painting rocks

I’ve enjoyed painting rocks for a few years now. At present I am aiming at painting 100 rocks to sell at craft fairs this Spring and Summer and Fall.

When we took a glorious trip to Israel in 2008 my daughter bought this T-shirt. I have been very slowly learning the Hebrew alphabet and it is so rich in meaning. I want to keep trying and plugging away at it. I painted a few of these animals on this t-shirt which will be one way to learn words. So far I know camel and lion 🙂 and of course toda is thank-you and ken is yes, lo is no and shalom is hello, goodbye and peace.

Also made some magnets.

For this vicuna I just used black magic marker on an unpainted rock – works for me ! !

I got the idea of painting rocks from a book I found at the library – Here it is – Let’s Rock

dress of the day/cultured or baked beets and green beans

Whew, kinda hot here in the month of August; high humidity.

I made 1 dress today – put a skirt on a little girl’s shirt. It looks a little strange, but hopefully will be useful to someone someday.

I bought some beets at Farmers Market this morning. Am going to try this recipe tonight.

Cultured Beets

10 medium or 3 large beets, cooked, skins removed, chopped

3/4 c. water

1 of following: 1) 2-3 tsp. salt and 1/4 c. whey 2) 1 T salt, 3) starter – Caldwells – read their directions.

Put beets in jar and pour liquid over. Should be submerged. Ferment 3-10 days. Makes 1 quart.

This recipe came from here http://www.culturesforhealth.com/naturally-cultured-fermented-beets-recipe

 

Instead of doing that with these particular beets, I believe I will make this recipe: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/roasted-green-beans-with-beets-feta-and-walnuts/

 

 

1st market day

I enjoyed the invigorating day of the market and sold things and bought things. Looking forward to next week !

back to the blog

I lost the book that had my password in it since I had changed it and so I never could get back on here, then I listened to the 700 Club show today about hoarding and decided to go through my books on the bookshelf and either list some of them on Amazon or give some away. There was my green book with my password, so here I am again.

Today is the National Day of prayer. I found this prayer guide I intend to follow indefinitely. http://commit2pray.com/7×7/

Some tulips in bloom, but alas, snow is expected tonight 1-3 inches. Oh dear, the tulips can probably handle it and also anything else growing outside.

The farmer market begins tomorrow. I told the guy I would not come because of the weather and he said. that is fine, probably a wise decision. In a week the weather should be a balmy 69 degrees.

a good helping the homeless idea!

March 22 – snow :(

Here we are a couple days into Spring with possible 8 inches more of snow coming our way by Sunday 😦

It started to look springy a couple days ago, then the flakes started. But, I was born during the ’51 flood and it was snowing/sleeting on that day in April, so nothing has changed that much.

diet: must do better – I plan to weigh in on Monday so must eat lots of celery 🙂

organizing and cleaning house: must do better but have lots of time to work on it considering I’ll probably be shut in through Sunday at least

bought a bunch of books for 50 cents or less at salvation army – most of them I can’t sell but they are all good to read. (can’t sell them on amazon because there are already bunches of them for sale for 1 cent )

Here are a couple of fun ideas to do:

This isn’t my onion picture, but it gave me the idea to do this with garlic (picture below) – we’ll see how it goes; maybe I’ll put more garlic in, but probably too late now – too hard to cut the holes with the soil already in, but I can always make another.

Another was made – 26 cloves rather than 14:

self watering container for lettuce

I planted some lettuce seeds in this newly made swc this morning. Hopefully it will turn out well.

Here are some basic steps on making one.

1. Find a container to use and cut it apart a little more than halfway down. The bottom part is the water reservoir.

2. Punch or slit some small holes around the bottom part of the soil container. You can put felt in the bottom of where the lid was to wick up the water. In this case it was a weird shaped container so I cut it off and put it back in the top part because the top of the bottle was so long. If I would have used felt maybe so much soil wouldn’t have gotten into the water reservoir, but it doesn’t really matter.

3. Water the container from on top the first time.

4. Place seeds on top of soil and then a bit more soil to cover the seeds. Water a little more.

5. It should be a long time before it needs more water, but when it does, lift the soil reservoir and just put some water into the reservoir.

6. Cover it and place in safe place and wait for it to sprout.

Concerning my weight loss, I found out I should only eat slightly more than 1300 calories per day. So far I’ve had a Granny Smith Apple, 4 small pieces sourdough bread with sunflower butter, agave syrup and raisin, all which come to at least 470 calories. Will need to consume a bunch of celery and raw veggies today. Yay

Here’s my 2nd one today then must make soup.

1st picture – cut container, made slits in soil container, put felt in opening

2nd picture –  placed soil container in reservoir

3rd picture – watered from the top

4th picture – put in some lettuce seeds and covered with a bit of soil

5th picture – placed on top of ‘fridg with other one I made today

 

update 3.24.13 – have some sprouts:

food colors and book

I’ve been reading the book, The Banks of the Boyne: A Quest for a Christian Ireland (1998) by Donna Fletcher Crow. I’ve learned so much about Ireland; she is a wonderful writer. One reason I wanted to read it is to get my mind off our problems in the U.S. of A. It has helped I think.

While I was making the following picture about food colors on picmonkey.com, I listened to an interview on CBN with Elliott Abrams who wrote the book, Tested by Zion. It would probably be good reading, but maybe I’ll read it later.

I got this food colors information somewhere and it is helpful to know what different colored foods will help us with.

 

 

FB has a page called grow food, not lawns, or something like that. The following pictures are from there – all great ideas.

neck coolers

I am planning on making neck coolers – just have to buy the crystals that go in them. Found this idea for using diapers – very clever.

Flag day is coming up.

by the way – the worm is no more – absorbed by the trash – I’m sure he died : (

daffodils and rocks

February 22 – Happy 280th birthday President George Washington ! ! ! ! !

This morning I went out and about in the yard and decided to bring in the empty plastic gallon plant holder things to use for my self-watering container I hope to make this spring. In one I found these extra daffodil bulbs I never got around to putting in the ground. I try to divide some of the older ones every year, because they get rather compacted. Here they are sprouting – the daffodil – the symbol of hope. Now I have my theme for my next set of rocks to paint. I always love that daffodils are the symbol of hope. I tried to put some in the ground, but it’s been raining so the ground is rather gummy. The rest I just scattered on the ground and put some dirt over them. We will see what happens later on. I know a friend of my son’s said her dad dug up some daffodils and dumped them in the ditch at the end of their driveway against the rest of their wishes. Now every Spring beautiful daffodils bloom there. He gives us beauty for ashes.

Isaiah 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Here are pictures of the last bunch of rocks I painted – just like to remember them if I give them away or maybe even sell them later at the market.

One last thing – I put the greenhouse shelf thing in the living room in front of the window yesterday so that all the seedlings will go there when they finally start growing.

my version of the ugly quilt

beautiful day yesterday and today

I’ve made several ugly quilts for the homeless. The one I made yesterday was pretty easy. I have pictures, but first the sunrise.

I sewed an old curtain onto an old sheet to make a cover for the comforter. The comforter had a really flimsy material so that’s why I made the cover.

After I got the cover over the comforter, I tied it with white yarn and sewed some neckties on the bottom in 2 places and made a few more ties if they want to use it for a sleeping bag.


What the inside looks like and then how it looks folded over and then rolled up. The first was too big for the bag I had for it so I folded it over again.

We now have daffodils coming up.

My 6′ long table that folds up like a suitcase came today. Do ya think this would work to sell at a farmer’s market? Feb. 16 I’ll go to a meeting to see if I can sell on Wednesdays 2-6 p.m.

quilt sizes
I bought this quilt I liked (at a thrift store of course 🙂
It’s way too big for a Queen size bed. I offered it to my friend, but she can’t use it. I believe according to this chart (see link) I will cut off 18 inches from the long edge and it should work.

I finished the quilt – not so sure I like it so much, but maybe it’ll be okay. Also bought a seed starter thing at big lots today for $30. I was going to try to make one or have husband make one, but this is soooo much quicker. We’ll need to get some lights to hang with an S hook. It also has the greenhouse plastic cover and can be put outside.

p.s. I decided I didn’t like the brown flowered quilt, so I made a bag for it from what I cut off to use in the rec room. If that doesn’t work I’ll take it to the homeless.