Is It Fall Yet?

I feel a little better now. I've been gardening. I don't know about you, but when my garden is doing good the rest of the world doesn't seem so bad.

I have gourds now. The other day I told these plants if they didn't produce, I would yank them up.

Baby broccoli.

Soon my Goddess will need a new home. The cactus is getting so tall She can't spin.

I intended to plant sunflowers, but when I cleared the ground I found ants. A whole nest. I hate ants.

I've been working inside, too.

I hung up my dragon curtain. Usually he goes up in the fall. This August has been the longest month EVER. I couldn't wait anymore. My dragon is a bit faded so when I take him down in the spring I will turn him into a rag rug. I used to have crystals hanging in this window.

I moved them to the smaller window. The other window was just too big. There needs to be lots of crystal close together or it doesn't have the right effect.

Here's the whole window. I still need a few more crystals, but now things look better. I think I will take down that awful blind. A simple swag curtain or garland would be better.

When Kurt came home, we finished all my errands. That made me feel better too. And tomorrow we'll have some money which also helps my mood.

I Am in a Mood Today

My sugar had been on the high side so yesterday I went for two walks and scaled way back on my carb intake. I guess I over-did it because I awoke at 5:30am with a low sugar. Which led me to being cold. I covered up with a thick a blanket and when I was awakened a second time by a phone call, I was overheated. I feel like I am moving in slow motion today.

My kitchen is covered in ants. I have been scrubbing and spraying every since I got up. I do not seem to be making much progress. I killed all the ants around the window and door, but they are still in the sink. I think they are hiding in the pipe. I am ill with Kurt because he wanted to kill the ants with ant spray and I have told him a thousand times I don't want poison in my kitchen. He doesn't seem to think cooking spray kills them. He left for work really early and that pissed me off too because I wanted to drop him off then go to the bank and the store. He just took off and left me to deal with the ants. I can't do anything I planned, and I. Am. Out. Of. Diet. Coke. Aaaaarrrgggghhhhh! To top it all off, he was supposed to turn in some paperwork and it is still laying on the desk. I have a splitting headache and I just want to punch something. Repeatedly.

A Quick Note

I took Halona to the river. She didn't limp at all at the river, and she barely limped at home. She may need weekly aquatic exercise to keep her limber.

I am still focused on my sewing. Things seem to be coming together smoothly. I have dozens of unfinished projects. I used to say I was going to finished them all and never have so many undone projects laying about again. Then I would get frustrated as I tried tow work through the pile. I have set a firm limit of no more than three projects at a time. I ignore the rest. Why am I not working on one at a time? I get bored.

My future mother-in-law is moving and offered me furniture. I haven't seen it yet, but it made me think about the pieces I have, what I like, and what I would like to update. I might end up with a redecorated house.

The fall garden looks very promising. Everything is coming up now.

It is windy here, but no rain. Kurt is still impressed with my storm protection spell.

Kurt is out running errands so I have time to myself! I've already painted my nails and done a facial.

Almost Done

I finished the spine.

I added purple beads to the bottom and a dragon charm to the end. That's a turkey feather behind the needlework. Here's a shot of the back, in case you forgot-

Yes, another turkey feather. I'm thinking about placing dried herb leaves in the cookbook pages.

There is a tropical storm in the Gulf. It was heading straight toward Alabama. I renewed my storm protection spell and now the storm is about to hit Louisiana. Kurt thinks I am a powerful witch. Sorry, Louisiana, I swear I didn't intentionally put you in the path.

My dog Halona has been limping for the past two days. I do not see anything wrong. She is rather old, and may be suffering from arthritis.

I planted some of a fall garden. Ran out of space. Sigh. I planted broccoli and cauliflower. They have already begun coming up- a week early.

My sewing room table has been cleared off and slowly I am finishing projects. I am a bit more focused now. I am still working on Xmas presents and I got a basket! My mother gave it to me. It's perfect, but I forgot to take a picture. Maybe tomorrow.

Right now, I'm going to work a healing spell for my dog.

Silent Sunday- Anne Stokes

Out, out, out

Kurt went off to work today. Yay! I finally have time to myself!

Don't get me wrong, I like having a man around the house...I just don't want him here every freakin' minute. Really, it's okay to have activities that don't involve me. I won't mind.

I have noticed that he takes over anything I do. I don't mean he bosses me around, I mean he gets involved until somehow it's all about him. For instance, if I cook when he is at work, when he comes home, he eats. If I start cooking when he is here, he gets in my way, asks what I am cooking, makes suggestions, prefers some other food, snacks on ingredients thus not leaving enough for my dish, until finally, I have deviated from my menu entirely.

Or sewing. I will plan to work at a certain time. Being that he is a normal male, he cannot see anything in front of his face. So he can't find something, or ten somethings, and I get up 15 times to first find the item, and then to demonstrate how it works. By the time I get him settled into whatever, he'll decide to go to the store and he wants me to go, and heck, I might as well because I'm not getting anything accomplished anyway.

I really think this is why traditionally the men go off to work and the women stay home. It's not a man conquering the world thing, it's women needing to do facials, wanting to create art, and just wishing that after she spent all morning cleaning the house would stay clean.

When our roles were reversed and I went to work while he stayed home, I could tell what he had done all night. Shoes in front of couch, bag of chips on coffee table, empty cup by computer, dirty dishes on counter, and, the one that bothered me the most, sweaty t-shirt on dinning room table. I have laundry baskets in the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom. No matter where he goes, he will walk by at least one laundry basket. But after he cuts grass, he's hot, and as he walks to the back of the house, he takes off his shirt and tosses it onto the surface where we eat our meals. Yes, Honey, you need to go work a long shift far away from this house.

But today I get the computer as long as I want it. The television is NOT on. I can paint my nails. I may read something. I think I'd like to be at the sewing machine for a while. And I'm almost finished with my cookbook spine:

I'm using cream for the background because I have a lot of it. I'm going to add purple seed beads and a dragon charm. That's my mandala coloring book behind the canvas. I think some of the designs MAY translate well to needlepoint. Thankfully I have some time today to sketch. I don't like for anyone to know my ideas until I have the bugs worked out.
Now I'm off to Pinterest :)

Fall Garden!

What I decided to plant was based entirely on what seeds Home Depot had for sale.

My herbs will go in pots on the porch. For once, and this makes me a little nervous, I'm not going to drag plants into the house once winter hits. Every year, I lug pots in. Then the ants come out of the pots. Then the plants are stressed. They begin to die. I lug them back out on warm days. I forget them. Frost kills them. The survivors are lugged back in, where they die from a lack of sunlight. I'm not doing that this year. Everything stays outside. I found on Pinterest (of course!) how to make heat pads. I will cover my plants, try to provide heat, watch the weather channel, and hope for the best. It doesn't get that cold here. I keep reading about people gardening year round. If they can do it, I should be able to figure out something.

Every thing else is going into the ground. We have already cleared a spot. I realize sunflowers aren't a cool weather crop, but I like them. And damn it, I am still mad about Queen chewing up my seedlings. I want sunflowers!

Kurt is out of a job. He had a temp job and the assignment ended. He had an interview at Home Depot yesterday (which is why I got my seeds there), he's filling in for some injured dude tomorrow, and at some point, his part-time job is supposed to start. He's been home all week and I have. got. NOTHING. done. Nothing. He's in my way and I will be happy to send him off to work tomorrow.

We went on a hike yesterday. There is a giant rock formation behind the house. Sort of like a cross between Flat Rock Park

and Stone Mountain

I took these pictures of dead cedar trees:

I love the way the wood appears to be twisting. I didn't get a picture of the entire rock because it is just too big. You could build three or four houses on it.

I discovered my favorite artist has a tarot deck!

This is great because I was using her deck of regular playing cards as tarot. I've added this to my Amazon wish list and as soon as I have money, I'm getting it.

I am almost finished with the spine of my cookbook. Maybe this weekend it will be done. I forgot to take a picture before I came in here. And anyway, I think I have enough pictures of everything else.

It Works

Ran out of washing powder. I put off buying more because a box, even a small one, is expensive. I decided there surely must be a recipe somewhere on the Internet for washing powder because how else did people do laundry before Tide was invented.

I googled 'home made washing powder' and got quite a few hits. I read a few, but felt discouraged because none seemed like anything I would actually try. All of them required soap flakes and washing powder and since I was trying to make washing powder, going out to buy some seemed really dumb.

Then I found how to turn baking soda into washing powder. Aha. Now I'm getting somewhere.

It's simple. All you need is baking soda.

The Kroger brand was ten cents cheaper. I used the whole box for this post. The first time I tried it, I used half a box of Arm & Hammer because that was what I already had. I thought half a box was a good amount for a test run.

Pour the baking soda into a baking pan and place into a 400 degree oven.

I suppose you could use any oven safe dish as long as it's deep because the baking soda needs to be stirred occasionally to make sure it all cooks. The website I was on didn't say how long to cook it, or how often to stir. The first time, I cooked it for 15 minutes, stirring every 5. This time, I cooked for a good deal longer, but I don't know how long. I didn't set a timer. I just puttered around the kitchen and tried to stir roughly every 5 to 7 minutes. My main concern is burning. 400 degrees is a lot of heat.

The heat of the oven changes the molecular make up. The baking soda becomes washing powder.
I tried to find the original site I was on, but I found it through another blog in the comments section and the link has since been removed. I did google 'turn baking soda into washing powder' and found several links about why it will or will not work. I read that cooking baking soda doesn't do anything, that it does, use baking powder, don't use baking soda, use baking soda not powder...I have to conclude most of the people writing didn't actually get in the kitchen and test anything. I discovered the cooking times should be much longer. But, like anything else online, I discovered people cooking it for 30 minutes with success. I have now done three loads of laundry with my cooked baking soda. All the clothes are clean. They smell good. They look just the way they did when I used brand name, store brought laundry detergent.

I labeled my cooked baking soda as washing powder and I am storing it in an air tight container. I also read it could 'convert back' to regular baking powder. I don't think it does, but I do think moisture in the air could make it clump up. Also, cooking baking soda makes a very fine dust. When I stirred, it appeared to be smoking. I don't think it would have a toxic affect, but I don't want to breathe it in either.
For the first load, I used about 1/2 cup. That was a load of white towels with some greasy kitchen towels. The bath towels were clean but the kitchen towels still had some grease. On the next load, dark clothes and greasy work shirts, I used the rest of the first batch I cooked, about 1 cup. Everything was clean. For the third load (white sheets and a mattress pad), I didn't measure, I dumped a good bit into the washer and added a little bleach. Everything got clean. There was no reaction with the bleach. Everything is still white.

I encourage you to experiment. Even if you goof, you won't be out much money.

Saturday

We were waaaay up in the cheap seats so I didn't get any good pics of Clay Walker. A bunch of girls gathered before the stage and I think I saw 1 grab his crotch.

But before the concert, we discovered B.B. King's guitar. I thought that was cool.

As for the rest of Buckmaster's- yes, it was a Redneck fest. I've never seen so many fat people in camo in all my days. The other cool thing was Troy from 'Swamp People' was there and the crowd started chanting 'Choot 'em!' until finally, he said it. 'Choot 'em!'

I also learned something about Kurt- if it's free, he's getting it. We came home with half a dozen ink pens, four coozies, three or four key chains, two tote bags, and two lapel pins.

Good Progress

The words are done! As usual, once I start working by pattern, I see how a few changes could be better. I left off the black birds, the dorky stars, and am now doing a completely different border. I got so much done because I had to work through some worry. My man went to work. He called me to say he would be late. Then the service ran out on his phone. Then he didn't come home. And still don't come home. He had the truck. I couldn't call. I couldn't drive. I thought of all kinds of things- deer, accidents, crazy drunks. To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, when I know he's either having an affair or dead in the street, I always hope he's dead. I don't really think he's having an affair. My mind just drags out all the possibilities and, let's face it, affair is more probable than killed by drunk driver then stampeded by a herd of wild deer on a dark and stormy night. It didn't rain last night so you see how my mind works.

More Doings

I settled on this design for my cookbook's spine:

It says, Stir Up Some Magic. It's meant to be trim on a towel. The pattern is in this book.
While I had the cookbook out, I made some notes on this year's garden. Yes, I keep garden stuff with the cookbook because I do grow some food. I'd like to grow more.

I intended to garden this evening. I pulled a few weeds, considered some places for future plants, watered everything, and then went inside because it is too hot to do anything. I planned to build a fire pit, or at least clear the ground, but that will have to wait for a cooler day. And probably a day when Kurt is off so he can lug rocks around while I point out the perfect spot for said rocks.

Doings

I have cleaned out the sewing room closet. By some miracle, I managed to create more space. I put most of my sewing projects up and now I can actually sit in my chair. I finished stages (not projects) of using up the plastic canvas- as in I finished box sides or tops. I'm trying to leave some wiggle room in case the projects I envision have design flaws.

I cleaned out my sewing machine. And then I did Something Necessary. I went through my Granny's bobbin box and threw out the rusty bobbins. Don't tell anybody because my mother would freak if she knew I threw away something that belonged to my Granny, even if the item isn't any good any more. Shhhh.

I think I am ready to start on my cookbook's spine. I am still working on a model for my design to submit for publishing. I think I want a basket to keep sewing projects in while I'm not working on them, something to keep everything together and maybe it could be a place where magick could happen. I already have the basket, but it's full of magazines. I'm hesitating on what to do with the magazines because I do want to keep them, but I'm afraid if I put them on the coffee table, they will become foot props, coasters, and bug swatters. Then they'll be dirty, wet, and ruined. I have a few plastic magazine holders, but not enough. While they're in limbo, my sewing projects have been resting on my altar. Which is okay, but sometimes I don't want anyone to sew what I'm working on so I need my basket!

I have been Pinterest like a drug addict on crack. Today I discovered the gardening category. OMG. I want to run around my yard creating cool things NOW! I don't think I have enough things in my house to repurpose into all the cool shit I like. BTW, the yard and garden looks great. I just want a whole lot more of it. And I want it to be autumn like last week. Sunday and Monday we slept without the air conditioning. Last night it was just too hot and it's hot today too. I keep forgetting it's August.

This Saturday, Kurt is taking me to a concert in Montgomery. It's free for us because he is a life-time member of Buckmasters. It's some kind of hunting expo thing, and he said we could get there early to look at the exhibits before the concert. I hope this isn't some kind of boring redneck fest. If it is I will drag him to three quilt shows.

We still don't have much money. He is working, but I'm not. He started a great job last week, but doesn't get paid until Friday and then he won't make much because he started at the end of the week. (He had the quit his other job because he's allergic to the material he was working with. It was sort of like fiberglass, but when he described it, it sounded like asbestos. I'm glad he isn't working there anymore.) He also has a part-time job lined up for football season. We will have good money coming in soon, it's just not happening right at this moment. I am not worrying about it. I am cooking, gardening, sewing, being witchy and keeping my sugar in an excellent range.

I'm getting a little disenchanted with Etsy. I don't think anyone actually makes good money off the site. I say this because on my favorites, whenever something sells, I remove it from the list. I rarely have anything to remove. I have four pages of favorites. So that's like what, 80, 100 items from around 75 to 100 shops? (I'm too lazy to go see how many items are on a page.) Anyway, I would expect to update my favorites a good bit because I like lots of things, in various categories, for various uses- witchy, cooking, art, just for pretty, and these items are from many shops...so why are they not selling? Even from the shops which have a large number of sales, the items are just sitting there. I get lots of traffic, but no one ever makes a purchase. I think the site has just gotten too big. There are millions of sellers and the competition is too fierce. It is exceedingly difficult to stand out. No matter what I think of, and I think of a lot of weird stuff when I make a treasury list, I can always find at least three pages of whatever I want. If the item is popular, I can find 30 pages. I want to find a new market for what I make, but I don't want to completely give up Etsy because I DO love it- I just think it's better for the shoppers than the merchants.

I think it's about to rain which is awesome because I love storms. There is no better time to be a kitchen witch than when the wind howls.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Okay, my title is a bit extreme. I don't know that anything wicked is coming. (Couldn't resist the R.B. reference.) I just know things are gearing up early.

It started with my cemetery project- I wanted to wait until the weather was cool. But the dead wanted me to explore NOW. Never mind Halloween, venture out now!

Then the Christmas Count-down Crunch kicked in. I hate Christmas. Hate it. I hate the excess, the greed, the commercialism, spend, spend, spend, buy, buy, buy, the overly rich food, decorations put up months in advance (I don't want to see reindeer in October.), people whining about religion, politics, money, stress (most self-induced)...I hate Christmas.

Every year, I give serious thought to my limits. I just refuse to go broke. December is a tough month for me anyway because the truck insurance is due, it's cold so I use more propane, it's dark so I use more electricity, people pop in and out so that's more food, I usually end up driving miles and miles out of my way so more gas, and often whatever company I work for closes for the holidays so less money. I'm not buying a ton of useless gifts for people I rarely see. Each year, I vow to make as many gifts as I can. Each year, I run out of time.

I always start around Mabon. This year, another urge has kicked in- the desire to finish projects. I'm not sure what I'm gearing up for. I just have a strong desire to have all affairs in order. It started with the plastic canvas. I have lots of odds and ends. I now use a finer canvas. I don't like the 10 count anymore, but I still have plenty of pieces. I decided some of these could become boxes. And maybe my boxes could become Christmas gifts. Then I realized it was August. August. I have never thought about Christmas this early.

All my year-end projects are kicking in early. Around Halloween, I started clearing the house. I trade books, I mend things, I make repairs, I restock, I prepare for winter. All the past week, there has been a voice at the back of mind telling me to go through my books. A similar voice is telling me to look over my clothes, I have much to replace.

The strongest urge is to clear out the sewing room. I'm thinking about selling one of my sewing machines. I also thought about selling fabric because I have more than I can use in three lifetimes. I have never considered these things before.

Something is different.

Silent Sunday

Back Cover Is Done!

I hate the upper right corner. I realized I made a mistake, so I picked out a good deal of stitches. Then, as I worked the background, I discovered another HUGE mistake. I so wanted to be finished, I decided to just work around it. Now my stars are wonky. They are overwhelmed by the teal background. That corner doesn't fit in with the rest of the sampler. But damn, I'm done!

I'm ready for my next project. I'll come back to the cookbook later. Since I started with the back, I'll probably do the spine before I do the front cover.

The Only Way I Can See You, Darling, Is In My Dreams

I haven't said anything about Mr. Dragon.

The first reason being, I'm not dating him anymore. I'm with Kurt.

The second reason being, I haven't seen him in well over a month and a half. The Friday before the plant shut down in June was the last time I was physically with him. I've talked to him once on the phone since then. He didn't come back to work because of a spider bite on his foot, and then he had complications from the bite, and then I quit my job.

You may remember, Mr. Dragon has a thing with astral projection- not only did he come to me in dreams, but a few times I actually woke up and saw him in my bedroom.

It was really silly of me to assume his nocturnal appearances would stop. Mr. Dragon definitely has a talent for astral projection. But I don't think he has control of it. Or, heck, maybe he does and that's why I see him so much.

He appeared in my dream last night. In the dream, he was driving his truck and he had a load of lumber. I am taking this to symbolize he is rebuilding his life. I think that's great. I want him to be happy. But why is he showing up now? I did have another dream with him in it, but the details are fuzzy. That's how the pattern goes, first he appears in my dreams, each time getting a little clearer or taking a more active role, until dreams start being about him, and then suddenly he's standing where he shouldn't.

Stay tuned. I have a feeling more is to come.

Been Poking Right Along

I am almost finished with my star sampler that will decorate the back of my cookbook.

Remember, the purpose was to try out new techniques and use up the floss overflowing from my poor little over-stuffed sewing box. Which I can't shut. You can see the box in the corner of my bedroom.

Here's the first star. I started it because I was bored. Then the rest of the canvas needed to be filled...don't ever be bored, you'll get waist deep in a project before you know it.

Then I made this funky star. I used black and white to match my new kitchen floor. I added crescent moons for a witchy kick. I was going to use metallic floss as the background for all the moons. Until I actually started using it. I hate metallic floss. It always looks so beautiful in the store. I admire it, think this is the perfect angel wing/dragon scales/magic sparkle/unicorn horn...and then...once it is in my house it DOES NOT behave. It pills, tangles, knots, lumps up, attracts dust, dirt, hair, and other floating fibers, and absolutely, positively REFUSES to be threaded properly into any needle. Grrrrr.

Kurt is calling this the 'Jamacain Star' because he thinks it looks like the Jamaican flag.

I was going to put the other half of the Jamaican star here, but that's what everyone else would do, right? I can't be predictable. I'm making small stars with variegated black/gray floss. I'll make the background colorful. I like these little stars, they remind me of blackbirds.

And yes, that is plastic canvas. I'm still waiting for plastic canvas to get out of the dorky summer camp projects and become retro hip. I may be waiting a long, long time. I don't know why everyone insists on tissue box covers. Why can't anyone see better possibilities? Why?!

I also decided to try my hand at designing. I found a free cross stitch pattern maker (as opposed to the $50 software available at the big box craft store). I have made a few designs, but I haven't stitched them yet. If they turn out well, as in easy to read, all the rows get printed out, and I can make models in a reasonable amount of time, then I will submit my designs to needlework magazines.

Witch of This Place

I got my cemetery project going again. I created a new page. Right now I have pictures. Later I hope to post rubbings, locations, and history. Go have a look.

Music Monday

Silent Sunday

More progress

I have finished the second star, save for the background. I wanted to use dark blue, but it was just too dark against the purple. I added in some crescent moons.

I'll keep poking along.

OMG! WTF?

I'm not posting the link to the Etsy store because I don't want to encourage this sort of thing.

Sadly, there were more in other colors.