“Joy” is one of the many words I could use to describe the past four days. I am part of a pretty good-sized family, and the past four days two of my sisters and one of my nieces have been helping me to get our house ready to show for sale. It may be the most incredible time I have experienced in my adult life!
Wednesday, My-Sister-The-Nurse came to stay with her grandson. They arrived about 10:30 in the morning, and were here before I returned from grocery shopping. She and I spent the rest of the day packing up a good part of my kitchen. I emptied low shelves and high shelves, and drawers. Utensils, sets of dishes, pots and pans and all sorts of odds and ends were packed away.
Late in the afternoon, my youngest sister, Frankie, and her daughter The Artist, arrived. We put together a meal, and visited, crashing early to be ready to work on Thursday.
Thursday morning I was up at 5:00 and slipped out to work in my herb garden. Frankie snuck up on me before 6:00 and we worked for a while until My-Sister-The-Nurse and The Artist joined us. We cut back chives, sage, lemon balm, lamb’s ears and salvia and gave the oregano a major crew cut. The Artist collected everything in a wheelbarrow and made trip after trip to the back forty.
MSTN was not happy that we’d gotten the jump on her and wanted to do more before lunch, so I asked if she wanted to cut back all the fern fronds that had died in the high heat. She whipped through that bed in no time and everyone began muttering about MULCH!!! We hooked up the sprinkler to soak the bed and I arranged for two yards of mulch to be delivered.
Meanwhile, I sent MSTN off to get more packing boxes, and lunch from Portillo’s. I had to stay for the mulch delivery, so we kept packing things while we waited for her to return. MSTN was really ticked off that it was too hot, MUCH too hot, to be able to spread the mulch. She had to leave it to us to finish what she clearly felt was HER job. Instead, she emptied the china cabinet, while Frankie cleared out the last of my mother’s clothing.
Frankie and The Artist boxed up my parent’s wedding china while MSTN moved on to packing some of the crystal, and the cut glass dishes. There is a small cabinet in my dining room, and it occurred to me that my sisters could help me decide what to do with the contents. That slowed us down for a bit, but we managed to empty it out.
We all worked on dinner, along with Dear Husband. Flank steak, baked potatoes, mushrooms, green beans with bacon, a special salad that Frankie wanted to try, and Portillo’s chocolate cake for dessert. After dessert, MSTN and her grandson had to leave. It was really tough to let them go. It isn’t often that I get to enjoy my family like this, and I really would have liked to have MSTN with us for another day or two.
Friday morning, Frankie and I went out to cover the fern bed with mulch. She filled the wheelbarrow repeatedly, moving a cubic yard of mulch, and dumped it on the bed. I pushed it around, to try to get even coverage. We worked on the gardens at the front of the house, pulling weeds, cutting back iris and spent plants, and planting new plants until the heat of the day drove us in for breakfast.
Dear Husband was rained out for the day, and he came home to collect The Artist to show her a source of wood that she might want to know about for her art classes. Frankie and I had lunch and headed for the basement. Frankie moved two pallets into place and then began bringing down the boxes we had filled on Thursday. I sorted through more things, creating a stack of things to be given away, before crying “Uncle!” I just was saturated with packing, and wanted to go sit and put my feet up.
Dear Husband and The Artist returned, and we popped “Jane Eyre” into the DVD player. It was the version that had been shown as a four part BBC presentation. We made it through almost two hours, took a break to cook dinner, and then returned to watch the remainder of the story. We were all absorbed, right to the very end.
Saturday morning, we got off to a slightly later start. Dear Husband delayed his departure to have breakfast with us, which Frankie cooked. She cleaned out the refrigerator, making an egg casserole, blueberries and papaya, and toast. Frankie and The Artist cleared two more gardens of weeds while I continued to cut back the iris at the sidewalk, a project that will continue for some time.
I’d set the timer to let us know when we had to go in to clean up. MSTN returned to us and we all went off to the French Market in Wheaton. The Artist carried things for all of us as we browsed through the jewelry, bakeries, and veggie stands. I have so much food left from this week that I didn’t buy a lot of veggies, but it was more than enough to weigh her down.
We made the obligatory Starbucks run, and then headed for home. Can you imagine how difficult it was for me to let these women get on with their lives? What an incredible gift they gave me! They saved me a couple weeks of work, and made my life so much easier. How do I ever tell them “Thank you!” enough?
Green Olive Tapenade
There is a restaurant near my home that sells a “muffaletta” sandwich that knocks my socks off. It’s a very non-traditional muffaletta, made using Italian rolls, lunch meat, and mozzarella. The topping is what I like. It’s made of very finely diced green olives and garlic, and it makes my mouth go, “Yuuuuummmmm!”
I’ve tried other tapenades, and like them, but I like this one the most. I’m going to have to see if they will sell it to me by the half pint.
I’ve been trying to link to a picture of a muffaletta for you, without luck. Go to Google Images and type in “muffaletta,” and you can see hundreds of them! Thanks to all of you, I may know how to make the tapenade! I have a small food processor called a “Little Oscar.” If I put green olives stuffed with pimentos, a few cloves of garlic and some olive oil in the base and chopped them fine, I might have what I’m looking for!
YEA!!!
Boxes, I have Boxes
EMPTY boxes!
I spent part of my evening shaping and taping packing boxes from U-Haul. I have some things to pack tomorrow, and more to pack this coming week, and I thought I’d get a start putting together the boxes. That seems to make the packing go faster.
I ran errands this morning, and one of the stops was at the U-Haul storage facility near my bank. Their computers were up, and then down, and then up again, so it took a while to get what I needed. I picked up two kinds of tape, small and medium boxes, and dish and glass packs. I have some crystal to pack up, and I didn’t want to trust it to newspaper. I have two boxes ready to go for the last of the china, as well. I also stopped at a local liquor store and asked for some of their ale boxes. I think they will be just the right size to pack up miscellaneous tools.
I’m not thrilled about the idea of leaving our beautiful home, but surprisingly, I like the pared down look that I’ve achieved. Well…..I like most of it. There are a couple of walls that seem to be just too bare.
Monday, the plumbers are coming to replace some of the faucets in the bathroom and kitchen. We’ve had the sofits and fascia painted, as well as the loft. Bit by bit we are getting closer to putting the house on the market. Soon, I think.
Okay, WHERE IS IT!??
I bought a piece of fabric to use as a narrow border in a small lap quilt, and also for the binding. I’m almost ready to bind this little quilt and do you think that I can find that piece of fabric!??? I have looked everywhere. I’m positive that I set it down, thinking, “This is the perfect place to store this fabric until I need it for binding.” Unfortunately, I didn’t take notes.
The one-inch wide inner border is of a medium dark red, with a darker pattern of flowers in red. It isn’t a shade that matches anything I have in my stash. Now, I am confident enough in my quilting that I don’t have to match things exactly. I learned about NOT matching my quilting fabrics from a lecture by Mary Ellen Hopkins, so I could comfortably find another red that would work. The thing of it is, I know that fabric is sitting somewhere in this house, taunting me, and I want to use it up.
I can promise that there will be an addendum to this post……saying, “I found it!” And it will have been in some obvious place. I hate having an uncooperative memory!
Long TIme Coming
I FINALLY, FINALLY, managed to get my act together and send a package to my friend, Cop Car. First, I began collecting the things I wanted to send. Then I had to make up my mind what box I was going to use, changing my choice several times. Then, I HAD to write a note to go with the gift. It would have been in bad taste to send the things off without an explanation.
So, finally, I sent the package.
Thursday, there was a lovely message on my answering machine, telling me that it had arrived, making me feel like the best friend in the world! I waited until Friday, to return that call, and that might have been the best part of sending the gifts. I had the chance to talk at length with Cop Car, and catch up on how she and her family are doing. I regret that it took me so long to reach out to her. We have so much in common that she feels like family to me, and now she has been officially adopted as my Sister of the Heart.
Cop Car blogged about the small quilt and movie that I sent to her. She has explained it better that I can, complete with pictures, so go to read her version of this story, here
“Sis,” I really enjoyed having the chance to talk with you. Let HH know I’ll chat with him next time! *G* Stay well!
First Farmer’s Market Visit
Dear Husband and I made our first trip to the Farmer’s Market yesterday. DH was traveling toward the boat for the weekend, but stopped to be my pack horse for the market. I was relatively restrained, less than one totebag of goodies, but it was nice to have his help.
Tomatoes, fresh dill, green beans, zucchini, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, crimini mushrooms and cheese curds…..I think that was all I got. I passed on the unusual flavors and shapes of pasta, and the potted herbs, kohlrabi, the great bread from Breadsmith, and plenty of other things. I’ll get them another time.
Fruit salad to go with dinner tonight, and maybe a strawberry rhubarb pie. Interested?
Morning Has Broken
I’ve had a great morning so far! One of my friends at Facebook put up a link to Cat Stevens performing “Morning Has Broken” on You Tube, and I thought that was a great way to acknowledge the start of a beautiful day.
I was slow to get started this morning, but I was out in the gardens by 7:40. It’s supposed to be in the nineties today, so I wanted to get some gardening in before the heat rose.
I deadheaded six peonies in the long driveway garden, and hacked back the Bouncing Bet that tries to take over the garden. I noticed that the astilbe is blooming at the shady end of that garden. The astilbe, hostas, bleeding heart and meadow rue have come back for twenty years now. The short gold day lilies and the nepeta are making a nice showing, and before long the Rudbekia “Goldsturm” and Purple coneflower should be in bloom.
Earlier this week I ripped some weeds out of the sidewalk garden. It was the first time I’d done anything physical since the gunk settled it, so it didn’t take me long to be short of breath. I left the weeds on the sidewalk to be gathered later in the day. Of course, that was the only day I had visitors coming up the sidewalk! Today, I swept the dried weeds off the walk, cut back the vinca that has been trying to take over the entire bed, and planted a purple ‘Homestead’ verbena, and a fuschia petunia at the end of the bed nearest the front door. There are more to be planted but my knees were crying “Uncle!” I pulled a few more weeds, and began ripping out the volunteer ox-eye daisies that were going to seed. By that time it was warming up, so my last outdoor chore was to water the containers and the two transplants.
Bogie has ferns that she is ripping out because they are so vigorous. I have ferns that have died off from the heat we’ve had. The back wall of the garage is perpendicular to the house, and years ago, before I learned the microclimates of our house and land, I planted ferns in that corner. I thought it was going to be shaded and cool, on the north side of the house. What I didn’t know was that it would get a lot of afternoon sun, and the bricks heat up, and retain the heat, so it wasn’t the best of places to plant ferns. When I get out next, I hope to cut back the dead fronds. water heavily, and then mulch, to see if the ferns will grow more fronds.
So, my gardening is done for the day. I’ve been working on cleaning out the closet in the office that contains a jumble of things, including my mother’s fabric stash and sewing things, yarn, some of Dear Husband’s favorite posters, pads of newsprint and gridded paper, for quilt design, mailing supplies and boxes of papers that need to be sorted. It’s good to be getting one more closet packed up. I think the next packing chore will be the shelves in the mudroom that hold floral and gardening items on one side, and china and crystal on the other.
So, I have plenty to do today, and I’ve had a nice start to the day. I hope that your Sunday has started out as well as mine.
June Update
MORE odd weather! It’s been very dry. Other parts of Northern Illinois have had rain, but of the past three weeks, I bet we’ve had less than an inch. It’s been unusually cool, but now it’s warming up to more normal heat for June. My day lilies in the herb garden are sunburned, and the ferns in the corner between the garage and house have died. I’m going to try cutting them down, watering and then mulching to see if they are willing to try to grow once more.
I am still recuperating from the gunk. We visited the PA and she put us on an antibiotic and a steroid. My cough has abated, but I’m short of breath. I need to get out and build up my stamina. I’m going to start by cutting down the iris stalks. Bloom time is long over, and I hate the ragged look of the gardens. Next, I’m going to be vicious to the thistles!!! And then, I’ll trim back the peonies.
Dear Husband has been enjoying the weekends sailing. He’s a happy camper when he gets to spend his time on the water. He went to stow the winch handle last Saturday, and it wouldn’t fit into the slot. When he looked at it, there was a black walnut, husk and all, stored there for safe keeping. Some squirrel in the back yard is cussing, I bet! lol
I can tell that summer is here. I want to do a chicken salad with celery, dried cranberries, walnuts and grapes, and I thought I might make a cold pasta salad this weekend while DH is away. It’s not his favorite. I think I’ll just make one or two servings, so there aren’t a lot of leftovers.
Almost everything I’m doing is centered at home these days, but I’m looking forward to the Farmer’s Markets, the French Market, and the Antique Fair. I’m sure other wonderful outdoor activities will come my way. I understand that I may have family visiting later this month. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Happy summer to you all.
Jelly Roll Quilts
Fabric manufacturers are always looking for ways to make more sales. Someone came up with the idea of selling fabric in pre-cut widths, saving the quilter a time consuming first step. You can get fabric in 5 inch and 10 inch squares, in fat eights (9X22), in fat quarters (18×22), and half yard cuts of collections. They have also come up with what they call “Jelly Rolls,” which are strips 2 1/2 inches wide across the width of the fabric, which is between 42 and 44 inches. Manufacturers will put together strips from an entire collection, typically forty strips or so.
I’d heard about Jelly Roll quilts. There are quite a number of books available with ways to use these strips. One way is to sew the strips end to end, and then sew the lengths together. You can find video on-line of women racing to sew these strips into quilts.
Here’s a link to show you how a Jelly Roll quilt is made:
I was working on a project for Scraps on a Mission and cut two of these strips from every black and white fabric we had. There were a LOT of these fabrics left over once the project was finished, so we started looking for ways to use them. We created two small lap quilts, one with turquoise and one with lime green, and I think there will be one more of these quilts to use the last of the fabrics.
This is the quilt with lime green strips:
One woman donated fabric with sharp contrasts, and this is an example of how they have been used.