Black-headed Grosbeak

This morning, I had a new visitor to my Birdfeeder Buffet: a Black-headed Grosbeak. Flanked by camera and tea with the laptop on my knees, I finally was able to capture a shot of him after setting up shop on the deck.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Sock-cess!

I’ve been very busy with all my projects. One of the all-encompassing projects has been knitting socks. I had it in my mind to knit Mom a nice pair of socks for Mother’s Day. The only problem: I hate using double pointed needles*. Really hate. It’s not that I’m inept with them, it’s more that I have a very different reason for knitting that tends to interfere with using double pointed needles. The whole reason for my knitting is to give my hands something productive to do while my brain is busy listening. I have always listened better while doodling or making sculptures from kneaded erasers during history class – yes, kneaded erasers can be shaped into schnauzers wearing berets. It took most of the Hundred Years War, yet it can be done.

I digress.

I took up knitting because it’s portable (I can mush a ball of yarn, a set of needles and my project into a plastic bag, shove it into my purse and not worry about wrinkling the yarn), lightweight and easy to stop and resume so I can take notes or participate in the matters at hand. Therein lies the crux of my hatred for double pointed needles: once I transfer my project to them, I must commit to finishing it in one sitting. If I try to place it on the table and walk away, there’s nothing preventing those stitches I’ve worked so hard to put in place from slipping off one end or another. It’s bad enough using them to finish a hat, but socks require them almost exclusively, thus socks have always been avoided with a studious intent.

The thought of socks ran through my mind as a possibility when I heard about a book that teaches how to knit socks using two circular needles. I found it in the library and I taught myself the technique. Then, when I went to the local shop to buy some really red yarn to knit Mom’s socks, they told me how I could do the same thing using just one really long circular needle. Well. It was like a genie decided to grant me a wish when I didn’t even know there was a lamp there to rub. Magnificent.

The only hitch in my grand plan was that Mother’s Day was a mere few days away and I my previous socks were all learning experiences (read: practice socks and a couple of false starts regarding sizing – Mom is not in need of socks that could fit over clown shoes). I hunkered down and finished one sock and had only the leg and cuff to knit on the second.

Oh! I forgot to mention, this book also taught me how to knit from the toe up so I could be sure the sizing was right before I was 1/3 into the knitting. Brilliant! Plus, the cuffs and legs are the easy part. I’m all about doing the hard stuff first. It’s like they know me!

Back to Mom.

So, on Mother’s Day, I presented her with a handmade card and a little bag of goodies. In the bag of goodies, there was the one finished sock. This caused a great deal of joking about how it was so beautiful she’d be happy to just hop around on one foot to wear it, etc. I took out the second sock and promised it would be finished before she left, and it was. I sent her home with a pair of socks in bright crimson red and she has already worn them. Success!

I’ll see if I can convince her to wear them here so I can grab a picture of them. Or, perhaps I’ll just knit myself a pair. I don’t think I’ve ever owned a pair of bright crimson red socks. Maybe it’s time.



* For the uninitiated, double pointed needles have nothing stopping those precious little loops of yarn from falling off the ends while working on a different needle. Usually, 4-5 of these little menaces are used in knitting in the round on an area too small for a circular needle. They are necessary for finishing hats and socks.


Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Backyard Eden: A Work in Progress

Marilyn, this video is per your request. I really ought to make a new one, as this was a few weeks ago. Most of my daffodils are gone and many of my tulips are fading. My veggie patch has grown, and the Lilac Corner is much changed. Perhaps I'll take another video in the morning.



Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Craft Afternoon

After a morning of cooking, cleaning and other chores, I cleared my afternoon for crafting. It was gorgeous outside, so I began by stripping and cutting some bamboo trimmings my friends Kathy and Kenan gave me from their amazing nursery, The Artistic Gardener. Before I had delved too deeply into creating a tomato cage, my wonderfully crafty friend, Kitty, arrived. I set aside the bamboo, made us a pot of tea, and we settled under the umbrella on the deck to craft. While she made a lovely summer necklace, I set out to turn glass jars and inexpensive glass beads into hanging tea light lanterns for the garden.

I used 24 gauge green crafting wire, threaded and wire-wrapped beads into hangers, filled them with river sand and set them onto the garden hooks. Many of the larger handmade beads were gifted to me by Aimee of NewroticGirl. They, also, are recycled in that they were unclaimed projects at the glass school she attends. I think they look smashing in the sunlight.

As the sun set behind the weeping willow in the next yard, I hung my little lanterns on their hooks in one of my flowerbeds and lit the candles. I sat sipping tea and watching the flames dance among the darkening foliage under the waxing crescent moon. I do so love my little slice of Paradise.



Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Tea for Two

I’ve been lax on my posting lately. I have been busily working on my plethora of projects and completely ignoring the computer. If I were to offer an excuse, it might be that the clouds have parted and the big, bright orb is shining in the sky. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s an event and I’m virtually sun-drunk with the joy of it.

What have I been doing? Quite a lot, actually. Today, I’ll share my bistro table project. You’ll remember I had finished the two deciduous trees in the mural room, and I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to add for furnishings. I’d like to keep it simple, open and airy. I don’t want to cover up all those beautiful trees I painted, and I want to keep the floor uncluttered for yoga and setting up a table for a temporary project, if the need arises. I also want to use it as a guest room. I’ve found a small couch that converts to a bed, I added a small plant stand for a lamp and I wanted a little bistro table sized perfectly to hold an intimate tea for two during the winter.

I searched around and didn’t find any kind of table I liked, so I built one using a base I had stored in the shed and a pre-cut plywood round top. I sanded, stained, sanded, stained, sanded, stained, sealed, sanded, sealed, sanded… you get the picture. Then I assembled it and brought it into the room. Now I have a perfectly sized, sturdy little table to hold tea, a nibbly bit and plenty of atmosphere.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Birdfeeder Buffet

… or, How To Make Dish Washing Exciting.



I am usually fairly dutiful about cleaning dishes. I choose not to have a dishwashing machine, so it’s all me. Though it’s never, historically, been my favorite thing to do, I have managed to make my mornings at the sink some of my most magical. I have the fortune of a window over the sink. This window overlooks part of my back yard, a part which I’ve turned into my little piece of Eden. The central view of this window is the Birdfeeder Buffet. I will often stand at the sink to eat my breakfast and drink my tea so I can watch Critter Cinema. This morning, I was rewarded by special guest appearances – American Goldfinches! Last year, I had Lesser Goldfinches, so this is their first spotting of these amazingly brilliant yellow birds.



I also found another new bird to my yard at the end of March which, with the aid of the trusty bird ID book I keep on the window ledge, I identified as a Red Shafted Northern Flicker.

Every day I grow more deeply in love with the little patch of land I’ve cultivated and I feel rewarded by so many delightful visitors to entertain and amaze me.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Homemade Perfume

I am very sensitive. I can stick my nose into a rose growing on a bush or bury my face in a lilac tree and revel is the scent, yet if someone sits across a table from me with a rose perfume, I tend to sneeze and, if I don’t leave their company quickly enough, a headache will follow. And it seems like the commercial perfumes are more aggressive to me than someone walking around with a bit of rose oil dabbed on their pulse points. Thusly, I’ve been making my own perfume for years. I think I bought my last bottle of commercial perfume in the late ‘80s. Over the years, I’ve honed my process. It’s very simple and the result has very controllable levels of scent.

I start with the atomizer.
This is a one-time investment. If your current perfume bottle has a removable top, that’s perfect. If not, find a nice one that makes you happy. I have two 4.25oz. bottles, one for each bathroom, and a small travel bottle I keep in my toiletries bag.

There are two main kinds of oils: essential oils and fragrance oils.
Essential oils are pressed from plants that are oily (roses, orange flowers, citrus rinds, vanilla beans, coconut, etc.). Fragrance oils are made of chemicals that happen to smell like the target scent. Strawberry oil will never be essential because the strawberry is made chiefly of water. There isn’t enough oil in a strawberry to press the essence into usable oil. Neither the flowers nor the leaves smell like the fruit, so strawberry oil is chemically created.

There are all kinds of places that carry essential oils or fragrance oils. The trick is to find the oils that smell right to you. I love the scent of vanilla, yet not all vanilla oils are created alike. The right one on me smells like cookies while others smell like off milk. We are all different, so it’s best to find a local shop where you can test the oils on different parts of your arm, walk away for a few hours and then return to buy bottles of the ones that smell best.

The base scent.
Once I figure out which oils I’d like to combine, I take a little glass bottle with an eyedropper lid and mix them together. I’m a fruity-nutty person, so I mix coconut oil, peach, a drop or two of lemon and a touch of vanilla. This bottle is just the scented oils. I don’t add a carrier oil; it’s all pure, intense oils. This bottle, once I’ve blended it to my satisfaction, will be the base scent that I use in the atomizers.

Much like great pasta sauce or soup tastes even better the next day once the oils and flavors have had time to set and blend, perfume oils need time to really mingle and develop. Once I think I’ve gotten the right proportions, I let the bottle sit overnight. The next day, I’ll rub a drop on my wrist and make sure it smells right a few hours later. By making a whole bottle of the base scent, you have a ready supply to refill your atomizers for months and months without having to repeat this step. Very handy.

Once you have the perfect scent, it’s time to make the perfume.
Run down to the liquor store and find yourself the highest proof bottle of alcohol they have. The alcohol will become the carrier of the scent. The oils blend into alcohol where they would separate in water. I have blended my base scent into a carrier oil like jojoba and used it in pulse points, yet I prefer the alcohol for most situations because the alcohol evaporates quickly and leaves just the scented oil on my skin without any greasy spots. The best alcohol I’ve found is Everclear. It doesn’t have a scent of its own, it’s 190 proof and it cures faster than even vodka. I’ll explain the curing in a minute.

I pour the alcohol into the atomizer bottle, usually 7/8ths full. I fill the eyedropper with base scent and squirt it into the alcohol. This is the part that requires the most patience. It took many days for me to learn exactly how much base scent is necessary for the perfect result, so track how many eyedropper squirts you add. For my 4.25oz. bottles, I add 10 squirts. This makes for a lighter perfume so I can spray multiple parts of my body without becoming so cloying that canaries fall off their perches as I pass. If you are conservative with your spray, then you might want more oil for a stronger perfume.

I mentioned curing and patience. Usually it takes two or more hours for the base scent to really suffuse the alcohol. When I first add the base scent and shake it together, even though I know my proportions are correct, the spray smells more like alcohol than fruity-nutty. If I allow it to sit for at least 2-3 hours (12 hours is better), then I immediately smell the scent without the alcohol. It might take a bit of experimenting to figure out your oil to alcohol ratio. Once I determined this, I taped the ratio onto my base scent oil bottle to avoid re-learning what I once knew. My atomizers are large, so it may be months before I have to make perfume, which is plenty of time for me to forget.

I’d love to hear your experiences and results.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Carrot Art

For me, joy is in the details. I love to spend that little extra effort for the subtle effect that, when noticed, brings smiles to those who see. It is for this reason that some of my carrot slices become flowers or hearts.

I use the simplest of kitchen tools: a knife, a peeler, and a bottle opener.

Obviously, I wash and scrub my carrots well. To ensure that the tools glide smoothly over the carrot, I usually peel the outermost layer to remove any bits of root.

To make flowers, I run the bottle opener down the length of the carrot in 5 equal-ish lines. I run the opener through the grooves a couple of times to make sure the furrows are deep enough to separate the petals.

For hearts, I run one furrow down the length of the carrot, then use the peeler to hone the bottom into a point and curve the top of the heart.

In both cases, I take all the furrowed and peeled bits of carrot and toss them into the soup or use them for a side salad. There’s no point in wasting good food.

Then, I just slice the carrot as I normally would. I pay attention to make sure the integrity of the shape is still in tact as I move through the carrot. If it begins to lose shape, I’ll use the peeler or opener to bring it back.

It really doesn’t take me more than a couple of extra minutes to do this and it makes me smile. After all, how much is a smile worth in time?





Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Simple Joys: A Walk in my Garden

Above and beyond the seasons, there are two times of year for me. There is the time of growth and change and the time of hibernation. There are those 3-4 months where everything seems asleep and changes are barely perceptible to the eye. Then there is the rest of the year, the time of change. Every day, every hour, there is something new to see. Now that we’re well into Spring, I have renewed my habit of walking my yard. It’s an incredibly comfortable pattern that I’ve peacefully fallen into over the years.

Mornings are my time. All of Avalonne is still asleep and the house is mine. It’s quiet and peaceful within. The Garden is another thing entirely. Outside, it’s teeming with life and energy and change. I usually do the dishes and make a pot of tea then leave the quiet peace of the house to a very different kind of quiet and peace. I walk around the yard and look at everything. I want to notice all the changes that have happened since I last looked. How many new leaves does that columbine have? Are any of the seeds sprouting? The pink tulips have opened on the northern side of the yard. Is the transplanted yarrow thriving?

It’s probably my favorite time of the day.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Dumpster Décor

I walked downtown to run some errands two days ago. I love walking through the neighborhoods because I can watch all the little changes in the flora and admire people’s curb appeal. I tend to alter my route a wee bit with each trip so I can see more streets and alleys. On my return trip, I walked down an alley where I happened upon a yard debris recycle bin overflowing with the trimmings of a white star magnolia and a fuchsia Camilla. I do love the smell of magnolia, so I was drawn like a moth to flame. I often stray far afield for a chance to stick my face in a delicious looking flower, so I wasn’t surprised to find my feet had taken me to the bins before I knew where I was going. Once there, I thought it was such a waste for these gorgeous flowers to wither away in a plastic bin when I could take some home and enjoy them -- after all, they were clearly unwanted. I began poking around for easily carried branches and pulled several of each. I tucked them in the crook of my arm and set off for home like the newly crowned Queen of the Flower Fairies. As they have wilted, I’ve deadheaded them and added fresh yellow daffodils from my own garden and continue to enjoy these discarded beauties.

Clearly, recycling is beautiful. *beams*

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Mini Greenhouses

Our verdant valley is experiencing some rather vacillating weather patterns. The temperature is in flux, the sun is coy, the rain is flirtatious and the hail is, well, the hail is a great exfoliant -- in other words, all is normal and well. Regardless of atmospheric convention, the trouble with an outdoor exfoliant is that young plants and sprouts are too tender to withstand rigorous scouring. A mere 20 minutes after I had planted my little veggie patch, the clouds rolled in and hail began bouncing ‘round the yard. I dashed off to the deck to retrieve my mini greenhouses and nestled them protectively over the little plantlets.

What are mini greenhouses? I’m glad you asked!

I know the weather is fickle and, allowing for Murphy’s Law, I figured that I’d have no sooner planted my garden than we’d have snow. I was close. No snow, yet there was hail that afternoon and frost the next morning. Ahh, Murphy. I both respect and despise you.

I digress.

I had asked my Mom to save her clear plastic water jugs for me. I cut the bottoms off and snugged them around the base of the new plants to create little individual greenhouses. This seems to be working pretty well. It’s both inexpensive and, so far, effective.

Breathe deeply,
Laugh with abandon,
Love wholly,
Eat well.

MiLady Carol
www.miladycarol.com
Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!

Sourdough Starter Project

I have a few friends who have successfully worked with this Sourdough recipe.  I, inspired by them and the thought of delicious bread, delved wholeheartedly into this science experiment. 

I have followed the directions, picked a lovely wide-mouth glass jar with a metal latch and a rubber seal, I have my spelt flour and my warm water and I’ve diligently cared for my little project every morning.  I began this journey on March 19^th and, though the batter has a slight vinegar scent, it has not yet frothed.  Granted, he suggested the perfect room temperature would be 21-26^oC and my house is comfortably 17^o.  I fully expected it to take the full week rather than the few days, yet it has been almost two weeks and I’ve seen nary a bubble.  That’s 7 cups of flour I’ve fed into this experiment with nothing to show. 

 

Sadly, I’m thinking I need to quit until my house’s ambient temperature is 21 degrees.  This will likely be a couple months from now.  It pains me to do this, yet I can see no way to keep this jar at a warmer temperature other than lock it in a room with the heat cranked which, to my mind, is penny wise and pound foolish.  I had stopped buying bread for my husband thinking we were a week away from our own sourdough.  He’s been asking for bread the past few days, though, and I’m no closer to joy with my starter than I was two weeks ago.  I guess a $4 loaf is still less expensive than the amount of money I’d be paying to my local utility on the off chance I can rescue this experiment. 

I’m open to suggestions.

Breathe deeply, 

  Laugh with abandon, 

    Love wholly, 

      Eat well.

MiLady Carol

www.miladycarol.com

Dazzling jewelry that reflects sparkling personalities!