Thing-a-day.com

I had hoped to have this finished for this final day post.  However, the other things I did cut into the time spent on this project this month.  This is an afghan crocheted in a ‘filet’ or net form.  (if you look, you can see some of the colors in the lower layers peeking through the holes in the net looking like bad shadows in the picture).  The plan is to weave yarn through the net in the same black and red pattern as the horizontal to turn it into my family name’s tartan pattern.

All I was able to do today was to get the yellow cross weave in.

Made labels for my Spice Rack.  I know this is a silly one - especially since I printed them on my computer, but I did figure out how to feed odd size paper into my laser printer - I really have never tried this before and it opens up a lot of possibilities I hadn’t thought of before

And a close up -

It may seem pretty arrogant for a city like Colorado Springs to promote Pike’s Peak as “America’s Mountain” - but it makes a whole lot more sense when you understand it is ”America’s” Mountain. (still, my apologies to those Americans not from the United States of) 

America the Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

I was inspired by this note from Katharine Lee Bates about her trip to the mountain in 1893:

“One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.”

 I have been waiting for a really clear morning to try to capture some of that feeling of expanse, possibilities, and joy — This comes pretty close for me - I hope it works some for you too

The wind has been blowing very strongly this winter - so I made a blanket for the opening.  It is held in place with strategically placed magnets and filled with fiberfill.  A little bit of quilting and we have wind protection for those days when we don’t want a fire.

A little woven bookmark.

Took an old wooden serving tray - painted it red - and covered the bottom with old wine corks.  I really had not realized how differently sized wine corks could be.  It was a bit more of a puzzle than I had expected.  The hot glue and pushing them in place helped some but there are still variations the result in little holes.

I framed this cross stitch poorly (no mat so the stitching was against the glass, it was framed smaller, etc.) and it really needed to be redone.  Finally went out got a mat, found an old frame (hideous 80’s cream with tan in the creases), repainted the frame, and put it all together.   Very happy now that the stitching will probably keep much better.

I did do the cross stitch but it was not this month, or even this year, even the cleaning of the stitching was done months ago — so  all I did today was painting the frame and bringing it all together - love that a theme this week was remake)

With the theme of spying, I decided to check out you all.  I wanted to be nosy about how well the group was doing on posting.  It started as just a check on day 18 of what the distribution was of people who have posted a given number of times.  Then I decided that posting that might be sending the message that if you didn’t post every day you were behind or something - especially since in browsing the post I would see a lot of multiple thing posted in one post.  So, this is a snapshot in time to see how the numbers changed over two checks four days apart.  It is moving — even people with 3 or 4 posts are still with us — cool.

C’mon Spring!

I found these hyacinth bulbs on markdown because it is now too late to get them to bloom for Easter.  Since that date holds no significance for me - I made them a cool dark place where they can get started on some roots.  I know this is very little, and is not very ‘creative’ but, it will require a thing-a-day commitment of opening them and checking to see if they have the water they need and so I am counting this as participating in the work of creating the flowers which will result and which would not have resulted if left to wither in the store.

They will bloom long after this  adventure is over so I will not be able to post their pictures then.

February task:

Make something; be creative -

in twenty minutes

Just like the aviator, my painter’s career was stifled at an early age.  But, rather than place the sheep in a box, I chose to make a pompom one instead.  He looks quite healthy and like he might live a long life, but based on his size he probably will need a lot of grass.  Maybe I should have gone with the box….

The instructions and template for face and feet are from dadcando.com

Well, ever since I made the roll for my crochet hooks back on day two of this adventure, my knitting needles have been looking at me funny and I can tell they are wondering why the hooks have been treated better.

So, in the interest of craft room harmony, I made this today to make sure all of those sharp pointy sticks don’t get too mad.

Turned a kitchen towel and some bias tape into a lunch bag for my version of a “bento”  lunch

Closed

And holding the containers from day 2…

This seemed like it would be a quick little project, but….

I have not done any calligraphy for years and forgot many of the simple techniques that would have prevented me from having to start this five times including: counting spaces and letters when centering lines, making sure the paper is not so porous that the ink bleeds, making sure that the paper is porous enough so that when you erase your guidelines you don’t erase your work, to stop thinking about anything except the current letter. and so on.  Well at least it is inexact enough that people will not think I cheated and just used a computer font…

This is a saying that my dad had hanging in his basement for years and I always loved it.  Now I am thinking I need to do an entire series of subversive calligraphy –  maybe some mildly rude stuff in pseudo latin…..

(and yes, I did cut the mats off-kilter on purpose. In my twisted mind I thought that was funny)

And my submission is — a valentine’s day card for my sweetie

Happy Valentine’s Day sweetheart.

A collaborative effort between myself and my husband tonight for dinner.  Since he was home, hubby put the chicken thighs in the oven to roast, let them cool and removed them from the bone.  Once I got home, I was responsible for the veggies, noodles and getting it to ’soup’.  It was delicious with some bread made on Sunday.  Made about 5 quarts - it will last us well through tomorrow with the predicted 5-9 inches of snow.

Made a magic wand today following the instructions using rolled paper, hot glue, and paint from dadcando.com

This was loads of fun and very simple to do - so of course I tarted it up a bit

The wand -

But mine has a ‘diamond’ tip to focus the energy -  and it’s “heart” is gold (well…,  electroplate gold at least)

I saved this picture and quote from November’s Real Simple Magazine knowing I would do something with it.  Here it is just mounted with a little bit of paperwork.

It is always difficult to photograph something under glass and this was the closest representation I could get - so in case you cannot read the quote it is: Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.  - Henry James

The first 40 people who make it for dinner…

Really, this is one of my super meal days.  We have a very large (21 cubic foot) freezer, I love to cook but hate the time it takes on a daily basis, and the result is ’super meal’ days.  I make at least 6 meals (plus one to eat) in one day.  I do this about 3 times a month, so the super days can be ‘production line’ and we can shift through things without having to have the same thing every day and dinner prep is just heat and serve.

Today was quiche – one of my favorites because it is a left-brain operation for me.  I prep a lot of meats, veggies, cheeses and assemble them as the whimsy strikes.

Here is the prep area ready to go

And all of the nice pie shells made and waiting to be filled

With their individual mixtures – we have bacon, onion, spinach, and Swiss; sausage, peppers, and Cheddar; shrimp, snap peas, red peppers, and Monterey Jack, … you get the idea

All filled and waiting their eggy goodness

A filled oven - yummmmmmmm