Summer's Yield

I would love to have a giant garden of summer and fall vegetables, but point of fact, I don't want to spend the time, don't like the hottest parts of the day, and if there are red bugs/chiggers out there, they will find me for sure!

So---I optimistically plant a few things in pots on the patio. My favorites, because they never fail to produce, are Sweet Banana Peppers.

I have one Sweet Bell Pepper planted in the middle, but I've only harvested 2 little babes so far.

The Banana Peppers are so prolific. My favorite recipe is to mix up a good albacore/tune salad; cut off just the top of the pepper, take out the core; and fill with the tuna salad. It's so perfect to mix up a bunch for a picnic (wrap each one in plastic wrap for no muss) to eat out of hand.

I sprinkled a bit of Salad Supreme on top for color and flavor. Chill.

Neat, huh?

Nice and crunchy and good for a pot luck summer supper.

Don't forget to leave a comment for the drawing.

Carol

Countdown to Birthday give-a-way

Presents? Yes, presents. We are having a birthday give-away.

Pictured below are the two items for the give-away.

Carol made the first out of felted wool, stitched layers together with some padding in the center, and embroidered a die cut flower on top.

The heart measures 6 1/2" from top to bottom.

Elizabeth's gift is a set of sweater felted pieces:

These 20 felted wool sweater pieces are a little over 4x5 inches each.
The four felt flowers are 2 inches each
These are all cut up from wool sweaters
that have been washed in hot water to felt.

The plan is: Make a comment on any post from this one (July 22) through Sunday (July 26), and we will draw 2 numbers on Monday. We will post the winners on Tuesday (July 28). Please be sure your email is available so that we can contact you.

Elizabeth and Carol

A Grandson's Visit

My sweet grandson, Evan, came for a 9 day visit.

A grandmother is obliged to provide a certain amount of special sweets.....cupcakes.....

And sherbet, his favorite....

After all the sugar, we need to get a little outside exercise.

How about a walk across the Arkansas River? This is the longest bridge in the world built just for walkers and bicycles. It's really interesting as it goes right over the Murry Lock and Dam, and often, barges and boats are going through the lock.

Nothing like a cool dip on a hot Arkansas summer day.

Legos are the favorite and cover any and all horizontal surfaces.

We attended the Central Arkansas Book Sale, and Evan found lots of good stuff. Who could go wrong with $1 for hard backs and 50 cents on paperbacks?

Halfway through Evan's visit, Mommy (my daughter) arrived.

Woohoo. She's a terrific cook, and we dined on a higher level than when I was doing the menu planning.

One evening's fare included fish tacos. I never knew there was such. My loss all this time. They are fabulous--especially done with Talapia.

Mimi (that's me) was trying to help Evan with his knitting.

My competition was a Sponge Bob marathon on tv. Doesn't help with concentration. We finally gave it up.

Evan and Tuffley going to bed on the last night.....


The Indiana fedora was decided to be the perfect headcovering for the trip home.

Breakfast at the airport.

And now, accompanied by Mommy, he's on his way home.

Daddy is happily waiting, but a grandmother is sad.....and a bit weepy.But summer vacations contain so much joy, the sad endings just have to be endured.

Thinking about the next visit does keep one's chin up.

Carol

Mosaic labels

These little price label sheets make very fun and easy backgrounds. Simply rub ink over the entire sheet, using several colors, if desired. Then rub off the color from the lines in between. The ink won't stick to the glossy lines.

Here are more sheets colored this way, ready to be used.

The card below was printed in a previous Stamper' Sampler magazine for their challenge to use these price labels. I used a sticky note as a mask around the squares to stamp on them individually. All the stamps used on this card are from Oxford Impressions.

And here is one more example...
The lady was stamped on a transparency and glued to the label sheet and the flower lines are rub-ons with some white gel pen dots.

If you are still reading this post and would like the blue card on top of this post, be the first to comment that you would like the card, and I will mail it to you. I will e-mail you for your address and off it will go to you. The beach beauty on that card is a copy from one of my vintage fashion magazines.

Elizabeth

Colors of Glass

Here is another collection. I have quite a fondness for colored glass and for bottles.
Here are some of my pieces.

Any blue glass collection is not complete without the lovely "Evening in Paris" bottle.

these are just a few of the vintage clear bottles- not as pretty as colored, but certainly have their own appeal.

I also have a collection of colored wine glasses. These are just the blue and green ones. They do get used now and then on a pretty table. I like the mixed look of using different goblets at each place setting.



Thanks for letting me share them with you,

Elizabeth

HOOKS, EYES & LOOPS

One of my favorite sewing ephemera is hook and eye cards. Just this week, when I purchased a bag of miscellaneous sewing stuff from a thrift shop, I realized that I had a collection of these cards. These cards are usually found in the "mystery'' sewing bag or box of stuff you might find at a thrift store or estate sale. At an estate sale this spring, in the basement on the floor was a cardboard box full of lots of sewing "stuff" with a sign that said $3.00 for the whole box. It was so big, I had to have help carrying it up the stairs. I did not even spend time checking out all that was in it. I mean, half the fun is getting home with such a treasure and checking out all the surprises in the box. You may also be so lucky, as to have your grandmother's sewing box, with many treasures. Well, anyway, I gathered up all these cards and discovered I had a nice variety.
These are my favorites and this one below is my most favorite. It is probably the oldest, just because the price of 4 cents is the lowest price of the lot.

I just love the way they are usually folded and have all those wonderful holes and strings attached. It is such a tactile item. Can't you just imagine years ago, the ladies carefully taking these out and sewing with them. The most common brand name by far is Clinton with the lovely bright navy and gold colors. Then there are DeLong, Boye, Newey's Imperial, Atlas, Alice, and Penimaid. If you have lots of vintage sewing stuff, maybe you want to look through your stash to see how many you have.

I probably want to keep my originals and make copies to use on projects. So I have made some copies above you may want to use in your artwork. Enjoy!

There are many other kinds of sewing ephemera besides these hook and eye cards. Buttons and button cards are every one's favorites, along with needle packages, snap cards, wooden thread spools, patterns, and buckles. Maybe you have a collection of some of these. I would love to hear about your favorite sewing collection.

Elizabeth

Ice Cream Social

Carol and Elizabeth were having a perfectly lovely ice cream party with a couple of friends, when Elizabeth remarked that she had heard of a wondrous place where a Giant Ice Cream Sunday resided. So off they went to look for it. Never let it be said that they would be satisfied with a little ice cream when they could have a lot.

Here they are - having found the magical enormous ice cream.

"Wait, Elizabeth, what are you doing?"

"Hurry on up, Carol, this is yummy"

And so, our story ends, as Carol and Elizabeth enjoy endless spoonfuls of strawberry surprise, thinking not of the spoonfuls of Mylanta that may come later this evening.

If we cannot eat all the ice cream we want, how about paper ice cream cones. Then we can have as much as we want. These cones were stamped 3 times each. The bottom cone part was colored with watercolor pencils and the ice cream was stamped on patterned paper and glued to the original cone.

This is Elizabeth's grandson, Blakie, who is 20 months. I babysat him this past Saturday and we played in his backyard. Papa came over with homemade ice cream ( leftover from the 4th) and you can see that Blakie is very fond of ice cream. Oh, yeah!

"More, please"
It was nice that the hose and his little pool were handy for clean-up.

This is Carol's grandson enjoying an ice cream at Snookies in Des Moines. Looks yummy!

Hard to beat freckles and ice cream on a summer's day.

I think he would like to have one as big as the one in the corner.


This is the ice cream bowl and spoon that I gave my husband in 1986. From then on, everytime he had ice cream, he used this bowl and spoon.


Carol and Elizabeth

Thank you for coming to our ice cream social and please check out other parties found on .............

"Eye Candy Creations"