The blogging hiatus has been longer than anticipated.. but I have been busy busy. I have pushed my weaving productivity to its limits these past few months! Netflix has ironically made me much more productive- allowing me to weave for much longer stretches without a need for life's other distractions (mainly finding Pidge to annoy, fixing a snack or needing to clean/organize something I've been putting off for months).
Also- while winding bobbins last night, I glanced over at the loom and suddenly realized my warp wasn't on the loom correctly! The warp wasn't stretched over the back beam and hadn't been since I put the loom back together when we moved in May. Realizing this solved the tension problem I had been having this whole time.
I have also been working at a fruit and veggie stand (right next door to our place) part time and been allowed to take home any produce deemed unsellable and headed for the compost heap. Wasting food is perhaps my biggest pet peeve and has proved to make me more resourceful in the kitchen, more creative with recipes and created a time struggle between cooking and everything else! When I first started working and got permission to take home the "compost" I had several 5 gallon buckets of food every day- mostly tomatoes but also: lemons and limes (mmm lemon curd), extra ripe avocados (guacamole), eggplant, zucchini, peppers (veggie parmesan and ratatouille), cheese and bread past its sell by date (pizzas, bread crumbs and great sandwiches), beans, greens, broccoli (stirfries galore), bruised apples, peaches, pumpkin (apple butter, peach butter and pumpkin butter all make the house smell like a bakery) and CORN (tons of the sweetest corn for freezing, snacking, everything).
Here are the results of 2 months of my canning extravaganza! Crushed tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato sauce, tomato jam, hot pepper jelly and applesauce. 68 jars of free food! (minus the apples- we picked those at Highland Orchard) I still have a case of quart jars to can if I can figure out what to make. Perhaps veggie stock? Any ideas? Next year I think I will experiment with pickled green tomatoes, carrots and beans.
The stand is open until Halloween and then we will survive on the frozen peppers, corn, sauce, lemon/lime juice and bread as well all the cans I put up. I will definitely miss all the fresh stuff. Not to mention the relief from our grocery store budget!
Handwoven Paprika Scarf
Winding down after a busy few weeks getting ready for this weekend's craft show- Handmade Arcade.. excited to be there and even more excited to visit with friends! Here is a sneak peak of new scarves I'll be bringing to Pittsburgh and adding to etsy next week.
I've finally gotten a break from peony season to add a whole slew of summer scarves to the shop! It will hit 90 this week which baffles my former upstate New York mind. I didn't think summer started until mid-June! If I had an office job right now, I'm sure the air conditioning would be pumping and one of these bad boys would warm my chilly shoulders.
Happy Memorial Day!
Just got back from this past Sunday's Handmade Mart in Silver Spring. What a whirlwind weekend! Saturday night was a beautiful Fleet Foxes show near Philly with our friend Elanor, visiting from Rochester. We got home super late and left super early Sunday morning for a lovely show in Maryland. Albert's first Jubadaba show- we shared a tent. A huge success and smiles all around.
Now that I'm officially finished shows until the fall I can focus on weaving and filling the shop with goodies- about 35 new scarves to add in the next few weeks :)
That's 34 new scarves (half summer, half winter) to paw through if you're in Philadelphia this weekend!
Testing a window for light.. still working on the studio setup but have a few ideas yet to try...