I must apologise for not writing more posts in the last week. Work has me so busy I don’t know if I’m coming or going!

Today, after a long day at work, I came home to four very hungry hounds. I stepped into the dog yard to collect bowls and, after only two steps, I heard fighting behind me. Tighe (everybody’s darling) and Rogie (the bad boy) were at it. Funny thing was…I’m pretty sure Tighe started (and finished) it.

While the two boys were having at it, I tried screaming at them. I tried kicking them. I even tried grabbing Rogie around the waist (the closest one to me and thankfully the smaller of the two) but Tighe wouldn’t let go of his head. Finally, I remembered the hose…

Thank god for running water. I turned the hose on the two boys and directed the spray right into Tighe’s face. Finally, he let go of Rogie’s neck.

So Roges is at the vet’s office, getting his skin tears stitched up. Poor little lad…he was very scared after the fight. More frightened than I’ve ever seen him. He’ll be home tomorrow with lots of stories to tell, I’m sure.

In the meantime, I am of course considering neutering Tighe. He’s nine now (or ten?) and already the father of eight puppies and the grandfather of many more (including the two-time (whippet) World Champion, Carla…AKA Xantana van de Spaarne Meute).

But will that then make Rogie insufferable? Gahhhh…

Here are some projects to keep you busy…

DIY Lightbulb Vases: a cool way to use up dead lightbulbs from Design^Sprout:

Pyramid Doorstop: a phenomenal use of fabric scraps from All It Took Was Just One Stitch:

Fabric Wall Panels: an inexpensive and quick way to add great (fabric) design to your home from Jo-Ann:

On her recent trip to BC, the Spawn found some wonderful beach treasures, including this shell which she turned into a stunning pendant:

No instructions beyond “wrap some wire around the shell and hang it on a necklace” as it’s pretty self-evident how she made it.

Seeing how beautiful a found object can be has really made me stop and think about things though. That’s a good thing…

My favourite thing to do on Saturday is go to the market. Now that I’m working, I don’t always have Saturday mornings off and, at other times of the year, I have other Saturday morning commitments (dog events or book club) but today I leapt out of bed, ran through the shower, and headed off to the market.

One day I’ll remember to take my camera to the market but, until then, you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was PACKED! Lots of fruit available now…plums, peaches, and nectarines primarily with our melon vendor featuring their Ambrosia  melons. Lots of summer squash is available and I saw a couple of vendors selling peppers. As always, there were fresh cut flowers for sale:

We’re just starting to see tomatoes come into the markets and, as is my habit, I bought some heirloom tomatoes from the Watanabe Farms stand and Romas from the Lagorio Farm stand. The heirlooms are for eating fresh and the Romas are for the freezer.

Last year I oven-roasted slices of Roma tomatoes and then froze them or would blanch them to remove the skins, puree them, and then freeze them. There’s nothing in this world like reaching into the freezer in February and bringing out a taste of summer.

Today, the Romas, along with a couple of peppers and some cilantro, were destined for salsa:

Normally, I’d make this salsa with tinned tomatoes but with Romas only 75 cents a pound…

Here’s what goes into the basic salsa:

2 lbs. tomatoes, blanched and peeled
2 small hot peppers (I think the ones I got today were serranos…they weren’t labelled)
garlic powder
salt

Hold the peppers over a flame until they discolour slightly. For example, jalapenos will turn a dull avocado colour. Cut off the stem and, if you like, remove the seeds and pith. Roughly chop.

Puree the tomatoes in batches in the blender. Don’t make them into tomato juice; you want some chunks left in there. In the last batch, add the peppers and puree until chunky.

Stir all the batches together and season with garlic powder and salt. Put in two or three times as much garlic and salt that you think you should. Seriously. For this batch, I used about 2 T of garlic powder and maybe 1/4 cup of salt. Really.

So that’s the basic recipe. I have recently started adding cilantro and sometimes a squeeze of lime when I make this but they’re not necessary for a great salsa.

I’ve tweaked the design I did for my friend’s baby shower thank you notes and have added these cuties to the shop:

They’re available here, along with my other stationery items.

This post on Apartment Therapy Chicago about using empty bottles as vases prompted me to get off my duff and take a photo of the recycled vases I made a couple of months ago…

The vase on the left started its life as a bottle of Tejava Tea while the vase on the right was previously incarnated as a bottle of Trader Joe’s cilantro salad dressing. To add the texture and colour, I masked the bottles and then had the Spouse give them a spin through the bead blaster. Once etched a wee bit, I simply spray painted them with orange road stake paint.

There’s a bottle of Boodles gin in my bar fridge, waiting to be emptied so that it might join the other two recycled vases on my bedside. Once the third is in place, my plan is to create origami flowers for them.

(I know myself and so know that, if I were to use fresh flowers, the vases would end up being filled with dead fresh flowers.)

I am serious coveting some of the fabrics created by Mary Mulcahey of Les Indiennes:

The fabric is printed in India using the art process of Kalamkari, although with the patterns adapted for western society.

Take a look through Les Indiennes flipbook and, if you’re flush, check out the Les Indiennes online shop!

After the very disappointing Target tea towels (although, let’s be honest…what sort of quality was I really expecting from Target?), I did some searching online to see what the best fabric for tea towels was and (more importantly) where to find that fabric. The consensus among tea towel aficionados was that linen makes the best tea towels as it is the most absorbent of the usual fibers. As plain white 100% linen seems to be completely unavailable in Sacramento, I ordered some linen from Fabrics-Store.com last weekend.

What a superb selection they have…too much for me apparently. I had to do more searching to find out what exact weight of linen made for the best tea towels. I’d found one recommendation online for a weight of 5.3 oz./yard and so ordered some of that but also, after browsing through the “Doggy Bag” section of the Fabrics-Store.com website, ordered some slightly heavier (6 oz./yard) material as well.

The order arrived yesterday morning and so I immediately popped it into the washing machine and then hung it out to dry before heading off to work. (Oh, as far as weight goes, I’d order anything between the two weights I got. They’re both very good weights for tea towels.)

After work last night, I ripped the heavier fabric into tea towel-sized pieces and then edge-stitched the towels using one of the fancy stitches available on the sewing machine.

This morning it was time to try out making leaf prints. First up? loquats…

For those who have never seen them, loquat leaves are quite thick and stiff. That might be part of the reason why the ink globbed a bit on that big leaf in the middle. I printed two towels with this pattern and another two using grape leaves.

They’ll hang out to “cure” until tomorrow afternoon when I will heat set the ink with the iron. After that, they’ll have another trip through the washing machine to clean them up a bit (and also to create the edge fringe) then they’ll be ready to use!

I’ve finally managed to get some photos of my first attempt at block printing…the tea towels!

I’ve ordered some mid-weight linen to make some more; with luck, the towel part will be better quality than the Target towels (and hopefully my carving skills will have improved as well)!

My friend, Cheryl, asked if I would design and print some thank you notes for a baby shower she’s hosting. One of the main decorative colours at the shower will be yellow and there will be lots of African mammals represented in other items.

It seemed like the perfect time to use one of my safari designs: the giraffe.

My colour seems to be a bit off as the cards are actually yellower but you can still see Mrs. Giraffe and her baby.

For anyone planning a shower of any sort in the future, steal this idea: hand out thank you cards to the guests as they arrive and ask them to address the envelope to themselves. When the time comes to write those notes, part of the job is done for the lucky shower-ee.  What a time saver, especially for a new mother!