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Thursday, August 2, 2018

I Like #77

New things to like this week!

1.  I like canning!  I don't really like canning, it's hot and sweaty and messy, but it results in tastiness that lasts a good long while.  I decided last night to finally make the crabapple jelly from last year's crabapples (I didn't have any this year).  The juice has been in the freezer just patiently waiting it's turn.  But crabapple jelly is one of the best things ever...  I decided this time to try a pectin free recipe I found online.  It said that crabapples and apples had enough native pectin that you didn't need to add any.  But, of course, I wound up with nicely canned crabapple syrup-- it didn't set at all.  It may be because my juice had been frozen for so long,  it wouldn't surprise me if that broke down much of the pectin.  Anyway, now I have to decide whether to just keep the crabapple syrup (at the very least we could eat it on pancakes) or undo it all, re-sterilize the jars, and remake it using some sure-gel. 





2.  I like plants!  I've been in a plant propagating mood lately, both splitting my own plants and trying to gather up some new varieties of cuttings from friends.  Lots of them will be to give away to others I know who are in a plant mode, but several of them are for me.  Yum!




3. I like my pups!  Of course!  I always do.  Here's a sneak peek of one of my new 3D fiber sculptures;  I had the good clean white backdrop up for Mike to photograph it, and of course Blue had to share his fur and dirt with it.  Oh well!  He's doing very well with Bentley, although sometimes Blue climbs on top of him trying to get to me which makes Bentley a bit aggravated.  At some point I'll get a full post up about the new sculpture.






4.  I like finding out other people are fibery!  One of my blogs shared a picture of a new embroidered altar frontal made by Queen Margrethe of Denmark.  Apparently, she's made several of these to donate to different churches and embroidery is one of her hobbies!  Super cool, and lovely work.  Here's her newest public piece and one of the previous ones.







 5. I like fiber!  My friends and I went up to the Kellyville Fiber Christmas in July this last weekend and we had a lovely time.  There was tons of wonderful yarn and roving and batts and spinning wheels and general fibery goodness.  I didn't buy too much, one skein of yarn and some fiber wrapped wire to use as edging on future quilts.  Of course I didn't get any pictures, alas.  But the yarn I got is great, it's a hand dye that's half black and half white with rainbow neon speckles.  Very me.

6.  I'll just close with another picture of my dahlia, it has a new bloom.  So far it usually only has one bloom at once, but I expect in the fall maybe it will get more.  I'm sorry to say you guys will probably continue to be exposed to a series of nearly indistinguishable pictures of white dahlia blossoms for the forseeable future.


Thanks to Lee Anna for linking us up and I hope you have a good week!





4 comments:

  1. awe blue wants to be close to you... probably needy and afraid he'll be put out again... who knows what he's lived with before he fell into heaven at your place. I can see you interpreting a dahlia... I saw some enormous paper flower sculptures last weekend, almost got one. You could do it, or say.... if I ever get going again I could try my hand at them. How do you do the wire inserts?

    LeeAnna

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  2. I always love the pictures quilters share of their dogs and cats getting in the middle of things when they're trying to photograph a project. Blue just wants to be part of the action! Your new fiber sculpture looks really intriguing!

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  3. I agree with you on the canning - and I always love the results! You have a BIG pot. Your latest project looks neat - I look forward to the reveal.

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  4. Hi Shannon! I love how Blue is just laying there, looking at you but not being too interested! And the jelly or not-quite-jelly looks delicious. Do you eat pancakes that often to warrant that many jars of syrup? If not, you'll have to put in the additional work to get it to the jelly stage. Darn it! And I love seeing all of your plants, especially that beautiful dahlia. Happy Friday, friend! ~smile~ Roseanne

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