Meet Tessa

This is Tessa. Originally named Sheldon from the Knitty pattern but renamed Tessa thanks to my friend Halen. Tessa was deemed Tessa on knitting night because it's weird to have a pink turtle named Sheldon. It's for one of my girlfriends, Jamie, who is having a baby shower tonight. I don't think I'll be knitting one of these up again. It was quite tedious and time consuming, but well worth it because I know Jamie will appreciate it and love it--she's a knitter too.

And here are some Saartje's Bootees for her as well. I've done these for other babies and Jamie always comments on how cute these are so of course I had to make her some for her baby. Her other two adorable children have dark skin (she married to an "island boy") so these colors will be great against the new babies skin for sure.

We're going to the Utah State Fair tomorrow! I'm so excited because this year my dad won the Best of Show for one of his eggs! See more about his egg hobby from an earlier post here. I'll be sure to take pictures of the prized egg and post them.

Mourning Summer

September 1st. A sad day. Summer is officially over. It was around 97 degrees on Saturday. Today it is hovering around the mid 60's. Brrrrr! Although Fall is a great season, this Summer has been especially wonderful. We had a long, cold Winter and the Summer temperatures have been gloriously hot. It seems that Summer knew it was over because it is raining today--dark, cloudy, gloomy. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain and cozy, blanket, hot coffee, warm slipper days, but I'm just not ready for these cold temperatures!

I did make a fun little purchase off of Etsy today to easy the pain (oh the costly things we do to bring cheer...). I finally bought something from the Black Apple. No not the Mac kind of apple, but the top Etsy seller. I really love this girl's work. Though I didn't purchase a print, which is what she is known for, I did get some really cool little pins. I'll blog them when they arrive in the mail. Etsy is addictive! I could just spend hours looking at all the art and crafty items.

Amongst the mourning and the Etsy perusing, I've been knitting today. We've had a whirlwind weekend of BBQ's, late nights, family, and friends so to have the holiday day off to recover has been quite nice. I've been working on some Monkey Socks from Knitty. I really like them so far. I just hope they fit!

Pickled

My first try at canning was a success! I now have 10 quarts of picture perfect dill pickles! I'd like to do more but finding the time before cucumber season is over may be a challenge. We had a late harvest for most of the produce this year so I may just get lucky.

I also attempted to finish my market bag but the handles are giving me issues. After completing the handles I realized the opening was way too small to appropriately carry anything bigger than a grapefruit. So I'm in the process of frogging the handles and trying to knit them on larger needles. Here's a picture of it with one of the insufficient handles still intact.

Tomatoes, Hens, and To Do Lists

I have the entire day to myself!! From the time I rise to the time I go to bed I can do whatever I want. My James is house/dog sitting in Park City while I had to stay home with Sebastian and his girlfriend, Sugar Pie. Her parents are out of town too so we are watching her the the week. Along with Sugar Pie, came a bag of canned goods and fresh tomatoes! Sooo here's what I had for dinner last night...

Oh-for-the-love-of-fresh-tomatoes, I was in heaven! However, it was missing fresh mozzarella. I'll pick some up today though. The basil is from my little herb garden. Guess what I'm having for dinner tonight? Good golly maybe even lunch, too.

Yesterday I planted a little succulent garden. I had a shallow pot and my Chicks n' Hens and Stonecrop are multiplying out back, so I decided to make a new garden for our front porch. I found the Chalk Fingers and Split Rocks for a great price (probably because they were so tiny).

Do do list for today:

-Laundry (yuck)
-Finish knitting Sheldon - a pink stuffed turtle (yea!)
-Watch some Olympics
-Walk Sug and Sebastian
-Finish knitting market bag - way cute; made out of mustard yellow cotton
-Clean bathrooms (yuck)
-Go to store for fresh mozzarella (yum!)
-Dust and vacuum (double yuck)
-Bake some bread with fresh Rosemary (yum!)

Found. Done.

A sweet little nest for tiny baby birds. Found.

We had a bit of a wind storm here a few nights ago and I found this in our backyard while watering this morning. I'm surprised it survived the curiosity of our two dogs. I pray the little babies had already left the nest before the storm blew their house out of their tree.

Sweet little booties for a sweet little baby. Done.

Well I guess I don't know if the baby is sweet yet. She hasn't been born. The baby shower for said baby was last night. (And it was the biggest baby shower I've ever been to--50 people, spouses invited. That number doesn't include kids or dogs. Overwhelming really.) Thankfully I had these done the day before. The mom really liked them which always means it was worth the time and effort. And though I doubted the sex of the baby and had to confirm with a friend, I made them in the correct colors for a girl. Isn't it weird that we still have a tendency of going pink for girls and blue for boys? Why is that? Hmmmm....

For the love of home baked goodness

This yummy creation is called a galette. Don't ask me how to pronounce it but it's way easy to make. Just take your favorite pie crust recipe and your favorite pie filling - this was apple - place the crust on a baking stone and pile the filling in the middle. Wrap the side over and bake for 30 minutes at 375 and voila -- mouth happiness on the quick.

Nice horse...I mean dog

I must show you all our new addition...this is Bosco, a.k.a - horse, big dog, giant mess of drool.





He is half bull mastiff and half English mastiff, meaning really BIG dog who doesn't know how BIG he really is. He's just over 100 lbs and will maybe get to 130 -150 within the next 2 years. My James says he will be full grown in 3 years. yikes. That's kinda scary considering our tiny house. But boy do we adore him.


On the knitting front...


I have knitted up a few odd items here and there but gave them away before I could get good photos of them...oh well. You'll just have to imagine an amazing slouchy hat and bobbled dishcloths in a yummy, buttery yellow and bright red...ahhh beautiful huh?

For the love of cookies (a new saying I picked up from our friend Nick) she's crocheting!









Yes, I'm crocheting. Nothing fancy because of my amazing left-handed-ness (ha!) just a half-double crochet -- I think that's what it is -- don't hold me to it if you are a crochet expert. Anyway, I have so much left over odds n ends worsted weight 25% wool 75% acrylic yarn that I decided to use it up for this fabulous blanket.





It's great to take to knitting nights because it requires so little concentration that I can talk about the most intense topics and not miss a stitch!


Next project?? CANNING! Eeee gads! I'm a bit nervous for this project. I've NEVER canned before and I'd hate to screw up precious farmer's market produce for a crappy batch of salsa.


Project on the back burner? Soap making. Sadly soap making is an expensive initial investment. But I will hopefully be making some for Christmas gift. Better save my quarters!


I'll leave you with a pict of big dog and little dog in a rare moment of togetherness. (Usually Sebastian stays far away from Bosco.) Please note: little dog's head is quite large for his little body which makes his entire body look deceivingly larger in pictures straight on. Technically Bosco is about 11 times bigger than dear Sebastian.