the emotional life of sølje

Did you know that today is the last day of Pollinator week? By proclamation, Washington’s Governor Christine Gregoire declared June 22-28, 2008 Pollinator Week in the State of Washington, signed February 11, 2008.

Neither did I. But Daniel and I signed up to be a part of the Great Sunflower Project, a bee counting project. Our sunflower seeds never germinated, but when we went to Molbaks last Monday, we bought one that was already in bloom and will be using that one to count our bees from. I think if this had been a “great lavender project”, the bee counting would have been big… they love our lavender that we have in bloom at the moment.

This morning Daniel was upset that our sunflower was laying on it’s side. It seems that one of our brilliant dogs decided that area was the coolest spot to lay down on since I had just watered there. Now our sunflower is caged in with a tomato cage. Hopefully the dogs will be detered, if not, we’ll move on to a “great lavender project”.

Tags: A Family Affair by Solje
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So what do you do when the weather is hot? Make salsa of course!

The yellow heirloom tomato was a pretty pinkish/yellow inside… and so sweet and tasty. The larger green jalapeno on the bottom of the pile ended up not being used. As Kevin was rinsing out the seeds, I could feel my throat starting to burn–and I was only next to him dicing tomatoes! He did a taste test and it barely got past his lips. Yep, a little too hot for our liking.

We also made some guacamole, but I don’t think the avocados were to the totally ripe stage yet. It should be a good mix to use with the salsa though.

Kev’s pictures of the pre-salsa more than likely turned out better than mine. Click through Rocky Raccoon to see pics of the raccoon that our neighbor’s dog treed this afternoon after the salsafest Usually the raccoons don’t come out of hiding in the middle of the day, so I was surprised to have caught it running down our street about a half hour ago.

Tags: A Family Affair, Cooking by Solje
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I started this when Daniel was a baby (looking at 7ish years now), and I have decided to pull it out again. I have enough light blue hexagons made to finish two more blocks so far. I am leaning towards making green hexagons to add between the spaces (looking like leaves) rather than white hexagon paths around the blocks.

Wall quilt, or full sized quilt… right now I am leaning towards wall, but I may decide to go bigger. At that point I will need to figure out what I will do for fabric choices. My original plan was to just have blue flowers. I have 24 yellow centers basted for when I finally make up my mind.

I will admit it is nice having handwork to do for when Darrin is awake, because sewing at my machine is just not possible then.

Tags: Quilting by Solje
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Yesterday we picked up our 1/4 steer that we went in on with three other families. I think next year we’ll do a side and that will get us through the year. Of course last night we had steaks! They were absolutely delicious! So much of the meat we’ve been purchasing at the grocery store hasn’t had much flavor. It’s very disappointing to buy an expensive cut of meat, only to not be able to enjoy it. The beef that we bought came from http://www.onthelambfarm.com/ and the owner said they had more beef ready in case anyone we knew was interested. We got a great price, $3.20/lb since there were enough shares to use the whole steer. I think the price went to $3.60/lb if the whole steer wasn’t used.

I was telling my brother that we were going to pick up our beef at a butcher near him, and he highly recommended the bacon hamburger. So we bought 4lbs of that, along with a few other items (jerky, pepperoni sticks, old fashioned beef franks). We tried out the bacon hamburger tonight (had burgers), and it was good. Though with all the fixings, it wasn’t as easy to taste the difference in flavor, but alone you could taste it. They were juicy and tasty

So what did we get from a quarter steer? 148.5lbs of tasty beef for one.
Tbone: 4 pkgs (2 ea)
Sirloin Steaks: 3 pkgs (2 ea)
Top Round: 3 pkgs (2 ea)
Cube Steaks: 4 pkgs (2 ea)
Pot Roast: 3
Rump Roast: 1
Sirloin Tip Roast: 1
Boneless Crossrib Roast: 1
Standing Rib Roast
Stew Meat: 4 pkgs (1lb ea)
Short Ribs: 2
Brisket: 1
Hamburger: 36 pkgs (1lb ea)

I chose not to do soup bones, but that was an option too.

If you are in/around Stanwood, check out Del Fox Meats for great meat as well as the bacon hamburger if you’d like to give it a try.

And how about a little walk through my bloomin’ garden?

This is Olympiad. She came from my mom’s garden. I dug it up before she moved. Olympiad was a gift to Mom for a mother’s day many years ago.

My last Siberian Iris of the season. The yellow is hard to photograph, but this one turned out well.

I noticed my first lily of the season has finally bloomed. This one is low to the ground, but the orange just jumps out at you!

And finally… the clematis has a lot of blooms this year. Yeah! Maybe I took care of the snails from last year once and for all

Tags: A Family Affair, Cooking by Solje
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My progress on the dotted drunks. I haven’t figured out a catchy name for this top so far, so I will continue to audition names until one sticks Champagne bubbles? Shrug. I’ll keep playing

I finished 24 sets (or 96 individual drunkard’s path blocks) at the retreat, and already had 16 sets put together. I don’t mind the curved piecing, but it is a little fiddly to have to pin in the right places for this block. Oh well, I like the outcome so far. I am considering adding one more round of sets, but in darker tones/prints similar to the fabrics below:

The only problem is that the prints would be used for the outer portion of the block, and the “solids” for the center… I don’t have enough yardage in prints for what I am thinking, so that means a trip to the quilt shop is in order (oh dear!)… or shopping from my jammies Either way, FQs just aren’t going to do it. But the prints are the general idea of what I want to use.

So far the top is a good size for a lap quilt (one DP set equals 8″ finished), but I want it larger just in case I decide to gift this.

Tags: Quilting by Solje
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Over the weekend I was on a quilting retreat with some friends from the WASIQ list at a quilt shop/B&B in Leavenworth. My batteries are recharged again, cobwebs cleared from my head, and just being with other women who share similiar hobbies was wonderful! We laughed until it hurt, shared ideas, projects, and just generally had a great time. I should also mention that living on the west side of the Cascades, I’ve been very sun deprived, so the warmth and sun in Leavenworth was excellent! I’d like to be able to join getaway weekends/retreats more often, but reality is that with two young kids, that just isn’t happening. Once a year will have to do for now.

Donna Kay did a bag demonstration and I made my first tote bag. I used a canvas (on sale at Joanns, I had to literally run in and find something, so I was glad I spotted it quickly), and I had some yardage of the coffee fabric. For my next tote bag, I plan to make inside pockets and perhaps use some fusible timtex that I have for the bottom of the bag (I like more definition). I just love my new bag!! It is large and holds a lot!

On Saturday night, Donna said I needed to make a mesh bag Who am I to argue She had a large supply of zippers and some various colors of mesh, and the directions were so simple and easy! I am so glad my arm was twisted to make this cute bag, because I definitely plan to make more of these in various sizes!! My very first zipper was only a little wobbly in places, but I am really thrilled with this little bag.

I also finished sewing my drunkard’s path blocks that I started months ago. The blocks took me about a day and a half to finish (96 DPs putting 4 together to make one block=24 blocks). I will post a picture in the next couple of days, after I find the blocks I finished already. I finished sewing some swap blocks for WASIQ’s siggy swap too. I feel pretty caught up on several projects at this point.

So anyway… next year I will be on the ball again when the retreat is announced so I can jump in fast to sign up

Tags: Quilting by Solje
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Busy busy day today! Daniel had his final baseball game this morning at 11:30. We knew that we would be 4 kids down, but we ended up with only 5 players out of 12. Pretty sad. The potential was there to be a pretty cruddy game… weather was cold, misty/rainy, no players… but the other team let us borrow a couple of players (occasional catcher and pitcher), and two of the dads on our team played the outfield.

The first inning didn’t start off great, but the moral rose by the time the kids started hitting. It was getting comical when the bases were loaded, one of our players would make it home but because of the batting order he would have to simply grab a bat and hit again!

I was the cheering section too. The only mom, the only other parent from our team watching the game (who wasn’t fielding). I am a little disappointed in the “team” aspect on the side of the parents this year… but whaddyagonnado? I was loud, I was cheering and clapping… that’s what I did

Notice Dan catching. He was the only kid of the five who could catch since he had the “boy protective equipment” on. Oh… see all those parents on the other side? They were with the other team.

After the game, we went on a hunt for new tires and tubes for Kevin’s bike. Because of gas prices skyrocketing, he is planning to take the trail into work a couple of times a week. We’ll see how that works out. He may have to work up to it, 15 miles each way. At least it’s pretty flat.

Next weekend I am heading to Leavenworth for a quilt retreat. I am still trying to decide what to take, and I may end up grabbing several different projects at various stages to pick from. I am really looking forward to it. I’ll be heading home on Sunday, Father’s Day, so this Sunday I am going to do our “Father’s Day breakfast” since I won’t be home in time next week for it.

Tags: A Family Affair by Administrator
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