Merry Christmas!

I can say that now, since it's actually advent (unlike when retail stores started putting up decorations back in October. Or was it September?). Our town's annual tradition starts December with the Candlelight walk and Christmas carols, leading up to lighting the lights along the creek and main street through town.

 

Our bellydance troupe joins the fun, since we dance every First Friday anyway! I made the elf hat (freehanded for lack of a suitable free pattern) for the occasion :)
 

Pretty Pearls

I performed last night for the first time - well, my first more-or-less choreographed time, at least - with my wonderful bellydance ladies. We danced to History Repeating and our costumes included fedoras and pearls. Pearls, I have (had) only a few of. Shopping!

My fedora, complete with feathers (kindly donated by a bird who got his wings clipped at work) and a few little pearls...

Jewelry... little studs from my wedding, big studs were $1 at a local antique store and needed one "diamond" replaced. The dangle was a hoop earring with a cheap pearl bead threaded on and the earring re-bent; attached to the back side of the stud. I made a ring out of another earring and bead. Necklace, $2 at the same store.

Hooray for thrifty, fun costume jewelry :) And also for an amazing evening dancing with lovely friends!

Sockarms

There are always so many cute, fun knee-high socks around. Any discount or big-box store has them, in every color, for ever season. But armwarmers? So much potential, so little to be found. Sure, there are your standard knit ones, but long, cozy ones are rare, choices slim, and they're always $10-15 or more. Enter the sock arm.

The formula is simple: 1 pair knee-length socks - toes + heel-hole = sockarms!

See? Sockarms. At $5 tops, a bargain. And ridiculously easy.

Cilantro Goes to Seed

When it comes to spices, cilantro just might be my favorite. The leaves turn just about anything into a feast. You can even freeze them for (almost) never-ending goodness.

And when the plant bolts and goes to seed in the baking heat of a Colorado summer, coriander.

Well, it's not very much. And it was definitely a pain! Supposedly, let it hang with a bag around it long enough and the seeds fall off, saving you the work. Supposedly. Apparently 1.5 months isn't long enough! I think it would have been worth it, buying seed at the store. But hey, free is free!

Green Tomato Salsa

What to do with green tomatoes...

A colorful beginning...

...stewing...

...green tomato relish.

The verdict: Pretty tasty! I used the recommended half cup of vinegar in this. What to use it for? Farmgirl Susan had some great suggestions - first try is turkey burritos. Mmmmmm...

Update 11/10: Turkey burritos were DELICIOUS!

Chocolate Chia Date Bars

A while ago, I discovered Chia seeds at my favorite Colorado grocery store (never to replace my all-time favorite grocery store!). Having heard of them while poking through a magazine in my chiropracter's waiting room, I picked some up. The chia gel thing didn't quite do it for me. Too small and crunchy when added to the granola. Chia milk, disgusting (sorry).

However, I found a winner in this recipe from Vegetarian times. I don't know what raw chocolate is (I just used Hershey's dark chocolate baking powder. I'm sure that's blasphemous.) or where to find it. And I'd likely be too cheap to pay for it in any case. But these are tasty! I made as directed, plus a bit of water and maybe a tablespoon of corn syrup- my dates were pretty dry.

Mix everything together in food processor, smush into a big pancake between 2 pieces of wax paper...

Refrigerate for a few hours, cut and enjoy!

Wrap the rest in pieces of wax paper and stick in the fridge for a tasty to-go snack.

There's a Worm in my Apple!

Yes, I've been a slacker lately. Haven't had time for a lot, and definitely skimping on the blog posts. But coming back briefly to say...

Happy Halloween!

From Steve, Krista and Edgerton :)

The End of the Garden

A few favorites, never posted:

In the beginning... Miss Michaela plays in the dirt. Gardening is FUN!

In full bloom

Red beets

Someone's scarecrow

Squash blossom

Sunflower

Baby carrot - this was actually one of the larger ones!

Last harvest

Turning soil for next year

The end.

Ren Fest Fun

My favorite sometimes-pirate (looking a bit more "respectable" this day) and I (his favorite bellydancer) finally made it to the Colorado Renaissance Festival on it's final day along with my wonderful aunt, uncle and cousins. Fun times were had by all!

Henna

Just a few of many good laughs...

Puke and Snot

and of course...

Because really, doesn't everything?

New Life for an Old Frame

Back in high school when I was taking photography - and film and photo paper were still the necessary elements for that hobby - my grandfather gave me some of his old developing equipment, including trays, an enlarger, a timer, and a frame used to keep the photo paper square and create a white border around the photo.

Needless to say, digital came in before I had a chance to set up and use any of it, and my photo lab is now on my computer. But I still have most of it, including this frame, which now has a new life as another kind of nearly one-of-a-kind frame.

Crochet Hook Roll - Finished!

It's been a few weeks - but it is done!

This ...

is now this:

Complete with scissors pocket...

...and a place to stash stitch markers.

These pictures hide nicely my inability to make the pockets straight - so perhaps I'll never sell these guys, or be a good seamstress :) But I have a cute place to store my crochet stuff, so I'm happy!

Crochet Hook Roll

My dad used to have a great cloth roll out in the garage for his wrench sets, denim blue and dirty. This, once I figure out how to assemble it, will be a crochet hook roll, far prettier, but equally functional! It will have two rows of slots for hooks and two wider pockets for scissors, needles, pens and the like, and a small ribbon for holding stitch marker rings. Hopefully it will materialize in the next week or so!

Floor Work & Poor Little Feetses

I just started taking an intro to floorwork class with my bellydance troupe, and am (not surprisingly) loving it. One of my lovely teachers has a pair of these nifty little (for lack of a better name) footies she got years ago to protect the tops of your feet while sliding around on floors.

"Can you make some of these? I bet all these girls would buy them!"

Well, of course, I had to try. So, this is round one.

They don't take long - except when you forget to write down what you did on the first one and have to pull out every other row on #2  :)

Lesson learned: write down what you do!

There will definitely be more of these coming, probably for the ladies in my class, and maybe, just maybe, I'll get around to some stuff to get the Etsy shop up and running :)

Tomatoes & Plantlings

I learned a thing or two about starting seeds this year. If you start more seeds than you want plants, you will have LOTS of extra seeds. Sound obvious? Probably should be! Somehow I thought a few of them wouldn't survive.... :) But they did. After giving away about two dozen plants, I still have quite a few left - cherry, yellow and purple heirloom. I inherited three more larger tomato plants, as well as permission from the landlord to plant, so started a small tomato garden. 

I also found a great hanging planter tutorial and decided to give it a try. So far, I have only 2 2L bottles (since we don't really drink soda much!), so will need to find another to get my yellow tomato plant planted, but did the cherry yesterday and the purple today.

The cherry tomato plant is already flipping its little leaves over to get the sun! Currently these guys live under the porch on the north facing side of the house - we'll see if they get enough sun there or if I have to buy a shepherd's hook to put them somewhere better suited to growing :)

Three more of my tomatoes, along with tomatillos and habaneros, have a new home in our plot in the community garden, which is coming along well!