the longest night...

In which our plucky heroine has a quiet solstice birthday...

This is just plain lovely... happy Solstice one and all!

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"And so the Shortest Day came
and the year died.
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year."

~ Susan Cooper

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Tonight, when I went to close the chooks in their house for the night, I found two eggs!! This has never happened here before, the earliest I ever got winter eggs was in late January. When I spoke to Mr Dawson, he said that he as had this happen, sometimes... because the sunset time is staying light longer, even while the sunrise time is getting even later, so while the night lengthens, it also shifts in time, and some hens occasionally will lay solstice eggs. I never heard the like, but the eggs are welcome just the same!

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December SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	brown linen blouse	GM enamel redone	extra tartlets**
2	jingle bell	brown blouse cuffs	bag of fabric scraps
3	indigo batik dress	enamel reset	low hanging branches
4	miyazaki stamps	x	yard waste bin
5	Laurel stamp	x	bag to Goodwill
6	much Awesome Sauce	x	-
7	5 jars mandarin oranges	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

Friday fragments

As the season moves towards winter, the very last of the leaves turn and fall... the quinceling has the most vividly decorated leaves in the whole yard, harlequined in green and yellow, that fall at a touch to the ground.

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Saturday is the festival of Hen-Return... I am far from robust, but my back is doing well enough that my two goofy hens can come back from where they have been in foster care. In fact, I am getting an extra Black Australorpe hen back, as they have made a friend in their exile, so Acorn Cottage will have three hens again! Tomorrow I'll start preparing the old chicken house for its returning denizens...

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Ooops...I screwed up on the what gets sewn when, and already sewed my brown/white shot linen blouse as my toile for the "pre-2019 SWAP Dress Challenge, instead of remembering to choose a non-SWAP fabric. This means that my indigo pinstripe dress cannot also be sewn before the 26th. Sigh. Still going to sew that dress, but I can't have two "sewn after the rules but before the 26th garments. So instead, the teal batik stripe cotton instead of the indigo pinstripe, so that I can still include the pinstripe dress as part of my SWAP, by sewing it later on. And since I've rediscovered the already cut out but never sewn plaid wool pinafore I'd intended for SWAP 2018, shifting the teal stripe dress to a different category makes more sense. (Maybe a teal/turquoise emphasis for springtime 6PAC next year?)

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here are beautiful piñata sculptures: some inspired by the Luttrell psalter and some inspired by Hieronymus Bosch

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December SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	brown linen blouse	GM enamel	extra tartlets**
2	jingle bell	x	-
3	x	x	-
4	x	x	-
5	x	x	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

Friday fragments

in which our plucky heroine continues incremental progress...

Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won
Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none
And together what we will can be accomplished still,
Many drops can turn a mill, singly none, singly none

My father was an engineer for the space program, back when we had a space program...

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For the last few weeks I have only been getting either one egg per day or none in the chicken house. My chooks are only three years old, they are too young to be not laying, so I blame the hot weather. I fed them the leftover watermelon, on the hottest day, it had frozen in the fridge and had a wierd texture, but to them it was still a treat, being a combination of fruit, water, and seeds... Today I saw that they had eaten it right down to the rind

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I knocked my soap dish into the sink and broke it last night. Epoxy to the rescue! Leg successfully reattached. I'm no kind of potter, so my few ceramic efforts are rather childlike in execution, as I've not put in the hours that are required to build skill to match the images in my head. There are, nonetheless, needful or desirable objects that exist nowhere else, so on the rare opportunity to get to play with an unfamiliar media they come crowding to the fore, asking to be made real.

This is the repaired soapdish. I made it to fit the back corner of the sink, and drain the water from the used soap bar back into the sink. I wanted a self-draining soapdish forever, but never found one for sale (that fit both the space and my aesthetics), hence the rustic but functional DIY. Were I to get a chance to do more ceramics, I'd make one with sturdier and heavier legs, so as to be less top-heavy and tip-over-able.

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July SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	wool apron dress	planted tarragon	yard waste bin
2	large border block	LED light shield	venetian blind
3	Thora mousie block	harvested garlic	-
4	interstitial block	garlic braided	-
5	x	soapdish	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	-
12	x	x	-
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine is pleased with progress...

Earlier this week one morning while the sun was still low in the east, there were these mushrooms in my front lawn... they only last a day, if that, but their delicate tracery is very beautiful:

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Effort continues on Maeva's coat. Am now on the final step, binding the raw edges with narrow strips of burgundy red wool twill. As with all the rest of this, there is a combination of hand stitchery and machine sewing. My goal has been to not have a lot of visible machine stitching, so while the bindings etc get sewn down on the wrong side by machine, I am then folding them to the right side and stitching it down by hand, using wool thread.

It has been quite the challenging project, primarily because of how much mental effort it takes to suss out how to effect the transformation. Making a garment entirely is much simpler, and indeed the next sewing project will be a simple Anglo-Saxon style gown. That will (hopefully) go a lot faster, since she provided me with a dress length of finely woven striped wool, which then went off to Marya to be dipped in the indigo vat. All I will need to do is to cut out the parts and sew it up. The only hand stitching on the gown will be around the neckline and cuff ends.

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Chook habitat has been moved to the slightly shaded side of the backyard. This was the most important task this weekend, as soon enough it will be full on summer heat; we've already had a few days over 80F. It feels like true spring gets shorter every year. The hens are quite pleased with their new "digs"...

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	four dot stamp	alter Gigi shirts	-
2	tiny block w handle	tree water buckets	-
3	printed trim	move chooks	-
4	x	-	-
5	x	x	-
6	x	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

Saturday snippets

in which our plucky heroine has a nice visit with Vandy and June, who stopped by to pick up the square galvanized pots....

Today was supposed to be rainy. There had been some rain overnight, but I zoomed out to the grocery store when I first got up, so as to not get caught on my bike in the rain. And then, it didn't. At least it stayed sort of cool, and mostly overcast. I put together a new batch of pot stickers, (now on a cookie sheet in the freezer, prior to being packaged up for future meals) this time mixing in a half a dozen shrimps chopped up into the mostly pork, green onion, and cabbage filling. As hoped, the addition adds a nice flavor; five of them turned into my dinner tonight, just to check.

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One misty moisty morning, Boneclaw Mother and Nanny Og, hanging out underneath the chicken house.

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Had a wild hair today to add some rustic wool embroidery to one of my pairs of Log Cabin Mitts, as a sort of homage to Dottie Angel's "wooly tattoos" with which she embellishes assorted woolies, and encourages others to do as well. For some reason, ever since I finished the mostly brown/grey pair of mitts, they seem to have been calling out for some decoration...

Of course, I will need to finish my SCA flag applique, and the new (larger) hat for baby Kestrel first, but it would never do to run out of handwork

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	celtic enamel pelican	bathrobe shoulders	bag to Goodwill
2	trapunto knotwork	taxes done	bag to Goodwill
3	pliers rack	apple tree pruned	spare lawn mower
4	charter #7	tunes moved	old hose and reel
5	x	Aesa clothes mended	galvanised pots
6	x	torch holder	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

it's not over yet...

in which our plucky heroine has a snow day...

there is a thick soft layer of snow all over... actually several inches at this point, on top of what fell earlier. It must have been very still last night, as every bit of fencing has a decorative trimming of powdery white...

When I tramped out to the hen enclosure, their door was slightly frozen shut, and opening it to the solidly white world did not improve the situation, as the ground is also frozen. The chooks are dubious...

Boneclaw Mother leans in to take a closer look...

"truly, you expect ladies of our gravity and age to sled down the ramp and romp in the snow? You must be joking! How about some warm water and porridge served in the chook house instead..."

seems like there should be a kanjii for that...

in which our plucky heroine turns a difficulty to opportunity...

Still struggling to find a good way to store the sudden abundance of canning jars released into the wilds of Acorn Cottage by the massive pantry declutter, it occurred to me that filling at least some of them up with assorted new foodstuffs would solve part of the problem, as they could then return to the pantry shelves, in the correct category for their contents. This strategy will also begin the process of using up some of the stored fruits and vegetables in the chest freezer and transforming the aforesaid into condiments and comestibles, all shelf stable.

One thing I had not made recently came to mind: Awesome Sauce... This is a sort of cross between sweet chili sauce and tomato ketchup, and is based on this recipe for British chili jam. It never comes out quite the same way, but is always a delicious treat. I decided not to cook down tonight's batch quite all the way to jam consistency, and currently have eight 4oz jars cooling down on the countertop. The combination of garlic/ginger/chilies/fish sauce in a sweet/tomato/vinegar base will be a good addition to the condiment shelf.

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I've been working on a carved block to use printing trim for Vanya; the desired image being a Viking Age style bear holding a hammer, in representation of his smithcraft. The bear is just 2" across. My hope is to trade some of my textile embellishment and creation skills for some forged ironwork; that way we both get something desirable!

The other blocks, the dotted circle, and the interstitial quatrefoil, will be useful for all sorts of additional printing, being sized, for example, to also work with the laser cut horses I made for myself last year... Later on this year I am hoping to do some block printed fabric for new SCA clothing for myself... my garb is in dire need of refurbishment before summertime camping season comes around again.

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a towering pile of blood orange marmalade, prior to being labeled and put away in the pantry... I love how the peels glow in the early morning light. Next up on the list is grapefruit marmalade, probably next week. Sadly, it seems unlikely that there will be any organic Seville oranges this year, none of the shops say they will be getting them in. It is always dicey, between the vagaries of agriculture, and the fact that here they are a niche item, even among the niche of organic produce. There are just not so many marmalade making maniacs! I did leave name and phone number in several places Just In Case.

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This morning I noticed that Boneclaw Mother had a rosy comb and wattles, and this is what I found inside the chicken house! Early in the year for fresh eggses, but the girls are done with their moult and looking nice and shiney again, and I have a fresh egg for breakfast.

This is the earliest I have had eggs start up again so far. I'll be curious to see when both hens start up. Nanny Og is still pretty pale in the comb, so I don't expect to see two eggs a day for a while yet... Still, at this time of the year, even a few eggs a week will be very welcome.

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January SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	A/C cardigan back	worm bin bedding	bad corduroy
2	12 jars canned pears	restring amber Laurel	paper recycling
3	A/C cardigan fronts	Dad slipper fix	boxes of tiles
4	24 flannel baby wipes	hang envelope holder	old bookcase
5	blood orange marmalade	Dad slipper resole	wood scraps
6	12 jars awesome sauce	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

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Today's gratitude: hidden beauty, which is often found if one only pays a bit of attention...

white Christmas

in which our plucky heroine has an indoor day...

It was snowing yesterday, and while the weather has warmed some, the snow is now covered with a layer of ice everywhere. When I went to open the chicken house and bring the hens fresh food and liquid water, they were quite dubious about the conditions in the chicken yard. And later, when I looked out the window, I saw that they indeed had no desire to slip slide down the ramp to eat their food off the icy ground, and instead, an nasty squirrel was having a field day with the organic layer pellets...

Perhaps I am soft-hearted, at least a little, so I filled a ceramic bowl with henfood, and brought it out to them inside the little chicken house. And later on today, I will swap that for a half full bowl of warm water so they can have a drink...

Nanny Og and Boneclaw Mother, not thrilled at a white Christmas

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My actual goal for the day is to fill at least two bags with declutter... trying to meet my year goal means 8 more bags by the end of the year, which is rather a challenge indeed, since all the low hanging fruit have already been picked. I am going to takd a spin through my sewing patterns, the bottom drawers in the dresser, and my collected magazines not yet recycled...

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Last week I made corn tortillas here at home, for the first time. When I was up in OlyWa last month, it was one of the things I learned, and it is dirt simple if one has a tortilla press. And earlier this month, I had found one at Goodwill... I also realised this morning, that I could make a small batch, just a few rather than a dozen or so, and so todays lunch was quesadillas, with fresh tortillas and the last of the homemade salsa verde from 2016.

.
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December SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	Kestrel hat	backdoor latch	paper recycling
2	sekrit needlebook	blackhorse earrings	box of magazines
3	turquoise heart pendant	framed old photo	-
4	much cranberry ketchup	x	-
5	second original scroll	x	-
6	otter face needlebook	x	-
7	black corduroy pinafore	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

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Tuesday tidbits

in which our plucky heroine becomes unstuck...

So some of the days, going to bed early, because tired and woke up at 5 AM yesterday, ends up with even further sleep/wake out of phase. Why am I awake now? going to bed early is not supposed to mean that I only sleep for six hours! On the plus side, I can run the house fans before sunrise and get extra cooling action... on the minus side, epic naps will likely be required later today. Is this a worriesome abnormality, or a realistic adaptation to unnatural conditions of excessive heat?

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Given that each summer seems to be hotter than the year before, I decided that adding greater chicken watering capacity seems like a good idea. I decided to try out this new kind of chicken drink station, and ordered a kit to DIY one myself. If their calculations on the website are correct, I could go for at least a week between having to fill it up with fresh water, and the water itself would stay cleaner. (Since I already put the waterers in the shade, keeping it cool and protected from the sun would not be an issue)

Once I source a suitable bucket, it will be an interesting project to put together. Plus, hole saw!! (I did check with the sellers about if the hole saw was suitable for using with an ordinary household 3/8" electric drill, before I went ahead and bought the kit, since having to buy a new drill as well would make it a bit problematic...)

※※※

Yesterday spent most of the afternoon and early evening keeping a friend company and driving her home from her doctor visit. While sitting and waiting for her, was able to finish sewing the buttons on the rainbow baby sweater, so that, along with the matching hat, is now completed and ready for baby Kestrel.

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Took four bags of old and new clutter to Goodwill on Tuesday. It always feels faintly ridiculous to be walking down the street pushing a big granny cart full of bags of discards, but it is actually fortunate that there is a Goodwill on the corner where my street meets the local bypass road; it saves me having to arrange transport, and has made my decluttering just a bit easier. Which is a good thing, since a fair amount of the clutter originally came from the same place! Fortunately, I have been entirely able to resist browsing their shelves for new-to-me thrifted items any more...

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August SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	rainbow baby hat	buttons sewn on	bag to Goodwill
2	-	-	-
3	x	x	-
4	x	x	-
5	x	x	-
6	x	x	-
7	x	x	-
8	x	x	-
9	x	x	-
10	x	x	-
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x
15	x	x	x

get r done

It has been a while since our plucky heroine managed to make time for writing here...

In the interim, there was camping at Egils* last weekend, where I spent time with my SCA household, taught a class on carving blocks for printing, and realised that it has been well over twenty years that I have been camping with the same group of friends (and hundreds of other people - Egils is a BIG event, though not as big as it was formerly, there were only about 720+ people this year), some of the friends I have were not even born when I began to be active in this hobby...

While I was there I started the embroidery that will decorate the yoke of a new tunic for Vanya. While I remember him as a chubby toddler with golden curls, sitting outside his parents tent and banging on a saucepan with a spoon, he is now a strapping young man and apprentice blacksmith, tall and bearded, and about to get engaged to a lovely woman. Time flies, don't blink... Anyway, he requested bears, with hammers, and these Viking Age bears were the result. He, and I, are both pretty happy with how they turned out.

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There are actually two major SCA camping events that happen here in An Tir over Memorial Day weekend, Egils just to the south of Eugene, and Grand Thing out in Astoria... The illuminated scroll I was working on was awarded to Susan de Winter, outgoing StormRider of Stromgard, at the Grand Thing event. While I couldn't be there, my pal Dayna made sure the finished scroll got there safely, and even took a picture of the recipient:

(I plan on posting more about finishing the scroll tomorrow, there are a lot more photos to share...)

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Doing my best to focus on the positive, which is a challenge, but possible. Hard not to be grouchy, as the ongoing pain from my left achilles tendon issues continues to make walking really difficult, particularly when on uneven ground, like when camping. This morning I woke up with "exciting" new neck/shoulder pain, having slept badly last night, stretched on awakening and now have hot coals under my scapula. Grump grump grump...  but... on the other hand... I was able to set up my tent this year, with minimal help, unlike last year when I was too weak to be able to do it at all. And, thankfully, I was away camping this last weekend, and not riding transit during the horrific attack here in PDX that killed two men and left a third still in hospital recovering. I spent time yesterday just sitting on my front porch and being grateful, thinking about all I have to be grateful for and enjoying the shade and listening to the children of the neighborhood playing down the street.

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June will be busy. I intend to take time to set up a food plan, to help with budgeting and with my ongoing effort to take off a few pounds to try and make my legs less painful. There will be sewing like the wind, since I have at least eight or more garments to complete for others, prior to ATWW at the beginning of July. There is enameling - the Wastekeep hat enamels need done, and I will be teaching an introductory enamel workshop at the end of the month. Not to mention, it is time for summer pruning trees, the apple is looking quite shaggy, and I need to seriously thin the fruit set so I will get some nice big apples this year, and I need to apply the nylon footies to foil the bugs that want to live in said baby apples. Had best get out every morning early for a while for tree care. Plus somewhere in there, I ought to get back to the declutter efforts, which have been rather lax the last few months

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May SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	grey jersey pants	loom weights	bag to Goodwill
2	brown trim bands	sakura embroidery	bag to Goodwill
3	brown jersey pants	supports for peas	x
4	planter box	repair bathing suit	x
5	calligraphy for scroll	x	x
6	Thora hat cone	x	x
7	illuminated scroll	x	x
8	bears with hammers	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x

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*Egil Skallagrimsson Memorial Tournament XLIII

Sunday snippets and a Very Pretty Remnant

in which our plucky heroine has a rather busy few days...

It has been that time of year when despite whatever my fancy, necessity requires a great deal of arithmetic... yes, time to do all the taxes. (federal and state and city oh my) A few days of calculations and totting up columns of number and filling out forms and forms and more forms. Rather a lot of annoyance rather than difficulty. I am grateful for the fact that however thin the pocketbook, there is in fact, enough set aside to actually pay my taxes, and that every year however low the numbers, my businesses all take in more than I spend, which is the definition of "not a hobby" in the eyes of the revenue service.

Once the math was all done, and all the associated errands to the copy store and the post office were done, I put in some time on the my current custom commission work in the studio, a very interesting variation on a Laurel medallion... since it is a gift, I will not be revealing the images until my patron gives permission, as I am careful to never spoil the surprise.

The weather has become even more springlike, and there were a few clear days this weekend, so I rode my bike to the grocery store at least once a day. Yesterday I cleared off the workroom table so there was room for open studio time (today, Zenobia came over to work on her enameling). Did the usual wash dishes and do laundry, plus it was not raining so I could hang the laundry outside to dry which is always a plus.

Decided on Friday to start training the hens to come up the ramp and into their house when I call them to do that... this is going better than I had hoped, as they are already getting the idea. Why, you may ask, am I doing this? Because last week when my pal Dayna and I wanted to go to Katelines house, it was evening but not yet dark... I spent about 40 minuted trying to chase the hens around the henyard to catch them and stuff them in their house before they wanted to go to bed... not fun at all for me or for them; much easier if I can reward them into doing what I want

I also started mending/patching my grey popover summer dress, cooked a quiche for todays lunch, went downtown to get a free gift box of spices from Penzeys, and put in a bit more work on my new denim pinafore. Today I spent most of the day being mentor to Zenobia in the enameling zone. Oh and yesterday I also put in almost an hour of removing dandelions from the front yard... a useless but vaguely satisfying task... it does make the yard look better and since I am allergic to the dang things, feeding them to the hens is a better plan.

Going to put in a bit more time tonight hopefully getting the denim pinafore closer to done, I have not given up on my hope of actually completing SWAP 2017

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Once every few years the neighbors at the top of the street have a yard sale, and is always worth looking at. Last time (three years ago) I snagged an interesting tablet woven belt with tassles and braid, from somewhere in Central Asia... while I sadly couldn't bring home the dress form (150$ plus no real room here for one) I found this lovely almost half yard bit of real silk ikat in the 50¢ bin! The colors coordinate really well with the SCA gown I am currently and gradually putting together, and will add another layer of embellishment.

These are so not my usual colors, but sometimes the materials lead and I follow where they go... in this case it all started with the remnant that became the embroidered yoke background, which was originally leftover from some handwoven Ikea fabric that I used to make a tunic for my father to wear when my family came to my Laurel elevation... that fabric asked me for green leafy vines, and then it wanted red deer instead of my usual heraldic horses... and so it went... There are now embroidered cuffs with some of my blockprinted trim added, and and the embroidered yoke, ... and some trim for the shoulder seams using a fragment of blockprinted fabric that Marya gave me, cut into narrow strips in a most Viking Age fashion

Hoping to have this put together by tourney season

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April SMART goals (x=extra)

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	pottery buttons	mat/frame woodblock	yard waste bin
2	soap dish	mend grey dress	paper recycle bin
3	painted bowl	taxes done	-
4	geometric flower holder	x	-
5	3 enamels for E	x	x
6	Darylee overdress	x	x
7	x	x	x
8	x	x	x
9	x	x	x
10	x	x	x
11	x	x	x
12	x	x	x
13	x	x	x
14	x	x	x

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Sunday snippets

in which our plucky heroine enjoys some progress and distraction...

My dear Blue Cedar House pals came down for the weekend, which is always a treat! We managed to get a few projects completed, and made plans for a number of others, which were are still waiting on my schematic drawings, for things like the remaining bookshelves, or an improved tablet weaving loom. I am going to continue moving forward as if moving forward is a given, the alternative feels like borrowing trouble early...

So, a big project this weekend was moving the hens from the south side of the back yard to the east corner. The idea is to have them dig up all the weedy patches, which they greatly enjoy, and give them a sunnier patch for now, since it will be months before they need shelter from too much sun. Fresh ground is healthy for them, and I will be able to get into their former yard to do some much needed maintenance.

Their new enclosure has taller wire fencing, and we did a better job of creating a gateway which hopefully will no longer snag and tear my pinafores. I added in a low chook door to the fence, in the hopes of finally being able to deploy my chicken hurdles to give them additional access to more areas to clear. In time, my plan is to have a kind of chicken "moat" around the edges of the yard, so they can remove and trim the weeds along the fenceline. Since only one of the two hens is currently laying, I need to get some work at least out of the both of them!

Farbjorn built a solid new chicken ramp up to their house, as when we moved the old house to its new location, the old ramp simply crumbled away; I'd made it of fairly thin plywood almost ten years ago, so it lasting this long was pretty good. The hope is that before we need to move this house again, the new improved chook house will be built, with a three part modular construction to make moving it a LOT easier. The current house is terribly heavy with the actual tarpaper and shingle roof attached. Their future house is meant to have a nice translucent corrugated roof of polycarbonate that will latch into place, and a separate raised base that their house will latch to, if all goes according to plan.

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Another really fun activity was that young E called ahead and said that she wanted to try out block printing. As one of the "aunties" I am just delighted to be able to share some handicraft time, particularly since L decided she also wanted to try...

By the end of the afternoon, they both had successfully completed a 44 inch strip of printed trim; the intention is that some of the new SCA underdresses for this summers camping season will be decorated with their own work. I am as pleased as they are, and the idea that we include some kind of craft project in future visits was greeted with great enthusiasm! 

I set them up with some ironed strips of the same shot cotton I use for making trim, and my assorted already carved trim stamps. I've not really done much handicraft with youngsters, and was impressed with how much they were able to do.

Thora was really good at encouraging L, who is just a bit younger and found it a little difficult to line the tiny stamps up. There really is a lot of hand eye coordination involved! I realised that the eraser end of a pencil makes a good roundel shaped stamp, which both girls took advantage of,. and which I am adding to my drawer of wee stamps for future use.

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Lest the adults feel left out, the sheepskin border on Thora's hat is almost completed. This odd fragment of beautiful fur is unusually tough, so it took quite a bit of effort to sew.

Rather than wear my hands out with the stitching, I did just enough to ascertain that the concept of stitching on edge partially inside the hat, and wrapping it over to the outside as a wide border, was going to work just as I hoped, creating a kind of furry "gasket" around the edge of the hat, which will make it delightfully toasty warm and snug when worn.

Once the fur border is stitched in place, the only remaining part of this project will be to fabricate a tiny metal "hat cone" to enclose and decorate the very top center of the hat, where all five of the embroidered panels come together. Should be done in time for when we start up our outdoor activities in May...

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February SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	salted lemons	turtleneck re-edged	bag to Goodwill
2	Noro shawlette	sweater button repair	-
3	new chook ramp	gown neckline repair	-
4	-	cuff embroidery	-
5	-	moved chook yard	-
6	-	-	-
7	-	-	-
8	-	-	-
9	-	-	-
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

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Tuesday tidbits

In which our plucky heroine, though sick*, appreciates the bits that can be managed...

Look what has showed up here in the chookhouse! The hens may be as goofy as all getout, but they do the work....

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After the debacle of my previous attempt, started a new shawl. This time I dug out the directions I'd printed out back in '09 for the feather-and-fan pattern. Making a plain triangular shawl, not a heart shape. (I have no idea what I was doing on my previous attempt, but it wasn't this) This patterning is completely different, and is what I remembered, a graceful symmetrical series of curves and points. Plus I decided to go ahead and use my few precious skeins of Noro Kuryeon colorway 195. I love the rustic texture of the yarn, and the subtle hues in this lovely (sadly discontinued) colorway, that has all the varied colors that are in my chosen wardrobe

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A healthy stand of chickweed... There is quite a bit of this growing in the salad table currently. I planted it on purpose, as an experiment. It happily survived the snow and ice, looked beaten but sprang back to life quite happily... It is a mild green that I like to nibble on, or add as greenery garnish to things....

It apparently is reasonably nutritious, and has proven to grow well in the wintertime without ANY input from me... As part of my goal to have assorted edibles growing around the yard, I intend to encourage it to become feral, in the hopes of having an easy to gather source of occasional winter greenfood. I would love to also have miners lettuce here, and purslane (tasty, crunchy, and slightly tangy) in the hot months... these may be weeds, but the idea of vigorous plantlife to encourage (and lightly harvest for high nutrition content) is very hopeful/helpful in the upcoming hard times...

one perspective on using chickweed, and a different perspective
some information about purslane, and some more information

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Did a bit of rearranging of the wardrobe sewing plan, since it is past Winter 6PAC, and while I will be making all the garments, I will instead focus on those that are also part of the SWAP as well as the Springtime 6PAC

WARDROBE PLAN SEWING

#	done	6PAC	SWAP	garment
1	-	-	-	black linen crop pants
2	-	-	-	black chopshop cardigan
3	-	-	-	black knit top
4	-	-	-	black linen top
5	-	-	-	black corduroy pinafore
6	※	-	※	turquoise shot cotton dress
7	-	-	-	blue/grey striped knit top
8	※	-	※	brown twill pinafore
9	-	-	-	brown twill jacket
10	-	-	-	black/brown A/C top
11	-	-	※	black/brown marl knit top
12	-	-	-	black/brown flannel shirt
13	※	-	-	black/grey handknit wool vest
14	-	※	※	blue floral blouse
15	-	※	※	dark indigo denim pinafore
16	-	※	-	indigo pinstripe dress
17	-	-	-	brown raincoat
18	-	-	-	black rain capelet
19	※	-	-	black rainhat
20	-	-	※	brown crop knit pants
21	-	※	※	blue crop knit pants
22	-	-	※	black crop knit pants
23	※	-	-	blue striped batik dress
24	-	-	-	brown mushroom blouse
25	-	-	※	grey corduroy pinafore
26	-	※	※	black/grey/blue stripe dress
27	-	-	-	blue knit turtleneck
28	-	-	※	black/cream wool pinafore
29	-	※	-	blue/brown A/C cardigan

After playing around with the Sudoku Wardrobe contest concept over on Patternreview during the time that Stitchers Guild was down it occurred to me that adding in an accessories component to the wardrobe plan would be a fun and useful adjunct. I don't need much, but a few things would really add both function and whimsy.

LUCKY 7 ACCESSORY PLAN

#	done	color(s)	accessory
1	※	black/grey	black cowl, grey pompoms
2	-	blue/brown	blue cowl, multicolor pompoms
3	-	brown/black	brown everyday hat
4	-	indigo/grey/etc	denim everyday hat
5	-	turquoise/brown	acorn enamel pendant
6	-	-	bag?
7	-	-	daypack?

Both hats would be replacements for current hats that are getting very worn out. Bolt has some interesting looking wool gauze on their website that I want to go look at, it may work well for a new cowl, with multicolor handmade pompoms inspired by these two Jane Carr scarves: grey, and blue


* still quite sick, throat hurts when I swallow, and my eyes are all infected, liquid running like tears down my face. Somehow this seems related to the current events, which are equally hard to swallow, and bring tears to my eyes. A trip to the local clinic and I was able to get a prescription for antibiotic eye drops that will hopefully help my eyes fight of whatever bacteria is causing them to swell almost closed and drip painful and itchy salt tears and goo

Monday miscellany

in which our plucky heroine attempts to focus on the everyday good, mostly...

My chickens are gorram special. I just spent several hours wandering around in the dark (with a flashlight) trying to find them, since they were not in their house tonight. Flew over the chookyard fencing. No apparent signs of any varmints, just sheer cussedness on their part apparently. One was sleeping in a wet planter pot instead of the nice dry chookhouse. The other one had not only flown the coop, but also the yard fence and was hanging out in the carport with the assorted lumber scraps. I am not amused. I am going to have to create a more enclosed habitat for them. Somehow. It may involve giving them less space temporarily.

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Read that Stitcher's Guild is likely to return to active status maybe as soon as tomorrow... I can't wait. After eleven days, I really miss the ongoing "chatter" in my favorite corner of the virtual world.

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Am continuing to sort through the assorted fabric pieces stashed in the textile/guest room. So far have filled up 5 1/2 grocery bags full to re-distribute or discard, and may have passed the tipping point between small pieces to keep and those to leave. (small pieces being defined as pieces too small to make an entire garment from) I am keeping what is useful for edgebinding, or precious and beautiful, a few smaller knit pieces suitable for adding to my Alabama Chanin garments in the future, and a small assortment suitable for either SCA trimmings, or for next years holiday gifts. Oh, and anything indigo. Because indigo.

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Drew some pictures today as requested by my pal Thora. Two imaginary cities, loosely based on assorted medieval manuscript illuminations...

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	toile for knit pants	reframed charter	paper recycle
3	patches for ♀ march	Wastekeep bid	bag of papers
4	creative drawings	charters on wall	bag of papers
5	-	topmost shelf cleared	bag to Goodwill
6	-	EBT application in	bag to Goodwill
7	-	bookcase tidied	bag to Goodwill
8	-	textile shelf leveled	bag for Powells
9	-	shadowbox tidied	bag for Powells
10	-	stripey cuffs mended	5+ bags fabric
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

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a dream and other Tuesday tidbits.

in which our plucky heroine has a very vivid and unusual dream. Wandering inside a store like Powells, only in Japan. And they also sold fabric on one whole floor. My delight was all in browsing the aisles and racks full of beautiful fabrics. Not in finding but looking. Was entirely unlike any other visit to dreamland, and an area I had not discovered before.

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After spending a huge chunk of the day stocking up on some extra groceries in case the predicted ice storm hits us hard, I was thinking about sewing, but decided instead to continue my efforts with the "library zone" here at Acorn Cottage. After previous efforts had the bookcase all tidy, the remaining work was to clear away the random items stacked on the top... That took about an hour.

When my coach asked what I wanted to do next, I said "tomorrow, how about the shadow box?" She thought that would be fairly simple and suggested that we go ahead with it tonight...

Well, it contained rather a lot of tiny trinkets, as well as larger artifacts and an astonishing number of rocks. I often find interesting rocks and bring them home, and apparently this is a common behavior in people that struggle with clutter, or at least the ones my coach has worked with... I sorted out what I wanted to keep, what needed to live somewhere else, like the metronome belongs with the music things, etc. and what things were no longer resonant in my life... After another several hours, I can confidently call the library zone DONE!

The arrangement in the shadowbox is temporary, and I'd like to find some new paper to line it with, as the old paper had become faded and patchy. The top of the bookcase will just stay empty for now; though my original intention is for the area between the upper and lower bookcase to be used to display interesting or seasonal things,  each artifact I have tried to put there looks really odd, small, and isolated. I'd like to add some lighting underneath the upper bookcase shelf, and think about how best to use the newly free space.

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You can bring a chicken water, but you can't make them drink! My hens are goofy. I brought them nice fresh slightly warmed water today, because as always, when the weather is this cold, the water freezes solid pretty quickly. Did they avail themselves of said nice liquid water? nope! They decided that eating snow was better! If they do it again tomorrow, I will try and photograph them, with their little beaks all snowy.

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January SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	black/cream pinafore	brown pinafore hem	expired medicines
2	toile for knit pants	reframed charter	paper recycle
3	patches for ♀ march	Wastekeep bid	bag of papers
4	-	charters on wall	bag of papers
5	-	topmost shelf cleared	bag to Goodwill
6	-	EBT application in	bag to Goodwill
7	-	bookcase tidied	bag to Goodwill
8	-	textile shelf leveled	bag for Powells
9	-	shadowbox tidied	bag for Powells
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-
13	-	-	-
14	-	-	-

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