Remember that quilt top I was working on with Caroline when Lizzy House was at Susan’s?
I finished it.
Just the top. But it’s beyond gorgeous.
I don’t have any wall space where I can hang it for a proper picture right now, so bear with me. This is just a peek. The color is off and I realized it’s also upside – down.
More details and better pics to come.
For now I am back out to digging garden trenches.
I think it is generally agreed that I have my share of bizarro encounters while out and about. I have that kind of aura, I guess. You know how it goes – if there’s an unhinged person in line at Starbucks, I’m 100% sure to be the one they unload on. I’m especially a sucker for the high – functioning types. I’m generally a few exchanges into small talk with a normal seeming stranger before the crazy rears its head and it’s too late for me to back out and pretend not to notice.
Like the time a few years back when some guy at the car wash asked if I liked driving my Saab and what kind of mileage it got? And he seemed nice, if a little immature. Until he busted out a water hose and started spraying me down with it.
Then there’s the creepy drive – thru guy at our Dunkin Donuts that acts like I’m his long lost love – interest every time I pull around to pay for my iced vanilla latte. “Oh I didn’t know it was YOOOUUUU. So……girl…..how you been, eh???” Picture him leaning half out of the window and looking all bedroom – eyed and you get the idea. I’m pretty sure he does this to all the ladies, but it’s still annoying when my kid’s screaming in the back seat and it’s raining into my car and I just want my damn latte and he thinks it’s time to bust a move. Note to corporate DD: I’ve stopped going there because of this.
So today’s crazy encounter didn’t seem to be out of the ordinary. At first.
I had to run to Food Lion for some lunch items for the kids and I didn’t want to be out very long because Oona was melting down.
I got my basket of things and found an open register where a woman with a few vegetables was just paying. I thought.
She was paying for something, but not the veg. So when she finished (and I had all my items on the belt) the cashier looked at her and said “So….we’re just waiting on him then?”
And the girl nodded her head and I thought great. But, it happens quite a lot that people will walk away like that and make the rest of us wait. I learned a long time ago there’s no point in getting upset over it. So I started playing with my phone.
And waiting. And waiting some more. And then more. I tweeted that I was waiting, but I didn’t look up from my phone. The cashier was obviously in a state of annoyance and I didn’t want there to be a fuss so I pretended all was well.
Then he shows up. I pick up my head as he’s saying “Sorry I just needed this” and for some reason I will never know, he gives me the most wicked, “I love that I kept you waiting” grin. Not knowing what to do, I smiled back feebly and looked back at my phone while he paid. Or, while his woman paid. At which point, while the cashier is bagging everything and making change, the guy walks around behind me, grabs a few packs of gum, walks back around in front of me again and hands it to the cashier.
The cashier says “I’m sorry, did you want to add that to your order?”
And then. And then he says “NO. I want to make a new order with this”. And gives me that smile again.
And that’s when my phone rang. Neve wanted to know if I would be home soon. “Well”, I said, “If I ever get out of here”.
I didn’t make eye contact, but I said it clear enough to be sure they heard me. And I looked straight at the woman as I said it.
Then they left. And this is where it should have ended. With me saying “What a bunch of inconsiderate assholes” and them saying “Wow what an impatient bitch”.
But this is me, and I live in crazy – people land.
So after I paid and left the store and got to me car I noticed another car pull up behind me. I was just opening my door to get in and I can see it’s them. Pointing at me. Obviously. And the girl is laughing with that same wicked look on her face that her male counterpart had had earlier.
I GOT IN MY CAR AND SHUT THE DOOR.
They very, very slowly, they pulled next to me, then in front of me, then left. I didn’t look at their car to get a tag # because I had the distinct impression they were trying to pull me into something I had no desire to be a part of.
I drove home a bit rattled.
What could I have done differently? Would it have mattered if I had not answered my phone and said anything? I promise you if I ever kept anyone waiting in line like that someone would have read me the riot act.
Bottom line is, of course not. They had something not right about them from the get – go.
I can tell you with absolute certainty it won’t be the last time something like this happens. I can only hope they all turn out hilariously so I can at least write about it.
Have I mentioned?
We think Milkshakes is expecting again.
She’s still nursing, yet we think she’s expecting again.
It all started when Adelaide and Sophie were about 2 or 3 months old and we brought Solomon the ram to service the ewes. That’s sheep talk. Sheep. Not goats. Solomon was to service the female sheep. There was even a green marker put on a special harness he wore so that once he had serviced a lady you’d be able to see a green spot on her back end.
There were lots of ladies with green butts out there. Lady sheep. Because Solomon was also a sheep.
Yet somehow Milkshakes wound up with a green butt.
Bless her little heart, she just couldn’t control herself.
Don’t worry, she’s not prego by the ram. She honestly can’t be. They’re not the same species. Any fertilization that may occur in such cases ends up in a misfire.
So she started breaking out of the lady pasture and into the pasture with Jack, her stinky one – time beau and baby – daddy to Addie and Sophie. Not that I can blame her, he’s quite handsome. And he was still stinky, which is how the ladies can tell he’s willing and able.
And now lo these many months later, she’s looking quite fat. I’m not sure when she’d be due because we don’t know when exactly she got herself knocked up.
I snapped this picture the other day with my phone. She wouldn’t look at me. Or come near me. Most likely because I had no food on me. If you look closely you can see she’s sticking out her tongue.
Me calling her “Whorey Mc-Shakers” probably didn’t help.
That’s Birdie (Bertie?) in the foreground. She was slightly less willing to give up on the possibility that I had food.
Let me start by saying that if you work with fabrics you should know Lizzy House. Because if you don’t, you are missing out BIG TIME. Lizzy has beautiful prints in beautiful colors – so much so that Susan collects hoardes bundles of it to display in her house. It’s that beautiful.
Lizzy came to the farm this weekend to give a quilting workshop (farm plus BFF’s plus quilting? I was SO in) and I was thrilled to be a part of it. I’ve not done a lot of quilting myself, and what I have done has been mostly frustrating because I never really bothered to figure out how to quilt, so when things went wrong I wasn’t really sure how to fix them. This class was perfect because I am not necessarily a beginner, but I needed to see people properly working a quilt to fill in the knowledge gap. And now that I know what I was doing wrong I realize how kind of simple the fixes were. Quilting is so very much easier than I was assuming it is, and so very much more fun!
Don’t you just love this Hello Kitty machine Virginia is sewing on?? Virginia owns “Gather Here” a beautiful yarn & fabric shop in Cambridge, MA. If you’re in the neighborhood, drop in and check it out. And tell her I said hi!!
The bonus? Aside from spending the weekend sewing at the farm, my dear friend Amanda came down from Boston.
I do not get to see Amanda nearly enough. That has to change.
I collaborated with Caroline and I am pretty sure a new quilting fiend has been born in her – she took right to it and loved it. Don’t be surprised if she’s designing quilts by this time next year!
Lizzy herself is just as beautiful and friendly and fun as her designs.
We were all working on making our own version of the quilt you see behind her – but not just “making” it. She shared a story of personal loss that spurred her to begin quilting, and how it saved her. How all of the emotion and love and sorrow and all of it went into the quilt until it became more than just “a quilt”. This is very familiar to me as a knitter, and to other knitters as well. Our craft is a kind of therapy and I have spent many hours knitting while mulling over whatever is happening in my life at that moment. From then on, that project always reminds me of that moment, like a snapshot. There are knitters I know who will call something their “angry scarf” or their “lucky socks” because that is what they remember most about knitting them. I oddly have a project that makes me think of Niagara Falls because I was listening to a “This American Life” segment about the Falls while I was knitting it.
Lizzy’s fabrics being bundled into a gorgeous stack.
This quilt project was about that, but in a more “intentional” way. Lizzy tasked us with deciding what we wanted our quilts to be about and to focus on that while working on it. I can tell you my intentions for it were all about my friendships at the farm (both old and new) and my hopes and feelings about finally getting my own farm underway. This will be an intentionally happy and lucky and grateful quilt. And Caroline and I worked on it together! I will remember that every time I see it and it will make me happy.
This is Lisa. Lisa lives locally (YAY!!!) and for all of you who are local, she and her husband own Revolutionary Soup. Right??!!! You can also check out their blog at Red Row Farm.
Caroline and I used a collection by Moda called “Papillon”.
I can’t wait to show off the project when it is all finished. We knocked out 12 of the 18 squares for the top. I’ll be machine quilting it once I’ve gotten the backing fabric and sandwiching material. Nothing fancy – I think the fabric does a knockout job on its own.
If you’re thinking about learning to quilt but are unsure – find a class. I can’t promise it will be as fun as this was, but it will take away much of the fear factor and get you going on the right track (if you live in the greater Boston area, Virginia’s shop is a great place to take classes, and you can use her machines there by the hour).
If Lizzy is going to be in your area giving a class or workshop – DO IT. I can’t speak highly enough of her. And for heaven’s sake if you find some of her fabric GET IT!!!
This is the post where I steal an entire bit from Susan’s blog and pass it on here. She and the crew at JMF are starting magazine. A beautiful, lovely, useful magazine centered around all things done by hand. Cooking, sewing, knitting, building…..you name it. I’m super excited about it (and having a hard time not boasting that I’ve known about it for quite awhile and have seen some of what’s going to go into it…..it’s too exciting to keep to myself!). Here it is in Susan’s words. There’s some lovely prizes to be had for those who can help get it off the ground.
Very Big News!
by Susan on March 2, 2012
So for months now I have been alluding to a big secret I’ve been keeping. I am thrilled that today I can finally share the news with all of you.
Juniper Moon Farm is starting a magazine called By Hand. By Hand will be a lifestyle magazine for people who make, with departments for cooking, crafting, DIY, gardening, and do-gooding, with a bit of travel and profiles of makers every month.
The idea is to celebrate creating things with our hands, and to explore the motivation to make things in a world where there are cheaper and immediate alternatives. It will be both practical (patterns, DIY projects, etc) and thoughtful, with a lovely and gentle aesthetic.
We have lots of amazing contributors and editors on board already, and the first issue is well underway. But before we go any further, we need your help!
We are holding a Kickstarter campaign to raise the rest of the money we need to make the magazine everything we want it to be. And as an added inducement, we have commissioned so amazing rewards! Our art director Michelle Lukezic has designed posters and t-shirts that are going to be incredibly popular with people who make things with their hands. Here’s a sample:
There are posters and t-shirts for each of the sections in the magazine!
If you like what you see and want to support us, great! If you can help us get the word out about the Kickstarter and the magazine we will be forever in your debt!
What’s going on right now:
What are you up to this week????
Well, we knew this day would come. It was a quiet fall and winter, we had a huge hatch – out of chicks last August and not one of those idiots will remain in the penned areas where it’s safe. We have a large-ish group that free – ranges all over (even into our neighbor Jack’s yard – good thing he likes them) and I am always worried those dummies are going to get eaten by something. I freely admit we get far too attached to them, and when they get snatched it’s sad and traumatic.
Fortunately, we have Tevye.
I’d been noticing that his rooster-ish behavior has been much like our dear departed Big Jim – unlike our other roosters who hog all the food to themselves and run at the first sign of trouble (or beat up on each other as well as us humans). By this I mean that he is an exemplary roo – he makes sweet clucking noises when we bring out the food to tell his ladies to come eat. He keeps them around him when they’re all free – ranging. The few times I’ve noticed a hawk circling fairly low I’ve seen Tevye gather all the hens into the underbrush and wooded areas to keep them safe.
He’s also pretty darn friendly to us. In other words, the perfect rooster.
Today he’s proved himself again.
Today the foxes came back.
We were alerted by the sound of probably all 40 or so of our chickens clucking in unison and when I looked out the window I could see a fox departing across the creek and away, a chicken clearly in its mouth.
Emily and I ran out and I heard a loud “squawk”, and then the fox dropped the chicken and ran. It was Tevye, and he came bounding back to us.
A check through the yard proved no one was missing. Tevye clearly gave the fox a good fight and kept the other chickens safe. He’s got some rather nasty wounds right now, but they could have been much, much worse. I doused him with Blue Kote, gave him some treats and sent him happily back to his girls, where he crowed loudly and triumphantly. My fingers are crossed they heal up quickly and don’t fester.
I think somebody deserves a bag of meal worms, don’t you?
Normally I wouldn’t give up on winter so soon. After all, where I grew up, March was blizzard season. Even here in Virginia we’ve had more than a few surprise March snowstorms; at least of those was nearly record – breaking. However, given the incredibly mild weather we’ve had since fall I think it’s not foolish to expect winter is done. Perhaps we’ll have another blow-out – who knows? But I am not holding my breath. Not when in the same week we’ve had several inches of snow followed by nearly 80 degree temperatures three days later.
So, over the course of the week we’ll be washing and packing away the heavier winter items and changing out our winter decor for spring.
Yes, I change the art on the walls along with the sheets, the pillows and the blankets to coordinate with the seasons. It’s easier than a re-doing your furniture every time you get sick of where it all is.
It’s hard to believe I took all of these pictures not eve a full week ago, considering a few days ago we were outside like this:
I gave in and planted some of the cold crops: beans, peas, arugula, Black Seeded Lettuce, and Red Romaine. I’m afraid if I wait for the normal planting date it will be too warm.
Spring cleaning, here we come.
I’d like you all to meet Katie.
Katie is the adorable twelve year old daughter of my friend Jessie and also a friend of my Emily.
Katie was diagnosed with diabetes when she was very young, and hasn’t had as easy a road as many other kids her age. There have been some very scary moments over the years. Somehow, despite the many restrictions she faces every day she manages to be down to earth and full of grace. So recently when Jess announced that Katie was going to take part in a clinical trial to test algorithms used for an artificial pancreas I wasn’t really surprised. But I was proud.
You see, this was Katie’s decision. Although she knew she was to be compensated handsomely she also knew she’d be subjected to A LOT of intrusions on her personal comfort (I’m being nice here) for the duration of her hospital stay. She wanted in anyway.
And you know what? It wasn’t easy. Her first round of this trial was very well, trying and painful. When things got particularly tough Jess told her she could quit if she wanted to. Jess would even give her the money she’d be out by excusing herself from the trial.
She told her twelve year – old she could leave the pain behind and still be paid.
Katie stuck with it. She said she needed to let them finish the research, because it was important to her.
I wanted to share this story with you not only because I am ridiculously grateful to be their friend, but also because everyone needs to remember that kids can do amazing and selfless things – I kind of think that in a lot of ways they can be far more selfless and wise – and stronger – than we adults are.
I hold my children to higher standards in many ways than I do my adult friends and occasionally I catch flak for that. You know what? I think they can handle it – I think kids deserve far more credit than we give them.
I didn’t think it would happen – I dismissed all talk of it.
But it happened – we got SNOW! Not only that, we should be around 4 inches by the time it stops – a positively HUGE amount for us!
The recipe for the French Onion Soup comes from Susan and it can be found HERE. It is AMAZING. I made some crusty bread today to go with it and pulled out my French Onion Soup pots, filled them with soup, stuck a thick piece of bread in each one, topped with grated gruyere and OH MY GOODNESS.
Best way to warm up on a snowy, blustery day!!!
Merry Magpie Farm 