dog nose art

my dogs leave their nose art on the living room windows

puzzle

my dogs sit on each other

puppy wanted to play and molly wanted to nap. so he sat on her.


it didnt get the results he wanted. she just laid there and ignored him.

organizing seeds

my seed catalogs, box of seeds, and seed list

when i empty a packet of seeds, i cross it off my list. when i order new seeds, i write them on that list. then i can see at a glance what i need to order each spring. i list the plant, the variety, the year the seeds were packed (date on the packet), and the company the seeds came from. that way i can get rid of the old seeds too. some seeds stay good for longer than others. onions seeds in particular dont germinate well after the first year or two.

i redid my seed box so instead of going from front to back in one long row, its divided sideways into three short rows.

making pie crust

chop up a cup (two sticks) of butter into tiny little pieces. then put them back in the fridge to get cold again. you want the butter as cold as possible. thirty minutes is good. the more uniform in size your tiny pieces are, the easier they blend with the flour.


put the flour salt and sugar in the food processor


add the cold butter, pulse for 10 seconds.


add the water while processing no more than 30 seconds in the food processor. do not overprocess.


dump out on counter and mix the remainder in by hand. the less you knead it the better.


just get it all mixed together and stop. divide the dough in two.


wrap in plastic and refrigerate so the butter gets all cold again.



pate brisee (pie crust) recipe
http://www.marthastewart.com/343815/pate-brisee

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut in pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions
Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor, and process for a few seconds to combine. Add the butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With the machine running, add the ice water in a slow, steady stream, through the feed tube, just until the dough holds together. Do not process for more than 30 seconds.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface. Divide in two. Place each half on a sheet of plastic wrap. Flatten, and form two discs. Wrap, and refrigerate at least 1 hour before using.

i dont make regular pie with this, i make sausage meat pies.
pictures of that here http://yesididit2.livejournal.com/4898.html

but it works, every time. just keep the butter cold, and dont over work or over process.

craft room cleanup

the back bedroom is my craft room. it is also where my grow light setup is. it was a mess. its kinda the dumping grounds. my sewing machine gets covered in piles of stuff needing mending or altering, or new projects. extra packages of toilet paper bought on sale get dumped in there. out of sight, out of mind.

and has my clothes drying racks (i hang dry a lot of clothes). the drying racks need space when in use, so things can dry, but they can all easily be rolled out of the way for whatever i'm using the room for, sewing or growing.

i have a closet with my craft stuff in it. in the middle of the closet i previously had 3 sets of plastic drawers i'd picked up for cheap at goodwill over the years, stacked haphazardly, two on top of one. they were the tall skinny kind of drawer sets. i had my yarn in two of those drawer sets, plus plenty of overflow. i found these nice wider plastic drawer sets that are wider than my existing drawer sets. i picked up two of them and got better organized. these wider plastic drawer sets fit better in the middle of the closet, and i was able to arrange ALL my yarn in these wider drawers. i stacked one on top of the other. and yarn isnt heavy so i dont have to worry about the weight of the top drawer set squashing the bottom one. (the bags of yarn on top arent *my* yarn, they're the yarn specifically from the "bundles of love" charity that i crochet baby afghans for. i keep that yarn separate from mine.)



on the right side of the closet is a small bookshelf, short enough that i didnt have to take the shelf/hanger bar out. i moved the sewing books and patterns out of the closet to a bookshelf out in the room, and moved the beading stuff that was previously to the left, to that top shelf on the right. the shelf under that has embroidery stuff.


then, since i had two empty narrower drawer sets, i went thru my little plastic bins of fabric and filled those skinny drawers up instead. much easier access pulling drawers open than yanking out bin after bin. those two drawer sets sit on top of the plastic shelving on the left.


i had to take off the top plastic shelf to make the drawer sets fit without having to take out the shelf/hanger bar. i dont know what to do with this extra shelf. its not very sturdy, and its too deep to put up on the shelf in the closet like i thought to try.


i still have 4 plastic bins of fabric stuff.

two of the bins are filled with works-in-progress, so everything needed for just one project where the pattern is pinned to fabric and cut out, but i didnt finish sewing together. so really i only have 2 bins of fabric left that didnt fit in the skinny drawers, and one is only half full.

dont know what i'll do with those 4 empty bins that used to have fabric in them. i will absolutely NOT be shopping for more fabric. i obviously have tons already. same with the yarn.

puppy supervised. and scrambled around chasing his tennis balls thru the mess.


the third skinny drawer set that has misc stuff in it. hot glue guns and various glue sticks. pumpkin carving kit. old headphones/earbuds for backup when i kill the current ones i'm using (i'm hard on them it seems). just junk. but it no longer fit in the craft closet.


the upper shelf in the closet has room for improvement. i think this summer i'll see about adding another wooden shelf up there.


the craft room was a mess while this was going on.


the bookshelf out in the craft room, now neatly organized. patterns and sewing books on one shelf. boxed photos, and a box of greeting cards. photo albums. textbooks and stuff from college that i wanted to keep, on the bottom.


this bookshelf is still a mess.


eventually i got everything sorted out, except that last bookshelf. here is my grow light setup.


my sewing machine table with its never ending pile of mending


and the closet, all neat and sorted out and able to get the door closed!!

dust dust and more dust

i had to dust the curio cabinet. its been at least 6 years, maybe more.




its a challenge because i have the thing jam packed.