Heads Up...It's a Basket Bonanza!

My daughter and I did a little thrift shop hopping yesterday and hit the basket jackpot!


The first great find was this wicker head...perfect to model hats and scarves for my blog. After I picked it up, I turned around to discover an overflowing baby playpen of baskets...for $1 each! The wicker head was only $1 too! We went through all of the baskets, making a pile of all the ones we liked, then narrowed it down to seven. There were so many nice baskets that it would have been easy to buy more but I try to limit myself to avoid excess "stuff" in our home. We have plans for every single one of these.

Salsa Calling

Yesterday afternoon the phone rang...one lonnnnng ring. My daughter and I looked at each other and commented on how odd that was. No one was there...or so we thought. Until...we went into the family room and noticed that Salsa had crawled up onto the sofa and was snoozing on the phone...


She was trying to be sneeky...but it didn't quite work. lol

Grilled Eggplant and Basil Mayo

Earlier this year, I made some awesome sandwiches with grilled eggplant (you can see that post HERE). They were delicious! We've had this several times since. But...this time...we got to have fresh eggplant from our garden...


And...this time, I tried something a little different. I made basil mayo instead of pesto mayo. It was soooooo good! These were the best grilled eggplant sandwiches yet. I could even go so far as to say that it was sandwich heaven! That's saying a lot because I don't always love sandwiches.

For the basil mayo, I simply mixed olive oil mayonaise with finely chopped, fresh basil. I spread it on grilled sourdough and layered on grilled eggplant, mozzerella cheese, tomatoes, carmelized onions and garlic (with olive oil, salt and pepper), and some strips of fresh picked and grilled anaheim chilis...for a little extra kick. The basil mayo made the sandwiches so succulent and flavorful! We will definitely do this again, and again. Hmmmm...I wonder how it would taste on on other types of sandwiches?

Dessert for Breakfast??

My Sunday morning breakfast creation turned out to be more like dessert than what we would normally have...but it was ooohhh sooooo good!


I would normally try and make a more healthy type of breakfast but this idea came to me and I couldn't resist trying it. I started out by making French toast with pound cake. Then, I layered the French toast with Nutella (hazelnut/chocolate spread), sliced bananas, strawberries (sliced last night, mixed with some sugar and left over from strawberry shortcake), another piece of French toast spread with more Nutella, and the whole thing was topped with more strawberries...the only thing missing was whipped cream! It was craaaazy good!

I think this will be an indulgence that we won't partake of very often...I can only imagine the amount of calories and fat in this...but, then again, I did do a lot of walking yesterday. ;-)

Print Blocks

When I was in design school, taking a textile class, a fellow student brought in a an old carved wood print block. It was a piece of wood with a hand carved design, used to stamp/print designs onto fabric. I was fascinated and quickly added that to my mental list of things to watch for in antique stores, thrift shops, etc.

Turns out they're not so easy to find. But, one day, I hit the jackpot! I was visiting one of my favorite stores, Arte International, and they had a huge table piled high and overflowing with print blocks. My husband, daughter, and I looked through all of them, trying to find our favorites. It wasn't easy! They had so many beautiful designs and they were so intricate and ornate...much more so than the one I'd originally seen years ago.

It's amazing to me that people can carve such intricate designs into wood. They're beautiful! Here are the ones we decided on. You can click on the pictures for a closer look.

I love the flowing dresses on these ladies/angels...


A bird...


A heart...when you enlarge this one, notice the bits of blue ink left in some of the crevices...


This is my biggest one and probably my favorite. It's about 6"x8". I guess it's a paisley design but it looks a lot like a chili pepper! So pretty!...


This one is my daughter's. She loves it!...


Being the budget shoppers that we are, and even though they were only around $5 each, we narrowed our favorites down to just a few. We probably should have bought a carload of them though as I may have been able to make quite a profit...turns out they usually sell for around $50-$150 or more...each! I bought these several years ago and I went back to the store recently, in hopes of finding more, but they're all gone. I did find one in an antique store a couple of months ago but the pattern was very open and unattractive and the price was about $70.

I feel lucky to have found such beautiful print blocks and enjoy looking at them everyday. I have most of them arranged along the top of my mantel. Of course, I'll keep my eyes open for more.

Stars and Stripes

I started this sock earlier this summer and finished it once...but I had so much yarn left over that I ripped it back to the leg to add more length, in an attempt to use up more of the yarn...I don't like to be wasteful or have leftovers. After I added more to the leg, I was a little concerned whether or not I'd have enough to complete the foot, even though I weighed the yarn to try and make a more scientific guestimate. Well, I had enough! Yay! Here's sock number one, for the second time...


I still have another sock to knit but I'm excited about these socks and can't wait to show how cute they are and my "star toe"!...


I saw some socks last week that were made with a different kind of toe that avoids having to use kitchener stitching... something I don't enjoy and the possibility of skipping this was too good to pass up. I came home, started googling various ideas of what it might be called, found some pictures of various knit toe methods and easy directions (scroll to the bottom of the link to "star toe"). I couldn't wait to try it out, so I used it on this sock. It was simple and makes a nicely shaped toe.

This Knitcol yarn makes such cute and colorful stripes and with the "star toes"...these are now aptly named, "Stars and Stripes". :-D

I'm off to knit the second one...only once!

Summer Sizzle

Fresh from our garden...


Anaheim chilis, jalapenos...I think it's time for some fresh home-made salsa! Yum!

Sewing Saturday

A couple of weeks ago my knit group gathered for a sewing day and made project bags. It was so much fun and got me sewing again...something I love to do but just hadn't done in a while. Today was full of sewing fun! I started out by working on a top (I usually don't sew clothes, but I was inspired recently by the "Made by Rae" blog). I had to set that project aside though as I've ran into a little problem that I'll need some help with. But, I didn't want to stop sewing. So, I pulled out some fabric that was left over from a quilt I made a couple of years ago and made another project bag. Here's how it turned out...


I made this one a little taller to better accomodate my knitting needles. And, since I don't know how to make button holes (thanks, Cally, for making the button hole on my last bag), I used a grommet for the drawstring. You can see it in this picture, along with the velcro strap that works great for attaching the bag to my purse, belt loop, camping chair, etc...


I decided to try a square bottom on this one...


Now I have a project bag to go with the knitting needle case that I made about a year ago...


Here's a peek at the inside of the case...


Sew much fun!!!

Beauty Beyond Words

I promised a few weeks ago that I'd post about an amazing experience I had on my recent trip to the Eastern Sierra...but...

1. The experience was too big and amazing and beautiful to capture with a camera...although, I have a LOT of amazing photos...I wouldn't be able post enough to truly show how incredible this place is.

2. It was amazing beyond words!!!

So...all I can say is that you must, Must, MUST visit Yosemite sometime in your life! I felt that Zion was near to Heaven but Yosemite....Wow! There's a reason so many people visit there and why there are so many photos, books, paintings, etc. Incredible!

We've camped just outside the east entrance mannnnny times and I can't figure out why we never went into the park! I'm just so glad we finally did! On this trip we went into Yosemite twice. The first visit was in the mid afternoon and it was raining and soooo beautiful! Right after we turned around to head back, the sun came out and...who would have thought it was possible?...it became even more beautiful!!! Stunning!!!!

There was a stop we made to see a small lake that was like a mirror, surrounded with trees, green, flowers, grasses, mountains with snow, a blue sky and perfect puffy clouds, moisture in the air and a scent, energy, ..... I don't know how to continue to describe it except that it was soooooo amazing that I burst into tears and wept! I can't even explain that! I had just never seen anything so beautiful in my life and it just happened! Like I said...there are no words!

On the way back to camp we stopped at several vista points. A couple of them had signs with quotes. Great quotes! If anything comes close to explaining my experience...this is it...

"Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language."
Aldo Leopold

And...

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace flows into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
John Muir

We went back into the park again the next morning for a day long hike and found more awesome beauty. We can't wait to go back again and again. There is so much to see and experience in Yosemite. I know this will be a destination for many more of our vacations, for the rest of our lives!

Ruffly Rose Scarf

A few weeks ago, on an evening out at the local yarn shop, several of my knit friends and I saw a sample of the "Ruffled Roses" scarf by Annie Modesitt and it was love at first sight! Several of us had to have one and quickly started shopping for the yarn we needed to get started. The pattern is free at yarn shops...that's always nice. After the yarn shop closed we gathered at our friend Debbie's house and got started. Here's how mine turned out...


The pattern recommends wearing it by folding it in half, wrapping it around the neck and sliding the ruffled end through the loop. It looks like a bouquet of roses. Pretty! But, it is a bit tight...I'll make the next one a bit longer.


Besides being a bit tight, the recommended way of wearing it hides the beautiful lace on the ends of the scarf. I figured out a way to show that off and make it more comfortable...fold it in half, wrap around the neck and overlap the lace end over the folded end and secure with a pin (I still need to find one). I think it looks really pretty this way too.

Here are what the ends look like...


The store didn't have the all of the recommended yarn but there were plenty of other options and I think this one saved some money too. I used the Online Linie 194 Solo (as recommended) for the ruffles and Berroco Vintage Wool for the scarf. It was fun to try the Solo. It wasn't the easiest to work with but I love the results. The Vintage Wool was splitty but turned out nice. The pattern recommended using size seven needles but I used size five.

I think this scarf is gorgeous but I'd like to figure out a way to make it without having a seam in the middle...which means I'll need to experiment with the Solo to see how well it works out to end a scarf with it instead of beginning...to be sure it ruffles the same or if it will look ok in a bind off. Either way, I can see myself making another one...maybe with pink roses!