One person (travelswithmymotorbike Member Feb 8, 2012, 3:50 AM) did write:

Like many others, we’ve been having unseasonably warm weather. Although below snow level, I’ve usually had at least three or four snowstorms by now – but not a one. We’ll be worried about the snow pack and spring water levels if the pattern doesn’t change very soon. Ever the optimist, I have to appreciate gifts of the warm weather. I’m still enjoying my sweet Pak Choi discussed in my pre-germinating seed post (and there’s more on winter sowing in that post as well). The daffodils are well on their way to blooming soon.

This mountain area is USDA gardening zone 7, and look at my lush Echeveria glauca. Spring and even warmer weather will be the perfect time to create more plants from all these lovely little rosettes.

I’ve been waiting on the cold before going gung-ho into winter sowing. For winter sowing, you use containers like milk jugs, put in dirt and seed, water and place somewhere that they will experience the cold and snow. This mimics the natural season while protecting the seeds from birds or being washed away. It also creates a mini green house environment where the seed will sprout and grow earlier than usual in your zone. The same system works for spring sowing, you just wait to put out your warm season seeds until later in the season. The Winter Solstice is the usual start for the cold season sowing. Yet here I am mid February deciding to “just do it”. The seed may germinate too early without the proper cold and late in the season cold spell could kill them. Taking my chances – have 24 jugs of flowers planted, just need to move them to a colder spot in the garden today.

All those pots are my spring bulbs.

The other unusual bit is that the cuttings I started in early fall are alive and growing on their protected shelf (they should be dormant).

I’ve even been able to harvest my garlic chives continuously all season.

The weather folks haven’t yet begun their doom and gloom predictions a.k.a. not enough snow pack  = drought, so for now I’ll remain optimistic and enjoy the gifts of the season.

This post is participating in Sundays in My City at Unknownmami.com. Stop in and see what others around the globe are up to.

Kinda a “here’s looking at you kid” glance (perfect shot for a bit of anthropomorphic captioning). While not what I would consider “frame-able” quality (egads that light), I’m happy to finally capture a few shots of the local chubby Mountain bluebird – a rather skittish gent who takes off at the slightest whisper of sound.

The sweet tooth has been demanding attention lately. Antidote? Easy as 1 2 3.

One: Crème fraîche.

Easily make your own Crème fraîche from buttermilk and heavy cream. To 1 cup heavy cream add one tablespoon buttermilk and allow to sit out for 24 hours. I like to cover the bowl with a damp piece of muslin for the overnight; then wrap it tightly with plastic. If you don’t use plastic – expect a very thick skin on top.

Once it’s as thick as you like, place it in the refrigerator – it will continue to thicken a tad. Some folks make it with yogurt, although buttermilk will deliver a more authentic crème fraîche flavor. I’ve seen recommendations that ultra pasteurized heavy cream takes longer to make. Ultra pasteurized is all that’s available in my local market without a special health food store excursion.

Mine do seem to stay thin for quite a while before gelling (but I do keep the house pretty cool overnight, which is when I usually make it). You can leave it out for an additional 8 to 24 hours if needed. The nifty bacteria in the buttermilk are what keeps it from going bad. Some recipes have you warm the cream first – this isn’t necessary unless you’re in a rush. You can also whip it if, once done, you’d like it a tad lighter.

Two: Place a pie crust in your baking dish. Mix a pack of frozen peaches (16 oz) with 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of flour, and an optional dash of cinnamon. Place in crust, fold back pie crust edges and sprinkle a little white sugar over the top. I generally let the peaches defrost about half way. The resulting tart has a very fresh peach flavor with still firm peaches in its filling.

Three: Bake about 45 minutes (start checking at 40) at 375 degrees.

This post is participating in Sunday’s in my city. C’mon by and see what others around the globe are doing.

Wiki: Song of Sixpence

Sharing just a few snapshots today, so that I can hustle out to the garden. Unlike earlier in the week aka Mists of Avalon (read dense fog), we’re having beautiful sunny weather today.

The winter migration brings birds that I don’t see as often. Here’s a spotted towhee (you can post a picture to www.gardenweb.com’s birding forum and they’ll ID it for you).

This black chinned hummingbird has been driving away my population of Anna’s while he hogs the feeder.

The oh so cute fluffy mountain bluebird has been elusive for me. I have sharp, crisp pictures from the back, edges of the tail on a corner of the frame or slightly fuzzy, but otherwise gorgeous shots. Wish me luck.

Love gorgeous cloudy sunsets.

Changing topic on you – a favorite thing over on Pinterest.com is cleaning hints. I love tea, but often let it sit in the pot or the cup to the point where they’re badly stained. Normally, a scrub with baking soda will lift the stain. But, I’d let them get to a point where this didn’t work. A friend of mine uses Barkeeper’s Friend to remove water stains from her stainless flatware. I also noticed someone on Pinterest used it to remove the hazing lines that appear on some China as it ages. So, I gave it a go.

Success. (I use the stronger powdered version).

This post is participating in Sundays in My City @Unknownmami.com; c’mon by and see what folks around the globe are up to on their weekend.

Woo hoo, wouldn’t have thought I’d be so excited, but it’s going to get into the 20s tonight and tomorrow and we may see rain before the end of the week. :-) Brr, it’s even pretty chilly now. Like many, we’ve had unseasonable weather – amazingly warm and dry. Last season we had some beautiful weather in January and February as well, but we’d started with our requisite rain, snow and followed up with more rain and heavy snow into April. This season we’re getting concerned when we drive past the cows nibbling  itty bitty tufts of brown grass in their un-irrigated pastures that haven’t seen rain for months or think about our plethora of fruit trees that only do well with a certain number of chill hours. So, our growing things schedule is off, the ski resorts are praying for snow, and the rest of us hope for at least some rain and a drought free summer.

Although some do it earlier, January is high season for scanning the plant and seed catalogs, planning next year’s garden, and ordering seeds and supplies. Also, time to make sure you get the last of your bulbs planted if you haven’t already (and I am so into bulb planting right now; above photos were previous season). I’m sticking with the optimism route and plowing forward (he, he) with my garden. I’d mentioned here, that I grow many things from seed and enjoy winter sowing (and more links to winter sowing are in that post). It’s been too warm and sunny to put the seed jugs out, but looks like this week will rectify that. Time to dig in the dirt.

For your own planning, Johnny’s Selected Seeds has a great calendar where you key in your average last frost date and it auto fills your specific planting out dates and seed starting dates. With row covers or any season extenders you can go a tad earlier. If you don’t know your last frost date – just pick any “by zipcode” sites on this Google search.

One of the tricks I learned that I find invaluable is pre-germinating seed in paper towel and baggies.

Label your baggie with a sharpie marker with the date and type of seed, cut your paper towel into quarters, dampen and ring out the towel and arrange your seeds on the damp towel.

Roll up (note this towel is a little too damp. I squish it out before I put it in the baggie).

Place in baggie and leave in a warm spot to germinate.

With large seed like cat grass, I might dump a bunch in the piece of towel. Here you can see it started to sprout and is ready to plant.

Above is sprouting scallion.

I get a pot ready with dirt, put the seeds down, spread them out a tad, cover with dirt and water. You don’t have to remove the paper towel as it’s biodegradable. This is the sprouted cat grass.

With warm weather, or in a protected spot, they’ll be poking through the soil in no time. The cats keep it “trimmed”.

Pak Choi  - from sprouting in Oct to now harvesting young leaves. Pre-germinating is great as you don’t waste space (and time) wondering if your seed is good and going to sprout. It shaves about a week off your seed growing time (see the calendar to figure your seed starting time).

I do sometimes let them sprout a bit longer in the towels than I should, but  am able to get healthy plants. If (with work and life) you can plant them as soon as they sprout, you’ll have nice strong plants and even better survival rates. If you let them go – still plant out and you may be pleasantly surprised at how resilient they are. Above is my Swiss chard. Pre-sprouting is not necessary with winter sowing; I was simply using the milk jug is a mini greenhouse to grow before transplanting to my row covered bed.

If you order seed, don’t forget to throw some sprouting seeds into your order. Park Seed, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, and Territorial all have sprouting seed at a good price (and my links will land you on their sprouting pages). Love the larger seed like mung beans in stir fries; smaller sprouts – mustards, broccoli or alfalfa – in sandwiches and salads. Not into any fancy sprouting systems here, I just grab an empty jar, put some boiling water into it for a few moments to sterilize, cut some cheese cloth to cover the top, add seeds and away you go. Generally soak the seeds for half a day or overnight, then rinse in the morning and evening (leave the cheesecloth on, fill the jar with water, tip it over to dump the water out, do a second time). Easiest if you just leave your jars by the kitchen sink. Once they approach readiness, you can move to the refrigerator to slow down growth (and yes, I did let the pictured batch of mungs get pretty green, but they were great). When I harvest a jar, I’ll rinse the cheesecloth in a bleach / water mixture as it gets greenish from the seed covers and, of course, clean and sterilize the jar between batches. You can place your sprouts in a bowl of water to skim off the seed coatings if you don’t care for them. I use either a strong rubber band or the rim of the canning lid to keep the cheesecloth in place. It’s so nice and easy to have fresh greens readily on hand any time.

Well I’m off to “get dirty” while we have some sun and warmth. This post is participating in Sundays in My City – be sure to pop over and see what others around the globe are doing on their weekend.

My niece is on her rifle team at college, does well and positively loves it. This is a laptop padded case for her, although I added the strap so she could use it as a bag or hang it in her room to stuff with things. (She’s going for laptop bag). I’m not a gun toting kinda gal myself, but this image is one she adores; she also has it on a towel. It’s Embroidery Library’s Hunting Crest.

Stitching through multiple layers of padding and heavy duty stabilizer plus upholstery weight cotton was tough on my machine (see the bent needle above). The green trim isn’t on perfectly but I’m in the process of making some “raggedy flowers” for her to pin on the bag where the trim was not absolutely straight at the bottom edge. Simplicity pattern 4391 was a starting point.

Everyone – Have a simply marvelous holiday season!

To my Christian friends, Merry Christmas, Nollaig Shona Daoibh!!

For those who follow the seasons, I hope you enjoyed your winter solstice, Meán Geimhridh -  a time to bring in greens so your overwintering sprites will enjoy your home, keep your yule log burning bright to honor the return of the sun and say hello to Brigid, patroness of artists and crafts people, so that she may light your inspiration in the coming year. Beannachtaí na Féile!

More Victorian – My sister’s town does a Dickens Christmas event (which I think must be so cool!). Used their “proper names” to go along with the times. I might try to make the exact same set for myself for next year – Love them!

Osnaburg (poor man’s linen, a sturdy 100% cotton) is the base, heavy duty cut away is the stabilizer, Sulky embroidery the threads. Stitching the fabric to stabilizer around the design before embroidering (on my machine it’s “fix”) is something I highly recommend.  You remove the basting stitch when it’s done. The designs are from Embroidery Library  (Victorian Santa and Victorian reindeer 1); the lettering for the name is from my machine (Husqvarna Viking).

Pieces were stocking front and back, cuff, lining front and back. (There are oodles of free stocking patterns on the web if you need one). An upholstery weight micro suede (faux suede) is the cuff with a light Christmas cotton the lining (I didn’t want anything that might show through the osnaburg, light color and light design deliberate for the lining).

Using both red and burgundy lets them tie together their new home color and their existing holiday reds. You’ll note I didn’t want a seam along the “front” stocking edge of the cuff, but used one long piece to wrap around.

Stitched the top inside edge of both the stocking (right sides together) and lining (right sides together), then stitched the cuff (right sides together) to the lining and the cuff to the stocking (right sides together).

Fold lengthwise with right sides together and stitch all the way around, leaving a gap large enough for your hand on one of the lining sides. You can see my gap on the calf back.

Pull the stocking through the gap to get it right side out. (Stitchers - are you admiring my collection of embroidery threads in their handy, closable (read dust proof) cases that I pick up on sale (or with coupon) at Joann you get a glimpse of in hte background?)

Then push the lining down into the stocking and allow the cuff to fold  a bit into the lining side as well.

I leave the heavy duty stabilizer in so they’ll hand nicely when empty. I also didn’t stitch the gap in the lining closed – it might be easier a few years from now to press them inside out. If these were for children, I would’ve stitched the gap closed. Next time I’d flare out the stitching for the cuff a tad.

Finger smooth and press the cuff, use an iron to smooth and lightly press the stocking now that it’s right side out. Wrap.

Hoping you’re all having a lovely holiday season! A free stocking pattern is here at Moda Bakeshop. This post is participating in Made by You Monday at Skip to My Lou and Metamorphis Monday.

If you can’t sprinkle in some cute at Christmas, when can you? The gingerbread folks are from Urban Threads and the Bear and Elf candy cane holders are from Embroidery Library.

As usual, I don’t exactly follow their instructions for making one at a time but search out a few shortcuts to do a sheet at once. You need to be careful with how you paste and color sort in 4D Embroidery – you can end up stitching out one at a time (arggh – thread changes). I “faked out” the program by inputting odd colors (like magenta) for the back stitch down while knowing “magenta” meant load up brown thread again. This way I could color sort so that all 6 candy cane holder tops stitched and stopped allowing me to take it off the machine and add the back felt, then have all six bottoms stitched on. With the gingerbread men, I’d stitched just the tops, cut them out, glued to felt backs with ribbon at head to hang and cut out again. Still faster than doing one at a time.

I always use Sulky embroidery threads  (40 weight) – I can get them on sale and haven’t had any problems. If you stitch them one at a time per instructions – the edge overlap stitching would be at the edge. Stitching in groups like this, I have the bit of felt on the outside edge.

 You can see the white cut away stabilizer in the sandwich of felt middle as I’d started using my white cutaway (need to get black cut away). I used a brown marker to go over the bits of white that poked through.

The bears went off without a hitch. You do need to be sure to get “skinny” candy canes as I had one box that was just a tad too big to fit through the buttonholes.

Back to creating gifts and baking ……  This post is participating in the following linky parties: Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage,

It’s crunch time for crafters and bakers. Have my elf hat on and been busily working and creating these past few weeks – just haven’t written about it here. Packages must arrive and be opened before I can post about them. :-)  First up – decorated holiday towels. I love my embroidery, but some images can take as long as 6 to 8 hours to stitch out (egads), printing to fabric goes much faster. It’s not quite as durable in the long run – but for decorative items will last years (and if you’re wanting to print on a shirt for your child – well, one season with washing plus their growth isn’t bad).

1.    Grab some linen or linen blend fabric, preshrink.

2.   Hem for a towel. (See Loving Linen post for measurements, suppliers, complete details plus care of linen information).

3.   Sew a decorative stitch at hem.

4.   Select an image (web search for copyright free images or check out what folks are posting at Pinterest). I manipulate my images plus text in PowerPoint to place on an 8 ½ X 11 page as I work in PowerPoint a great deal. This particular set used the June Taylor prepared for printing fabric but I have used others.

5.   Print to prepared fabric sheet

6.   Fix image per directions (iron a lot, wet, iron some more).

    a.   Had one sheet run at the wet stage, they all bleed a bit. I iron and let sit overnight before the wet step now.

7.   Stitch your image to the towel.

8.   Create a Merry Christmas patch, fringe around patch and stitch patch to towel. Actually, I glued the patches on with Aleene’s Ok to Wash it Glue and I’m a tad worried as I’ve noticed a few items I glued with this came apart shortly after. Will stitch in the future.

9.   Wrap and send to a lucky gift recipient – isn’t this the cutest addition to a Victorian themed Christmas kitchen?

This post is participating in Sundays in My City. Most posters there are incredible photographers, it’s a fun Linky to visit. I’m also sharing at Rednesday, Today’s Creative Blog, Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios, Linda at Coastal Charm, Beyond the Picket Fence