So many hobbies!

The mirrors are hung

I just noticed the square one is crooked.  Better go fix that...

Maryland prep continues

These are the freezer bag meals that I put together Saturday.  The cans are full of chicken.  Sheri joined me and we got our dinners ready for our upcoming camping trip.  We decided to each try two of them for lunch and to split them, to see if we like those recipes.  I have to tell you, I wasn't expecting them to be that good.  I was hoping but I was erring on the side of caution so I wasn't too disappointed if they were terrible.  I was suprised at how good they were.  Sheri made Ginger Lemon Chicken and I made Bacon and Cheese Pasta.  They were surprisingly tasty.  Dinners should be pretty good in Maryland.

One of the things I learned is you can make your own instant rice if you own a dehydrator.  All you do is cook the rice, then spread it out on trays in the dehydrator until dry.  You can use some pretty tasty rice and make instant rice that tastes so much better than the instant rice you buy in the.

Just to add some variety and veggies to future meals, and 'cause I felt like playing, I dried a sweet red pepper and a small zucchini along with the rice.  The dark bowl at the bottom is the rice.  Just add hot water and I have rice with my dinner.  I can't wait for Maryland!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I had supervision the entire time:

Random Tuesday

1. The tomato seeds were planted Sunday afternoon and have already sprouted.
2. At my guild meeting Saturday, I met a woman wanting to sell some lamb fleeces from Texel/Dorset crosses.  I volunteered to scour and spin some of the fiber so she would have a sample to show.  I'm in the middle of spinning it now.
3. I am thoroughly sick and tired of rain.  I'm ready for some sunlight and some heat.
4. My trip to Maryland for some camping and R&R can't come fast enough.  If it rains, I'm going to be really ticked.
5. My daffodils are blooming.
6. This weekend will be taken up with cleaning and organizing my condo; my sister is coming to spend the weekend of the 27th.
7. There's a shelving unit in the basement that's rather worse for wear.  Worse to the point that it's listing very badly to the left.  I ordered a new metal shelving unit to replace it.  I'll be putting that together this weekend, too.
8. I need a bigger recycling bin!
9. The other day, while I was getting dressed for work, Tyr was on the bed, whipping around in a circle, chasing her tail.  I can't really convey just how hilarious it was.
10. I think I'm addicted to mangos!
    

New greenhouse

I needed some place the seedlings could hang out and grow without the cats eating them.  IKEA had this cute greenhouse that was perfect.  I repotted the pepper seedlings last night and now we're just waiting for the end of May (the last frost in Michigan is around May 31st) to plant.  This weekend I'll start the tomato seeds.

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival is only a few weeks away.  I'm really behind in my preparations for the skein contest.  At the moment, I've only got two skeins that are good enough to enter.  This is the first time in 3 or 4 years that I'm not going to have any spindle-spun yarn to enter.  I haven't touched a spindle in almost a year.  I need to get spinning...

Cabled

A cabled yarn is made by plying a 2-ply yarn back on itself.  It's a unique look very different from a 2-ply.  This will be very interesting knitted up.

That's all I have for tonight.  Saturday, I made a mistake on the shawl I'm working on and I haven't gone back to fix it yet.  The last couple of nights I had to run errands after work and by the time I got home, I was too tired to try and find the mistake.  I'll try and get to it by Thursday so I have something to blog about.

Finished UFO

This was Corriedale pencil roving from Crown Mountain Farms.  I plied this into a cabled yarn that's still waiting for a bath.  I'll have pictures Tuesday.

Not much to show for the weekend except this yarn and getting my taxes done.  Finally.  I really hate doing my taxes so naturally I leave it till the last minute.  Well, almost the last minute.  My Guild meeting is next weekend so this is when I have time to do them.  I'm in the clear for another year.

It was gray and drab most of the weekend.  We got some sun Sunday afternoon, which was nice, and the last that we'll see for the next week.  It's supposed to rain every day this week.  Rain does not make me happy.  Oy!  Hope your week is dry and sunny.

It's spring!

I know this because the croci are blooming.  (Yes, I know the plural of "crocus" is "crocuses" but I figured since the plural of "octopus" is "octopi" then the plural of "crocus" should be "croci."  Sadly, it's not.)  These are the ones in the front yard:

Sorry they're so bright.  It was finally sunny.

And in the kitchen, I've got these little guys:

Again, sorry about the lousy picture.  All of the seeds have sprouted except the ones in the back on the right.  I can't wait to eat the peppers this summer. Next weekend I start the tomatoes.

New camping toy

The new camping season is coming up fast.  Since Sheri and I are going to be doing Freezer Bag Cooking at Maryland this year, I thought I'd make up a couple cozies for our meals to sit in while they cook.  Each cozy (I made one for each of us) has Insul-Bright sandwiched between the outer fabric and the inner polar fleece lining.  Insul-Bright has a mylar layer that reflects heat back to the source.  It's can be used for hot pads and such.  As soon as the freeze-dried and dehydrated foods I ordered arrive, we'll start playing with new recipes and give the new cozies a work out.

Sweet Chocolate Peppers.  They should germinate in the next couple of days.  I hope.  I've discovered that just about the only way I can eat sweet peppers, and raw carrots, is with hummus.  For some reason, eating them raw by themselves gives me heartburn. 

So far, the garden plan includes grape tomatoes (I'll start those seeds in another couple weeks), green beans, the peppers and possible a zucchini.  I need to find someone who'll sell me a bale of straw so I can both mulch the veggies and feed my compost bin.  I hate weeding so mulching is a necessity.  The problem I run into, as I'm sure many people do, is I'm oh-so enthusiastic about gardening in the spring but when the hot summer rolls around, the last thing I want to do is be outside pulling weeds or tending plants.  So, definitely, mulch.  The rest I'll have to figure out as I go.