Saturday project

Today I decided to repurpose a glass vase that I have used to hold long stemmed flowers.  The vase is glass and looks like beach glass.  It is, in fact, recycled glass with a bluish green tint.  The base of the vase is only about 4 inches and is heavy so it is stable on its own.  Last week I had a lamp that needed  rewiring so I went to my local True Value hardware store INSTEAD of Home Depot.  I was ready to pay someone to rewire my lamp but the helpful man in the hardware store told me it may only need a new switch.  He was right.  For less than $5 I updated my floor lamp with a new switch!!  I was ecstatic so went back to True Value with this glass bottle vase.  I asked some questions.  Tim in the back drilled the exact right size hole in my rubber stopper, I picked up a 3-way switch; took a deep breath and headed home.  30 minutes later I have a new lamp:  total cost not counting the 7 year old glass vase I was ready to take to the Goodwill--> $28.  I LOVE my local hardware store and the terrific guys who work there:

Completed lamp on my bedside table

$28 worth of stuff

Lamp base neck

so far so good

learned what an underlap knot is

All done! Can't drill a hole in glass so the wire must be near the socket

HIGH TIDE FARM

It's official:  I have a new sign, thanks to Whitney, Ryan and the Denver girls: High Tide Farm!  Well I had to mix my love for the beach and the reality that I am at the base of the Rocky Mountains so I came up with High Tide.  It would take a weather disaster to have an ocean tide in Denver but it is in my heart and it's the name of my farm.  Mountains, sunshine, surf and a little starfish down in the corner.  My design, a metal artist's work

Health food salad!

I love healthy food and I love cooking- but you probably know that already.  It is nothing but brown, black, gray and blue in Denver with not a thing growing in anyone's garden but who says there aren't beautiful fruits and vegetables to eat!  This beautiful colorful- full of antioxidants salad is delicious.  I started with raw beets- red, orange and chioggia and carrots and shredded them in my $15 slicer from Williams-Sonoma.  Then I found blood oranges, naval oranges and mangoes.  I did have some little limes growing indoors so added lime juice, blood orange juice and pomegranate vinegar- oh and a little olive oil for dressing- oh and a little orange zest.  As if it weren't pretty and healthy enough already I added some dried cranberries.  Try it!

Pretty January salad

beets and carrots

Blood oranges, mango, key limes and navel oranges

My first attempt at making hard cheese!

My Christmas gift to myself is a new cheese press!  I have been making soft cheeses, yogurts and ice creams with my delicious goats' milk but I needed this piece of equipment to press the curds into a hard condensed wheel.  A very simple machine, really.  No electrical cord!  After a series of pressing at different pressures I have my first wheel of Cheddar!!!! So exciting!!  I will use a rub of salt to help it dry; then coat it in wax and place it in a cool place (my wine cooler) for 4-12 weeks!

Cheese press

2 pound wheel of cheddar

Happy New Year! January quilt block

Happy 2015  Wow!
I am busy working on a new quilt in the cold evenings in Denver where all you can do is stay in.   These are some pictures of the January quilt block.  The trees are all bare around here and a few birds around - but mostly ice and snow and very cold days.

This was my first block- a little catywampus.  I did improve through the process

The Canadian geese hang out in Denver.  The button looks just like one in a flock of hundreds.  The ribbon detail is a branch of an evergreen with pine cones Lots of beads.  Lots of stitching..  Lots of French knots for the berries on the tree

Snowman and snowflake buttons, ribbon snow and pinecones

I tried to add flowers that were blooming in my garden in California where I lived when I stitched this quilt.  In the lower left are narcissus in bloom

Who doesn't like a snowman in winter?  Here is a stitched on and several on the ribbon.  

Sorry it's blurry.  Hundreds of French knots for berries