string art

 A few weeks ago I gave Elizabeth a skein of red yarn and told her to see what she could create in string art.  This is her creation. She said it's a deer catcher.  She wants to catch the 8 point juvenile buck that hangs around the yard eating my flowers and apples and peaches.  I always leave her string art alone, sometimes for the whole winter, when she creates something interesting in the yard.  She puts a lot of thought into it.

     I noticed the only thing she caught was a grandpa with a lawnmower (three times), a meter reader and me (twice) but no deer.

 When summer is over and they've stopped coming here and start going to school instead, I'll have to take this one down.

 

 The joe-pye weed is in full bloom but no monarchs yet. 

I was encouraged when I saw this one on the butterfly bush, but just one.

We went to FiberFest Friday afternoon and can you believe I left my camera in the car?  No, we didn't trek back to get it.  We were on a tight schedule and frankly were too lazy.  I bought felt balls for two projects and these cute pumpkins...

Peaches peaches peaches

When the girls came this week we went peach picking.  I love that we live in an area where we can drive about two miles in most directions and pick our own fruit.  The orchards are closer than the grocery store.  So we pick. 

This morning I made this...a yummy peach pie.  No recipe to share again, just a little sugar, minute tapioca, cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg.   When four and twenty blackbirds sang it was time to take it out of the oven.

Castle full of princesses and knights

Today is our Ceci's third birthday and we went to her party.  She is our princess so Princess was the theme.  She's wearing her princess dress and cousins Adelaide, Elizabeth and  Ava wore theirs.  Everything was pink and sparkly and she loved it.

 She was preparing to blow out her candles on her Rapunzel princess cake

 She did it!!!  Happy Birthday, Sweetie.

Charlie was in trouble!  He went off a twisty slide at a playground this week and broke his humorous bone. He doesn't let it slow him down.  He and his cousin were knights to the house full of Princesses, protecting them from dragons and trolls (uncles and grandpas.)

And Michael is six months old!!!

 I HAVE been trying to organize some projects.  This is one that's a few years old and I'm determined to get it finished and basted so I can work on quilting it during retreat in October.  This is my poor excuse for a design wall.

 My mom embroidered the flowers that I used for the centers of the star blocks.  She used to do amazing embroidery and I kept her very busy working on things for me so when the time came she couldn't do it anymore, I'd have lots of things she worked on.  I'm glad now I had that foresight.  She's not doing well.

People always get nose close to her work because it's so perfect it looks machine done. But it isn't, she did it all by hand.

Boulder Ridge Animals

Each summer we go to the zoo, but today we didn't.  Instead we went to a wild animal refuge park near where the girls live.  It's really a very nice place with lots and lots and lots of room for the animals, interesting beasts we don't usually see....bison, giraffe, water buffalo, different antelope from around the world, porcupine, wallaby, emu, ostrich, zebra, and things I don't even remember.  It was pretty interesting. 

 This guy was very big. Whoa. And close. 

There was a reconditioned schoolbus painted in zebra stripes that took us around to the large animals.

 Did you know that ostrich eggs can support 200 pounds?  That means if you weigh less than 200 pounds you can stand on an ostrich egg and it won't break.  Really!  I wonder how the chick gets out!!

 The cage with bunnies was Adelaide's favorite, of course.

 Elizabeth waited and waited for the tortoise to move.  She was rewarded with a blink.

The petting pens held this llama, goats, bison, water buffalo, some antelope, the babies are here.

But this.  This was the highlight.  Those cases hold tarantulas.  I don't do spiders, not even in pictures.  No.  Nada.  Never.  Wet my pants no.   Well, Adelaide was being so brave. She wanted to see them, and got just this close.  For 15 minutes we heard, "Mommy see me being brave of it?"  and "Grandma, let me show you how to be brave," and she took my hand and tried to lead me into this little space with these ghastly things in it.  I told her no.  I can't.  Don't make me.  "But Grandma, I'm being brave of it,  let me take you."  Too darned cute with her little hand pulling mine but no. They know spiders are not my thing and I told her if I went in there I would cry.  I told her I was so proud of how brave she was, she was much braver than me, but still....no.

Summer tradition

On the way here for their weekly summer visit the girls realized that summer is moving along faster than they'd like because there are still many things on their list that we always do but haven't yet.  So, today, we visited St. Joseph, Michigan, another beach town, that each summer displays artistically decorated "things" outside downtown stores and street corners.  Last year it was pirates, the year before barnyard animals, another year it was cows, another time, fish.  This year the theme is Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

We looked for the letters in their names on this one.....

This one was outside a burger restaurant and it was really cute.  The wheels were onions and pickles, you can see they're sitting on salt and pepper shakers, the rest was decorated as a stacked burger. The front was a tomato slice.  Cute.

I absolutely love watching them read the map to see where to go next and then afterward, remember which were their favorites.

Elizabeth kept us on the path....

... and I couldn't resist this picture!

 

But, ahh, what little girl doesn't love bling?  This decorated plane won hands down as their favorite.  It sparkled from the morning sun a block away. This belongs in their back yard.

Next stop, the carousel!  We had three rides and they chose a different animal each time.  For Elizabeth the horses just got prettier and prettier.

 

This one is part horse, part mermaid and she loved it.

"Adelaide, did you have a fun day?"

Bits and pieces

 What to do with a handful of fruit?  I've never make a rustic tart before.  I'm more of a top crust pie person but I was also very lazy when I made these so I tried this.  No recipe, sorry.  Many times I don't use recipes, I just do it.  The blueberries were tossed with sugar, a little flour and a dash of cinnamon. 

 Same with the peaches.  Four peaches in this one.  A little sugar, some flour and a bit of cinnamon.  They were yummy.  And I think I'll go lazy and rustic more often!


Do you know about yarn bombing?  I'd never heard of it until the city of Lowell, Michigan decided to go for it.  They asked for anything people wanted to do, but it had to be done with yarn.  Thirty-eight trees were bombed. They're really colorful and creative and add a nice look to main street. 

 Elizabeth is partial to all of them.

Make yarn, not war!

This one's a winner

This one is so good.  This one is like you've never tasted good.  It's fresh lemon ice cream (not sherbert or sorbet, but ice cream)  and let me tell you, it's slap the counter good.

  I got this recipe from a blog that I read all of the time.  It's from Sue at  The View From the Great Island.  I'd like to live in her refrigerator. Her blog tastes so yummy I feel like I've eaten after I've read it. 
   On July 1, 2013 she posted this lemon ice cream and since it seemed so very easy, no eggs, no cooking, just heavy cream, milk, sugar and fresh lemons, I got the stuff out and made a batch. And I really did. I slapped the counter when I tasted it.  I even turned out a second batch immediately!
    Now, she showed hers in a cute little fluted one scoop cup.  Notice... I have MINE in a soup ladle!
    I've been having lots of fun with my ice cream maker.  I've made vanilla, buttered pecan, peach, cherry with chocolate chunks,  mint chocolate chunk,  blackberry sorbet, and raspberry sorbet.  But this one.....oh, folks, this one is worth going out and buying an ice cream machine for.  And lemon isn't the first flavor I'd choose for anything!
    You might want to check her blog out...she's working her way through the summer fruits.  She posted a good looking nectarine frozen yogurt but nectarines aren't out here yet.  I'll have to use that yogurt in the fridge for something else.  Blueberry frozen yogurt?  Raspberry?