No Stitching

I have been busy with our bees. I miss my college boy when I have to extract and bottle this stuff. I love the honey and the bees, but it is a lot of work...

Videos for my Guild

I have not gotten much stitching done.  I needed to video myself stitching for my local EGA and I wanted to return the camera that I borrowed to video on.  So I still have to edit the videos I made, but at least they are filmed.  If I can improve the quality enough-sound, not so jerky-I will post a link on the blog.  But I thought you would like to see my set up for this project.  Yep I have 3 lights on my work to get a good video.  Crazy!

Play Time!

I took some time this afternoon to  play with a gelatin plate that I had made ages ago.  I had been wanting to do this since I saw some prints Julie ( Julie Fei Fan Balzer ) made on her blog and I had to try it.  I have been doing some art journaling and I wanted to make some prints on deli paper to use. My favorite tools were the stencils I made myself and some random junk from around my house.  The girl was a stencil I made using an image from a magazine.  Pretty cool, huh?  Now I need to bind the folders together for a new journal.  But first I had better go iron the stack of clothes that is ready to topple over.

Off-Topic Crazy Animals Sketch

My kids told me to post this photo.  I am taking an online class with some friends and one of the assignments is drawing and painting a quirky animal totem pole.  I am so behind that I have no clue what week that assignments was...Anyway, I had some time and an ad from my New Mexico magazine made me want to try. This was my quick sketch.  My kids added the microphone and the pocket protector...

Mail Art and Snow

I am tired of winter.  I am so ready for spring.  How about you?

Gardening Season

These are my Amish Tomatoes that are too small to can.  I dry them and use them all winter.   I am also canning green beans and tomatoes.  Not as much as some of you ladies, but my tomatoes are just starting to ripen.  I love this time of year although it cuts into my stitching.  By evening I am so tired that I don't dare do anything that requires much counting.

Strawberries

This is what I have been doing lately...picking strawberries.  I made three batches of freezer jelly and froze quite a bit.  The kids are tired of picking them which is ok as they are about done.  But boy, they sure enjoyed them with cake and ice cream! I am working on Elizabeth, but no real progress to show.  I do have some work done on another piece that I will post soon.

Canning, dehydrating, extracting and other stuff...OT

I thought I would answer your questions in this post.  My kitchen is almost done!  I have a sink, stove and frig.  I am happy.  The dehydrated fruit came out great.  I especially liked the pears that I dipped in a honey/water mixture and then dried.  My oldest likes them too.  Thank goodness I have a bunch in the freezer.  I have managed to can salsa, tomatoes and tomato sauce.  Also did get some applesauce canned.  I am not sure how much I did of each-I normally keep track-but I do know I am almost done.  The last batch of tomato sauce is cooking now and I just shredded and froze a ton of zucchini.  I can smell the batch of bread that is baking in the oven now.  (The kids keep asking when it will be done.)   The photo is of my oldest son's honey.  This is just the first batch he extracted and bottled.  He needs help with another harvest and we may have to do it one more time.  I must be crazy!!!  I will get back to stitching and posting pictures-maybe even tomorrow!