Leaving a Happy Husband!

If you've followed my blog for very long you know my secret weapon is Mother Krueger's Sour Cream Rolls... There are a lot of odious chores when you live on a farm and my husband will pitch right in anytime if I promise sour cream rolls... I'm leaving for 11 days and not only does he have to tend my animals, he has to chauffeur my mother when needed. So when he requested the rolls I was glad to bake about 5 dozen. If you really love someone, have an entire afternoon free and don't mind a total mess in your kitchen, you might want to try the recipe...

Second on his list of requests was potato leek soup....his very favorite.. So I made it and it's all bagged and in the freezer. Thursday I'll make a batch of Lamb Mushroom & Barley soup... Also he's let friends know he's open to all invitations... So with that and the soups, he'll survive..Who knows I may want to run away from home again some time...

Good Design Trick

Susan Elliot wants to get in the fun with this block.... I just wanted to tweak one corner....Susan sees the whole world in a block since she is the ultimate over achiever..

I must let her play because she is a triathlon champion, leaps small buildings and writes the most thought provoking blog on the net... I do not agree with her idea of putting a trunk on the tree....

But she does make a good design point that is a great trick to note.. Occasionally you will end up with two focal points that are about the same weight visually... and would like one to be more important.. You can do this simply by putting something over even the tiniest part of one focal point which makes it recede....Again with the magic of photo shop I followed Susan's suggestion and you can see how it works and now the koi are the main focus... by extending the blossoms to cover a bit of the crane's tail, the whole balance of the motifs is changed... Sometimes the littlest things make the biggest impact...

Here was Susan's comment about yesterday's post....

OK. I want to play too. I would actually extend the cherry blossom tree down to the base of the block giving it a trunk and a few more branches...likewise, I’d follow your lead and add bamboo to the left...I would have some of the cherry blossoms cover over the bird so that it recedes a bit — I would "pinken" up everything around the pool and deepen the area where the pool is...because, to me, the koi are the most fabulously spectacular element and the rest should support that...IMHO...nobody asked me either but it was fun...

I'd be willing to bet that spell check has never heard of "pinken". We both are in total agreement that the koi are spectacular... Now I have deleted these blocks from Photoshop and must get back to serious packing...

My opinion (and I always have one!)

Viv in Australia posted her "Hearts & Hands to Sendai" block and asked for opinions on my CQI list... I just LOVE tweaky little problems like this and always have an opinion... welcome or not. Leslie and Cathy were right when they said the crane was carrying the eye off the block but I can offer an easy solution.

First the beautiful crane is a a powerful focal and you certainly don't want anything too strong to detract from it..

Second one of my mantras is if something is outstanding on your block (i.e color, element, shape, seam etc...) it is worth echoing elsewhere on the block... In this case for me it was the elegant bamboo seam on her block....

So with a little photoshop magic I can show what I would have done if it had been my block.... The short bit of bamboo is organic and does not detract but it definitely stops the exit from the block... Also it repeats the diagonal elements on the bottom corners of the block. This is a stunning block and the koi are just spectacular... I will watch this block as it progresses...

Two Nifties for You in One Day!

Remember the nifty little retractable scissor holder I have on my chatelaine??? Well I have another like it I just clip to my shirt while I am at the sewing machine.. It is so handy not to have to look for scissors to clip bobbin threads. AND it would look equally nice attached to a needle book so I made some to sell at the Adventure boutique and I will put them on my Etsy when I get home...









Aren't they all just gorgeous on the tray..
Just $3.50 ladies... These are the very best secret sister gift....

And speaking of the boutique...it's a whole another thing trying to think about display when you're flying and REALLY limited on space... Wicker baskets would have been perfect but try to get 2 or three in an already full suitcase...

So I have come up with a nifty alternative.. When I was delivering my mom to her bridge group yesterday I swung by the thrift store and picked up 4 rustic-looking place mats. They can fit flat in the bottom of my suitcase...

Once I get there I can tie up the corners and it makes a super, attractive, basket-like container. Actually some large diaper-type pins would work just as well ... Pretty darn nifty even if I say so myself. And I'm upcycling as well....

Pearl has ended up with Ruby's lamb...

In all the years I've had sheep this is the weirdest lambing... maybe because I am preparing to leave... When I first got sheep I took a lambing clinic at a huge sheep operation south of town so I'd be prepared. And they never have needed me as they just popped babies out, cleaned them up, and proceeded like super moms..but this year started with the lamb napping.


Then Wednesday morning Pitiful Pearl had a still born lamb... my first ever. Pearl bawled non-stop all day long and I was so sad for her....


Although Topaz is my prettiest ewe, Pearl has always been special.. Being a tiny bottle baby herself, she had a hard beginning and bawled the whole summer we got her... When she's out of the pasture she follows my husband around like a puppy when he's pruning...He just says "Come Pearl" and she trots right along behind him

Then yesterday Ruby finally had a lamb and I was there... Since she has Topaz's twin I snatched up her new baby before she had a chance to clean it and penned it up with Pearl (who was still bawling). I toweled the lamb down with Pearl helping and sat on a stool with them in the pen for a couple hours until the lamb was nursing well. Now everyone has a baby and all the drama is over...