New find

I saw this cabinet at Ikea recently.  It was one of those things that you see across the room and run to it with open arms and wrap your arms around and vow to take it home.  I saw it a few months ago but PH was with me and didn't "get it."  Kind of like that quote I saw that said "taking your husband shopping is like going hunting with the game warden."  But last week Friend Marilyn and I were again at Ikea and she put it so well, "don't you think you deserve a present?"  Well, when you put it THAT way!!

Today it came out of the box in pieces, as all Ikea pieces do, when my daughter came to help put it together.  She did most of the work but it didn't even take that much work! It really is just the coolest cabinet!!

 I was able to fit just three of the ten bins of fabric in, color coordinated by shelf...yellow, red, green.

Maybe I'll have to go back and get another one???  Or maybe start making a quilt or two or ten?

Friendly visit

Friend Jan came to visit yesterday to see the work in progress.  She met painter Devin, who is here so much we've just adopted him (it takes a lot of paint to cover chocolate brown with white.)  She shared the first strawberry pie of the season, we caught up and planned on future play dates.  She lives, in country parlance, "just down the road." Maybe 10 minutes?  Definitely closer than the hour and a half it took before our move.

 Jan brought this beautiful garden ornament.  These are SO pretty.  Somehow with superglue or adhesives of some kind, plates and bowls are stacked together, a hockey puck with a hole drilled into it so the iron bar can fit is glued onto the back plate and voila!  Something that sparkles in the sun. 

Thanks, Jan!!

Pie part 2

I picked strawberries this morning!  I had to go farther away but this patch was beautifully maintained and the berries nice, large, not sluggy even with all the rain we've had, and it didn't take much time to pick 8 pounds.  The trick is to go early before it gets so hot your glasses slide off your face.

 OK, here's the recipe.  Can't be any easier than this:

Cook one cup water, one cup sugar and three tablespoons cornstarch till it bloops.  You know how cornstarch is when it's done, right?  Take the pan off the heat and stir in one box of strawberry jello. That's it! 4 ingredients: sugar, cornstarch, jello and berries.

 Cool the gel.  I put it in the fridge and then monitor it so it doesn't set up, just cools down so the hot gel doesn't cook the berries. When cooled fold in the berries. I may change my favorite color to red!

Put it in the fridge to set.   Pile it high the gel will hold it and believe me, because you piled it high when you cut it you will hear exclamations all round the table.  I've said it a million times, this pie is the reason God made strawberries.  I don't sully it with whipped cream.  That's overkill.


 
And if you have a little one in the house, when you come home with some red ripe strawberries, sit down and read this book with them.  It's priceless.

Now I have to see if I can find in the packed quilt boxes some black rick rack.  Can you believe there is no place in town that sells it?  There are just two possibilities but neither carries it.  I don't believe I have any and if I do it's packed and hidden.   Off to the hunt.

When you don't know what to do make a pie

Same old song.  Still unpacking, stepping over paint cloth, putting some things back together but can't do it all yet because the kitchen cupboards still need to be painted and I'm going to do it. They and all wood surfaces in the house are Coca-cola brown and I'm having it all painted white so it takes multiple coats to cover but the kitchen will be blue.  Soft? French? Periwinkle? A shade darker than soft? I can't decide on the right shade because I know the color on the chip will look different on the cupboards. I'm also a bit afraid of doing the job because I don't want to mess it up and have to fix it and live in a state of confusion even longer.  I think probably when all workers are out of here and I'm  alone again I'll start.  Then I can focus. Maybe a nap first, though.
Carpet in the living room, built in bookshelves and a half wall to be built hopefully next week.  When THAT is finished we move forward quickly.

I didn't know what task to tackle this morning so I decided to make pie crusts! When it's all too much, do something different, right? Strawberry picking starts this week. It's been raining a lot the last couple of days and that's not good for ripe strawberries, but I'll be at it first thing.  I love to pick my own fruit.  For me, that is summer.

I baked four pie crusts and put them in the freezer so the pie can be made and eaten quickly when the time comes.  

 For awhile I collected rolling pins and decided to use this one today. I think it's from the 1930's. You unscrew the cap, fill it with ice and that helps the dough stay cool.  Collections can be a bit of a curse when it comes to moving them. You kind of wonder why you started. 

I've always loved Lois Ehlert's books.  They are for little little ones, so if you have a toddler to preschooler, these are great.  Her medium is paper.  All of her books are illustrated with her paper cuttings.  The graphic designs are perfect for applique and the last couple of work years I kept thinking someday I would make a quilt with one square depicting one illustration from each of her books. 

 I started with Top Cat.  It took longer than it should only because this past year (it's been a whole year since this odyssey started)  has been so busy with packing, purging, moving and other quilt projects that had to come first so Top Cat sat in the bottom of my basket longer than I wanted.

Last week I took the girls on my day with them to Friend/Grandma Marilyn's and we sat on the porch and stitched a bit.  I put the finishing touches on Top Cat.  I'm going to put tiny black buttons on the eyes....when I find my button jar. I know it's in a box somewhere. I'll embroider the whisters.

The technique was simple.  I drew the templates right from the page of the book so they are true to size. I took pics of the page so I have a color reference.  I really would love a complete set of her books.  What a treasure that would be.

I think I'll do Boo to You! next.  Love that Boo cat!  But Snowballs is my favorite of all. Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf is a staple in all Kindergarten classrooms.  If you think of it next time you look for a book for a preschooler, look for Lois Ehlert.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman  (an Edelweiss review copy)

If author Fredrik Backman were here I would give him a hug.  I would cook a meal for him and if he were here now I would serve my strawberry pie.  Why?  Because he wrote this book.  This book is a marvel and I can’t remember when I slowed down so much while reading something because I truly didn’t want it to end. I wanted to be with these people longer. I wanted Elsa to be in my family and I want, I can only aspire to be Granny.  She’s crazy.  She’s righteous. She’s an army. She is Elsa’s army.

This is how chapter 5 begins: “Having a grandmother is like having an army. This is a grandchild’s ultimate privilege: knowing that someone is on your side, always, whatever the details. Even when you’re wrong. Especially then, in fact.”   That paragraph was read at least a dozen times and then I closed the book and thought about it.  

Elsa is almost eight years old and a character like her you won’t meet again soon.  She is more astute than most adults I know.  She’s different and suffers for it among her peers.  But she has Granny, her best friend.  Granny tells Elsa fairy tales from the Land-of-Almost Awake, a land filled with dragons, knights, people and places.  Each a serious place of respite and relief for the abuse Elsa suffers in school. The fairy tales help Elsa cope and sleep.

The apartment house Elsa and her pregnant mother, step-father, grandmother and assorted lost souls inhabit is its own little world.  As we read and understand about these people, the more we understand the fairy tales. And you do need to pay attention to the fairy tales because Mr. Backman doesn’t remind you of little facts.  In fact he will outright tell you, on the page, if you don’t remember then you weren’t paying attention back there.  Granny sends Elsa out on a treasure hunt and in this hunt she and we learn the stories of the strange reclusive people who inhabit the apartment house and their connection to the fairy tales.

I smiled a lot.  A lot.  I didn’t laugh out loud because as I read I was ‘getting it’ but I do so love Mr. Backman’s way with telling a story.  

This is a story about being different and how ok that is.  It’s the story of a little girl who is unlike any you will meet.  It’s a story of how a Granny adored, took up the sword for and taught a little girl it’s ok.

I thought  A Man Called Ove was a terrific story but this….well, this is a whole different level of terrific.