully, she understood.

I was so embarrassed, and I felt like such a hypocrite. I'm constantly making decisions about who to buy our food from, preferring local over trucked in from across the United States or worse yet another country. I look at clothing tags and try to avoid anything made in China. I'm picky about everything but my glasses. Why was that?

I just didn't think, and because of that, I hurt a friend.

I told my friend about the dilemma with the glare on my glasses, and after we hung up, I called my husband. He told me to call Wal*Mart, and check out their return policy, which I promptly did. Providentially, they have a 60 day return policy with a full refund, no questions asked.

Early that afternoon I was standing in my friend's husband's store with a jar of peach jam for a peace offering. He graciously accepted. He helped me pick out a pair of frames, and offered me the good anti-reflective coating for not much more than I had originally spent. And, my frames are made in Italy as compared to the original frames which were from China. I felt better about that as well.

I'm so very thankful that my friend had the courage to call me. I can tell you from past experience that it's so much better to lovingly confront a sister/ brother in Christ whether they have sinned, or just hurt your feelings than to let those feelings turn to anger and then bitterness. I commended her for making the phone call, and reassured her that it was the right thing to do. Had she not called, I would have been in the dark, and never given it a thought. Truly, I'm so happy that she thought enough of me to not let bitterness and hurt feelings wear our relationship down, but brought me into the light where I could see my mistakes and correct them. That, is a true friend.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:12-17 (ESV)

Sunday Dinner

*~ WARNING! ~*

This post contains photos that may upset the faint of heart. If you are easily upset by blood/death, you will want to skip this one.

This Sunday dinner was no usual Sunday dinner for our family, but OH! how I wish it were.

Way back in May, our family became the owners of 12 little chicks. They arrived at our home the day after they were hatched, and we have loved them and cared for them each day- teaching them first how to drink, and then eat, cuddling them close during those first few weeks before they could move to the coop. We check on them constantly throughout the day, providing fresh water, plenty of organically grown food from our garden, and lots of fresh grass. We made sure their pen was large enough to exercise. And then we discovered, as the chicks grew, that two of the twelve "hens" that we ordered were actually roosters.

I knew, in my heart of hearts, that one of these fellas was going to have to go eventually, but we played the "wait and see" game. If indeed they could peaceably get along, then we would keep them. If not, one would end up on the table.

Several months went by, and though I was feeling sorry for the hens, who were getting "serviced" every half-hour, or so it seemed, there didn't seem to be any problems between the two roosters. Until about two weeks ago, that is. I had the windows open, and heard a ruckus going on outside. As I went to investigate, I saw the roosters in the middle of a cock-fight. This wasn't good. The white rooster, an Easter Egger chicken affectionately known as Rosemary (remember, we thought he was a hen!), ended up with a swollen eye, and was walking very carefully after the fight. Penny (remember the hen thing?), had taken the worst of it. His comb and wattles were bleeding and he looked like he'd just lost a boxing match.

Penny has been, by far, the better rooster of the two, always looking out for the welfare of the hens before himself, and I didn't want to see him hurt. Rosemary had to go.

Never having butchered an animal before, I was thankful to know Pete and Julee from the farmer's market. They've been raising chickens for several years, and always process their own birds. They invited us to bring our rooster to their place, and they would talk us through it.

Yes, our children came along. I believe that God gave us animals for many reasons, and one of those reasons is to sustain us. I find it sad that many children, or even adults today, have no idea that a hamburger comes from a cow, or that sausage comes from a pig. Knowing where our food comes from, and what an animal goes through, helps us to be good stewards of what God gives us as well as enabling us to make educated decisions about what we eat.

Rosemary was a much loved chicken. He led a good life- right up to the end, and our entire family agreed that the butchering process was in no way traumatic. In fact, it was very peaceful.

Verne was instructed to hold the rooster by the legs, holding him upside down. This immediately calmed the rooster, and he didn't struggle at all as he was tied to the fence.

The feathers were pulled down to expose the skin underneath, and his throat was slit. Again, there was no struggle, and this happened very quickly. In killing an animal this way, the blood drains from the meat, and the meat is left very clean.

Julee scalded the chicken that they were processing alongside ours, and began plucking feathers while Verne scalded our rooster.

The feathers were plucked, the rooster was butchered, and immediately refrigerated.

We left Pete and Julee with a jar of Caramel Spice Pear Butter as a thank-you for having us.

We all anticipated Sunday's dinner when we'd be eating our own meat. Not only that, but we had potatoes from our garden, our own beets, and home-canned fruit for dessert.

I can't begin to describe how satisfying it is to partake of a meal that you have raised in entirety. We felt like it was Thanksgiving a few weeks early.

Keeping it real, folks! Don't you love the ironing board set up in the dining room while we ate? and the color splashes on the walls? I'm trying to decide a new color, and painted swatches to get a better feel for the colors. It's so much better than deciding off of a paint chip!

Do you Kombucha?

About 20 years ago, my neighbors introduced me to Kombucha for the first time. They had this slimy blob of a mushroom in a jar with some weird looking liquid, and every morning and evening they drank a small glass of it. Though they offered it to me several times, I was never brave enough to try it. For one thing, I didn't like mushrooms!

20 years later, and here I am with a jar sitting on my own kitchen counter. If Dave and Cathy could see me now! Why the change? Well, I've started caring much more about what kind of food and beverages I put into my body than I did back then. And, I've learned that Kombucha isn't a mushroom at all, though most people call it that. It's actually a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, or a SCOBY, for short. Sorta like yogurt. But not!

After the proper fermentation time in the jar, the Kombucha gets bottled, and is ready to drink after one more short fermentation. I found these vintage style bottles with retro style flip-top caps. The dark glass and reusable caps make these perfect to use over and over again.

Do you Kombucha?

Yeast Bread and Rolls

' The inexperienced housewife, by following simple directions, can learn to make good yeast bread and rolls. Those who take pleasure in delighting their families and friends with good food will find great satisfaction in this art. A variety of breads and rolls adds interest to the family meals; they are also a source of pride on guest occasions.' - University of Kentucky, Circular 541, Yeast Bread and Rolls

Board and Batten

Three and a half years ago I traded in my signature earth-tones for a blue bedroom. Looking back, I have no idea why I thought this was a good idea. I thought the blue would be soothing, but it turned out to be anything but soothing.

I am an earth-tone girl.

About a year ago, Verne started offering to buy me a new comforter. Turns out, the blue was grating on his nerves too. I started looking, but never found anything that I liked. Not too long ago, I borrowed a steam cleaner from a friend to clean our bedroom carpet. We moved all of the furniture out of the room, and it was then that I noticed how poor the walls looked.

Have you ever read the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? Mmm, hmm. Sometimes when you start one project it leads to another. And another.

I thought about putting bead-board on the bottom portion of the walls, and painting the top a different color. Bead-board, it turns out, is very expensive. I was looking through different images, and fell in love with board and batten. Verne came home, I showed him a photo, and he was sold. Off we went to the lumber yard.

Rather than real board and batten, which would require covering the walls with wood, we went for a faux finish. We purchased unpainted lattice strips and cut them so that when sitting on top of the baseboard they would be 5 feet high. We used a quilting ruler and spaced them 12 1/2 inches apart. Thankfully, we missed every outlet.

When approaching our first corner, I knew we had a problem. It was going to look odd to finish and then start again on the next wall 12 1/2 inches later. The gap looked huge. Verne came up with the idea of making the entire distance from board to board 12 1/2 inches, so that even rounding the corners, the gaps between boards would be consistent. It looks great!

No matter how flat your wall is, you're going to have small gaps between the lattice and the drywall. To me, this made the project look like cheap paneling.

Enter DryDex. I spackled every single piece of lattice to take care of those gaps. Yes, that was time- consuming!

DryDex goes on pink and dries white. Perfect! I also wiped the wall carefully so as not to have any uneven spots.

Before installing the lattice, we used Sherwin Williams Meadowlark on the top three feet of the wall. We used a flat finish which is rich and beautiful. I figured the walls aren't going to see a lot of wear and tear above the five foot level. The color is like a rich chocolate milk. Verne gave the bottom one coat of Sherwin Williams Roman Column in a semi-gloss finish. He also primed the lattice pieces and gave them one coat of paint.

In hindsight, it would have been better to give the walls and the lattice pieces at least two coats before attaching them. It's much easier to paint them before they are on the walls.

After the walls were painted properly, Verne installed a beautiful chair rail above the lattice. (We were smart and gave this several coats before installation!) We set the nails, gave everything a quick final coat of paint and voila!

The room feels so much larger and more grown up- despite the unmade bed. I started my search for bedding all over again, and came up empty handed. Last week I bought fabric to make a quilt, and I'm scheduled for a class on October 22nd. I can't wait to get started!

I love the new look so much, I'm thinking about incorporating it into several more rooms in our home. Lots of work- but so worth it!

ETA: I should have said originally that after using the DryDex, and having it be so much work, we went with a different option when placed the chair rail on top. There were gaps to fill there as well, but instead of the DryDex we used paintable white caulk. So much easier. If you try this faux board and batten, I'd use caulk everywhere you need to fill a gap- just make sure it's paintable.

Continuing Education and A Great Meal

You're never too old to learn new things- no matter how old you are. Autumn and I took a tatting class at the local quilt shop this morning. No photos were taken there as it was too intense, and took both of our hands. A classroom full of people, one teacher, and a difficult subject made me nervous. I feel the same way about knitting. Eventually, I set my shuttle down, and started planning a quilt for my bed. Autumn, on the other hand, was determined, and sat through several hours of instruction. She's been practicing all afternoon.

Tonight, the children and I took a pasta making class. Now that I could really get into! I was so proud of my children as they kneaded their own dough and carefully formed farfalle and penne. I chose to make ravioli.

After we got everything made, our instructor cooked some of our efforts and we had a dinner right there of fresh pasta, and crusty bread. I didn't even have to do the dishes!