front garden

IMG_1507
Originally uploaded by yarn dirt words

New shoots starting pushing up through the dirt a few weeks ago. I planted bulbs the spring we moved in and they've bloomed every year but I can't for the life of me remember which ones come up first. So it's always a surprise when they bloom.

This was taken with my point-n-shoot Canon SD1400 which does a pretty good job. I had it on 'foliage' setting which makes the greens pop. It poured last night, our first big rain of the year, so the little water droplets are an added photo bonus.

channeling those creative urges

I loved crazy quilting. It was free-form enough to get my creative juices flowing, but simple enough to learn that I could jump right in. I met my friend Julie thru CQ, she of the cool chicken coop which I need to blog about soon. I have tons and tons of stuff to do CQ with. The only problem is my hands. Over the last several years, I developed osteoarthritis in my fingers to the point where I can no longer do the fine stitching which is one of my favorite aspects of CQ.

This is a pincushion I made using a CD for the base. You can almost see the little running bunny at the bottom.






So I got back into knitting and crocheting, which I like just fine, but it isn't real creative. For me, anyway, in that I don't create the pattern, I just choose it, then knit it. That process just doesn't scratch my itch, altho

I ended up with some nice items for this winter.

But then I stumbled across a couple photography sites and was very intrigued by the things you can do with a camera and in Photoshop.

Then I googled 'collage' for some reason and was hooked. The combination of all three is something I don't need exceptionally deft fingers to do, and the creative aspects are limitless. Well, the limits will be my patience and ability to learn PS, which already has been giving me fits. By that, I mean big loud prolonged swearing fits.
But I have managed to create a collage from papers and laces and paints and stamps that I'm pretty happy with. I read on someone's blog to just try and be happy with what you produce. Don't hold it up next to someone else's work and pick it apart - just enjoy it for what it is and learn from it.

So... here it is.

I like autumn, altho a lot of the emotions connected with it are melancholy. I started with autumny colored papers, torn and pasted down. On some of them, I rubbed a brown ink pad to darken the edges. The image of the girl had orange and red mums on it, so I added that. Once I had all the papers on there, I gently rubbed all over with brown stamp pad ink on a rag to age it a bit.

Then I started adding buttons and laces and the tag stamped with Autumn. I bought a pack of those tags at Staples the other day, crumpled them up and dunked them in strong cold tea. DH stopped and watched for a minute, then said, "Oh, the collage thing, I bet." Good guess, honey.

I cut the definition of autumn from a little dictionary, then cut out the words 'another year gone' from an old book

The lace along the bottom is the fringe off an ancient shawl that I paid a buck for at a flea market at least 25 years ago and have been hauling around ever since. I couldn't ever stand to throw it away, even when it started to fall apart, but I had no problem whacking it up for my new hobby LOL. The bit of lace around the girl and hanging down below her are also from the shawl.

I lay in bed last night trying to think up a subject for my next one. That's my biggest problem - that initial spark of inspiration. But as I mulled it over, a few ideas came to me and I fell asleep making a mental list of photos I'd need to take, the doo-dads I wanted to add to it, what to use for the background, etc, etc.

It's good to be interested in something again, to look forward to time in the craft room.

Landing Pad

Landing Pad
Originally uploaded by Kausthub

Just stop whatever else you're doing and look at this gorgeous photo.

The colors... the clarity... the composition... it's just perfect.

photo fun #2 - post and wire

What difference just a few changes make. This old post and barbed wire was shot out in the country  when S and I were driving around yesterday. I pulled over to the side of the road, he rolled down the window and snapped the pic. No effort expended and a so-so shot.








But... I played with it a little in PhotoScape, sharpened it, intensified the color, brightened the front of the post, stuck a rustic frame around it, and now... now it's something I'd stop and look at twice in a photo exhibit, something I'd maybe put on my wall.

I'm going to play with it some more, try to get the grass more golden without looking garish, but for 15 minutes worth of fiddling, I'm quite happy with it.

branching out

I love photography, always have. A really good photo can bring me to a halt for quite a while as my eyes roam over all the details. I dabbled in it years ago when you had to actually print the pictures out on paper to see what the heck you had. After going broke taking a lot of crappy pictures, I gave up.

But that was then, this is now and digital photography means it's practically free to hone your picture taking skills, hitting 'delete' on all the lousy ones until your portfolio contains nothing but wondrous images of the world as you see it. I've been longing for a DSLR, looking at them on eBay and Amazon, haunting photo blogs and flickr. But. Several buts. They're pricey, they don't fit in my purse, and I'm lazy about learning all the stuff that makes them cool to begin with. It would be like me to buy a fancy camera, set it to 'auto' and then moan about why my photos don't look like the ones on the blogs.

So I got out my point-n-shoot, an Olympus SD1400, and actually read the manual. Turns out it does all sorts of things I had no idea about, so for now I'm going to play with it and keep hoping I win a DSLR from Pioneer Woman. I also downloaded PhotoScape, free image editing software that has a lot of cool features.

This is the photo SOOC (straight out of camera). Kinda interesting but nothing special.

And just in case you're wondering, the shadow of the chain is what's in focus, not the chain itself.

This is the photo after I cropped it and did some tinkering in PhotoScape. I quite like it in an urban grunge sort of way. And despite looking like it's from the inner city, it's just around the block from my house in upper middle class suburbia. 

So I guess I'm back on a photography kick.

I love these things...

Photo caption contests are one of my favorite things. They involve a bit of imagination, a dash of mad writing skilz, and a cool picture. What more could you ask for?

Gale over at She Shoots Sheep Shots is having a photo caption contest for a sheep in a hand knit hat. The photo was taken during one of Gale's photo workshops at Juniper Moon Farm and it's adorable.

The two prizes are a copy of Gale's book Shear Spirit: Ten Fiber Farms, Twenty Patterns and Miles of Yarn and 3 skeins of Lamb's Pride.

book review: As Sure As The Sun

As Sure As the Sun by Anna McPartlin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really liked this. Picked it up on a whim but I'll look for more by her after reading this one.

A story of a woman who has a twin brother, and parents who have quite the secret they've been keeping for 30 years. Two of the woman's friends and their families also fit into the story. Alongside the current narrative are the diary entries of a 17 year old girl, written about 30 years ago.

It's very well done. Suspenseful and satisfying. She writes well, her dialog rings true, the plot was original. I totally recommend it as an enjoyable read.



View all my reviews

old red boat

old red boat
Originally uploaded by yarn dirt words

We took a drive this morning, just out in the country, turning onto whatever roads looked interesting when we came to them. So many big fancy houses all locked an boarded up. I can understand that the owners lost them to the bank and that no one else can afford to buy them, but why aren't they at least rented out? Seems like even cheap rent would be something for the bank to put against the debt.

Along the way, we passed this old boat. The picture appealed to me and after I played with it in Picnik, I ended up with this, which I really like a lot.

book review - Barn Blind by Jane Smiley

Never was an author so in-aptly named. I love the way this woman writes but her books are not easy to live with after you've read them. They're depressing and they stay with me for days as I think back on what happened and how she told the story. Both this book and A Thousand Acres are stories about everyday people whose secrets and desires and unflattering thoughts lead them thru a plot that pulls you in quietly. And they end so softly, like a fading note on the breeze, that you can't really believe it's over.

Kate in Barn Blind is often referred to as 'obsessed' in the reviews. To me, because I share some personality traits with her, she seems less obsessed than simply very driven to achieve her goals. The sub-story of her marriage is played softly in the background, and the children's interactions with each other rang very true to me, often consisting of only a few paragraphs.

It is a book for intelligent readers, I think, because she doesn't fill in every blank, explain every action. You're left to infer a lot, which I enjoy. I have two more Jane Smiley books on the shelf but won't be picking them up real soon. I need a break with something foolish - David Sedaris, maybe? But she has become a favorite author of mine because her books reach out and grab you by the throat.

OMG was this ever good

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Originally uploaded by yarn dirt words

One of my all-time favorite sandwiches is this one. Tomato, bacon, avocado, and a fried egg, all on un-toasted wheat bread with a slather of Miracle Whip.

I made this one the other night using just one piece of bread, but then couldn't get it shut enough to eat, so I had to cut the bread in half which meant that the whole thing was a real mess to eat. I stuck a bunch of toothpicks in it but still ended up eating the last couple bites from the palm of my hand. It was sooo good.

Still have some bacon left so another one's in my future...

homespun hand dyed loveliness

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Originally uploaded by yarn dirt words

I traded a bunch of silk floss for two gorgeous skeins of yarn. This one was a whopping 585 yards of approximately DK weight. It's a 2-ply yarn in a variety of pastels, with the colors combining differently all thru the skein.

I'm crocheting a Crobaktus with it and hope to have enough left for a pair of fingerless mitts to match. The colors will go with most of my winter wardrobe, so I'll get a lot of use from it. I'll update with a better photo next week after I have a bit more done.

being content with who and what I am, blog-wise, & CSA update

I don't know what it is about me and blogs but I definitely stall out thinking about something to say. Other people's blogs seem so much more interesting - chickens, sheep, goats, travel!! However, when I dial down my expectations a bit, I realize that things happen around here every day. They may not be real exciting, but they do happen, so I'm going to quit trying to be the next PW and just try to be myself, whoever the hell that is.

So, here's a pic of last Thursday's CSA. Kinda more of the same from previous weeks. I've eaten a few of the tomatoes, one of them in a big juicy BAT (Bacon Avocado Tomato) that I had for breakfast on Monday morning. It was great.

Tonite I'm making a pasta salad with some of the zukes. It gets tough to know what to do with all the squash. I troll several food blogs looking for ideas and actually tried making zucchini crisp, but it was... weird. I don't think I took a pic of it. It wasn't too bad straight out of the oven, but cold it was very strange. It went in the trash.


The lettuce and chard went next door to people who actually like that stuff. Actually, I like lettuce but it doesn't like me. Chard has been mostly unsuccessful for me in the various things I've tried it in, so I'm giving up on it for the time being.

My own tomatoes are coming along but more slowly than last year.

This is about what I'm getting each week. The Sweet 100s are the best tasting, as usual. The grape cluster (not sure if that's the right name) are a bust. They're so tiny that I guess they have about a 2-hour picking window and I keep missing it. Won't do those again. Also have some gourds that are doing ok. Lost the tag but I think they're the gourds you can dry and then paint. Guess I'll find out in due time.

more CSA goodness - week 7

Picked up week 7 of the CSA yesterday and was thrilled to see less lettuce and more stuff I like!

This was the crate as it looked when I got it home. Everything is lifeless and dusty and not real appetizing, at least to me. Cleaning and trimming makes a big diff as you can see...

There were several radishes but I gave them to another woman who was picking up her box at the same time. Just can't find a use for radishes that I enjoy. My mom used to eat them sliced thin on buttered white bread with a light sprinkle of salt, but several things about that don't sound good to me, so that's out.

The strawberries will get cut up and slightly sweetened to eat on cereal, but I'm not real sure what I'll do with the blackberries. I ate a few this morning stirred into some yogurt, but feel like they deserve something more exciting. Maybe I should freeze them and wait till I have a couple week's worth to make a small cobbler...

CSA week 1 4/15/10

Picked up our first CSA crate. I was pretty excited to see what was in it since we've never done this before. Another woman was picking up her crate also, so we chatted for a minute. The main thing that struck me was how dirty it all was. I didn't expect it to be all cleaned up like from Save Mart, but I guess I expected it to be washed off a bit more. I headed straight home with it since the day was warm and I didn't want it to wilt in the car all day.



This week got 3 kinds of lettuce, a bag of spinach (DH will love that), a few carrots, parsnips and radishes, two artichokes, 2 spring garlic, and some fresh thyme. I'm sort of embarrassed to admit that I've never bought fresh herbs before, so using the thyme will be a new experience.

The next night we steamed one of the chokes and roasted the parsnips and carrots with some potatoes. I love roasted veggies and the parsnips were quite sweet, but the carrots seemed no better or worse than the ones from the grocery.

It's been over a week and we haven't done much with the lettuce. I guess I'll take a head to work to give away and pile a bunch on our sandwiches. Just not interested in salads at the moment. Actually ever since I read that lettuce is on the no-no diverticulitis list, it hasn't sounded good to me.

So I'd score this first CSA crate as a 6 out of 10. They skipped this past week cause it's been so wet, so the next one will be the 29th.

waiting out winter

It's raining. Again. Seems like it's done nothing but for months now but Mr YDW said that someone told him the past two years were drought years and that normally, it rains even MORE than it did this winter. Oy. Last year at this time, I had tomatoes in pots and they were budding like crazy. This year, they're huddled under the patio overhang trying to stay warm.

A pot of yellow squash on the left, a little box with 6 tomato plants in it, three of them new to me this year, a potted up tomato (can't for the life of me remember which type), and a pot of snap peas.

I love the tendrils on the pea plants.

The pot in front of the squash has misc flowers coming up, tiny green sprouts that I hope will turn into a color pot for the table.

And, lastly, the garden spot.

What with the incredibly energetic digging dog, we're going to run a 6' wire fence from the wooden fence to an out of sight post next to the house. I'll keep all the pots behind there, and hopefully end up with fresh tomatoes, squash, beets, beans, etc - if this freaking winter EVER ENDS!!!!

Easter Sunday 2010

Pretty much just a welcome day off. A lazy morning with good coffee. A late lunch at a favorite restaurant. Maybe some work in the garden, or what will be the garden soon, after fencing, digging, planting. Maybe some crocheting, maybe a good movie on the tube with Mr YDW.

The only two items currently on display that have any connection with Easter are this bunny holding an egg. I guess he's a planter, but I just have him on a shelf. One dollar oin the close-out bin at the florist downtown.


And this rooster. He's from the Dollar Store and look how dusty that shelf is. One of the perils (or benefits, depending on my mood) of being short is that you can't see how dusty items above your line of sight are.


Both those items are on this little shelf that hangs in the family room and receives the most seasonal attention, mostly because I see it all the time. Old mugs on top, one with loose change, one with pens.


The photo taped to the mirror is this one - a pic I snapped at least 20 years ago at a stop light when a girl in a VW pulled up next to me with this HUGE dog in the back seat. I LOVE this picture. The big happy dog, the girl smiling back at him. I often make up mental stories of their lives.

hail?!? srsly???

It hailed at work this afternoon. We all stood there, staring at it, wondering what in the hell was going to fall from the sky next. Kangaroos? Meatballs?

What a weird, wet winter.

book review - A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

A Thousand Acres was an interesting read for me. It started off as a benign small-town tale, but soon darker threads began to show in the fabric of the story, and by the end, I felt a little stunned. The story is told in such a low-key manner that you hardly realize how deep and dark it's become until it's all over.

The main character is a farm wife caught between the various stronger personalities of her husband, sister, father, and various other characters. Among other factors, revelations from her past have a profound effect on her, causing the entire house of cards that is her life to come tumbling down.

There is not a single man in the book who is portrayed in a positive manner, but since this is my first Smiley book, I can't say if that's a common theme with her. It didn't bother me, but it did make me look twice at the men in my life, wondering at their possible thoughts and motives.

Others reviewers have called this a depressing book, and I guess it is, but it made me think, and I like that in a book. And I like her writing style. There were many phrases and sentences that had me sitting there, staring out the window, thinking about the subtle ways she uses words. A good book, worth 4.5 out of 5 stars.

the winter of mittens

I joined NaKniMitMo (National Knit Mittens Month) on Ravely and managed to knit three pair of mittens. All three got some use after being knit, but these are my favorites. I loved the yarn (De Vi Autumno) when my friend Julie and I saw it at Atelier Yarns in San Francisco, so I bought 4 skeins and used one and a half on these mittens. They are so soft and warm. I'll probably make a scarf from the rest of the yarn, but want it to be something special and I haven't found a pattern that really grabs me.

The second pair were made from SWS Stripes and I love the colors in these. I didn't have enough of the green to do the second glove the same way, so I simply switched the color positions. They go with all my jackets and I definitely need a scarf to match. Can you tell the pink thumb is a bit longer than its mate? Well, it is. I have yet to make a pair of mittens that are exactly the same left to right, so I bought a book on how to knit two socks on two circs, only I'm gonna use it for mittens.

The third pair is a gigantic set of bright red mittens that I didn't take a pic of yet. I had delusions of knitting a red hat and mittens to walk the dog in, since she wears a red harness, but the mittens are huge. So much for paying attn to gauge lol. I'll donate them to my cousin's husband who works outside a lot and will love them.

enough already

I've had it with the rain. I know we're still below ideal snow levels in the mountains or whatever the heck, but it just seems never-ending this year. My early bulbs came up in January and are blooming but they're defeated by the pounding they take every day.

On the other hand, it makes for lovely photos. Water dripping off things is one of my favorite photo subjects.



I wish I had a few big spiders living in my yard so I could shoot their webs after a heavy dew. Web photos are often spectacular.

The field next to where I work is full of weeds and grasses that make for great pictures, and it's all growing like crazy this time of year.


Garden-wise, normally I'd have put out tomatoes by now, but the garden area is a disaster and is going to require a weekend's worth of work before I can do anything. This may be the year I build raised beds...