new items in the shop today

I have a few new pieces that I've added to my shop this morning.

This needlefelted wool scene has been fitted into a piece of oak from my woods.  I love the dark band in the grain of the wood.

For grins, here's an extreme close up.

The actual scene is only 1 1/4" across.

There is also this peaceful meadow scene surrounded by a pretty piece of chokecherry wood.

A small moss garden necklace, strung on leather cord.

This is also fitted into a piece of chokecherry.  I love the grain in this piece.

There will also be a limited number of custom-made embroidered stones and perhaps a completed stone or two if the weather cooperates and gives me light to photograph by.  After yesterday's gorrrgeous weather, I am not complaining about a little rain today.

If you'd like, please stop by my shop

here

Sorry about the short notice, I normally like to announce shop updates beforehand, but today is one of those unplanned kind of days.

Have a great day, everyone.

stones with holes

Every now and then I find these stones with holes in them.  These two are larger stones, the larger one measuring about 6" long, but I usually find them in smaller sizes.  The holes on these are about an inch and a half wide.  The one on the left has smoothed edges, as if it were worn away, but the one on the right has a sharp edge like something chopped into it.

I don't know what formed these holes, whether they were the product of nature or something manmade, but while trying to read about holes in stones this morning I found an article about the mooring stones of Minnesota, which led me to stories of runestones and of geology.  

And suddenly an hour had gone by.

I am now behind on my chores and without a proper blog post.  And a shower.  It is fun to imagine what these holes could be though... a product of glaciers rolling pebbles?  Blasting holes from foundation rocks?  Ancient artwork?  A marker of some sort?  Pure natural coincidence?

Edit: Rose suggested in the comments that this could be a Native American tool, which led me to more reading.  Now I'm giddy at the thought that the on the left could be a cupstone or nutting stone, or a fire-starting stone.  How exciting would that be?

What's piquing your curiosity today?

dyeing with strawberry plant leaves

I had a nice dyeing surprise the other day.  I was looking around outside, thinking about what's in abundance, when I noticed the reddish stems on the wild strawberry plants.  I wondered if they might give off any color, and since there are literally millions of them in my yard, I gathered some leaves for the dye pot.

Since so many of the plants grow in shade, they never give fruit, but as I found out they do give color.

I used an alum mordant on all of my fiber.  On cotton I got a rustic yellow, a pastel yellow when a tsp of ammonia was added, and a greyish green with an iron overdip.

The silk and wool picked up similar shades, with the plain alum mordanted fiber looking more tan than yellow.  The silk with the ammonia is such a bright yellow it almost looks neon. (though you can't tell so much from my photos)

Cotton floss picked up just a bit of color, but also turned towards green with an iron overdip.

I've read that you can use these same plant leaves to make a tea, though I haven't tried it yet.

This was a pretty encouraging dye effort, and in keeping with the theme of abundance, I think I'll have a go at some of that creeping charlie in my flower bed next.

a poplar scoop

Just a little scoop I made for myself yesterday, carved from a piece of poplar that fell in the last windstorm.  I've been wanting to make spoons for a long while, (years) and finally made some time for it.

My husband reminded me, twice, that I could buy wooden spoons at the dollar store... 3 for a dollar... instead of making one.  He's hilarious, isn't he?  Ho ho ho, Mr. Jordan.

He does make a point, even if he was mostly just getting my goat.  From a monetary perspective, it's much cheaper to buy some wooden spoons for a dollar rather than spend a few hours of my time carving one.  But from an aesthetic perspective, well, that's different.  This scoop carries my story with it of being cut from wood from our property.  It's sanded so smooth it feels like satin, and it's been oiled by hand with the meat of a walnut.  It has love in it, and it's beautiful. (to me)

It's now performing its duties in my sugar canister, and I'll get to hold it each morning when I make my coffee.

Now I need one for the flour jar...

Happy Friday everyone!

a stuffed chicken

Last week I mentioned that my daughter spends a lot of time carrying our chickens around.  I worried that she might start dressing them soon if I didn't get her a doll.  Clever Tara suggested that I make her a chicken doll and I thought that was such a good idea I sat down yesterday and did just that.

She's a very simple chicken, made out of some garage sale fabric and scraps of felted wool.  Her eyes are antique shoe buttons.  I stuffed her with polyfil from an old pillow I had put through the washing machine. (I always think washing pillows in the machine is a good idea, but it never is...)

I took her outside to show the girls and got this reaction:

I call that the "whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" look.

Poor stuffed chicken was shunned by the flock.

But the girl seems to like her, and that's all that really matters.

And if she wants to dress this chicken, that's just fine.

My boys liked the chicken too but inform me that she also needs eggs, a cracked open egg, and some chicks.  And some more chicken friends.  And a duck.  (which will probably also require eggs, a cracked open egg, ducklings, and more duck friends)

wordless wednesday

monday muttering

As promised, Mother Nature gave us some snow to wake up to this morning.  Though it is cold and miserable out (and windy!), and a few of my plants didn't make it through the storm, I do think the snow is sort of pretty.

I find it prettier still, knowing that this isn't the start of winter but rather a last ditch hissy fit before spring starts.  (I'm hoping anyway)

 

I loaded up the birdfeeder this morning for those little guys out looking for food.  Normally, the chickens come running when they see me filling the birdfeeder; they love to nibble on the seeds that fall, but not this morning.  I suspect they're all still snuggled in the coop, muttering under their breath about this Minnesota weather. 

I muttered a little too, but I'm keeping in mind that this is temporary and far better than the weather many people experienced this weekend.

Here's hoping you all find some sunshine today.

Happy Monday.

tissue paper flock

It's a rainy Sunday morning. 

My niece and nephew are here, bringing the "child aged 7 and under" count to 5.  I figured a little art project was in order to keep them entertained for a while and out of the mud lakes puddles outside.  I had seen these little tissue paper suncatchers on Pinterest and thought they'd be a great way to bring a little color to the day.

My niece is a natural artist, and the bird house, flower, and little sack of bird seed were her ideas.  So clever!

I think this little flock will have to stay for a while.

Our forecast calls for 2-4" of snow tonight so I'm going to need all the colorful flowers I can get.

Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone.

wordless wednesday

not amused

I've been a bit under the weather the past few days and I'm not getting anything done.  Unless you count watching the entire first season of Downton Abbey on Netflix getting something done, of course.

To add insult to injury, it's snowing. 

It makes a girl lose her sense of humor a little.

hopeful thoughts

Things that are making me feel hopeful today.

Growth in my makeshift greenhouses.

30 eggs in the incubator.

Happy Monday.

today's dye pot... whatever

I was kind of in a mood yesterday.  Or rather, wasn't in the mood... for any manner of nonsense.  You know those days?  I think it's the pull of the moon or something.  Anyway, on top of normal daily nonsense, my dyepot was giving me fits too.  I had lopped off some nettles to use for dyeing and instead of the green I had hoped for, the water turned a tepid pink that my fibers didn't want to pick up at all. 

I tried a handful of my usual tricks, to no avail.  I pulled up some nettle roots and added more plants, nothing.  At which point I said... channeling my inner 13 year old... whatever.

Rather than ditch the whole dye pot, I went outside and found some curly dock growing amongst the nettles, and added the roots to the dye water.  Not much going on there either.  Whatever.  In went the tops.  Hmm...a little more color.  Enough color to convince me to throw the fiber back in the pot.

I let it to stew overnight and this morning we have shades of yellow with just a hint of green.  Kind of like limp celery tops.  It's really not a bad color.

I'm pretty sure, given all of the different things going on in this dye pot, that I could never reproduce this.  But you know, whatever.

Happy Friday everyone!  May your day be sunny and nonsense-free.

stinging nettle for supper

Some of you eagle-eyes knew right away that yesterday's wordless Wednesday post were stinging nettles, didn't you?  I'm considering myself an eagle eye for having found them in the first place.  After 5 years of living here without ever finding a patch, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would have to venture off my land to find some.  But lo and behold, there they were.

  They had snuck a ride in with a load of fill dirt we had delivered last fall.  I'm so happy to have them that I'm going to try transplanting them to another area of the yard, away from the house.

There are a ton of ways to prepare stinging nettles, and they are quite common in many societies, but this was my first time sampling them.  I decided to go with a nettle pesto and it was absolutely delicious.  But then, what isn't when mashed with garlic, cheese, and pine nuts?

For those of you that aren't familiar, stinging nettles are aptly named.  They have tiny hairs on them that inject histamine and other chemicals when touched.  And it hurts.  My arms and calves can still conjure up the feeling of stinging welts on them from my childhood.  The chemicals are neutralized when you briefly cook them.  The sting is gone and the tasty begins.

I'm thinking nettle gnocchi next...

(oh, and Annie... you're right there are some in the dye pot too)

Happy Thursday, all.

wordless wednesday

random thoughts

My daughter spends a lot of time holding the chickens, petting the chickens, carrying the chickens around.  Maybe I should get her a doll before she starts dressing the chickens.

My new spoon gouge came yesterday and I'm dying to work on the ladle I started.

Despite being boiled, some of the wood pieces are checking.  That's frustrating but at least I had a good dye experiment in the process.

When I open the coop in the morning, the very first thing the ducks do is run to the pond and mate.  Very first thing.  Before eating, before stretching, they just get right to it.  I was thinking of piping in some Barry White but clearly they don't need the inspiration.

I've started eating kimchi daily.

I have some felted wool stones on the table that will get some stitches today.  The colors were requested by different customers but they all look so pretty together I'm going to have to do another set in these shades.

The sun is shining.  What a difference that makes.

This girl makes me want to build tables.  Or at least build the table I've been meaning to build for months now.

This girl makes me want a pony.  And a cold beer.  (and I find her very inspiring)

I love that Julie is putting to practice some of her pins.  I think that's a great idea.

I think I talk about my chickens too much.  Am I going to be the crazy chicken lady when I get old?

Time to take advantage of that sunshine.  Have a great day, everyone.

it's officially love

It must be, we've dug them a pond.

Our new feathered friends were given a new pen this weekend, complete with swimming facilities.

We enlarged their run, hanging hawk netting over the top to help keep them safe from unwanted flying visitors.

Husband dug a pond and layed a liner down.  While functional, it isn't exactly pretty, but I'm working on it.

I surrounded their coop with cement blocks to help keep digging visitors out.  The blocks are filled with dirt and will be planted with lettuce soon, for the ducks nibbling pleasure.

I've only gotten one small corner of the pond landscaped with rocks, but it's a start.  I planted some snakegrass at the water's edge for a little pond-like atmosphere.  Over the next few weeks I'll finish the rocks, and I also plan to bring in a log and some more water plants.  I don't think the ducks care one lick, but it makes me happy to have a pretty pond for them to swim in.

When we filled up the pond and let the ducks go, they headed right to it, cautiously stepping in, then erupting in happy quacks.  They dove, and splashed, and frolicked.  Seriously, these guys were frolicking!  It's the first time they've ever swum and they took to it like... well, you know the saying.  We all laughed at their antics and I got a little welled up at how happy they were.  We laughed even harder when we let some minnows go in the pond.  Henry, Loretta, and Barbara were butt-up trying to catch them.  Carl supervised.

They seem to spend at least half of their day in the water.  Remember that the Pekins were this dingy white on Friday?

Just check out Henry now.  Sparkling white.

I hope they're as happy here as we are to have them.