Catching Up and Monday This-n-That

 Oh, my goodness! Has it really been over a month since I posted anything on here?! What an active and busy summer it has been! (And did I really just write three semi-exclamatory sentences in a row?)

The gardening went well, but didn't produce as much as I'd have liked. So next year I hope to be able to put in more raised beds, particularly these taller ones visible beside the great waterline renovations that went on here. I have more of the pine slabs left from milling our trees and some of the plastic liner to make the beds last a little longer, so I should be able to tackle that project as soon as I get a location go-ahead.

So, we enjoyed a lot of fresh produce throughout the summer, but didn't produce enough to preserve much. Fortunately, a nearby farm market has tomatoes for a decent price, so I'm canning up some old-fashioned spiced chili sauce and hope to do marinara too soon using the venison my bro-in-law shared as he cleaned out his freezer.

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One of the funnest (yes, that's grammatically correct, if not kind of funny-looking) things we got to do was take our 40th anniversary trip "yondering" through the Upper Penninsula of Michigan. We went lighthouse and waterfall hunting and were not disappointed. We also got to cruise past the magnificent Pictured Rocks, the colors of which are formed by the various minerals in the rock cliffs.

We had such hilarities over our (my) inability to take selfies though we tried to do so at every waterfall we came to. I can't think backwards, so when my husband says "left" but the screen looks like I should scoot right, I get all mixed up and we just laughed at ourselves a lot, knowing we're not teenagers who can do this without thinking. (I can't back a trailer either.)

I may show some more of our summer adventures, as I hope to be here sharing more of my crafting and what I'm learning now that life's settling down more.

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One project that finally got finished (it's been in the works and neglected somewhat for a few years) is my first serious mosaic project. I cleaned out what had been a woodshed (we now stack our wood in the attached garage for ease of use), and turned it into a temporary mosaicing studio.

Yeah, dirt floor and all.

When we bought this place, there were two old satellite dishes tossed to the side of the yard, so I painted them and set out to experiment with mosaic. This is the first one.

I used hammer-smashed thrift store dishes to create a landscape and learned a lot along the way. 

This is the finished product and because I didn't use hard-fired dishes (ie. china or porcelain), I probably can't hang it outside because the ceramic will absorb liquid and then contract with the freezing temperatures and expand with the heat and crack. I just might continue to use this one as a learning tool and try a tile sealer on it and see what happens if I leave it out. Then I'll know for the future.

I've since found Mango Mosaics on Youtube and have learned a lot from her. She's a very energetic, upbeat without being sappy person to listen to and you can tell she loves sharing her passion for mosaic.

Now I'm off to my much-neglected sewing machine (except for helping with Rennaisance costumes for the adult kids to go to Renn Faire) to see if I can finish a summer dress for me now that summer is over. Heh.

So, this week's This-n-That goals will be to finish that dress and plan what I want to do for OMG. I also started a string quilt based on a star string quilt I'd seen somewhere online. I want to figure out how I can quilt it on my regular machine using a kind of quilt-as-you-go method. Because I needed to start another project, you know.

Happy crafting to you!