The Cricket's Song

Colorful Corn

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:23:00 +0000

This is some of the most fun corn to grow. It is called Painted Mountain and is a colorful dry corn. We have been harvesting and husking it. We will hang it to dry around the house and it makes a beautiful fall decoration. Later we will take the kernels off the cob then grind it into corn flour. It makes pretty and delicious cornbread.

Heirloom Tomatoes

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:59:00 +0000

Handmade Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:14:00 +0000

I recently had a bridal shower. It was a fun time with special friends. I enjoyed the unique and handmade gifts I received.

These sweet hotpads were made by a special friend

My sister got me this lovely butter dish off Etsy from Sierra Clay Art

Sweet Bouquet

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:09:00 +0000

This morning I made this little nosegay from flowers in the garden. I was experimenting to get ideas for my wedding flowers. I really like these flowers and colors. I am hoping to be able to get something similar.

Blue

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:11:00 +0000

My wedding colors are green and blue. We have been getting ideas for decorating and flowers. We have been finding pretty blue glass vases and jars at thrift stores. I am also hoping to use blue delphinium in the bouquets. Here are some of our blue finds.

Green

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:34:00 +0000

The other day I died some more wool with apricot leaves. It made a lovely spring green color. The picture is of: white, natural; pink, apricot bark; and green apricot leaves.

I can't wait to start using this fiber!

The Perfect Dress

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:58:00 +0000

It has been a lot of trouble to find just the right wedding dress, one that is modest and beautiful and affordable. So I decided to make my own. That way it will be just the way I want it. It will be the perfect dress. I bought ten yards of matte satin fabric, a pattern, some trim, and thread. The pattern needs quite a bit of adjusting to make it right. I have started working on that and I made a mock-up bodice last night.

Garden Journal Entry One

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:54:00 +0000

The garden is starting to grow... finally. It got a slow start. The weather got cool just after planting so the seeds didn't come up quickly. I got distracted for a few days and forgot to water my tomato starts. About half of them died. It has not been as successful as last years garden. But it is doing better now. The surviving tomatoes are doing well now and most of the seeds have sprouted. Now we just need to protect them from bugs and hopefully we will still get a good crop this year.

Wedding Plans

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:05:00 +0000

Over the last several weeks we have been working on planning the my wedding. Deciding on a location, choosing the wedding party, looking at dresses, and designing the invitations. I have been having fun with the invitations, here are the ideas we like. Something like this would be the front and inside would be the text.

An Engagement

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:25:00 +0000

The reason I haven't been posting very regularly is because I have been a little distracted the last few months. Now I am even more so. Last week a wonderful man proposed to me and I accepted. It was a very sweet and romantic proposal. We are planning the wedding for this fall. I'm sure I'll be busy! I am so happy and excited!!

Painting Project

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:22:00 +0000

We have been working on repainting our whole house. It was all a dull gray before. Now The house is tan and the doors are red. We still need to paint the trim, it is going to be green. The red doors certainly add some color to the house!

Fresh Baby Greens...

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:33:00 +0000

... and radishes.

Garden Planning

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:11:00 +0000

The weather has been warm and sunny. I am itching to get the garden planted. We have big plans for the garden this year. The only problem is finding place to plant everything. Today we tilled up a large area for planting. We still need to put in some fences and make hills and rows, but it is coming along. My little seedlings are doing well out on the back porch. I will try to get some garden pictures to post soon. Melissa bought the lovely bleeding heart plant pictured above.

Bright and Cheerful

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:19:00 +0000

Aren't these flowers cheery? I just love the color combination!

Wildflowers

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:50:00 +0000

Yesterday after church a group of us went out to see the wildflowers. It was a beautiful day for the excursion. There were fields of blue, yellow and orange flowers. There were patches of small purple and white flowers also. We enjoyed exploring the hillsides and picking lovely bouquets.

Here are some of the flowers we saw. I only know the names of a few of them.

California poppies and a few lupines

Cheerful yellow flowers

These dainty blue flowers were some of my favorites.

California poppy

I Just Don't Feel Like Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:02:00 +0000

I am having a hard time getting back into the routine of blogging. I have not been terribly busy but I guess I have been distracted by other things and I haven't been on the computer much.

My garden is slowly coming along. I have lots of little tomato, pepper and other vegetable sprouts out on the back porch. My spring salad garden is not doing as well. I was disappointed to find a huge hole that the dog had been digging when I came home from Oregon. Oh well, things are sprouting and staring to grow, so I think we will still get something.

I cooked up a large batch of pumpkins and made pumpkin butter. It has smelled delicious the last several days as it has cooked in the slow cooker!

I am hoping to get some sewing done, work in the garden some, and get a letter written today. That means it is time to get off the computer and get to work!

Lilac

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:17:00 +0000

The first lilacs are blooming. I was playing around with the camera and liked the way this photo turned out.

New Cards

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:10:00 +0000

I have two new cards in the shop. In a way both of these were inspired by some adorable fabric I picked up one day. I made the skirt card first for my sisters birthday. I liked it so much that I created another one to list on Etsy. The illustration card was inspired by the colors in the fabric and the beautiful blossoms that have been blooming around here. I made it as a wedding card to go along with the hotpads I posted about here. Again I was so pleased with the way it turned out that I made another to sell.

Blossom Illustration Card

Blossom Skirt Card

Inspiration!

An Explanation For The Silence

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:00:00 +0000

It has been quite a while now since I have blogged about anything. I do have a good reason, really I do. Last weekend we traveled up to Oregon for a wedding. It was a crazy, busy, fun, and interesting trip! Since getting home Tuesday night I have been recovering from lack of sleep, unpacking, and getting back to normal. Besides that there just hasn't been anything I've felt like blogging about.

Today while outside I was watching this butterfly flutter around. It was very obliging and landed close by so I was able to take some pretty good pictures. Tizzy, Melissa's dog sat nearby watching me. Probably thinking I was crazy!

Seven Random Things about me...

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:04:00 +0000

I was tagged by Sew Serious to do this. So here goes...

1. I love to go barefoot. All summer long I hardly ever wear shoes other than flip flops. Oh, and I almost always dance barefoot because my shoes never stay on!

2. I like to dance old fashioned dances like the Virginia Reel. Civil War style dancing, Scottish country dancing, it is so much fun!

3. I hardly ever read or follow instructions. It is a very bad habit. I tend to look at something, then try to figure it out myself. Only if I get stuck do I go back and read it :)

4. My favorite movies are usually about six hours long! I enjoy BBC adaptions of classic literature and they are often made as miniseries. Unfortunately that means I don't have the time to watch them very often :(

5. Someday I want to live on a farm and grow/raise most of my own food. I am able to do that a little now with a small garden and a few animals. I love living in the country and don't think I could ever live in the city.

6. If I could travel to one place in the world it would be Scotland. I'm not sure why. It just fascinates me. It must be because of some of the books I have read that take place there. Also some of my background is Scottish.

7. I was home schooled from second grade on and I loved it.

Well, that was fun! I hope you enjoyed it. I am not tagging anyone, but if you would like to do this consider yourself tagged.

Happy Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Yesterday was Melissa's birthday. We celebrated with coconut cupcakes and balloons.
I had fun baking and frosting the cupcakes while she was out having a shopping trip and lunch in town.

Still Having Too Much Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:27:00 +0000

I haven't been doing anything very creative lately. Today we went with a group bowling and then out to ice cream. Tomorrow we are taking a day trip with more friends. It has just been one big party around here. It will be hard to get back to normal life :)

This morning I was able to prepare part of my garden for spring planting. I am excited about that. Now I need to go clean my room and pay bills.

All the trees in the orchard are blooming now. It is so beautiful. I had fun taking some photos of the blossoms with our new camera!

A Fun Week

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:28:00 +0000

I am back after a crazy week of activity! I spent Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday helping prepare and set up for the wedding. Friday was also the rehearsal. The wedding on Saturday was beautiful. The weather was perfect for an outdoor wedding. Several friends from out of state were here for the wedding. It was fun to spend time with them. Yesterday a whole group of us went over and spent the day at the beach. There was plenty to do. Some of the activities were football, frisbee, body boarding, walking, exploring tidepools, and just visiting. Nearly everyone has gone home now and things have settled down. Maybe I will be able to get back to blogging regularly.

A lovely spring day and a beautiful setting for an outdoor wedding!

Sunset after a fun filled day at the beach.

Busy

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:46:00 +0000

A very dear friend is getting married on Saturday. I have barely been at home in the last three days! There are many last minute preparations that we have been helping with. So it may be a little quiet around here for a few more days.

In other news I was featured on the Kinichi River Designs blog!

An Ordinary Day

noreply@blogger.com (cricket) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 02:43:00 +0000

I can't really think of anything to post today. Monday is not my favorite day of the week. It tends to be kind of a blah day. Today was one of those Mondays. It has been gray and rainy all weekend and I am longing for some sunshine. It did peek out briefly today, but it wasn't long enough. This morning we were completely out of hay for the horses and goats. So we had to run and get a couple bales to hold us over until we get a load delivered on Thursday. I drove the hay down to the shed and nearly got stuck in the mud! It was still a little too wet to be driving out there. I was also able to get outside and pull some old wire cages out of the ground where I want to make a garden and set a few gopher traps. I hope they work, we have a terrible gopher problem! Doesn't it sound like an exciting day?

I would like to share this stunning photo that Melissa took a few days ago.