CREEPY CRITTER ON MY KILLER TOMATO

Remember my killer tomato plant? Several years ago I bought a tomato plant - yellow pear tomato - from Lowe's and planted it in the front flower bed. I have drip irrigation in the front so I thought that would be the best place for it - my job plus 3 hour commute left me with little to NO time for watering plants that weren't on the drip system. Well, that tomato plant was so happy in the front garden it had to be cut back drastically because it was trying to take over the flower bed and the porch ... hence the Killer Tomato nomenclature.

The following year, we had volunteer tomato plants ... I guess a couple of tomatoes must have fallen to the ground and seeded the soil before I removed the big-honkin-mother-plant in the fall. Well, I let one of the volunteers grow and kept it cut back so that it wouldn't take over. Hey -- it's free tomatoes. Then the following year I transplanted yet another volunteer to the newly created back garden. This year the latest round of volunteers is going gangbusters and I have a huge crop of tomatoes. YUM!

Having said all that, I come to the CRITTER part of the story. Today I went out to get some tomatoes for dinner and I saw this HUGE caterpillar walking on the cable system to which the tomatoes are tied. It's really creepy looking and GI-NORMOUS. So I grabbed my camera, took some pictures so I could do some investigating. Isn't he creepy looking?

Per my Google search, he's a Tobacco / Tomato Horn Worm. DUH! Now I notice some of the top leaves are eaten down to the stalk. Okay, I'm waiting till DH gets home to get rid of it 'cause I'm not touching that thing!

ICK!

The Price of Makover

We've been working on our master bathroom makeover for quite awhile (read years here). It just seems to go on and on and ON AND ....

But I thought I'd give you a teensy, teensy glimpse at the progress. This is how the master bath looked when we bought our house. Pretty uuuuugly, but it had possibilities.

This is the direction we're moving (courtesy of some unknown person with wonderful taste on Rate My Space)

The cost of getting there??

$150 for Jacuzzi whirlpool (thru a classified ad --a $3000.00 2-person Jacuzzi that was in perfect condition .... SCORE!)

$75 for 3 new light fixtures (on closeout at Lowe's)

$35 for paint (on sale)

$100+ for wood and molding

And ...... it looks like maybe $218 for masking tape??

And just forget about the cost of sore knees (ever painted baseboards BEHIND the porcelain bus?) and aching muscles. Maybe I need to start yoga again because I really needed the flexibility today. I ended up scooting around the bathroom on my patootie (felt like a doodlebug) to get the baseboards painted in a bright white. Poor DH kept making Michelangelo remarks because he was painting the crown molding. It's not the Sistine chapel, but oh my poor baby!

And we're not finished yet ... DH found some great travertine on closeout at the Home Depot last weekend, so we've got a much needed counter replacement in our future ... and perhaps new sinks, etc ... and we're thinking about tile around the top of the shower to match the tile around the Jacuzzi .... BUT that's part of Phase III. I'm just glad we're ALMOST finished with Phase II of the everlasting quest for the perfect master bath. I'll post pictures as soon as Phase II is complete.

Little Kitty Heaven

Ran across this blog http://www.brooklynlimestone.com/2009/09/chic-on-cheap-pet-bed-step-by-step.html and just had to share her great idea for a cat bed.

This is what it looks like from the outside -- a suitcase with feet.

This is what it looks like on the inside. She's made a wonderful reversible cushion for the bottom, a teensy matching pillow and a gallery of cat pictures!

This is what it looks like with the occupant curled up inside -- without the cushion she lovingly -- and painstakingly -- made!

LOVE IT! Looks like her cat loves it too.

THREE THINGS

I have three things to share today.

ITEM ONE - During my recent Twin Needle Sewing Class, I learned an easier way to join bias strips. I don't know about you, but when I just need a yard or two of bias tape, I'm not interested in doing the whole sew-an-off-center-tube-thang. And going the other route ... cut out your bias strips and join them ... has not been a roaring success because I rarely get it right on the first try. You know what I mean. I end up with something that looks like this instead of a nice - straight - strip.
I always hated doing bias tape because I'd sew it, rip out the stitches and re-sew it. But with this new technique, I just zing right through. Here's how it goes: instead of trying to join the angled ends, you cut off the angles so the strips have a straight end, lay one at a 90 degree angle to the other and sew diagonally. See (rough) drawing below. LOVE THIS TECHNIQUE!


ITEM 2 - A sewing machine repairman showed me how to release thread when it gets caught in the bobbin area. Some threads come out right away, but some get caught ... and even broken off from pulling on them. I don't know about all machines, but on my Pfaff, there's a way to get a thread unhung without a repairman.


This is how my Pfaff bobbin area looks. There's an arrow pointing to the screw. All you can see from this side is a little hole, but that's where the screw is. There are three on the housing, but you have to manually rotate the wheel to see all three ... one ... at ...a ... time.



This is how the side of the bobbin housing unit looks when it's out of the sewing machine ... but don't take it out!!! Slow down! We just want to remove a little tension from the screw. The arrow points to the screw and if I had a better picture, you could see there's a little spring around it. (Okay .. I know my drawing of a screw with a spring is lame, but it was the best I could do this afternoon).
Sorry this picture is fuzzy. What he's doing here is pressing on the screw which relieves a little of the tension. It only moves about a hairs breadth, but it's enough to get your thread out.

He's using this dental tool -- it's great for reaching around to press on the screw. And there's not a lot of space in there when you're coming at it from the front.

I'm so glad I learned how to do this yesterday because I had to use it this morning. Since I didn't have a dental thing-y, I just used a teensy screwdriver, but IT WORKS. HA!

ITEM 3 - I finished the test apron and, all in all I'm pleased. I'll use the pattern again, but I'll probably use a wider bias tape next time. I think Sophie looks great in this. Wish it looked this good on me!

Have a fabulous day!

Potatoes and Onions in Bags! Oh, MY!

I've been busy sewing for myself instead of for a shop - what a surprise - think of that -- sewing for myself! One project I made was burlap bags to hold onions and potatoes. Since up to this point I didn't have a good storage solution, I decided to make bulap bags and embroider them to identify what's inside.




I made them of 2 layers of burlap ... it still allows the air to circulate and the double thickness makes them quite sturdy, so they stand on their own. And they're completely washable. Woohoo!
Since I made this in a flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants method -- ummmm - my usual method -- I used a satin stitch to join the layers at the top, but I think if I make these as gifts (or to sell in my shop) I'll make the bag out of one long piece of burlap with a long seam ... fold it in half with the seam inside and then I'll stitch along the top of the fold. Maybe I could embroider along the top edge .. like Pommes frites .... Spuds .... Taters ... etc. Hmmm, I guess I'll have to research names for onions.

The potato bag holds just over 10 pounds of potatoes and the onion bag holds more than 3 pounds. I like it. Works for my kitchen!

Also, recently I took a twin-needle sewing class. I haven't had a formal sewing class since Miss Nowatny in 9th grade home economics . This is the finished project.




I think it almost looks like heirloom stitching. I didn't notice until I took the picture that the center pintucks are slightly off center! DOH! Nevertheless, I learned a lot of really good techniques in the class and now I've signed up for a towel embossing class. I have several embossing designs already from Emblibrary.

Hellooooo! Good Christmas gifts! Can't wait!

TODAY I'm working on a "test" apron. I call it a test apron because I'm testing my pattern on cheap-o fabric before I commit scissors to the expensive stuff. Sooooo I'm using beige cotton with red trim. Sisters may remember the red fabric from my retirement Girls Only Party. I used yards and yards of it for the tablecloths. Doesn't Amanda look sweet?

Gotta go now. My break is over and my sewing machine is calling out to me.

Sisters Weekend Part II

Sorry it's taken so long to get the remaining pictures on here. Reason? DH and I went on a long trip shortly after the last post and when we got back, we couldn't access the internet. Boyz howdie -- who knew how much we depend on access to the internet?!?

But, I'm ba-a-a-ck and ready to finish the wonderful sisters weekend memories.

When we went to the Pine Mountain Jamboree, we noticed a tower nearby and Billie wanted very much to climb up it. TO THE TOP! So we came back the next day. It's a tall one!

Nancy and I decided to forego the fun (LOL), so I took pictures of our adventurers. Ginger suggested she go first, Billie next and Alice last. I think they were worried about Billie getting scared -- even though this fun treat was HER idea -- so they made a Billie-O sandwich!

Going thru the turnstile. Gee whiz! You pay to get in so you can climb your bu** off!

Going up.

GOING UP. (The letters show the position of Ginger, Alice & Billie.)

Almost there.

Finally there!!!! And Billie takes a picture of us safely back at the bottom . She's taking a picture of me happy, happy, happy that my calves aren't quivering from the trek up and down. Okay ... maybe it was a picture of me secretly wishing I'd been been braver. Perhaps I can do it next time!

After our climbers made it safely back down, we hopped the trolley to the Crescent Hotel. It's a wonderful old (haunted) hotel we stayed in last time we were there and they had the BEST Margaritas ever, so of course we HAD to visit it again.

Sitting on the balcony, we could see the tower! Looks pretty tall there -- sticking up out of the forest!

And then .... sisterly laughter among the drinks. Really, those people didn't have to leave the balcony. We weren't laughing THAT hard. Were we?

Anyway, it was another WONDERFUL sisters weekend. Definitely a special treat! Can't wait till next year. Sooooo, Alice?? Where are we going next year??? Maybe we should call ahead and get them prepared.

Sister's Weekend 2009 Part 1

Just a quick blurb about the wonderful time we had on Sisters Weekend 2009 at Eureka Springs, Arkansas. This was the front porch of our lovely cottage. While we were snapping various group photos on the front porch (oops-- I didn't get any!) Ginger began to sing, "I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, ...." Laughing, laughing all weekend!

The first afternoon, we sat outside on one of the stone patios. So charming! This is Nancy looking down to the patio.

The next morning we all went for a walk. We noticed several houses that had these witches hat roofs. I've never seen anything like it before. It's copper topped, which is very interesting.

We bought 2 day trolley passes and rode the trolley as much as possible. It was a great bargain and the trolley drivers were so nice. At least I thought they were nice until one of them called ahead to the station to warn them we were coming! What was THAT about!

Because Eureka Springs is very vertical (in the mountains, narrow streets, lots of S curves) we rode the trolley to the top of the hill in the shopping district and then walked/shopped our way down the hill. Very interesting shops. And street musicians. And restaurants.

We felt that family was with us all weekend, because we kept seeing their names everywhere. If you look closely at the pastor's name, it's the same as our oldest brother!

One of our walks included going to breakfast at Myrtle Mae's (great food!) and I saw this funny sign in a yard on the way back. Vintage humour!

Although we didn't eat at Gramma's Beans and Cornbread, we have fond memories of our last trip. Our "public singing career" started here! We have a tendency to do drive-by singings at absolutely no provocation or invitation! LOL!

We went to Pine Mountain Jamboree again -- loved it on the last trip. The new show was totally different from our last trip, but it was utterly enjoyable. There were lots of songs we could sing to and the entertainers were fabulous.

During the intermission some of the performers come out to chat with the audience. Billie bought some souvenir "hats" that look almost like a vase until you push it down onto your head. Then it looks like a pith helmet. However, when she tried it out on her own head, she couldn't get it to stay on -- it would just POP off -- almost FLY off -- everytime she pushed it down. One of the performers laughed so hard at her efforts, he had tears in his eyes. Not everyone can say they go to a comedy review and entertain the comedians!

I'll post the remaining pictures soon.